Description: The trip from Metro to Southtown allow the Shieldmaiden to better get to know the witch, and a short sparring session leads to a long lunch, heart burn (most likely) and a step into the future. Who can know what awaits these new found friendships? Also, why wasn't Rylee answering her phone?
Well, as expected, those calls Tessa made for favors were pretty much just wastes of time. Nobody wanted to spot her any money, even for a charity case like this. But that's okay, she's not exactly poor since she started to work for Strolheim. She'll just... have to make a conscious effort to try and win some money at SNF, or Neo League, or maybe even this Team League she's trying so hard to get into in the first place, in order to make it up.
As to the here and now, though, the ex-cop has already gone ahead and bought Naerose a plane ticket with a seat next to hers, and she paid for all her meals up until the day of the flight. Sure, she *tried* to get a flight that left the very next day, but this was the United States, and there was that inevitable delay. And then in the airport itself, there was all that security to get through still, and the shieldmaiden really has no idea how badly that might go. Who knows what the witch has under her hat!
"Fine! Fine! The shield can go with the luggage! God!" So frustrating.
Never you mind that the witch had somehow managed to fit an NL match in the airport already. She lost but got free nachos from the deal, but the match was still lost. See what happens when you turn your back on Naerose for only a second? This is what happens, but worse yet, she was having trouble boarding in the first place.
"Ma'am, please if you would just give us your broom.."
"No way, I'm not checking this! If the plane blows up in mid flight how am I supposed to not fall and die like everyone else on it? That's terrible, do you take brooms away from all of your passengers?"
"Ma'am, anything longer than the specific space in the overhead compartment..."
"I'll keep it in my lap. Pleaaaase?" Begs Naerose.
This was going to be a very long flight.
Tessa had no idea. She thought the other girl had just wandered off to use the restroom or something. Otherwise she'd certainly have come to watch. This place was so boring, and everyone seemed like they were in such a bad mood!
"Just let her have it! You're going to make us late!" Seriously, the shieldmaiden wasn't normally this irritable. Even Naerose ought to recognize the difference. "I never want to come back to Metro ever again if it's going to be like this!"
And then, just minutes before they make the last call to board, Tess distracts security by pointing at someone that looks suspicous, and bumps Naerose with her hip when they're not looking to push her into the terminal, causing them to think she gave up and walked away. Ha!
The witch totally doesn't get it but gets bumped forward anyway and the usual thing you might do in forward motion takes over... she moves forward, with broom in hand and enters the terminal. The plane begins to load and she's totally like, cool. The stewartesses look at her funny, but she keeps the broom well in place, holding it tightly and after a moment they begin to get an idea, whispering to Tessa when she finally catches up,
"She's special isn't she."
Naerose would totally agree if she had actually heard it, but instead she just asks for a bag of peanuts and is told to wait until the plane is in flight.
"Aww.." She complains and then pulls a bag out of her hat. You're not supposed to have food like that on international flights, but it isn't like the flight crew is just watching her.
Tessa rushes to get into through the terminal before they close it, and looks pretty frazzled when she finally comes stomping down the aisle to flop down into her seat beside the witch. Thankfully Naerose got the window seat so the shieldmaiden can block everyone's view of her, just in case they *are* watching her.
...she still gives the flight attendants sort of a look when they ask if 'rose is 'special', but she doesn't deny their claim. The Roman wants to go back to Southtown so bad right now she's even willing to lie for once if she has to. She is kind of hoping it's the only truthbending she's going to have to do now that the little light to fasten your seatbelts has finally come on, though. Sigh.
It was rare, but after Tessa gets to her seat, Naerose turns to her, holds up the bag of peanuts she was happily munching away from and says,
"Want one?" The smile she has is just too big and cute to turn down right? And by cute we mean full of naive innocence. The broom is fit perfectly into the crook of her arm, and then after putting the bag in Tessa's lap, without waiting for a reply, she lowers her hat over her shades and seems to get quite comfortable. Really, who has a window seat without even looking out the window? It's terrible. A tragedy.
"So.. whatcha gonna do when we get back to Southtown?"
"Erm.. thanks. Sure." Hopefully this won't end in Tessa getting yelled at for opening the things, but really, at this point she probably wouldn't care. The plane's already moving, and soon leaving the runway. It's not the sort of thing they'd turn the plane around for, and that's all that really matters to her.
