[Rose Phoenix]

❝I Was Lightning,

Before The Thunder❞

567 w./ 4157 w. total

E strength| F stamina| f Acrobatics| f Dust

e semblance| F weapon| 

Rose snickered at first to Colt's endorsement comment. It was cute to think that he was already contemplating his victory over her. Just because he had beaten her didn't mean that he had an edge over her. If anything, complacency led to one's downfall and then she would swoop in to obliterate him. Her snicker turned into a slight cackle at the thought.

"Mm...I could go for some sweet corn right about now. Hell, I'm hungry enough to eat the can too!"

She stuck her tongue out to drink at the rain, licking savagely at the air like an animal as she bobbed her head back and forth as if she were listening to a catchy tune. The girl was feeling a tad woozy in the head from the beatings she had taken...not to mention the mild head trauma from the Beowolf attack.

"Ooh my!" Rose covered her mouth in mock shock. "Are you going to discipline me, Colt? Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me!"

The girl burst into full on laughter completely out of nowhere, bawdily pronouncing their presence to anything in the area. She couldn't quite tell if she was in a good mood by hanging out with someone who understood her or she was just going mental. Either way it was nice to let her tension go.

"Oh hey! You did already ask that, didn't ya? Heh heh I'm a few ducks short of a full flock. Still it would be nice not to hold back. Like I run into so many weaklings that just up and die on me before I get in a decent hit! The hell is up with that? You though? I can beat you till the sun goes down and I'm sure you'll still have that shit eating grin on yer face!"

Rose smacked him lightly on the back, well aware of how weakened they both were. She wasn't quite dumb enough to actively harm her only reliable source of protection, after all! There was a semblance of logic left in her that pushed Rose to find Ameli...there was absolutely no way that any of them would fail. Hell the fuck no.

"Yeah you know what? Those little scratchy marks aren't doing much to leave a good trail, my dude. Sec..."

Her sword was unsheathed from her back as Rose gripped the handle with a tight grip. The rain, the Grimm, the other students...that damn teacher. This whole situation was pissing her off and Rose was getting fed up. He wanted noise? Oh she liked it loud, so she would make it loud. The consequences be damned. She clicked the activator securely hidden just below the cross guard and the base of the blade ejected to allow fire and lightning to encompass the blade. It blazed a bright crimson around the weapon as the blonde held it high above her head, shield securely strapped to her forearm as she did so.

"100% MAXIMUM NO CHILL!" She screamed.

Rose brought the blade down with all the might and fury she could muster, roaring at the top of her lungs as the unstable dust was blasted in an intense beam of energy that ripped and tore through the forest directly ahead of them. Though uncontrolled and lacking in size, it boomed and cleared a fair path before them. She breathed heavily at the release of endorphins and shook with glee at the wanton destruction.

"Fuck you forest."

© SETHANIEL OF adox 2.0 + WW.

[Colton Deraine]

[googlefont=Open+Sans]

[attr="class","firstfriend"]

Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.

It turns out that the descent into madness was shared, and the Argus native had just enough awareness left to realize that he shouldn’t have said what he had just said. The first indication was the entirely too loud lewd proclamation that anyone nearby could hear – and maybe even those not nearby if the blonde’s voice carried. She burst into laughter afterwards, while the brunette just groaned in a mixture of disappointment and disapproval. There was such a thing as taking something too far, and the Vacuo native had gone so far beyond that point that the point wasn’t even visible to anyone anymore.

The grin returned when the topic changed to being able to go full out against another opponent, because that was exactly the teenager’s logic as well. It was nice to be able to actually let loose and not be worried about breaking someone in half with… wait, that was bad phrasing. Without being worried about injuring someone along the way due to accidentally using too much force. His durability was another skill he was very proud of, and the fact of the matter was that to improve and maintain that skill someone would need to beat the hell out of his aura every so often so that he remembered what it felt like. He didn’t get much of that at Haven, though it wasn’t from lack of trying on the part of the other students. They tried all right… they just didn’t succeed due to a lack of natural talent. Rosalia didn’t have that problem, frankly. She had all the natural talent in the world, just not the skill to make full use of that talent. The proper training part was much easier to fix than the complete lack of tools to work with in the first place, so he was lucky he found her when he did.

