[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.
But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.

Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

There was one final kick that drove the air out of his lungs, and then they were gone.

Argent slowly got to his feet, feeling his body complain. Aura protected you from damage, but there was only so much it could do. Some of the scales on his face had been taken off by a punch with a ring on one of the fingers, his stomach ached, and the back of his head throbbed where one of the humans had clubbed him when his back was turned with a chair. It was a good thing weapons hadn’t been involved, given that no one had been carrying them while outside of combat class, but fists and boots and any number of environmental objects could be turned into a weapon just as deadly when imbued with Aura.

The small crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle had dispersed by now, and no one paid him any attention as he stumbled his way to a bench and slumped into it, wincing as he brought his sleeve up to press it into the blood that was welling up from the raw skin where the scales used to be. The damage would probably have been far less if he didn’t throw the first punch, but Argent had been through too much in his travels to fail to recognize when a gang of Faunus haters were closing in on him. Showing weakness, showing that you were willing to lie down and let them walk over you - that was what kept them coming back. You had to fight, to throw everything you had at them so that they would think twice about doing it a second time.

His Aura flickered. It was the first time he’d handled something of the sort without Shin or Jade’s help, and it had gone about as well as he’d expected. But he hadn’t backed down. That was the important bit. He hadn’t backed down.

It had cost him, but he hadn’t backed down.

A hiss of pain escaped him when he pulled the sleeve away, the thin strands of the cloth still clinging to weeping skin. The bleeding had stopped, but he should probably go back to his dorm room and clean it before he put a plaster on it or something. The bruises that were even now developing would heal in time, and if the developing headache didn’t go away within the next few hours he would go to the infirmary. Probably not a good idea to make a fuss out of it if he didn’t need to.

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK F]
OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK F]

@ ● 429 words ● 429 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Not cool. Not at all cool. The younger of the Burzanov cousins stormed through the halls of Haven Academy on a goddamn mission. It seemed as though someone (well, four someones) was (were) stepping on her turf. And they were doing it all wrong. Henchman type shit, not even. Just straight up being assholes. Kishka wasn't a nice person, and arguably, not a good person in general, but shit, even evil has standards. And she drew the line at a four-on-one racist beatdown. What she did was different- she was a villain, yes, and good at it, but her schemes never really hurt anyone, at least not too badly. And they were equal opportunity schemes, and frankly, better-thought-out than just wiping the floor with some poor snake kid. Someone in the crowd managed to record some of the fight on his Scroll, and uploaded it to the student group chat, where she saw it before it got deleted. It was blurry and hard to see clearly, but she definitely knew it was four humans versus one faunus. Namely because the guy who posted the video made a point of rooting for the bad guys. She had very quickly found him after the fight broke up, and he was now in a locker. That shit wasn't okay either. So now, violet eyes burning with slavic fury, she strode down the halls, on a quest. She was going to find those assholes and beat them to within an inch of their lives. It was a message; there is only one bully at Haven Academy. One. Only one. They may have taken out the poor snake guy, but in a four-on-one fight against a skilled opponent? Yeah, no way. She was going to mop the floor with them. Then trip them, so they slipped on the recently mopped floor. Of course, on her way to find the hooligans, she realized something very important. She had no clue where they went after they left the scene. She sighed. This would be harder than she thought it would be. And then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted him- broken and bloody from his fight, the poor guy was slumped on a bench. At least he didn't go down without a fight, she'd give him that much. Plus he was kinda cute... That wasn't the point right now, though, focus! "Hey! You!" She sounded a little aggressive, but only because she was angry. Also, she always sounded aggressive. She stepped closer to Argent, eyes focused on him, bent into a firm glare. "Who the hell did this to you? And which way did they go?" As soon as she found them, they were as dead as the cafeteria's mystery meat. Mostly.

Notes// BIGBULLI BULLI BIG BULLIES | Tagged// Argent Steele | WC// 466

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.
But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.

Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

Gold eyes looked up with a wary, distrusting expression, the snake Faunus’ head snapping up quickly at the shout to see the incoming other student and designating her as further trouble. A girl with dark skin and violet eyes and hair, clearly of a less than calm disposition. Argent was on the verge of struggling to his feet and preparing for a second round of attempted beatings before she yelled a second time, causing the look in his eyes to be masked for a moment with visible confusion and bewilderment before they returned to that measured, steady gaze he wore on a normal basis. She didn’t seem like she was out for him like the others, but even so, it never hurt to be cautious. His Aura was on the verge of breaking, after all.

Argent shifted both shoulders in a reluctant shrug that he immediately regretted, as his head complained from the movement. A slight twitch of a facial muscle and a flash of pain in his eyes was all that he showed, but it was fairly obvious that he was in no shape to be walking around for a few minutes yet. What a good thing there were no classes for the rest of the day, or there might be trouble keeping up.

“Don’t know names,” he grunted, wincing involuntarily as his hand went to his chest while his other gripped the handrest of the bench as if to stabilize himself from falling, though he hadn’t moved from the position any, if at all. He was still breathing hard, but the burning heat was starting to subside from his body, so it wasn’t all that bad. Well, except for the thousand and one parts of his body that were starting to bruise. The snake Faunus slumped back into the bench with another grunt, the effort of trying to respond to the girl’s sudden appearance clearly more than he could handle at the moment. The words that came from him hitched a little, but was otherwise impressively steadily given the situation.

“Didn’t see either. Was down. Think two went back into the Hall. Aura’s nearly gone for one of them. You can check, if you want.”

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK F]
OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK F]

@ ● 367 words ● 796 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Kishka watched as the poor guy tried to move, just a tiny flicker of pain flashing across his face. It was very slight, but Kishka was pretty perceptive. That, and maintaining unusually aggressive eye contact was a hobby of hers. She sighed. It was a little pathetic. But she did have to admire his fighting spirit- when she approached, he seemed ready for round two, even though his body was clearly anything but. Seriously, a strong breeze might take him out, willpower or not. "Quit moving so much, you'll only make it worse," she snapped at him, her tone as angry and aggressive as the rest of her. Part of her wanted to step forward and shove him down into his seat, to emphasize the importance of sitting still and not breathing too hard, lest he shatter his spine, but she didn't have the heart to beat him up any worse than he already was. Though she did reconsider, briefly, when he mentioned that the assailants had fled, and he only halfway knew which direction two of them had gone. "The Hall" wasn't much help, frankly. Especially because they had probably left pretty quickly after they finished beating him up, if they weren't completely stupid and incompetent. Damn, and one was already on the last of their aura? That was such a tempting prospect. A little blood sport would sure as hell dissuade them from fucking with anyone else again on her turf. With an agitated groan, she shook her head and turned to look again at the pitiful sight. How did someone so tall get completely curb-stomped like he did? Granted, he did put up a fight. But still, was he that weak? She felt a little bad for the guy. Hmmmm... She started to just walk away, hoping to catch one of the assholes on her way back to her room. But she didn't get too far down the hallway before she stopped in place. No, that would be dumb. She already knew finding them now was a lost cause. They were long gone. And... Well, she almost hated to admit it to herself, but something about him... She couldn't just walk away. Even if it hurt her very soul. She was supposed to be the bully! Her! But here she was, about to defend the helpless and the weak. God, Bel must really be rubbing off on her. Absolutely disgusting and reprehensible. She wasn't a hero. She was the bad guy, and she took what she wanted, did what she wanted, and said "fuck you," to anyone in her way. And yet, her feet had turned her body around, and her legs had forced her back to the snake faunus. Maybe that was why she felt compelled to make sure he was okay, and why she was so driven to fight those guys... She was a villain, not a racist. It was one thing bullying people who could defend themselves. But bullying the weak was pathetic. The faunus had always been downtrodden, and like hell was she going to contribute to that cycle. Plus, he had really nice eyes... Warm and golden, shiny and burning with deep inner strength. And they were attached to a not-unattractive face. Handsome, even... Fuck, what was she doing? She felt stupid. Soon she was standing before him again, grateful that her angry disposition and darker complexion did a good job of hiding the slight blush on her face. "Couldn't find them," she said, bluntly. Standing there for just a moment longer than was comfortable, she moved to sit beside him on the bench. A bit hesitantly, and with a slightly softer tone, she turned to face him. "How bad is it?" She gestured at his injuries, before continuing with a second question, much harsher and more aggressive than the first, her purple eyes as stormy as her surname predicted. "What the hell did you do to get your ass kicked so bad?" Of course, even as she asked the question, she knew the real answer- even if he had done something to provoke the fight, they were already going to do this. He'd have just given them a reason. To think, there were genuine assholes like that in her school... They brought shame to the good name of bullies everywhere. She would make them regret ever (unintentionally) crossing her.

