"ETHAN TURN THE ALARM OFF!" she screamed, arguably louder than the shrieking alarm clock.
" at least it's not shrill as the alarm" Rye argued to himself, his head sandwiched between two pillows in the dark room.
"IT'S SIX IN THE GODS FORSAKEN MORNING BOY!" she continued, " I guess it's true what they say about red heads being fiery" the Faunus mused, not bothering to speak his mind lest it be drowned out by the battle between girl and machine, or worse turn her fury onto him.
After a crash of shattering glass, the alarm got quieter and quieter. Eventually the room was at peace enough for him to release his head from its soft prison. He groggily turned in his bed, the sun had only just started to rise painting a portion of the room in an orange tint. Gemma was standing over Ethan's bed, even sitting down he was almost as tall as her.
They continued to argue, something about 'it being too early' or 'enough time to engage in team training' or whatever. Rye sided with Gemma overall, in fact he sided with her so much that he couldn't be asked to even listen to them. It was cold now, while Gemma may have bought peace to the realm she let a draft in too. It was cool though, he just tucked himself deeper into his pile of blankets. Ethan had said something about 'nesting behaviour' but he honestly found it funny more than anything, calling his bed his nest ever since.
He rolled over to his other side, " the darkest parts of the room for the darkest parts of the team" he'd joked when they first chose beds. Earplugs, it had barely been more than a week but Teph had already gotten with the program. He could make fun of her for it all he wanted but there she was, peacefully enjoying the fruits of her planning. She had even been talking about getting curtains installed, " to think I'm the one he said was nesting".
He was startled by the playful shove from behind, Gemma planting her palms onto the 'nest' and jostling her partner as he pretended to sleep. He lay there just taking it silently like a ship rocket by rough waves, "Come ooon, I know he woke you up too!"
"What?" responded the muffled voice, it's owners eyes only visible through a tunnel of blanket like a snail that pulled back into its shell. Rye refused to roll over, just staying tucked in as Gemma stopped her rough wakeup method, "Just answer the question, do you think 6 is a reasonable time to get up?"
"I don't think it's a reasonable time to be asking me" he responded, a strange mix of groan and chuckle as he rolled over which confused Gemma on how he was feeling. He slowly rolled over, the blankets scrunching, folding, and stretching around him like the mountain giants waking from their ancient slumber, "Was that all, Gemma?"
"For the next match" The blonde witch declared, standing at the centre of the circular stage. She addressed the students which she couldn't see, silhouettes in the 270o viewing stands around her. Behind her a large screen, not movie theatre sized but certainly something you can't fit in your house, on that screen two columns shifted, rapidly switching out portraits of students like slot machine icons until they ground to a halt on two students, "Gemma Rillo and Cardin Winchester"
The chattering in the room had dimmed down, when Goodwitch spoke. It was still there though, probability wise the outcome couldn't mean less to most of the class, they just wanted to see a fight. Gemma had asked Rye about bloodsports in Mistral, her team mate didn't say too much but it sounded allot less restrictive to what they had in Beacon… or what they had in Vale even.
A man across the raised viewing stands stood up with confidence and bravado, covered in more armour than most students, she recognised him from a few of the over fights. Windy bears she thinks she called him once. The yellow coated girl stood up cockily in response, straightening the creases out of her white jumpsuit before stretching an arm over her head.
The two fighters briefly locked eyes before leaving the stands through opposite exits. Gemma briskly made her way through her routine, picking up her equipment and strapping the star of the show, Ealin, in its holster by her hip. She felt the long silver brush as she took deep breaths, the butterflies buzzing inside her as she looked at the door to the changing room.
"Come on, you had this a second ago" she growled to herself, her teeth gritted in frustration. She'd done this so many times before at Signal (not that she didn't stress out every time there too), how could she have done this so many times, graduated at the top (25%) of her class, and still get this… stage fright plus?
She thumped her chest with her fist (it's what her dad did, give her a break), it didn't work the way it did with him (he doesn't have the cushioning) but it still gave her… something? She was really grasping at straws here, she'd already lost her first fight at beacon, and she really couldn't lose her second.
The red light above the door had shone for a solid minute, a voice on the intercom said her name, "Oh brothers they're gonna think I'm hiding in here, scared even!" she groaned to herself, knowing damn well she was more or less both of those.
The longer she paced, the more she wanted to leave. She almost gave into the whim but was cut short by the buzz of her scroll. Teph had sent a message, "Hey, they r calling you out rn, is the stuff not working in there?"
