TRP is a post-Great War AU RWBY RP set in Mistral City and Haven Academy with no canons, no rank claims, no maidens, and no god interference. We offer a progression system and site-wide events that change the setting based on player actions.
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Nov 10, 2019 3:52:07 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
It had been a long day already.
Jack wasn't one to be averse to long days, but this was pretty different from his work in the restaurant. This was real Huntsman training. Not like what they did in classes, this was sink or swim, fend for yourself, thrown to the wolves, style training.
It was, frankly, a little brutal. He wasn't a fighter, not by nature, and he hadn't had time to nurture those combat instincts into himself yet. Hell, he'd spent most of the day running away and just trying not to die. He'd managed to successfully bring down a few Grimm, but he wasn't sure if he'd killed enough to meet his quota. At any rate, it had gotten late, and he'd been forced to set up camp again, after his temporary camp earlier had been overran. But now, as if things were actively fighting against him, he was running low on firewood, and night had fallen a few hours ago. It was cold, and he needed to stay warm if he wanted to get through the night in any condition to fight off attacks. And of course, morale was as important as anything else when it came to the Grimm- if he was miserable and cold, then an hour later, he'd be miserable, cold, and dead, with his luck.
So he'd headed back out into the woods, grateful for his night vision, for once- normally, he didn't think about it much, but thinking about how his human friends were faring about now reminded him that he was at an advantage around this time of night. Still, that advantage wouldn't compare to his paltry excuse for muscles, or for his lack of speed, outside of his semblance. Gathering firewood was shaping up to be a tedious, potentially dangerous, errand. But the dying glow of his fire pushed him onward.
Still, there wasn't much good wood for a fire close to his camp- he ended up traveling a decent ways out, a few hundred meters from the relative safety of his camp, in search of quality fuel; dry branches and twigs, mostly, since he wasn't strong enough to carry any massive logs with him, and he lacked an ax to fell any trees with.
Before too long, he had a good little bundle going, and was ready to return to camp, when he caught side of a flicker of motion from the corner of his eye. Startled, he let go of his quarry, the branches tumbling to the ground as he hastily drew his sword, prepared to strike down whatever Grimm was approaching him...
Though he didn't think he knew of any Grimm that were shaped like a person. With metal arms and legs? "O-oh... S-s-sorry, I um, I thought you were a, uh... A Grimm." He managed to sputter out an embarrassed apology, as he scrambled to reclaim the firewood he'd dropped.
@brig ● WC: 488 ● TWC: 488 ● birb boi being awk af
Post by Brigit Akane on Nov 11, 2019 12:11:22 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
The forest, Brigit decided, sucked. It was too dark to navigate easily and far too crowded with trees for her to make any practical use of her grapples so the act of walking around and looking for people for her stupid midterm task that had absolutely no functional purpose for a huntress. It wasn’t her job to become the personal bodyguard of anyone who asked, and yet that was the restriction she was given. And the worst part was that she hadn’t found anyone with a camp she could mooch off of yet, at least not a camp filled with people she didn’t find extremely annoying. The bright side of her slow walk through the forest was the fact that the loud clicking of her legs as she walked was a solid deterrent for any wildlife, so the area around her was quiet apart from the noises she herself made. Grimm hadn’t been much of a problem yet, but with the noise she was making and the general carelessness with which she walked through the forest it was only a matter of time, she was counting on it.
Bringing a flashlight would have been smart, but instead all Brigit had to light her way was the flashlight on her scroll and it was rapidly eating away at her battery life. She only had the one extra charge pack, and if she didn’t find someone to mooch off of soon she’d be left high and dry without a single way to see in the darkness and no supplies to make camp or start a fire. She did have beer though, so at least she’d be drunk while she slowly froze to death.
It was after quite a while of walking, probably in circles, that Brigit heard something new from the forest - something rummaging around and collecting branches that could only really be another student, unless a new type of grimm had surfaced that she didn’t know about. Besides, this was a better thing to focus on than her current state of complete disorientation, and so she began the walk towards the noises.
And was swiftly met with a very winged faunus holding a sword towards her like he intended to attack or something equally stupid. Thankfully he realised what a horrible mistake that was, and swiftly stuttered out his apology and stated that he believed her to be a grimm. So he was dense, she could work with that. Brigit watched as the faunus scrambled to pick up all the wood he’d dropped, at least that was promising since it likely meant he had a camp and if not he had some way to make a fire. Either that or he was fucking cracked and just collected wood for fun.
”I’m going to stay with you. For now anyways. That is for a fire correct? I hope that you have a camp as well, of some sort.” Brigit was someone who tended to speak tersely unless she was high on adrenaline, without much embellishment or exaggeration as far as she was concerned. She wanted a camp, he had a camp, and so she waited for him to collect his things and then fully intended to follow him towards wherever he planned to take it. ”What is your objective? I need to aid people as a Rose, so we should complete your task before resting.”
