Dirt & Grit
Chapter 15
One week later…
"If you turn your books to page fifty-seven, we'll briefly go over the applications of gravity dust and what else it can be used for besides…." The Professor's voice tapered off into a muffle as Marsden leaned back in his seat, rolling an old coin between his knuckles to alleviate the boredom.
Combat utilities such as traversing more demanding terrain, moving supplies more efficiently and allowing you to recall lost items if they are infused with gravity dust. Blah, blah, blah, come on, pal, we ain't getting any younger…
He thought, reciting the pages he flicked through before class, the writing appearing clearly in his mind. Scanning the room, he noticed that the only ones paying attention were those who could be considered hard workers, such as the P and R from JNPR or the W from RWBY, who sat next to the Y.
Marsden shook his head.
Too many gaddamn letters, what am I? An alphabet?
Speaking of RWBY, his gaze lingered on the Y: Yang Xiao Long as she introduced herself to him and Ove last week. Sitting across the room from him, she stared listlessly towards nothing as she was also bored out of her skull; a strand of her blonde hair had made it to her mouth, and she chewed on it slightly.
Feeling eyes on her, she rolled her eyes over to notice Marsden's gaze, which she grinned and winked at. Marden blew a kiss back, but she exaggeratedly moved to dodge out of the way.
Ouch.
Mockingly clutching his heart, Marsden showed how much that hurt, making her giggle slightly, causing Weiss to slap her shoulder gently to make her refocus and then send a nasty glare towards him.
Tch, cockblock.
Although he noticed that the snow cone's eyes moved past him to the person sitting next to him, making her glare even more venomous.
"The fucks her problem?" Marsden heard a low voice rumble.
Turning his head, he saw Grit returning her glare with twice as much venom before flipping her off when the professor's back was turned, making her ears heat up in anger before going back to furiously scribbling notes in her book.
He didn't know what had happened between the Princess and the Gypsy, but if Marsden were a betting man – Which he was – then he'd probably put his money on it being Grit's fault. He decided to have some fun at the big guy's expense.
"Lover's quarrel?" Marsden teased, making Grit scowl.
"Lover? I don't even know who she is."
"Ha, playing it cold? Didn't know you were such a ladykiller partner."
Grit rolled his eyes and muttered, but Marsden couldn't hear anything. Looking at his partner, he couldn't help but notice how…slim he was for his size. Now this wasn't to say that Grit was small; Brothers know that ain't true considering the guy was broad enough for his seat and the one next to him, but the guy barely carried any fat on him but also not enough muscle.
I can't have my meatshield be this skinny; gotta fatten him up; otherwise, he'll only be as good as a xylophone. 'Hafta, see if I can get extra grub. Wonder what Sudri and Ove got goin' on right now? Probably Sudri screaming his head off at someone…
"Mr Heath, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts?" A nasal voice cut in, interrupting his train of thought.
"Pardon me?" Marsden asked back as the Professor tilted his glasses back on his face with a frown as students snickered around him.
"My question Mr Heath, before you dozed off, was; 'What is the mixture between Gravity and Lightning dust, and what are its applications?'" The Professor looked expectantly at him, and Marsden could feel other eyes on him, making his knee bounce slightly.
"Ah, 'course Professor gimme a moment." He closed his eyes briefly as he returned to earlier in the day when he was flicking through the textbook.
Not that page…not that one either…nope…there it is…
Opening his eyes after only a second, he looked back at the professor with a grin; "Gravity Dust, when applied in the right measurement with electricity dust combined with the fusing agent of Aura, can create a magnetic effect drawing in all metallic objects towards it field of origin." He cleared his throat as he turned another page in his head; "When used around electrical equipment, it can also create a short-range emp which will disable them temporarily before switching back on within a minute or so, allowing it an effective resource in a huntsman arsenal."
Finishing, he noticed that the classroom was silent, with the professor's eyebrows raised in surprise before coughing and changing his expression to a smile.
"Correct, Mr Heath! It's good to know some students have been paying attention." Turning away to the board, he continued talking about factors of dust.
Looking around at the rest of the students, he saw them looking at him with different expressions ranging from respect to the same disgust he had been greeted with when he first arrived. Marsden felt a stab of pride at their looks and relished the stares of envy that burned their way into the back of his head.
"How'd you do that?" Grit asked lowly beside him.
Turning, he saw Grit looking at him with suspicion and a hint of respect. Marsden shrugged as he looked forward.
