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 Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:12 pm
Were there any benefits to knowing someone's powered identity, and vice-versa?
Of course there were.
Were there any benefits to trying to be... friendly? Welcoming? Accommodating?
Maybe. In a war she barely understood, information was key; Michael Gallo might be crude and arrogant, but he had information. Where he got all of it, Palatine had no idea, but did it matter so long as he shared it with her? Granted, getting it out of him could often be difficult—and if not difficult than obnoxious and frustrating—but at the end of the day she got what she wanted. Having him as an ally had already proved beneficial in that respect.
What he got out of the relationship, she had no idea—and there was a part of her that didn't really want to know.
“Not so smug today, are you?” she asked.
Her fist had only recently landed along the side of his face, a familiar enough action by this point. Perhaps too familiar, too predictable, hence the sparring session. She didn't throw a very good punch, she knew, and shook it off as she retracted her fist, but then she'd never had much of a reason to throw a punch before getting dragged into all this.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:22 pm
“b***h, you broke my nose!!” Sessrumnir let out a whine as he stumbled backwards, nursing his now bloody nose. He doubted it really was broken, but the point of the matter was... who the heck did she think she was, throwing a punch at his face??
He pulled at the long sleeve of his outfit to wipe at the blood, making a show of it so she’d think it was worse than it really was. It hurt, of course, but he’d been hurt a lot worse on numerous other occasions. A little punch wouldn’t kill him... but that didn’t excuse the fact that it had been entirely unprovoked.
Sessrumnir, glowered at the Page standing not too far from him, retaking his stance to ‘spar’ with her... although it seemed to be turning into more of a pointless fight than anything. An excuse for her to hit him for no reason.
So much for trying to help her get accustomed to fighting when she was just taking swings at him out of the blue.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:33 pm
“What is it with this fixation you have with your nose?”
She was pretty sure he was faking it. Exaggeration ran in the family, didn't it? Okay, so maybe she'd hit him a little harder than necessary, and was taking cheap shots knowing he had a thing for his face, but it was the best she could do with zero combat training. The way she saw it, if he didn't like it, he could show her how to do better.
He was the navy man turned civilian teacher turned Squire of Jupiter. She just helped people adopt.
“You're fine,” she said, not reassuring so much as exasperated. “It's hardly even bleeding. And you can't tell me you didn't see that coming. I only do it every time I see you these days.”
It was getting tiring, even for her.
“Would it make you feel any better if I said I called you out here 'cause I actually need you to help me?” it was a big concession for Palatine to make, even though she thought that much was fairly obvious, what with the wild, undisciplined way she used her fists.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:44 pm
“If you need my help, then stop hitting my face!” he whined again, checking other areas to make sure they were still in tact. His cheekbone, his jaw, making sure none of his teeth were loose.
“Why would I want to teach you how to hit me better? Just stop hitting my face, will you? Or I won’t help you at all,” he growled, putting his own fists back up into a defensive position. He thought she was still conversing with him, not ready to attack! How should he know she’d hit him so suddenly??
“You need to get into a better stance, you’re unbalanced and anyone could come up behind you and knock you down,” he pointed out, just as exasperated as she was about him and his nose. “Keep your elbows in and protect your sides,” he begrudgingly added, wiping at his nose once more.
If he wasn’t in the best of moods before, he definitely wasn’t in a good one, now.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:57 pm
“You'd think you'd have learned to duck by now,” she said.
Still, Palatine did as she was instructed, even if she did feel rather foolish standing there in a defensive position, pretending as if she had a clue about what she was doing. Yes, she had every intention of improving, and she really would like to know how to defend herself better and potentially work on defending other people, but that didn't mean she'd lost any of her prior disbelief for the war at large. If there was no war, this wouldn't even be necessary.
She supposed she should be thankful she had someone to teach her when she could actually tolerate his presence. She doubted she'd even be powering up at all if she didn't have anyone.
And that seemed rather sad, that parts of her participation in a powered life hinged on Michael Gallo.
“Are we going to keep repeating this part all night?” she wondered. “I'm pretty sure I've got it. Maybe. Good enough. It's not all going to be defensive positions and punching someone in the face, is it? You've got magic, so use it.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:24 pm
Sessrumnir’s eyes narrowed as he mumbled to himself about how Palatine needed to back off if she wanted him to help her with anything. He hadn’t ducked because surely she wouldn’t have tried punching him in the face again. Not after last time. Not after he’d requested that she didn’t hit him in the face, much less the nose.
Yeah, so much for that.
Of course, she apparently didn’t want to take things slow with this training exercise, and Sessrumnir dropped his defensive pose to stand up straighter. “Oh, you want to see what my magic is like...?” he wondered, showing her a half grin that was almost sardonic in nature.
The stormglass was pulled easily from subspace, and he didn’t need to take any more steps back to hold the glass up and try out his magic on her. His brother hadn’t enjoyed it very much, although in his defense, he hadn’t known Valhalla was Chris at the time. But Palatine had just asked for it, so why not?
