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 Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:10 am
Page One 01. Table of contents
02. News & Updates
03. Essential Information
04. Personality
05. Skills & Hobbies
06. Family
07. Residence
08. Relationships
09. Photo Album
10. Reserved.
11. Reserved.
12. Credits Page Two 01. Table of contents
02. Growth Requirements
03. Roleplay Logs.
04. Reserved.
05. Reserved.
06. Journal #1
07. Journal #2
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Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:13 am
✿✿✿Fighter Requirements━━━━━━━ ✿Battles[✖] [✖] [✖]
[✖] [✖] [✖]
✿Regular Roleplay[✖] [✖] [✖]
[✖] [✖]
✿Journals[✖] [✖] [✖]
[✖] [✖] ✿✿✿Captain Requirements━━━━━━━ ✿Battles[✖] [✖] [✖][✖] [✖] [✖][✖] [✖] [✖][✖]
✿Regular Roleplay[✖] [✖] [✖][✖] [✖] [✖]
✿Journals[✖] [✖] [✖][✖] [✖] [✖][✖] [✖]
✿Upstanding Noble Roleplay
[✖] ✿✿✿Tenryujin Requirements━━━━━━━ ✿Metaplot Participation
[]
✿Roleplays with Kuro-Mizuki
[] [] []
✿Battles[✖] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] [] []
✿Regular Roleplay
[] [] []
[] [] []
[] [] []
[] [] []
✿Journals[✖] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] [] [][] []
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Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:14 am
✿✿✿What's Going On━━━━━━━ A Nasty Surprise.... In which A'Meiya goes to train with Yue Lao, only to discover that she is a Legion, just like Sara.How To Make A Delivery.... In which a still-frustrated Cais delivers the order of custom bottles to Yue Lao and her Othermother.The Imperial City's Annual Kite Race.... An ORP in which Yue Lao and the others have a kite battle!Loosens the Tongue.... In which Yue gets Sara hopelessly drunk, and Sara tells her fascinating stories of a Northern Temple.Smile, Or Prepare To Fight!... In which Jianyu and Yue Lao reunite for the first time since her promotion to fighter status.Something Wicked... In which Yue Lao rallies the women to storm the men's side of the bathhouse.I'm On Your Side... In which Yue Lao gets lost in the Noble quarters and is desperately trying to find her way out.Swimming Is For Chumps... In which Yue Lao finally meets Bataar, but he keeps trying to purchase her monkey... Yue Lao is not pleased.RP.... Info. ✿✿✿What's Been Done━━━━━━━ Two Sides Clashing. In which Yue Lao and Jianyu fight Xiu and Sakn; Jianyu's win, Yue's loss.Afterfight Cooldown In which Yue and Sakn divide their winnings, calm down, and get Yue that monkey!That Monkey Is An Angel! In which Sara's skill with animals makes Yue a happy, happy woman...?Bitter Words In which Yue's terrible mood damages her friendship with Kiran; will the damage be permanent?What's Wrong?; In which Jianyu is devastated over Bataar and Yue tries to comfort him.Wine Tasting; In which Jianyu tries Yue Lao's plum wine, and an irrevocable friendship is formed.Stealing Secrets; In which Yue Lao adopts a new hobby from Kiran, and makes a new friend.Another Drink; In which Jianyu meets Yue's family, is welcomed into her home, and learns to brew wine.Bloodshed. In which Yue Lao and Jianyu fight through an ambush, and Jianyu sustains a bad injury.Bubbletime!; In which Shin Mu is irritated by Yue Lao's juvenile games.Festival Of Spirits. ORP; gained +1 RP req, +1 Battle req.Picnic Party; In which Kiran and Yue Lao have a picnic.In Good Company; In which Jianyu and Yue make dinner for their parents, and Chishio and Yowai meet Ehuang and Liwei.Hot Air; In which Yue commissions work from Cais, and potentially initiates a fight over an insult.Did You See That?! In which Sakn and Yue Lao form a questionable friendship.RP. Info. ✿✿✿What May Come━━━━━━━ A'Meiya. & Yue;Although Mei looks up to her at first, they will soon partake in a bitter battle during which she is disillusioned and Yue gains another enemy.Liarei & Yue.No one can be friends forever, but sometimes there's never even a chance; these two are doomed to fight from the start. Sara & Yue Lao; Sara is going to plant dreams of far off places in Yue Lao's mind; Yue intends to seek out that northern temple and enter no matter what!
Kiran & Yue Lao; Can Kiran teach Yue how to swim?
Jianyu & Yue Lao; If Yue falls into the water, what will happen?...
Participants.Info
Participants. Info
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Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:15 am
✿✿✿Academy Student Journals━━━━━━━ ❀Not Just For Drinking; Brewing, wine, grapes, hobbies.✿The Fierce Warrior; Jianyu, Ichi-Koi, work, wine.✿Not So Criminal; Kiran, lunch, eavesdropping.✿What Will Not Be Said Aloud; Jianyu, nightmares, killed, Nobles, war, love, friendship, secrets.✿Yowai's Wisdom. Jianyu, Yowai, anger, lecture, truth.✿Journal title. Tags. ✿✿✿Fighter Journals━━━━━━━ ✿I Remember... Retrospect, nostalgia, Jianyu, Sakn, Kiran, Cais, Shin Mu. "You"✿Mr. Princess Has a New Favourite. Sara, Sweetpea, Mr. Princess, new friendship.✿Did I Lose My Mind? Mistakes, anger, fighting, repent. Kiran, Sakn, Soul Conduits, Apologies.✿So This Is What It Feels Like. Observations on having grown, Iseul, Hime-san. "You." ✿✿✿Captain Journals━━━━━━━ ❀A Letter To Sara; Sara, Captain, Jianyu, pilgrimage, Mountains.
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Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:17 am
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:26 am
 It's not just for drinking!
Picking grapes, it's like holding something from another world, something living that bleeds just like any of us might.
By the end of the harvest, my hands are always stained under the nails, and covered with grape residue. I don't mind helping Yowai; in fact, I enjoy it.
The task is calming. The most important thing is to never damage the vines; leaves can be pulled off, and the grapes are, obviously, meant to be snipped away, but those vines, if damaged, won't be the same again. They may even die. A good vine takes at least three to four years to grow, which may not seem like a lot, but when you're as young as I am, that's a sizeable portion of all you've ever known.
