"Blake sounds really interesting, but I absolutely do not want to end up peppering her with questions about her asshole ex and I feel like I would be super in danger of that if I talked to her for long enough. Lots of hot food lovers, huh? I guess that'll be convenient."

"Perhaps we could talk with Jade about seafood."

She nods. "Blake definitely does not appreciate conversations about Adam. I don't think she's even told her team much about him yet. She's a quiet sort, at least until she gets really close to someone. Talking about seafood would probably brighten Jade's day, and Blake might join in too."

"I'll do my best to be cool. I'm just... I'm maybe not the best at being tactful." She rubs the back of her head. "Then again all my experience is from soulstress-induced emotional swings, so..."

"Something tells me it'll be easier going forward," she says with a smile.

"Here's hoping."

Violet looks down the hallway at the cafeteria doors. "After you," she says. "I'm still shy about getting to meet actual Huntress candidates."

Sable takes Violet's hand, steps up to the doors, and pushes them open. Inside the enormous cafeteria are three long rows of sturdy tables running the length of the room, with bench-style seats on each side. Dozens of colorful students in school uniforms sit at the tables, starting to eat their meals.

In the middle, three teams have claimed a section to themselves. There's this girl, with black hair that runs dark red at the tips.

Ruby Rose

Age: 15 | Gender: F | Aura: Red

Associations

Team RWBY: Leader

A rising star among first-year teams, RWBY notably took out a giant nevermore during initiation. Ruby is the primary strategist of the team, and is a prodigious combatant, especially for her age.

Semblance

Petal Burst

Ruby is capable of moving at speeds two to three times what most Huntresses can achieve through her semblance, which leaves behind a wake of rose petals drifting in the air. She's also rumored to be able to perform brief bursts of an almost-flight through straining her speed to its limits.

Weapon

Crescent Rose

An extremely high caliber sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose has allowed Ruby both incredible enhancement to her movement around the battlefield, along with impressive range and accuracy. Further, in close combat she can mow through low-level Grimm. There is only one other scythe-wielder of this skill level active: Qrow Branwen, Ruby's uncle.

Sitting next to her is this white-haired girl.

Weiss Schnee

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Light Blue

Associations

Team RWBY: Member

Weiss is the primary Dustcaster of team RWBY, capable of powerful area denial through her Semblance and her Dust skills — especially with ice Dust. Her skills are a large part of what put team RWBY on such a steep rise.

Schnee Dust Company: Heiress

The SDC is the leading producer of Dust and associated products in the world. They are one of the leading corporations in control of the Kingdom of Atlas, and carry immense political weight even in other kingdoms due to their economic contributions. Weiss has not been heavily involved in SDC operations thus far, and has expressed an interest in cleaning up the company's history of abuse.

Semblance

Glyphs

The hereditary Semblance of the Schnee family, Glyphs are a powerful and extremely versatile ability that takes extremely well to Dust enhancement. Can be used for everything from bombardment to restraint to movement to defense. There is one higher-level skill in the Semblance that Weiss has yet to master: summoning. If mastered, this ability would allow Weiss to summon specters of defeated foes to fight at her side.

Weapon

Myrtenaster

It is a multi-action dust rapier, featuring a four-chamber revolving cylinder for Dustcasting. The hilt possesses four prongs that encase the revolver-like chamber around the ricasso instead of a bow type hand-guard that is common among most rapiers, in a manner somewhat alike to a swept hilt. This mechanism can be controlled by the sword-hand, enabling her to seamlessly cycle the chamber in combat.

Across from them is this boisterous blonde, with long, luxuriously curly hair and lavender eyes.

Yang Xiao Long

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Yellow

Associations

Team RWBY: Member

Yang is the close combat brawler of first year standout team RWBY. She works impressively well under her sister's leadership, despite being the older sibling, and has been working to curb her impulsive streak.

Semblance

Burn

Burn allows Yang to "save up" the damage dealt to her Aura, storing it to be dealt back later in the fight. When her Semblance is activated, Yang's hair catches fire, her Aura flares dramatically around her, and her eyes turn red. In this state, Yang's strength is significantly enhanced, returning double the absorbed kinetic energy.

Weapons

Ember Celica

This pair of shot gauntlets provide Yang with a combination of mobility, ranged attacks, and melee enhancement. Their primary ammunition is an "explosive knockback" gravity/fire Dust blend, which can be triggered to burst on exiting the barrel or on contact with a target. The former is used for mobility, the latter for ranged and melee attacks. In close combat, Yang uses the kinetic force of the blast to increase the power of her strikes, triggering in the moment of impact.

She seems to be just finishing telling a story.

"—And so Port spins around and I just barely manage to get the bottle out of view in time, and he spends the rest of the the detention asking Cardin invasive questions about his hair and his family history to try to figure out why his hair turned blue."

