Exploring the Urban Wilderness. [Open]

Bashir had decided that he should see more of the place he'd be spending a lot of his time, so had set off to explore Bellmuse Central. He was not quite sure if he regretted this decision or not, he was leaning towards 'yes'. The first thing he noticed was how NOISY it was; people, children, and the occasional vehicle were providing a little much sound for his liking. The Rat Faunus had found a section away from the all the racket to sit down, looking through his coinpurse and chuckling slightly. Maybe he should have waited until he'd actually made some Lien before deciding to explore. Still, at least now he knew where a few places were.

Looking over at one of the diners caused him to sigh. Not because he was hungry, well, maybe a little, but seeing the people in there having fun with their friends. He was new here, sure, but he'd expected to meet with some people...granted he'd never actually approached them in case they thought he was rude, or weird, but most of them seemed busy anyway. Who was he kidding, coming here wasn't such a god idea, was it... He'd never been to one of the training academies, not won any tournaments, he thought of himself as a glorified wilderness guide in status, so why was he here? Could he really expect to be a Huntsman?

Lost in his thoughts, he started to wander a little more, hopefully to try to find something that would cheer him up a little.

Hyght stirred from his slumber in the late of the morning hours. His haze filled eyes peered at his Scroll and reached for it, noticing that his arm felt the better part of a hundred pounds. "Stupid...arm..." He mumbled as his attempt to reach the Scroll failed and his hand came in contact with one of the books he had stashed under his bed. After a subjective eternity he forced himself up and grabbed his Scroll. "Where are my glasses?" He wondered before he saw them hooked to the small nail he placed in the leg of the bunk bed. With a grunt he slipped them into place on his nose and opened his Scroll.

The pale white device spread into a six inch transparent screen that came to life a moment later. A digital read out of the time popped up with a bunch of notifications of snoozes. Hyght felt his mouth twitch into a smirk. "Guess I was more tired than I realized." He said softly, not wishing to wake any roommates that might still be in the room. The digital readout read Ten-Fourteen am and Hyght could feel the tightness in his muscles form the long journey from his home. It took a couple days to get from his home to Syne with the help of Mason, a short, craggy faced recruiter. It wasn't until now that his body decided to really feel the pain from the trip. "I guess I should get some clothes on." He mumbled as he pinched as his shirt, the same shirt he had worn the day before. With a nod Hyght carefully rose, feeling his legs and back scream in protest, and made his way to the showers, utilities and spare change of clothes in hand.

About fifty minutes later Hyght made his way toward the Bellmuse Central area. His shield bobbled gently against his back and his sword tapped a steady beat against his leg. "So the Central area is supposed to have shops and stuff. Maybe I can find some new books on Dust or Weaponry." He thought as he boarded a bus. Fifteen minutes later he stepped off at a bus stop a couple blocks near a book shop. "Wait...I could stop by an actual weapon shop, or Dust parlor!" He realized, mentally smacking himself for being so slow. "This is gonna be sweet!" He whispered excitedly to himself and turned to see a flicker of a thin, wiry tail and a person with a suit of familiar color step out of sight. "Bashir?" He wondered and stepped into a jog to catch up to the person. Is this weird? To be chasing someone whom you think is your roommate that you've known for all of a day? He pondered as his pudgy body turned the corner.

Bashir had been peering through the window of a dust shop, cursing at his lack of Lien...and training. Look at these blends... Plant, (Maybe a subtle blend of earth and water? Fire for growth?) Ice, wait, did he read that right? Explosion!? He was certainly impressed at the selection of things listed here, and at the quality of the crystals, so elegantly cut, far better than the raw stuff he'd been using. He was lost in thought when he heard the familiar voice calling out to him, spinning around to face the source of the noise to see the large human calling to him.

He smiled and let out a little chuckle, maybe he wasn't so friendless after all, it would be nice to have someone who knew what half of these things were to show him around, especially someone like Hyght, he knew things besides fighting. "I didn't expect to see you out here! he said cheerfully, "If I'm completely honest I'm kinda out of my element here, I've...never been in a city before, it's so big, and loud, and vibrant!" He was happy that Hyght was here, he hadn't known him long, but he had quickly warmed up to him. They were actually pretty similar, both were out of their element, but at the opposite ends of why. He took a bite out of a Pocky-like snack he'd recieved earlier. They were giving away free samples, but after trying one he'd taken a few more with the promise of coming back when he had the Lien. He'd not had chocolate before. Cocolate was good.

