Hunter broke away from his conversation with Skye at the sound of a sob, turning his attention to his team it was obvious something was off, Taura didn’t look alright. Skye had noticed it as well and followed Hunter’s gaze. “Wonder what happened.” She said as she looked at Taura and the rest of team Harvest. “I dunno.” Was all the tall teen said as he approached his team, he was informed about what’d happened. He put a hand on her back not sure what to really do even if he knew how it was losing someone since his cousin’s mother had one day not returned home after going on a mission.
Those words from Ozpin were heavier than the weight of a Huntress' responsibilities on her shoulders. So Chryseis...was gone? Taura's hands flew to her mouth, a flurry of emotions running through her. Shock...denial...it couldn't be-- She could have fallen back a little, if it hadn't been for her team mates surrounding her. Registering Rosa's friendly squeeze and that Slate placed his hand on her shoulder as well as Hunter at her back, she tried to reassure them she was okay. However, a tear had trailed down her cheek, followed by another. And another. The sobs came moments later, as she buried her face in her hands. She had wanted to leave the hall, but her knees weakened beneath her, as she fell, in mourning for her friend that never came back. ------- What a way to end her first day. She had to answer a call from Chryseis's brother, Altan moments after she got back to her room, trying to sound as calm as she could. "Taura...we heard from the academy...it's not your fault..." "It might as well be..." She murmured. "I'm so sorry..." "...just...take care of yourself, okay?" She hung up her scroll, and took a deep breath. Her eyes were still puffy, and her tone was shaky, as she turned to the rest of her team. "Chryseis ...She was the only person I knew on here...before I met you guys..."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Slate was, surprisingly, the first to speak up after a lengthy silence. Rising from where he was seated, Slate carefully walked over to his partner and laid his hand on her shoulder. "It is never easy to lose someone close to you, and the recovery is not easy. There's so many doubts and what if's that will haunt you for a time, maybe forever.." Sighing, Slate cursed himself inwardly. He wasn't good at comforting others and he knew it, so why would he even try? What a fool. "What I'm trying to say, is that the three of us will be here to help you, whether it is only to talk or in another way." Finishing off with a squeeze of his hand, Slate returned to where he was sat and pulled out his scroll, trying to distract himself.
"We are going to be there for you, whether you like it or not." Rosa had her hands on her hips as she looked around their dorm, trying to convey her feelings to the occupants. She was still slightly in shock about the fact that people had actually died in the entrance exam. It had always been hammered through her skull that being a huntress was a dangerous profession, hell she had attended more than one funeral of a hunt gone wrong, but those had all been older relatives, not one of her peers. "That goes for all of you." She looked pointedly at Slate and Hunter while she said this. "What happened with Chryseis, it is not your fault, Taura." She spoke softly to her female team member before she gathered Taura in her arms. "I am sorry that we have lost her though. She must have been a great friend."
Hunter agreed with the other two, but he didn’t say much else. This was not how he’d imagine the first day ending up being but it shouldn’t also surprise him since he’d known ever since he was little that death was a very real thing in the entrance exam, it was something that’s been drilled into his skull ever since he first started training and it was the reason why Jade had been so adamant about his training since if he’d failed it’d mean she hadn’t been doing her job as a teacher. Turning around he looked out the window, not really sure what to say to his teammate other than what had already been said. He looked down on the people walking around outside before he finally turned around to look at his team. “I’m not sure if there’s much I can even do for you in terms of you losing your friend, but I can try help you if you need me.” Was all he said, knowing full well how weak it sounded, he really wasn’t good at this stuff and now he was the leader of this team which he wasn’t sure had been a wise decision. “We’re gonna be together for the next 4 years so we might as well start getting the best out of it after all. Also even if is not the right time for this we still need to unpack and settle into our room and assign beds, I know it might not be exactly what you want to do right now Taura after what happened but we have classes tomorrow no matter what. I feel kinda like an ass now.” He added the last part in a lower voice, really feeling bad he’d swung the reality hammer.
At the words of her teammates, she was receiving words of support, but Hunter's reality check jarred at her dazed state, most of all. They still had things to do. She couldn't possibly bring them to a standstill, because she was upset over Chryseis' death. "You're right...I have a lot to think about, but thank you for everything." She smiled plainly at everyone. "Let's get to it." Even though it wasn't as jolly as she would have liked it to sound, if it was enough to placate them for a while, she was satisfied. She stood up as they had to settle whatever they could. "I'm sorry that you have to deal with this as much as I do." She mumbled the last bit to herself. If she had the nerve to be truthful, she was even more upset now that everyone was pulled into her state.
