Reach For the Sky [Public ?/?]

[Bastion Sandstone]

Thunder blast after booming shockwave, Bastion unloaded Diplomacy at the target moving side-to-side in a long line. Each shot of the massive caliber rounds sent shockwaves that were visible for a flash of a second. His strong arm recoiled each time, though the weight of the barrel helped with a lot of the force. Once the four round cylinder was empty, Bastion counting the shots so as to not click on an empty shell, he pushed the button on the side and flicked his wrist. The .65 caliber cylinder rotated out and around, letting the fresh .45 caliber dust round cylinder click into place. One hand pulling back the hammer before each shot, Bastion unloaded the rounds into the target within the span of two seconds.

He had missed the target twice, a total of 80% accuracy when trying to unload as quickly as possible on a moving target. 30% of those landed in or around the bullseye. He had come a long way since he first took this gun. He shuddered at the memory of the first time one of those larger rounds hit a person. Bastion wasn't the one who had pulled the trigger, and he had stood there in shock as that man basically flew apart, his chest becoming three seperate pieces. He shook his head to get rid of the memory and come back to the present, but his thoughts went to Saffron. There would always be dangerous people around Vacuo, how was she faring? His parents were probably still protecting everyone, but bandits could be smart and take them by surprise. Saffron was tough, but she was no fighter. He longed to be back with her. But the only way that was going to happen was him graduating. Then he could go back. In order to graduate, he needed to get better.

Bastion let out a breath and shook his arm, getting some of the tingling out and feeling back in it's place. He loaded fresh rounds into both cylinders and took another stance, letting out a controlled breath as he readied himself. His eyes tracked the moving target. Now to set another benchmark to work on. How many rounds can he get off, and at what percentage of accuracy, in 60 seconds?

He started the timer with a foot pedal on the floor and began firing. This time when the large rounds were empty and he transitioned to the smaller ammunition, Bastion didn't pull the hammer back. With the first shot, he let the recoil pull the gun back to face the roof, and the empty shells fell and clattered to the ground before he pointed the gun foward once more. His free hand instead deftly snatched up the rounds in his side pouch, loading the large ammo inbetween shots. As soon as the .45 caliber was out, he flicked his wrist again and the cylinders rotated around. Like last time, he let the first shot move the gun up so the empty brass could empty itself before he started loading inbetween firing, recovering, aiming, and firing again. Bastion repeated this until a buzzer sounded that a minute was up.

He let out a pent up breath, feeling his heart beat heavily. 80 shots in 60 seconds, 90% accuracy with 40% hitting in or around the bullseye. That was pretty good for him personally when it came to moving targets. He grinned. Letting off the smaller caliber rounds in two rounds bursts before he stabalized for the brief moment to load a single heavier round helped his speed. Then he frowned. He could be faster.

[Keid Sharma]

After having seen Beacon's locker room, which was the size of his combat school's own gym, Keid had high expectations for this place. And the training room - or, more accurately, the great training hall - didn't disappoint. It may have been big enough to hold a free-for-all brawl between all students, the thought of which made him chuckle. It was honestly mind-boggling, but it had to be this high and large for a reason.

Keid shook his head and decided that his old training routine ended right here. There was so much equipment to improve it that he wanted to make another one from scratch... or maybe several ; there was no way he could use all of this in one day. As he took in the multitude of high-tech training tools, a loud boom startled him and drew his attention to his right. He could make out a silhouette, behind a tinted window that cut the firing range from the rest of the gym.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he walked towards the other room as more shots rang out. The wall was obviously here for safety, but he quickly realized that it also spared people from the real noise inside. He pushed the door to the other room and cringed when he was greeted with much louder blasts. For the thirty seconds that what he assumed was a rocket launcher kept firing, Keid wondered how any target could take that much abuse. He waited for the gunner to pause before approaching his stall.

What a surprise to discover that it was a normal-sized guy wielding a normal-sized gun. What exactly did it fire to make these world-ending sounds ? Maybe the noise was intentional ? And... did that gun have two barrels ? Keid took a step forward when he saw the gunner about to start the timer again. "Hi, are you a first year ?", he blurted out to prevent another round of explosions. "You seem pretty familiar with the firing range already." Maybe he should be training instead of chatting, but the weapon really intrigued him. Plus, shooting might be a good start for his schedule.
"Keid, by the way", he added with an extended hand.

