[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red always liked to be prepared for just about anything. She could react far more quickly if she knew what to expect, and disliked being in situations where she was short on resources or ideas. That mentality worked well when it came to dangerous tasks like bounty hunting or surviving in Vacuo's deserts. Less so when it came to really mundane tasks in a relatively safe city. Recently, she decided she wanted to learn how to cook. It was a new skill, so she expected to mess up a lot. As a result, she stocked up on food so that there'd still be food in the house while she was likely failing repeatedly.

Turned out, getting food to at least be edible wasn't that hard. She did have to throw out some food, but not as much as she was expecting. She thought she would be a bad judge for what was 'edible,' but she hadn't actually gotten too many complaints yet, and all but the worst of her mistakes were still something she was willing to eat herself. Even if it was going to take some time for her to reach the skill level she wantedThat left her with a ton of meat that was going to go bad if she didn't use it.

Life had been quiet lately, something she wasn't sure if she actually liked. It wouldn't be like that forever, and there was no reason to try to make waves before then. She just needed to find useful ways to fill all the spare time she had for the time being, and she did have a lot of spare time. Enough that she was able to spend most of a day preparing several dozen meals with the remaining meat she had. None of them were special, but she thought they smelled pretty good. Most of them were simple, like shepard's pie or burgers, but she also did some experimenting with seasonings on foods like orange chicken or fajitas. Those she was a lot less sure about. She was pretty sure she didn't get any of the flavors right, but they didn't smell bad or anything. As for how they tasted...well she still thought she was a bad judge of that. She was going to need an audience to determine that.

Given she couldn't eat this much food herself without throwing up, she was going to seek out an audience anyway. Red had been in Mistral long enough now that she had a good idea of how it was laid out and had enough time to look around. The higher up the mountain she went, the nicer the city got. Not unexpected given the higher up the mountain she went, the less likely the Grimm were to attack. The poor were always stuck with scraps and had to live with danger regardless of where in the world she went. Mistral wasn't any different. Today, she was focused on those poor areas. She took a moment to heat up the food she prepared the night before, loaded up her car, and headed down the mountain.

Knight and her didn't live too far away from the Ground District, but the city changed so much in such a short distance. The houses got smaller, the roads rougher, and the sidewalks dirtier. She wasn't sure if there was more or less grass and other vegetation around, but none of it was maintained. Grass and weeds came out of cracks in the road and sidewalks, there were abandoned buildings that nature was reclaiming, and the occasional empty field choked with briers and bushes that no one had bothered to try to build on yet. It only got worse as she continued down the mountain and away from the the main roads and clean paths people would take to enter the kingdom from the outside.

This area wasn't too different from where she grew up in Vale. Red didn't have too many memories of life before the Faunus Revolution, but she could remember some of the broader strokes. Her family lived in a single room apartment that was far too small for a family of three, in a rough neighborhood that no one had any business trying to raise a child in. But they didn't have any choice because no one would help them. Her uncle might have, she learned later in life, but his help was conditional on them leaving Vale, something her father didn't want to do. So they stayed there, and she could only go outside during the day, and even then she had to be careful. The place was potentially dangerous for human children. It was even worse for a young faunus in the years leading up to the revolution.

That there were still people living like she did growing up was disgusting. She could accept it, grudgingly, if everyone in Mistral lived like this, but after seeing the excesses in the Cloud District, coming here was painful and she wasn't even at the bottom of the mountain yet.

Eventually, she came upon her destination: an old basketball court next to an empty field. The concrete had split and cracked in multiple places, and if she didn't watch her step it'd be easy to trip on a sharp protrusion. It was even more covered in grass and weeds than the surrounding sidewalks, and looked like it hadn't been maintained in decades. The hoops themselves were rusty and crooked, and the nets had probably been stolen years ago. The fence surrounding it was in even worse shape. Just as rusty, but large chunks of it were missing. The surrounding field was overgrown, and it was obvious where the children in the area played on it due to the large patches of dirt in the sea of tall grass.

Red parked her car on the side of what she was pretty sure was supposed to be the road, and retrieved the insulated bags that held the food she made. It took her a couple of tries to get the trunk closed because she was maybe a little too effective in messing up the body of this car to make it look like an old junk car in a few places, and her arms complained about having to carry yet more heavy things. For once, her choice of an oversized t-shirt and jacket didn't make her look out of place, but the kids playing in the area still looked at her like she was. It was only natural. They didn't know who she was, and they probably knew their entire community. Plus, most of them were openly faunus and she was hiding her features behind loose pants and a hood. They didn't relax much when she said she had food and all she wanted in return for it was to know how it tasted. It took one particularly brave kid (or particularly hungry, she wasn't sure which) to take one of her burgers and confirm that it was good before she had a good sized crowd around her.

She picked this area because she was pretty sure most of the kids would be older. There wasn't any playground equipment or anything that would attract very young kids who were prone to screaming, so most of them were over the age of ten or so. It was hard to tell just how well they ate because of their clothes, but they seemed pretty happy to have something hardy and filled to the brim with meat, even if it was just cheap meat, instant potatoes, and canned fruits and vegetables.

Red herself never went hungry until the war started. Her father always managed to provide for them despite being perpetually unemployed because he and her mother were active in pro-faunus protests before the start of the revolution. Looking back, it was probably because of financial aid from her uncle. Or at least that would explain why her father would always make this face when he got what she assumed to be his paycheck at the time. It had to be a tough choice. Stay in Vale and let your family live in poverty and discrimination, or go against all your beliefs and morals to flee to Menagerie where they might be able to live a normal life? While she didn't fault him for his decision, she always wondered what her life would have been like if he had taken the easy way out. A pointless thought experiment because in the end she was happy she actually understood what happened. Watching some of those sheltered faunus talk on the internet was just embarrassing.

Once the initial crowd died down, she took a seat against an in tact portion of the chain link fence, one leg stretched, one knee up with her arm resting on it. She put all the food in disposable containers, so she didn't need to stick around to collect dishes or anything. She just figured she'd stay and watch until all her food was gone or it was clear that they didn't want anymore. There was still plenty left, so if more kids arrived they could have some, or if these ones wanted seconds they could come get it. She didn't talk to them unless they talked to her first, in which case she was more than happy to listen. They were kids, people, not projects and she intended to treat them as such.

---

1572/1572

[Bianca Sabbato]

My spear erupted from the backside of the beast, the Ursa stumbling and finally falling down into its back only to start disappearing a couple seconds later.

-And.... There- I said as I took out my scroll and take a picture of the rapidly dispersing body and quickly sand it to the interested party. —Fuckers have a weak spot on their belly, could have used that information before- Exiting the camera application I was taken back to my aura readings resting in a not so comfortable 70%. Mostly a direct result of the first ursa whom I kept trading blows with without any real strategy until I blindly stumbled upon its weak spot. Second had been a breeze after that.

Noting more than 2 young ursa minor, they still posed a significant threat to any civilian without proper training. Only one of those let loose in a residential area could only spell disaster. Specially one the negativity harvested from fighting it off would inevitably attract more grimm.

At least for now, that small crisis was aborted. Sheathing my spear behind my back, I prepared to make the long walk back home.

The report I had been given spoke of only one grimm being spotted marauding on the woods surrounding that particular sector of the ground district. But once I plunged myself into the forest. It was clear as day that the tracks belonged to a pair of grimm. The first one being a little bigger but now quite reaching Ursa mayor territory.

