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Halle, nursing a bruised fist, gave the tree in front of him a grim look. Okay, so practicing punches against trees was exactly as stupid as it had always seemed. If this powered situation resembled a game, it certainly wasn't Minecraft. He wished, vaguely, that Hillworth had a boxing team or something. Wrestling was the next best thing, but a lot harder to visualize wrestling helping him learn how to deal with an actual fight. Over the years there'd been tips given by salty old men, and they'd been great for the schoolyard scraps that he was currently trying to avoid.

But that wasn't serious experience. Glancing at his signet, he considered updating his Connections profile to just FIGHT ME. But as before, he hated the idea of putting himself under the influence of a single, unknown adult. Especially while still so ignorant and lacking experience. The power dynamic would be inherently not in his favor.

Pulling out the small first aid kit he'd started carrying in his space, Halle dabbed at his knuckles with an alcohol swab and hissed. Maybe he should get a punching bag. Why didn't knights have a training gym for stuff like this?

It was satisfying, he had to admit, recognizing the aura that was similar to his brother and Targovishte. Like an internal alarm system. A girl around his age. And taller. Of course she was taller, because apparently even magic couldn't jump start his growth spurt. Eyeing her uniform he noticed she was also aggressively pastel, but where he has poufs and feathers, she had ruffles and stripes.

"Hey, I'm Halle," he held out his hand to shake. "Looks like we're both Lysithea Knights." Or at least they both wore that symbol. "My hands are fine," Halle sighed, "I'm just an idiot and wanted see if the whole, punching trees as training had any merit to it."

He gave her a wry grin, "And it doesn't. No weird evil stuff needed when human stupidity will work just the same, or even better. Is Pendour also a page?" The concept of corrupteds got shelved for the moment. It was a word that came up a lot in his reading of the database, and he felt one more piece of bad news right now would send him....right back to crying on a rooftop like a giant baby.

"Have you gone up to your wonder yet? Is the grass purple like, everywhere?" In all honestly he was really looking forward to visiting Halle again, this time in daylight. And maybe he could take Lisse with him this time. Or well, maybe not. He still felt a bit touchy and awkward where his brother was concerned.

"Neptune Knight sounds really impressive," Halle nodded, eyebrows raised in appreciation. "We met a Jupiter squire named Targovishte. She's okay."

Rocking back on his heels, he asked, "And what would you recommend starting with?" And he'd meant it to be a dry, sarcastic sort of question, but instead it came out pathetically sincere. Training stats and strategies came easily to him, but figuring out this aspect of training was full of unexpected blindspots.

Halle sighed with his whole body, "I'm at Hillworth, apparently they get mad about people adding curtains to their room, let alone installing gym equipment. I did get some hand weights that I hide under my bed but that's not...fighting."

He picked at a ragged bit of loose skin on his knuckles, face flushing. "I was kinda hoping the whole magic knight thing meant I wouldn't need extra protection." It was embarrassingly stupid. Thank god Lisse wasn't here to laugh at him and then proceed to remember this forever.

Scrubbing his face, wincing a little at the sting, he thought a moment, "There is a big construction site I know. Maybe I can go punch sandbags or something? What have you been doing to train? Have you had to fight monsters yet?"

"Chemical weapon..." Halle murmured to himself, nonplussed. But she did stomp a monster to death so, it was an experience worth respecting. "You did really good, then. I don't know how me and my brother would have managed if we'd had to fight something right off." Maybe they'd have been seriously hurt or worse, but maybe Luke would've taken things seriously from the start and he'd feel more confident in their ability to survive.

Follow the auras sounded a lot like...go out and find some fights. And maybe he really should do that. Seek out things his own level and just, fight. This Pendour sounded pretty wise.

"Running, climbing, agility stuff. Since the stat increase is a multiplier, I've mainly been doing that stuff during the day, out in the open like a regular person. I'm joining the school wrestling team too. It's not really fighting-fighting, but it'll be a chance to kind of spar with other people? But...it just doesn't feel like enough."

Halle grimaced and looked down at her blue shoes with pink bows and tried to imagine those heels crushing some vaguely imagined monster. "So are you out here looking for fights then? Like mainly training in the field?"

"You slayed a literal monster, Miss Useless," Halle commented wryly. But he gave the offer some thought. He really...really didn't want to hit girls. The thought was like a chalkboard screech across his stomach. But there were...a lot of girls in that database, and a lot of girls listed as fighters with Connections profiles.

Certain things he'd always tried to abide by just weren't going to be feasible in this new reality of his. He didn't want Lisse to get hurt of die because his brother hesitated over certain notions of what it meant to be a good man. He'd rather be a horrible man with a brother who was well and intact. As he rationalized it, though, Halle could feel his stomach churning and well, it hurt his pride, to be honest.

Looking away from Mechelen, he finally nodded and then chook his head, "I'm not going to use you as a punching bag...but maybe we could, do that thing? Where we talk it out as we go?"

He scanned the area and walked over toward a thick bunch of bushes, "I think, in this area, I'd start out trying to attack you from a distance. I have a good pitching arm, so..." he bent down to pick one up, "...dodge!" Muscle memory and habit meant he threw a lot harder and more accurately than he really meant to.

Oh god please dodge.

Oh man...at least it didn't hit her face? "OW! Ow, sh-...snot! You asked what I'd do! That's what I'd do!" Her boots really were highly effective at kicking things to death, his foot could attest to that much.

Even as he was wincing from the pain, he still reached up toward her hair, to check and see if there was any blood or immediate swelling. "Sorry! I just turned into some mindless jock for a minute there, I didn't mean to throw that hard. Are you okay? I didn't know you took self-defense..."

His behavior was at turns apologetic and fussing. "Do you want to punch me? You should punch me."

Rocking back with a huff, Halle scrunched his face for a moment and then nodded, first reluctantly and then more firmly. "Yeah, I'll figure out some better way to go about this." Maybe coerce some boxing gloves out of his mom, too. "I'll send you a note with a time and place...uh..."

He straightened up, trying to look a bit more knowledgeable, "You should go up to your Wonder and get your ring soon, too. It'll make sending messages easier."

Looking past her into the void of I threw a rock at girl, he added awkwardly, "I um, gotta go." And recover from this self-humiliation. "My brother gets scared if he's left alone too long."