(Magic pool of 40 seconds.
To activate the magic of his weapon, Sessrumnir must 'capture' someone within the storm glass. In other words, he has to be either far enough away from them to hold the glass up and see them through it. OR he can hold the glass closer to his face so he can see them inside from head to toe.
Once 'inside' (only Sessrumnir, or someone standing next to him, sees them inside the glass, but in reality the person is in the same place they were), their vision and hearing is affected by storm-like conditions. Even though there's nothing physically around them, their sight is impaired by fogginess that darkens their surroundings, and their hearing is interrupted by the sound of heavy rain and wind, depending on the storm created.
People around the one 'caught inside' the glass won't be able to see why their companion is suddenly unable to hear or see things properly.)
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:37 pm
Palatine dropped her position as well and stepped back as Sessrumnir called his weapon from subspace. She had a few brief moments to glance over his storm-glass, which surely had to be more useful than her cracked teapot, though she couldn't recall if he'd ever told her what it did.
Since she didn't know, she'd assumed he hadn't.
Or else she hadn't cared enough to put it to memory.
In any case, she was soon to find out. Nearly as soon as Sessrumnir raised it in front of him, he disappeared from Palatine's sight, obstructed by a thick fog. If he said anything further, she couldn't hear him—just the sound of heavy rain and strong gusts of wind. In fact, that was pretty much the only thing she could hear. No distant cars, no airplanes overhead, no trains, no people. For a moment it was like the city didn't exist at all, and she'd been dropped down into the middle of a storm.
Jupiter... right. God of sky and thunder. So Sessrumnir's magic could manipulate weather... or create some sort of visual and audio illusion of weather. Useful, or at least Palatine thought so. If the enemy was stuck in this environment and could no longer see you it was probably rather easy to mount an attack.
Suddenly that thought didn't make her feel very safe when she was presently in the position of the “enemy.”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” she said, hardly able to hear her own voice over the sound of the wind and rain. She had no idea if Sess could actually hear it. “You can cut it out now. I'm sufficiently impressed.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:02 pm
Oh, he could hear her quite well, and it was a little eery knowing that there must be a significant amount of noise she could hear for her to raise her voice that much.
As soon as he lowered the stormglass, breaking contact with her image, the storm dissipated and he watched as Palatine refamiliarized herself with her surroundings. “You asked,” he said with a shrug, too nonchalant about putting her into an uncomfortable situation to be amused.
Not that he was planning on attacking her while she was under the influence of his magic... For one, he would have to release her from the storm — it was much easier when there was someone else working with him.
“You’ll be able to use magic too, once you get to the next level of power,” he informed her, letting the stormglass remain hanging by his side. “There’s another form of magic, as well. One that everyone from our different planets can use. For example, knights of Jupiter can make their voices as loud as thunder, and any physical contact results in thunder crashes as well. I’m not sure what Venus does, but... might be something to look into.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:18 pm
To say that she was relieved to be out of the storm would be a bit of an understatement. Not that she'd been too terribly worried, but she still wasn't too sure how to judge Sessrumnir, nor was she entirely aware of how his magic worked. She wouldn't have put it passed him to attack while he'd had the chance, though the fact that he hadn't... well, it earned him a couple of points.
He still wasn't what she'd call a friend—she didn't really have very many of those, nor did she think she needed them—but he wasn't quite what she'd thought him to be either.
Still a smug a*****e, of course.
Usually.
“So basically once I get passed this useless stage all doors are opened,” she observed, mildly sarcastic. “Good to know. In the meantime I'm stuck stumbling around trying to fight with what I've got.”
Which wasn't much. Her fists (not always effective), her wit (not too sharp), and what little information she managed to get in bits and pieces from Sessrumnir.
“What is this, then? A test? Proving my worth to the universe? Can't have power if I'm not worthy, am I right?” she jeered.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:48 pm
”I wish I could tell you, Princess,” he said with a shrug, just as bitter about how little they had to work with as she was. “If I knew how the universe worked, then I probably wouldn’t be fighting in a pointless war, would I?”
Who knew what he’d be doing, actually. Maybe he was just taking his bitterness out on her. She’d gotten him out of his relatively good mood and now, well... it was easier to see why she probably disliked him so much.
He wasn’t exactly the most charming guy, not that he cared to be. But her cooperation would be nice.
“Look, just remember to keep your elbows in, alright...?” he instructed, rubbing at his nose once more, before taking a stance that made it look as though he would attack. He did after a few moments, lunging forward and aiming a knee to her stomach.
“There’s a man out there using civilians to draw senshi and knights in, only to kill them in front of them,” he mumbled with a growl, not sure how else to tell her, but this sort of thing didn’t seem right to just... explain in the middle of a bar. “Negaverse guy... Has a German accent and a limp... Don’t go easy on him, he’s a murderer.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 4:14 pm
There was the snide demeanor she'd come to expect from him.
