Ylva Adara [Revamp Complete]

What is strength? What is power? To answer this, we must first consider human nature in the face of adversity. At least, that's what she was taught. Ylva can't remember a time in her entire life when she was faced with a challenge that had an easy answer, mostly because no one ever asked the question. That was normal for her, in Anima, because questions got people hurt, sometimes worse. Yet children, with their curious minds, cannot avoid tempering their curiosity with boldness only to find such a brittle response in the faces of men and women that knew the true meaning of fear. The grimm, bandits, even tyrannical nobles were things which measured how strong you really were in Remnant.

At least, that's what she was taught...

But that curiosity answered those questions, in time, and fed her desires to understand the world, and understand why she was meant to be fearful. That's why she decided that fear was something worth dominating, to control in herself. As her loathing for fear grew, so too did her loathing for both those who inflicted it and those who subserviently accepted it. This forced her out of her home, by her own hand, and into the Mistral military, which accepted Ylva with open arms. It was anything good to accept another body to throw at the grimm and criminals of Anima.

So what if the training hurt? Pain was an illusion. So what if you died? Death is final. So what if you fell? Rise and overcome. Improvement is all that matters, for yourself, and for the people beside you as well as those behind you.

But, that's just something she told them. Ylva trained hard and fought hard where it mattered, achieving the rank of Sergeant Major, but that's where she fell apart. She hurt again, because she never felt like she was struggling anymore. What use is victory if it's never hard-fought? After a brief period of irritation an stagnation, Ylva discharged herself with honor, and left. She refused to stay in Mistral, where she may meet her peers again, but she had no idea where to go next.

Ylva adventured for some time, straying far and learning about the kingdoms, and in time she decided it was best to settle down and push herself to a new level. She made up her mind to train to be a huntress, and thought on the academies she could train at. Atlas seemed too military, she wasn't making that mistake again. Vale just seemed... relaxed. Natural boundaries make a kingdom like that look too easy to live in. Vacuo? Nah, that heat would kill someone in heavy armor. So instead, she compromised, and went to a small island. No real natural boundaries, aside from the sea, and a separated academy and government seemed like a hand to a glove. Besides, no one fits in better than when nobody knows who they are.

At least... that's what she thought.

An average night in an average bar. Bellmuse was good for that, Ylva would give this place that much. If she was being honest, the beer wasn't bad either. She smashed back another pint as she usually did, and slammed the tankard back onto the bar. She asked specifically for tankards rather than glasses, since she knew how rough she could be after she'd had a few and she didn't want to inconvenience the bartender much.

That idea was fresh in her mind, right up until she heard someone talking about her from a booth to a few of his buddies. "I'm just saying, that armor would be better suited to a guy, so it could see some real use."

Ylva gritted her teeth and popped a toothpick between them. She really didn't want to make a scene, but it was necessary to make this guy shut his mouth now before he made her mad for real. She scooted her stool back and whipped a half-filled tankard across the room at their table. This got the attention that she wanted, now to make her point.

"I'm sorry, did you think you were being more subtle than that? I can show you what happens to my armor when I fight, but the only thing to show it on is lookin' a lot like you."

She abruptly snagged the guy by the collar with both hands and lifted him up so he was slightly above her eye level, holding him very close to her. "So you've got two options here. You either repeat what you said to my face, or you wet yourself and I let you down."

"B-b-but... I don't have to pee right now!"

Ylva paused for a long second, gears turning in her head as she processed what was just said. Her face lost all expression, and she unceremoniously dropped the guy to the floor. She walked back to her seat, mumbling several variations of the word 'idiot' while she ordered another beer, completely primed to drink until she forgot what just occured.