The others snicker.

Next to her, a mix of giggling softly at the story and pleased at a bully's misfortune, is this black-haired Faunus girl, a pair of cat ears twitching atop her head.

Blake Belladonna

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Purple

Associations

Team RWBY: Member

Blake is the agility and mobility specialist of this prominent first-year team, one notable for excellent combination attacks.

White Fang (Kuo Kuana Branch): Founder's Daughter

For all that the Atlesian branch is the first, Kuo Kuana is the home office of this Faunus Rights movement. Founded by Ghira and Kali Belladonna and Sienna Khan in the aftermath of the Faunus Rights Revolution, the organization relocated its central branch to Kuo Kuana — on what many Humans call the continent of Menagerie. This branch has since functioned in a central and coordinating role, though the High Leader has been known to travel to other continents and participate in operations on occasion. In the past decade or so, Ghira stepped down as High Leader to become Chieftan of Kuo Kuana, with Sienna Khan taking his place. This decision seems to have been partly motivated by the White Fang as a whole moving in a somewhat more violent direction than Ghira was comfortable with. It is unclear whether the rumored Belladonna/Khan triad also broke up at that time.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Harmony Faction): Honorary Lieutenant

Blake helped found the more human-accepting of Vale's two White Fang factions. The split came about when Adam Taurus (leader of the opposing faction) faced substantial resistance to his goal of radicalizing the Valean White Fang toward increasing levels of violence and anti-Human sentiment. The Faction is currently led by a small council that includes Carnelian Tukson of Tukson's Book Trade, due in part to Blake's decision to enroll at Beacon, but they would likely follow her if she returned.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Radical Faction): Traitor

The degree of Adam Taurus's possessive antipathy toward Blake is unknown, but suspected to be extreme.

Semblance

Shadow

Shadow allows Blake to leave behind illusory clones, capable of taking a single hit before fading. She has developed mobility uses for this Semblance as well, kicking off clones in midair to change direction or ascend higher.

Weapons

Gambol Shroud

This is a mechashift sword/pistol and a reinforced and bladed sheath, with a long ribbon attached to the hilt of the sword (which also serves as the grip of the pistol). Blake uses Gambol Shroud as everything from a whip to a flail, on top of the base uses of its forms. Clever ties with the ribbon allow triggering the pistol while swinging it in a wide circle around herself, providing a degree of area offense.

Sitting next to Blake and facing the window is a dusky-skinned girl with bright copper eyes and wavy hair.

Maya Cupric

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Bronze

Associations

Mantle's Marauders (Team JSMN): Founding Member

Maya is the heart of the Marauders' impressive battlefield coordination and endurance, between her Semblance and her reasonably deep Aura reserves (though not as deep as Sable's). One of the Marauders' two Human members, Maya is nonetheless just as committed to their goals of rooting out oppression wherever they can, after losing her parents to an accident in the SDC's Dust mines.

White Fang (Atlesian Branch): Associate, Honorary Member

Maya is one of the few Humans allowed to see the inside of White Fang operational planning, and has significantly contributed to the success of raids she's participated in. She and the rest of the Marauders are known to insist on access to target justification records, however. The Atlesian branch is thankfully reliably able to provide this documentation, to the SDC's chagrin.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Harmony Faction): Associate

There was significant consternation within the Valean branch of the White Fang when the Marauders arrived and attempted to reestablish their affiliate status locally. The presence of two Humans among the members inspired strong reactions in the not-yet-schismed radicals, and this exacerbated the growing tensions between the two groups. The members of what became the Harmony faction believed that Humans who were willing to help the cause, especially if vouched for by the leadership of the Atlesian branch as the Marauders were, could be trusted.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Radical Faction): Enemy

It is unclear whether Adam Taurus views the Human or Faunus members of the Marauders as worse, considering the former as infiltrators into what he sees as his organization, and the other as traitors to the movement for splitting away from his leadership. Regardless, the enmity of the Radicals toward the Marauders cannot be overstated.

Semblance

Armory

Through Armory, Maya can tag combat equipment from the size of a moon clip with no hard upper bound, with a small cost to establish that increases dramatically above armor size. She can "reallocate" tagged objects within a kilometer or two, placing it in a position relative to herself or another tagged object, with a scaling price by mass. She can also remotely control and sense through (as well as the status of) tagged weapons. It is suspected that she may be able to repair tagged objects as well, but that has not been demonstrated conclusively yet.

Weapons

Promise

Promise is a mechashift fusion of a mace made from a lightning Dust infused alloy with a grenade launcher. Given any chance to prepare at all, Maya can be assumed to have an immense variety of Dust grenades available at all times, and with her Semblance there is no opportunity to observe which has been loaded into Promise.

