Colors of Remnant

"Well well well, what do we have here, boys? A stuck up brat thinking she's better than everyone else in the dining hall?"

A taller male had placed the palm of his hand down flat on the table, hovering over top of a green-haired female with earbuds in both ears. He'd shot the comment at his 'boys' louder than any music could have possibly been, attracting some quick passing glances toward the small crowd of three buddies. Vert simply rolled her eyes and continued eating soup, leaving the bowl of pudding left untouched. The 'leader' of the group took that opportunity to shove his entire finger inside the pudding bowl.

"Oh whoops, did I do that? Well, I guess the little girl can go ask her mommy and daddy for more."

Vert took a look at the cup and let out an exhale as the finger toyed with it.

"Might as well let you have your fun. After all, that's the most action any finger of yours is going to see, unless your friends here take care of that for you as well." The tall male stopped for a moment with a raised brow before growing red in the face.

"Why you little-" The three cronies stepped back away from the head boy as he raised an arm back in clear sight of the room.

Nym twirled a small plastic knife through her fingers as she sat in the dining hall, bored out of her skull. Her best friend was tied up in classes at the moment and she had nothing to work on for once. Her classwork was at an acceptable level of caught up and she lacked a necessary sense of urgency to engage with it. She put the fork down on her lunch tray and readjusted the tie of her school uniform. A few errant crumbs from lunch were brushed off the pants. How did the other girls stand wearing skirts? She'd never understand.

The dining hall had been her hope at finding something interesting to do while she waited for Ax to not be so busy. It didn't always provide, but she'd been hungry and her stomach almost always got what it wanted. Her eyes tracked a quartet of some students she knew to be frequent troublemakers. They were big fish in a little pond, first years who were riding high off of their acceptance to Beacon. They knew better than to pick fights with the likes of her, passing by her table without even a word, stopping at the very next one. A young girl with mint colored hair was listening to music and trying to eat in peace. Nym rolled her eyes. It seemed humans didn't mind bothering their own. Any easy looking target would suffice for someone like this. At least she was taking it in stride and a snort escaped Nym's nose as she smirked at her scathing rebuke.

It had struck a chord, too! The guy was turning red in the face and his ears looked as if they might burst into flame. It was enough to make him want to take a swing at her. Nym saw his stance start to shift before he raised his fist and she was on her feet and closing the distance quickly. How could she not stand up for the girl after that remark? As his arm cocked back as far as it would go, Nym stepped deftly through the group and grabbed the crook of his elbow, jerking him back, spinning him around to look straight at her.

"You want a piece of me t-" His words dried up in his throat as his eyes came to realize just who had stopped him so casually. His hands were stilled balled into fists at his sides, but he was no longer winding up for anything.

"Yeah? You were sayin', mate?" Nym said pointedly, her hands confidently on her hips as she looked him up and down. A moment past without a response. He looked meaningfully back towards his compatriots who had taken a couple additional steps back. Nym could tell what he was thinking. He was doing the math in his head. Were four first years enough? Did he think they could take her? "Don' even think about it," Nym said dismissively. "Maybe, maybe there's some small chance the three'a them c'n take me," she chuckled darkly, "But f'you think yer walkin' outta 'ere with any teeth left in yer skull afta' pickin' a fight wif me, yer bloody fucked in the 'ed, mate." Her tone changed from decidedly amused to clearly annoyed. "So fuck off, b'fore the janitor's got t' scrape what's left'a ya off the floor with a mop."

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor for today, thoroughly deflated, the boy shimmied awkwardly around Nym and walked off with his cohort. Nym turned and stared them down, glaringly menacingly until they were out of sight as her tail swished behind her. She was clearly pleased with herself. Her reputation might not have been very good, but people knew enough about her now to know not to mess with her unless they were prepared for a real brawl. Nym turned back towards the mint green girl with the ruined pudding and chuckled. "That was bloody 'ilarious whatchu said t' 'im. Stone fuckin' cold, love. I reckon I like yer attitude."

Vert hadn't even reacted to the raised fist before the sound of an interruption came up from behind her, and the sound of the pack scattering. She shook her head to herself lightly and placed a napkin over the tainted pudding, not wasting any further time on it. Turning her attention to the shorter but older female, Vert gave a dismissive shrug of her shoulders and brushed some of the bangs out of her face.

