A Distracting View (OPEN)

[Soma Brume]

The light breeze that gently rustled the faunus girl sitting in the grass made her shiver slightly, even though it was nearly 80 degrees outside that evening. Her cold-blooded nature always made her feel like it was colder than it really was, and fit with her reptillian visage. She pulled the hood on her hoodie up, obscuring the earbuds she had plugged into her scroll, gently playing music from the indie rock band she had discovered that week. Soma sighed, still somewhat exhausted from the innitiation exam that had taken place in the Emerald Forest two days earlier. At least there was a good view of the sunset from where Beacon was situated, and she had found the time to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the academy.

The girl reflected on what it had taken to get her to this point. She had undergone quite a bit of trauma as a child, and just thinking about it made her left fingertips, which weren't there, ache slightly. She turned her thoughts to the positive things, the words of encouragment from her adoptive father and the few friends she had back in Haven tended to help her forget the phantom pains of her missing limbs. With another sigh, Soma leaned back on her arms and scooted towards the edge of the cliff face and let her legs  dangle over it. A few students were milling about and socializing in the courtyards behind her, but she didn't care much for going and seeking social interaction. She tended to let it come to her instead.

[Dacre Tyr]

Today was the perfect day to curl up under his favorite tree with this amazing new book and relax for a few hours. The sun was out but the wonderful breeze more than made up for the heat which by itself would have resulted in him staying in his dorm listening to certain members of  his team talk his ears off. Not only was there a breeze but he could see that his spot under his tree was unoccupied. This was turning out to be a great day for far. With a slight feeling of excitement to start his afternoon relaxation, Dacre made his way across the courtyard towards the cliff.

The closer he got to the cliff he notice that there was already someone there. Their hoodie was up and it appeared like they were listening to music but after further inspection he discovered another familiar face. The faunus approached the figure and tapped her on the shoulder, getting her to unplug one of the headphones. " Hey Soma, it's been a while."

[Soma Brume]

A tap on the shoulder caused Soma to look over behind her, and she saw a vaguely familiar face. She took one of her earbuds out, frantically tring to remember this person's name as he sat next to her. When he greeted her, his voice reminded her of who he was, and she remembered meeting him on the vertibird flight on the way to the school. "Hello, Dacre," she started, "it's only been a couple days." Soma removed her other earbud and paused the song she was listening to on her scroll. While Dacre was only an acquaintance, she wasn't about to say no to making a friend. She curled her long tail into her lap so the spot next to her was no longer occupied and invited the other faunus to sit next to her. The girl removed her hood so she (hopefully) looked a little more sociable.

"Anyways, good job on the entrance exam. I heard your team was among the first to find their relics." Soma wasn't a particularly jealous person, so the compliment was genuine, and was accompanied by a slightly awkward smile. The patches of aquamarine scales on her face generally tended to be off-putting to most, so she generally avoided much more than neutral facial expressions, but she expected a fellow faunus to understand. She folded her hands in her lap, the mcehanical one on top. Another cool late Summer breeze drifted past the pair, and she was glad the arm without feeling was facing the direction the wind was coming from.

[Dacre Tyr]

Dacre took a seat next to Soma and placed his book beside him. He came out to read for a bit but he didn't expect to run into someone he knew, even if he didn't know her all that well. She removed her hood and seemed to get bit more comfortable. In response to Soma's congratulations for the entrance exam, Dace replied with a slight smile, "Thank you but to be honest, it was mostly thanks to my partner. I spent the whole time following her lead and it ended up working out for the best." The white haired faunus leaned back on his hands and took a deep breath of the fresh air. It was refreshing running into a couple other faunus here at Beacon. Dacre was worried that there wouldn't be too many and he would have a difficult time adjusting but everything worked out so far.

The wolf noticed that she was a bit apprehensive about the scale patches of her skin but Dacre didn't mind it at all. It was unique and the shade of blue reminded him of the sea. He understood what it was like to have a noticeable faunus feature and the remarks that come with it. He turned to her and asked, "What about you and your team? How did you do during the exam? I'm afraid I didn't really follow up afterwards." Although Dacre's tone was a bit dry, he was honestly interested to know how she did.  It's never a bad day to make a new friend and allies you can relate to on a personal experience basis was in short supply.

[Soma Brume]

Soma thought back to how she and her team had done on the exam just days ago. It wasn't her first taste of combat by a long shot, but now that she was really training to be a professional huntress as a career, it felt different somehow, more meaningful. "We did fairly well," she began, "my partner was altogether skilled and fought well. Honestly, I'm glad he had my back." Of course she kept things generalized, not wanting to be too specific about much of anything lest she get carried away. Combat was one of the very few things she was talkative about, and getting too chatty now would only serve to make her seem strange. She brushed a few strands of her long black hair that had escaped her ponytail from her face, and realized she was going to have to be weird when she heard a metallic cha-CLICK! ementating from her left arm. She very carefully lowered it, keeping it bent so she didn't release the tension from the spring that she had accidentally triggered. Accidental deployment was the only real flaw to making her weapon triggers hands-free.

"Hang on just a second, I need to take care of this." The faunus didn't want to ruin her brand new Beacon Academy hoodie that she had just bought if the blade in her arm happened to extend, so she rolled up the sleeve and very carefully extended her mechanical arm, allowing the tension to release slowly and letting the blade to unfold safely. She then pulled her hand back to her chest and twisted her wrist, which retracted the blade with a quick motion. "Sorry about that. I know most people don't have this issue, but I've learned to live with it." Soma spoke preemptively, almost expecting pity or perhaps some negative reaction, both of which would have been unwelcome. Even though her new friend was a Faunus like her, she was painfully reminded that she was still afflicted with something that very few people could ever undestand.

