Dropping By [Private w/ Vlithra Qing Long]

[Citrine Locke]

Citrine strolled through the dormitory quad in a post-workout buzz, her skin still glistening with a sweat that plastered her uneven bangs to her forehead. Her hair was up in its usual messy ponytail, and though she had straightened it earlier, it hadn’t taken much for it to return to its usual light wave. She had opted for the simple exercise attire of a green sports bra and charcoal grey leggings, rather than training in her full combat gear. It was just a bit of casual exercise, after all, no need for anything flashy. That being said she still had Verenium Strýchnos on her back, having done a bit of melee training alongside her regular routine. She had a pair of lime green, wireless headphones, bobbing her head a little in time with the heavy bass beat. She was already on the hunt for something else to do, quickly growing bored. She had been doing everything she could to stay active, stay busy. That way, she wouldn’t have time to stop and think about the Rosalie-sized gap next to her. That way, she would be too busy actually enjoying her time here to think about who she was supposed to be enjoying it with. That way, she could try to keep moving on.

Citrine’s gaze was just as busy as she was, constantly moving, taking in everything around her as though every tiny detail was noteworthy. That stone was cracked. That leaf was pretty. What if she kept it? She bet it would crunch if she stepped on it. There was a tree planted in the middle of the quad. What if she climbed it? Though really she should go shower and put on some regular clothes. But then again, if she got dirty climbing the tree, it would be better to shower after. Without further thought, Citrine disappeared in a flicker of green light, reappearing on the lowest branch of the tree. She quickly climbed to the top, or, at least, as far as the branches would support her. Okay that was a bit anticlimactic.

From her new vantage point, Citrine surveyed the quad. There wasn’t much of interest as far as she could see. Except maybe the weird bug a few inches from her face on the branch in front of her. Intrigued, she broke off a twig and began poking the bug gently, seeing if it would do anything. The bug did, in fact, do something. And that something was to leap abruptly from the branch and fly off with a pair of buzzing wings. Citrine lurched back in surprise, her grip on her branch slipping. Though she managed to Glitch closer to the ground, consequently avoiding falling through a mess of branches that surely would have left her clothes riddled with splinters, she still carried momentum from her fall as she reappeared, landing unsteadily on her feet and stumbling backwards a step before she hit the ground with a thud. One of her earbuds had scattered from the impact, she heard it bounce along the cobblestone somewhere to her right.

Even with her aura up, the surprise of the impact left her momentarily stunned, and the bite of Verenium Strýchnos digging into her shoulder blades wasn't helping.

“Ah...fuck me….” she groaned, sitting up and brushing dirt from her clothes. Unfortunately, the dust stuck to her sweat-dampened skin, any attempts to brush it away just smeared it more.

“Yeah that wasn’t worth it.” She climbed to her feet, cleaning herself off some more. She carted her fingers through her ponytail, dislodging a surprising amount of twigs and leaves. Wonderful. A shower was definitely a necessity now. She searched around for her missing earbud. It was bright green, surely it couldn’t be that hard to find? Unless it had somehow bounced farther than she thought...?

[Vlithra Qing Long]

After throwing her favored jacket around and letting it loosely hang on her shoulders, Vlithra closed the door to her own dorm room behind her and locked the door before heading down the hall towards the next exit. Her usual green vest is acompanied by a short sleeve white shirt with her usual black suit pants. It was nothing too special for this occasion as today she intended to visit her old man Jay back in Vale, even though she wasn‘t exactly living there anymore and technically wasn‘t his niece to begin with. Nonetheless she considered him part of the family and would go to his tattoo parlor once a week to spend a bit of time with her would-be uncle. He knew the greatest stories and was easy to talk to as old people tend to be and freshed up her tattoo to keep its color whenever he thought necessary, which was a nice gesture Vlithra appreciated all the more about him. She took her trusty weapons with her and fixated them to her chain belt, just in case she would have another run in while in town. Better to be prepared before being caught off guard. Thats why she also went extra early on her way to have more time to spend, as there was really no guess as to how long she would take to get to her destination.

