LongSean22

The trip felt infinitely longer than usual for Ilia, and just about as agonizing. She couldn't help but keep shooting glances at the faunus walking beside her, but Carmella's gaze remained focused forward. After getting nothing from the rabbit girls face, Ilia's gaze drifted downward, to Carmella's hand, dangling only inches from her own. Would it be too weird of her to take Carm's hand again? I mean, they'd done it before, multiple times now, but those had been special circumstances. Twice it had been too use Ilia's semblance to hide the pair, and then when they were coming back from the docks this morning... well, Ilia didn't really know how that had happened. She'd been so overwhelmed emotionally at the time, and the next thing she knew, Carmella's hand was entwined with her own. Now though? There was no occasion to do it. Ilia just wanted to. And Gods, did she really, really, want to. In the end however, Ilia couldn't build up the nerve to do it. Her own insecurities won out in

As Ilia first started to stir, and her mind began the process of waking itself up, she resisted opening her eyes at first. Instead, she turned her head into the pillow beneath her head, trying to block out the sunlight that was persistently shining in through the window of her hotel room and directly onto her face. She didn't want to get up, she'd been having the most amazing dream, and was desperately hoping that if she resisted waking fully, she might be able to return to it. It had all been so... perfect, truly an ideal outcome to her current situation. She'd been at the docks, saying goodbye to Carmella, but then, at the last second, Ilia had somehow managed to break through her own doubts and insecurities and begged the other faunus to stay, and shockingly- with absolutely zero convincing required- the rabbit eared girl had agreed. It had been incredible, the best dream Ilia had ever had, if she was honest, but unfortunately, that's all it had been, just a dream. Now it was time

Seagulls cried out in the sky above, hovering over the ships in Mistral's main port, looking for a quick and easy meal from one of the many fishing boats docked there. They screeched and swooped at any vessel foolish enough to leave their quarry unguarded for even a second. However, this morning the winged scavengers feast was cut short as they were all scattered by a loud foghorn blaring loudly. The S.S. Pride had been docked since around sunrise, it's ear splitting foghorn signaling the extension of its boarding plank, letting everyone in attendance know that it was ready to begin talking on passengers. Mata took a deep breath through his nose, taking in a lung full of the ocean air. Her expected the scent to be a familiar one, but for some reason the air here tasted different from the coasts of Menagerie. It was... saltier, he supposed? Whatever the difference was, it made him miss his home even more. He couldn't wait to see his mom again, to sleep in his own bed, to

The Alpha raised its clawed, bone covered arms into the air before bending down and letting out a deafening roar that had the rabbit girls sensitive ears curling up against the top of her head. At that point, Carm was pretty sure things couldn't get any worse, and fate was quick to prove her wrong. A sudden rumbling filled the air, and then, as if summoned by the other Grimm's cry, the woods practically erupted with monsters of all shapes and sizes, running across the grass, straight towards the convoy of trucks. This particular Alpha's story was not typical. It had been spawned a normal, average Beowolf, like the millions of others of its kind, but while those others had fallen in the Grimm's crusade against humanity, this one had survived, and more importantly, it had learned. It had lived for hundreds of years, stalking the hills of Anima, usually in the wake of the more powerful versions of its kind, picking up the scraps left behind so it could to grow stronger. The

There was a reason most people chose to avoid traveling Anima by road, that airships and trains were the preferred method of transportation across the continent. It wasn't just because of the obvious dangers associated with traversing the wilderness, that could be said for anywhere on Remnant. No, the issue was unfortunately a bit more... political in nature. Let's just say that road maintenance for outside the kingdoms wasn't high on the any of the councils list of priorities. The transport bucked and rocked aggressively as it passed over what felt like the hundredth or so pothole on the rough patch of gravel and dirt it traveled on that could have been confused for a road at one point, making the occupants inside sway from side to side. The uncontrollable turbulence would have probably had the faunus within tumbling around all throughout the cabin, if they weren't for the heavy seatbelts buckling everyone in place. For better or worse, the Atlesian heavy troop transport