Notes// :mad: | Tagged// Argent Steele | WC// 730

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.
But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.

Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

The strange girl had come and gone, and Argent settled back into the curve of the bench’s backrest. His Aura had gone to work on the minor aches that had been plaguing him, but it would be a while before comfort of any sort was forthcoming. He wondered what all that was about - was she a prefect of some sort, tracking the others down? Mistral, and by extension Haven, didn’t have the best reputation for being as tolerant of Faunus as other cultures. The existence of Professor Shadecloak in a position of power would seem to lay rest to that claim, but if anything, it only highlighted how none of the many humans pooling in the crowd around them as the fight had gone on had even tried to speak up showed the true colors of their stripes.

Perhaps it was personal, for her. Perhaps she was one of the good ones. He wasn’t sure about that, though.

And then she came back.

“Couldn’t find them,” she’d said, staring at him for a while before seating herself beside him, which made the snake Faunus tense up slightly before he forced himself to relax. After all, if she wanted to finish what the previous four had started, she could have done it at any time before now - without him ever noticing her face or opening her mouth, even. It was… a little hard to push down the instinctive dislike of a human coming so close right after a bunch of them had gone at him so badly, but Argent swallowed the distaste nevertheless. It would never do to judge someone like that based solely on what race they were, Shin had said.

It would make him the same as the worst of both their kind and his.

Argent affected another shrug at her question, forcing his body to relax back into the bench. The pains around his body were starting to subside, and his head in particular was no longer hurting quite so much. His condition was on the up and up, but his Aura would take a few hours to get back to a hundred percent, at the very least.

“Don’t know what set them off,” he said, looking at her. Now that she was closer and his vision wasn’t swimming quite so much, he had a vague sense of familiarity when looking at her face, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why.

“But I’ve been around. Saw the signs. They were boxing me in. Getting ready. So I started it on my terms.”

A pause, rubbing at his neck, before he sighed.

“Still lost. But it’s better than lying down and taking it.”

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK F]
OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK F]