Vlithra stops in front of the entrance to the quad, a usually quiet place where one could really just lean back and sort their thoughts a bit, before looking at her scroll to look at the time. Figuring it couldn‘t hurt to make a little detour she entered only to be hit with a light gust of fresh air, causing her hair and her loosely hung jacket to wave in the wind in response. Vlithra grabbed for the chain on her jacket and started fidgeting it onto the other end of the collar to fixate it around her neck. Now, it won‘t fly away at least. She would then continue her little detour stroll.

The quad‘s atmosphere reminded Vlithra of the residence garden back in her original home even though the pond and small river bridge were missing. It was tranquil and quiet around here, except for the occasional noise the insects and birds made. Vlithra‘s attentive gaze first took in what stuck out the most, the tree in the middle she approached with her casual gait and her hands in her pockets. Her eyes then wandered off again trying to take in everything around her. She may have noticed a few people here and there, but random people really didn‘t warrant any of Vlithra‘s attention for now. She really liked this place already. She should come here more often, maybe even drink some tea here to make the experience even more relaxing. After some time her gaze fell onto the tree again. She wondered how nice it would be to take a nap under the shade of this well grown tree, especialy on a warm summer day. Vlithra closed her eyes for a short moment, a little smile forming on her face, as she thought about it. That would be great, right about now.

Vlithra was just about to walk on the cobblestone path around the tree, when she heard a most unusual sound. She didn‘t even had time to think about what exact noise that was or where it came from as a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere only a few meters away from her. As if she had lost balance she then fell backwards onto the ground with a thud, while loosing something from her person. Vlithra‘s gaze followed a small lime green earbud that skittered over the cobblestone path away from it‘s owner. In the end it lands right in front of Vlithra‘s own feet, who in response without a second thought squatted down to pick it up. After standing up straight again she looked back at the girl the lime green device originated from, who let loose some profanities and then proceeded to hastily look for her lost possession. She was dressed like she came straight from the gym and had what Vlithra presumed to be her weapon with her. She seemed interesting to say the least, even if Vlithra was more wondering why she seemed like she fell out of the tree.

"Excuse me...“ Vlithra wasted no more time asking herself the circumstances that had let to... this... happening and approached the unknown girl with the ear bud still in her left hand. Her other would leave the comforts of her pockets soon after. Vlithra was in no rush, quite the opposite in fact since this encounter was perfect to pass some time. She held out her hand with a slight grin on her face so that her fellow student could take her ear bud back with ease. "...you dropped this. Luckily not into the grass. I bet that would have been a bitch to find.“

[Citrine Locke]

The first thing Citrine noticed was the girl’s dress pants. She had to keep a faint sneer from creeping across her lips. It wasn’t that she was particularly judgmental of other people’s decisions to wear more formal clothes, but she had always been repulsed by such things, and she was always quick to assume certain aspects of anyone who chose to don as such. At least, that’s what she told herself. It could explain where her hatred for authority figures came from, anyway. The second thing she noticed was the girl’s height. Being conscious of her own—albeit perfectly average—height, Citrine constantly found herself comparing her height to others. A prick of annoyance, and something possibly akin to jealously, curled through her as she noted the other girl’s tall stature.

Despite her initial reaction to the girl’s appearance, however, Citrine was quick to plaster a bright, lopsided smile on her face. She was still aiming to befriend as many people as she could, and she couldn’t achieve that if she gave a bad first impression.

“Ai—thanks mate,” she said cheerfully. She took the earbud from the girl with a light chuckle. “Yeah that would’ve been bad, I would’ve had to buy a whole new set.” She took her other earbud out, and, having nowhere else to stash them, dropped them into her sports bra. She had to look up to address the girl, something she deeply hated doing. With a flash of green light, Citrine Glitched to one of the lower branches on the tree, sitting on it with her legs hanging down, swinging back and forth. There, now she was taller.

“What’s with the business casual?” She asked, glancing the girl up and down once more. Maybe she was being rude, Rosalie often told her she came across as rude. Whatever, she was just going to say whatever she wanted to say and she could deal with the consequences later. She really did, genuinely, want to know the meaning behind the girl’s attire. Did she fight in dress pants? That didn’t strike Citrine as a very practical thing to do. “And what’s with the war paint, too,” she indicated the stripes on the girl’s cheeks.