[Bastion Sandstone]

With a finger on the trigger and his foot about to press down on the paddle, someone spoke from behind him. Bastion took his finger off and lowered the weapon, turning to face him. What were those lights on his neck? That was new. Was that his Semblance?

"Why yes, I am." Bastion responded, nodding. He saw the guy's eyes on his gun, smirked, and shook his hand. "I'm Bastion Sandstone and this is Diplomacy." He lifted the gun so it could be more easily seen. The gun had a single huge barrel but two revolving cyilinders to hold ammo. One fit neatly in the center the way revolvers are supposed to look while the other hung outside. ".65 caliber shells in one, .45 dust rounds in the other. Gives me power and versatility. And I figured I would be using the range a lot, so I got a jump on it. Pretty easy and intuitive." Bastion glanced down the range before back at Keid. "What brings you here?"

[Keid Sharma]

Now that he got a good look at the guy, Keid gave up all thoughts of him being normal. His outfit, especially the wide hat, filled the "outlandish" requirement that Beacon seemed to have. His posture, casual smile and speech were also light-years away from anyone he met in Atlas. Although, Keid didn't give Bastion a full once-over as his eyes locked on the gun as soon as Bastion lifted it. The two barrels and his explanation made Keid's eyes shine.

"No way, there's two barrels ?! For different calibers ? It's like... like a barrel of barrels !", he shouted excitedly. Then balked at the mention of the caliber. He quickly looked behind Bastion's shoulder and gulped at his target's state, seriously wondering if those shells would kill a Goliath in one hit. "So that was what those explosions were... Is it always this loud ? Is it to throw Grimm off ? Does... Oh ! Can you reload and fire at the same time ?!"

He barely heard Bastion's question, but still managed to get his excitement under control, although he was itching to take Diplomacy out of his hands. "Well, I hoped to get some training done, but these aren't like in Atlas", he answered, pointing at the screen that displayed the timer. He rested a hand against his forehead, like it would help him wrap his head around the advanced technology. "You find them intuitive ?" Keid, for his part, found the myriad of options confusing at best.

[Bastion Sandstone]

This guy got really excited about Diplomacy. "Well, two different cylinders, but yeah, different calibers. Those explosions were the .65 cal rounds. They pack quite the kick." Bastion rolled his shoudler. "And the sound is just natural when you have something that high. Imagine striking fear into Grimm, huh? That'd be something."

When Keid asked about reloading while firing, Bastion couldn't help the smile. "Yes I can, that way I can constantly keep something under pressure. I was practicing just that before you came in." He looked around at the training rig. "I mean, sure. The default timer is on 60 seconds, but you can change it if you want to. The foot pedal starts it and you can step on it to create a time marker for if you made a good shot or time how long you took to do a certain thing. A long press stops the whole thing early." He explained, pointing to each component. "There are a ton of other settings you can mess with on the console, but I haven't explored with those yet."

"Would you like a demonstration?" Bastion asked, idly moving the gun so the chambers flicked around and around, changing and locking into place before rotating once more.

[Keid Sharma]

He listened to the explanation with rapt attention, both for curiosity's sake and because Bastion's skill was something he'd tried and failed to do before. Keid was usually a good multitasker, but aiming while reloading was not done easily... On top of that, Bastion's gun had to be less accurate than Borealis if its power was any indication. How did he deal with the recoil ? Did he manage to keep his focus on his opponents ? Was it an automatism ? He had to at least think about which chamber he was reloading, which was easy enough, but it was still something more to consider in a fight.

"I get the timer, but it's less useful to me than to you. It's those other settings I'm unsure about. I bet a kick in the machine wouldn't be very effective if I somehow broke it...", Keid clarified, then took a look around and stroked his beard for a second. "Although it seems pretty much everything-proof...", he added after a moment's reflection.

He held his other questions back when Bastion offered a display. "Yeah, I'd like to see that, that would be amazing ! I might have something to learn too, because I'm also a shooter", he agreed eagerly. "Although, I'll still try to save my eardrums", he added with a grin, before backing away and covering his ears.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion smiled that Keid wanted to see him shoot. He hadn't really shown off his stuff to anyone besides Saffron back home. And if this guy was a marksmen himself, perhaps they could learn from one another. The tough cowboy turned his loaded gun towards the target, took a breath, and then tapped his foot on the timer as he made his first shot of many.

