[@HereComesTheSnow]

[center][h1]Luke & Skye[/h1]
[H2]Family Day[/h2][/center]

[hider=Trust]
In the brief silence that hung in the air doubt flourished, and she wondered if this was the right choice. [i]You've only just met. You don't even know him. Normal people don't just spill their life story to a complete stranger. Just how far gone am I? [/i] An image of her own face came to mind, the first time she had used a mirror after arriving in Vale. [i]Pretty far gone, huh? Can I even be normal again? I know I want to, but.... 

Even if he says what I want, that I can trust him... can I really? How can I be sure? [/i] Her eyes narrowed at her own thoughts, her fears and doubts coming to a head all at once while she waited for Luke's answer. [i]But there is a way I can know for sure. It would make things really, really weird but I could do it and erase any doubt. ...Yet you know how trust works, Bya. It's not about being sure but choosing to give that power to someone, even knowing they could betray you. Or fail you.

Like you failed everyone that put their trust in you?

...Yes. Just like I failed them. Just like I failed... her.[/i] 

She gripped her mask tightly, almost too tightly, as her mind spiraled into self destructive thoughts. It was only a very few seconds before Luke answered. Plenty of time to tear herself apart in her own head; to cover every little uncertainty and insecurity she had procrastinated on.

[b]"Yeah, you can trust me."[/b]

It was the strangest, most conflicting tangle of emotions she had ever felt in her life. All in a split second, set off by his simple assurance that she could, in fact, trust him. Joy, fear, relief, regret... hope. She couldn't even sort it all out. So she didn't even try. The important thing was that he had given his word. No matter what happened she could hold on to that one thing; the fact that Lucas Schwarz had stepped into the complicated realm of trust with her. Words didn't feel like enough to express her gratitude, but it was a start and it was all she had for now.

[b][sub]"Thank you."[/sub][/b]

[i]Oh gods, that's it. There is no going back now. As if that was ever really an option...[/i] She swallowed nervously, wiping away fresh tears. She really hoped she was not going to start crying as often as this on a daily basis. She could stand to let it go today, but it would be really inconvenient and embarrassing if this became a regular thing.

[Hider=She sighed and met Luke's eyes again.]
[b]"I'll keep the origin story brief. It's not what you were looking for when you asked me... what happened. But you should at least know where we- where I come from so the things you do want to know make a bit more sense."[/b]

[b]"We were a village of a few thousand, hidden in mountains so far away from anywhere else almost no one knew we existed. We had the protection of the snowline, the peaks, the cliffs, and even the ocean. There was only one pass overland, very well guarded, and in winter it couldn't even be used. We thought we were safe. But those natural protections became our cage when the Grimm finally decided they wanted us no matter what it took to get at us. You know how this story goes, don't you? Villages like ours... they disappear overnight all the time." [/b]

[b]"Most of the survivors were scattered and picked off. We had not a single huntsmen. The whole region was nothing but wilderness and long dead villages, and we were in the farthest, most difficult to reach corner of these wild lands. By luck alone our group had the most weapons and Dust. But more importantly we had someone with us someone who knew how survive out there. He taught us to control our emotions, how to hide from the creatures of Grimm. And he helped us awaken our aura. He showed us how to fight when hiding was out of the question. He said he was not a Huntsman but... I still wonder."[/b]

[b]"In any case we spent years trying to circle around the Grimm. But it was a vast, uncharted place, and there were always more Grimm. We tried to settle in some of the ruins from time to time. But in the end that was worse than staying on the move."[/b]

[B]"We lost most of our people and weapons in the first year. Eventually there were very few of us left and fewer still strong enough to stand up to the Grimm, to protect the others. I was young and untrained, but my aura was strong. We didn't have the ability to make new weapons but we did have Dust. A lot of it. In desperation we started putting Dust right into our bodies. The methods we had were... crude at best. But it helped our odds."[/b]

[b]"I... took it a bit farther than the others. I wanted so badly to protect them... But in the end I f-failed. I'm the only one that made it here."[/b]

Uncontrollable tears rolled down her face once again. She had started shaking at some point. Skye raised a hand to stop Luke before he said anything. She had left a long pause as if that was the end of the story. But she was only taking a moment to gather herself. What she had said so far was little more than what she told anyone else that had asked how she got to Vale. Certain details among those events were what she had to steel herself for. It took some time but eventually she was ready. As ready as she could be.