Finding something to busy her hands with, Citrine began plucking leaves off the tree and casually tearing them to shreds, letting the little leaf pieces drift down to the stone beneath her. For once, she wasn’t completely buzzing with energy, though that probably had to do with her recent work out. Even so, she still couldn’t help her desire to shred leaves. That being said, she briefly paused in her leaf destruction to fix her shoe, which she realized had been starting to come untied. This was why she preferred her boots in real combat, they didn’t present issues with laces.

“You got a name?” She questioned, switching her position to hang by the branch from her knees. Her earbuds fell from her sports as she did so. They disappeared in a signature flash of green before reappearing in her hand. Thankfully, she had managed to catch her scroll before it, too, slid from the thin pocket on the side of her leggings. Evidently hanging upside down wasn’t a good idea without proper pockets, she noted.

Whether or not the girl responded to her question, Citrine would offer a hand in accompaniment with her crooked smirk as she introduced herself. “I’m Citrine, resident prankster and cavalry fighter. Nice to meet ya!”

[Vlithra Qing Long]

Vlithra‘s gaze followed the ear bud as its respectful owner took it for herself again. In the end her eyes lock onto the girls face before she then proceeded to stash her ear buds in her sports bra of all places. Before Vlithra could comment on that in any way the girl was gone again, back up in the tree sitting on one of the lowest branches. A slight smile crept to Vlithras face while she crossed her arms in front of her chest. What a handy semblance that must be, being able to teleport around. Something like that can certainly get you places others can‘t reach easily. Was Vlithra jealous? Maybe, but that was besides the point. It struck Vlithra as odd though why the girl made the effort to go back up the tree again after falling down from it.

There it was. The question Vlithra expected to come sooner or later. What was up with her attire? "I really just love the aesthetic honestly, but thats prolly because I worked as a bouncer and a bodyguard for most of my life. Fighting in these also comes kinda natural to me, if you get what I'm saying.“ She answered with a prideful grin on her face. Working as a bodyguard wasn‘t a blatant lie per se. She did work in the substitute companies of her family after all, which were all sorts of businesses including security and surveillance. That kinda work suited her best anyway, better than all that talking she had to do in her mothers absence at least. The suit and everything were more a remnant of the past Vlithra refused to let go off, so to speak. In truth as she said before, she was just a sucker for the business look. Really anyone who was rocking a sharp suit and looked halfway decent in it could catch Vlithra‘s attention in some way. Too bad not many appreciated that kinda style, a shame really. Back to the other question though. "These?“ Vlithra asked and pointed at one of her cheeks where one triplet of stripes were. She then raises that same arm up for the girl to see, showing the back of it to reveal some of the other stripes she had. "They‘re the real deal. I‘m a tiger faunus after all.“

In the meantime, as Vlithra lowered her own arm again, the girl seemed to try to disctract herself a lot, ripping leaves to shreds and tying her laces. From experience with her own mother Vlithra could tell that this fidgety behaviour either spoke of a troubled mind or of someone who tries to not be bored, or both even. Vlithra didn‘t mind it one bit though and didn‘t heed it anymore attention than she should. Afterall, she didn‘t want to give her new companion a lecture or something.

"Sure, if you care to introduce yourself aswell.“ Vlithra said in response to the question of her tree-sitting companion, while slowly stepping closer to the branch and patiently waiting for her to answer.

A chuckle came from her as the girl almost dropped her belongings… again. This time however she teleported her belongings back into her hands to which Vlithra made a mental note that she can teleport objects as well. She now certainly saw the prankster part in the student that called herself Citrine because of that. One could only imagine what kind of pranks she could pull with a semblance like that. And now she claims to be a cavalry fighter? This girl was getting more interesting by the second. Vlithra was filled with almost absolute glee as she extended her own hand to shake Citrine‘s. "A pleasure. I'm Vlithra, white tigress bodyguard turned Beacon student."

[Citrine Locke]

No, Citrine didn’t know what fighting in business casual attire was like. She was much more of a thrifted, third generation hand-me-down type of girl. She shrugged. “Nah I’m more cargo pants and random t shirts,” she said with a smirk. “Vacuo’s a dirty, crazy place, there’s no point in wearing nice stuff there, it’s just gonna end up covered in dust and grime anyways. I’d rather die than dress up, but I guess I can appreciate people who can manage shit like that.” While in part she was just playing nice, it wasn’t a total lie. Sure she hated any and all hints of formality and authority, but even she had to admit that fighting in a suit was at least a little impressive, she couldn’t imagine the fancy material was any good for high maneuverability, so she could admire anyone who managed to achieve as such.

