The travelling lasted forever. At least, for Russell, it did. He was not fond of the long travel time, of the airship deciding to land at Beacon first, rather than last. What genius had decided not to make Beacon the last destination on the list, and forced the Beacon candidates to wait the longest on the craft? Russell didn’t know, and so in his room was kicking about all over the place. On the bed, on the chair, trying to remove himself from boredom. Even the meals bored him, despite being the only interesting thing about the flight. Sometimes, he picked up Cinders and Ashes, making sure that she was clean and properly maintained. Of course, after the first time, it was already properly maintained each other time he looked.
Relief came in the form of a surprise for Russell. He jumped in alarm as the loudspeaker in his room began to crackle. After calming down, he almost thought it had broken for a moment before the pilot, or who he assumed to be the pilot, told the passengers that they were arriving and that they were free to exit the rooms. Russell couldn’t have been any happier, and picked up Cinders, leaving his room as fast as he could to peer outside through the viewing gallery.
He could not have been any happier with the sight of Beacon Academy in the distance, slowly growing closer and surrounded by a blanket of green, from the treetops and the grass. He also got a good look at everyone else around him, everyone else joining him on the journey. If there was one thing that shot out at him, it was that everyone looked older than him in one way or another. He tried to spot someone that looked his age, and was somewhat surprised to find nothing.
It wasn’t truly surprise that entered Russell’s mind, but there was definitely a little shocker. If he was right, still looking over the faces of others, he appeared to be the youngest. He wouldn’t know others’ ages until he asked, but he knew the age limit was seventeen. He expected others like him to get a waiver, others to manage to get into Beacon at his age, at least one other. It didn’t look like that was the case, however. It felt just a little odd.
Tinu was rather content with the flight. Partially because they were on the last stop before Beacon, but also because the flight calmed them rather than boring them. They'd never flown before, so it was a new experience. For the majority of the flight, they sat in their room and meditated. While not the most fun thing to do, it was far from being the worst. Tinu's contentment didn't stop them from being excited once the pilot said they could exit their rooms, though. The chance to meet new people was more than welcome.
Stepping outside of the rooms (making sure to keep their weapons in hand), Tinu quickly noticed two things. One, the view of Beacon was amazing. It brought them a sense of joy when thinking about becoming a hunter. Some parts would probably be boring, but it would be outweighed by the opportunity to travel everywhere and talk to everyone. Most likely both exaggerations, but Tinu would try their hardest to see as many new things as was possible. Two, there was someone! Another cat faunus, who was at Tinu's height but visibly younger. Filled with curiosity, Tinu stepped behind the other faunus, tapping their shoulder.
"Hi!"
The scares for the day were apparently not over for Russell. He jumped in surprise, turning on his heels to look toward the newcomer that had scared him. He took a moments to quickly just look over the Faunus that now stood before him, a few moments that helped calm him down a little. The tapping of his shoulder had startled him, both from the surprise of it and his own shyness-induced reactions to the beginning of a new interaction with a person. It took him another moment just to formulate a response.
“H-Hi,” Russell responded, though with a slight stutter and a lot less enthusiasm that had been given to him. He struggled to think of anything else to say, just allowed himself a tiny shy smile.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Tinu said, noticing the jump, "What's your name?" They asked, making sure to put on a smile that made them seem friendly enough.
“It’s okay. I just get startled easily when meeting someone new. My name is Russell,” The cat Faunus explains. He gave a shy little flutter of his tail, his head tilting a little to the side as he peered at her. “Russell Vermillion. And what about yours?” He asks.
"Tinu Si Heuong! Russell," They repeated. In their head they began to form a question, although it wasn't one that was normally asked. Would it make Tinu seem strange? Probably, but it's not like most people didn't think of them to be that way in the first place. Would Tinu like to be asked that? Yes, but would Russell take offense to being asked—"Are you a he?"
Russell was surprised by the question. Any other boy would have responded with an acknowledgement that he was male, but Russell and his innocent mind thought differently. Having been called a girl by bullies in the past, he automatically assumed that this was another negative comment on his masculinity. His tail stopped the little flutters it was giving, and his ears folded down a little. “Um… Yes, I’m a he,” the Cat Faunus replies, a little quietly.
Sometimes, Tinu's unfortunate habit of thinking out loud would benefit them. Other times, it worked out horribly. Judging by the tail and ears, this situation was one that fit under the latter. "I'm sorry," They looked down in regret. "I didn't mean anything by it, I was just making sure. Not that it's hard to tell! I just..." They sighed, looking away from Russell. Any moment where Tinu didn't make eye contact with someone was incredibly rare. "It's a long story. But," A sudden burst of energy and optimism shot through Tinu. Looking back at Russell, their tail stretched up to the sky. "I am sorry! How can I make you feel better?"
Russell gives a little shrug. Judging by Tinu’s reaction, the other Faunus was genuinely apologetic, a striking contrast and difference to those that Russell knew from the past. In a way, it was almost enlightening to find someone genuinely sorry. “It’s… It’s fine,” Russell responds slowly. “And, well… I don’t know. People don’t usually ask me what they can do to help me,” he says. It wasn’t just that, however - Russell didn’t want to make himself look weak, or rather, weaker, by asking anything from Tinu.
