[Bianca Sabbato]

Sitting on a wooden chair in front of a desk was not how I had planned to spend my afternoon. But some external circumstance had led me to do just that.

I realized I had been inadvertently slouching in my chair for the last few minutes. So I straightened my back as my hands remained expectantly interlocked over my lap. Making sure I wasn’t sitting on my tail as well, since that usually hurt like a bitch.

Besides that, I waited, as usual, barefoot and with my sleeveless uniform jacket. Staff knew how I dressed and carried myself over already. I Was not gonna insult them by pretending to be something I wasn’t. If the truth wasn’t enough, I refused to believe appearance should make a difference. I went as I was, and that was about it.

Taking a small peek at my right side. I caught a brief glimpse of Raul sitting on a chair next to me. And I was already feeling shitty about this. Like I was betraying something deeply ingrained within me... You were not supposed to go and snitch on other people. You were supposed to fix things between yourselves, so no one had to get punished...

But... Some things were different now that I was here. I couldn’t punch out my way out of every situation. If we were to beat each other up black and blue, we would only end up getting in more trouble... And we wouldn’t be addressing the core issue. This was more than just an interpersonal dispute.

If anything, the fact that we could remain just a couple feet apart without any issue was probably a good sign in and out of itself. So I allowed myself to be optimistic about all of this. As long as none of us did something stupid... Which was always a possibility, so yeah. Optimistic. But careful.

Anyway. I spent the passing moments in silence. Not feeling like anything I could say would be of any use more than to further agitate both Raul and myself. And I needed to remain as calm as I could if I was going to do this. No losing my composture, no fucking things up this time.

I would treat this as a mission. And move as thrifty and effectively as possible to achieve the goal. And when I heard the wooden door behind me open up and the sound of footsteps coming closer, I knew it was time to act.

I got up as the professor made her way into her office. Giving a small look towards Raul to urge him to do the same. Although if he ended up doing so or not depended entirely on him

-Hello, professor- I said, not too casual. Nor too much like a bootlicker. It sounded like a nice balance, so I would go with that. And I made a pointed effort not to call her boss or something. And, luckily, my concentration didn’t slip at the last second.

I was nervous. I had never done something like this and had no idea how to handle myself in this environment. But I tried to hide it the best I could, and I feel like I did a neat good job at that. My throat was feeling a little itchy. But I ignored it for the moment. Once we started speaking in detail, I would likely have an excuse to ask for a glass of water or something.

-Thank you for having us on such short notice, especially for something as ambiguous as this. I won’t waste your time any longer and go straight to the point- Once the professor had sat down, I would do the same. (or before, if she told me so) And after clearing my throat, I would begin to talk and keep it brief.

-So, basically. Raul and I had a falling out. Some things happened that I would like to... Report. So we can reach a solution that works for everyone- I was trying to be as diplomatic as I could with my words. Wolf-boy had fucked up, but it wasn’t my intention to have him expelled or anything like that. It was only that some problems need to be addressed first before solving them.

-And he is here to defend himself. I assume. And I guess that if he has something to say about me, he will do as well- Half turning towards Raul. I gave a small nod, letting them know that I was alright with this and that I would let the boy say his piece without interruptions.

-But I called this meeting, so if both of you are okay with it. I’d like to let you get your version first. Raul. So please go ahead, if you may- So, sitting in a way that would allow me to address both of them at the same time. I patiently waited to see what Raul got to say about this.

Some people may say I was being kinda manipulative, asking Raul to go first like a stern mother telling a child to explain what they did wrong... And this was a more than valid complaint. But I was nonetheless taking a risk with it in case Raul tried to lie his way out of this. (which I heavily doubted. But was ready for anyway) So it kinda balanced out, in my opinion.

If life had ever taught me something. Is that sincerity sometimes can get rewarded. So I would let this guy have his opportunity to lay it as it was.

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929 / 929 Words.

[Raul Adalwulf]

Scritchy... Scritchy... Scritchy...

Raul shifted in his seat. His ears twitched left and right. The wood creaked as his legs tensed but he forced himself to remain in the chair.

Scritchy... Scritchy... Scritchy...

Sweat was beading on his forehead, and he actually had to grip the wood on either side of his rump to fasten himself down. His ears flattened down against his head. His eyes fixed themselves longingly on the window through which the snowy grounds of the academy could be seen. He tore his attention away, desperately trying to master himself.

Bianca was sitting quietly in her chair, seemingly not at all bothered by having to wait her for the faculty to arrive. Raul tried his best to match her. He found that people always seemed most happy with him when he imitated the other students.

How could she be so calm?


Scritchy... Scritchy...

Couldn't she hear that?

Raul let out a faint and barely audible whine as his eyes were drawn inevitably back towards the window, towards freedom. He imagined leaping right through that window, or smashing down that wall and escaping. 

Bianca was saying something. Raul wasn't listening. All he could focus on was getting out.

Scritchy...

It stopped... Raul trembled with awful anticipation. He strained his hearing, but all he could hear was his own heartbeat, and beyond that the muted tones of the lizard's voice, distorted by the strength of his ears. Another whine of absolute misery escaped him. But then, 

SALVATION!

A pair of beady eyes peeked out at him from a crack in the plaster covering the exterior wall, and a little brown face with a twitchy pink nose appeared. Raul's tail thudded lightly on the leg of his chair. So the sound hadn't been coming from outside after all.

He should have guessed. A mouse! A cute little brown mouse. His lips parted, and he showed off the first few of his long pointy teeth. His tail thudded again. He wondered if the mouse could see him. Someone had once told him that they didn't have good eyesight. It could hear his tail though. Each thump made the little creature twitch it's ears, and it started to back into the hole again so Raul stopped his tail, through no small effort of course. Seeing the little creature made him really happy and it was hard to keep still now that he could see it. 

Instead, he contented himself with trying to move his ears to match the motions of the big round ones on the mouse's head, whilst at the same time scenting the air to see if he could pick out the rodent's scent through all the other mingled scents of the office. 

-Raul. So please go ahead, if you may-

Raul blinked, responding to his name, and the mouse fled at the sharp jerk of his head. Huh, he guessed it could see him after all. 

He turned towards Bianca with a curious, if distracted expression, but mid way to their destination his eyes fell upon the professor. He hadn't heard them enter, and before he could master himself, his tail curled up close to his leg and his ears hid themselves in the unruly shock of gray hair that covered his head.

Raul was sitting much like Bianca was, though with the drastic difference in scale between the two students, he looked like an adult perched awkwardly upon a stool intended for a child. His habitually hunched posture was being supported by the elbows of his lanky arms resting on knees, bent dramatically due to the inadequate height of the furniture. The absurdity was only amplified by the almost comically exaggerated reaction to the faculty member, which wouldn't have looked out of place on a naughty child being caught with their hand in the sweets jar. He hunched a bit more, his dopey smile souring into a more nervous one as he quickly averted his eyes and seemed to try and shield his head with his shoulders.

"I was proo-ning the plants in the Gardening Room..." he began, uncertainly, in a heavy and cumbersome voice as he glanced over at Bianca, as if for her to confirm this mostly trivial element, "Bianca came in, and I asked her why Holly had to die... I got sad and I howled... Bianca got angry at me, and said if I kept doing that she was going to beat me up, and that she didn't want to kill me like they killed Holly... So I got a bit mad too, and I got really big, and I took the clippers she was holding and held them to my neck, because..."

It seemed to dawn on Raul, exactly what he'd done, now that he was saying it out loud, and his beady eyes went wide for a moment while he looked at the expression on the lizard's face. His mouth hung open for a moment, half forming the words for an apology before he, as if by a physical force, tore his eyes off of her and laid his gaze squarely on the floor. He scowled for a moment. 

"I don't know why I did that really..." He confessed,  trying even harder to shrink in on himself, "Maybe because I was with Bianca in the bandit camp, and in Kerch, and I did my best. I was big and scary because that's what everyone told me to be, because I needed to be to protect my friends and the people who couldn't protect themselves, but if I come back and I want to be big and sad, then people start saying they are going to kill me. It's not nice to find out that someone you thought was a friend thought you were a monster. It's not nice to find out that someone I have fought and bled with has spent that whole time wondering how they might need to kill me, especially when I never once thought of hurting them... I don't even like to hurt people. I hate hurting people... But Bianca thinks I am a bad guy, she thinks that she needs to kill me like she needed to kill the men in the camp who were keeping people in cages... And I don't understand why... I gave her a fright when we first met, because she gave me a fright, and I thought she was a grimm or something, but I've only tried to be nice since then... I even went to Kerch..."

