Quinn vs. Blake: Fighting like Cats and Dogs

The wandering, lordless samurai Quinn was following the trail until he arrived at a large, bustling city. The streets were packed with travelers and traders and more, and they were lined with all kinds of shops and businesses for potential customers to spend their money in. Browsing the crowds, there were many adventurers like himself among them as well, although not many seemed to stick out particularly well.

With one exception.... seemingly in the very center of the hustle, there was a woman with long black hair and a set of cat ears atop her head. Her attire was strange, like some kind of skin-tight ninja jumpsuit, and she wore a strange sword on her back. Her ears were folded against her head, as if she was nervous about something.

While the woman's attire and weapon was strange, it was her folded ears that caught Quinn's attention the most. With this being something he was all too aware of, he knew that animal feature often, if not always, showed exactly how the owner of those features was feeling, so he decided to go check up on her. "Excuse me madam, is everything okay? You seem a little nervous," He called out as he approached the individual.

The catgirl jumped a bit when Quinn came up to her from behind, but she let out a little sigh and made herself relax once she saw he was just trying to help. "I'm alright, thanks for asking. I'm just a bit lost, I'm pretty new in town. And, these crowds are much worse than what I'm used to." She told him, giving Quinn a soft smile. Now that he had a good look, he could see she was almost distractingly pretty. Soft, feminine features, striking golden eyes, subtle, purple makeup to go with her black hair with purple highlights. And was that... lavender perfume he could smell?

"Do you know how to get to the blacksmith? I want to get my sword repaired." She asked for his help, and her ears seemed more at ease, even if the noise was still getting under her (flawless) skin.

"Sorry, but I don't know where it is. I'm in a similar situation to you, with this being my first time here and this being a lot more crowded than what I'm used to," He apologized, happy to see that he calmed her nerves. He was a bit surprised that the first person he interacted with once he got here was so easy on the eyes, not to mention had a smell that perfectly matched her appearance.

"How about we search for it together?" He suggested, "I wouldn't mind having my sword checked out as well."

Blake was a touch disappointed that he didn't know where to go, but that was alleviated by Quinn's manners and offer. Having someone to focus on was definitely welcome, the crowds almost made her wish she didn't come here without Yang. "That's a good idea. My name is Blake, I'm a Huntress." The cat Faunus gave a little bow and another smile to Quinn before gesturing for him to follow her down a road she hadn't checked yet. It was an implied invitation for him to introduce himself, as well. Blake carried herself elegantly, despite the stress of the city streets. Getting past first sight didn't make her any less attractive, nor did it stop Quinn's keen nose from picking up her soothing perfume.

"I am Quinn, a currently wandering samurai," He said as he followed along. He tried to keep side by side with Blake, not wanting her to catch him staring if he was following behind her, however this would make it easier for her to catch his nose twitch as he kept smelling her perfume.

"May I inquire what exactly a huntress does?" He asked, "I would assume just from the title that it is similar to a hunter, but a sword isn't exactly the first weapon that comes to my mind when I think of a hunter."

Blake looked at the man to her side with that ever-present soft smile. "Currently wandering? I'd like to inquire about that, myself." She remarked, mostly curious but slightly playful with her words. "A Huntress where I come from is... different from what a Huntress is here. But, essentially, I'm a bounty hunter, but I specialize in taking down dangerous monsters that most adventurers aren't prepared for. Not Midara, mind you, but wild beasts that prove a threat to ecosystems or towns. Although, since targets like that aren't common, I also end up taking contracts to bring in criminals and Midara in between my hunts." The lady explained, forgetting to watch the sides of the street for the smithy as she enjoyed the conversation. It was like her eyes never left his and always glowed, even though it was broad daylight.

"That sounds interesting. You must come from very far away or your job is very secretive, I haven't heard much, if not anything, about dangerous monsters around her," Quinn said as he looked away with a slight blush, not wanting to get lost in her golden eyes.

"As for me, currently I'm like you, taking up the occasional job here and there regarding criminals and midara," He told her, "But eventually, I wish to settle down somewhere and mainly work around there."

Blake tilted her head slightly when Quinn averted his gaze. "They're more common than you think, but most governing bodies keep them a secret so they don't scare people. And, they're honestly not as dangerous as I make them sound, I'm just specifically trained to take them down." She elaborated for Quinn. She kept looking his way as she spoke. "What are you looking for in a place to settle down? Somewhere with less crowds, maybe?" The beautiful catgirl asked as she walked a bit closer to his side without thinking about it, making her perfume just a bit more pronounced for Quinn's nose.

"I'd like someplace less crowds, but I guess someplace wasn't the word I should use, but someone instead," Quinn admitted as he continued taking in her soothing scent, "You know how samurai usually serve someone? I'm more looking for that someone to serve, whether that is an individual or organization, than a literal place to live."

"Ah, I see. That's noble, I hope you find something worth fighting for, Quinn." He may not have been looking, but the samurai could hear the smile on Blake's face as she spoke. "Also... is there a reason you're looking away?" She asked him softly before quickly coming up with an answer before Quinn could respond. "Oh, right, we're supposed to be looking for the blacksmith, I'm sorry." With that, the Huntress started looked around and gave Quinn some reprieve from her attentions.