"Dunno jus' remembered is 'all." He replied dismissively before rolling the coin in his knuckles towards his palm to deposit it back into his pocket and away from any prying eyes.
Grit grunted, but Marsden could tell from his slowly advancing deciphering of Grit noises that it was a sound of respect. Marsden grinned again as he leaned his head back to daydream again.
A win is a win.
Cutting through the hologram with the gears of his weapon screaming in rage, Grit bobbed under the next swing from the other hologram before driving his fist into its face causing it to fizzle away and dissipate. Hearing movement behind him, he spun on his heel to swing his chainsword upward through the hologram, splitting it in half before disappearing.
'Simulation Over', An artificial voice called out as Grit breathed heavily in and out of his nose, trying to get rid of this constant aggravation he felt as he paced around the room. It had been bothering him for over a week at this point, and he was pretty sure he knew the cause of it.
Dropping to the floor, he sat with his legs outstretched and scratched the back of his head with his free hand before then moving on to holster his blade on his back again. He wiped the tiny sweat droplets off of his forehead while he growled in annoyance.
All he could think of was back to a week ago during Port's class and what the fat old man had told him, his words singing around his head like an obnoxious choir.
"I'm so happy you're alive, my boy." Port held Grit by the shoulders, who bristled in response at the touch before shrugging him off. Port seemed to take no offence and merely stepped back to give him some space.
Faint and distant conversations of the past echoed in Grit's mind as he remembered Port's name, the name of his dad and Amon's teammate. Grit internally growled at what was coming next as Port stayed oblivious to Grit's grumblings.
Wiping his eyes, Port moved round to the seat at his desk and began rummaging through drawers looking for something.
"Ah! The number of stories I must tell of your old man and me, the adventures!" He chuckled heartily while searching, "We were quite a team back in the day, you know? If I remember right, we were one of – if not – the best of our generation; the only ones who could tussle with us were Team STRQ but even then –."
"Are you done?" Grit cut in gruffly, making Port look up from his desk with a confused raised eyebrow.
"What's that, my boy?"
"I said," Grit stepped forward with a scowl, fists clenched at his sides, "Are you done?"
Port said nothing as he titled his head at Grit, who could feel a vein in his head pulsating. Reaching back down into the drawer, Port held onto something in his hand, but Grit could not tell what it was.
"Whatever is the matter, dear boy? Don't you want to hear of your old man? Of the stories we made?"
Grit clicked his tongue, "Does it look like I'm interested in that shit? I couldn't care less what that old fart was up to, nor any of the old fossils he went to school with before it all went to shit. Trust me, from what I saw from Amon, I know it didn't end well."
Port's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "You met Amon? Ah…of course you would." Port looked uncomfortable as he sat down in his chair, "Then I assume you know what happened to him then?"
Grit stood, "Yeah, and I don't give a shit." He started marching away, "I don't want to hear about your good old day, so stop calling me your boy; it's fucking irritating."
Awkward silence permeated the room as Grit stomped towards the door, the waves of anger being potent enough to taste.
"Your father thought the world of you. You know this, don't you, boy?" Grit stopped but didn't turn around, "When you were born, he wouldn't ever stop talking about you to the point I nearly had to staple his mouth shut. Although when I held you that day, I could certainly tell there was something different about you."
Grit looked over his shoulder to see Port swiftly approaching, holding a photo outstretched hand towards him. Snatching it from him, Grit turned it over and felt his chest clench and stomach flip.
It was a picture of his dad and….his mum looking years younger than when he last saw them. Standing beside them were Port, Glynda and other people he didn't recognise holding a baby…him as a baby. What made him pause were the smiles on their faces, all happy to be there in the moment.
"As soon as you arrived, your father finally retired from being a huntsman, which, if you knew him when he was younger, would have been out of the question for him, so he must have seen something in you that gave him hope." Port smiled softly, "I hope I get to see what it was."
Grit stared into Port's eyes blankly before frowning, which morphed into an ugly scowl as he turned back around, "Whatever, old man." He opened the door, getting ready to leave but not before chucking the photo back to Port, who caught it deftly
"Whenever you want to talk, Grit, my door is always open," Port called out into the hallway as Grit stalked away.
"Fuck off."
A part of him wanted to see that photo again just so he could burn it, so he didn't have to think about it again maybe if he burnt it that the ache in his chest would go away and stop distracting him from what he wanted.