"Don't worry about it, Taura." Rosa came over to her new teammate to give her a quick hug. "We are just pressed with our noses into the facts right now, and we all need to come to terms with what happened." She smiled lightly at the distraught girl before pulling away and looking critically at the room. "Hm, there is not that much space. I don't think we will be able to fit more than 2 desks in here with all four beds arranged the way they are. Any ideas on how to rearrange the place? Also any preferences as to where people sleep? I prefer to sleep against a wall, by the way."
"As long as I'm beside the window I do not mind where I sleep." Slate mindlessly responded to the question, his gaze still focused on his scroll. His eyes gleamed with interest as he read a news article about a convoy of hunters escorting some rare item through Vale soon. 'Would be an interesting mark, give a challenge as well.' He pondered to himself, already planning out a possible ambush point. 'No... Too big of a risk, no doubt I'm being monitored by him to ensure there's no repeat' Glancing up at his team, Slate frowned slightly. 'And they already have little trust for me.. breaking that could make the next four years difficult'. Sighing, Slate put his scroll away and glanced towards Hunter. "So team leader, what's the plan?" He asked with a touch of forced humour in his tone.
“We ditch one of the beds, don’t need the fourth. We can probably have it taken to storage tomorrow or something if we ask, if needed maybe they have a bunkbed we could use since there’s not a lot of space to work with here.” Hunter had begun to unstrap something from his luggage ignoring his teammates puzzled looks. He then unfurled a large piece of fabric to show them why they didn’t need the fourth bed, a hammock. “If I’m gonna be here for 4 years I at least wanna sleep well, gonna put it up in one of the corners so there’ll be a bit more floor space to work with which should give more options for people to have their bed where they want it.” The tall teen then proceeded to pull out the tools needed to put up the hammock before he picked a corner.
Taura returned Rosa's hug and blinked at Hunter setting up his hammock. How was a hammock more comfortable than a bed...? Well, to each their own. "If we are getting bunk beds, I am taking the bottom bunk, but I don't mind sleeping near the walls or windows." It was thankfully giving her something else to think about, and Hunter had been right. Though sharing a bedroom with males was a little new for her, for she hadn't any brothers, and it was a little bit awkward for her. Flushing at the thought, she slapped at her cheeks to remind herself that she would be living here with them for four years. She heard about the arrangement by others and asked. "Shall we move the bed out?"
"Well, if that makes you all happy, then we have a plan for what to do next. It is probably a good idea to move the bed out of the room. We should also inform the dorm advisor that we will need one of the bunkbeds to be brought up from the storage and that Hunter prefer his alternate sleeping accomodations. Shall we share the bunk bed then, Taura?" Rosa replied warmly to her female teammate. "We could hang up some blankets to shield our sleeping places from sight. Might make it all a bit more comfortable while we are still adjusting to the fact we are sharing a dorm with boys now." She winked at Taura, before she started to move around and note where she thought the other stuff that she brought from home would fit well.
Watching the proceedings from his place on his bed, Slate grunted before moving so he was lying down, his arms crossed behind his head. "Do whatever you want, just don't block the window." He grumbled out, closing his eyes in rest, his tail unwrapping itself from his waist and flopping down to the bed one of the few signs of how relaxed he had become. 'Didn't expect the beds to be this comfortable' He thought to himself, relishing the new found comfort. He was used to sleeping on hard stone, so any time he could get a proper rest is something he cherished.
Hunter lifted an eyebrow in surprise when he saw Slate’s tail, that’s one way of hiding you’re a faunus I guess he thought. He took a look at his team members the girls were setting up their sleeping area giving Taura something else to focus on for now, it was a new experience for him as well having to share sleeping quarters with other people at home he had his own room. Hunter was wondering what he should even do now that he’s unpacked, normally he would do maintenance on his weapon but it was down in the locker he’d been assigned and it was getting a bit on the late side so he wasn’t sure it was okay to wander around too much. Instead he started thinking about how his life for the next 4 years could be he was a team leader and that was a big responsibility, something he’d not been prepared for nor had it ever crossed his mind he could end up getting assigned as one. When I tell mom and dad they’re both gonna freak out and I promised them I would tell ‘em how the exam went he sighed internally not really looking forward to it since it was just gonna be them in particular his father saying how honored the family name of some crap like that. He might just be best to wait doing weapon maintenance till tomorrow, he didn’t feel like doing it today anyway after all that have happened skipping once probably wouldn’t hurt and it wasn’t like his family would find out anyway. He sat down against the wall near the corner he put up his hammock and pulled out a magazine about weapons, he’d need to see if he could find a place that sold it now that he was at Beacon so he would hopefully not miss nearly as many releases as when he’d been living next to a small village, the only time he’d usually gotten them was when his sister had been out and swung by some of the larger settlements on the way back home.
