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 Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:27 pm
The faux spar with Periclase had reminded Stellerite that training in such matters was important. She was rusty, as anyone who didn't prioritize combat would be, but knowing how to defend herself was still important and that meant that making sure the ducklings she took under her wing could do that.
Which was why she had arranged with Lovina to meet near the library for a training session.
It was really the first 'practical' run with the two of them since they introduced her little protégé into the folds of the military-style organization. It wasn't that she had meant to be neglectful on this side of things, but Stellerite was a lady with her hands in several cookie jars.
She waited in the same room that she had led Lovi through the first time they'd properly met. Her back rested against the ornate desk and she was checking the nails of one hand while her other tightly clutched Alkaid's journal.
It went with her everywhere.
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:58 pm
Lovi was a teensy weensy bit late, as usual.
But she made up for it with enthusiasm! She tore through the hall, her heels clopping like horseshoes on the tile. Twice now she overshot a turn and nearly fell on her face. It wasn't her fault that she missed the meeting time, really — one of her teachers wanted to give her a talking to after class and explain that he was impressed with her upward progress — but she couldn't exactly get a note to explain how she was five minutes late. Don't let her hate me for this, don't let her hate me for this, don't let her hate me for this…
Finally she threw open the door and stumbled in, nearly doubling over on the spot. After a few steady puffs, she felt ready to explain herself.
"Sorry about that!" Love offered a bashful smile as she straightened up exuberantly. Her energy returned at a phenomenally teenaged rate. "One of my teachers was like, 'oh, Lovi, you're doing so well!'" She imitated the exchange with exaggerated hand gestures. "But he was going all longwinded about it, and wasn't getting that I had places to go…
"Anyway, I hope you don't mind! Won't happen again, I promise!" Another few puffs and she disengaged from the doorway.
Finally she approached her CO, who looked so prim and proper against the desk. It was like she owned the place with her posture alone. Lovi figured she couldn't ever be like that, but she'd make her efforts to be the best she could be.
"Um, you wanted to see me?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 12:03 pm
Unless she was purposefully being late, the young woman strove to be punctual and the longer Lovina made her wait, the more disappointed with that aspect of her charge she became. It was something they would have to work on, for the future, when they weren't touching on everything else she hoped to take care of.
Her smile was thinner than normal when the student finally made her way in and she stood up, deciding that continuing to lean against the desk was in poor form.
"Do try to manage your time better Lovi," she replied, the barest tinges of disappointment in her tone before she opted to address the circumstances in which she decided to call the teen to her.
"Sometimes our duties to the organization require that we deal with rough situations, sometimes they involve fisticuffs. I want to ensure that you're as well prepared as possible for such things, though I personally advocate talk and recon over brute force."
A darkly gloved hand extended out. "Tonight will be a night of training, I'll show you some of Negaspace as well, the castle has room we'll be utilizing for this exercise."
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 7:07 am
At the first sign of correction, Lovi sighed. Her whole form wilted exaggeratedly, and she approached the desk like she walked the walk of doom. She knew she did wrong, but it was such a struggle to keep her life up around all these activities! She didn't know how anyone else did it — including Ms. Rey. She never even looked tired, let alone overstressed by all the stuff she had to juggle!
But Lovi couldn't stand around bemoaning her situation — as Ms. Rey went on, she realized she didn't have time for that. So she sucked up her personal frustrations as best she could, put on her cheer face (or what she thought would be her cheer face if stupid Romano's would approve a stupid cheer team already), and listened as best she could. Only one of the terms was unfamiliar, but she figured if she was being shown Negaspace anyway, she'd figure out pretty shortly what it was.
So she bobbed her head in understanding, pulled her ponytail tight out of habit, and confirmed her recognition all military-like. "Yes ma'am." It sounded super official, anyway.
"Um, this is the part where I 'power up', right?" Lovi looked behind herself for any onlookers, but they were surrounded by only four walls and a door. No windows, no creepers looking to harness her identity.
Afterward she assented to the flicker of her form, and in the careless girl's stead stood Chrysoprase. "I'm ready!"
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:21 pm
Lovi had a flare for dramatics, which in certain circumstances Stella could appreciate, and they brought a twitch of amusement to her otherwise simple smile. All they had to direct it the right way and with some fine tuning...
A lesson for later, something she would add to the journal she toted around along with any notes she'd take during this session.
The girl's question earned a nod from her captain, a look of pride in her blue eyes when the girl gave her surroundings a once over before making the transition from Lovina to Chryoprase. Taking a moment to appreciate the uniform, she stepped forward and placed her hand on her shoulder.
"This might be make you a little woozy," she warned, before she concentrated on teleporting them both down to the castle. Her touch remained steady, trying to assure that her traveling companion fared well enough in the aftermath of such sudden transportation.
