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 Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:31 pm
The grand atrium at Sessrumnir was once a place where people met and discussed art, politics, and philosophy. A place where friends met to relax between their classes. A place where lovers had picnics under the enormous oak tree that stretched its branches out further than any tree Michael had seen before.
While the raised garden beds were barely growing anything now, he was surprised to see tiny leaves speckling the branches of the oak. It was more alive now than he’d ever seen it before. There were even wildflowers carpeting the once barren ground of the atrium, and Michael almost felt bad for suggesting this as a good place for him and Devyn to spar.
“We can find somewhere else if you want,” he suggested, although Princess had other plans as she raced a few times around the tree and then rolled enthusiastically around in the grass. Well, if they didn’t destroy the grass, then Princess certainly would.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:36 pm
Devyn would always love Sessrumnir, probably. Every time they arrived, he looked like he’d found some new thing to love about it. There was always the shadow of sadness, like he missed so much of it, but there was an unshakable fondness as well. Every little spark of life delighted him, and he was able to appreciate the tiny little flowers every bit as much as he was able to appreciate Princess.
“No, this is fine,” he insisted. “I mean, we could go somewhere else if you wanted, but I like this place. And a little roughhousing on the grass won’t hurt it too much. If anything, I’d think the attention might inspire it to more life.
Devyn seemed to like this area, anyway, he was happy to spend any amount of time here.
“We’ll just be gentle. Maybe next time we should bring some watering cans or something.”
As if Jupiter didn’t have enough rain already.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:44 pm
“Gentle?” Michael asked, mock offended. “You’re already planning on going easy on me? I might not have trained my whole life to fight, but I can hold my own pretty well.”
There was no heat in his voice, and a small grin was trying to tug at his lips. Devyn said they would be gentle, but he could still tease him a little.
They’d packed a lunch, which Michael set on the steps leading into the grassy area, and hoping it was out of the way enough that Princess didn’t notice it. Just in case, he removed his cape and draped it over top. The winged helmet was removed as well, and he ran his hands through his hair.
“How do you want to do this? Just fists? No magic or weapons?”
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:50 pm
Devyn just laughed. “Oh, you weren’t planning on being gentle with me? You’re a Knight, I’m only a Super Senshi. And I’m injured.”
Not really, his burn was an annoyance more than anything, and he was already convinced that it was mostly healed.
But, he was smiling and obviously ready to go. He didn’t really seem to have any intention of warming up, but that was probably because he’d already had a good jog this morning and never really seemed to stop moving anyway.
“Hand to hand would probably be best. I need to practice my magic some, but I’d rather do that when I’ve got a target I can work off of. I don’t want to make you miserable. I think it worked the last time I used it, so that’s good enough for me.” For now. He’d mentioned that his magic was erratic and tended to go haywire, and he could handle despair when it was crushing him to little pieces. He wasn’t going to risk doing that to Michael.
“You aren’t going to get squeamish and worried that you’ll hit me too hard, will you? I won’t aim for your face, you’re too handsome to bruise up. I don’t want your students giving you a hard time when you go back to school.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:58 pm
Michael snorted in amusement, already working on unbuckling the armor over his shoulder and the vambraces on his forearms. Fighting with them on was good for deflecting Negaverse weapons, but if he was going to be fighting Devyn, he wanted to make sure they were on fairly even footing.
“Oh, so you want me to pull my punches?” he hummed, both in response to Devyn’s comment about him being a Knight versus an injured Super Senshi, and to his tease about being squeamish.
“Good thing I know a place with some pretty good healing properties. Besides, you won’t be able to hit my face, anyway,” he grinned, clearly confident enough in his ability to dodge.
“But I don’t want to distress Princess. Even though we’re just sparing, I don’t want her to have to see,” he explained, and whistled for the hyper wolfdog to flip from her back and onto her feet so she could trot over. “I’ll let you out again when we eat, okay?” he said to her, even as she went over to lick at Devyn’s face.
