Reach For the Sky [Public ?/?]

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion obliged the fist bump. He turned to Keid. "No, we don't. Or, at least I wouldn't." He said before getting his own confirmation for Dust in the drinks, giving a nod. Odd. He turned back to Lauren and her flirting, directing the two men to wonder about her rear. He wasn't that interested, see above, but Keid seemed to be out of his depth here. She would certainly 'move' Keid if he didn't get some sort of help. At least Keid remembered to look her in the eyes before giving an introduction that made him laugh.

"I'm Bastion. Half-Gunslinger, half-cowboy and fully wishing you would stand on your feet." He said as he glance back up to her legs, not her butt, and then back at her face. "Would you oblige me, please?"

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Non-monogamy isn't all that popular when it comes to committed relationships," Lauren answered Keid after Bastion, "but who said anything about commitment?" She winked at Keid, enjoying his stammering.

At Bastion's suggestion that she stand the right way up after he looked her down and up, she sighed, setting one foot down to turn a limber half-cartwheel to right herself. "Sure thing, cowboy. My eyes are up here again, fish-face," she added playfully with an added eyebrow waggle at Keid. "So." She looked around the room, noticing the pile of target dummies against the walls near the door. "Target practice, huh? Well, I'd never pass up a chance to let a fella shoot his shot. Shall we continue?"

[Keid Sharma]

It didn't stop. The flirting would never stop. Keid ducked further into his collar when she addressed him. She'd noticed ?... Of course she noticed, I couldn't stare more obviously if I tried !, he scolded himself and averted his eyes, silently thanking Bastion for his sanity - because really, he wouldn't handle Lauren alone. She was far from the people he usually spoke to.
Who said anything about commitment ? "Well, a lot of older and wiser people, I think", he retorted, though he struggled not to replace "wiser" by "uptight". He kind of agreed with her, too ; the whole point of coming to Vale was to be around less rigid folks.

But the thought went out the window when that nickname was thrown, making his blush fade quickly. "Fish-face" was his infuriating cousin's nickname, because of his Faunus trait, and it would stay that way. "Please no. Don't. I don't have gills, and I don't want to think about it", Keid hurriedly protested, then shuddered. His lights were a pain to shave around, but gills had to be on the next level. And he had nothing in common with the guy.
"Yeah, let's get back to it. I have a sudden urge to shoot something", he agreed to her suggestion with a strained smile. At least it turned his attention away from Lauren's manners and... eyes. Yeah, that.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Fish-face? Maybe she just couldn't think of another nickname, but that? He was the one really accepting her flirting, and she called him fish-face. Any prejudice on faunus that she may have aside, that was just indecent. He shook his head, deciding on Keid's words that he wouldn't make an issue of it. He turned back to the terminal and reset the training room. If Keid wanted to shoot something, he'd give him something to shoot.

Ten targets would appear, seven of them clustered around each other while the other three were more spread out. "Show her what you can do, Keid." He tapped a button on the terminal after he said that. A dense fog would appear, obscuring all but the closest ones. If what Keid said about his Semblance was true, he would be able to see them past this fog.

What Bastion was trying to do was set Keid up with ammunition to flirt back with Lauren, or more likely, show her that he wasn't some fish-face. The guy had been decent enough for their first meeting and already considered him a friend. But if Bastion came off all threatening and protective, it would only tell Lauren that Keid couldn't handle himself. This was his chance to make an impression all on his own.

[Lauren Voltaire]

This guy was just too easy to mess with. Lauren wasn't even trying that hard, and he was already squirming - though he wasn't uncomfortable. That was good.

And then she called him 'fish-face'. Oops. "Ixnay on the ishfay? Can do." She stood to attention and saluted Keid, keeping her playful smile. "I'll find somethin' else ta call ya, then."

It seemed the pun about flirting had gone over the boys' heads. Oh well. This was a training room, after all, and Keid did have a gun. "Go get 'em, Keid!" she said as she literally bowed out of the way of the terminal, letting him choose his firing position.