Round after round he would fire at the target. As soon as it was empty he clicked a button and flicked his wrist, the cylinders rotating to change places. Inbetween shots Bastion fished for ammo and loaded them in, one after each shot. The shells didn't fly out from the recoil because the cylinders were designed to lock in unspent shells, precisely for that reason.

Bastion would unload until the timer reached sixty, sweating the entire time.

Because he had done terribly. He wasn't sure if it was just the fact that he had an audience or what, but more than half of his shots missed the target completely! The target was fortified by hardlight dust and was meant to take a beating, but not so much as the wall behind it...

Bastion cleared his throat and holstered Diplomacy. "Well, I'm not a very good showman." He looked to Keid and flashed an embarrassed smile. "Guess that's why I'm here at school, huh?"

[Keid Sharma]

Keid watched the display in a mix of awe and wincing when the bigger bullets exploded out of the gun. When the first spent shell was ejected and bounced of his forehead, he swiftly moved to the side to avoid the next ones. Since he wanted to watch how Bastion operated Diplomacy, the panel between booths hid the target from his view until the countdown ended. Only then did he see the damage, and offer a silent prayer to Beacon's repairmen.

"Guess that's why I'm here at school, huh ?", Bastion joked, bringing a grin back to Keid's face.
"To improve your showmanship ? I don't think Beacon's the right place to become a performer, but there's so many electives that you never know !", he chuckled with an exaggerated shrug to show his silliness.

"Although, your technique is still impressive", he mitigated. "You don't fumble with the barrels despite the recoil, even though you keep your eyes on the target... and I reckon that your accuracy doesn't suffer that much in a fight." He said that, but the damage done to the wall was a bit more frightening than the numbers displayed on the screen ; both because the target could be him someday, and because the building would surely collapse if all students came here every day to put dents in it. "I can't really judge anyway. I use aim assist most of the time on moving targets", he admitted, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion couldn't help but chuckle at his joke. "I've been in quite a few scrapes where I had to be running or riding while shooting. I've had some practice." He couldn't take his eyes away from the wrecked wall. How had he missed that badly? And how had Beacon not made the wall more impervious than the targets?

Then Bastion blinked at Keid's words and he turned to him. "E-... Excuse me? Aim assist? What do you have, a robot gun?" He was honestly astonished, and his face would show it with his mouth hanging open as he picked up the shells on the ground.

[Keid Sharma]

"Riding ? Do you fight better with a mount then ? That's a nice skill to have, but you don't do that in combat school... or did you ? I don't really know what it's like outside of Atlas...", Keid wondered, then considered the back wall once more.
"I doubt Hunstman academies would have the money to tend to horses, or maintain vehicles for us to fight on. Apparently, they can't even pay for hardlight reinforced walls. Or maybe they just expect us to hit the targets all the time ? That seems kind of naive...", he rambled for a bit before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

He picked up one of Diplomacy's shells to examine it, then laughed out loud at Bastion's surprise.
"Nah, my gun's normal... kind of. I just have a cool Semblance", Keid boasted while pointing to himself. "Not the flashiest one, I'll admit, but I'm flashy enough as it is." He raised his chin as he said that to display his lights.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion shook his head. "No, I don't normally use a mount. There is just a lot of horses where I grew up in Vacuo. Lots of raiders, sometimes I'd be on horseback when they came." Bastion turned to the ruined wall. "And I don't think anyone planned for someone to carry in here something that can blow off a Giant Nevermore's wing with one shot..." He remarked.

When Keid talked about his gun and Semblance, Bastion turned and his eyes widened at the small lights going up his neck. "That's... quite flashy. So, what does your Semblance do? See all around you? Blind with flashes of light? Are you a human flashlight?" He guessed.

[Keid Sharma]

A human flashlight ? If only... "Yeah, no, I'd like to be able to turn these off", Keid wished, poking his photophores with a frown, "but sadly, they're up day and night... and ironically, my Semblance is invisible to everyone but me. When I use it, it makes a... well, think of it as some kind of tracker made of Aura", he explained.

