Spar-kling Victory! [Now Closed]

It took a while for Noire to find the training area - a week an a half, to be precise. This was mostly because she either got distracted along the way or got lost and then forgot what she was looking for in the first place. It was a common occurrence, really. It was likely a side effect of never really having a home or somewhere to go to at the end of the day. She was a wanderer that kept moving from one place to another before she arrived at Syne. It was hard to get into the habit of being oriented when she had never really had a need for it up until now. That didn't mean that Noire didn't try, however. She actually tried very hard. She just forgot to do so sometimes. However, today, that wasn't the case. Standing in front of the entrance to the training area, Noire took a deep breath and held it, puffing up her cheeks in an attempt to seem... serious? intimidating? The white haired girl stepped through the door.

A few groups of people were spread out, each running through sets of drills or sparring with each other. Fortunately, the area was wide enough to easily allow for everyone to comfortably practice without stepping on each other's feet - both literally and metaphorically. It was the first time Noire had seen something so... organized and well equipped. The training grounds she had used back in her small village were improvised and small, often moving around every few months once the area became damaged beyond repair. Her jaw hung open for a moment, her eyes sparkled as she took in the sight of weapons clashing and dust vials exploding into different arrays of colors.

The young girl was snapped out of her thoughts when someone bumped into her. She stumbled, but managed to regain her balance before she fell face first onto the ground. "Watch where you're going!" a young man, about a full foot taller than Noire, yelled at her. He took a look at her for a moment, displeasure evident on his features. Noire visibly shrank. She opened her mouth to apologize, but words refused to come. Her heart beat frantically in her chest and she could now feel several pairs of eyes - the people accompanying the young man - fixed on her. She had never been the kind to do well in groups. "Filthy faunus," he practically growled.

Noire held her hands in front of her, small fists covering her mouth. "I-I," she began. Throughout her life, she had been harassed because of her heritage. This was nothing new and she doubted that it would be the last time it happened. The caretakers at the orphanage she spent her early life in gave her smaller rations and often fed her stale food because of it. Nevertheless, she could never get used to it. It always hurt to be treated as lesser, even if she couldn't quite put to words what she was feeling.

The young man turned to look at his friends. "Look! I think it's trying to talk!" He chimed, getting a laugh out of the four other boys that were with him. His hand grabbed onto one of Noire's horns, pulling her roughly. Noire let out a high-pitched yelp. "Are these things even real?" He laughed as he kept tugging at the horn as if to see if it would come off if he pulled hard enough.

At this point, tears were forming in her eyes. She wanted to get away. She regretted coming here in the first place. She should have just stayed outside or in her room. She should have known better than to walk into a place that deep down she knew would have been filled with humans. They scared her and this was the exact reason why. At the moment, she froze, unable to say or do anything other than try to hold back her tears.

Unlike back home Kairi was thankful for the fact the Syne had it share of indoors training areas. As a bat Kairi had never really been a fan of the sun, let alone having to train in it evil rays. So she was more than happy to hide away from it in any sort of way; and since Christmas break Kairi had let her training slip more than she would have liked. She wasn't the most dedicated little soldier outside of music and she aimed to change that. If only just a little. So that made today plan to hit up the gym, sparing ground, and anywhere else she could think of. Hopefully maybe even find some people to train with even, but that might have been a bit much to hope for. So with Vacillation on her back Kairi floated along the sidewalk and up the small stairs into the building.

Her long black hair dancing behind her in the mixture of the wind and her speed as her face would be hidden by the almost comically large sun hat. With training in mind, she chose to dress in favor of freedom picking a pair of black short along with a random shirt. However, it wasn't until she was half here he noticed the shirt was one of her own band shirts. Annoyed, she wanted to return to change, but deemed it would take too long and hopefully know one would make the connection. Groaning one more time thinking about it, Kairi pushed open the door, letting herself inside the building.

It wasn't hard to tell if she was in the right place or not. With the sound of steel on steel with the sound of dust pepper in was almost like music to Kairi. It was almost enough to make her break out Vacillation and play a few notes. Controlling herself Kairi made her way farther in only to come upon a disturbing sight. From the looks of it a group of students was picking on another. That alone was enough to get under Kairi skin. She had never been a fan of bullying and was that kid in elementary that would straight up punch the class bully. Worst it seemed most around them either didn't see this happening or was trying their best not to. If you don't see it, then you don't have to be a part of it, right?

