[Rose Phoenix]

❝I Was Lightning,

Before The Thunder❞

549 w./ 549 w. total

d strength| e stamina| e Acrobatics| f Dust

d semblance| F weapon| f martial arts

There had been so much disaster in the recent month and the trainees did the best that they could to mitigate such tragedies to a minimum. The problem was that Rosalia Phoenix had been away for the entirety of the chaos. It was called winter break, but it was more like halting a rebellion and putting a few of her people in their place. So she wasn't able to relax in the warm sands of Vacuo, but instead broke a few teeth and ended some bandit careers unceremoniously.

It took longer than anticipated to quell the frustrating infighting, but Rose had eventually made her way home to Haven Academy. All around her were mental breakdowns and even classes had been interrupted. So where did that leave her? The blonde spent most of her days returning to her exercise regiment, but mostly she kept to herself. She was angry that she wasn't part of the fighting...not because she wanted to be a hero but because she missed out on the chance to fight some strong foes.

Her only interaction was with a new student transfer who was apparently Theia's cousin or something. Testing her skills in combat had been a test of Rose's patience for the most part because of the redhead's lack of drive. She had potential with her tactics but the way she held back had pissed off the blonde greatly. All in all, the exercise left her feeling hollow. Frustrated.

In between her acclimation to school life once again, Rose read up on the Rochdale files. Studied any footage that she could find, which piqued her interest greatly. Most of these people revealed their true colors and some went overboard. Her fellow students surprised her actually in terms of what they were capable of! Knowledge was the most important thing that a warrior could possess, aside from strength. Colt had taught her that-oh Colt. Right. The one person that she had purposely kept distance from until she had all her cards together. Rose didn't have very many friends in general and really she only knew a handful of students at the Academy. Not only was he someone that the blonde respected, but...well, Rose had kissed alot of people in her lifetime. Kissing Colt somehow felt...different. The thought made Rose shake her head as she took a quick shower and dried off haphazardly.

Rose slipped into a pair of denim jeans and a black Haven Academy T-shirt. She picked up a new pair of steel toed boots that were slip resistant and finally the girl threw on her leather jacket. Before leaving she gleamed her appearance in the mirror and scoffed back at her reflection. The hell was she doing? It was just saying hello to a friend but was it more than that?

"Ugh! What a pain in the ass!"

She slammed the door and stomped off in frustration down the hallway. Their class had won the tournament thanks to Colt, so they were closer to classes when they started up. Their class owed a ton to Colt, but Rose would treat him as she always did. So when the blonde Vacuo girl stood in front of Colt's dorm room, she banged on it like a barbarian.

"Hey Colt! It's Rose. Thought I'd say hi and shit."

© 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.

Contrary to normal, Colton’s room was a goddamned mess.

Bits of metal and drawings were strewn out everywhere, along with several different types of hardening gel and abandoned, partially completed swords and armor pieces rejected for whatever reason. The loss of his weapons meant that the new set could have some functionalities he would have really liked to begin with, like some extra range on his sword and some added tweaks to his shield.

A third transformation was something unusual for huntsman weapons, but necessary at least in this case. If he was out of aura for an extended period again, even a short polearm was better than a backsword. The extended range and ability to play with distance in even a conventional fight would make his melee style more unpredictable, which would be a solid improvement. The shield would have small chains installed at each cardinal direction, enough to snake around the wrist or ankle of someone and pull them away in a fight. The slots had no opening and would either have to be smashed through or opened with Polarity – but the inner part of that and making sure the mechanism was strong enough to actually stay attached was a giant pain in the ass.

He experimented with adding a dust injection kit to his kukri, but it was so finicky with how small it would have to be that he just dropped it for now. What he did decide to do, however, was add a restraining weapon to his arsenal as the aftermath of the Rochdale and the Attack made it very clear to him that he lacked that capability. That was the easiest part to actually make out of all of this, because a ten meter long, thick chain that was able to be kept condensed as much as possible in a small container on the right side of his sword belt in general carry. That was the easiest bit, especially because he could coil it and uncoil it with his semblance much better than he could by hand.

Most of his free time was spent in the forge actually working on this, and when he got too tired of that he came back and brought in a whiteboard to workshop solutions to whatever problems he encountered. His semblance was able to make up for some lack of skill, but what he wanted to do and what he was currently able to do didn’t overlap as much as he wanted it to. Adding about a meter of chain to each gauntlet, for example, to make melee against physically stronger opponents much easier was something that seemed simple but fucked up the balance and structural integrity of the damned thing every way he had tried it so far.

He was actually asleep when his door almost got busted down, but that didn’t stop him from getting up and answering it in a ruffled Haven Academy uniform that he had just slept in. Sleepy brown eyes registered who it was and he wordlessly gestured for her to go inside – not even mentioning the fact that there was a bunch of metal shit just lying around and scribbles on a whiteboard in one corner of the room. ”I was going to look for you when I woke up anyway. I know what happened with Rin, so this makes it easier.” He was saying it flatly while stifling a yawn, so it came out much less accusatory or angry than might have been expected. It was still unacceptable, sure, but Colton wasn’t exactly the type to go from asleep to screaming quite that fast.

※ 604 total words ✎ 604 words ✉ C rank semblance, D rank martial arts, C rank durability, D rank weapon, D rank weapon enhancement, D rank agility, E rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Colton: 6

124 + 6 = 130

Rose: 5

103 + 5 = 108