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 Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:13 pm
A text was sent to Irene's phone. It was from Sailor Iris. Texting was probably the logical way to go about things. That whole incident with ********* had left things a bit awkward at best. "Meet me at the park. Training tonight." It seemed like a pretty standard message coming from Iris. However, when Irene got to the park, she'd find something quite lacking. Iris' energy was nowhere to be found. However, standing upon one of the swings and swinging back and forth like an overgrown child was a familiar blonde. A blonde lacking in a fuku. It wasn't Iris. It was Ellie.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:32 pm
Irene's first reaction to the text was to ignore it.
Actually, that wasn't 100% true. Her first reaction was to throw her phone against the wall. Since she was in her room when she got the text, the only things this accomplished were making a loud thudding sound against the wall that other Crystal girls would probably associate with some lewd act, and a small tear in the wallpaper. Irene scowled at the tear for a moment before grabbing the phone off her bed and looking at the text again. She had been avoiding her team ever since what had happened with *********, and she really didn't want to face any of them until she could prove that she was just as strong and useful as the rest of them.
So far her attempts at doing so had been less than successful. She couldn't take out tough youma on her own. The senshi she had encountered were way more powerful than her. But she had held her own against them, sort of. They probably could have ground her into a pulp, but they didn't. And she learned things from fighting them. If she could handle herself in battles with other senshi, maybe another round against Iris would yield different results.
When Irene arrived, though, her hopes at impressing Iris with her newfound abilities were dashed. Why wasn't Iris ready? Was she waiting for Irene before she transformed, so as not to be a beacon? Yes, that was probably it. "I'm here, as requested," she said a bit sullenly. "Shall we get started?" The words were polite, but her attitude was much more harsh than usual. Unlike before, where she had to be talked into a fight, now she was practically itching for a shot at redemption.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:42 pm
Ellie didn't budge from her swing at first, seeming to enjoy the ride on the playground equipment. She grinned a bit before taking the childish route of jumping off the swing, landing a ways away from the starting place.
Casually, she walked up to the senshi, seemingly undaunted by the interaction with what the media would call a "terrorist." She looked over the purple suited soldier. "So... do ya remember what I suggested to ya last time? One of th'tactics ya could use in a fight?" She didn't stand nearly as tall over the senshi as she usually would. Ellie didn't wear heels like how Sailor Iris did, and Irene wore heels. It narrowed a gap between their heights, though the blonde still had some height compared to her teammate.
Hoisting a hand to her hip, she prodded "...Refresh my memory?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:21 am
"Is that what you called me here for?" It slipped out before Irene realized what she was saying, because she was so confused. For the past week she had done nothing but try to improve herself. She had thrown herself at youma twice her size and at senshi twice her strength, desperate to become better. The only reason that she had bothered showing up to the park at all was because she wanted the chance to show what she had learned.
Instead, Ellie was asking her questions about the last fight, which was not something Irene wanted to think about. "What is this, an oral examination? I didn't come here to talk." Because she had nothing to say that wouldn't sound defensive or whiny. "I came here to train. Are you going to suit up and assist me, or do I need to go elsewhere?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:05 am
Irene was being an a**.
Ellie had no problem telling the girl such. "Yer bein' an a**."
Firmly, she put a hand on Irene's shoulder, grasping onto it firmly. Though she was merely a regular person at the moment, she was also still the captain and had every intention of acting like one. "I wanted t'work with ya on that whole 'goin' with the flow of the attacks' thing."
The tomboy released her teammate's shoulder before stepping back and gesturing to herself. "I ain't henshining up fer this, because I want ya t'be able t'follow my movements. I want ya t'try t'move yer body in th'direction of my attacks. It's very important that you don't attack me, Irene."
She paused long enough to take a fighting stance with the girl. However, she didn't strike then. Instead, she said "Ya gotta promise me yer not gonna attack me, Irene!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:39 pm
Irene didn't actually roll her eyes, but she really wanted to. "Says the one with the mouth dirtier than a dumpster," she retorted. The pot was really calling the kettle black here. She knew that her own manners had taken a bit of a dip since she started focusing on improving her combat skills, but she considered that a casualty of war. There was no time to be polite when you were under attack.
But she listened, reluctantly. Partly because she had dragged herself all the way out there, but mostly because despite everything else going on in her head, she knew that Ellie was still in charge and could have her on the ground in a matter of seconds if she wanted to. If she was going to be forced to listen one way or the other, she wanted to have her dignity intact while she did it.
