|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:13 am
America didn't bother knocking as she entered the room, abruptly announcing, "I need you to hit me." She'd always been a little hesitant about asking Taym for spars. She'd seen him fight, and he was effective. Not like Scotland was effective, cutting a huge destructive path. No, what she'd seen was somebody getting the job done without a lot of hullabaloo to announce it. But...There was also the fact that he looked like a hard shove could break his bones half the time and sometimes he shivered. Or broke down crying. He was fragile in a lot of way, was the long and short of it, and that meant he wasn't someone she was keen to pit herself again on the sparring yards. But...She was in Moon now. And that meant things. Like the fact that she could just defend against him and still have a productive sparring match. "Like in a spar," America clarified with a grin, "Moon training an all."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:25 am
He had jumped, startled-rabbit style, as he always did at her unannounced arrivals, but he didn't actually get up. Instead he shot her a dirty look over the top of the book he was reading (work related, of course) from the bed, not even hunched over his desk in uncomfortable hermitlike silence as he normally was. "Why me, specifically?" he demanded after an appropriate amount of time had been allotted for glaring, returning his eyes to the page. "Go get Bashmet to hit you," he said, maybe a little butthurt bitter. "Not my division. Not his either," he added, before she could say it. "Then again, if his little bout with me was any indication you'd have less of a challenge with him." Insufferable but very small smugness, there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:45 am
Seeing him in the bed, America smirked and then, very grandly and with much flourish, sat in the chair. Much like it was some kind of throne. "Well I haven't sparred with you before. And I have sparred with, Kon, remember? That's how we ended up together in the first place." The smile softened with a sort of nostalgic amusement before forming a pout, "And he's busy catching up on being a Death hunter. Just like I need to catch up to my own rank when it comes to being a Moon." She gave Taym a pointed look, "Which means learning how to defend better." It was perfectly reasonable. And though she left out the part where she wanted him to go outside and play with her went unspoken, it was still very much there. From the energetic eagerness of her expression to the readiness to move that imbued her posture, even while simply sitting in a chair.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:03 am
It was this, in the end, that won him over: as it always did. As it had in the rain, as it had in the dreamworld, unchanged here, he found himself pulled along in the wake of her enthusiasm. "I'm supposed to be catching up on being a Death hunter too," he pointed out while lofting the book (something that looked just from the old cover like it was unimaginably dull), but the fight wasn't in it. He read to the end of the line and then, with a tiny and restrained sigh, set the book aside and swung his feet to the ground. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and for a few seconds he looked at her, jaw set, eyebrow cocked, expression unreadable, before he raked his fingers through his hair in a resigned sort of way and gestured, as he always did, at the door. "Half an hour," he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:13 am
She grinned in response before getting up from The Chair in a motion that was less giddy and more victorious. America liked getting her way, and Taym always put just enough fuss and bother about things that he nearly always made her feel like she'd won something but without making the process onerous. "Right-o," the girl chirped, "I'll be waiting!" And she would be too, going straight from his room to the field and doing warm-up stretches and motions until he finally arrived.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rejam rolled 1 20-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-20)
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:31 am
He ambled down to the fields at the appointed time, because for all his many faults a lack of punctuality was not among them, especially not here, deprived of diversions to make him lose all sense of the passage of time.
He politely and with the awkwardness that always attended his politeness did not summon his weapon, instead absently and uneasily twisting the blank ring around his finger, back and forth. He'd given himself a half hour to talk himself into it, but all it had sufficed to do was sharpen the dread he always now felt on facing any human opponent: his preference was for the shadow run, for the dummies, for anything but another person, and his misery was evident in every line of him, and in the way he spoke: even more biting than normal, full of regret.
"So how is this working, exactly?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lizbot rolled 1 20-sided dice:
17
Total: 17 (1-20)
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:43 am
The girl summoned her own weapon, the bladed ball on it's gleaming golden chain glowed softly. It was not a subtle weapon, nor was it even particularly menacing until it was in motion. Adjusting her grip and stance from the more offensive one she'd automatically fallen into, America answered easily, "I try to hold up a decent defense against your attacks. Easy as anything, so don't you worry about getting hurt."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lizbot rolled 1 8-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-8)
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:47 am
The girl started out focusing on working with Stryker's chain, holding it between two hands with just enough slack to flexibly intercept and even catch a close ranged fighter. "Alright, come at me." America clearly wasn't intending for this to be any sort of fast-paced, violent battle.
