The Meeting of the Dust Cats (Private, Tint)

Jump Kick, block, dodge, sweep, turn.

The form continued, and Rika performed each of the beginning steps to it with a grace and fluidity befitting a master. It was a form she had practiced for a long time and continued on into a rather elaborate display of martial prowess, with several more acrobatic moves in it as well.  Rika had recalled taking forever to actually learn it, but one would hardly be able to compare the clumsy attempts she’d made early on with the display she was currently giving.

She’d made practicing her forms a bit of a morning tradition, it was a good way to loosen up for the day and allowed her to keep herself and her skills sharp enough. The fact much of it was an ingrained habit also helped and besides it was much easier to find space to practice early in the morning. The pigtailed faunus had opted at least not to use dust in her morning routine, despite the ease by which she could have worked it in at this point. She’d made a lot of progress in her development of her martial arts style, though there was still a lot she could do she knew.

Still it was nice to practice the art without dust once in a while, more pure in a way, though that didn’t mean she didn’t like practicing with dust. It was simply nice to be back to the base, especially since most of her practice with dust lately had been less physically focused, and while Rika could still note tiny flaws in her form, others wouldn’t pick them up even with the corrections she made as she flowed through the kata quickly, likely putting on an impressive display for anyone who might decide to watch, were anyone around in these early hours of the day.


Rika was currently wearing her typical black and red martial arts outfit, the silk blouse's long sleeves covering her bracers, though she still had those as well. One might have noticed the green anklets she was wearing on either leg, or the strange running shoes which would look out of place, especially the pink color of that the bottom of the shoe seemed to have. Something which would look uncharacteristic on RIka, given she was the type that was easily identified as more a tomboy than anything. A duster might recognize the signs of dust being fused into the colored articles of clothing, were they familiar with things like dust mixing.

Without any classes to yet attend, as she had only recently enrolled, Tint found herself wandering the campus of the academy. Syne was certainly larger than she had expected, given the size of Bellmuse. Tint stretched, her white crop top baring a little bit more of her flat yet strong stomach. She moved her biker jacket a little closer to her, hiking up her tights a little, and continued along, eventually wandering closer to the courtyard commons. The girl stopped suddenly, listening. Something was rushing through the air nearby, causing the little windy noises that could occasionally be heard. Tint was very familiar with this sound, as it was made through combat... and dancing.

Tint moved closer to the sounds, her punk-esque boots hitting the ground with a step much lighter than their bulk would allow for most. The cat faunus moved into view of the other person who was in the area. It looked like another cat faunus, with a red tail swishing behind her as she went through a series of elaborate motions. Tint wasn't entirely sure what the girl was doing, but she could see the slight adjustments the girl made on occasion, her eyes used to picking out the slight differences in such repetition of movements. Tint continued to watch the fellow cat faunus, trying to puzzle out whether she was going through a combat routine unfamiliar to Tint, or some unusual form of dance. Of course, Tint would presume the former, but she couldn't assume things, because that makes a butt out of you and me.

Rika landed in a loose stance, somewhat similar to what one might see in one of the styles considered to be a soft style of martial arts, one based more on fluid motions, with a focus on more redirecting movements rather than blocking and hard strikes. Her previous form had been one closer to a more standard style martial arts style, while this one would truly look to an outside observer to be more like an esoteric dancing style.

Of course, Rika only got a few moves into it, suddenly interrupting her moves as she noticed she wasn’t alone. Specifically, a girl with notable cat ears in a biker jacket, with really colorful hair. Rika wondered how that happened? Could she make her hair colorful like that? Was it dust infused…would that even work? Rika wondered at the idea for a few seconds before shrugging it off, waving in greeting to the other cat faunus. Her eyes widened at the fact the girl had a tail and ears, as she had thought that wasn’t possible for people. “How’dja end up getting’ ears and a tail?” She asked, confused. “Er…hiya by the way.” She added, giving a wave as she approached the new person.

Maybe she was interested in martial arts, the other girl had been watching her apparently, and Rika thought it would be nice to find another decent sparring partner.