"Hmm..." Tinu came to be lost in deep thought. What would make them feel better and what would make Russell feel better are probably two completely different things. But what would be the most fun for both of them in whatever little time they had before the airship landed? There wasn't much on it, so... "I know," They said, pointing towards the pale, short-looking person with tall boots. "You can meet someone new. And they look so cool, too!"
Russell looks over to the girl that Tinu pointed out, before looking back to Tinu and shaking his head. “Sorry, I just sort of… Clam up, get shy, meeting new people. I don’t know…” He replies, his smile slowly vanishing. It took a lot of strength just for him to meet Tinu, meeting someone else was probably going to make him a little more antsy. Maybe he could, slightly later, but for now, he was content with his new friend.
“What about your team?” Tinu pointed out. “You have to meet them eventually, don’t you?”
“I don’t think I have a team yet,” Russell replies, twiddling his fingers. “Do you?”
“I meant the future,” Tinu walked to look at the view. “But no.” They started to notice the ground coming closer and gasped. “It’s landing! We should get towards the exit, I think.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Russell says, a smile growing on his face. He walks with his new friend to the exit, getting ready.
Azure City, Streets Interacting With: @Cryptek12 Mentioned: @Moyai
The last two days were... interesting. If the festival was an example of how carefree and relaxed everyone could be, the last two days were an example of how tense everyone could be. For Aeira, it didn’t matter. She was more annoyed than scared by the attack. She barelu got to have fun that day. If it wasn’t angry people in the festival, it was angry people from outside shooting wverybody. She wondered if everyone in the mob was dead. Probably.
As much as the attack didn’t faze her, other things did. She hadn’t slept at all in the past two days, and she wasn’t planning to. Just getting in her bed made her feel incredibly unsafe. It was a feeling of impending doom, and one that only went away when she occupied herself with other things, as unhealthy as they were for her. She hadn’t gone outside the house either. She had no energy. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she didn’t sleep at all?
‘Whatever,’ she thought. She opened the door to her room as quietly as she could. Walking through the kitchen, she tried not to make a sound, but the creaking floorboards had other plans.
“Going somewhere?” A voice with a hint of surprise asked. Aeira turned around towards the source, facing her mother. Rui tilted her head. “Are those... my clothes?” She asked, even more surprised than before.
"Uh..." Aeira looked down at her clothes, "The jeans are mine?" She replied sheepishly. She couldn’t lie about the sweater she was wearing. It was black (Rui’s favorite color) and it was too big for her. Her shoes fit her, but again they were a color she normally wouldn’t wear.
“Nevermind,” Rui laughed, “Where are you headed, then?”
Aeira was visibly caught off guard by the question. Following a series of incoherent babbling and stuttering, she found an answer. "I’m meeting up, with... a friend." Rui raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
‘No,’ she thought. "Yeah!" She said.
“No contacts?”
"Nope!"
“Self-defense?”
Aeira checked her pockets. The right held her knife rather than it being in her hair, while the left had her phone. "Yup!"
“Hm.” Rui began thinking. Aeira started becoming worried. She looked around the room nervously, waiting for a response. Realistically, Rui wouldn’t care what she did, but she would likely be more opposed to the idea of Aeira leaving the house now. Her own fear of Aeira getting hurt trumped Aeira’s confidence in not getting hurt. Fatally. She started leaning towards the door, waiting for her opportunity to bolt out.
“Okay.” Rui decided, walking away to her room. “Don’t die.”
"I won’t!"
Aeira would be lying if she wasn’t surprised by what Rui said. Maybe she was confident in the fact that Aeira wouldn’t get hurt after all? It would make sense. She was a trouble magnet, and no matter what injuries she got she would always recover and go back for more. It was an unhealthy trait of hers, she knew. But it hadn’t come back to bite her in the ass, so it can’t hurt to keep it.
She was moving from rooftop to rooftop, dropping down to a windowsill to climb onto the next roof when she needed. This reminded her of when she did this everyday, hunting for her targets. She loved that feeling, especially when she fought them. ‘Maybe I’ll ask Rui if I could start again today,’ she thought.
Before she had time to think about how that conversation would go, she heard something. Or someone. She turned around to see a woman. A black dress that barred her shoulders, red gloves with a skull woven into them, and red tattoos on her shoulders were the first things Aeira noticed about her. The second was the umbrella, but she couldn’t see enough of it to truly describe it. She was smiling.
"...Hi?" Aeira said, hoping to prompt a response out of the mysterious woman in front of her. When the woman's face did not change, Aeira began walking towards the end of the rooftop. She didn’t want people to see two randoms on their roof. However, she was stopped by a small knife whizzing right past her ear. She saw it fly onto the next roof. At first, she didn't move. She slowly began to turn around, a look of extreme annoyance on her face. "What?"
The woman only smiled again.
