Feral

Hello hello and welcome to tonight's scene! Things you can expect:

-Dice

-Combat

-Physical danger to your characters (with the possibility of death, though I do try not to off people in one-shots)

-Creepy stuff

Things you should probably not expect:

-Plot

I highly recommend making use of the Casting Guide, Combat and Healing Guide and Spheres Guide if you need any of them (links are on the Resources page.) Otherwise, I am totally here to answer questions, so don't worry if you feel unsure about how to do something.

(Also I really cannot stress enough how little plot is going to be involved in this scene.)

Rules:

-Please stick to the posting order once we establish one.

-Please try to be reasonably efficient with your posts and declares/dice rolls. It's possible this scene might be over very quickly if the dice are in your favor, but it also might prove a lot trickier than expected, so who knows. The dice are fickle beasts.

-Have fun! And if anyone gets uncomfortable at any point, please let me know.

(And now I will type you an intro.)

Feral

The evening was chilly and overcast - cold enough to remind the people of Denver that winter was never terribly far away. By the time the hour rolled over into dinner time, most of the tourists and locals alike had left Washington Park in favor of warmer, cheerier atmospheres. It was one of those evenings: when the very landscape seemed to presage something ominous. The park was eerily quiet when Jo and Lavinia arrived. A stray ball rolled around in the tennis courts, pushed back and forth by the wind. Otherwise things seemed mostly still (abandoned.) Even the lake was quiet.

Lavinia

It was a shit day to work, she could tell you that much. Lavinia made her money where there were people, camped out with a guitar or with some dude who happened to have a percussion instrument that needed the attentions of some blonde goddess to come by in order to draw attentions. Normally, she could make a good fifty bucks out where if she focused on it. At that juncture, however, she wasn't going to be making anything.

It was cold. It was cold and she was wearing a skirt, but at least this time had the decency to wear a pair of tickets underneath them with her combat boots. Her jacket was a men's coat, something that was just a little too big on her, something intended for someone who had broader shoulders, because Lavinia never had broad shoulders. She was always elfin in build, regardless of how strong she might have been.

Her attention goes to the tennis courts, eyes transfixed by movement. Her hands stay in her jacket pockets, though. Her blonde hair gently blew in the breeze. It was...

"Huh." she said.

This kind of day defied words.

Jo Hamilton

"Maaaaan guys!" She rolled her bike to a stop, backpack nicely placed on her back, and leaned back on her seat. "For reals? Dude. We were suppose to.." Her phone vibrated and Jo slipped it out of her pocket to scroll through the messages. Her brows fell in annoyance. "Tcht. Coulda like, told me we were like canceling ya know..like twenty minutes ago."

Jo shivered, because she wrongly had only worn a hoodie over her normal clothes and was not prepared for the colder weather. With the phone put away, Jo was focused on the uh..absence of people. Her brows furrowed slowly and she squinted her eyes, peering along the park. "Dude...it's like somethin out of Silent Hill. Minus the fog. "

"Dude if some like..weird monsters come scramblin out, I'm am like OUT of this city." But who is she to stay in one space regardless of the potential doominess. Jo, pushed forward on her bike casually. "Or zombies. Man I am NOT prepared for zombies."

Jo Hamilton

[awareness!]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Jo Hamilton

[Alert]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 3, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[Per3+awareness3, diff 6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

[Per3+alert2=5, diff 7)

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Feral

They arrived separately, Jo and Lavinia. Both would unfortunately find themselves disappointed by the scene that greeted them. There would be no tips tonight; no friendly outing. Just this cold wind and empty stretch of manicured grass and trees and athletic courts. It had a kind of beauty, the empty park. But it also felt lonely.

Apart from the two of them, that is. Jo and Lavinia were close enough to spot each other. Close enough to feel each other's resonance - one bright note of warmth and familiarity within this somber scene. Would they approach each other? It seemed the obvious course of action.

Lavinia was closest to the tennis court. As she stood there looking at the yellow ball rolling across the ground, she felt something cold and feral prickling at her senses. Jo felt it too, even at a distance. It felt like being hunted.

And there, as their eyes swept over the landscape, they landed on a line of neatly-manicured bushes lining the perimeter of one of the court's wooden walls. One of the bushes shivered slightly. It might have been the wind, or it might have been something moving behind it. It was difficult to tell from a distance, but the resonance seemed to be coming from that place.

Lavinia

Sometimes, she's off in her own little world. Sometimes, she sees people and gravitates their way and recognizes that, on nights like this, it's best that you stay in a group. She had brought the guitar with her, slung across her back in its case. No tips tonight, it would seem. No people, just... cold. Cold and...

"Huh," she said again, eyes narrowed at the tennis ball as she walked, slowly, to pick it up. It doesn't feel like anything in her hands, and across the distance at the bush line, something shivered. Lavinia whistled, the kind of whistle that one does to get a dog's attention. At that juncture, she threw te tennis ball in the direction of the bushes.

Lavinia was running through her head, going over list after list of encounters and experiences and now her thoughts had turned to zombies. She'd watched a few Romero films, but this... hmmn. She looked around, having to rely heavily on the fact that she was a visual creature. Generally speaking, if it was a zombie apocalypse situation, she was going to get picked off because they were noisy bastards and-

Shut up, Lavinia, this is not the zombie apocalypse.

She looks back just in time to see an almost, almost familiar figure.

"Double tap."

Because that's the best she can offer at that juncture. She approached the bushes slowly, wondering if she should rifle through her guitar case or not. Knives were hard to stick in jackets, but a guitar case was essentially a purse for your traveling arsenal (plus, you know, a guitar can fit in there.)

Jo Hamilton

"Yeah it's zombies." Jo has seen plenty of films and this is how it starts. Something innocuous. In the bushes. On a... tennis...thing. Ok maybe not the tennis but most certainly in a place that is quiet and normal seeming and..."Dude what are you doing?" Jo pushes forward on her bike, coasting in closer only to slide her leg over the seat so her feet are on one side. "Mann.." She eyed the bushes. "You're like.. like a bad horror movie blonde waiting to happen. You know the blondes go first right? The pretty ones? Everyone like..knows that." And who would want to see THAT pretty blonde go first?

Besides there is some major creepage coming from that area and Jo is a ...ok maybe not a cautious creature, but she's not a reckless one most of the time...or some of the time.. or.. well just not always.

Feral

Lavinia snagged the tennis ball from the court (did she go in or reach her hand under the fence?) before turning her attention to those bushes.  She'd have to walk around to the back in order to get a decent aim. When she threw the ball, it struck the painted plywood with a hollow noise and bounced off into the grass. A few stray needles fell from the shrub's pruned branches.

Then something growled.

By then Jo was standing next to her, bike leaning against her side. Neither of them were prepared for a fight, but it seemed they might not have a choice, because just then the bushes moved and the head of a large dog came into view. It was a mutt of some variety. Maybe part husky (it had a wild look to it,) but its fur was thicker and shaggy in places, and its teeth...

