Out of nowhere, Abel found his forward progress interrupted by another student, this one a bespectacled boy in what looked like a suit jacket. Sheathed in his belt were two slender blades, practically rapiers. Though Abel knew the term, he had never seen the like of them before; such small, elegant weapons had no place at the edge of the civilized world. More interestingly, though, was the amount of attention Abel was getting; back home, the brooding, bleak atmosphere stifled any chattiness. Here, he had barely even stopped off the sky boat and he had already come face to face with three new, intriguing people. What mattered, though, was how he was going to handle this one.
"Nice?" Despite not returning Nevin's smile, Abel tried to seem genial. His to-the-point nature, however, shined through. "Not really. Hate bullying, though. That guy was just trying to look out for himself. The blonde girl didn't need to go and humiliate him. If we're not allowed to be proud of our skills, our selves, what we've learned, what's the point?" Though he realized he was probably sounding a little preachy, Abel decided to power through to the end of his spiel, echoing what his father had told him. "Confidence in oneself is the ultimate weapon. If you can't believe in yourself, why should anyone else?" He raised the palm of his off hand up, fingers splayed in a gesture of 'I don't know'.
He noticed Mary nearby, conversing excitedly with an overweight brunette as she walked. Abel watched her for a brief moment, entertained the idea of joining her again, but decided to stick with this new guy for the time being. As he'd learned back home in Pallisade, there was little to be gained by a fixated pursuit. He couldn't make friends happen; he had to let it happen. While that approach hadn't earned him many friends, those he had were worth it. He turned back to regard Nevin again. "But whatever. You hungry? I'm hungry. Gonna check to see if this place has vending machines before the headmaster gives his speech. My name's Abel, by the way."
Lugubrious
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Bio
Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
Most Recent Posts
Looks like I beat you to it, Ryu. Maxwell's already standing.
“So you've actually fought Grimm before!?” Mary seemed incredulous.
Abel's eyebrows furrowed. This must be one of those sheltered ones. What was this girl doing here if she hadn't faced Grimm? He was fairly sure that was a prerequisite or something, not that he remembered a single thing on the forms he had signed. “Yeah, yeah. It's what I do. My family too. We're a long line of Guardians.” He allowed the faunus girl to marvel over that for a moment before posing the question. “Why are you here if you've never fought the monsters?”
For a moment, Mary seemed taken aback. Gone was her cheer, replaced by indignant silence. Her hyperactive tongue was quick to resume working, though. “What's the matter with that? Not everyone has to tough it out on the edge of the world. At Flare, we sparred each other. People are much smarter than the Grimm, but in a classroom setting, they're not so deadly. Learn more, die less. I bet I could beat you in a fight. All those hours standing on some wall must have dulled your reflexes.”
She didn't receive a response right away. Abel exhaled deeply, searching for the right words. Were all faunus this sensitive? “We have chairs,” he finally proclaimed. “And security cameras. Standing around doing nothing is just...medieval.” Mary's aggressiveness died down when she failed to get a rise out of him, and her curt frown transformed into an encouraging smile. “Yeah, I guess,” she admitted. “Still, I'd like to fight you some time. A real east-meets-west!”
Abel held his hands up in placation. “Let's see about whatever the headmaster has to say first. Don't want to sour our very first day with a scuffle.”
Ironically, just as he said that and the two soon-to-be students set foot on Beacon grounds for the first time from the airship, such a scuffle unfolded in front of them. Another student that Abel dimly remembered seeing aboard the ship had just floored a guy that he didn't recognize, crushing him into the stonework beneath her heels after leaping unnaturally high. As the girl muttered and sauntered away toward the school, Abel dismissed Mary with a quick, “See you later,” and rushed to help him up. He held out a hand for Maxwell, who was rubbing a slight trickle of blood from his nose. For a moment Maxwell looked up at him suspiciously, then seemingly accepted his help by wiping the blood off on his shirt and taking Abel's hand.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, clearly resentful that he was obliged to someone else, particularly someone who easily stood an inch above him. “You wanna fight me too?” Abel's incredulous expression spoke for him, and Maxwell was quick to retort. “This is nothing,” he declared, pointing at his nose. “Takes more than that to put a Booster down.”
Instead, Abel posed his own question. “Why'd the blonde chick hit you? You picking fights?”
“Kinda. I'm trying to find the best fighters to join my team. Land a hit on me and you're good to go.”
If he hadn't needed to keep the Ampere from clanking to the ground, Abel would have crossed your arms. “Is it working? Didn't seem like she thought you were much of a leader. Take care of yourself, man.”