The thought of her team was what saved her, " they're all out there counting on me" said her dramatic internal monologues, "just like it's all supposed to go" she continues out loud, a cocky smile on her face as she strides over to the door. She heads down the empty grey hallway, following the sounds of muffled voices towards the brightly lit stage. Her opponent awaited her an equally cocky look on his face as he slung his five foot mace long over his shoulders, the referee/teacher standing between them but not in their way, "Scrolls connect… match… begin!"
Cardin was (predictably) the first to move, a dash at speed you wouldn't expect of a man of his size or weight of his equipment. He could be fast sure but agile was a whole other issue, Gemma managed to step back to dodge a diagonal downwards swing that he'd telegraphed from the moment he started dashing, " he really is like a video game boss like that, I reckon that smug unarmoured face of his makes a pretty good weak spot too" Gemma mused to herself.
Now it was Gemma's turn to attack, she switched the cartridge on her silver brush and fired, the bristles shooting out into a cat o' nine tails whip with red glistening tips. She swung Ealin, missing Cardin's face and striking his armour instead, during her counter, she dove past his side in a roll as another swing of the mace came back around. She turned back and postured herself, holding the whip in a defensive stance, covering her torso while coiled to swing out. She saw Cardin readying his own attack, streaks on the side of his breastplate glowed warm from the dust on her whip.
Gemma grew a confident smile, and lunging to the side opposite her opponent's readied mace, she went for another slash at the leg this time. The silver tendrils wrapped around the knee, fire dust burning away at his Aura as it hit the less armoured joint. She pulled it back, tightening its burning grip as she saw her opponent turn with a heavy horizontal swing already in motion. Too low to duck, she retracted her whip and jumped instead, saving her weapon cost all too valuable time though as the mace struck her right below the abdomen, fire dust detonating and sending her flying.
She skimmed the floor of the arena when she hit it, rolling to a stop just feet from the edge, "think you're the only one who can play with fire dust, fire girl" the uncreative and weirdly delivered insult made her stop for a second as she climbed to her feet, "Wh-what? Fire girl?"
"Yeah, y'know, red hair and all" He explains with a scoff, making his way over to his opponent as she stood up, "And here I thought it was blondes who were the dumb ones"
She just grimaced in response, a mix of confusion and outrage on her face, "w-fu-screw you" she stammered out. Her parents would've scolded her for resorting to such language but she really didn't know how else to respond to that, maybe it was how she hit her head when she landed, " no, aura would stop that" she corrected herself.
She drew Ealin into its brush form and turned the two halves of the handle with a click, holding it by her hip like a sword ready to be drawn. Cardin approached, mirroring her with his mace pointing infront of him to the same side as her whip/brush/blade as it was being used now. She waited for him to swing first, she fired the flail's whips out to intercept the heavy weapon while making a duck beneath its horizontal swing. Ealin's tips were black this time. She parried him but the lack of rigidity in her weapon (and the fact he would physically overpower her without breaking a sweat) let him go through with his swing, forcing her to let go as she ducked out of the way.
To avoid the back swing she rolled back, jumping to her feet and getting a bit more distance while she was at it. She stood empty handed, her weapon wrapped tightly around her Cardin's mace, "Yeah, not a good plan, sweetie" he boasted, taking a slow and confident step from the edge of the ring.
"Don't count your chickens, Cardin" she replied, almost equally cocky. She pulled a small ball from a pocket inside her yellow coat, roughly tennis/baseball sized she tossed it up and caught it before throwing it in Cardin's direction. She missed by at least a meter, going past Cardin and clattering out of bounds, "I hate to break it to you babygirl but I think you missed" he chuckled.
Her urge to spew at that little name was overpowered by the deafening internal scream of " HE SAID IT, WE GOT HIM AND HE EVEN SAID THE LINE!"
"Did I Winny?" she smiles back as she tilts her head to the side cockily. The snap of her fingers almost reverberates in her mind as she revels in how perfect this has gone, " aside from the comments, that was kind of just gross".
Suddenly as Cardin goes to swing his weapon he finds himself pulled off balance by it, "Victory by ringout to Gemma Rillo" Goodwitch calls as Cardin is dragged out of the spotlight by the grip on his weapon.
Gemma confidently walks over to Cardin as he stands up, the rest of the arena lights now on as Gemma picks Ealin up and retracts it off the so called ' Executioner' as her opponent had called his weapon. It wasn't even a weapon you would use for an execution; she would get if it was an axe, a sword, or even a rifle, but a mace? She then picks up the ball, "Good match" she chuckles, her confidence and the angle he looks up at her with makes it seem like a taunt, it probably is to be fair but it seems a hell of allot more of one than Gemma intended.
Cardin's scowling face just grunts in response.