Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Deal!” It took far more effort than it otherwise should have to keep herself from throwing her arms around his shoulders in excitement. But, for now, she actually managed to behave.

“I can teach you how to drive. As for school, we can talk to Lopezite, there are online courses you can take as I did or do one to two classes on campus; most only last one to two hours which our glamour should last through.” Laven bumped her shoulder against his in an encouraging manner. “You just need to figure out what degree you’d want to pursue.” The cost was something they could figure out later.

Distracted by their conversation, Laven hadn’t noticed how close they had gotten to a group until one ran up to them, the quill-like spins on its shoulders raised as it lowered its head and let out a challenging growl.

Unsure what to do she paused and looked at Wolframite while trying to refrain from wasting one of her metamorphosis by changing into her water form simply because she was scared. If it wanted to fight it should go find someone else because she was in no mood to play or get ambushed as she had watched it do to the other youma.

Laven held her hands up and took a step away. “That’s going to be a hard pass, thank you. Especially if you plan on sparing with me later.” Let the youma be the one to tire him out so she could have a handicap. Wolframite was a captain afterall which made him physically stronger and quicker than he had been during their first match; this would just make things more even between them.

“Just don’t die please, I don’t know my way back to the hallway.” She teased knowing that he was fully capable of holding his own and intelligent enough not to be lured into a trap. His sensitive hearing would likely alert him to where the other two were hiding.

Not wanting to get in the way, she climbed atop a rather impressive cluster and took a seat. The bird youma from before circled overhead like a hawk before landing on a crystal lance that jut out from a rock just above her. Its wings fanned out wide and it turned its head to preen the feathers beneath them. The armoured plates on its chest twitched as its additional legs stretched out leisurely then settled back into place.

Seemed like this was a duel worth watching.

The spines along the back of her neck became ridgid with excitement and so she cupped her hands, brought them up to her mouth and shouted to him “You got this!” then clapped in an encouraging cheerful manner.

From where she sat, Laven winced when he held up his arm.

Quills protruding from his paw she drew in a sharp hiss from empathy pains and got up from her perch. The bird youma voiced its protest at her sudden movement but remained where it was at. Seemed to reason that they expected him to lose considering that the two of them were only half of what they were. But she had faith in Wolframite and was happy to see that he had won.

“Congrats...” She would have hugged him in celebration if it wasn’t that he had been injured in the process. Instead, she tried to smile but the expression looked more grimace instead.

“Perhaps we should call it a day,” Laven suggested.

Taking his paw into her hand she inspected where the youma had bitten him. Concern knitted her brows together as she then took his other hand to gauge the damage done by the quills. “I’m no medical expert,” she admitted as if it wasn’t obvious. “But in case these are anything like sea urchin spines I should probably remove these before we head back.” They didn’t seem too deep but that didn’t mean one hadn’t accidentally broken while they were rolling around.

“I hope they’re not venomous, but in case they are, you have to tell me if you start feeling weak.” His own venom hurt like a b***h but that didn’t mean others didn’t have abilities with similar properties. It may not have looked aquatic but as she was quickly learning, what you see could often be deceiving.

“We can use your sash for now,” To which she sat next to him for the time being. It had already been stained with her blood but it was only in one small place, the rest should be good enough to use still.

“Just don’t try to be a man and suck it up.” Laven gave him a stern look. “If it feels like it is getting worse, tell me.” The request came off more like a stern mother warning their child who had a habit of keeping things to themselves to avoid a visit to the doctor's office than a concerned friend. But she had never seen him actually hurt before either.

She took ahold of one quill and pulled it out. Turning it over she inspected the tip to make sure it wasn’t barbed then set it aside and then firmly gripped the next one. Something like this took more care than a simple sliver, they seemed sturdy enough but she worried that if she held on to it too tightly it would cause the quill to fracture and her only equipped with sharp claws would be helpless to dig the small pieces out without hurting him more.

“Maybe just a little,” then again she hadn’t exactly stopped him either.

When she had finished removing the last quill, Laven gathered the bundle of them and stashed them away in the little subspace pocket along with the crystal she had picked up earlier.

The black blood matted his fur which pulled the corner of her lips down into a very displeased expression. Needs to be cleaned. She glanced around the field at the other youma, most of which had decided they were no longer worth their time and had gone back to their own sparing.

“Mmm, I don’t know if this will work…” Laven turned her attention back to Wolframite then willed her body to shift into her other form. She held her hands out in front of him and between her open palms summoned a globe of water like the one she had thrown at him during their first, and only, training session. “See if you can wash your paws off in this,” she suggested as it was the only ‘clean’ water within the Rift right now, at least within the nearish vicinity.

At his question about souvenirs, Laven simply smiled and made a bit of a humming sound. Something like that... a thought had struck her when she set them aside that required some scientific experimenting and field testing later. But for now, she really didn’t feel inclined to give voice to her idea just in case it failed miserably.

When Wolframite finished cleaning his paws she looked around before tossing the globe to the wayside in a splash of diluted black blood on the ground behind her. She then turned her attention back to him as he tried to wrap his injured paw one-handed. “Here, let me-” Laven took the sash from him and re-wrapped it a bit more securely but not so tight before tieing the ends together.

“I think I’m ready to go back.” Her youma side wined at the missed opportunity to run and play too and instead, it settled against her consciousness with a childish pout. For now, her wants needed to be put aside for his needs. Especially since they could always come back at a later time.

“Next time,” she insisted. “It’ll give us a reason to come back here soon.” It’s not as if they had to travel far to come to the Rift. Now if she could only muster enough courage to pass through the hallway alone then perhaps this might become a very regular thing.

“Plus, we have our sparing to do once your hand is better.” Laven had hoped for a handicap but not like this. Exhausted maybe so his movements would be slower but not injured. Her worry for his well being kind of trumped her desire to have fun right now.

Although she walked a step behind him as he scouted ahead and guided them, Laven’s brows furrowed in deep concern.

Eight years fighting for the Negaverse… she supposed it made sense that he broke a few bones in that timeframe but still it made her wonder if he was simply reckless or he had a tendency of biting off more than he could chew at times. “I know you’re going to try turning it into some sort of lesson about not showing your enemy sympathy or they will take advantage of it ya-de-ya-da.” She waved her hands about in an almost dismissive fashion.

“Your legs work fine so we can just maybe find a trail in Destiny City go running together while you tell me stories of what happened in the past? How you broke your fingers even,” Laven suggested as a compromise. “Then tomorrow, as long as there is some improvement, we can spar. Deal?”