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 Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 9:24 am
Grimacing as he settled into a mesh of sturdy branches, Xibalba sighed and glared sourly at his casted arm. Because of course that weedy runt had managed to break it with that cane. And while powering up helped to heal things a little faster, it was still very broken.
But powering up did help. And that had led the burly page to this far corner of the park to rest and think and quietly curse his luck. It also led him tot he belief that every powered soul in this city went through the park at some point. But since that provided a bit of background noise for him to fade into, he was perfectly fine with it.
Still, he wouldn't have minded someone to talk to if he couldn't be out fighting.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:36 pm
She felt like someone was here, but oddly, she couldn’t see them. It was a bit of a first for Tanais, if you didn’t count the times it was a Nega she was chasing down. It was their job to hide from her. They faced a metal fist to the face if they didn’t... but this was different. This person felt like a knight, if she was reading that weird inner sense right.
The Knight paced slowly down the park path, gravel crunching under her boots and cicadas humming in the trees. It was strangely peaceful here... dark and quiet away from the traffic, softly lit. A normal park at night, anywhere but DC. Not that she remembered ever being in a normal park.
She paused at the intersection of her path with another and cast her eyes down each route, dark and glittering. Thoughtful.
“I can feel you.” Tanais said conversationally. “I dunno why you’re hiding out here, but I guess if you don’t want company just... keep on hiding and I’ll just... wander away.”
She shrugged heavy shoulders and proppped her fists on her hips, feeling a breeze ruffle her red-streaked hair but otherwise as though she were quite alone.
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Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:59 pm
The approach of such a strong aura had Xibalba flinching for a moment before he realized that this aura didn't feel slimy against his soul. In fact, it had a tang to it that felt almost... homey. Now that was interesting.
Carefully shifting in his tree perch, he watched as a tall, muscular female came into view and casually addressed that air around her. Far more interesting were the glimpses of the symbol of Mars on her armor. This then, might not be a friend, but wasn't actively an enemy. Very well then.
"Wasn't hidin'," he raised his voice slightly, wriggling some of the surrounding branches to show where he'd set himself up. "Just came out tae think."
He didn't try to control his accent, figuring that if the lovely unknown wanted to be companionable, she could deal with a bit of Scottish twang.
"Come along up. I think the branches can hold the both of us. Maybe."
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Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:00 pm
It was the rustle of branches that caught her attention and the voice that came from it was... startling. Deep and rolling over to clip some words. It perked her curiosity and her long strides closed the distance to put her beneath the trees, tilting her head to peer up through the branches.
It was a larger figure than she had anticipated, but she grinned when she found him, lifting a brow at the idea the branches might take them both. God, she hadn't climbed a since... Well, the memory escaped her, but it felt like it had been a childhood thing. At least like this, she felt fairly confident in herself. She jumped buildings, she could handle a tree.
It was easy enough to jump up high enough to grasp a branch that would take her weight and swing her legs up, hooking them on another. Releasing a hand, she reached for another to haul herself up, getting her feet beneath her and a rhythm going to reach a perch somewhere near the other knight. She wasn't even breathing hard by the time she made it there, dropping down to sit and let her legs dangle. The wood creaked beneath her, bark crumbling and falling, but it held, leaving her grinning and bright eyed.
"Its not the most inconspicuous way to get some thinking time, since any bum walking by can feel you up here." Tanais said, winking at him. "I'm Tanais. Mars... which it looks like you are too?"
Up closer, she could pick out the darkened colors, the shield-and-spear symbol of a brother-in-arms. It gave her a thrill to see it, a quickening of her pulse and a bubbling excitement. Mars knights were different. Meeting one was different. Closer, more familiar, more connected. "I'm glad I felt you and decided to stop."
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:31 pm
Grinning in response to his fellow knight's enthusiasm, Xibalba laughed heartily as she got herself settled and introduced. Waving his casted arm comically (and nearly managing to tumble himself out of the tree in the process), he winked back before introducing himself.
"Xibalba, and aye. Page o' Mars."
He bit his tongue before he could say something crude about being felt. He wasn't sure about Tanais' sense of humor and they'd only just met. He'd give it another five minutes before breaking out the dirty jokes. Instead, he focus on her armor, admiring how well it suited her.