What I want…
"Um, hello?" An uncertain voice pulled him out of his musings which caused him to turn around to affix the offending agent with a glare. His eyes narrowed as he took their– her appearance; bright red hair, green eyes, tall, muscular frame and workout clothes that consisted of shorts, trainers as well as a vest which compressed against the grooves of her muscles.
Strong.
Was all Grit thought as he scanned her over for a few seconds before his eyes drifted over to her weapons; a spear and shield. His mind went into the possibilities of what could happen if she was here to attack him.
I rush her with a burst of aura and swing excuser at her head before she can even make a sound. I'll go for her limbs and joints if that doesn't work. Knee? Kidney shot? A strike to the neck would be too hard to pull off; she seems too fast for that, but I'll be faster.
"Uh, pardon me?" She spoke again, and Grit refocused on her face.
"What?" He grunted, and she looked like she would rather be elsewhere than talking to him but ended up swallowing her reservations. She gestured behind him to where he had been fighting in the simulation.
"I was wondering if you were done in the simulation so I could go in after; all the other zones have just been taken up, and I saw yours was nearly done on the system, so…."
Grit scowled at her before sighing and standing up.
"Knock yourself out." He muttered as he stood up to leave; she moved past him to look at the console, causing her to gasp in surprise.
He turned around to look at her. She looked sheepish as she realised how loud she was while avoiding eye contact with him.
He bristled in anger, "Something you want to say to me?" He wasn't in the mood to fucked around with snide comments or gossiping bitches.
She shook her head.
"N-no, it's just that you nearly beat my placement on the leaderboard. Nobody else has gotten that close yet; it was just… surprising, that's all." She explained as Grit relaxed as much as he could.
Satisfied with her reply, he grunted and went to move away again.
"Um, actually, do you want to…" He heard her voice trail off into a murmur which made him snarl in aggravation as he spun round to her again.
"What the fuck do you want already, huh? You already got the room. Do you want a high five as well?"
She looked surprised, but there was no fear in her eyes, just confusion and a hint of regret before she steeled herself again.
"N-no, I asked if you would like to have a friendly spar…if we nearly have the same scores, then maybe it would be a constructive match for the both of us?"
Grit said nothing as he digested her words; the feeling of frustration and agitation was still wormed into his body from the week earlier, and he still hadn't managed to find an outlet as Goodwitch had not let him spar again. So being able to knock a huntress around for a minute could help with that.
On the other hand, could he be bothered to deal with the aftermath? He didn't think he could be asked questions about why he sent a student to the infirmary because of a match. Although, to be fair, he wasn't the one who challenged her. It was the other way around, and this time there wouldn't be a technicality that stopped him from fighting.
The face of that blonde moron flashed in his mind, and Grit could feel his blood pressure rising from the memory of his 'loss'.
Standing up straighter, Grit nodded at her, "Okay, fine…let's spar." She smiled and stuck her hand out.
"Okay! My name is Pyrrha Nikos." Grit looked at her hand and scoffed before walking to the sparring arena. Pyrrha looked put off for a moment until she began walking behind him. It was only a few minutes away as the building they were in was one giant training facility comprising gyms, battle simulations, running tracks and sparring arenas. Coming across an empty one, Pyrrha moved to one side of the room while Grit stood in the centre of the circular arena.
Trailing his eyes about, Grit noticed that the arena was much smaller than the other arena that Goodwitch used in her classes, probably because there were no seats surrounding the perimeter. This was purely for one on ones. He noticed red hair coming back towards him, holding something in her hands; a wooden spear in one hand and a wooden greatsword in the other.
He raised an eyebrow at her as she handed the greatsword to him, which he looked at for a moment before taking it off her. A distant memory of lessons in green fields and wooden caravans caressed his brain as he gripped it tighter.
'Your feet Grit! Watch your feet!'
'I am! You watch your feet Myr-'
Growling, he clenched it even tighter, making the wood creak under the strain of his anger. Hearing a cough, he looked up to see Pyrrha checking him over with curiosity and apprehension. He tried to wipe the look off his face but knew he failed.
"We doing this or what?" He bit out as he stepped away from her, flourishing the greatsword around him as Pyrrha moved a few feet away. Glancing upwards, he saw a large screen showing their faces and aura levels.
Pyrrha Nikos – 100%
Grit Merrick – 100%
"Of course. I hope you don't mind that we are using training weapons. It's beacon policy that first years aren't allowed to spar with their weapons unless under supervision from a teacher." She scratched her head sheepishly, "Maybe in Goodwitch's next class, we can go at it properly? Or perhaps even next year?"
