[Nepeta is happy to see Kanaya again, and returns the wave with equal enthusiasm. She herself is in some sporty attire consisting of a tanktop and shorts.]
That looks comfy. [She enjoyed hoodies--as she did most jacket-like articles of clothing.] Was there anywhere in purrticular you wanted to go?
Thanks. I got it to match with the rest of the Mekakushi Dan. We've been meeting again lately to deal with the crash fallout. Would you want one? I'd do the [taps the god tier-style horn accommodations] modifications for you.
[She's leading them in the direction of a rather spacious room; this one is populated primarily by human dummies, with a few trainers and other transports already deep within.] This is where I've been training lately - for more pragmatic target practice than bulls-eyes, you see.
[Ahh, yes. Nepeta had almost forgotten about that group despite saying she'd consider joining. With her current project going on she thought it would be best to get some headway in that first before committing herself to anything else--especially since a lot of her time was already eaten up by work.]
I'd love one. [Applying her aspect in SGRUB wasn't something she was crazy about since she was entirely convinced that had all been a joke at her expense but she wasn't about to nitpick. Kanaya had made a kind offer and she wasn't about to be rude.
The room Kanaya brought them to was nice and spacious. She nodded. Ranged weapons weren't her forte either. It was something she knew she should have taken at least one class in back at Balamb but they primarily only trained people in guns and she had never been really comfortable with using them.]
[Kanaya herself let the Dan, training, and now her job at Madoka's bakery take up most of her time. So much that it was hard to make space for her friends... well, she was compensating for that now, wasn't she.]
Great.
[She gestured to the dummies in the distance with a sweep of her arm.]
Part of why I invited you is because [she mimes slashing at something with her claws] I know you specialize in very close combat and... I've realized the problem mounting a ranged attack against an assailant poses when you have a melee assistant.
[The mime makes Nepeta's smile widen. That was sorta cute--but she listens to Kanaya, not allowing herself to be distracted. She nods in understanding. There is always the risk of hurting one of your own if someone is so close to your target.]
Yea. We did group training back in Balamb and that was one of the trickier things to get around. [They had practiced with duds, but ow had that been an experience. It wasn't solely a matter of the ranged fighter either--those in the fray had to be aware of their surroundings at all times. On the plus side it was one of the reasons she had gotten so good at her protective shield.]
What ranged weapons have you been using? [She was rather curious if this Kanaya didn't use her lipstick...chainsaw...thing, or if she had picked up something different along the road]
Oh, just this. [She decaptchalogued her eye shadow, only briefly showing its shotgun form before keeping it as a makeup tube again.] I didn't think my lipstick would evolve very well here, you see, and if I could only make one weapon sentient I wanted to take the opportunity to be more versatile. I still have that, just don't train very much with it anymore. [Regarding Nepeta with caution briefly.] Not to mention the risks of taking that sort of thing out immediately around allies.
Ah - are your claws evolving or did you take something else too?
[Eyeshadow shotgun? There was something a little endearing about that. It does make sense though. At least as far as she has seen, chainsaws aren't considered conventional weapons and most people would probably be scared witless at seeing one pop out of seemingly nowhere. She nods at Kanaya's second question.]
I just chose my hands. [She holds them out. She's wearing her gloves, but the claws are currently sheathed]
I've gotten training in hand to hand combat and well, I hoped that maybe choosing that would help me regain things I learned back in Balamb quicker. They seem to have been stunted since coming here.
[Humans are a lot more comfortable with guns than buzzing demonsbane, it's true. There were also more nonlethal options with bullets than sawblades.] Hmm, that problem doesn't seem surprising - realms like this often have a suppressive effect - but the choice is really devilishly clever. If you ever were divested of your gloves the enemy would probably mistake you for incapacitated and be in for a nasty shock.
So... martial arts? [Kanaya's first assumption about what Nepeta had learned in Balamb. Spells would come as a surprise to her.] I must admit I've never found myself position end for such a discipline, not with either of my weapons. What benefits are there?
[She nods] It was something I took up last minute near the end of my schooling, but it was one of the things I enjoyed the most. As for the benefits...
Well, you've already mentioned a big one. You are never weaponless if you train your body. In or out of the field you always have to be prepared, and you can't be lugging around swords, or guns or the like all the time. [She laughed a little] Though I suppose you can when you hide them in other objects such as makeup.
