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~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

It was just a slight bit of turbulence, a tiny bit that might have gone mostly unnoticed, that jarred Elliot awake from the dream he was having about eating steak with a particularly cute faunus girl. "Ah-ghs-wah?" He muttered to himself as he shook his head in an attempt to wake up properly. After a few minutes of trying to force his eyes to remain open, he turned his body around to look out at the forests that the airship was passing over. Still not there yet, huh? I wonder how much things have changed since I left. Elliot thought to himself as he turned away from the window and faced himself towards the other side of the airship. It had been over two years since he had left Beacon for the island of Patch. His mother, having trained him as well as she could have, realized that there was a man on Patch that would be a much better fit to train him properly as a brawler of sorts. As such, she shipped him off to spend a couple years training with Taiyang Xiao Long, a man known for his martial arts. He was also a man known for not taking it easy on others, or at least that was what it had felt like learning from him. Elliot still had some scars from his first few days of training.

It helped him learn pretty quick though, and he learned a lot more about hand-to-hand combat than his mother could have ever helped him learn. After all, Xiao Long was a specialist, and no one could ever compare to a teacher that had dedicated their life to their art. Speaking of teaching, Elliot reached into his back and pulled out a letter that had been sent to him before he left. His mother had caught wind of his acceptance into Beacon and had already sent him careful instructions. Unfolding the letter, he silently muttered it under his breath with slight exasperation.

"Dear Elliot,

First and foremost, I am ecstatic that you were accepted into the prestigious Beacon Academy. There is nothing that could make me more proud of you than I am right now. That being said, I think it is important to keep your mind open and try to focus on your studies as much as possible. That is why I have written to you as quickly as possible. Now, there are certain... factors that need to be addressed. Here is a list of steps I would like you to take once you have reached Beacon:
1. Try your best to be as friendly with your fellow students as possible. Do not cause any scenes as I know you are prone to doing.
2. Under no circumstances are you to cause any trouble for any of the other students.
3. Once you have been assigned your team after the ceremony, please request your mentor to be one Lie Ren. He is an excellent huntsman that will suit your personality.
4. Please refrain from interacting with one Ruby Rose or Yang Xiao Long during your stay at Beacon Academy. I prefer to keep our school intact and the havoc you would wreak and the trouble you would get into with them would be exponentially worse than any natural disaster.
5. Please, do have fun.

Sincerely,
Glynda Goodwitch"

Reading the letter only made him snort a little bit and toss it back into his bag. "Geez. What a homecoming. The first thing she tells me to do is dot my 'I's and cross my 't's, and the entrance ceremony hasn't even started yet." Elliot muttered to himself with the same exasperated tone in which he read the letter. "I didn't even know Taiyang's daughters were mentors here until she sent me that letter. I guess she's taking extra precaution to make sure I'm properly leashed." He stated, a smile slowly forming on his face somewhat. It was nice to have someone that cared for him so much, especially someone who considered themselves his "mother." Even if she was a pain in the neck, it was still better than being alone in the world, or even having someone that simply takes care of you. She's the only reason I can really smile after all this time. He thought to himself, thinking about his "mother" and how she had helped him out over all these years. Overall, he was pretty much radiating with energy and contentedness now.

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

Elliot was in the middle of pulling out his gauntlets when a voice rang out behind him. The last thing he expected on this ride was for someone to start conversing with him. Turning around, his body sort of straightened up a bit when he saw it was a young woman about his age. "Oh, um... student." He muttered slightly as he tried to collect himself, the contents of the letter still fresh in his mind. In fact, that honestly worsened the situation a little bit, making him a bit self-conscious about trying to make friends like his mother wanted. "Yeah, I am. I mean, I will be. Um..." He stopped for a few seconds, looked to the side, and looked back. "Alright, restart? I just got accepted. Well, more like I'm betting my mom kinda helped brute-forced me into the school. I doubt it was my skill that got me accepted." He stated, trying to be at least somewhat humble. That was what strangers liked to hear, right? Modesty? If someone felt better about themselves or could relate to you, then they would definitely be more responsive and/or friendly.