Either way, she wasn't about to let this happen, however, she wasn't prepared for what she heard next. "Filthy faunus," one of the boys said. Kairi froze wide eyes at this. Even here in this small Kingdom, her own homeland, prejudice had found roots. Clenching her fist it took everything she had not to punch the boy as he started to treat the white hair girl like some kind of animal. With flames in her eyes, she quickly made her way over before speaking up and removing the boy's hand from the girl horn. "Hands off!" She said, twisting the arm and pushing the boy away. Looking back over her shoulder Kairi would check up on the girl. "You okay? Didn't hurt you, did he?" She asked in a soothing voice before returning to glaring at the group.

At once the group turned to Kairi and quickly erupted into laughter from what she guess to be at her hat. Still, her anger did not leave as she crossed her arms. "Another one! And this one knows how to talk too. They much have trained you better." It seems the group wasn't willing to let things be and leave just yet. "Just what kind of freak are you then?" One asked from the back, but he was quickly answered by another. "She that bat one! You know from that band? I heard she was coming to this academy. Calls herself a vampire or something. Trying to play hero are you?!" Kairi felt the knot in her stomach tighten at the words. Of course, one of them would know about her and worse even called her out on her old stage persona. With nothing else to lose she released the strap along her chest, allowing Vacillation to fall to the ground with a heavy thump. Snapping it up, she swung the double edge battle ax over her shoulder. "And if I am?" She hissed in return.

"Oh? But if this lady is playing the Hero of this tale, then what does that make you?" Bashir asked, in a slightly condescending tone. He'd taken the day to come and practice with his boomerang, however, from the sounds of things it didn't seem like he'd be doing much practice today... Seeing the group harassing this girl for her clumsiness would have made him annoyed, for her heritage? Her Race? That wasn't on.

He was new to the city, new to this whole Human/Faunus hate thing these people seemed to have going on. Personally, he thought it was pretty stupid, people getting so worked up over a tail here or a pair of ears there... honestly... This was the first time he'd actually seen it with his own eyes, and if the Bat-Girl hadn't have stepped in he was sure that he'd have seen the headmaster's office for the first time too, apparently breaking someone's nose was considered a faux pas. Actually he was kind of pleased that he hadnt invited Griz along with him or a broken nose was the least this man would be getting.

He decided to push the question a little further to make sure they got the point, " Because I highly doubt that it makes you the hero too..."
Spinning round the group got a look of Bashir. Short, not very stylish, but he looked at them defiantly, gritting his teeth as he spoke.
"Dude, stay out of th-" Said the leader before he was interrupted by one of the others.
"Look! He's got a tail! He's one of them! ..."
"A Rat, no doubt about it!"
"Wow, speaking of filthy faunus..."
The group were grinning. They must have thought they'd struck a nerve with him, but Bashir was just confused. The rats in wilds weren't dirtier than the other creatures, and besides, he was a Rat Faunus, and a very clean one at that!
"Yes...very heroic indeed..." Bashir mused, then simply opted to ignore them, casually sidestepping through their group to check on the other two Faunus.
"Are you okay there? Don't worry, if these guys spend this much time harassing people instead of training they'll not last long in the field." He smiled , before shooting one of them a sideways glance, "If they even make it there..."

Combat was something Hyght was not skilled at. THe pudgy baker had spent a majority of his life without a need or want to learn. He grew up in a peaceful village where he spent his days baking in his family's bakery or helping out with odd jobs around the village. Fighting was never something he learned. However, since he decided to become a Hunstman he had forced himself to start learning. In his first time in the Training Room he witnessed a fight between two tower-like individuals, with far more skill than Hyght ever thought he'd have, duke it out in a contest of strength and skill. Hyght had watched in awe til a dazed student about stumbled into the fight once again. He had intervened only to have himself drawn into the altercation.

This time, however, was a bit different. Hyght had tagged along with Bashir, his roommate, and was running basic combat drills with his sword and shield. Both items were secondhand gear he had bought when leaving home but while they weren't as fancy as many of the other student's weapons, they were his and he found them good enough for him. Bashir had come to work on his skills with his triple bladed boomerang knife. It was a weapon Hyght found interesting and had inquired about it to Bashir before. Despite his dislike of fighting, the young baker loved weaponry and Dust application. An interest in Dust was something he and Bashir had in common. Another was hekping those who looked to be in need.