With an indicative shrug, Abel left Maxwell to think about that, and continue wiping the blood from his upper lip. He followed the crowd, unsure of exactly where to go.
Abel's eyebrows furrowed. This must be one of those sheltered ones. What was this girl doing here if she hadn't faced Grimm? He was fairly sure that was a prerequisite or something, not that he remembered a single thing on the forms he had signed. “Yeah, yeah. It's what I do. My family too. We're a long line of Guardians.” He allowed the faunus girl to marvel over that for a moment before posing the question. “Why are you here if you've never fought the monsters?”
For a moment, Mary seemed taken aback. Gone was her cheer, replaced by indignant silence. Her hyperactive tongue was quick to resume working, though. “What's the matter with that? Not everyone has to tough it out on the edge of the world. At Flare, we sparred each other. People are much smarter than the Grimm, but in a classroom setting, they're not so deadly. Learn more, die less. I bet I could beat you in a fight. All those hours standing on some wall must have dulled your reflexes.”
She didn't receive a response right away. Abel exhaled deeply, searching for the right words. Were all faunus this sensitive? “We have chairs,” he finally proclaimed. “And security cameras. Standing around doing nothing is just...medieval.” Mary's aggressiveness died down when she failed to get a rise out of him, and her curt frown transformed into an encouraging smile. “Yeah, I guess,” she admitted. “Still, I'd like to fight you some time. A real east-meets-west!”
Abel held his hands up in placation. “Let's see about whatever the headmaster has to say first. Don't want to sour our very first day with a scuffle.”
Ironically, just as he said that and the two soon-to-be students set foot on Beacon grounds for the first time from the airship, such a scuffle unfolded in front of them. Another student that Abel dimly remembered seeing aboard the ship had just floored a guy that he didn't recognize, crushing him into the stonework beneath her heels after leaping unnaturally high. As the girl muttered and sauntered away toward the school, Abel dismissed Mary with a quick, “See you later,” and rushed to help him up. He held out a hand for Maxwell, who was rubbing a slight trickle of blood from his nose. For a moment Maxwell looked up at him suspiciously, then seemingly accepted his help by wiping the blood off on his shirt and taking Abel's hand.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, clearly resentful that he was obliged to someone else, particularly someone who easily stood an inch above him. “You wanna fight me too?” Abel's incredulous expression spoke for him, and Maxwell was quick to retort. “This is nothing,” he declared, pointing at his nose. “Takes more than that to put a Booster down.”
Instead, Abel posed his own question. “Why'd the blonde chick hit you? You picking fights?”
“Kinda. I'm trying to find the best fighters to join my team. Land a hit on me and you're good to go.”
If he hadn't needed to keep the Ampere from clanking to the ground, Abel would have crossed your arms. “Is it working? Didn't seem like she thought you were much of a leader. Take care of yourself, man.”
With an indicative shrug, Abel left Maxwell to think about that, and continue wiping the blood from his upper lip. He followed the crowd, unsure of exactly where to go.
The Irish Tree said
Time frame doesn't really matter. All y'all need to know, is that on Tuesday we sleep. I just wanted to give everyone plenty of time to explore the campus...though I realize that its kinda hard without knowing all of its facilities.
It's also hard if one person decides that it's time to go to bed while everyone else is still interacting, and a few have barely even started exploring. But whatever, I guess. If we get totally desynchronized, I'm sure you'll leap in to fix us all up.
Seeing Oliver thinking that it was starting to get late made me start thinking as well. Exactly what time is it RPwise? I had assumed that we arrived in the morning.
KabenSaal said
I have made my first post. Seems a bit, weedy in comparison, but I never was one for massive Orkmungus posts.
You must not like the rest of us very much then.
Yikes, all these (sometimes mildly disturbing) images really push away all of the poignant information.
I would be only too happy to organize one such. We already have Mary Ovisaries, hyperactive attention-hogging sporadic-personality sheep faunus extraordinaire. Probably not leader material. Who's next, I wonder...?
The Irish Tree said
Oh yeah, go ahead. As long as you don't have them come in to one shot the big bad for no reason, I'm fine with the creation of NPCs. It also adds to the possibility of having a friendly NPC team.
I would be only too happy to organize one such. We already have Mary Ovisaries, hyperactive attention-hogging sporadic-personality sheep faunus extraordinaire. Probably not leader material. Who's next, I wonder...?
From the lack of crushing punishment thus far I'm guessing that NPC-making is okay?
Satisfied at last with the view out the window, particularly now that the airship was preparing to touch down, Abel hoisted the newly-polished Ampere onto his shoulder and span ninety degrees to walk in the direction he had entered.