The part about blowing giant Nevermores was ominous, but Keid could picture quite well how a bird, no matter how big, would fare against this kind of firepower. That said, he doubted Diplomacy was the most destructive weapon in the school. His own gun, Borealis, was pretty overkill too, and they both were on the small side of Huntsmen weaponry. "There has to be some safeties in place for the more explosive-happy students, though. I'm sure there are some worse tools of mass destruction around. Apparently, there's even a girl who brought a war bike twice her size..." That would have banned her from even applying to any school in Atlas, but he guessed Vale didn't care as much about property damage.

The thought flew out of his head when Bastion mentioned having grown up in Vacuo. Now that sparked Keid's interest even more than his peculiar gun. "Vacuo ? You have to tell me about it ! Is it as hot as Solitas is cold ? Hotter than here ?", he closed in and lifted Bastion's hat to inspect it as he fired every question that came to his mind. "Do you have snow- of course you don't, there's sand instead ; are sandball fights a thing ? That seems painful though... can you build a sandman ? Oh ! Can you tell me what Grimm are like in the south ?"

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion put a hand to his chin as Keid explained his Semblance. He wondered if the lights on his skin were some odd part of his Semblance, but they seemed organic. They completely baffeled him and he was about to ask about it when Keid mentioned the bike girl. He let out a little sigh. "Her name's Citrine. I met her on the way here. Her attitude and ego are... as oversized as her bike. But I bet she'll make an amazing Huntress after graduation." He shrugged. "We've all got wrinkles that have to be ironed out."

And he hadn't even finished his reply before he got bombarded with questions of Vacuo. Keid's interest in even Bastion's hat was ammusing, and he let the guy hold his hat. His blond hat hair would be very visible without it. "It's very hot in the day and very cold at night. No snow, and now sandball fights or sandmen. That would require water for molding, and we don't waste that by pouring it into the ground. And big ones. Ones that dig into the sand and come up from below. Quite dangerous." He smiled as he answered. "Any more questions? I'd like to see how your gun shoots as well."

[Keid Sharma]

Keid stored the information on the Huntress and Vacuo in a corner of his mind, each of Bastion's answers bringing more questions to his mouth. He caught himself, however, when he realized that his new acquaintance was keeping up and didn't seem bothered by it, as he answered everything without losing his smile. Rapid-firing uncorrelated questions was a habit Keid tried to lose, since it tended to drive people away, but maybe he'd spent too much time with Atlesian recruits. He backed away a bit and chuckled awkwardly, before carefully putting the hat back on Bastion's head.
"Heh... sorry, I got carried away. I should probably stop here with the questions ; what you told me only makes me more curious about Vacuo. I'll probably go there and see it all by myself one day." He planned to, anyway. He made it as far as Vale, so he might as well try and visit all of the kingdoms.

At Bastion's prompt, he drew Borealis from its holster and twirled it for mandatory flair. "This is Borealis", he announced proudly. "It's a... gun ? Or a garden hose, or flamethrower... There's a lot of fun to have with it", he summarized. Then the stamp on the handle reminded him that it was advertisement time. "It's an automatic Dust mixer prototype built by Yureyu Dust and Techs", he recited, before mumbling : "Sorry, that's contractual..."

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion kept his eyes on his hat as it was placed on his own head once again. He fixed it into it's usual place on his head and gave a nod to Keid. "Question me anytime, it's fine. And you should see it, it's beautiful." Like a certain someone back there...

Bastion lifted an eyebrow as Keid attempted to explain what the gun could do, and then said a line that sounded straight out of a TV commercial. "Contractual? Are you paid to carry that gun around with you?" He asked. "I've never heard of that happening before. Then again, haven't heard many stories of Huntsmen and advertising. Desert, sand, tribe, you know." Bastion put a hand on his shoulder. "Whether it's forced on you or not, it sounded you actually enjoyed the thing. Show me what you can do with it." He then moved over to the terminal and brought up a few more targets. If it was a Dust mixer, then it could probably hit more than one target at a time.

[Keid Sharma]

Keid took Bastion's place in the booth and grabbed a purple and a white vial from his belt. "Actually, this is my sponsorship", he corrected, lifting Borealis and loading it. He wouldn't bother with the fire Dust ; a stream of fire was more suited for actual combat than for target practice. Fortunately, the machine was still ready to launch a sixty-second timer. Keid decided that exploring the options could wait, switched his weapon to bullet mode and stepped on the pedal.