At the sudden screaming, Colton realized too late what was happening to stop it and was just kind of forced to just watch. When he asked if she had anything to make some noise, this was not what he expected. When he saw the fire and lightning dust swirling around, he was thankful that the downpour meant that the fire dust would be put out pretty instantaneously at least. The lightning dust, though… All the water would conduct that lightning dust into everywhere nearby. They were also standing in the water, which meant…

Oh, fuck.

As soon as he realized he would yank the blonde off from the ground, too late to stop the dust from shooting out but soon enough to where the rebound wouldn’t hit the woman with no aura to protect her from her own recklessness and stupidity. Clasping his hands around Rose’s stomach, the brunette would lean backwards a bit to force the girl’s feet off the ground. The bad thing about electricity was that it tended to conduct along water… especially when the downpour was going on for so long as there was standing water in most areas of the forest that was running downhill.

”You dumba—“ he’d breathe, more approvingly than angry until the moment when the electricity loosed so close did rebound back and shatter his gray aura into little pieces. Now neither of them had an aura in the forest filled with Grimm. Dropping the girl, then, was more of a given rather than a choice as Colton lost all strength in his body for a second. Thankfully, though, the blonde wouldn’t be damaged by her own recklessness…. this time. That was too fucking close for comfort, though. Way too close for comfort.

”If nothing else,” he’d offer, ”I’m pretty sure Ameli noticed that if she’s anywhere nearby.”

It was effective and very visible and audible, sure, and a warning for him in the future to be more specific when he asked for help. A lot more specific, frankly, to prevent shit like this from happening again. It was an interesting attachment to her weapon that he wasn’t entirely aware of before, which was much cruder than Colton’s own and required more dust to function. In return, though, it could probably be used as this sort of fire hose of dust to just point at nearby Grimm when they were at a distance that it was almost impossible to miss from. It was clever, in the same way that the first person to realize sharp metal might be a better weapon than a club was clever.

※ 7170 total words ✎ 747 words ✉ D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, C ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Rose Phoenix]

❝I Was Lightning,

Before The Thunder❞

426 w./ 4583 w. total

E strength| F stamina| f Acrobatics| f Dust

e semblance| F weapon| 

Getting picked up by Colt was quite a surprise to the blonde that she had not expected in the slightest. Of course she had been reckless! A desert girl like her was extraordinarily devil may care with little regard for consequences. The blast of energy was very loud and flashy, even if the effect was hindered a bit from the downpour.

Rose gasped, letting out a yelp at being manhandled by her companion. "The hell are you-Ah oh!"

In her crazed attack, she had completely broken Colt's aura as he protected her. Sure a little bit of electricity would have messed her up, but electro shock therapy did wonders! Staring at the young man, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Yeah! Oh holy hell that was freaking great! I usually don't actually use that much dust, but wow! You doing good, pal? Come on, shake it off! GOD, I feel GOOD!"

She rubbed a bit at her teeth, feeling a chatter coming on. But then just shrugged it off as she shook uncontrollably.

Rose seized Colt's arm to yank him along, beaming from ear to ear at the exhilaration. She was pumped, despite her exhaustion. Perhaps she had gone beyond fatigue and straight into madness? Either way, the midterms weren't going to wait on them! They had a team to build after all. Though as she tugged him along, Rose came down a bit from her high and started to calm down.

"I guess I never did show off my weapon's dust enhancement. My parents were both geniuses in their field, you see. I think I told you this? Anyways, I can set my blade ablaze but it takes like a TON of dust to keep up for long. So I kind of use it in short bursts or fire off a rough divide. If we're gonna be team mates, I guess you should be aware of what I can do, right?"

The girl did feel bad for putting Colt in a tough spot, leaving him defenseless and all. But if this didn't attract Ameli's attention, then hell the girl must be blind and deaf. Would it attract the Grimm though? Honestly she was done with fighting, which was saying something of the power hungry Vacuo native.