Tint continued to admire the other faunus girl’s grace and agility, and grew a little more confused with the ending stance. was this a dance, then? Tint thought she knew most dancing styles, but then again, dancing is always fluid, always evolving. Perhaps this was a form unique to the girl standing before her. Then the girl asked her a question. (“How’dja end up getting’ ears and a tail? … Er…hiya by the way.”)

”Oh, hey, sorry to interrupt you!” She gave a little loose salute in response to the greeting, then answered the inquiry posed by the other. ”The ears aren’t actually my ears,” Tint said, pulling the headband off, some of her myriad-colored pastel hair falling a little looser as she did so. ”Just a headband, is all. Tail’s real, though.” The girl paused for a second before asking a question of her own. ”Were you, uh… were you dancing, or was it something else?” She fixed her hair and slipped the headband back on.

Rika blinked at the fake ears, she wondered where she could get some. The pigtailed faunus wasn’t normally the type to fawn over cute things or anything like that, but she also had a penchant for liking cats, and it seemed like something that wouldn’t get in the way in a fight. “Ooh that’s cool, I wanna get one!” Rika replied with a grin before noting the other girl’s tail. She’d never met another cat faunus before, and some of the faunus she’d met had seemed more ashamed of their traits for some stupid reason, rather than not only openly displaying them, but wearing something like that. To Rika it sounded really cool to wear something like that.

Her thought process was distracted by the other girl’s question, and Rika shot her a confused look. She knew that the girl was talking about her kata, but didn’t really get anything else. “Er…don’t know what dancin’ is…was jus’ practicin’ some kata…helps me think ya know.” The redhead answered, blinking at the girl while trying to figure out what this “dancing” stuff was. Was it some kinda martial arts style? She wondered why she’d never heard of a style like that before.

Tint smiled as the girl stated her first statement, before pausing at the second. “You don’t know what dancing is? You don’t know what--” she began, then stopped herself with a sigh.
   
    “Well… okay. Weird that you don’t know, but it’s basically where you move your body in time to music. There are a lot of different options when it comes to dancing, depending on how you can move your body, what music you’re dancing to, and… well, there’s more factors, too, but those don’t really matter as often. Now, I know it’s not been exactly my place to judge, especially since I don’t know what kata is. A form of martial arts, perhaps?” Tint asked.

    That's when she remembered the first statement. “Oh, right, the ears. They’ve got a few specialty shops in Vale that sells this kind of stuff, but not many kingdoms have places like that. Makes some people a little leery.”

Rika blinked at the older woman as she explained what this dancing thing was, nodding as she got an explanation before the woman answered she didn’t know what kata were. Not that that was too much of a red flag to Rika, lotsa people had different names for it, though most martial arts had their own form of kata from what she’d seen. “Kata is just martial arts forms, patterns? Ya know…” She answered, frowning as she realized she didn’t really know how to explain it to someone not already at least somewhat knowledgeable in martial arts. “Don’t know much ‘bout music or nothin, but this dance stuff sounds fun.”

She perked up hearing that there were shops that sold them, hoping she’d be able to find something like that in Bellmuse but one thing confused the pigtailed girl about the woman’s answer. “Er…don’t really know whatcha mean by leery, like people look atcha funny er somethin’?” The pigtailed girl asked frowning slightly before perking up again. Rika didn’t get why, since people with animal ears wasn’t uncommon. Maybe there was some other reason for it or somethin’?”

“Oh, okay. So it’s just going through the motions, then,” Tint muttered, nodding at the girl’s explanation of kata. “And trust me, if you like martial arts, then you might like dancing, too. Pretty similar.” Tint stretched her arms upwards and continued to listen, answering the other faunus’s question.

“Yeah, that’s about right. A lot of people already don’t like faunus for one reason or another, but a shop that sells fake faunus-trait stuff like tails and ears? Sure, there’s a good clientele, and most of the people who shop there are actually really nice people, but there’s a sort of….” she searched for the right word for a moment-- “taboo about the whole setup, for most people. Enough people hate faunus that they don’t like it, and enough faunus hate the discrimination from the traits they already have visible. The former are freaked out by it for no good reason, and the latter don’t often want to deal with more discrimination.” Tint paused in her explanation for a moment, thinking of how to say this next part. “I definitely understand both points of view, but the humans who hate us for no reason really ought to try and understand too.”