Hyght caught up to the man just as he turned the corner. Bashir spun and faced him with a smile and a chuckle. That was a better greeting than Gricelda had given him yesterday. It made him feel welcomed. His new friend apparently hadn't expected to see him out and about. "You calling me fat?" He asked with obvious humor and gave Bashir a friendly smile. "But yeah, for a while I didn't think I'd make it out of bed. My journey here did a number of my muscles." He said and rotated his shoulder joint. "Guess I'm in worse shape than I thought."

"Oh man, cities can be outrageous." He laughed and gestured to everything around them. "I'm from a village of maybe a fraction of the people here, so I know how you feel. Though, you mentioned yesterday to surviving in the wilds. Did you live in the woods alone or was that a metaphor?" Hyght asked as Bashir took a bite from a slender, stick-like snack. THe look on his face looked like pure ecstasy. The snack looked to be coated in a dark coating. "Is that chocolate?" He asked with an amused look on his face. "You look like you might need some alone time with it." He quipped and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Bashir blushed a little at that final quip, a little embarrassed before he started laughing. "Well it IS pretty good..." He took another bite and smiled, I've not had chocolate before, it's so sweet..." The Rat leaned back against the wall, pausing for a moment as he looked around at the buildings, and the people. "It wasn't a metaphor. I've lived my entire life in the depths of Finnek, well, until recently anyway. My mother showed me everything I know; you can use Dust to nurture plants, how to hunt, navigate, what you can and can't eat, even the types of Grimm... To be honest, I never really had much of a problem with the Grimm, thanks to my Semblance, but you can't avoid conflict with them forever. My Mother taught me that they are spirits, the ones that don't pass on, warped by their anger or grief... The people here don't know what they are, they say."

He paused for a moment, before smiling, "Maybe that's the reason those Huntsmen invited me in, because I was so sure of how to act around the Grimm, and I helped a lot of those Huntsmen who were lost in the forests. Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to ramble on like that!"

Hyght waved a hand, dismissing Bashir's apology. "Nah. No worries, bud." He said and mentally pointed out something in his earlier statement. "You said your mother taught you that the Grimm were spirits? I've never heard of a belief like that. Uh, no offense meant." He added quickly, hoping to curb any possibility of offense towards Bashir's mother or their belief. "It's just, in all the books I've read the only times spirits have been associated with the creatures of Grimm is in an early theory that the Grimm were spirits of tortured animals that have possessed living creatures." Hyght explained as he stepped closer to the wall of the shop Bashir had been peering into. "Though, they never seemed to find anything that supported that."

Hyght took a moment to glance into the shop and noticed the different types of Dust crystals that sat on display for those that walked by. He let out a short whistle. "Seems like Central has a nice cache of Dust." He said impressed. "Hey, Bash, with what you said about Dust earlier; what form of Dust did you normally use? Crystal? Raw?" He asked, his interest suddenly far more peaked in his application of the natural energy found all around Remnant. Hyght had read of nurturing plants with dust but his sources were few and far between. The books he had read didn't have information on everything that Dust could be used for. Perhaps Bashir's knowledge would help him fill in some blanks.

Bashir sighed, "From what I hear, sources on what Grimm are, well, they're few and far between. Hopefully we can fix that." He thought that if there was any chance they were lost souls, human or animal, they still needed to be returned to rest. Maybe his semblance would help people learn, but it was a long shot.

Upon being asked about dust, he produced a glass vial, a little larger than your normal sort, filled with uneven blue chunks of crystal, even a few little stones and impurities were there. The bottle itself had a sort of rune painted onto it, and the topper was a simple cork. "It's not much, it's pretty raw as it is, but at some point I'll be having to buy more, so I'll be getting the more refined ones. I hear that they're a lot more potent once they get them more refined..." The raw Water-Dust was all he had at the moment, and he hoped that it would last him a while before he had to get some more...

