video; un: harbinger

[bolstafir]

[The scruffy, middle-aged man that appears on the screen looks a bit uncomfortable. Videochat is certainly not his preferred mode of communication on these devices, but he does figure it would be helpful to see his face for what he's posting on the network to say, so.]

Uh...hey. I'm Qrow. If you don't know me from Deerington, I'm a Huntsman. Which--mostly means I've fought a lot of monsters and sh--[hm. children.]...crap like that.

So anyway, it's halfway through October, and the streets aren't overflowing with blood and corpses, and far as I know nobody's gotten eaten by monsters or lost their mind and gone on a murdering rampage. But that probably just means the town's waiting for us to let our guard down.

[Or maybe that's just paranoia. But Qrow would rather err on the side of paranoia rather than complacence, considering his last October.]

Point is, now seems like as good a time as any to learn to defend yourself if you don't already know how to fight. I uh, I used to teach teenagers in a combat school, a few years ago? So I've got some experience.

...Don't expect a lot, I quit for a reason--[that reason being, honestly, Ruby getting admitted to Beacon a full two years early, but shhh]--but you can get the basics down.

So yeah. Let me know.

Comments

[peripheries]

Of course. There's an importance in just sharing knowledge. It helps humans grow and change.

[So that's agreement? Apparently. Or at least, it's agreement in his mind!]

Tell me more about the combat knowledge you have.

[bolstafir]

[???]

It's...not exactly the kind of thing you tell.

[...Well. He did say he wasn't human. So:]

Are you trying to ask for lessons?

[peripheries]

Ah, so you can't explain. You must show, is that it?

[Indeed, he is not. A shrug.]

Maybe. I have some combat training but I want to know what other kinds there are and if I should learn them. After all, I am able to repel most attackers.

[bolstafir]

Basically. What do you mean, repel attackers?

[Qrow can also avoid damage from most attacks because of his Aura, but unless this guy has a tail or something he can't see on video, he doubts he's a Faunus, so...probably not from Remnant.]

I know how to use swords, guns, and a scythe, plus a bit of hand-to-hand. [He rolls a shoulder.] If your ability works on all those and you can turn it off, it'd be good practice in case the town messes with it sometime. But that's all I got.

[peripheries]

My A.T. Field, the light of my soul, creates a barrier than others cannot trespass into. All possess such a thing but only my kind can use it for protection.

[Still, he ponders the suggestion. The possibility of the town distorting his powers further than it already has is likely. Probably, even.

He gives a nod.]

I've wielded such things but only as the pilot, not with my own hands. I would like to learn to do it myself.

[bolstafir]

[There’s a long pause at “light of my soul”, eyebrows lifting high.]

...Well shit, I’ve never heard of anyone outside Remnant being able to do that. We call it Aura, though.

[He’s honestly really curious now, what the similarities and differences are. It’s the first time in over a year he’s met anyone with something even comparable.]

Not sure what you mean about the pilot thing, but yeah, I can teach you.

[If this AT Field thing works like an Aura it’ll go much easier than with other outsiders, honestly.]

[peripheries]

Aura? Really. Is it something everyone in your world can do?

[HE'S IN THE SAME BOAT. Even back home, humans don't understand AT Fields and they can't use them like the children of Adam can.]

Well, it's complicated. But I was a pilot to a giant... well, I suppose many might see it as a robot, though it has its own soul. So while I was in control and my mind and body were at risk, I was not actually holding the weapon with my own hands.

[bolstafir]

It's something anyone can do with training, yeah.

[Okay, so. He's not a stranger to the concept of a robot with a soul, because Penny Polendina exists. But also, Penny does her own thing?? He's very confused about this state of affairs.]

Couldn't it move on its own? If it's got a soul, why's it need a pilot?

[peripheries]

Humans cannot wield their AT Field. All it does is give them their separate forms. Most are not even aware such a thing exists.

[How strange. Things are similar and yet entirely the opposite.]

Because they were given a soul in man's attempt to create something like a god. And a soul is required for life. However, it's a soul misplaced and restrained. It needs another soul to sync with, to give it direction in the world.

[bolstafir]

Guess our humans are different.

[Which makes sense, given their ah, origin story of sorts is different from most other planets.]

I've got no idea what the hell you just said, honestly. But I knew a robot girl with a soul, she walked around and made her own choices just fine.

[He's getting the impression your world is just Weird sir]

[peripheries]

Indeed.

[Or at least in that sense. He figures humans and their strange contradictory and confusing behavior is quite universal.

Also rude. You can't just call other worlds weird.]

An Evangelion is an attempt at creating a god and gods have power. Therefore, out of fear, humans restrain the soul within and use a pilot to carry out their will instead. It's all a complicated game, I suppose, with all players trying to out play the other. So it makes it easier, if both the Eva and the pilot behave more like pawns.

[bolstafir]

Ugh. Sounds like some complicated bullshit.

[Excuse you, he is the Rudest. He's worked very hard for that title okay.]

Gods are overrated, anyway.

[noooo he's not bitter, what makes you think that. everything is fine.]

[peripheries]

And yet, it works. But I believe humans like complicated solutions sometimes. As though it proves their own existence and capacity for thought.

[He laughs a little.]

I agree. Even though most gods are only such as people want them to be.

[bolstafir]

Hmph. Nice way of saying someone's all the way up their own ass, I guess.

[Every day is a trip to the salt mines with Qrow Branwen.]

Yeah, well, not ours. They were just dicks.