Cause we have chemistry together~ [priv/penguin]

Chemistry. Remind me again why there is a useless class like this in Syne?

Averia sighed as she trudged heavily towards her first class in the morning. Adorned in her school uniform, she couldn't quite remember the last time she attended class properly. The classes could be either too boring that she ended up daydreaming the whole day or they were too exciting that they weren't considered a 'class' anymore. She arrived at the end of the hallway and walked inside the room.

"Avy Frost, present," she chanted as her daily routine and took her usual seat at the back of the class near the window. This class was one of those boring classes that she just couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. She didn't even know what the necessity for it was. Something about knowing poisonous substances, acids, chemical compositions that work against grimms etcetera. Who needs those when she could just kill them with her guns? Averia sighed and slouched on her seat, looking out the window again.

Then their teacher talked about a group project involving two people. Ew. Something Averia hated the most. The professor proceeded to call out names of people in pairs. Averia paid attention for a bit just to know who she had to deal with.

"Averia Frost and Scarlett Winchester."

She nodded a little. Winchester. Was there someone like that in the class? Well, she wouldn't know since she never even paid attention to the teacher, what more to her classmates. The name Scarlett though, was someone she fairly knew. Though what would be the odds they were classmates. After all, there were a lot of Scarlett in Syne.

Averia stayed on her seat while the rest got up to go to their partners. Since she didn't know who this girl was, she figured she'd wait until this person moves to her instead. But what if this person didn't know her as well? Meh. It'll work somehow.

Chemistry. One of the things Scarlett was best at.

Truly, while the ever-bashful Scarlett lacked quite a few key skills when it came to, well, most things, she more than made up for it in her classes. As studious as ever, the red-head was up at the front of the class, taking notes about whatever oddly specific thing the professor had decided to lecture about that day. But no matter what, she was writing along in that little cutesy purple notebook of hers, sometimes asking and talking to the students around her. It was a rather rare thing for her to do, but it certainly happened.

And then the news of today's assignment came to her, "A... p-partner..?" she asked, rather unsure about working with someone else. Well, someone new at the very least. It wouldn't have been the first time she worked with someone, but being assigned the partners made Scarlett rather distraught. How would she know that the person she was being partnered up with was reliable or would work with her. It was things like these that caused the poor Scar a bit of panic.

She waited for some time, Scarlett looking around and waiting for the class to group up, hoping that her partner would find her through the mess. She had no idea who this 'Averia' was, having never heard the name before in her life. So the only thing to do would be to wait until either they come to Scar or they're the only ones left in the room alone. Standing to her feet, the red head gazed around the room, biting down on her lower lip lightly, trying to find the one person that was also alone when everyone settled into their groups. And then she found her.

Her heart felt like it sank in her chest as her eyes fell upon the pink-haired figure of Averia, recognizing it immediately. She stood there, not knowing what else to do other than continue to look around, hoping that she made a mistake somewhere and that there was actually someone else. There being nobody, all of her wants were dashed rather quickly. Once again, her eyes trained on Avy, the girl who was so terrible to the poor meeker girl. The girl who tormented her and put her through quite a bit of added stress. She... considered just leaving right then and there, but she just stayed there... watching her and hoping that she didn't notice.

My god, how slow is this girl? Those were the only thoughts running through Averia's head as she flopped down on her desk, head resting on her folded arms as she looked at her classmates lazily. So far almost everyone had met up with their partners except her. Maybe she's absent? Honestly, she didn't care. Heck she could do the project all by herself if she wanted to, not that she would anyway.

Just then her eyes caught something, or rather, someone, in front of the class. A girl with short red-hair who was all too familiar to her. Even the way she held herself - silent and bashful, was just how Averia remembered her to be. Her eyes widened in surprise. It really was her - the very same cutey Scarlett that she knew~! Averia straightened on her seat as she stared at the girl who appeared to be looking at her as well. She simply sat there, waiting for Scarlett to come forward herself but since she was taking too long, Averia took the initiative and stood up. She walked her way to the front of the class, shoving everyone on the path lazily with a flick of a hand until she reached the girl.

"So we meet again, Winchester," she said, folding her arms beneath her chest as she stood there looking straight at the girl. "How have you been?"

The class stopped talking to themselves as their attention was focused on the two. Then came the whispers. Averia had earned quite the notorious reputation in the first years for her rule-breaking feats and troublemaking ways. And now she was partnered with this meek sheep - an easy target for bullies like her. Most of the students pitied the girl, while others were more than ready for a drama to unfold.