Its teeth were not right at all. It looked like there were too many of them, sticking out at odd angles (too long and too sharp and too... mangled.) And its eyes were solid black. As it left the safety of the bushes, Jo and Lavinia would see thick spikes protruding from its back. Its feet were clawed, and covered in some kind of black scales.

Not precisely a dog, as it turned out, but something else. Something that should not really have existed. When it looked at them, it pulled back its lips in a snarl of warning. Then it lunged.

[And it's time for Init rolls!]

Lavinia

her eyes narrow and she knows she has less than six seconds to get armed. Less than six. There were a number of things she could have done, slinging her case off her shoulder, trying to unzip, giong for a knife (two, three, four), she's thinking. She's thinking as fast as she can. There was something feral there, something that wasn't a dog, something...

Something that wasn't supposed to exist. Her eyes narrowed and her attention didn't go away from the animal but god damn if she wasn't pretty intent on getting armed.

[Action: take knife out of bag- arm yoself!]
[5+1d10]


Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (9) ( success x 1 )

Jo Hamilton

Yeaaaah...

Jo would rather have zombies.

But it looks like we're getting Silent Hill.

"What the-" She doesn't have much time to really notice anything except well.. she has entered into a horror movie and no one asked her if that was A-OK. Unlike Lavinia, she's never encountered something like this before, and she's not entirely sure how to act except to put space between her and IT. Bike maybe? Does a bike count?

[5 +1d10)

Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (2) ( fail )

Feral

[For the duration of this scene, I am going to nick-name this dog Cujo. Cujo rolls initiative at +5]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (10) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[And the Order is:

1: Cujo (15)

2: Lavinia (14)

3: Jo (7)

Declares will be in reverse order]

Jo Hamilton

[I guess throw the bike at Cujo]

Lavinia

[Ladidah Prime 2- make your regular ol' stabby knife a BLESSED DOOMY WEAPON THAT DOES AGG]

Feral

[Cujo splits action:

1a: Bite Lavinia

1b: Evade the bike]

Feral

[Bite! Dex 3 + Brawl 3 -2]

Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (4, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Damage Str 3 + 1 + 1 (L)]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Feral

[Lavinia takes 3L (ouch)]

Lavinia

[Prime 2- making a weapon do agg. 3+2 (prime) +1 (because OWWW)= 6 -1 (practiced) -2 quint= 3

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (7, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Feral

[Lavinia's knife now does Str+2 in agg damage]

Jo Hamilton

[str +ath - THROWN THE BIKE OMG KILL IT NOW - wp]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Feral

[Cujo Evades Dex3+Ath3 -3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 9, 9) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Alas, the bike misses]

Feral

The dog (had it ever been a normal dog, or was it always this hideous monstrosity?) lunged forward, and Lavinia scarcely had time to pull her knife free and begin singing before the beast plunged its teeth into her left arm, shredding skin and muscle as her life's blood poured from the wound. Despite the pain, Lavinia kept her focus, imbuing the blade in her hand with quintessence so that it might strike to the very core of its victim. Almost the dog made to bite her again, but that was when Jo did the only thing she could think to do...

She threw her bike. The thing was heavy, and she wasn't an athlete, but still she managed to heave the thing into the air. Unfortunately, it never hit its target. The dog darted out of the way, snarling in irritation, and the bike fell to the grass with a shivering clank and creak of metal, its wheels spinning uselessly. Still, she'd provided a distraction and given Lavinia a few more seconds to work her effect before it dove in for a second attack.

[Inits again (since Lavinia took damage) Cujo goes at +5]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )

Lavinia

[4+1d10]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (3) ( success x 1 )

Jo Hamilton

[5 +1d10]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[The Order:

1: Jo [Full Health] (11)

2: Cujo [Full Health] (10)

3: Lavinia [3L] (7)]

Lavinia

(action: keep self between Cujo and JO, and stab the crap outta him]

Feral

[Cujo bites Lavinia again]

Jo Hamilton

Jo, now between Cujo and Lavi, shifts to her left and puts her fingers between her lips, letting out a whistle. "YO UGLY. Hey! YEAH YOU. You're so ugly, you gotta sneak up on yo mirror! Hey! HEY! I'M TALKIN TA YOU!" Oh yeah she was turning herself into a target by whistling and waving her hands to get the things attention. Jo..you are MAD.

[wits + exp -dif 6 Wp SEEE MEEEEE I'M YUMMY]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Feral

[Cujo turns away from Lavinia, snarls and redirects his focus to Jo. This loses him his turn for the round.]

Lavinia

[Dex3+Melee3-1 (oww) +1 (flanking) = 6, diff 6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 4, 4, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Fuck you, dice pool. That was not cool. Str3+2, agg damage]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Feral

[Cujo takes 3A]

Feral

Both Lavinia and Jo made to get in the way of the snarling, feral creature, but Jo was just a little bit faster. She waved her arms in the air, shouting as many insults as she could muster, and maybe the beast understood her or maybe it was just distracted by all the noise, but it hesitated in its attack on Lavinia, turning to snarl at Jo instead. Lavinia took her chance, sweeping in on the creature's flank with her enchanted blade. She plunged it into the creature's thick fur, burying the blade in its side. The wound looked painful, and the creature snapped its jaws in anger, but she missed striking any vital organs.

[Cujo's Init is now at +4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )

Jo Hamilton

[+5]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )

Lavinia

[+4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )

Feral

[The order:

1: Cujo [3A] (9)

2: Jo [Healthy] (7, base +5)

3: Lavinia [3L] (7, base +4)]

Lavinia

[action: Having NONE OF YOUR CRAP, CUJO
1a: stab the crap out of it
1b: dodge, because I suspect this is going to hurt me.]

Jo Hamilton

[HEY I'M OVER HERE AND I'M TASTY - distraction]

Feral

[Cujo splits:

1a: Bite Jo

1b: Dodge Lavinia]

Feral

[Dex+Brawl -1 (wounds) -2 (split)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (7, 7, 7) ( success x 3 )

Feral

[Str+1 (bite damage) + 2 (successes)]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Feral

[Jo takes 3L]

Jo Hamilton

Ok.. that's.. that hurts. A lot. More than.. you know she's scraped her knee before... probably chocked herself, ya know, did stupid things but this takes the cake. So.. OW that hurts. But Jo Jo is a damn trooper. Even while in pain..

"Mother--Ugly -Son of a- YO so ugly - ah hell.. You make onions cry yo!" Don't cry Jo, don't cry, don't scream at how much it hurts. "UGLY BASTARD. YA MADE ME CURSE! SEE? SEE! AM I TASTY ENOUGH? CAUSE I'M NUTHIN BUT SUGARY CARBOS!"

