Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sadie had spent the better part of the day hunched over her souped up computer with a strong mug of hot tea. There were a lot of things she enjoyed about her work as a graphic designer, like the flexible schedule, the money, and usually, the creative aspect, but there were times that deadlines crept up and long, mind melting days had to be pulled just like there were in any other type of work. By the time she sent in a draft of her project for review, her eyes were red rimmed and something had definintly gone wrong with her spine. She needed a walk.

Nothing was quite the the antidote for the mundane like magic was. She powered up in the alleyway by her apartment and started heading out for a walk. Maybe she would meet somebody interesting again. Maybe this would be the day when it all came crashing down and she died. Either way, it would be a change in routine. There was also the chance that she'd be left in pieces but alive, the least appealing of the three options, but worrying about that wasn't going to get her anywhere. It was a risk she would have to take and not think too hard about.

The spring weather was absolutely breathtaking. It was easy enough to just enjoy her walk as a walk and to look at the many bushes that were in full bloom. She didn't think there were any auras around, so it came as a bit of a shock when a sharp voice interrupted her thoughts. She started.

Then, she smoothed out her skirt and rounded a nearby corner and started looking around. "Ummm," she began, drawing out the syllable, as this was so far out of her comfort zone that she wasn't even sure where to start. Still, it wouldn't be very nice to leave someone hanging if they did happen to be looking for her.

She caught sight of the cat. Was this going to be another one of those oddly determined talking cats? Since there wasn't anyone else around, it seemed likely. She'd never gotten a proper explanation for that phenomenon. Now she felt even less comfortable.

"Are you looking for someone?" she asked. Again, they were alone, and there weren't other auras around. "Are you looking for me?" She glanced down at her outfit, not sure if she matched his description. "I'm not really Sparkles. Maybe Fish?" She started twisting the beads on her bracelet then looked back up. "Pearls if you wanted to stay in the realm of jewelry. Technically Pendour."

Pendour gave him the benefit of the doubt and glanced over her shoulder, only to find that they were indisputably the only ones on this empty street. He was talking to her. She just blinked at him as he kept going on about names before murmuring, a few seconds behind the flow of conversation, "But I'm not wearing anything sparkly at all." It was true that her outfit had a lovely sheen, and it could perhaps be called shimmering if one was being generous, but sparkle was just not an accurate description.

"And I'm certainly not wearing... um..." she trailed off, going quite red. She understood that profanity was a part of language, and she did her best to ignore it, but she did not love when it was directed at her.

Luckily, she didn't have long to dwell on that before he was moving on. Nessy? She rubbed the pearls on her bracelet between her fingers and just blinked at him, mouth slightly ajar. She didn't mind it, but Loch Ness was freshwater, as far as she knew. Pendour was an ocean cove, and her clothing showed it.

Then, with Pendour's head already spinning from all the inaccuracies, he just kicked her in the face. There was a half second when he was flying at her where she realized that she should maybe move, but she didn't and she was rewarded with a decently hard knock to the bridge of the nose. She squeaked and stumbled backwards, her hands flying up to cover the injury.

"What?" she asked through gritted teeth. Now she was in pain as well as even more confused. Why bother with odd, but sort of nice, nicknames before pulling something like that? Maybe it was time to ask. "Are you with the Negaverse?"

Not the Negaverse. Very much not the Negaverse. Okay, then. Pendour peeked out at him from between the fingers that were still pressing on her throbbing nose and wondered how such small creatures could be filled with so much anger and aggression.

Well, at least he was explaining himself now. It would probably be very insensitive to ask if he'd actually killed anyone, but watching him wiggle down for another pounce while still going on and on made that question seem rather pressing.

She peeled her hands away from her face and held them in front of her. Slowly, she curled them closed, as demanded, although they were still much to loose to really qualify as fists. "Would that make you happy?" He was quite literally asking for it. Did that make a difference?

Intentions made a difference. He intended to make her a warrior, and any training she accepted would only make it easier for her to end up hurting someone when those desperate moments came along. She dropped her hands to her sides with a grimace and shook her head. "No. Thank you for the offer of the training, but no thank you. I do not wish to hurt you or anyone else."

She did bend her knees a bit to give her some leverage in case he did decide to continue jumping at her anyway. "I know you might not agree with this, but, um," her voice went softer, "Please do not kill me just because the Negaverse may."

She kept her gray-green eyes locked steadily on the very fluffy cat before her. "I'm quite serious," she said, hoping it would assure him. It didn't really seem like her words were reaching him, and of course it went both ways as she couldn't say that what he was saying made much sense to her at all.

Well, except the part about needing to fight. That was perfectly clear. Unfortunately for Faust, it was one thing that she would not do.

"I assure you, I'm not trying to-" she began.

He was flying at her again. She'd almost been expecting it this time. Her instinct was to just step backwards. She stepped backwards. It didn't work. That tiny paw with far too much force behind it hit directly where her neck hit her jawbone. She yelped and stumbled backwards yet again, then hunched a little and rubbed at her new injury with two fingers.

"I'm not trying to fool you," she said. Her voice already sounded rather strained. She hurt, and in the back of her mind she knew that this was going to leave awkward bruises. It looked like she was going to be stuck in her apartment until that cleared up. She could have ran. In fact, she felt like she probably should have ran, but self preservation was not always her strong suit, and maybe there was something she could learn from this cat.

She straightened. "Would you mind doing that again?" she asked. "It seems like I need to learn to dodge." She stepped forwards, resetting her position.

Pendour cast a glance over her shoulder when Faust landed behind her. Of course. Not everyone was going to straight, face to face, with an attack. She hoped that in this training case things would be a little better than that, but with this particular cat she really had no idea what to expect.

So she turned to face him. It was slow and deliberate. She'd probably have to be faster other times, and she had no idea what she'd do then, but at the moment Faust was wasting breath on more curses again so it seemed like she had the time.

Sideways, she reminded herself. Her eyes never left the cat this time, and this time she picked up on the telltale butt wriggle. In response, she bent her knees, and then when he came flying at her, she took a jump herself, left this time.

It worked. He went right past her. She turned back towards him. "I did it," she said, almost surprised and blinking fast. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled big.

Pendour was light and happy in her heart that she had accomplished her task, but her feet were planted firmly on the ground. There were no more bent knees. There was no more waiting for an attack, even as she watched Faust sprint to her side. He was going to knowledge what she'd done and then maybe they would try again.

No. Of course not. Not with this cat who didn't seem to have anything close to a grip on basic logic. She should have known, but she didn't know until he was already flying at her and by then, of course, it was already altogether too late.

He slammed right above her hip bone and she gave another very pathetic sounding noise and stumbled backwards. Still, at least this time she stumbled backwards into her bent knees, ready for flying cats pose. That did really hurt, and maybe soon running away would become the best option, but for now she gave Faust a little nod.

Half of her body now ached sharply with the impacts. Eyes narrow with the pain of it, Pendour looked down at the cat sitting there all smug.

"Okay," she said through gritted teeth, her grace slipping. "I understand." Although he was talking again, and actually making a bit of sense this time, and she could tell that he actually was trying to teach and help her.

Well, except that he didn't understand that she didn't need taught how to hurt others. Repeating that seemed worth a try. "You know I don't want to hurt anybody, don't you?" she asked. "Wouldn't throwing them hurt? Maybe if they just missed me and fell into something it would be their own fault but I don't think I want to encourage that. It gets squicky."

She reset her stance. "Anyway. Yes."