Walking up to her, Aeira began to notice the clear height difference between the two. Despite Aeira barely being 5’6”, the black-haired woman’s head seemed to only come up to her chest. It was a rare occurrence for her to need to look down on someone, and even rarer for the person shorter than her to appear like a fully grown woman. Despite Aeira’s slow walk towards her, the other still had the same carefree grin on her face.
Aeira noticed the distance between the two and stopped. She began to run, but then opted to do a sideways kick, aiming for the woman in black’s head. The woman in black turned the canopy of her umbrella towards Aeira’s foot, using it as a shield. Aeira hesitated from the unexpected pain of her foot clashing against the umbrella. Noticing the opportunity, the woman in black spun her body around and swept Aeira’s other leg from beneath her. Aeira kept herself from falling on her back by turning and landing on her hand instead, using them to flip herself onto her feet. The woman had a puzzled look on her face, one that screamed ‘I know you can do better.’
It was a bad kick, one that was advertised and had no acrobatics implemented into it, unlike her usual attacks. Her ‘let me see if you’re actually good’ kick resulted in her being put into a situation where the woman in black could’ve easily taken the advantage further and potentially kill her. Aeira knew this. She also knew that the knife from before could’ve killed her. She was walking in a straight line, no efforts to make anything harder for someone to hit on her. It was meant to get her attention. Uncharacteristically, Aeira decided to not pull out her knife on the other. But a question was raised in her mind. If the woman in black wasn’t there to kill her, then what else was she here for?
The two stared at eachother. The woman in black ran forward to attack, but was interrupted by Aeira striking first. A jumping spin kick was blocked by the woman’s umbrella, yet she didn’t forsee Aeira’s speed. The block didn’t stop her momentum, and she quickly landed and sweeped at the woman’s legs. The woman jumped back, performing a flip. Aeira turned into another kick, but the woman’s flip dodged it perfectly. She followed the woman’s landing. Aeira ran up as she did for the side kick earlier. This time, she jumped instead of the kick. The woman, expecting the same attack, stuck out her umbrella to block it again. Aeira used the umbrella as a surface to hop off of. The woman turned around and repositioned her umbrella to go under Aeira’s foot. She used the umbrella to jump off it again, this time backflipping off it. The woman jumped away and disengaged, buying time for her to prepare herself for Aeira's next attack. A smile still remained on her face.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Aeira asked. The woman looked up as if she was thinking, then shook her head. “Do you know me from somewhere?” Aeira rephrased her question. The woman nodded immediately. Aeira’s mind went back to the fight.
Aeira knew she didn’t have the opportunity to start being defensive. The woman had a shield, Aeira did not. She was also shown to have knives to throw. Who is to say she doesn’t have a gun? With this in mind, Aeira charged at the woman again. She feinted a kick towards the head. The woman pointed the canopy up to the right, allowing Aeira to go in for a punch. The woman sidestepped her punch and moved towards Aeira’s side. Aeira threw another punch as she wasn’t in kicking range. The woman backstepped and redirected it. Aeira took the momentum and spun around into a spinning backfist, making sure to be closer. The woman in black redirected her attack yet again. Aeira decided to use the momentum yet again, this time going for another leg sweep. The woman gracefully stepped outside of the sweep’s range. She then stepped back in, using her free hand to deliver a punch straight to Aeira’s cheek. A laugh could be heard from the woman, but she stopped it immediately as if it was on accident.
The blue-haired girl looked around. Nope, no people.
Aeira was put on her stomach. She rolled to the side, evading any other hits the woman would throw at her. Once on her back, she got herself up. She didn’t have time to wear the woman out, and she didn’t want to, either. She needed to end this, as quickly as possible. People had to have been coming soon, right?
The woman was able to either evade or block every attack, yet those were all with the intent of wearing her out. Aeira needed to disarm her. The center of the canopy was a darker color than the rest. It was also where the woman was aiming when blocking and redirecting attacks. Logically, it’d be the only part of any actual use in defense.
‘Aim for the outside.’ Aeira moved in, drop-stepping into a jab. The woman redirected it easily. ‘Too close,’ she thought. She moved in again. She jumped, spinning and kicking as she had done before. The woman redirected it, but the distance between her and Aeira made her require more precision than before. The redirection made Aeira spin several times mid-air, but she landed on her feet. She was getting closer to her ideal range. The woman then closed her umbrella, charging at Aeira. She started using it as a rapier, thrusting at Aeira’s head. Aeira sidestepped it. The woman thrusted again, several times, ending in a slash. Aeira continued to sidestep them, keeping her eyes on the woman’s hands. She ducked the slash and looked up. The woman had to have known that Aeira would dodge all of it; her moves were telegraphed. It felt like she was being played with.
They heard the sounds of a motorcycle, both of them looking away to see where it came from.