Palatine's face puckered at Sessrumnir's use of a nickname she could only think of as derogatory. Certainly he didn't mean it affectionately, as there was very little affection felt between them—or at least she felt very little on her end. None, in fact. And if that was untrue then the amount was so miniscule it hardly counted for anything. She continued to tolerate him because their affiliation was beneficial to her.
Besides, they were technically family, for whatever that was worth.
She made attempts to defend herself as Sessrumnir approached her, but his rather serious comments were enough to distract her and his knee landed right here he'd aimed it. Palatine recovered quickly enough and pulled away to retake her stance, refilling her lungs which had been forced to release their supply of air before they were ready.
“Where the hell is this coming from?” she asked, unable to stop a curious look from crossing her face.
She stared at him closely but saw no reason for him to lie. In any case, he looked quite unlike himself—his smug grin nowhere to be seen, and his tone of voice quite a bit lower than usual, much less blithe than she was used to.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 6:38 pm
Sessrumnir shook his head as he took a step back, not really sure where it came from, himself. “A couple weeks ago... I’m sure you’ve seen the papers. It was turned around to make it seem like we were responsible... There were civilians hanged from one of the buildings... I was there... There was nothing we could do to stop him.”
He was surprising himself. There weren’t many times he would actually talk about something like this. Not after having to make sure Pasiphae was okay. He was still worried about her — she was much too kind and soft hearted for her own good. Much like many others he knew.
“We tried talking him out of what he was doing... the Captain... but he killed them, anyway. Pasiphae tried saving them, but she couldn’t...” he frowned, hesitating for a moment longer before going in for another attack. If she really did want his help, then he wanted to make sure she could defend herself against people like that man.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:09 pm
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill out for a second, will you?”
Palatine dodged Sessrumnir's next attack and put a little more distance between then in case he should try to move in for another one. This was not normal behavior for him at all, and it was unsettling—as was the story he apparently had to tell.
To say that she was surprised by what he was saying would be untrue. She'd been lucky not to have many negative experiences so far and had gotten away with encountering mostly youma in the time since she'd become a knight. She supposed she'd had it easy; but that didn't mean she was unaware of the true extent of the war. She wasn't naïve. The world was filled with awful people, and situations like this... violence and death and secrets in the night... well, she figured those sorts of people were drawn to these things.
So civilians being hung from buildings? Disturbing, but not totally shocking. And having it spun to be the fault of the Knights and Senshi?
She watched the news. She knew exactly what was said about them.
“Okay, it freaked you out,” she said, trying to sound patient and understanding, which was not at all how she was used to handling Sessrumnir. “That's... natural, I guess. Shows you're human or something. You've got a conscience. I'm sure you did what you could. And this... Pasiphae... if she's a friend of yours, I'm sure she did what she could, too. It's... not your fault... or whatever...”
Awkward...
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:30 pm
Sessrumnir did take a step back as Palatine dodged his attack, letting out a small noise of distressed anger as he turned his back to her to pace, throwing his hands up to run through his short hair. He didn’t know what had triggered the sudden need to say anything, much less to Palatine. Maybe it was the spar that had him suddenly feel the need to say something... who knew.
He’d tried getting away from the fighting and violence when he’d left the military, tried settling with a simple life as a teacher, but then got thrown right back into the fray when he became a knight.
“Right, because my conscience is doing a lot to stop crazy psychos,” he grunted, rubbing at the back of his neck with more force than necessary as he shut his eyes to the world, his back still turned to the knight he was trying to help train.
“Sorry, he mumbled after a few moments, shrugging it off and turning back to face her as though he’d just had a moment of losing himself and everything was fine now. “Just forget it, nothing can be done now,” he said, mostly to himself as he motioned for her to come at him. “Are we going to fight or what?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 2:07 pm
“Somehow punching you in the face again doesn't seem like a good idea right now,” Palatine said.
She was slightly unsettled, though the discomfort she felt for the situation never grew more severe than a mild wariness. It stemmed mostly from the fact that she had never seen Sessrumnir behave like this before. He was usually rather calm about things, cool, not quite suave but still sure of himself. This seemed somewhat out of character by comparison.
That wasn't to say he was incapable of concern—though it seemed strange to Palatine that Sessrumnir should feel any sort of concern for her own well being, if that was indeed the case. Their working relationship so far had never required concern to be felt on either side. Whatever had happened to Sessrumnir, or whatever he'd been made to witness, appeared to distress him quite a bit. Palatine wasn't sure how to handle it. Should she offer a willing ear? That seemed awkward, and the conversation that resulted would most likely be strained.
Should she just brush it off? Would he want her to? Or would he be angry that she wasn't taking a serious situation seriously?
Did she care either way?
“Why don't we call it quits for the night?” she suggested. “Go home and have a drink or something. We can pick this back up again some other time. When you're... feeling better... or whatever.”
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