Hyght peered at the small crystallized Dust Bashir produced and nodded. "And you use this often?" He asked, gesturing to the vile with an incline of his head. "That's pretty impressive. I haven't heard of too many people that use raw Dust without negative outcomes." He leaned back and folded his arms in thought. "Actually, if I remember correctly, its pretty tough to do so. Your mom must have been pretty badass." He said as something moved in his peripheral vision and drew his attention. Hyght's dark eyes lingered on the spot were he thought he saw something. Around him the cacophony of the pedestrians and Bellmusian people swirled and for a moment he found himself absorbed by the sounds. Car horns, delivery trucks, shop owners haggling, couples talking of possible dates, and even a few stray cats meowing to passersby. Hyght wasn't sure how long he had stood there but when he snapped back to reality he was staring down at Bashir. "Sorry." He quickly apologized, "Zoned out for a minute there."

"So what was your game plan today? Were you after anything specific in the Central?"

Bashir sighed lightly. "I use it when I have to, it's not something that you can replace too easily. Especially not without coin. It's an odd sensation, using it... You can't use it like you use the normal stuff, it doesn't hold it's form well, but if you don't give it form then it can blow up a little, same if you try to hold it for too long... It's all about timing, really." he pointed out, thinking about it. Dust was hard to describe, he mostly went off feeling and instinct when he was using it, so it was a little tricky to get the message out. He pocketed the vial.
He noticed Hyght looking around, slowly, but he couldn't quite work out why. In response to his question though, he answered, "To be honest I just wanted the lay of the land. Try to work out where everything is down here. People seem to come here a lot, so it must be good, right?"

Hyght nodded as Bashir tried explaining how he used the unrefined Dust. "I've used most refined Dust so my experience with Dust is different than yours. Still that's pretty interesting." He admitted with a small shrug of one shoulder. Bashir returned the vial back to his pocket and had a curious or possibly questioning look when Hyght returned his attention to the Faunus but Hyght ignored it and just chocked it up to his zoning out. In response to his question, Bashir had apparently wanted to see where everything was. Being new to Syne and the neighboring area himself Hyght could see the want in that.

With a nod of agreement and then pointed to Bashir's pocket. "Why not use your Scroll?" He asked, recalling that He'd never actually seen Bashir use the Scroll for more than a moment or two at a time. "Let's walk around while we talk. I think the shop owner would stop glowering at us if we did." He said with a sly smile and a nod into the Dust shop. Through the tinted shop window the shop owner stood behind a counter, his dark locks pulled back into a long tail and his bright yellow eyes were narrowed in Bashir and Hyght's direction. With an apologetic wave and a nod Hyght nudged Bashir down the sidewalk. "Come on, bud."

He looked down as you mentioned his scroll, looking quite embarrassed. He took out the device, still brand new, and began to fiddle with it. He didn't want to admit that he couldn't use it, he didn't want to seem stupid... Everyone else could use their Scrolls perfectly fine, but he had never used such complicated technology before. He just sort of looked at it in his hand, opening it up, and slowly trying to find the map.

He allowed himself to be shuffled along by Hyght, he supposed he shouldn't stand by the shop for too long if he wasn't going to buy anything, that would be rude, he thought. He sighed as he looked at the device in his hand, unsure of how to progress with it.

Embarrassment flashed across Bashir's face at the mention of the Scroll's usage and realized his words had unintentionally hurt his friend. Hyght's face reflected concern and he placed his hand on Bashir's shoulder. "Hey. Sorry, Bash. I didn't mean to upset you." He said apologetically and pointed at the Scroll in Bashir's hands. "How about I show you how to use that thing?" He asked with a smile touching his lips. "You're gonna need to be able to use it now that you're at the Academy. Most of our homework and class info will no doubt come from it." He paused, waiting for Bashir to decide what he wanted to do. Hyght didn't want to force him into learning it, despite knowing Bashir would need to know how to use it competently.