"That would be nice." Taura smiled gently at Rosa's question. Her team mate was a wonderful soul, then again, all of them were. Something else to focus on was definitely helpful, but thoughts of hoping to have done the same with Chryseis kept her mind in turmoil. "She is no longer here." She kept telling herself inwardly. However, Rosa's company did help to soothe her a bit. A fair share of unpacking later, she placed one of the blankets over where she would be sleeping. Placing her suitcase down, she asked Rosa. "Have you any siblings, Rosa?"
Slate's rest was disturbed the buzzing of his own scroll, groggily sitting up the Faunus gave a smouldering glare to the device, grudgingly reaching over to grab it. "What was so important you had to wake me up?" Slate grumbled to himself, reading through the notification he received. "holy.." Slate swore, his eyes widened slightly as he read the headline on the displayed new article. "ATLAS BASE DESTROYED - GRIMM INVASION INCOMING?" The article went on to explain that in the early hours of the morning the first signs of conflict arose within the base signalled by rising flames and when military personnel arrived they were unable to find any survivors. "How could Grimm get so far inland and not be discovered?" Slate wondered to himself, suspect of the article. Scoffing, Slate deleted the message and went back to his rest. "Problems for another day."
"There, I think we are done with the decorating for today," Rosa smiled as she flopped down on her new bunk bed and peered over the edge from under her "curtains" to the rest of her team. The room hadn't really changed a whole lot, but it felt more comfortable to the rose-haired teen. She had gotten in a small visit to her friends as Citrine had stuffed Rosa's suitcase full with her clothes, and they had, of course, needed to be returned. Rosa was a bit surprised by how comfortable she already was with her new team. Even with Slate, she wasn't all that nervous, and he seemed to be a very grumpy person.
(Gonna skip ahead by about a week) The blaring of an alarm cause Slate to groggily peek up from where his face was buried into his pillow. The bleary red gaze stared at the ringing scroll with a confused quirk of the brow, "What the..." He grumbled in his mind, his hand reaching out to slam the alarm into quietness. "I don't remember having class today." Sighing, knowing he would most likely not receive more sleep, Slate slowly moved out of his rolled up position in his bed, his tail slowly waving around as he peered around the room. "Hm, seems I'm the only one awake so far." Pushing away from his bed, the Faunus unsteadily stepped towards the bathroom, his tail beginning to wrap around his waist as he walked. Glancing into the mirror, Slate scowled as he felt his stomach begin to rumble, "You can wait until I'm awake," He grumbled down to the "beast", before suddenly glancing up at the mirror again in shock, "Wait.. isn't today when we were supposed to go to Vale... and we're running late." Popping his head back out of the bathroom, he growled as he noticed his team still somehow asleep. "Oi you lazy bums, we're late!"
Taura was still shifting around her bed, wrapping the blanket around her. Blinking groggily she was about to keep on sleeping when she heard the words "...we're late!" "Hmm...?" She groaned as she sat up and lifted the curtain of her bunk bed to meet Slate. "What are we late f---Oh my goodness!!" Suddenly it hit her. They were indeed late and she hoped Slate was quick enough with whatever he needed to do in the bathroom. She was already shifting around, rummaging for her clothes, getting herself changed inside her safe space of a bed.
Rosa woke up at the noise that Taura was making and she rubbed her eyes a bit as she tried to remember why they had set an alarm for today. Wasn't today supposed to be a day off from classes and to be used to do leisurely things? Her eyes shot open as she remembered that they were going to Vale today. She needed to stock up on dust as she suspected that classes would start to have training exercises in dangerous situations soon enough and she wanted to be prepared. She also wanted to get a new cleaning kit for her weapon. Rose didn't bother waiting for Slate to be done in the bathroom and started changing behind the curtains that they had hung up a week earlier. The space she had was just enough for the agile Rosa to change into her normal clothes and armor. She quickly shoved the curtains aside and jumped down from her bed. She just needed to brush her teeth and do some other small things and she was all ready to go to Vale. "Good morning~. Time for wakey wakey" She cooed at her partner, who was still dead sleep in his hammock. She tried to make her voice as obnoxious as possible to annoy him.
Exiting the bathroom, giving a half-hearted apology to Taura for making her wait, Slate rolled his eyes as he glanced at the other half of his team. "Just push him off, that'll wake him up quick enough." He grumbled, taking a hold of his scarf and wrapping it around his neck and shoulders, raising it until it covered the lower half of his face. Rubbing the bracelets on his wrists, Slate lowered himself to sit on his bed while looking outside the window, his onyx eyes watching the clouds as the drift by while he waited for the rest of his team.