“Ay that’s sick,” she commented. “I’m just human, but I’ve always thought it could be cool to be a faunus. I think I could make a pretty good fox. I’ve been told I look like one anyway, so going the extra mile and having like a fox tail or whatever could be super sick, yeah?” She didn’t stop to think whether her words might sound insensitive. She’d grown up in a pretty accepting place, plus she’d never been very close with any faunus, so while she knew, factually, the types of struggles faunus faced around the world, she hadn’t witness much injustice up close. To her, being a faunus mostly meant having a cool animal trait to show off.

“What made you follow huntressing if you already had a career as a bodyguard?” Citrine wondered out loud as she stored her earbuds back in her bra, this time in such a way that they wouldn’t fall out again. “Did bodyguard-ing get too boring for ya?” She chuckled lightly as she spoke.

A look of regret and hesitation flashed briefly through her eyes, though she buried it within a second. By inquiring about Vlithra’s decision to engage in a Huntress career path, she had undoubtedly opened up the opportunity for Vlithra to ask the same of her. And then she’d have to talk about Rosalie. Great.

Before she could dwell on that topic for too long, Citrine fixed her signature grin back on her face, finding something else to occupy her attention with. She reached a hand out to bat at one of the swords that hung from Vlithra’s belt. “They do anything fancy?” She questioned as she indicated them. She was always down to talk about weapons, her years of working alongside Asher had given her quite an interest in weapon mechanics. “Do you duel wield? Switch out? Do they fit together?” She was hoping she would be able to talk shop with more people here at Beacon, what with everyone having made their own weapons. Plus, weapons were cool, of course she would have a thousand and one questions!

She was starting to get a headache from hanging upside down. As she listened to Vlithra’s response to her bombardment of questions, Citrine reached up to grab the branch she was hanging from and rolled out of her knee hang. She quickly completed a…. what had Rosalie’s dumb gymnastics instructor call it? A reverse pullover? Something dumb like that. Whatever it was called, Citrine maneuvered so she was back to sitting on the branch, looking back down at Vlithra once more. There, that was much better.

[Vlithra Qing Long]

"Fair enough.“ Vlithra chuckled. The business style wasn‘t for everyone, especially not for those who hailed from Vacuo. The tigress couldn‘t really get her head around how ordinary people even managed to live there. For all she knew the place was a burning hot death trap in the form of a desert. Then again, that could also have been an exageration.

The positive reaction of Citrine to Vlithra‘s stripes was quite surprising to the tigress. She half expected Citrine to be another racist scumbag that she had to teach a lesson to. She was happy that was not the case at all, instead Citrine showed great interest and approval. When she mentioned that she was described as fox before it made Vlithra chuckle a bit. The prankster attitude really suited a witty fox, which is why Vlithra couldn‘t help but imagine Citrine with some fox faunus traits. "Well, I can certainly see that. Not to encourage the thought, but I‘d say it would suit you.“ Vlithra said with a grin.

"It‘s not that it got too boring per se. I mean, if you do the job correctly it‘s quite the opposite of boring.“ Vlithra paused for a second to ponder about how to put that story into words. It was better to keep it as vague as possible. Leave some room for interpretation. No need to play the entire hand. Vlithra moved her hand to shove aside a little strand of hair that came loose.
"But nah, I got blamed for someone elses fuck up. I was fired... obviously.“ The last part was accompanied by a roll with the eyes. "I then moved here to Vale to look for something new to do. And with the skillset I had, why not become a huntress?“ She shrugged lightly to emphasize.

Vlithra was meeting Citrine‘s gaze for most of the time during this conversation. She didn‘t miss the shift of expression in Citrine‘s eyes at all. She couldn‘t tell what exactly was up, but something wasn‘t right. Better to tread carefully with her next choice of words. If only Vlithra was a bit more sociable she would come up with something to talk about that wouldn‘t press some bad buttons. Her eyes wandered around the area to find something to talk about. Luckily for her, Citrine came up with a topic change of her own. Good, no need for uncomfortable topics. Vlithra sighed with visible relief.

