Rags or Riches? (Closed / Introductory)

A concealed figure was suddenly bursting through the shattering window of an apartment complex as she fell from a minor height down into an alleyway below. The figure was small wore dull burlap rags that looked filthy, as though they'd not been ever washed. A matching burlap rag was draped around their entire head, concealing every key feature of her profile from view, although something did stand out. There was a bit of black and red fabric flowing freely from her arms, held tight against her as she ran.

This was Tamura, and this escapade actually started earlier this morning.

(Several minutes earlier)

Tamura was browsing through the windows of shops and market stalls all around downtown Bellmuse. She was in need of a few things if she was going to live at the school for the next few years, but she had no money to her name. Even worse, only a few places would open up tabs to students at the academy, and even fewer would allow that for the purchases that she was trying to make.

'I can't get money without things, and I can't buy things without money. How am I supposed to survive like this? It's an endless loop.'

Tamura was deeply mired in though for several minutes, being bumped and jostled by every person bigger and/or taller than she was. Only one thing brought her from her thinking, and that was the beautiful garb that caught her eye. It hung from a market stall, a whole outfit that looked like it was just her size. In reality, it was meant for children, but it was still exquisite and practical. It was black, with red accenting lines following from the vest all the way to the boots. The boots themselves were tall and light. It was also, much like everything, completely out of her price range.

'Of course. I get my heart set on something, and I'll never have it. This is a stall, there's no way the guy would be willing to tab anything.'

Even her thoughts sounded downtrodden to her. She couldn't expect fair treatment at the academy without proper attire, and still....

The situation before her seemed impossible. So impossible, a reckless thought crossed her mind.

'I'm fast.... I don't look like much. Just a face in the crowd.... Hmm. If I did...' A portion of her conscience tried to dissuade her, but to no avail. The devil on her shoulder had every exit covered. 'I'll pay for it when I have the money. I can't use my semblance though, they could easily trace it to me. Speaking of...'

Tamura ducked away from the crowds and into a secluded area behind a shop. Her sleeves were torn from her top, and she wrapped them around her head and hair, making a ramshackle bandanna and hood of sorts. Her identity was much safer like this, and from this point forward, she considered this something of a mission.

No hesitation, no doubt. She rushed through the crowd and hopped up onto the stall, snagging the hook of the clothes without stopping. Barely hearing the shouts of the stall keeper behind her, she cut through the crowd rapidly any time there was space to do so. There was a space, and she found her way into an alley with a perpendicular intersection running to the right.

'Perfect!' Tamura thought. She cut right, hoping to lose line of sight with her pursuers, only to run face to face with a pair of police officers that just happened to be on foot patrol.

'Oh perfect...'

She turned on her heel and went the other way. To the left, the stall keeper was coming. Behind her were the officers. Being on the street was proving to be a bit of a hassle, and as timing would have it, a new option would open before her eyes.

Literally. An apartment complex door was opened by an attendant taking out some garbage, and in Tamura went. She ran upstairs, zig-zagging throughout the halls, praying that there would be a way out that didn't involve breaking a window.

(The Present)

Tamura was in the clear in this alley. She'd cut through many others beforehand to get here, so she was sure that the chase was done now. Panting and gasping, she ripped the rags from her face and tossed them into a dumpster, leaning against a wall to rest and sliding to a seated position as she rested from her encounter.

Like how many of his nights out on the town ended, last night's events left incredibly exhausted, and his search for a decent place to stay bore no fruit.  Thus, he did his best to find a close place to rest his body, a place that was out of everybody's sight.  This place happened to be a dumpster.  Sure, it wasn't his first choice, as he would have much preferred his own bed, or any bed, but it worked, right?  Jack managed to get a decent amount of sleep in said dumpster due to a surprising lack of organic waste and more cans and glass, only having to worry about some sharp edges every now and again and a possible infection.  Unfortunately, Jack's rest was interrupted by a sudden addition to his temporary shelter.