[b]"My family never made it out of the village that night, with the sole exception of.. my little sister. Lily."[/b] Skye's chest tightened at the mention of her sister's name. [b]"All those years out there, everything I did, pushing myself as hard as I did... we were all eachother had left. I had to protect her. I promised I would keep her safe!"[/b] Her voice had suddenly raised to the point that she was almost shouting. [b]"You said you were a terrible brother but I don't believe you!"[/b] She stepped forward very close to Luke. [b]"If you're willing to go this far for me, a stranger you dont even know, what would you do for them?!"[/b] Suddenly realizing she was right in Luke's face, wild eyed and on the very edge of completely breaking down, she forced herself to back away. When she spoke again her voice was barely above a rasping whisper.

[b]"How far would you go to keep them safe?"[/b]

It was a rhetorical question. He had said it himself. He wanted to become a Hunter and help others. He was willing to risk his life to do so. She had no doubt that he would not hesitate if his family were in danger.

She turned away from him and hugged herself tightly. She needed to collect herself once again, pull herself back from the edge. There was still more to tell. She just hoped she had the willpower to get that far. She had stopped crying, but she was shaking even harder than before. 

[b]"S-something happened to us out there. To the both of us. Something I still can't e-explain. Have you... noticed.. my skin? My eyes? No color. My hair, too. My fur. All white. I still bleed red but.. it might be the only color I have left. I haven't really tried to find out. Well... there is... one other color."[/b] Hesitantly, she turned back to Luke and held up her left hand, palm up. The expression she now wore could only be described as shame. In the next few seconds a swirling grey shape began to appear on her palm. It started as a small spot and slowly spread until it was about two inches wide, darkening to a black so absolute it seemed to absorb the light around it. 

[b]"Before you ask, no. I don't know what it is, not for certain. I imagine, though, that if evil had a tangible form... this would be it. But if you were to ask what I really think it is..."[/b] She closed her palm, unwilling to look at the black mark any longer. [b]"I think it's like a.. gauge. A disturbing sort of meter.. showing me my capacity for... malevolence, I guess. But that's just a theory based on.. the other changes."[/b] She began pacing, still clenching the fist that had displayed the mark.

[b]"I can't hurt certain people, or any person at certain times. Specifically if they mean well or.. they're just a really good person. Pure hearted or something. I literally cannot cause them direct harm. Even emotionally. My fist or my words they just... stop. Yet I can fight someone trying to hurt someone else. And I can tear apart Grimm all day if I had to. That may sound well and good but it's not. It is really, [i]really[/i] not. I'm..."[/b] She shivered, recalling the day it happened.

[b]"I'm missing a part of myself."[/b]

She could not think of how else she could say it. She hoped, from everything else she had just explained, Luke would know she was not talking about something as mundane as a missing body part. Something integral to who she was as a human being just wasn't there anymore.

[b]"Something found us out there. I like to think it was a Grimm but... I don't know for sure. It was night and its body seemed to be made of pure darkness. It came into our camp while everyone was asleep. It.. took our watchman without a sound. I woke up, by sheer chance alone. I-if I hadn't we all would have died that night. It had al-already... taken two of us while we slept and it.. and it... Lily. S-she.. it was [i]drawing something out of her body.[/i]" [/b]Her fist clenched tighter as she recounted what she had seen. On her face rage had crept into her expression, mixing disturbingly with the look of shame.[b] "It was a blackness, a lack of light like you saw on my hand. It was... [i]consuming[/i] that darkness, I think. B-by the time I attacked it, Lily.. she had.. the tiniest pinprick of silver on her palm. Not black like mine. Everything else... the purest white you had ever seen. This thing it... it turned its powers on me when I came at it. It was the coldest sensation I had ever felt, like the complete absence of heat. It ripped some part of me out just like it had done to Lily and the others. I couldn't move. I was sure I was going to die. But it felt so much worse than just fading away. I was being made... incomplete. Whatever it was taking from us.. it was something we needed to live. Something that made us... whole."[/b]

[b]"Fortunately, I must have made enough noise before it.. reached into me. It couldn't manage more than one of us at a time it turned out. And it was surprisingly easy to kill. I crushed it's skull myself in the end, and it... melted. Its body dissolved like you would expect of a Grimm, but it was like a liquid that vanished into the ground. At the time I was just happy it was dead and Lily was alive. But... since then... my semblance..."[/b]

Another shiver ran down her spine. [i]My semblance. I wish I had never told anyone about that. I wish I had lied, claimed I hadn't figured it out yet. I could have kept it secret. [/i] But she hadn't. And now there were people that wanted to study it's power in action.