Averia ignored the chitchats and simply pulled a chair to take a seat. She propped an elbow on the table and her chin on her hand before glancing at Scarlett next to her. "So are you just going to stand there, partner? Don't tell me I'm doing all the talking too?" She asked before looking away. Her eyes furrowed as she tried not to stammer on her next statement. "B-but seriously though, how have you been?"

Scarlett's eyes met with Averia's, causing her entire body to tense up. Please, don't have it be her as her partner. Anyone but her... As Scarlett mentally begged some unknown higher power, she couldn't really do anything, staring ahead like a deer caught in headlights, unable to move and simply stare at her fate. As the moment passed, the redhead grit her teeth, forcing her muscles to move and to take a step in the general direction of Avy. But as soon as her first and only step ended, Averia moved, such a thing catching Scar by such an amount of surprise that she forgot to take a second step. Her eyes grew wider with every step that Avy took towards the poor redhead, watching with glistening orbs.

Scarlett managed to pry her eyes away from Avy and towards the other students, hearing them murmur about the two. Such a thing caused the nervous girl to begin breathing slightly heavy, uncomfortable with so many peoples' attentions on her. She stood there, moving one hand to hold her other just below the shoulder, rubbing it gently in an attempt to calm her nerves. Being so focused on the others that she barely even noticed Averia speak to her and take her own seat, "E-eh..?" she let out, her eyes dropping down and towards the pink-haired bully. She had no choice other than to slowly lower herself to her seat, breathing out a long, somewhat shaky sigh.

"I..." She began to speak, but her words were most likely imperceivable by her partner, biting down on her lip as she was asked how she was, "I... I've been fine... I guess..." she said, somewhat untruthfully. The reality of the situation was sadly a lot less pleasant, her uneasiness having only increased since their last interaction. Perhaps Avy could have noticed that. But... it certainly was strange that Avy even bothered to ask. Was it just pleasantries or did she, in some small amount, care about the poor bashful girl? While that possibility existed in Scar's mind, the former was much more likely, "H-how are y..." she pause, changing her mind about what to speak about, "S-so... we can get done with this project fairly easily..." she decided on.

On the table, Scarlett's arms rested in full-view. Her hands were close to one another, pressing her index finger tips together awkwardly. Sometimes it's hard to say if Scarlett's terrible at handling social interactions or pretty good considering her anxiety.

How perfect is this pair? Both awkward with one another. One person barely speaking due to her natural meekness while the other didn't know what to say after everything that happened in their previous encounter. Averia keep trying not to look at the girl, partly because she couldn't face the girl after all the hurtful things that she said before, but mostly because.. well.. the girl was still too cute for her poor weak heart.

"S-so... we can get done with this project fairly easily..."

Right. The project. Averia gave out a soft sigh as she finally turned to face the girl. Noting their position, Averia briefly stood up, moved her chair so that they were face to with each other before sitting back down.

Her eyebrow twitched at the sight of Scarlett playing with her fingers like that. Was this person really trying to give her a heart attack or something? Averia decided to just start with the project. She grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from one of the students next to her. Of course they couldn't complain. It was Averia after all. Placing the paper in the middle of their joined desks, Averia ran her own fingers on her hair, tucking back a few strands behind her ear before proceeding to write.

"So..." She said, sounding business like. Her crystal-blue eyes moved up to meet the girl's stare. "...what's our project again? I wasn't listening."

Scarlett parted her lips to protest as she witness Averia simply take something from another student. But for whatever reason as she looked upwards towards the not-pink-haired girl run her fingers through her blonde hair, she paused, seeming to get greatly sidetracked. She watched in something that closely resembled awe, without meaning to as she got lost in how beautiful the girl opposite her was. It was quite hard to think that someone so pretty had said and done so many ugly things. But everyone was full of surprises, it seemed.

Scarlett herself, after being asked what the project was on got a chance to show how knowledgeable she was on the subject, after being snapped out of gazing at Avy's form, "Uh... what..? O-oh! Erm... yeah..." she cleared her throat, "It's... not that hard, really... just the physical differences between dust and other naturally occurring substances, primarily being things composed at least partially out of the element carbon. Then we're to compare the various types of dust with elements that can be associated with them and have similar characteristics." Once she was done, she blinked, adding afterwards, "Erm... that might be a bit difficult after all... I... I can do it a-alone... if you'd prefer to not really bother with it..."

With that, it was an out for both of them. While doing the project alone would certainly be rather harsh on Scarlett, she knew that she could do it and it could save both of them trouble by not forcing them to need to spend time together. It was most certainly a win-win, right? She cleared her throat awkwardly, A... Ahem... S-so... I'll still give you credit and everything, s-so you really shouldn't feel the need to stay here just because of your grade or anything..."