"Anyway, my name's Elliot." Elliot stated, quickly standing up and moving to hold out his hand to shake the young woman's. Unfortunately, his hand got caught on one of his backpack strings and tipped it over, spilling the content over the floor of the ship. "Ah crap..." Elliot muttered as his gauntlets rolled out of the bag and the letter gingerly floated across the floor. Glynda's handwriting was rather distinct and was incredibly different from the handwriting of the notes that went flying across the floor as well. That was because Elliot was less about being professional and more about getting his thoughts down. His notes were mostly about Grimm, how their masks were each unique despite being incredibly similar, the differences between them, strengths and weaknesses. Overall, the contents that spilled out made it very apparent that he had just finished schooling or was at least going to try and be somewhat studious at this new school. "That's the second time today." He muttered as he began to move across the floor to gather up the scattered materials.

Elliot was not all that studious to be honest, and he was not the best in terms of academics, but he was definitely someone that tried at the very least. The notes were a testament to that, as they were everything he had studied up until now. Sadly, he probably could not tell anyone half of what was written on them, except maybe the parts about masks. He was very familiar with Grimms' masks. Elliot seemed to be more focused on gathering up the papers than retrieving his gauntlets immediately, leaving them to gently rock against the legs of the bench he had been sitting on. "So, what's your name? You're a student, right?" Elliot began speaking to the young woman again, trying to get as much information out of her as she had managed to get out of him. All the while, he was trying his best to maintain a friendly air for the sake of keeping Glynda happy when he finally arrived. How ecstatic would she be if she knew he had already made some semblance of a friend before school had even started, before he had even left the airship!

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

"Yeah, I guess we will be in the same class then. It's nice to meet another freshman instead of a returning student or something." Elliot began to make small talk as he stacked paper on top of paper in an attempt to collect his notes. "I haven't really been the most sociable type, especially not the last few years. I was cooped up for a long while just training nonstop. So meeting a freshman that's at least in a similar situation is way more relieving." Elliot mentioned as he stuffed the papers he had collected into his bag. When he turned to look at the girl, she had already gathered quite a few materials as well, the rest of them in fact, and was handing them to him. "Thanks for the help. I got a bit of a bad luck streak going on. Hoping it doesn't continue when I get to the academy. I don't want to be blamed for anything going wrong that I didn't mess up." Elliot state with a rather cheery smile on his face, obviously content with the idea. The question was, was he smiling because he has destructive tendencies or because he was simply optimistic?

Carmine's question about Grimm caught his attention, and he turned his head to catch sight of what she was referring to, his gauntlets. "Oh, those? Yeah. My mom sent them to me, but I only got them a couple months ago. Taiyang wanted me to get good enough to hold my own with my bare hands before I started messing around with weapons. I picked up how to use them pretty quick though." Elliot began, picking up the gauntlets and holding them in front of him while he spoke. "You see, there's a lot of intricate mechanisms in them. My mom made it with the help of a friend of hers, but she wanted it to really feel personal. So she built in guns on the knuckles to fire with a hammer that triggers when you punch. I don't really use the guns though. After all, I like the secondary feature she put some extra time into. See, the knuckles can be pulled back with enough force, and when you punch forward with them a again they jut forward like a jack-hammer. It's meant to crack the toughest of skulls. I know we managed to break a boulder with it when I first started using it. It sprained my wrist though until I got used to the recoil." Elliot was obviously very enthusiastic about the gauntlets, finding some pride in his weapons.