His rambling tirade cut short as his voice broke a little bit, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

"I went to Kerch, and I hurt lots of people. To help Bianca, and the people there. Because I thought Bianca was my friend..." He went on, as he opened his eyes, which were both misty with tears, and dilated with the telltale early sign of his transformation, "I guess I just don't understand why she hates me so much... Why she would threaten to beat me up or kill me... I don't understand why she would think I would hurt her... I don't want to hurt anyone... Before that day when we saved those people in the ages, I'd never hurt anyone... It was scary, I remember being so angry, and men with guns trying to kill me, and a lady with a club hitting me in the head, but I chose to hurt them, and that makes me a bad guy, because that's what the bad guys do. So maybe Bianca does need to kill me... I killed one... I didn't mean to... I had him by the leg, and they were shooting at me, and I threw him, and..."

His voice cut off again, and he visibly took a moment to get back on topic, having trailed far enough off course that even he'd noticed it.

"I shouldn't have done that... to Bianca, in the garden room... But I hate how she talks about killing people, and beating people up, like its easy, like it's nothing. It makes me angry to hear someone I care about say things like that... It makes me angry to see someone I thought was my friend holding a weapon and looking at me like I am a monster... So I held the clippers to my neck so that Bianca could see that even if she is about to kill me, I still wouldn't hurt her... Because she may hate me, but she's still my friend."

1417/1417

[Bianca Sabbato]

I calmly waited for Raul to get his explanation done. Figuring out I was doing him a favor in letting him explain why he did what he did. So we could all agree on a solution that benefitted us the most... He seemed pretty out of it when Shadecloack entered her office. And didn’t even show any sign of noticing her presence until I spoke directly to him.

But after a moment of contemplation, he began. And boy. Was I regretting letting him go first now! He was managing to not only downplay his own fuckups. But also make me look worse in the process. Which made no damn sense considering I had been the one to call this thing on. And he hadn’t interrupted me before, so this was the part where his story really started to fill with holes.

I mean... For real? He seemed awfully intent on directing the topic from me coming to report something, to me apparently telling him I was going to kill him... Like, motherfucker. I gave you a chance to make things easier for yourself. I was even willing to admit my own mistakes in the matter... And you use the chance to throw me under the bus?

Alrighty then. No more Ms. Nice girl here. You miss your chance? Tough luck.

-Ok... That was something indeed... Not something that I was expecting...- I took a couple seconds to organize my thoughts. Bringing my hand to rest under my chin as I wondered how to address this already fucked up situation... In the end. I figured out it was better to start with the most pressing issue and then take it from the beginning.

-...I agree with Raul. A student making death threats to another is a serious topic. Or at least it would be if that had happened at all...- I said, any semblance of friendliness in my face disappearing immediately. Being replaced by a stony facade of the utmost seriousness.

-Welp. Time for my version of the story. Shall we?- Sitting a little straighter. I began my retelling of the story.

-I entered the Gardenin’ Club room since I wanted to say my goodbye to Holly. Whatever she may have been. That’s just how I felt...- Feelings be feelings and all of that. I didn’t think anyone would deny me the right to mourn whoever the fuck I wanted. So no hurt in stating that as it was.

-...Raul was there. I asked him if he minded me sticking around, he didn’t mind. After a while, he asked me what had happened with Holly. I explained briefly- Maybe a little coldly. But the be fair, I didn’t even know until that point what was Raul’s relationship with the plant goblin. So I played it safe for him to take his own conclusions.

All good till that point. Now onto the problematic shit.

-Then, he started asking why no-one had done anything to try and help her. He started yelling and screaming some kind of dissertation about what a huntsman was supposed to be. A discussion we already had in the past-

And one that had ended up with both of us not quite looking eye to eye, at least on my part. Since Raul kept insisting that I was his friend for some reason. So I couldn’t even know what went through his head sometimes.

-I started to get nervous. Then, he used his semblance, transformed, and let out a howl so loud that almost made the pots in the room fall to the ground... And I started to get weary. I know he’s physically stronger than me when transformed, and I had a pretty bad experience with his transformation before. So I grabbed some gardening shears to protect myself in case something happened-

Maybe that was my mistake. To show a modicum of fear towards Raul. If his brain worked like a predator, that would immediately put me in either of the predator/prey categories. And I could see him being hurt from the gesture, but then again. I still think I made a sound choice. 9/10 chances that he wouldn’t attack me. But on the off chance he did, It was better to be as ready as I could.

Before continuing, I felt the need to rectify one of the facts he had so gallantly downplayed a moment ago. So both he and Shade could understand why I was so fucking cautious when it came to Raul.

-And no. Raul. What happened when we first met wasn’t you “giving me a fright” as you say. You pounced on me, pushed me into the ground, and tried to bite my face off. I had to go underground to get away from it. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to get you in trouble and expected you to work on in since you had only arrived at Haven when that happened-

I really fucking did. Even that boy Asterion with a similar semblance was doing something to keep himself in check if Chloro and Berwyn were telling the truth. And this being an academy to train Huntsman. I assumed said trainees would... Well... Train, to overcome their shortcomings, or at least when they were of the potentially dangerous kind.

-But after what happened with Holly. I wasn't taking any chances. So I told you to get that shit under control or I would break your aura to control it myself-

And I fucking realized how bad that sounded, in retrospect. Unsanctioned fights were frowned upon in the school. And even if I didn’t think that what I did warranted expulsion, I nonetheless would be ready to accept any punishment the academy saw fit.

-...Granted. That was probably not the most PC thing to do. But a normal person’s response would have been to tell me to fuck off. Maybe even go report me to a teacher and it would be I the one with the problem in my hands. And deservedly-

I looked at Raul intently. My gaze piercing the wolf boy from side to side. Everything else had been just a minor scuffle in the grand scheme of things. But this next part was the really serious stuff I wanted to address.

-Instead. You doubled down. Not only you very deliberately transformed in front of me. Slowly walked towards me, stood before me at your full fucking height and grabbed my fucking hand to put those shears to your neck, and dared me to kill you-

My throat had gotten dry from talking so much. But I still was far from finishing. At this point, I would ask the professor for a glass of water or something. But if she didn’t have one, I would swallow saliva and continue all the same. Just a little more exasperated than before.

-And I need to tank my fucking training, for if I hadn't realized blood was spilling from your neck. I would have attacked you, with your aura down. And things would be looking really dire to me... You know. The aura you lowered after I told you I would beat your ass?-

I didn't even want to think what expulsion would mean to me... I really didn't. It would most likely mean the literal end of me.

Sighing heavily. I reclined on my chair. Looking at the ceiling for a brief moment. After a much-needed pause. I decided to finally address his previous accusation.

-In regards to the death threats. I merely made a parallel with Holly when her own semblance went out of control. I asked you to control it, else someday somebody would inevitably think of you as a threat and kill you, and I didn’t want it to be me. So I asked you if that was what you wanted- I recalled in a calmer voice, trying my best to not let know how royally pissed I was.

-I know it wasn’t the nicest thing to say. And I’m ready to face the consequences, but I think there is something more important to address now-

Turning towards the boy. I Talked to him directly again. -Raul... You need to learn to control your fucking semblance and your emotions. Because, as I said, chances are people will see you as a menace if you let loose too much. If I started throwing stones everywhere every time I got mad or sad, then I would get that treatment. So I want it to be equal for everyone-

And with that, I was done saying my piece for now. Crossing my fingers over my lap again. I turned to Shadecloack this time, finally making the petition I had been meaning to ask of the faculty.

If Raul wouldn’t take this seriously, they needed to make him do it. Else we could have another Holly Hock in our hands. Not someone who maliciously attacks a coastal town, and has to be methodically eradicated like Solomon Moon. But someone who could accidentally lose control at the worst time possible.