Looking up from Bashir, Hyght let his dark eyes scan the streets of the Central. Bashir had been right in his earlier observation. Bellmuse Central was indeed loud and vibrant. Especially when they reached Central Square and Hyght noticed a young woman with a dark complexion and long multi-colored hair being slowly surrounded by a congregation of on-lookers. With the back of his hand Hyght tapped Bashir;s chest and gestured to the woman. "Check it." Hyght said and trotted over to the decently sized crowd the formed around the woman as she addressed the crowd. The young woman was apparently a street performer, Hyght decided based on the hat she had set on the ground, opening up to the sky.

"...and gentlemen!" The young woman said, her voice was smooth and seemed to be carried with ease. "I am the Outstanding Nebula! What makes me outstanding you ask?" She scanned the crowd with her large blue-green eyes. "Well that's because I'm standing outside." There was the familiar ""ba dum tish" sound that was normally reserved for lame jokes. Hyght and many others in the crowd chuckled. "While true, that's not the real reason why I'm called Outstanding. I will show you a feat physical prowess that will astound and amaze you!" Outstanding Nebula shoot her multi-colored hair and only then had Hyght really noticed that throughout the woman's thick mane were braids of hair a big around as two of his pudgy fingers. He stared and despite being one of the many faces in the crowd Nebula looked over at him and nodded with a pleasant smile that expressed a single dimple and seemed to make her face glow. "Are you ready?!" Nebula asked the crowd inciting them and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

Hyght found himself excited as well, he also realized how the way her clothes hung to her frame. Upon closer observation Hyght was able to see the lines of her muscles in her bare arms and the tight, ripchord muscle of her calves. He watched as she continued bouncing for about ten seconds and then she was gone leaving nothing but multiple bulbs of flowers in her place. The crowd, much like Hyght, had reacted the same way. Sudden confusion followed by a sense of disappointment that they could no longer see the young woman and her energetic beauty. A moment later there was an ear splitting whistle and everyone began to look around. "THERE!" Shouted someone from the crowd and many of the others started to point toward the fifth story of a seven story building nearby. On one of the windowsills sat Nebula whom pulled out a long barreled weapon and gave the crowd a two finger salute before she leveled the gun on what looked to be the crowd and fired.

The bullet of the rifle struck home at the base of the bulbs and a moment later they began to split open and form large, beautiful flowers of cosmic colors. When Hyght looked back to the window were Nebula was, she was gone. "With a bit of love I can make anything grow!" Nebula's disembodied voice said as the cosmic flowers exploded into a radiant swam of lights and sound. The Outstand Nebula stood in the middle of where the flower had been a moment before. "Ta-da!" She exclaimed with a broad smile across her lips. "The Outstanding Me!" She said with a bow.

He nodded, smiling slightly as he looked up at Hyght, thankful that he had agreed to help him learn to use the device. He liked Hyght, and part of the reason he hadn't said anything was because he was too shy to do so, he didn't want Hyght thinking he was stupid or something...

Speaking of looking stupid... he thought as his attention was brought to the performer, finding himself letting out a snort at the terrible joke as he stopped himself from laughing. She seemed...odd. He thought as the woman danced around the stage, he looked up at Hyght to see what he thought, but he found him staring intently at her...well...everything. Looking back to the stage he had found the strange lady missing. He was worried for a moment, his eyes darting to various places he thought she could get to in the time taken, like a trained hunter, but that wasn't where she was.

His look of alarm was back the second he spotted her, weilding a rifle that was pointed somewhere at the people down here. He didn't have much time to react before she fired, the floral burst startling him slightly. He realised with a start that it must have been part of the act, but he was still a little shaken. In his hand he noticed he'd drawn Wilder out of reaction, the three blades deployed around the ring in the centre that he held. He let out a sigh of relief as he spun it slightly, folding back up into a singular metal rectangle he clipped to his belt.

Hyght clapped in earnest awe, his eyes fixed on the young woman until she was swarmed with her adoring fans. "Man, that was pretty awesome." He said with a big grin, his cheeks slightly flushed. "What did you think, Bash?" He asked and noticed his friend's hand on his weapon. "Everything okay?" He eyed the rat-faunus and glanced around nervously, a movement that seemed more like a meerkat's action than that of a skilled Huntsman. Hyght was a novice in almost every practical skill of Hunting. While he knew of things for the books he had read he had never put them into actual application. Something Bashir would possibly be far more knowledgeable about, having lived in the wilderness.