[Keid Sharma]

If both of them were asking, Keid would happily oblige. He mentally thanked Bastion for not letting him touch the terminal again, as he didn't trust himself with it now.
When he passed close to Lauren, he was reminded that he knew a little about her Semblance, nothing about her weapon, nor where she came from or why she came here... but he figured that she would probably use his questions as another excuse to flirt, and he wasn't prepared for more. Not after he just stopped being unbearably awkward. That was a shame, because if he could simply not be a bumbling fool, he felt like they would get along well, for she seemed as chaotic as he was. Objectively the best quality to have.

Instead of asking, he waited until he reached the stall before answering : "A good nickname sounds amazing, but I'm afraid I don't have any idea for you. The last one I got was from my combat teacher in Atlas." He reloaded Borealis, this time filling its three slots, and opened back his vest . "And he called me a walking cataclysm."

Now, he usually had the advantage in a blind fight, but walking up to the targets to mark each one would feel a little weird, and not very realistic. So he turned to the next best thing. "Time to shine", he whispered his personal cheer-up line before aiming at the fog and setting his gun on flamethrower mode. He watched with an ear-to-ear grin as the fire and wind Dusts filled the barrel, then covered half the range in a blazing storm. His delighted expression was probably out of place, but to be fair, anyone born in the North of Solitas was a bit of a pyromaniac.

The flamethrower shut down abruptly after three seconds, but it was largely enough to dissipate the fog. Keid caught the ejected vials and started firing gravity shots quickly. These targets were motionless, making it easy to shoot them all in turn, which he did several times before the air cooled down and the fog rolled in again. He still missed a few in his hurry, and one of the farthest ones hadn't even been hit. Disappointing, but he couldn't see it anymore.

Yet, he had to impress his audience somehow, and show something else than the clumsy and shy boy he'd been since Lauren's arrival. So he prayed for good luck, applied his Semblance to the empty vials in his hand and threw them towards the last target. Facing the others with his eyes closed, he thanked his lucky star when a "clink" sounded behind him, aligned Borealis with the dot and fired. Sure enough, his stats changed on the screen, and he smiled proudly at the witnesses.

Then the last vial was expelled straight into his temple. His smile became bitter, but he barely blinked. Do not react. Ignore it. Act like everything went to plan... stupid engineers !

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion stood there, arms folded, and watched with a plain face. It deepened into an appreciative frown. He stepped a bit closer and watched Keid shoot the targets after his flamethrower dust was spent. Bastion's eyes glanced from the score on the screen before he apparently missed the farthest one. He then did something the cowboy didn't expect. He threw the dust vial, turned to the Lauren and him, and fired where he heard the 'clink'. Bastion looked at the same time as Keid to see that the score had risen. He had shot them all, and a pretty good score all things considering.

He let out a low whistle as the vials rolled on the ground. "That's some shootin'!" He clapped the man on the shoulder before tapping on the terminal to cancel the timer. It gave a short buzz over the loudspeakers as he did so. "Alright Copper, you're up. How do you want them?" He would ask, and set them up accordingly. He wasn't sure how she fought, so it was better to ask. After she was set to go, he would tap on the "Vertical Movement" option. The targets would start bobbing up and down about four feet, and what good was showing off if your targets just stood there with no impedements?

[Lauren Voltaire]

Keid was definitely showing off at the end there, and Lauren wasn't about to let that go unnoticed. She nodded appreciatively at him, making an impressed face. "Color me impressed, my man. That last shot in particular was very nice."

Copper, huh? Well, as nicknames went, it wasn't bad. Certainly better than she could have hoped for, given how loopy she'd eventually get. "My turn, is it?" She cracked her knuckles. "Gimme a diagonal line spaced about eight feet apart."

As the six targets reached their positions and began bobbing a bit (Bastion clearly liked scenarios where things weren't "the targets are unobscured and stationary", which made sense given that real combat never included that kind of target), she took a second to stretch and place her knives on her arms before grabbing her larger blades and launching into a series of tumbles, cartwheels, somersaults, and handsprings, making sure to slice each target at least a few times before moving on. At the end of the line, she turned her last roll into a kneeling crouch, stretching out her braced arm toward the first target, which was now a good forty feet away. "Hope this hits..." she said just loud enough for the gents to hear before launching a batangas knife at the target with a pulse of magnetism.