"Huh? Oh, just try to win a little money I guess. And meet with our team leader finally. Really hoping they're a little more reasonable than Aranha."
"Ah huh." The witch says, and gets more comfortable, turning over and curling some to one side before peaking at Tessa under her hat, around her shades and then looking away. Next comes the part where she says, "Umm Tessa?" wait for it.. . wait for it.. "Nevermind.
"Actually, whats up with that shield?" She asks, unable to resist asking because well, what do you do with a shield anyway? Course she did vaguely recall something about shields with captain american. He was supposed to be cool, but she rally wasn't into comics.
"What is this team being formed for anyway?"
Tessa looks over again when her name is called, fidgeting around with the little pillows each passenger is given. She shrugs a bit at being told to nevermind, only to end up scratching her head when she's asked anyway.
"Well... I like to think it's magic. Or at least lucky. But I really have it just to have it. I used to be in this unit that carried shields-- Riot police, I think that call them here. It was basically a SWAT Team. Anyway, I turned out to be really good with a shield, and because of the skill I had using it I survived certain situations where no one else did. It's not something I hide behind, and I certainly don't need it most of the time, but I just... like having it. But I mean, it also feels really good to throw it at people. Even though I feel bad about it later sometimes."
When she's done answering that question as if Naerose were some kind of reporter, she crosses her arms and shrugs again toward the next. "Just this new League. I don't really know all the details, but it
had been said that it was going to be the next big thing. Like the equivalent of a King of Fighters or a World Warrior tournament. I've never been in anything like that but I felt like giving it a try, and I wasn't having much luck until I caught Aranha holding some kind of tryout to join his team. He beat up all these people before me and he didn't like any of them, but I was the last to spar him and I put up enough of a fight that he said I'd do. Other than that, I don't think the team even has a name yet. It's just three people unless I'm able to get you in, which isn't really enough."
"That sounds kind of neat," The red white agrees, but doesn't specify if she is talking about the shield or the tournament. She waits for Tessa to finish before replying with that extremely vague statement. She then busies herself with something else for a while and then finally speaks up.
"I was in a team called Strongest! for a long time, we were all friends and we did some pretty neat stuff. I hope this team does some neat stuff too." She doesn't go into it right away, instead pauses as if she wants Rylee to ask, then continues, "We once took this fella named Rugal Berstien on, that was kind of fun." Yes except Naerose went down first. Against such an opponent it'sreally just luck.
"Who is this other team mate ? I mean it could go as bad as with Aranha, I never really did anything to him and I never had anything to do with kid napping. " She goes on a touch defensively
Tessa feels like she's been speaking way too at-length herself, so she doesn't take much notice of how vague Naerose is being. Or if she minds then she's curious what she means she just keeps it to herself, maybe. "Yeah, I heard of that team, like I mentioned before. Sorry I didn't recognize you sooner. I'm sure we'll meet all kinds of amazing fighters like that if we can just get this thing going and enter the tournament."
It's at about this time that the pilot comes on over the intercom to tell everyone how much longer the flight's going to be, and that they can turn on their laptops and all that type of junk. Too bad Tessa didn't bring one to Metro to begin with or they could probably look her up on the internets. "Sorry, I only know her name and her fighting style. But I better give you that now so we can see if you recognize her. Her name's Rylee and she's a wrestler. Uses a lot of grapples. That's pretty much all I was told."
Naerose listens, or maybe she nods off, it's really hard to tell because the plane is starting to move and while she herself shouldn't be afraid of heights, who knows she could be way into flight, afterall, she does love that broom thing. That doesn't change the rumble of the plane, most people complain about this stuff, but she doesn't she just gets lulled by it and then mutters, giving the best grumble she possibly can manage.
"Oh.. right, wrestler likee ahh.. what was her name?" Yawn, the witch is growing sleepy by the plane.
"R.mika.. She was silly , .. Wakee me for the meals.." And with that she drifts off.
There was certainly aspects of the team to discuss and most people would probably like to know who they wree working with, but Naerose? She might be the most carefree person ever.