[wits +exp -1]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Feral

[Dex+Ath to evade -1 -3]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (6, 6) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

She was bleeding. There was a lot of blood, she knew that there was a lot of blood, but she noticed Jo take a hit, winced but stood surprised that she was standing her ground, that she kept talking and, well, kept Lavinia from being rendered delicious. She inhaled sharply, calling out "If this gets worse, run."

[Dex3+melee3= 6 - 1 (oww) +1 (flank) - 2 (split) = 3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Feral

Jo's plan worked. The beast abandoned its attacks on Lavinia and lunged for Jo instead, burying its horrible fangs into the meat of her thigh. And yes, it did hurt. Probably worse than anything she'd felt before, if until this point she'd lived a fairly safe life. (Or maybe not. The Awakened seldom escaped their childhood without scars of one variety or another.) Thankfully, the animal released her when Lavinia attacked, but it dodged out of the way just in time for Lavinia's blade to slice uselessly through its fur.

[Init +4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )

Jo Hamilton

[+4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( botch x 1 )

Lavinia

[4+1d10]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[The Order, once again:

1: Cujo [3A] (12)

2: Lavinia [3L] (11)

3: Jo [3L] (5)]

Jo Hamilton

This is real fucking stupid Jo... real Stupid... but she's going in to grab the snout and try and hold it shut while Lavi does her thing... oh she'll probably lose a hand..

Please be the left..Please be the left...

[Grapple - dog snout]

Lavinia

She doesn't know what to do. She's not accustomed to working with these people so all she does is sing. Sure, it's in Greek. Sure, it's a little odd to the ears, but it is a plea, a command, the kind of thing that says... well, now. That's for the divine to know and you not to, isn't it?

[Prime 2- calling divine death from above to hopefully smack Cujo in spectacular Prime Bolt fashion (vulgar as fuck, since there probably is no reason for lightning to come down from the sky right now)]

Feral

[Cujo splits again:

1a: Bite Jo

1b: Evade the grasping hands]

Feral

[Dex+Brawl -1 -2]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Str+1+1]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Jo is at 5L]

Lavinia

[Prime 2 (pewpew): diff 3 +2 (highest sphere) +1 (Vulgar without)= 6

-1 (actually is practiced) - 2 (appropriate resonance) = 3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (3, 7, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Paradox?]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 6) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Soak?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 10) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[Cujo takes 6A on top of 3A and is now DEAD]

Feral

Things were not looking good for them. Poor Jo, helpless as she was in a physical battle, put herself in the line of fire in order to give Lavinia time to wreak whatever damage upon the thing she could. And it worked, but at a price. The beast lunged for Jo again, teeth ripping into the flesh on her side. There was so much pain. Blood drenched her clothes and dripped down onto the grass beneath her feet. If it weren't for Lavinia, the thing might very well have killed her. But then, if it weren't for her, it might well have killed Lavinia. Instead Lavinia sang, and her voice was like that of a beautiful, avenging angel, bringing down a bolt of holy light from the sky. The air flashed a brilliant golden-white, and then the dog dropped to the ground, its body split in two and burned as though from a fire. The smell that rose up from the broken, charred remains was enough to make anyone gag.

Jo Hamilton

There isn't any way she could have described how she felt except agony. She was bleeding from her thigh and her side, and Jo's hands had moved quickly to the wound at her side. She was smart enough to know that major organs sat there and should be protected. She stumbles back, barely keeping herself afloat, though eventually finds herself at the very least, dropping to a knee to get the weight off her leg. Thankfully...something beautiful happens.

Lavinia sings, and if Jo may have been joking about her affections earlier, she's not entirely sure if she is now. But the thing is dead at least and Jo lifts the arm she isn't using to thrust in the air weakly. "Yeah!"

Lavinia

She gagged, forgetting about her guitar case for now. She went to Jo's side, and for a second, it's written across her face: panic. Jo's hurt. She's not just a little hurt, she's incredibly her and Lavinia? Has no idea what to do, it's on her face, in her trembling fingertips that all she can think about is Cameron would know how ot fix this. Again, and again and it was the most destructive, helpful thing she's done in a couple weeks but this was different. This was different because it wasn't just her hide on the line.

She does, however, put a hand on Jo's chest, just for a moment. There was blood everywhere, and it only served to make her halo more than a little battle-stained.

"Hang on, I'm gonna see if I know someone," she headed to her guitar case, ignoring her arm for the time being but god damn this hurt. Bloody fingertips slide over the gorilla glass and she looks someone up. Ian.

She hits the button to dial.

"Well, congratulations, you got your battle wings... or whatever the fuck people get when they survive shitty situations," her smile was reassuring. She couldn't feel her fingertips.

Feral

It was a lucky thing that Ian happened to be both downtown and near his phone at that precise moment. When the call went through, he glanced down at the screen and noted the name (Lavinia.) They'd scarcely even spoken, and exchanged numbers only on the assumption that they might get together for a sparring match some time, so there was a brief moment when Ian considered letting the call go to voicemail. He was at a sushi place nearby, already seated at the bar with a drink on the way.

Lavinia listened to the sound of the ringer once... twice... three times.

Then: "Hey Lavinia. What's up?"

Jo Hamilton

"Hey man, you're like..worried or something. Dude this is like.." She glances down to her side. "Just like a scratch ya know. A flesh wound." Jo laughed a bit at her own joke, letting out a few coughs as she did. "huh. So like...Grace wasn't lyin. I've got to learn how to shoot. Be like way more useful when dogs go wild or somethin." Then Jo blinks. "Ah man.my hoodie..." There's a frown that slides over her face, and when Lavi leaves her side, she collapses on the ground to just lay there. "Just give me a sec. I got like..my bike ya know? I can ride it.or..something," Jo wasn't riding anything anywhere even if she wanted to.

"GOD DOES THAT STINK." She yelled towards the corpse. "Ugh. Gross."

"Man what is this Top Gun? Pft...battle wings." She pressed into the wound again, then sat up and with one hand started to unzip her hoodie and wriggle out as she cringed, letting out growls of pain. "You serve me some ice cream in nuthin but an apron and I'll call it even right?" Jo tried to cast a tired, mischievous smile at Lavi, though it was obviously not an easy task.

Lavinia

"Hey," she sounds breathless, but confident. The kind of breathless that comes from either a very good workout or a very bad situation ended. Though, admittedly, in the background there was the sound of god does that stink!? And she started trying to shrug off her coat to see how deep the bite marks are.

"You wouldn't happen to know anyone who is good at patching people up, do you? Jo and I ran into this dog... thing... She's pretty messed up right now."

Jo tried to shoot a mischievous smile in her direction. She puts the receiver to her chest. "You get well and I'll serve you anything wearing anything else, sound good?"

She picked the phone back up and waited for some kind of answer.

"I'd be really grateful, and would seriously owe you."