Much to her surprise, the knife did, in fact, collide with the target. Much to her chagrin, however, it did so handle-first, rendering the attack completely ineffective. Lauren could only laugh as she walked over to retrieve it. "Annnnnd that's why I stick to melee."

[Keid Sharma]

Keid's expression became genuine again at Bastion's compliment. This man only ever gave praise and motivation, it seemed. That was the kind of people Remnant needed, the kind who drove the Grimm away just by existing. Lauren was too, with her wholesome comment just now and her carefree attitude. Whether it was natural or trained, life had taught Keid that being able to stay positive was much more useful than any amount of strength or skill in a bad situation. Atlas students seemed to have forgotten that, but these two embraced it. They were exactly who he wanted to meet by coming to Beacon !

His thoughts were interrupted, and his ecstatic smile replaced by clear surprise when Lauren threw herself into the firing range to perform some kind of thirty-hit-combo only seen in video games. "That's... an interesting way to use a facility meant for long range training", he mused, but couldn't help an admirative whistle after her display. And a chuckle at the once again outlandish setting: "Bobbing targets though? Are there Grimm bunnies I haven't been told about in the wild?" This place certainly allowed for a lot of creativity.

"Any other weird safety hazard catch your eye?", he half-joked to Bastion, who seemed to have fun setting up challenges so far. "How about... Civilians?" Keid opened an info box to see that it would add uniquely colored targets to avoid shooting down. Bastion had fought with his tribe around before, hadn't he? "Perfect! The stage is yours", he nodded and hit the screen.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Grimm Bunnies. "Well, there's boars, birds, bears, why not bunnies? Little cute things just rip your head off." Bastion chuckled as he watched Lauren slice, stab, spin, and otherwise attack the targets. He could see how she was using physics with her Semblance to help her fight. Quite creative and smart. She'd be great to have on the field with a head like that. He let out a low whistle when she was done, nodding his head appreciatively. "That was something, Lauren. Thanks for the demonstration." He said. Now it was his turn. Keid set it up and Bastion stepped forward, unholstering Diplomacy.

Oh, great. Targets you weren't supposed to hit. He'd have to concentrate a bit harder this time around. He couldn't just see a target out of his peripheral and fire, he had to think about each one. Still, not unlike home entirely. It was a little easier when you knew everybody that you didn't want to shoot, but being a Huntsman was all about changing tactics on the fly. Maybe. "It's 'bout to get loud." He warned Lauren. Keid would already know.

As soon as the buzzer sounded he aimed at the closest one and fired. He currently had his .65 caliber rounds locked in, and the first shot boomed around their space. The target took a heavy hit from the heavy round, and Bastion quickly turned to his left where the next closest was. Three more shots from his cannon before he flicked his wrist and the cylinders rotated around, loading in his .45 caliber rounds. He had special dust rounds but didn't feel like wasting them on target practice. Hitting them was the goal, not freezing, shocking, or exploding them.

With the .45 caliber he continued to shoot each target once or twice, loading .65 caliber shells in between shots to the now exposed empty cylinder. He took a single moment to sight each target, half of one to reason if it's a target or civilian, and another half to aim and pull the trigger. Once that was out he flicked his hand again, switching back to the heavier rounds, and began blasting the targets again. He almost blew one civilian away with a perfectly sighted headshot before he realized his mistake and turned it to a target beside them. It wasn't a bullseye, not even close, but he stopped from shooting an 'innocent'.

It soon came to the farthest target, one that was slightly behind and to the side of the civilian, as if taking them hostage. He had his last larger round in. He sighted carefully, the target being perhaps 50 meters away at the back of the training hall. He let out a deep breath and slowly pulled the trigger.

The bullet soared just past the shoulder of the civilian target and hit his true target. However, the shockwave of such a round hitting the target must have made a large enough impact on the civilian target, and it counted as if he had hit them. The buzzer sounded immediately, signaling that he had failed.

"Oh come on." Bastion groaned. "I didn't hit that one!"