Either way your body is always with you so you can't become disarmed either. It's a good way to always keep on top of your game, since your body is your weapon you are constantly training in, constantly increasing your coordination and so it helps you be better prepared for training in other fields.
Most of all, my teacher taught me how to be smart about my fighting. It was almost as much a mental activity as a physical one since it stresses a code of behavior and knowing your own limits, and how and when to push past them.
[She listened intently to Nepeta's entire explanation, making a few interested noises and nodding. The other girl raised some very eye-opening points.] I had never thought about most of those aspects before. Mostly I'd gotten the impression of hand-to-hand as simply making do with what you have if employing advanced weaponry wouldn't be suitable for some reason. And a lot of the time on Earth I miss the discipline of life on Alternia if nothing else... You make quite an interesting case for the field.
Maybe I will receive the chance of exploring those arts in the future.[She turns to the wide area they have here though--] That said, this wouldn't be the exact place, would it?
Well, it would be good for me to learn some ranged combat too, so purrhaps we can help out each other in that.
[But yes, that would have to be for another day. She hadn't done much training with others and she most certainly didn't want to get rusty, so there was the matter at hand.]
Hee, no, but we'll find a place in the future. She hopped from foot to foot, ready to get started and move.
That's true - a lot of more experienced Earth soldiers will tell you that a gun's pragmatic value is hard to beat in several respects and contexts.
[That was the final remark she made before Nepeta agreed those were future ideas. With this decided she turned to a control panel on the wall and sent a few dummies moving in their direction, slowly at first so they could get into position. She moved to undo the safety on her shotgun.]
[They had said that alot in Balamb. There was an entire specialization dedicated to firearms. Nepeta certainly saw how they were useful. She had seem many people working at them and in the end it really didn't make sense why she felt uncomfortable using them. Killing a person was killing a person. It didn't matter whether you did it with claws, your hands, or a gun.
For now she shook off the morose train of thought and readied herself. She turned so her side was to the oncoming dummies, staring at them for a moment before moving forward on quick feet. She wouldn't attack, that she would leave to Kanaya so they could both get practice in working around each other.]
[Kanaya perceived guns as a tidy weapon compared to her preferred chainsaw. By comparison to dismemberment, a bullet wound seemed to appeal to human sensibilities. The smaller weapon took up less space, though, and could be used from so much further away. Avoiding the line of fire might be motivated by cowardice, or just as well by tactics.
She took her first shot. A hit to the torso - nowhere vital, true, but a good clean impact, and more importantly entirely clear of her partner. To let Nepeta know what had happened:] There!
[Nepeta heard the shot rather than saw it. At Kanaya's call she ducked under the swinging arm of a dummy, looked at it, then at the other and saw where Kanaya had hit her mark. She smiled and evaded another blow her way.]
Sweet shot!
[That certainly would have kept someone down for a while. Or at least distracted enough for her to finish them off if this had been a real fight. For now she just kept up her evasive maneuver, trying to pay more attention to Kanaya so that she may know what areas to avoid when she took another shot]
[Nepeta's movements had a fluidity to them impressive precisely in making the most of moderate limits rather than resting on lofty ones. Kanaya's speed was (super)natural, someone she wished was her friend had compared once to the flight of birds. Especially dealing with dummies and not beings with blood systems, she didn't have the same degree of awareness on her targets... human disguises were necessary on so many missions that she had to stop thinking like a rainbow drinker as often.
After a couple more seconds, seeing a fenestrated plane of opportunity emerge, she let out another encouraging yell.]
All right! [Her path on the other dummy like this was unimpeded, and once it completed a turning motion - bang, right through the pumpbiscuit.]
[This was going smoother than she had expected. Nepeta knew that Kanaya would never have asked her to do this sort of training if she wasn't experienced enough to avoid harming her, but she had expected at least a little more turbulence than this.]
You're really good with that!
[It looked like she had it down pretty well as long as she kept out of the way, but now it was time to get in there a little more. She moved forward towards one of the dummies, grabbing an arm it had tried to sock her with, and hefting up and over her shoulder at the other one.]