(Word Count)⏤ 563/563 (Aura)⏤ 100%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Nov 23, 2019 22:08:01 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
An ordinary reaction to someone pointing a weapon at them and then apologizing for mistaking them for something else might have been to accept the apology and continue on their separate ways. Or to get angry and yell a lot, prompting further apologies. Or to be annoyed, at the least, and chide him for being so jumpy.
Brigit's reaction was far from ordinary.
Not that Jack minded, nor could he especially judge her for it. Who was he to decide what normalcy even meant, anyways? It was almost refreshing to have such a direct and blunt response to his actions. Or rather, to his presence- his actions were hardly addressed by the redhead.
"Uh, um, y-yeah, it's for a um, a f-fire, yes. I um, I'm Jack, or Junior, I-I guess, either o-one, and oh, right, a, a, um, a camp, yeah, that's-" He blinked hard a few times and took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. It was bad enough he'd been so startled moments ago, now he was trying to contend with a new person, and to make things worse, he was still attempting to process what exactly she had just said to him. She was... staying with him? Well, sure, he wouldn't deny her that, he could use all the help he could get, and as far as he could tell, it was within the rules for a Dandelion that he could camp with one other person, so this worked well enough for him. He cleared his throat, and spoke a little slower, with less obtrusive stutters. "Y-es, my camp is just back this way, um. It's not too far."
She asked him another question, in the same straightforward, no-punches-pulled manner, and also pointed out that she was a Rose. He knew from talking to Granado earlier that Roses were there to help other students pass objectives, so he understood her question even without her bit of explanation. "I'm a Dandelion. Which m-means I need to kill five Grimm. I still have one left t-to kill, I think. My notebook is um. B-back at my campsite."
As he spoke, he finished gathering his firewood, and began the short trek back to his campsite, checking to see that Brigit was still trailing behind once or twice as they walked. It didn't take them very long to get back, and when they got there, the pair were greeted by a small set-up, consisting of a makeshift shelter, a small firepit with a pot of stew bubbling on a metal rack, and a stump by the fire, which was on the verge of burning out.
The shelter was big enough to accommodate two students, fortunately, though it certainly wasn't pretty to look at. His camp earlier in the day had been made with his tent, but he wasn't able to save that from the Grimm before they sent him running. Instead, he had a large tarp posted over a natural dip in the ground, giving them enough room to sit comfortably, but not stand. The support beams were effectively just small trees that he'd pinned the tarp to, but he figured they were sturdy enough to hold, whatever the weather ended up being like. Beneath the shelter, his sleeping bag was laid out, and next to it, his backpack, filled with supplies.
He set the firewood down in a pile by the fire and added a few pieces, encouraging the flame to strengthen itself up again, to a level capable of doing its job. Jack stirred the soup pot briefly, with a wooden spoon, before turning to Brigit. "It's n-not much, but hopefully it will do. M-make yourself at home. I've got carrot-ginger stew cooking, with some mushrooms and herbs I found in the forest, if you're hungry." Hopefully she was- he wasn't too keen on chasing after a Grimm just yet, after his rough encounters with them earlier. Though it seemed as though Brigit was the type who'd drag him along anyways, to meet her quota. Which was understandable, he supposed- she couldn't very well complete her objective if he didn't work to complete his. Still, there wasn't any rush to go do that right now, was there?
Post by Brigit Akane on Nov 25, 2019 12:16:45 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
The Faunus introduced himself as Jack, though Brigit really didn't have much reason to care what his name was. He was, in short, a means to an end. He would allow her to pass her midterm and provide her some shelter for the night since it was unlikely she'd be able to get back to Ameli before the forest night became too dark to navigate. With little in the way of conversation or acknowledgement of what the faunus had said, Brigit followed him back towards the camp and the fire that had been promised. He did say what his job was though and this prompted a small smile and a nod. ”We will find a Grimm to kill before it becomes too late to see. After you show me your camp and do what you just do with the wood.” Her tone didn't leave much room for objection, she had made up her mind about what would happen and there was little Jack could say to change that.
Stew happened to be one of those things. The moment they entered camp Brigit went straight for the pot hanging over the fire and sat down cross-legged. ”We will eat first. You have a spoon? I do not want my arms to malfunction or I would eat it with those.” As she waited, Brigit glanced around the camp with a raised brow as she absently adjusted some of the many dials and screws and vents along her limbs in an effort to keep things running as smoothly as possible despite her total lack of knowledge on how to actually make repairs and the like.
The camp was, honestly, a mess and clearly something slapped together in likely a relatively short amount of time. Still though, Brigit had to admit it was much better than she could have done herself, the extent of her knowledge was camping shows that she watched from time to time and a mountain climbers magazine. Neither of which provided actual instructions on how to do the things they depicted. Brigit had always been the type to climb during the day but return home or to a hotel after she was finished rather than stay out overnight. Thrill was one thing, but freezing all night as her prosthetics absorbed all the heat from her body was not her idea of a good time. Tonight would be bad, but she could handle one evening of cold.
”I am Brigit. I am new to the school but have no desire to fail this midterm, if that was not clear. Your success is now very important to me. Do not fail.”