Quinn could of just stayed quiet and not have to explain why he was looking, but he found that not saying anything would be the same as lying, and that won't sit right on his conscious. "You don't need to apologize, I forgot to keep an eye out for the blacksmith as well," He admitted, "I was actually looking away because you are very pretty and we just meet, so I didn't want to make you feel weird by staring at you."

Blake's ears went up as Quinn said that, and she let out a small chuckle. "Fufu, right, I understand. That happens more than you might think, don't worry about it, Quinn." The samurai might think she was glad to hear that based on the tone of her reaction. "Let's find the blacksmith, and we can think of something to do after our swords are fixed." She suggested as she kept looking around, starting to pick up the pace to try and cover more ground. They were heading away from the main square, so the crowds were becoming much more manageable.

Quinn was glad that she wasn't bothered by his confession, and that gladness was clearly shown with the increased rate of his tail's swaying. He picked up his pace as well, but not quite as fast as Blake so that his tail wouldn't bump into her and bother her.

Blake was looking forward, so she didn't notice his tail wagging. But, she did notice the sound of the blacksmith's hammer striking metal, and so did Quinn. After flinching slightly from the noise, she went right towards its source.

The blacksmith was surprisingly young, a man in his late twenties with an expression much softer than the steel he shaped. "Welcome, you two! What can I do you for? Weapons, armor? Something special?" He asked them, stopping himself from joking about how they seemed like a couple at first glance, or that one of them was a cat and the other was a dog.

Quinn had a similar, if not worse, reaction as Blake to the sound of the blacksmith as he headed in. "I'd like to have you check up and repair my sword if needed, and I believe she has the same plan as me," Quinn told the blacksmith.

Blake nodded and unsheathed her sword. The blade looked normal, if a bit short, but the hilt was strangely shaped and had a black ribbon attached. Also, her sheath was much bigger than the blade itself. "Could you repair the blade on my sword?" She politely requested while showing the smith the weapon.

The man took a second to look it over before agreeing. "Sure thing, ten gold a piece. It should take me about a couple hours to get it done, so you two can go on a date in the meantime." He smirked a bit as he snuck in a little jest in his reply. Blake rolled her eyes but handed over her weapon and ten gold coins.

Quinn passed over his sword and payment as well. It was nothing special to look at unlike Blake's, in fact, the only thing that one could call special about it is that it is what one would imagine a perfectly plain katana to look like.

Unlike Blake, he wasn't able to ignore the blacksmith's joke as well, a light blush quickly washing over his face and his ears and tail perking up.

"I'll get to work right away, see you two in two hours. Don't get up to too much fun and forget to pick these up." The blacksmith chuckled at Quinn's reaction and immediately got to closely inspecting the two swords to determine how to best work on them.

Blake turned around and looked to Quinn. "I guess we do look a little bit like a couple... what should we do to pass the time? .... his comment didn't fluster you, did it?" She asked her new friend gently, not wanting to sound accusatory towards him.

"It did... I didn't grow up with much teasing, so I'm not used to it..." Quinn sheepishly admitted, "Anyways, is there anything you want to do? The only thing I need to do is stop by an inn to reserve a room for the night and that shouldn't take too long, so we have a lot of time."

"I was planning on just finding someplace quiet to read a book to wait for my sword. But, we can do something else, I'd rather spend time with you. Also.... maybe we could... share a room for the night? To save money, of course." Blake suggested, willing to warm up to a new face much more easily than she used to be. Also, it was hard to tell whether she was being shy in offering to share a room, or she was pretending to be in order to tease him. And, just her being so pretty and smelling so good could be enough to tease Quinn in some manner.

"Sure we can share a room, it makes sense to do that," Quinn answered, her teasing flying right past him, "I'm not well sure what is in this town, so how about we just wander around some more to see if anything catches our eyes? And if we can't find anything in a reasonable amount of time, we can go someplace quiet for you to read at."

"Let's do that." Blake agreed brushing her side against Quinn as she walked past him, still playing the game of was her teasing intentional or not.

Search (13) Fail

But, Blake didn't find anything that really caught her eye, and Quinn would also struggle to find anything other than what would be assumed to be in any town, making for a slow start to their search. The catgirl didn't seem to mind, if her stride was anything to go by.

Once again, the catgirl's maybe teasing flew past Quinn, with him thinking she just accidently bumped into him, something he was used to doing with his tail. After a little of searching, he decided to try getting some small talk going. "So... Got any interesting stories about your time as a huntress?" He asked.

"I have plenty. One time..." Blake went on to tell Quinn about how she, her partner, and a friend they had made went into a city's sewer system to investigate the cause of a recent slime outbreak, only to find an absolutely massive slime girl that looked like she was made up of many different kinds of slime. They managed to win, but she mentioned that both her partner and their friend allowed the slime girl to finish them off in exchange for her leaving peacefully.

Search (6) Crit Success

Just as Blake was finishing the story, she spotted something and her ears perked up. If Quinn followed her eyes, he'd find a sushi place. It would appear that the catgirl liked fish.