@ ● 448 words ● 1244 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Frustrated. That was the most dominant emotion in Kishka's mind. She was frustrated with the assholes who thought it was okay to run around her school, beating people up all willy-nilly. She was frustrated at this snake guy, for tugging on her heartstrings enough to keep her from just walking away. And she was frustrated at herself for letting him. She looked over his bruises as he shrugged her question off. Sure, his aura would heal him up, but a beating like that would be putting it to work for quite a while, before he was back to one hundred percent. When she found those guys, she was going to knock them clear through the ceiling. For uh. Her benefit. Because she wanted to. Not because she felt bad for this hot mess of a guy. "Don't know what set them off," he says. Sure, and she was the King of Vale. She knew what had set them off. And she knew he knew what had set them off. She nodded, as he continued, her stare never wavering from her seething angered expression. "Well that was fucking dumb." Always the tactful one. "Yeah, they were boxing you in, but the weapon lockers were just a hall away. You look like you're a lot quicker than you are tough, and those meatheads hardly have a brain cell between the four of them. Could've made a run for it, grabbed your gear, and kicked their asses before they could get theirs." She made it sound pretty easy. Of course, she had no clue if he even had a weapon. But if he did, not using it was just stupid. Nik stupid, almost. She sat there for another minute, before breaking the silence again, her tone just a bit softer, but still bearing that harsh edge of fury. "It's not fair." She looked out at the hallway, still as empty as it was before, but for the two of them. "All of them ganging up on you. At least you were man enough- and stupid enough- to bring the fight to them before they could start it. Four on one is just pathetic." Never mind that her plan was to go one on four whenever she saw them in the hallway next time. Four on one wasn't fair against a walking toothpick like this guy. She was a Sanctum Academy graduate, and an expert both with, and without, her weapon. Her, versus all four of them would be unfair too. Unfair for them. She sighed. Jerks. Bullying people too weak to fight back wasn't okay, and it just exposed them for the assholes they were. Especially bullying someone for being different. She could respect someone like herself who picked fights with those strong enough to take it. She was in the villain game because she was good at it, and that meant playing in the big leagues, not beating up wimps. Those guys were the worst, and the crowd watching wasn't any better. To think, out of all the people gathered there, supposed to be Huntsmen in training, she was the only one who stepped up and did tried to do the "heroic" thing. Shameful, that's what that was. At this rate, there wouldn't be any superheroes for her to go head to head with! Her purple eyes wandered to the snake boy's bloodied face. He was covered in patches of silvery scales, and it seemed like a few had been ripped off in the fight, leaving big splotches of blood and presumably a lot of pain. Gingerly, she gestured to one of the spots where a scale once was. "Do they grow back?" She hoped, for his bullies' sakes, that they did.

Notes// boop | Tagged// Argent Steele | WC// 621

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do. Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.
But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.

Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

A non-committal shrug was given when she mentioned that the weapon lockers weren’t that far off. He hadn’t thought so much about it, a spur of the moment decision to throw himself fully into the fight outweighing any thought of strategy or arming himself before doing so. It had been an instinct born of a year of villages and towns that weren’t too friendly to Faunus, knowing when people were hyping themselves up to “teach you a lesson”. And in hindsight, going for Subtle Calamity, suited as it was to a ranged focus, and escalating the fight to the point where weapons needed to be brought out wasn’t the best idea in the first place. It might not have been an injured Faunus lying there on the ground if he had.

It might have been a corpse.

He had seen the aftermath of such things before, usually held by human bandits after raiding a Faunus village. They were never pretty. Sometimes they found them, Shin and Jade. Sometimes they couldn’t, and so handed over the case to the local authorities. Sometimes the culprits were never found, unable to be tracked by the law enforcement forces, stretched thin to the point where they could barely handle anything in their own territory, much less chasing after anyone who wasn’t an immediate problem. It was an unfortunate truth that bandits were as much a problem as the Grimm that followed in their wake, and keeping a town together after such an attack would be on a much higher priority order than chasing after the perpetrators of such a heinous act. Such things might never happen at Haven, but Mistral was not the most accepting of Faunus in the first place, and he didn’t want to risk it.

“It’s not fair,” the girl said, and he glanced over to see her looking at the empty hallway, devoid of people save for the two of them. "All of them ganging up on you. At least you were man enough- and stupid enough- to bring the fight to them before they could start it. Four on one is just pathetic."

Argent nodded, though he seemed more resigned than in agreement. Life wasn’t really fair, after all. There wasn’t a whole lot he could do about that. One could only adapt as best as they could to the rigors of their situation, and that was about as much as they could do. From a numbers perspective, gathering to take on another made logical sense, in the same way that he would prefer to have backup even when handling the most runty of Beowolves. Or as Shin would have put it - birds of a feather flocked together, especially if said feather was ganging up on others weaker than themselves.

“Do they grow back?” the dark skinned girl asked all of a sudden, gesturing to his face. Argent touched a hand to the raw skin, winced slightly, but nodded.

“Eventually. Two or three months, I think. They’re not supposed to come off like this.”

