The Flick of a Wrist (Private w/ Castor Archromos)

[Sona Pastel]

Sona's chest rose as she drew in a long, silent breath. She was managing to keep up with the gruff-looking Professor's speech whilst she jotted down notes, leaving out a couple of sentences here and there where the content wasn't crucial to the learning material. For some students, classes were a bore and a slog fest, and each passing second felt like moving one step closer to the sweet salvation of the bell. She felt quite differently about them, finding classes to be quite enthralling. What better way to excel at being a Huntress than to be proficient during learning hours?

She wetted a finger and flicked over to the next page in her notebook, anticipating the next tid-bit of information from the Grimm Studies Professor. When he started to go off on a tangent about a mishap involving a Boarbatusk and a Beowolf, the green-haired girl capitalized on the opportunity to break from writing and allowed herself to breath. Truthfully, she was sort of glad; even for Sona, a self-proclaimed expert at listening to others talk, the voice of the gruff-looking Professor had become quite painful to bear in recent minutes. She propped an elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm, keenly tapping the two ends of her pen on the table with her free hand.

She started to sift through the first page of notes and made it a few lines into the second one before her attention began to wane. In a rare moment of classroom curiosity, her gaze wandered towards some of the other students, and unsurprisingly, nobody looked very familiar at all. Sona wasn't the sort to go out and socialize with others on a whim, and it showed in how few of her peers she actually knew. Her eyes lingered on one face for perhaps a second too long - a boy seated a couple of seats across. Something about him caught her attention, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what. Did he frequent the library, perhaps?

"Hm?" In a moment of misjudged strength and with the flick of a wrist, her pen slipped through her fingers and flew out of her grasp, through the air and a couple of seats across, towards the same boy she'd been staring at. By the time she realized what was happening, it was already too late, and all she thought to do in the moment was call out with a hushed tone and flail a helpless hand towards the airborne writing instrument. "Sorry!"

[Castor Achromos]

As the professor continued to ramble on about whatever it is they were blabbering about, Casot couldn't help but wonder what would end first. This lesson or the day. As he struggled to stay awake, Castor wondered how the hell he got into this mess, as he struggled to keep himself awake a quick sideways glance from the gruff professor reminded him of his situation. "yeah, yeah I get it already." he mumbled to himself. Turns out Castor was forced into this session to make up for missed classes and despite his efforts, Castor was never much of the academic type of student...in fact, even if it wasn't for the more physically focused classes one could barely call him a student.

If the class had any element of danger or thrill-seeking, like going into a forest filled with Grimm, then Castor was all for it. Hell if the class was about forcing other students to eat humble pie via an ass-kicking then even better. A lot of the students he runs into tend to assume he's just another delinquent or meathead, who only cares about picking fights and killing monsters.

Granted there is some truth to that, even Castor is willing to admit he should focus more on his studies..a shame that taking notes and writing "persuasive" essays on politics was always soul-crushingly boring. It made Castor long for the days when his mentors would weave tales or huntsmans and huntresses of old, of lost long people, of a Remnant that felt like more a fairy tale than reality.

As the lesson dragged on Castor cooked up a rather ridiculous way of staying awake, he would start doodling in his notebook. He would work quickly and glance upwards now and again as if he was pretending to take notes like everyone else. The professor was too busy with their lecture to notice, and now that Castor was awake and active ...to a certain extent they didn't pay attention to him anymore. As for the students well they would most likely be focused on their work to focus on him...right?

At that moment a pencil went flying at him, nailing him right between the eyes. It didn't hurt of course but it sure as hell took him by surprise, glancing around for a moment he then saw what he believed was the person who "threw" it at him. Though it seemed like it was an accident.

Regardless Castor saw this as a golden opportunity was to mess with them, and started to aim the pencil at them with a grin with devious intent.

[Sona Pastel]

In the instant that the pencil made contact with its unintended target, eliciting a weak 'thwack', Sona elicited a similarly weak gasp and pulled back her flailing arm. She felt as if her heart had fallen through her stomach, out from below her and onto the floor with a sorry thud, though her initials fears of the pencil piercing the fellow student's eye were quickly dismissed when it only seemed to knock him square on the bridge. In spite of the fact that the incident wasn't as bad as it could have been, it wasn't great either, and her expression didn't portray any less remorse as she fixed her eyes on his for the first time.

One close look was all the girl needed to realize what about him drew her gaze in the first place; his thin-slit eyes. 'A faunus?' The girl thought. Feline or snake eyes, at a guess. Not human at the very least. How was this going to reflect on Sona, to mark her second interaction with a faunus at Beacon with a casual case of accidental assault? Reason for expulsion: discrimination in the 1st degree. She knew it best not to let her thoughts overwhelm her and instead focused on delivering - what would have been - an earnest apology.

It would have been, had she not lowered her eyes slightly to notice the devilish curling off his lips. That grin. It was the same grin that she'd seen a thousand times before, almost always on the faces of the brutes she called her brothers. A grin that was synonymous with a push, a shove, a punch in the arm, followed by mocking as herself or her Sister tried to escape from the attempted bullying. Their nonsense had been put to a stop years ago when Sona learned how to knock the two square on their backsides, but the emotional baggage caused by her brother's behaviour would always resurface from time to time. And now was such a time.