"No sense in having a filter when they're clearly looking for attention. Besides, coming up with casual remarks passes the time better than sitting here pretending there's anything playing in these." Vert took the silent earbuds out of her ears and stashed them in her pocket, having been too lazy to even connect them to her Scroll. "So, am I supposed to pay you back for driving them off, or how's this work?" The girl did turn to face the faunus after she was finished with her comments, taking an actual look over her while waiting for the response.

Having a filter could come in handy if you didn't want to get into a fight, but Nym wasn't about to open her mouth and say that. It would feel a little too hypocritical for her tastes to encourage someone else to choose their words more carefully or risk biting off more than they could chew. In a very roundabout sense, that was how Nym had gotten into Beacon. Still, she found herself wondering what exactly this girl's plan had been.

"Gettin' in fights in the cafeteria ain't a bad way t' pass the time eitha'," she observed. "But I d'no if 's worth the trouble comes afta'. Were you plannin' on takin' all four of 'em, or jus' countin' on someone like me t' give ya a hand?" Nym took a seat across from the girl, not convinced that she was totally out of the woods. Who knew if those four would be back the second they saw Nym leave her alone? What if they were going to get some more help? Plus, it wasn't often she ran into first year students who seemed to have so little regard for their own safety.

"Only gotta pay me back if ya feel like it, love. I ain't gonna hold it ova' yer 'ead or nothin'." Doing good deeds was it's own reward.

"I somewhat doubt the other three do much aside from tote the jock's ego around, though if something had come up, I'm not the worst at self-defense. Probably one of the only benefits to an Atlas upbringing." Vert took a small raised eyebrow as the faunus finished her comments. "Worst case scenario, there's places for hiding enough Dust to stall a person or two, getting stuck in place. Nothing harmful of course, I don't want to spend the time re-threading an outfit later if it's their fault."

Vert finished up the rest of the un-touched portions of her food and slightly pushed the tray to the side. "You'll have to give me a bit to get used to if that's flirting, or just how you talk. Regardless, I doubt a new student like me's gonna have any way of payment any time soon."

Atlas? Well, the attitude seemed to make a bit more sense now. It was a very common trait of atlesians to be full of themselves and confident, or at the least they were good at projecting that air. Was she actually capable of fending off four other Beacon students by herself? That seemed a little bit beyond self confidence and bordering on delusional. Even Nym had to admit that her peers were dangerous. Then again, freshman did have a wide range of abilities and experience from the get go. If she was seasoned and well trained she really might have stood a chance. Her train of thought was interrupted as she chuckled.

"Nah, love, that ain't flirtin'. If I was flirtin' with ya, you'd know it." She grinned and raised an eyebrow at her. "Were you hopin' I'd flirt with you? Lookin' t' pay me back with somethin' other'n Lien?" It was just good natured teasing. Nym had absolutely no intention of strong arming that kind of payment out of anyone. As if she needed to! No, if she really wanted to satisfy that itch she hardly had to do more than smile at someone and wink with how her looks were.

Vert jokingly rolled her eyes in response. "Oh please, I wouldn't be in a Huntsman Academy if I jumped into someone else's arms whenever I got myself into a fight, and the only thing other than Lien I've got on me is Pokey's baby food." She crossed her arms over her chest and did a glancing look around while stretching. "To your credit though, you don't seem like you're going that route, or you're well practiced in sci-fi mind tricks. Either way... I guess this is usually the point people exchange names or something, probably. My name's Vert Yule."

Vert uncrossed her arms and slipped her hands back into the pockets she'd sewn into her skirt. Her tone still gave off the impression she was always like that, whether it was a byproduct of Atlas, or just her own nature was uncertain. Still, there wasn't a snappy undertone with that as there was with the insult aimed at the bullies earlier.

Well practiced in sci-fi mind tricks? Oh, she'd actually seen the movies that Vert was talking about! Nym waved a hand between them and waggled her eyebrows as she spoke, unable to keep a straight face. "You will take off all yer clothes." She did her best to copy the accent of the actor who'd spoken, but her ability to shake her native tongue was dubious at best. The transparency of her joke would likely work in her favor, right? She punctuated it with a quiet laugh.

"Well, don' feel like ya 'ave t'do nothin' special fer me. I ain't gonna say no if ya really gotta pay me back t' get some kind weight off yer conscience, but...well...bein' a decent person don' deserve a gold star or nothin', eh?" Nym placed her elbows on the table and cupped her chin with her hands. "Name's Nym. Pleasure's all mine, love." And it was a pleasure. As far as first meetings go, it wasn't bad! Nym had gotten to play the intimidating protector role which always made her feel like a total badass huntress. Listening to people get verbally cut down was always fun. It could have only gone better if she'd actually gotten to crack some skulls.

