"…yes, this will do nicely."

Cinder strode into the new dorm room after surveying it for a moment. In tow were Mercury and Emerald, the latter of whom was carrying the bags for both herself and her boss. They did not share the same opinion as Cinder.

"It's a little… plain, don't you think?" Mercury ventured to ask. Sure, the beds looked comfortable enough and there were a few tacky paintings to brighten up the walls, but it was all so empty otherwise. Cinder shot back a dirty glare that caused both henchmen to freeze in place.

"I won't have any complaints from you two. We are here for the sole purpose of carrying out the plan. While Beacon is not a place lacking for money, it is not a hotel. Besides, this is probably the best treatment either of you will ever get."

Emerald had to concede that point. Beacon was amazingly lavish and high-tech for an academy, and the best place she's ever stayed the night was a two-star hotel in southern Mistral. At least there aren't any rats.

Upon seeing how the beds were currently arranged into a row of four, a new question popped into her excited little head. "Cinder, how are we going to be sleeping? There are four beds and only three of us." Mercury's mocking be damned, she would not pass up on the opportunity to sleep near her beloved master.

In response, Cinder strolled over to one of the beds and with one swift motion pulled the covers clean off with the pillows. She laid the blankets out neatly on the bed furthest to the side, even taking care to tuck in the corners. Once the bed was all straightened out, Cinder sat down on the bed with a subtle bounce and a smile of sly satisfaction, pillow in hand. "This will be my bed. You two can have the other two."

Deflated, Emerald responded, "Of course, Cinder." She dropped off Cinder's bags by her dresser and dragged her luggage dejectedly to the other side of the room. It took all of Mercury's willpower to not let loose a fit of cackling.

"And do be quick with unpacking, you two. We have a school to inspect, and I want every one of us in Haven uniforms before we go," Cinder added. "Wouldn't want to stand out, now, would we?"

"Yes, Cinder," Mercury and Emerald said in unison. Cinder turned to her bags and began rummaging through the multitude of clothing she had brought along while the other two attended to their own things.

As Emerald inspected her uniform with a nonplussed expression, Mercury nudged her in the side and whispered to her snidely, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Yeah, thanks, asshat."

Unlike the dorm room, Beacon and the grounds around it were wondrous to behold. All the facilities were in top shape, every carpet cleaned and every bush trimmed in preparation for receiving guests from all around Remnant, and the walls were positively humming with energy – the place was absolutely loaded. Emerald noticed how carelessly all the foreign students carried their bags, while Mercury stole a few glances at some of the many huntresses milling about. Truly, Beacon had something for everyone.

"So, what do you think of Beacon?" Cinder asked without addressing anyone in particular, instead choosing to look straight ahead with purpose.

"Not going to lie, this place is pretty dope," Mercury replied, winking at a group of girls from Atlas and watching them giggle. "I don't mind staying here one bit."

"She was taking about the school itself, you worm," Emerald spat. There indeed were a lot of pretty faces about, but Mercury's shallowness never failed to disgust her. Turning to Cinder, she changed her tone to a cheerful chirp. "I think that Beacon is a wonderful place for us to be in. There are plenty of little nooks and crannies scattered throughout the school that I bet most students don't know about. If sneaking around if ever something we need to do, it'll be a cinch for me." A little bit of pride slipped into her voice.

"Indeed," Cinder replied, regarding Emerald with an approving nod. Mercury rolled his eyes at the little boogie his partner did upon this. "This school is far older than all the students and the faculty, save perhaps the headmaster. Should we take time to learn the lay of the land, we certainly can move about the school swiftly and unimpeded. What of the residents, then?"

"Well, I'd say tha—"

"There aren't that many worthy opponents, especially among the first years," Mercury interjected. Emerald was taken by surprise by how serious he sounded, but Cinder continued unfazed.

"Oh? And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"No one's fighting, of course, but many of them don't look like they've seen much combat. Some of them don't even seem to realize that this is a school for training to become huntsmen, instead hanging around and gossiping like little high schoolers." Mercury then turned to look Emerald straight in the eye. "A pretty face might be all that it takes to lead them astray."

The thief glowered at the smug expression on Mercury's face, but at least now she knew that there was some justification for him checking out all the girls of Beacon. He was testing them? That's a roundabout way of doing things.

"An interesting assessment," Cinder chimed in. "It is certainly true that most of these students have yet to see the true horror the Grimm are capable of. However, we'll have to wait until the preliminary matches for the tournament before we can truly assess the abilities of the students. There ought to be a few gems around h—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a great, red force slammed into Emerald. The thief staggered a bit but quickly regained her footing, looking down at the dazed idiot on the floor who just ran into her.