Not long after she turned and began to make her way towards the castle.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:15 am
Woozy was right.
While Chrysoprase learned to not really expect anything, it meant that everything took her by surprise — including the sudden move from perfectly boring office into perfectly terrifying weird cavern thing. Or she thought it was a weird cavern thing; once her head stopped spinning and her stomach quit doing flips, Chrysoprase paused for a second to look around.
She never really thoguht about caves before, but not seeing the sun and not knowing where she should go to get back to the office terrified her. She hugged close to her captain, hyperaware of all the weird crystals and the huge purple stalagmites and the way the ceiling rose so high that she couldn't actually see it. Only a few spikes peeked out from this ominous foggy cover.
Not far from them, an old castle stood up from the ground. It looked kinda narrow as far as she thought castles went, and there wasn't a wall around it either. Instead it just stood there staring with its hollow windows, and whenever Chrysoprase looked to them, she felt the weird vortex of soundlessness hit her even harder. Who would decide to hang out in a place like this? Looking over the old-as-dirt castle, she definitely doubted it was Stellerite's number-one choice of hangout spots. She probably had a good reason to go here, and not out on the school grounds where it was cold but the sun was still shining. Sure, it was warmer down here, but the creep factor got hiked through the roof.
Swallowing, she thought she'd try to make conversation. "So this is Negaspace? No offense, but it's totally creepy. Like, way creepier than my chemistry teacher. And his wife left him for his best friend like, six years ago so now he just lives aone with his dog and stares at his students.
"What are we supposed to do down here?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:17 pm
Lovina's assessment would prove to be a correct one if she voice it, because Stellerite much preferred to handle all of her dealings on the surface world instead of in negaspace. However, without a cat to suppress energy any sort of powered training that didn't involve patrolling or schmoozing was better suited to the Dark Kingdom.
Here, they didn't have to worry about interruptions from those of the white moon. Or, since she had made a request for time in a room, hopefully they wouldn't be bothered by other agents unless it was of a dire nature.
"Mostly turning in quotas or filling out paperwork to be submitted," the blonde responded, sliding her arm into the crook of Chrysoprase to allow herself some space but to allow her charge closeness in a place that could easily be overwhelming.
It made her wonder how her lieutenant would fair in the rift where General spent all of her time.
Another lesson for another day.
"You can't access this space as you are currently, it requires the ability to teleport in, or you'll need to be summoned," she began explaining as she walked. "Here, the general-sovereigns and our queen reside. There's also access to the databases and records that we as an organization hold."
Stellerite didn't look over, instead choosing to keep her gaze focused ahead.
"Here, the auras we possess as 'powered' individuals don't broadcast to opposing forces and we'll be able to complete our training uninterrupted."
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 9:20 am
Grateful for the physical grounding, Chrysoprase kept her close proximity. She didn't want to step out into the world of Weird and Gross, since it reminded her way too much of all those obscure fantasy novels one of her sisters used to read. Her mom used to call them garbage, but now she was left wondering if each of them had some kernel of truth. And considering how literally everything down here looked creepy, Chrysoprase felt pretty sure about that kernel of truth.
She felt a little relieved that she wouldn't really be spending much time down here. Sure, Stellerite wanted to do some training down here, and that was fine, she could make it through a few minutes or hours or whatever, but after that, she didn't have to spend the day down there. She'd just have to come back to turn in quotas, right? And since she couldn't get down there directly, then she had even less reason to come back here. She could probably just find any old captain, work her charms, and let them know that since she can't get down here, and she wouldn't want to tax them by asking them to take her, she had a quota that needed turning in. And they'd graciously accept it, she'd smile and say thanks, then they'd each be on their way, no harm no foul. That's the way it worked, right? She hoped so.
And in hoping so, a bit of Chrysoprase's fears wore off. Yeah. She could deal with this place. Couple hours, no sweat. She had Stellerite with her anyway, and Ms. Rey would never let anything bad happen to her.
"The 'no interruptions' part is pretty lit," she returned, choosing to focus on the positive. "Can you imagine if some eternal just busted in on us while we were training? We'd be like, totally boned. This is a way better idea than training on some rooftop." Even if it was creepy.
As her eyes traced the citadel, she started to wonder what was inside. Didn't kings and queens usually hang out at the top of the towers? She was pretty sure. Something about being closer to God that way. Maybe. That whole idea seemed pretty dumb, anyway. If some attacker wanted to run in and kill them, then wouldn't it make sense to make them go through the whole tower before they even got to the royalty? Yeah that sounded like a better reason. So then, if they were going to train there… "Where are the training rooms? Are they in the bottom of the castle somewhere?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:53 pm
Stellerite focused on guiding her charge to the room they'd reserved fro the next few hours. She didn't expect it to go for more than an hour, but she requested three just in case. It would be easiest to answer questions here, away from those of the white moon who'd seek to do them harm and her schedule was 'booked' which meant less outside interruptions.