Tessa nodded a bit. "Oh, yeah. 'Rainbow' Mika. That girl from Russia with the pigtails. I kinda hope Rylee's not too much like her. She seems really loud." And y'know, crazy, but there's no need to really say that part out loud. There's probably a lot of people who think the witch is crazy, after all.
"Sure thing." the shieldmaiden eventually says when 'rose lets her know she'll be taking a nap. And since Tess isn't real fond of plane food herself, she even ends up giving the other girl an extra serving once or twice before the long trip is over and the plane is finally about to land. Not that she wakes Naerose up for that herself, it's just, landings are pretty bumpy even when they're done right and it tends to wake folks up on its own.
Yeah really, landings are terrible and Naerose is jostled to full awakeness if she likes it of not.
"Huh what?" exclaims the witch, looks around then wipes her face and has the imprint of the cabin wall on her cheek.
"Oh yeah." She says in a dull voice and perks up rather quickly.
"Right, finally here." Yes, the over stater of the obvious. A quick look to Tessa. .. A biiig smile and then the deplaning. Really mundane things like getting luggage (not that Naerose has any) and getting off an airplane is kind of lame to talk about, but needless to say, she wants to stretch her legs prettybadly.
It kind of makes you wish they'd bust out those sweet inflatable ramps and let you slide off the plane on arrival. Why do they have to save those only for crashes? They could easily afford to carry spares since they don't weigh anything. But oh well.
Just about the only luggage Tessa even cares about right now is her shield. True, her dresses are kind of important too but she didn't bring too many of those since she wasn't expecting to stay in Metro long. "If I ever go back there I am taking a boat. How about you?" the woman asks, stretching a little bit herself and holstering her shield up on her back. "Anyway, I guess I ought to try calling that other member now that we're back in Southtown..."
"I dunno, depends. It's all about which is cheapest.. Now if by boat you mean taking a refugee inflatable raft, now that I might be able to get behind, but then I dunno how you'd bring enough food and water and then not get picked up by the coast guard. Come to think of it if you did I'm not sure if that is better or worse. huh." The witch grins and laughs even a little. Hard to tell if she is joking as she happily finds herself on the move again. Planes could really make your legs really sour! Stretching them was great.
"So where we headed now?" Asks the witch, wondering perhaps if she's going to be just left to her own devices now that they've finally reached southtown.
Tessa sort of quirks an eyebrow at the raft thing, as it's not quite what she was thinking. But that's okay, she'll be happy to forget all about going back for now anyway. "Uh, well like I said, I'm gonna call this Rylee chick. And since we're both pretty sure you don't know her, you might as well come with me to meet her. But you know, given the time of day I don't really expect her to pick up, and even if she does it's probably going to be a while before we actually go see her. So I guess we're winging it until then?" the Italian woman says with a shrug.
There's then a pause as she takes out her cellphone and tries calling Rylee, and just as predicted the wrestler isn't even awake yet, so she gets an answering machine. "Yeah, so I just left her a message. Anyway I don't know about you but I could kind of use some exercise after all that sitting. I usually go for a jog or try to find someone to spar with this time of day. Up for either?"
"Umm.." Naerose says and adjusts her things. She totally knows where this is going. Probably for the best really, a new team, she needed to know how good they were at snarfing food and stuff at the expense of the ever so nice tournament organizers.
"Alright, I don't mind doing one or the other of those," Naerose replies not entirely honestly. She actually didn't like the idea of a jog so much. She had decent endurance to be sure, but she had other ways she liked to work out than just running. It simply wasn't something you were likely to see her doing. Those bike machines for instance, she liked them okay. Still there wasn't a moment to express this to Tessa, she was too busy eying a food stall before looking at Tessa and quickly stating,
"You know ? I like this place, lets stay here." Which more or less decided what would happen next.
This is one of those times where Tessa opens her mouth and then just closes it. She was about to say she knew a great place for a jog and blahblah other stuff you really didn't want to hear if you're not a health nut like her. But the witch just told her she'd rather they do their exercising right here and well, the shieldmaiden did give Naerose most of her meals during the flight as seconds, meaning she is practically starving herself. Plus she already knows that the proximity of the food being served nearby is the same reason 'rose wants to stay here.
"Alright, I've got no problem with sparring here I guess. I'd like to see some of your moves in person anyway. Just let me know when you're ready." the Roman says, shaking her arms out and starting to bounce on the balls of her feet a bit before starting to take her usual fighting stance.
