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 Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2023 6:14 pm
On the scale of 'things Sparrow hadn't wanted to see in the middle of a day where zyr biggest problem was if video game characters liked zem', a summons from a ******** General-King that basically boiled down to get zyr a** to his office, effective immediately, for training (zyr words, not his) probably made the top of the list; if it hadn't before, it definitely did now that it was 1. not only a possibility but 2. a very real and very very unpleasant certainty.
Ideally he wasn't going to kill zem! That was silly. Not just silly, that was incredibly ******** stupid, as far as ideas went. He would've just summoned Larimar directly to his office if he was going to do that. Even just taking into account time invested, ze represented enough of an investment by the Negaverse that -- it was ******** stupid. Why was ze dwelling on that instead of going there, right now, immediately, and not dillydallying and resisting the urge to shove zyr hands into zyr face and make a noise closely resembling an intensely unoiled door creaking open.
Anyway. Anyway. It only took a few minutes of meandering around and asking Lieutenants for directions before Larimar rapped on Faustite's office door, swallowing down the lump in zyr throat. "General-King Faustite? It's General Larimar. You, uh - you requested me." A completely normal introduction to make, for what was going to be a completely normal interaction, because zyr paranoid spirals were just that and were almost never actually validated!
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Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2023 6:58 am
There was that title again. Faustite looked up from the book on his desk, whose pages he was turning with a pair of metal tongs. It was an unfamiliar voice —
Right, Larimar. That was the one. "I did," he responded as he straightened up in his seat. The research he conducted was dull, and in his search to understand more of his weapon, he had inadvertently slouched to the side and relied on his arm to keep his head propped up. He felt half-asleep, too, so he was delighted that his summons was answered and he could not close the book for a while. The cover read Tools of War: History of Weapons in Modern Times.
He stood, then, and stepped out from behind the desk. Motioning for Larimar to follow him, he walked with his hands folded behind his back. "Saw you're in GenOps, but you've a long record of skirmishes. Fairly indiscriminate about your targets. Saw you at Augusta, too, fighting with a knight. Quite something, your knives." So perfectly helpful for goring a senshi.
He opened his office door and motioned for Larimar to leave. Then he followed, shutting the door behind him. "Down to Training Room 102. You'll be my sparring partner." He watched Larimar thereafter, following behind zem in expectation that ze knew the way.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 2:29 pm
"I'm not interested in specialization," Larimar offered, even though he hadn't actually asked, god, shut up, holy s**t, "no reason to commit to something unless I can whole-a** it. But I usually find people stop the most pathetic parts of their whinging when stabbed."
He wanted zem to be his sparring partner? Great. Ideal. Perfect. It wasn't any of those things, given he was literally on fire and Larimar was deeply disinterested with the idea of being incinerated or even simply set aflame, but this was still in theory not a win for zyr Paranoid Hell Fantasies and was still potentially likely to be a completely normal interaction. Not that anyone in the Negaverse had ever been normal, ever. Presumably, like Larimar, they were mostly normal people under the uniform when all was said and done; that still left all that time on the clock.
At least ze knew where Room 102 was. It could've been considerably more embarrassing if ze didn't. Larimar set off at a reasonable pace, trying to measure it slightly on the faster side.
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 9:12 am
"Didn't ask," Faustite returned, with a smile that said don't test me. If Faustite wanted an entire opinion piece on how and why Larimar operated the way that ze did, then Faustite would have asked for it in written form to read at his leisure. But that wasn't any part of Faustite's request for Larimar to drop by.
Thus, when Larimar set off at a clip, Faustite was glad to see that the General was motivated enough to keep his tongue in zyr mouth. Better that it didn't wag like a dog's tail. He already had to deal with the misfortune that his legs were shorter; keeping up meant more steps than Larimar had to expend.
While 102 was farther from his office with each promotion, the room was quick enough to reach given their pace. The room was normally left unlocked for public use, but it was still good practice to knock rather than barge inside and take a spear in the face. He hadn't yet been that unlucky, but Faustite did not want to test his luck. After a few loud raps on the door, he pushed his way inside. The doorknob glowed for a moment after he released it.
Inside, the converted ballroom still had ample space for a live sparring match, as well as training weapons of various shapes, sizes and styles. Some dummies remained, but some of them looked so worn and beaten that they had already been ordered replacements.
Faustite breezed past the weapon racks, paying them no mind, as he approached the clear space for a spar at the center of the room. "If you have any restrictions, name them now."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:05 am
Even if Faustite wasn't going to obliterate zem, apparently Larimar was going to do it personally, manually, and automatically from sheer goddamn embarrassment. The value of shutting up was never overrated, was very valuable, and was something ze would do real ******** well to learn better. Good to have priorities and plans for the future! Or something. Mostly something. Mostly zyr plans were to survive this perfectly normal training encounter with someone who was a) more powerful than zem, b) had no reason to like zem and was probably gaining reasons to dislike zem every time Larimar opened zyr dumbass mouth, and c) was actively on fire.