Sometimes I wonder why I like to brew alcohols so much. I think it's just that... well, for one, I grew up around the brewing, so it was easy for me to pick it up and entertain a hobby not a lot of children have access to. Yowai basically let me shadow her for weeks, and pretended she couldn't see me, surveying her employees and poking around the casks and clay pots. I even ate a couple of her grapes, and she didn't say a word. Yowai was really nice to me growing up, even if she pretended to be gruff.
Chishio doesn't mind that I brew, either. She's almost proud of me, in a way, though some days they argue over whether or not brewing is a respectable career for a woman. It's not to question Yowai's profession, but rather Yowai worries over me learning the art. As if I was respectable before, hah. Chichi loves me. Yowai loves me. They work it out, and in the end, it's good that their only daughter is learning the craft; I can carry the business on when Yowai decides she is too old for it. Right now, though, Yowai is so young; she has far fewer shadows and creases than Chichi, though I think in part it's because Yowai cares to use creams and such to improve her complexion, whereas Chichi is too active to bother with those things.
So anyway, apart from that... brewing is this sort of equation where you have to be really patient to learn anything from your mistakes. A young wine is just not as good as an old wine, but until I pick up the basics better I have to keep brewing younger wines so that I can make sure I have the taste right. Hopefully, one day, I can let it sit. Yowai says I'm getting there, but since I insist on brewing such strange beverages my progress is a bumpy road. I should just learn the basics solidly, and then move on to being unique, but... Why do anything, if I'm not going to give it my all? Yowai can brew a perfect bottle of wine every time, if she does it herself. She's so meticulous, and pours so much love into her work. Hopefully, one day, I can do that.
It's the smell, the taste, the pressing, the mixing, the picking, the gatherings; all of those things make me brew. The best part is having something to give, and share, when I'm done. It's a gift almost anyone will accept. How could I ask for anything more?
It even loosens the tongue. Great fun.
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:30 am
The Fierce Warrior
-----First night working at the Ichi Koi went fine. Sort of fine. I have to hold back a little; pretty sure flirting can get me in some real trouble if I keep getting out of the bar so late at night. Some guy grabbed my arm and it bruised. I punched him in the gut. Never seen a drunk man throw up that much. Pretty sure he won't be back for a while, if ever; he wasn't very happy a girl made him puke in front of his buddy. Good thing his friend was more sober, so he didn't come after me in support. Didn't have my rings on me, and I would have needed them to do enough damage to scare them off, I suspect.
-----Other nights after that passed pretty much the same. I didn't learn anything at all, just waited on drunks. Well, not true; I didn't learn what I set out to learn, but people tell great stories at the bar. I can get them to talk for a long time, without inhibition. It's a little less satisfying that they're not a challenge that way, though. They just lay their lives out. Is it a quality of the people who drink there, or is it something that lies under everyone? Will have to test that.
-----Nothing significant happened until last night. That's why I'm writing, in effect; I get so lazy with these documents. My book is just filled with notes about the people I get to know. I want a full account of this meeting, though. Or rather, a full account of what it meant to me. Of course, I'm still going to leave some facts I learned. Just in case I need to look back on this and remember some fundamental details of my first meeting with Jianyu. Sorry, not a first meeting, a re-meeting. I saw him at the Academy the day that the strangers in masks came after us.
-----I didn't remember him being blind in one eye; when did that happen? How? The black cloth made it pretty evident. Anyway, my notes, which I painted on my arm in ink so I wouldn't forget
(P.S. I woke up with ink smeared all over my face, it was gross, I had to get Chishio to help me scrub it all off with lemon water):
Jianyu:
- Serious at first, smiles underneath
- Not very good at heavy drinking
- Fighter, Legion aliance
- Doesn't like wine as spiced as me
- Plays cards, enjoys games (gambler?...)
- Plays with the beads in his hair sometimes
- Fun to converse with, makes me too honest though-- trouble?
- Neither upset by nor pleased by my stolen physical contact
- Doesn't believe in fate, but believes things can be changed by our actions
-----Will finish this entry over time; collecting info about him is going to take me a while, I think.
-----I thought he was serious, at first. He seemed like the kind of Lunarian who'd be easy to tease, and easy to understand. That's not how he is, though, really. His smiles are like treasure, and I can't help but be excited by every smile I happen to elicit. He's been coming to see me at the Ichi-Koi and I keep making him try new things. Sometimes even mixed drinks; he seems pretty brave! He has an extensive home, but it's because of all the relatives he has. We get along. He's actually a lot of fun.
-----Jianyu is the kind of Lunarian that you want to keep around you. Someone who'd get your back. Despite myself, I'm afraid I trust him. Will I let him see what I am? Maybe, but... not yet. Not for a long time. I have to hide the way I collect information, like a bird might collect treasures, from him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:46 am
Not-so-criminal
It didn't occur to me that no one looks up. They don't, though! I met Kiran by looking up, and that was how I found out you can eavesdrop over mainstreet by lying on a roof and listening over the edge. It seems like a valuable skill, which may allow me to observe Lunarians in secret. I'll have to plan a getaway, though; I'd hate to get caught up there and then stuck.
Kiran is pretty amusing. He seems a little awkward and a little stiff, sometimes, but other times he's just fun to joke around with. I noticed he gets kind of distressed when I steal my physical contact, and I'm not yet sure if it's out of discomfort or just not knowing what to do. I might test that. I crave it anyway, why not use the opportunity to find out more about Kiran?
He's not a criminal, though I called him one at first. He's maybe a little into mischief, but nothing really bad. He won't steal, at least not in the technical sense. We didn't do a lot apart from talk, when we met. I climbed onto the roof and tried to unsettle him, but he just kept chatting with me, trying to deflect my questions.
We went for lunch after meeting, even though it was the first day I'd known him. He had to wait outside, of course. I was impressed he didn't even try to eavesdrop. It was strangely respectful of him. Although I initially thought he wasn't that kind of Lunarian, due to eavesdropping, it seems like he might have a better character than eavesdropping might suggest.