There was a crack in her general resting sass, with the corner of her mouth turning up in a half smile. "Well color me surprised. Can't say the trick itself worked, but it does make you seem more interesting a person to hang out with in the future." The incident had certainly gone from passing entertainment to actual involvement on Vert's part, so it worked out as a good day thus far, surprisingly enough.

"We'll see how things go though, I can't guarantee I'd be able to anyway. Let alone right now, when I've gotta build a reputation somehow. Can't be going around making jabs like with that guy and also be courteous, nobody'd take them seriously, considering I already look un-intimidating." She'd held up one of her arms as though she even needed to reinforce how unassuming her muscular frame was.

"Darn," Nym said, with feigned disappointment at the lack of stripping. Vert didn't really seem like her type. Rail thin, wispy girls had their charms, but it wasn't Nym's first choice for eye candy. The clothes she was wearing seemed to imply that she didn't have much to show off. Regular visits to Beacon's weight training rooms would probably do her some good for aesthetics and ability. Aura would pretty much settle a fight between her and your average person, but when it was life or death with Grimm, bandits, or whatever else was out there, you wanted every last ounce of strength you could get.

Nym raised a quizzical, skeptical eyebrow at Vert. "Oh?" She was trying to cultivate a reputation? Well, it was good to have aspirations, right? "Seems t'me like yer bein' plenty courteous wif me right now. Not that I'm complainin'." It was a nice break from the norm that a human was treating her with any kind of respect, much less a human from Atlas of all places. What a weird girl she was. "Jus' what kinda rep you tryna' make fer yerself," she asked, reaching across the table to take the pudding that Vert was clearly uninterested in to lazily throw back a mouthful of it like she was taking a shot. Going to find a spoon sounded boring. The cup plunked back down on the table as Nym licked her lips.

Vert raised her hands up in a shrug on getting called out for being courteous. "You got my attention is all."
She crossed her arms over her torso and tilted her head somewhat. "Being someone that makes her own life decisions, and doesn't take BS from others along the way, obviously. Whether that's being a professional huntress, or getting into a trade outside of hunting."

There was a pause from the girl as she uncrossed her arms and rested them on the table. "Just don't go making some grand comment about me rambling off some sad life story or something. Leave the cliches for the cartoons and people making cheesy fan-fictions."

She wanted a reputation for being independent and strong. That's how it sounded to Nym as Vert straightened herself up and answered. Well, she was at Beacon, so chances were that she already had those boxes ticked off. Nym glanced at Vert's arms. Well, she certainly had the independent part checked off, but strong? Heh, well, muscles weren't everything. They were just one kind of strength. They might have been Nym's favorite kind of strength, but not every problem could be solved with a hammer, right? Another low chuckle escaped her lips as she stuck her own finger into the pudding cup to retrieve some of the sugary goodness and lick it off

"Don' worry, love, I ain't about t' ask ya t' gimme yer life story or nothin'. Figure y'll tell me if ya wanna, n' if ya don' then it don' 'urt me none. I...try not to make a habit'a pissin' off people who treat me like an equal," Nym looked up from the pudding cup. "Plus, I like yer attitude, heh. Not a lotta people'd 'ave the stones t' jus' say 'come at me' like you did a minute ago." No, Nym didn't care where people came from. It wasn't about the past. It was about who you were right now.

"Likewise, I'm not going out of my way to insult anyone that happens to breathe in my general direction, just not changing how I act just because someone's got thin skin." Picking on anyone and everyone was for bullies without regard to others, only doing it for their own enjoyment. Vert may take shots at people that strike first, but hitting someone that's a bystander wasn't cool either.

"Can't do anyone well not having the ability to bite back in bad situations. I'm not reckless enough to jump off a building without Dust though, don't worry about that." She had heard some tales of people either jumping out of airships without chutes, or cartoons of people riding Grimm and killing them from the inside, but that was just that, a fantasy not realistic to her abilities.

Headstrong and confident. Was that just an inherent trait of anyone born in the chilly northern country? In the right proportions, with the right outlook, they weren't bad traits to have. Vert seemed to have them in the right quantities. Nym carefully cleaned her fingers off with her tongue to make sure there wasn't any pudding left on them before reaching into a pocket to retrieve her scroll. With a few taps of her fingers and a look of mild concentration on her face she pulled up her contacts list before sliding the device across the table at Vert.