Don't ******** explain it. Just say it like a normal person. He didn't ask for an explanation. "No face shots." Ideally no real moves to wound too seriously, but... there was only so far that could go. Zyr weapons weren't blunted and Faustite was on fire. In any real spar, not that ze had a lot of experience sparring with other officers - mostly the sparring was all civilian, formalized, blunted weapons, and the worst a knight could do was bludgeon zem to death with... a tree, or something, whatever knights had.
So he probably had some kind of medic on hand, right? That'd make sense. And - ze moved to the clear space, positioning zemself opposite of Faustite - if Larimar asked about it, ze'd look like a moron and further damage his impression of zem, so ze wasn't going to ask.
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:55 am
No face shots. That left him an entire buffet of choices for how he wanted to barbecue Larimar. This was turning out better than he expected.
"Won't be using a weapon," he declared, and summoned the strangely curved blade to hand. It was heavy, and the tension caused his wrist to hurt, even for the short time in which he paced to one of the weapon racks and hung it up like a decoration. For all his purposes, it was a decoration — and a deterrent.
Faustite was part youma. He was his own weapon.
"You will use the butt of your blades for lethal blows," he explained to Larimar. "Each lethal blow scores a point. Two of three points is a match." Faustite continued as he began unclasping his pauldron and cape. "For incentive: if you win, I'll cover your quota for a week.
"Teleporting, starseeding, and summoning youma count against the user. No leaving the room until the match is called. Headache," he paused, looking toward the entrance.
Standing at the entrance was a White Moon Eternal Senshi who looked very much like a diminutive maid. The telltale definition of muscle belied her(?) strength.
"Will referee the match. If there are no questions or modifications, it's your move."
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2023 8:37 pm
Fantastic. Incredible. Larimar was a good improviser (in theory) and also spent a lot more time on doing stupid little sword tricks in private so ze could flourish threateningly than ze probably should, but what swordsman in history would have a positive reaction to being told pull all your hits while I try to burn you to death?
Okay, no, in no world had Faustite actually said that, but Larimar was very intensely sure in the way only paranoiacs could be that it was what he meant. It wasn't even a good incentive. That was what ze had Captains for.
But ze wasn't exactly about to tell him to <******** right off, was he insane, so instead Larimar just said "Of course, General-King," and only side-eyed the was that a ******** maid?? a classic anime maid?? sure. why not. senshi are already weird enough. for about four to five seconds longer than was reasonably warranted. Whatever damn kettle of fish that was with her wearing white, it was Definitely Not Zyr Problem At This Moment, and ze had more relevant issues, like not being set on fire and also not completely embarrassing zemself in front of a General-King.
(Were zyr hands shaking? Ideally not, but they did that so often these days, so who knew. Larimar wasn't going to look down to check. If they were, the leather of zyr gloves might dull it, might stop it.)
(What kind of sword even was that, the one he'd hung up? ******** up weird sword. It felt like a threat. No s**t, genius, everything felt like a threat when oneself was so amped up on paranoia and caffeine zyr best animal correlation might've been a rabid, shivering chihuahua. Some kind of purse dog. The really ******** up purebred ones.)
(Focus, Larimar -)
Ze should've had questions. You were supposed to have questions, when people asked if there were any questions. It showed initiative, or something. But any questions weren't things Larimar was going to actually ask, so ze just said "No questions," took a second to call rapier and dagger to hand, and lunged to the side to try and catch him off-guard for a second. Ze'd pull all zyr ******** hits as much as he asked, which was ******** stupid, but fine, when someone could set you on fire you said how high -- ze didn't have to like it.
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Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2023 6:15 pm
Obedient thing. Faustite set up a shitshow of a duel with parameters that Larimar failed to revise, even when being invited to do so. That was itself intriguing — Faustite wondered if he was just that enormously stupid, just that enormously overconfident, or if he had some sort of guilt complex for stabbing Albite that he needed absolved through pain and suffering. The last point was the most ideal, but he would take either of the former two as an invitation to beat his ******** bones to pulp.
It was all shaping up quite nicely for Faustite, really. And given that there was a gap in their relative strengths, he found it a margin easier to track Larimar when he shot right the ******** off to the side instead of charging Faustite or teleport behind him. Faustite moved to match him, flinging himself in the opposite direction so that they circled each other. He wanted a look at how the General held his blades.
It was a setup that struck him as strange, a rapier and a dagger, but it may not have been strange at all. He knew nothing about fencing or dueling. He knew nothing about rapiers. He knew nothing about whether rapier duelists carried daggers, too. This all could have been terribly routine and it would have done nothing but enunciate Faustite's ignorance.
Which, naturally, pissed him off. Faustite ducked in with a feint, then turned with his inertia to try to elbow the good General in the throat. It wasn't the face, after all, and it was worth a point if a pommel bounced off his grate.daekie so sorry i missed this heart feel free to assume larimar scores a hit! not that headache will acknowledge it…
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