[She had to admit though that marksmanship did not come entirely easily to her, and she wouldn't have made this much progress without her weapon's evolutionary properties. This concession was itself her temporary downfall, distracting her at the same time the situation grew more complex: This shot was only a glancing blow at the arm of the untouched dummy. Masked would shrug it off entirely, even historical soldiers would only be hindered somewhat. Kanaya muttered harshly under her breath - Nepeta's move was really smart, she should be rewarding and not punishing her for that. Tapping into her rainbow drinker's insane fastness attribute, she strafed around behind the falling dummy and shot it point blank in the back of the head. There.]
[Well, that certainly took care of that dummy. Truly the other would probably be down as well after a shot to the chest, but Nepeta gave it a simple round kick to the back of the neck to finish it off. She looked down at the two dummies, happy at their work. That had actually been pretty fun--her disposition would be fairly different if these had been actual people, but she genuinely enjoyed simple sparring.]
[Kanaya nodded in response, a little bit prideful. Nepeta's finish was quick - and it always struck her how even a blow with one's hands could actually send someone down, rather than a physical blade or bullet or bludgeon. She really might be missing some opportunities herself if she never pursued the other girl's disciplines...]
Yeah, you make yourself a pleasure to work with. [She thinks about this for a moment; there's a difference between the relaxed, collaborative atmosphere she can achieve with a pityfriend like Nepeta and the other types of more complicalocated regard her culture encouraged, and she thinks about how to articulate this.] Simply augmenting oneanother's skills is different from for example actively compensating for a partner's weaknesses, isn'tit one
[It was a little strange to think about that there were some people out there who she could trust in battle, and thus trust her life with to a degree and yet she could barely say they were even friends. Granted Kanaya was talking about moirails here which was an even trickier subject.]
Equius and I used to be purrty good at fighting together. Don't know how well we would work these days but.
[She looked towards Kanaya and headed back her way.]
No. [The response is softer and instant. Kanaya's eyes fall to the ground too, heavy with the weight of distant memories.]
By the time we met in person... things had already ended between us. There were the Prospitan campaigns and the battle against the Black King, of course, but we didn't even take a particularly collaborative combat role in those situations.
It's been so long - I overreacted back then, I should have made things right with her, explained to her what I really felt. I've always been too afraid of the results to tell trolls the truth about things where I'm concerned, though. Bad habits die hard, huh.
[She can't think of a single relationship she hasn't messed up with her reticence. Well, a single relationship that hasn't been messed up by untimely interdimensional grubnapping, but she has to blame herself, not that - she can't blame a part of the universe that will never change. That would be like stepping off a cliff and blaming gravity. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't wish she lived on a planet where the strength of the force was more reasonable.]
{Nepeta sympathizes for Kanaya. She still has done nothing about her feelings for Karkat--feelings she had harbored for well over two sweeps now.]
It's hard not to be. There is always the fear of altering friendship which makes it difficult to weigh the risks and worth. It certainly doesn't help that we don't have much of a guiding hand in all this.
[She loved her lusus. She adored her lusus. But lusii could only do so much being a different species, and being unable to fully communicate.]
I can't say I'm much better. Vriska was the first leap of faith I really took. [A pause, wondering if the next question is too nosy.] Is there someone you do have in mind?
[If Kanaya's mood was down before, thinking about the answer to Nepeta's question sent it through the floor. There was someone she had in mind. Perhaps plural. Distinctions should have been unclear for a Space heroine like her, meant to cut through the complexities of Time divergent memories. But she had no sprite to explain to her the intricacies and unhealthiness of inversion. The memory of "There, there, sweetheart" only went so far. Unlike all other trolls, she had the opportunity to hatch a new version of her lusus and prove herself not a failure... and all other trolls had denied her that opportunity for now. She had to cling to hope until the day it was legal again.
So she reaches into her hoodie, underneath her clothes, and fishes out the key from around her neck. Still down, she ends up speaking looking at it and not her conversational partner.]
I'll give you a hint. He's dead and gone now because a little less than a sweep ago I wasn't a good enough jadeblood to keep him in mind enough.
[On some level, she recalls that gender and life status is enough for "well that narrows it down" "Shit" to happen again, but she can't really bring herself to care. Nepeta is the only person in Exsilium from whom she doesn't keep a single secret.]
[It did indeed make it clear. She was surprised to say the least--there was a pairing she had never given great consideration. Eridan...Eridan was a bit of a sore spot for Nepeta. He had been her server player during that heinous game and had quickly earned his place on the very, very short list of 'people that Nepeta dislikes'.