I learned some things about him:
1. He rolls his shoulder often. It seems to be a habit, though he denied it at first.
2. Plays along, skilled at deflection, quick-witted enough to try and turn what I say back on me
3. Enjoys fishing
4. Trains a falcon
5. Once comfortable, he opens up a lot more, and becomes quite amusing
6. Can't cook, but was learning how
7. His mother can't cook, either, and chases him out of the kitchen; he is apparently lacking good food at home
It took a lot of needling to even get him to admit that much. Sometimes he volunteers information, like the cooking situation in his household, but mostly he seems to want to keep his personal details a secret. Is there a reason for it? I'm curious. I wonder if Kiran will continue on in this fashion, or if there's another layer of some emotion underneath. Does he have a temper? Is he kind at heart? Is he patient, or impatient? He at least has a good sense of humour in terms of my way of interacting with him. Humour can only make this more fun, for me.
I look forward to studying Kiran further. I feel like we could be friends, of a sort. If nothing else, he's amusing, and doesn't seem to mind my excuses to get closer. Definitely one of the more amusing Lunarians I've met.
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Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:15 pm
What Will Not Be Said Aloud
Friendship is a bond that affects every ripple of life. My life, even. Love, however, is destructive. It rips things open and stomps around like an angry child, ruining any sense of stability. That is why I promised myself that in order to observe others, I could not fall in love. It's imperative not to. My thoughts, lately, have been shaky and unclear. I can't view things objectively. Not that I'm admitting to being in love.
What is it, to love someone while this war is taking place? A vulnerability, exposing a tender mark. I learned that in the darkness, fighting those Nobles. For Jianyu to care for me meant he was in danger, and I was not able to keep him safe. Love seemed like a weakness in that moment, and yet... I know that he fought so bravely, and cared for me. I cared for him enough to kill the first Noble I have ever killed. It was a sloppy deed; I slit his neck with my broken wine bottle. Everything that happened that night seems like a bad dream, though I have been having my own bad dreams since. Lately the nightmares have been persistent. I wake up tangled in my sheets, and lay there. Since that night, I've kept my window boarded up, so the moonlight can't sneak in, so I can't see the stars. If I look at the stars, I think of him, and... The text is scribbled out viciously, so it is entirely illegible
The nightmares have no variety, really. I walk through an endless stone labyrinth. There are shadows on the stones, but no one to cast them. Sometimes I hear Yu's voice ahead of me, and I run after him, but there is a string tied to my ankle. The string winds back through the maze, where I came from, and it snags me. I have no choice but to stand still until Yu is far away. Then I hear his voice again, and I keep trying to reach him, but I can't. Above me, there is a dark sky, and it rains without end. The nightmare seems to go on endlessly, until I wake up. I never wake in the daylight. For the past few weeks, always I have woken before the sun rises. I make tea, and read Yowai's notes about the new crops. She has a grape in which is apparently some kind of hybrid crop. I wish I knew more about growing the grapes, but everything I touch seems to turn into chaos. That includes the garden. The only safe patch is Yowai's section, where she grows her personal foods and grapes.
Can you cut your own thread? Could I sever the ties I thought I didn't have? No, I won't do that. I need.. or want to be around Yu, I want to see this to the end. I will rein in my feelings, though. Love for a friend, that is all it can be-- any more than that would wind up hurting Jianyu. Either it would be one-sided, and it would ruin the friendship, or I would eventually cost him something later on. I have to concentrate on learning how to defend myself better, and I need to support him like I used to, without all these foggy thoughts, half-formed wishes. Yowai knows something is wrong, and I won't tell her. She probably even knows what it is. I know she doesn't like the way I deal with others. Chishio... if she only knew.
The nightmares are making me act strangely. Everything seems muffled, and I go through days where I just want to withdraw into my den and speak to no one. That's really not how I should be acting, and it's unsettling. I don't feel like this. I don't feel confusion, attachment, longing.
It's as if, for the first time, I want to reach out to the moon... and I just can't get there. I always thought I had the moon in the palm of my hand. Like this unreachable object was mine, and mine alone, because I was unattached. Not tied down.
I've never been in love, so I don't know what it looks like. I don't know what to make of it, and I'm still, even now, unwilling to deal with it. It's better for everyone if I lock any thoughts like that up inside myself. I don't fall in love.
But I also don't get attached, and I have. I tangled my thread up with Jianyu, and even if it hurts me, I'll make sure to do only what is good for him. All I can do is hope that I have the strength and wisdom to realize what that is in time. What will happen if... there are so many what ifs. What if I can't keep denying it? What if it wells up and he tells me to leave? What if I manage to forget these feelings? What if I have to, someday, meet Jianyu's new equivalent of Bataar?
These dark thoughts are unwelcome. I'm going out into the garden, to lay in the sun, and dream of nothing but blue skies and wine recipes. There is the perfect recipe somewhere out there, just waiting to be discovered. For now, I should focus on my brewing, and my fighting. It would be so much easier if I knew what I was doing.
It's easy to say "I love you" as a friend. I can do that. I can't let it mean anything else. Even if some part of me... maybe wanted it to.
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Face your demons generated a random number between
1 and 11 ...
9!
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:32 pm
 Vineyard Thieves - Legion Win
Yue Lao slept in the store room behind her othermother's brewery. She was nestled in amongst the barrels, enveloped in the smell of the casks. It wasn't unpleasant for her. In fact, it was soothing; on nights where her nightmares wouldn't let her sleep, she wandered over to the brewery and let herself in, sleeping in the store room. Ever since Jianyu had been stabbed that night, she had been unable to escape the nightmares, though she didn't feel the same panic when she was awake. The nightmares weren't constant. Maybe once a week, a few times a month. She hadn't mentioned them to Jianyu, because she didn't understand them. They didn't really bother her, apart from disrupting her sleep. Yue had always been a sound sleeper.
Outside, branches were rustling. It almost sounded as though it was the wind, but there was a dull thud against the side of the building. It startled Yue awake. She was irate, because she had finally gotten the nightmare to go away so she could sleep. Sighing, she pushed herself up. It was probably nothing. In fact, in her haze of sleep, she wasn't even sure if she had heard the noise, or it had been conjured up by her imagination. Still, she stretched, looked around her. The noise came again, further down the building, as if someone kept tripping into the wood frame. Her eyes narrowed. The rows of vines were uneven where they approached the building, the dirt in raised lumps where they had prepared to plant, but realized it was too close to the building. No one who knew the layout of the vineyard would trip on them, even at night. If someone was out there, they weren't welcome.
