Team SEWN - Arc One Chapter One [WIP]

Salmon with a mind of curious wonder ever on her endless quest
Eminence a painful past ever yearning for the final rest
Wheat courts chaos in search of peace
Navy, heart standing cold

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step
_{Martin Luther King Jr}

“The way he described it I thought it would be, bigger.”

Walter ‘Walt’ Grey leaned against the wall of the airship looking out at the large lake surrounded by towering wooded cliffs. Atop the cliffs sat the silhouette of a group of buildings lorded over by a large tower shining like a lighthouse with an emerald radiance.

Walt tried to compare what he saw before him to the picture he had imagined in his head from listening to one of his mentors and found it lacking the towering grandeur that reached for the sky and lorded over everything around it. Titling his head to try look at the school from another angle Walt thought the actual thing looked humble while still grand and towering, just on a smaller scale.

“Dammit Logan, got my expectations up” he muttered with a smile as he pushed off the wall and turned away from the window. At 5’9 with a lean build Walt appeared fairly normal in the crowd of people aboard the airship with long hair the colour of wheat, bright orange eyes and tanned skin. His clothes weren’t flashy or stood out either, just a dark grey jacket with orange trim and decorations over a dark green shirt and with the sleeves sticking out from the jackets arms, dark grey jeans and a pair of grey and orange boots. Where Walt’s wardrobe choices stood out were the dark grey scarecrow hat and the long scarf that looked like it had been made from a burlap sack.

Walt had gotten a few odd looks and glances for the scarf and the hat, all of which he ignored as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall besides the window, staring blankly past everyone out the opposite window. He was used to weird stares and odd looks, it was the looks of awe or eager inquisition that he was paying attention to. Most of them were sidewards glances or 'pretending not to look', and most of them were from the girls. He cracked a smile, remembering one of his friends and mentors telling him that girls loved the bad boy attitude, and Walt knew he had that. But he wasn't just drawing looks for himself, his partner was getting just as much attention as he was.

Leaning against the wall besides Walt was a wheat-coloured quarterstaff just taller than him with a large bulbous bottom and a small jutting edge that doubled as a stock and trigger for the orange and dark green bolt-action rifle built into the body of the weapon.

The wheat-haired boy glanced at his weapon and the looks it was drawing; he thought since he was going to a school for combat and fighting monsters that it would be a good idea to show off his goods to any potential friends and enemies, and looking around the room he saw most had had the same idea.

The crowd shifted and a familiar weapon, and a familiar face, jumped out at Walt. Grabbing his staff the wheat-haired boy pushed through the crowds and clasped the young man by the shoulder making him jump and utter a colorful sentence as he turned on Walt.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth Fallow?" Walt grinned as he let the young man go and stepped back, crossing his arms. The young man, by the name of Fallow Evangelista, was shorter than Walt by three inches, but was broader with a more muscled build. His skin was tanned with a greenish-blue goatee and hair spiked at the sides and on top in a Mohawk but with the fringe styled so it fell to the side; his eyes were hidden behind dusky lens of a pair brown and brass of welder-like goggles with a brass arm attached to one of the eyes. His clothes stood out more as well as he wore a long brown-grey duster over a light brown vest and a mousy-brown shirt and dark brown tie. He wore a sandy-brown belt across his chest with a dark brown beat with a big brass buckle around his waist; his pinstripe pants were the same dark brown with lines of light brown over stylist dark formal shoes. On his right arm and shins he wore dark brown armor with brass highlights.

Fallow cocked his head and squinted, trying to place Walt's face. Suddenly Walt the recognition click through the goggles and Fallow snapped his fingers at the him.

"Walter Gray, right?"

"Walt. Only me mum calls me Walter," he smiled and took Fallows hand, pumping it once; he and Fallow came from the same town and though Walt wouldn't exactly call him a friend it was good to see a familiar face.

"Havn't seen you since the incursion. Heard you ran away."

"Yeah. Parents didn't agree with a life choice."

Walt felt Fallows hand tighten uncomfortably and the young man's body stiffen; he was sure Fallows eyes had narrowed behind his goggles.

“Are you gay?” Fallow asked, his voice dropping dangerously low.

Walt’s grin fell and this time his body went tense. “No. My parents didn’t want me to be a Huntsman,” he replied simply and let go of Fallows hand. The green-haired young man untensed, flashing a wide smile as if Walt had told a joke, and looked as a group of girls walked past the two. Walt looked over at the group as well, checking out their weapons and bodies as a smile returned to his lips.

“Disgusting,” Fallow spat and looked away from the crowd. “They let those animals in here?”

Walt shot him a glare and looked back to the girls; Two of the girls had fox ears atop their heads, one with a bushy tail as well while the third girl had colorful feathers throughout her hair that would every now and then move and stuck up as the girl talked.

"Animals like that belong in a zoo."

"People like you belong in a museum," Walt said, shooting Fallow another glare as he walked away. He wasn’t sure if Fallow had heard him or not, not that he cared. Listening to him Walt felt glad that he had run away when he did.