Patience

Patience is a shield capable of alternating between heater and scutum forms, and in the latter form can use gravity Dust to lock in place in the current gravitational reference frame. Maya has been known to leap into the air, lock Patience in place as a midair step, and then use Armory to unlock it and reallocate it back to her arm after vaulting off of it.

She tilts her head and smiles wider. "Sable's here," she says without looking.

A short, black-haired Faunus with sharp green eyes and grey wings is sitting across from her.

Jade Hafner

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Green

Associations

Mantle's Marauders (Team JSMN): Founding Member

Leader of team JSMN, Jade is the tactician of the Marauders, As hoped, the leadership role is prompting growth from the girl, inspiring her to reach out and connect with more people. Jade's flight and magnetoreception also help her provide recon and scouting for the team, alongside her talents in navigation and stealth.

White Fang (Atlesian Branch): Associate, Honorary Member

Jade impressed local leadership in Mantle enough to be directly involved in operations planning from time to time, despite the Marauders only being an affiliate group. She is likely personally responsible for the operations she ran being cleaner, faster, and less bloody than they otherwise would have been.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Harmony Faction): Associate

As with the rest of the Marauders, Jade helped the Harmony faction significantly during the initial schism. She occasionally has tea with Tukson and keeps in the loop about local affairs.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Radical Faction): Enemy

Jade has personally led counter-raids to defend those targeted unjustly by Taurus's radicals, with the help of the other Marauders. She considers the Radicals' view extremely wasteful and counterproductive.

Semblance

Stellation

Jade's Semblance, Stellation, provides her with unparalleled photokinesis. She can bend, concentrate, distort, and lens the light in her vicinity. This ability has been used for lasers, invisibility, telescopic vision, and even personally-generated hardlight in recent years. She can generate hardlight without the aid of hardlight Dust, though the Aura cost is much cheaper for her with it.

Weapons

Verdant Thorns

A pair of high-caliber semi-automatic pistols, Verdant Thorns have a retractable dagger mounted on the barrel of each pistol, allowing for kerambit-like usage in melee. Touching the butts of the pistols together causes a mechashift transformation into Verdant Thorns' bow form, the pistols locking together and a length of spring-alloy extruding from near the hammer on each pistol. During the transformation, a hardlight string is formed (partially assisted through Stellation). Hardlight arrows are formed by the wielder using a crystal of hardlight Dust embedded in each pistol's grip.

"Looks like she's adopted the new girls already," she notes with a fond snicker.

Grinning, head resting on Jade's shoulder, is a particularly colorful girl. Her hair is half pink and half brown, with a white streak in the pink half. Her eyes are likewise pink and brown, but on opposite sides.

Neopolitan

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Pink

Associations

Mantle's Marauders (Team JSMN): Founding Member

The combination of Neopolitan and Jade are what make the Marauders one of the few teams with the potential to take an infiltration track in their time here at Beacon, and the only current first-year team with that option. Neopolitan is also notably mute from an event in her childhood, and as a result the entire team has learned Atlesian Sign Language.

White Fang (Atlesian Branch) Associate, Honorary Member

Neopolitan and Jade have performed exceptional infiltrations into corporate offices, and have significantly enhanced the reach of the White Fang's intelligence operations during their time in Mantle. The two sometimes took one-way infiltration routes, counting on Maya having tagged their outfits to extract them through reallocation, though person-sized movements take enough Aura that Sable has to reinforce Maya in that process.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Harmony Faction): Associate

Neopolitan has assisted the Harmony faction by infiltrating the Radicals on more than one occasion through use of her Semblance, extracting intel on their upcoming operations.

White Fang (Valean Branch, Radical Faction): Enemy

Adam Taurus holds a particular grudge against Neopolitan, because she has on more than one occasion stolen his mask, forcing him to wear an improvised substitute until a replacement could be procured.

Semblance

Overactive Imagination

Neopolitan's Semblance allows her to create tangible illusions. She can wrap them around her body as a disguise, or use them as decoys to escape or dodge an attack. A hard strike breaks one of her illusions with a sound of shattering glass, revealing whatever was concealed behind or underneath it.

Weapons

Hush

Hush is a highly reinforced parasol with a concealed rapier hidden inside. The hidden blade can be extended from the tip, or withdrawn to be used separately. Hush has gravity dust embedded within it to allow it to support Neo's weight during falls. She opens the canopy of the parasol to block attacks, deflects and parries strikes with it like a rapier, and hangs beneath it as a mobility aid.

Crash

This high-caliber revolver is quite similar to Sable's Sonder, capable of taking out lower-level Grimm with single shots when well-aimed. As with Sonder, it is frequently loaded with Dust ammunition and uses moon clips for quick reloading.