COMBATSYS: Tessa has started a fight here.
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Tessa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Naerose has joined the fight here.
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Naerose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tessa
Naerose might be impressed with how well Tessa already seemed to know, her at least she would be if it weren't for the fact that she didn't think about that sort of thing. She thoought about what she wanted and how to get it. Right now she needed to earn another free meal. Maybe she could whine her way into one, but looking at Tessa she kind of doubted it. She fixed her shades, held her broom lazily in her hand and gave Tessa a biiig smile.
"Okay, I am totally ready." The witch replies and falls into a relaxed easy stance. Looking very much like she isn't in a fight so much as juust chilling.
Tessa wouldn't really think it was anything praise-worthy if Naerose were to say that out loud. She read a file and remembers some of the girl's quirks, it's not that hard to do. Nothing like mindreading or guesswork. A ninja just happened to take notes and she read them!
More importantly, though, beating the Roman fair and square in a spar is a lot more likely to earn someone a free meal. Or maybe fighting her to a draw, or just accomplishing something so totally awesome during said spar and then asking nicely. Basically just find anything you think would impress her and then ask nicely, and there's way more chance of getting what you want. Whining won't work. She's a cop, even if she did quit the force, and she looks like the stern mother type even though she's never had any kids yet, too.
"Great. Here goes, then!" the Roman calls out, before raising a leg and trying to deliver a pretty standard sidekick to the redhead's midsection.
COMBATSYS: Naerose blocks Tessa's Light Kick.
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tessa
The witch doesn't wanna get hit by that, so she brings her broom in front and then totally realizes it's not high enough and uses her leg.. but it's too high. Somehow she gets her arm up in time. Maybe to look like she's an ineffective fighter. Meanwhile she has no idea what to expect from Tessa and therefore to give a standard sort of poke the witch just brings up and around her broom and tries a swweeeping swing to the lower legs and knock her back.
"Man, I can't wait for the eating part." She comments, having a good reason to push her attack.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Naerose's Clean Sweep.
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tessa
Tessa was just kind of testing the water there, and since she is all about blocking herself she's kind of pleased to see that Naerose doesn't seem to be the 'just dodge everything' kind of fighter. But after her kick is deflected and it becomes the witch's turn to attack her, she of course has to try and show her how blocking is really done. You know, with a shield, conveniently placed down in front of her shins for the broom to get stopped against.
"I hear you. I'm kind of hungry too, so how about we just stick to our strongest attacks to make things go faster? Deal?" She could honestly tell you such a thing would hold no real tactical advantage for her. But for anyone up against her, it's probably always their best approach. You want to hit her hard.
And well, even if Naerose were to disagree, the Strolheim fighter has already commited to the idea. She puts her shield up on her back again for a moment, puts her shoulder down, and tries her best to run the other girl over. It looks more like she's trying to bust a door down than hit someone, and there's silvery chi trailing off behind her just to show that this isn't the kind of thing just any old person could do.
COMBATSYS: Naerose dodges Tessa's Battering Ram.
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tessa
Well maybe not everything, but something that is clearly meant to hit you the same way regardless of your broom in front of you is usually a good one to do the old dodge to. So Nae nae does, by getting up on her broom and wheeling out of the way. She isn't flying, not yet, right now she's actually just skipping across the ground, but this doesn't last. She soon sits on the broom, it soon gives her some support and then she aims to shoot off at Tessa.
This was flight, a charging tactic where instead of running she is doing the most witchy thing ever, you can tell too that Naerose thinks she looks totally awesome doing it.
Meanwhile as she reaches Tessa if she manages to she'll bowl her over or do a spin around dismount whapping her with the broom. Either way there is a serious limit to how far someone can take straight up flight.
"That last attack was a great one.. You know? You should totally use it tons more." Naerose comments. Having not had a great degree of space between getting hit and not.
COMBATSYS: Tessa endures Naerose's Delphine Charge!
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Naerose 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Tessa
Tessa doesn't know if Naerose is a real witch or not. There was nothing in those security files either denying or supporting it. And when it comes to individual moves, well, the shieldmaiden didn't read those parts very thoroughly. That'd be like cheating, and it'd take the fun out of moments like this. She sees Naerose flying forward riding her broom, and it doesn't really matter how long it lasts, she's flying. There's people who'd kill to be able to even just glide.
