Description: Rio tracks down Munin to Alsace in an attempt to get her to reveal secrets of her style.
Alsace. Located at the border of Germany and France, along the Rhine river. While Strasbourg is close by, Munin has kept away, preferring to spend her time in this more rural location, seeing the old buildings, castles, and so on. Her SNF match at Castle Strolheim completed, she has since travelled west, deciding to go do so on foot for the time being. Reduces her chances of being found for awhile. Lets her lose herself and get away from the worlds troubles for a time.
Currently, she's sitting just shy of what looks like a small, 'mom and pop' ice cream shop located among the towns older buildings. Munin has parked herself under a tree facing away from the road, small pack beside her, as she enjoys her cold treat in the summer heat. Her thoughts, meanwhile, concentrate on where she goes next, routes she recalls from her map, and what her next major destination might be.....
After looking over Munin's fighting videos to try to get to know how she thinks, charting her movements on a map, and considering her last known appearance was at Castle Strolheim versus Rick Knight, Rio has come to the conclusion that she's currently on foot, and probably about at Alsace by now, and took a plane there. This method of 'logic' really shouldn't work at all. But, Rio doesn't think about that. Her intuitive leaps and bounds seem to pay off pretty well for her sometimes, and right now, she has a hankering for ice cream.
She walks back out of the store after a little while, holding a cone stacked high with various flavors of ice cream, and glances around on a whim. Her eyes focus on the figure sitting under the tree, and she grins, and raises her free hand. "Hey, Munin!"
Blink? Munin peers around at the source of whoever is calling her name. One of the advantages of having something of a unique name: little chance of not knowing whos being spoken to.
She eyes the small girl with the large stack of ice cream in her hand, one eyebrow raised slightly in slightly cautious curiosity "Yes?".
"A fighter who uses tricks and misdirection, blades and shadows. Who fights in front of cameras, but at all other times hides in shadows. It's curious, don't you think?" Rio stops to eat the top ball of ice cream - chocolate - which she wolfs down in seconds. A broad sweep of her hand, ending in pointing at Munin. "So that's why I decided to find you!" She draws her other hand in front of her face, and it's clean again, only a subtle flickering of a finger for a moment betraying that something might be going on.
She walks closer, and looks down at Munin, a smile flickering on the edge of her lips. "Because I'm wondering: what's going on with you, exactly? What are your true plans? What do you hope to accomplish?" She pauses, and looks down into Munin's eyes. "Perhaps most importantly: what flavor of ice cream you're eating?"
Rio gets a slight smirk in response as he lists off Munins 'modus operandi'. While she doesn't catch much of the hand motion, she is definately not comfortable being on the spot like this. However, so far, this girl has done nothing to her....
At least, not yet, anyway....
Her deep purple eyes gazing steadily back at Rio, Munin gives a simple response to the questions during the pause "I hope to accomplish what every fighter wants to accomplish: learn new tricks to the trade, get stronger, and make a living as best i can". When asked her ice creams flavor, she blinks in momentary confusion, then holds up the cone "Chocolate".
Repositioning herself to be more comfortable facing this different direction, Munin gives something of a wary glance "So do you work for the news media? Or simply out asking questions for yourself?" (She came a long way if she looked me up..... ).
Rio passes her hand in front of the top of her stack of ice cream cone, and the top is gone now. She fans out a hand of cards in that same hand, momentarily obscuring her face, and there's a disgusting slurping noise for a moment. She coughs, and then straightens back up like nothing happened.
"Ah, yes, chocolate, the darkest of ice creams - or at least, the darkest of ice creams commonly served. In humans, it simulates emotions similar to love. In dogs, it's a poison." She snaps her hand, and the hand of cards is just a single card, which she flicks, aiming to throw a few inches above Munin's head, strong enough to embed in the tree.
"I work for the news media just as much as you do, Munin. And every question that has ever been asked has been for the sake of the one asking it. I want to learn new tricks of the trade, get stronger, keep life interesting as best I can."
The magic trick is impressive, Munin has to give that, though the slurping gives the truth away too easily. With a chuckle, she can't help but comment "Careful you don't choke..... every good magician knows the limits of what they can do effectively".