Rika frowned at how simple the explanation sounded, but nodded her frown turning into a grin at the suggestion she’d like dancing. “Sounds interestin’ maybe I’ll try it sometime or somethin’” The pigtailed girl remarked. She figured there was more to dancing that what it sounded like, and figured it was something that could just as easily be adapted to the art, since it sounded rather simple. She’d actually have to see it to really get it though, and so Rika decided to figure that out later. She frowned again at the mention of why the store was apparently niche, though her expression held a bit of confusion as well.

Rika’d been told about Faunus being treated badly for some reason, though she’d never really seen it herself. The pigtailed girl wasn’t going to question it, the whole thing sounded kind of stupid to her. “I don’t know nothin’ bout that stuff, but the ears are really cool.” She answered. “An’ that jus’ sounds stupid, it ain’t like it’s hurtin’ nobody or nothin’” The pigtailed girl still didn’t really get that stuff about faunus and humans, but then it didn’t really seem all that important to her.

Tint sighed and looked at the younger girl. “Yeah, it is stupid, isn’t it? I wish it weren’t that way, but that’s just sometimes how it is.” Tint shook her head. “I don’t know how much you know about any of it, but I can say I don’t know much more than you. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand people that judge simply based on what somebody is. It’s like hating red balloons just for being red. I don’t get what the problem is, but I guess I sort of understand it.” The girl sighed again and switched the topics. “But it’s not something to worry too much about. Now, if I’m right, is that dust in your shoes? I’m not super-familiar with the whole weaving stuff, but I’ve always found it interesting.”

Rika nodded in agreement when the other girl restated her point about the faunus thing being stupid…though she still didn’t REALLY get it much. It didn’t matter, since she was still right after all and that was probably good…right? Rika didn’t let herself be bothered by it either way just shrugging it off and getting too distracted by the change of subject to really think about it. Though that change was probably for the better, as the pigtailed girl found the new subject matter not only more interesting, but far less of a mood killer which was good. Since she didn’t want to dwell on negative things like that.

“Yeah it is, great aint it! I got the idea from a friend’a mine’s semblance!” The pigtailed girl explained excitedly. She didn’t really know whether this other girl was much of a dust person, but the fact she’d recognized the thrust dust in the pigtailed girl’s shoes was as much an indicator as anything. “Weavin’ ‘s a bit hard, ya gotta figure out the trick ta it ya know… kinda trickier with some stuff than others too…”

Tint nodded. “I’ve never tried it myself, I dunno if I’d be able to do it well enough… and anyways, I’ve had dust explode in my face before. A whole vein, actually.” Tint sighed. “Not the funnest experience.” She shook her head and twirled gracefully, sitting down to look at the shoes as she did so. “What kind of dust are you using? I don’t know a whole lot about dust types, but I fully intend to learn more.” Tint pulled out a vial from her jacket’s inside pocket and held it. “Only one I’ve actually got now is fire. Tend to use my semblance more at the moment to protect myself anyways.”

“Yeah it does that,” Rika said thoughtfully at the mention of dust exploding. “Happened ta me first time I tried it, the old man was mad ‘nough ta make me meditate for two days after that.” Rika recalled, punctuating the last comment with a frown. The idea of a dust vein exploding was considered, and Rika frowned again at the results, figuring that was probably pretty bad. She turned her attention away from that notion at the older girl’s question however.

“I use a bunch’a types, but the one in the shoes is thrust…that stuff’s great. Specially for surprisin’ tougher opponents.’ Rika commented. Happy to be talking about the topic. “Don’t know mucha the book learnin’ stuff myself though,” She listened to the girl with the colorful hair as she explained about how she used her semblance to fight. “heh yeah, mine jus’ makes me better at fightin’ an’ stuff. Still need ta actually do the fightin’ myself though.”