The screech of steel on steel that had hung in the air ceased as one of the students began to harrass and become physically aggressive with another student, a young woman with long white hair. She was apparently a faunus and the student that was bullying her was a human. Hyght, having been from a village that was evenly split between human and faunus population, knew little of the feeling of discrimination or racism. Since his arrival at Syne he had become more knowledgeable of it as his roommate Gricelda tended to treat him as if he had a disease and spent most of her time away from him. Hyght, not minding the distance much, let her do as she wished and continued on with his studying.

The agressive student belittled the faunus girl, inciting the crowd of his friends and enablers to tear downt he girl's emotional defenses. Hyght could see she was visibly upset and possibly scared. In response to the actions of the aggressor, another student, a young woman of dark hair that seemed to levitate above the ground, intercepted and forced the student away. Instead of stopping the aggression and teasing it only seemed to incite them more. The tension thickened as the dark haired girl, apparently a bat-faunus from what one of the enabling students said, brandished a vicious double bladed axe. She rested it upon her shoulder and offered a challenging retort to the phobic crowd.

To Hyght's surprise another stepped in to defend the white haired faunus. A man of short stature who's small frame was made up of tight, ripcord muscle. Bashir stepped up and offered dialogue that Hyght felt belonged in a comicbook. The normally soft spoken man addressed teh students with a confident and careful jab. Bashir knew how to fight, having spent his life as a guide of sorts ont he outskirts of Bellmuse he had survived multiple years of fighting the Grimm. Aside from Mason, Bashir was probably the most experienced man Hyght knew when it came to fighting the creatures of Grimm. The young baker was no brandisher of blades, but he was a fencer of great skill when it came to words.

"It's said that those that pick on the small and the weak are they themselves weak." He interjected from a few feet behind the congregation of the phobic. "You do yourselves a great blow by doing this." Hyght let his words hang for a moment, the flashy speech was used to catch their attention. A couple of the crowd's inhabitants turned to look at him and found themselves smirking. Hyght was six feet tall but he didn't have the body of a fighter. It was obvious even through his baggy clothes. They regarded him as a small threat if any at all and turned their attention back to the three fuanus.

"You people are doing nothing being being assholes." He said simply, gaining a few of the crowd's heads to snap in his direction. There we go. He thought as his heart began to pound in his chest. "Apologize and leave them alone. You're embarrassing yourselves and pissing a lot of people off. Apologize." I sure hope my two weeks of combat training will prevent me from getting killed today. Hyght thought grimly, a small smirk absently touching the corner of his mouth.

The training room had been pretty packed that day, more than usual even. Jet had been at one of the shooting range, practicing his long range attack’s precision. He had to set the target much close than the people using guns did since his chain wasn’t THAT long, but still, hitting a bullseye with a blade-whip of several meters wasn’t easy. Actually, Jet was practicing his moves that resulted in a throw, coiling the chain around his body instead of his arm, spinning the last meter of the chain on his side then catching it on his leg before following the motion with his whole body to accentuate it and finally launching the tip in the desired direction with a high kick. His body continued spinning so the chain would uncoil from his body and allow it to reach the far-away target without being weighed down too soon by the part of the chain that had yet to have gained momentum. It looked cool! And also somewhat stupid to do in a small shooting range booth. Oh well, not like Jet cared.

The commotion in the back finally caught his ears though. Laughter wasn’t something rare in here so he didn’t pay attention at first but it wasn’t dying down. Turning around while letting his bracer reel in the weapon, he frowned trying to see what was going on. The light in there was pretty bright so his vision was foggy and distant things were hard to discern. His glasses were a god-sent to prevent his from hurting but sometimes he would have liked to be able to reduce the amount of light that was filtered even if it would hurt his eyes a bit, just so he could see a bit better when needed.

The sunglasses wearing guy walked to the group and stood behind the humans. The situation was pretty self-explanatory, three Faunus and a bunch of humans, almost all of the humans being ass-holes. Honnestly they were already being handled well by the people that were there and if they didn’t retreat they would have their ass handed to them by the flying girl with the double bladed axe. Still, Jet couldn’t just stand there and do nothing, but it was JET so of course he’d do something weird.

“WOAH! I came here wondering what that was all about but now I understand! I agree with you guys COMPLETELY!” Jet was all smile while looking at the three Faunus. It didn’t sound sarcastic. “I mean come on! You guys are seeing this too right? It’s hard to miss!” With a dramatic pause, Jet walked toward the girl and made a show of looking straight at her. “That SWORD! It’s… humongous! And if she’s able to swing that thing around I’m sure she’d be able to cut straight through all of us in one swing as if we were made of warm butter. Hell I think I can see some recipients for Dust in there, I’m giddy just imagining what kind of damage that thing would do if it was channeling some fire Dust! I certainly wouldn’t want to be on her bad side!” Straightening up, he made sure to look at the idiots behind him with his most honest and EVIL smile… which was just a smirk. Turning back to the girl he looked at her horns, tilting his head sideway a bit as he was observing them a little. “Nice horns by the way! They frame your head very nicely, very pretty and elegant, must make a lot of girl envious.”