All in all, it was a good thing that I had came to take care of it... Since apparently, no one else would. Yep, despite what may look like, that hadn’t been an academy sanctioned mission, but a worried call I had received from one of my old acquaintances from the slums.

Looks like the police wouldn’t believe him and his family when they went to report it to the station. And since they didn’t have enough money to put a reward for it...

Yeah, crisis fucking aborted as I said. Even tough I was justifiably mad at the authorities inaction, it was not as if I could actually blame them. Mistral’s lack of professional huntsman was old news by this point. And the fall had already not only eliminated our greatest source of prospective hunters and huntresses. Bur also generated a well of negativity associated with it that obviously was attracting grimm to population centers like moths towards the flame.

So yeah, things were fucked up to say the least.

Picking up a hastier pace. I exited the woods and made my way towards the city. I was not actually charging anything for the hunt. After all, Haven covered all of my expenses now, so I didn’t need money more than for banal trivialities that honestly weren’t even worth the work.

Once I returned to civilization (Or as close to it the ghettos and slums of ground district could be) I slowed down considerably, from there I could simply take a bus to the wind district and then walk back to haven... It was not as if there were actually buses that would take me all the way from the outskirts of the ground district to the cloud one.

“Maybe I can catch a little training before it becomes too late. Or try to catch up with that stupid chemistry book it’s giving me so many problems” But my thoughts were interrupted by a familiar face strolling happily in my direction, a lone girl with some rugged clothing and a pair of antelope horns elegantly crowning her platinum haired head.

Looking at her, she must be 11 or 12 years old. I hadn’t seen her since I left the slums, so she probably didn’t recognize me anymore... And maybe that’s for the best, so I’d simply would let her go her way without calling for...

-Big sis Bianca!- She said running to me and extending her fist in my direction once she was close enough.

Chuckling, I returned the greeting lightly bumping her fist with a smirk on my face. —Well, well, well. If it’s not little miss Amor here? How are you? Been some time-

She was the daughter of a single mother that used to work as a courtesan. Probably still does. She was often contracted by members of my band, and since she couldn’t afford a kindergarden to care for her daughter, more often than not I was left babysitting the kid while her mother worked.

-I’s been good. Mom managed to hook up with a dude so now he takes care of us... I don’t like him very much... But he brings food to the table, so I suck it up-

Yeah. Her mom always had been a charmer. Gorgeous and well mannered even comparing her to most wind and cloud district women. I was actually glad she had managed to make it up big.

-That’s a good way to think about it. Even if you don’t like him, just use him until you can take care of yourself-

We keep talking for a while as we walked alongside the road. And thing were going pretty placidly until she told me something than unsettled me.

-So yeah. I just came from the old basket court, a lady was there just handing food to all the kids, so I managed to scoop up a little threat for myself-

A shadow of worry creeped trough my mind, It was probably just my wary nature, but I felt like asking.

-A woman... Just handing food to the kids? Are you like... Alone or there is some adult with you?-

-Nah... She just came in a ramshackle car and started giving us food. One kid tasted it before, so we know it’s fine-

The “stranger danger” alarms in my head started flashing an angry red as the girl went on with her narration of the facts.

-Amor. Answer my question, are telling me that there is a strange adult woman offering food to a bunch of kids and none of you tough it would be a good idea to call an adult?-

I slapped her in the back of the head when she simply shrugged off. —H-hey! What gives?-

—Idiot! Do you even have heads at the top of your necks? Or are they only for show?-

-Mom and dad are not home right now, so chill out!- She said clutching the back of her head, so I wouldn’t hit her again.

-Idiot! Do you have no neighbors? Even a gang banger would have come with you if you told him the situation!-

-A-aren't we supposed to not trust gangsters...?-

-No, but you do when the alternative is a possible pedophile!- I wanted to wack her again, but I knew that only would make me loose valuable time a child molester could be using to kidnap a child.

Seeming to finally understand what I was getting at, I saw the girl pale as her mouth opened like a fish out of the water.

-Come! Take me there- I said getting started to run behind her.



..

...



Once we reached the court. Fortunately the woman was still there and Amor informed me so were all the kids... And what a surprise, I already had encountered this particular creepy lady before.

I waved from a distance to get her attention and started approaching in a way as harmless as I could muster. Making my way trough a legion of hungry children that looked with curious expressions to the armed and ready huntress in training among them. Some of them already knew me from the time I used to live in the slums... And a shadow of shame temporally covered my mind when I noticed that those kids were the ones that seemed more surly at my presence.


-At ease- I called for them when I noticed most of them had stopped eating when they saw me.

Matters not. I’m not here to talk to them anyway.

Reaching a comfortable distance with the redhead. I saluted her with a small nod while avoiding getting too close to her.

-Yo... Wasn’t expecting to see you again. Hope that you don’t think that I’m a crazy stalker or something- I joked a little to ease any building tension that could be lingering between us.

-I hope you understand that when I heard there was a lady they had never seen before handing gifts to the local, unsupervised kid population... Well I had to come and take a look to see if everything was alright-

I walked until I found a particularly nice patch of grass to lay on and sat on it with my legs crossed. A good 2 or 3 meters away from the woman and in an angle that let me directly watching over the children while keeping the redhead only on my peripheral vision.

Once I was seated. I spoke in a low voice, making sure only her could hear me. —I actually come from hunting some grimm in the nearby grove... So if that’s ok with you I’d like to stay here for a while in case something happens- I said half lying and half telling the truth.

On one hand, the possibility of grimm was ever present. On the other I was actually just really curious about this mysterious figure that was already making waves in the lower world of Mistral.

Yeah, why not strike some light conversation to break the ice.

-So... It’s pretty neat what you are doing here. A lot of kids these parts only get to eat once a day, if even... So it’s a great help even if it doesn’t seem like one-

-Have you being doing this a lot? I haven’t heard of someone with your descriptions around here. But I have lost contact with most of my ground level acquaintances since a couple years ago, but now I’m aiming to fix that. So we may cross paths again somewhere down the line-

That was true tough. I was a little ashamed of myself, but juvie kinda of took that chance away from me... But now that I enjoyed what was probably the greatest degree of freedom in my whole life. I was planning on making it count.

---

1716/1716 Words.

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red wasn't that much older than a lot of the kids here. As much as she liked to think of herself as an adult, she had only turned 19 a few months ago and was unprepared for the situations she was thrown into in a lot of ways. It never mattered how old she got, she still felt like life was throwing her around and she had no way to regain control of it. Life felt so complicated, so vast, and so intimidating that she was never quite sure where to start.

The sun was still high in the sky. This time was chosen intentionally, as the area would be light and the kids would hopefully be less spooked by a stranger showing up. Unfortunately, it meant it was a little bit hot, especially in a black jacket like hers. Better than burning in the sun she supposed. Her skin was very pale and covered in freckles. She never lasted long in sunlight as strong as this. The sun had the added benefit of letting her see very clearly, and when some of the kids started to look tense, she looked over her shoulder.

Well, she supposed fully arm Huntress trainees made her tense too. Just why these people kept feeling the need to walk around open areas fully armed was beyond her. Did they not realize how intimidating and unsettling that was? They were already superhuman why did they need to flaunt how easily they could kill just about anyone here? The least they could do was try to conceal them. She looked back to the kids when the trainee decided to act like some kind of commander. As long as they weren't trying to escape, she wouldn't either. There wasn't a lot she felt like she could trust Huntresses for, but she supposed she could at least believe that an open faunus one would be unlikely to open fire here or try anything too dangerous. Red just leaned back against the fence and started fidgeting with the inside of her sleeve.