There was a long pause, during which the snake Faunus looked over his new acquaintance, and not in a particularly discrete fashion. Now that he wasn’t presently occupied by the intense pain that had been present a few minutes before and able to properly breathe, his curiosity took over enough to give her a long look. She seemed somehow familiar, even though he was certain that he’d never spoken to her before today. And while she seemed angry that the four who’d decided to forcibly introduce him to the wonders of lying on the ground breathless had disappeared with nary a trace, she also seemed equally angry at him, for some reason. Did she just go through life in a perpetual state of rage?

Argent blinked once, an image of a white haired fellow trainee in medical class flashing in his mind for some reason. He did know her from somewhere, and he’d finally figured out where it was.

“You’re one of the students in Class 1. What’s your name?”

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK F]
OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK F]

@ ● 674 words ● 1918 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

It was a little funny. Kishka was normally a pretty quick-tempered person, but this was different. And not entirely because she was angry about injustice, or shit level bullies making her job harder by besmirching the collective reputation of bullies everywhere. She was angry for this sad little faunus. And, as he astutely concluded in his own mental monologue, she was angry at him in equal measure. He was an idiot, and he was reckless, and it seemed to her as if he had just given up entirely on the idea of ever being better than a toothpick that let himself get kicked around by assholes. Granted, most toothpicks didn't fight back. Most toothpicks were also a lot less nice to look at. He was a very special toothpick, okay? But still too weak, too soft, and not angry enough. Why wasn't he angry!? She was angry, and she wasn't the one with chunks of her skin missing. Speaking of which, she was a bit reassured as he confirmed that the scales would grow back. She nodded slowly, still in thought. Well that was good. N-not that it mattered to her, really. She just didn't like the idea of some punk losers permanently disfiguring another loser. The idea of it left a bad taste in her mouth. Had those little shits really never read "GEWS?" Didn't they know that good bad guys were classy, elegant, and honorable, even when they were being sneaky and deceitful!? I mean, granted, "GEWS" was not a series known for its upstanding black-and-white morality. It did, after all, feature a hero who was fighting on the wrong side of a fantasy-themed interpretation of the Faunus War, and a significant amount of racist propaganda from that era. But who read "Golden-Eyed Werewolf Slayer" for the hero? Everyone knew the stylish wolf faunus villain, Naples Alabastor, was the real star. And Kishka's idol growing up. Or well, she knew that last bit, not everyone else did. Point being, anyone with aspirations of villainy ought to at least know how to be a good villain like Naples. On second thought, though, maybe those guys did read "GEWS." And just happened to side with the "good guy" for what seemed like obvious reasons... She blinked, snapped out of her comic-induced daze by more words from the boy beside her. Eh? Her name? Hmph. She turned to him, her expression a look of mixed confusion, amusement, pride, and rage all at once. "You really don't know? Living under a rock much? I'm kind of a big deal, you know." She sighed, before presenting her hand to him. "Kishka. Kishka Burzanova. And who the hell are you?"

Notes// smooth, kish, v smooth | Tagged// Argent Steele | WC// 453

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do.
Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.

But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.
Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

"Never heard of you."

The snake Faunus stared blankly at the extended hand for far longer than he should have before it clicked that he was supposed to shake it. Reaching out slowly, he tentatively grasped it and pumped it once, twice before letting go, shifting his weight so that it didn't rest on the portion of his leg that was rapidly developing a bruise. He didn't need to see it to know it, the feeling quite familiar by now - not in the least due to his past exposure to getting roughed up in the travels outside the city, and at least in small part to the growing abundance of it beginning to appear all over his body.

"I'm Argent. Argent Steele," he said, the ever so slight emphasis on his name barely noticeable. Having to give up his name to take on that despicable man's own irked him to no small degree, and years of using it at Root Institution and later on at the workplace had instilled within him a distinct dislike for a name that he never wanted in the first place - or even liked, for that matter. He'd gone back to using his real name at the first opportunity, and Shin had enrolled him in Haven under it too. Once he was legally an adult, it would be a simple matter to cut ties with the Nova family and return to using it for good - or so he hoped. He hadn't been back to that ridiculously over sized house for longer than a year anyway, and didn't intend to return any time soon. Not to mention that he doubted anyone there would miss him anyway, given that he'd been fairly absent ever since Nova had sent him off to Root in the first place.