Turning back around, he faced the human bigots. They seemed at least a bit more hesitant now and probably felt a little small in their metaphorical shorts. It’s not like they could ignore the fact they were now outnumbered and solidly outgunned… or outbladed? Is that even a word? “Now I know you guys are probably SUUUUPER jealous of the other Faunus too. I mean that guy has a tail! How handy is that? Now he can hold his enemies down while STILL having two fists to hit with. And come on… that girl is just casually floating around like it’s as easy to her as breathing! How awesome is that?” At this point Jet wasn’t pretending anymore, his voice was sharp and if looks could kill by shooting lasers, his sunglasses would have blown up by now. “Not to forget since she’s a Bat-Faunus, she can probably hear you guys pathetically shivering in your pants now.”

Bernat has decided to train that day, but he was a bit late. Even late, he was there before all this stupid commotion. A bunch of other guys were being twats to other guys and gals.  The aforementioned guys and gals weren’t being attacked, and then a guy in sunglasses decided to speak up. He seemed excited. What a guy. Probably trying to distract the guys, and then there was the somewhat tall guy who was in no fighting shape. He had been training his leg strength by crouching his frame for extended periods of time, so most didn’t realise that he was a full seven feet tall, add a few inches and you got his full height.

This had gone too long though. Shite like this happened off and on, and it was whatever. This had taken too long, so he got up to his full height, leaving his even larger weapon in the corner of the room and had to crack his back. He wasn’t a man of many words, rathering his actions make people listen, but as he stepped behind this group of people, he made his presence known. Although, he leaned down, crouching so he could get next to the main guys ear, and whispered something.

“Now, I’m not the one you should fear. That chick with the ‘Tar, she’d probably make you mashed taters. That dude with sunglasses? Careful friend, make one wrong turn, he’ll disembowel you faster than you can say hello. That ram? Those horns; I’ve seen things impaled upon them. You see that big guy? Might not have combat skills, but he can cook you faster than she can disembowel you.” He figured he was forgetting someone.  Who cared? Not him. He went back to the dummy he was beating on and, not caring about those he probably scared, started crouching and punching it.

(Shorter then the rest, been awhile since I last posted as Bernat.)

OOC: i hear there's a parteh here?! xD hoping to join as a referee but if the final member count is an even number I'd have to join the spar. >< still prefers referee spot~ xD

IC:

It had been a part of Avery's routine to head straight into the training arena everyday after class to improve her combat skills, and today was no different. With her uniform blazer casually draped on her shoulders, she walked to the arena with a book in hand, speed-reading through the new novel she had bought until a commotion from the inside caught her attention. Looking up, her eyebrows lowered as she realized the crowd that had formed. Well this was new.

Avery decided to stay silent for a moment to observe and learn of the issue. It would seem it's another anti-faunus pettiness again. The five phobic boys were actually... surprise surprise... within her circle of friends. She would have joined with their bullying but she didn't quite appreciate the style they were doing it.

"Ahh. Tsk. You noobs never learn." Avery finally walked towards the group with her arms folded and her blazer fluttering lightly on her back. "Being evil is an art. Poking fun of their horns and tails is just uncreative and pathetic. Watch and learn." She raised a hand and started pointing at each of the 'heroes' in order starting from the blonde ram faunus. "Crybaby deadweight 2.0, frustrated rockstar-wannabe, hermit, the perfect scapegoat, douche with the indoor sunglasses and finally... no avatar wrestling gone wrong." Avery sighed and flipped her hair back. Of course she went based on their looks but that's how it's meant to be.

"Anyway, I'm here now so I would like you five losers to disperse from my sight as you are polluting the air I am breathing. If you have a problem with that, answer to my guns," she said as she looked at them nonchalantly. These guys knew Avery well enough to know of her short temperament and destructive capabilities. More than that, seemed they were already severely intimidated by the 'heroes' who joined in and thus were quick to scamper away while cursing loudly.