Citrine was a fidgety girl and agile as proven by her acrobatics, that was for sure. Vlithra‘s hands also started to ache for something to do, so she pulled her short sword Carnassial Talon from it‘s sheath while she talked and examined the blade. "They sure do. I usually switch weapons depending on what‘s goin‘ on though, but yeah I also dual wield them.“ Holding it in her right hand, Vlithra swung the sword to the left and spun it around her hand once before doing the same on the right. She then throws the blade up behind her and sends it flying upwards above her head. It then proceeded to fall down in front of her, where she catches it. "I won‘t demonstrate 'em here though, would be a shame to ruin the tree. This one here can be infused with dust to blast my opponents with all kinds of projectiles.“ Vlithra patted the hilt of Viridian Naraka with a smile full of pride on her face. "This one here is my pride and joy though. Viridian Naraka, an aura powered long sword. Haven‘t met someone here in Vale yet who can withstand an attack from it, so I usually use it last.“ Vlithra wasn't trying to boast, but it's hard not to when you are telling the truth.

"What about yours? I doubt that rifle you carry can only shoot.“ Using Carnassial Talon Vlithra points at the weapon in question, before sheathing the blade while the conversation continued. "Also, I have been curious since you brought it up. You mentioned that you are a cavalry fighter, so where is your trusty steed?“ Vlithra had been dying to know the answer to that. She was, even if not fully visible, more then excited to know, or rather see, what exactly Citrine rode into battle.

[Citrine Locke]

Citrine nodded slowly before offering an open hand shrug. She knew the feeling of being blamed for other people’s actions all too well. “Man that sucks,” she said. “But I guess it’s lucky you had the right type of skills for a job like this. Some people spent their whole lives tryna get here and they don’t make it.” She could name a few of her primary combat school classmates who probably hadn’t been able to get into a huntsman academy.

Citrine perked up as Vlithra began describing her weapons, leaning forward with visible interest. The mechanic in her wanted to dissect the swords and see what they were made of, but she doubted that would be appropriate. Plus, she doubted her weaponsmithing was practiced enough that she’d be able to put the swords back together. She applauded the little show with a lopsided grin.

At the mention of how strong Viridian Naraka was, Citrine was tempted to offer a challenge. No one had withstood a hit from it yet, huh? Well she could damn well be the first! But then again, she didn’t know what such a weapon would do to her beloved bike, and she didn’t want to risk damaging it when she didn’t have to.

Visible delight and excitement spread across Citrine’s face as Vlithra inquired about her weapons. Citrine slung Verenium Strýchnos off her back with a proud smirk. “Verenium Strýchnos is dear to me, but more of an aid than anything else. She’s primarily a machine gun, but-” blades slid out from the barrel, running down the length of it and extending about an extra foot before meeting together in a point. “She’s also a sword if I need to get in closer range.”

Citrine couldn’t help but laugh, a proud, wicked giggle as she returned Verenium Strýchnos to her back. “I wouldn’t exactly call her a steed, but she’s definitely trusty.” Citrine leapt down from the tree as her bike materialized in a shimmer of green next to her. The bike was quite large, with a streamline body but extra large, double sets of wheels, allowing it to stand up on its own. The name of the bike was painted in white on one side, along with Citrine’s emblem in neon green. “This is Ex-Machina,” she said, leaning against her bike. “326 horsepower, four wheels, weaponry, gravity dust features, and she can reach up 240 miles per hour.” She was definitely bragging. She couldn’t help it though. Her bike was totally brag-worthy! “And it can hover, but I’m not too good with that technique yet.” Her face was split with a wide, proud grin, obviously more than excited to talk about her bike.

Of course, she couldn’t talk about Ex-Machina without also gushing about Asher. She straddled her bike, leaning forward against the handle bard. “Pretty impressive, huh? She was a gift from my dad for the first birthday we celebrated together after he adopted me. He wanted to make up for all the uncelebrated years. So now I’ve got this pretty thing. She’s my pride and joy, I don’t know what I would do without her!”