The human baker could barely hear over the uproar of applause again and spotted a bench with a table away from the crowd and performer. "Come on." He said, his tone a more worried, and navigated his way through the sea of people like a whale in water.

Once at the table Hyght turned to face Bashir again. "Is everything okay?" He asked, his words were quickly spoken and it was easy to tell he was a little panicked.

Bashir looked calmer the moment she reappeared in the buds, clapping with and talking to the crowd he sighed a little, after seeing Hyght looking down at him worriedly, he agreed to be led away to the bench. He looked a little calmer once he was out of the crowd of people, and away from the loudest of the noises. He didn't mean to get himself worked up, but, she drew a gun and it scared him a little... He looked a little down as he was led to the bench, and sitting down, he sighed, looking up at Hyght a little sadly.

"I..don't worry, I'm fine... I guess I just got a bit jumpy when she drew her gun... I din't know it was part of the act... I, well, Is that something that performers do here?" he said, half-jokingly, before looking down at the pavement as he sat, "The show was pretty good, yeah, and she was very charismatic, I just... I'm sorry I ruined it..." He had ruined it...Hyght was having fun and his little mistake had made him all worried, he had been too busy worrying to enjoy the act himself either... "...I...liked the flowers..." he mumbled, slowly, still unsure of what to really say...

Hyght's expression softened and he huffed out a short chuckle. "Psh. You didn't ruin it, man. It was already done. Besides you aren't used to street performers so I don't blame you." He gave Bashir a reassuring smile and clapped his hand gently on the rat-faunus' shoulder. Hyght turned a moment later and observed the crowd that the performer had amassed. The size of the crowd didn't seem to be getting smaller, rather it seemed Nebula seemed to get more attention. "Well she was good." He said absently and shook his head. "I'm not sure if pulling out a rifle and firing it in the direction of a crowd is something performers do. Or at least I hope not." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Honestly I was really focused on Nebula that I didn't notice the rifle until she fired. I mean, she's pretty but I don't normally get all tunnel vision around pretty girls. Strange." He thought and shrugged one shoulder. "Anyway, you're okay now, right?" Hyght asked glancing to Bashir as he pulled his Scroll from his pocket and opened it. "Because I figure we can go over a little bit on how to use a Scroll. What do you say?"

Bashir gave off a little chuckle, having noticably calmed down now. He relaxed back into the chair a little, his tail casually swaying behind him. "I guess I'm not the correct person to judge how pretty girls are, but I'll take your word for it, haha, she certainly knew how to draw a crowd..." He chuckled, girls really weren't his type... Don't worry about me though, I'll do alright, just got to get used to some things, I suppose..."


He paused for just a moment as Hyght had mentioned the scroll, he'd sort of forgotten about it, though he knew he should try to learn, at least, everyone else could do it, it seemed, so he didn't really want to be the only one who couldn't. He took his scroll from his pocket and activated it, revealing it's home screen, he'd managed to get this far before, and it had a simple layout, it's just he didn't understand most of the techie words and such... "You're right, I should probably get used to all of this stuff, I..if that's okay with you..." He said, looking up at Hyght.

Hyght waved his hand dismissing Bashir' passive response. "It's okay. Now let's get started." Hyght said as he took a seat next to Bashir. The following hour seemed to slip by quickly as Hyght showed the rat fuanus the basic of the Scroll. "There you go. You seem to get the idea. You're a pretty quick study." He said and closed his Scroll. Bashir may be new to tech but he didn't seem to be incompetent. He picked up the basics pretty easily and during their lesson Hyght showed him how to add people's contact info and how to look things up on the web.

Hyght stretched and let his eyes swivel, the dying sun bathed the buildings and reflective surfaces of glass in dark oranges, deep red, and pale yellow. "Man, I didn't realize how late it was getting." He said as he looked at the digital clock on his Scroll. "Want to head back to Syne and get some chow?" He asked and hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the direction he believed Syne to be in.

(OOC: If you're cool with it, I figure we can make this a stopping point so we can get other threads going.)