HP: 50
Defense: 4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rejam rolled 2 10-sided dice:
6, 4
Total: 10 (2-20)
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:54 am
"I'm not worried about getting hurt," he said miserably, summoning Fiona to hand and for a moment doing nothing, just staring at her forlornly like a dog left out on the porch during a hard rain. When he finally did make a go of it, it was obviously half-hearted, and he was clearly as much concerned with staying out of Stryker's way as he was with landing any blows. The movement of the chain had him recoiling back, footsure and speedy and wary and so, so unhappy. DMG: 4 yes perfect CHG: 1/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lizbot rolled 1 8-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-8)
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:01 am
The pass was easily blocked, but the lack of will behind it made her give Taym a flat, unimpressed look. "You can do better than that, I've seen you." The girl let her stance go with a roll of her eyes, "Is this a touching thing? 'Cause I figured spars would be different." Somehow. Like having a purpose, a work-related purpose would make it easier for him to deal with whatever the ******** his problem was the rest of the time.
HP: 50
Defense: 1
Charge: 2/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rejam rolled 2 10-sided dice:
4, 8
Total: 12 (2-20)
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:12 am
An instant of genuine rage flickered over his face, and he tensed, moved as though he would lash out on the strength of it. But he didn't. He'd mentioned, once, his low opinion of those who would introduce anger into a spar. It was a sin he was already far, far too guilty of.
He instead visibly mastered himself, displacing the emotion and opting for another, slightly less cautious lunge.
"I don't like hurting people," he said.
DMG: 6
CHG: 2/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lizbot rolled 1 8-sided dice:
8
Total: 8 (1-8)
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:18 am
The blade hit with greater strength and skill, more than she was truly ready for, but the impact on her shield had her grinning at him. "Better, thank you!" Her defense had been poor, though, and America settled into a proper stance more. She was careful of her balance, and watched Taym's body language with hawkish intensity as she continued, "And you shouldn't like hurting people. That'd be creepy as ********. People like Lawrence get off on that type of s**t."
HP: 44
Def: 8
Charge: 3/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rejam rolled 2 10-sided dice:
8, 8
Total: 16 (2-20)
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:26 am
"I don't want to talk about Lawrence," he snapped, vicious, and despite what he'd just said about not hurting people the knife swung in on the heels of it, hard, and he immediately recoiled, disgusted with himself, disgusted with her. "What the ******** does he have to do with anything?"
DMG: 10
CHG: 3/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lizbot rolled 1 8-sided dice:
8
Total: 8 (1-8)
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:38 am
She moved closely in time with him, chain catching and turning the attack. It wasn't enough to entirely block the knife, but it was nowhere near the kind of attack it could have been had the motion been allowed to follow through. Expression turning inward as she went over what he did and what she did in her mind, much of Taym's anger was completely lost on America.
"That was really good," she smiled at him, obviously pleased with the exchange. After a moment the girl seemed to recall the question and the statement that preceded it. "Should I answer or are we not talking about him?"
Eyebrows raised, she picked up the bladed ball in one hand as a sort of shield, keeping the chain in the other.
HP: 42
Def: 8
Charge: 3/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rejam rolled 2 10-sided dice:
5, 3
Total: 8 (2-20)
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:44 am
Another flicker of real rage, banished with an effort of will that had his fingers white-knuckled on the hilt of the knife.
If she'd been expecting a steady escalation, she was denied: he hesitated, and then hesitated again, and did not even try to pass them off as feints. He was angry: obviously angry, the wick ignited so easily by the mere mention of Lawrence and his proximity to violence and his self-conscious discomfort with his own abilities.
"Hit me back," he snapped suddenly, and with uncharacteristic forwardness: "I hate this."
DMG: 2
CHG: 3/3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