[Dacre Tyr]

Dacre jumped slightly at the sudden metallic click that came from Soma's arm. Honestly, he didn't even notice the mechanical arm until it tightened up just now. The surprised expression on his face was replaced with his usual stoic look. He turned his gaze from Soma as she fixed her arm and looked at a few small clouds drifting across the otherwise clear sky. The faunus thought on this for a moment,  "You know," he began, I won't pretend to know what happened but whatever it was, your arm just proves just how strong you are." Dacre felt like he may have said something without thinking but he pointed at the scar across his left jaw, "This is my reminder that I'm still here. I got this trying to protect my sister from "brigands" and failing. Now it's a grim reminder of my failure as a brother and a guardian."

He didn't really understand why he had told her about that but even as he said it, it isn't the same as a mechanical arm. The wolf didn't want this to turn into a dour mood but he couldn't help but relate to her in a way. The thought of having a weapon in your arm at all times was cool and efficient for any combat scenario, but that seemed inappropriate to say so, he kept it to himself. Being cordial wasn't really his strong suit. It went against his natural cold nature but, Soma reminded him of himself. Dacre's road to Beacon was anything but easy, and as he pointed out, he had the scars to prove it. A mechanical arm with a retractable blade isn't something you see everyday and he felt like the faunus girl had a similar path that led her to where she is now. "If you don't mind me asking, what did happen to your arm?"

[Soma Brume]

Soma narrowed her eyes a bit when Dacre tried to show empathy for her missing limb. While he did the right thing and admitted he could never know what it was like, it still annoyed her when people tried or pretended to understand. The other faunus even went the extra step and nearly compared it to a scar on his face.'If I had only been so lucky,' the girl thought, but she simply looked away and rolled her sleeve back down, letting it go. He had, after all, lost his sister getting it, so she wasn't about to berate him for the comment. When he asked about her arm, she internally rolled her eyes. Everybody always had to ask eventually. Perhaps it was because her prosthetics were so obvious, but she could hardly help that.

The black haired girl lifter her right pant leg to her mid-thigh to reveal the prosthetic there, too, which went up the full length of the leg. Not a single inch of it was the original article. She bent her knee and hitched it slowly, allowing the twin .50 caliber barrels to slie out of her thigh. "I lost them both in a train wreck," she said, "I was only 10 at the time. My dad had already taught me a little bit about how to control my Aura, though, and the emergency workers said that it saved me. Apparently, the my Aura had already sealed the wounds shut before I could bleed out." The phantom pain started to come back in both her fingertips and toes as she spoke about what happened. She could still vividly remember when the train lurched and derailed, how people were flung about and then everything was black.

She noticed she was staring off into space and shook her head, hitching her knee again so the gun barrels slid back into her thigh, then straightened her leg out. She rolled her pant leg back over it, and let it dangle off the cliff face again. "I don't mean to burden anybody with the tragedies in my life, so I think I'll stop there." In truth, it always felt better to talk about it, but the pains she would experience  as a result could become unbearable at times, so she generally avoided it. They were manageable for now, but she needed to take her mind off of it if she could. "When we met, you didn't look like you knew anybody, which put us in the same boat. I'm from Haven, but you don't have that look about you. Mind telling me where you're from?"

[Dacre Tyr]

Dacre noticed an irritated look on Soma as she spoke about the incident that cost her her limbs.  He felt bad for making any comments on the matter let alone asking about what happened but, he wasn't about to take back or apologize for what he said. What he told her, though coming from a person who had no idea what she had to go through, was his honest belief. Back home, his father used to tell him that those who came out of anything unscathed  never truly faced adversity. Though his own physical scar was hardly anything to glance at, all his true wounds were internal. His family gone, a village razed, and his sister catatonic because of him. It wasn't really his intention to pry or dig up bad memories, however,  so he didn't want to push the topic any further and it seemed like she shared that feeling since she began speaking about hometowns. He thought a lot of home, the little that was left, though he did not miss it. The north of Atlas was a cruel place and the war nearly decimated his family line. Nevertheless, he wasn't against speaking about it, "I'm from Atlas" the wolf answered in a quiet voice that surprised himself. He gathered himself again confused as to why his voice barely left his throat when mentioning his old home.

"My family and I lived in a small village in the north region near one of the dust mines in the area." he continued, looking out at the forest that spanned in the horizon, "I don't remember the name of the family who owned it, to be honest." There was a faint twitching coming from the left side of his jaw that he went on to ignore. It always twitched at the mention of Atlas, probably because the skin around the initial wound didn't heal very well and remained slightly tender. "I don't miss it though, it was a cold, harsh land that bred cold, harsh people... myself included.'

Dacre paused at that point, suddenly feeling somber. He made an attempt at keeping his expression neutral but couldn't tell if he was successful. "But I digress, I'm afraid my old home isn't very interesting to talk about.", he quickly added. "Your intuition was correct though, I don't know many people. I can count the people I know with one hand, and none of them are here at Beacon." The white haired faunus went on, "Now I can say I know my team and you, though I confess, not very well at all." The wolf was accustomed to being relatively alone, not many people looked to him for much of anything and his childhood left him with an ingrained feeling of self preservation; mostly emotionally. A light breeze rustled his hair as his voice trailed off with it.