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Nines had already backed towards a wall during the spar Roan had been having with one of the drones in the training suite. It didn't therefore leave him with room to manoeuvre as she closed the small distance between them with her usual unnatural speed.

One hand would close around his neck, pinning him to the wall without choking him, simply by dint of the very choker he despised so much.

"I won't force you, and you know my views on your quest to become human again. But DON'T spout off to me about what you've worked for...
From what you've told me, the ONLY thing you've done hard work for so far is to ensure your brother goes to college, and even that you're making difficult by refusing paid work to assist with it.
As for being my mess to worry about... you cease to be such the moment you take responsibility as what you ARE and make steps towards your own goals. Seek revenge against the woman that caused all this. Use the training suite to hone your skills against everything that deserves your ire. Study books completely until something clicks you CAN do, or choose another path to give you definite answers.

I don't care WHAT you do, or how, so long as you don't mope about aimlessly. In my day, you'd have had your hide tanned with the flat of a sword for complaining. I ain't going to do that to you, but I AM going to state one thing very clearly for the record....

Do NOT presume to decide for me what problems I accept and which ones I fight. I decided your a** was worth it, so don't question my judgement by declaring it otherwise. You want to acknowledge the fact I did so? Then get off your arse and sort yourself out. I chose to have you here, I chose whatever consequences come from it. Understood?"

She wouldn't wait for him to answer, just drop him and open the door. Partially, this was because she HAD understood everything he'd just said, AS he meant it, but had no way of dealing with that. She wasn't human, she wasn't his mother, and she wasn't good at soft empathy. Besides... such had already proved useless. It was therefore easier for her to revert to a harder line, and one behind which BOTH of them could shelter. Prehaps, somewhere inside, it was even a way for her to hide from the fact she'd just offered him something she had qualms about herself, and then been rejected. Even though done for understandable and even RIGHT reasons... it was a rejection nonetheless on a topic she didn't have the same arrogant confidence in as everything else.

"This way."

What would follow would be a short walk to the hidden armoury. A few complicated lock procedures later and the sound of something large moving would precede an entire wall behind the main staircase sliding back and revealing an unwholesome array of sharp stabby things, heavy bludgeony things and a vast array of shooty things.
Some were locked in cabinets. Some were stored neatly in open racks. Some had ammo thoughtfully placed next to them. Others were chained to walls.

"Choose a weapon. No one in this house goes unarmed. It's never wise to sleep with wolves without having a sharp stick to hand, at the very least."

On the back wall... a massive scythe would seem to command some amount of attention, the vague, often heard whispers in the back of Nine's head getting somewhat louder, though still indistinct if he entered the room. The scythe was one of the weapons encased securely, with a weird locking mechanism on the door of the case.

Oh she knew she'd stepped on heavy turf with all she'd just said. She'd rather the kid angry than morose and mopey though. Whatever the catalyst, if it got him out of the rut and into making steps forwards... she was all for it. This, of course, in addition to her previously mentioned motives for speaking to him as she had.

If she cared that her collection hadn't inspired awe in the man, she didn't show it. Indeed, her collection of weaponry served two purposes - to arm the house staff in the event of an issue, and to keep certain items AWAY from the general populace.

And such was the object Nines asked about. She glanced at him with a quirked brow in surprise. Then she shrugged and walked over to the unit. Several more spanned it on either side, though some were empty.

"The scythe... it's name is Okra. It's similar to my sword, Ferago. It contains the bound essence of a daemon god. Ferago holds Také-Mikazuchi, Okra holds O-kuni-nushu.
Wonderfully powerful weapons, but power usually has a cost, and these things are no exception. They can also be a little picky - the blades will not allow themselves to be handled by anyone not of the right bloodline.
Those who ARE compatible however get to enjoy a fun symbiotic relationship with the blade, and the mind, of the bound Daemon.
There are seven in all. I have Ferago, and I also have Damaris, Isoda and Okra here in storage, waiting for the right owners to be found. The rest... are missing.

Okra is the most unusual of the weapons, I guess. It started out as a spear, and became a scythe by default after the Daemon was bound. O-kuni has mastery over elements of the magical, or alchemical, and as such, the blade is able to change shape on a whim. This is just the basic form it tends to take.

Any reason you singled it out?"

She watched Nine's carefully as she talked, and indeed, there was just something about that blade... something enticing, and promising.

