Weiss and Blake stumble across an argument while in town.

Blake felt her eyes narrow as her ears picked up on the two nasally voices of a pair of performers. Blake had seen the posters for them around town, they were part of some traveling circus. Not that she had an interest in that kind of thing. But she did have an interest in the way they were leering over their coworker, who was clearly bird faunus of some kind. Her hair had a feathery look to it, colored teal with violet ends. Her arms had the same feathers lightly coating them, and her eyes had pupils far too wide and irises far too dark to be human.

"What did we tell you about overshadowing us during the show? You're only the trainee." One of the human performers snapped.

"Yeah, who are you to be all high and mighty?" The other one followed it up with a sneer.

"But I didn't do anything!" The faunus girl snapped back, her feathers bristling.

Blake felt her hands clench into fists as she watched the exchange, her bow flattening with her ears.

"So, when are you going to intervene?" Weiss' question was a statement more than anything, but her flat tone only served to anger Blake further.

"I don't know, maybe when I feel like actually being a good person." Blake snarled back, the guilt over her words vanishing when Weiss didn't even flinch.

Blake sighed and turned back to look at the argument, which now had the two human performers glaring dangerously at the faunus trainee.

"We've worked hard to be here, what have you done?" One of the girls leaned in, causing the faunus to lean away in discomfort.

"Probably had to cheat her way in here. Since she doesn't have any other talent besides for being flashy." The other one hissed, the two of them cackling as the faunus shrunk down, her lips trembling.

Blake felt her side grow cold, ice clinging to her clothes, and she turned to see Weiss storming forward, a look of fury in her eyes that Blake had never seen.

Blake trailed behind her, curious to see just what had enraged Weiss so much.

"If you two wouldn't mind, I'd like to say something." Weiss' tone even made Blake pause, her harsh clip leaving no room for objection.

Moving herself between the faunus and other performers, Weiss glowered at them. "If you two had any real skill you wouldn't be wasting your time with this. Get over yourselves already. If you really want to be better than her, start actually working for it."

"We-!" One girl tried to interrupt, clearly outraged.

"What? What exactly have you done? Complain? Blame her for being better than you are? So what? You know how much natural talent matters?" Weiss raged on, not stopping for a second in her tirade, an accusing finger pointed at the two girls. "It. Means. Shit. Natural talent doesn't give you anything. So, if you're really upset at being outperformed, then get off your asses and actually make yourselves better than she is."

"You little-" One of the girls started, then stopped after looking at both the uncompromising icy glare coming from Weiss, and the very real ice crystals branching off Myrtenaster. She turned away, her companion muttering "Whatever" as they walked off.

"Thank you for that." The faunus girl said, her feathers glinting in the sunlight as she smiled. "I didn't know what I was going to do about them. I'm Nila by the way."

"In the future, don't even bother with people like them." Weiss said softly, bitterness evident as she stared at the ground. "People will always find a reason to shove you down if you're better than them. It doesn't matter how hard you've worked or what you've sacrificed to get there, people don't care."

Weiss turned, offering Nila and empty smile as she concluded. "Don't bother to care about what they say. You're the only judge of yourself that's worth listening to."

Before Nila could respond, Weiss stalked off without a word, leaving Blake to offer Nila a quick shrug before following.

"I never thought a Schnee would do that." Blake snorted, only half joking.

"Haven't we been over this already?" Weiss snapped, but there was no real bite in her words. She sighed, "You know I don't hate faunus, just the White Fang. Besides, people like that are imbeciles."

"But still," Blake muttered. "that was harsh. Even for you."

"Who cares?" Weiss retorted. "Not like we'll ever see them again."

Originally wanted to have Weiss mention her past once or twice, but it never felt natural. I think the main point still got across though.