[Lauren Voltaire]

Lauren arched her back in a stretch. "Mighty kind of ya, Sir." She tipped a nonexistent hat at Bastion and winked.

The cowboy took center stage as Keid set up a challenging scenario for him. She covered her ears when warned, and immediately appreciated the heads-up, as the large-caliber rounds packed quite a sonic punch in the enclosed space. Bastion's accuracy was as spot-on as she'd expected from such a personage - until the last shot.

"Now, now, you should know better than to use such a big slug for a target so close to a civvy!" She gave him a playful shove on the non-firing shoulder. "Don't you worry 'bout it. You'd have a teammate at the other end to deal with that chucklehead in real life anyway," she continued, jabbing a thumb at the last target. "Seems you two fellas 'ave me beat at distance fightin', what with yer guns an' all. Wonder if'n there's someone 'round here that could gimme a hand with aimin' mah knives."

She cracked her neck, looking absently at the area where her knife had landed earlier, then patted her thighs decisively and shot a sideways look at the boys, a devious grin slowly making its way onto her face. "How y'all do in close-up tusslin'?"

[Keid Sharma]

Bastion's showdown was technically a perfect run. Although... "To be fair, anyone standing this close without Aura would've had their eardrum shattered by that round... It's still amazing that you didn't blow up any anti-target. You didn't even slow down that much!", Keid praised as the echoes of Diplomacy's shots died down. He doubted he could achieve this in twice the time it took Bastion. It was a bit sad to consider, but his experience fighting raiders showed.

Keid then turned to Lauren, whose display had brought many questions to his mind. How did he do in close quarters ? Well, he usually didn't, which prompted an uneasy chuckle, but his focus was elsewhere. Now that she had chosen the more comfortable topic of fighting and weapons, no embarassment held his curiosity back. "But, you said you use magnetism. Can't you guide the knives to your targets? Or, scratch that, pull the targets to you? Or... wait, you move around like a stuntwoman thanks to your Semblance, right? Can you hover?" Could she... "Can you straight up fly?? Or charge a Scroll?" Wait, that didn't even make sense! His last outlandish question reminded him to actually pause and listen to her answers. And to back off, even though her blades and weird knives really caught his attention, because he had once again walked into headbutt range.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion took the shove in his shoulder and smiled, a little embarrased. "Yeah, need to think about changing calibers for that." He looked at Keid. "I didn't slow down? Felt like I did." He shrugged and reloaded Diplomacy before holstering it. Lauren asked about how they did up close and personal, and Keid started listing off questions. They were fair questions, ones Bastion assumed the answer to were 'Yes', but she had to answer.

"When It comes to throwing knives" He would put in once she answered, "I had my fair share of practice back home. But it seems your leagues ahead of where I was. I've actually been thinking of adding knives to my arsenal now that I'm at Beacon, but it's just a thought. For other people who get too close," He drew Diplomacy again and pushed a button on the side.

A blade shot out from beneath the barrel that was two feet from the gun, making it three total feet from his hand. The blade was thin and tapered, allowing Bastion a great deal of control since the majority of the weight was near his hand. "I have this to use."

[Lauren Voltaire]

Ooh, technical questions! As much as Lauren pretended to not care in class, the ins and outs of how things worked had always been something she enjoyed learning.

"I said I create magnetism," she answered Keid, shaking her head. "I control voltage, and use my armor to turn that into magnetism. So throwing the knife away from me at speed is the best I can manage for control without learning how to aim. So guide the knives? No. Pull targets closer? If they're made of or wearing magnetic stuff, sure - but Grimm generally aren't, so that's more for fighting other people."

Stuntwoman, huh? Just wait 'till he saw her in... never mind. "I've never tried hovering, but I would need to be near a large, and probably flat, piece of a magnetized something, not just a magnetic something. No, I can't fly. Yes, I can charge a scroll, but not any faster than you could normally charge it."

Bastion's gun, as it turned out, had a third mode beyond just changing caliber. One sword transformation later, Lauren zipped over to him, running her hand along the length of the new blade a hair's breadth from touching it, before giving it an inquisitive whack in the middle with her elbow to check how far it'd move with his passive resistance. "That'll do, yeah. You any good with it?" She turned back to look at Keid. "How 'bout you, cataclysm? You any good without yer gun?"