Averia blinked as the person before her was a stammering mess. This wasn't her usual stutter due to  being shy. It was like she was distracted by something. Averia shrugged and dismissed it as she proceeded to listen to what Scarlett had to say.

"it's... not that hard, really.."

And then came the long explanation of alien words that ended up unconsciously tuning her out. Something about dust. And carbon. Averia stared at the girl blankly. Fortunately, as though reading her mind, the redhead offered to do the project alone and would credit her in the end anyway. Averia raised an eyebrow and she looked a little to the side. That did sound like a good plan. But nope. She couldn't take advantage of this penguin like that. Besides, she could use this time together with her to fix their rather tragic first meeting. But then again, it was the girl who offered.. so.. No! Stop being such a lazy arse!

Averia propped her elbow on the table, her chin on her hand as she gave the girl a sly smile. "Hmm? What's this? Miss goody two-shoes is stereotyping me as a dumb chick because of my hair colour?" Averia mused. She wanted to tease the girl a bit.. just cause she can. "In any case, did you really think I'd entrust my perfectly high grades to someone like you? I don't think so. We're working on this together whether you like it or not."

She leaned back on her chair and saw something from a distance: a student spinning his pen. With an attention span of a goldfish, her thoughts quickly disappeared and she looked back to the girl in front of her. She smiled. "Hey, do you wanna see something cool?"

Scarlett blinked in response to Averia's claim. Was she just stereotyping the girl in front of her? Well... quite certainly not, but the fact that the blonde called her out anyways made the redhead quite uncomfortable in her seat. Squirming ever-so-slightly, she argued, "N-no! Of course not, it's my grade too after all so of course I wouldn't..." Scar swallowed hard for a moment, "I just... figured that you wouldn't want to bother with me is all..." she said rather lowly. Although the claim that Averia made perfect grades was dubious at best, she certainly wasn't going to comment on that.

"Hey, do you wanna see something cool?"

"E-eh..?" The sudden shift in tone and topic certainly caught the meeker girl by surprise, unsure how to answer. She felt that the project was a bit more important than seeing 'something cool', but it's doubtful that it'd hurt to just allow her to do as she wished. Or... since it was Avy, perhaps it would hurt quite a bit. But by the time that thought crossed her mind, she had already stammered out, "E-erm... sure..."

But that just left Scarlett considering what it could have been that Avy wanted to show her. All things considered, it's doubtful that she was going to enjoy whatever the blonde-haired young woman had in mind, the unknown being one of the things that Scar found the most discomforting. Showing this by lightly biting down on her lower lip, when combining the unknown with this person's known habit of bulling, it certainly didn't help.

Averia chuckled as she had successful drawn a cute reaction from the girl in front of her with a simple tease. She looked away to hide an obvious smile. Ahh~ I want a pet penguin~.

With Scarlett's agreement for Averia to show her 'something cool', the latter turned her head back with an innocent sparkle in her eyes, exhibiting childlike excitement. Averia grabbed a pen from the people next to them once again, earning her a glare but she didn't care. She cleared her throat a bit. Holding the new pen on her left while the other pen on her right, Averia glanced at Scarlett before turning to the paper in between them.

She brought down both pens and wrote on the paper. Her left hand scribbled the words Scarlett while her right hand wrote Winchester just next to it in her perfectly elegant penmanship. Averia then looked up and flashed a wide smile at the girl, clearly proud of her feat.

"Cool right? I can write with both hands! At the same time! Isn't that cool?" She said, her gleaming eyes fixed at the girl as though she's waiting for a praise.

"Pfft. She's showing that lame two-hand thing again." Averia picked up a voice from her side and her smile quickly disappeared, begrudgingly turning to that person and throwing the pen at him to hit the unsuspecting guy at the back of his head.

"Tsk." Averia cheeks flushed a little as she lowered her head and bit her lip. Was she the only one who thought that was cool? She didn't wait for Scarlett to answer as she spoke first. "N-Not like you peasants will ever understand how beneficial it is to cut the working time by half," she defended herself. "Anyway! Let's just start this stupid thing."

Scarlett tilt her head slightly to the side curiously, watching Avy as she stole someone's pen. Said action, causing the redhead to give the blonde a slight frown, obviously disagreeing with the idea of simply taking something of someone else's. But she kept quiet, both not wanting to interrupt and knowing that she'd just get bullied more for speaking up. She let out a soft sigh, but continued to watch the girl's actions. She was... drawing with both of her hands then? Quite the unique skill, that was for sure. Scarlett watched with interest in a slight amount of awe, curious as to what she was doing exactly.

"Cool right? I can write with both hands! At the same time! Isn't that cool?"