Jack propped himself up with his bat before he placed a hand on the edge of the dumpster, pulling out his body.  He found some burlap had been tossed onto him, and it remained over his face and upper body even after he had brought himself to the ground.  After a long yawn, he grabbed at the rags and pulled them off, being careful not accidentally take his chicken mask off.  "Alright, I'm up, I'm u-"  What Jack failed to notice in time, was that he stood up way too fast.  Like a drunk on his birthday, Jack began to rapidly lose his balance, eventually causing the back of his head to crash into the dumpster.  If it wasn't for his aura, this would have sucked a lot more.  He began to stand himself up again, slowly and carefully.  "Take two.  Alright, I'm up, I'm up."

A massive figure, green in colouration and lacking a face, idly swept the streets of Bellmuse out of shear helpfulness. He was looking to brush up on his cleaning skills. He was garnering a lot of attention in the twilight hours of this morning, namely due to the shear scope of the pile he was pushing. Where was it going? What was going to happen to it? Well they say on the wind... that this was Flash Driver, helper to Bellmuse and an android who cannot sleep. Some kind of legendary creature who helps people, some mythical beast that will do your chores without charge or complaint, this is what Flash would be... if he showed up less often. Frankly he had become quite the town staple, almost like a mascot of some sort; he'd show up to sports events and who knows where else just for the sake of being bored and wanting to be among people.

Having heard the crash of glass Flash had set off through the alleyways and truth be told if it weren't for built in GPS... he'd be rather lost. Going left and right, turning through alley after alley his pile of garbage now stood a meter tall... he was in search of a garbage receptacle. Eventually he managed to find one, a broad green tin which coincidently looked around the size of two fleshy ones. He struggled to round his pile in the cramped conditions, his metal back scraping against the walls, before eventually he found himself face to face with the dumpster. Without hesitation Flash opened the lid, preparing to start lifting chunks of garbage, only to find himself face to screen with... a man in a chicken mask.

He paused for a moment... curious what a man in a chicken mask could be doing in a dumpster before catching site of what looked to be small ninja looking girl hiding out around it's edge. He decided to take meeting these strange people in stride, despite the strangeness.


Despite the cold metal, through his through attempts at puns, the droid seemed to radiate kindness. Painted in greens and dressed only in a jacket while he was huge and imposing... he somehow seemed the least threatening giant metal combat machine one could lay eyes upon.

Tamura clutched her newfound outfit close to her chest as the massive pile of trash, dust, and debris found it's way into her "safe-zone". This thing was obviously going to garner attention from passersby, but the probability of it drawing in her pursuers was fairly low the way she saw it.

The pile drew nearer and nearer until it was almost in front of her. From her angle, the machinery that must have been pushing it was obscured, but now she saw something odd.

That was.... She saw it after an abrupt interlude from a "chickenman" popping out of the dumpster... twice. Now, however, she was greeted by the sight of not a man, but a bot with a broom. In hindsight, it made sense considering that she couldn't hear any machinery pushing the pile.

She was on edge, especially now that the bot was addressing her directly. Tamura stared back at Flash, glancing between Jack and Flash a few times. They'd seen her, so running now was out of the question.

"....."

Really, these people had no reason to be suspicious, right? So, she sighed and calmed herself a bit, recalling a section on "Inner Peace" in one of her training manuals.

"I'm.... I'm Tamura...." She paused. Thinking about whether or not it was proper to share her last name, or maybe even her full name. She didn't know if that was his, or maybe only a small portion of his name actually.

'It was two words, so yes.'

"Tamura Dusk." she felt like it was too proper now, she'd introduced herself twice. Beyond that, she down at herself for a moment. Even if she was holding such nice garb, her actual attire was even worse than before. Dirty, bland, and now, damaged.

Tamura's cheeks reddened with embarrassment at just how out of touch she felt with people now. It was definitely going to take some getting used to, being back in the city.

Jack looked to his left and right, trying his best to figure out exactly what was going on, hoping it wasn't something to worry about.  To one side, an incredibly short girl apparently going by "Tamura."  Not a name he's heard before.  Probably foreign.  That, or it's a made up name.  To his other side stood a tall robot with what seemed to be a cleaning obsession.  "Hey... I think I recognize you.  You're that android I've seen around the academy, right? Good to meet you, man." He extended his hand to greet the fellow student, happy he finally met what he thought was an interesting person after so long.