No, she wasn't thinking that the trainee was some kind of stalker right up until the point she felt the need to say something like that. She turned her head towards the trainee and raised an eyebrow. Between that and the need for the trainee to explain why she was here, Red wondered if the trainee was trying to cover something up or if she was just the type that overshared about whatever happened to be on her mind. Both would explain why she felt the need to say all those weird things about mugging and corpses in their last meeting. She really hoped it was just oversharing.

"It's okay, you don't have to justify your presence. Anyone's allowed to come here right?"

She waved off the trainee's request to sit down as well. That was surreal. Seeing a Huntress trainee ask for permission about anything was weird enough to her, but asking someone like her for something as basic as permission to sit down? It felt wrong. As disturbing as she found seeing a Huntress in any context, seeing one that was clearly tense was even worse. Red looked out towards the forest. Were there really Grimm in the area? The kids seemed relaxed and happy enough that they probably wouldn't attract them, but she sure as hell would if she didn't calm herself down. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she tried to calm her sense of paranoia. Everything would probably be fine. Even if there was something wrong, the odds of a faunus trainee trying something in a place like this seemed low.

"No, this is my first time here," she took in another breath and let it out. "I wish I could take credit for doing something 'neat,' but I didn't plan this. I was just an idiot that bought too much food because I wanted to learn how to cook. I'm glad my mistake could do something useful."

Red didn't offer the trainee a dish because Haven students probably ate pretty well, but if the trainee wanted to grab one, she wouldn't stop her. At least as long as the trainee told her how it tasted. There was still plenty to go around.

---

712/2284

[Bianca Sabbato]

-Ye, ye. But that’s no excuse to intrude when you were here before. You know, being civil and all of that stuff- I responded not taking my eyes away from the gathering of hungry kids. Some of them still eyed me warily and I didn’t know if it was because of my Haven uniform or for my reputation before leaving the streets.

I just hoped it was the former rather than the later. —Besides. A lot of the kids here may mistrust a huntress trainee, and rightfully so, so having your approval actually helps a great deal with that- Yes, it let them see we are on the same side. For some of these kids the only image they have of a huntsman is the bad man or woman that comes to extort them or take their parents and big siblings away.

One had to wonder how many of these kids will grow up to become gangsters and thieves. How many future killers were she feeding right there and now... And how little we could do to stop it from happening, even with all of our powerful semblances and weapons. More often than not we could kill a dozen grimm in a second but not save a single person walking towards the abyss.

It was disgusting in a way. That Mistral would be able to host such an important event like the vital festival with all the expenses that entitled it and wouldn’t be able to give a little more help to the people in the slums, it was like they have forgotten this people are citizens too.

I still participated in it tough. So I would not hide away that that was a hypocritical point of view. But I only had fought because that was what they expected of me. Sure, I wanted to win, so I could prove them that they weren’t mistaken when they gave me a second chance... But still.

-You’d be surprised how many restaurants and big food chains just trow away everything that they don’t manage to sell- I said to the redhead when she undermined her own nice gesture. And that brought to mind a story I had read a some time in the past.

-Hell, a couple years ago I remember there was this case in the news. Where a local milk producer proudly stated that since milk prices had dropped that season, he would be emptying his tanker trucks into a nearby river to create a shortage... The Worst thing is, he did, he plainly wasted literal tones of milk that could have gone to a community dinning room or something-

Because yes, some people tough making a statement was more pressing than the lives of poor children.

-And I mean I guess he is free to do with his production as he likes. But that’s not an excuse for being an asshole when you could help a person in need- After stating this, I simply felt content on entertaining myself watching the kids eat and buzz around until I took notice of the fact that I didn’t know how to refer to the mysterious benevolent girl I was talking to.

-Name’s Bianca. It occurs to me that I don’t know how I should call you- Yes, not her name, but how to call her, that was an important distinction here in ground district, one a lot of people cared to have in mind.

All in all, the girl didn’t seem to me like a bad person, and even tough I probably was being to quickly a judge of character. Somehow I felt like a person that gifted food to poor children couldn’t be all that bad.

Unless she wished to talk about something in particular, I would just lay there, enjoying the feeling of the grass caressing my skin.

A couple minutes later I saw Amor coming close to us with a small serving of food between her hands.

-Hey Bianca. Do you want some?-

-Nah, not hungry, thanks- More than not hungry, not willing to take the food away from someone that really needed it. After all Haven covered enough food for me to feast every night without a care in the world.

-Suit yourself... Thanks for the grub by the way, It was fine, needed more salt- Said the girl extending a fist in the redhead’s direction. Salutations complete, she took a seat right in between us.

-So... How’s huntress school? Living the good life?- I was surprised by Amor’s question, since it was something I had never been asked before, most people just assumed it was the best thing in the world and called it a day.

-It’s better... That’s for sure. Got 3 meals a day and a clean bed, as many books as I want and good enough training facilities to become stronger at a steady rhythm... Right now I’m mostly struggling with the book smarts section, but I'm getting there, you can be damn sure of that- I shoot the horned girl a curious look, one that didn’t need words to convey my question. “Why do yo ask?”

Looking me in the eyes, the girl answered in a calm, and leveled voice. —I was thinking of training to become a huntress, apply to Sanctum in a couple years and all of that- And with that, I had to suppress the need to sight heavily and shake my head, it would not do to disrespect her now.

-Why do you wanna become a huntress for? To die a horrible death at the hands of some horrible monster like I surely will?- I was never one to sugar coat things and I be damned if I was gonna start now.

She seemed a little taken aback by my harsh response, but kept pushing forwards nonetheless. —Well, you said you have all of those nice things in Haven, so I tough I wanted a little piece of the cake-

-You can have all of those things with a regular job you know? You have a loving mother and a man in the house to take care of you. You should be thinking of becoming... I dunno, a doctor or some shit. Some safe, stable job you could live the rest of your life with- I gave a quick look the woman keeping us company, hoping to not be bothering her with the topic at hand.

-While me? I might as well die tomorrow depending on where they decide to send me. Didn’t you heard about Rochdale? I was lucky enough to enter Haven before that shitshow took place. I could been dead by now-

The mentioning of Rochdale seemed to give her pause for a second, a fair and logical response if the reports I had read on were telling the truth.

-Things are still bad tough, we still struggle to be able to eat every day, but if I become a trainee in Sanctum I wouldn’t be a burden on my family’s coffers anymore... To be honest, when I asked you I was kinda hoping you would accept to train me for the test-

Now that was a surprise, sadly, not a welcomed one. —Sorry girl, I would lie to you if I said I have the time to do it more than one session at the week tops- And in that little time I would have to cover things like how to use her aura, try to unlock her semblance, taught her how to fight, get her a weapon, and am assortment of other things.

-I always could go with Garrik for training...- She said, and at the exact same moment I could feel my whole body tensing all of a sudden. Goosebumps running trough the back of my neck and shoulders and my eyes growing wide before I had to forcefully regain calm and set them on a neutral stare directly into Amor’s eyes.

-Oh... So Garrik is still up and running eh?- Maybe I was doing some inflection or there was something in my voice that I hadn’t noticed. But the girl seemed to immediately catch that there was something wrong. As her next words were shaky and weary.

