Being different... [Private:Severa/Markus]

Severa was in her dorm room as she didn't have class today. It was a peaceful sunny day, she was in a very good mood and nothing would bring her down today. "This day will be a great day I can feel it!" She was smiling and humming a song and started to skip around in the hallway without a care which was something that rarely happened before as Severa is often stroke by some kind of anxiety or something similar because of her shyness.

As she was happily roaming around, she bumped into a girl that was turning the same corner as her with some other girls and they both fell back. "Ouch! Hey you watch it, you could look before turning a corner. Geez..." did the first girl said. "What is a girl like her doing her anyway? Is she even attending to this school?" said the second. "Look at her she's clearly not a student, she probably sneaked in hoping to accomplish something." said the last one. Severa was beginning to feel flustered as the girls started to be mean to her without any reason. She shook her head, moving her hair away from her left eye. "No you have it all wrong, I'm a student here, I didn't cheat or anything to get here." The first girl stood up shoving away some dust she had on her skirt toward Severa. "Oops, sorry~ it was an "accident". She then laughed before one of her sheep said: "Look at her eye, she's a real freak. Does it actually moves?" "Wait I wanna see... said the other one. The three of them started to look at her left eye as it's moving like a clock is suppose to. "Oh my god! You're weird you know that?" "You should be in a zoo or even a freak show!" As the three of them were laughing and insulting her, Severa started to cry. "Wow, now she's crying like a baby." "Boohoo, little baby is sad..." "You're not made for this life, girl, better quit now..." As they were still laughing, Severa was on the verge to enter an Emotional State.

Markus liked the days that he didn't have class, it meant he could sleep in a bit and still have a ton of time to train instead of sit in a class. He wouldn't really complain too much since most of it was valuable stuff but he just personally liked the spending some time in the gym to hone his skills in a more practical way. His day was starting pretty nice with his gym bag ready to go and his halberd slung over his back, not a usual method of transporting since he couldn't be drawn quickly but he had decided this was a significant improvement over just carrying it all the time.

Taking a quick stop by the mirror on his way out he double checked he didn't have anything stuck in his teeth or that his hair didn't look too unruly, not that he was a trend setter but this was just part of looking after himself since if he didn't respect himself he wouldn't expect others to either. This is when the boy stepped out, on his way to lift some weights and get some extra weapons training in.

Now Markus had a smile on his face, this was one of those good days where everything had turned out right and nothing could ruin that, or almost nothing. How was it now of all times he had wondered past a group of bullies, while this normally would be a good chance to throw some fists this was just a group of girls talking down to someone, he wasn't going to just let it fly but he couldn't go and just start throwing bombs now since that would likely land him in trouble. He did smile at the thought, most guys might scoff at the idea but these three girls were supposed to be huntresses someday right?

"Someone needs to get a hold of the Grimm, tell them you girls have the creatures of destruction position on lock so they can go home now." Getting closer he simply knelt down and picked the girl up by placing one hand on each of her shoulders, "Up you go now." he said as he picked her back up. He couldn't really estimate what she weighed but it felt like less then the weight he warmed up with for a dead lift making the action almost effortless unless she did something to prevent it.

The three girls turned around as a tall guy came by and picked Severa up. "Oh look the little girl has a knight to help her out. How can she become a huntress if she can't even just talk back. How pathetic can you be?" Severa was still sobbing as she was now standing. She was looking toward the ground to avoid the gaze of the guy and the girls. She felt ashamed as the girls were probably right. How could she call herself a huntress if she wasn't even able to stop three people from laughing at her. She felt really pathetic, and was slowly getting angry at herself and the girls. She was furious that she wasn't even able to do something so simple as to talk back. She closed her fists and tried to think about something else but as she heard them laugh, she broke into tears again. The girls then looked at the guy who arrived. "So what are you going to do about it? Your girlfriend is crying and all you do is pick her up, really you both are good for one another. Both are pathetic." "He wouldn't hit a girl that's why he does nothing, he's acting all macho." "He's clearly a douche, just look at him, all tall and buffed." They started to laugh at him as well. Severa was about to burst in rage again as all this guy was trying to do was to help and now because of her he was getting picked at too.