(Word Count)⏤ 439/1002 (Aura)⏤ 100%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Dec 18, 2019 1:59:20 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
He should have known she would insist on immediately going out and fighting more Grimm. It was fair, he figured- she had an objective too, and presumably, there weren't many ways for her to complete hers, without him completing his. There weren't many of them, after all, this time, and it was getting late- maybe all of the other Dandelions had completed their tasks? He hoped not. Otherwise, who could say how many more Roses would come after him, insisting that he help them help him...
Still, despite her demanding attitude, and an apparent stiffness to the way she spoke, she didn't seem outwardly hostile, unlike some of the other trainees he had encountered earlier in the day.
And fortunately, she was easily distracted by the prospect of a hot bowl of forest stew. "S-sure." He nodded affirmatively, before reaching into one of his pouches and retrieving two more wooden spoons, these smaller and more appropriate for eating than the stirring spoon sitting in the bubbling pot. He also made sure to grab two wooden bowls, and handed one of each to Brigit, before ladling out a hearty serving of soup for her, and then one for himself.
Hmm... Could use a little salt. And a pinch more ginger.
He took a moment to correct the stew in the pot, before salting his own bowl of soup, and adding a bit of the freshly ground ginger. Satisfied, he sat opposite Brigit, and offered her the salt and ginger, in case she would like to add any to her own bowl. It seemed, at least from his initial impression of her, that she was not likely to care too much about the ginger-carrot ratio, or the exact amount of salt that was ideal for the dish. She seemed a more pragmatic sort, and he could respect that.
Recalling her concerns about causing her arms to malfunction, he took a slightly longer look at his new companion. Sure enough, her arms were indeed mechanical. As were her legs- he didn't need to look for too long to notice those two things. Unlike many he knew with prosthetics, she made no effort to hide them or disguise them as anything they weren't. And the way she spoke about them told him she didn't care who knew she had them, which was frankly a good way to be. Not like she could easily hide four prosthetic limbs anyways, it would be like trying to put his wings away- useless, unless the point was self-hindrance.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of the very same girl he was thinking about.
It definitely took her long enough to properly introduce herself. He smiled with a little bow of his head, acknowledging her rather starkly worded words. "R-r-right... I p-promise you, I um... Don't have a-any intention of f-f-failing. Pretty sure Doctor Haragitanai would beat me into s-sand if I did, anyways." He took a few sips of soup. The mushrooms definitely added a distinctive smoky flavor. It was nice.
"S-so, um... Brigit... How do you, uh, f-fight? I mean, um... Your combat style, and your semblance, a-and everything. Um, I'm basically only good u-up close, but I'm pretty f-fast, and uh... Well, I can fly for what that's worth out here." Honestly, he didn't think he was built for this at all. Ideally, as a Huntsman, he would be working with a team, and focused on healing people. Fighting, especially against Grimm, wasn't something he was especially good at. But he supposed that was why he was a Dandelion- wouldn't make sense to have everyone doing what they're best at, not if they wanted well-rounded trainees.
He just hoped Brigit could compensate for his utter lack of combat capability and experience...
@theusefulone ● WC: 640 ● TWC: 1846 ● in which jack realizes he is bad at midterms
Post by Brigit Akane on Dec 19, 2019 10:46:17 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
Brigit accepted the spoon with a short grunt of thanks and got straight to shoveling down the soup. She didn't even seem to notice the offer of additional seasoning, and if she did she made little point of displaying such. Food was food, it didn't need to taste good it just needed to fill you up and give you the energy you needed for whatever useful things you had to do that day. Brigit had packed beer and that was about it for her rations so this was a perfect thing to accompany it. She cracked open her pack between spoonfuls and pulled out a can of beer for herself, cutting the top off with a swift flick of the blade in her arm before taking a long sip from the now topless can. Almost as an after though she tossed a second can at the faunus, might as well in exchange for the food. As she ate her new partner had begun to stutter his way through a sentence, it took so long for him to actually get any words out that Brigit just began to ignore him. He mentioned that he didn't want to fail which was truly enlightening, of course he didn't. Nobody did. The problem was that he looked like the chances of him failing were far higher than she would like.
He kept talking after that, Brigit only barely managed to bring her attention off of the food and to his words when he said her name. This might be relevant, if he felt the need to keep talking it ought to have been anyway. The stutter was grating to listen to, it was frustratingly irregular, not something that could be tuned out as easily when he went on for long stretches. Her legs at least has the courtesy of making their endless noise at regular intervals and the same way each time, easy to tune out the longer it went. But Junior's voice was closer to having her eardrums rubbed with a cheese grater.
To make it worse, his comment wasn't useful at all.
It didn't matter what he did so long as he tagged every Grimm she killed they would be fine. One of his talents was wings apperantly, woopdy doo. ”I get close to stuff and I hit it, usually cut it. Sometimes stab it. Point is they end up dead and as long as you don't get in the way and maybe get one or two hits in we can finish your task tonight.” She spoke around mouthfuls of food, chewing and swallowing mid sentence and then shoveling more soup into her mouth as she continued. She didn't look at him, or really acknowledge him beyond her speaking in the first place.