"Oh go- sorry…" The girl, clad in black and red, seemed far too young to be in a place like Beacon. The way she looked up at the trio with her silver puppy eyes seemed far too innocent for a huntress. "Are, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Emerald replied plainly, offering her hand to the downed girl. "Just… watch where you're going."

"Oh! Haha… right, sorry." As Emerald pulled the girl up, she immediately chirped, "Um, I'm Ruby! Are you new?"

Emerald really didn't care for making up small talk, but Cinder thankfully stepped forward. "Visiting from Haven, actually," she answered with her silky voice.

Ruby stared at Cinder for a while, examining her face. Both Mercury and Emerald tensed up – this seemed all too much like the day before, when that cop approached them back in Vale. Their hands were ready and clenched for a fight until the red girl's face lit up. "Ooo, you're here for the festival!" she squealed. Her expression changed once again, now seemingly confused. "Oh, but exchange students have their own dormitory."

Mercury jumped in this time. "I guess we just got turned around."

This seemed like an acceptable answer to Ruby and she laughed it off. Mercury and Emerald took that as their cue to leave – Cinder would be better suited to dealing with her anyway. "Oh, don't worry! Happens all the time. Your building is juuuuust east of here."

"Thanks," Cinder said casually. She too started to head down the hall to catch up with her henchmen. "Maybe we'll see you around."

"Yeah, maybe!" Gods, I hope not, Emerald groaned to herself. They were already quite a ways down the hall, but Ruby still called out to them. "Oh, uh, and welcome to Beacon!"

Without them responding, Ruby turned around and continued her mad dash down the hall until she zipped around the corner and out of sight.

"Do we… know her?" Mercury asked. "She looks kind of familiar for some reason."

"That would be Ruby Rose, and she is one of the few first years we have to keep an eye on," Cinder replied while still looking back to where the girl rounded the corner. "She was the one who stopped one of Roman's dust robberies a few months back."

"Oh, that must be the 'Little Red' Roman kept talking about," Emerald chimed in. "Funny, from the way he described her, I would've thought her to look a little more intimidating and not… well, so small."

"I think she's adorable." The delighted tone in Cinder's voice caused Emerald's stomach to flip for some reason. With a cunning smile, Cinder walked past her two minions and headed back in the direction of their room. "Come, I think we've seen enough for one day."

Once their boss was out of earshot, Mercury once again leaned into with a stupidly smug expression. "You seem to be mad for some reason."

"Shut it," Emerald growled. She really wasn't in the mood for her partner's antics right then.

"It wouldn't happen to be the fact that Cinder complimented a girl we just ran into when you've never received a word of praise? Or perhaps it is because you don't get to share a bunk with her?"

Emerald absolutely boiled at Mercury's comments. "Will you shut up about me and Cinder already?" she spat, but seeing the smirk on Mercury's face reminded her that there was no use arguing with him. The thief let out a heavy sigh. "Is it really too much to ask for a few nice words here and there?"

"Cinder doesn't do 'nice'. Simply being in her presence is good enough in her eyes." Mercury took a few steps in the direction their master went before realizing that he was unaccompanied. "Are you just gonna sit there and be mopey all day, or are you going to come back to the room?"

Emerald slammed a fist into her other hand, her face lighting up with her new, bright idea. "You know what? I'll bet Cinder will appreciate us more if we snuck into the kitchen and steal some food for the room!"

Mercury remained perplexed. "And how is that supposed to work?"

"Well, if we have food stockpiled in the room, that means that we won't ever need to get up early in the mornings for breakfast. We can wake at 9:30 instead of 7:30 – that's two hours of extra sleep!" Emerald pumped her fist in excitement – yes, this is absolutely perfect! Food on demand, more sleep, and a happy boss! "Surely then, Cinder will appreciate our efforts."

Her partner was far less impressed with the plan, if the hand covering his face was anything to go by. "That is the stupidest idea. Of all time." Looking over to Emerald, though, Mercury knew that there was no deterring her. Man, she's really going to go through with this, isn't she? Still, not having to wake up before 8:00 is pretty sweet…

"Alright, where do we start?"

Hello again, and welcome back to the silliness that is MEME!

It really is a lot of fun tormenting Emerald with not getting Cinder's attention. I don't know how far I go down that hole, but there's more to Em than just her being the puppy of Cinder.

On another note, I've watched the first episode for Volume 3, and man, was it awesome :D I'm very happy with the direction they're going with the show and the improvements they've made, but more importantly, it feed my mind with many, many ideas for my writing. In particular, there are a few details that will be of great help to this story down the line, but they won't come into play for a while :P

That's all for now!