"I like to be prepared," she replied, leading the girl down some stairs until they reached a door. It was then that she detached herself from her lieutenant and she pushed the door open. "We wouldn't have been 'boned' as you put it. Combat is not what drives me, but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of defending myself, or you." Or that she wouldn't have other tricks up her sleeve.
"Besides, not everyone on the other side is so quick to talk with their fists instead of mouths. You'd be surprised at what I can talk myself out of." Stellerite had talked her way out of more than a few potential fights. "I wouldn't say this is the bottom of the castle. You haven't even seen the Rift yet. But that's a lesson for later. You'll really need some combat skills for that."
Maybe she'd convince Epidote to join them, he was always the brawn of her operation.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:20 pm
Chrysoprase was more than happy to duck out of Creeper Zone and into something a little less Creeper Zone but a little more Edgelord one. The place looked a little gross with weird crystals sticking out of one of the walls, and everything was covered with this nasty layer of dust that wanted to stick to her fingers. And the furniture? Total wreck. There wasn't much in the room but a couple chairs at the back wall, and they both looked ready to collapse if she so much as looked at them for longer than five seconds. And she felt like she was gonna get in trouble for that, so she just kept her eyes trained on Stellerite. She was way more interesting than the rest of this dump, anyway.
"Oh, ummm…" Chrysoprase sucked in her lip while she figured out how to backpedal. "I didn't really mean it like we couldn't fight or anything? Just that I'd probably get in your way. That's all. I don't doubt you at all, I promise!" And she wasn't just trying to puff up her captain, either — she actually did think that Stellerite knew exactly what she was doing. Stellerite always carried herself like she knew exactly what she was doing, and most people couldn't really pull that off. Half the girls in her school couldn't, anyway. Fake bitches.
Nor was she super surprised to learn that Stellerite could be a smooth talker. Ms. Rey always had an air about her that said listen to me, I know what I'm talking about, and Lovi totally went for it most days. Other days her ears just kinda turned off. But that was normal, right?
Chrysoprase wandered out to the center of the room and stood with her feet a shoulder length apart. Fighting was supposed to be like exercising, right? And they always told her in gym class to keep her feet a shoulder width apart when stretching or whatever. And the same thing happened with cheer practice — if she had cheer practice.
"Okay, so um… What do we do?" She figured it had something to do with putting up her fists, so she tried her best to imitate like every action movie ever. She felt totally Winter Soldier about it. Maybe this would be fun!nuxaz thanks again for patience <3
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Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:37 am
Her smile was gentle, amusement shining in her blue eyes while her charge tried to back up and right things. "We're a team Chrysie, that means we're going to learn how to work together so you don't." She'd have to bring the others around so that they could get to know each other but like everything else, that was for another time.
"Next time, you'll be introduced to Epidote. He's my partner and he handles the more...brawny side of things for me. Still, I want you to be prepared to handle things when you need to, which is why we're here today."
She took to training the same way Alkaid had done for her; she had an area of specialty but she knew how to defend herself enough. Fighting was not her forte and she wasn't good at it, not in the same way she was good at recruitment and sweet talking, but she could handle herself. Mostly. And she sought to do the same.
They just needed to find out what Chyrsie's specialty would be.
Moving into the center of the room she held out her hands and into the open palms, her katars were summoned. "You should have been equipped with a 'weapon'. They're generally useless at your rank, I had a lanyard, but sometimes they're useful. Open your hands and concentrate on pulling it from the space it resides in."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:03 pm
"Right, okay." Chrysoprase nodded enthusiastically at Stella's instruction. Epidote was a name she'd have to remember, even if it sounded weird and foreign and super chemistry class (and she knew she was totally bad at chemistry). Epidote, Epidote, Epidote. Though she didn't know what he looked like, so was it really that important to remember the name? Whatever. Focus, Lovi.
She backed up in tandem to her captain's move, but when katars donned her superior's hands, Chrysie gaped, wide-eyed and shocked. "Those… Those are like, actual weapons!" She flailed a bit, fingers splayed and hands emphatically gesturing toward the bladed things. They looked super awkward to hold, and definitely not like a beginner's weapon, but they were sharp and pointy and she was really sure that a wrong move would do some serious damage to her. And that thought alone just shot her blood pressure into Uranus, she was pretty sure, because she figured the whole fighting thing would be like schoolyard brawls and not like I'm going to tear your guts out, here's my ninja weapons, bye Felicia.
