Aurantius Draconus

"Great, looking forward to it." Tius would reply to Azure with enough smiles for the both of them, and as they walked around, he began to stretch his arms a bit, taking a second to look over his gauntlets, Savage Arcana, before he quickly snapped his fingers. Red markings would glow momentarily as he channeled his will into the dust within, followed soon by a small scarlet flame forming in his hand. He'd began messing around with it as the group walked, forming a number of shapes and figures.

As Azure gestured slightly towards a food stand, Tius would be the first to walk up to it and order something, tossing the small ball of flame between his hands as he did so. Soon after, he'd come away from it with one hand holding a bunch of kebabs in one hand while still messing with the fire in the other. Taking a bite out of one of his kebabs, he turned to his team, then looked around the area.

"You know . . *chew* . . we should probably see if we can convince one of the other teams to have a mock battle with us sometime in the future. Sparring each other can only do . . *chew* . . so much when it comes to perfecting our teamwork. That being said . . . anyone here know anyone from the other teams? I know someone who might be able to convince the rest of her team but . . *chew*. . it's always good to have back-up plans, you know?"

@Aquaknight[@LokiLeo689]@Lasrever

XUAN SARGA

As the guy went on his spiel, Xuan nodded along politely. Truth was, she only understood about three fifths of what he was saying. The area of firearms engineering didn’t coincide much with industrial machinery maintenance. All this bolts and levers stuff was genuinely interesting, but not exactly her area. If the guy wanted to talk about drive axles, Xuan would have been more than happy to oblige. All in all, she was glad that the guy didn’t get mad at her for stalking his gun. At least she had someone to talk shop with now.

Did his tone change when she brought up his team? Xuan was never really good with these sorts of things, this subtlety that was required in the world of business and negotiations. Machines never needed to be subtle. Neither did the mechanics she worked with. He started turning the weapon out of her sight. That wasn’t on purpose was it? The reason for the tone shift became apparent when he talked about his placement on reserves.

“No way! You’re on Reserves too?” Xuan practically jumped in surprise, “Wow, if a gentleman like you can’t get into the main course then there really is no hope for the rest of us.”

So she basically insulted the guy earlier. Whoops. He didn’t seem too offended thankfully. When he offered his hand, she shook it eagerly.

"But I apologize, where are my manners? Platz Grün, scion of Grün Custom Works. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Xuan’s eyes widened. Awesome, something she could talk about. Wait, was he really one of those people that referred to themselves as “scions”? She held back a giggle. Xuan had met a few of those kinds of people in her lifetime, usually at those high-end dinners between business partners. Still, if the quality of his rifle was anything to go by, then that view of himself was well-earned.

“Oh, that’s the weapons manufacturer in Atlas, right? Your work really precedes you. My name is Xuan Sarga. My family leads the manufacturing branch of Sarga Motors. I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the future, Mr Grün, since we’re both on Reserves and all.”

Platz Grün then delivered a lovely inspirational speech.

"Once lost, the weapon is not truly yours anymore, it merely is another nameless weapon."

Xuan appreciated the effort but she would have appreciated it more if her weapon wasn’t the exact opposite of what he was trying to get across. For one, BlitzMaw was never hers to begin with. It was a prototype she had found in her sister’s workshop, one that she had borrowed since all the other models were being used for another extended project. Sure, Xuan had helped with improvements for later models and had made her own modifications to her personal set to suit her needs, but it was far from being her own design. And as for being a nameless weapon… To be frank, the BlitzMaw’s name had as much personality as a gun called “Gun”. Xuan didn’t have the heart to break this information to Grün and decided to just smile awkwardly.

“Uh thanks,” she chuckled in an attempt to hide her inadequacy, “I will keep it in mind.”