"Hey uh sorry. I wasn't really thinking...I guess I knocked the stuffing outta ya a little bit? I tend to act first. But like, what about you? How come you're so calm and shit all the time? Your teacher put that in your head or were you just born and raised to be a tight ass?"

© SETHANIEL OF adox 2.0 + WW.

[Colton Deraine]

[googlefont=Open+Sans]

[attr="class","firstfriend"]

Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.

There came a point where arguing or debating was much more of a detriment than it was helpful. In any other situation, the laughing and joking about doing something that stupid would have earned a harsh rebuke from the Argus native, but now wasn’t the time or place for such things. Before he could recover from his aura breaking and that wave of fresh exhaustion hitting him as a result, he was being dragged along physically by the blonde.

The fact of the matter was that in their current state, they couldn’t survive a major Grimm attack. If he decided to start arguing right then, that would just amp up negative emotion in both of them and draw Grimm their way. It would be entirely detrimental, and furthermore it would distract both of them from the main goal in tracking down their third member. It would also make the secondary goal of not dying harder, because they’d be focused on arguing rather than survival. It was much smarter, then, to keep his own mouth shut until they were safe and sound back on campus.

It would be even smarter for him to shower and sleep before exploding, which would be a stretch goal from the initial one of not bitching until they were back on campus. It was both a blessing and a curse that the inability to stop running his mouth caused the vast majority of the teenager’s problems because of his concurrent inability to stop. Knowing something is a weakness was pointless if nothing was done about that weakness, frankly speaking.

When the topic shifted to that of Rosalia’s weapon, Colton nodded and offered: ”Yeah, I’d like to take a look at it when we get back. I can maybe make it guzzle less dust at least, if it’s similar at all to the Atlesian design that my dust injection kit has.” There would be a slight pause before he added with a smug smile creeping across his face: ”Probably good that you didn’t try to use it against me either time. I’d have just redirected it with Polarity back at you.”

At the last point, he’d wait a few seconds before saying anything. ”I mean, I like living.” he’d finally respond, confused about the question about his ‘calm’. ”All the Grimm are way stronger than me physically. One fuckup and I’m being tossed around like a ragdoll until one of us dies with no way out.” There was a shrug, then, before he continued in his usual self-assured tone.

”Someone gets a good grip on my arm and I don’t have metal on it, I’m fucked if I can’t kill them immediately because my arm is gone. Same thing with my leg, if I fuck up… well, it’s gone. If the enemy is strong enough to threaten me, if I’m not calm, I’m dead. If they’re too weak to threaten me, why the fuck do I care?” There was a scoff, then, almost like he was thinking about someone in particular at that moment.

”Before and after I’ll shit talk, sure. Sometimes I’ll even pull out the lawn chair and disrespect if someone is just being insufferable and I know I can stomp them with a handicap. Most of the time, though? I’m bored or I can’t afford to waste all of the dust in my weapon that you had kept for the entire fucking exercise for some reason even thou--.”

He stopped, then, both verbally and physically and yanked Rosalia in turn to get her to stop. He thought he heard something like a branch snapping and had to confirm it. Once he heard it again from his left, it would be his turn to drag Rose around and take the lead. ”Someone’s over that way.” he’d say softly, ”Either that or Grimm, dunno which. I got a bit of dust left if it’s Grimm, but not a lot.”

He didn’t really know how much time was left in the exercise, frankly, and wasn’t about to risk pulling out his scroll in the rain to really check. Colton was never the best at gauging time anyway, so it would have been largely a futile effort to even estimate. If this wasn’t Ameli, then they might have run out of time. Any movement was better than no movement, though, and at least it had the chance of being the person they were looking for. He didn’t yell or holler or anything, though, largely because if it was a Grimm it would just make it look over and get it more pissed than it normally was. If they were going to fight off any in this state, preferably it would be one at a time and not a big pack of them at once.