"And stop stuttering. It's pathetic. Your a hunter in training but you sound like a child trying to present his garbage science fair project.”
She finished her first and then a second bowl of soup before standing up and stretching her metal limbs, prompting no small amount of metallic creaks and groans. She glared down at the Faunus. Waiting for him to finish eating so they could go.
(Word Count)⏤ 535/1357(Aura)⏤ 100%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Dec 31, 2019 3:24:39 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
Whatever Jack was going to say in response to Brigit's assertive and frankly very practical battle strategy was snuffed out by his reaction to the second thing she said to him, which was a lot less pleasant to hear than "you look like you suck at fighting, so I'll do all of that for you, while you ride my coattails to a meaningless victory." He could accept that he was bad at fighting. That was a thing he knew to be true, and although he was working on it, he knew he'd never be much good at it, especially for a Huntsman. He'd have to make up for it in other areas, which he could do more easily than punching a Beowolf.
His stuttering, though.
Was different.
It was partially nerves, yeah, and stress and uncomfortable situations didn't exactly help the situation, but the bulk of it was simply genetic. He was born with a stutter, and despite trying for years to work on it, the best he could do was minimize its impact in conversations with people he felt secure around. But even around his closest friends and family, it slipped through the cracks sometimes.
What's worse is that he knew she was probably right.
It was a point of constant self-consciousness for the faunus, and he had already felt its stings earlier in the day, with Solomon. But Brigit just outright saying what she said, as directly as she did... It hurt. His eyes widened a bit for a moment, before his face reddened and he turned away, quiet and drained of whatever sense of accomplishment he'd felt for surviving midterms this far. Now he just wanted them to be over.
He didn't respond verbally to Brigit, just nodded. They sat in silence as she finished the rest of her soup, and when she stood, he stood, leaving his bowl half-eaten on the ground.
Jack didn't feel much like a Huntsman. In fact, at that moment, he felt less like a Huntsman than even Brigit would give him credit for. But whatever he felt about himself, he had already told Doc that he was going to see this through to the end. Besides, what would Merla say if he gave up halfway through his midterms because some angry Rose said mean things to him? He felt like giving up and just trying to sleep through the rest of the night, until it was over, but instead, he checked his sword in its sheath, and tightened the buckler on his arm, as he trailed sullenly along with Brigit. Not that he'd especially need his weapons, if she intended on doing all of the fighting anyways.
But if he didn't at least ready his blade, then why even bother trying at all?
It was a much less rhetorical question than it likely should have been, honestly...
Post by Brigit Akane on Jan 2, 2020 13:40:48 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
At least he finished eating quickly. A saving grace amidst the generally disappointing person that was Junior. He could cook, make a fire and eat quickly which were honestly the only three things Brigit needed him for apart from using his objective as a route to completing her own. Brigit often found herself wondering how certain people ever made it into the academy, and that thought was absolutely at the forefront of her mind now as she walked into the darkness in hunt of some Grimm for them to kill, hopefully more easy to find now that the Faunus was pouting about being called out for his stutter. How had he been accepted? She knew that the criteria were drastically lowered following the fall but regardless it seemed strange that they would allow people who seemed more likely to die than graduate to become a student. Maybe he was good at fighting. Or his semblance was actually useful. One of those would probably be enough to allow him in for the higher ups at Haven. If he died, oh well, and if he lived then they might be able to beat him into shape. She would find out how that was destined to go tonight, maybe he'd die right here.
The forest was difficult enough for Brigit to navigate during the day, but night time was a whole other beast. Every tree looked the same and the moon didn't even provide half the amount of light one would need to properly see by. She figured they were probably walking straight, or at least some path that lead away from the campsite, so they were bound to eventually walk face first into some Grimm or another. ”Faunus can see in the dark? I cannot. You will tell me if you see any Grimm and you will do so without a stutter.” Brigits voice was firm and quickly betrayed how generally incompetent she felt Junior was by what she had seen this far. She didn't even look back at her walking companion, trusting that he was at least smart enough to stay close and do what she asked.
The walk was slow going, and it was difficult for Brigit to hear much of anything beyond her legs. Thus her only method of spotting anything early was entirely in the hands of Junior, which in and of itself had a certain level of thrill in trusting someone she didn't trust to stop her from getting eaten by surprise.