-I mean. I had a little trouble with that when I just arrived here. But I’ve been trying to fix it. And Improving considerably. I don’t see him doing the same. And I would like that to be fixed-

---

1547 / 2476 Words

[Theloria Shadecloak]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE’LL RECLAIM OUR DESTINY

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[attr="class","nikki102"]WE’LL SET OUR FUTURE FREE

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[attr="class","nikki109"]The office of the lion Faunus was a bit different than those of her colleagues. For one, it was actually organized like someone was actually there more than once a year. Pictures and certificates of various things lined the walls. Her Huntsman license, the graduation photo of her former Team CBLT from Beacon, and assorted newspaper clippings largely from the team’s exploits in Faunus Rights Revolution. It was one that displayed clearly why she was there, and some people misunderstood that open display as one of pride or the purpose of these to boast. It was a defiant act so that nobody who walked through that door and looked around could question her competence or the fact that was she was qualified, especially with the challenge coins on her desk. [break][break]

One from Menagerie, one from the Council of the Vale, one from the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, three from the Council of Mistral, and various other ones signifying participation in various exercises or missions of particular importance, largely from the war. There were newspaper clippings on the wall for all of these, too, but those tended to get drowned out even with them being framed. The challenge coin stand was where all of them stood out individually, and it was faced towards the door so that it would be the first thing that anybody say when they came in. Her unique status as a Faunus Huntress gave her and her team more recognition and publicity during the war, as that was uncommon and a whole team worth of the same was unheard of. [break][break]

They were a novelty, but it was Shade’s semblance that got the other ones. While useless against Grimm, it was very good for use against almost anything else and the ability to slip in and out of even the most fortified areas unnoticed made her skills very valuable for a very long time. Her fighting skills were average at best, but her maneuverability and stealth made her an asset that the Mistral Council decided to keep close and committed by offering this faculty position to keep her in a position to be sent out whenever needed. It was an arrangement that no doubt had a time limit, but it had served well enough for year or so she had been a part of it. [break][break]

The team photo was hidden more on the wall, almost purposefully so compared to most others who liked their Academy team photos in plain view all the time. Usually team photos were front and center on the desk, not on the wall next to a Huntsman License out of view of the person sitting behind said desk. In it there were four obnoxiously happy newly minted huntresses, all four Faunus. One green and blonde-haired lion faunus, one silver haired orca faunus, one whited haired rabbit faunus, and one pink haired deer faunus. A much younger and much happier version of Theloria Shadecloak was on the far-left side smiling from ear to ear with her cheeks close enough to touch those of the pink haired deer faunus Faunus beside her. An unwelcome reminder of simpler times, and the ultimate and inevitable fate of most graduating teams… separation whether from personality conflicts or untimely death. [break][break]

Most students would never see the inside of this particular office more than once or twice a year, due to Shade preferring largely to conduct meetings in classrooms or in the training facilities. She had been doing paperwork when the two trainees arrived, but dropped it immediately once she got a decent idea of what was going on. The faunus was dressed in her usual black suit, with the jacket draped over the back of her office chair to reveal the white dress shirt underneath. [break][break]

After instructing them to get on with their stories, the facial expression of the faunus barely twitched. Green eyes stared at the person talking, and facial expression was always neutral. She noticed what was going on, of course, but it wasn’t for nothing that some of her students compared to her a robot with her nearly always flat voice and unchanging facial expressions during most classes. Her left hand was still on the computer keyboard, and green eyes flicked over every so often to make sure she was inputting the commands correctly. This incident occurred in the Gardening Club … clubhouse and it was one of the buildings that had a camera in it, so she was able to go back on the feed and watch it out of the corner of her eye as Raul talked… and was immediately very happy that she had pushed so hard for one to be installed in there due to Holly’s completely unstable mental condition. Bianca went next, and gave an account of events that sounded very plausible with the footage. [break][break]

“Thanks for that overview, both of you. So, I think the solution here is pretty obvious – the only thing that’s going to be difficult is getting the space to actually say things. I have low patience for being interrupted, so the moment someone starts stomping around, attacking someone, or trying to scream over me I’m just going to escalate this to the Headmaster with a likely full writeup recommending expulsion. After recent events, I think I can be justified in saying my tolerance for people substituting brute force and intimidation attempts for reasoning is pretty next to nothing right now.” Carmim had been a hair off from trying to legitimately kill her a bit ago, so it wouldn’t even be the first time. Her tone was flat and apathetic but given that was her normal speaking tone and the situation she really couldn’t care enough to consciously adjust it. Green eyes were staring directly at Raul from that point forward, never deviating and never wavering. [break][break]

“Raul. You don’t seem to understand the current situation, so I’m going to go top down for your benefit as to why all three of us are even here in the first place. In 24, all faculty except for Professor Long and all trainees in addition to some visiting huntsmen were killed in an airship crash on their way to Atlas for the Vytal Festival. Mistral was already hurting for huntsmen at the time, and the graduating class was supposed to shore that up and make it so that the currently working huntsmen didn’t have to work themselves to death. That obviously didn’t happen, and three years worth of recruits in addition to all the faculty and visiting huntsmen were gone, just like that. That caused the issue of not enough huntsmen out in the field to escalate and caused many more deaths than usual out there than in years prior. Deaths of licensed huntsmen in Mistral went up 50% in 24, doubled the year after that, and this year it looks like it will double again due to the fact that all missions at this point are being done with much less huntsmen than is safe. Civilian deaths have gone up substantially, but exact numbers are harder to come by because some villages lost contact months ago and could be just fine or smoking ruins for all we know – because we lack the resources to go and check on them.” [break][break]

“You’re here, despite the fact that one of the teachers at Sanctum pleaded with the headmaster to deny your application because they knew you were mentally unsuited to this line of work, because Haven was desperate and you had a strong semblance. The very same reason why Holly, despite strong protests, was kept on despite her awful attendance record and swift downward spiral after Rochdale, was kept on and given therapy instead. The administration, after that incident, is starting to finally consider mental state as a factor in continued enrollment instead of raw destructive potential.” [break][break]

She paused, then, to move the monitor of her computer over to the incident caught on video and pressed play as she continued speaking. The video didn’t have sound and didn’t have the best view of things, but it was good enough to support the point. [break][break]

“Solomon Moon was expelled for purposefully letting his aura drop in an attempt to traumatize and frame another trainee for his death or serious injury, and you tried to do the same thing. You seem to be completely self-centered and delusional to the point to where you, despite all indications around you, seem to believe that the job of a huntsmen is anything less than eliminating threats to society before those threats can destroy society. If that threat is a person, we remove it. If they refuse to be removed, we kill them. If that threat is a Grimm, we kill it. If that threat is a place, we move it or destroy it. Our role is to be the barrier in between civilians and death, which naturally means that we encounter a lot of death.” [break][break]

“If you believe your feelings to be worth more than other people’s lives, I encourage you to quit immediately and pursue another path in life before you get yourself or others killed. I’m going to be completely level with you – I’ve been to Sanctum. I’ve met people who have talked to me extensively about it, and I’ve talked extensively with the faculty there. They’re a really good school, with more hands-on training than Signal had when I went there. It’s also been their policy to try and talk people out of applying to Haven since The Fall, because they knew what was coming – and frankly I agree with their reasoning. Their reasoning is, and remains that anyone not completely committed to and aware of the fact that they are throwing their lives away in the hopes of making a physical difference in Mistral are a danger to themselves and more importantly to others. It puts other trainees in a situation where they not only have to worry about themselves and the people they’re protecting, but also accommodate and account for ways one of their supposed allies will throw a wrench into the situation and make it about themselves – like you have with Holly’s death.” [break][break]

“Holly was a troubled teenager who should have never been accepted into Haven who was killed due to a psychotic break or whatever you want to call it. It’s a tragedy, frankly, because it was her admission into Haven that allowed her the power to cause that much of a threat. A normal girl without the power she had would have been sent to a mental institution instead of fought to the death, but here we are… and here you are turning the situation around and forcing the spotlight to shine on you instead, putting your life as well as Bianca's on the line for attention.” [break][break]

Both feet were kicked up to the desk, then, and the faunus leaned backwards in it and crossed her arms across her chest as part of a pause that lasted several seconds. “Say you succeeded. You die, Bianca attacks you when you have your aura down. Bianca is now traumatized for life, and the lives she would have saved are now lost causes due to the fact that she likely very justifiably quits Haven or otherwise removes herself from the institution. Your death now overshadows Holly’s and you get the spotlight and attention you crave, but the talk of the town wouldn’t be about how evil and mean Bianca is. It’d be about how a Haven student was so deranged and unstable that they committed suicide by baiting a classmate into attacking them and then removing their aura – for which there is absolutely no excuse and an expellable offense all by itself. You tried to goad Bianca into killing you for attention, and that’s why she’s mad at you. You were willing to put her life at risk without a second thought, because frankly how does someone respond to that? Killing themselves? Taking up an addiction to drugs to numb the pain? Wandering off into the void to die fighting Grimm in some pointless fight in an attempt to redeem themselves? No sane person is going to be mentally stable after something like that, and many would break entirely.” [break][break]

She’d tilt her head to the side, then, and continue without the slightest bit of hesitation in a voice that was tonally completely apathetic and almost bored. “And you did that because you felt bad in the moment. When Solomon did the same thing, it was the culmination of a feud that started the first day of his enrollment. He hated Kishka so much he was willing to die just to make sure she was ruined, with her being branded as a murderer and forced away from her family and friends. He had set up this elaborate plot to get it done, too, making it look intentional. A year of pent up rage and anger at his mortal enemy, his biggest rival, and the person he hated the most in all of Remnant culminated in that one encounter… and you did it to Bianca on a whim. You just decided in the heat of the moment that it was a proper response. That’s why Bianca is mad at you. It took an actual war criminal a year to muster up enough cruelty to do something you did on a whim, because you were mad.” [break][break]

She’d pull her feet off of her desk, then, and lean forward while uncrossing her arms. She clasped her hands together and rested them on the table and continued staring almost through Raul as she finished. “I’m going to give you the exact same advice I gave Holly, who did not heed the advice and called me old, bitter, and evil for even suggesting it.” There was a slight pause, then, before she continued in the same flat tone of voice. “Go do something else, almost anything else. You’re not cut out for this line of work or any combat related profession, and by staying you’ll only cause other people to get killed due to your inability to mentally handle what is expected of you. If you insist on staying, I’m going to need a very good reason why I shouldn’t write you up for expulsion right now for the same reason I wrote Solomon up for the same, and just copy and paste my defense for Kishka in that case and Bianca in this one to be absolved of any wrongdoing.”