The meeker of the two girls looked down at the piece of paper, blinking as Scarlett realized what she had drawn. It was... her name. And written with professional level intricacy. She had never seen her name drawn like that and the sight was almost breath taking, "Wow..." she said softly, "That's... an amazing skill..." She certainly praised, looking up towards Avy with glimmering eyes. Truly, it was certain that the blonde had impressed Scar, "It's... art, really..!"

But perhaps Avy didn't even hear Scarlett's claim as she went back from her proud smile, something that made Scar feel... unsatisfied with for some reason. Even if she was a bully and was quite terrible, she didn't want even her to be angry, upset, or even sad. Whatever the case being, she just shook her head, pushing the thoughts from her mind so they could focus on the project itself, "W-well... the project itself is pretty open ended, so long as we bring back some sort of research example..." she trailed off, biting the inside of her cheek as she considered what exactly to do, "Essentially just use dust, note down the properties and then compare them to natural elements and we'll be fine... see? Easy. She said with a slight smile towards Avy, slightly more confident is how simple her explanation was this time.

"A research sample?"

Wow, this is more boring than I thought. So much technicalities. Averia thought as she dug into her pocket and took out her pack of gum. She slid it one and unwrapped it for herself. Then another one to which she silently placed on the table towards the girl in front of her without a word. "So any research sample, right? Mkay. I got this." she held up a hand to silence the person in front of her.

Averia once again turned to the pair next to them. "Hey you, boy in dork glasses. I need research sample for this project. Go get me one this afternoon, 5pm in the library, sharp."

Afterwards she returned to Scarlett to which she was informed they needed to dust for comparison. As a dust-hater herself, it wasn't like Averia carried one with her. She turned to the pair on the other side next to them. "You, freak. Yes you. Gimme your dust right now." There was resistance for a while but she complied with a simple glare from the blonde-haired.

Averia held the vial in her hand containing some red powder and showed it to Scarlett with an accomplished grin. "Mkay~ You were right, this is easy. So we're halfway done~"

Scarlett stammered as she watched her partner simply take dust from a fellow student, unsure as to how she should stop it, "A-averia, it..!" she bit down on her lower lip, silencing herself for several moments so she could collect her thoughts. This certainly wasn't going well and it seemed as though the blonde was going to keep stealing the work and supplies from their classmates. Really it would be a lot better if they got away from this crowded room and went somewhere alone. S-so that they could both do their assignments, of course!

Scarlett only took a short moment before she began to move her belongings to her bag neatly, just as she always had, "T-that's fine..." she said, deciding to just accept that the girl had 'procured' the exact materials they could use. Doubtful that she'd want to give them back and it saved them both time going to a lab and putting in documents for 'research-use dust'. Last time she did it took them days to finally accept her, "B-but... we should go somewhere else. Somewhere we can work in peace without anyone bothering us..." the redhead claimed, knowing that the person most likely to bother her was the one she was talking to.

Giving a soft sigh, Scarlett stood from her seat and moved slung her bag over her shoulder, ready to head out, "E-erm... any place you'd like to go in particular..? If we're to test out dust we'd need a place with plenty of targets, but preferably without many, if any people. So they... don't get in the way..." she stated, but the real reason for that second condition was because she wouldn't feel comfortable with lots of people around, "A-any ideas at all..? I do know of... one or two places we could go, but uh... I'd prefer to avoid them..." she said, not even giving an explanation unless pressed.

"T-that's fine..."

Averia's eyebrows raised and she smiled. See, I can be pretty useful if I feel like it. She convinced herself. Averia slid her chair back and stood up, glancing down briefly at their joined desks. She rolled her eyes as she couldn't be bothered to return it. She walked towards her desk to retrieve her things and hurried back to Scarlett.

"Plenty of targets but without any people? Hmm." The training arena. However it would be beyond stupid to return to that place and stir the memories from their first meeting. "Well, since you're the one with the ideas, let's go with what you have," Averia said.

Averia fixed her blazer underneath the sling of her bag as she walked out of the room. She flipped her blonde hair back to let the amber strands cascade softly down her waist. Now not there were only the two of them in the hallway, she could speak freely. "I'll be quite honest with you. I'm not a dust-user, nor will I ever be. So..." she paused, playing with the zipper of her bag before continuing in almost a whisper. "..i-if you want to change partners, that's fine with me too. Since you're a perfect A student and all."

Then she snapped her head towards the girl. "But if you dare tell that to anyone, I'm going to destroy you, you hear! She exclaimed in an attempt to revert to her intimidating self. She didn't even know what went on her head as to reveal her greatest weakness like that. Somehow this person was making her do things she wouldn't normally do. And they haven't even known each other for that long.

