Welcome to Gaia! ::

"...I suppose trampling their captain would also help make my Lieutenants feel better. Especially since I've been working on their dodge skills, we aren't quite up to 'live knives' though, they are still walking away with more chalk on them than I'm strictly comfortable turning into 'blood'." He chuckled softly though and hmmmed.

"...I would love it if you sparred with me too, I... I can dodge alright but DOING the hitting is another story, more often than not I whiff past what I'm trying to punch, or hit it so...poorly I hurt myself more than I hurt them." He grumbled and sighed. "You'd think all the time I'm spending as a coach in those gyms would be beneficial, but all it does is wear me out trying to make sure I -look- the part... I swear it drains braincells just hearing people talk about protein shakes."

He paused and watched her face, he always stared too long when he did that, he had since he was a Lieutenant, maybe since before that even, just watching people without even having the decency to blink often enough sometimes.
"You're a good General... regardless of what they say, the truest mark of a good leader isn't just being someone who the people you lead trust... it's ... giving them the strength to trust themselves."

"I could really use that..." He admitted with a sigh and picked up a well paged book on... fighting.
Yes, really...he was trying to read up on fighting, the one in hand was Judo, but there was another on personal defense, they were the same books that Tanzinite would mock later.
"You'd think as much time as I spend trying to dodge in real life that I'd have at least SOME basis for understanding, I can understand the trajectory of a punch, I can spot several feints, I know how to lessen the impact of some blows, and I know not to do high kicks because it's just asking to be flipped on your head or punched somewhere awful... but I still feel like road kill."

He swept at the bear with one hand, catching a leg and swinging it down to a squeeze against his chest before tossing it back two handed like he was passing a basket ball. At least there was some hope, he could defend himself against the most aggressive of plush pandas.

"Feelings complicate things, you become invested and loose your objective nature!" He protested. "You end up with things like LOVE which leads to touching and...-things-" He said crinkling his nose like he just said cooties.
Not that all the touching with Dem had been bad, he hadn't minded SOME of it, it was other things that had made things so complicated.
"Worse...people cry..." He said like crying was the bodies equivalent of spontaneously producing the bubonic plague.
"You need to think about things don't you? Know the range and breadth of an attack, if you know where the smoke extinguisher is...you can soak certain pyromaniac senshi to a most satisfying effect...except that she did run away after so that was I suppose still a failure."
He sighed narrowing his eyes, -thinking- again, always thinking.

He fumbled that time, the bear slapping into his chest like it were trying to give him a fat-armed hug. His hands were on it but that would not have gone well in a battle, he'd let himself be distracted by her admissions, she got him...strait in the heart. He stared down at the toes of his worn sneakers...squeezed his fingers into the soft fur of the bear and then rested his chin on top of it... it was so much more his age than he normally acted even if it was momentary. His cheeks were warm and pink at the admission, all the more so because... it was true in reverse. He really -liked- Audrey, Linarite. She was one of the very few girls he really -did- like for that mater, she was smart, talented, inspirational and it always hurt to see her upset because somewhere in his mind she was a paragon, something untouchable like the goddess Athena.

"Y...Your... a really good friend too, I... I don't think I could have done this if you hadn't been our Captain, my General... What you...do, how you fight how you trained.. I want to make you Proud... I'm going to make you proud... somehow."

"JES...." He started to say, staggering under the sudden added weight of his General, first instinct was to find a wall and mash her off of it, which was a fine idea except for the part where his heel snagged on his foot locker and what precarious triumph he had over gravity and mass was shifted to the other side of the scales. They both went sideways into the waiting arms of the enormous 'panda pile', Tenebrous Senior the biggest of them watched from the footlocker with an oddly pleased expression stitched onto his face under baleful eyes... one tangle of arms, legs and plush animals later...and the door clicked open. Cheep locks were the bane of the house hold, all you needed was a penny and you could open them.

Zac's mother paused in the door way with arched eyebrows, a bottle of brown something over ice and a bemused expression.

"Well...." She said as Zac blinked up not quite comprehending at first what it must have looked like. "...I knew there was a reason this door should be open. Dinner is in half an hour, I'll set an extra place, don't do anything without protection and do remember to take HER into account if you do anything, its not ALL about male gratification you know."
And she vanished from sight with a parting, if oddly pleased laugh and...something muttered about grand children.

"Oh GODddddd" He said and pulled one of the larger pandas over his face like he could hide the red creeping down his neck. "Oh god...when I die of massive brain coronaries just...burry me under the pandas ok?"
The panda moved though at the sound of the thump and the hiss of pain, worried that she'd done damage. "I'd ask if your ok but I think I'm too swamped in the blackmail possibilities that have just opened up for you here...oh god."

Both hands clapped over his mouth, his eyes wide at the very thought of her letting out some kind of carnal scream.
"ohgod....please don't." He siad the blush darkening to near aneurism levels.
"you wouldn't... what kind of bribe... "

And with perfect timing, as though the universe had placed her in the perfect time, and mood to leave her Son on pins and daggers wondering what he'd need to do to save some iota of respect in his views of what the world must thing, the lady of the House called for volunteers to set the table and start pouring drinks. She of course added that "all clothes must be on, and hands must be seen at all times." just to be sure.