When the card is thrown, however, Munin ducks slightly just in case. Her eyes pulse with purple chi for a moment, and blackish-purple mist begins to drift up off of her gloves. She doesn't make any hostile moves, but is now definately ready should Rio start anything, legs tense and ready to move on a moments notice "Well, you clearly know me. Your name is..... ?".
Rio raises her hand to tip her hat, and then there's a barrage of fireworks, some of which blow up her ice cream cone, sending ice cream flying everywhere - but away from Munin, and amid the explosions, it's easy to miss - except for the fact that there's multicovered ice cream spread across the ground for a fair distance afterwards. She takes a step back, and bows.
"Rio Fujisaki. I lack the energy that seems to follow most fighters everywhere, but don't assume because of that that I don't have access to magic." She straightens back up, and grins. "Are those gloves really important, or is that just another misdirection?" A shrug of her shoulders, and she takes off her hat and turns her back on Munin. "I have no intention to harm you at the moment."
The fireworks are not lost on Munin. The smell of gunpowder, though faint, gives it away, even if the eyes miss it. The ice cream being sent flying is of no concern. Munin simply makes a mental note of where it is, since theres no way to know what wasn't eaten was actualy ice cream.
"You'll forgive me if i don't take your word for it" is the response Rio is given as her form shimmers a moment, though Munins hands cease their misting. Her eyes maintain a faint violet glow indefinately, however. While seeming slightly more relaxed now, it's clear that her guard will not be dropped completely.
"If your such a magician, you should know better than to ask a fellow performer how their tricks work before their performance. Now, is there something else you wanted besides the urge to cover the ground with ice cream, and throw cards at trees while asking impertinant questions?"
"And so we strike to the heart of the matter. I might be a magician, but I'm more of a gambler." Rio flips her head back onto her head, and turns back to face Munin. Her eyes lock onto Munin's eyes, figuring that keeping aware of her energy and what she can see is more important than keeping aware of her hands. "So: I want to find out what you truly want. What you'd be willing to bet against all the knowledge of your style. In this entire world, is there nothing you'd wager with that being on the other end? I can't replicate all of it, of course, but I think it would still be useful for me to know. I wouldn't tell anyone else, naturally... in the event I won." She tilts her head a bit to one side.
"I'm also fairly open to what we wager on. So. Are you interested, Munin Arshe?" She falls onto the ground, and stretches her arms over her head, yawning a bit, then grins.
"Because I alone may have the ability to grant your heart's true desire."
Munin tilts her head inquisitively at all this. She seems momentarily taken off guard. This IS an unusual question, after all. She stops to think, the gears clearly turning with a glance at her eyes. The thought process is quick, though, and she states her answer very clearly.
"No".
She steps behind the tree, grabs her pack, tosses the remnants of her ice cream in a nearby waste bin. As she comes back around, she eyes Rio "I couldn't teach or explain how it all works even if i wanted to". She walks past Rio, speaking with her back to the girl "As for my hearts true desire....." she looks over her shoulder briefly, face darkened by the lighting, her visible eye glowing brighter than before "You don't have the means to grant it".
With that, she begins to walk off.
"Munin." Rio's voice is serious, calm, as she sits up. "You seem to know a lot about the extent of connections and abilities of someone whose name you just learned. Maybe you think sloppy little stage magic tricks and tracking you down to Alsace is the extent of my power?" She pauses, and tilts her head a bit to one side, then the other.
"Unless... is it a dead person? Yeah, it's true I don't do that stuff anymore." She flops back down onto the ground, and starts humming Hotel California to herself as she stares up at the sky.
For her part, Munin simply keeps walking, the only thought to go through her mind being (Whatever kid. Appearances mean nothing in the fighting world. You can't bring back my sister.... and you can't destroy NESTs). She voices none of this, doesn't even acknowledge she heard Rio, as she keeps moving.
She starts heading north instead, planning a different route to her ultimate destination. One that will, she hopes, be much harder to track.
Log created on 13:29:01 07/26/2012 by Rio, and last modified on 16:10:19 07/26/2012.