Markus smiled at the comment, he was surprisingly clam about the whole issue but that likely stemmed from what he knew was coming. "You don't look like much of a fighter." He said bluntly to the girl, clearly she hadn't taken the whole situation that well but he did have more to say and bent over until he was about eye level to say it. "I got here easy, I just do what everyone expects. I'll bet you worked hard to get here and you have your talents, you undermined that by breaking now." From the view of a third party it may have seemed that he had all but forgotten about the girls that slung their insults towards him, but he would call it prioritizing.

He had forced himself between the girls and it was unlikely they would try to get through him to actually try and physically assault her so words are all they have left. Looking back to them now he had decided to add just one thing in reply. "You talk awfully big but do you actually bring anything of value to a fight, your all supposed to be strong huntresses right?" He stood up and simply started to take off his halberd from his back, he wouldn't grace them with enough to actually use it in a fight so he just dropped it by his side, it'd impair his movements if it hadn't after all. "I'm all for equality if you fancy yourselves for a fight but it won't matter if it's three vs one, I won't need much to clean up a bit of trash." All of this was assuming they did more then talk big and had an ounce of fight in them.

Severa looked the boy directly in the eyes as he said that even if she wasn't made to fight, that she had talents and the perseverance needed to become a hunter. Hearing those kind words, she stopped crying and gave him a smile. "Thanks, it's really nice to hear that." "Oh look he's trying to be nice to her. That won't help her becoming a huntress you know, you just admitted that she's not a warrior. Severa wasn't mad anymore. She didn't know why exactly but what the guy said made her feel better, even if it was bluntly said and that it was sadly true. The three girls where watching each other before one of them said "What you think you can take us on, the three of us, alone? Don't make me laugh. You couldn't even possibly beat just one of us." "Yeah you're just a show of that think he's almighty." The other one looked at the weapon that the guy had put by his side before saying: "Taking out trash? With that? You'd need to come close to us with that thing in a fair fight, something we wouldn't allow. You'd be roasted in seconds." That girl created a fireball at that moment, seemingly ready to attack the guy that was only a few step away. Severa wasn't going to let that slide and she materialized a flintlock pistol out of her dust and pointed it toward the psychokinesis. "Talking about a fair fight and yet you draw weapons first, not fair in my book." Severa's right eye, the one being red, started to look ablaze as she felt the need to teach those girl a lesson. She didn't know why but she felt different from usual. Was it because of what the guy said earlier? The three girls froze as the blazing gun was drawn not knowing where it came from. [b]"That's cheating! Having a weapon hidden like that isn't fair!"[b]

"It takes all kinds and sometimes the person who is not inclined to take part in physical combat are exactly the type you need to back you up." Markus had activated his semblance at this point, if they did attack he'd need the increase resistance to dust now. "If you were going to actually do anything to stop me with your dust that window just closed, maybe you shouldn't have talked so much." The green hue of the aura now surrounding his body would be plainly visible. "I'm not the same as the average offensive idiot that gets ripped a part by dust attacks." He may have been boasting himself up a bit much but while he had no problem backing it up not that to me degree he was relying on some physical imitation here.

"Let's pretend your right and the three of you have enough ability to give me a run for my money, the first one of you that attacks is going to get speared into the wall and I'm not going to get off you until you're barely breathing and I'll move onto the next one until I'm down and out." Markus lowered his stance ready to rush whoever it was that had decided to make their move, this was hopefully enough to get them to back off since he could only assume he'd still get in trouble for fighting but he couldn't go back on his word if it went that far. "So who wants it first?" At least he had control over the stage, now he just had to see if any of them actually had it in them to incur the wrath of this 240 lbs behemoth.

The three girls, now confronting the guy and a resolved Severa, decided that it was probably better not to fight them especially if they were that close to each other. "Nah, we're leaving, you probably not worth it anyway. But next time it won't be the same scenario. Come girls, let the two of them be, for now..." They left by the hallway they first came from, not noticing it maybe because of the impression the guy had left. Severa put away her dust back, not knowing if she really wanted to fight them or not. The boy seemed to have given her the will to fight for some reason and found that pretty curious. She looked toward him and bowed. "Thank you, if you hadn't came along, I don't know what I would have done. Really, thank you very much. I'm Severa, but you can call me Sevy." She smiled at him as she stood up and wondered... "Can I ask why have you decided to help me? I know it's probably a stupid question but I wanted to know since you didn't have to intervene." She then realized that her hair weren't covering her eye and she decided to place her hair as they were before everything has started, covering her eye again.