"Well, if yer feelin' like doin' any cliff divin', or ya need someone t' talk to or whateva', text me. Been 'ere a bit, n' I don' mind 'elpin' people who seem cool." Her contact list was quite short, but she didn't really mind showing it to people. Nym was never going to be a social butterfly like her friend Ax and she had accepted that. She would just focus on being a good friend to the few she had.

Vert stretched her arms out and raised an eyebrow in watching over the faunus with her Scroll, not immediately reacting when it was passed along the table save for following it with her eyes. She reached her left hand down and picked the device up, before typing in her information, under the name "Vert Yule". There was a brief pause as she looked over the info typed in before she'd tapped something else and took a quick picture of her face for the image, giving a half-smirk in the corner of the right side of her mouth, saving the contact before sliding the Scroll back over.

"Should be saved in there, picture included. I didn't glance at the others, don't worry." Vert pulled out her own Scroll in her right hand and held it while resting her wrist on the table's edge. "If you want to just send a message, I'll add the contact later, just wanted to make sure there was a picture on your end in case we bump into each other while I'm trying to pull off a costume or something like that." The younger huntress didn't exactly have a thought in mind on when texts would come up, but at the very least, having the option was a much better start than she had expected her first big encounter would go.

Nym grinned as she took her phone back, approving of Vert's choice of facial expression. Her fingers worked the digital keys and produced a brief text to send Vert's way in order to make sure that they were receiving each other loud and clear. [nym here, yo] Simple, but effective! That was how most of her texts were. Then, stricken by inspiration, Nym raised the phone up and took a selfie of her own to send to her new friend, holding up two fingers next to her own face and sticking out her tongue to complete the pose.

"Don' worry love, I'd prob'ly be able t' tell it's you jus' by the way ya smell." She pocketed her scroll. "Er, not that ya smell bad or nothin', s'jus' that my nose is a lot more sensitive than most people's. Even most faunus don' smell nearly as well as I can." It would probably not do to imply that her new friend was easily identifiable via odor. It was only easy for Nym. She tilted her head slightly trying to picture the mint haired girl in some kind of costume, but she couldn't quite manage it. Maybe she'd just have to be surprised later on. There were dances and holidays where costumes were customary. The truth would come out eventually!

Vert pulled her scroll from a different pocket than her earbuds when she'd felt the message vibration indication, giving a nod and a thumb's up motion, immediately working to set the contact info, before being interrupted by the picture. "Gotcha." She'd swapped in the contact profile picture in soon after, raising an eyebrow and holding the Scroll still in her hands on hearing the initial phrasing of the comment.

"What, like 'being able to track you down' kind of sensitive? I'm no expert on traits or all the nuances, just guessing off the ones that're visible, but hey, long as you know what you're doing with them, good on you I guess?" While she'd have definitely asked further on the topic, there'd have been a much longer discussion than either likely had time for at the present exchange. "Must be a helpful skill in sorting between similar faces though."

"Uhhhh, well, s'more like..." Nym pondered for a moment as she tried to think about how to phrase it. She hadn't always known her sense of smell was more powerful than the average person's. It wasn't an obvious advantage. It certainly didn't have the same accuracy as a hunting dog's. "S'like...bein' able t'see more colors or somethin'. Er...well, not more colors, but bein' able t' tell the dif'rence between 'em real easy. It'd be like if all y'saw when ya saw somethin' green was green, no matta' what shade of green it was, but I could tell the dif'rence between mint green or lime green or evergreen, but with smells. You walk inta a forest n' you c'n smell trees, but I c'n tell if they're pine or walnut or applewood. Y'might smell someone's cologne, but I c'n smell just about everythin' they touched t'day if it's got a strong smell. Could tell if someone was in a place that 'ad a deep fryer or if they were workin' on an engineerin' kinda thing by the smell'a the grease that linga's on their clothes. You, for example..."

Nym leaned slightly closer towards Vert and took in a deep breath through her nose, closing her eyes and trying to focus on what was coming through. The cafeteria's ambient odors were easy to ignore over what was right under her nose. "Yer clothes smell kinda like a campfire, but s'from dust n' not from wood smoke. Could mean y've got dust in yer clothes or you were workin' with it earlier t'day." She took one more deep breath and leaned back against her chair, satisfied with the information she'd gathered. "I like yer shampoo, heh, raspberry's delicious. Couldn' use it meself 'cuz I'd make myself 'ungry. C'n tell ya also smell like a pencil. D'no if it's 'cuz you were spendin' a lotta time takin' notes or drawin' or jus' playin' with one, but y'seem like the artsy type so I'm gonna say you were drawin' with it. N' that's about all I c'n get from ya. Wouldn' be able t' pickup on anythin' more subtle 'less ya want me sittin' in yer lap and sniffin' up on yer neck."