"There's even dust chambers, but I'm not too good with that stuff. I'd probably end up blowing myself up if I tried to use it. That's why I mainly use the jack-hammer function they have. It allows me to just punch through anything that comes my way." Elliot stated, taking his fists and punching them together while keeping a hold of the gauntlets. "Gauntlets probably seem super lame though, right? I mean, they're really only good for close range and hand-to-hand combat." He mentioned with a smile on his face, obviously enjoying the conversation he was having with her. "What about you, what kind of weapons do you use? And do they do anything special?" Elliot asked her in return, wanting to find out some useful information from this new acquaintance.Wow, it's a lot easier to talk to people than I imagined. I wasn't sure if I would have much to say at all after being cooped up in that house with that old man for two years. Glad I haven't lost my ability to socialize. He thought to himself with a smile on his face.

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

"Wow, you're pretty versatile, aren't you? I've only ever met a few huntsmen and huntresses, but at most they seem to have one, maybe two weapons. But you've got three? Geez." Elliot stated, letting out a pretty genuine laugh as he thought about how insane this woman's fighting style must be to be able use all of those weapons effectively. She must have been training for a pretty long time if she's mastered all three of those weapons. Probably longer than me... Elliot thought to himself as he began to wonder if his own training might not have been enough. He did not want to be the weakest link at the academy and drag his fellow students down. Then again, he had been accepted, so they must have seen something in him that made them want to teach him. Right, self-confidence. I gotta have that or else I'll always end up coming up short when it really matters. He thought to himself as he nodded his head in agreement with himself. Now that he was going to Beacon Academy he had no room to be doubting himself too much.

When the girl said that she was surprised to not have seen him around Patch, the young man blushed slightly and looked to the side as if he was reluctant to elaborate on way that was. After a few moments, however, he sighed and relented. "That's because... I was training. The whole time. I only started living in Patch a couple years ago, and from day one I spent the entire time training under Taiyang Xiao Long. Every day was nothing but rigorous training exercises. And all of it was according to a carefully planned schedule that my mom made to whip me into tip-top shape by the time I was old enough to enroll at Beacon Academy. Because of that I never really left the area of the house I was staying at except to go and train in the more rocky areas of the island. I guess I can't complain though, after all I got into the academy without too much trouble." Elliot admitted to Carmine, giving her the complete story of why he had not been seen during his stay at Patch. To be honest, the idea of training day in and day out was probably foreign to most people but he figured that a fellow student might understand.

"Anyway, I don't really know much about the island. Maybe next time we have a break from school or anything like that you can show me around the place? My mom probably won't care too much now that I've already gotten in." Elliot asked, laughing a little bit at the hilarity of the situation. His life had been pretty much scheduled out by his mother. Most of the reason for that was because of how disastrous it would be to let the young man run around doing whatever he wanted. "Oh yeah, did you go to that school that was at Patch? What was it called.... Symbol? No... Signal! Signal Academy! Did you go there to learn?" Elliot asked, finally remembering the name of the academy that had been located on Patch. Personally, he had never even seen the school and had only heard the name from his teacher in passing. The school was supposed to be at least somewhat decent though, and it was known for prepping kids before they went off to Beacon Academy.

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

"Alright then! I can't wait!" Elliot state ecstatically, full of vigor and excitement at the prospect of having something to do during break. It'll also give me an excuse to get away from Beacon for a while so I don't have to participate in "family bonding" or anything like that. He thought to himself, giddy with the fact that he managed to avoid being stuck with his mother all break and most likely avoided studying or some learning trip with her that would have bored him to death. His ears twitched a little bit when she started going into detail about how she did not go to Signal Academy. That was rather strange considering she was from Patch, at least from what he understood. Then again, not everyone followed the same route to becoming a Huntsman or Huntress, so maybe this was just one of the many alternate paths that one could take. Interestingly enough, her explanation for how she was trained seemed to resonate pretty well with him. They were both similar cases, being taught by a family member, at least him for a while, rather than going to a traditional hunter school.