"Now that I've gotten rid of the pests, let's move on to the real issue." She glanced at the blonde ram faunus, the start of this chaos, and rolled her eyes. "Clearly someone needs some training and not against grimms at that. And since we're all here to improve our skills anyway, I'm thinking... how about we go for a spar? A friendly battle. It's the fastest way to train one's skills as all aspects of combat are used," she suggested with a smirk. This could help with her boredom.

Avery shifted her weight to one leg as she counted the number of heads. There's 7 of them including her. "A 3 vs 3 then. I'm fine with just watching from the side until perhaps another person joins the game. But never mind me, what do you say about a battle, peasants? Or are you all too scared to join?"

"Hahaha! Hey! Look! I think she's gonna cry!" the boy and his group laughed as a young girl with pale skin and dark hair approached the small gathering. Noire winced, convinced that the girl was going to join in her torment. Much to her surprise, however, she did exactly the opposite, even going as far as to remove the boy's hand from her horns. The white haired girl stumbled back, towards the newcomer. Instinctively, she stood behind the dark haired girl as if to shield herself. Her small hands came up to her horns, trying to cover them and ease the pain resulting from the boy pulling at them so roughly. Her heart was beating frantically in her chest, so much so that she was finding it hard to breathe, much less stay composed. She wanted to thank the girl, but couldn't quite find the words. So instead, she simply nodded when asked if she was OK. At this point, tears were streaming down the sides of her face.

Just as the dark haired girl - a bat faunus, according to what the boys had said - someone else approached the gathering, looking at her harassers with little more than disdain. He also asked if Noire was alright. Feeling comforted by the people standing up for her, she finally found her voice again. "I-I'm alright," she stuttered, wiping away her tears and doing her best to force a smile. Along with the rat faunus came a slightly pudgy but tall boy. For a brief moment, Noire felt compelled to try and poke his belly. The thought went away as soon as it came, however, since she was quickly reminded of the situation that she was in. He stood firm and demanded an apology. Before she could thank them all, someone else approached - a young man that stood tall, with ruffled dark hair and sunglasses covering his eyes. She blushed slightly and fixed her eyes on the ground when he pointed out that the fact that she carried such a large weapon with her undoubtedly meant that she was strong. Needless to say, Noire wasn't exactly used to compliments. Moreover, another young man had come to point out that she could probably impale someone with her horns. She blushed even further, pursing her lips. The most she had really done with her horns was bash her head against an ursa one time.

Noire finally looked up again at the group that had gathered. Quite honestly, she had never liked large groups of people. "They're nice people. They're kind people. They came to help. They're nice people. They're kind people. They came to help." She repeated the words in her head a few times to calm her nerves. She shouldn't be nervous or scared. They had proven that they only wanted to come to her aid. "Thank you so much," she managed. Really, words could do little to explain how she was feeling. It was probably the first time in her life that anyone had gone out of their way to defend the young ram faunus. The fact that not one, but five people had gathered around to ward off her tormentors was astounding to her.  

The final person to approach them was another girl with white hair and a sort of aristocratic look about her. She seemed to be the confident type who could handle herself in just about any kind of situation - social or otherwise. Noire's impression was proven right when her words made the group of boys retreat. Noire pointed to herself. "Crybaby deadweight... 2.0?" She cocked her head to the side, somewhat confused by the statement. 2.0 meant that there was a 1.0, right? Or maybe she meant that Noire was twice the crybaby that most people were? The young girl shook her head as if to get rid of her line of thought. There was a more pressing question at hand, one that now made her smile quite brightly - a sparring match. "O-ok! I'll fight!" She said, with new found enthusiasm. One could come to the conclusion that she had already forgotten what had just happened. However, that was Noire - both cursed and blessed with an incredibly short attention span. "Who's on my team?" She asked, lacking the initiative to pick team members herself. "Oh! Um, my name's Noire, by the way! I-it's a pleasure to meet you all!" She added as an afterthought. It could get awkward if she had to fight alongside or against people she didn't know what to call.

She wasn't the violent type so in the end Kairi was grateful when others decide to stand up to the bullies as well. She didn't believe that fighting between the two races would do anything other than worsen an already bad relationship between the two races. Given this was a much, much smaller scales and sometime you had to know then to use words or a battleaxe. Still, despite her little act just then Kairi really wasn't all that confidence at just how much she really could have done against so many. Breathing a sigh of relief she took this time to take a look at the people around her now.

The first one was a young man who, from the look of it, was also a faunus as well. Well, that would explain why he stepped up when others didn't. She could see a tail, but going from what she heard from the others he was a rat faunus. A distant cousin, perhaps? She smirks thinking, saying bats was just flying rats.