-Yeah, he is not as big as before but...-

-Go with Garrik and I personally will track you down and kick your ass until you cannot sit straight for a year- I cut in before she could even start with her explanation.

Garrik was a mistake, the biggest of my life. The fact that he still lived was enough of a mistake on my part. But I honestly tough he would be backstabber and die in some ditch somehow, somewhere. Seems like I was wrong.

I honestly would prefer her to go unprepared and die mauled by a pack of beowolfes before selling her soul to that man. Piece of shit.

Calming myself a little, this time my voice was more stern than menacing.

-Amor. You are a smart girl, but sometimes you have the stupidest of ideas. You know? Not only this Garric stuff, but becoming a huntress in general. What is so great about them anyway. And I’m not the only one that thinks that way for sure... What about you girl? I'm sure you can help me get some sense into her-

I told the redheaded woman with a “Help me please” expression on my face. I didn’t know what her opinions were but I hoped she caught my drift and went along with me. 

---

1584/3300 Words.   

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Intrude on what? This whole exchange was just leaving her more confused. Why would any of these kids trust the opinion of some random human that showed up out of nowhere? It's not like she knew any of them, and it looked like some of them knew the trainee. Did the trainee feel bad about heckling her before or something? Whatever. It didn't matter and she wasn't going to berate someone for trying (?) to be polite.

"Sure."

Even though she said that, her demeanor made it pretty clear she didn't actually want the trainee here. At least this one seemed to have some self-awareness around how uncomfortable it was for a lot of people to be around any kind of Huntress, trainee or not. Despite that, the trainee still ran around fully armed in the safer parts of town, so she wondered if it was strictly performative. Something the scaly faunus was saying to try to justify her actions rather than actually believing it. It didn't matter. If the trainee was trying to play nice she wasn't going to stop her. Red wasn't any more tense than usual, but her eyes did look over in the trainee's direction every few minutes even though she was trying to avoid eye contact for the most part.

Fortunately, it was easy for her to remain polite and to at least sound calm. If anything, she found it easier to be polite than she found it to be mean. She always felt bad when she was even slightly rude to anyone but Knight really.

Red let out a long breath that turned into a snort. While she hadn't heard that particular anecdote, she was very much aware of how much of just about any good was wasted. The world could be so depressing sometimes, and she found it easier to just laugh at it than to let herself get depressed. Her face still didn't look amused in the slightest.

Laughing at it didn't stop her mind from venturing into unfair territory however. It took a great deal of self control to not scream about how the trainee hadn't done anything about it. Unfair. Pointless. It was an anecdote, something the trainee probably heard about rather than experienced. There was no guarantee she was even around when it happened. More than that, she was a Huntress trainee and thus didn't have that licence to kill yet. If she started beating up random farmers she was likely to get expelled. In theory. Red had heard a lot about what Haven students were doing lately and beating up farmers might actually be more reasonable and less terrible than a lot of that, but with as difficult as it was to find information on it all it wasn't something she felt like she could speak into.

It was frustrating because so many people were willing to prattle on about how terrible the world was or how wrong it was that these things happened, but no one ever did anything. The trainee was probably going to talk about this, feel validated that she was a good person, then go back home (or to school she guessed) and continue on like this conversation never happened. Maybe Bianca would feel inclined to do something once she was licensed, but she doubted it. It's not like any other Huntress, or politician, or cop, or anything else ever did. Red had spent a good quarter of her life risking her life in some capacity to try to make the world a better place. She started fighting in a war when she was ten. She became a bounty hunter in an effort to take down dangerous people the government wouldn't before she turned 18. But there was only so much she could do on her own. Why wasn't anyone in power actually doing anything?

She could understand being scared. She was constantly terrified, to the point where she was just used to it at this point. She suffered from decision paralysis and was always afraid of making the wrong decision or hurting people, but that's why she stuck with someone like Knight who was better at just doing.

It took her a moment to try to formulate a response that wasn't filled with unfair aggression and frustration, and by the time she felt like she was getting somewhere a little kid started talking to the trainee instead. That was fine by her, it's not like she had anything especially important to say, so she stayed back and listened. She was suspicious at just about anyone with even the slightest bit of interest in such a profession, but it was different for little kids. They rarely had any idea of what was going on and saw the world differently. Though, as motives went that one was pretty sad. Were those combat schools free? Red doubted it, but it's not like she ever looked it up.

Bianca didn't have such an excuse. Getting involved and then acting like it was the worst thing ever? Weak. She wasn't sure what the trainee was trying to prove here. The odds of the kid going through with something like that with a motive like that were pretty slim given what it entailed, especially for a poor faunus, but she supposed she could help in her own way. Red looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping her fingers against her knee.

"What, you don't want her to do the same thing you're doing?" her voice was perfectly neutral, but there was a suspicious look in her eye. "I thought Huntresses were supposed to be the Defenders of Humanity. Those that cast away themselves and their well-being to selflessly protect the weak from harm. You don't think that's a goal worth pursing?"

---

961/3245

[Bianca Sabbato]

I could feel in the woman’s demeanor and body language that she was uncomfortable with my presence. But well, she would have to suck it up, I gave her the chance to tell me to go away so now both of us were stuck there for better or worse.

Still, I had to snort when she answered my question with another, and I couldn’t discern if her tone was accusatory or simply curious. Or if downright mocking... Well, 2 could play that game.

-Defenders of what? Did you really bought that bullshit propaganda? It’s a job like any other! We exist because there is a need for us to exist. Or as you could prefer to call it, a market... Same as there is a market for waitresses and potato farmers-

Yeah, a farmer could probably feed thousands of people every day, and we didn’t go around calling them “feeders of mankind” or some stupid shit like that.

-Work hard, get paid hard. Do easy jobs, and it’s not as if anyone will pressure you to stop doing so... I mean in really serious cases they may. But those rarely happen and you have to be really good to be called upon emergency missions. If you purposely never take high profile missions you’d probably could skim those altogether unless something apocalyptic happens like million grimm besieging the capital... In which case you may as well help if you don’t wanna die-

Yeah, it was an easily abusable system if you thought about it really hard, and even I was still undecided as for how I would spend my career, if risking my life every day to try to strive repentance or take a more measured approach that allowed me to live longer.

-And the really good ones, the ones that really give it their all to protect people... Those more often than not die after a couple years of service... Turns out trowing you life away is not always conductive to saving a lot of people, probably more mediocre huntsman will end up saving more peoples lives by taking mediocre missions for a longer period of time than going out early in a blaze of glory-

We liked to call those kinds of people “so good that they become stupid” And it was a shame since they more often than not were the strongest huntsman. But often more touched in the head than the so called “Sociopaths” much more easily filtered by the system.

-So no. Friend. I don’t want for her to do the same I do. I want her to live a long, happy life without knowing violence, get married, have children she wont have to abandon, and pass away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones... But I think you up to something, I should ask her what she wants to do as a huntress before judging her. So tell me Amor, do you want to help people?-

I watched the girl rest her chin on her knuckles in thought. And after a couple seconds she gave me a response as simple as it was sincere and pure.

-Dunno, people never helped me, so I don’t know why I should. I guess I’d do it as part of the job-

To this, I couldn’t help but smile. She gave me none of that philosophical bullshit scholars liked to jerk each other off about. But the cold harsh truth, she hadn’t done anything wrong in her life, so why should she be sacrificed like a lamb for the good of people that probably hated her?