(Word Count)⏤ 418/1775 (Aura)⏤ 100%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Jan 8, 2020 19:15:36 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
The avian boy didn't as much as blink as Brigit rather rudely informed him of his place in this duo. He was her night-vision goggles, and her meal ticket, and her place to sleep, and that was as far as his usefulness extended. Briefly, he considered what exactly she could do if he decided he didn't want to play her game- if he refused to offer his camp or more of his food to her, it would be child's play for her to take them from him by force. It wouldn't exactly be the first time someone had taken advantage of him in that way, honestly- he knew he was about as imposing as a bowl of lightly salted tofu, and about as skilled at self-defense. And if he refused to tell her if he saw Grimm up ahead, then he was just downright suicidal, pettiness aside; at best, she'd still see them herself as they got closer, and just think of him as even more incompetent than she already did, which was a low bar already. Worst case scenario, she'd end up blindsided by the Grimm, and she'd end up dead before he knew what was happening. And where would that leave him? His skill set didn't exactly include the ability to fight anything that would pose a challenge to Brigit, and if by some chance, he managed to be useful, and dragged her to safety, somehow, to heal her, then she'd still kick his ass for letting it happen in the first place.
It was an unfortunate predicament that he found himself in, where no matter what he thought of, he couldn't exactly get himself away from this caustic woman. And even if he did, then what? That was just proving her right.
Obviously, Midterms weren't supposed to be a fun walk in the park. But Jack had just had all of the hope that this might at least be worth something ripped out of him. He didn't respond to Brigit's commands any more than she expected a response, regardless of how impossible her conditions were. Did she really not realize that calling attention to it, would only make his stutter that much worse? Maybe she could just beat the shit out of her problems until they went away, but that didn't exactly work for everyone else.
His sword-arm drooped a little as he allowed himself a silent, noiseless, sigh.
Up ahead, deep into the trees, a few minutes into their walk, he finally spotted their quarry- two Beowolves, it looked like. He shivered, remembering his encounter with their kind earlier in the day. This time, he wasn't going to be on the run, though. He had no choice but to fight.
Abruptly, he stopped moving, and reached forward to tap Brigit on the shoulder, wordlessly getting her attention, ideally. He had briefly thought himself clever, as not speaking was the surest way to avoid stuttering, but not a moment after executing his plan to silently inform her of the Grimm, he decided that maybe he shouldn't be quiet- why should she have any say over how he talked? No doubt, she would be annoyed, but for whatever reason, Jack couldn't exactly bring himself to care too much what she thought of him- she'd already made that much abundantly clear, so there was hardly any risk of worsening her opinion of him. His own little spark of rebellion, no matter how utterly mundane and pointless. "G-g-grimm. Two, up ah-head."
It would have been much more useful information if it had been complete, however. Because while Jack had been focusing on the two Beowolves in front of them, he very nearly missed the sudden approach of a third Beowolf coming from the right. His eyes widened, and he barely had time to process what was happening, as his body moved without a thought. The lupine beast lurched out of the thick woods directly at him, and he only barely had the time and good fortune to throw up his shield-arm, catching its ferocious jaws against the thick steel of his buckler. He shoved forward, with a slash of his falchion that missed its mark by such a distance, you could throw a barn-dance between the blade and the Grimm. But at least he'd managed to shove it back, as it recoiled for another lunge; however, the simple act of repelling the Grimm sent Jack reeling on his back heels, stumbling with all the grace of an elephant seal.
And to make matters worse, as the third Grimm executed its ambush, the pair ahead of them took the opportunity to charge in, towards Brigit, taking what little element of surprise they may have gained from Jack's meager scouting attempts.
He just hoped that Brigit was true to her word about being capable of handling a challenge like this, mostly on her own. Because there was no telling how many more Grimm could be lurking in the shadows, given Jack's sorry mental state...
Post by Brigit Akane on Jan 9, 2020 12:14:21 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
The stupidity of trusting Junior was slightly lessened when he actually bothered to give a warning. He stuttered it out, making it much less punctual than she would have liked as by the time he was fumbled out his words Brigit could hear him get attacked behind her, a Beowolf as well by the sounds of its growling. She didn't even bother to turn around. He must be able to handle himself against a single Grimm or there would truly be no reason to even allow him to take the midterm in the first place. No, instead her attention remained forward as her limbs sprouted her four blades and prepared to cut into the two Grimm she had been warned about.
And sure enough they came forward, charging with space between them to try and flank the trainee as a pack of wolves might. They were the larger variety of the Grimm, though not quite the alphas that even Brigit wasn't sure she would be able to take on especially given the massive weight tied to her ankle in the form of a bird Faunus. Their bones were meant to be hollow she thought, and yet he was making it so difficult to carry him out of this midterm with a win. Shaking her head to focus on the task and enjoyment at hand, Brigit rushed forwards at one of the two Grimm, totally ignoring it's partner as she launched her grapples directly into its underbelly and used then to propel herself forward even faster. The collision caused no small amount of harm to both of them as they had been running quite quickly in opposite directions but the moment she was attached and in melee range she began to swing and spin her arms and legs to cut at the Beowolf.
Her grapples dropped away after the first barrage, leaving her open to a swipe from the massive paw of the Grimm. Brigit took it in stride, letting it slam into her flickering aura as she pushed further forward into the creature with further swipes and swings that the Beowolf didn't have the time or space to truly avoid. The trainee pushed forward into the Grimm, beginning to bubble with laughter as the thrill started to flood her system and let her truly enjoy herself for a little while. Unfortunately this did not allow for much in the way of awareness or tactics. She slashed the Grimm she was fighting in half just as the second one finally closed the distance behind her and landed a solid headbutt into her spine that flung her forward into a tree up ahead, splintering both it and her aura.