“Oh, I see it’s probably going to be an unfair advantage if she’s out, too. Look, I’m sorry I’ve been calling you the wrong name, okay?” he sighed.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:04 pm
Devyn didn’t mind watching Michael peel off his armor, and gave him the space to do so even as he kept his eye on him. At least, until Princess came to distract him. He couldn’t help but lean over to give her a good squeeze and a few good scratches behind the ear.
“I’ll see you soon, Princess.”
She was perfection, as always. “Probably for the best we don’t trouble her. It wouldn’t be fair to make her pick sides. Although, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for her to knock us both to the ground and lay atop of us.”
He couldn’t help but smile as he looked at her and scratched under her chin before finally pulling away.
“We’ll make it up to her when we’re done. We packed enough to share. And, maybe we’ll take a nap with her afterwards. Depending on what we do to the grass.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:15 pm
“She could absolutely decide to just knock us both down,” Michael sighed again, a little more exasperated as Princess moved over to him to lick next. He rubbed her head and behind her ears, before recalling her to the fang. Which he also removed, but placed inside his subspace instead of with his armor. He didn’t want to risk losing her.
He took a moment to make a show of stretching. One arm across his chest, and then the other, before positioning himself into a defensive stance as he waited for Devyn to be ready as well.
“Don’t go easy on me,” he requested. “It’ll do neither of us any good.” Not when they had Chaos to deal with. They couldn’t always practice on Negaverse officers and senshi that crossed their paths. And they needed to know how each other fought if they were going to be predicting each others moves when working together.
Yes, he would probably get squeamish about hitting Devyn too hard, but Michael knew that they could both heal up once they were done. And maybe he would just have to pamper him some more when they were home to make up for it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:22 pm
Devyn’s strength was one thing. Alastor’s was another. And, even if he was only a Super Senshi, he was going to be careful when it came to fighting Michael. Just in case.
He was going to take it seriously, but he wasn’t going into this wanting to hurt him. So, he’d pull his punches. He needed to know that he could make a hit. He could practice on a punching bag if he wanted to make sure he could make a hit with force.
But, he knew what he was capable of. At least, once upon a time.
So, instead of stretching, he just watched Michael’s show before mimicking his defensive stance.
“All right,” he said, with a somewhat incredulous tone. “Then, I hope you’re ready.”
Because, he was. He wouldn’t go easy on him, but he couldn’t promise he wasn’t going to pull his punches until he saw how Michael handled himself. So, after a few seconds to allow Michael to prepare for him, he launched himself towards him.
Alastor was testing the water; he hadn’t put his whole heart into the attack, but he lurched at him and drew his arm back as if he intended to deliver a solid blow somewhere on his torso–because, he wasn’t going to hit him in the face.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:40 pm
Sessrumnir knew it was going to be a challenge. He might have been a Knight. He might have had military training. But Devyn? This was his life. He’d said as much. He’d never lost a fight.
But Michael wasn’t a pushover, either. He didn’t survive this war or the last without some skills learned.
He braced his foot when he saw Devyn’s punch, and dropped his arm down to deflect it and protect his torso, and immediately aimed a jab with his other fist at Devyn’s side.
And he didn’t bother blocking his face. Alastor said he wouldn’t hit him in the face, and Sessrumnir believed that. He just had to wonder if Devyn thought he would aim for his face.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:45 pm
Alastor expected a block as much as he expected Sessrumnir would go on the offensive with his other hand. He’d planted himself in a sturdy position so he didn’t anticipate that he’d be kicking him. He wouldn’t say it was easy, nor would he say it was predictable. Probable, only, and maybe he got lucky. He raised his other hand to deflect Sessrumnir’s jab, but he hadn’t had any intention of hitting him in doing so.
Instead, as he moved forward, he let Sessrumnir’s jab brush off of his arm and snaked his own arm around Sessrumnir’s waist.