-Then there you have it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m down for huntsman academies taking in children without any other prospect of living, it beats starving or being a criminal... But why should you sacrifice yourself for people that would spit on you if they saw you dying on the street?- But to this, the girl actually had a snappy response that managed to shut my mouth for a good couple of seconds.

-Then why do you do it anyway? If it’s like that, wouldn’t you be happy doing anything else?-

Why was I doing it? Well the reason was as simple as they get, I had no other option and I felt like I needed to do it in some stupid, selfish desire to cleanse myself from my sins... Wouldn’t I enjoy doing some other thing better? Hell yeah... I’m sure I had things I wanted to do when I was little... If only I could remember what they were tough...

In the end, I sided with the easy way out.

-No money, no family, no one to catch me fall and only good for violence. That’s why I do it and you know it. You know how it is. If you are from around here and want to pull through... Then you better be good at fighting or at playing a sport, and I suck at playing soccer-

The girl snorted in response, I had to admit I did too.

-Plus, helping people make me feel kinda good about myself, but that's something I only learned before entering Haven, so it doesn't count to me in regard to why I became a trainee- Yeah, like today what I had done, that felt good, somehow the fact I wasn't going to be paid for it made it feel even better.

-Besides. You should see the people there, some of them are good, great even, truly people that want to do good and save people... Arno Mach, Ruqa Reyes, Arturian Cerule, Aegle Verdant... But there are others...-

Mi mind started to wander, from people I had interacted to people I only heard things, but things that were enough to give me goosebumps... Holly Hock, Solomon Moon, Heidi Bariole, Brigit Akane, Qui’Li...

-There are other whom make me feel scared about what the future “oh so called protectors of mankind” will be... And also there are the oddballs that I don’t know were to put- The Clover siblings came to mind, along the likes of the Burzanova girl and people like Berwyn and Ryan.

-I feel like they’re half-baking us and trowing us to the beowolves, like we are so used to dealing with monsters we forget how to treat other human beings... And I wish I could change it... No. I want and will try to change it, but I’m still ignorant, I still don’t know even how to begin-

But I was getting there. Baby steps first, but I was getting stronger in every regard.

-A brain is a terrible thing to waste. And some wars cannot be fought with steel and aura... Some wars go disastrously when you try to fight them with steel and aura, if you have read your history books-

As I had tough before, people who think making a political or social statement is more important than the life of people.

-But I think the real reason it’s that I’m a coward. I don’t wanna have to carry your corpse all the way to your mother door a couple years down the line knowing I encouraged you to pursue this career. I’m afraid to face that-

More often than not, the reasons of the heart overcame the reasons of the brain.

Amor was silent for a couple minutes, most likely digesting everything I had said. I would let her to her silent reflection while I wondered what did the redhead really thought about all of that.

---

1248/4548 Words

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Well, given what she knew of this person so far she figured that getting the trainee to talk a bit was all she needed to do, and apparently she was far more successful at that than she expected. At first she tried to listen closely, but then she kept going. And going. That was probably the most provocative statement she'd said in months, so she was expecting some kind of reaction. Well, she certainly got it. Red's eyes started to glaze over by the time the kid started talking again, but she was pretty sure she got the gist of it.

Hopefully it'd feel good for the trainee to get all that off her chest.

Red wasn't sure how much of it was true and how much of it was the trainee just saying anything she could think of to discourage the girl from entering a combat school, but she wasn't about to contradict anything she said for the time being. Whether she agreed or disagreed was irrelevant here, and trying to argue with Bianca would just make the trainee look weak. Not an ideal position to be in when trying to convince someone to do something. So, she just listened. Or more accurately, watched what all the other kids were doing and looked back every minute or so like she was doing before.

She didn't expect such a controlling method to work well with children. This child was younger than she was when she was living in Menagerie, but she remembered being that teen dealing with an adult that wasn't happy with her actions. His response was always to try to restrict what she could do and put more structure into her life, which did little more than make her resent him. By the time she got her semblance and he could no longer do anything to stop her from doing what she wanted, she wasn't inclined to listen to him at all. She also remembered being ten and facing a situation of dizzying magnitude. No one ever took the time to properly explain what was happening in the years leading up the the Faunus Revolution to her, but even if they had she wasn't sure if she'd be able to understand it. Little kids lacked the perspective necessary for that sort of thing.

When it came down to it, people had to make their own decisions. She didn't have to like them, but as long as she wasn't prepared to use force being a gentle guiding hand was all she could be.

"Do you want to have a job you don't care about?" she turned her attention to the young girl. "Or have one you need to be prepared to die for?"

---

454/3699

[Bianca Sabbato]

The redhead seemed to have taken the lead of the conversation, so being the case that I couldn’t come up with more reasons for her to not become a huntress. I simply let the older woman speak with her for a moment.

-Well, both options are pretty shitty if you ask me- Said the young girl in a way that made me roll my eyes. Yes, they both are, you were asked to choose one, girl.

-I guess I don’t care either way as long as I can make good money fast. And have enough free time to use it. Oh, and I don’t mind working hard for it-

Yeah, most people say that until the time to actually do the hard job actually come. More than hard jobs. People are likely referring to risky jobs when they say that. I know most people wouldn’t think twice to load a single bullet in the cylinder and let a roll of luck decide their fate if the prospect of good monetary gains were on the line.

-I’m always prepared to die. Things are wild out there. Grimm, bandits, gangs and cartels, police officers. You could die anyway. Huntress or not-

Letting her back rest into the grass behind her. The girl stretched lazily while seemingly lost in thought.

-And as long as I have to live. I want to eat good meals... Meat and vegetables every day, Ice cream and pizza. Walnuts and glazed fruit... I want an AC and a pool, hot water and a house all to myself... You know? All that fancy shit people high in the mountain have-

I saw her skyward eyes and saw a hunger that couldn’t be easily satiated. Not by any food. Years of deprivation creating an all consuming maw present both in the most inventive of entrepreneurs and the most heinous of criminals.

Yes. Of course you'd want that, everyone wants those things Amor... And if I have to be sincere with you. Yeah, becoming a huntress is probably the easier way for you to do it. Maybe the only one.

-At least that’s how I wanna live my life... What about you lady? What do you do for a living? Is it something you don’t care about or something you need to risk your life for?-

This was an interesting question to make, sadly it was none of my business. So I would lazily get up at that moment as I came up with some silly excuse for doing so.

Amor right now needed guidance, and I doubted anything this woman could say with the pressure of having a trainee besides her would be of any value.

-I’m gonna stretch my legs for a bit, check the outskirts, be right back- I said getting up and about. Luckily there would be no problems in sight during my little stroll, and more luckily still, they would have come to some sort of agreement by the time I made it back.

---

498/5046  Words

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red watched the trainee got up to move. She supposed she should have considered it flattering that the trainee trusted her enough to leave her alone in the presence of a small child like this, one that the trainee clearly knew, but she found it difficult to shake the feeling that something was wrong. It was irrational. Stupid. Something her brain always did that drove her nuts and stressed her out more than was healthy for absolutely no reason. The sheer amount of contempt she had for the entire profession and anyone involved, human or faunus, was difficult to fight. Even as Bianca started leaving, she didn't take her eyes off of her for a moment. Made talking to the kid a bit awkward, but she'd manage.

Nothing she said to the girl would change regardless of whether the trainee was here or not. The girl was small, so she wasn't going to say anything too provocative to begin with. Honest, maybe a few questions that would be difficult to answer, but nothing she wouldn't say in front of her parents, or trainee friend in this case.