Carefully, Yue snuck out the side of the store room, creeping around to the back. She untied her tekko from her sash and folded her hand around it; since that night, that was another habit she had developed: the tekko never left her side. When Chichi made her the new over robe, Yowai had requested that a pocket be sewn into the sash against her stomach, so Yue could hide the tekko there. It was just a bar of light metal with a wooden cylinder against her palm, but it was effective and deadly with her koppojutsu skills. Besides, she was just a student; she had no real weapon, yet.
Yue Lao ducked into a crouch and inched her way into a position where she could see into the rows of grapes. The rows stretched off into the distance, but Yue was most interested into the two dark figures which stood near the building. One of them was cursing and apologizing, nursing his foot. The other, who had inexplicably dressed all in fine white linens, seemed to be reprimanding him silently. By his feet, a case of Yowai's grapes. Yue pursed her lips and rose to her feet. She would not let them get away with it. The Noble, for that was what he must be, didn't look like much of a fight at all. Clearly, the Lunarian apologizing was his lackey. Yue curled her hand around the tekko more comfortably and hid her hand at her side, obscuring the weapon in the folds of her robe. "Hey, you. Can I help you find something, sweetheart?" Yue asked, addressing the lackey, and not the Noble.
"Little girl, just keep on moving," the Noble sneered at her, raising his chin. He crossed his arms over his chest, and his lackey stood to his feet. In the dim light of the moon, Yue could barely make out his face: he seemed to be distraught, or angry. She couldn't really tell which expression he was making. Truthfully, Yue was enraged with the Noble, not his servant. Yue understood the need to earn a living, despite her disapproval of his choice. It was the Noble who had been trying to steal her othermother's grapes, their livelihood.
"Boss man, can't we--" the Lackey began, but the Noble cut him off.
"Han, I do not pay you, clothe you and feed you so that you can question my authority. This little girl is impudent, and I am waiting for her to leave our presence, so that we may continue our vital task. My wine stores are low." The Noble smiled at Yue, his teeth looking like nothing more than exposed bone in the night. Yue pursed her lips, then smiled at him eerily.
The Lackey didn't want to be there. He didn't want to fight a girl, and he didn't want to disobey his master. He was much older than Yue; his hair was greying and his scales were dull. He, unlike the Noble, was dressed modestly. Yue didn't want to fight him any more than he wanted to fight her. He couldn't help but think of his daughters, standing there across from Yue. Stealing never sat quite right with him. He had once owned his own farm, but had lost it due to a catastrophe which slaughtered his animals. To steal from someone who was trying to work the land for their living affected the once-farmer greatly.
However, his master was practically biting at his heels. "Ah, sweet Han. Do you sympathize with this Legion scum? I am sick of the sight of her; wipe her from my boot, so we may continue our work," the Noble said. He didn't know who Yue Lao was, but he did know Yowai. In fact, that was why he had targeted the vineyard in particular. It was not really for wine, because he had more than enough currency to purchase well-aged bottles, but rather that she had spurned his advances. He did not know how Yowai felt about women, of course, and he had no idea that she was romantically involved with Chichi. Yowai was fiercely loyal to her unofficial wife, and had turned an extremely haughty, though elegant, cheek to him. She refused to see him, or even read his letters. Earlier that morning, he had sent Han with a message, and she had set fire to it and dropped it in the road, letting it burn. She didn't even relay a verbal message to Han for his master.
Yowai was not normally so cold, but she had sensed something disgusting in the Noble, some propensity to be horrible. She had been right, as Yowai nearly always was. It was Yowai who really taught Yue how to read others. Yowai, who was fierce in all ways, a smoldering flame. That was what attracted others to her, but she accepted none of them. Yowai liked her space, and she shared it only with Yue, Chishio and those who worked with her at the vineyard.
Now, spurned, the Noble had returned with a vengeance, bent on sabotaging her work. This strange girl, who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, would not get in his way. "What are you waiting for, Han? Go to it." The noble pushed Han's shoulder. Han lumbered forward, his shoulder stiff in the chilly weather, and frowned. His boss would not leave him alone unless he threw the first punch. He stepped up to Yue, and, halfheartedly, pushed her shoulders with both hands.
"Please leave, I don't want to hurt you, but I will," Han whispered to her.
"I can't do that," Yue said, frowning. She resolved in her heart to not harm this man, if she had a choice in the matter. She took the push with little effect, regaining her balance. She relaxed her knuckles around the tekko and then tightened her grip.
Yue Lao dove in with her shoulder and winded the farmer, bringing him to his knees. He was old, and no fighter. She wrapped her arm around his neck, squeezing until he calmed. He raked his nails across her arm, cutting shallow wounds, but found no purchase. She just wanted to knock him unconscious.
The fight itself was pitiful. Yue Lao dove forward, towards the Noble, his servant crumpled on the ground. She braced with her tekko, punched him in the gut. She curled her leg under her and lashed it out, snapping against his calf. There was a distinct crack of force, and then his howl of pain.
For some reason, she felt a vicious desire to harm him. It passed in an instant, but it remained this terrifying darkness within her. She snapped her fist forward again, ready to slam into his jaw, but stopped. Her knuckles, harmless, glanced across his cheek, the tekko bruising his flesh. She could have broken his jaw. She probably could have killed him. He was already on the ground, severely injured. She had only fractured his leg, instead of broken it. Although it had sounded impressive, the impact was not nearly all of the coiled power she had learned. She wasn't very skilled with the tekko, but she had been training at the academy for some time now, learning to use her body to its full potential. The tekko just felt... inadequate, some days. She was still searching for a weapon that would be sufficient.
Staring down at the Noble, as he nursed his leg on the ground, she didn't notice the farmer who had woken rather early. Perhaps she had not held him long enough. He struck a blow against her back, which thrust her into the ground. Pain throbbed in her back. He was old, and slow, but he also packed a labourer's strength. She rolled away as his foot came down where she had lain moments ago, and she twisted onto her feet. She swept her foot at his, but he stepped away in time. Her fists raised, she pleaded with him, "I know you've worked hard all your life, I can see it in your eyes and your weathered face. Please don't make me fight you; I will hurt you, you know that," Yue said to the stranger. She felt somehow close to him, as though the Noble was a force that they should both be struggling against.
"I can't surrender," he said, reluctantly. Something in his voice made it sound as though he wished he could, "I owe... him money. My family won't be safe if I give up," he added. His voice was soft, almost a whisper, as the Noble howled and sobbed behind him, egged him on. Yue nodded, but felt as though she wished she could help. Without any further hesitation, she dove forward and slammed her tekko into his shoulder, making his arm useless. He couldn't punch with his right hand. She repeated it, drove her fist into her opponent's other shoulder.
