all life is ridiculously pretty! [OPEN]

[Al Ciendra]

Al did not have to be told twice to dig in, her mask was pulled up, still careful to not expose anything that would give away her secret, while she did like Kailyn, she did not trust her with that yet.
Instead, Kailyn could see Al's fangs glint for just a moment, before she bit into the bacon strips she had just put on her plate, as steak, cheddar cheese and chicken legs followed, Al was an eating machine, Kailyn seemed to be right, if Al kept going at the pace she had so far the sample platter would be empty long before their actual meals arrived.

Al only took a break to drink, as she took a big swig of her whiskey-cola.
Sighing as she turned from her platter to face Kailyn.
"You were right to recommend this place, it's fantastic here."
She said, before returning to eating, it was very obvious to where Al's tendencies lied as the cheese, sides a few sample cuts, was spared, but the meat was devoured piece by piece.

[Kailyn Keison]

Kailyn grinned as Al tore into the food with gusto; her own plate was more conservatively loaded - she could eat a lot, no two ways about it, but she wanted those ribs.

"It's a winner for me, that's for sure," she agreed as she made a note on her scroll that this place was worth coming back to. As her canine companion made short work of the sampler, Kailyn pulled out a sketchpad and pencil and started drawing a rough outline of Al's heatmap; the chaotic mess of lines vaguely resembled the shape of a person, but without any defining features like a silhouette or a face on the drawing it would be hard to tell what the drawing was of later.

[Al Ciendra]

Al finished her very full plate as she cleanly ripped the meat from a chicken leg in one swift move, leaving the bone almost entirely bare within just a moment, as she chewed away, finally having sated her initial hunger, Al's attention was drawn to Kailyn's sketchpad, firstly she was confused why she had it with her to dinner, but her curiosity was then drawn to what Kailyn was actually drawing.
It looked a little like a person, a weird red and orange person...oh, OH!
It was her! Kailyn was drawing her heatmap, better keep still, now just idly chewing, Al sat still, ears perked high up but also entirely still, for Kailyn to finish her drawing.

After Kailyn laid down her pen, Al tilted her head.
"So, how far from normal am I? I know drawing my blood is a pain, since I tend to melt most syringes they stick in me."
Al chuckled a little to herself, it was a fun memory, having the doctors entirely baffled when her semblance fully manifested after she recovered from her mauling, equally rare was seeing Al smile, not that she didn't smile a lot, but having her mask pulled up to eat actually revealed the cute expression to Kailyn.

[Kailyn Keison]

How different was Al, really? Kailyn ‘hmm’ed thoughtfully as she glanced between her drawing and the subject before flipping a few pages back to find another drawing.

”You’re not so much ‘different’ as ‘extra’, I guess?” she explained, flipping back and forth between the drawings to show the difference.

”You’re still a living female person, so your muscles and other vitals still have heat in them in the same places and relative amounts you’d expect, more or less. Most people’s blood is the same temperature as the rest of them, though, so you’ve got an extra patterned layer of bright oranges and stuff strung all over. I’m kinda curious what it looks like when you’re fighting or sleeping, now that I think about it: I guess when you fight I’ll prolly only be able to see your blood, since it would get brighter when it moves faster, but our hearts tend to slow down when we sleep, so you might end up with a cherry color instead of the kind of burnt orange sunset thing you’ve got going on right now.”

Another thing she wanted to see was what ‘embarrassed Al’’s heatmap looked like. ”Barty’s a lucky bat if he gets to see that smile every day,” she said with a smile of her own.

[Al Ciendra]

"Alright, extra, that makes sense."
Al nodded, she was also curious of how she'd look when fighting...well without her semblance, if she'd use that Kailyn would just see HOT all over, still an interesting thought.
Thoughts that were quickly interrupted when her face lit up with a blush, she did NOT expect that, sure she should being in a relationship with the Batboy just mentioned, but with Kailyn it just came out of the blue.
Al pulled her mask a little down into her face as she giggled nervously, her ears also perking up, making two visible bumps in her hood, the heat map change was a little intense as Al's face went red and then blue, she could even see her mask warm up where blood was rushing to Al's face.
"Aha, well uhm, maybe not every day with school and all, but yeah...you get it."
She sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"ANYWAY uhm...you seeing anyone?"
Al asked, doing her best to get the attention away from her.