Scarlett let out a soft sigh, seeming that it really was her choice as to where to go. Granted it was quite the perfect place for what the redhead had in mind, but there was one pretty significant problem that she knew about. The fact that it was needlessly dark, a fact that most certainly didn't make the meek girl feel at-ease. She shook her head slowly, "That's... fine... it's a bit of a walk, so we could be out there for quite a bit, alright..?" she said, beginning to lead the girl away, through the hallways and eventually out of the building as she mused to herself, "Good thing I brought enough lunch in case this happened..."

As they continued to walk, Scarlett paused, looking over towards Avy as she admitted something quite strange, "Not... good with dust? I... that's fine, really, th-" she was cut off by the girl sudden aggressive tone. Her eyes widened as she brought her hands up, revealing her palms in a non-threatening manner, "E-eh?! O-okay, okay..!" she let out, biting down on her bottom lip. She stayed there, waiting for the young woman to ease up for several moments as her body was tense. She was never exactly one to understand why people were so eager to threaten her for things they decided to tell her on their own volition. In fact, she believed this was the second time someone told her about their lack of dust ability and then went to ensure that she never told anyone about it. People at this school were far too aggressive.

Eventually Scarlett just swallowed hard, "I... it's fine, really..." she stammered out, "I... don't mind or anything..." she said before biting down on her lower lip, certainly not wanting to agitate her further. Of course, she had no problem with someone's lack of ability, but she can see why they would be against people knowing about their weakness. She supposes. Perhaps it's because she never really spars, but she really found no other reason to hide her abilities from others. She eventually let out, "I'm... rather good with dust, s-so..."

"Hmm. Now that you say that, I am pretty hungry," Averia murmured at the mention of lunch. She slid a hand inside her pocket while the other took a small book from her bag, flipping pages to the middle where she left off. She continued reading while walking since the silence was not helping with her boredom. The person next to her wasn't much of a talker herself. Her eyes only trailed back from the book and to the girl when the latter revealed she was proficient with the use of dust. Now this sparked her interest.

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. Not bad. I can see why you would resort to dust use," she said, unconsciously using belittling words again as she glanced at Scarlett from head to toe. "At least you have something to make up for your lack of strength and poor accuracy. We should spar some time just for fun."

Averia returned her gaze back to the book. "In saying that, you're not completely useless after all. If you feel the need to hunt, you can call me and I can give you a hand... if I feel like it," she added. The first statement was her version of a compliment while the second was a genuine offer.

As the two made their way out of the building and deeper into the forest, Averia looked up from her book and around the area. "Are we there yet?"

"Wh-what..?" Scarlett asked, furrowing her brow as the girl outright insulted her skill. She frowned sharply, obviously not wanting Avy to see her show how annoyed and disapproving she was. Sure, she had a point when she said that she lacked skill but poor accuracy? Now she was just hurting what small amount of pride that the redhead had as a gunslinger. Sure, her attacks weren't the fastest, but at the very least she had trained enough to ensure that most of her shots hit their mark, even if the target was moving. When it came to her Prism, it was about making every single powerful shot count, "I'll show her..." she grumbled, biting down on the inside of her cheek.

This wasn't like Scarlett, that's for sure. It seemed the more that Avy talked and belittled her, the more she simply got annoyed by the girl's words, eventually furrowing her brow at the claim that she wasn't completely useless. Of course she wasn't. She may not have been the best in a fight, but she was able to hold her own and even help out at times, even if she made mistakes... that much Warren made sure that the meeker girl understood. She decided not to respond to the girl, afraid that it would just lead to another argument, and it's not like she planned on taking her up on either of her offers.

Eventually, Scarlett let them both to a cliffside, "Almost... it should be around... here..!" with that, a rather large cave could be found, the redhead frowning softly as they came across it, "Erm... I hope you don't mind... it's a rather small cave that used to be infested by a grimm or two. It was cleared out before the academy was even built, I think... I come around here from time-to-time when I want to practice in peace..." she spoke. Inside it was quite dark actually, causing the Scar to bite down on her bottom lip nervously, "It's pretty dark though s-so..."

With that, Scarlett closed her eyes, breathing out softly before she activated her semblace. Her eyes began to give off an ethereal glow as red 'steam' floated from them. When she opened her eyelids, her irises were glowing, almost as if she were wearing goggles of red mist. Without an explanation, she began to make her way into her dark cave, "There's plenty of stalagmites for us to use the dust on. Should be rather simple..." she remarked.