"Whoa, you can do that?" She could ask more specific questions like, is the broom special, or is the redhead using her chi to propel it, but there's not really enough time. And because the Roman is kind of amazed, she doesn't take the time to pull her shield back out either. She tries to stand there and take the hit, and catch the end of her broom under one arm to try and trap it a moment in the process. It kind of hurts. A lot, but Tess tries not to let that show. At least not until she's pointed the witch in the opposite direction, and given her a good kick in the behind to send her shooting off that way. She's hoping she'll still glide, but if she crashes and skids on the floor instead, oh well, she tried!
COMBATSYS: Naerose blocks Tessa's Disciplina Dispatch.
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Naerose 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tessa
By the time the kick comes about though Naerose has already dismounted and ready to defend. She uses her broom which takes the shock and transfers it into her arm like one of those cartoons. It takes a moment for the witch to regain herself, but one again as a tutorial sort of thing the witch decides to test more about what Tessa can actually do. The witch pulls a strand off her broom, it's practically see through, a very very thin thread which she tosses into the air and if successful, Tessa will find it around her neck and given a squeeze, or maybe she'll phantom of the opera it and have one hand at the level of her eye and only be dragged a little, or maybe, maybe she'll just get missed all together.
Then there was option three, Nae hated to imagine option three, it was the one where she gets hammered.
COMBATSYS: Tessa just-defends Naerose's Threads of Fate!
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Naerose 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tessa
Tessa has been there. People like to hit her shield and make it vibrate so much it makes her arms numb. It's really too bad it's not made of Vibranium like Capatain America's, which wouldn't vibrate at all. But you know, that isn't a metal that really exists. Still, just like with baseball bats, wood is probably a little easier on one's bones.
"You're pretty good from what I'm seeing. Am I right in assuming you've fought that Aranha guy before?" she asks. But while she's busy talking, there's apparently a thread she can't see being looped around her neck. As it turns out though, she's pretty sensitive to light touches. The kind of person who knows immediately when there is a mosquito landing on her leg and can smack it before it's even able to bite her. So she notices right away and reaches up to snap the thread cleanly, before she's even dragged. Why this actually gives her health and reserve when she is still hungry doesn't really make sense so we will just forget about that part.
"What was that?" the shieldmaiden wonders aloud, just before trying to rush the witch again, this time with her shield out, and not so much attempting to slam into her as she is scoop her up onto that domed shield of hers and make 'rose go rolling right over it to fall onto the ground from a considerably-elevated height.
COMBATSYS: Naerose fails to interrupt Overshield from Tessa with Darkness Nova EX.
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Naerose 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Tessa
Naerose reaches out to try and grab Tessa as she comes in, but before she can get any kind of grip she is scooped i nthe domme and send rolling around around on the ground. This causes a great deal of dust and perhaps musing on her part that she needs to consider how to better prepare with that attack, it was certainly not one she was having a very easy time of using at this point in her life.
"Man, you use that thing like it's really light," she comments and dusts herself off, fixes her shades and hat but still seems more than a little shaken.
Tessa likes to think she's just giving her sparring partner a fun ride when she gets that move off right, but the simple fact is she's never tested it on herself. She kind of can't.
She did just test it on Naerose though, who didn't exactly throw her hands up and say she wanted to ride the shield again, so maybe Tess will rethink that a bit later. Possibly while helping the witch with whatever is obviously on her mind there after she falls.
"Ah, I guess I do. But that's just because I carry it all day everyday. It used to be pretty heavy!" Seriously, she'd dodge a lot more if it wasn't! "C'mon though, just a little more and we'll go grab some food. I'm still getting warmed-up."
At that point, she reaches down toward the other girl and looks as if she's going to take her by the wrist and drag her up to her feet. And she kind of does, but not before trying to turn the redhead head over heels with some kind of Hapkido flip. So maybe it's not quite as helpful as it seems.
COMBATSYS: Naerose blocks Tessa's Felicitas Flip.