[Keid Sharma]

Never mind her Semblance's limitations, or that she sadly couldn't fly. She could charge a Scroll by hand, and that sounded incredibly useful no matter the setting. "Some people would sell an arm and a leg for this", Keid marvelled, but he didn't have time to comment any further on her answers (which marked the second time someone actually answered him today, by the way; already more than in Atlas).

He was distracted by Bastion revealing his mecha-shifting sword, which was not the most impressive but still amazing. "You didn't tell me about that! Why didn't you? I thought we said no more secrets between us", he complained while clutching his heart in mock distress, though he dropped the pose quickly to take a closer look at the blade.
Then he cringed at Lauren's question. "Don't know, never tried. I either shoot my foes or I shoot myself!"... A bit extreme, maybe. "I mean, I know how to throw a punch, but I'd much rather throw a fireball", he amended.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Lauren's explanation of her Semblance made a lot more sense now, especially the point that she couldn't guide her knives, only push them. If she made a strong enough field, it could be thrown with possibly an insane amount of force. However, learning how to throw well could give you the same result. Training the body to perform without a Semblance was better, he thought. Time to start training with knives again. And charge a scroll, huh? She'd be very useful on field ops where there weren't chargers.

They both seemed interested in the blade, and he held it up at an angle for them to inspect. "Because of the weight placement and the tapering of the blade, I use fencer's techniques. It works out as well because if I can lock a blade or get a good thrust to stick someone, I can pull the trigger and blast them off of it." He gave a wicked little smile. "I could do with some more practice in swordplay. I'm a better marksman than swordsman."

He retracted the blade and holstered his weapon, chuckling at the guy. "Telling secrets takes time, and it's only been, what, an hour since we met? I'm telling you now. And we can't have you defenseless if something happens to that tech of yours. Hand-to-hand combat is something you need to know. I'm sure you had some sort of training in it before, right?"

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Ah, the ol' rapier technique, eh? Solid, solid." And, of course, it was also a gun. Well, more like the gun was also a sword. "I wouldn't mind a lesson or two in swordsmanship myself. Though I don't really use swords per se," she added, twirling one of her tonfas absently for a moment before returning it to her back.

"The cowboy's right, Keid," Lauren said when Bastion mentioned the necessity of fisticuffs. "You'll run out of ammo at some point, right?" She put up her hands in a mock boxing stance. "Gotta make sure you've got the fundamentals down at least."

[Keid Sharma]

Keid held his hands up defensively. "Hey, hey now! I didn't say I was useless, just that I'm not fond of it", he defended himself. "And my teacher wasn't either." Hard to be when you lived on the coast, and you could just hop on a boat or a snowmobile to pick off the Grimm more safely. "In truth, I've learned how to throw hits or tackles to send opponents back at a safe distance, not to engage in close quarters. That's just how you fight in my hometown, I guess. You'd rather keep a Sabyr's jaws away, and you definitely don't punch a Megoliath..."

His grin came back after the explanation. "As for fights against people, I have my own tricks, and they've carried me this far", he added with a shrug. And when he was out of Dust ? Well, like mom always said... "If you run out, you run away. First rule of the gunmen."

[Bastion Sandstone]

"I didn't say useless, I only said defenseless." Bastion said. "And I suppose you're right. Hand-to-hand is synonymous with suicide when it comes to Grimm if you don't have weapons or gear made for that." He listened to what else he had to say, before nodding a little. He had had that experience. That's why he carried basically a whole box of ammo on him when he wasn't in class.

"Running out of ammo is one of the worst things, yes. But what if you can't run? The only way out is through? I'm not trying to convince you to become a blackbelt in some Mystral martial art, just the basics of how to possibly take a weapon from someone, how to strike, throw people off of you, and some other things."

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Nothing wrong with grappling and judo," conceded Lauren. "I'm not very good at ranged combat myself. I guess we've all got areas for improvement."