Averia was still reading her book and thus was entirely oblivious of the negative feelings she had inflicted to the girl beside her. She did hear a short grumble and she turned to Scarlett but quickly dismissed it as her own stomach protesting to go for lunch.

Several minutes later, the two found themselves by a cliffside, a rather large cave sitting just underneath. Averia returned her book on her bag as she peeked inside the cave. It was almost pitch-black with no other source of lighting. Of course. It was to be expected of a cave. Averia moved to one side to pick up a stone to which she would proceed to throw inside the cave and judge its sound. Hmm. Nothing weird so far. No traps nor grimms. She glanced at the girl from the corner of her eyes. She seemed pretty innocent and trustworthy enough.

Averia then blinked as a red mist appeared around them, leading to the girl's eyes glowing a bright red. Pretty~ As Scarlett proceeded inside the cave, Averia realised it must have been some kind of super power eye semblance. "T-That's great and all, but what about me?" Averia chuckled as she followed the girl inside. She took out one gun holster from her bag and strapped it around her thigh. Taking out the gun, she pushed a button, triggering it's flashlight feature to illuminate her way. Well, it was tiny, but it at least provided her some light.

"So.. uh.. what do we do with these stalagmites thingy?" she asked.

Scarlett blinked, mentally cursing herself. How could she possibly have forgotten something so obvious as the fact that her partner couldn't see in the dark as well as she could? Seemed rather simple that most people would have thought of. She opened her mouth, turning her head to look at Avy, "O-oh right. Erm... it's not too dark, so your eyes should get used to- Ah! Y-yeah, that works... I suppose..." she said, looking towards the activated light on the girl's gun. It was quite a neat little feature that she added, something that got Scar to thinking. Perhaps she should install one of those on her Prism? Sure, she rarely had to worry about being without sight as she had her Forge Goggles semblance, but those times where she didn't want to use it or couldn't would certainly help out.

But this wouldn't be one of those times, Scarlett and her partner weren't going to be in the cave for that long. She pulled her own gun out of its holster on her thigh, finally showing it off to Avy when there was still light for her to see. For such a small girl, her weapon was surprisingly large, most likely packing quite the punch if hit by it. She flicked her wrist, causing the gun to split open, revealing its revolver-like cylinder. She pulled out one of the dust they 'procured', looking it over carefully for several moments before blowing on it gently, seeming to judge the condition of it before she loaded it into the gun, it being the only ammunition put in. And with yet another flick, it was set and ready to be fired, the symbol on the outside beginning to glow a dark red, revealing the dust to have been fire typed.

"I, uh..." Scarlett began, not sure how to tell the girl this as they made it further into the cave, "It's simple, really. I just... shoot the stalagmites. Like, yeah, see, that one over there." she says, moving her hand to point towards a pointy formation protruding from the ground, "I've, uh... come here from time-to-time when I wanted something to practice on but the training area was far too full and everything..." she explained. With a soft exhale, "I'll be honest though... I've not really used all the types of dust that we have with us, so I'm not exactly... the most experienced." she explained. As they went further in and eventually made it to the back of the area, more and more stalagmites - as well as their roof counterpart - could be seen, some even blown off by some source, most likely the redhead.

Averia gave out a triumphant smile as the girl seemed to be pondering over her gun's flashlight feature. As a gun enthusiast, Averia was always proud of her creation and treated her golden desert eagles as an extension of herself. Scarlett though took out her own gun and showcased its features. The blonde girl's eyes sparkled and she nodded, half admiring the design and half wondering how her small frame could fire such a big gun. The gun was almost as big as hers, maybe even bigger and contained cylinders for dust vials. Another flick of the wrist and it's all ready to go.

As they proceeded deeper inside the cave, Scarlett instructed she only needed to shoot the stalagmites.

"I've not really used all the types of dust that we have with us, so I'm not exactly... the most experienced."

"Pfft. What was it you said a while ago? 'Oh~ I'm rather good with using dust'. Pfft." Averia copied Scarlett's tone of voice, unconsciously mocking her skill level once again. As they went deeper, the blonde haired noted the shattered stalagmites and realised they must have been from Scarlet's target practice. "Well, you do have the guts and you're hardworking, gotta give you that." She shrugged.

"But we will take ages with that revolver of yours. Watch and learn, hun." She whipped out her gun with one hand and aimed at the roof crystals. She pressed the trigger and held it, letting the fully-automatic function of her gun to fire a barrage of bullets and simply waved it right and left, as though spraying bullets towards the crystals as they began to shatter.

"Done. What's next?"

