Colors of Remnant

”Oi, Lizardface!"

Kailyn froze. She didn't know anything about either the speaker or the subject beyond the fact that the speaker's tone was neither friendly nor teasing, and her blood was already boiling. Slowly turning on the spot to look over the outdoor dining area of the sushi restaurant she'd just walked past, she immediately spotted the subject: a lizard Faunus who'd stopped with one hand on the half-open door glared over her shoulder at some loudmouth human.

Kailyn knew she shouldn't intervene, she really did. Vale was, on the whole, a very open-minded city, and the way all conversation in the dining area had stopped coupled with the appalled looks this asshole was getting from nearby tables only reinforced this conclusion. But she'd had a long day of listening to the gossip from some of her more racist classmates (most of whom assumed she was human, which only made their snide comments about her Faunus classmates worse), and she. was. done.

Far be it from her to pass up a chance to practice her intimidation skills, right? Yeah, that was a flimsy excuse, but honestly? Fuck this guy.

With a quick burst of angled gravity, Kailyn launched herself over the entire dining area to alight next to the girl, immediately crossing her arms lest she reach over and hit the guy. "You wanna say that again?" she asked in a low voice, using her Semblance to lift her hair into a fiery red ring around her head in a display evocative of barely-controlled power.

"I, uh, I mean," he stammered, looking to his friends for help only to find them looking back at him blankly.

"That's what I thought," she spat, lightly putting her hand on the lizard girl's shoulder and motioning for her to follow. "Come on, girl, dinner's on me."

Lizardface. That horrible insult that was always casually thrown her way by racist twats. Brigid was about to turn around and tell the guy exactly which orifice he could go shove his head into before, suddenly in a flash of red, a girl stood before her telling him off. Before she even knew what had happened, the loser was slinking off with his metaphorical tail between his legs and the girl was offering to buy her food. Brigid perked up immediately, a grin on her face as Kailyn guided her out. "Thanks for the help," she said. "My name is Brigid. Nice to meet you. Can we get sushi?"

"Absolutely," Kailyn told her new friend Brigid. "Let's find somewhere that has a more friendly atmosphere, though, yeah? We Faunus gotta vote with our wallets if we ever wanna see change around here, y'know?" She flashed a bright smile before turning to float backward down the street next to Brigid. "I'm Kailyn," she continued, and tapped her temples. "Pit viper heat organs. I kinda won that lottery, at least from the humans' perspective." She sighed, shaking her head. "Seriously, though, what the fuck is wrong with some humans? Why can't they just let people be people?"

Brigid walked beside Kailyn, following her lead. "So you're a Faunus too? Cool!" She gave a toothy grin and grabbed her tail, bringing it to the front to show it off to her new friend. "I'm a horned lizard Faunus. Got the horns and the tail to prove it.... also the scales on my face that earned me that unfortunate nickname that jackass called me. Honestly he's lucky you came along when you did. Most bullies learn the hard but quick way why they shouldn't mess with me."

Kailyn was going to like Brigid rather a lot, wasn't she? "That asshole's not worth losing your cool. Someone throws a punch, though?" Kailyn smacked her fist into her palm. "Give 'em hell."

Another sushi place appeared on their left, and she indicated it with her head. "Let's get some food, yeah?" Walking up to the door, she tugged it open and motioned Brigid inside. "After you, milady," she said with a smile.

Brigid smiled as Kailyn held the door for her and walked in. They were seated rather quickly despite being Faunus, and presented with menus. "Everything seems like it would be good," Brigid commented as she read over the menu. "I don't suppose you can afford to let me try everything on the menu, can you?" she asked, certain the answer would be no. Of course she had no idea that this restaurant was an all-you-can eat place.

Prompt service was just one of the many reasons Kailyn loved this place.

”As it happens,” she said, a wide grin beginning to form on her face as Brigid eyed the menu, ”it’s all-you-can-eat here, except for the REALLY pricey ones. I’m not really a fan of those anyway: you’re paying for the presentation more than the food at that point, y’know?”

Brigid's eyes went wide at that, almost sparkling with excitement as a hint of drool could be seen pouring out of the corner of her agape mouth. "All you can... eat?" she asked. She'd never been to an all-you-can eat sushi restaurant before and was very clearly excited about the prospect of almost-unlimited sushi.

Kailyn laughed. "Yeah. You can eat as much as you like, but the tradeoff is you can't take leftovers home." She gestured to the belt that was running past their booth. "The menu's just there so you know what the options are. If you see something you like and it's in a square container, grab it off the belt. The circle ones are the stuff you have to buy individually, so grab all the squares!" As she said this, a neat chirashi box came by, and she picked it up off the belt and set it in front of her. "Easy as that," she declared brightly before picking up her chopsticks.

Brigid's eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement as she listened to Kailyn's explanation. She reached out and plucked a square box off of the conveyor belt, finding that it was tobiko norimaki. She grinned and took her chopsticks, beginning to eat happily. "Oh wow this is good," she said after swallowing her first bite.

"I know, right?" Kailyn agreed as she snagged another box as her companion cheerfully dug into her own. "Better food, better service, better customers. This place is super great." She gave Brigid an easy smile as she opened the box of nigiri.

Brigid ate with a gluttonous appetite, taking one plate of sushi after another from the conveyor and eating with reckless abandon. The girl was basically a bottomless pit in human form, and the empty trays were very quickly piling up next to her.

Kailyn smiled as Brigid accumulated boxes as fast as they went by her. She'd never eat sushi that fast herself, but clearly the lizard's enjoyment was not lessened by the breakneck pace, and her smile never left her face as a more modest pile of trays stacked up on her side of the table.

After a while Brigid's pace seemed to slow as she became more selective in what she took from the conveyor, clearly having identified what was her favorites now. She tried striking up a conversation with Kailyn to get to know her better through small talk while they ate. "So, I haven't really seen you around Beacon before today. What kind of classes are you taking?" she asked with genuine curiosity written all over her face as she put a piece of sushi in her mouth to wait for an answer.

Another chirashi box came by and Kailyn snagged it. "I'm in Hapta's history class, Copperfield's Dust lecture, Zibaq's weapons class, and one of the super-specialized math classes," she answered happily. "I'm honestly liking history more than I thought I would. You?"

Brigid was clearly surprised by two of the answers she'd received. "I'm in Zibaq's weapon class too, as well as several of Copperfield's labs and lectures," she answered. "Also Noire's Grimm Studies lecture."

"No kidding?" Kailyn asked. "Girl, we need to hang out more. Redhead Faunus gang, let's go!" she cheered.

Brigid giggled at that and grinned. "Yeah, let's hang out more. In fact, we have Zabiq's class tomorrow, how about I show you how good I am with a forge." As she spoke she rolked up her sleeve and flexed her muscles, revealing a rather impressive bicept from years of swinging a hammer as the daughter of a blacksmith.

Another smith friend? Kailyn was two for two with finding those this week.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Kailyn grinned back as Brigid flexed.