By this point she had practiced her cover story so many times that she knew it like the back of her glove. She spent many long sleepless nights running every scenario she could think of through her head to make sure she'd have a response for it. Not because she wanted to, but because her brain was worried about messing up and making life hard on Knight. At this point, she was pretty sure she could stick to it even while under duress. Like, she could probably come up with something plausible even while she was actually under arrest and say her story backwards and forwards with no contradictions. Having a trainee nearby was not nearly that stressful, so she wasn't too worried about it.

No, her behavior really did come down to raw hatred. It wasn't the trainee's fault. It wasn't fair. It wasn't something she was proud of, but that's what it was.

"I'm trying to get back into school," she started responding to the girl, taking some effort to maintain some amount of eye contact with her while still watching Bianca. "But I guess that doesn't answer your question. I'm hoping to be able to work on big vehicles. Like, airships or industrial trains. I've always wanted to do it, and no, it's not that risky."

True enough, airships and trains were pretty cool, and something she could easily prove with her current knowledge on cars. Those kinds of large vehicles were difficult enough to work with that they're require some amount of specialized training, though higher education was probably overkill for it. Still something employers looked for if the job offers on the internet were any indication though.

The girl's responses were very naive and very sad. Red doubted that she had ever seen Grimm if she could say something like that so easily. The girl lying on the grass was not the image of someone that thought she could die at any moment. Red knew what people that thought they could die at any moment looked like. She had been in situations where she thought she could die at any moment herself. Who was telling this kid this kind of stuff? If the girl clearly wasn't feeling it herself, then it must have come from somewhere. People shouldn't be passing their cynicism onto children. She had just one more question for the girl.

"I see. Then, do you want to have a job you have to kill for? Huntresses don't only fight Grimm. Sometimes they have to fight people."

She spoke normally, neither raising nor lowering her voice beyond what it was for any of her other questions. There wasn't any reason to. She didn't care if the trainee heard her or not. She would have asked the same question if the trainee was sitting around here still.

That was the question that always got her. She could list several causes she was willing to die for, but she didn't value her life that much to begin with. That list got much shorter when it came to what she was willing to kill for, so she took that as a better metric for determining what was important to her. It was a deeply uncomfortable question for her to think about. She hoped it wouldn't be too hard on a kid this young.

---

744/4443

[Bianca Sabbato]

-That’s neat, I never rode in an airship before, but I hope someday I can, they seem cool- Said the girl with a small smile planted on her face, even tough there were no proper airports nearby, she probably could see the cargo ships and private vessels coming and going to the higher districts every day.

When it came to Red’s question tough, for her surprise the girl didn’t seem to have much problem at all with answering with the raw and sometimes brutal honestly that characterized younger people. Cooking her hear to one side, Amor said:

-A life’s a life. If you are prepared to die for something that means you’re prepared to kill aswell. Otherwise. It’s like saying that my life is less valuable than anybody else-

The girl's expression turned harsh for a moment, likely trying to put her innermost toughs into understandable concepts.

-I have family, friends. I’ll probably will have a lover or two once I’m older. Am I willing to risk their happiness by dying just because I don’t wanna hurt some rando that probably deserves it? Hell no-

Resting her head on the palm of her hand, she looked to the other kids still sharing the remnants of the feast with each other, a couple of rowdy boys getting into a heated argument for a burger until the bigger of the two shoved the other menacingly. That seemed to put an end to the discussion as the smaller boy cowered away.

-You open a business? You pay for protection or fight. You are a criminal? You fight. You are a police officer or soldier? You fight...-

She cast a glance off the distance, to the upper city of Mistral, the cloud district.

-And if you have enough money to pay for protection and spend your days sniffing coke and feasting every night while people here murder each other for a gram of crack and a loaf of hard bread. Then you probably have someone fighting for you or are screwing a lot of people under your thumb-

Grabbing a stick from the ground, she dragged it along her horn like one would do while sharpening a knife. Eliciting a rash and weirdly musical sound before playfully stabbing the earth with it. A shade of sadness overcoming her voice.

-Nobody gives a fuck about faunus... Least of all the ones living here. I’ve seen cousins get shot because they didn’t want to pay a fee not to the gangsters but to fucking police officers. And people I considered uncles and aunts get stabbed for a pair of old shoes... They have us fighting one another like idiots... Like we really are nothing more than animals...-

Finally, trowing the stick away with disgust, the girl turned around to face the elder faunus. —Fuck that, I refuse to be less important than anybody else. This is my fucking life after all-

And with that, the girl sent a defiant gaze to the empty space before her.

---

500/5546 Words

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red had to stifle a laugh. As someone that was alive because she avoided fighting, it was almost amusing to hear how everyone had to fight anyway, and from someone that didn't think they were going to die in the near future no less. And she was a soldier, someone that she was sure this kid would say had to fight and die. Even as a bounty hunter she didn't do much fighting. Knight did most of that, while she did more scouting and support.

Fortunately, it wasn't too hard for her to do. This kid was clearly trying very hard to be taken seriously, and Red wanted to treat her with the respect she was looking for. She could remember what it was like being young and having no one acknowledge her problems as actual problems, or, in the cases where they did, not being able to understand those problems. The girl clearly had no idea what she was talking about, but that didn't stop it from being meaningful to her. There were enough signs that the girl was probably going to be okay that Red wasn't too worried about it. She could still picture herself with a future, something Red hadn't been able to do since she was about 11. That she might actually live to see 20 was still surreal, and she couldn't picture herself in these various stages of life -- falling in love, getting married, growing old -- like this girl could. So for all the girl's edgy talk, she was still normal and would probably grow up normal.

She did have to remind herself that this girl was young and was trying way too hard. Her confirmation bias wanted to take this as yet another sign that anyone with even the slightest interest in becoming a Huntress was far too willing to use violence, if not outright violent. That they didn't care about anyone but themselves and would do anything, including kill, for their own self-interest. They were stupid thoughts, and trying to pretend like a kid being edgy meant anything at all was completely ridiculous. The kind of thoughts she needed to bury immediately because they were exactly the same kinds of thoughts that let people continue hating faunus for no reason.

"But do you want to? That's what I've been trying to get at with all of this. You're willing to sacrifice a lot for the people you love aren't you? But...I'm sure they want you to be happy too."

The sound of a scuffle caught her attention, and for the first time since Bianca walked off, she took her eyes off the trainee. It looked like they were fighting over a burger? Why? Those were one of the easiest meals to make, so she made like 20 of them. They had only gone through about half, so there was still plenty left.

"Woah, hey."

She didn't raise her voice, so she wasn't sure if they heard, but she did start rifling through her bag looking for the rest of her burgers. Fortunately, she labeled the containers, so it wouldn't take too long to find a few. While she dug through the bag, she addressed the girl one last time.

"Look, I know your friend or whatever asked me to talk you out of becoming a Huntress, but that's not what I'm trying to do. Even in the police force, they have desk clerks and a lot of investigators and other people that process evidence don't actually fight. You don't have to fight if you don't want to. There's always a choice, even if it doesn't always look like it." She paused while gathering up the containers. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know you, so if you want to be a Huntress then go for it, it just didn't sound like it? Sorry if I'm reading too much into what you're saying. I just...don't want anyone to feel trapped."