He was totally unable to use his arms to fight. She spun one coiled leg out and snapped it against his hip, bringing him to his knee. He was not even trying to fight at this point, merely wincing in pain. She wasn't striking hard enough to break anything, or even fracture. She just wanted the fight to end. It was the Noble's blood she craved. She snapped her leg out again and cracked it against his only good leg, dropping him to the ground. He lay there, breathing shallow. Her arms were raked with the Noble's cuts and her back throbbed, but it had been such an easy fight, compared to... compared to that night.
Yue Lao spat at the Noble in disgust. "Never come here again. Never steal Yowai Hone's grapes. If I catch one whiff of your Noble stench, I will not let you live the next time," she said. With that, she drove her tekko into his chest, knocking the wind from him. She dragged his body out into the street, sweating and panting from the effort. With care, she sat the farmer up against one of the vineyard posts, and fetched him a bowl of water, reviving him, offering a drink of the cool liquid. "I asked you not to fight me," she whispered, "and you declined. I have no regrets. Please never return with your Noble master, nor to do any harm to my family's vineyard," Yue Lao said. "If you do, I will be waiting, and I can't be merciful forever."
She straightened to her feet, and dusted her hands off on her robe, cleaning her Tekko off on the white cloth of her loose pants. Yowai watched her from the shadows, acutely aware of her daughter's change. Yue Lao was not harmless any more, and she was not ignorant to the war. Yowai could not help but mourn, at least a little, that Yue Lao was now involved in the fights of her mothers' beliefs. However, Yue Lao had chosen to serve the Legion of her own free will.
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:26 pm
Meteor Hammer
-----Yue Lao had shut the moon away again. She lay in her lair, the blankets all in piles around her, a cocoon of soft fabrics. The blankets were made from scraps of material Chishio hadn't needed any more. She never threw scraps away, she merely kept them aside for her daughter, and sewed a blanket together when she had enough of them. There was one blanket, all crimson with gold thread embroidered along its edges, and her mother had stuffed that with warm down. It was too hot to use it, but she often lay on it, because it was comfortable even as a cushion. All of her blankets were pushed off of her at that moment, and her sweat made her night clothes cling to her skin. She had pushed the planks of wood up over her window, like she did when there was inclement weather. Ever since that night with the Nobles, since she had realized... how she felt about everything, she had kept the moon away from her. She couldn't bear to look into the eye which had seen it all. The moon always bore witness to the things she wished to hide, unlike the sun; that was how she felt. That the sun was too busy off looking at everything all at once, illuminating everything so brightly that nothing was special.
-----The moon was selective, gentle; instead of searing with light, it pulled aside the darkness like a veil from the face of its lover. Yue Lao could not bear that gentleness, that knowledge. She kept thinking on the attack, over and over again. Of course, after all her time practicing manipulation of her own facade it wasn't very difficult to set her fears and worries aside when dealing with others. However, when alone, the apprehension descended upon her. She sat up, and with a sigh, left the warmth of her lair to climb down the ladder to the ground floor, setting up her journal with some ink and a writing brush.
I've given it a lot of thought. The tekko... although it's fun to fight so close, so quickly, it's not enough. I can't erase the image of that Noble, stabbing Yu while I just stood by and watched. I wasn't fast enough, I couldn't get there quick enough. I couldn't fight against that archer and I can't do anything with just a little fist tool, not when it matters most. I know I'm just a student, so I shouldn't be that impressive anyway, but... I want to finish my training, I want to have time to learn this new weapon. It's called a Meteor Hammer. I saw the monks fighting with it, the other day... Of course, I just walked up and asked them about it. Monks are monks, anyway. For the most part, they were pretty helpful; they even gave me a demonstration. They told me that they were using a monkey fist type, except for the instructor, who used what he called a water hammer. Apparently the Monkey Fist is is a type of knot.
For days after, I went back at the same time every day, to watch them practice. I brought gifts from Yowai's garden, and in exchange, they allowed me to watch. One of the younger monks would sit with me on breaks and tell me more about the fighting technique, about the weapon, even about his life there. The type of meteor hammer they trained to use had a weight on each end. He said the weight closest to you could be used to defend yourself, and the weight at the far end could be propelled through the air. It could break bones, it could snare Lunarians who wished to escape, it could knock the wind out of someone. The monkey fist meteor hammer had a lot of uses. The higher levels, which I saw once or twice, even incorporated fire into the design.
The monks have been teaching me some kind of manipulation magic. They said it's so I can add an element to the weapon, but it's not working right. They also can't seem to figure out why my weapon moves in weird angles that don't align with my technique and skill level. I don't know, to me, it just looks like what they're doing. One of them recently suggested that it's the seal magic I was learning; he said it doesn't always show up as an element, and that if while I was trying to learn how to add the other kind of magic I paid too much attention to the fluid motion of the weapon itself, I may have influenced that, instead. He said he'll train me, and ask his master for help.
They told me this is going to take a long, long time. I punched myself in the face with the monkey fist yesterday. Thankfully, my cheek seems to have deflected it, and I just have a big bruise. If I look at it in the right light, it just looks like a big blue flower.
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 10:26 pm
Yowai's Wisdom
----- So much time has passed, now. I can see things different from how I did before. Getting close to Jianyu was dizzying, and I didn't know how to handle caring so much for one Lunarian. For any Lunarian other than me, really. Yowai noticed my feelings, and she saw what I was beginning to do: to pull away, so that I felt less invested in everything. How can anyone observe rationally when they're taken by such irrational impulses? Although I guess I'm all about impulse, mostly. Anyway, I'm not writing this to talk about what I feel. I'm writing this because I'm frustrated, and angry; Yowai told me that she loved me, but what I was doing is wrong. She said that no one has an excuse to treat another living thing like you love them less than you do. She said that some people honestly aren't good at demonstrating or expressing love, and that it's a shame. She admitted she, herself, isn't very forthcoming with affection. Still, she doesn't lie to herself and to Chichi, that's what she told me. That by pulling back from Jianyu, it was like lying to him. To me.