Vert set both of her elbows on the table and rested her locked fingers between her nose and upper lip as she listened over the explanation of the older student. Her brain worked over understanding the explanation in a reasonable way, and also partially translating pieces of the accent. There was a slight movement of her right hand's middle finger as the girl listed off possible reasonings for the facets of the odors, and a pause when she had finished up. Going back to crossing her arms across her chest, Vert closed her eyes for a brief moment before giving a nod and looking toward Nym again.

"Three for three, I'll make no arguments there. I do all of my sketches by hand, and infuse Dust in my outfits fairly regularly, doubly so due to what I'd assume obvious that I don't have the metal smell most do from their huntsman weapons. That being said, I'd say sitting on my lap would get more turned eyes and stomach growls on your part than anything beneficial." She gave a joking tone to the 'stomach growls' to reference the shampoo comment. "I have to say, any further breakdown of it and I'd say you'd be able to use it as a party trick, nailing people's profession without them saying it."

Nym snorted out a laugh at Vert's joke. She was unlikely to have a growling stomach right now, but she did like raspberries. Who could say? Either way, pinpointing every floral or fruity note in Vert's shampoo probably wasn't worth the headache that could come of straddling her legs in the middle of the lunchroom, even if it did sound like it would be worth a laugh. "I do use it fer party tricks sometimes," she said with a shrug. "Don' always know 'f someone's a hunter or huntress. Ain't usually too 'ard t' spot. Most of 'em aren't tryin' t' hide who they are. Metal don' usually 'ave too much of a strong smell, but dust does. Dust smells like dust n' nothin' else quite 'as the same smell."

She quirked a brow. "Whatcha draw?" It was a simple question, but she was interested in the answer. What she wanted to ask was if she could see some sketches, but art could be very personal and not everyone was willing to open their books the moment you asked. That had been the case for herself. It still was, though there were some people it was easier to show her work to, like fellow artists who didn't seem too prickly.

Vert gave a nod of her head. "Fair enough. Guess it depends on the metals itself, some being a stronger smell to them than others. I can't say the Dust part is surprising, considering it's crystallized elemental energy in itself. Hard to find a logical explanation of what it'd compare to." She crossed one leg over the other under the table, adjusting her clothing afterward.

"Mostly ideas for outfits, or trying to sketch out the shape of weapons and things to see if I can't interpret the composition. Half of it usually ends up being random scribbles of various measurements, but there's only so much one can do with translating shapes to the real thing." Vert gave a light shrug of her own. "Sorry to disappoint but I don't keep my sketchbook on me in the dining hall. Too many ways it can get messed up. That aside, I may fire a message off if I'm ever working in the dorm, since I've got the contact info. Work for you?" It wasn't actually the first time Vert had been asked about her artwork, so the girl had taken a wild guess on the meaning.

Nym nodded in agreement at Vert's suggestion. That was a good excuse to use her scroll a little more. She hadn't ever tried taking any decent pictures of her own sketches with it, but she could figure it out. It was only a scroll. They weren't that complicated. "Can't say I ain't a little disappointed, but I reckon we could swap a few sketches. I do a lil' 'ere n' there meself. Prob'ly fair t'send you one 'r two if yer gonna be lettin' me see whatcha got."

Then, Nym took a double take at her scroll, quickly realizing that she had been letting time get away from her talking to Vert. Her friend hadn't unbusied herself, but that didn't always happen around the lunch hour. Her own classes were going to be starting up again soon. She was probably going to have to excuse herself or become late. "Ahhh, 'm sorry love, but looks like class is gonna be stealin' me away from ya 'ere. Send me some'a yer sketches when ya got time layta n' I'll send ya some'a mine."

A hint of curiosity teased its way onto her expression on hearing the sketch trade, though she simply gave a nod in response. Vert did still replace the mirth with a smirk at the double take though. "Can't have the tough gal missing her classes, can we?" She moved to start gathering up her own stuff on the tray after making sure her Scroll was secured back on her person. "Can do, I'll dig around and see if I can't find a few that I'm not currently working on."

Vert gave a small wave of her hand and a nod of the head before uncrossing her legs in order to get up, taking the tray with her. All in all, the events of the lunch had been noteworthy for what it was worth. Only thing it ended up costing her was a pudding cup, but that was easy enough to fix at a later time.