Yet she had had the opportunity to see what he could be like. It had upended her world when Nepeta had spoken with an Eridan--still rough around the edges, doubtless, but for once not overly condescending, self-serving, and even--amazingly enough--somewhat apologetic. Since then she had thought he just needed the right moirail.
...and Kanaya would make an excellent moirail.]
Well, one good thing that can come from being brought to different worlds as we have been is that we have that chance to start anew.
[It's. It's a tricky thing considering that Kanaya was the one who uh. Auspictised Eridan's body. Going off Kanaya's words she may have very well done that herself. Yet you could never be certain--Eridan's hands were exactly clean either (as Nepeta assumed Kanaya knew).]
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That looks comfy. [She enjoyed hoodies--as she did most jacket-like articles of clothing.] Was there anywhere in purrticular you wanted to go?
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[She's leading them in the direction of a rather spacious room; this one is populated primarily by human dummies, with a few trainers and other transports already deep within.] This is where I've been training lately - for more pragmatic target practice than bulls-eyes, you see.
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I'd love one. [Applying her aspect in SGRUB wasn't something she was crazy about since she was entirely convinced that had all been a joke at her expense but she wasn't about to nitpick. Kanaya had made a kind offer and she wasn't about to be rude.
The room Kanaya brought them to was nice and spacious. She nodded. Ranged weapons weren't her forte either. It was something she knew she should have taken at least one class in back at Balamb but they primarily only trained people in guns and she had never been really comfortable with using them.]
Works fur me!
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Great.
[She gestured to the dummies in the distance with a sweep of her arm.]
Part of why I invited you is because [she mimes slashing at something with her claws] I know you specialize in very close combat and... I've realized the problem mounting a ranged attack against an assailant poses when you have a melee assistant.
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Yea. We did group training back in Balamb and that was one of the trickier things to get around. [They had practiced with duds, but ow had that been an experience. It wasn't solely a matter of the ranged fighter either--those in the fray had to be aware of their surroundings at all times. On the plus side it was one of the reasons she had gotten so good at her protective shield.]
What ranged weapons have you been using? [She was rather curious if this Kanaya didn't use her lipstick...chainsaw...thing, or if she had picked up something different along the road]
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Ah - are your claws evolving or did you take something else too?
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I just chose my hands. [She holds them out. She's wearing her gloves, but the claws are currently sheathed]
I've gotten training in hand to hand combat and well, I hoped that maybe choosing that would help me regain things I learned back in Balamb quicker. They seem to have been stunted since coming here.
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So... martial arts? [Kanaya's first assumption about what Nepeta had learned in Balamb. Spells would come as a surprise to her.] I must admit I've never found myself position end for such a discipline, not with either of my weapons. What benefits are there?
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Well, you've already mentioned a big one. You are never weaponless if you train your body. In or out of the field you always have to be prepared, and you can't be lugging around swords, or guns or the like all the time. [She laughed a little] Though I suppose you can when you hide them in other objects such as makeup.
Either way your body is always with you so you can't become disarmed either. It's a good way to always keep on top of your game, since your body is your weapon you are constantly training in, constantly increasing your coordination and so it helps you be better prepared for training in other fields.
Most of all, my teacher taught me how to be smart about my fighting. It was almost as much a mental activity as a physical one since it stresses a code of behavior and knowing your own limits, and how and when to push past them.
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Maybe I will receive the chance of exploring those arts in the future.[She turns to the wide area they have here though--] That said, this wouldn't be the exact place, would it?
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[But yes, that would have to be for another day. She hadn't done much training with others and she most certainly didn't want to get rusty, so there was the matter at hand.]
Hee, no, but we'll find a place in the future. She hopped from foot to foot, ready to get started and move.
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[That was the final remark she made before Nepeta agreed those were future ideas. With this decided she turned to a control panel on the wall and sent a few dummies moving in their direction, slowly at first so they could get into position. She moved to undo the safety on her shotgun.]
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For now she shook off the morose train of thought and readied herself. She turned so her side was to the oncoming dummies, staring at them for a moment before moving forward on quick feet. She wouldn't attack, that she would leave to Kanaya so they could both get practice in working around each other.]
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She took her first shot. A hit to the torso - nowhere vital, true, but a good clean impact, and more importantly entirely clear of her partner. To let Nepeta know what had happened:] There!
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Sweet shot!