With that, she took three containers with burgers in them to hand off to the kids fighting. She really did have more than enough for all of them, so there was no need to fight over them. She wouldn't fight any of them herself, but she was pretty good at playing keep away with anyone that tried to snatch things out of her hands or tried to take other peoples', but hopefully the fact that if he really wanted to grab five more he'd be able to without fighting would stop everything from getting serious.

---

752/5195

[Bianca Sabbato]

-I’m not fixin anything with wanting... And what they want or not doesn’t amount to shit either- Spat the girl with an unusual amount of bile in her voice. Like the sole idea of other people worrying about her elicited some sort of disgust.

-And I don’t know what I wanna do. I only... I wish I was more powerful, you know? That way I could have a choice in the matter... I guess in a way I kinda feel like there is not many choices-

As she said that, the girl lowered her head in the slightest of ways, probably even she herself didn’t realize it, but Red’s trained eyes surely didn’t fail to take notice as she gathered her food containers.

Breaking up the children was pretty easy, as most of them hurriedly stepped back once they saw the woman approaching, with only the biggest of boys daring to stand his ground, the same that had pushed his friend a couple seconds before.

He seemed content once he took three burgers, stepping aside and being followed by the other kids claiming their food as well. Once Red returned to her previous spot, she would notice that the girl hadn’t moved from her spot, seemingly lost in tough.

—... I feel like people will step on me you know? Ever felt that before? That people with power do as they want and that somehow impacts all of your life? Kinda like... Like there is some kind of big internal joke that you are not into-

Letting out a dry chuckle, the girl gave a last bite to her food and started licking her fingers clean.

-I just don’t wanna feel powerless... And maybe if I became a huntress I could try to not be one of the shitty ones... Keep my companions in line and the like? But for that I would need to become stronger... I dunno-

Where the girl had seemed secure and decided before, now a notable crack of doubt was starting to creep into her face.

-What would you do in my position? Honestly. I feel like a lot of the time people want you to do the exact opposite of what they would do... I love Bianca, but she is guilty of coming out with that “do as I say not as I do” bullshit more often than she should-

And with that, the girl will simply ponder on Red’s words for a while, until inevitably the huntress in training would make her way back to the old courtyard

-Whatever... Thanks for listening anyway- Said the girl with a small smile.


..

...


The walk had been relaxing, and fortunately much more serene than I was expecting. At least this sector seemed safe from grimm incursions for now, so that was always a relief.

The disadvantage of that, was that it let me alone with my own mind to worry about all the things Amor had told me... Specially the news regarding a certain Garrik Claroscuro still alive and prospering. And to no one’s surprise, the police and huntsman were doing nothing about it.

Clenching my teeth, I felt like I wanted to scream and puke at the same time, the spear on my back suddenly feeling a much, much more heavy than before. I couldn’t let Amor fall into his hands, even if it killed me.

-No matter how many times you step on a cockroach, it simply stays alive-

With a heavy sight, I made my way back to the basketball court where I found Amor and the woman standing just where I had left them.

Hands on my pocket, I approached them from a visible angle. “Coast clear” I mouthed the redhead as I returned to my previous sitting spot. We hang out there for a while until Amor decided to get up to get herself another piece of meat from the pile, leaving me and the woman momentarily alone.

-Thanks for the assist by the way- I said nodding in her direction. Letting my shoulders relax a little and just enjoying the warmth of the sun against my skin. No need to be on edge anymore, if she wanted to do something she would have already.

Still, my mind was still feeling scrambled. I always tried to plan for things to go a certain way. But more often than not I ended up feeling just as lost as if I hadn’t planned for anything. Having no one to talk about it, I glanced at the freckle ridden girl for a moment and decided it was worth a shot...

—... Hey... Can I ask you what you think about all of this? Like, you think I should help her with this huntress thing? I could maybe pay for a proper tutor if I start taking more dangerous missions... I’d be willing to do it to prevent her from falling into wrong hands, but I’m still not sure if that’s what she really wants...-

I was feeling kind of lost to be honest, but I didn’t want to plunge into something without at least having a second opinion on it.

---

854/6400 Words

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

That feeling of powerlessness was one Red understood well. Looking back, there were very few moments in her life she had any control over. In the moment, she always looked for something, anything, she could do that might affect the outcome, but it rarely did anything in the grand scheme of things. A lot of the time it was nothing more than cleaning, which might have taken some burdens off of some people, but wasn't exactly going to change the outcome of a war. She was still going to hear about people dying, if not outright watching them die while there was nothing she could do to help them.

What she didn't want to tell the girl was that getting her semblance and aura didn't help much. It increased her options, which she was grateful for, but life was just as overwhelming as it had always been. She didn't have a family to take care of, a stable enough life to have many friends, or even a proper job to worry about, so she thought on a scale that went far beyond herself. After the war she tried to live a normal life and failed. Red saw herself as a fundamentally broken person because of it, and was more than willing to take on the stresses of trying to carry the world on her shoulders if it meant making life better for everyone else. Unfortunately, being willing to do it didn't make it any easier to figure out what to do, and she was afraid of hurting people. But there was no need to thrust this on the girl. Let her have some amount of optimism.

"I think a lot of people that try to talk you out of what they're doing aren't very happy with their decisions." Either that or had a severe lack of self-awareness, which seemed equally as likely here to Red, but that wasn't useful to say to this girl. "Bianca seems to like to talk, so I think she'd talk to you if you asked her. I think you just caught her off-guard."

Red was in no way qualified to give life advice, so she left it at that. She barely trusted her own judgement most of the time, so trying to pass that judgement onto others seemed stupid. Fortunately, a distraction in the form of the trainee came just in time to save her from having to make up something vaguely polite and useful sounding. That was probably the first time a Huntress had done anything useful for her in her entire life. Truly a new milestone.

She wasn't quite sure what the trainee was trying to do by mouthing something to her though. Was she supposed to respond? Red looked back and forth awkwardly while she sat back down, then raised an eyebrow and gave a weak and awkward thumbs up. What that was the trainee was looking for? She had no idea. It was good that there were no Grimm in the area at least.

The conversation didn't make her feel any less awkward. Why the hell were people asking someone like her for life advice today? Did she look like someone that had any idea what she was doing? Her clothes were clean, she supposed, but they were much too big for her and weren't exactly fashionable. She was wearing literal jeans and a T-shirt with a jacket that was clearly built for comfort and practicality. It even had an extra set of pockets because carrying space was more important than fashion. She had dark rings under her eyes because of years of bad sleeping habits, stained teeth, and even a missing tooth. She had no idea why she was inspiring confidence in any of these people.

"No problem," she rubbed the back of her head. "I'm not sure why you're asking me. I don't know either of you. Just do what you think is right?"

That and maybe the person who thought that faunus Huntsmen were basically traitors was a bad person to ask for advice for on this subject.

---

680/5875

[Bianca Sabbato]

I had to chuckle at the woman’s response. She was right. Honestly, what was I even expecting from someone I barely knew? Still, I found her “do what you think right” advice to be humorous in some way.

-Sure. It doesn’t matter. I just tough that since you are a stranger you could give me an unbiased opinion or... Nevermind, sorry. I’ll shut up now-

Yeah, probably not my smartest idea. I raised my head to look at the kids eating and playing just a couple meters in front of me. Amor was speaking animatedly with a small human girl dressed in ragged clothes. Good for her, It would not do for a girl her age to spend the whole day speaking with older woman like us.

The next minutes were as peaceful as they could get, I entertained myself watching the kids and occasionally checking my scroll for the last news or lurking at the haven academy chatroom.