But no. Real weapons. And her captain was gonna use them in a training match. Like it was no big deal. What even.
Once her consternation passed, Chrysie tried to follow orders. She was still shaking pretty hard, probably hard enough that Stella could see, but she needed to put on a brave face for her captain that she probably just completely disappointed by flipping the hell out about the weapons on her hands. Okay. Whatever. Focus, Lovi. So she held her hands up, hoped she'd get this right, and prayed to whatever weirdo Negaverse god was out there that a weapon was available to her. And some time later, when she was pretty sure she wasn't getting it right, she felt a slight weight suddenly settle into her hand.
Looking down, she found a cat toy wrapped in a bag. It sat neatly in her palm, as if her captain put it there. "Um…" Chrysie chewed her lip. "I think I messed up somehow? I got this." She held up the toy on an outstretched hand. "I was preeeeetty sure I was thinking weapon and not youma toy but that's totally not what I got. Do we have time for a redo?" She asked, smiling sheepishly.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:30 pm
There was a hint of smugness in Stellerite's expression, lips quirked upward, as she watched Chrysie's reaction to her weapons. "They are," she replied, gloved fingers wrapping around their handles. They weren't the easiest of weapons to utilize, but she didn't get a choice in what she was given, she merely had to learn how to use them.
It had been a struggle and even now she wasn't very skillful, outside of swinging them as sharp extensions of her fists, but her lieutenant didn't need to know that. The girl merely needed to think that Stella knew how to weaponize them to their full potential. One day she would have the right skill, but she had yet to meet anyone that shared her weapon and taking classes for it seemed silly.
So, YouTube videos on incognito had been her best option and teacher.
Watching Chrysie work to control and even impress kept Stella's spirits up, she'd picked a good one and she knew it, even if she could tell that the girl was worried that she could actually hurt her. It was a fair fear, something that was supposed to just be a after school class was turning into something a little more nitty gritty.
But she smiled kindly when the cat toy popped into the girls hand. "Well, unfortunately that's what they've given you." She remembered the first time she'd pulled the lanyard out or Epi had pulled out his remote. They were always garbage but she had hoped.
"Might be useful for a distraction. Having something thrown at you can be unsettling even with something as...unimpressive as that." Her own weapons were dismissed effortless. "Think about dismissing it back to where it came from, since there's not much I can think of to utilize that in the present, we'll work without."
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 7:55 pm
"Um. Seriously?" Chrysoprase held the toy up with her disappointment written plainly across her face. Lips pressed to a line and cocked, with one eyebrow cresting her head in a what gives expression. "That's totally dumb. They should give us real weapons so we can maybe deal with other people who have real weapons. They have real weapons, right?" Lovi read the Negaverse Training Manual in pieces when she had snatches of free time, but never recalled anything in specific about enemy weaponry. Just stuff about magic.
Her annoyance quickly turned into a mischievous grin as Chrysie plucked the plush cat from the bag and threw it at her captain as hard as she could. It didn't catch much air, and resistance slowed it down considerably as it traveled, but she gave it a good shot. "Are you distracted yet?" She giggled; she knew it was a little out of line to do something like that, but Stellerite suggested it and she couldn't resist following up on it. If nothing else, at least she was using what she learned?
"Um. Sorry." Another abashed giggle, and she tried to bite back her smiles for better concentration. Finally she had to close her eyes for it, and think hard on disappearing the bag and cat toy from the vicinity. It wasn't easy — the first time she opened her eyes, the thing still laid on the floor. But the second time confirmed that both the cat toy and its container were gone.
Like they never even existed.
"That's totally weird," Chrysoprase asserted at last. "Like, super convenient? But totally weird. Who woulda thought that like, we could have weapons that just vanished like that?" She smiled, hoping that was really it for their demonstration, and she could go back to maybe not staring at those pointy things on the ends of Stellerite's fists.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 12:35 pm
"Senshi have magic, knights or those within that group, often hold weapon-like things. So far," she paused to think about it, her interactions limited largely to pages, who had useless trinkets much like lieutenants did. "I've only seen things like what you have. Toys, gags that aren't really useful. My specialties largely revolve around senshi. There is one squire that I deal with regularly, he's a shy boy but I'm uncertain if I've truly been exposed to his weapon."
Paris often wore that skull on his face, but she was too inexperienced with knights to know if it was a weapon or a uniform decoration.
Stellerite was distracted and only had half a second to shift when the cat toy was flung at her. A smile played at her lips and she shook her head, nearly moving to pluck it from the floor to toss it back before Chrysoprase had concentrated enough to make it disappear. "Good job," she praised, stepping closer. "But what will you do when you someone is in your space?"
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