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 Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:40 pm
For the best, really, that this was one of the nights she tried to sleep at home. The driving force to escape, to know she could get out propelled her to the sea and back, but the quiet rage followed on its heels and drew her into the worse parts of the town. She didn't want to go home (she did). She didn't want a home at all (she did). She didn't want people (please don't leave). She didn't want to be responsible. She didn't want to be held down and limited. She didn't want to be hurt. She was and was going to be and she couldn't stop it, and maybe she didn't want that either. America was perched on the fence beside the training grounds, smoking a cigarette and gazing up at clouds passing by the moon. There was dirt under her fingernails and more smudged across her the denim of her jeans and jacket, across her cheek. She smelled like fire and earth and sweat and blood, just a little where her knuckles had busted open only to be healed within the hour. It was good that this wasn't a night Taym would be waiting up for her.
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Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 9:29 am
Lawrence rarely encountered anyone on the training fields at night. Most people had little reason to be out there unless sleeplessness or boredom sent them to try and work out their energy. Still, he wore the robe, because if anyone saw him he wanted them to think it was just someone practicing with mission attire, without the ability to recall distinguishing features attached to the claws. It was worked into his routine, a close to his day, this was the point where he could permit himself to get scuffed up, to break his composure and a sweat, in the morning he would go through his stringent routine as always and no reminder would remain. For whatever reason, it also calmed Butch enough that he could sleep.
He didn't expect anyone to be there and as such didn't notice America at first, even with the faint pinpoint of light from her cigarette. Making his way to a dummy cast in shade of a light with a dud bulb, he summoned Butch, the strange steel the weapons were made of seeming to luminesce faintly on their own.
Only then did he notice the scent. It shouldn't have been discernible, but the breeze was right and his sense of smell had only been getting more sensitive over time. He paused, not striking out, instead he paused and scanned the area, when he saw her he froze.
He had experienced hallucinations in his life. This was a cold fact. But they had been connected to the various medicines he'd been trialed on in his youth he was sure. It would be inconvenient if he was going to start seeing them without medication. But no. No. He smelled the smoke and more besides. He moved a little nearer, near enough to get a look at who it was.
The expression in the shadow of the hood was flat and blank, at least for a time, before the smug smile returned, he made no move to dessummmon the claws. "Well howdy missy." he said, audible through the quiet that lay over the training grounds like a shroud. To this day he found it pleasantly appropriate that animals avoided this island. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" he said. She looked wild, like an urban fox glimpsed in the streetlights, all rich red, dirt and bright eyes. It was beautiful.
He turned his back and looked up at the sky himself. "I probably am."
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 5:44 am
"Naw," America drawled, voice rough and rusted. "You're not interrupting anything Mister Cowboy, I came out to be alone and you'd have to be a person to ruin that, now wouldn't you?" She offered a smile, lips pulling back far enough to reveal the shining wet glint of teeth. "You actually training out here?" Taking a long drag, she tipped her head back, returning her gaze to the sky and adding her own little cloud to obscure it.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 6:38 am
Lawr didn't argue with this estimation. He ran on logic primarily and he knew there wasn't a great deal of evidence to convincingly argue his personhood with America, you needed a few things that he simply didn't have to be considered a human. He was something more than that.
Glancing down at his long taloned gauntlets, he moved his fingers on both hands, the missing hand much less nimbly than the other. "Would that fact really surprise you?" he asked, not wanting to turn around and look at her. Even having her this close was maddening. He'd reasoned that being here would make him feel better, that it would take some of the pressure off of the obsessive thoughts, but it did not, she had managed simply by existing to distract him from what he was doing, a fact which did not relate to logic or reason at all.
"I make no guesses at what you are doing out here missy, I expected you to be in your perfect little house on the prairie."
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 6:48 am
She thought it over, then slipped off her perch with a roll of the shoulders. "I suppose not, if there was something you could get out of it. Like being a better fighter than anyone has reason to think." America walked toward him and there was a graceful, rolling motion to the obvious violence of her person. "I'm here anyway, no matter your expectations, so show me the difference between now and then." As if she had won that fight months ago. As if she had never stayed up, sleepless, for fear seeing him in dreams.
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Baneful rolled 1 20-sided dice:
11
Total: 11 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 7:00 am
"Or survival." he volunteered. "I take my body seriously. Just because I am a pacifist doesn't mean that I can't be fit"
He finally looked over his shoulder at her, permitting himself that much, her scent marked to him even despite the lingering shroud of smoke. He rolled his bony shoulders in a subtle shrug. She was stronger, he had watched her on the mission in Paris and known without a doubt that she had grown in power and ability while he had stayed stationary. Fighting was not his forte, physicality had never been.