[Vlithra Qing Long]

Vlithra remained silent to contemplate on what Citrine had just said. She was lucky. How she even managed to become a student here with her past background obscured as it is was a complete mystery to her. Or did they know and chose to ignore it on purpose? Vlithra snapped out of her pondering when Citrine got to describing her own weapon.

So Vlithra was right in her assumption. Verenium Strýchnos, as she called it, wasn‘t simply a rifle that can only shoot, it was also a blade. Sort of reminded her of her own mothers death dealer, with the machin gun and blade in one. If there was one type of weapon that Vlithra would be deemed an expert in, it would be swords and the likes which is why she appreciated Citrines rifle to have this kind of mechanism. A noticeable grin of excitement forms on Vlithras face as she look at the blade from afar. Well kept and certainly not dull, just what she liked to see.

When Citrine jumped down from the branch to the ground Vlithra‘s gaze followed her, wondering what the occasion could be for her to jump down when she recently made the effort to go up there. Oh, this is the part where she proves why she‘s a cavalry fighter. The revelation sure didn‘t dissapoint as proven by Vlithra‘s more than surprised look on her face. The bike that had suddenly materialized in front of her wasn‘t like anything the tigress had seen before. It was difficult to not be dumbfounded by it. Large, double-wheels, weaponized and fast. Vlithra even adored the color scheme that fit perfectly to it and it's owner, or maybe that was just because she was a sucker for those exact colors. One thing was for sure, to say that Ex-Machina radiated power was the understatement of the century. This thing almost seemed like a miracle machine when Citrine described it‘s features and capabilities. The fact that it used gravity dust and can go 240 miles per hour for a bike of this size was something the put any other bike to shame really. Vlithra didn‘t even care that Citrine was bragging at this point simply because she had all the reason to. This bike was a monster.

It took several moments for the tigress to take in what she was seeing in front of her. When Vlithra finally did come to, the surprise in her face was replaced with a laugh and a more than wide grin plastered across her face. She then started to walk around Ex-Machina to look at it from different angles. "Impressed is an understatement for what I am at this point. Like… damn, this thing is a real beast. Kudos to your father for gifting you this masterpiece of a bike.“ With that Vlithra continued her go around of Ex-Machina until she came to a halt in front of it. "Really almost puts what I got to shame. Viridian Naraka may be fingerprint locked and a death dealer in it's own right, but your bike blows it out of the water."

"What about your semblance though? With what I have seen so far I am pretty sure it has to do something with teleportation, right?" It was teleportation, it had to be. How else did Ex-Machina get here? Unless the bike can seomhow turn invisible aswell. While that'd be awesome and would play into the trickster part of Citrine aswell, Vlithra knew that wasn't going to be the answer to it.

[Citrine Locke]

To say Citrine was brimming with pride would have been an understatement. She practically glowed at the compliments sent towards her bike. Though, she didn’t want to sound like a complete show off, that would just put her in ill light. So she elaborated on some of the features. “It was made to fight Grimm,” she said, figuring she might as well offer an explanation for the multitude of features the bike possessed. "Asher knew I wanted an uncommon fighting style, and so now… cavalry.” She shrugged a little with a slight smirk. “As far as weaponry goes, it’s got these.” She flicked two switches on her dashboard. Panels on the sides slid open near the bottom of the bike, mechanical, rotating barrels folding out revealing the two rocket launchers. “They’re great against Grimm, and for blasting through walls, but replacing them is a lotta work so I tend to just save ‘em for special occasions.”

She deactivated the launches, watching the mechanisms fold back into her bike. She brushed a few invisible specks of dust from the handlebar. She knew she probably obsessed a bit too much with keeping her bike in perfect shape, but she couldn’t help it. Seeing as the bike was used for combat, she wanted to make sure it was in great condition constantly in case she ever had to ride into battle at a moment’s notice; she wouldn’t want to fight on a fault vehicle.

She nodded slowly at Vlithra’s comment. “Yeah, Ex-Machina’s got a lock feature too. It’s not finger print locked—that’d be damn cool though—but I can lock it with my scroll. Then the gravity dust stick ta whatever it’s parked on and it can’t be moved. Makes it so no one can steal it.”