They had to move quick. Aeira presumed that the woman would have less time to think now. Aeira’s own gameplan didn’t change. She started a series of several kicks. The woman blocked the first and dodged the second, spinning into blocking the resulting barrage with her umbrella. She then threw the umbrella into the air. Aeira kicked before she could catch it. The woman slipped under it, catching her umbrella and charging towards Aeira with it. Aeira, caught off guard, put her right foot onto it. She spun into an axe kick. The woman stepped back and attempted to block it. She had miscalculated, however, and it resulted in the umbrella being knocked to the ground. In the moments before it landed, Aeira couldn’t see the woman. The canopy covered her face. With the element of surprise on her side, the woman punched Aeira in the gut. Aeira stepped back, disoriented from the force of the blow. The woman took the opportunity to run up and drop kick Aeira. The kick sent Aeira off the roof and down towards an alleyway. She managed to reorient herself, grabbing onto a staircase railing on the side of a building. She dropped down and landed, knowing the drop wasn’t too far to hurt her.
Curiously, the woman didn’t follow. She instead picked up her umbrella and fled, dropping a small piece of paper. She hit deceptively hard for someone of her size, stronger than Aeira ever had. A super strength mutant? Possibly. But if she had held back so many times in their short encounter, then surely the woman wouldn’t bring out her power then? What was her name?
So many questions, and none of them were answered when Aeira grabbed the paper out of the air. Before reading it, she took out her phone, texting the ‘cool girl’ contact ‘you wanna do that meet up thing?’ Looking back down to the piece of paper, she read:
‘ur cool, lol’
‘What the fuck.’
She also looked to see a man sitting on another man's back.
"Don't worry. It took me a while, too." Tiki laughed. If she was honest, she expected Phann to ignore her and go with her own plan, so to have her listen was a surprise. Having someone from her class with her gave Tiki a pleasant feeling, one that was foreign to her. She happily began following Phann, but she felt a bit of guilt. It was likely that Phann had no idea who she was due to her name. Surely, it must feel weird having a stranger fall on you and then start following you around, right? Definitely not comforting, at the very least. Thinking that she shouldn't focus on things like that right now, she forced those thoughts out of her mind. She'll deal with it at a later time.
While walking, Tiki's mind went back to when she was chasing butterflies. Several questions appeared in her mind, like what exactly mana was and how else she could use it. Why was it so natural for her? Something she's never done before, with a feeling she's never felt. If she practiced more, how much of it could she use? How fast? Were there other types of magic, besides the wind she used earlier? Surely, there had to be, but perhaps it would be dangerous if she started experimenting right now. For one, Phann was right in front of her. Two, she didn't know how safe mana was. If using magic exhausted her so quickly before, then it could probably do something even worse. Tiki shuddered at the thought. She didn't want to risk dying for a second time, as absurd as that situation might've sounded.
Immediately after that thought, there was a flash of bright light, and the tingling sensation in her feet turned from a welcome feeling to a hostile one. It started from her lower body, then spread throughout in the blink of an eye. Tiki coughed mildly, but it escalated into a fit that left her exhausted. She felt like her airways were being blocked. Her breathing quickened to try and get more air, but it only helped to make the pain even worse. She managed to keep walking throughout the feeling, but it was unignorable once her entire body felt like she had sat on it for too long. Everything was numb, but at the same time hypersensitive. Tiki fell to the ground. She was surprised when she managed to look up and see Phann unphased by it. Tiki thought it was only affecting her, which made her somehow feel even worse. Like it was all in her head.
Regardless of if it truly was the mana or just her brain tricking her, she couldn't focus. Only when the pain faded to a dull throb for a split-second did Tiki realize that Phann was by her side, tugging on her arm. She tried telling the other elf that she couldn't move, but any attempts to speak were halted by a cough. When one started to come out, it was more of a squeak than any actual words. Tiki did the deepest breath she could muster (which wasn't even as good as a normal one) and looked up. Seeing a panicked look on Phann's face, she became saddened on top of the horrible feeling of every part of her body, inside and out, being bitten by insects. If Tiki didn't start to move soon, Phann would be stuck here with her. Something told her that if they stayed here, they would end up dead. She tried speaking again, to tell Phann to move on without her. Nothing came out.
Disappointed in herself, Tiki tried to ignore her pain as well as she could. She stood up, her legs shaking. It took too much focus to stand up. She knew that she could only do one thing at a time. If she took her mind off of walking, she would fall. She couldn't talk, turn her head, or do anything else, really. She relied on her subconscious to control her breathing and hertbeat as well as they could. Tiki began walking ahead, moving in the direction Phann was before. Whenever her mind faltered, even just a little from hearing sounds, she stumbled. She kept getting back up. She could only hope that her lack of response didn't offend Phann.
Vigilante Name: Whatever the people like to call her.
Ethnicity: Mixed (African and Caucasian)
Nationality: American
Occupation: Model/Vigilante
Appearance; 5'9" / 173 cm // 115 lb / 52 kg
Her hair is her signature feature. When let down, a mass of dark curls frames her doll-like face. The light-brown color becomes much more apparent when light shines on it. Her figure is muscular and fit. She has freckles all over her nose and cheeks, some appearing on her forehead. When in public as... herself, her fashion sense consists of mainly Cav Empt clothing (esentially japanese streetwear), due in part to the fact that she’s been saying “fuck it” recently.