Yeah, a big pack of Grimm would be anything but ideal at this point. With any luck they could just find the other blonde and then just hunker down for ten minutes or whatever and get the hell out of this forest. A shower sounded fantastic, and a shower with the smug satisfaction of knowing that he passed the exercise sounded even better. The only downside would be that everyone would want to take a shower when they came back, which meant everyone would take them at the same time.

With communal showers, that would firstly mean that it would be a race to get there first or to go to training facility showers and hope nobody else thought of going there first… and also the hot water would be distributed amongst all the showers and might even run out completely. That would fucking suck, frankly. That would suck more than anything, having to shower after someone else already made the entire place filthy as fuck in water cold as the rain currently soaking through his bones currently. He was shivering, he noticed, just as much as Rosalia was shivering. They were both shivering because they had been walking around in the ice cold rain that had been slamming down relentlessly for fucking hours into the morning because of course it was.

Trainees couldn’t have nice things, so there the rain was to make sure of it.

※ 8204 total words ✎ 1034 words ✉ D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, C ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Améli Hortensia Celeste]

WORD COUNT: 605

TAGGED:

TAGGED: Fluffy

Améli had been doing her best to keep pacing herself. Yet, with individuals that she didn't know came unforeseen consequences that she had no manner or reason to prepare towards. Cast aside once chaos had errupted, everything had gone quite a few notches up on the frustrating factor, as the blonde warrioress had found herself quite alone towards the final hours of this little midterm. Grimm were swarming, angrily, almost as if they had figured out the students would be leaving soon and that this would be their final moments to score some easy kills on the exhausted student body. Still, what was more worrying, was that she absolutely needed to find someone to leave the area with to pass the midterms. With the rain pouring down and the general panic in the area, garnering the time to group up with someone was nigh impossible. In essence, this had come down to chance. Down to risk. Améli loathed the situation innerly. Initially, she hadn't been too concerned with passing this midterm. Afterall, she just arrived, and it likely wouldn't make much of a difference in the long term. However, with the discipline that she held great pride within, everything within her screamed that failing was unacceptable, dishonorable and lazy, lazy, lazy. 

The rain was pouring down and moving forwards was difficult. Even so, comapred to when they last saw her, Améli was more or less in the same exact shape. Having spent about as much energy as the hours had allowed her to recuperate, going at the same steady pace all throughout. There were very minor scratches in her armor here and there, and she was currently covered in mud - soaked beyond any comparison - but she still seemed to be able to keep moving onwards. The reason that they managed to lay eyes on the blonde warrioress once again, was rather simple. Admist the chaos, there was only one way to garner the attention of those in the area. Creating a chaos that overshadowed the prior chaos. Thus, Améli had been heading towards the loud noises, the falling trees, the deliberate attempt to capture the attention of those in the area. Figuring that, perhaps, it was someone else who needed a partner before leaving trying to call individuals over, Améli had conceded to the fact that it was rather ingenious, heading in the direction of the increased chaos and commotion.

There, she found two individuals whom she wouldn't have put it past to create additional chaos in the final hours of the midterm. Rose and Colt. Continuing to move on at her current pace, she was doing her best to catch up and join the two of them. Breath heavy, Améli was getting incredibly tired. Digging in to her only remaining reserves, all they needed to do now was get out of the forest...

They may have expected some kind of greeting. They may have expected something regular or normal. However, the tired Améli only had a singular sentence to say. Eyeing up the other blonde, Améli sighed softly as they moved. "Rose, mind your language. The forest hasn't done anything wrong." That was it. That was all. The only comment to bring them together for this final little stretch. As for Colt, he just received a short nod of approval.

...but it held a lot of promise as well. With that singular comment, Améli spoke of things to come in the future. Améli spoke of them getting out of there safely. Améli spoke of caring about Rose's education, standing, personality, future... 

...Or did Améli even think her words through that far? Perhaps the future would reveal the true nature of her character...

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Ameli: 6 x 200% (event bonus) = 12

114 + 12 = 126 XP new total

Colton: 82 x 200% (event bonus) = 164

587 + 164 = 751 XP new total

Rose: 46 x 200% (event bonus) = 92

401 + 92 = 493 XP new total