“If you want missy. But I think you already know the answer to that.” He faced her fully, the claws splayed, Butch excited and rambling in his mind.
bite her teeth in he ******** dark soke and grit and ******** grit and gristle. Ours. Yours. Good boy Butch!>
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lizbot rolled 1 20-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:08 am
"If it was about survival you wouldn't hide it with late hours and that ******** coat." Slipping out of her own battered jacket, she tossed it on the ground, and summoned Stryker to hand. Her grin grew wider as she admitted, "Maybe I just wanna hit something."
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Baneful rolled 2 10-sided dice:
3, 5
Total: 8 (2-20)
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 2:20 pm
Lawrence just smiled at this and added. "Perhaps I just like some privacy or maybe this cowboy likes to wander on his lonesome."
At her comment though he nodded. It was as good a reason as anything else, he felt. "Well I've never been one to deny you that."
Without warning he moved still far more nimble than his typical movements suggested, swiping out with the long talons to rake across one of her shoulders, somewhat flighty and cautious of the retaliation that was potentially to come.
The fleeting thrill of fear was enough to send Butch into a barking feral sort of frenzy.
HP:50/50
DMG:2
Charge: 1/3
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lizbot rolled 2 12-sided dice:
8, 8
Total: 16 (2-24)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 12:48 am
"That'd require feelings," she countered both his reasoning and his attack as she usually did: blunt and head on. The flail struck out and slammed into him, dead-center. "You're gonna have to do better than that. Hit me hard enough I'll treat you," there was laughter in her voice, vicious and unhappy. HP: 58 Dmg: 10 Charge: 1/3
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Baneful rolled 2 10-sided dice:
1, 6
Total: 7 (2-20)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:41 am
"The way you're talkin, you need feelings for everything. You don't. Not really. All they do is hinder ya. Not saying I don't have any, just playin' devil's advocate, ya know."
The hit from her was just as painful as he'd anticipated and he reeled, staggering and almost falling, catching himself on clawtips at the last moment, exhaling in surprise and what seemed like amusement.
"Your bird is still lean and mean for a trumped up peacock." He made no comment on the perceived carrot and stick, but his reply showed in the delicate counter attack, bordering insulting as he swung again, siphoning only enough to keep Butch barking and nothing more.
HP:40/50
DMG:1
Charge: 2/3
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lizbot rolled 2 12-sided dice:
12, 1
Total: 13 (2-24)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:07 am
"Phoenix," she corrected, teeth flashing and she closed the gap between them. A chain-wrapped fist cracked against his cheek and she continued, "You know what it means to be a phoenix?" HP: 57 Dmg: 7 Charge: 2/3
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Baneful rolled 2 10-sided dice:
2, 1
Total: 3 (2-20)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:47 am
The punch connected and the pale man reeled back like a doll, he did not seem to react to the pain, even as it blossomed in his awareness and Butch's anger redoubled in defence of his master. Pain was almost an emotion for him, a thin thread which linked him to the world outside. He did not indulge it, there were too many risks involved along with distinguishing scars. This was a rare exception. Lawrence smiled again, rubbing his cheek with the back of a gauntlet, a shallow and faint bruise blossoming up. "I know what they represent. A little too Christian for you I would say. Emblematic of rebirth, revival, immortality. Virginity too, the virgin birth, no less. Rather crass for someone like you missy to be found with one bound to you." He did not attack this time, only inclined his head. "But pray tell." he said. "What does it mean to you?" Hp 33/50 Dmg: none Charge: 2/3
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lizbot rolled 2 12-sided dice:
6, 3
Total: 9 (2-24)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 12:21 pm
"Means I'm gonna be around awhile, and lucky you. Means whatever s**t you throw our way we're gonna come back stronger." He nearly dodged the next strike. It wasn't as powerful as the other's had been but the field was lit up be blazing, golden runes. "Met your boy here the other day. How'd you manage to turn his head around so ******** thorough?" HP: 57 Dmg: 3 Charge: 3/3
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Baneful rolled 2 10-sided dice:
10, 7
Total: 17 (2-20)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 12:55 pm
There was a thrum of satisfaction when he managed to dodge or at least glance her attacks. It was the same satisfaction he'd gotten as a child when he lined up his possessions or when as an adult he completed a piece of music.
"It won't be me who lays you low." he said.
This time he used his momentum and leapt forward with both claws, sinking them into as much of her shield as he could possibly muster and as he raked them downwards he hissed.
"The same way you do, I pretend to care."
Hp 30/50
Dmg: 11
Charge: 3/3
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lizbot rolled 2 4-sided dice:
2, 2
Total: 4 (2-8)
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:16 pm
"Better," she hissed at the familiar rake of claws. There was a satisfaction in the revealed strength and skill. America was a girl who loved secrets, and maybe somewhere in a myriad of what ifs she loved the one in front of her. But that was a set of turns long since passed by.
She gave a brief, hard laugh. "Pretending would be easier."
The flail shot out and with an abrupt tug, left a ball of fire in its wake. The following explosion swallowed Lawr up and that was satisfying as well.
Hp: 46
Dmg: 16 roll on other page fml
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