He missed the first two shots when he predicted the target's movement wrong. It was faster than in Atlas, and more random too. Not unlike a Sabyr, except it stayed away. Once he adjusted to that, he began hitting it consistently, waiting for the minimum delay that Borealis needed to charge the bullets. He was definitely slower than Bastion, but the weaker recoil and his Semblance gave him better aim. Although the target wasn't marked, Borealis always was to help align his shots.
He had time to deplete two wind Dust vials, each reload wasting several seconds. In the end, the gravity Dust was ejected too and the machine buzzed before he could arm a new one. All in all, he'd managed to fire fifty shots, forty-four of which had hit. He had very few bullseyes, but part of that could be because the bullets weren't solid. The missed shots had cracked the wall a bit, but it didn't even compare to Diplomacy's impacts.

He smiled to Bastion and stepped out to gather his empty vials. "Eighty-eight percent, without auto-aim", Keid boasted, then pointed at Borealis. "There's more to it, but I'd rather keep the rest for when I try the fight simulator." Of course, Bastion's first score was still displayed on the side, an impressive ninety percent with more shots than him, too. More than that, the state of the wall was still bothering him. He started fiddling with the settings at random and muttered : "Hey, you don't think we forgot to activate a shield, or something ? I feel like we mucked this up somehow..."

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion folded his arms and watched Keid fire at the moving target. It took Bastion a moment before he realized that the thing wasn't shooting bullets, but more like solid wind. He looked at the draining vials of Wind and Gravity Dust. That's exactly what it was, the Gravity Dust propelling it and holding it together before it made an impact. He watched the man work and let out a low whistle once he was done.

"That's some sweet shootin' ace." He quoted a favorite person of his who said that to him back at home. "Keep the Dust. Must be expensive, and they're not payin' you to throw it all at test dummies." When he mentioned a shield, Bastion furrowed his brows. "Uh, maybe? Shoot, I didn't think of that. I only looked at the target settings." He moved over to the terminal as well. "I hope we're not in trouble..."

[Keid Sharma]

Expensive ? Keid knew his ammo was high-quality Dust, but he'd never asked about the price. That had never been a concern for him, and Dust wasn't in short supply in his hometown, either.
"I have to train with something", he retorted, "and the gun is made for pure powdered Dust. It's a package deal anyway." He brushed off the concern with a wave of the hand. Distracted from the terminal, he tapped the settings screen without looking and triggered a whir that resonated through the room.

A sudden wind picked up in the closed and bulletproof firing range, sweeping Keid's hair back and making him squint. "Seriously ? That's amazing !" He peered at the screen to see that he had apparently activated "upwind". He grinned at the absolutely overkill amount of options there was and picked another at random. "Do people really train like that ?!", he screamed over the sound of rushing air, just as a white fog began obscuring the targets.

[Bastion Sandstone]

The cowboy shrugged as Keid blew off the whole Dust deal.

Bastion watched as Keid played with the settings. He held the hat ontop of his head from getting blown away. "I guess some people do! Never know when you have to shoot Grimm while falling from a building, I suppose!" He had to shout over the sound of the wind. "Or fighting in the fog! Or a cloud?" Bastion looked over to the terminal and saw the myriad of options as well. "Holy moly, you can train with anything in here!"

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Dude, fighting someone inside an actual cloud would be ♫AWESOME♫!" Lauren yelled as she ambled into the training room the way she normally entered such places: by walking on her hands.

The wind promptly forced her to cartwheel onto her feet. "I mean, that's assuming I could find a way to stay up there, 'cause, ya know, I can't, like, fly? I could totally win a fight in a cloud, though." Looking at her new companions, she saw a dusty blonde who was clearly also from Vacuo (as if the boots alone wouldn't have been a dead giveaway, this guy also had the hat and bandana to match) and a brighter blonde who definitely wasn't.

She stretched lazily before asking as casually as one could ask something while shouting it over the sound of wind in an enclosed space, "So, you boys come here often?"

[Keid Sharma]

Something in Keid's mind told him that people probably should know, in fact, when they had to shoot Grimm while falling from a building. But Bastion was still right, it never hurt to be prepared ; after all, Huntsmen had to ensure their targets stayed down. "Overkill" was usually their watchword, and so was Beacon's, apparently.