Personality: Dependent on who she's with.
When around business partners or her parents, she's expressionless. Polite whenever the situation calls for it, but otherwise completely apathetic and obedient. She learned from a young age that that was what her parents liked, and apparently it was also what the businesses liked. With her fans, she tends to put on this fake persona to make her like the other models that she shared the same audience with. If you asked her, she'd say it exhausts her.
Faia, with friends (although she hasn't had one in a long while), is more sarcastic and direct. She loves joking with them, a trait normally unseen from her. Most of the time, her jokes are made at her own expense. She is a kind and caring person, who shows patience with those she considers her friends. She’s never afraid to show them that she cares about them, and feels guilty whenever she inevitably ghosts them for hours on end. She doesn’t like keeping such big secrets from them (like the fact that she’s a mutant and a vigilante), but she feels like she has to.
As a vigilante, she is mute. She never talks to avoid recognition. She uses hand gestures and an incredibly expressive face (despite her mouth being covered) to communicate with others. At first, she only started fighting villains to vent anger and dissociate herself. Soon after she started, she changed into someone who enjoys stopping criminals and saving people. She refuses to kill, opting instead to severely damage them. If they fall unconscious, she publicly humiliates them in some creative way. Because she often works at night, the villains can be found in the morning in an embarrassing position for everyone to see. This is the way that people know “she” was responsible for stopping an incident.
Biography; All her life, she's been unable to express herself. Forced by parents to obey for their own sake. Her mother and father wanted to appear as the perfect family and that was impossible unless Faia was impassive and apathetic, only becoming polite when spoken to. When she was like this, she was rewarded with everything she wanted-- kind of. Her parents had to approve of it. So no, she didn't get the things she wanted. She didn't even get things that she liked. All she got were things that made the family look better. For instance, Faia would look "smarter" to all of her parents' "friends" if she knew how to play an instrument. Her parents made her learn the guitar (thankfully, she enjoyed it). She also needed to study and get good grades. Again, this was because of her parents. The only class she truly enjoyed was science.
This would follow her for most of her life, including the part where her parents made her become a model. They essentially paid their way into the industry, but after Faia was seen to be good at it, she quickly became popular and amassed a following. Not that she enjoyed any of it. Now she had to cater not only to her parents, but to her fans (who don't even know she's a mutant; more secrets her parents withheld from the public) as well. Being forced to buy clothes that you don't like simply because that's the safe option that keeps the money flowing and keeps your parents from hating you wasn't the most enjoyable experience by any means.
Although she had to disguise her true self in public, that didn't mean that she didn't express herself in private. She would often sneak out of her house just to practice with her power. Using her knowledge of science and how acceleration and g forces work, she would spend her time calculating what speed she needed to get to and how fast she needed to do it to make limitations for herself. She then tried to break these limitations, the experiments only stopping when she felt she would pass out. Even with this, she was still unable to find out everything about it.
Her tendency to go all-out with self expression in private continued into adulthood, especially when she moved out. Now living by herself, she could really buy anything she wanted. Instantly starting to buy clothes that she thought actually fit her, she knew she couldn't wear these out in public normally. So she spent a lot of time thinking-- what could she do to make it so that she could go finally break out of her shell in public?
Her idea was to stay low with it. During the day, she would go out as normal. During the night, she'd leave her house and go out with new clothes. Clothes that made it hard to recognize her. She also came up with the idea of fighting villains. Not for the specific purpose of "keeping the streets clean," but rather to further distance herself from the person she was forced to be. This crime-fighting hero didn't reveal their name, that would increase the chances of people finding out it was her. Thanks to her efforts, they never did.
Someone might.
Notable relations; Her tight friend group of 4 people (including her). The only people that actually know her, but they don't know about her mutation or alter ego. Their mames are Will, Elise, and Alice.
Resources; loaded as fuuuuck. She has to, to dress the way she does.
Everyday skills; playing guitar
Fighting style She picked up boxing shortly after moving out, mainly to spite her parents. Her trainer taught her the peek-a-boo style, one that consists of slipping punches, bobbing, weaving, generating power by moving head left and right & shifting weight from one leg to the other, which leads to more explosive punches. She can use her mutant power to rotate faster with her punches, gain more momentum, and in general abuse the fact that it makes her fighting style much more explosive.
Strengths Closing distance Messing up the opponent's rhythm Avoiding damage by protecting chin and changing angles Frustrating the opponent Counter-attacking Combining punches Is incredibly persistent in a fight Her punches are very quick
Weaknesses Low range. Is much worse with using legs to fight. If she doesn't react to a hit in time, she can lose her guard easily. Her fighting style is weaker against opponents with less range. A single punch from her doesn't do much, she needs to have the opportunity to get several in. She never kills anyone. Building up speed to hit someone could result in her hitting them too hard, meaning her hand would probably end up out of commission for a while. Very weak vs kick based fighters.