[That certainly would have kept someone down for a while. Or at least distracted enough for her to finish them off if this had been a real fight. For now she just kept up her evasive maneuver, trying to pay more attention to Kanaya so that she may know what areas to avoid when she took another shot]
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After a couple more seconds, seeing a fenestrated plane of opportunity emerge, she let out another encouraging yell.]
All right! [Her path on the other dummy like this was unimpeded, and once it completed a turning motion - bang, right through the pumpbiscuit.]
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You're really good with that!
[It looked like she had it down pretty well as long as she kept out of the way, but now it was time to get in there a little more. She moved forward towards one of the dummies, grabbing an arm it had tried to sock her with, and hefting up and over her shoulder at the other one.]
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[She had to admit though that marksmanship did not come entirely easily to her, and she wouldn't have made this much progress without her weapon's evolutionary properties. This concession was itself her temporary downfall, distracting her at the same time the situation grew more complex: This shot was only a glancing blow at the arm of the untouched dummy. Masked would shrug it off entirely, even historical soldiers would only be hindered somewhat. Kanaya muttered harshly under her breath - Nepeta's move was really smart, she should be rewarding and not punishing her for that. Tapping into her rainbow drinker's insane fastness attribute, she strafed around behind the falling dummy and shot it point blank in the back of the head. There.]
It's been over six Earth months.
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Still purrty impurressive. We work well together.
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Yeah, you make yourself a pleasure to work with. [She thinks about this for a moment; there's a difference between the relaxed, collaborative atmosphere she can achieve with a pityfriend like Nepeta and the other types of more complicalocated regard her culture encouraged, and she thinks about how to articulate this.] Simply augmenting oneanother's skills is different from for example actively compensating for a partner's weaknesses, isn'tit one
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[It was a little strange to think about that there were some people out there who she could trust in battle, and thus trust her life with to a degree and yet she could barely say they were even friends. Granted Kanaya was talking about moirails here which was an even trickier subject.]
Equius and I used to be purrty good at fighting together. Don't know how well we would work these days but.
[She looked towards Kanaya and headed back her way.]
Did you and Vwhiskers ever do stuff like this?
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By the time we met in person... things had already ended between us. There were the Prospitan campaigns and the battle against the Black King, of course, but we didn't even take a particularly collaborative combat role in those situations.
It's been so long - I overreacted back then, I should have made things right with her, explained to her what I really felt. I've always been too afraid of the results to tell trolls the truth about things where I'm concerned, though. Bad habits die hard, huh.
[She can't think of a single relationship she hasn't messed up with her reticence. Well, a single relationship that hasn't been messed up by untimely interdimensional grubnapping, but she has to blame herself, not that - she can't blame a part of the universe that will never change. That would be like stepping off a cliff and blaming gravity. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't wish she lived on a planet where the strength of the force was more reasonable.]
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It's hard not to be. There is always the fear of altering friendship which makes it difficult to weigh the risks and worth. It certainly doesn't help that we don't have much of a guiding hand in all this.
[She loved her lusus. She adored her lusus. But lusii could only do so much being a different species, and being unable to fully communicate.]
I can't say I'm much better. Vriska was the first leap of faith I really took. [A pause, wondering if the next question is too nosy.] Is there someone you do have in mind?
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So she reaches into her hoodie, underneath her clothes, and fishes out the key from around her neck. Still down, she ends up speaking looking at it and not her conversational partner.]
I'll give you a hint. He's dead and gone now because a little less than a sweep ago I wasn't a good enough jadeblood to keep him in mind enough.
[On some level, she recalls that gender and life status is enough for "well that narrows it down" "Shit" to happen again, but she can't really bring herself to care. Nepeta is the only person in Exsilium from whom she doesn't keep a single secret.]
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Yet she had had the opportunity to see what he could be like. It had upended her world when Nepeta had spoken with an Eridan--still rough around the edges, doubtless, but for once not overly condescending, self-serving, and even--amazingly enough--somewhat apologetic. Since then she had thought he just needed the right moirail.
...and Kanaya would make an excellent moirail.]
Well, one good thing that can come from being brought to different worlds as we have been is that we have that chance to start anew.
[It's. It's a tricky thing considering that Kanaya was the one who uh. Auspictised Eridan's body. Going off Kanaya's words she may have very well done that herself. Yet you could never be certain--Eridan's hands were exactly clean either (as Nepeta assumed Kanaya knew).]
How have things been between you two here?
(no subject)