---

Xanadu had always looked like a boy. When she was growing up with her father, he'd sometimes slip up and refer to her as a boy in one way or another. When she left him and set out into the real world, she was often challenged by young men, and courted by attractive maidens (the second of which being a perk she rather enjoyed). She had never, however, looked as masculine as she looked now, as she stood in Illuminate Academy's assembly hall, listening to the principal's speech. Of course, Xanadu's feminine traits were still there, noticed only by those who looked passed her manly appearance and Illuminate's boy's uniform she wore, though the uniform was missing the tie and the top button. For example, if her hair had been down instead of tied back, it would've been immediately obvious that she was a girl. But it wasn't, so the only indications of her gender were her facial features, which, while rough and rugged, were still feminine, and the two lumps that occupied her chest, small and almost unnoticeable, but still present.

As soon as the old man finished his speech, Xanadu and her wolf pal were out the door. Besides the fact that she couldn't stand being inside for very long, she was rushing because she had to find her team. She had been told very little about the two other reserves she'd be working with, just that she was looking for a blonde guy with a stick up his ass and a clueless brunette girl. These were not the exact descriptions, of course. She was actually told to look for a "young man with golden locks who looks to be from a well off family" and a "inexperienced-looking young lady with brown hair", but in Xanadu's mind, they were the same thing.

It wasn't until she and Coal were standing alone in the middle of the fair grounds, at least a hundred yards from the building, that she realized that she hadn't the foggiest clue where to start. And she was hungry. So she decided she'd put off the search for her team in order to get a bite to eat. After all, they were bound to turn up somewhere. And so the dimwitted girl turned to her left and walked towards the stall nearest to her, which held two fat men, one taking orders and the other in the back cutting tri-tip off of its bone. Oh, how the beautiful meat glistened, covered in grease. How the meat smelled like edible gold, teasing her nose.

Xanadu wasted no time in bringing out her wallet. It was leather, but poorly crafted. She had made it herself. Unfortunately, she discovered upon opening it, the crappy wallet was empty. She grouchily shoved it back into her pocket and was about to walk away, but caught something in the corner of her eye that caused her to stop. The second fat man, the one in the back, seemed to be leaving quite a bit of meat on the bone when he threw it into the trash. She looked down at Coal, who only nodded before disappearing behind the stall.

Seconds later, Xanadu saw Coal inside the stall, crouching, sneaking up to the garbage can while the second fat man wasn't looking. The black wolf quickly put his front paws on the rim of the can, before reaching in with his mouth and grabbing two bones. Unfortunately, the can then tipped over, making a loud clanging sound, which immediately caught the attention of both of the fat men. The second one was the only one to chase Coal, however, as the first one simply stared in shock as the animal ran away. The fat man who had started running wouldn't have caught up with Coal or Xanadu, who had begun to run alongside her wild companion, even if he hadn't stumbled over the pile of bones now occupying a large portion of the stall's floor.

The girl and the canine continued to run until they reached a weapon stand, one which they could easily use to hide. Once there, Xanadu crouched down to give the wolf a rough rub on the head. "Nice work, Coal." She said, before grabbing one of the bones from his mouth. She paid no mind to the slobber from her friend and wasted no time in devouring the pieces of meat here and there. She stopped only when she noticed that there were three other people in there with them. The vendor, a blonde guy with a stick up his ass, and a clueless brunette girl. She knew the second two from somewhere, but she didn't know where. But instead of asking, she simply shot a glare their way and went back to eating her meat, silently acting like she was comparing the weapons in the shop with her own crossbow.

Platz was apparently on the same team, Reserves, whatever it was with this young lady who had unwittingly insulted him. Her backhand compliment brought a slight smirk on his face, while he shook her hand earnestly before returning his hands to their resting position by his sides, relaxed for now. She seemed aware of the family business back in Atlas, from her question and comment on their work preceding him, and she introduced herself. Ah, yes, Platz recognized the name Sarga Motors. They rain transport guarded by Atlesian military forces, and were suffering rather unjustly at the hands of brigands and Grimm alike. A grave shame indeed, but he spoke candidly on the matter as she commented on seeing each other fairly often. "I know of Sarga Motors, my condolences that the Atlesian Military cannot do more to protect against the hostilities aimed at your family business. It is a pleasure, Lady Sarga."