Power; projects a repulsive force from hands and feet
Strengths; can be used to slide across surfaces by lightly repelling self away from the surface. Think of it as skating, but without needing skates Can propel the user forwards, backwards, side to side, and rotate The amount of speed the user gains is theoretically unlimited As a result of her constant experiments, she can withstand the effects of g forces longer than others. the amount of speed and rate of acceleration required for this to matter is a lot, and is generally unrealistic
weaknesses; Can crash easily if control is lost Is not immune to being damaged by it She can't change her velocity (accelerate, decelerate, turn, etc) too fast, unless she wants to pass out or die She doesn't know the full capabilities of it yet as she is only thinking about it one way. As a result, she has no idea how to use it in combat besides building up speed behind her attacks. Short dashes aren’t as controlled as they would seem
extra; her name is a combination of the Samoan words for "express" and "self" inspiration; mai/toph from “avatar: the last airbender,” ippo from “hajime no ippo,” koichi haimawari from “bnha vigilantes,” and mike tyson from “real fucking life,”
Knocking. "You can't hide forever," laughed a chaotic and hollow voice. It was ominous. Its' echoes bounced off the walls, deep and rumbling like an earthquake below, yet still filled with desire. A hunger, rather-- one that sounded insatiable until it would find its' target. The hunter wanted to make their prey afraid. Fear allowed for a sense of control, especially in situations where the one being feared isn't in control. The voice's target was a light-blue haired girl judging by the way she shook. Her active fighting stance, knife in hand, gave the impression of her having been in the situation more than enough times to know what to expect, yet her footing was unstable. A trait almost unheard of from Aeira Ketsueiki. She was attempting to make it look like she had control of the events transpiring, to distract herself from her inevitable fate. A large boom came from the direction as the voice earlier, yet it was too far away to truly tell what it was. Another one. They kept coming in an eerie rhythm, getting closer and closer to the pitch-black room the girl was in. She identified the sound as a door being kicked open. With each door, the grip on her knife became looser. Whatever hope she had of survival became looser as well, disappating when the bladed weapon fell from her hand. "There." She girl gave a shiver that turned into all-out trembling when she heard the sound of footsteps. Whoever that voice was, they began running. The footsteps got louder and louder until they stopped outside of the door. Any noise from then on went unheard by the girl, everything being drowned out by the sound of her own heartbeat. She managed to make out that same voice asking her a question, although she was unable to truly make out words. The only thing she heard was the tone. Knocking. The rabid assault on the door in front of her snapped the target out of her trance. Under any normal circumstances, her adrenaline would triumph over her fear. It's what made her seem fearless in many situations. What gave her the fierce reputation that she had as a 'vigilante.' These weren't normal circumstances. For the first time since days that the bluenette would prefer to be long forgotten, she had shown...fear? Shock? Sanity. The door slammed open. It should have brought in light and a silhouette, but to the girl's surprise, the only thing she would see was the newspapers sprawled across her desk and a window. "Again?" Asked a calm, motherly voice. Still unsure of what was real and what wasn't, Aeira quickly whipped around in her seat. Her crazed, fearful eyes met those of softness. Realizing what had happened to her and also realizing that she had embarrassed herself, she cleared her throat and turned away. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Her voice shook. She silently cursed it for revealing her lie. Again, she heard footsteps, but these were different. One could hear the anger, the extremity, and the aggression in the footsteps of her (dreamt up) predator. These felt softer, as if they were approaching with understanding and caring rather than a desire for destruction. Her wings tingled and made Aeira anticipate danger. This anxiety was soon calmed by a touch that only one person had mastered. "Was it the same one as before?" The other asked, Aeira's fears of it being that... thing chasing her going away. She found solace in the fact that Rui was here for her. Not that it was something out of the ordinary, but for some reason it came as a surprise. The young woman felt unworthy of her guardian's kindness. That never stopped her from fully embracing the reality that she needed it. "Perhaps...," the wing-massage ceased, coercing the mutant to fully admit the truth, "...yes. Except it was worse. This time." "How so?" Rui asked, starting the massage again. It made Aeira feel at ease. She sighed with displeasure. "I thought I had it," Aeira's fists clenched. "I was ready this time. But when he got there, I-," a pointer finger to the lips stopped her. "You were scared, right?" The older woman asked, prompting a small 'mhm' from her junior. "It's okay, I understand," Aeira wanted to express her doubts, but she let Rui continue, "but I also think something needs to change. You haven't been anywhere except the apartment for two months." This much was, unfortunately, true. About the same amount of time as this dream had been occurring. The same premise every time she went to sleep. The room would be dark, but the layout was so familiar to her that she had no trouble moving around. Someone would be searching for her. Any sound she made instantly alerted that person to her position, and they would kick down the room she was hiding in. Their voice, their figure, the way they spoke, it all brought back bitter memories of before she moved to America. The emotions that she had stifled before were coming back to haunt her.