[b]"My semblance changed that night. I can do to Grimm what was done to us. I can't use it on people. I don't think I can. I never intend to try. From what you know now I think you can understand. I don't ever want to use my that cursed power.[/b]
[/hider]

[hr]
As she spoke, each time my mouth automatically opened to respond to or comment upon something— She would shut it down, either through gestures or continuing on.

It was probably for the better. The less I spoke, the more she could say, after all.

I listened in, admittedly having recoiled at one point so we didn't end up literally butting heads, but nonetheless listened; and a few things were made eminently clear to me.

For one: I had unwittingly taken for granted that Shiroyama was a town that got by without walls— And more importantly that it was an oddity in doing so. Our quintet of operational shrines was a rarity, if not an entirely unique system, to Vale and the world at large. Most other wall-less towns were doomed where we were not.

Another was that my sinking suspicions were confirmed—

I wasn't nearly qualified to hear this.

In fact, I was closer to being qualified [i]not[/i] to. This was something that, if not a psychiatric professional, should at least be dealt with by someone like Tanner. Experienced, worldly, and for all his frivolity, level-headed.

Not me at all.

I wasn't cut from the right cloth-- nor did I have any ground to stand on with what I said.

[b]"You... You did save her, though?"[/b]

But, as was my way.

I still did say it.

I had said I would help. Not trying was the most surefire path to failure man could ever pave.

I'll freely admit it—I am an idiot.

But I also am an idiot who wants to keep his word.

[b]"If you saved Lily, then... Should you really blame yourself for the Grimm taking part of your soul?"[/b]

[hr]
She hadn't even realized she had fallen silent so long, lost in the memory of that night.

He hadn't meant to. He only wanted to help. He didn't want to see her or anyone else hurting, she knew that much. But there was a metaphorical knife in her heart, one that she had slowly been reaching for. A knife she hoped to somehow pull free, if she could. If it was even possible. But Luke had just unintentionally twisted that knife, before she had been ready. She knew she should have been ready; this was the whole point they had been working towards. And yet, in spite knowing this, she had not even remotely been prepared.


[hider=An echo]
[color=6ecff6]"Lily. Lily! Lily, please don't cry, look! Look, I'm still here, see? It's OK, I'm not going anywhere. I swear I'm not gonna leave you. So don't cry, please. You're gonna be just fine. Come on, would your big sis ever lie to you? Have I ever? Even once?"[/color] Skye knelt in front of her sister, desperately trying to calm her down. 

[color=bc8dbf]"N-n-no. But the Gr-Grimm... Byakko we don't have any Hunters. W-we can't even c-call for help."[/color] 

The girl had a point, one that had not escaped Skye. There was little to say against that. Without so much as a single Hunter this far out they had little chance in a straight fight with the Grimm. And with any way of contacting the outside world back in the village... But she couldn't just say or do nothing, she couldn't admit defeat or give in to the hopelessness of their situation. That's not what big sisters did. And right now Skye was all Lily had left.


[color=6ecff6]"Ssshhh, I know. We just have to keep moving for now. We... I'll... I guess I'll just have to learn how to be a Huntress or something, right? Figure out my aura, learn how to use weapons.. Then I just have to kill any Grimm that comes near my baby sister. It's the only answer. I've got to keep you safe, don't I? So that's what I'll do."[/color]

It was a bold claim at the very least, and really more akin to completely absurd. If it were that easy to just become a Hunter then there would be no need for the academies. As far as Skye knew the Hunter training schools were still around. But there were none here. There would be no other choice but to make good on her claim. At the very least she needed to learn how to fight.