[Kailyn Keison]

This girl really was too cute.

y-OWW-za, that girl's got a mean blush on her. Kailyn winced slightly as the sudden brightness of Al's face assaulted her senses. Lucky for her, her companion immediately provided something else to think about.

Or, as it happened, unluckily, given Al's obvious choice of diversion topic.

Kailyn's blush was nearly as incandescent as Al's had been. "Uhh... she replied dumbly.

Bartok would DEFINITELY have made some manner of 'the more, the merrier' comment right about now, wouldn't he. She desperately took a big gulp of her drink as she formulated a response.

"No," she finally got out, shaking her head. "I kinda got blindsided by the bad end of a relationship before I came to Beacon, so I'm not looking to get back out there just yet. Though I'll admit," she continued with a smirk, "there are some interesting prospects, should a girl be so inclined to assemble a gaggle of googly-eyed guys." She thought for a moment, recalling a certain blonde. "Or gals, I guess."

[Al Ciendra]

Well damn, her diversion topic backfired a bit, Kailyn played it off easily, so Al did not feel all that bad, but she did look just a little concerned for a bit.
She hoped that the bad relationship Kailyn had just gotten out of did not leave any lingering mental scars for the nice redhead.
"Sorry to hear that, I wish you luck in any future endeavors then, when ever you feel ready..."
Al said, as she thought for a bit... Kailyn wasn't much older than her, right?
How many relationships had she been in to know when it was best to just take a break?
Maybe...she should ask her for some advice?
"I was hoping I could say something smarter to help but... Bartok is my first, I never really cared much about relationships sides a few crushes while back in Azmarine but...well let's just say too many folks back home know me for being Al the Grimm victim, a lot of folk still treat me like I'm fresh out of the hospital or something like that."
Al sighed a little, having gotten a little lost in her explanation as she quickly took a sip of her drink before she continued on to her actual question.
"Do you have any advice on how to be a...well handle a relationship, I don't know if I'm doing a good job at being a girlfriend."
She tilts her head a little, Al didn't even know if this was a well worded question, but it was out there now.

[Kailyn Keison]

"Do you have any advice on how to... well, handle a relationship? I don't know if I'm doing a good job being a girlfriend."

Kailyn nearly choked. Al was asking her for relationship advice?

"I'm gonna be honest here, Al, I'm the last person you should ask for romantic advice," she began. "Just remember that there's another person in the relationship, and neither of you have a psychic Semblance. Gotta talk to each other if something's feeling weird, or if you're not happy about something." She gave her fellow Faunus a smile. "If you're worried about doing a good job, though, then you're probably doing fine. From what I understand, it's usually people who don't care who get into trouble."

[Al Ciendra]

Al looked at Kailyn with surprise, visible even with her mask as she flinched a little, though that could also have been her reacting to Kailyn choking.
"Well, thanks guess I am doing an okay job then."
Al said with a soft smile and relief filling her voice, it was nice to know that she was doing something right.
She did however follow this up with a confused head tilt, as she kept looking at Kailyn.
"But why should I not ask you for romantical advice, you're like one of if not the most flirty and confident person I know, you're pretty and pretty smart too...uhm, don't tell Bartok I said any of that...but yeah, why not ask you? I know you're not in the dating game at the moment, but you still seem knowledgeable on it."
Al took another big sip of her drink as she then continued to look at Kailyn, yet also raise her head towards the kitchen, getting a little antsy about their food arriving on time.

[Kailyn Keison]

Kailyn chuckled as Al asked her not to repeat that to Bartok. "Don't worry, girlie, Barty already knows. We went to the same Combat School, and I kinda... flattened Erin into the pavement after I jumped out of the airship on my first day here, so..." Her amused smile turned into a genuine one. "Don't worry about him - he'd just say something about 'the more the merrier' and completely expect me to shoot down the idea - it's pretty much exactly what happened to me and 'Ri when we ran that obstacle course she set up."

As to the dating game... Kailyn was saved from having to talk about that by the arrival of their food.