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[attr="class","nikki103"]2417 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

Notes here

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[Raul Adalwulf]

Raul sat in silence for a long time after Shadecloak finished her speech. It was a lot for him to take in. Too much really, and a lot of that felt irrelevant to him. The excruciatingly detailed account of the incident between Kishka and Solomon felt less like something that was vital to the situation and more like a sore spot for Shadecloak personally, and she seemed uncharacteristically fixated upon it. 

Despite his best efforts, and despite knowing just how vitally his future hinged on this interaction, Raul could help but have his attention wander as the monotonous lecture bloated well beyond his ability to actually take in and process what was being said. After a while, it just felt like noise. Maybe he would have cared more if the professor implied at any point that she was actually invested in the outcome and not just a mindless apparatus of the machine that would cast down judgement upon him. 

Raul was forced to par the lengthy exposition down to what he consider to be it's key points. 

-Something bad happened to the whole bunch of the former students and staff.
-Raul's instructors at Sanctum had actively worked against his attempts to graduate to Haven.
-Raul had only been accepted because of a lack of qualified applicants.
-Holly had only been accepted for similar reasons.
-Solomon Moon had been in an incredibly public feud with Kishka Burnoza and it had culminated in the two nearly killing each other.
-He was doing all this because he wanted to be the center of attention.
-He was going to get people killed because he didn't like having to kill people.
-He was self centered because he wanted to believe that a better solution existed than slaughtering threats.
-He'd tried to make Bianca kill him.

-He was going to be expelled unless he could come up with some really good reasons why to keep him around, despite the fact that Shadecloak had made it clear that she didn't want him here.

Raul's posture was shrunk, and his ears lowered as his eyes poured over the various memorabilia laid out with exacting care and specificity behind the professor's desk. Like most things it all looked very pretty to him, but the greater understanding of their significance was utterly lost on him. These were supposed to tell him what sort of person Shadecloak was, but they really meant nothing to him. Some pictures, a shiny coin, a bunch of licenses and certificates which might as well have been written in a foreign language. It was just stuff. Carefully arranged, well maintained, clearly highly valued, but still just stuff that gave him no really idea of who Shadecloak was other than her role as a hunstman, as if she had no other identity to speak of. That was kind of sad, and Raul emitted a quiet whine at the thought.

He looked back to the others, first Bianca, then the stern lioness, and his expression was one of defeat. He already knew what was going to happen. This was a farce. His fate had been sealed the second he called Bianca's bluff, now they were just going through the rituals necessary to see him removed. Maybe if he had been good with words he could have said something in his defense, and made some argument that would sway the judgement of Shade, but he just had to look at her, feet up on the desk as she decided the entire course of his future, whilst talking as if to discuss the price of a corncob. He just had to look past her at the minutia behind her desk, and feel the weight of historicity to know that there was no defying the kind of person who would lay out their accomplishments in such prideful opulence.

If you wanted to talk about intimidating, well, you couldn't do better than Shadecloak and her thousand yard stare. Raul didn't even think she looked at him, or even saw him the whole time she'd been speaking. Sure she'd been looking in his direction, but there had been nothing in her gaze or her expression to tell him she could see him.

He swallowed, his lip trembling as the reality started to dawn on him. He was being expelled.

"You're wrong... about a few things..." He said, though not to Shadecloak, but to Bianca.

Shadecloak may as well have not been there. Her part was done. She'd already decided. All Raul could hope to accomplish by speaking was to try and salvage the ragged parody of a friendship he'd once supposed to have with the lizard.

"I didn't try to bit your face off... I just wanted to pin you, and when I realized that you weren't a Grimm or something, I ran away, because I was scared." He said with a long gusting sigh that stirred some of the papers on the desk ahead of him, "And you didn't threaten to kill me? What should I have thought when my sitting with my back to you was enough to make you arm yourself? Were you planning to tickle me with those shears? If you were so certain I was dangerous, why didn't you just run away? I wasn't keeping you from getting to the door. And I wasn't trying to make you kill me... I didn't think you'd hurt me, no matter what I did, because I thought you only acted tough, tough enough to even fool yourself I think, but I didn't think you were that sort of tough... I could have turned into anything, and I still thought you would stop yourself, you would choose mercy, even if it put you in danger. I really wanted to believe that. I wish I didn't know that you only stopped because you realized that it would kill me..."

He swallowed again, looking at her with his dilated eyes, and his bestial inhuman features.

"I never thought you'd actually hurt me... Maybe I wanted to hurt you a little bit, but not like that. I just don't think you know what you are asking of me. "Control" myself... Pretty words, but what does that actually mean? Why must I? Because someone else did something bad? What have I ever done to you? Because I could kill you when I'm transformed?" He paused for a moment and looked at one hand, and it swelled momentarily with fresh  muscle before shrinking back down to size, "Because I am dangerous?"

He smiled at her, wide enough that she could see all his teeth, all of which were pointy and  long, the teeth of a predator.

"I could kill you with just my teeth... Would you then ask me to wear a muzzle?"

He showed her his hands, broad massive palms, blunt fingers and long black fingernails that may as well have been claws.

"What about my claws? Should I go about in shackles?"

He curled his arm slightly, causing the lean muscle there to bulge and the veins to stand out.

"My muscles... I could kill you just with those if you are so afraid of all the others."

He returned to hanging his head in his seat.

"My semblance is a part of me. If you don't trust it, then you don't trust me. So why bother asking me to control it? Why not just kill me?"

He glanced over at a small potted plant on the windowsill.

"You could kill me with the dirt in that pot over there. But I know you won't, or at least I thought I knew before today. So why don't you? If its that easy? Why don't you tell me what you brought to the gardening club in your bag. You know your semblance has a smell right? I couldn't see it but I know it was there. You made something, not a weapon, something special, something for Holly, and you can do that because your semblance isn't just a weapon. Well my semblance isn't just a weapon either. And how would you feel if I told you what you brought in your bag was wrong, and you were wrong to make it, and I would hurt you if you tried to make another one."

He sighed again, and then sniffled slightly, hanging his head.

"Just because you don't understand something, doesn't mean it's dangerous. And just because something is dangerous, doesn't mean you should kill it. I just hoped that you might see that. I should have done it differently, and I'm sorry I hurt you. I've never been good with words. But I've also never been good at being careful."

His attention shifted to Shadecloak.

"And you. You've already made your decision about me. I can tell." He began, a bit of fire coming back to his tone though it still remained subdued and understated, "So I don't know what I could say to convince you to let me stay. But you got some things wrong too.
Firstly, I am nothing like Solomon Moon. Solomon Moon was a monster. Solomon Moon was a heartless killer, and a little bit of me hates you for comparing me to him.

And you think having a conscience is a liability? Well why don't you tell me what you did, when Solomon and Kishka had a fight that lasted a whole year and everyone knew about it and no one stepped in to stop it? You only got involved after they nearly killed each other! And you threw him out, instead of keeping him here where you might be able to control him. And I don't have to tell you what he did. He went and got an army, and he hurt a lot of people, and burned down a city, and almost killed me and my friends, but were you the one who had to go kill him? No. That was us.

What about Holly? She reeked of sadness the first time I met her, I have never seen someone so sad, but who helped her? I tried, I really did, and I know others did too, but where were you? Who had to kill her when she finally snapped? It wasn't you professor.