It was true, Scarlett's gun was at least somewhat larger than Avy's, something that the redhead herself decided not to linger on. However, what she did linger on was the girl's mocking words, causing her to frown lightly, "I-I mean... I know about them, but the rarer dusts I haven't had a chance to use is all..." she admitted begrudgingly, "Studied them, but never got to feel how they fire from Prism." With that, she simply shook her head, unsure if this really was such a good idea at this point. Perhaps they should have just taken the hit to their grade so they didn't need to deal with eachother.

Giving a faint sigh, Scarlett seemed to be in her thoughts as she noticed Avy aim upwards, causing her eyes to widen, "W-wait..!" she attempted to warn, but it was too late, a barrage of blast escaping the tip and launching at the stalactites. As lots of them shattered into pieces, the redhead flailed her arms frantically, trying to get the girl to stop, "N-no..!" she called out, her voice possibly being drowned out by the loud constant sound of gunfire. Unable to do much of anything, she simply stood there, her glowing eyes wide with panic.

Once it inevitably stopped, Scarlett shook her head back and forth quickly, "Averia, no... We can't really do things like that as we need to know the effects of a single blast... and you're using up all the dust!" she called out. Although she wasn't entirely sure how much of a vial of dust Avy's gun used as it went for some time. Meanwhile, her own gun used it on a one-vial one-shot basis, still based on making every single painful shot count.

With a soft exhale, Scarlett bit down on her inner cheek before speaking, "This... shouldn't take too much time, alright..? Just be patient and we'll get over this as soon as possible..." she stated, "Now just... watch, alright..? Try to take observations as getting two points of view can really help..." With that, Scarlett licked her lips and lifted her gun, aiming it at a stalagmite. She waited for just a moment to allow Avy to get in whatever position that she wanted to for her little demonstration. With a slow breath, Scar squeezed the trigger and the immediate thing that followed was a gun shot. However the bullet was noticably different, more like a large mass of flame and heat that escaped from the gun's barrel. The kick that the gun had almost knocked the girl back, and most certainly would have if she didn't have stable footing. As the dust bullet hit the hunk of earth, it shattered into bits and pieces, leaving nothing behind other than seared rock.

With that, Scarlett gave a smile, always proud of the power that her Prism held as she turned over towards Avy. Flicking her wrist as she did so, it ejected the empty dust vial onto the ground where it would most likely stay for the moment, "Well... that's one down. D'you get a good view of it at all..?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side as she asked.

"Averia, no... We can't really do things like that as we need to know the effects of a single blast..."

"Oh..? Err.." Averia lowered her head a little as she fumbled with the handle of her gun. She wasn't used to getting told on, especially someone of her age, not to mention making her look like a complete idiot when it came to dust - which she was but she need not be reminded of that. She retracted her gun and triggered its travel gauntlet mode while still keeping the flashlight on, the light noticeably larger now since the scope was positioned right in front of the light.

"W-well, I didn't really use dust but.. um. Yeah. I'll watch you first." Averia stood beside the girl, aiming the light to where she thought the target was. Then the shot was released, the bullet was enhanced with dust creating flames that disintegrated the crystal into a seared rock. She quickly glanced at the girl to check if she was okay. That was some powerful recoil there. Her eyes then shifted to the empty vial which slipped from the gun and to the ground.

"Yes I saw a good view. But what exactly am I supposed to look for? The fire dust just burned the stone. Isn't that normal?" she asked. Honestly she didn't get what they were doing at all. In fact, she was more concerned of the gun's recoil more than anything.

"You know, I'm pretty good with adjusting weapons. I can reduce your gun's recoil for you to suit your physique, as well as adjust dust consumption per bullet fire so you dont have to risk everything in just one shot."

As Averia glanced over towards her, Scarlett seemed to be completely fine of course, this not being the first time she's fired from her gun after all. She smiled softly, moving her hand towards the collection of dust that she had and beginning to reload the gun as she answered back, "Erm... y-yeah, kind've... this is a weird project, I'll admit and there's nothing really solid. Just look for things that stand out and we'll be done, alright?" she asked. With that, she gave a soft sigh, considering Avy's offer for a few moments before, "W-well... while I do appreciate the offer, I suppose... doing something like that would reduce the power of the shot. To get less recoil, the bullet itself would have less force and if you were to lower the dust consumption, the same would happen." she explained, "Which is... what Prism was made for, really. S-so thanks, but... don't worry about it, alright? I've already gotten its recoil down by a lot over the years as it used to knock me over every time..." she mused, remembering the days at her grandfather's workshop.

Scarlett looked down towards her gun, seeming to have loaded three shots this time, wondering what she could do with them. She smiled softly before speaking, "Hey... do you... wanna seee something cool..?" she asked, looking over towards Avy slightly as she closed her gun's cylinder with a click, ready to fire the three shots once she gets the go ahead from Averia. Now was her time to show off, or so she hoped.

