A higher order of Grimm, seated comfortably around the median links of the food chain - Beldam. Those monsters that approximate the shape of wizened old women, and visit all manner of terror and torment on human settlements unless appeased or slain.
Y'know it's kinda interesting, we don't actually know where Shadow sits on the power scale beyond "upper mid-tier, can chow down on some scary shit but will never in a million years get close to the Sea Witch" but it seems that how human a Grimm can act/the behaviors it can mimic roughly correlate with the complexity and power. And more than that stronger Grimm are all but
drawn to civilization. The Groom suffuses it and is kinda this ugly underlayer but Bosenwolves try and disguise themselves, try to figure out how to fit in by knocking out the socially isolated. And now the Beldam who can be bought off and are deliberately geared towards squeezing fear and loathing out of communities.
Shadow's probably some shit tbh.
Everyone else seems to be doing more or less okay. Pyrrha, Ren, Weiss and Blake in particular seem to be writing like machines.
This sorta slipped by but: you'd expect Pyrrha and Ren and Weiss to have it well in hand. Pyrrha's really in synch with hers and doesn't seem to have any hangups with using it, Ren's basically been hotboxing in his after drawing on it during a traumatic event, and Weiss is a corporate princess with a demanding dad and legions of tutors (even if the answers she's giving aren't necessarily the right ones she's got this well figured out). But why
Blake? The White Fang hasn't been mentioned at all thus far and you'd think that either Roman or the detective would be organic exposition pieces for that. And Torchwick actually has a lot of fauni in his organization which makes sense considering that they're a set of second class citizens in Vale. And if they're not around then it's not like Blake could be an activist-turned-terrorist-turned-schoolgirl as per canon and her backstory's already really different now that I think of it: her parents being missing in the Schnee machine and her being a colony kid.
Which means that her having a really well developed Semblance is
weird.
and h
It's cramped enough that there's a struggle getting everyone through the door, and the walls and ceiling seeming to loom oppressively over you. Jaune thinks it must be some ancient, blood-soaked dungeon only recently converted into more classrooms. The detective figures that it was probably always like this - you store your Dust and derived munitions somewhere it won't take half the building with it if someone fucks up bad enough.
Ngl I really just love the juxtaposition of viewpoints from having these minds bobbing around in our shadow-well or whatever. They're both surprisingly informative wrt the characters (the detective is fairly well informed, practical, and pragmatic and his mind immediately goes towards "weapons and weapon storage") while Jaune is more naive and kinda in love with his own daydreams.
'Aha', you say to yourself, 'this is the perfect opportunity for Pyrrha and I to split Nora and Ren up so we can work on getting to know them better'.
In the time it took you to have that thought, three groups have formed already without you. It's a very nostalgic feeling for Jaune.
oh no group work
too fucking real
"Would anyone like to know how to make a pipe bomb?" Urdr asks sweetly.
Ngl I kinda wheezed a bit at the idea of a kindly grandmother handing out explosives like hard candies.
"Once extracted, the ore is refined into either cut crystals or a fine powder, depending on the circumstances," Verthandr explains. "At this stage it becomes safe to transport en masse. Highly toxic when ingested, but very powerful. Just one of many reasons why Dust is a semi-controlled substance, and shipments are closely guarded. And why I would recommend that none of you taste-test your Dust."
Russell shifts uncomfortably beside you.
Aha! More exposition on dust-shit. In its natural form Dust is apparently super unstable making its extraction probably dangerous work (and I can't imagine Schnee is providing its laborers with reliable gas masks and all that jazz). Once processed it's still gonna fuck you up but it can be further diluted and "aspected" into alchemical brews, industrial and military applications. This actually sheds some light on how Dust-abuse works in a pretty low-key way. Enhancers are specific and therefore expensive but Dust itself is just about everywhere and toxicity is sorta related to strength. So addicts either drink down stuff that's not at all suited for them and get hit with something worse than just a stomach ache or they get reckless and try to get purer and purer concentrations and fuck themselves up.
Whiiiich Russel does seem to have some experience with.
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
It's really important to consider what we know from his backstory when approaching Russel: dude grew up a presumably poor faunus in a city where even the rich are rotting and people like Roman prey on the poor. He's thoroughly out of his element here (dude probably hasn't even had a fraction of the education that someone like Jaune has just passively absorbed) and starting off on the wrong foot. He's a bit warmer to Jaune than Blake is because Jaune Dark is...well he seems nice enough tbh? Blake's super standoffish. Jaune's mostly stood up for himself and put in a decent showing in the entrance exam, but he doesn't exactly ooze money or social station like Weiss or Cardin.
Basically what I'm saying is that while Russell might be kinda friendly part of that's anxiety and there's no real reason to expect that he'll react
well to Some Dude He Just Met getting all touchy feely with him. I mean we might not know the particulars but we've been burned by Weiss already and we can assume that he didn't exactly grow up in an environment that rewarded emotional vulnerability or weakness. Just making him feel involved is probably going to get him to open up more than just bluntly asking. The latter's well intentioned but the dude's just had really different life experiences than either Jaune or the Detective.