And what about the rest of us? Our friend was just executed in the streets? Have you said anything? Have you done anything about that? Have you even checked up on the people you are supposed to be looking out for?

Did you know that Kishka has been drinking herself senseless and smashing up the forest? Who will be to blame when she gets hurt or hurts someone else? I don't know, but I know who will be sent to clean up the mess.

Jade's friend has been missing for nearly six months, and it makes her angry and sad. Did you know that?

Aegle is sick, and she's never going to get better, but have you ever taken the time to actually talk to her about it?

What about me? You talked to my professors at Sanctum, but have you ever asked me what I think? Have we ever even met each other before today?"

He stopped. His heart was hammering in his chest, and his breaths were quick and ragged, but he managed to remain in his seat in the exact same position with his head bowed his ears flat.

"Maybe having a conscience makes me a bad huntsman. Maybe, I don't know, But I'll tell you what not having a conscience makes you. It makes you Solomon Moon. Maybe if people actually cared about more than just exterminating problems when they got out of hand, we'd have less problems and we wouldn't need as many huntsmen. Maybe if you had a few more students and teachers with consciences instead of you with your feet up on your desk, then we'd have fewer Solomon Moons and Qui'lIs and Holly Hocks."
 
He sneered a bit, lips curling back from his teeth.

"Go do something else... And leave all my friends here, under the care of people who don't pay attention until they start killing each other? I don't know about you, but I'd have to be pretty selfish to agree to that..."

2018/3435

[Bianca Sabbato]

Shadecloack apparently had cameras in the Gardenin’ Club. That came as a really nice surprise. I could definitely breathe a sigh of relief when I noticed. If I had to defend my case against an accusation of death threats. Then things could look really dire.

I knew inside my head that part of what Shadecloack was saying was false. But I decided not to interrupt since I realized it was part of her point. And she was most likely being really fair to me to not bring that up... Yeah... That thing about me leaving Haven was not happening no matter what. It was the sole condition for me to even have a modicum of freedom.

Join Haven. Become a huntress. Official pardon.

Even though I needed to try and compensate for my own fuckups. It was also this reason why I hadn’t bailed yet and conformed with a nice and predictable job like I would have wanted. It was the reason why I was so worried about Raul’s stability, and that of all my classmates. I was here for the par, no matter what happened.

This was also the reason why expulsion was so much more severe if we were talking about me. Raul or everyone else could just quit or be expelled and still make it as huntsman if they passed the exams by alternative means. I couldn't.

So yeah, the cameras made me a solid one here. And even if Shade’s scenarios were a little overexaggerated, I could understand this being the standard reaction. And the one Raul had to conform with.

She made some really sound arguments. I had to agree with most of them. Since I was not exactly sure why Raul wanted to be a huntsman in the first place. He said he wanted to protect people because his inherent strength made it his responsibility. But this was bull. No one should be forced to do something they don’t like because of how they were born...

But even then, Shadecloack allowed him the last chance to justify himself if he wanted to keep going as a huntsman. An opportunity to convince her that he was capable of becoming suited for this line of work and eventually being a net positive on society.

Then, Raul decided to answer. Not to Shadecloack, but to me.

And started with a technical clarification, apparently. He said he didn’t want to bite my face off, but I had to wash the saliva and blood from my face after the fact. So this bumbling idiot still didn’t get it. That his intentions meant shit if everyone else perceived them as something else.

If I ran into a bank brandishing my spear and asking where the money was. People would think I was robbing them. Even if my intention was only to go and retire money from my account while showing off my cool-ass spear so all the kids would gawk at it.

And, of course, he still wasted his precious time trying to chastise me instead of defending himself. He had this chance to make himself look good... And he was wasting it... This pissed me off. I hated when people wasted the precious few chances they got...

Anyway. I let him finish in peace, my neutral expression never wavering an inch as I paid close attention to his words before answering myself.

…

-You ask me if I was planning on tickling you with the shears? And were you planning on tickling me with your semblance? Or is it only wrong when Mr. Adalwul is not the one doing it?-

I opened my retort in the bluntest way possible. It was maybe a little childish on my part to even dedicate a second to it, but it was something I felt I needed to get out of my chest before continuing.

-Do you think you need to be tough to hurt people? That’s nonsense. There are a lot of reasons that could allow a person to hurt another. It could be toughness, but also fear, need, desperation, or even a sense of duty. It has nothing to do with toughness-

Raul had killed people before, and I doubted he considered himself a hardass for doing so when his talk was all about pacifism and shit.

-When I talk about hurting people, about killing. I do it with the utmost seriousness the topic deserves. I feel like the one who is taking it lightly is you, Raul. I don't ever want to hurt someone unnecessarily, I would never kill someone when it’s in vain- Crossing my arms, I let him know I was putting my foot down on this.

-You don’t kill unless you have to. It is the last resource. I merely wanted to break your aura. Don’t pretend that’s not a thing you have. This whole problem is born from the fact that you put yourself in a situation in which my attempts to subdue you without causing you serious harm would have ended in your death-

If he had paid heed to my words. I wouldn’t have hurt him whatsoever. If he had kept his aura up, like a normal person, the risk of injury would be close to 0...

-I despise hurting people. I hate it with every last inch of my soul. That’s why I warned you before you pushed me to hurt you. That’s why we are here in the first place. But if you thought I wouldn’t hurt you no matter what you did. Then you don’t know me even one bit. I won’t martyrize myself only because some stupid wolf boy want’s to teach me a lesson...-

Because he wanted to “see what I would choose” like he was some kind of high authority.

-...Well, I’ve learned my lesson before. When my hesitation caused Holly to die. So next time something like that happens, I will hurt them as bad as I need for them to stop their bullshit. And I wholeheartedly expect the same treatment for me if the time comes to pass-

Now, as that topic was closed on my part. I moved on to the next one, the one about semblances. And I couldn’t believe how much of a big deal was he doing about his.

-About semblances...If you told me my semblance made you feel threatened enough to warrant violence. Then I would refrain from using it in front of you save for combat situations-

-It would be a completely valid thing to ask of me. You don’t even need to look at the potted plant. You are walking now right above the very thing I could use to hurt you... Separated by a thin enough layer of wood I’m more than able to pierce through with ease. So I’d completely understand if it made you wary-

And I would act in kind like any reasonable person would. Furthermore...

-If the academy considered my semblance too dangerous to use, or didn’t trust my usage of it. I would refrain from using it altogether. If they considered it only valuable as a weapon. I would only use it as a weapon- Finally, after much preamble, I decided to make my point clear.

-My semblance is a part of my soul as well. I’m way too familiar with using my semblance in my everyday life. It’s a part of my self-expression. It is a part of how I perceive life altogether. But that doesn’t give me the right to impose it on everyone else-

And if I wanted to be able to use my semblance? Well, that had an easy solution.

-What I would do. Is to work on making people trust me enough so they can be around my semblance without feeling threatened-

Motioning towards professor Shadecloack without taking my eyes off Raul, I continued my explanation.

-If Shadecloack started aiming at me with her bow whenever she addressed me. I would tell her to cut it out, or I’d report her. If Berwyn started following me around, floating over me. I’d told her to stop because I don’t wanna be crushed. I asked the same of you. Because I don’t trust your semblance, and it makes me wary-

It was honestly such a simple thing to do, to refrain from doing something that bothered the people around you, the ones who you later dared call your friends...

-Didn’t Carmim get her djembe confiscated for months after she almost struck you with her semblance?- I asked the professor in front of me. I had heard about that incident, after all. -I think it did. So are you telling me your semblance is somehow more important or warrants a special treatment over Carmim’s?-

Relaxing a little, I allowed myself to slouch a little on my chair. My neutral expression returning again, as I needed to be focused on what I was about to say.

-For what is worth it. Apologize accepted. I shouldn’t have threatened to beat your ass as well. Walking away had been just as fine. As you said... Let’s be clear. Raul. I don’t think you are evil. I have seen evil, and you couldn’t even fill the tip of its shoes. I don’t hate you. I have hated people before, and I hate them still. What I feel for you doesn’t even warrant a comparison. That’s how minuscule my negative feelings about you are compared to real hate-

What did I really think about Raul Adalwulf? Well. It was kinda simple...

-I merely think you are an imbecile- And yes, it was as simple as that.

-I do thank you though, for telling me that Kishka is feeling so bad. I will go talk to her as soon as I have a moment. So sad that you never told me how sad Holly felt. Did you ever tell anyone? Because she still got herself killed because she didn’t want to listen to the people who tried to help her...- I let the implication in the air. I didn’t know if Raul was smart enough to pick it up, but I didn’t want to be condescending either way.