"As new as the concept of being scared might be to you, you can't just let it control you so much. It's like you've lost all the drive you once had, and I just know that going outside just a little bit will make you feel normal again. And I care about you, so if you feel okay, I feel okay. That, and I can only pay off the rent by myself for so long. Which is why," Rui pulled out a wallet from her back pocket, "you're going to the festival." Aeira's wings perked up a small bit in excitement.
"Oh, o-"
"By yourself."
"What?"
Words were unable to and will never be able to describe just how annoyed and angered Aeira was. The Scarlet Devil, feared by not a lot of people, really many, known by again, not a lot of people. Most don't even believe she existsall, was forced into going to such a low quality, undesirable, deplorable, foolish, animalistic, uncouth, crude-
Immediately after having the door shut (and locked) on her, Aeira felt a deep desire to move. For as long as it took her to reach the festival grounds, Aeira ran, jumped, and flipped on just about everything she could find. This resulted in the annoyance of several passers-by, and possibly the dismantling of a booth or two, but she didn't care. The booths were outside of the festival grounds anyways, it's not like many people were planning to go there. She did care about the large crowd that formed around the festival. She jumped up on top of a nearby streetlight to act as a vantage point. If she didn't want to wait (which she didn't), then it would make sense for her to try to get through the crowd faster. Then, she began to plan. She saw that quite a few of the people in the crowds had larger heads. Simple enough, she thought.
Her use of the poor goomba-headed fools as stepping stones were to their dismay, but again, she did it without a care in the world. Being able to move felt so nice. To others, it would be a bit strange that her mood had shifted so easily, but that was just commonplace for Aeira and her childish nature. Noticing that she was causing a tiny bit of an uproar in the crowd, she started moving faster. Looking down, she could've sworn one of them tried to grab her foot and take her down. It didn't matter now-- she was too quick for people to do anything unless they were already expecting it. Favorably for her, nobody bothered to say 'Look out!' or anything, letting her get the upper-hand on everyone else in line. As she neared the festival grounds, she kicked off of her last victim's head and performed a corkscrew, giving the angry festival-goers a smug grin. A few of them pointing at her with angry faces made her eyes widen.
Running time, she supposed. Aeira ran through the festival grounds with urgency, while still being able to dodge the occasional tomatoes and rocks the big-heads were throwing at her with grace. It was to the point where she started putting it in the back of her mind, rather opting to look at her surroundings. There wasn't much to see, at least for her. She recognized that one plant lady, Rui talked about her a lot. Probably because the plant was the one to sell her alcohol. Thinking about it further, that did seem like quite the mutation. Aeira assumed that the plant was able to grow other plants, meaning she could grow her own food. Why was she living in the city, then? She could just go anywhere she wanted without necessarily needing society, right? Interesting. She kept her desire to talk to that lady more in mind, but then remembered she had an angry mob chasing her.
The small flash-mob was full of iiidiots though, so she was easily able to fake them out by making a quick turn over to the food tables. Watching them run straight ahead like a scene out of a bad children's cartoon made her laugh. She doubted they'd even think to come back for her. Standing up from her stealth-like kneeling position, she dusted herself off and looked to her side to see a girl by herself. With food. A lot of food. Was this girl really going to eat it all by herself? Ooh, her outfit looked really pretty as well! Where did she get those clothes from? Where was she from? How large must her appetite be to order all that food for herself? So many questions! So, so interesting. Aeira had to talk to her!
Nationality 🔹 French (born there) 🔹 American 🔹 Japanese Occupation 🔹 Street Performer
Aeira does not seek out criminals for the purpose of justice. She seeks out criminals (mainly mutants) to fight them. For her, it's a way to stimulate her that always works. After going after one and seeing them, she makes the decision of if they’re interesting or not. If they are interesting, she doesn’t touch them. If she deems them boring, she makes it her goal to kill them. The only exceptions to this judgement are those who are reported to have abused their family or children. Then, she shows no hesitation in seeking out and doing away with them. She sometimes assists the 'heroes' by doing this, however it is nowhere near her motive.
Alignment 🔹 Chaotic Neutral
Detailed Information
Appearance 🔹 Aeira is deceptively cute, leading people to underestimate her. It’s obvious that she’s a mutant due to her bat-like wings. Their default size is very small and hardly noticeable, but in certain situations they grow out to the size seen in the picture above. The only thing Aeira has found that always results in this size growth is an adrenaline rush. Her wings serve no purpose except to look cool. She stands at about 5’6”, and weighs 125 pounds. Many mistake her for a child at first. She has deep red eyes (which are where her nickname stems from) and short, light-blue hair with bangs. However, she often hides her eye color by wearing blue contacts. She also has sharp canine teeth. In almost all normal situations, she can be seen wearing the outfit above. If not that, she wears lolita-style deep red dresses.