So Averia had to look for something that stood out. She wandered her gaze around the cave. Err, like what exactly? Ah well, she'd know once she sees it. She looked at Scarlett as the girl declined her offer and proceeded to explain her reasoning behind the gun's power. What a cute name for a gun though. Prism. Very Scarlett-like. Averia smiled a little at the image of the redheaded tumbling back due to the recoil's strength. How cute as always~

"Hey... do you... wanna seee something cool..?"

"Hmm~" An interested smirked curved on her lips and she shifted her eyes to the cylinder of Scarlett's gun then back to her. Now this wasn't the Scarlett she's used to. Averia liked it, a different side of the girl she hadn't seen before. "Alright. Show me what you got, hotshot. See if you can impress this fellow gunner."

Averia took a few steps back, folding her arms beneath her chest and resting her weight on one leg. "In fact, if you manage to impress me, I promise not to mock your poor skills and nonexistent accuracy ever again~"

Scarlett exhaled slowly as she focused, deciding to not let Avy's verbal jabs get to her and cause her performance to be hindered. And really, that's what this was: a performance. This was something that the redhead had practiced plenty of times over and over again, and only one person had seen ever before. Even Warren, the person that she trusted the most in this entire school had not ever seen this display. Which somewhat brought the question of why she was even bothering to show Avy? Perhaps she wanted to prove the blonde wrong. Or maybe it was just that she wanted the girl to see Scar as 'cool' rather than cute. Sure, she wanted to be cool in everyone's eyes, but why specifically Averia? She'd need to consider that later on when she didn't have things to do.

Scarlett relaxed her body considerably, this being something that she wouldn't be able to do without having a balanced center and mind. She brought her hand with her Prism out in front of her, allowing it to linger there before she began to move it. She twirled the revolver on her middle finger quite fast, it spinning in circles on her digit. It wasn't just that however as she soon switched hands, bringing her left towards it as well as the gun switched hands seamlessly. She turned her hand upwards, her middle finger vertical as the gun continued to spin.

Suddenly, Scarlett stopped the spinning, gripping the revolver and flinging it from behind her back, causing it to go over her shoulder and land right in the opposite hand on the one that tossed it. It immediately went back to twirling the gun, but she began to juggle it like that, tossing it from one hand to the other, the gun never seeming to stop spinning with trained efficiency. She tossed it around her arms just to catching it on opposite sides of herself. As she picked up more and more speed, there seemed to be barely a time when the Prism wasn't spinning in the air.

However, of course it would need to come to an end. Scarlett tossed the gun with her left hand, for a moment it seeming like Prism would go too far, but her right hand quickly outstretched and snatched it from the air, immediately squeezing the trigger before it even settled. As water with the force of a tidal wave crashed down on a nearby stalagmite, the redhead let go of the gun, using the recoil to assist with it flinging over her head and allowing her left to once again. And once again, there was not a single second delay before she fired, a strong gust of wind knocking down yet another rock formation. Tossing the gun and allowing the recoil to control the gun's movements, she brought both her hands together over her head where she clasped them together and grabbed the Prism. Firing it for a third time as she aimed it upwards at a stalactite on the roof, the bullet hitting it just as the others had and it creating a brilliant flash of sparking electricity. Said electric flash illuminating the cave just long enough to see Scarlett spinning her Prism once more before sliding it into the holster on her leg in a swift motion.

Averia had several theories as to what the girl had in store for her. Since Scarlett was so adamant in proving herself as a dust specialist, Averia thought she'd show something flashy and bright and something like an explosion of colours with the mixture of her dust vials. Thus she wasn't prepared to what happened next.

The blonde girl could only stare in both awe, shock and marvel as the redhead began spinning her gun and juggling it in the air, passing from one hand to the other at her back and over her arms. She did it so fluidly without mistakes. Bringing it into a finish, Scarlett demonstrated a beautiful combination of brilliant gun slinging and dust use to produce elemental shot bursts towards the stalagmites, creating exquisite artistic display of skill.

As the gun slid back to its holster, Averia finally snapped back from her trance and closed her mouth which she didn't realise was open the whole time. That display caught her speechless. So impressive in fact that Averia grumbled from the little crack on her pride. As a gunslinger herself, sure she occasionally spun her weapon, but that was out of boredom. She hadn't had the thought of using such skill to improve her weapon handling. She looked to the side and nibbled the inside of her cheek.

"T-That wasn't too bad. Could've done better. Not too impressive. Meh. Cool enough for your level, I guess. You could work in a bartending position while you're at it," she mumbled immaturely.