[Al Ciendra]

Al was going to push a little more for her question, but food was a little hard to ignore, very hard to ignore...
Dammit...
Al spoke a quick reply as she was staring down at her honey glazed roast.
"Well, if Bartok's okay with it then I'm too, anyway, bone appetite!"
Al said as she pulled her mask a little more, her fangs now on full display as she only barely held herself back from biting the roast without her utensils, but...she did get herself to grab the knife and fork, when where she began to wolf down the meat, the first bite having Al giggle as a shiver went down her spine.
"Shooo goowd..."
Al kept eating, before popping out of her blissful state.
"Wnaan tdaer?"
She asked, cutting a very nice piece of the roast for Kailyn to try.

[Kailyn Keison]

Yup. Definitely cute. She should really hang out with Al more.

"Wnaan tdaer?" Al asked as she cut off a piece of roast.

"Hm?" Kailyn asked as her mind snapped back to the present. "Oh. Sure," she said once her brain caught up, and cut off a pair of ribs from her own plate. Using her Semblance, she floated the trades across the table and bit into the roast.

Okay, yes: this place was definitely going on the List. "Damn," she said as the flavor hit her. "This place just doesn't miss. This is great."

[Al Ciendra]

Al eagerly took the floating ribs, biting into them with her fangs let her strip the bone clean with a single tear, Al let out a muffled squeal at the taste, her ears wiggled, this time taking the time to chew before speaking.
"Soo good, awe man this makes me want seconds, the ribs are incredible."
Al said, as she picked her fork and knife back up to keep tearing into her roast, which did also taste incredible.

With her appetite and also sheer efficiency in devouring meat, it was to no one's surprise Al was done much sooner than Kailyn, idly picking the last few pieces of meat from her teeth while taking occasional sips of the fizzy drink she bought.
"So, how's your tournament run been?"
Al asked, not fully aware of the bracket, she had still forbid herself from watching any other matches to keep the spirit of a real fight in which she would know nothing of her next opponent either.

[Kailyn Keison]

"I'm definitely coming back here at some point," she agreed.

Brothers, this girl could eat. Note to self: don't bring Al to an all-you-can-eat place, you might get banned. Kailyn smiled as Al picked the last vestiges of meat off her plate.

"I'm one and one. My first fight was against Barty, and you know how that went. My second fight I was up against Lin's big sister, and that one didn't last very long either. She doesn't have any ranged options at all, but I don't have any way to break her armor, so I lost when I tried to get close. My next fight is against someone named Az - I don't really know anything about her except that lightning doesn't seem to work and she lost to a third-year, same as I did." She shrugged. "Should be fun."

[Al Ciendra]

Al listened intently, she did like hearing about fights, except that Kailyn and Az had seemingly lost due to pretty unfair circumstances, it was pretty unfair for students that had more experience than them to join the tournament, but Kailyn seemed to be taking it in stride, plus, while Al did not know Az's opponent she did know Ela, so it was fair to say that it was at least a clean fight, Ela did not strike Al as the type of girl who would fight unfairly.
"If I fight either of them, I'll be sure to give em a good thrashing for you and Az, well...I'll try at least try, Ela did seem pretty darn tough considering she stopped Asterion mid-charge that one time"
Al said with a chuckle, remembering that confrontation in the hallway where Ela had jumped in front of Lin and poor Melina to protect them from Aster's charge.

[Kailyn Keison]

Kailyn nodded at Al's assessment of Ela. "Yeah, Ela's a beast defensively. I hit her with the strongest close-range attack I could think of and it didn't even leave a mark. I don't think she has many good options to attack from range, though, so if you can keep dodging her you should be able to put up a good fight."

She finished her food just as the waitress came by with their check. She jumped in surprise when Kailyn floated it back over to her along with enough Lien to cover with a generous tip but smiled broadly when Kailyn shot her a thumbs-up and hurried over to the register to cash them out.

"I'm honestly more worried about my independent study with Silas than I am about the tournament," she admitted before draining the rest of her drink. "He's doing a great job not making the material feel intimidating, but I don't think there's any good ways to make math any less boring besides fighting while doing it, and I'm probably the only person I know who gets better at math while someone's shooting at her."