Markus let his aura dissipate, he was glad that the chance of him getting in any actual trouble for this was gone at this point, he succeeded in handling this the smart way. Sitting down he picked up his weapon and took a look at the blade, he wasn't too worried but he wanted to make sure he hadn't chipped it when he dropped it. "Why would I help you? Well, it's not likely as profound as you might like. I enjoy fighting and if I can give that fighting a purpose that's even better." He replied as he decided that his weapon looked just fine.

"I think of it more along the lines of why wouldn't I help you. If you see someone in trouble and you have the means to help them why would you walk away? I need to be able to fight Grimm but that's not my goal, my goal is to save people. The methods may vary but the goal remains the same." Too many people get caught up on the fighting aspect of the job that they seem to forget that it might be nice to view it in a more positive light, or so he thought anyway.

Severa smiled at the boy as he gave his reason as she thought it was a good enough of a reason to help. She then looked at his weapon and at her dust and started to think before returning her attention toward the boy, the one she yet didn't know the name of. "May I ask for the name of the brave one that saved me? I'd like to be able to call you by your name rather than referring to you as "the tall guy that helped me"." She then looked at him with more attention as she wondered where he would go next he seem to be carrying some training equipment so she assumed that he was going or coming back from a training. "May I also ask where you were heading next? I m-mean, if I run into those girls again and I-I'm alone, they probably won't leave me be. So do y-you think I could f-follow you a bit?" Her shyness came back from hiding as she didn't want to be a bother to her savior. She also didn't want him to see her as a creepy stalker that would follow him without him noticing, since it's her standard way to operate. She wanted him to see her being brave has he was and the first step was to ask things away rather than stalking to learn.

Markus just kept seated while she asked him his name, he did forget to introduce himself but he shrugged that off to being caught up in the moment. "Yea, I'm Markus." He may have considered making a joke but he was caught off guard with a couple things about this girl, mostly her manner of speaking seemed weird but she was nice enough, not bad to look at either so he couldn't really understand if she had really been getting picked on. "I'm going to the gym, my morning is weapons training and most of my afternoon will be weights." She didn't really look ready to go to the gym, to him to could get away with fighting on the spot but he did have gym cloths not to mention that hardly seemed like her forte.

"It might be just a bit weird if you stood around the gym so unless you wanted to do something there I could just walk you where you're going." He might not consider himself too keen when dealing with girls but he was trying to be considerate, he was hardly likely to be the only guy in the gym and from what he seen is that most the girls that did would out there had a few guys starring. Walking her just seemed like the most modest thing to do right now so it seemed like it would be the best fit for what he perceived to be her personality.

Severa shook her head as Markus suggested to just accompany her wherever she would want to go. "No no, there should be something I could do at the gym too, like gymnastic or something similar. It's true that I might not be able to lift weight, but there's other thing I want to improve. But it's true that I don't have my gym clothes with me right now. Do you think it's okay if we take a little detour to my room so I can pick them up?" She gave him a closed eyes smile while leaning her head n the side that revealed her left eye when she opened them up.

She started to slowly walk toward her room holding her hands behind her back. As she walked, she was wondering if it was mere coincidence if they both met or if it was some twist of fate. She thought to herself "What if we needed to meet today with this weird situation? Would the same have happened if it was someone else that had helped me? For what reason did we met? Could it be...?" She stopped her thinking and immediately blushed as the idea of the fateful meeting of her soulmate crossed her mind. Loving everything that was romantic in fairy tales, she thought it could happen but quickly shook her head as it was probably just a weird and random idea that crossed her mind. She turned toward Markus with still a slight blush on her cheeks before asking shyly: "D-do you believe in f-fate?"

Markus just nodded, he never said she couldn't try lifting weights, she wouldn't likely be very good at it first but that was the case for most. "It's no problem and I'm sure you could lift weights if you had wanted to try." He did admit to himself that gymnastics could be interesting, he wasn't a stiff person but he'd hardly consider himself very flexible so maybe putting some work into training that could be useful down the road, he wondered if they offered a class of sorts. Standing up and slinging his weapon he had followed her back to pick up her gym gear.

He hadn't really thought about much and on their way back he was hit with a bit of a weird question. "Not really." He didn't really lie the idea, to him it implied that people lacked control, someone who was on the wrong path in life wouldn't necessarily be able to change. "I don't like the idea of being on a set path, people work hard to achieve what they do and it'd mean I couldn't really fault anyone for past evil deeds since it would have simply been their path. You could also open up a whole new can of worms with Grimm, would they also have fate as well and if not how would their existence effect our fate" It was right about when he finished that he'd take notice of her face and come to the conclusion that he was over thinking. A lot of this may have just went over his head but he wasn't that stupid, for now he would just be quite and let the whole thing pass rather then just stumbling over what he had just said, at least he thought he had said something worthwhile rather then mindless babbling.