Personality 🔹 Aeira is a small, curious girl who is plagued by boredom. All of her actions stem from being bored. For example, she could purposely let herself be kidnapped because the alternative wouldn’t have been fun to her. There's an air of innocence and vulnerability around her. It's partially fake, but partially real. She is friendly and polite in public, but in private she tends to be a tad more bitter and irritable. As spoiled children do, she acts like a spoiled child. She pouts, crosses her arms, and stomps her feet whenever things don’t go in ways that are interesting to her. One can often find her acting in overblown and grandiose fashion. When she does find something interesting, however, she likes to preserve it and keep it close by. Especially people. She's never had a true friend, but that doesn't stop her from trying to make them. Aeira has an overwhelming fascination with vigilantes, especially those who eliminate their targets. Coming up with elaborate, detailed stories about her, just for them to be revealed as blatant lies immediately after, is a hobby of hers. She is an avid lover of music, knowing a surprising amount about its' history and always staying up-to-date on new artists. She loves being pet on the head, and she also loves it when people touch or show interest in her wings.
She prefers to only fight the things that are boring to her, as in her eyes, everything that is boring needs to go. Once she’s made up her mind about someone and fights them, the once somewhat bratty-yet-friendly girl turns into one that is focused on nothing but killing her opponent. Whether it’s efficiently or in a way that makes them suffer depends on which seems least boring to her. Aeira is always heard laughing whenever her opponents show signs of pain or fear. She relishes the rush of adrenaline she gets from a fight and the sense of control she feels.
Origin Preferring to keep her true origin a secret, she plays up the persona of being an all-powerful vampiric patrician. So fast that her movements seem like a blur, strong enough to destroy the sturdiest buildings simply by walking near them, powerful enough to manipulate animals around her, having the ability to transform into mist to evade attacks, and subconsciously regenerating so fast that she can't even feel pain, she claims that she is so strong that it just isn't fair, so killing her opponents is a show of mercy for her. In her words, she may be weak against sunlight, but as long as some tiny bit of her remains, she can regenerate instantly. Aeira also likes to tell people that she is a child of Tepes, but nobody knows for sure if she means the Dracula himself.
Well, let it be known that all of this is a blatant lie. In short, she is a child without parents who ran away from her home. Notable Relations 🔹 Rui Ketsueiki Aeira’s former headmaid, now her guardian (after the two of them had ran away to Azure City) who seeks out information about criminals. They are much like a duo. Rui is the brain who plans out every attack, and Aeira is the brawn who executes the plan. For a long time she would refuse to leave the house without Rui by her side. Aeira is often seen at places like cafés or museums with Rui. She cherishes all of these moments. The one person that knows her full history and her identity. The mother figure in her life.
Resources 🔹 Formerly, yes, she had an abundance of money. Now, all of her money comes from Rui working as a cook and herself performing on the street for people.
Everyday Skills 🔹 Drawing. Stealth, although she always blows her own cover on purpose. Gymnastics and acrobatics. As a child she was often seen executing mid-air somersaults and cartwheels that rivaled the skill of her instructors. She was also seen doing things like headstands on just her fingers, the amount of fingers required reducing with age. She uses this skill as a source of income.
Combat
Fighting Style 🔹 Aeira's fighting style is based on using her agility to outmaneuver her opponent. She doesn't hit hard, but she hits fast, focusing on either trying to trip up her opponent and take them down or finding quick ways to cut them. Once she finds her opening, she doesn't let up. She does whatever she can to neutralize her opponent as quickly as possible. She is a thrill seeker, always choosing to go in and fight someone up close rather than sneaking behind them. The areas she focuses on hitting first are the muscles on the knees and elbows. She excels in short fights, getting her damage in in quick, yet precise bursts.
Strengths 🔹 Aeira is extraordinarily agile, as a result of her power. She can perform acrobatic feats with balance and grace. She is also able to twist and contort herself into many different positions that would be uncomfortable for an ordinary person. These abilities give her parkour and free-running skills, making her more than capable of chasing somebody down. Her small size can help her evade hits. She has a high tolerance to pain.
Weaknesses 🔹 She is lacking physical strength. When someone finds an opening on her they can do a lot of damage to her, due to her small size and weight. Pain tolerance does not equal pain resistance. Getting hit will still damage her just as much as anybody else (obviously excluding those with more endurance because of a mutation). If she is caught fighting without her weapon, she is basically dead. She has to run away if it ever comes to that. In long fights where she is unable to find her opening, she will end up disadvantaged due to exhaustion from the nature of her fighting style. Cannot fight armored opponents.
A passive mutant power. Aeira possesses agility beyond that of peak human (and even mutant) levels. Strengths 🔹 She can go from one motion to another effortlessly. This can be used to dodge attacks, swing from things easily, do flips, do far leaps, and numerous other gymnastic, implements with little to no effort. Her tendons and connective tissue are more elastic than that of someone without this power.
Weaknesses/Limitations 🔹 Not requiring as much effort does not mean she cannot become tired. She can still run out of energy. This power also does not mean she can survive long falls or crashes into walls without being damaged. Over time she could do damage to her joints.
Extra
🔹 Inspiration for her power. Also a visual example She made the choice of taking Rui's last name, but she chose her new first name for herself. Her wings grow in cases of extreme emotions, flutter when she’s happy, and droop down when she’s sad. This all happens subconsciously.