-----She didn't threaten me, or tell me I had to confess to him. But she wanted me to think hard about what I was doing. What's wrong with her? Or with me? I don't know what else to do. I can't keep letting my heart flutter. He's a captain now, I'm still a student, and sometimes I feel like he's going to continue loving Bataar no matter what happens. I can't afford to stay the way I am, always hopeful. It's like being on a precipice, and I'm pretty sure I'll be pushed off sooner than I'll be pulled to safety. What is safety in this situation, anyway? Safety would have been not feeling this way at all. Yowai is too smart for her own good, but she didn't have anything to tell me when I said that to her. Not so eloquent. I may have been crying at the time. It's not often Yowai sets me aside like a little girl and tells me I'm wrong.
-----Something about what I was doing was enough that she worried for me. She said for someone who loved the truth at the heart of people so much, I was doing all I could to shut myself off from others. Yowai didn't want that for me. She said that when she was young she had done something similar, and although she has no regrets, she wanted to speak up like no one had for her, to call me out on my secrets. My half-secrets; everyone must know. It's hard not to see it, I guess... well, not really. Yowai is observant, Chishio is a ridiculous romantic, so both of them know how I feel. Otherwise, I'm affectionate with everyone. It's the best concealment.
-----Would I be able to stop that? To be affectionate only with one Lunarian? I think this is too much part of my nature. Loyalty is a fluid concept. I can smile at someone, that doesn't mean I love them. There are few people in my heart, and I'm so frustrated over this whole thing I wish I could tie it to a stone and sink it to the bottom of the lake. I have to go out. Doesn't matter where. I feel so many things at once that they're all just getting compounded into anger. I don't want anyone to see me like this, not even my own words.
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Face your demons generated a random number between
1 and 11 ...
1!
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Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:18 am
I Think I Just Bashed My Own Face In -
Noble Win
xxxxxHer own blood slicked her lip and coagulated against its cleft. It seemed Yue Lao was learning the hard way that she shouldn't pick fights with strangers, and she needed a lot more practice with her monkey fist. It hung by her side, in her near-useless left hand; her shoulder hurt too much to wield it, but nevertheless, she switched it to her right hand and planted her feet solidly in the churned earth, staring at her opponent. It was a man with thick muscles, and almost no neck. Why was she facing an opponent so much bigger than her? Because he was a bully, and Yue didn't respond well to bullies.
xxxxxYue had been walking home from the monastary, which was why she had her monkey fist with her at the time, instead of her tekko. The lanterns had been lit, but sooner or later, their soft light gave way to paths obscured by darkness. She didn't squint or stumble; se had walked that path many times before, and knew the way by heart, especially once her eyes had adjusted enough to make out vague shapes.
xxxxxDown two lefts, and a right, that was where she had seen them: a noble holding a child monk up by the throat, pushing him against the side of a stone wall. His feet weren't even brushing the ground. He had both his hands clasped over the one meaty hand holding his neck, but he couldn't fight back. Yue had no idea why the Noble would be hurting a child, and she knew that the boy was too young to be very proficient in fighting, yet. She had taken a few steps forward, and the child's face became familiar. He was holding Sugimura there. Sugimura was a quiet boy, sweet and not really cut out to be a fighter. Still, he tried, and he often hurt himself in the process. The three words Yue Lao had heard him say at the monastary all this time were: "I'm sorry master", and nothing more. She grit her teeth together and slung the monkey fist off her shoulder, grasping it in both hands. It was just a training weapon. She shouldn't be fighting with it, really... even though she had made a lot of progress, she was still far from skilled.
xxxxx"Put him down," she had said to him. She didn't move any closer, because the range was good for her weapon. "He's just a boy." Her hands had tightened around the coarse rope.
xxxxx"He's not just a boy," the man spat back, grinning, "He's a rat, sniffing out the business of those that don't concern him." The man squeezed on the boy, and he whimpered; he had been trying to claim his innocence, yet again, but the words had been forced back down.
xxxxx"Put him down, I won't say it again." Yue's eyes flashed. She didn't look drunk and content any more, but like something coiled up, ready to lash out. The man laughed in response, and started to ignore her. She launched one end of the monkey fist high in an arc and brought it down on his head. It was just rope, but Yue had learned that thing hurt way more than it seemed.
xxxxxHe dropped the boy, startled. "Sugimura, run, okay? Back home," Yue told him, emphatic. He pushed up to his feet and took off running, like she'd told him to. That was when the Noble started to take out his frustration on her, instead.
xxxxxAlthough she tried to fend him off with the monkey fist, her melee skills with it were almost useless, and he moved so quickly for someone so big. Unlike her masters at the temple, he wasn't patient with her, and he didn't give her time to recover when she inevitably missed. She landed a few good blows, bruising him on the temple and the cheek, making him gasp in pain a few times. Nothing like the damage she had done with her tekko. Instead of dropping her weapon and giving up, though, Yue took his punches, rolled out of the way of the ones she could avoid. Thankfully, all his skill revolved around his fists, so there were no surprises, really. Except before she knew it, she was getting exhausted, sore and sloppy. That was where she stood, regarding him, her own blood trickling down her lip. No one had come out to help her or to see what the fight was about. Better nobody than his allies, she thought to herself.
xxxxxIt happened in two moves. First, she reached out to arc her monkey fist and attack him from above again, but it missed and instead punched her on the cheek. Second, in her daze she didn't see the punch that was snaking towards her gut. The pain exploded in bursts and she lost track of which direction was which, crumpling to the ground, her monkey fist clutched still tightly in one hand. It was like that was her anchor to consciousness, and as much as she was dizzy and in pain, she needed the rough texture of the rope to hold onto her thoughts, her awareness. He was lumbering over her.
xxxxx"You should have minded your own business, little Legion girl," he said, spitting out the word Legion like it was the dirtiest insult he knew. Yue's eyes, shut tight against the pain, flickered under their lids. He grabbed her by the braid and was about to raise her off the ground when she heard familiar voices. She tried to open her eyes, but one of them was swelling shut.
xxxxx"Yue, yue, yue! I brought friends,"Sugimura's little voice called out. The glow of a flaming meteor hammer flared, reaching even through her swelling eye. She tried to smile, though it stung, and the burly man let go of her with a strangled sound. She hit the ground rough, landing on her wrist, and her last thought was of how hard she'd have to train to use the fire hammer. Little hands shook her, and her name was called a few times, but she just mumbled.
xxxxx"I hate bullies, Sugi," she said, promptly before her master startled her awake by forcing some sort of horrible vial under her nose.
xxxxx"Stay awake, it's for your own good," he said. Yue smiled, splitting her cut lip open wider. She didn't even want to think about what she would have done if her friends hadn't shown up. A little irritated with herself, she pushed the knowledge that she'd been saved twice now out of her head. One day, she'd be strong enough to fight without help. Or was it that she'd be strong enough to acknowledge the value of fighting as a team?...