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Naerose 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Tessa
Well Nae nae isn't down and out just because she takes one particularly ferocious attack. She picks herself up in time to notice the infoming attack and gets dragged a bit and then manages to roll cleanly out for a 'tech hit' That is if this were an arcade game or something. In this case it's more like twisting out of it in order to give herself freedom of her footing. But then she's on her feet, running away from her opponent, pulling a can of red bull she
smuggled out of her hat and then downs it. Naerose totally gets wings, or at least a sugar and caffeine high, which is probably a lot worse than getting actual wings.
"Aoah, I needed that, " The witch states and then grins, holding a finger over her head which summons fourth a chi like javelin of chi like ice and then hurls it at Tessa by pointing at her. Then she shouts,
"Sagitta Major!"
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Naerose's Sagitta Major.
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Tessa
Uh oh, that could be dangerous. Although Tessa already gave Naerose an energy drink back at the station and nothing bad happened there that she can remember. It's not like drinking it caused the whole deal with Aranha on the phone. Unless maybe somebody gave him one before she told him. But that's beside the point.
"Wha--" the Roman ends up shouting, and getting cut off as her shield comes up to block the frozen lance that flies at her, making her grunt as she's knocked back a foot or two on impact. Her own chi doesn't really have an element and she wasn't really sure if the witch had one until just now so she's a little surprised. And she didn't have to get speared by it to find out, which is kind of nice for her.
"Pretty good, not a lot of people use ice, do they?" she comments. And well, she's actually getting a little bit tired so it's going to be a bit before she can pull out any of her element-less chi *anyway*, so for now she just tries to get close and swat the witch with her shield in a sort of backhand motion.
COMBATSYS: Naerose dodges Tessa's Power Strike.
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Tessa
Naerose is able to dance out of reach of that attack with a little spin, giving a brief brush of her forehead with her red painted fingers touching her features with the expression of relief.
"You certainly have some scary attacks.. Oh but that wasn't ice. It was an .. err.. Okay.. so I guess we'll call it star chi.. Sort of you know you get things like .. well lots of frozen stuff in space.. I have more of a hot stuff chi.. so to make cold things I just summon a great absence of heat. Two sides, same page. Nothing like a hotshot like Kyo can do."
Naerose gives a big smile then seems to consider her next assault.
"Right.. here I come.." And she strikes out with her broom at Tessa.
COMBATSYS: Tessa fails to interrupt Medium Strike from Naerose with Upper Echelon.
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Naerose 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Tessa
Tessa hmms thoughtfully after hearing the witch's explanation. "Oh, yeah. Like a comet. That makes sense." Kind of. She certainly wasn't expecting the space analogy, even if she did hear Naerose call it the same thing as a constellation.
"Anyway, my chi is just like... Light, I guess? Sometimes it's silver and sometimes it's black. I'm not really too good at using it offensively. Probably because I'm always putting so much of it into cancelling out other chi that's thrown at me, if that makes any sense. I'll try and show you, though."
And then with all of that buildup to what would have been a pretty good imitation of Captain America's Stars n' Stripes, she totally screws it up and runs right into 'rose's broom instead. But you can kind of see little silver and black wisps of the stuff she was talking about fading away unused after she falls.
"Right.." Naerose says and then raises her broom and makes a solid swing with it toward Tessa, aiming to beat her off, all the while keeping the weapon in front of her and attempting to retain a defensive.
"Alright, lets get this going then, I'm getting hungrier." The witch presses her attack, keeping close but avoiding trying to put herself too much out there. Meanwhile this is southtown, people are pproably used to that sort of thing, so why not see more of it? Fighting that is. Naerose seems to be at leats enjoying herself.
The broom she swings around with some care. Almost like a staff you might see in various chinese martial arts, but then not quite as finessed.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Naerose's Random Strike.
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Naerose 0/-------/-----==|=======\===----\1 Tessa
One might expect Tessa to go all out right about now just to make up for that little embarassment, but you know why she doesn't? She needs 1 more measly point of super. It's really too bad. And so, even more predictably she's forced to block with her shield. At least that finally gives her what she needs, at least.
After guarding, the Roman puts her pseudo-weapon away on her back again before hopping forward and leaning herself into what looks like it ought to be a shoulder-takedown. If this makes contact, she intends to flow into a brutal five hit combo of punches and kicks, ending with an uppercut that's meant to pop the witch up into the air for the shieldmaiden to catch and bring down into a piledriver. It's seven hits in all, and there are trails of inky black chi that follow behind each strike, ending with one big cloud of the stuff bursting up out of the ground when the witch smacks into it. All of this energy seems like it's either just for show, or perhaps for momentum-boosting, however, as none of it ever actually seems to harm the other fighter. Any damage given is quite obviously of the physical variety.