Something did seem a bit amiss as Platz wrapped up his little off tangent, something in the facial movements. The smile seemed more awkward than genuine. Perhaps hitting too close to home? He didn't pursue that, after all, he wasn't readily aware of what weapon she had decided to use anyways, so perhaps she didn't use such a intensely custom tooled weapon. Not all hunters, from what he had seen of the others at the Academy, seemed to use such things. Perhaps they thought skill made up for less than perfect tools. Fools, he thought with an odd amount of venom, a craftsman can only do so much with inadequate tools, no matter how skilled they be. A tool befitting the wielder was necessary to draw out the best in a craftsman, whether they be novice or grandmaster of their trade. And of course a tool must be cared for properly, lest it be allowed to dull and fall into disrepair, making it worse than being merely a subpar or inadequate tool. But, he arrested his train of thought back to the subject at hand. "Just a humble opinion, Lady Sarga, nothing more. What equipment do you prefer to use, if we are to be allied with one another for the forseeable future?"

Best to know what she was capable of, since as far as Platz knew, she was his only teammate so far. Temporary or otherwise since the idea behind these so called Reserves was to replace losses in the main teams. Being spare parts still irked the young man to no end, but he certainly attempted to keep that in check. Of course, he happened to see what looked like the filthiest boy...no, not a boy, a second glance at the structure of the filthy lout's build revealed feminine traits. A woman? Rather ratty and generally dirty looking, and the wolf beast hardly looked much better. She seemed to glare at the two of them before returning to what looked like slobber covered bone. Did...the wolf beast claim that meal for the two of them? He could have commented on the sanitary issues with such an arrangment, but considering her dress and overall cleanliness, or obvious lack there of, well, he need not bother. She seemed hardly concerned with such affairs. Her glare seemed out of place, considering he could not readily think of any reason he would have attracted such a look.

"You do know, madam, that there are more viable sources of food than what looks like comes from a waste bin, yes?" Using madam in relation to the disheveled looking tom boy was, well, almost feeling like he sullied the word in the process. But, polite would be polite, even when pointing out a less than clean manner of acquiring sustanance for one self and their pet. Companion. Boyfriend. Whatever that wolf thing qualified for to the young woman. He wouldn't put much past her, from looks alone, and considering her devouring of scraps. For the sake of diplomacy he kept his mouth shut beyond what commentary he had made thus far, after all, he hardly knew her temperament beyond the glare. Perhaps she was in rough straits and hardly wanted ot admit it? Some folks pride, or refusal to weigh upon others, put them in dire waters. Noble, relying on one self, but if someone cannot hack it alone, as they say, they should not be so bold as to over step their limits casually. Test them to expand them, certainly, but not outright ignore them. That was foolish. But between the Lady Sarga and the disheveled looking one, this was turning out to be an odder day by the minute.

Gradon made sure to keep a firm hold on Líadan’s hand since the girl had a tendency to wander off to be a loner in some instances. That, and this way he could be ensured his teammate wouldn’t try to kill any of the other students. Perhaps an extreme conclusion to his logic, but an understandable one given that his team were rather introverted.

That being said, he saw many members of other teams enjoying themselves with the day off from school. Some chose to dine upon the foods being offered while others sought to hone their skills before the competition. Gradon made a mental note to ask Mary if their team could partake in some training as well. After all, the battlefield was where Gradon truly excelled at.

“Greetings Sill. You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something,” the boy said after locating another member of his team. He was unware of the conversation Sill had just partaken in so he gave the other boy a look of confusion before turning back to the crowd. Was Sill looking for someone? Maybe Mary?

“Well anyway, we’re all here now so we should probably go have some fun, right? Now if only Fearless Leader was around….hey, there she is! Fearless Leader, over here! Fearless Leader,” Gradon said aloud, spotting Mary a good distance from their group of three and waving for her to join them.

---

Mary, despite her searching, could not find her comrades. Well, it was only natural that she would be average at finding people. Luckily, she saw someone try to wave her down. She looked at the the man waving her down. There were actually three people there. One normal looking guy, some girl who was extremely pale, and some edg- wait a moment.

The trio was her team. It took her a moment to realize it. She walked over to join them. "I see that you folks found each other." She said, trying to break the ice. She knew that Sil would probably say something short, Líadan would say something sociopathic, and Gradon? Well, he was a wildcard.