[color=bc8dbf]"Y-you really think you can do that? H-how? It takes y-years to learn..."[/color]

[i]Dammit, Lil. You're too smart for your own good sometimes.[/i]

[color=6ecff6]"You just leave that to me. I'll do it the fastest anyone's ever done. I'll learn it all by myself if I have to. Lucky for us it looks like some of the guards made it out, too. I'm sure they can teach me some stuff. And look at that guy there, he's got tons of weapons and Dust in those carts. Maybe someone here even knows how to make the kind of crazy weapons Huntsmen use. See? I'll figure this out in no time. And I... I will always be here to protect you, Lily."[/color]

A fancy weapon would not make Skye a Huntress, nor would the kind of training she could get from the guards. But if she could just find a way to awaken her aura then they would stand a chance. As far as she knew only a Hunter could do something like that, but there had to be a way. She would find a way. 

[color=bc8dbf]"Do you p-promise? You won't ever leave? Or..."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"I won't die. And I will keep you safe. I'll kick ass ten times harder than those insane anime characters you love so much. Like.. what's-her-face.. the vampire schoolgirl with the sword?"[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"Saya."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"Yeah. Her. So, call it cliche if you want, but... right here and now... I promise I won't let anything bad happen to you. No matter what..."

"You can trust me."[/color]
[/hider]

[b][sub]"I didn't save her."[/sub][/b]

[i]I didn't save her. I swore on my life and soul I would protect her; not just from monsters, but anything that could bring her harm. [b]I promised that she could trust me.[/b][/i]

The tears returned, flowing freely as she stared down at the mask in her hands. Lily's mask. 

[b]"I broke... my promise."[/b]

The first true sob wracked her body.


[/hider]
[hr]
[center][h3][b]Grimm Studies[/b][/h3][/center]

She had been accepted. Skye was part of a team now, and [i]Luke's[/i] team no less. She wasn't entirely sure what Luke thought of her and this development, but she chose to hope they would be friends. For now, if nothing else, he was still her sole confidant and his presence helped put her more at ease. It was an outcome far better than she expected, and for the first time in a long while she felt... happy. A great weight was off her shoulders. She would get the training she needed to become a Huntress. She would be able to keep at least part of one promise. 

But school was just as difficult as she had expected, and then some. Math, history, science; Skye was so far behind everyone else in the most basic areas of knowledge. She was somewhere between the age of eighteen and twenty, like most students here, but she was working with a fifteen year old's level of schooling. And a backwater village school at that. It had been a long time since she had felt embarrassment like this. She was still wearing her mask with the uncomfortable school uniform and that didn't help things, either. Of course it was the lesser of two evils considering her health and how terrible she looked. Someone had even flat out asked her if she was a moron as well as a weirdo. Skye hadn't been able to answer.

Still, compared to her overall good fortunes today, or the kind of things she was used to, this was not so bad. It helped that she was finally headed towards a class she was more or less up to date on. She may not have much textbook knowledge on the creatures but three or five years dealing with them every day? That had to count for something.

She stepped into the classroom and- Red eyes. Forms as dark as an overcast, moonless night. Grimm. Her body moved on instinct, she darted forward at a dangerous level of speed. Her brain was just barely faster than her legs today. [i]Bars, locks... cages. Classroom. This is [u]Grimm Studies.[/u] You [b]idiot[/b].[/i]

She managed to barely stop herself before she collided with one of the cages, skidding to a halt inches from it, fists still raised to strike. The monster inside surged against the bars, making her instincts scream at her to kill it. But she caught sight of the professor's face. The other students. Her hands unclenched, slowly lowering. Her shoulders and ears fell as it dawned on her just how much of a spectacle she had made of herself. 

[b]"S-s-sorry."[/b]

Doing her best to ignore the beast in the cage and the looks she was getting, Skye quickly moved to find a free seat. She tried to keep her head down and not make eye contact as she did so. But she could still hear the whispers. Furthermore as soon as she sat down her eyes immediately locked onto those of the Grimm. She couldn't relax. She sat forward on the edge of her seat, most of her weight on her legs. 

[i]It's a class dedicated to the study of the creatures of Grimm, Skye. It only makes sense to have them here, a safe place for students to gain practical experience and not just book learning. If anything goes wrong there is a teacher right there, and medical people somewhere nearby. Everyone that's here has come to learn how to fight. They all have awakened auras and years of training from combat schools and who knows what personal experiences. No one is going to die or even get hurt in conditions like this.[/i]

...

...

[i]I can't... relax.[/i]