At the question about her semblance, Citrine nodded once more. “I call it Glitching, ‘cause it kinda looks like a glitch effect when I do it,” she explained. As she spoke, she began hunting around the various compartments on Ex-Machina, eventually producing a lime lollipop. She unwrapped the lollipop as she continued to speak. “I can teleport myself, or teleport objects to my hands. Not if they’re on someone though, ‘cause other people’s auras get in the way of mine. I can also Glitch Ex-Machina to me, honestly I’m not really sure why, Asher says it’s something ta do with aura infusion or some shit. I dunno.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Either way it makes combat easier 'cause my opponents don’t know where I’m gonna pop up.” She took her lollipop out of her mouth to point it towards Vlithra as she addressed her.

“What about you?” She questioned. “Ya got any type of flashy semblance?”

[Vlithra Qing Long]

In all honesty Vlithra half expected Citrine‘s fighting style to consist of driving around and do crazy stunts that would lead to her opponents eating the rubber of her tires. She‘d be lying if she said she didn‘t want to see her doing that.
But apparently next to inbelieveable power Ex-Machina had it wasn‘t all it could do. With the press of a button a set of rocket launchers emerged at the sides of the bike.Vlithra just stood there admiring Ex-Machina for all the marvelous things it could do. Maybe the thought of this being a wonder machine wasn‘t so wrong after all. While she could imagine replacing the rockets to be tedious, it be totally worth it to just shoot Grimm or walls to smithereenes. "I can see that. Tedious, but absolutely worth it.“

A thing they certainly had in common was their paranoia of their dearest weapons being stolen. Viridian Naraka had a fingerprint lock and Ex-Machina becomes unmoveable when secured. It meant both weapons were dear to their respective owners and somewhat comforted Vlithra knowing that she wasn‘t the only one worried about this kind of stuff.

Vlithra smiled with confidence as she found her assumption confirmed.
"Certainly a fitting name. I'm a bit glad that I don't have to worry about my weapons suddenly being gone should we ever meet face to face in combat. That'd be nuts if you could do that.“ she exclaimed. On top of everything Citrine‘s semblance seemed very versatile. Teleporting herself and objects around? That is one hell of a utility. To sum it up, Citrine was a teleporting cavalry fighter with mounted weapons and a rifle plus sword on hand. Anyone facing off against her would have a lot of trouble dealing with her and in all honesty, Vlithra couldn‘t wait to see her in action, maybe even to face off against her at some point. She has been aching for a good fight for a while.

At the question of Vlithra‘s semblance she took a few steps away from Citrine and her bike just to get some distance. Citrine has been boasting a lot these past few minutes and it was high time Vlithra found a reason to boast aswell. All the while she stared at the tree admiring it sort of. She thought of using it to demonstrate what her semblance was capable of, but she was conflicted about it aswell. Wouldn't want to do ruin the tree afterall, even if it was the perfect target.
"It‘s flashy yeah, but it tends to cause collateral, so I barely use it to it‘s full potential.“ Vlithra‘s hair slowly started to rise up and levitate to hang in the air as tension around her body built up. Even her coat started levitating.
"However, I think a little demonstration won‘t hurt.“ With those words Vlithra drew Carnassial Talon and pulled out a dust cartridge from her holster. While she walked away from Citrine onto the grass she would throw it into the air and catch it like a bullet before inserting it into the hole at the pommel. The blade then became coated in ice, after which Vlithra pointed it towards the ground, where a solid person sized pillar of solid ice would appear. She banged the pommel at the ice to test it‘s durability before sheathing the weapon again. After having created herself a target dummy she walked back to the tree, where she then would pick up a rock from the ground, around the size of a baseball. She made sure to get at least three meters of distance to her companion and her dearest vehicle.

Then Vlithra looked at Citrine again with no less than a wicked grin. "Watch this.“
Vlithra‘s stripes and eyes flared up with a flash of green. Then the tips of her hair started gaining that same green color.Her gaze than locked onto the ice pillar. She tightly grasped the stone in her right hand, at which point, sparks and strands of lightning started to shoot around her body and flowed into her right arm. Vlithra then wound up and...

