Grimm Anatomy 101: Of Claws and Fangs

[Victor Valbrand]

"Of the many species of Grimm that plague our lands, the most common in Sanus is the Beowulf," Professor Noire began as she pointed with a metal lecture pointer at an illustration of the common Beowulf. "Wolf-like structure and habits, jaws that can crush bone, claws that can rend steel. You've all seen Beowulves, I'm sure many of you have even slain a pack or two since you've arrived at Beacon. While they are a danger to an ordinary person without Aura, even they are capable of slaying a Beowulf if they are armed appropriately. Firearms, the great equalizer among men and Faunus, are also effective in harming the creatures of Grimm, but keep in mind that civilian-grade firearms are not strong enough to deal with anything bigger than a Beowulf. A policeman's handgun won't be enough to put down an Ursa. That is where you come in. As future Huntsmen and Huntresses, you will need to learn how to kill these monsters so that the citizens won't need to."

She tapped the image again with her pointer, drawing attention to the Beowulf's claws. "Claws that can rend steel, I believe I said? An exaggeration surely, but only barely. Steel will last for a few hits before succumbing to a Beowulf's might, which is why we are trained to use our Aura to protect ourselves. Weapons protected by Aura won't break so easily under the assault of a Beowulf or even a stronger Grimm. Use that to your advantage. If you cannot get the first strike when combating a lone Beowulf, use your weapon to parry or block the first strike, and use that moment when it recoils to riposte. Throw the monster off balance, sever limbs, what have you. Beowulves generally swing wide when they go to attack with claws, making them predictable. Their teeth, on the other hand, are generally used by lunging forward. Never allow a Beowulf to bite you. Even with Aura it will hurt immensely and leave you exposed to a follow-up attack."

"Finally, remember that Beowulves hunt in packs. Where you find one Beowulf, you will surely find more. If you are lucky, or unlucky as the case may be, you may even encounter a pack led by an Alpha Beowulf. Those will be discussed during Wednesday's lecture." She continued on, explaining the various parts of a Beowulf's anatomy and methods which could be used to fight them based on the part she was explaining. Eventually she'd gone through her notes and described in painful detail the entire anatomy of a Beowulf even down to the wolf-like tail that could be grabbed to halt a Beowulf's charge with enough strength. She checked her watch and grinned. "Fantastique," she said, "we still have time for a practical demonstration." She walked over to a rectangular object covered with a sheet that had been placed off to the side. She pulled back the sheet, revealing a cage from which could be heard growling. "Who among you would like to put your skills to the test against a live Beowulf? Don't worry, it's perfectly safe, just none of you let your guard down until it's dead."

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

Prior to enrolling in Beacon, Cinth hadn’t been in a classroom since… well, since probably ever. If she thought about it hard enough, she could maybe recall hints of some type of daycare or preschool from when she was a child, but that was mostly obscure flashes that could very well have been made up. So yeah, even with her time spent here, classrooms were…strange. Cinth had a notebook out on the desk in front of her, open to a page of halfhearted notes on the current lecture topic, scrawled in her typical messy cursive; she had never quite gotten down the calligraphy-like script demanded of all showgirls. Cinth was quite familiar with beowolves, there was a high demand for packs of them when working with Volcan, and ever since moving to Vale she had encountered several lone Beowolves out in the wilderness. Thus, her notes on the subject were sparse, as she neglected writing down the information in favor of filling the margins of the page with lyric drafts. She had one earbud in, softly playing through her everyday but make it acoustic-80-85bpm playlist. Even without her semblance active, she still felt weird being without music for too long.

At some point during the lecture, Cinth had partially unwound her tail from around her waist in order to hold the end of it in her mouth. She wasn’t chewing on it, just… holding it. This lecture was boring, and holding her tail was decidedly far more interesting. What was the professor even talking about? Something about attack timings? Damn, she should probably pay attention to this; now that she was fighting solo, her regular combat patterns had been forced to change, a change she still wasn’t quite used to. She jotted down a few more bullet points, before ultimately going back to song drafts.

Moving on to the anatomy of a Beowolf was somewhat dull. She didn’t need a whole lecture on this, she could get all that just by looking at one, so Cinth tuned the professor out once again. The music in her headphones changed abruptly to a faster song, too fast to be on this playlist, she nearly snapped her pencil in half at the sudden change in tempo. She was quick to skip the song, taking out a pen in the process to write a note on the back of her hand, reminding herself to fix the playlist after class.