Keid could barely hear his fellow marksman not two feet away, however, and that prompted him to shut the rushing wind off. Or to try, anyway, as a shout behind them had the Faunus turning instinctively, and missing the button he was aiming for. He looked at the newcomer - hey ! Another shade of blond - and cupped his ear while yelling : "What ?!", just as he thought the Dust would shut down.
He added sideways gravity to the whole mess instead, and the mix of wind, force and distraction swept him off his feet straight into the two other students. "Sorry", he had time to grimace right before crashing.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion turned his head as he heard someone speak in time to watch the fair-haired girl spin to her feet. An acrobat? That was something he hadn't seen before in a combat school. This was his first one and he had only just got here, but it was still new. Keid turned towards the terminal to presumably turn the thing off, so Bastion tried to listen to her and read her lips. She was shouting so it helped, and he had experience trying to listen to people while his ears were ringing from his gun.

He last comment got him to smile, and as he thought of a response Keid turned back from the terminal. Bastion glanced over his shoulder at the last second, seeing the selection he had made. "Wait, Keid!" He shouted before the Gravity Dust took them off their feet. Gravity in general worked pretty fast, and Bastion couldn't help but be carried off by Keid and hit the new girl. He quickly turned his body, putting himself on the bottom so he would take all the impact. Bastion was used to taking the hits, and it may be misogynistic but even in tight scenarios he didn't like getting girls hurt, even mildly. So he ended up on bottom.

"To answer your question..." Bastion groaned. "This is our first time!"

[Lauren Voltaire]

"I can see that," Lauren managed to squeak out as she extricated herself from the middle of the newly-created human sandwich.

Once free, she sized up the room she'd just been blown out of (thankfully gravity was normal in the hallway) before turning a semi-somersault into the wall across from the doorway and pushing off it hard to launch herself into the room. Thankfully, the terminal stand was metallic, allowing her to magnetize her way to it with her armor and wrap her legs around it long enough to read the controls and hit the one to reset the room. Of course, she'd forgotten to brace for impact with the floor once it was 'down' again, and crashed unceremoniously to the floor, bronze armor CLANGing loudly.

The fastest way to face the boys was to return to her earlier handstand with her back to the terminal, so that's what she did. "Well, that was fun," she said brightly. Let's never do it again! Unless y'all are game for doing so in a more... comfortable location?" She winked, hoping her current upside-down-ness didn't spoil the flirt.

[Keid Sharma]

"This is our first time !", yelled Bastion, and Keid hoped the next ones would be less chaotic, and less his fault. Once she managed to get to her feet, the newcomer sprang on the wall, then to the terminal with enough momentum to counter the artificial gravity and latch onto it. The impressive feat had Keid whistle. He had planned to launch himself with his own gravity Dust and... sort of tackle the thing into emergency shutdown or something. Thankfully, she was quicker and her jump was a lot more precise than what he could hope to achieve.

The whirlwind ended with her loud fall, and the firing range went back to its previous state as the cloud dissipated.
There was a pause after Keid pushed himself up. He closed his collar in an attempt to somehow disappear and looked away. "Um... very sorry about this. I swear I'm usually more careful, I was just... a bit too hyped", he muttered and offered a hand to Bastion, then added : "By your awesomeness." Yeah, let's go with that.
He made to apologize to the girl as well, but was stopped by her upside-down comment and wink, which threw him off and got a surprised laugh out of him. "Maybe with less Dust", he chuckled.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion let Keid pull him up off of the ground, rolling his shoulders and stretching his back once standing. He had to chuckle along with Keid at the girl's suggestion, but Bastion held up a hand. "Sorry, but I'm spoken for. But I agree, next time less Dust." Bastion brushed himself off, looking at the other guy. "My awesomeness? What, you think I could shoot a target in a cloud while falling sideways?" He joked. "Because if I could, then you should be hyped."

He turned to the new girl. Her armor certainly was odd, made not of steel, but... was that copper? What she did looked more like gravity manipulation, not conducting electricity. Though, why would she want copper if that was the case? Questions to be answered by talking. "So, you're quite acrobatic. And what made you fly around, your Semblance?" He asked.

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Or maybe with more dust." Lauren waggled her eyebrows at Keid.

When Bastion said he was taken, she laughed. "Oooh, you're with someone? Invite her too, the more the merrier!"

