Welcome to Gaia! ::

The days following their first weapons training had been pretty exciting. Knowing what the weapons were capable of was awesome for the hunters and being able to fight anything at all had been invigorating for the weapons themselves. Bix wondered if he was the only one who had a particularly antsy weapon in his head so he'd found himself in the training grounds on more than a few afternoons and in the gym any other time that he couldn't stand Mina's goading.

This particular evening he'd already been showered when Mina started to act up on him. He didn't have any plans so he he decided to visit the training grounds not far from where their first training with Aria had taken place. The dummies seemed to be fresh, unmarred, and he wondered if there was some sort of janitorial crew he'd never seen before.

Who cares about the help.. Mina whined in his mind.
"Just wondering.." Only when he was alone did he talk to her out loud. It was easier to talk then to concentrate on projecting his thoughts. Of course he looked like he was talking to himself, but he wasn't alone in that while on this island.
Let's just go already.

He was in his uniform coat, but his clothes were just a t-shirt with ***** on it and a pair of sweats with shower sandals. His hair was actually in a ponytail, crimped from his constant braiding, but free flowing in the night breeze. It was still damp from his shower. Bix reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the marbles. Clutched in his fingers they glowed and formed his bow. He tossed it lightly a few times, testing the heft like always, before he held it up to stare down his arm towards the target.

Voice in his head aside, Bix wasn't used to surprises. He was always that guy who jumped when things popped out during horror movies or when friends tried to scare him during hide-n-go seek. This meant, of course, that when Madison made her way over to the training lawn and greeted him that he jolted in alarm, spun around and made a strange and undignified 'EEeeeep' noise.

"Oh.. my god.." He slapped his own thigh and took a breath. "Jesus.. how lame am I? Hey!" He rubbed his face over with his hand and the extremely pale skin was now flushed in embarrassment. "Oh feel free." He motioned to the dummies.

"Not much to do here besides train and read." He turned back to the dummy and suddenly became conscious of what he was wearing. Firstly being that his hair was soooo not done right now. The white locks blew freely in the wind and he had quite a bit of hair. Of course then there was his sweat pants and t-shirt. Not exactly what you want to wear when hanging with any girl at all.

She's adorable.. but not good enough for you.
I think she's young. Shut up.. she's nice enough. You don't even know her... ... .. wait are you jealous?
HOW DARE YOU IMPLY...

"Sorry I look like a slob.." He reached back and started to quickly braid his loose hair, smirking a bit over his victory against his weapon. It was actually amazing to see him do it. He was fast and his braiding was amazingly clean. His fingers moved deftly from years of practice and he didn't have to look to get it all straight. "Didn't expect to see anyone."

"Heh.. yeah. I don't think I have had a haircut since I was old enough to yell 'NO!' at my mom." He fastened the bottom of his braid and looped it around his neck like a scarf, something he did to keep it out of the way. Do you know how dangerous a braid could be if it was whipped around willy nilly?

"She was a real butcher with scissors but she refused to pay for haircuts so long as she had operational hands.." He laughed a bit at the memory but his parents were only that now, memories. He'd never see them again. It was a bit sad since he had an okay relationship with them. His reasons for joining had nothing to do with them.

"I jump at everything." He waved his hand. "Well if it pops out I will jump. Guaranteed. You wouldn't think I would volunteer for this.. but here I am!"

He paused to admire her weapon as it appeared. "Okay this is gonna sound geeky but I will never get sick of all the awesome weapons and transformations. Sci-fi pods and rune caves?" He sighed. Nerd heaven. "And you have freakin samurai swords?" STARRY EYES. "I don't doubt they are a b***h to learn.. I feel your pain. Aiming arrows is no walk in the park and my fingers start bleeding if I do too much..."

"Well I lived in the boonies kind of." Bix also rested his bow on it's end on the ground, leaning on it a bit but Mina started cursing his name so he quickly snatched it back up. "My dad was one of those 'hunt and eat everything' kind of guys. Not me so much, but he taught me and my brother the basics with guns and knives. I think I only used a bow once before. I was more into the computer though..." You could imagine all the downloading of D&D video games and anime. "Oh.. and my truck. I had a pickup and I miss it." Missed his truck? What a DUDE.

Bix glanced at his weapon and just as he was about to describe her she interjected into his mind.

Oh this should be good. I can't waaaaait to hear how you dessscribe me.

He suddenly became a thousand times more conscious of what he was saying. "Well my weapon is a woman.. and she's really um..." He blinked as he tried to find the right word. "She makes everything uncomfortable. I think she's helping but it's always sexual sounding." He blushed hard. "It's HARD." Maybe not an appropriate descriptive word. "I mean DIFFICULT. She's like super confident that we are the best hunter-weapon pair ever but she looooves to put me down. I'm not sure I've been given any helpful advice at all that didn't make me choke!"

It all came out as an embarrassed ramble.

Madison's mental picture of hicks in flannels was not really too far from the truth when it came to his home town. He didn't look like that kind of person but he was raised in the environment (and then fled to college and 'civilization'). He noticed her screwing up of tenses, a problem he also had when he spoke about his family.