Speaking of, class should be wrapping up soon, right? She checked back in with the lecture, right on time to catch the professor wrapping up the lesson. At least, it seemed that way. Good. Maybe they could all get out early and Cinth could have time for a cat nap before her next class.

The mention of a practical demonstration had her focus snapping back to the front of the room, where a large cage was being revealed. Finally, something fun!

As soon as the challenge was posed, Cinth’s hand was up in the air with a comment of “I would.” She would show everyone exactly what she was capable of. This was a competition and she was going to win. Plus, getting to show off Aria Major was always fun.

[Sean McCabe]

Ahh, yes, Beowolves, or as Hayden liked to call them - Basics. Sean had seen enough of them already that he was inclined to agree, though the thought of taking one on by himself wasn't one he relished - that, of course, was why he was at Beacon in the first place.

His thoughts were brought back to the classroom itself as Teach asked if anyone wanted to fight one. A girl across the room from him volunteered to do it almost before he'd had time to shake his head. She's confident, he mused to himself.

Sitting up in his chair, he cracked his neck before folding his hands on his desk to lean forward intently. This should be an interesting learning experience. He wondered what this girl's weapon was.

[Lin Motley]

Classes had always been a mix for her since she started at Signal, but the differences between the quality of classes had changed ever since she became a student at Beacon, some classes bored her to death, others made her want to hide behind her desk in fear, some had her brimming with curiosity and some, just like her current one, had her half listening and tinkering away as a distraction.
On the proverbial chopping block was a grenade, not one that would blow a Grimm into smithereens, she could always just shoot those, but one for fighting her fellow students.
One that would, instead of hurting them, send them flying away with a gravity dust fueled blast, well at least it was supposed to, right now Lin had triggered a pinch of gravity dust which had now magnetized her army knife onto the table, she was struggling to move the knife and instead decided to wait it out.
Time to pay attention to class, wait.
What was that ?
The Professor had dragged a big box on stage and then, oooooh a live demonstration!

Lin instantly grabbed her two handguns, sawn of double barrel shotguns with revolver mags, she raised her both hands holding them in an excited manner, hoping she could catch Miss Noire's attention, she kept the safety on of course.

[Vera Noire]

"Two volunteers and only one Beowulf," Professor Noire pointed out. "And one of you brought weapons to a lecture class, I see. Well I don't know what you expected to be fighting in my classroom, but in the future please respect your fellow classmates by not bringing live weapons into a class where they will not be needed unless instructed otherwise. It is a distraction at best and a hazard at worst. Madame Bordeaux, please retrieve your weapon and come to the front of the class. Madame Motley, front and center please."

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

When someone else volunteered, Cinth couldn’t keep the brief scowl off her face. This was supposed to be her moment to show off. As a girl across the classroom stood up, presumably the other person to volunteer, Cinth fixed gaze on her, instinctively raking over her appearance. She was far too short to be of any interest to Volcan, and neither her hair nor complexion seemed to be anything special. If she was taller, and notably talented, then maybe; but as she stood? Useless. Not to mention she had the workings of what appeared to be some type of explosive device sitting on her desk. Reckless, Cinth ascertained, though she had nothing to say for finding better things to do than focusing on the lecture during class; faulting the girl for that would be hypocritical, as Cinth herself has been more occupied in finding a solid word to rhyme with incalescent than taking notes previously.

Cinth’s analysis of the girl was rapid, instinctual, taking up less than a blink before she was focusing back in on the professor. Upon being given the instruction to do so, Cinth was quick to collect her weapon, not wanting the other girl—who was apparently already armed, the dunce—to get any early advantage to fighting the beowulf. She soon joined the girl and Professor Noire at the front of the room, headset hanging from her neck, anchors in place—sans the gloves and bracers, for now, so as to save time—and weapon in hand. Her beautiful, beloved Aria Major, which she twirled in her hand as she awaited further instruction. The weapon was still in its deactivated form, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t deadly, what with the edges of the guitar being permanently bladed; it was by no means a small weapon, as even as a regular guitar, its proportions were skewed to be better fit for battle, with the neck a several inches longer than a regular guitar neck, and the body of the instrument being easily larger than her torso. When Cinth rested Aria Major against the ground, the headstock of the guitar nearly came up to her shoulder.