At the table across from the previous seven Huntresses, in the middle row, is another group of four. This blond boy has noticed Sable and Violet's arrival and is grinning cheerfully at them.

Jaune Arc

Age: 17 | Gender: M | Aura: Yellow

Associations

Team JNPR: Member, Leader

Despite coming to Beacon with forged transcripts, Jaune has proved to have strong tactical intuitions and a solid work ethic through the accelerated training course his team (especially Pyrrha, and to a lesser extent the other two teams as well) have been putting him through.

Semblance

Unknown

Jaune has not yet uncovered his Semblance.

Weapons

Crocea Mors

A classic sword and shield pair, Crocea Mors is an heirloom weapon used by Jaune's great-grandfather in the Great War. The shield collapses into a sheath for the sword using mechashift.

Sitting next to him (and giving him tiny sappy looks when he won't see) is this redhead.

Pyrrha Nikos

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Red

Associations

Team JNPR: Level

With her previous history as the champion of Mistral's national juniors tournament, it's no surprise that Pyrrha is such a successful Huntress trainee. She has taken on the bulk of the work of training Jaune up to par, and is a powerhouse of her team.

Semblance

Polarity

Pyrrha's Polarity grants control of magnetism, allowing her to manipulate most metallic objects in her vicinity. She has immense strength in her Semblance, able to move heavy weights at great speed and force, but also impressive fine control. Throughout her time on the tournament circuit, she used Polarity incredibly subtly, only ever nudging an opponent's weapons an inch or so out of alignment. This careful use and secrecy earned her the title of "Invincible Girl", though she does not seem to be very fond of the moniker.

Weapons

Miló

Miló is capable of mechashift transformations between three forms: a javelin, a variety of western Mistrali short sword, and a semi-automatic rifle. In javelin form, the rifle becomes part of the body and can be used to fire the javelin with enhanced speed, range, and power.

Akoúo̱

This dipylon shield is quite durable, and Pyrrha is fond of throwing it and then nudging its course with her Semblance to ensure its prompt return.

Across from those two, facing the window and the previous seven, is this boy with a pink streak in his black hair. He's patiently eating his lunch, despite his partner's antics.

Lie Ren

Age: 17 | Gender: M | Aura: Pink

Associations

Team JNPR: Member

Ren is a heavily agility-focused member of team JNPR, He rounds out the team nicely and complements the diverse abilities of the other three members well.

Semblance

Tranquility

Ren's Semblance allows him to mask negative emotions in anyone in physical contact with him, or whom he has indirect contact with through another person or object. Extending it beyond a few other people has a prohibitive Aura cost. While Tranquility is in use, people under its effects do not attract the Grimm, and also find themselves calmer.

Weapons

StormFlower

These are a pair of machine pistols equipped with collapsible sickle-like blades mounted underneath the barrels and extended magazines. The blades are sharp enough to pierce the bone armor of even alpha Grimm, but the shots have comparatively low stopping power. The damage from the shots does add up, however, and can weaken Grimm for later strikes with the blades.

Bouncing in her seat next to him is an orange-haired girl with blue eyes.

Nora Valkyrie

Age: 17 | Gender: F | Aura: Pink

Associations

Team JNPR: Member

Nora is JNPR's talented brawler and bombardment specialist. The teams opponents have been found to universally regret entering close combat with her.

Semblance

High Voltage

Nora's Semblance allows her to absorb and channel electricity into her muscles, enhancing her already impressive strength still further. All electrical currents up to a certain strength simply fail to damage her at all, instead being absorbed as fuel for her next strikes.

Weapon

Magnhild

This heavy maul has a mechashift transformation into a revolver grenade launcher. Her grenades are handmade, loaded with a custom Dust blend of fire and lightning, and can be triggered on impact, proximity, or remotely. The maul form keeps the grenade launcher available, and Nora can use this for mobility enhancement. Furthermore, the entire weapon is thoroughly hardened against electricity, allowing Nora to use it as a lightning rod for a boost to her strength, if a convenient storm is available.

As Violet and Sable watch, she uses a spoon to catapult a grape across the aisle at Neo.

Neo bounces up, head coming up off Jade's shoulder and catching the grape in her mouth. Nom.

Okay, whoa, that is way too much information, put some back. 

The overlays all blink out at once.

Whoa, no, don't just vanish on her - 

The overlays quite cheerfully pop back into existence. 

Okay, okay good, the little floating nametags can stay. But everything else can stay firmly collapsed for now.

She waves to Jade and Jaune, a slightly awkward smile on her face.

"Hey Jade, hey Jaune. There's... really a lot of people here, isn't there?"

"It's like a market day in here. So crowded."

She looks over at Sable. "Where should I sit?"