The training that Ellie spoke of didn't do much to get Irene excited. It sounded boring. And unfair. "So you get to attack me, but I can't attack back? How is that supposed to help anything?" She had come prepared for a rematch, and now it felt like she was being cheated out of one.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:19 pm
Ellie didn't move from her spot, though she still kept up her typical loose fighting stance up. "I want ya t'concentrate on yer own movements, Irene. If ya learn this tactic, I swear, it'll help a f*ck ton!"
Normally, she wasn't nearly as considerate as she was being at the moment. Normally, Ellie Spectre would have rushed in to fight pretty much the moment she had given her instructions. However, the tomboy once more carefully repeated "I want ya t'try t'move with my attacks so ya can cushion the blow." A pause. "Alright... gonna get started now..."
True to her word, she sped forward towards her teammate and now opponent. Where as on regular human standards, Ellie was decently quick and strong, by the standards of the powered individuals, she did not rank up nearly as well. She was still strong enough to fend for herself typically, but even taking on a basic level senshi was a risk.
A risk Ellie knew in its entirety.
Yet, there she was, swinging her fist, full force towards Irene's gut.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:42 pm
There it was again. Irene frowned at the foul language, even though her own behavior hadn't been much more polite. The only thing to do would be to play along with the exercise until Ellie realized that she was past this sort of thing and was willing to give her a real fight.
The fist flew, and Irene's gut tightened. She'd been hit in the abdomen way too many times in the past few days, and did not want to compound those injuries even further. It wasn't quite moving with the punch, but she took two steps back, putting enough room between them to negate the danger, and raised an eyebrow. "Like that?" Wasn't that just dodging?
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:14 pm
"Sorta..."
The whiff of air was quite welcome, and honestly, quite expected. However, Ellie didn't ease up, once more pursuing her teammate with a bound and a swing of her fist towards the girl's face.
"With me like this, it's like dodgin'... but with someone on level ground, it's gonna do what yer attemptin' t'do... cushioning the blow!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:24 pm
Instead of stepping backwards, Irene stepped to the side this time. "What do you mean by someone 'on level ground?'" It sounded like some sort of insult about her fighting abilities, at least in Irene's ears, and she did not want to hear that right then. Not when she'd been doing everything she could think of to get better for the past week, even when it hurt to move.
She clenched her fists, but otherwise stayed still, waiting for an explanation or, more likely, another punch.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:54 pm
The side step wasn't as welcome in comparison to the back step. "Ya probably coulda jus' moved yer face along on that one..." she critiqued as she also moved to the side to match Irene (as best as she could in this current state). As if to try and drive that particular lesson into her teammate's head, she swung again in the opposite direction towards the other cheek.
"Anybody that's powered up... yer gonna have th'advantage no matter what in a match up like this... I want ya t'master yer own movements!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:04 pm
That wasn't what Irene wanted to hear. She didn't want to have the advantage just because she was powered up and Ellie wasn't. She wanted to win in a fair fight, and she wasn't even being allowed that chance. The longer the training continued, the more agitated she got.
Mostly to humor her teacher, she moved just her face for the next punch. "There. I can move my head. I can dodge. Can we move on now?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:20 pm
"Yer not takin' this seriously..."
Observation made as the tomboy spun around thanks to her close proximity and attempted to lodge her elbow forcefully into her opponent's gut. Ellie was putting her all into this, and here Irene was just being a punk.
She already knew what had happened between ********* and Irene, and as much as she didn't want to bring it up, the blonde was getting pretty close to verbally lashing out at the younger girl.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:09 pm
Wow, Ellie finally noticed. Maybe that meant that they could drop the pretense and get things out in the open.
"No, I'm not taking this seriously. You're not taking me seriously. I didn't come here to be lectured or made to dodge punches without getting to throw any. I've been working hard on getting better. I have gotten better." Not nearly as much as she liked to think she had, but it was true that Irene's skills had improved marginally over the past week. "I deserve more respect than this."
She saw the that Ellie was going for her gut, and in addition to taking a step back and twisting her upper body, she put out her hands, trying to catch the offending elbow.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:47 pm
The situation got flipped around pretty quickly, with her senshi opponent snagging onto her arm after her new attempt to hit her. The tomboy attempted to jerk herself to facing Irene, but she did not have the upper hand in this situation.
With a slight snarl curling over her lip like a canine, Ellie practically barked out "Why do ya think I ain't takin' ya seriously?! Because I legitimately wanna train ya?! Holy hell!!! If I didn't respect ya, I wouldn't even bother with ya!!" The blonde had never been the sort to stick out her neck for no reason.
Twisting as awkwardly as she could manage so she could shoot a pair of purple eyes a heated glare with her own golden eyes, she dared to mention "First ya take yer frustrations out on *********, and now me? If you had gotten better, maybe you'd realize what an a** yer being!"
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