Would she and this other girl be taking turns with the Grimm? Or fighting side by side? Cinth hoped the girl’s combat ability made up for her otherwise unimposing impression. If that was the case, Cinth would gladly fight alongside her, she worked better in a team than without one anyways. But if they were taking turns, Cinth hoped she could go second, give the girl a chance to make a fool of herself before Cinth showed her exactly who she was competing against.

As she waited, Cinth slid her headphones on, keeping one ear uncovered so as to hear Professor Noire, and activated the HUD so she could ready her casual battles: 95-100 bpm playlist. Nothing fancy, just enough to give her a good edge. She already had a song selected, waiting for the go ahead to activate her semblance and press play.

[Sean McCabe]

That... was a guitar.

He wasn't judging her, of course - his own combat style was essentially a weaponized circus performance, so if she'd weaponized music, then more power to her. But now, for sure, he was invested.

Turning his attention to the other volunteer, Sean leaned back in his seat and slung his legs over the desk before crossing them. A pair of shotguns in her hands, and some kind of grenade on her desk. At least someone in this class used a more conventional style. That was good news for the future, since such unique styles as his own wouldn't exactly work for people without Semblances that enabled them.

From the look of it, the taller girl was melee-focused, and with a weapon that big, she was either a front-line anchor or an alpha-striker. The shorter girl was clearly a back-liner, judging by the grenade, but shotguns were perfectly serviceable for dealing with a Beowolf, as Sean himself could attest. The only trouble they'd face would come from a lack of coordination, assuming the professor was going to have them take on the Grimm together.

"Kick some ass, ladies," he called out, shooting a pair of finger guns in their direction on the off chance either of them looked back. Being friendly never hurt anyone, and if it came off as cheesy it was no great loss either. First impressions were for the first week, after all - he'd likely have the opportunity to change some minds later in the term with a practical demonstration of his own.

[Lin Motley]

Ah...yeah, Lin had forgotten her hobby was reserved for certain facilities within the school, not everyone was as openly enthusiastic about weapons and explosives as her, she simply gave a sheepish smile to Miss Noire, rubbing the back of her neck, as she signed a simple "Sorry."
But she nonetheless walked up, grabbing her shotguns and checking them over as she walked upfront, only giving the other volunteer a cursory glance.

It was a bit of a shame that Lin had to share the spotlight with someone else, but that was okay, at least the other girl looked awesome, as she walked back in the room.
So Lin didn't mind sharing, split work, she could look pretty and Lin could show off.
She chuckled, looking at the gigantic guitar this girl was carrying made her think that she wasn't that fast, well, fast for huntsmen standards, but a guitar as a weapon ?
She looked between her two shotguns, hm, Brawn might not be the most fancy weapon, but they did their job, and they did it well, in the end no one would survive on style points.

Then she heard a yell from the benches, one of their classmates was cheering them on, a bit of a strange gesture to do before they actually started fighting, but Lin shot him some finger guns back, her shotguns miraculously floating in the air as she had let them go to respond with the gesture, she simply picked them back up.

As she waited for Miss Noire to explain, Lin simply waved at the tall and somewhat exotic looking faunus, she had only seen the tail now, standing a few away from her with a smile, hoping she wouldn't take this a challenge, first impressions were always awkward as a mute.

[Vera Noire]

"Now, as there is only one Beowulf so the two of you will need to share as I said before," Vera instructed. "You will work together to bring down this.... ferocious beast," she said in a mocking tone to which the Beowulf responded by growling. "Do not underestimate your opponent. Grimm are not mindless beasts, they have intelligence and a singular desire to kill and destroy humanity. If need be I will step in, but given the fact you are students at this academy, that likely won't be necessary. As for the rest of you, keep your Aura up until I instruct otherwise. While these two may be the Beowulf's opponent, that is no guarantee it won't lash out at the audience... or me, for that matter. That said, are the two of you ready to begin?"

[Lin Motley]

Blablabla Grimm are dangerous blablabla, Lin rolled her eyes a little, literally everyone here knew what a Grimm was and how to act around them, right ?
Any who, teamwork it is, Lin did not mind sharing, so she showed the other girl a quick smile and nod, she really just wanted to use Brawn again, her two poor little babies had been neglected for a while now.
Squeezing their grips lightly, Lin got into a starting position, though rather than her being set to start sprinting she was looking like she was intending to leap at the Grimm.

