[center][color=708090][h2]Ashe Blackwood[/h2][hr][h3]A Newcomer to Beacon[/h3][hr][/color][/center]

It had all happened so quickly that Ashe had barely had any time to process it. She had been selected for and moved to Beacon Academy, which was not only completely unexpected, but also utterly [i]bizarre[/i] as far as she was concerned. There hadn't been enough time to pack her belongings before she was thrown head first out of a cell and into a Bullhead. Perhaps her father was behind it. That old man was always looking after her in his own way, even though they weren't always on the best of terms. Perhaps he'd had enough of her regular stays in the Mistral city prison and thought that a more disciplined lifestyle would be good for her. Or perhaps it was her aunt's idea. She wasn't entirely sure which family member's idea it was to send an application in her name [i]and[/i] several letters of recommendation (mostly from cops she'd grown entirely too familiar with) to Beacon, but it didn't really matter.

A quick glance at the directions listed on her horribly outdated Scroll told her she was where she needed to be. Beacon seemed almost [i]excessively[/i] fancy for her tastes, and was a harsh transition from her time living with the Barbarians (a rather rowdy group of kids constantly trying to one-up one anothers' shenanigans). At least she was new here -- nobody had come to know her face or her habits yet, which meant she could spend plenty of time trying to get her bearings undisturbed. Hopefully, at least.

[i]Ping![/i]

A message from her best friend from Mistral, Thomas, popped up. That kid had always been almost [i]stupidly[/i] good at choosing exactly the right moment to do... Well, anything, really. It was almost spooky, but then, most of the Barbarians had been in one way or another.

[hider=T. Goldbloom]
[quote]u get there ok? how is it?[/quote]
[quote][color=708090]Yep. Bit open, but the fresh air is nice I suppose?[/color][/quote]
[quote]ok, let me kno if u need nething
ur stuff is in the mail[/quote]
[quote][color=708090]Thanks, Thom. You packed my notebooks, right?[/color][/quote]
[/hider]


No response. They forgot. All [i]seven[/i] of the Barbarians forgot. With a sigh, she set off towards her first classes without her sketchbook or her notes on personal studies. She'd been kindly given a class schedule and a basic syllabus for both late arrivals and for each of the courses, and apparently her family had signed her up for a number of electives as well. A course catalog was packed into the small stack of papers detailing the electives, which... Hm. She'd actually been signed up for courses that looked good. Some academics mixed with practical skills.

Throughout her core courses, she maintained a low profile. The secret to going unnoticed is to show up on time, participate in class a little but not too much, stay fairly cheerful, and look incredibly busy between classes to keep other people from bothering her. There were a couple close calls, but she'd brushed those students off with a quick "Sorry, can't talk, gotta be somewhere!".

[hr][h3][center][color=708090]Tuesday, 4th Period - Grimm Studies[/color][/center][/h3][hr]

Ashe arrived six minutes late to class, courtesy of being a late arrival and missing out on any tours. It was a bit of a rushed day for her. Most students had apparently already arrived, and standing out in any way at all -- especially on her first day -- brought the blazing heat of embarrassment to her face. She had no idea if there had been previous classes this semester or not. [color=708090][i]Own it.[/i][/color], she thought to herself. [color=708090][i]Just take a seat. Nobody cares.[/i][/color]

She hadn't brought a uniform with her, so all day she'd been forcing her image to fit in via her Semblance - including keeping her status as a Faunus hidden where possible until she knew exactly how Beacon culture treated her kind. Failing to blend in was stressful, and she nearly broke her facade as she hastily slid into a seat near the exit, momentarily getting her backpack caught on the corner of the lecture hall desk. Hopefully the instructor would either not notice, or not care.

The classroom itself seemed not much different from those of her core courses, though this one had exactly one unusual feature - crates packed with Grimm. She'd been around them enough to know that caged Grimm would very quickly die off of their own accord, and that Grimm of those sizes were [i]definitely[/i] not able to get through bars that thick. Sometimes the Barbarians captured smaller Grimm and use them as playthings, though Ashe generally kept her distance. As terrifying as the Grimm looked normally, routine exposure had numbed that sense of fear over time, or so she thought. Any time one of the beasts lunged at their cage door or snarled too loudly, she felt the tiniest hint of the urge to [i]run[/i].

And so she sat and shakily waited.