Still, now wasn't the time to be dwelling on the past. There was something itching at the corner of his mind, a connection between Nicholas and the dark skinned girl in front of him - Kishka, she said her name was - that he wanted to find out more about.

"Burzanova, you said. Like Nicholas? Tall guy with white hair? You two related?"

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]

SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK E]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (AGILITY) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK F]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: WINGS OF THE WYVERN (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: TALONS OF THE TARASQUE (MARTIAL ARTS)

OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK F]

@ ● 359 words ● 2277 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Never heard of- The fucking nerve of this guy! The fiery glare she was drilling into his skull and the way she grit her teeth at him demonstrated handily that he had chosen the wrong answer. He accepted her offered hand anyways, and she made sure to squeeze with a pretty firm grip, letting him know who was the boss. Fucking 'never heard of you.' Was this asshole living under a fucking rock!? Never heard of Kishka goddamn Burzanova?! Accomplished Sanctum graduate and one of Haven Academy's best students!? This guy was a fucking idiot. He introduced himself. Argent was a fucking idiot, she corrected in her thoughts. She started to lay into him about not knowing who she was, and exactly what backwoods alleyway he'd crawled out of where at least her surname wasn't known- Burzanov was a well-known brand of mid-top shelf liquor in Mistral, and even if he wasn't from Mistral, they exported plenty of their products. That'd be like not knowing what Guinness was, or never hearing of Smirnoff. Ch. Uncultured fuc- She went from relieved, to furious, in a matter of seconds. Seems he did know her surname. But not from her parents' company. Fucking Nik. He knew fucking Nik, but had no idea who she was!? "Asshole! Not knowing who I am, but knowing Nik? For fuck's sake, you really do live under a fucking rock!" She threw her hardest punch at his shoulder, almost impulsively. And then immediately snapped out of her anger, remembering that he'd literally just gotten his ass beat. "Oh shit, oh fuck, I'm sorry, shit, I forgot you were-" Wait, the fuck? Why was she apologizing to this loser? Clearly, he wasn't worth the effort. Didn't even know some basic shit, like her reputation. On the upside... Seemed he wasn't aware of her reputation... Unless Nik had gone and talked mad shit about her to him, but conveniently forgot to mention her name. Which was something she considered likely enough that it merited putting in some effort to repair whatever damage that dumbass could have done to her rep. She sighed, breathing out slowly, before speaking in a softer, less violent, tone, just the barest hint of a blush on her face. What? Guilty? Her? Never. "And uh... Yeah. Nik's my cousin. Please don't tell me you're friends with that dumbass. You might be an idiot, but I'm pretty sure even you have more than one brain cell to rub together. Nik, unfortunately, does not. Pretty sure his mom dropped him as a baby, actually. Down an elevator shaft or something." She shook her head. Fuckin Nik. "And just to be clear, if he ever mentioned anything about his cousin, AKA me, it was most likely a bunch of slander and propaganda. He's just jealous that I'm so much better than he is at everything, even if he won't admit it. Kinda sad, really." Hmph. She'd show him. Nobody got away with slandering Kishka goddamn Burzanova! Nobody! And she was going to make damn sure this guy knew that.

Notes// tfw finally getting this old boi rollin again | Tagged// @snek | WC// 515 | TWC// 2785

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do.
Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.

But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.
Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

Argent hadn't been expecting her to blow up over what had been an honest question, didn't have much more time to react to the incoming punch than a flinch away, and it hit him like a sack of bricks. It definitely felt harder than anything those four had beat him with - if the ebbing pain before had been a manageable scale of four on one to ten, now it was definitely in the ballpark of nine or more. It wasn't the initial impact that hurt the most, no - after the initial shock, what was left behind was a numbness and a dull ache. Only for a split second, though, before burning pain radiated out over his arm from the point of impact like cracks spiderwebbing from a pane of glass, as the pain receptors finally got around to transmitting the extent of the damage to his brain.

He quite wished they hadn't.