Alastor seemed like he might have intended to just keep moving past Sessrumnir, if he hadn’t been so keen on taking Sessrumnir with him. He kept his hand on his hip and tried to pivot him, as if spinning with him in some impromptu dance, and intended to use his momentum to dislodge Sessrumnir’s balance.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:52 pm
Sessrumnir expected his jab to be deflected, but Alastor was still fast for someone he knew was holding back. Then again, it wasn’t as though Sessrumnir was trying to actually hurt him, either.
As Alastor made to spin him off balance, Sessrumnir grabbed hold of his waist as well. It seemed as though Alastor already intended on taking the fall, but Sessrumnir wanted to make sure that he went down as well.
Already knowing he would be thrown off balance, he quickly made to hook his ankle around Alastor’s leg, so that when they did hit the ground, Alastor wouldn’t be able to jump back up as quickly.
Sure enough, Sessrumnir hit the ground with a grunt, followed by a laugh.
“You’re not really fighting, are you?” Surely not! He was being too gentle. Well, Sessrumnir also made sure he hit the ground instead of Alastor, so he was probably being too gentle, as well.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:56 pm
It didn’t happen exactly how Alastor planned it would, but Sessrumnir was laughing when he hit the ground and it was contagious. If this were a real battle, Alastor would have either pushed himself up or put his best effort into pummeling his target into the ground.
As it was now, Sesrsumnir had cushioned his blow and made for a surprisingly comfortable pillow. Alastor was sprawled atop of him, barely propped up on his elbow. His arm had gotten tangled with Sessrumnir’s, and he wasn’t going to be able to get up without a little bit of wriggling away, first.
“I’m not not fighting,” he answered, barely able to keep his own laughter in check.
“Why, aren’t you impressed? I’ve already got you on the ground.”
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:14 pm
Sessrumnir laughed again, because neither of them were taking this fight very seriously. Maybe they should have let Princess tackle them both to the ground.
“Impressed by those pulled punches, you mean?” As if Sessrumnir hadn’t been pulling his. They were supposed to be sparing, but this was arguably more fun. Sessrumnir liked to think that if he’d been trying harder, he would have stayed on his feet longer.
Besides, he liked the sound of Alastor’s laugh, and he wanted to make him laugh more if he could.
And since it seemed Alastor’s arm was tangled with his own, if Sessrumnir timed it right…
He shoved at Alastor’s shoulder with his free hand, attempting to roll him over to he was the one on the ground.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:19 pm
Honestly, Alastor could have put up more of a fight. He already wasn’t in the best position to resist being rolled, but he’d been too distracted by Michael to consider that he might have still had some tricks up his sleeve.
When Sessrumnir rolled him it was enough that a surprised little noise slipped out when he hit the ground, but this seemed to make the whole thing more amusing for him and he couldn’t help but tip his head back to laugh.
“I thought Princess was going to be the only one rolling around the grass, now she’ll certainly be jealous we didn’t invite her.”
He didn’t really understand how Sessrumnir managed to feel so light atop of him, even without so much of his armor. He probably shouldn’t have been thinking about how comfortable it was when they were supposed to be sparring, but he was still enjoying it. He was taking it seriously!
…But he hadn’t had fun like this in a while, either, and he wasn’t particularly keen to end it so abruptly.
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 9:17 am
Sessrumnir was light because he had plenty of practice in not putting his whole weight on someone beneath him. Not that he was really thinking about that. It was just muscle memory at this point. And he was aware of his own weight, and didn’t want to crush Alastor and ruin their fun.
“Well, Princess clearly has the best ideas,” he grinned down at Alastor. Sessrumnir was glad he never had any intention of punching him in the face. Alastor was more than just handsome though. He was elegant and charming. He didn’t have an ugly scar across his face like Sessrumnir had across his cheek and jaw.
But Alastor did have some of his hair that came loose and fell into his face. So it was only polite to gently move it out of the way, and maybe brush some of Alastor’s bangs back as well.
“I guess I’m lucky this wasn’t a real fight. I don’t think I would have won that one either, even if I’m stronger than you. By rank!” he amended, and laughed, because he wasn’t trying to insinuate that he was actually stronger than Alastor.
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