Brought back to the days of old, instinct pushed Sona to protect herself. "H-hey, I didn't mean to!" Having forgotten about the lesson and the Professor's persistent ramblings, Sona blurted out her words hastily and loudly and flung her arms up in front as if to block any sort of return attack.

[Castor Achromos]

Castor always dealt with people who bothered him in his way, usually said way involved beating the ever-loving crap out of them, but it "worked" most of the time. Many of the people Castor knew from in mistral, were more than happy to oblige in a fist fight or three. As long as booze followed after of course. Though there were always a few who had much less altruistic goals in mind, especially those who felt threatened by Castor's eyes. Whether they realize he's a Faunus or maybe it's some genuine fear from seeing a person with freaky snake eyes. Either way, the results were the same and more often than naught extremely violent.

In most cases, Castor revels in messing with those kinds of people, getting inside their heads and seeing their faces twist in frustration and then into despair was always a joy for him to watch. Something as simple as throwing a pencil at them always set them off, but when he saw the person across from him flinch in fear from just him looking at them. Castor already knew he made a bit of error in judgment. He had assumed this girl was trying to mess with him, but all he saw was a scared little kid.

Castor was about to just pass the pencil back to him...until the professor noticed the situation and intervened, in a bit of frustration Castor unintentionally split the pencil between his fingers in two. "ah crap." At this point, it was clear most if not all of the people in the classroom saw him as the villain in this situation. After the lesson was over Castor was given the verbal thrashing so fierce that part of him wished he had stayed buried in mistral.

"Might as well apologize.." he said, ignoring the professor when the mention of his studies was brought up. Even if he did feel like crap for doing that to another student, Castor had no intention of putting in the effort to subjects that bored him. Regardless Castor went looking for the girl from before, maybe along with the apology he could figure out why she reacted the way she did ?

[Sona Pastel]

"I'd like to apologise for interrupting the lesson, Professor. My reaction was exaggerated and I'm certain that my peer had no ill-intent or mallice in mind. I-I started it, actually, I... flung the pencil towards him."

She was let off with a warning and told she should instigate no further interruptions during lessons, lest she be made to stay behind after-hours to receive a one-on-one lecture with the Professor. He'd mistaken her smile upon hearing that as youthful insubordination, instructing her to leave the class immediately.

This leads us to the present. Sona exited the classroom with a sigh, having waited behind until it was just herself and the Professor to confess to her part of the blame. She wanted to hate the boy for getting her into trouble, for threatening her when she'd made an honest to God mistake. And he broke her pencil! It was uncalled for! Or at least, that's what she thought when it happened. Having time to mull it over, Sona realized that neither of them was right or wrong - from his point of view, it must've seemed like she threw a pencil at him and cried wolf when he tried to retaliate. Still, she would at least try to recuperate her losses - it was a nice pencil.

She mumbled something incoherent and set the strap of her tote bag over her shoulder. The next lesson was in fifteen minutes - plenty of time to get there early and look over her notes from the previous class. At least, it would have been, had she not found herself standing a couple of feet away from Castor, facing him side-on. Presented with the opportunity to clear things up, she sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to tap him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me?" she started, her voice firm yet somewhat apologetic.

[Castor Achromos]

Castor never had any problem being seen as a bit of ass, hell he lived for the moments where he ruined the day of certain people. Such as those who harassed him and other faunus folks. If he wasn't busy killing grimm, drinking the day, or some combination of both, he was usually forced to go through the numerous lessons his mentors gave him. Usually some form of humility, admittedly those lessons never stuck. Castor never really cared if he was "right", or "just" in his actions, not like those things mattered when you're living out in the wild or trying to make rent in a shady town. Still, though he wasn't completely heartless. Castor would avoid antagonizing certain people like his mentors out of a bizarre mixture of fear and respect.

Seeing the reaction from the girl earlier made him feel uneasy with himself, call it a gut feeling but Castor could tell there was more to it than first glance might suggest. It was at that point Castor felt a tap on his shoulder and to his surprised, it was the same student from before, who seemed to want to talk to him about something? "sorry bout that little shit I pulled earlier in class, takes all my energy to stay awake during this never-ending lessons...and I was mostly goofing." Granted Castor knew it was a piss poor excuse but he was being genuine, after all, there was no fun in messing with someone who wouldn't or couldn't fight back.

After they talked for a bit, they would both be called to by their professors much to Castor's annoyance who seemingly was forced to work on a group assignment with this student he just meets. As for the subject they needed to work on, in their case, it would be the history colonization efforts of Menagerie. Which of course Castor knew nothing about.

"Know anything about it?" he asked as searching through the topic at hand on his scroll, hoping it would make their lives easier as they were expected to have to be working on this for the next few days...and the sooner he finished the sooner he could go back to enjoying his day.