"It's so weird right? The whole thing with us having signed our life away?" He shook his head. "I miss my parents sometimes. I didn't have a bad relationship with them or anything.. we were just different." He seemed to remember them fondly for a moment by the fleeting expression that passed over his features.

"Yeah my weapon says the same thing. Mina is her name. She said she picked me for a reason.. but hey I found out she was albino too!" He flashed a grin. "I mean obviously with me being one thats pretty cool right?" He never seemed conscious of his albinism until a girl was around. It was weird to talk about and wasn't really the standard of 'hotness' in guys.

"But umm.." He fiddled with the end of his bowstring for a minute and then straightened and smiled. "Let's try to work with these guys huh?" He meant the weapons of course. They were here to train right?

Bix felt his own blush rise a bit at the compliment and he couldn't help that it was obvious. He did just sort of smile through it though and tried to act cool as best he could. "Sure.. hair tips? Awesome. Honestly.." He looked around to make sure none of the guys were lurking in the bushes, "I used to borrow my mom's hair stuff cause they don't make nice hair products for guys."

Bix eyed the swords as she relayed the messages. He was no ninja but he'd seen plenty of asian martial arts films and anime. "Well I'm not trained or anything. I've seen movies. My friend Rich once bought a katana off of the internet.." and then hacked a chunk out of his mother's couch, got in trouble and had to sell it to the pawn shop. He wouldn't tell her that part.

Ugh.. hand to hand combat.. Mina sounded reviled.
I'm going to help. Jeez. Is that okay with you princess?
GODDESS. How dare you address me as anything else, snowflake.
Oh my bow-ly goddess. Even his mental voice held sarcasm. Do I have your almighty permission to help my friend?
Hmm.. Carry on then. But she cannot hold me. Either unsummon me or lean me on something.
Well that's not fair. I'll be holding her weapon...
ALRIGHT. FINE. DO WHAT YOU WANT. I'M ONLY THE AMAZING WEAPON HERE.
She's going to hold you. Just for a sec.

"Kouki? Cool. I'll help if I can." He offered her his bow for a trade. Would he hear her weapon if he held it? What would it feel like? Would it feel alive? Would it hate him? Suddenly the prospect of helping seemed like a really interesting task. "Mina is kind of cranky but I told her to be nice. It's only fair if I am holding your weapon for a minute, that you can hold mine."

Bix took the scabbard carefully. Somehow he expected to feel something or have his head-voice suddenly fade into a new one but....

Nothing Happened.

He blinked and in his head he heard Mina's laughter even though she was now in Madison's grasp.

I chose you. Just you. We are bonded, snowflake. How inconvenient would it be if I could just be traded off or stolen? Her laughter picked up again and he found it really strange hearing her while seeing the bow in someone else's hands.

"Weird." He smirked but held the sword gingerly and admired it at first. This was unlike any internet katana he'd seen. The weight, firstly, was completely balanced. "Ok so.." Bix didn't have a belt on to slip the sword into so he was forced to just hold it at his side with one hand. He seemed to manage alright. "This looks right.. now just pretend you are in a ninja movie." He flashed Madison another grin.

He tried it slowly at first, reaching with his opposite arm to grip the hilt. When he went to pull it out, it seemed to stick at first. Was it his action or the reluctant sword? He couldn't tell but it took a bit of a pull to get it free of the scabbard. The effort involved screwed up his face a bit. Once it clicked free though he drew it sloooowly. He wasn't sure if he was doing it right, perhaps Kouki would be giving Madison a play by play in her head... he had no frame of reference really!

The drawing of the sword was slooow but he tried to keep the blade as straight as possible so it withdrew smoothly. Once it was free of the scabbard he held it out in one hand and admired the blade. "Sweeeeeet. Now back in.." The hand on the scabbard slid up to the top, right on the edge (cause he'd seen this specific thing in an anime!), and looked down as he did his best to nail the re-entry in one go. He extended his fingers a bit to touch the blade so he could guide it back in.

He was clearly not an expert and he'd done it at a snails crawl, but he'd done it somewhat smoothly except for a hiccup here or there. Well this was his own opinion. He had no idea what Kouki thought of his expertise but he didn't seem to fumble or have to juggle it in his hands.

Bix had to resist. He had this urge to act like a ninja, yelling HIYAAAH! and slashing willy nilly... BUT HE RESISTED.

"It sounds stupid but I bet it would help." The albino hunter laughed. He offered her back the sword. "It totally feels weird to hold another person's weapon. Isn't that crazy? But your swords are awesome. Back home, in the summer, we would go get a bunch of melons and go out in the backyard with the cheap samurai sword, and we'd chop them up and act like ninjas." It was probably a boy thing but he had TONS of fun.

Bix looked over her other swords. Were some shorter than others? Maybe her weapon could teach her strategies.

"I think they have movies in the library here." he turned a little pink all of a sudden. "If you ever want to have a movie night, I'd be up for it."

Are you asking her on a date?
NO. It's like STUDYING. She's nice anyway.. WHATS THE PROBLEM? Bix's inner voice was floundering.

"I mean.. maybe some other people would want to as well? So it's not weird? NOT THAT IT WOULD BE WEIRD." The awkward hunter sort of face palmed. "Umm yeah. They probably have movies with ninjas fighting monsters.. it'll be like.. uhh studying."

Just stop. Stop right now.