"Ah, I guess we're in the same boat then. If your grandpa's recommendation got you in though, then he must be some big shot huntsmen or something like that. Not many people have that kind of weight behind their name, at least from what I know about this kinda stuff." Elliot said, trying his best to relax and ease back into his easygoing speech patterns. Overall, this conversation as becoming rather enjoyable and he felt that he could finally relax a bit since the two of them were at least somewhat similar. Besides, not being himself was a good way to lose a friend right after he had made one, and he was not too keen to get an earful from his mother about how he was already upsetting people right before he had arrived at the academy. "Hm?" Elliot's had become rather curious about what the young woman was going to say after she began to speak up about something, yet she quickly trailed away before she could finish her sentence. Stuff like that just made Elliot want to find out what she wanted to say even more... but it was best not to pry so much when first meeting someone.

That was when the girl piqued his interest a little bit, suddenly talking about how intense his mother seemed to be and how she must be a huntress. For a few seconds he was stunned, unable to think of what to say, and then he finally looked to the side slightly and rubbed the back of his head while thinking. "Intense, huh? Yeah.... that sounds about right for her." He stated, mostly to the surrounding area as opposed to Carmine directly. Having Glynda as his mother was actually a pretty harsh detriment to trying to make friends, and this might end up not going in his favor too much. "And I guess you can say she's a huntress? It's... really hard to say to be honest." He continued, unsure of how to define her career. "Well... She's kind of the Vice Principal.... of Beacon Academy..." The young man stated, continuing his sentence between awkward pauses and attempts to try to avoid saying her name. Hopefully Carmine was not aware of who the vice principal was... but that alone was probably enough to deter any student from trying to become friendly with him.

"But it's not like I have special treatment or anything! No, I think she's a lot tougher on me, to be honest! I have strict schedules, rules, and lists of things I have to do. I never follow them, but that's besides the point! She's very on point all the time, and she expects me to be on my best behavior! But... that's just not fun, you know? You gotta enjoy life to the fullest. And if that means surfing through the streets on a trashcan lid until you hit a water fountain and fly through the air into a couple randos.... well then I say go for it. Even if she sends you to Patch afterwards because you're just too much of a handful..." Elliot muttered the very last sentence as best he could, not sure if he actually wanted Carmine to hear what he said or not. Overall, his and Glynda's relationship was a rather good one... but he pushed her buttons quite a bit with the destructive activities he partook in. After all, he was the one that made the giant slingshot that fired whatever anyone wanted from one side of the campus to the other. So did that make him a bad kid? Probably, but he was a fun one nonetheless!

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

Well, he seemed to thoroughly explain himself well enough to keep Carmine from forming a negative opinion of him. She was still willing to talk to him after all, and that was something that usually did not happen once Elliot's habits came to light. Heh, she might make for being a good friend after all. I need to hang around people that are okay with a little bit of trouble. Elliot thought to himself as he watched the young woman carefully, listening to what she had to say about his relationship with his mother. "Know my way around Beacon, huh?" He thought for a few minutes, considering how much he knew about the school and where to go. "Well, I've never actually been inside the place. I've just been around it, mostly the courtyard area. It's not really a place where kids can run around, you know?" Elliot mentioned, pointing out the fact that he was just a kid when he had last been around the academy. There were man dangerous items lying around the school, especially since it was a school for huntresses and huntsmen, so having a child anywhere near the school was undoubtedly a legal hazard.

"But I can definitely try to help you out as best I can. My mom's probably gonna try to tour me anyway after orientation. Familiarizing yourself with your school is one of the many steps to becoming a great student after all." The last statement Elliot made had a bit of sarcasm behind it, the young man obviously not too keen about being shown around school. "I just hope I don't end up getting stuck on her little track to success. I kinda just wanna be me, you know? Nothing more, nothing less. If I can't be a huntsman doing what I do best, then what's the point in it in the first place?" Elliot mentioned, suddenly having some sort of insightful moment. Becoming a Huntsman was something that Elliot had wanted for a while, yet it was not something that he had sought out because of other peoples' influence. Thus, having people sort of over-direct him causes him to form a sort of safety mechanism inside himself. "What about you, have you ever felt like you needed to... go against the grain? Listening to what you're told to do has to get on your nerves sometimes, right? Especially when you know it isn't right for you or others?"