Feral

For a beat, there was silence on the other end of the line. Ian frowned.

"Annie's a healer, but she's..." his voice trailed off before he could say, but she's all the way out in Morrison. Maybe Lavinia had already been out to Chantry, in which case she could fill that information in herself. Maybe she hadn't, and would have no idea what he was talking about. "She's probably not nearby." He sighed gently. "Where are you guys at? I'll meet you there."

Jo Hamilton

"Not just an apron? A flowered one? 50s style?" Jo almost whines at her. "I'M DYIN. GRANT A DYIN WOMAN'S WISH. Ok that's.." She coughs a bit. "A little dramatic. Sorry. "With her hoodie stripped off, she tried to tie it around her side and the wound there, rolling to the other side slowly to try and push herself to her feet.  "Cruel world...cruel world.."

Lavinia

"We're at Washington Park, by the tennis courts. There's the smell of charred dead thing, so... uh... if you could... like... make sure Jo is okay, I can go get trashbags and clean it up, this... it's pretty gross. I'm going to call my sister after this and have her help clean this up," she's planning out loud, trying to find what resources she had and didn't have. Her arm was starting to do a lot more than ache. She winced.

"Jo's not dying," she clarified, "she's just being dramatic-" she looks at Jo "-which is probably a little bad for you, so you should try and be calm, cool? And yes, if thoughts of me in a housewife apron feeding you ice cream keeps you from drawing the entire world over here to look at the dead dog thing? Make it ruffled and gingham."

Feral

"Alright, I'll be there in like ten minutes."

The line went dead, and Jo and Lavinia would have approximately eight minutes to assess their wounds, call whoever they wanted to call, and think about starting to clean up the horrendous mess they'd made of the dog's corpse.

When Ian arrived, he was (rather unfortunately) wearing an extremely nice suit, though he'd left the jacket in the car. The pants where dark grey, and the shirt was a deep shade of indigo. As he walked toward them, he unbuttoned the cuffs and rolled them up to his elbows. When he saw what was left of the mess on the ground, he wrinkled his nose in disgust. Then his eyes darted from Lavinia to Jo, and he crouched down in the grass beside the latter.

He'd only ever done this once before with another person (with Jae-shin, and that was mostly for practice.) Ian didn't tell them that though. It wouldn't have helped.

"Hey, I'm going to take a look at your wounds, okay? I need you to hold still and be quiet."

Jo Hamilton

She can't help but huff. "No one's comin." She pulled her arm up to her mouth to cough as she staggered to her feet. "Got.. got attacked by some weirdo monster...callin stuff down from the heavens.. screaming my lungs out... ain't no one comin. No one at all. Clear as a bell. Though bells.. not so clear really." She staggered her way around the damn thing and towards Lavi to get a look at her arm. "Alright parmaq. rIQ vIleghjaj." Not that it mattered much because Jo's strength was not so great, and eventually she dropped back down into the grass.

When Ian arrived she squinted her eyes at him. "Why can't you be a... beautiful woman? Would be so much better... if you had boobs." She let out a sigh and a cough before laying her bead back on the grass. "Yeah. Do it up big man."

Lavinia

She had things to do.

First thing was first, she called her sister. Addison was doing.. whatever it was that she did on Wednesday nights, probably hope that her kid would go down easy or that her husband would stop being an asshole for five minutes and actually help with household duties because it shouldn't matter if he worked and she stayed at home, they were both parents and needed to be equally involved in their child's life god damn it-

The phone call was terse, and entirely in Spanish.

"Addie'll be here in fifteen, we'll get this cleaned up by then," she told Jo. The rest of the time was waiting for Ian. And that wasn't terribly long, either. Lavinia had started a pretty disgusting task of trying to stuff what little parts of the dog she could cut up and fit into walmart sacks. The smell was atrocious, but Wal Mart bags were all that she had shoved in her guitar case.

It was not a pretty task, and it sure as shit wasn't a smell Lavinia seemed terribly pleased about.

"Five more minutes," she reminded herself, "and Addison gets here with real trash bags."

Lavinia

She then stopped, blinked, then?

"Did you just speak Klingon earlier?"

Feral

[First thing's first. Life 1 to scan Jo's wounds (1 diff for focus: blood)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 3, 4) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Int+Medicine (hopefully to make the healing effect easier)]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 6, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Feral

[Life 3 / Prime 2 (Healing) Vulgar base diff 7 -1 (focus) -1 (from medicine roll) -1 (going slow)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (6, 7, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Feral

[Paradox]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5) ( fail )

Feral

Why can't you be a beautiful woman?

"Sorry to disappoint you." Ian might have offered a cleverer response, but he was focused on what he was doing. Jo lay still in the grass as requested, and Ian crouched over her, knees on either side of her hips. There was already blood on his pants. He tried not to think about it.

"I have to lift up your shirt, I'm sorry." But he was careful as he did it, pulling the fabric up just to the top of her stomach so that he could get a good look at the angry wound in her side. The one on her leg was worse, but this one lay closer to vital organs. He traced his fingers through the blood, leaving a swirl of it on her stomach as he lifted his hand to his mouth to breath in the scent. To taste it (her blood, her life, her pattern.)

(To someone of Jo's paradigm, the ritual probably seemed a bit barbaric.)

Then he pressed his hand to her skin and closed his eyes and just breathed, focusing on her body - letting it tell him how it needed to heal. The feeling when the effect began was one of slow-spreading warmth, and of an odd kind of itching as her body knitted itself back together. First her side, and then her leg. And then there was no more pain at all.

Ian exhaled and opened his eyes, standing up to give her space. He turned to Lavinia, eying the torn flesh on her arm. "Here, I can get that too."

Feral

[And in case it wasn't clear, Jo is at full health now.]

Lavinia

The jacket was since discarded, and her arm... looked pretty gross, if we were going to be specific. If we were going to get blunt and describe precisely what it looked like. Torn muscle, a fair bit of blood. A few missteps and she could have been missing her arm from halfway up the bicep down. It was as disconcerting concept, but to her credit, she seemed too focused to complain. (Or at least too prideful to make it clear how badly this hurt. Her prowess as a hunter, called into question. Her ability to protect, equally so. It was a fact that helped hammer the situation home. She couldn't do this alone. Not for long, not if she wanted to go somewhere.)

"Is it going to be too much for you?" doesn't stop her from holding her arm out, teeth gritted, so he could get a better look.

Jo Hamilton

"HIja'!" Jo replied, lifting a hand up with her thumb in the air, bloodied and all. "Am I like..sexy now?"

But she went quiet and Ian was...practically straddling her. "Woah dawg. Don't get fresh. I may be hurt, but I can still kick." He lifted up her shirt and honestly she didn't care. She might threaten him but Jo saw herself as less of a girl and more of a guy, besides...there wasn't must there anyway. Not like she was sporting much of a chest. Her brows furrowed and then widened as she watched Ian do.. DID HE LICK HER BLOOD? She'd have to hork later. That's just... unsanitary. Forget the pain..he LICKED HER BLOOD.