The cracks were quickly filled in by a blinding light and a seeming explosion of flame that engulfed Brigit, restoring some of her aura and leaving her with massive flaming wings of aura that trailed behind her as the manic grin on her face grew wider. The other Grimm was charging her now. And she was ready.
(Word Count)⏤ 504/2279 (Aura)⏤ 56%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Jan 9, 2020 16:17:33 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
Brigit's faith in Jack's ability to handle a single Beowolf was, at least by Jack's estimation, sorely misplaced, though fortunately, she hadn't verbalized that faith, so he didn't even have to disagree with her. However, the fact that she didn't seem to even respond to him being attacked showed Jack a lot less belief that he was at least basically competent, and a lot more complete disregard for his survival and well-being. Which, frankly, he expected from her at this point.
Fortunately, being attacked by a Grimm at close range meant he had very little time to beat himself up about being a shit trainee. The Beowolf lunged at him again, and he counted himself lucky as it barreled past him, as he ducked and side-rolled out of the way. But it wouldn't miss too many more times, so he knew he had to fight back. Brigit was busy ripping the other two to shreds, so he realized he would be stuck facing this one alone.
It was do or die.
He chose the former. Gritting his teeth, he took his sword into both hands for what was intended to be a fierce overhand slash. In truth, nothing Jack ever did was especially fierce, but it proved effective enough, at least- his blade caught the Beowolf on the arm, scraping it pretty harshly, but ultimately not doing a ton of damage. The beast responded in kind by swiping at him with its less wounded arm, which he caught with his shield, sliding against the ground from the strength of the Grimm. He definitely had to make sure he didn't get hit- without Aura, even that blocked attack would have left him with hairline fractures through his forearm. Beowolves were strong as hell, and he wasn't going to forget that any time soon.
Taking the opportunity to strike again as the Grimm recoiled back from the blocked blow, Jack lunged for its chest with his sword, missing the mark, but grazing its side with a hard stab. Unfortunately, the momentum from his hefty, top-heavy, sword threw him forward, towards the Grimm, which was not necessarily ideal. It turned to snap at him with its powerful jaws, but Jack had the good sense to bring up his buckler, and all the Grimm managed to eat was a face full of shield bash, as Jack tripped, nearly falling to his knees, a meter or two past the Beowolf.
Suddenly, as if things weren't bad enough already, Jack felt the ground beneath him rumbling a bit, prompting him to give a strong beat of his wings. It was yet another lucky dodge for Jack, as a Creep burst out of the earth beneath him, narrowly missing his foot as it snapped at the airborne student. A quick glance around the vicinity would show three more Creeps unearthing themselves to join the fight.
They were outnumbered, and not just a little in over their heads. Hopefully, the two of them could make it out of this alright... Jack glanced over to Brigit, who seemed to be handling herself well enough. The soaring jets of Aura, resembling wings, was likely her Semblance, and if it was half as impressive as it looked, he figured she would be capable of taking on all of these Grimm. Himself, on the other hand... He wasn't so sure.
Hopefully, if he stayed in the air like this for a moment more, the Beowolf and the Creep beneath him wouldn't be able to attack right away. He needed a second to stop and think... How was he going to win...
Post by Brigit Akane on Jan 9, 2020 19:56:33 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
Brigit and the Beowolf collided and the ground shook around them. Brigit laughed at the joy of it all, their battle containing enough force to shake the ground or so she thought. Brigit’s blades sliced into the Beowolf as its claws raked across her aura and very nearly knocked her straight onto her back were it not for a well timed grapple to hoist herself forwards and into the Beowolf again. As they clashed, Brigit now significantly stronger than the Beowolf was, she began to force it back with each slicing kick of her legs or bladed punch from hands. It was glorious. There was nothing she loved more than this, nothing she could think of that would equal the thrill of quite literally fighting for one's life against something that wanted to kill you with every fibre of its being.
But it didn’t stand a chance, not against her enhanced strength with the activation of her semblance. Brigit landed a final blow after just barely avoiding a second swipe from the backpedalling beowolf and it dissolved into those black ashes that grimm were known for. It was then, only now, that she bothered to look around to check on her ally. He was flying, she could just barely make out his form in the shadows up above them. And on the ground was a large collection of grimm that Brigit had never seen or heard of before. They were smaller, only had two little limbs and they seemed to have burrowed from the ground.
Excellent.
Her aura running low, Brigit began to move towards the rear end of the group of creeps that had burrowed up around the apparently very upset Junior. She must have hurt his feelings. Adorable in its own sad, sad way. They were focused enough that only one heard her and bothered to turn around, pulling itself forward at an incredible speed that Brigit hadn’t quite expected it leaped up at her, claws bared and mouth wide open for a bite that seemed to be aimed at her neck.