-That’s why I’m here. Because you have a problem that I think should be addressed. And I don’t think of myself as enough to solve it on my own. And don’t pretend you are the only one with a conscience here, Raul. You are not special, and is honestly insulting that you even suggest that-

Onto the next topic. The commander of the Celestial Legion.

-And do you really think expelling Solomon was a bad idea? Considering you are a faunus yourself? Did you really want a person like that in school? Someone who attacked the headmaster? Who would have made sure he didn’t attack the weakest students? You?-

Did a person as fucked up like him need help? Yes. Of course. But help cannot be provided if one does not want to be helped.

-Then again. I don’t think you are evil. I don’t think you even tried to hurt me with what you did. I plainly, and simply... Think you are an imbecile. I think you are an idiot- And that was pretty much it.

Turning towards the professor, I decided to address her directly once again. Being fully aware that what I would suggest may not be of her liking. If I did nonetheless.

-Professor Shadecloack. I know this matter has transcended my initial concerns and is more in yours and the school's hands than mine at this point... But if I may be allowed to share my opinion of Raul...- I waited for her permission, and when it didn’t seem like she would intervene, I continued.

-I wouldn’t expel him... As much an idiot as he is. I don’t think he means bad, However. his volatility cannot be allowed near where he could hurt either civilian, other students, or the institution itself-

Everyone knew Haven’s reputation was at an all-time low, so we needed to be extra careful.

-I would veto him from participating in high-risk missions. And submit him to a harsh routine of not only training for his semblance, but psychological evaluations, therapy and counseling, ethics and societal norm classes. And give him a test period for him to show he can turn into a productive prospective huntsman on his own. After which he could be tested to see if he managed to make the cut-

It was a shoot in the dark, but Mistral needed huntsmen, and I believed Raul’s problems to be fixable if he was willing to put in the effort.

-It is my belief that Raul could fix most of his issues if he was properly motivated. And taking the necessary precautions could ensure this is done with minimal risk. If he takes this as an opportunity to grow and start contemplating things from a different perspective, It would be ideal-

After a small pause, I turned towards the wolf boy again. My voice becoming way softer now, hoping against hope that he would listen to me this way.

-I may be wrong... But I hope we could come to trust you... After all. That’s what this is all about. Raul. At least I don’t feel like I can trust you. And you may say you don’t trust me, or Shade either... But in the end... That’s not why we are here... You need to get your head in the game. Because hating us won’t make you stay in Haven-

Sighing heavily. I concluded my petition.

-Thank you for listening. That’d be all on my part-

---

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[Theloria Shadecloak]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE’LL RECLAIM OUR DESTINY

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[attr="class","nikki102"]WE’LL SET OUR FUTURE FREE

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[attr="class","nikki109"]It was kind of funny, in a way. Even when she was talking, Raul didn’t even pretend to care. Even when the subject was himself, because he disagreed, he completely seemed to ignore everything that was being said. She had seen this type before, a lot, and things only ended one way. This had been her first face to face interaction with the guy, but how people responded under legitimate pressure told you a lot about who they were as people and what made them tick. [break][break]

Listening to him talk was almost like bingo, checking off traits one by one that were blindly obvious to even the most aloof observer. It honestly pissed her off that he was allowed to progress this far, and that Lynn hadn’t put him up for expulsion sooner and that she had to deal with it. The teenager had absolutely zero empathy or ability to see things from another person’s point of view, saw the world in completely black and white terms… with themselves being the good party of course, didn’t care in the slightest bit the pain and trauma he inflicted on others and even now continued to justify the fact that he had committed a legitimate felony assault as if any of this was acceptable, and pushed hard back instead of showing even the slightest bit of remorse and pulling out those guilt tripping manipulative strings to try and swing the situation back in his favor. Raul Adalwulf was a textbook malignant narcissist, and it was honestly kind of impressive how readily he revealed himself to be like this within such a short span of time. It was so obvious literally anyone with any background in psychology whatsoever could see it, so why didn’t Lynn? What possible excuse would she have for seeing literally any redeeming qualities in this absolute scumbag in front of her? [break][break]

His first move was to both threaten and guilt trip Bianca, to try to win her over to his side. To emphasize with him and try and turn the victim into an ally for the abuser. He did it with ease and absolutely zero hesitation, suggesting that he was extremely comfortable with doing it and that it might even be his default method of communicating with people. He publicly tried to humiliate and shame Bianca, threatened her verbally as well as physically, and then at the end had the absolute fucking gall to turn the entire situation around on the lizard faunus and proclaim it was all her fault. How dare she feel threatened when someone literally verbally and physically threatened her and then physically assaulted her, and how dare she even attempt to fight back against the perfect model of a faunus abuser using textbook abuser tactics to try and weasel his way out of any blame and maintain the illusion of a moral high ground. It made her sick, frankly, but she had to let him continue speaking and not interrupt even the slightest bit. [break][break]

After Solomon had came in and tried to kill the Headmaster in his own office, the cameras in all of the faculty rooms were equipped with audio as well as visual capabilities. He had already talked himself into a cut and dry expulsion, but she owed it to anyone else he abused like this to not interrupt and let him continue digging his own grave. This man was dangerous, frankly, and needed to be in a mental health facility for both his and everyone else’s safety. That would be a much harder sell, mostly due to the fact that someone going from Haven to the madhouse was bad PR… but this guy was a walking time bomb and anyone listening to him rant and rave would think any differently. At the very least, they needed to sever any ties with him immediately and without hesitation – and after hearing this audio Shade was convinced that the Headmaster would agree. He was stubborn, but also knew that they couldn’t afford another Ferric… and this guy was another Ferric. He had the same grand delusions and abusive tendencies, but Raul was much more open and seemingly proud of it. Part of the problem with Ferric was how well he hid it from Mrs. Long and how late they found out about it, but this one was too narcissistic and self-centered to even hide it. How the hell did someone this blatant pass the psychological evaluation? [break][break]

Then he turned to her, and for the first time a bit of a smile became present at the edges of her lips. She could see him looking around earlier, fishing for weaknesses the same way he did with Bianca. Looking for something he could key on in and dig his claws into in order to make the other person feel worse, to make them feel helpless and weak so that he could then manipulate them into doing what he thought was right – which in this case was shrugging off an assault and attempted suicide via “friend” and pretending like it never happened. People like this looked for any weakness, vulnerability, or insecurity in someone else and exploited it without mercy to get what they wanted. They felt no remorse whatsoever for doing it, and to Raul it seemed so second nature like he couldn’t even imagine a different way of interacting with anyone else. [break][break]

He started with a statement of his anger. Raul Adawulf was mad at her; however, would she live with herself? He was right about one thing, though, insofar as that the comparison with Solomon Moon wasn’t the best. Solomon Moon was probably turning in his grave, indignant at being compared to someone like Raul. She could almost hear him ranting from the grave about how he was never this bad, and honestly as much as she hated the guy she might have actually agreed. [break][break]

The next move was projection, ranting about a conscience when he had proved that he didn’t have the slightest shred of empathy for anyone. He deflected and used whataboutism to try and make the discussion about something else other than the felony he just committed on Bianca and tried to bait Shadecloak into accepting the topic change. He was fishing for weaknesses to exploit, and he started with pride. He accused her of cowardice pretty explicitly, but the shadow of a smile grew a little bit wider when he did so. It was a good first attempt, and he’s probably used to that eliciting an emotional response in teenagers. She wondered how many times Raul used that bait in Sanctum, on high schoolers still trying to find their way in the world. Was his abuse on those people physical too, or was it just verbal and emotional, she wondered. He was certainly strong and shameless enough to have done some absolutely horrific things, and with his attitude presently she had no doubt the things he got away with there due to other people’s fear of his retaliation being substantial. Did any faculty members there buy this bullshit? She assumed they must have, and that this behavior pattern was enabled by someone at some point in order to establish itself. [break][break]

Truth be told, he couldn’t have picked a worse target to use the cowardice bait on, because Shade had abandoned her senses of pride and honor a long time ago in order to stay alive. The projection about a lack of morality and empathy was another wild swing and coming from someone else that may have actually stung. The smile of the lion faunus grew just a millimeter wider at the thought, because Raul was someone with absolutely zero credibility to be making that accusation and the fact that in his twisted and deranged head she was a villain made her feel validated. It made her feel like she was doing something right when someone this proud of abusing others thought she was a bad person. [break][break]