The shyness on Severa's face quickly switched to a smile. She then giggled as Markus didn't seem to have understood the meaning behind her question. "It's not what I meant but I guess you're right for not believing in fate with that ideal. Personally I don't really believe in it either. I think, like you, that we need to choose for ourselves the path we take, but I also want to believe that we met some people for a reason, not just like a random meeting. Like if you meet someone bad, you might have needed to meet that person to understand why and how he was bad to then choose if you choose the same path as him or take another. The same goes for good people. If you meet someone that is nice to you, you just have to make the good choices if you want to stay by their side." She looked toward the ground a moment before turning toward Markus with a smile as they arrived at the door of her room. "Okay, we're here, just wait here I won't be long, I just need to grab my stuff and we'll be good to go." As she said, she wasn't in her room for a minute that she was already outside with a bag that contained her gym clothes. "I'm still not fully acquainted with the school gym so, you lead the way, okay?" She gave him a smile while tilting her head a little, ready to go.

Markus just smiled and let the comment pass, he had figured out that wasn't really what she was implying but it was a bit late now. "I could see that, fate is the hand you're dealt to start with but you don't have to agree with settling for what you've got so it's about working to make the best of it, sometimes that's harder and others it's smarter." This took a pretty sudden turn from what he could only suppose was supposed to be a simple question, so say the least he might have done wonders from showcasing that he wasn't just brute force when the situation called for it.

He was a bit surprised how long she had actually taken to get ready, with a noticeable expression of surprise on his face and had to ask. "Are you sure you have everything?" He took longer then her to get ready so he could expert her to miss a couple things that she might need if she had compiled everything with a speed like that.

Severa was glad but surprised that her opinion wasn't flat out denied as she was expecting a more, "rejective" kind of answer from someone that don't really believe in fate in the first place. She then looked at Markus for a moment as she thought that, for a guy that seemed like he could be part of a sport team, was so much reflective about the world and its subjective themes. She didn't thought that he looked stupid or anything, just that he doesn't appears at first glance like the thoughtful kind. Yet it still sounded bad in here head and would apologize right away but it would probably look weird to apologize while she had said nothing. She would just give him a gentle smile with a tab bit of embarrassment.

Sevy then nodded to Markus as he asked if she had everything. She did look in her bag to be sure she had everything. "I'm sure I got everything. Gym clothes, spare clothes for after it, a towel, a bottle of water and other supplies." She didn't want to name everything so she just gave him a smile as a confirmation. "Are we ready to go then?"

Markus nodded in response and by the time he had noticed her smiling at him he had already shot back his own, not the smoothest of moves he had thought to himself as he almost chuckled but it hardly seemed to matter at this point since he was hardly acting like a playboy at this point anyway, all the better since it was hardly in his character. She seemed just weird enough that it didn't phase her anyway, all things considered aside from that one weird thing with her eye it seemed that she'd pretty much have everything else going for her, he was actually kind of surprised she didn't have more self confidence.

"Alright, lets bounce. You going in their with a solid game plan so you don't walk around looking like a lost puppy? I know I'm going to get some weapons training done then hit weights, I try to get my cardio in the first half but I might go for a run if I feel up for it." He said as he started off towards the gym while scratching the back of his head. It had dawned on him despite being judged, mostly, wrong his entire life based on his own looks that he had just done the same to her, this wasn't the most uncommon occurrence, he assumed everyone just does it but the more he worked on catching himself the more he could work towards avoiding it later.

Severa was thinking, with her finger on her cheek, as to what to do for a training as she was slowly following Markus. "Well, I guess I could do so weapon training as well. But the moment that you'll hit the weights, I think I'd go for either gymnastic or some jogging for the cardio. I'm not really  interested by lifting weights so I'll let you do that." She then thought about her fighting style that could require a lot of energy quickly because of how aggressive she apparently fights so she could use extra cardio. She then looked at Markus, asking him: "Do you do a lot of training like that or you just decided to start? You seem like someone who love to train, am I wrong? Do you always carry your weapon that way? Isn't it kind of bothering to always carry it that way?" She stopped realizing that she probably was a bother right now with her barrage of question. She bowed to him slightly as a sign of apology. She seem to always ask a ton of questions to new people she met as it was quite a good way to get quick infos on them, although she would look way too many time like some creepy stalker that just wants to know everything on someone. Sevy wasn't like that, at least she hoped... She was quietly following Markus afterward, not wanting to bother him with more questions that wouldn't lead anywhere anyway.

