Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20160207063839/@comment-5999656-20160423050611

Saria looked at the retreating back of Raizel, and hmphed softly to himself. His goal as a member of Team RASB was to prod the redhead into taking on some responsibility, so her "ratchet" outburst wasn't particularly unexpected. He turned to walk in the opposite direction to go check on Fen's condition, and to make sure that Resper wasn't taking too hard. Although the leader tried really hard to be tough, he was very soft when it came to his friends. And true: he would settle his problem was Raizel another day. Then again, her outburst hadn't been overtly racist...?

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Platinum's path was blocked by Raizel, who then proceeded to swear at her. The rebel was trying hard, for sure. To do the right thing?

Don't you dare tell me'' about doing what's right. I know what's right.''

'That's exactly what I'm going to do," Platinum scoffed, her orange eyes glinting with cold malice. "It's too late to 'fix' this. All I'm doing is making sure that no more damage is done, and if that involves eliminating a threat to our collective security, then so be it." She'd already given Cyzarine more than enough chances for the girl to prove that she had some form of self-restraint somewhere in that assassin head of hers.

'Don't worry. I'll only shoot if Cyzarine makes a move to injure Automne. So if you could kindly step aside-"

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Automne tried to keep track of all the answers Cyzarine was giving her. She might have received psychotherapy herself, but that didn't mean she was an expert in the field. She was just acting on the basis of what she'd experienced and thought was right. How were you supposed to know how to respond to this kind of answer, or to that? Automne had no clue - all she had was a moral intuition guiding her, that said that if anyone was going to have an inkling of an understanding of what was going on in Cyzarine's mind, that was gonna be her.

"Why are you talking to me?"

Automne gave a small jump. She was still in the midst of dissecting Cyzarine's answers, but on the other hand she was getting a trend. This was a girl who was easily agitated, untrusting, whose mind immediately thought of self-defense when a problem arose, who definitely didn't behave like your typical privileged, sheltered youth. No, her mindset followed one that aligned more... with someone who always had to fight to survive.

''But she's a Bluthardt... they're supposed to be hella rich and powerful, from what Bernie's told me?''

"Ah." Automne hesitated, but decided that if she was going to make progress then she was going to have to open up a little about herself too. So she paused, and then said:

"I'm going to show you a little about myself... but I'd appreciate it if you don't announce it to everyone once I tell you. If you could keep it a secret from everyone, that'd be even better. It's no burden, I promise you, but it's sort of a private thing. Even the crew - uh - my team and Platinum and Fen, they only know the very basics of this." And with that she reached up and unbuckled her right arm guard, then pulled off her elbow-length black glove, revealing an array of apparently random, faded blemishes and discolored lines and spots decorating her forearm.

"Here's what I told my friends. When I was ten, I was kidnapped from my home - that is, the streets of Menagerie - by an old, very sick man. Sick in the head. For ten months he would do things to me. See this?" she said, pointing to a jagged crescent on her upper arm, and then to an identical one mirroring it but on the underside of her arm. "He would bite into me and just squeeze. There's nothing that makes you feel more like an animal than the teeth of a man sinking into your flesh. He did that all over me."

Automne turned to look at Cyzarine. Her eyes were troubled, but she kept on.

"I'm seeing you doing all these crazy things, and everyone is terrified, but all I could think of was how crazy I'd been after those ten months. When you've gone through something like that, it doesn't matter who you were before. After that, anyone could be an enemy, and you can't take any chances. And you feel like nothing, like you're nobody. You're reduced to your basest instincts... I thought that if there was any way people could relate to you, it'd be by learning what you had to go through. A lot of Beacon students have had harsh pasts, but they still aren't able to understand people who have gone through the very worst of what humanity can offer. They just don't have the experience. Their reaction is either fear or pity. Platinum and Fen have had their own hardships, but they're not familiar with this kind of thing. You and I, you know, people like us have looked evil straight in the eyes. So when we see even a tiny bit of it in the eyes of another person, our involuntary stress triggers have already activated."

"I have another question, just as confirmation. Did something like that happen to you in the recent past?"