Then he listed through trainees, trying to find out which one would cause green eyes to open and for the professor to get emotionally hijacked and finally give in to the guilt tripping and emotional manipulation being laid on so thick. None did, because the credibility of the person doing the accusations was absolutely nonexistent. He was grasping at straws trying to find a sign of weakness to bludgeon her with, and while the smile remained small it never wavered on the face of the faunus. He had accidentally slipped up again, then, and she wasn’t sure if Bianca had caught it. [break][break]

He was sitting on that Kishka information, and never told anyone. If he did, Shade would have known about it and intervened in much the same way she did for Argent. She had no idea how long he had been sitting on that information or even if it was true, but if it was true it made the pattern of abuse even more stark and obvious. If it was true, he put someone he pretended to call a friend in legitimate danger of self-harm and made absolutely zero attempt to help her – only bringing it up as a bludgeon to attack a faculty member who had no way of knowing an event that Raul may have even been the only witness to. The very act itself was so narcissistic it almost made her head spin, because Kishka’s well being and the well being of everyone else around him only mattered when it came time for him to active his whataboutism protocol and try to worm his skeevy way out of punishment for legitimate crimes he committed and admitted to. [break][break]

Then he, like always, turned the spotlight onto him because he couldn’t bear to even think about anyone else for longer than he felt absolutely necessary to manipulate others. When he asked if they had ever met before that day, the smile widened an inch more. No, they had never met face to face before… and it was a blessing. This would be the first and only interaction she had with this particular psychopath, and that fact made her feel great. The only possible way they could interact again is when she was on duty, and that would be a very different encounter. The way he treated Bianca made her skin crawl, but Shade wasn’t bothered at all when he tried the same tactics on her… because she was both expecting it and had weaknesses that he didn’t even pay enough attention to exploit. If he could have removed his filter from only focusing on himself for two seconds and looked around the room he could have came up with something to legitimately make it difficult for her to keep a straight face, but in the end that was too much of an ask for someone as obviously and dangerously mentally ill as Raul. [break][break]

When he continued, the smile widened even more and she had to actually stifle a laugh and bring her right hand up to her mouth and force herself to stop before she completed it as he called her the same as Solomon Moon and again projected in such a shoddy and pathetic way that it was all she could do to avoid laughing in his face. He seemed to think that if he just kept repeating that he had the moral high ground, the unprovoked felonious assault would just disappear. It was just like Ferric, in the end, believing that repeating delusional thoughts aloud over and over made them true like they had the ability to shape reality with their words. Raul really and truly believed that reality could be changed to whatever suited him and made him look suitably heroic and at the same time tragic and fighting against an unjust system at the time… and while it was done with no hesitation is was kind of funny how he got so far while being so bad at it. Trying to pin the crimes of a human Faunus War criminal on a Faunus War hero legitimately famous in the Kingdom of Vale would be fun to play back in front of the Headmaster. [break][break]

He had done zero research at all, and tried to guilt trip regardless just continuing to come up with new baits in an attempt to make her lose her cool, because he somehow seemed to think that if she snapped at him he would somehow win and the criminal charges would just… disappear? That he wouldn’t get expelled? Her smile widened even further into a full one at the end, too, after all of his bluster and digging himself a hole to the center of Remnant with his unhinged tirade, he had the fucking gall to assume he still had a choice in the matter. He had the gall to say that he’d have to be “pretty selfish” to voluntarily leave like he was going to be given that opportunity at this point. It wouldn’t even really be that big of a stretch to say that Raul Adalwulf was in contention for the most selfish person Theloria Shadecloak had ever met in her life, because he was so far and away on that textbook definition of destructive malignant narcissist that it would take a real piece of work to even come close to it. She may have had very strong disagreements with Tyrian Timber about how Haven’s recruitment should be done and how the maintenance of their roster should be done… but he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t blind, and this was a slam dunk case. This was not only immediate expulsion material, but the police would have to be involved now as well that he straight up admitted to losing control and assaulting Bianca in his lame, pathetic attempt to manipulate and guilt trip his way out of consequences. [break][break]

Ordinarily she would feel some remorse for sending a faunus to a police station, knowing that they’d likely get some unfair treatment especially up here and after so publicly removing Haven’s protection from that faunus… but she didn’t feel any in the moment. If Raul had responded like the person he repeated so many times that he was then it was possible that they could have worked something out, put him on a performance plan, and tried to get his head on straight with some constant therapy and mental health help. He could still do that, but it wasn’t going to be at Haven where he had shown a willingness to not only assault his fellow trainees but also to double down after the fact and proclaim that he was right to do it. Someone like that could not be allowed to be in the student body like a cancer for a moment longer than they had to be, and Shadecloak was going to remove that cancer from the premises. It didn’t matter to her if the charges stuck or not, because with enough money or connections almost anything could be brushed under the rug. What mattered to her is that he wouldn’t be able to hurt Bianca or any other Haven trainee after this without dying in the attempt, and that thought gave her the warm fuzzies like things rarely did these days. [break][break]

The faunus didn’t say anything immediately, though, because that would rob Bianca of the opportunity to. Once this meeting was over, it was more likely than not the last time she was ever going to see Raul in the flesh ever again. If Shade stole Bianca’s opportunity to fight back against that abuse, the last memories of this encounter would be for the rest of her life Raul Adawulf laser targeting the insecurities and weaknesses that he found in her and twisting that knife as savagely as he could to elicit a negative emotional response and keep power over her. Her memory of this absolute piece of garbage would be tainted forever by the fact that he had the last laugh and pulled her down to his level and made her feel just as miserable and worthless as Raul actually was. If she had been paying attention, the wolf faunus had actually given her all the tools she needed to actually dismantle him. [break][break]

All of his attacks were likely projections. He accused people of being cowards because he is ashamed of his own cowardice, likely as a result of something that happened in Kerch. This implosion seemed to be recent, but it could have also been earlier than that. He accused people of being selfish and having no concept of morality because he himself gets angry that he can’t even fathom what it’s like to look at the world from a viewpoint other than his own. Because he is so self-centered, in his mind anyone who doesn’t put his priorities and well-being above and beyond anything else in Remnant was morally evil and selfish, because there was no task greater than praising at the altar of the shriveled pathetic shell of a personality that was Raul Adalwulf. When his actions being a direct copy to Solomon’s came out, he even projected it back at her saying I know you are but what am I like a goddamned middle schooler going through puberty mad at the entire world. [break][break]

He even projected his lack of attention to detail, because in her office Shadecloak had all the trappings that revealed her actual insecurities and weaknesses and he failed to take advantage of even one because he was so self-centered he just assumed that she had the same vulnerabilities that he did – because his experiences were the only experiences possible. He refused to relinquish control of the situation, and she had no doubt she’d have to break his aura and even potentially his legs to get him to go to the police station. Hell, there was a good chance he attacked her physically once he realized all of his fishing received absolutely no response and indeed only made the situation worse. [break][break]

When Bianca started responding, Shade merely leaned back in her chair and let her talk. Someone with enhanced hearing may have been able to hear the marbles in the pocket of the lion faunus clicking together just for a moment there, but given that Raul hadn’t bothered to do even the slightest bit of research into her before coming here he doubted he would know what that meant even if he heard it. The professor deliberately stopped looking at Raul, keeping him only at the edge of her vision so she could react to sudden movement in case he imploded more violently, and stared directly at Bianca instead. She was done giving the narcissist the attention he so craved, frankly. [break][break]

She sat back, face back to neutral, and didn’t interfere until Bianca asked her a direct question about Carmim’s weapon. “That is correct. Carmim had her weapon confiscated and all contact with it being heavily supervised for months until she could prove that she could emotionally control herself enough to be trusted with it again.” That case was different than this one, largely because she didn’t think Carmim was evil. Selfish and self-centered, sure, but nowhere close to this and something that was a character flaw rather than an assassination. It was a human lapse in judgment that made the underlying problem of anger management issues extremely obvious, and caused her to recognize that she had done something that could have resulted in death if Shadecloak herself had not prevented it by overpreparing the room. She had capacity for remorse, limited as it was, and the will to actually act on that remorse and become a better person for it. [break][break]

Which was unfortunately the mistaken belief that Bianca for some reason had about Raul, despite the mountain of evidence his defense showed to the contrary. He showed zero capability for even the slightest bit of remorse or empathy and had done nothing except fish for and exploit emotional weakness the entire time he had been in this office. Shade was slightly disappointed, but not surprised that Bianca felt that way. When the hooks were in that deep, it was hard to see an abuser for what they actually were. After Bianca was finished speaking, the lion faunus nodded at her and pulled out her scroll, using it to send a couple of quick messages as she started speaking again. [break][break]

“Just give me a second, got some accounting I need to make sure is done and… yup. There it goes.” [break][break]