When the warmth started, she eyed him a little and then tried to look at the wound (not easy to do without moving), and what was making the warmth and the.. OMG that itches! She wiggled a little under him. "That... why does it.. oh.. wha?"

Did he just. "Nuh uh. NO WAY. You didn't!" She sat up. "Woah, thanks dude! Wooooah." Is Jo poking and prodding at her own body? Yes she is!

Feral

[And let's repeat those steps. Life 1]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (2, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Feral

[Int+Medicine]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[Ehhh not enough for a diff reduction this time. Life 3 / Prime 2  diff 7 -1 (focus) -1 (going slow)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (5, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Feral

[Well that was overkill]

Feral

[Paradox]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 6) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[Soak?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (6, 6, 10) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

There is something that happens when Ian checks the specifics with Lavinia. There's a lot of information there, things that go beyond the fact that she is, very clearly, injured. He knows the basics, knows how much blood she's lost and how much damage has been done to what tendons, but that was neither here nor there. Some of the more interesting things about Lavinia do come up.

Like the damages that have already healed. Broken ribs, a cracked femur. Shattered scapula, a broken arm, any number of traumatic head injuries. She's lived life like a warrior, or at the very least has been on the receiving end of a couple very good beatings before she acquired friends who could fix the damage.

The second thing that comes to mind is small by comparison. Lavinia is, genetically speaking, chromosomally male.

What goes beyond that, of course, is something that is a little harder to put a finger on. Her pattern is bright and vibrant, boundless and infinite and smoldering and radiant and too much for her body to handle. It's flawed, chipping at the edges, and there is the most interesting revelation there: Lavinia Cervantes isn't human. Not entirely, anyway.

Feral

"You can thank me by getting me a new suit," Ian replied (with more humor than he actually felt.) Neither of these two were likely to have the cash lying around to pay for something like that, and he didn't actually expect it.

Once she was healed, Jo was mostly left to her own devices. Ian glanced at her once before focusing his attention on Lavinia. Her arm was a torn, bloodied mess, but she at least was able to stand. Ian took her arm carefully in his hands, making a trail through the blood on her skin as he'd done with Jo. And once again, he breathed her in and brought his blood-soaked fingertips to his lips. Then he closed his eyed and focused on her pattern. (And what he found there... he didn't remark upon. At least not now.)

Time passed in stillness as he concentrated. And then... there was that warmth, and the bright spark of itching flesh as her wound knitted itself back together. Lavinia would be left with a lingering feeling of primal vitality and rejuvenation.

When he was done, Ian stepped back and exhaled, relaxing. "What the hell was that thing?"

Lavinia

[Life 1 scan: WTF were you?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 2, 3) ( fail )

Lavinia

[Ugh, Wits+occult, seriously?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[try magic again, but make it more difficult?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )

Feral

[Lavinia honestly isn't sure what that thing was. All she can really gather is that it was dog-like and probably corrupted in some way.]

Lavinia

"I'll figure something out," she said, like she meant it. She took a look at the suit, had a feeling that she didn't exactly have enough money to buy him a suit. Or really even to hit his dry cleaning bill, but there he was- this relative stranger getting completely bloody for another couple of strangers. Oh no, she continues, she is most assuredly doing something to make it up to Ian.

"As for this?" she gestured, running a bloodied hand through her hair. She felt fine, but her motion left a little red streaking across her halo.

"All I know is it's not a dog. It's probably something that got warped out of its original form."

Jo Hamilton

"Tcht. New suit he says. Like for realsies? Nah. Getcha better clothes sure. Like ya know, better suited. Lookin too stuffy there homes." But he wasn't really talking to her so much as he was talking to Lavinia. Jo left the two of them to get her bike, rolling it back over as they talked. "So like, I'm not like hallucinating? There was some weird like gnarly dog thing that ya know.. bit me and it wasn't like just some feral dog and someone like spiked my cupcakes or something? Cause... that is ya know.. I mean it's fucked dude."

Feral

"Hm." Ian pressed his lips together. "Something to look into, maybe." He glanced at Jo for a silent moment, and there may have been a hint of haughty disagreement in his gaze. As though to imply that he knew damn well he looked fucking amazing.

(Aside from the blood.)

He didn't humor the comment with a reply, though. To her other question, he just said quietly, "You were not hallucinating." Then he glanced over his shoulder toward the building that housed the public restrooms. "I'm going to get cleaned up. Are you guys okay to deal with this mess?"

(He meant: without him.)

Lavinia

"That really did happen," she said, "but it's okay now, it's been taken care of."

She then turned and told Ian carefully, intent and putting her words together like someone who has done this sort of clean up before, or at least was confident in her crisis clean up skills that she could be largely unsupervised when cleaning up twisted corrupted animal parts, "my sister is going to be here soon, we're going to load up our stuff into the car, quick spiritual cleansing of the area because who knows what it brought along-" because she had to be concerned there "-but Addie and I can handle that to. Basically, you two are golden."

A thumbs up there.

"Thanks again, for all of this."

Jo Hamilton

Jo lifted a hand to slide behind her head. "I'm not leavin ya know. I figure I can help out. Not like my guts are spilin out anymore. Not in pain or nuthin. So here I am! At your disposal and all. Besides..." She winked at Lavi. "Can't let the waifu due all the work can I?"

"Thanks man." She grinned at Ian. "Even if you are like, a weirdo and all. You're like a cool weirdo with bad fashion sense. It's cool. I'll like, get you a chocobo hoodie or somethin..spice up that wardrobe." Her grin only grew in size. "Maybe get you a Brony hoodie. Can totes see you as a Brony."

Feral

"If you call me a Brony one more time, I will put those wounds right the fuck back on you," Ian replied offhandedly to Jo, and although it was fairly likely that he was joking, something about the tone was just ambiguous enough to make the threat seem possible.

To Lavinia he just nodded, and offered a reserved smile. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're okay. Try not to get attacked by anything else on your way home."

And with that? He took his leave of them. First: to go clean off the blood. And then: back to the restaurant to grab his food.

Ian

[Jae-shin's Dex+Brawl]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 1

Ian

[Ian's Dex+Brawl]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 4 )

Ian

Washington Park was full of visitors today - the lush, green landscape dotted with joggers and frisbee players, college kids playing basketball, boisterous children playing hide and seek in the trees and elderly couples walking hand in hand by the lake. The weather was lovely, a welcome change of pace from the cold snap that had hit earlier in the week. The evening sun was a warm golden glow shining through the trees. Ian and Jae-shin were sparring in the grass near one of the flower gardens. Maybe it was the weather (that infectious thrill of spring,) but today the practice had an air of playfulness about it. Ian grinned as they danced around each other, breathing hard. His pulse beat out a rough rhythm in his ears and sweat shone on his exposed skin. He had on a pair of tapered silver athletic pants, but was otherwise shirtless and barefoot. His toes dug into the soft earth before he lifted off in a tight, predatory spring.