But speaking of older woman. On a moment notice my attention was forced to shift from my own boredom to a scrawny figure making its way towards us. Only when It was close enough I could see that it was nothing more than an elderly woman. Probably a neighbor coming to see what all the ruckus was about.

She gave a quick inspection to the kids and the food that was being delivered before her eyes settled on me with a barely hidden grimace of disgust on her face. One of the kids went by her side, and she gripped at his shoulder with vice-like strength, probably her grandchild of something.

-Well. Well. Well... What do we have here? A huntress in training? And what do we owe the oh so dubious honor? Coming to handle food like we weren't able to procure it ourselves?- The elder lady had that mocking tone so characteristic of people that where about to give you shit for one thing or another.

Anyway. I couldn’t tell her about the grimm, I didn’t want to cause panic, so I limited myself to give a polite, albeit vague answer.

-No ma’am. Just patrolling the area, keeping an eye open for stuff. The food was already here when I arrived-

The woman hummed to herself in a singsong tone, her rambunctious kid still firmly gripped by his shoulder. -No wonder, no wonder... Still, I have to ask, why are you here? Did someone invite you? If not, I don’t see why do you think you can just show yourself around like this is the backyard of your own house-

Oh, so she was one of those. While most people in the slums tended to evade and shy away from huntsman in fear that they would harm them. There were a few of the more confrontational people that believing themselves courageous (when in reality they were suicidal in the worst case and a nuisance at best) decided it was a good idea to confront people that could tear them in half it they really wanted to.

Still, I wasn’t planning on tearing anybody apart soon. So I’d have to deal with it with diplomacy. A little pissed off, I responded with the same tone the woman had used on me.

-What? Am I not free to go around wherever I please? As a citizen I have the right to free circulation, you know?-

-And what do you use it for? To flaunt and swagger around, boasting how better than us you are just because you let yourself be neutered by humans?-

And diplomacy ended up being useless as always. Neutered uh? Seems like some people actually bought that “faunus are animals” bullshit. That stung, I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t, but I’d have to suck it up for the time being. Least I confirmed the woman accusations.

—... Look, I came here because some worried neighbor solicited my presence. So I’m just trying to help-

What the woman did next surprised me for the familiarity of it. For ironically something like that had happened to me a couple days ago when I tried to give a go to the whole music club ordeal... The woman spat at me, I probably could have summoned my earth to block off the slimy projectile, but that may have been taken as a provocation on my part... So I simply let the spittle impact loudly on my left cheek.

—That’s what I think about your help...-

Said the elderly spider faunus with her 4 compound eyes filled with contempt.

—... You are no lizard, you are a snake in a woman disguise-

I looked at the woman, then I calmly took out a paper napkin from my skirt’s pocket and cleaned my face as best as I could. Clearly a prime example of the old saying “Give them a hand, and they'll grab you by the elbow”

Did this woman had a deathwish? Or maybe it was true that people stopped giving a shit when they reached a certain age... Paying closet attention to her... Didn't she... Reek of alcohol?

Shaking my head a little, I responded.

-You know what? It’s the second time in a week someone has given me a hard time for being a faunus. I would like to say I did not expect it from a fellow faunus itself but I would be lying-

Reducing me to nothing more than my tail... That “you can’t do this or that if you are a faunus” nonsense. That moment I thought about how humans really seemed to have it easier. They at least didn’t have their own race telling them what the fuck they should be doing or not.

The woman didn’t seem to have any intentions of going away, she seemed content with staying there to keep berating me until I reacted on a way I shouldn’t or went away entirely.

I saw how some of the kids were starting to look at the scene with uncomfortable expressions on their faces. And I suddenly felt like I didn’t want to be the one that ruined the meal for them.

Casting a glance to the redhead besides me, I leaned a little in her direction to address her directly.

-Hey... I don’t wanna cause trouble for you or the kids...- I could see the woman on the edge of my vision, still spouting outdated slurs against my kin (Like calling me cold-blooded... Congrats grams, you are so original) or making really disturbing assumptions of what I had to do with humans to get into Haven.

-So if you want me to go away or something... I’m not gonna get mad at you-

I could see Amor a couple meters behind the woman, her sights set on the woman's nape with a cold expression. She probably was about to do something, but I could probably stop her if it was something too bad like trowing a rock at her.

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red shifted awkwardly in a vain attempt to try to get comfortable. Nothing about this situation was comfortable. As much as she wanted to save the world, actually trying to direct people she barely knew was terrifying. Hell, even trying to give advice to people she knew was terrifying. They were putting responsibility on her and so much faith in her decision making and that was a lot of pressure. What if she was wrong? What if her decision made their lives worse? The thought was unbearable. She wanted to focus on increasing peoples' options so they could make their own decisions. As daunting as that task was, it was less terrifying to her than having people directly relying on her.

How did Knight deal with that feeling? Hell, how did any commander or leader deal with that feeling? Knight's ability to just go was something she was always jealous of, even if it did have some unfortunate side-effects sometimes. It had to be better than feeling like this all the time. Her own leadership ability was something she wanted to work on and had been making a conscious effort to do so. Should she try to say something here? The trainee was asking for it, but she was in no way qualified to say anything useful. Why was interacting with people so hard?

"I understand," she started slowly with obvious hesitation. "But it's not like you're asking me about what color you should make your carpet. This is serious. And..." she paused and took a deep breath to try to get her thoughts together, "Probably something you should talk to her about? I think she'd like that."

That was about as useful as she could get and now she wanted to quietly go have a heart attack in the corner. Once again, she tried and failed to get comfortable. Why she was wasting so many brain cycles on someone she didn't even want to be around who was probably better off than she was to begin with was beyond her, but she always had trouble saying no to a worried face. It bothered her in ways she couldn't describe. So, when the silence came, it was welcome. The silence gave her a moment to breathe and to stop her mind from running in pointless directions.

When another person came by, Red didn't think anything of it at first. There was even less reason to when one of the kids started running towards her. She went back to zoning out and failing to be less tense until the old woman started talking. Who the hell just walked up to random people and started saying stuff like that? She wasn't proud of her darker thoughts, but that's why she kept them to herself. It wasn't possible for her to just stop thinking them, if it was possible for her to stop thinking about things she didn't like or that weren't useful she would have cured her anxiety problems a long time ago, but she could at avoid thrusting them on other people. The old woman got into uncomfortable territory really fast too, and Red really hoped she was just saying stuff rather than what she actually believed. Taking a quick glance around, she could see that she wasn't the only one that was uncomfortable. It was probably worth trying to deescalate the situation.

"I brought the food ma'am," she chimed in and raised a hand. "I've been trying to learn how to cook, and I bought too much food, so I thought I'd share rather than throw it out." She paused once she realized she was starting to ramble a little. "Do you want any? I have plenty. I have some burgers, chili, shepard's pie..."

She started digging through her containers again to take stock in what she had. When Bianca decided to ask for her opinion again, she bristled. Why did the trainee keep doing this? It was getting really obnoxious. Red understood that sometimes it was really hard to make decisions, and that was especially true when she felt like a burden or like she had to make a decision she didn't like. She understood that better than most people. But she still made those decisions and didn't foist them on other people. That was just rude. While she dug through her stock, she looked Bianca in the eye and spoke low enough that she hoped the old woman wouldn't hear.

"Look, I can't make all your decisions for you. Decide what you want and do it. Stop asking me."

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