We would be so powerful together... no foe would withstand your justice... we would both be free...

"...."

Sighing, she leant against the nearest wall and sought another cigarette.

"You have any idea just what a pain in the arse you are, Nines? Fine, leave, just... try to remember what I said. Run from the house and I cant and WONT protect you. Going around unarmed is also a poor idea, and at SOME point... you're going to have to just man up and grow a pair, or take a short walk on a sunny day

Your call now. I give up."

She could see that the scythe worried him... but the problem was, EVERYTHING she'd done or given him since he got here worried him in some way.
There was nothing in particular that singled this particular piece of paranoia out from any of the other behaviours Nines had exhibited, and the scythe itself had made no overt reaction to his presence, thus not giving Roan any sign there was some sort of connection there.

"If there's nothing here you'd like, prehaps I can get back to beating the virtual a** off my greatest enemies in the vague hope of feeling better? If anything, you've added to my worries instead of alleviated them... at least you didn't pick a crossbow I suppose..."

Most of the end of her last sentence was her wittering, muttering at her cigarette as she smoked it.

"Sure, why not...let's go to the ravine. Maybe that'll help."

Waving her hands to shoo Nines out of the room, she locked the armoury behind them and wandered towards the front door. As they reached it, her own weird weapon shimmered into existence on her back, within the straps designed to hold it secure there.

She paused at the threshold to change what turned out to be training room boots for a pair of new Rocks, then it was off down the lawns into the less sculpted areas of the grounds, cigarette trailing smoke in the breeze as her boots crunched the frost on the grass.

She said nothing, leaving a nice big silence for Nine's to try and fill.

"...and he DIDN'T keep you at the Chasm?... interesting. Okra is extremely powerful. Good enough with time to kick the s**t out of Ice, that's for damned sure."

She spoke casually, as if Nine's was mentioning the mere condition of the weather. Of course, to her, daemon shenanigans was part of her day to day life.

"Kuni hasn't spoken up much in the last year or so. The scythe hasn't so much as changed colour once. Maybe Ice was wrong, and you don;t have the right bloodline for it. Shame though... it would have been a great asset to figuring out your actual bloodline and heritage."

On her own back, the blade she carried rippled with blue light down its length, a sure sign the entity within was murmuring to Roan.

"Sure you have. you just don't think about it. That little voice that says 'This is a really bad idea' any time you do something stupid? that counts. So does the one that wolf whistles at girls, and the one that demands blood even when you don't want to hurt anyone around you.

We all have lots of voice sin our heads. Hell, you have one that's all human and shouts so loud no one else in your head gets a look in.

That's what daemons can be like. Také's thoughts are like a subconscious voice inside my head. Whether I choose to listen or not is up to me, but ultimately... I'd miss his murmur, his perspective on things, if he wasn't there.

Sure, at times, he's a lot more direct, but usually in response to something occurring, and me actually seeking an opinion. Like when you arrived. he had views on it, and I heard him clearly because I wanted his input.
Ok, admittedly, that took some time to be the case, I used to hear him loudly all the time when we first teamed up, but he's a part of me now, and I him.

What's the voice you've been hearing been telling you? It might not even BE Kuni. It's not like him not to show his interest in a more poignant and obvious way, after all."

Her smoke was spent, but she resisted lighting another, choosing instead to just appreciate the night air as they came to the slope of the ravine at its gentler end. Setting her boots into the scree, she started heading down into with, hands in her pockets.

"Eh, if it is Kuni you heard, then he has little option save to sell what he is to you. Imagine yourself, if you were just a voice, and a faint one at that, and your only option to moving forwards was to convince the one person you know is able to interact with you to pick you up.

Yes, its temptation, but that doesn't necessarily mean bad. Hell, it also depends on what he was promising you.
And if you felt the desire to touch the blade in turn... maybe it's meant to be. I barely hesitated in taking up Ferago. Alright, I'll admit it sucked balls to a degree until I was used to it, but I'm damn glad I have it, and Také, now."

Coming to a halt alongside the small stream at the base of the ravine, she perched on a large rock and sniffed the air casually, before stretching and cracking the vertebrae down her spine.

"I still think you should arm up. And maybe you need the TR controls... maybe a little sparring will help alleviate your tension. You're welcome to beat the hell out of the constructs of me too, if you like. I'm not exactly known for being diplomatic, or holdign my tongue when I have views to share."