Hissing in agony, the snake Faunus retreated along the bench, away from the dark skinned girl until he was half perched on the edge of the seat, leg tense and foot braced against the ground as if ready to spring him out and away at any moment. The hand that hadn't been disabled by ruthless application of force clutched at the point of impact on his other arm, as if that would help dull the pain somewhat. His golden gaze had been distracted and unfocused before, trying to disassociate from the physical discomfort - now, it was alight with alert wariness, locked firmly onto Kishka, flickering from limb to limb whenever she moved, ready to avoid a second hit whenever it came, just as his body was ready to push himself out of the way when it did so. All his instincts were screaming at him for continuing to remain here, and truth be told, he was just about ready to get out of here if that second attack should come.

Thankfully, the Burzanova girl at least seemed apologetic, which was the only thing from keeping him from up and just leaving immediately. Then again, she didn't seem to pay it much attention before continuing to talk. At that point, though, his attention was divided between trying not to breathe too heavily and keeping an eye on her in case something else happened to direct her ire towards him. Strong and powerful, with that kind of hair trigger temper? He didn't say it aloud, but the thought crossed his mind that it would lead her one day to lash out against something she really shouldn't, and it could cost her dearly.

Not that he was particularly sympathetic at the moment, though.

"Just a classmate," he ground out through clenched teeth, less so from anger and more from the pain in his arm that was still throbbing with every beat of his heart that sent blood through his veins. Maybe he really did need to visit the infirmary after all, even if it meant getting some unnecessary attention.

"Not friends. Don't talk much. Just connected the two surnames."

The snake Faunus suppressed another wince, and hoped that the temper didn't run in the family. It was one thing to have a loud and easily noticeable dark skinned girl hit you out of the blue, given that she would be easily found a second time in the general light skinned population. But a quiet guy like Nicholas who blended into the rest so easily, with the same kind of violent temper?

Not something he wanted to think about.

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]

SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK E]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (AGILITY) [RANK F]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK E]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: WINGS OF THE WYVERN (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: TALONS OF THE TARASQUE (MARTIAL ARTS)

OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK E]

@ ● 590 words ● 2867 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Oh... Fucking. Duh. She immediately felt like more of a jackass than she already felt like before, as his words, seemingly unconnected to her efforts to distance herself from Nik's sullied reputation, finally clicked in her head. He wasn't Nik's friend, and only made the connection between her and him by their names. Which was a normal, very much not-punch-worthy association. "Oh..." She sat in awkward silence for a moment or two, thinking of how to proceed. Some stupid, annoying, part of her felt like she needed to make it up to him somehow. She quickly shut that part out, and ignored it. Another part of her said to just fucking ditch him, because he was a shit loser who couldn't even hold his own against a couple of low-tier bullies. He was literally the nerd that got picked on in movies. In a "Heathers" casting call, he was Martha goddamn Dumptruck to her Heather fucking Chandler. She should be hitting him with dodgeballs and smacking his lunch tray, not helping him out. But... That little voice in her head, annoying as it was, was fucking persistent. Okay, fine. He didn't have to be Martha Dumptruck. He could be Veronica... That's how she would pay him back for wrongly associating him with her shitty, stupid, cousin. Like a whirlwind of a mood swing, she whipped around, fire in her eyes, and a cocky grin on her face. She was going somewhere with this. "You know what your problem is, Steele? You're a pushover. I mean, sure, chips were down, you tried to fight back when those guys were going to start shit, but you got your ass beat for it. But you're just taking my shit right now too. And I get the feeling you do that with everyone you meet- don't correct me, because you know I'm right." Her grin bloomed from cocky to full-on smug. She extended a hand, like a deal with the devil. And the look in her eyes made it clear that, much like such a Faustian bargain, he had no choice but to accept, if he liked his life and wanted it to remain intact. "So let me help you. I'll keep an eye out for those assholes, like I said I would, because I'll be goddamned if that shit happens in my academy, without my knowledge, and in the meantime, I'm going to teach you how to be less of a non-assertive pussy." Her violet eyes met his, fierce and feline, the gaze of an apex predator. But she meant every word she said. He was an investment. And if it meant spending more time around him, well...! That was just a sacrifice she would have to accept.