Stepping up after him would be another young man and to Kairi happy surprise was a human, as far as she could tell anyways. He was tall, but from the look of him, he hasn't seen many days on the training grounds.

The one with the sunglasses was a bit more flamboyants than the others going into to details about the faunus, even complimenting their feature. Kairi made sure to add a wide, gin of her own at the bat comment giving a clear view of her fangs.

With the arrival of two more Kairi was pretty sure the group of bullies had enough. Since the mountain of a man spoke up listing the fate they in store if they fought her today. She had to laugh a bit at the statement by making them into mashed taters. This was indeed a very interesting group now with a total of three humans. She made a note to herself that she would have to thank them all once this was over. But that would have to wait as something maybe worst appear before them.

A blonde with the atmosphere of a queen quickly appears as if out of nowhere and quickly confused Kairi. What was she going on about evil was an art and giving everyone a some kind weird name. "F-frustrated Rockstar-wannabe!?" She said not even really sure what that even meant. She even wanted them to all fight now for some reason? "Wait, why do we have to do what you say?" She asked, but it seemed the little ram Noire was willing to go along with this. Overall, she didn't like the sound of this, but then again, she did come here to train and this would be better than doing it alone. "Fine, whatever. I'm Kairi. Please to meet you all. So how we doing teams? So does our Queen here have an idea?"

It was a surprise that so many people had gathered around, and personally Bashir was rather grateful that they'd showed up when they did, since he cerainly couldn't have taken all of them, even if he wanted to. Even Hyght spoke up, something which surprised him at first, but he thought that Hyght was the sort of person to do the right thing no matter the consequences. Even with more and more dangerous people showing up, new faces, dressed for a more 'badass' sort of look, he felt that the situation had been seen to.

The final voice startled him, though, with it's tone mostly. It was so sudden and cold, and promptly decided to insult everyone who had gathered. This girl was well dressed, he thought, and she's already threatening to shoot people? Suddenly there was a finger pointing at him as he was declared a 'Hermit'. Bashir didn't really know how to react, what she said was pretty true, but he didn't really care, he spent a lot of time alone, but hey, he didn't mind that much.

"We're sparring now? Um... sure, though I've not faced anyone who's not a Grimm, guess I'll have to learn at some point..." He paused, 3v3... that should be fine,he can work better with support... Teams and Rules?"

OOC:(I'm sorry for the delay! University deadlines and work >.<)

The racial rudeness and bullying event seemed to draw more people to it than Hyght thought it might. The pudgy baker watched the small group of racists as more people took a stand against them. The first was a black bespectacled man, he seemed to swagger into the situation with an air of comfort and confidence that impressed Hyght. The bespectacled man spoke in agreement with the troublesome youths, and, in a tone that held no trace of humor or sarcasm. Hyght had thought they had gained a new adversary until his words, while still serious sounding, betrayed his earlier statement of agreement. The inexperienced fighter felt a sense of relief as he figured out the shaded man's game. Relying on his skill in baring and discipline Hyght refrained from cracking a larger smile than the shadow he already held on his lips.

A mountain moved past Hyght and loomed over one of the antagonistic men. He leaned down, his long hair brushing against the shorter man's cheek and, Hyght could only guess, whispered into his ear. While the baker couldn't make out what the beanstalk had said to the man whatever it was seemed to get little reaction. Hyght figured the man was more intimidated by the proverbial darkness the giant's body had cast over him. Hell, I know I am. Hyght thought shakily as the presence of the enormous man lessened and he returned to his previous plan. The man didn't move close by Hyght but the air of the man said he was far more distant than his height alone. No Hyght jokes. He thought, finding a little humor at replacing the word with his name.

The third and final attendee was a girl with hair as white as new winter snow. She had a smooth grace to her movements that Hyght found attractive. The way her eyes swept over the helpful interlopers made his skin raise to goose flesh. This reaction was new and seemed a bit strange but whatever the meaning of it, good or bad, turned worse when she opened her mouth. The young woman spoke with an oddly relaxing tone given then words that spilled forth from them. She was apparently acquainted with the Pho-boys and felt name calling and belittlement was an art. While Hyght found word play and the occasional jab a useful and sometimes fun skill, it didn't usually involve being used against victims of racial bullying. This girl tagged each of them with a title that was apparently meant to bother them. At what Hyght could only assume was his, if the finger pointing wasn't a dead giveaway, then he was the perfect scapegoat. Hyght cocked his eyebrow at that, he'd been insulted many times and he'd acquired thick skin from it.