Twack
To his horror, Abel found that he had accidentally pegged another student with the shaft of his weapon. As he rushed to apologize, he realized that the person he had hit was a faunus sheep girl. It took only a second to identify her as such, given her wooly white hair and adorable black nubby ears. Oversized boots, weighed down with metal, covered her lower legs and feet. She yelped in a high pitch, though more startled than hurt. Before Abel could apologize, however, the girl beat him to it. “Sorry sorry sorry, didn't mean to! Accident!”
Abel was dumbfounded. He gingerly brought the Ampere down into a less prominent position, as if it would lash out of its own accord, smack the other student again, and double his embarrassment. “Why are you saying sorry? I'm the one who hit you!”
The girl giggled, hand covering the spot on her forehead, just above her milky white eyebrows, where the shaft of the Ampere had made contact. “Did you? I wasn't looking where I was going anyway. Must have run right into it. That's the problem with running.” After thoroughly confirming that there was no mark, the hand on her head was offered to Abel. “Guess we're equally at fault. I'm Mary Ovisaries. Some people call me Magenta. Those people are idiots.” It wasn't hard to figure out why; her patterned tank top and split cape were both a deep shade of pink-red. Abel noticed for the first time that she had some sort of weapon on the rear of her belt. He took her hand and shook. “Abel Fulgurate. You're not hurt?” Mary shook her head enthusiastically. Not knowing exactly what to say, Abel was anxious to change the subject before this exchange began to drift into awkward territory. “What's that you've got there?”
“This?” Mary pulled the thing from a harnass on her lower back. The implement revealed itself to be a crossblade, six curved swordlike lengths of metal joined to a central ring. Its design was stylish, white inlaid with black. “The Shepard's Compass! Made it myself at Flare. It took ages to get the alloy right, but when I was done it was as light as a feather! It can fly through the air like a frisbee, and even if it hits something it can keep spinning, sawing away. And it almost always returns to me! I don't know why it does that, really, there are no electronics in it or anything!” Clearly, this was a young woman who wasn't afraid to be sociable. Abel was getting the feeling that she loved attention.
He decided to give it to her. “Huh, very nice!”
“And your spear?” Mary's bright eyes were fixated upon his polearm.
“More of a sword-on-a-stick, really. But since that's a mouthful I call it the Ampere. Conducts electricity really well.”
At Abel's prompting, the two began to move toward the exit together, continuing to chat. Mary contributed more to the conversation by far, but Abel listened well.
Twack
To his horror, Abel found that he had accidentally pegged another student with the shaft of his weapon. As he rushed to apologize, he realized that the person he had hit was a faunus sheep girl. It took only a second to identify her as such, given her wooly white hair and adorable black nubby ears. Oversized boots, weighed down with metal, covered her lower legs and feet. She yelped in a high pitch, though more startled than hurt. Before Abel could apologize, however, the girl beat him to it. “Sorry sorry sorry, didn't mean to! Accident!”
Abel was dumbfounded. He gingerly brought the Ampere down into a less prominent position, as if it would lash out of its own accord, smack the other student again, and double his embarrassment. “Why are you saying sorry? I'm the one who hit you!”
The girl giggled, hand covering the spot on her forehead, just above her milky white eyebrows, where the shaft of the Ampere had made contact. “Did you? I wasn't looking where I was going anyway. Must have run right into it. That's the problem with running.” After thoroughly confirming that there was no mark, the hand on her head was offered to Abel. “Guess we're equally at fault. I'm Mary Ovisaries. Some people call me Magenta. Those people are idiots.” It wasn't hard to figure out why; her patterned tank top and split cape were both a deep shade of pink-red. Abel noticed for the first time that she had some sort of weapon on the rear of her belt. He took her hand and shook. “Abel Fulgurate. You're not hurt?” Mary shook her head enthusiastically. Not knowing exactly what to say, Abel was anxious to change the subject before this exchange began to drift into awkward territory. “What's that you've got there?”
“This?” Mary pulled the thing from a harnass on her lower back. The implement revealed itself to be a crossblade, six curved swordlike lengths of metal joined to a central ring. Its design was stylish, white inlaid with black. “The Shepard's Compass! Made it myself at Flare. It took ages to get the alloy right, but when I was done it was as light as a feather! It can fly through the air like a frisbee, and even if it hits something it can keep spinning, sawing away. And it almost always returns to me! I don't know why it does that, really, there are no electronics in it or anything!” Clearly, this was a young woman who wasn't afraid to be sociable. Abel was getting the feeling that she loved attention.
He decided to give it to her. “Huh, very nice!”
“And your spear?” Mary's bright eyes were fixated upon his polearm.