"Ah'm glad y'stopped as well. There's only so much thinkin' a body can do before they start tae go mad. Besides, I don't often get t'meet my own kind while I'm out. It's a rare pleasure, miss Tanais. Are ye new around these parts?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 12:46 pm
Tanais waggled a hand with a lop-sided grimace, her nose wrinkling.
"I'm not NEW new, but sort of new, I guess? I purified from the Negaverse a few months ago and there isn't a lot I remember about it... but from what I've been told, I've been around for a while." She watched him sidelong, trying to look like she wasn't. Reactions were always mixed. It was hard to say which way he'd fall on the apparent bomb-shell that was revealing you purified.
She hated that it was such a big deal, even as she understood why. It was an unchangeable, recent part of her, but not something she wanted to trip over every time she met someone new...
"Did you get that out here?" The knight said as she nodded at his casted arm. "Or was that a plain clothes event?"
She had her own personal experience with injuries 'on the job'. Dripping blood into her bathroom sink while she washed out cuts and road rash were not an uncommon event in her life. Figured everyone had experiences like that, from time to time. Maybe some more than others.
It made her quirk a smile, just a little. No one could say she wasn't trying hard to make up for past, unknown mistakes.
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Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:08 am
Well. That accounted for him never hearing about this lady before even through the quietest of grapevines. His face was thoughtful for a moment before breaking out into a sunshiney grin.
"Good on yer! M'intended purified as well. 'Course that was before I met 'er, but still! Ah'd buy ye a round t'celebrate, but we'd get funny looks in these get ups."
Xibalba had heard plenty from Chariklo about her time as a Dark Mirror and her encounters with various Negaverse agents. Most sounded as if they'd be all right people if they were intent on blindly following the monsters in charge. But there had been a few stories that had chilled even his spine. The ones who'd blatantly enjoyed hurting people. Brrrrr.
Turning his attention to his arm, he shrugged and laughed a bit sheepishly.
"Bit of an on th' job hazard, I s'pose. Weedy lad wit' a heavy cane and a touch o' Napoleon complex tae boot. It's not a bad break. Just... cumbersome for now. Now this," he brightened and hiked up the edge of his kilt a bit to show off a scar on his thigh. "I was a young an' stupid lad and let a motorcycle fall on me. First one I ever tried tae repair, in fact. I had m'screwdriver in my pocket and well. Ah never wear cargo pants anymore, nor do I keep mah tool in pockets while Ah'm workin'."
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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:38 pm
Tanais gave him a small smirking look, one eyebrow lifted. 'Intended' was a weird word to use. It sounded archaic, like they were back in the vikings time. It fit the accent he had. Still, he wasn't looking at her like she'd crawled out of the pits of hell. That was something, yeah? There was as much relief in her smile as amusement at his word choice.
"A drink sounds good about now, but maybe when we're not dressed like extras from Sparta." She agreed with a laugh. Her eyes followed as he showed off his arm, and then drew up his... skirt, for lack of a better term just then. She had one too, but it seemed like a Mars thing. He had nice thighs at least... she was not ashamed to be eyeing it.
"That's not a very impressive story." Tanais said with a chuckle. "I guess I don't really have anything better, though."
Leaning forward, she tugged her breast plate forward, the leather straps digging into her flesh, till she could give him something of a look at the jagged, pale scar that started at her shoulder and disappeared diagonally under it, between her breasts.
"I don't remember how I got this one, I woke up with it." She said, tapping the top and then leaning to the side and twisting to show where the scar came out below the breastplate, ending on her opposite hipbone. "It goes all the way from here to here, like someone was trying to gut me, but didn't quite manage it. And these spot things?"
She turned her arms to show the discoloration speckling the outsides of them, running up to her shoulders and down her back and thighs.
"Weird placement for freckles. Gehenna, another Mars knight, said I used to have scales there. And horns, up here." Tanais tapped her temples, where the hair streaked red through the dark black. "He knew me before and helped me through the purification, he said. I was, ah... one of those ones who got like... melded with a youma, I guess. It left marks."
