As Professor Port moves on from Andr's rather surprising and engrossing (fabricated) origins eyes had strayed from the droning professor in the front of the class, who went on telling another bravado story, and unto the tall lanky figure of the representative of these "dust-fused" people.
While hard to believe at first but with the reassurance that Ozpin had singled her out by having Andr be a one-man-team, it was not that hard to convince the average student to think otherwise.
While students were busy speculating of the girl's existence, Andr herself was deep in thought with what the pompous professor had got her into, sure she had consented to the fact she needs a cover story for her unfortunate existence but putting her into a spotlight was not what she had assumed.
She rightly assumed a more tamed tale of a lost girl in a dangerous world taken in by a prestigious man of a prestigious institute, rather her cover story turned her into a powerful barbaric warlike entity - she could no longer hold the cold sweat dropping from her forehead as the eyes of many lingers on her form.
She withheld the voices that wishes she lashes out to those whose gaze come unwanted
A poke had taken her out of her stupor and glances to the frame of the perpetrator, Jaune, whose excited but evidently nervous smile took Andr by surprise and the response seems to encourage Jaune to pursue his intentions.
"Say, are you really from the tribe Professor Port just told us about?!" He whispers audibly, hinting his forehead towards the still droning professor.
Andr nodded hesitantly, Yang who was just below Andr peaked from over the desk, also very interested with the topic, as all student have.
"So, What are your people like? What do you do? How long have you guys been out there?" Andr couldn't help but slightly lean back away from the overtly curious Jaune.
She begins writing on her notes, "Not now... Jaune sorry, soon maybe-" and present it to Jaune who deflates at the words, but was otherwise understanding as he relented.
"Of course! Sorry! No hassle!" Jaune waved off, Andr breathed a sigh of relief as gazes soon left her as their attention was taken by something else, in fact someone.
"I do sir! I have what it takes!" Weiss suddenly stood with her arms raised making Andr flinch in her seat from the sudden raise of volume.
Professor Port assesses Weiss and held his hands behind his back, side glancing the rather ominously shaking cage that Andr had not notice before, but the scent that emanate was all too familiar that twitched her stomach.
"Let's find out! Dress up girl face your opponent!" Professor Ports voice boomed with hype.
While Weiss went off to change her garments the same one she used on their initiation, the same white dress with the covert red extended collar the same needle sword she wields and with a flick of her wrist clicking noises are heard as the cylinder imbedded on the weapon rotates, Weiss nods her ready.
While her team encouraged her on the sidelines, Andr could not help but be cautious with this activity as students are exposed to harm if the Grimm within the cage might just go for a different student entirely but she hopes the professor has something in precaution.
"Go Weiss!" "Fight Well!" "Yeah! Represent teeaaam RWBY!!" Andr was not sure what stoked Weiss to snap at her teammates but Professor Port had lifted his rather odd twin bladed axe and swung down to release the Grimm.
"Let the match begin!"
With a harsh swing and a broken steel lock the Grimm Boar was free to wreak havoc if not for Weiss despite struggling to find her footing had slain the Grimm through the soft underbelly with the guidance of Ruby whom Weiss seemed to harshly spoken out for telling her what to do, Andr was slightly confused as Ruby was the leader and had the right to tell her what to do, no?
Nonetheless, the Grimm was slain with its withering corpse crumbling to dust and scatter like the draft-less wind, Weiss finds time to settle her breathing while Professor Port claps to signify his amazement.
"Bravo! Bra-vo!" He wields his weapon to his side. "It appears we are indeed in the true presence of a huntress in training!"
He then faces Andr with a distinct but covert twitch of his closed eyes seemingly winking at Andr to follow allong, Andr snorts in retort.
"As you see Andr, much like your people we also are devoted to hunting the darkness of humanity!" He waves his students as if to prove his point. "Hence, we call ourselves Huntsmen and Huntresses!"
Andr shaking her irritation nodded to the professor's statement, earning a hearty chuckle from the professor, the students seem to feel their ego lifted from their professors brag about their future roles.
The professor claps in attention. "I am afraid that is all the time we have for today!" He replace his axe back in its display. "Be sure to cover the assign readings and stay vigilant!"
With a valiant swipe of his hand.
"Class Dismissed!"
===
Weiss was the first to leave the classroom with Ruby hot on her trail, followed by a few students, but many remained. Blake would have followed her team leader if not for Yang whom held her back stating Ruby as their leader can handle it fine.
