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Jaune didn't like airships. Period. It wasn't just that his stomach seemed determined that it wouldn't exist in the same stability as the rest of his body, forcing him to hurl all to often. It was largely that, but not exclusively. It was also that the walls seemed to always be smaller than they looked from outside. And this time, it was one of his neighbours. Most of the people on the ship were relatively normal looking. There was a girl with burning red hair, whom everyone seemed to revere, hanging back and nodding respectfully at her when their gazes met. The redhead seemed more annoyed by this than anything else. At least her exclusion zone was respectful. Everyone was keeping their distance from him for a very different reason. The steadily emerging stink of vomit from his trusty dustbin probably had something to do with it. Not that he could help that. He had bigger issues in the long run than a little bit of a bad rep.
However, there was another exclusion zone. Two, in fact. And these were neither respectful nor disgust. These were outright fear. He could really see why. If he was any closer his stomach would not be the issue. His bladder would have that covered. Four individuals seemed to exude... something. Something... dangerous. The furthest one he couldn't see, only hearing the muffled whispers from that end of the ship. Nearer him, however, he could see two of them. Or, more accurately, he could see one, while the other's existence was notable, but all of their features were hidden within a volimuous crimson cloak. It wrapped around her, enshrouding her entirely, hiding each and every detail of her appearance. It seemed to almost glow, flickering in and out of focus, fluttering in the gusts from the open deck doorway.
The other figure, however, couldn't be in clearer relief. They stood almost six feet tall; dark, sleek plate armour spiralled up her legs and her right arm, while her left glowed solid silver. His eyes were forcibly drawn to her chestplate however. It seemed to emit light, gleaming silver and polished under the weak airship lights, and it was inlaid with a pattern, resembling a lidless eye, laid in blue crystal, with spines emerging from every direction, reaching out across the metal.
Her face was almost as pale as her armour- it was almost as if she was made of snow, her eyes glowing a cold, glaring blue, focussed and alert. Her face was tainted, however. A single scar ran directly vertical, across her left eye, and tattoos criss-crossed her complexion, each shining blue and adding to her immense presence. Her hair was as white as her skin, and it was cut to meet the gorget at her throat. It was braided tightly, and held in place by a circlet of the same silver metal as her armour.
The single greatest factor, however, in determining the cause for the fear, was the five foot long greatsword on her back. Its hilt stretched almost a foot, and the pommel ended in a length of chain, which now hung loose from her back. The grip seemed to consist of three different barrels; even with his limited knowledge of weaponry, Jaune could guess their purpose. Something about the sword was adjustable. Personally, he did not wish to find out exactly what that might be. The blade itself was a dark grey, a far cry from the brilliant silver of the armour. It was plain and unadorned, simply latched to the girl giant's back a couple of straps, with gravity doing the rest. It seemed almost anti-climactic really. The former, red cloaked figure was pulled tight into an embrace with the snow knight, the giant's armoured limbs encircling them, pulling them tight, even as they clutched the white haired girl in return. Their faces were close, partially obscured under the red figure's hood. It seemed deeply intimate- Jaune almost felt as if he was trespassing upon something private.
Then he turned his face rapidly back to the bin and hurled again.
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Pyrrha was not generally impressed by the pickings this year. The golden haired boy in the corner had been vomiting the entire journey so far- while she would not dismiss him for an unusual illness, at the same time he obviously hadn't recognised her; all but impossible for any aspiring champion who was coming to Beacon this year. Most of the rest of the new students had carefully avoided her. Anyone who was so frightened of her would be easy pickings at a tournament. Fear is fatal to strategy? Was that the quote? She couldn't remember. And didn't particuarly care. There were seven who had not even acknowledged her presence, however. The girl and boy in the middle of the crowd could easily be discounted as well. The orange haired girl was unbearably enthusiastic, bouncing up and down and generally annoying the hell out of her green clad minder. She would never be co-ordinated enough to pose a real challenge. The way she managed to make the boy vibrate up and down with just a grip on his wrist suggested both great strength on her part, and phenomenal self control on his, but without a plan they wouldn't be a problem.
The next group was the gigantic white knight in the corner, and her comparatively diminutive friend. The knight, though intimidating, would be eminently predictable. Regardless of skill level, there was only so fast even a woman as large and clearly strong as her could wield a great-sword, forcing long, carving strikes, rather than any particularly fancy bladework. The purpose built blade and binding chains attached to the pommel suggested that the knight had used it before, however, and used it often. Unpractised fighters would often spend far too much effort developing a fancy, low redundancy blade. Sure, it looked pretty, but it also would be damaged easily, and could often be removed from their grips easily enough. The chains would prevent the knight from losing her grip, while the blade suggested that the knight was experienced, even if not necessarily against human opponents. The other frightening thing was that Pyrrha couldn't detect any metal signature emanating from the giant's armour. Her cybernetic arm and and sword glowed, even if the high redundancy circuitry in the grip was well shielded. The armour itself, however, didn't register at all. Which was a concern for Pyrrha. Her cloaked friend was a total enigma to Pyrrha. She could sense a tiny emanation of metal from under the cloak, but it was heavily shielded, and... something about the knight kept distorting her sense. Never mind; all would be revealed in initiation.