Whether or not his hand shake was accepted by Flash Driver, Jack's head would tilt up momentarily at the realization that he almost forgot the other stranger. "Oh, and I guess it's alright to meet you too, Tama... Tum... 'T.' " That's not a hard name. Her name is three syllables. Although he did his best to show no reaction to what he just said, Jack was screaming at himself on the inside for saying something so ridiculous after just meeting somebody. Unsure of what to do next, he waited for Flash Driver to do something to change the subject or do anything at all, hoping he could work with a new subject.

Tamura visibly relaxed a bit at the social faux-pas given by Jack, feeling a bit less anxious about her own shortcomings in the face of how they ignored the mistake she'd just made. She listened and read attentively to the pair of them as they each "said" their piece. She had a thought and decided to let it out.

"Well, I'm certain that he doesn't plan to stay in there much longer, so I'm sure that using this dumpster should be fine." she giggled lightly to herself, just now realizing that a man had appeared from a garbage can. Tamura snapped back to reality, however, when the bot extended his hand to her. She flinched a bit, and stared him down for a few moments before warily taking his hand. Even from her seated position, she could tell that both of these individuals were marginally larger than she was. This made her wonder how guarded she should really be.

In the end, Tamura thought back on the words flickered across the screen of Flash. "You are quite kind, but... I won't be changing until I get back home." she was cautious not to wrinkle the garb as she started to stand up. "Actually, I was just on my way there, to the academy. I heard you guys mention it. I actually am a new student, a bit late but I was just making this stop before I moved in."

Really, if the two of them were academy students, she doubted that she really needed to be very guarded about much here.

Jack stood, his head falling forwards for just a second as he read what the android was saying, almost impressed with how long the bot could go on and on.   The fact that almost everything he said was obvious almost irritated him, but it was hard to be mad at someone that seemed to do the academy a lot of good.  Only after catching a glimpse of the word "mask" from Flash did Jack finally bring himself back to the land of the living, having spaced out for a moment.  "What?  Oh.  This one's Richard.  I'm not Richard, I'm Jack.  I meant the... Hello, I'm Jack.  Feel free to use the dumpster."  

After yet another moment of difficulty communicating, Jack turned his attention to Tamura while she spoke, preparing himself to speak like a normal person for the first time today.  "You're in the academy too?  Why is every somewhat significant person in the academy?"  Soon after saying this, Jack held the back of his head as he felt a headache set in, a slight throbbing pain now present.  He inhaled sharply for a moment at the pain, before choosing to ignore it and focus back on more important things.  "Well, I can't say much, since I'm not really normal either.  I was going to head there myself, now that I've rested.  Want me to show you the way?"

Tamura shifted slightly before nodding in response to their offer to go to the academy together. She was glad to get even more distance from the scene of her crime, and even more so to be away from this dingy alley. She still made one more affirmation of her mental promise to pay for the clothes again when she had the money to do so. With that passing thought, however, she'd step away from the wall, folding the outfit over her arms a few times to make it neat and proper again, removing the creases from her holding it closer to herself earlier.

"Oh, uh, I don't mind if my room is small at all. All things considered, I probably am too small to notice if my room is below average." she giggled a bit at her self-effacement. Tamura then continued on. "I'm a combat major actually, I trained to fight with a blade for a large portion of my life. It's probably a bit weird for people to hear that I'm the type to get up close with my opponents, but I'm fast plus I can use dust pretty well with my blade.... and I got survival training by living alone in Finnek Forest for the past year."

Her words paused briefly before she tacked on a half-hearted, "396 days actually." Tamura spoke fast, trying to gloss over that portion as briefly as possible, hushing herself after the fact.