The attack was swift and elegant, but Jae-shin was just fast enough to block it. After a series of swift blows, Jae-shin finally managed to land a hard kick to Ian's side. Ian exhaled roughly at the impact only to dance away, shaking his head with a laugh.

"Careful, I might start fighting for real."

Jae-shin's expression was quietly challenging.

Serafíne

Awareness.

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 2

Serafíne

Among the visitors: someone, you know?  Who knows, who has some hint of, every strange tracery of magick in the air tonight.  Who is: enthralled by it and entombed by it and entangled by it.  Follows that thread from god knows how far away to the place where it makes a new, strange knot.

Ian and his partner have an audience.  Probably they are too intent on each other to take note of anything more than the impression of blond hair left loose, streaming into a wild tangled mass when the wind kicks up.  The sensation of her resonance: gut-wrenching, enthralling, threshold-hovering right there.  Right there.  Right there.

Sera is wearing something close to preppy drag: a highwaisted skirt, pleated and short, with silver buttons precise at the waist.  A longsleeved, rather high-necked little jacket, also black, with more silver buttons in marching military-themed rows, the cut of which would be conservation were it not, you know, so very short: the undercurve of her breasts, the spare cut of her torso.  The dark scrawl of her tattoos against golden skin.  Someone's been worshipping the sun: somewhere.  Somehow.

Grace

"So, yeah. The park!" Grace says, sniffing in the warm air and tree smell. "Places like this are good for distraction-free thinking-time. And you need that."

She walked down a park path with Jo, all decked out in a bright blue shirt with a massive comma on it. Just below the comma, in small text is "or 1=1 --". If we're going to teach, do it right, right? Be the exploit.

"So, first off -- you say you want to learn about electricity and stuff like that? First, I want to know -- what do you think of the physical things? The elements, atoms, that kind of thing? Because it's all related. Well, okay, it is all all related, but forces and matter more so than most."

Lavinia

[Per+aware, oooh?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )

Jo Hamilton

[Do I sense decepticons?! per+aware]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 3 )

Jo Hamilton

She needs distraction free thinking.

This is what Grace says to Jo, who has her cellphone out in her hand and is plugging away at something. Because Jo... Jo doesn't know the meaning of 'distraction-free' unless what Grace really means is boredom. Jo moves too much to ever be distraction free; always thinking, always searching.

The day has been warm, though the temperature has dropped dramatically from her time on campus, and she's dressed accordingly. Her black tank is lit up with yellow letters spelling out 'IN TRAINING TO BE BATMAN' with the bat symbol displayed at the top. And capri light pants (do men call their long shorts capris or shorts?). Of course, her wrists are touched with all manner of things to decorate them (probably gutted someone's computer somewhere, hopefully they don't know about it).

"Huh? Oh right yeah like.. Ok well I mean like, it's just coding right? Like a background program.. like ya know.. like your desktop wallpaper. Or maybe it's like, like an if-then statement. Like if THIS coding happens, do this! Ya know like.. dude how did the Matrix explain it? Where's trinity when you need her?"  Jo hummed. She hummed like the powerlines. Always moving, but never radically. Predictable. Necessary. Pulling humanity along, whether it liked it or not.

Lavinia

It's actually a beautiful day. More than a beautiful day, it's fan-fucking-tastic. She had been spending time with friends, some people she had concluded were decent company, regardless of whether or not they had a roof over their head. There but before the grace of God go she, and all that jazz. She remembers being out here, she remembers being hot and being cold, she remmebers thinking that she had better be brilliant or better be talented because otherwise she wouldn't be able to put a roof over her head.

Anyway, it wasn't important. She'd eaten part of a bucket of chicken with the guys, bid them adios and headed on to enjoy the rest of the park. It was a beautiful place, full of frisbee and basketball and trees and- oooh, were those people sparring?

Something felt interesting, and her dark eyes lit up like torches (like she ever had to really wonder about that) and a grin blossomed across her face. THe blonde, with her golden halo of hair and rather remarkable height and capris (nope, those were regular pants, they were just capris because Lavinia Cervantes was over six feet tall) She followed sensation, marched forward in combat boots and a cut up tee shirt (something to hide naturally occuring holes from God-knew-what)

And she headed forward, looking from the men sparring to a blonde sitting and watching and instead her attention went there. Had no qualms with plopping down next to her. Left ear to the lady's side.

"They just start?"

Ian

[Life 3, Better Body diff 6]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Ian

[+1 Dex for 24 hours, woot]

Ian

[Ian's Dex+Brawl]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 6 )

Ian

[Jae-shin's Dex+Brawl]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) Re-rolls: 1

Serafíne

"Fuck if I know," the lovely creature shrugs and the movement threatens to upend whatever modesty the cut of the jacket affords her.  She is wearing sunglasses.  Yesterday they were framed with skulls.  Today, they are black, cat-eyed, the frames studded with silver nailheads.  Match to the leather wrapped-round her throat.

This sideglance then, her eyes hidden behind the glasses so large they dominate her angular features, without occluding them.  "I just started watching them."

The sun slides across the reflective surface of the dark glass.  Moving, luminous.

Grace

"Well, yes. Except that there is no real if-then. If you look deep enough into the code, you might say forces are a type of matter, or matter is a type of force. They are composite objects made of the same general parts. Like, take electrons. Electrons are what carry electricity, which is a force, but they're also the things that help make up atoms. They're the same type of object, just with slightly different variables. So if you already have some theory of matter, it's relatively easy to translate that into a theory of forces."

Stroll, stroll, stroll. Lecture, lecture, lecture.

Ian and Jae-shin.

Cloud.

Wait, what?

"Oh hey! They're doing a thing!"

She turns on a heel and heads over. So, now -- a bright-eyed embodiment of shifting, winged focus starts beelining for the assembly, pseudo-apprentice in tow.

Ian

It was the first time any of the people in the park (apart from Ian's current sparring partner) had seen him since he'd gone Seeking up that mountain peak. The first time Sera would notice the addition of a deeper, more primordial note within his resonance. The primal energy of it coiled fittingly with the rest of his feline characteristics. And as Ian moved, the press of his Will blossomed out, his working evident to anyone paying particular attention. He focused with his pulse, his movement, dancing across the grass with an effortless grace that hinted at his ballet training. And then suddenly he lunged, ducking beneath Jae-shin's arms to knock him in the back of his knee. Ian followed it up with a sweeping kick that took the Akashic's feet out from under him.

Then he pounced, pinning Jae-shin to the grass with a sharp, triumphant grin.

Jae-shin looked up at him quietly, catching his breath. After a moment, he laughed - pleased and surprised. "You cheated."