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Face your demons generated a random number between
1 and 11 ...
3!
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:48 pm
Keep Breathing - Legion Win
Yue Lao dangled upside down off a tree branch, swinging herself back and forth. Her monkey fist was suspended beside her. "If I was a monkey, I would be much cuter than mister princess," Yue said, smiling down at the ground. Iseul looked up at her with a calm answering smile, even though the first time she had done this, he had been very worried. Iseul pet Hime-san, who was curled up on his shoulder, and thought of a reply.
It was true, Iseul was much more soft-spoken than Yue Lao. He was just as wicked, though; he loved the chaos that surrounded her. Initially, in the Academy, Iseul and Yue Lao had been enemies. Though they fought for the same side, or would one day, in class he seemed to delight in sabotaging her efforts. He had the sweetest smile, and he was so polite and kind that it seemed impossible he was guilty of anything. So Yue had learned to anticipate his sabotage: she would never accept food from him, she rubbed all training weapons down with her own cloth before handling them and she would never borrow his notes. He had put irritants on a spear and offered it to her once, he had spiked her food, and he had given her completely false notes. The work that boy had gone to in order to make Yue Lao appear stupid... In any case, it had turned into a competition.
Somewhere along the line, that became friendship. Iseul hardly had time to meet with her, but this afternoon, he had found a break in his busy schedule. Mostly it had to do with the fact that he had a day off from attending the family business, and his boyfriend was travelling for training. "How could you be cuter than this angel?" he asked.
Yue grimaced. Hime-san was only an angel to Iseul... and now, to the new girl she had just met. Sara. Yue swung herself more emphatically and the tree creaked in protest. Iseul narrowed his eyes and sighed. He wasn't much of an acrobat, himself, and it definitely made him uncomfortable that Yue would climb so high and be so reckless. The tree bark dug into the backs of her knees through the soft fabric of her pants. Because of the rustling branches, she didn't hear the footsteps in the leaf litter. Likewise, the sound of a bowstring being drawn, and the whistle of its flight. The dull thud into the base of the tree she swung from, however, was not lost on her. Iseul spun around, his mouth in a thin line, and he brushed the dark hair from his eyes. Someone had shot at him? Yue flipped herself back upright on the branch, her monkey fist clutched tightly in one hand. Iseul dropped Hime-san's cord, and the golden lion tamarin rushed up into the trees. Yue was too startled to speak, too on edge.
A second arrow flew from the darkness and Iseul grabbed at his arm. The arrow landed in the base of the tree. Someone was definitely attacking, and she counted her blessings that the archer wasn't even a tenth the shot Jianyu was. She used her monkey fist to shimmy down the tree, wrapping it around the trunk and climbing down what she thought was the safe side. Iseul didn't cry out or scream. He felt extremely displeased he had left home without proper weapons, but he drew his poisoned knives from within his sash and held them between his fingers. Yue liked to break bones, Iseul liked to damage from the inside out. Pain, and then death.
Yue Lao felt the familiar panic of ambush. Not even this happy evening was safe. They had spent all afternoon happily, but... why would they be under attack here? There was no one to find their bodies, she supposed. Yue finally touched down in the leaf litter and held still for a moment, listening. She couldn't tell exactly where the archer was. Peering around the trunk, she could see that Iseul's arm was bloody. He held knives in the hand of that arm, however, so either he was being brave, or the wound was not as bad as it could be. This time, the ranged weapon would not get the best of her. Iseul rolled in an erratic pattern on the ground, cradling his knives carefully, avoiding any attempt an archer might make on his life again. Yue followed behind him, running from trunk to trunk. She lost sight of him within the limited light, fading in the thicker growth. So when he appeared behind her, his clean hand pressed against her mouth, she nearly bit his hand in surprise. It was certainly him, though: his fingers were stained with ink, and he smelled faintly of pressed plant pulp. Her body relaxed, but only enough that Iseul could let go. He pointed into the darkness, where an archer crouched with her bow, trying to figure out where they had gone. She looked so young... Yue frowned and tightened her grip on the monkey fist.
Motion caught her eye: Iseul was aiming one of his poisoned knives straight at the girl. Yue knocked his aim, so that the knife landed in the fallen tree she crouched behind. Iseul slapped Yue's arm with his good hand, a stinging blow. "It's kill or be killed, idiot. Don't be weak."
Yue Lao had nothing to say to that. Instead, she argued, "You don't even know what side she's on. She's young, she's a poor shot. Let me catch her, babe. It'll be no trouble."
Iseul sighed and shook his head, blowing an irritated breath of air up and rippling his bangs away from his face. Yue tucked her braid behind her shoulder and took out the monkey fist. She got a little closer, swung upwards, and made contact. Stunned and in pain, the young archer stood to her feet and drew the bowstring back. Yue pulled her monkey fist in and smashed it into the girl before she could c**k the arrow.
No matter how much Yue seemed to train, no matter how good she got, she never seemed to be prepared. She turned to check on Iseul quickly: he was shaking his head and frowning at her. "That never would have hit you...!" she protested, with a thin smile. "Me, on the other hand... well, who knows about my luck." She rested her monkey fist on her shoulder and leaned down to check on the girl. In turning, she saw movement from within the darkness: no more than one shadow moving within another. And the familiar hiss of an arrow, straight to its target. Iseul grunted, his knives still clutched in his bloody hand. His other hand snaked up to his gut, where an arrow was lodged. He frowned at it, like it had misbehaved, like it was a particularly unruly child he was about to reprimand. His eyes were shining, confused for a moment, and then narrowed into slits. He stumbled forward and pushed Yue. A second arrow pierced through the space between them and Yue choked as the sharp tip sliced across her shoulder. That could have been her throat... Iseul, his only energy spent, collapsed in the leaf litter, still holding his knives; always holding his knives.