It was small though, small and easily grabbed by the currently extremely strong Brigit. She caught it in the air, only barely taking a scratch from its claws as it flailed about before she slowly shoved the blade on her opposite hand into the creatures stomach. It wouldn’t die from this, and she promptly tossed it back into a tree to make the fight more sporting. The others were occupied, she may as well make this one last until Junior decided to either die or fight.
(Word Count)⏤ 430/2709 (Aura)⏤ 13%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Jan 9, 2020 20:59:06 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
It was admirable.
In an odd way, anyways. The way Brigit was actually, literally, laughing as she fought the pair of Beowolves. That was what being a Huntsman should be like. Being so strong, it doesn't matter what gets thrown at you, because you can take it with a grin of excitement. A part of him was envious of her, for that strength. More so, for her personality in battle. It was a far cry from her icy demeanor earlier, and even further from his timid nature. If he was brave, and bold...
...Then he'd get himself killed, in short order.
He shook his head, clearing his mind of those reckless thoughts. Doctor Haragitanai had made a great point in their first conversation: being brash and charging in headfirst was suicidal. Bravery and heroism was by far overrated. He was a Huntsman, yes, but a dead Huntsman was even more useless than he felt like he was already.
And more to the point, being headstrong and wildly aggressive in combat was dangerous- he hadn't been paying much mind to Brigit as she fought, but he doubted seriously that she had been minding her defenses. A quick glance told him nothing of her Aura, but if he had to guess, he would think it wasn't at a full tank, the way his was. That could be worrisome, if it really was the case.
He pulled his attention back to the Grimm below him as one of the Creeps snapped up at his leg again. He kicked it back down, but it occurred to him then that he would have to keep fighting if he wanted any chance at all of surviving. Brigit wasn't going to win this for him, and it was unlikely that he would be able to stay in the air for too long. But if he landed now, he'd just be falling into the mass of Grimm... And considering they were all faster than him, he would be torn to bits in a second. No, he had to touch down further away.
But how? He thought to his Dust crystals, given to him at the start of the day. He'd used his Gravity Dust already, but he still had Ice and Air... He could make this work.
With a well-aimed throw, straight down, Jack cast his Ice Dust into the center of the swarm of Grimm, freezing the ground solid beneath their feet. If it worked as intended, that ought to slow down all four of the Grimm, and make their pursuit a lot clumsier. Then, turning to face his intended landing point, Jack activated his Air Dust, launching himself forward like a blur, right at the ground, about ten meters away.
And in theory, that would have worked exceptionally well.
Except that the Creeps were damn fast. And while one, along with the remaining Beowolf had been dealt with well enough, the other two were still as fast as he was, even with the Air Dust active. They caught him as he landed, launching into him with their powerful jaws. The first caught him on his shield arm, before he could raise it up, and the second slammed into his stomach, sending him reeling as he landed.
It was the stress, from being caught off-guard by two attackers at once, that did it.
He still hadn't quite mastered using his Semblance yet, but as he'd used it before, he immediately felt a wave of distress wash over him. This wasn't a good thing, no matter how it might have seemed. Because his semblance was on a time limit, and when that limit was up, he knew his Aura was going to go, all at once. He didn't know how long he had, either. Which meant there was an extremely good chance that he was going to die here, if Brigit couldn't handle the rest, and any more that might attack, on her own.
His wings, naturally black as night, glowed with an intense white light, as small black feathers seemed to float down from the brilliant glow, and every movement he made seemed to be significantly faster. At least he was a little sturdier this way; one of the Creeps bit at his leg, and Jack hardly felt it.
Hmm. If he was going to go down soon, he might as well ensure Brigit would be able to keep going.
Suddenly, the boy was a flash as he darted from the Creeps to his ally. "Brigit!" he cried out, letting her know it was him, in hopes she wouldn't attack him. Reaching out with his free hand, he grasped at her shoulder, resting his hands there for a lingering second before the Creeps that had followed him, now joined by their friend and the Beowolf, had nearly caught up to him.
As he held his hand on Brigit, however, the same glow encasing his wings passed from his hand into her body, causing her Aura to glow its fiery hues as if it were breaking, but instead of feeling as if her Aura had been shattered, she would feel it growing, and strengthening as Jack restored 45% of it, before turning back to the charging Grimm and rushing through them, bringing his blade up to slice through the wounded Beowolf as he passed, with a small smirk- he was willing to allow himself that much, at least. This fight was still going to be dangerous, and he was banking heavily on Brigit taking out most of the Grimm, with her newly restored Aura.
Hopefully, he could just hang in until his Aura gave out...
The boy readied his sword and shield in a defensive posture as the Creeps rushed at him, death in their chilling red eyes.
Post by Brigit Akane on Jan 10, 2020 8:57:29 GMT -5
[attr="class","Im"]
[attr="class","really"]
[attr="class","exhausted"]Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out
[attr="class","rhythm"]
❝
I'm going to change you like a remix and then raise you like a phoenix.