Instead Yang allows herself some distraction with her curious friend dragging Blake with her, not long after a small group had gathered around Andr who was stuck to her seat mildly concern with the attention.
"So..." Yang starts, "...long ways from home, huh?" Andr nodded hesitantly in affirmation.
"So what's it like in your tribe!?" Jaune continued his previous question and Andr sighs in exasperation.
It wasn't just Jaune however but many students express their curiosity to Andr and her "Eldermen" people, so fascinating and exotic!
"How did your people get so strong!? I mean 10 against tanks and soldiers is insane!"
"What do you guys eat!?"
"Where do you guys live exactly?"
"Are all girls in your tribe as cute as you?"
"Can you cut that out!?"
Andr could feel the pressure of having so many eyes fixated on her and was starting to trigger her change, nails began darkening in response and Andr bit down her lips as she clench her hands in protest to such dangerous shift.
Few seem to notice her change in demeanor, none were the wiser however but a booming voice interrupts their charade of chaotic curious banter, Professor Port had settled his things and was about to leave when he noticed Andr's eyes slightly dilating to warrant his alarm.
"Children! Do not harass our esteemed guest!" His loud voice overpowering his own students, "Do you not know restraint?"
"If the Eldermen would witness this ordeal we would give them the reason to neglect cooperation with not only Beacon but of Vale!" He reprimands. "Have you not notice Andr's state?!"
True to his word the students bare witness to Andr clutching her hands seemingly shaking visibly, while concerning to others it was Andr's effort to hide her shifting form, each student then feel the shame overtook their curiosity.
"I... We did not mean much of it, Professor." Yang cursory in her apology.
"Do not ask for my forgiveness now, ask for young Andrs'." Professor Port sternly mentions.
Andr stood suddenly surprising those near her with the full extent of her height in full display, her towering figure clear as she murmurs intelligibly as she forces her way out of the room with the professor not long behind her.
Silence dawns on the classroom as they slowly scatter to move on with their day to forget the incident of their own doing.
Yang whistles as she sat down at the desk previously occupied by Andr. "That could have gone better."
Blake lifts a note that Yang had sat on accident earning a yell from the blond girl. "It could have but she's fine." Blake said stoically the note in her hand earned both the attention of Jaune and Yang.
"What's that you got there?" Jaune asks and Blake twist the paper to face the two
"I am fine, su'prise is all , atention bad-" "No feel Bad"
Jaune feels relieved after reading rather chicken scratch words but was understandable, Yang smiled scratching the back of her head apologetically, while Blake was surprised that Andr was able to write anything in that state for it looked like she was truly about to break.
Andr had settled her nerves adequately enough to not warrant suspicion on herself, her fingers are back to their pinkish tint and her eyes settled to a rounder and calmer state, Professor Port had encouraged her to keep it easy and proceed with caution, even telling her to avoid the rest of the class but that would have been detrimental to her standing with the students if she could not make her peace with them.
Her note had not been understandable in that state.
The professor was hesitant but gave in, as he had to settle his work for the day, reminding Andr to be much more cautious and vigilant to revealing any part of her fabricated past, and go about his way.
The rest of the day were Andr making piecemeal apologies to her classmates and they apologized for their behavior in return earning her some small talks she could practice despite her still limited vocabulary, many were kind enough to help her along the way including team JNPR whom Andr had stuck to for the whole day due to her familiarity with them.
At the last toll of the school chimes ending the classes of the day and students marching on to their dorms to rest and work on their assigned works, Andr was once again with the JNPR team as they depart from their class
"Like what you guys wear loins cloth and shake spears with the Grimm," Nora droned on her presumptions while Andr answered as politely (and as close to her cover) as possible. "Or are you those tribes that are actually so advance you could lift mountains with your bare hands, using some kind of dust-gauntlet machines?!"
"I think Professor Port had mentioned they could lift large objects just fine, Nora." Ren reminded his fast-acting companion.
Andr could not help but chuckle at Nora, compared to the other students Nora's questions were borderline fantasy but it had helped with her mood tremendously.
"To think an unknown civilization had lived for so long in secret, away from society." Pyrrha spoke, "It is quite the wonder your people have survived for so long not to mention evolved in difference to that of our own."