"I don't care."
"Oh." Pyrrha grabbed a wooden training shield and got into her guard, making Grit subconsciously mimic her as he remembered old drills. "Rules are simple: No semblances, whoever loses their aura first is a loss and no crippling attacks. Is that all right?"
"Yeah, whatever."
He didn't think that it would take long. If the blonde dumbass he fought were that useless, this would be over before it could start.
"Do you need a count?" She asked, annoying him even further.
"No-" Before he could finish, his body had already leaned back before the spear's tip could catch him in the face. His mind finally caught up enough to scream at him to duck out of the way of the following thrust before raising his blade to deflect the third one before going in for an overhead slash blocked by her shield. Spotting an opportunity, he tried to boot her in the stomach but found nothing as his sword dropped from the loss of sudden resistance.
Looking down, he saw her even lower to the floor, going for another thrust at his throat which he hopped backwards to avoid. In retaliation, he swung for her head again, which she parried before going for a shield bash at his face making him block with a shoulder barge forcing her back before going for another swing at her midsection. She jumped over with an aura-enhanced leap making him stumble forward for a second before quickly regaining his footing to turn around to thrust his arm forward to catch her wrist, which held her spear that was going for his head again. He tried to force the sword into her stomach, but her shield had already intercepted his attack, causing it to shake in a desperate grab for dominance.
Stuck in the clinch, Grit's brain finally caught up to what was happening, and he came to a sour revelation which made his head throb.
She was better than him.
Growling, he poured as much strength as he could into breaking this deadlock and coming out on top; unfortunately for Grit, Pyrrha had already planned ahead by relaxing her stance to become looser and twist away from him, escaping his grip to attack him from the flank. Grit barely had enough time to get his blade up to deflect the spear coming towards his face but was left befuddled as the direction changed from a thrust to a swipe mid-direction, making him try to grab it with his free hand, but he felt driven backwards. Looking down, he saw and felt her shield being forced into his midsection to distract him long enough to allow her spear to slam into the side of his head, making him fly off to the side.
Bouncing off the floor several times, he tucked into a roll before righting himself into a crouch. She stood across from him, eyes narrowed and brows low. Looking at her, Grit felt a burgeoning hint of respect forming towards her abilities. But it was short-lived; Grit soon felt that familiar pit of rage in his stomach bubble up within him as he was being manhandled like a nameless grunt.
It infuriated him, and the wood in his grip cracked as he began barrelling towards her with renewed aggression, eager to put her down. He poured his aura into his arms to increase the speed and force, resulting in a swipe so fast most people would have no choice but to either block or take. She, however, was not like most people and, with abnormal reflexes, leaned backwards before rebounding back to thrust into his throat with her spear, which he was too slow to dodge, causing his head to snap back as he choked on his spit.
His eye's watered, but he swallowed the pain and went for another overhead strike infused with his aura. Her eyes widened, and she tried to raise her shield to block it barely, just in time when the thwacking sound of wood greeted them as both weapons began to crack from the force. Grit didn't let up and pushed further in with one hand as his other one shot out to grab her other wrist, determined not to let go.
Realising she could not move anywhere, she shot her foot towards his kidney, where he flinched from the contact but still held on. She tried to kick more, but he refused to let go as he poured more aura into his sword arm, cracking the shield more before it burst into splinters. A savage grin split his face as his sword continued to cleave through and thwack her on the shoulder, making her grunt in pain. His moment of victory didn't last long as she regained her composure enough to send an aura-powered jab into his jaw, making him grunt before trying to return another swing at her head. She copied his other arm and grabbed his wrist to prevent him from striking again; they were now stuck in a deadlock, trying to overpower the other but unable to advance.
Grit tried to think of a way to overpower without his semblance; his thoughts jumbled up from trying to find another way to fight. What surprised him the most, however, was that of all the things he was feeling, it was not anger that had long since passed. What had replaced it was a feeling of…determination and excitement to overcome this challenge.
Pyrrha huh…
He didn't have long to think as she began to slacken her body, raising his eyebrows and unconsciously loosening his grip. Coming to his senses on his foolishness, he tried to renew his grasp, but it was too late. She managed to loosen herself up to get enough slack to jump up and dropkick him in the face making him loosen his grip and stumble backwards. Spitting out a glop of spit, he looked at her, flipping back to land on her feet as she held her spear in two hands, a grin on her face, which he almost matched before smothering it.