He was a much better fighter than she was. He was so dedicated, so careful. Yue had been messing around again, because she just couldn't seem to take anything seriously-- she had no time for introspective thoughts, however. She could see the same hand drawing back the same bow from the shade. It didn't even try to provoke her. Yue felt the silent hostility and was afraid. Yue Lao was scared. She wanted to reach down and check Iseul, to get him help. What could she do? Her opponent was clearly not going to hesitate. Yue darted to the side as the archer let another arrow fly. They were backing up as she tried to approach them, until finally, she remembered what she had started training with the monkey fist for in the first place.
She would not let ranged weapons be her weakness again. Yue spun her monkey fist up and, though she missed the first time, did not hesitate to try again. This time, it snaked around the retreating archer's ankles and tripped them. They rolled free of the snare, but Yue had paused them enough to approach. It was a woman with short brown hair and flat eyes. Her face was filled with rage.
"You killed my student," she said, "and your blood will be spilled on this same ground in retribution."
"I didn't kill any--" Yue paused. She had killed someone. She had slit their throat with a broken bottle. But she had not killed this woman's student. "She's just knocked out. She tried to shoot my friend, Iseul..." Yue wanted, needed, to turn and run back to him. What if he died there, in the leaves? She needed to finish this battle in time to save him. He would live, of course he would live. Iseul couldn't die in such an insignificant quarrel.
Yue reached up to swing her monkey fist again, to crash it down on the stranger, but the woman expertly drew her bow and pinned the rope fist against a tree trunk. Helpless again? Yue thought to herself, her eyes wide, stomach churning. She couldn't free her weapon. Rolling through the leaf litter, a rage that obscured all else filled her to the brim. Iseul was dying and he hadn't done a thing to deserve that. These lunarians were her enemies, but she didn't understand why all the time... She hadn't done anything to engage in this fight. That young archer had shot at her friend, and instead of killing her, she had only incapacitated the student. But Iseul could die because of this fight. "He's not going to die," Yue yelled, and rolled across the leaf litter again, snapping her palm out to the woman'sleg. She broke the bone, a heavy snap that Yue felt as much as she heard. Bones felt so brittle sometimes... Yue's shoulder seared with pain. The woman took a knife out of her overshirt and stabbed at Yue. Yue grabbed her wrist with her good hand and broke that, too. She grabbed the woman's other wrist and snapped it. Yue hadn't broken bones in so long... and she was not done. She took the bow and arrow, and left the woman there, with her one good leg. Yue checked Iseul's pulse.
By the time she had finished the fight, Iseul was dead. His eyes weren't even flat, they were just... not Iseul. The life he had, the constant displeasure with something or other, that smirk; these things were all Iseul, and when that arrow stopped his heart, those mannerisms left, too. Jianyu could have died that night, and he didn't. Iseul didn't have to die, but he did.
Without thinking, Yue took one of his second set of knives out of his sash. Even in death he hadn't wanted to let go of his weapons. She checked the blade in what little light there was: poisoned. Yue retraced her steps across the way, to where the woman had been. She had made her way, broken but not crying, further from where she had fallen. Yue stood on her chest with one foot and bent down. She held the knife in the hand of her injured arm, and pressed the poisoned tip into the woman's throat.
"This is war," the woman said. That was all. She leaned into the knife, and used Yue to cut her throat.
Yue dropped the knife and stumbled back, bending over to throw up on a bush. In a daze, she stumbled over to the monkey fist, and tried to pry it loose from the tree trunk. The arrow had been shot at a range far too close, and Yue cut her fingers on the bark, scraped at the skin until it bled. She abandoned it there, and returned to Iseul. She brushed the hair away from his face, her own blood getting on his soft skin. At times like this, there were no words. And some selfish part of her, some horrible part, kept thinking that Jianyu could have died, it could have been Jianyu. And then relief, because it wasn't. Shame, because she was thinking these things.
But the thoughts kept running in circles.
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Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 1:55 am
So This is What it Feels Like
I stopped writing in this thing for a long time, in case you didn't notice. It's not that I didn't have a lot to say-- I did, but I felt more like punching things than talking. It didn't change too much, I still want to bury my fists in other Lunarians' faces, but they finally promoted me from monkey fist to a proper meteor hammer... It's a symbol of my advance, really. No room for mistakes like I used to make. That's a lot of pressure for someone like me. I'm usually just one mistake after another, and I hope they work out.
Let's see, what did I have to learn at the Academy... well, how not to hurt myself in a fight, mostly. I also learned that others hate it when I talk in riddles, that monkeys can be cute but horrid, I have no idea how to fight Soul Conduits and I'm the worst idea of a "woman" I've ever seen. Sara is sweet and pretty, SiMa Li is elegant and smooth, Shin Mu is haughty but pretty. I don't know how I fit in with these other women. I am always exhausted and sweaty, or being lazy. That's another new hobby: I like to be lazy whenever I can. Usually alone, too. I used to feed off the energy of a crowd, but when I lost Iseul to that archer... It was too much. Too hard to talk to anyone. Even my mothers started to worry. For all I know, my monkey fist is still there, against the tree. It's entirely possible. After the fight, I couldn't get it loose, and I couldn't bear to return to the spot after to retrieve it. It was just some rope, pinned to a tree.
At least Hime-san came back with me. For all his horrible quirks, he does have some sense of decency. Occasionally. I think he just liked Iseul. I did, too, but it's a little late for that. It took me a long time to get over my guilt, first at letting Iseul die and then over how relieved I felt it wasn't-- well, it wasn't someone else, someone I would mourn the loss of for as long as I lived. And I plan to live a long, long time.
The guilt is still there, sometimes. When I fail to hit my target, when I close my eyes and frown and Iseul's face appears against my eyelids, when the house is empty and still and I look up at the moon: during these times, I feel it, tangibly. The things I have failed to prevent or affect, the Lunarians who will die because of my ineptitude.
I feel stronger. Older. Done with the Academy. But I'll never stop fighting and training, I need... I need to be someone that others can rely on. I don't want to hurt the ones I care for, and I want to protect my side. I also don't want to die because of a stray arrow. Wearing so little armour, that could be a problem... but I do it for a reason. I'm fast, I snare my prey and I pull it in. The Meteor hammer, I'm still a little rough with it, which is terrifying given it has spikes all over, but the damage I do when I use it right-- so much for breaking. I feel like I can do anything right now. Invincible.
I wish that feeling would last. More than anything, I want to know... are you thinking of me, where you are?
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