The sound of a literal thunderclap is to hear as Vlithra swung her arm forward to throw the rock in her hand. A wave of green lightning erupted from her body and sent the stone flying forward, engulfed in green lightning, towards the ice dummy. Citrine, despite being out of the shockwaves range, would unmistakeably be able to feel the power of it due to the gust of wind that would hit her. By all means it wasn‘t strong enough to knock her or her precious steed over, but was nonetheless nothing to scoff at. Even the leaves of the tree started rustling.
Upon the stones impact at the makeshift target the ice pillar‘s upper half shattered in its entirety, leaving only a portion of the lower half and scattering a few chunks of ice to the ground behind it.

The tension around Vlithra‘s body now began to die down as she deactivated her semblance. The glowing stopped, aswell as the lightning shooting around her body. She deeply exhales. "I call it Kinetic Discharge. I can emit kinetic energy that launches anything it comes in contact with away from me with tremendous force. I usually use it to repell attacks. It doesn't matter wether they are bullets, blades or similar. The attack won't reach me as long as I can roughly react to it." Vlithra shrugged with a proud smirk on her face.
"And as you just saw I can also launch anything that isn't literally bolted to ground. The energies impact is several times magnified on touch, which can turn anything into a projectile.“ Vlithra felt her right arm ache now. She really should have warmed up before doing something like this. She rolled her shoulder a bit to try and relax the muscles a bit. "Maybe I should hit the training rooms some time. Feels good to let loose like that in a while.“

[Citrine Locke]

Citrine nodded in agreement. “Totally worth it. Plus it earns me some intimidation points. That’s a big benefit with cavalry fighting, it’s not a common style so opponents don’t really know how to react to it.” That was part of the reason why she had wanted such an unheard of fighting style. The way her opponents tended to hesitate for a moment when seeing her bike always brought her satisfaction, plus the looks on their faces when she pulled up with her mechanical steed could easily make her whole day. Though a close second as to why she had wanted to fight cavalry had come from her own desire to stand out, she wanted to do something different, something new, something people would remember her for.

“Yeah it would be super convenient,” she agreed. Her eyes flashed playfully at a thought. “However, I can Glitch projectiles once they’re fired. Catching bullets is impossible, believe me, I’ve tried many times, but I can catch arrows and knives and crossbow bolts just fine. My gloves’ve got some plating on them ta help with that, since momentum isn’t negated when I Glitch stuff.” Seeing as she was still just in her workout gear, she didn’t have her gloves with her to show off, much to her disappointment.

Citrine sat back to watch as Vlithra’s hair and coat started floating around her. That in and of itself was impressive, she thought. Major intimidation points there. She watched with eager curiosity as the girl unsheathed her second sword and created a pillar of ice with. Maybe she had some type of fire semblance?

“Shit!” Was all Citrine had time to remark as the rock Vlithra had picked up went flying, moving fast enough she could barely catch its motion before the ice pillar exploded with the impact. The resulting gust of wind nearly knocked her off her bike—she hadn’t been braced for anything that strong in force.

In a rare moment, Citrine had nothing to say. She was a chatterbox if there ever was one, and for several dragging seconds, she was absolutely speechless. Her lollipop had dropped to the ground as her mouth hung open in shock. After a moment, she recollected herself.

“Holy… that could kill Grimm so easily!” She said. “I guess it wouldn’t be in my best interest ta fight against you, you’d just whip all my machinegun fire right back at my face. Goddamn that really is a flashy semblance.” Citrine glanced back at the demolished ice statue once more. “I am so glad you didn’t use me as a target…” she said, half to herself.

“Well!” She clapped her hands together once. “That was quite impressive! You’ll certainly be a hard match on the field!” She reached up the fiddle with her ponytail a bit, twirling it around her finger. “And on that insane note, I should probably get going. I’m sure you’ve got places to be, and I should get out of these leggings… and… probably shower…” The shockwave had sent a fair amount of dust flying, which had consequently stuck to Citrine’s sweat-coated skin, making her even more dirty than before. She drew her finger down the length of her forearm, carving a path through the collected film of dust with a grimace. The stains and grime that came from working in the shop was something she was used to, but straight up dirt was a whole other mess entirely. Gross.

She flicked the dirt off her finger, before lifting her gaze to meet Vlithra’s once more. “See ya around, yeah?” She said with a smirk and a mock salute, before both her and her bike disappeared in a winking flash of neon green light.