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:17 am
"Drinks later then," he said firmly with a grin. Then, turning his attention to the scar she was showing off, Xibalba found himself wincing. It really did look like someone or something had tried to slice her in half diagonally. As far as cool scars went, Tanais was clearly the winner.
The freckling was just as interesting and far less distressing. Half-youma before, hrmm? And the negaverse did not like to lose people. He was beginning to have suspicions about her scar. But rather than burden her with his own fretting, he raised an eyebrows questioningly and reached out to very gently brush a patch of freckles on her arm.
"Let me be th' first tae assure ye that the freckles're charmin'. An' if ye were that deep in, Ah'm even more impressed that ye purified. That takes strength and will that most don't have, ye ken? An' if ye ever need tae talk to someone who might unnerstand, Ah'll introduce ye to Chariklo. She's got fun scars as well."
Privately he was unsure who'd win the cool scar pissing contest betweenthe two women. The one who looked like she'd nearly been bisected or the one who'd been mauled by a giant dog-like youma. Either way he thought it might be good for both of them to meet. If only to help the other feel as if they weren't so alone in their choices.
Impulsively, he reached out to grasp Tanais' hand and give it a friendly squeeze. In his limited experience with other Mars knights, she struck him as someone he wanted to get to know better. Hooray for brotherhood.
"Tell ye what," he said with a grin. "Help me outta this tree and first round'll be on me. Mostly as I make the stuff mahsel' and have an abundance I could send home wit' ye."
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:26 pm
Charming. Tanais chuckled as he reached out to touch them, making the hair rise on her lower arms.
"I don't remember any of it, so there isn't really that much to talk about. I can't tell you for sure why I purified or what I had to go through to do it. As far as I know, I burst into being like this, fully formed and dressed in armor, with a purpose. If your girl has an idea how that feels, then I suppose we really do have a lot in common." She said, keeping her voice light.
Someone who chose to purify was a different kind of person than she was. She'd never made any kind of choice, faced any kind of conflict, or suffered beneath the heel of Metallia. She had been born as this person, knowing how to do things she never learned, wearing armor that had been born with her. It was... hard to share that with someone who didn't know first hand what it was like and what it meant.
Her hand closed firmly around his though, when he reached for her, and her face softened. It was good that he tried, at least. He seemed like a good guy, and someone alike enough they got along well. She didn't have nearly enough friends yet, she wanted more of them.
Shifting her grip to his wrist, her grin got toothy then. "Free alcohol? It would be a crime to say no. Go ahead and swing off and I lower you down. Am I gonna get a chance to meet this lady of yours? I promise..." And she crossed her chest with a finger then, teasing. "I won't steal her from you."
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:22 pm
Face falling a little as he realized that Chariklo might not be the best person for Tanais to talk to, Xibalba felt himself flush. And because he couldn't bear to give the wrong impression, he quickly clarified, the sadness evident in his voice.
"Ah, then p'raps I spoke too soon. Chariklo came from the Dark Mirror court and their ways differ from the rest of us. Ah'm so sorry, Tanais. Ah should have watched mah fool mouth."
Still he brightened slightly when it seemed she held him no ill will for his idiocy. And he outright burbled with laughter as she grabbed his wrist and gave her orders.
"Ah hear an' obey, lass. Keep a guid grip now," he said as he swung off the branch, marveling at how very strong his new friend was. "O'course! She'll be out patrolling right now, but since she's trying tae stay dry, we'll introduce ye another time."
When he feet touched the ground, Xibalba grinned up into the dark foliage.
"Ah'd hope not! Ah've gotten attached tae her, though Ah've no doubt she'll be tickled tae death to meet ye."
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:22 am
Tanais laughed.
"I'm not that thin-skinned, don't worry." She said as he slid off his branch and she took his weight on her single arm. Surprisingly, he felt like a child, for as much bulk as he carried. Flush with the power of Mars, he hardly weighed a thing. She lowered him as far as she could reach before she let him drop the short remaining distance.
Shifting, she jumped off her own branch and landed with a bent-knee thump, hardly feeling that either.
"I always enjoy meeting pretty girls. Or boys. Or otherwise." The knight laughed as she slung an arm over the Page's shoulder. "C'mon. Lets get that drink."
A drink to Brotherhood. A drink to Mars.
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