While Nora leans to the side of fiction and fantasy, Pyrrha was a stoic rationalist and logical that it concerned Andr to how Pyrrha had not discovered the secret that is Andr on her own already, but then again transdimensional travelers were not common and flies to the realm of fiction.
Nonetheless Andr was rather happy with what she had gain in this dimensional mishap adventure, she wrote in her note. "We are hard and strong people, Pyrrha" cut, dry, and simple Pyrrha smiles.
"I had no such doubt." Pyrrha had a lingering question that was still unspoken. "What ever had happened to those that had faced your people I wonder, Andr."
While Pyrrha could not fault Andr for being nervous as evident by the cold sweat that are pouring down her face at comical speed, the red headed warrior still feels unnerved and cautious of her newfound "dust-infused" friend.
The fact that their people had so embarrassed the might of Vales Armed Forces with only a handful warrior was rightly concerning but the sheer scale of such defeat remaining dark within Remnant was another thing entirely, surely many would be intrigued by the prospect of such fabled warriors to defeat a modern standing force with primitive weapons, carried only by these strange fusion of dust and man.
Simply dumbfounded was what Pyrrha could only describe her feeling to Andr, so powerful yet unknown, and the professors vouched for her status as the least strongest of her people yet she shows strength to cut a Death Stalker in half with one blow, how much more indomitable were Andr's people? Pyrrha is at least thankful they were not involved in the Great War nor are they against humanity.
Andr had remained silent after the question however but her attention was caught by a familiar figure, Glynda Goodwitch, who raised her brows curiously at Andr of which the lanky girl waves shyly.
"Good evening, students." She halts herself and the group. "How was your classes?"
"It was fine, Professor Goodwitch." Pyrrha
"Kinda hard but I'm trying!" Jaune
"Borin- I mean great, professor!" Nora
"Yes, it was great, Professor Goodwitch!" Ren
Glynda held a gentle hand on Andr's note who was about to reveal her response. "I'll met you in your dorm, I'll ask for much more there so save what strength you have left." Glynda informs, Andr nods her head in dread as her imagination ran rampant.
Why was she meeting her?
Someone was not sleeping well tonight, all who witness the exchange thought collectively.
Round the corner stood a dark haired girl with sharp brown eyes whom clicked her heels at a rhythmic and purposeful note, glancing at the lanky girl who towered over all those who stood at her sides, with a distinct click a frame was captured and sent.
A text reply that signs the message has been received and the girl hums in exasperation as she depart to "sight-see" the whole of Beacon, her long ears twitch in anticipation.
===
The distinct hum of mechanical gears clicks and clacks as it casts a foreboding shadow across the clear glass floor, the man sat at the furthest side of the room behind a glass and metal table paid no mind to the droning noise of his office, long used to its sophisticated mechanism.
Ozpin had long wished to settle for another coffee, duty has kept him rooted at his seat as his professors discuss the topic of interest, Andr's cover story.
"Marvelous and exotic!" Professor Port's pompous tone overpowers the room. "Don't you agree Ozpin?"
Every peer present collectively sighed in exasperation, save for Professor Oobleck who was mulling over Port's tale of Andr's circumstance, he was already dreading the fallout of such a declaration.
"Modernity defeated by antiquity," Glinda intentionally pondered aloud, "while such poetry sounds sublime, it does not bode well for the academy's future with the public and council of Vale."
"What were you thinking!?"
Glynda has taken a step in anger as Oobleck anticipated and held a hand to both professor in protest of conflict as Port withdraw from his peer's question.
"Why create a tale of cover for our dear Andr?"
"We had agreed we keep it to a subtle form!"
"How pray tell could we keep her existence subtle?" Port protest. " Her very existence betrays all that is subtle."
"You did not have to put the Vale Military front and center in her cover!" Glynda retorts. "Now the student body will confront her at her every opportune moment!"
Glynda inhales sharply as she pinch the bridge of her nose withholding the rest of her temper from spilling.
"You have basically trapped her in a spotlight we will work day and out to sway away!" (Glynda)
"Well, I-" (Port)
"We will have to remedy this immediately!" Glynda begins pacing upfront Ozpin's desk. "We will have to reign in the cover story, replace key moments, and keep it tame this time!"
"I am afraid that will not do, Goodwitch." Oobleck was the one to retort this time.