At the mention of acrobatics, Lauren flexed her arms in a mock handstand pullup. "My Semblance is EMF control. I can make electricity... happen. Or not happen. Not really useful for mobility, unless..." Lauren indicated the panel with her left knee, "there's something magnetic nearby." She bent her legs into a diamond to give the boys a better view of the wire coils under the armor plates. "Run electricity through a coil of wire and you got yerself a magnet. Which apparently helps just as much out of combat as it does in."

[Keid Sharma]

Keid definitely hadn't wondered if Bastion could fight in a hurricane. But he could try to picture it, in the most optimistic way possible, and still fear the outcome. "Yeah, super hyped !", he faked with a nervous laugh. "But please don't try. No need to add Diplomacy to that hellscape... Besides, in that situation, shooting down ennemies shouldn't be your top priority." At that point, the girl - who he should maybe ask the name of - suggested more Dust.

More Dust ? Keid raised an eyebrow, unsure whether to be cautious or amused. Did she have a kink about being clotheslined by people caught in a tornado ? Was that even a thing ? He tried to determine how much she was joking, and found himself tilting his head and shoulders to compensate for the awkward angle. Who knew reading expressions was so hard upside-down ? "Um... yeah, nah. The only things I put Dust into are my weapon and my drinks", he declined, then shook his head to focus on her speech, rather than her distracting posture.
As she explained it, her Semblance seemed straightforward but her use of it wasn't. Magnetism wasn't something Keid was very familiar with ; this was the kind of stuff he skimmed over when he found time to read his weapon's handbooks. He made to ask for details, only to catch himself when he was about to call her "magnet" for lack of a better name.
"So, magnet... erm, who are you ?" It wasn't supposed to sound as blunt, but she was blunter so she probably wouldn't mind.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Man, this girl was hor- flirty. She was flirty. Thats how girls flirted, right? He should have asked Saffron on tips to how to tell so he didn't get himself in messes. "I would if I could, though she's in a different kingdom at the moment. And she doesn't like to, uh, share."

Bastion glanced over at Keid when he mentioned Dust. "In your drink?" He asked quietly. He hadn't ever put Dust in a drink before, but he supposed the use of Ice Dust to cool down a drink didn't count.

He listened to her explain the use of her Semblance. It wasn't much on the surface, but when you combined it with the use of coils and wire, yeah, you could do a lot with that. She was practically a battery and could make anything work. Heck, she could just carry around a lightbulb for light. "Push electricity through a Grimm, that sounds combat-effective." He commented.

When Keid asked who she was, he realized that they hadn't introduced themselves. "I'm Bastion Sandstone." He would say after she introduced herself.

[Lauren Voltaire]

Lauren shrugged. "More for me, then. Good on you for sticking with her, though. You don't find too many people our age who're that committed. Respect." She held up a fist for Bastion to bump.

"Most Grimm are actually harder to electrocute than people, so without Dust it's a no-go for zapping them. If I stretch electricity too far it knocks me on my ass. Though," she contorted her legs into a position where she could crane her neck to see her rear end while maintaining her one-hand handstand, "that's not the worst position to find myself in. At least I'd look nice."

At the mention of names, the fist to bump became a hand to shake. "I'm Lauren. Player of power and mover of men."

[Keid Sharma]

The conversation was both confusing Keid and reminding him that the people he knew in his hometown and in Atlas were pretty conservative, to say the least. Was sharing normal in this kingdom ? "Can you share lovers here ? Is that a thing ?", he wondered, failing to hide his curiosity.
He heard Bastion mutter a question, to which he answered distractedly : "Warms you up on cold nights", but most of his attention was on the girl. Her stunts looked a bit like pole dance without a pole, and it brought him back to that time when Sinople had taken him to a special club in Mantle. He cursed his mentor's weird passtimes for his reddening cheeks. Plus, her flirting wasn't making him less hot under his (very thick) collar. He missed nearly everything that was said until a hand was extended and she introduced herself as "mover of men". No kidding...

At least he remembered to look at her eyes before talking. "Er... right. I'm Keid. Half-man, half-fish, and half-signboard", he mirrored her introduction. He hesitated a bit before shaking her hand, not knowing if he should expect a good ol' electric handshake prank from Lauren, but it had to be in the scope of her Semblance.