“Everything is better is bullshit.”

Forcing a shit-eating grin the wheat-haired boy stepped up to the group of faunus girls and introduced himself. At first the girls were shy and quiet around him, a reflex to humans Walt thought as he talked; It just took some time and compliments, particularly to the bird girl of her feathers and they started to open up to him. As they did Walt could feel all the stares on him which only made his grin bigger; he could practically feel the room dividing into approving and disapproving parties.

With a last word to the girls he moved on again, looking around the cabin for his next victim. Those that disapproved of him, Fallow amongst them, had moved to one side of the airship, while those that approved, a quarter of which were visibly Faunus, had moved to the other side.

‘Well that makes it easy’ Walt thought as he joined the approving side and flashed a grin to the other side. As he was about to strike up a conversation with someone a hologram of a platinum blonde haired woman materialized in the centre of the air and along the side standing with a parchment to her chest and her free hand holding a riding crop by her side.

“Hello, and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch.You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world.”

The hologram bowed her head and disappeared. Walt looked around the cabin waiting for something else to happen. Nothing else showed up, no one appeared, but beneath his feet the wheat-haired boy felt the airship connect with something followed by the sound of the thrusters throttling down to hover. Turning on his heel he saw past the people and windows a long avenue leading to a large cluster of buildings topped by a looming tower lit like an emerald lighthouse.
They had landed.

Welcome to Beacon.

oOo

“Shit this place is huge.”

“Look at that tower.”

“I hope I don’t get lost.”

“Bro, bro look. That girl as a Mistralian katana. And he’s got a hammer and sickle combo”

Walt couldn’t help laughing at the young man’s reaction as the crowd of people walked towards the school. He was near the back of the crowd with Crowsbane over his shoulder and again checking out the crop of students now that they weren’t crowded into the airship. His mentors, all Beacon graduates, didn’t tell him what to expect or what would happen when Walt got to the academy, only that he had to make lots of friends and connections.

“More people to pick fights with then,” the wheat-haired boy grinned.

“You couldn’t have come to a better place then,” a young man said walking up beside Walt and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Best damn combat school in the world, and no shortage of people wanting to test their mettle. Though try not bite off more than you can chew."

Walt looked to the young man with a smile. He was three foot taller than Walt “Best damn combat school in the world, and no shortage of people wanting to test their mettle. Though try not bite off more than you can chew mate.”

“Ace, don’t pick a fight with the new student” said a young girl as she stepped up to Walt’s other side and pried the young man’s hand off Walt. The wheat-haired boy took a step forward and turned to face the pair, offering the boy a challenging grin. They both stood several feet taller than Walt, the boy just taller than the girl. He was tanned, broad-shouldered with long blue-grey hair curling around his face and neck; a streak of burnt orange ran through his hair from the eye, which were the same burnt orange while the tips were coloured the same. He wore a thick jacket the same colour as his hair streaked with burnt orange over a copper shirt grey leather pants and thick black combat boots. Around his neck he wore a burnt orange bandanna and a pair of welder's goggles; from his hips hung two holsters with thick curved weapons Walt couldn't identify.

The girl was lighter in skin but had the same curly blue-grey hair minus the burnt orange streak and tips. Her eyes were a soft pastel grey with a hint of edge to them and she had several faint scars criss crossing the one side of her face and her neck.

She wore a dark blue shirt under a red vest with white streaks and a large seven pointed star embroidered on the back; a pair of blue jeans flecked with rust, a pair of the same thick black combat boots and a pair of pastel grey gloves circled by golden bands completed her outfit.
The pair’s most interesting feature were a pair of large animal ears, the same colour as their hair, sticking up from the tops of their heads; what the animal was Walt couldn't identify.

The young man rolled his eyes and punched the girl, no doubt his twin, lightly on the arm. “I wasn't gonna fight him. Yet.”

The girl shook her head but smiled and set her attention on Walt. “Ignore my brother, he means well. I’m Pastel Matthews.”

“Walt Grey,” the wheat-haired boy said sticking out his hand. Pastel tensed and shrunk back from the action; Walt raised an eyebrow at this and opened his mouth to ask about it but found his hand filled by the young mans.

“Alloy, though you can call me Ace,” the faunus said with a smile, pumping Walt’s hand once before letting it go. Walt, returning the smile, shot Pastel another curious glance but said nothing.

“So you two new as well?”

“Nah mate, we’re second years,” Ace answered. As if by unspoken invitation he wove his arm around Walt’s and turned the boy around. “We were out for a walk and saw the airship coming in so figured we’d get to know the new crop.”

“We also thought we’d make some new friends,” Pastel said stepping up to Walt’s other side but not touching him. “If there’s one thing you can never do enough here is make new friends and connection.”

Walt chuckled at the advice, the ghost of his mentor's words echoing through his mind. “Well I’m already off to a good start then it seems.