Notes// this is kishka at her most regina | Tagged// @marthadumptruck | WC// 458 | TWC// 3243

✬

[Argent Steele]

I know you got hate in you. Most do.
Trick is to use it, 'stead of it usin' you.

But you know this. Vengeance is a motivator, not the motive.
Don't hunt 'em 'cause you been wronged.
Hunt 'em 'cause what they did was wrong.
There's a world of difference there, kid.
One makes you selfish. The other makes you a hero.

And I see a hero in you.

❝

It was only the first week.

Only the first week, and already he'd been beaten more times than he could count. Only the first week, and he'd been pummeled harder than aged meat being tenderized at the butcher's. Only the first week, and he'd already attracted the attention of first a gang of those whose only power lay in picking on the weak, and now the attention of... whatever this bipolar, egoistical, impulsive woman thought herself to be.

When he'd hugged Shin and Jade goodbye on the boarding ramp to the airship to Mistral, lying bruised and beaten on a bench was the furthest thing possible from his mind. And yet, here he was.

It was only the first week.

The small rush of adrenaline at the possibility of a second fight had faded, and now he just felt plainly miserable. Worse than he'd felt before, actually. At least he'd managed to give as much as he was able to in an actual scrap, but getting blindsided with a punch that had shattered the last of his Aura without any warning hurt. Not in the least because he hadn't expected her mood to change at the drop of a hat.

Taking a deep breath, the snake Faunus squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled, long and slow. It wasn't quite the meditative techniques that Shin had taught him to keep his emotions in check, but it helped to center him, and let him think past the aches and the pains that plagued every bone in his body - his shoulder in particular.

There had to be a reason why Shin had put him here. Here, of all the Huntsman Academies available to them - here, in the land where they both knew how their kind were treated. The older Faunus must have had a plan of some sort, and the longer Argent thought about it, the more sense it made. Adversity built strength - in making it through the worst of what life had to offer in the land most hostile to them, there would be little else that could stand in his way once he'd finally left it behind. Not just being able to function in the most cutthroat of societies, but to live and thrive-

That must have been what his mentor meant. That must have been the design laid out before him.

Argent opened his eyes, and looked up at the girl before him, pontificating madly before extending her hand out in an offer. It wasn't a hard decision to make. If her mouth was all she had to her, if her boasts were just that, and she had nothing to offer him - then it would be easy enough to renege on their so called agreement. He doubted anything so informal and made under duress would hold up in court anyway, even in one as slanted towards human benefit as Mistral's.

And if not, then he would learn everything she had to offer. There was nothing that said that everything he added to his repertoire of knowledge had to be from teachers and professors. If this maniac of many faces had enough strength to back up her words, then he would see for himself how it measured up to everything else the Academy had. He would absorb all he could, and leave her behind when she had nothing left to teach him. In the here and now, he might be nothing but a harmless worm for her to step on - her, and everyone else who was so inclined - but not forever.

One day, he would bite back. One day, he would fill the world with teeth, and his venom would burn away any obstacle in the way of standing proud at his mentor's side.

Including her.

His hand came up, pale skin against her dark, and the corner of his lips twitched.

"Very well."

WHISPER OF THE WYRM (SEMBLANCE): [RANK D]

SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: SPEED OF THE SCYLLA (SPEED) [RANK E]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: DANCE OF THE DRAGON (AGILITY) [RANK E]
SERPENT'S BENEDICTION: GLARE OF THE GORGON (MARKSMANSHIP) [RANK E]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: WINGS OF THE WYVERN (ACROBATICS) [RANK F]
SERPENT’S BENEDICTION: TALONS OF THE TARASQUE (MARTIAL ARTS)

OUROBOROS (WEAPON): [RANK E]

@ ● 643 words ● 3510 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Jay]

XP Distribution:

Kishka Burzanova: 32 XP
247 + 32 = 279

Argent Steele: 35 XP
69 + 35 = 104