It seemed, however, that the bat-faunus was visibly offended by the insult. The young baker kept his eyes on the girl with snow colored hair and let her continue. In the course of a few seconds she made the band of phobic young men depart and extended an idea for a sparring match. Three on three. She even proceeded to add some flare to her air by referring to them as peasants. This made Hyght shake his head though the worry of a sparring match was not lost on him. He wasn't much of a fighter, he'd only had two weeks of classes and now they were trying to get him into a sparring match with multiple people that actually CAN fight.

Part of Hyght screamed in protest and urged him to leave as quick as he could. After a moment or two of thought Hyght strangled the fear and suppressed it. Locking it down till he barely felt the tremble it produced. "Madam Popsicle has a point." Hyght said, his voice a little tighter than normal. "Hello, everyone. I'm Hyght and I'm a perfect scapegoat." He said mockingly and gave Bashir a nod. "Don't break me too hard, bud." He said with a thin smile.

The black haired guy was somewhat surprised by the arrival of the giant… cause there isn’t any other word that fits him really. Jet is pretty tall, but that dude is freakishly tall. The eyepatch was like the cherry on the metaphorical sundae of intimidating factor. All in all, it was somewhat overkill, the guys were already outnumbered and, Jet was certain of it, outmatched. Still, support is always nice.

The arrival of Avery was how anyone knowing her would expect; a flamboyant display of confidence and mean words. Most people would frown to that, it’s not like she was being kind to them, but really she was like that with everyone she didn’t know so it couldn’t be counted as discrimination. Hell she even seemed like she knew the bigots and was still mean to them.  Jet smiled at the nickname she gave him though, it’s not like he could deny it when he himself thought he looked like a douche. As she finished naming them, he pointed at her, still smirking. “Ice queen”. Not trying to insult her, just completing the name-calling for all seven of them; the bigots were just background noise, they didn’t count. Still, the other guy also called her Madam Popsicle which made him snicker, but it also made his own nickname choice sound lame in comparison.

The spar idea was actually a good one in his opinion. As much as he actually somehow enjoyed bantering with Avery and considered her his friend even if she didn’t, he didn’t trust her entirely with organising matches. Last time she decided about game rules didn’t end well. So he decided to take charge some and place his own rules. “I’m all up for a 3v3! Rules should be tournament style. We have to consider some people actually include taking hits in their battle style so we can’t go with the one hit ruling. Half health level should be a good limit; anyone who goes under that is out.” Jet pulled out his scroll and showed it to people. It had two bars, one for his health level and the other for his aura level. He created the match setup on his scroll before sending it to the screen of the biggest battle arena available in the training area. It just so happened to be the closest one so that was good. “Alright I reserved the spot in arena # 1 since it’s the biggest one and it’s available. Need the space for a 3v3.” Jet pointed with his thumb behind him at a set of double doors with a big “1” drawn on it.

With a side glance, his smile took a more mischievous smirk. Avery would probably like that idea from him. “Alright so to make things more interesting I'm gonna propose some fun addition to the usual rules. Since the arenas aren’t like pits or anything with physical delimitations, just a raised platform, we remove the out of bound rule, or modify it I should say. Our Chilly-Referee here probably came to train herself so it would be selfish to make her miss on her practice. So, she should get some target practice too. For that purpose, anyone that goes out of bound doesn’t lose, but anything that goes over the line, including weapons or arms that are extending too much, can and will be shot mercilessly by our very own Snowflake the Gunslinger. If you feel like you can dodge or block the bullet rain, be my guest and use the additional terrain to your advantage over your opponent but you will still lose if you go under half health. I know firsthand that these guns pack a wallop.” …Ok so maybe his own rules weren’t much better than whatever Avery would have come up with… if she even had a mischievous plan in mind. Thing is, that was actually the kind of thing Jet found fun. Turning toward the blonde girl, the douche with indoor sunglasses raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What do you think of those little homemade rules Soda-Slush Maker?” Jet wondered how many names they could come up with during that whole time.

Bernat’s back was turned, but he could figure the name. He turned around to see a mini-woman, so small that he wouldn’t have even considered her a threat. Especially since from what the sunglasses guy said, she used her guns more than anything. At least, that’s what he inferred. He decided to fight with no handicaps, which mean over in that corner, he took off his coat, and then took off his eye-patch, to reveal a feather-sized scar over his right eye. He went into another room for a moment to come back with a giant metal pole with a spike on each end. He dragged it while he was in the room, noting that his scar probably spooked some of the others in the room. It was no matter. As soon as he got back, he decided to share a small opinion.