"Doing such things will only plant suspicion within the student body, to silence those that have heard the story firsthand would promote animosity with the faculty staff, nevermind the rumors the media will tell the populace once they take hold of the change in tone and story, it will be disaster to the Academy and for poor Andr." (Oobleck)
Glynda only growled in response, glancing partway to Oobleck but focusing her careful temper at Port.
"If it were not for this old fool, we would not have such problems in the first place!" Glynda settle herself at the full body windows of Ozpin's office, settling her growing nerves. "We must rectify this at the highest priority, should the entirety of Vale be shaken and the Kingdoms suspicious of its leading people and council."
"While I may have overstepped in some portions of my tale,"
Glynda snorts murmuring "Right, 'portions'".
"I did so in anticipation from a growing curiosity of the subject of Andr."
"Explain, professor Port." (Oobleck)
"Would it not be imperative to overwhelm curious observers with an abundant of information firsthand and on the table?" Port questions. "By giving them everything all at once, which I was to discuss with all of you, doing so would drown all curious entities and turning Andr's exotic and fresh "people" to a thing of the past by the next month."
Every professor mulls over Port's suggestion as a sudden silence settles across the room and the machines clicks and clacks resumed its droning echo.
"Would introducing a controlled but slow and steady stream information be a much more safer course, Professor Port?" Oobleck broke the silence. "By then we can at least settle any... drastic circumstances of Andr's cover? To control the narrative and keep a reserve but flexible line of cover that we can support."
"But then what do we do with the nosy, unashamed, and impulsive entities." Port countered. "With such individuals and institutes curious about such a powerful entity within the academy premise, a slow and piecemeal line of information will only result in impatient and impulsive fools to stick their nose where it does not belong, then we would have to divert staff and resource to cover and sweep away the pest that are paparazzi's.
"If we are not careful enough by then they would begin to notice plot holes within our established claims of Andr's origins, a flexible solution for sure, but it would only drive more curious eyes that will now look for other holes to notice all of which they will surely exploit."
"By giving them everything at once, so plenty and so suddenly, they will pick apart the information provided and will have to settle for making sense with what is provided to them, while they are preoccupied we can begin to settle Andr with her life in campus." (Peter Port)
Everyone once again pick apart Port's argument, Glynda even consider Port's words, while brash has its merits but also demerits, Andr's wellbeing is on the line for this cover, if Port had even mention his intention of projecting Andr in so much fanfare then his words would surely be settled as a good and sound option, however.
"I see, overwhelm them with so much information they would be occupied to even." Glynda opens. "If you did not start with such a bombastic and fanfare start to her origins then your words would hold stronger merits!"
"Ah, so it does have merits!" Port grins.
"Why you-!" (Glynda)
Three slow and audible knock of steel on glass settle the growing nerves of the professors, Ozpin has heard enough and has made his stand on the matter. Glynda, Port, and Oobleck compose themselves as they await the headmasters verdict.
"While Professor Port has 'expanded' our set of problems, he also mentions great topics to consider for the future." Ozpin begins as he reset his cane at the side of his chair. "The citizen, the council, and the media reaction to Andr's and her supposed 'Eldermen' sudden introduction to not only Vale but all of Remnant."
Ozpin grimace visibly. "Not to mention Her and her lackeys." Everyone present grimaces.
"Professor Port's introduction of the 'Eldermen' while grandiose sets a high standard of martial skill that would make even the most daring hesitant to approach their 'tribe' without the threat of harm by disassociation."
"Not to mention the location of the 'tribe' would be kept at arms length to outsiders, since they are a fabrication not even us would know such information, they would be chasing circles looking for them."
"About the Vale Military-" (Glynda)
"That is a matter we will have to settle with the council and not with the Vale Military." Ozpin cuts off. "I can begin a topic with trusted individuals of an incursion of a 'rumored' tribe in the mountains, a secret military operation that is just now being released to the public."
"The Military would not let such defamatory news to spread as it would discredit their entire institute," Glynda warns. "Nevermind the generals and staff having no knowledge of such operations, Andr might be a target of potential animosity due to her association of these 'Eldermen' and will scheme to get redeem themselves through her."
Ozpin hums in understanding, Glynda provide a moot point, this discussion will most likely last throughout the night, checking the time display he spies the time past six.
"We have the night to discuss our plans, next time we will bring Andr in the discussion as this concerns her and her input will be a boon for us and her."
Ozpin locks his fingers as they settle on point of his nose.
"For now speak, how do we go about this predicament."