They looked at each other. Waiting for the next move to counter, the next attack to deflect, and the following strategy to overcome. Grit crouched down and grabbed a fragment of the broken wooden shield; it was about half a foot in length but only an inch thick. Infusing it with aura, he hurled it at her making her swipe it out of the air to distract her gaze while gathering some dust from the ground into his palm. He was already charging with a yell going for an easily telegraphed swing hoping she would take the bait.
She did so by using her spear to parry it out of the way long enough for his other hand to come from the opposite side to release the dust in his hand and into her face. She gasped and tried to close her eyes in time but could not avoid most of it, leaving her blind to his next attack, which did not come from his hands but from his feet. With savage strength, he mustered as much force as he could and planted his boot in her stomach, making her gasp as the wind left her, causing her to collapse on the ground to a single knee.
I knew it…She fights within rules and would never see something that dirty coming…guess I got excited about nothing.
He got ready to finish with one last overhead strike to her skull before she clicked her tongue, and her aura flashed around her, making his flare up. He had no time to wonder as she snapped her spear in half with efficient speed before throwing the bottom half at his face, making him change the direction of his sword to slash it out of the way. As soon as his blade finished its swing, she was already in his face; her jaw tense as she gave another powerful thrust at his face, which he could only take again as he tried to ignore the damage while being driven back a few steps.
He was taken out of the fight by a large buzzing sound before he could retaliate. He looked to see his picture flashing and went to take a look at his aura level.
Grit Merrick – 15%
Pyrrha Nikos – 40%
He growled in frustration but not at Pyrrha, but at himself. Why did he fall for her feint? Why did he not dodge her attacks? What was the ability she used at the end? Was it her semblance? But they agreed they wouldn't use them? To him, it left many questions about his ability but none for hers, as she had something that separated the greats and the garbage.
Talent. She talent in droves; fighting was in her blood; it was what she was supposed to do. As she approached him, Grit saw her rubbing the dirt and bits out of her eyes. It was a sour pill to swallow for him, losing a fight and practice to someone who had never been in a life-or-death situation.
He knew all right; Grit could always tell who the killers were. For those who had taken a life before, it was the look in their eyes, a change in glimmer and darkening of the gaze and the way they fought. Never go for a finishing shot; not going for any deadly openings or taking brutal advantage of their opponent's weakness, in other words, naivety. That's why it left Grit so ashamed of himself to know that someone who had never gone that distance had managed to beat him.
Humiliating.
"Whew! That was…" She had made her way over, still holding her shattered spear in her hands, finally rubbing the last bits out of her eyes. Grit could already imagine what she was going to say about their fight. She was a huntress, obsessed with honour and fairness, not knowing what a real battle was about. She would demonise and criticise him for how he fought; cowardly, dirty and – "…The most interesting spar I've ever had! I certainly had to change it up near the end; who taught you how to fight?" She asked with a smile while rubbing the sweat out of her face.
Huh?
"Huh?" Grit replied dumbly at her question, making her laugh as she undid her ponytail, letting her long hair dangle around her shoulders. Grit couldn't say he was the best at reading people, but even he could see she was more relaxed around him now, which didn't make sense.
She should be threatening to kill me by now….what the hell is her problem?
She held her hairband in her mouth and gathered it behind her head before retying it back into a ponytail.
"The distraction with the wooden shield bit while you gathered dirt in your hand to blind me, was something I didn't see coming. When I fight people your size, they usually play to their strengths and attack with overwhelming force, but that was cunning from you! Well done." Grit looked at her like she had grown a second head as he digested her words. Finding nothing to say, he chucked the cracked sword to the side and tried to walk away, feeling more uncomfortable at the thought of talking to her.
But something stopped him, a distant voice of an older woman scolding him for being rude. He froze midstep before sighing and turning back around to her confused face.
"…Thanks," He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again, "You fight pretty good as well; as for your question…The nomads taught me…What was that shit you used at the end?" His curiosity won out over his animosity as he thought of what happened at the end, how she managed to know where he was, like her being blinded didn't even matter.
She smiled bashfully at him, "Ah, that…that was just a standard aura sensing ability to know how many aura users there are nearby. I'm not very good at it, so I had to gamble for it to work."
"I see…you clicked your tongue when you did it? Is there a reason?"
Why the hell are you asking so many goddamn questions?
Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head and laughed, "Haha, not a very interesting one. You see, I've never been good at aura application besides using it for weapons and my semblance, but I always felt that Aura detection would be useful, but I could never get it to work. My papa explained that it was like echolocation for animals to find objects reflected off sound, but for Huntsmen, it is aura reflected off of an aura, if that makes any sense?"
"…Sure." Satisfied with his reply, she continued.
"So, I looked up different animals that used it and how, like; whales, dolphins, porpoises and bats. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of them much as most of them are endangered, so I was stuck until I met this old blind man who kept clicking his tongue everywhere."
Grit internally groaned as she kept speaking.
I should've just left.
"…Long story short, he showed how to make this clicking sound mixed with Aura that allowed me to ping my aura off other people, and that's how I did what I did there!" She finished explaining as Grit zoned out halfway.
"Cool." He said, trying to end this conversation.
"Yep."
Silence dominated the room, and Grit decided that it was time to leave and made to walk away from her. Contrary to his dismissal of her explanation, he found himself intrigued by what she did and wondered if he should try it.
"Uh…hey, if you aren't doing anything in the future, maybe…I can you show how?" Her voice pulled him back in, and he looked at her while considering her offer. She walked over to him as he looked down at her, a blank look greeting her.
…Would it even be worth it? I don't need her help…or anyone's…she beat me…although it was a fluke and dumb luck…or was it? No! Just leave Grit, walk away and go right now, don't burden yourself with this…
…Although it would be useful to know…I would take what I needed from her and ditch her…yeah…
"…Maybe, I ain't promising anything." He answered, and she smiled a bit at this, which made him roll his eyes, not understanding why she even wanted to hang out with him.
"Great! Here's my scroll number." She tapped her scroll to his waist, which he forgot was there, and walked towards the exit as he held his scroll in his hand, looking at the notification for the new contact.
Pyrrha Nikos – First Year
"But I didn't-" He tried to reply, fighting off the confusion in his head as she stood by the exit. She turned around once more and looked like she wanted to ask him a million different things but eventually stopped and stood her ground.
"I'll see you later, Grit and…." She looked out into the hallway before back to him, "Să-ți odihnești picioarele." With that, she dashed away, not bothering to look back as her words registered with Grit, who blinked once. Then twice before coming to the realisation, she spoke the nomad tongue to him.
Pyrrha spoke the word of the travellers to him, a language that very few people would know outside of them as they guarded it jealously. To have her speak it to him was…jarring and strange.
Is she from one of the camps? Was it mine? No, I never saw her. But who is she? From another Kingdom? What even was that?
All these thoughts ran havoc through his head, but he could only get one line out.
"What the fuck?"
Translations:
Să-ți odihnești picioarele = May you rest your feet
Authors Notes:
Heyo! It's been a while huh? Have finally finished University (For good this time) Then pissed off on holiday with my woman so I honestly put this on the back burner for now. But I have returned with only a 5K chapter this time. I did a lot of reading when I was away and realised that I try to hard to focus on quantity rather than quality which made me a bit insecure in writing. Reading back through my other chapters I realised I left a LOT of spelling errors in my rush to fart out huge chapters where it would have probably been better to break them up into smaller chapters and focus on the quality in those smaller chapters in that makes sense? Anyway I'll probably only do 10K if there is something big going on and just stick to 5-6K chapters from now on.
But I am back and also check back through the past chapters through the week as I'll be overhauling the grammar to make it more smoother. Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll see you next chapter.
Review Reply:
Scoolio: Thanks man they're my favourite character types too :) Flawed but not irredeemable or incapable of change. I have big plans for this story so stick around.
Rangda: Hey man thanks for the awesome review again! I wish I could answer your questions but that would go into spoiler territory and that would stink. I will say that for pairings it's best to just keep an open mind and wait for the relationship between different characters to develop. Hope you have a good day pal and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
ODSTFRymann: Hey pal good to see you again! Yeah one of the things that I'm worrying about is if I'm able to write more likeable and believable characters into the story that people will actually like. To hear that I'm succeeding - so far - puts a smile on my face. These characters including the main cast are people I'm hoping to develop through the trials and tribulations they will expericence...which won't always be nice in the cruel world of Remnant.
Kodaking: Cheers mate! Sudri has been one of my favaourite characters to write - after Grit - So I'm glad you like him and hope that you'll continue reading to see more of his other sides including the other characters. I also agree with the 'unlikeable' characters that some people write where it goes from 'reasonable' to 'this person is just a sociopath'.