Markus nodded, he recalled her weapon from before, some sort of dust gun or something, he had been told about this type of weapon by his father but it was nothing he had any experience with. He kept walking as she asked him a barrage of questions, all things considered the girl was more then capable of warming up to people quickly and it had seemed that any issue with recent events had passed. "I've only been working out for a little over a couple years give or take. I've naturally been bigger then most people my age but my parents were against a developing child weightlifting but once I hit six feet I was able to talk them into it. What's the worst that could happen, stunt my growth?" He answered with a grin before he carried on, not really phased by the questions, to be honest if it interested her he would rather get it out there then keep it some sort of mystery. "When it comes to the weapon I've tried a few different methods but I found this one works the best. It's effectiveness is combat is matched only by it's awkwardness in passing. So what about your weapon, anything special about it?" He was a bit interested in seeing what it was capable of, he hadn't been able to really see dust weapon in action before but as they neared the gym area he assumed that wouldn't be the case by the end of the day.

Sevy slowly nodded as Markus was explaining how he got into training. She thought it was quite unusually to be this tall this young. He was the first one that Sevy saw like that, except for the android Flash, but he was built like that. Wait until she sees the others...

She found herself looking at Markus' weapon as he was talking about it. Sevy was still wondering how he could carry such a weapon just like that. Usually, Hunters' weapons have some sort of Folded Form, even new students which their weapons only has one fighting form has it. But Markus' seemed to be more, classic, Kind of coming from another era or something. It was still an impressive polearm and its design was quite particular, in a good way.

As he question her weapon, Sevy shook her head. "Technically, I don't have a weapon, I fight only using Dust via an Old Art called Dust Shifting. People well versed in Dust can create a lot of things out of it. Most dusters will create shapes like spikes, balls, shards and such to attack or defend themselves. It's a good way to use it as usually it takes a lot of training into Dust to do this and less physical training so dusters tend to do better at a certain range, staying away from harm a little more usually." She paused a second making sure Markus was understanding before continuing."As for the ones who use Shifting, it's a little more complex as we tend to create objects with definitive patterns and we tend to keep it that way. For example, the pistol I made earlier, if I was to Shape it here and now, it would be identical as the one I made back then. All this is in order to train one mind to focus on the shape of the weapon we create in order to keep it stabilized. But we aren't limited to one form... She materialized her pistol like before before Shifting it into a greataxe, then a chain whip, then a rapier, she even made a shield. She then put away her dust looking at Markus with a smile to tip him that she was done explaining.

"Interesting." He replied as he thought about the training that must have gone into that, not only learning to shape the object but there had to be some learning of the workings of the weapons themselves in order to create them, in terms of knowledge base of weapons he assumed these Dust Shifters would be unmatched. "Some of those weapons look a little complex to make the same way every time, I assume a good rush offense could do a number on your work given you don't stick close enough to a strong defensive ally." He wasn't trying to be rude but in a sense that was sort of the role he was looking to fill for his team so it was just the conclusion he drew. If she hadn't thought about it much to this point there was a chance she could fail to make proper use of anyone on her team that would be filling that front line role. He pointed to a set of double doors on the left. "That's it." The gym was nice and just close enough to the sleeping quarters for him. This was also the second place he memorized not including his room, the first being a dining hall.

Secy smiled as it seemed like Markus was admiring her Art and all its practitioners. She also nodded as he made the observation about needing someone to cover them during fights. "It's true, especially when you haven't trained enough, but with enough practice, you can combo weapons by quickly Shifting forms..." She thought back of her first day and how she handle the little fight she had back then. "...for example, starting a fight with a range weapon while the enemy closes the gap between you and them and then hinder or incapacitate them with a trick weapon, like making them trip with a whip before going with a full blown frontal assault with a bigger weapon, like an axe."

They then reached the doors leading to the gym, simple doors that looked as simple as any doors in the school so she had probably walked by the gym a couple of times before without noticing. She didn't know what to expect in there, so she looked at Markus, simply waiting for him to step in first as he was surely more familiar with the place.