Jack stopped as he was about to say something, a small amount of shock coming over him. At first, he didn't believe it. Over a year alone in the woods? Normally, he'd call them out on such a bold statement, but he wasn't quite sure that he should right now. Not only was he trying to make a good first impression, despite having risen from a dumpster, but it just might even be true. Come to think of it, everybody around here has some strange story or something like it, and he was no exception. Soon, another thought came to mind.

She mentioned it was the past year, as in not long ago at all. Not only was he unsure about why she would want to live in the woods for so long, but he wasn't certain about how she enrolled in the academy. It's not like the academy just allowed anybody in, right? And it certainly wasn't free. "Did you say 396 days? You spent a year out there? I wonder how you enrolled in the academy." He turned his head to her, eyeing her suspiciously under his mask to subtly get his point across before he began speaking again. "Well, you'll probably tell when you feel like it. Regardless of the answer, it's pretty nice to meet another combat major. I learned some stuff from the military, but most of it came from work."

Flash, finishing the shovelling, jumped high and pushed down on the mass with his giant palms. For a moment it appeared the dumpster's sides would split, they did bulge, but it appeared to hold itself together... albeit squeaking under the pressure. He closed the lid, patting it down, before turning and quickly catching up to the pair. He had to get ahead of them, gently sliding between them, before rotating his head one-hundred and eight degrees; making his screen visible to them as they walked through the city. Additionally the large droid would part oncoming crowds due to his large size.

Tamura nodded, trying her best to be cautious of how much she actually divulged to complete strangers. "I fought a lot of Grimm while I was out there, and I was really good at moving around without getting noticed. Honestly... If I had not taken that year in the forest, I highly doubt that I would have been trained well enough to enroll in the academy. I passed every examination that I needed to make it in here." Her lips curled into a smile with just a hint of cockiness. "Combat school isn't the only way to learn how to be a huntress."

Flash shared a lot about his views and such. It was refreshing. The other one, contrarily, was being noticeably vague, yet still oddly questioning into matters. She leaned her head back a bit as she walked to look up, not really worrying about hitting something with Flash paving the way.

"If you were military, why go to a huntsman academy? Also, why consider military service and work in separate categories?" she was certainly curious, and this man certainly did nothing to assuage that curiosity.

Jack's head twitched, irritated at what had just occurred. He didn't plan on having the tables turned on him in his subtle attempt at an interrogation. How much could he say? Come to think of it, these two probably didn't have too much authority, so there wasn't too much risk in talking about himself just a little, right? Besides, Jack's a social guy, and it would bother him if he kept himself closed off from others. It seemed like telling Flash something wasn't going to be a problem, since he just doesn't feel like the kind of guy to double cross somebody. Tamura though, he still hasn't figured her out.

"Well, I'm not in the military anymore. Had to leave after I uh... nah, don't worry about it. I want to live an exciting life, so why not train to be a huntsman, right?" Like usual, Jack proved how bad he was at keeping his own secrets, or at least how easily he revealed that he had secrets to keep. Still, he wasn't going to let that stop him from having a good conversation with some strangers now, was he? "And my work's pretty unorthodox, but it's definitely my dream job. There's no way you could compare it to... well, actually, yeah you could probably compare it to the military, but they're definitely separate." He stared Tamura down, unsure of how she would respond to this, or if she would ask more questions. He wasn't too worried about Flash. Seemed like a decent guy. The smaller girl seemed like they might be trouble if they keep asking questions, though. "You know, normally, people don't ask so much about me. You're not trying to learn my secrets, are you?"

He asked that last question while laughing, doing his best to appear casual in a situation that could go in any direction at any point. It's always important to keep your cool in any situation, right? Panicking solves nothing. Reminding himself of this over and over in his head, he waited for either Flash or Tamura to speak once more.

Flash went to stretch and put his arms behind his head, only to remember it was on backward. Feeling quite embarrassed he opted to scratch the sides of his metal head... an entirely pointless action for an android. Then again, stretching usually was to. Were the two of them... competing...? Well Flash would have to weigh in, even if Miss Dawn's method of learning was unorthadox Flash's was entirely exclusive to androids... at least... he assumed it was...? Did fleshy ones have USB?