She stood up, then, and without looking behind her picked up her black suit jacket and threw her arms into the sleeves of the thing as she did. Turning to Bianca, she addressed her first. “Bianca, you’re actually free to leave. You can stay if you’d like, but you can’t follow beyond this room when the others arrive for your own safety. I understand if you want to stay until then for some closure, though, but if you interfere at this point there will be consequences you won’t enjoy.” [break][break]

She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her dress trousers, both left and right hands manipulating the marbles inside so that they made clacking noises as they impacted with each other and moved around. It wasn’t loud, but it was audible to everyone in the room for a moment before it stopped and she had a marble in between each of her fingers. “As for you, Raul, on my authority as a huntress of the Kingdom of Mistral you are now under arrest for felonious assault. You are to remain seated until further notice, and any attempts at escape or brute forcing your way out will result in additional charges. Akvo and Swan are on their way to escort you to the station, and I’ll be trailing. Your expulsion hearing will likely be tomorrow, and the criminal hearing whenever the Cloud District has a free spot in their circuit court.” [break][break]

For the first time since they had entered this room, there was a distinguishable and strong tone in her voice. This time it was one of absolute and utter disgust. “You’re free to plead your case to the headmaster and to the judge assigned to the case, but given that you admitted to a bunch of things including deliberately withholding information on the wellbeing of other trainees to try and score points when confronted about your behavior… I don’t imagine it will go well. The guilt tripping and fishing were interesting choices to bring here, though, and you gave some good examples that Lynn can use in psychology classes in the future. Ever since the Headmaster was assaulted the cameras in the offices have audio, which was the only reason I let you go on for so long.” [break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

Moderation Action: Raul Adalwulf is moved to the Unaffiliated category, and is expelled from Haven Academy as a result of his actions towards Bianca and the way he conducted himself in the meeting with Bianca and Professor Shadecloak.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]3800 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]EVENT

[attr="class","nikki103"]6217 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

Notes here

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Raul Adalwulf]

Raul did his best to sit quietly and let Bianca have her say. He really did. Not simply because he would get in trouble if he interrupted, but because he wanted her to have her say. But she didn't make it easy for him. Being called an idiot, and an imbecile, stung most acutely. He knew he didn't think like everyone else seemed to and having that made into a point of ridicule felt a little unfair. By the time she was done, he was pretty hurt and pretty angry at the other faunus, and in a profoundly irrational reaction to the scorn she heaped on him, he found himself actually resenting that she would do all that and still come to his defense.

Not that it made any difference in the end. The gavel of Shade fell a moment later, and Raul's face blanched.

His face snapped up to hers, utter disbelief writ large across his features.

He looked first at Shadecloak, and then Bianca, his eyes bulging, and his body trembling. He tried to say something, though he hadn't thought far enough ahead to know what. He had guessed already how this was going to go for him, but never had he guessed just how poorly it might go.

A hundred conflicting thoughts crashed together as they all tried at once to comment on what was transpiring.

"I don't understand..." Was all he could croak out as he started to weep.

And he meant it.

[Bianca Sabbato]

I hoped against hope that the wolfman would have even the slightest bit of repentance inside. That he would admit that he had fucked up and work forward to a way of fixing this, even if it was hard, even if it took time and bravery to be able to accomplish it.

Raul Adalwulf, In not even a single moment whatsoever, looked even the slightest bit apologetic. All the tools that he was given, he dismissed, if not outright destroyed in front of us.

He wasn’t able, or maybe he simply didn’t want to understand. Even despite our best efforts to explain to him what his situation was. All the time, he looked like he had something better to do in the confines of his mind than to take a second to actually listen.

And that was evident in the look of absolute disbelief on his face like he couldn’t actually fathom how things had gone so awry so fast.

He didn’t understand that I was calling him an idiot. That I wholeheartedly wanted to believe he was an idiot because the alternative was way worse than that. So I wasn’t surprised when Shadecloack denied my petition.

It was on her shoulders to take care of the rest of the students, after all. So I had to trust in her judgment since I knew how shitty mine tended to be.

It was probably the right thing to do, but that didn’t stop me from being mad. The worst thing of all was that I wasn’t even mad at the professor at all... I was mad both at Raul and me.

Mad against him for believing that denying things until they blew up on your face was a good idea. And that showing no remorse at all was an acceptable reaction.

Mad at me, because even despite having interacted with him before, both in the forest and lengthly in Kerch. I had found no way to help him at all. Or to notice how desperately he needed an intervention. Even though some of his problems were becoming more and more apparent with every passing second.

So, in a way. I was happy that it had been me. Not only because some others would have been more inclined to attacking him without noticing the telltale signs of his aura being down. (But not I, the experience with Holly and my own fuckup with the stone fence had put me on a more vigilant state, so I could catch those small, but important details) But because of my complete, and utter failure to reach to him in any significant way.

Raul said he thought he was a good boy until he met me... I wondered how much of that was only his rambling delusions. And how much it was the truth... So yeah, maybe I deserved this to a degree. Not only having to endure the stress of this situation but also to have it in my conscience, to let it come this far.

-Understood. I would prefer that, thank you- I replied when she told me I could stay, no use in bailing out now. I would see through this till the end.

I was, nevertheless, a little surprised by her suggestion that things would go badly for me if I tried to intervene. A person had to own up to their wrongdoings. After all.

-The idea didn’t cross my mind until you suggested it, professor- I replied, arching an eyebrow. Uncaring to hide my mild discontent for entertaining the idea that I could do that. But she was probably only securing all her bases before she continued.

To be honest, that wasn’t really important in the whole scheme of things, So I merely stood there, seated in silence. Watching it all unfold, and meditating on it as I saw Shadecloack hide her hands inside her pockets. From whose, a faint clicking noise began to echo inside the room. I figured some kind of kinetic projectile or controlling device, but I was no expert.

Whatever the case. Shadecloack proceeded to arrest Raul right there and then. Reading him his charges and instructing Raul in what expected him during the next moments... At least I hoped someone in the future could learn something from this if Lynn or someone else really ended up making use of the tapes.

Assault. As a felony that was 10 years inside if my memory didn't betray me. It could be less with good behavior... But looking at Raul. I highly doubted that was really a possibility... How much of this was my fault? I didn’t know, but somehow it felt like a lot...

I gazed at the wolfman one last time before setting my sight on the door. Watching silently how Swann and Atkvo entered the room and prepared Raul for transport.

Change begins with oneself. You cannot force it... If a person doesn’t want to change...

I waited for Shadecloack to follow through. And after a couple seconds, I left the room as well, walking in the opposite direction.

My feelings could wait for now. I had something more important to do. If what Raul said was the truth. Kishka was in trouble, I would look for her for a while, and if I didn’t find her, I would ask for the other students to help me look as well.

I... I simply didn’t want us to lose another one.

…

…

Later, much later, when both this and the deal with Kishka had been already addressed. The story of this little unsavory fragment of my life finally came to a conclusion.

I had been thinking about putting a word for him on the court. And likely suggest he was confined to a medical institution rather than a jail... And, I would have probably done so. If it weren’t for some troubling news reaching my ears.

Apparently, the man had not only tried to resist his arrest, struggling and threatening all the way, but even attempted to use his semblance to break free. Free to do what? To live forever in hiding, with his family never knowing where or how their son was? Or if he was cold, hungry, miserable, or dead?

And don’t take me the wrong way. I had no sympathy for his parents. Not in the least. They knew what their son was, and they did nothing to stop him. They just had a problem and found a perfect way to dump it onto someone else. Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess.

Or maybe he would run to do something else? Become a criminal? I doubted he had either the guts or the brain for that. Living in the forest among the beasts of nature? He was probably most suited for that, I don’t know... I really don’t know.

And I didn't care. Knowing Raul still tried to escape... That was maybe the wakeup call I needed.

But, whatever the case. It would never go beyond being mere speculation... I tried. I legitimately wanted to give him a chance, more than once, more than he deserved...

And he spat on my face, he threw all of his chances away like they were nothing... I would not come to his defense again. He had demonstrated again and again how futile that idea was.

I hoped I wouldn’t be called for testimony. I really wasn’t in the mood for bureaucracy, and walking the courthouse would undoubtedly make me nervous and uncomfortable... But If I was to become a huntress. It was better to get acquainted with the legal procedures sooner rather than later.

But needless to say. If I was called, I would go, as always. And speak the truth, and nothing more or less than that.

I still hoped he may be able to rehabilitate one day. Me and probably everyone else... But that was already out of my hands...

---

1321 / 6064 Words

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Bianca: 60

107 + 60 = 167

Shade: 62

86 + 62 = 148