A slight shift in the airship's course caused a bit of turbulence to rock the cabin that they were in, making Elliot stumble a little bit and catch himself. His eyes, however, caught the window. What was outside was a vast city, one that looked all too familiar to him. "Ah. Looks like we're here. Finally. I thought we were gonna be on this thing forever." Elliot stated as he picked up his bag and threw it over his shoulder. Then he realized that he had not put his gauntlet back into the bag. "Eh... I can just wear 'em I guess. Not like anyone's gonna be bothered by a guy walking around with gauntlets on, right?" Elliot mentioned, a large smile on his face as he nudged his new friend in the arm, something mischievous obviously being formed in his mind. Whatever he was up to, however, was up to debate. The young man had proven to be a troublemaker, and anything he might do could cause massive destruction. Maybe it was another round of trashcan lid surfing... or maybe it was going to be something far worse. Only time could tell.

~𝕰𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖙 ℣𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔫~

"Only if it hurts someone else, huh? So noble..." Elliot muttered to himself mostly, not sure of how to respond to Carmine's answer. On one hand, she made a pretty good point, yet he could not help but feel a rebellious tug on his soul when she mentioned the idea of "structure." Maybe it was because of how his life had been structured by Glynda for almost a decade, or maybe he was just one of those people that would rebel against any type of authority in whatever way was possible. Regardless, there was something tugging at the back of his mind telling him that "structure" was just a word meant to keep people from fully enjoying their lives. I mean, schedules and all that are nice and everything... but I prefer to keep my life on a free-flowing train ride that has no particular destination. It makes life more fun that way, and where you end up is a lot more interesting too. He thought to himself with a slight smirk on his face. Elliot never was one for rules or anything of the sort, so Carmine's explanation of her stance was a bit underwhelming to him.

Her response to him mentioning his gauntlets seemed to brighten up his mood just a little bit. "Yeah, you're right! I gotta show off if I wanna get a good mentor. And what better way to do that then to strut onto campus locked 'n loaded, right?" Elliot exclaimed with a lot more enthusiasm than one might consider normal. Perhaps it was because this felt like something that was out of the norm, but Elliot truly enjoyed the idea of walking around wearing his weapons. Whether it was because they were a gift from his mother or simply a part of his way of fighting, even he could not understand why. "And it's not like there's any dust in 'em. So there's no way they could accidentally go off or anything like that. Shouldn't be a problem." Elliot stated with quite a bit of confidence now that he was thinking about the entirety of the situation. But will she get mad at me if I suddenly show up with these things on? Or would she be happy that I'm actually choosing to use them instead of something else? He thought to himself, wondering about what his mother's thoughts on the subject might be.

It did not take their airship long to dock, although the uncomfortable shifting around caused a bit of trouble. More than once he thought he might fall over. "Geez, did we get some rookie pilot or something?" Elliot complained, not realizing that Patch was a rather small island that probably did not garner that much attention. As such, it was understandable that a less experienced pilot may be bringing students from the island to Beacon. "Whatever, you got stuff in the cargo right? I'll go wait outside for you then. I've got all my stuff here." Elliot stated, patting the bag that he had thrown over his shoulder. The young man seemed to be traveling pretty light, but that was only because most of his actual possessions had been left at home here in Beacon. After reassuring Carmine that he would just be waiting on her, Elliot stepped out of the airship fully ready to begin whatever shenanigans he was going to come up with. That was... until he saw the two people outside the ship waiting for him to come out. His eyes sort of drooped slightly as one of them spoke.

"Elliot Goodwitch?" One of the men asked, wearing a rather nice uniform.

"Yeah... that's me." Elliot stated, rather heartbroken all of a sudden.

"Good, we're here to escort you to campus as requested by Professor Goodwitch."