And as the start signal was given she did, yet suddenly the gleaming tattoos flashed twice in short order, Lin seemed weightless for just a second before a gust of wind erupted, and the small girl shot toward the Beowulf, dodging under its claw swipe, as with a click of her two weapons and the following blast the Grimm's kneecaps were nailed by a hail of pellets, Lin flipped backwards through the air thanks to the recoil, coming to an abrupt halt midair and out of the Grimm's reach, this should be an easy mark for her axe wielding companion.

Or not, as to Lin's surprise the Grimm was unharmed, she had failed to notice that this Beowulf was a little different compared to your run of the mill wolf monstrosity.
Well this may be slightly harder to kill.

[Vera Noire]

"I don't think it will be that easy," Vera pointed out. The Beowulf was still standing, its legs armored just as its chest, back, and face. Bony spines grew from its shoulder blades and arms, forming defensive spikes. This was no ordinary Beowulf, this was an Alpha. "This one is the last survivor of his pack. Crafty one, too, so be careful!" She turned her attention to the rest of the students. "Pay attention, students, it's not often you will be able to witness an Alpha in a controlled setting. Observe the Grimm carefully, learn all that you can about it while you have to opportunity. This will segue into our lesson on Alphas on Wednesday."

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

At the call from the audience, Cinth couldn’t help herself from giggling—that smokey, playful showgirl giggle she’d had memorized for far too long—and shooting a wink towards the cheering classmate. Internally, she immediately scolded herself for falling into such habit, though she kept her face impassive.

As the instructions and warnings were being given, Cinth activated Aria Major. The weapon came to life with the clicks and whirs of a heavy machine waking up as the various mechanics within it shifted to combat mode, accompanied by the quiet, hiss and roar of the generator coming to life. The extension of the handle brought with it the strings retracting into the bridge, which flipped over. Cinth dragged the bar holding the prepped combat strings up to the headstock, where they aligned with their paired tuning pegs. The purple LED lights along the body lit up, outlining the numerous controls that covered the weapon’s face—an indicator that Aria Major was active and could not be treated as a regular guitar anymore. With the gravity dust in the body and headstock activated, the axe began to float at just the right height to be played; Cinth knocked her fists together to activate her anchors, the metal bracelets clinking against each other with the action. The transformation took no more than a second, and Cinth grabbed Aria Major out of the air, ready for a fight.

The other girl was off nearly before the go-signal was through. Cinth rolled her eyes at the eagerness. They were supposed to work together, didn’t this chick know that? Cinth barely had time to process the girl’s attempted attack before she was… floating? Huh. Cinth pressed play on the song she had in queue, semblance activating as the music started to play through her headphones. She would need a second for the effects to kick in, and quick strategy was the best way to give her those precious 3 seconds. She turned her eyes back to the Beowulf, taking note of the pattern of its armor. Her gaze flicked back up to the floating girl. That could be useful.

“It’s stomach is unarmored,” she addressed her teammate. “Taunt it from in the air, if you can get it to stand up, I can attack where it’s unprotected.” Her semblance’s effects had kicked in by the time she finished speaking, she got ready to run. Even if her teammate couldn’t get the Beowulf’s attention right away, Cinth didn’t plan on sitting around and doing nothing while she waited, she could still attack while their plan was being executed.

[Lin Motley]

Well, that did not go according to plan, apparently this thing was an Alpha, cool for miss Noire to mention that NOW!
She frowned at both her teacher's negligence and the outcome of her attack, she was not prepared for this, only having one spare magazine for each of her weapons...what, she wasn't a psycho packing her entire arsenal, she was just way more enthusiastic about guns than theoretical Grimm studies, they only had like one course per week to work on them.

Anyway, the time it took for Lin to have her little monologue and reload the missing shells into her guns was the time it took for her teammate to step into action, good thing Lin wasn't big on talking anyway or she would have taken some issue with her partner listening to music during a fight, this girl really had no grounds to judge her on, considering how much time she spent doing fan service and well, that.
Wait...was this chick some pop idol ?

Questions for later, distraction it is.
Having her partner do the damage was her idea to begin with, so Lin was 100% fine with pulling aggro.
This thing's joints were armored, but its back and belly really weren't that well protected.
Brawn gave a resounding click before another blast was fired at the Beowulf back, to get its attention, as Lin flew closer trying to goad it into attacking her, she fired another blast at its face, once again using the recoil of her shotgun to move herself out of its reach again, she hoped this would work, but just to be safe she did it again, each time reducing the distance she would move towards the Grimm in hopes to get it to jump.