The fifth member of the group was the easiest to analyse. He was out like a light on the floor, after his racist jabs at subject six had caused subject seven to beat him into the ground with a single blow. The aforementioned subject six was... scary. She was clad in a skintight suit that seemed to blur into the surroundings, with a dark longcoat reaching to her ankles. Her black hair cascaded down to her shoulders, but it was not enough to conceal the two, triangular ears that peeked above her head; the target of subject fives slur earlier. The girls eyes glowed bright yellow, and a choker ran around her neck. Her weapons shone out to Pyrrha as clear as day; in fact, the all but glowed with the density of metal. It had been this that drew Pyrrha's eye's to the four outsiders as they boarded the ship, before dividing up. The woman had some form of incredibly dense metallic system running along her arms and up her legs, meeting at a mass of meta on her back. Two Katanas were latched onto her back, the magnetic attraction between the spider like system on the girls back all but blinding. Like the knight's weapon, these were simple, and unsubtle. The girl carried herself well, and with an air of confidence that Pyrrha had never seen in a Faunus before.
The final member of the group was the opposite. She was physically huge; probably an inch or two shorter than the knight, but built like a tank. Everything about her seemed huge. Her chest was the stuff that gave Pyrrha angst, but compared to the rest of her, seemed reasonably proportioned. Her arm was the same size as Pyrrha's leg, and the Champion had little doubt that she could crush her with one hand. She had just seen her smash straight through the fully charged and prepared aura of a trainee huntsman, flooring him and sending him to a nocturnal haven with but one, unarmed strike. However, while her sheer size was disconcerting, there were other, far more terrifying things about her. For one, she had spines. Right along her backbone rose three rows of irregular spines, blanched white as bone. Her waist length hair flowed easily over them, but her clothing evidently had more difficulty. The brute was clad in an extremely revealing brown sports bra, and some very VERY short shorts. Greaves and thigh guards enclosed her legs, metal straight on flesh as far as Pyrrha could tell, but once again, Pyrrha couldn't detect it. She couldn't manipulate it. Instead of the glowing silver of the Knight, the brutes leg armour was a blazing, fiery copper, glimmering as if constantly lit by an internal fire. It both scared and fascinated Pyrrha; it was beautiful.
As if sensing her staring, the brute turned to face her, and Pyrrha had to suppress a gasp. Blazing red tattoos spiralled across her heavily muscled torso, visible from all side, although never as predominant as at the front. However, that was not the thing that shocked Pyrrha. The girls upper face was not visible, hidden behind a bone white mask, clearly styled after the grimm. The girls lustrous blonde hair fell haphazardly around her head, but it couldn't hide the girls eyes, as the shifted from lilac to a furious red. Snarling, the girl lunged at Pyrrha, claws sprouting from her fingers, even as her entire body seemed to ignite. Pyrrha stumbled backwards, the brute's first lunge missed, but the second all but connected when a word echoed around the cabin.
'STHIEL'
At that, the brute froze, mid swing, allowing Pyrrha to desperately stumble backwards. Turning, she looked to see her saviour. The red cloaked figure now stood before her, the white giant standing behind her, looking extremely bored by the whole affair. Slowly sinking down, the red hooded figure's arms emerged from the cloak, presenting her open palms to the rampaging brute, who slowly growled, before whimpering as the red hooded girl came closer. The black clad girl reached out, and gently touched the blonde brute on her arm. The burning woman rounded, but before she cold do anything, the black clad faunus grasped her hands, before tugging her gently, but insistently, to the ground. The brute hissed, but slowly sank with her opposite.
'Hello'
Pyrrha looked up, seeing the shadows cast by the hood of the red cloak instead of a face. Nevertheless, it was an extremely feminine voice, and the hand that emerged from the cloak looked harmless, if extremely rough and calloused. She accepted it gratefully.
'I am sorry about my sister. She has been suffering from stress disorder, and has never had the opportunity to learn to socialise. My name is Ruby. You have already had a more than close enough encounter with Yang. This is...'
'Weiss.' Cut in the white knight.
'... yes, this is Weiss, and our other member is Blake.'
Pyrrha turned to see the Faunus helping Yang to her feet. The blonde threw one last look at Pyrrha, before moving over to the small pile of suitcases in the corner of the room.
'If she didn't like me looking at her, why didn't she say so?'
Blake smiled
'Yang's tongue was removed at the same time she had those tattoos applied. You can see why she might have a little problem with people staring at her'
Yellow eyes met green. Pyrrha had seen some scary people. She had seen would be champions, whose eyes were always threatening violence. But in Blake's yellow eyes, she saw another threat. She saw the same threat she saw in Yang's red. She saw that the words carried a very imminent threat of violent death.
She gulped.
This was going to be an interesting year.