“More of a sword-on-a-stick, really. But since that's a mouthful I call it the Ampere. Conducts electricity really well.”
At Abel's prompting, the two began to move toward the exit together, continuing to chat. Mary contributed more to the conversation by far, but Abel listened well.
“So you've actually fought Grimm before!?” Mary seemed incredulous.
Abel's eyebrows furrowed. This must be one of those sheltered ones. What was this girl doing here if she hadn't faced Grimm? He was fairly sure that was a prerequisite or something, not that he remembered a single thing on the forms he had signed. “Yeah, yeah. It's what I do. My family too. We're a long line of Guardians.” He allowed the faunus girl to marvel over that for a moment before posing the question. “Why are you here if you've never fought the monsters?”
For a moment, Mary seemed taken aback. Gone was her cheer, replaced by indignant silence. Her hyperactive tongue was quick to resume working, though. “What's the matter with that? Not everyone has to tough it out on the edge of the world. At Flare, we sparred each other. People are much smarter than the Grimm, but in a classroom setting, they're not so deadly. Learn more, die less. I bet I could beat you in a fight. All those hours standing on some wall must have dulled your reflexes.”
She didn't receive a response right away. Abel exhaled deeply, searching for the right words. Were all faunus this sensitive? “We have chairs,” he finally proclaimed. “And security cameras. Standing around doing nothing is just...medieval.” Mary's aggressiveness died down when she failed to get a rise out of him, and her curt frown transformed into an encouraging smile. “Yeah, I guess,” she admitted. “Still, I'd like to fight you some time. A real east-meets-west. Hey, you know what, we ought to be on a team!”
Abel considered this. Until now he hadn't thought of what Mrs. Goodwitch had said about partners. He had assumed when he had heard it that they'd be picked beforehand, unchangeable and definitive and not worth worrying about. “Is it that simple? I mean, if it is, sure, you're alright...” Abel trailed off for a moment as he realized that he had just boiled down all of his interaction with this girl into a simple appraisal.
Mary didn't seem to mind, however. “Hah, you too, Abe. Guess we have to just wait and see.” The two passed beneath an archway. They had absent-mindedly wandered about a quarter of the way around the school. Abel decided he would circumnavigate it to get a good look at his home for the next six months; Mary's stomach reminded her that she wanted something to eat. As the two parted ways, Abel smiled. Now alone -or so he thought-, he let go of the Ampere, holding it aloft with his semblance. Azure electricity sparked between his fingers and the weapon's shaft, spinning it in a quick flourish.
Abel's eyebrows furrowed. This must be one of those sheltered ones. What was this girl doing here if she hadn't faced Grimm? He was fairly sure that was a prerequisite or something, not that he remembered a single thing on the forms he had signed. “Yeah, yeah. It's what I do. My family too. We're a long line of Guardians.” He allowed the faunus girl to marvel over that for a moment before posing the question. “Why are you here if you've never fought the monsters?”
For a moment, Mary seemed taken aback. Gone was her cheer, replaced by indignant silence. Her hyperactive tongue was quick to resume working, though. “What's the matter with that? Not everyone has to tough it out on the edge of the world. At Flare, we sparred each other. People are much smarter than the Grimm, but in a classroom setting, they're not so deadly. Learn more, die less. I bet I could beat you in a fight. All those hours standing on some wall must have dulled your reflexes.”
She didn't receive a response right away. Abel exhaled deeply, searching for the right words. Were all faunus this sensitive? “We have chairs,” he finally proclaimed. “And security cameras. Standing around doing nothing is just...medieval.” Mary's aggressiveness died down when she failed to get a rise out of him, and her curt frown transformed into an encouraging smile. “Yeah, I guess,” she admitted. “Still, I'd like to fight you some time. A real east-meets-west. Hey, you know what, we ought to be on a team!”
Abel considered this. Until now he hadn't thought of what Mrs. Goodwitch had said about partners. He had assumed when he had heard it that they'd be picked beforehand, unchangeable and definitive and not worth worrying about. “Is it that simple? I mean, if it is, sure, you're alright...” Abel trailed off for a moment as he realized that he had just boiled down all of his interaction with this girl into a simple appraisal.
Mary didn't seem to mind, however. “Hah, you too, Abe. Guess we have to just wait and see.” The two passed beneath an archway. They had absent-mindedly wandered about a quarter of the way around the school. Abel decided he would circumnavigate it to get a good look at his home for the next six months; Mary's stomach reminded her that she wanted something to eat. As the two parted ways, Abel smiled. Now alone -or so he thought-, he let go of the Ampere, holding it aloft with his semblance. Azure electricity sparked between his fingers and the weapon's shaft, spinning it in a quick flourish.
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