[Victor Valbrand]

The Grimm roared in anger as its back was struck directly. As it wheeled around to face its attacker it stumbled as it was hit in the face by a second shot, and then a third struck its shoulder. In its anger thr Beowulf had turned its back on the axe-wielding Faunus to focus on what it perceived as a dangerous annoyance. Seeing that she was flying above it, the Beowulf, as she had hoped, jumped upwards, attempting to lunge at her with its claws to drag her back to the ground where it could attack her better.

[Sean McCabe]

To anyone else, the reactions he got from both girls would seem to be friendly and positive. To Sean, however, the difference was obvious. One of the girls was enthused, for sure, but the other was unmistakably a performer, and Sean would bet his spare earring that she'd been in the biz since she was young, just as he'd been. Perhaps they could commiserate about it later, but he'd probably need a different approach if he wanted her to actually talk to him.

And they were off, the bubbly girl proceeding to... fly.

Okay, gotta admit, he did NOT see that coming. That was cool as hell.

Guitar girl (it was as good a nickname as any, since he wasn't gonna call her Popster) started up a song on her earbuds and braced for battle.

This should be fun to watch.

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

Well, the Beowulf was rearing up, just like Cinth had hoped, but it was facing away from her, it’s spike-armored back to her. Fuck. Well, at least it wasn’t paying attention to her, she could still make an attack. For a second she considered throwing and recalling her weapon, in the hopes that it would impale the Beowulf in the stomach on its way back to her. But that didn’t have a guaranteed chance of working, the gravity dust pairing between her weapon and anchors wasn’t that accurate after all, and now wasn’t the time to try showing off, now was the time to show she could be efficient. Melee it is, then. She’d just have to avoid the spikes. Great. Cinth’s gaze traced the movements of the beowulf, calculating. Any hit she made toward it could result in it turning back to face her, she’d have to be ready for that.

Cinth dashed forward, the song in her headphones giving her an extra speed boost, nothing too extreme, just enough to give her a sharper edge. Adjusting her course just slightly when the Beowulf moved once again, she came more along the side of it, to avoid it stepping back and impaling her. She switched to a two handed grip on her weapon as she swung, sideways like she was swinging a bat, as she aimed for a spot on the Beowulf’s back in between the spikes, the 95bpm music granting just a bit of extra strength to her attack.

[Lin Motley]

Lin meanwhile was doing her absolute darnedest to keep the Beowulf's attention, which she had been doing successfully so far, but she was running out of ammo and with that means to actually keep it distracted, sure she could attempt to throw it around using her wind, but this thing seemed too strong to actually be swept of its feet.
Unless...

Lin kept at it, waiting for Guitar Girl to make her attack, hoping that she'd land a good hit, as she saw her swinging that giant guitar axe Lin took her chance, she stowed her guns, which had only 2 shots left each and flew towards the Beowulf, stretching out her hand to grab onto any body part that she could, she'd even be willing to get hit to accomplish this, it would be incredibly bad show of her to not defeat this thing after volunteering to do so.
As the lines across her body would flash again.
She was so glad Grimm had no Aura to resist the effects of her semblance with.
As with this touch she would cancel gravity for the beast and with a follow-up blast of air below from it, she would try and make it float helplessly in the air, like a giant angry piñata ready to be smashed by her axe wielding colleague.

[Victor Valbrand]

The Beowulf kept its attention on Lin, roaring angrily as it tried to swipe at her while she peppered it with bullets. A few managed to hit the unarmored parts of its body, but it wasn't enough to slow it down, let alone hurt it in its rage. Then suddenly Lin charged down towards it, startling and confusing the Beowulf that had not been expecting such a reckless tactic. Its claws went wide past Lin, leaving its forearm open for her to grab and momentarily it was lifted from the ground just in time for Cinth's axe to cut into its back, severing its spine and leaving the alpha helpless.

Vèra watched excitedly as the two worked together to take down the Grimm. "Excellent teamwork, girls, but it's not dead yet. Put the poor beast out if its misery!"