“I don’t see a thing wrong with the rules. I’m tougher than most of you, after all. I’ve got a question, though. Due to my height, and my weapons size, would the restraints be only wide, not height. Cause either way, I’m at a complete disadvantage. Anyhow. I’m ready to fight whenever you guys are.”

Shortly after, he decided that it was NOT worth using his weapon. Sure, he’d deal more damage in an outside area, but oh well. They weren’t inside, so he figured that he might as well using his fists, which are just as lethal and simply just as a giant fist. He could just throw them out and have the snowflake in blue deal with them. Big and strong had it’s advantages, and one of them was that they were usually though.

Avery was glad the whole group agreed with no one putting up a drama to waste her time, though the simultaneous chatters was making her head ache and thus opted to ignore everything. The popsicle comment slipped through however and she unconsciously licked her lips. Maybe she should get one while watching the match.

As she was about to go over the rules, Ray-ban took it upon himself to interrupt her and explain everything in her stead. Avery scoffed and folded her arms, tapping her foot impatiently until he was done talking. "Why don't you become a commentator while you're at it? You seem better at that than holding a blade anyway." Avy rolled her eyes and turned to the group.  "Well, you heard him. A classic 3v3 but with an external challenge. I'll shoot anyone and anything that goes out of bounds... or anyone who pisses me off. Who knows. As for teams..."

"Team 1: Goat-girl, zombie and rodent. Team 2: Panda, scarface and cyclops. Decide on your team name; you can use your initials or not. Whatever."

"For dusters, you can use synthetic dust available on that section over there in place of your real dust. Obviously you're only limited to the amount and element that you currently possess."

"Half HP and Aura is too low to have a decent spar. Instead, we'll be using your full HP and Aura bars. BUT to avoid injuries, anyone below 30HP is out. The team with the last person standing wins. If you have questions and concerns about the rules... keep it to yourself. Can't be bothered. Get in the arena when you're ready."

With that, she turned around to head into the Arena #1, opening the double doors all the way and keeping them open for all people to see. The biggest arena in the hall usually attracts spectators, so why not let them watch the fight for added thrill and pressure to the participants. The NEWS team might even be around to make an article about it.

Avery settled on the elevated referee box just outside the platform but overlooking the arena. In front of her was the mic and she grinned, turning it on and tapping lightly. Ooh. I've always wanted to try one of these. "Mic test. Check 1-2. Ah. I didn't know my voice sounds this nice."

"Goat-girl...?" Noire repeated, slightly confused until it dawned on her that the white haired girl - Avery, was it? - was referring to her. "Oh! You mean me!" she said, largely to make sure. "I'm actually a ram, but don't worry! It's a common mistake," she began. Most of the time she failed to realize that people referred to her as a goat in order to get her riled up or angry. This was likely one of those times. "You see, goats have horns like this," - she put a straightened finger on either side of her head - "And rams have curly horns like this," she explained as she now curled her fingers instead of pointing at her actual horns. Of course, she was oblivious to the kind of impression that would leave on the rest of the people gathered, especially Avery, the girl in question. She seemed to be the type that didn't quite tolerate Noire's special brand of innocence, not that the ram faunus could notice.

In any case, the young girl was happy that she could use synthetic dust instead of having to invest her own on this fight. After all, replacing vials could be quite pricey and it was getting harder and harder to find a shop with good quality and variety. She momentarily excused herself to browse the vials on the rack, searching for one specific kind. Spotting a line of bright green colors, she picked it up two vials and slipped them into her belt, alongside the ones containing actual dust. She had trained with wind dust more than with any other type. It was the kind she was used to using and the kind that suited her strategy and fighting style best. She had recently played with the idea of learning how to use fire or maybe even lightning, but she had yet to come to actually put it in practice. She would have to settle for just one kind throughout this fight.

The young girl walked back to the group and inspected her two teammates - Kairi and the boy with the rat tail. This was going to be fun. They both looked strong. Despite now knowing what their abilities were, she was sure that she could adapt and improvise. The out of bounds rule also gave Noire a few ideas. "If you have any strategies, just find a way to tell them to me while we fight, ok?" She said happily, readying her weapon, slipping one of the dust vials inside the sword's hilt and waiting for Avery's signal to start.

OOC: Sorry this took so long @_@ It was way overdue, but you know how midterms are.