A flash of light spread through the trees as what Brigit could only assume was Juniors semblance activated. It as visually impressive, she’d give him that, but her attention for what exactly it did was quickly drawn away as the creep she had been fighting made a second pass towards her, swinging its tail like a flail to try and knock her over and make it easier to get to the soft bits that it could bite into more easily. Brigit braced, spacing her legs out and positioning herself right in the path of the tail as it swung, taking a light hit to her aura but giving her a chance to grab the grimm by the tail and promptly lift and slam it into the ground, dissolving it into dust and leaving them with one fewer creep to deal with.
And then Junior flew over to her and gave her a weird ass grope on the shoulder. She was about to just cut his arm off when she felt her aura begin to strengthen and suddenly his entry into Haven made a bit more sense. He was a healer of sorts, able to replenish people’s aura and keep them in the fight longer, so while he was totally useless in a fight as she had now seen he was at least able to keep is betters going while he flew around and wasted time. Unfortunately this action meant all of the grimm had started to move towards Brigit.
Two of the creeps had burrowed beneath the ground again, likely digging their way across the field of battle to try and get the jump on Junior who they still seemed to be extremely focused on. The third Creep, also focused on Junior, was sprinting forward at top speed above ground to act as a distraction for the other two as they tried to be stealthy. And finally the Beowolf. The Beowolf was charging at Brigit having now seen that it had little hope if any to actually reach Junior he went for the more easily available target.
This one had been hurt before, so apparently Junior had managed to land a few hits with his sword - shocking. Brigit launched her grapples to one side, impacting a tree and tugging her hard in a path towards the grimm but slightly spaced to the side, allowing her to get in a solid slash with an arm and a leg as she flew past, dealing the last chunk of the grimms health in one blow thanks to her increased strength before very ungracefully face planting into the tree and taking the small hit to her aura that involved. The Grimm was able to get a strike in as well, though a much less brutal one than if it had been able to charge her head on, and her aura was left a light glowing reddish orange as she stood from the tree to move back towards the Creeps that remained.
(Word Count)⏤ 497/3206 (Aura)⏤ 30%
Semblance E, Weapon F, Speed F, Martial arts F, Durability F, Ranged Accuracy F
Post by Jack Dawson Jr. on Jan 10, 2020 20:20:14 GMT -5
●●●
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna
bleed
tell me that I'm not
lost
Well, at least he'd got the Creeps away from Brigit. That was something. He was a solid lightning rod right then, for the moment, for whatever the hell that was worth. But that didn't exactly mean a whole lot, considering drawing the attention of the Grimm, and actually being able to do anything about them, were two completely different, separate, things. He now had three Creeps on his tail, but fortunately, he was currently a hair faster than them. That was an edge up, if nothing else.
The Beowolf split off to face the whirling metal limbs of death, which was frankly a tremendously stupid idea, when an easy target had just whizzed past it. Not that he was complaining. One less for him to worry about, and arguably the stronger of the two kinds of Grimm present. He could handle a few Creeps.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Looking over his shoulder, he only saw one Creep, however, which was unsettling for exactly the reason he expected- he moved to fly up and away from the ground just as the pair shot out of the earth and clamped down hard on his wings. Were it not for his Aura, especially as enhanced as it was, he would have found his wings mangled and maimed by the vicious jaws of the bipedal beasts. Fortunately, though, in this state, they did relatively little damage to him. That was good.
And gave him time to counter-attack, throwing his shield-arm out to bash one of the little bastards, knocking it clean off of him, as his sword-arm flew at the other, gashing off a leg, but unsuccessfully dispelling the single-mindedly tenacious creature.
He hadn't forgotten about the third Grimm, though. As it charged at him, taking advantage of his momentary distraction by the rest of its pack, Jack whirled around, gritting his teeth as the attached Creep dug into his defenses. It was worth it, though, as he slammed the Creep clinging to his wing into the charging one like a makeshift flail, sending them both tumbling off to the side, pretty badly damaged, and in one case, one-legged.
Turning to his ally, it seemed as though Brigit had finished off the Beowolf and was heading over to help him with the Creeps, much to his relief- he would rather not get bitten again.
Still, he spoke too soon, as the third Creep, not in a pile on the ground, launched itself at his ankle, clamping down, and throwing him off balance. He fell, and it clamored on top of him, struggling against what little strength he possessed. Its salivating maw hung wide open over his face, inches away from an extremely painful and unpleasant bite, for far too long, before Jack was able to finagle his sword underneath the beast and thrusted, straight up, through its gut.
With a firm twist or two, he felt his arms nearly about to give out, for a brief moment, before the Creep vanished into blackened dust, and he was left, lying on the ground, enthralled by the realization that he had actually killed it. It was a small, very weak, Grimm, but he'd killed it! By himself, on his own. It was an achievement, but sadly, one he would have no time to celebrate until later. For now, he still had to help Brigit fight off the last two Grimm before his Semblance gave out.
But now, suddenly, things weren't looking quite as dismal and hopeless. A marked improvement.