At Bastion's mention of the only way out sometimes being through, she flexed her arms. "It's usually easier to go over or around obstacles than through them., though. Especially if you're out of ammo."

[Keid Sharma]

Keid nodded at Lauren. "I agree. Distract them, trip them, confuse them, and make your escape. Besides", he added, and at that he started making larger and larger hand motions to describe the scene: "If you're surrounded, that means your surrounders are themselves surrounded... by your teammates! 'Cause no one fights alone, do they? I hope you don't, I heard Beacon pairs people up. I wonder how?", he rambled.
"By skills? But they don't know our skills yet. By affinity? Diversity's kind of a requirement, isn't it? Or at random?... Nope, just seems silly. Although, we've not gotten a lot of info in the first place." He took out his Scroll to emphasize the scarce amount of instructions Beacon had sent them. "Their approach seems to be 'throw a room number and a timetable at them and welcome to the wastelands'. Maybe to test our survival skills", he pondered.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion smiled at Keid. He was a funny and likeable guy. "No, they don't fight alone here. Teams are made up of four students, with one being the leader. I heard that there was some sort of trial or test first before teams are made, but I suppose that's a couple of days after we've arrived." He shrugged. "And in the best of circumstances, you aren't alone. But if you prepare for the worst and hope for the best, you can't be disappointed."

[Lauren Voltaire]

"Pretty sure teams aren't random. That sounds like a recipe for all kinds of disaster." Come to think of it, how DID Beacon form its teams? Were teams permanent? What if there was drama later? Lauren suddenly had a lot of questions. "I suddenly have a lot of questions about how they make teams here."

Lauren had to agree with Bastion's attitude. Preparing for things to not go the way you wanted was always smart. "Better to have a plan and not need it than need a plan and not have it."

[Keid Sharma]

They both weren't going to budge on this, apparently. Keid found it best to relent, and hopefully let them see later that he could hold his own. "Alright, alright, I give up!", he conceded. "Maybe I'll take the martial arts elective, or whatever optional course focuses on unarmed fights. Just don't be sour when I beat you in a spar", he added with a wink.

He knew that the question of teams would bother him until the trial Bastion spoke of if he let the subject hang in the air. They already had a lot to think about at the moment. "... All things considered, maybe we shouldn't worry about teams right now, unless you have the perfect one in mind", he reluctantly revised. "If students stay in the same four-people teams and the same dorms for four years, it's clear that they're well thought-out by the academy."
When in doubt, optimism was always the way to go.

[Bastion Sandstone]

Bastion gave Keid a wide grin as he teased about beating him. The grin became a thoughtful smile as Keid continued. "You're right. A lot of people our age would get sick of that fast unless they meshed well. But maybe the teams could force people into a state of cooperation with those they wouldn't normally mesh with, because these are monsters we're hunting and we can't be petty." He shrugged. "Either way, good tidings all around as long as people are here to learn in more ways than one."

He looked over at the clock on the wall and blew out a breath. "Well, time for dinner. We best start clearin' out of here."

[Lauren Voltaire]

Lauren scoffed when Keid mentioned beating them in a sparring match. "In your dreams," she said, giving her new friend a playful shove.

"I just hope I end up on a team with people who are okay with me dragging some or all of them off on an adventure at three in the morning, like, every other day," she mused after Bastion noted that a large amount of thought must have gone into the process of how teams were formed here.

It was HOW late? "Food it is, then!" Lauren agreed amiably. "I wonder if they have curly fries."

[Keid Sharma]

Though Keid should have expected it after her display, Lauren's strength was still impressive for someone a head shorter than him. He went with the push and waved his arms dramatically in mock surprise.

"I wish everyone would have that kind of wisdom", he agreed with Bastion. "And that we'll all get along with our teams. That's surely as important as..." He cut his musings to stare at the clock when Bastion did. "... Dammit. I wanted to explore the whole building... but the canteen's food waits for no one. It doesn't feel like wasted time, though. I guess I should thank you two for the weirdest training session ever." Definitely no contest here.

Curly fries sounded interesting, but Keid wasn't hard to please when some of the foods served here were rare delicacies back home.