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

For a brief second, as Cinth felt the jagged purple blades of her weapon slice cleanly through the Beowulf’s spine, a bolt of panic and regret flashed through her. That was too far. This one wasn’t salvageable, wasn’t useful, Volcan wouldn’t accept it. She’d fucked up the hunt in her stupid over eager desire to… what? Show off? She wanted to get a little flashy, a little dramatic, and now she’d wasted product. Fuck. The panic faded as soon as it blossomed upon hearing Professor Noire speak up. Right. She was meant to go for the kill here. Well in that case…

“Let’s make this a show,” Cinth laughed, a grin spreading across her face. She yanked Aria Major from the Grimm’s spine, using its armored spikes to deftly leap up its back until she was balancing near its head. Aria Major’s layered, segmented blades began to shift, a metal rod sprouting from the revealed openings to run length wise down the neck of the guitar, within a quick second, the transformation into a chain saw had been completed, and Cinth was revving the engine from where she still stood atop the Grimm. She spun the weapon in her hand once, before using the churning blade to saw through the Beowulf’s neck until it dispersed into black particles. The disintegration of the Grimm beneath her left Cinth to drop back down to the ground, her heels clicking lightly against the tile. She slid her headphones down around her neck as she turned to face the rest of the class and—as Aria Major returned to it’s deactivated state—gave an exaggerated bow to her audience.

“And that’s how it’s done.” She was, after all, nothing more than a performer with a weapon, and she certainly hoped she had delivered.

[Lin Motley]

Professor Noire's instruction was clear enough, put the Grimm out of it's misery.
Lin was halfway tempted to just blow this things head off, but she had prepared this for a team effort and seeing the popstar visibly excited made her reconsider, instead just watching her perform.

And what a performance it was, Lin had not expected the guitar-axe to wield a second, even more destructive, form.
It was actually pretty impressive, almost enough to make Lin forget to keep the Grimm in the air, the very same her partner was now climbing on, Lin would punch herself if she ruined the performance, so she kept pushing the Grimm uo, to cancel out Hyacinth's weight.

Luckily the show was over quickly and Lin relaxed as with the Grimm falling apart she let go of her semblance.
Letting the star have her spotlight, Lin just floated a few feet away, using the time to stow her weapons, only approaching after she was done bowing to the crowd, offering her hand for a high five on a job well done, for an improv performance they had done pretty well, atleast if someone were to ask her.
Then turning to the Professor to recieve her evaluation.

[Vera Noire]

Véra clapped as the defeated Grimm faded away into a shadowy mist and dissipated. "Excellent work, ladies," she praised. "It's no easy feat to defeat an Alpha Beowulf so quickly. It seems we are in the presence of excellent future huntresses. I can't wait to see how you two progress." With that the bell rang, signaling the end of class. "Ah, perfect timing, that's the end of class. Remember everyone, the next lecture on Wednesday will be on Alpha Grimm, be prepared to take notes, it may very well save your life one day!"

[Sean McCabe]

The guitar was certainly an unorthodox weapon, but it was without a doubt effective.

"Great show, that was rad as hell," he called out as Cinth took her bow. He wondered if they'd have a chance to spar sometime - he could put on quite a show himself, after all. He should think about finding a job somewhere, though he'd have to be careful about how he marketed himself - 'dancer' was probably not the word to use. Probably.

Flashing a double thumbs up to the gals, he turned and did a tumbling run out of the classroom - it was time to eat, and he did not want to be late for that, and for some reason he was faster while tumbling - probably due to his subconscious use of his Semblance.

[Hyacinth Bordeaux]

With the Grimm defeated and the class wrapping up, Cinth took her time inspecting Aria Major, brushing extra particles of disintegrated Grimm from her fretboard before sliding the regular guitar strings back up to the headstock.

"Nice job, girlie," Cinth said as she accepted Lin's high five with a bright smile. She'd had her doubts about the girl beforehand, but, to Cinth's content, she'd ended up pulling her weight. Quite literally, with that whole floating Grimm spectacle.

As Cinth returned to her desk, she opted to store Aria Major on her back as she packed up her various stationary. Seeing as she didn’t have her usual sheath with her, and Aria Major wasn’t exactly small—even for a guitar is was on the big side thanks to its extra frets and large blades—Cinth chose to keep both hands free while she packed up and dismantled her anchors; the curved end of the guitar balanced on the base of her tail, and her long snow leopard tail to wrapped around her torso and the guitar, holding it in place temporarily as she unhooked the interlocking bracelets of her anchors and dropped them into her bag. It wasn’t the most secure way of transporting her weapon, but she only needed to make it out the door to where she’d summoned her locker previously. Quietly humming the song she’d been listening to during the fight, Cinth pulled her bag onto her shoulder and left the room to find her locker. Hopefully it hadn’t returned to its default location by now.