"You're just mad I finally pinned you." Ian reluctantly released his prize, getting to his feet as he cast a glance toward Sera and Lavinia. When he focused on the latter, there was a light tilt of his head. "Hey."

Jo Hamilton

"Buuuuuuuuuuut matter is just code. So like if it's jsut matter and stuff, then it's just code. Cause like, how could it like be anything else? So is it like a program running? Or like.. it has like a schedule? But like if it's not an if-then, then like why is the weather and stuff all chaotic? Like for realsies?"

Now Jo HAD sensed a new individual, she has just been engaged in her phone and Grace, but now was being aimed in their direction. "A thing!" Jo exclaimed, as if this said everything. "We must like see this thing! Because things, things are cool. Not like those thingie-ma-jigs.."

Jo is right on her heels, shoving her phone in her back pocket.

Lavinia

"Good enough for me," she replied with a shrug. She wasn't wearing a skirt today, like Lavinia ever really paid attention to what she was doing in a skirt, dared egg someone closer to getting an eye full of whatever she was wearing underneath, but we digress. It wasn't important what she wasn't wearing right now. "I'm Lavinia."

Sera got another glance, having the worst time not looking and being taken in by the fact that Sera was striking. Maybe she had painting or chalk drawings on her mind after her last escapade with the awakened populace of Denver. She opened her mouth, but then noticed people approaching and turned her attentions again.

When Ian spoke she nonchelantly watches his lips, not longing but decyphering. Then, her eyes went to his face. "Hey, you two are great," she replied.

That was the voice of a herald. Something that spoke with confidence, that bid fear not, something that brought tidings of joy or the message of something wrathful beyond measure. She is a messenger, or at least that's what her voice seems intent on conveying about her.

Ian

[I suppose we should do this awareness thing]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Serafíne

Then it's over.  Ian - cheating - has pinned his partner and Sera, who seems to be both watchful and somehow removed or contained or maybe merely high, notices.  Her sharp little chin rises in a way that makes the sun's reflection glint off the nailheads in her sunglasses: or maybe just the darkdark glass.

And she: claps.

You know: for the show.

Around the paper cup, fingers finding her palm.  Mouth crawling, curved at one corner that is essentially inhabited.

"Serafíne.  You can call me Sera."

This to Lavinia.  Nothing to Ian except the fixed attention of her hidden eyes on him, as he rises: from the hold, from the ground.  Glances up at Sera, Lavinia, greets the latter.  Something arrested in that awareness.  She knows everything: feels everything.  Every piece of it, which threatens to peel her apart even as she is cinching herself back together.

Grace

"The weather and stuff is all chaotic because it isn't an if-then. There are very few things in this universe that are a true either-or. Mostly, we exist in the grayish in-betweens. If things were deterministic, like an if-then, we would be able to predict the chaos precisely. But as it's all built on probabilities, even so far as the electrons and protons? The world isn't a firmly defined thing. At all. Which is nice, because hey -- that would be way boring."

That spiel having been said, Grace golf-claps to Ian, and plops down next to Lavinia. "I'm Grace. Hi."

Jo Hamilton

"Well yeah but you're like totally simplifying it. Like, it's an if-then statement but it's not like, if Jo sneezes, Butterflies are born. It's like.. like If this person does this, under this, when this, but only while, then this happens, which does this, but only this while this, and so on and so on. Like it's a lot more complicated and stuff. You can totes predict stuff, if you got the code. Like if I knew the whole code, I could totally tell you when stuff is gunna happen. I mean it's be like super easy. But like we're missing the pieces and stuff so it only seems chaotic.

Jo..gives Ian a thumbs up. That is her congrats to..whatever that was. Because Jo isn't into the physical exercises, save one..or two.

"Yo Sera!" Jo gives her a wave and then finally..oh FINALLY focuses on the new one. She twitches her nose, lifts her brows and seems to look as if someone gave her to the key to the gaming store. Grace sits next to lavinia, who is sitting next to Sera. This... no.. this can't be.

So Jo, sits in Grace's lap and leans in towards Lavinia. "So, will you marry me?"

Lavinia

[You're on my deaf side, did I actually catch any of this?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 3, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

"Sera," she repeats, grins a little at Serafíne,  lights up for a second because there is something vaguely hopeful for the woman at her side. She wasn't entirely human, this one. On first glance, certainly, but there's far too much energy there. More than a mortal body can handle (she's fragile, though she doesn't let on. She's stronger than she looks, but she's not as strong as she thinks) "Glad to meet you."

This is Grace. And there she is, surrounded by strangers who feel like- well, now, this one is certainly different, but happens to have the misfortune of being on Lavinia's right side instead of her left. She scoots back enough so that she can kind of see Grace's face. A little. Just enough so that she doesn't have to turn her head to see the woman next to her. Her brows furrow for a second, like she was thinking, like she was straining.

But, once she puts two and two together, the woman laughs, something that is intent and warm and that stuck to the senses. She wasn't terribly loud, but she certainly cut through the ambient sound.

"Lavinia," she offered to the pile of GraJoCe. "Are you tryin' to make an honest woman outta me." Brow quirked, grin widened, "or are you proposing to Sera? I haven't been married in a little while, so I feel the need to clarify."

Ian

Lavinia said they were great. Grace and Sera clapped, as though Ian and Jae-shin had been nominated the evening's designated entertainment. Jae-shin responded to the approval with a hesitant smile, perhaps unsure if he ought to be encouraging the notion that combat was a spectator sport (or perhaps he was just shy.) He got to his feet with a smooth motion, dusting dirt and grass from his legs. Unlike Ian, he had on a tank top, but was otherwise similarly outfitted in athletic clothes. They'd obviously come here with the express purpose of doing what they'd just been engaged in.

Ian, of course, took the applause in stride. The side of his mouth quirked lightly, and he bent down into a loose, graceful bow. Slightly theatrical.

"You guys are welcome to join us, if you like."

The challenge hung in the air, dry and coyly tempting, though Ian did not expect that any of those seated nearby were likely to take him up on it.

Serafíne

Yo Sera! shouts Jo and our Sera tips her coffee mug in the creature's direction.  Her head turns; their collective reflection crawls across the gleaming surface of her glasses.  Does not comment on if-thens and why-wheres and data because that all sounds like bullshit to her.

Except of course you can predict stuff.  She's a seer.  The future and the past crack themselves open between her teeth.

They speak different languages, though.  On every level.

She is looking at them though: her golden head turned, her chin low over her narrow shoulder, the dark cut of that little black jacket clearly tailored for her: from the width to the length to the glove-like fit of the arms.  Custom-made.

Somehow the lift and curve of that cup is both greeting and farewell.  It's clear - body language, the way she holds herself - that this is only a temporary waystation.