"So. What did you guys do while I wasn't here?" Mary asked, half-knowing the answer. "I suppose you all sat down and did nothing." Her tone was joking, but also frightfully close to the truth from what she knew from the previous days.

---

---

He pointed his head upwards as Gradon, pulling a yet again silent Líadan, up closely. Introducing himself once more, Sill only stared in moderate silence, thinking a response in his mind as quickly as he could. Eventually, he did return the conversational topic.

"Seen a Ghost. No no...I was just talking to this strange and peculiar ma-" Just like that, he was cut off as Gradon seemed to focus more on the absence of their leader, Marianne.

It was a bit of a pain, sometimes, trying to improve his own Social Standing with a team like his. He wanted to get as close as possible with them, but it proved more and more difficult over time. Putting someone with Social Awkwardness with a team full of it was like trying to heal a bullet wound by shooting the patient again. Eventually though, Marianne turned up. Though her prediction of what he did was finally wrong.

"Actually I was just talking to this older guy. For a long time. Sebastian, or something...Remind me to talk to you about that soon, Marianne. But...Nonetheless, what have you done so far in this Festival? Marianne? Líadan? Gradon?"

---

Azura was always surprised at how much food Tius could put down - it seemed like he had a bottomless stomach, at least to her. She was pretty sure some of the guy's meals could last her for a few days, but it didn't seem to slow him down any. Whatever he had looked pretty good so she went and purchased one of her own, scarfing it down it surprisingly quickly. She could get a little, well, possessive of her food. Call it a habit.

She finished off her food while she listened to Tius' suggestion. The idea didn't exactly thrill her if she was honest. It had taken her long enough to get used to her own teammates, and compared to a lot of these people they were at least tolerable. Of course, part of her knew it was a good idea, but well...

She glanced around the festival. You could tell which people were hunters and huntresses in training from their fancy weapons, and as far as she was concerned, their ridiculous outfits. First impressions were key, and her first impression of them hadn't been the greatest. A lot of them dressed as though they'd never heard of colours that didn't burn her eyes. Besides, most of the people who'd actually dedicated themselves to being hunters their whole lives?

Well, they normally seemed to go one of three ways as far as she was concerned: They'd never actually known suffering, were full of themselves, and didn't understand what the job meant, they had some sort of hero complex, or they had some deep motivation and were convinced they could somehow make everything better on their own. Not that it wasn't an admirable belief to have and all. Each to their own, people could make their own decisions. Whatever motivation people had to be here was up to them.

She just thought they were morons, that's all.

Not one to be polite about it, she looked at Tius and spoke matter-of-factly. "I'm not exactly a social butterfly. Apparently I'm 'difficult' to deal with and people don't really want to know me. The feeling's mutual - I like my privacy." she said, not appearing particularly concerned with the fairly hostile words coming out of her mouth. It wouldn't exactly be news to them that she didn't open up much, considering how she hadn't told them anything about herself beyond her name and age. Maybe they'd picked up on more, maybe not.

Azura sighed. "In any case, I don't know anyone. You two?" she said, gesturing towards Forrest, and more reluctantly towards Jin.

---

---

The white-haired girl wasn't really paying attention to the ongoing conversation, instead glaring towards the creepy owner of the Kissing Booth. Definitely, another booth that could use a lighter. She didn't know if the man was eyeing his recently found teammate Sill, or the newly arrived Gradon. Either way, she didn't like the guy.

Her head perked up when she heard Sill mentioning her name. She was having second thoughts about being "Líadan". It was hard to say, compared to things like "Sill", "Mary" or "Gradon". One syllabe too much, in her own opinion. "I wasn't here." she muttered her reply before saying/whispering what was in her mind at the moment, hopefully getting her team to do something about it. "I don't like that fat man." Clearly, she was uncomfortable by the fact that he was now looking at her. He was probably thinking about how bad she looked. Her coat was more a straight jacket more than anything and, although her skirt could be noticed if someone paid attention, she only seemed to be wearing her heeled boots from her waist down. She looked... inappropiate.

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