COMBATSYS: Tessa successfully hits Naerose with Black Seven.
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Naerose 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Tessa
Naerose falls absolutely victim to the nasty attacks, getting beated up with the entire combo and then ends up on the ground, the energy was a nice little addition too. The witch is like. Ouch? And then.. She starts to drag herself off the ground and groans a little before then grinning a bit and starting to dust herself off and fix her shades.
"Okay, here it comes, you liked the big one.. now try.. Sagitta Minor!" cries the witch and flings a flurry of darts that pepper the area around Tesa and hpefully pepper Tessa as well, but you know, gets hit.
"Thiis one is a favorite of mine!"
All the while the witch trie to get back at the same time, giving herself breathing room.
COMBATSYS: Naerose successfully hits Tessa with Sagitta Minor.
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Naerose 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Tessa
There's no other way to explain it, really. After delivering that big combo and trying to show off, Tessa is so tired and hungry that she forgets she's not very good at dodging. And oh yeah, her shield is up on her back instead of in her hand like it ought to be when somebody throws chi at her. Still though, there's no real reason to sweat it. Naerose was throwing a lot more than just one projectile this time, and they're small, so there's nothing saying the shieldmaiden could have blocked them all.
But yeah, that kind of hurt. "Ow ow. Yeah, I can kind of see why that works for you. Anyway, let's go ahead and try to finish this with one more round. Give me everything you've got okay?" the Strolheim agent asks, challenging the witch after dusting herself off and adjusting her stance, remembeing to take her shield back out and hold it out in front of herself defensively.
COMBATSYS: Tessa focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Naerose 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Tessa
Naerose has the apparent advantage here and decides to press it. Rather than sit back she's going to push her advantage.
"Alright, and now it's time for a combo attack!" exclaims the witch with a big grin and charge in, raissing her hand and starts to summon a big ball of pain, well more like a flurry, it is hard to explain pure destruction when you're talking about an attack coming right out of her palm.
"En Criento!" she cries, a non sense sounding word and then she even winks as if to describe how this is totally her specialty.
COMBATSYS: Tessa fails to interrupt End Creation from Naerose with Upper Echelon.
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Naerose 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Tessa
Well, it may be a nonsense word, but it actually almost sounds Italian. Or at least Latin. So for all Tessa knows the witch might just be trying to tease her by saying it like that. But again, the shieldmaiden tries to uppercut with her slow-but-painful shoryken type move and totally botches it, running right into the orb of destruction and getting herself pretty harshed. She ends up on the ground and everything. and she'd probably be totally unable to stand back up if it weren't for the shield taking a very small amount of the hit for her. Sure, she didn't actively try to block, but the thing was still up and it indirectly kept part of her body from being struck.
"Oof! Okay, you win. Let's go grab something to eat." Tess admits, kicking back up to her feet and once more dusting down the front of her dress, dropping her guard and putting her shield back in the upright position on her back.
"Totally!" exclaims the witch and then, it's like, she doesn't move, not even a little. Except she sloooowly dissipates into the air. The truth is she wasn't actually dissipating or vanishing or anything cool. She had jut rushed off to the food stand with so much gusto that there was nothing left of her execpt a cloud of Naerose shaped dust.
"Okay, I'd like two jumbo chili dogs, a basket of fries, a milk shake and .. and.. Whatever my friend here is having." Naerose exclaims to the startled cashier.
A moment of humming and rocking on her feet she then checks her hat for monies. The generous offer soon turns into a sheepish grin,
"Ah, hey, Tessa? Got any cash?"
COMBATSYS: Naerose has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\ <
Tessa 0/-------/--=====|
Haha, good plan. Tessa doesn't really have the strength left to get all fussy and scold the witch for it currently, so she's pretty much stuck paying for that. She can still roll her eyes when nobody's looking, though! "Um, y- yeah. I got it..."
COMBATSYS: Tessa has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:11:04 04/29/2008 by Naerose, and last modified on 11:45:23 05/08/2008.