Four Is A Crowd
Once More Stop At Beacon And Line Up!
Let us move back again, to a time before Team RSL is formed.
To the scenes just a step away from Sieg Aschelt.
A brief look at the two other who would soon become his future teammates.
[...]
Lilium Stel'Ciel sat quietly on her seat, as still a statue, and as cute as most people found girls of her short size to be. However, to the delicate few who tried to strike a conversation with her, they soon discovered that she had a mouth that was a tad fouler than expected.
("Huh? Didn't your mother ever tell you not to ask for a lady's age? I guess that's why you don't have a girlfriend.") ("I'm not here to make friends, especially with weaklings like you.") ("Don't act so chummy with me, it's bothersome. Leave, or I'll bite you to death.")
Rumors of the little foul-mouthed faunus-girl quickly spread and people were swift to avoid her. It wouldn't be wrong to say that she had made enemies out of everybody on the entire airship. However, she hardly cared about what anyone thought about her.
After the airship landed, Lilium passively went with the flow. She followed the prefects, listened to the headmaster's speech, took the tour around the academy, and then the moment for lunch eventually came.
She sat with neither company on her right or left — all too intimidated to sit beside her. At least, that was how it should have been. Soon enough, an oblivious person who couldn't read the atmosphere just plopped himself down next to her.
'Who the heck is this?'
The weirdo wore ragged and faded clothing, seemingly as if he had recently come crawling out from some underground pit. His weapons were so bulky that they simply radiated a sense of sheer heaviness to them. He wore a somewhat creepy and smooth but featureless-mask that concealed his face. But, more importantly, he was sitting way too close for her comfort.
"You stink," she told him. It wasn't exactly true but it wasn't entirely wrong either. He had an odd smell that she couldn't quite describe; earthy came to mind. He turned his head but she couldn't tell what expression he had behind his mask, so she repeated herself once again with only a little more force. "You stink. Can you not sit so close to me?"
He seemed a bit startled. "Ah, uh, sure."
He scooted away. She nudged her head. He scooted away some more. She nudged her head again. He scooted away even more. By now there was enough room for another person to sit between them. She nudged her head once again.
He stopped, a hand clenched into a fist before loosening. "Hey, don't you think you're asking for a bit too much?"
"No, you stink like shit." To her surprise, the contrast between her docile appearance and harsh words didn't scare him away. Instead, the guy irritatingly scooted over closer. She tensed up and resisted the urge to strike out at him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm not moving anymore," he stated defiantly, "I am sitting here and I am eating here. If you don't like it, then you move."
She really wanted to tear out his neck. But, no, she restrained herself; hands clenched and tail curled, a low hiss-and-growl released at him but so easily ignored. The weirdo paid her no mind as he removed his mask and started eating like he was a starving man.
Lilium couldn't get a proper look at his face due to his slightly obscuring hood but he was not as ugly as she had imagined him. She thought he was hiding some sort of disfigurement or secret behind his mask but that turned out not to be the case. He looked fairly normal with his messy black hair and freshly-bread-baked golden-brown eyes, though his skin was a bit on the pale side of things.
'So plain.'
She wasn't sure if she should have been disappointed or not. She should have felt bad for judging how hideous he might have been only based on what he wore but she quickly found that she didn't give a grimm's ass about that. Humans judged her for being a Faunus, what did it matter if she did the same to them?
Huh. That was a curious thought. Her eyes trailed the hood looking for signs of extra appendages poking from within, 'Maybe it's the hood and not the mask that's hiding something...'
She didn't have long to inspect him, though.
It only took the weirdo a few minutes to fill up his stomach before he reattached his mask and walked away from the table.
Lilium watched him go and suddenly she had lost her appetite. She chewed lightly on her lips and quietly moaned. The idea that he could have been a fellow Faunus was quickly overwhelmed.
RIP AND TEAR. RIP AND TEAR. RIP AND TEAR. RIP AND TEAR. RIP AND TEAR.
A feeling of something akin to wrath bubbled within her and she wanted to beat that aggravating weirdo into a bloody pulp.
She bit her lips harder, clenched her fists tighter, and flesh was easily torn as they lightly bled. It was happening again. She suppressed her anger and hastily left the dining hall to find a secluded place to calm down.
[...]
The first time she saw him was at the amphitheater.
It wasn't because of his dirty attire that she noticed him. No, that was the second thing she had realized about him. It was because of his humongous sword and shield which strikingly caught her attention.
'Is he serious?'
Such terribly bulky weapons were out of place in this world dominated by sleeker weapons and warriors who favored speed and compactness. Bigger wasn't always better. It made her mildly curious about what sort of brute would use such inelegant tools and about what kind of madman would have created those obscene monstrosities.
He might have just been a rare idiot but his balance and posture said otherwise.
His weapons weren't just for show. He knew how to use them.
That her made slightly more curious about how well she would do against this unorthodox fighter.
After that, the second time she saw him was at the dining hall.
He was still carrying around his clunky equipment despite the fact that most everyone had already stored away theirs in the temporary lockers that were given after the tour of the academy. Then again, it didn't look like they would even fit inside the locker. But surely the academy would have found some place to store larger objects?
She reasoned that he kept his weapons close-by for protection. She wasn't one to judge about self-protection since she kept knives hidden on her body as well but she idly wondered why he couldn't get less conspicuous tools for the job.
And, as luck would have it, Reah Von Whitestorm would get to see him for a third time.
...Where she was allowed to satisfy her curiosity on the day of the initiation test.
Author Notes
A brief look into Lilium Stel'Ciel and an even briefer look into Reah Von Whitestorm.