"I don't believe in fucking monogamy," this to Lavinia, a sideline, a sidelong.  "So marriage is pretty much off the table.  I think she was proposing to you, though."

Then she's moving, turns around on her heel because she never sat down, just paused in her passage.  Glance back at Ian over a dark shoulder.  "Ask me when I'm sober.  Watch me say yes."

--

That's really all the farewell they get.  She's on her way down the path, into the shadows.  Sunglasses still covering her eyes.

Grace

It seems that Jo and Grace have already joined Ian and Jae-shin in the physical contact and pinning department, which -- let's be honest here, Grace was not really expecting at this juncture.

Like, how can Jo say that the universal code is a firmly definite thing when she herself is so unpredictable?

She's got a young woman sitting in her lap. This is not a thing that has occurred before, and she blinks. Her eyebrows move a little closer together, and her eyes seek a way out.

"Oh. Huh."

And, she stands up, dumping Jo to the ground.

"Oh, it is chaotic. Just, there are ways of quantifying chaos and analyzing its probabilities. Like, if you know a word starts with 'a', it's probably 'and' or 'at' and not 'aardvark'. But sometimes, it turns out to be 'aardvark', so you cannot completely discount anything. Like people just sitting in your lap, for instance."

Yup. Like that.

"Hi, Lavinia! I haven't seen you around..."

Jo Hamilton

"Tcht. Dude the only wrestlin I' do isn't like, something you'd do in like the park." But she turns her attention right back to Lavinia and Sera, one of whom is on her way out soon enough. "Dude. Nah. Sera totes would reject me. She's like a free woman or something. All rockin it and stuff. See my awesomeness? Just hold her down really." Her lips curl into a slow grin.

"But like for realsies? Yup. Toes asked you. But I mean if you're not cool bein the chick, I'll totally be your waifu. Just don't like, ask me to like cook you anything. Only skills I got be like, mac and cheese or stovetop. True facts. " Jo is in the midst of talking when she goes forward and is dumped, rolling on her back  and sitting up on her arms to look at them. "Dude you took my spot. What'd you expect? See you'd know that if you were like in the know of the if-thens of like my software."

Lavinia

She looks at Grace and Jo in the pile together, she furrows her brows and cocks her head to the side. She doesn't quite seem to put two and two together, confusion on her face born from the fact that she can't quite figure out if she actually heard the word aardvark or not.

Just like Grace said, if a word starts with an a it is probably not aardvark but sometimes it actually is aardvark.

There were words, though. A lot of words. A lot of words that Jo said and, even if Lavinia was watching her mouth (and she was) they didn't quite register. The look of query on her face almost made one wonder if she actually spoke English as a first language. (She did, but there were things that she completely mised. Like whatever the hell a way-foo was.)

"Uh..." yep, that is confusion on her face, "I think our love could survive a diet of mac and cheese and stovetop."

She looks back at Ian, contemplates for all of a second before she straightens up just a little. He doesn't expect that someone will take him up on this. She does light up, though, her expression is laced with being delight- ah, the look says, a challenge. That was what she misse about Oliver. She missed sparring with him. She missed having someone to exert herself with, and not in the typical sense that one thinks a lovely young female creature exerts herself.

Oliver wouldn't have done it, anyway. She wasn't his type, for one, and for two she was holy.

Whatever the case, there was a little bit of relief that someone had said something she actually understood most of it.

"Need me to take off my boots? Combat boots are a bitch, but I don't mind. It's up to you."

Ian

"I'll hold you to that," Ian offered in the wake of Sera's departure, though the odds of running into a sober version of Sera seemed small at best. He watched her go, attention momentarily riveted to the flow of her legs and the sun striking off her hair. Then Jo said something about becoming Lavinia's waifu and Ian and Jae-shin both looked at her, then at each other, before refocusing on the conversation at large.

As it happened, Lavinia took him up on his offer. When she did, Jae-shin smiled and stepped aside, ceding the ring to Ian. He seemed content for the moment to stand as an observer with the others. Ian, meanwhile, raised his eyes to meet Lavinia's gaze. She had a couple of inches of height on him, and a reservoir of resonance that seemed to sing with angelic grace. These facts alone made her a natural focal point.

"Whatever you're comfortable with." He took a few steps back from the group, leaving a buffer so that no one would get hurt. Then he held himself - still and poised - as he waited for Lavinia to give him some indication that she was ready.

Grace

"If it were a list of if-thens, that would be the most horrible pile of spaghetti mess I've ever seen, Jo. Do you see it like that? I'm so so sorry if that's what you have to parse."

Grace just shakes her head, like she can't begin to understand Jo's way of unfolding the universe. That's just... massively inefficient.

She also completely ignores the whole relationship talk. That's in Here Be Dragons territory as far as Grace is concerned.

"But, I think someday you will find the chaos. Existence cannot happen without it. Creation and destruction and stasis form the first abstraction. From there, all other things split off. They work together to create and do."

And she sits again, next to Jo (not on top of her). Then, she watches just in case she has to stand up again. Probabilities, right?

Jo Hamilton

Jo drops back down again, back flat on the ground. "Man now I gotta get rings and all that. " She was having a good time of it, tilting her head to look at Ian and Lav as they get prepared for sparring. But Grace, Grace and she are still discussing the universe and computers or..where did this start again? Oh. Forces.

"Totes would.But like the software kinda is like a mess. Cause like it's always trying to improve right? So it's never like perfect and stuff. Always all these kinks and stuff you gotta like work out. Bugs right? Bugs and stuff.So like why does the universe need chaos? Like why does it have to be like, chaotic and all that to even exist? What is it like, about chaos that is so like needed for the universal code? Why can't it like... just be envisioned and all that. Like.. well.. like planned is what I mean."

Lavinia

"I'll hold off, they're kind of a pain to get re-laced," she told Ian. Conversational, but no matter how she tried to be casual the sense of otherness always crept in. Unexpected. Unintentional. But other, like a stranger in a strange land, no mater how many lifetimes she's spent here.

She takes a second to walk to the circle. Calm and confident and inspiring.. She has a presence that draws attention, that keeps attention. With resonant voice and a being that radiates a boundless, every reaching, burning ember of forever. "And you don't need rings," she calls back, "jump the broom- be united for a year and a day then reup the next year."

Reup, like it was military service.

She straightened up at that point, taking a stance that was at once comfortable but born out of practicality. Someone who learned to defend herself in a bar and polished up later with actual training. "I'm out of practice," she tells him. Says it with sincerity, too. Deception wasn't in her framework.

She nods, and was most assuredly ready at that point.

Ian

Jo and Grace were embroiled in a conversation about code and chaos and the laws of reality, and meanwhile there was Ian and Lavinia, squaring off for physical combat. They really were a diverse group.

Lavinia said she was out of practice, to which Ian canted his head and asked, "want me to go easy?" It seemed a genuine offer, though something in his eyes glimmered darkly (tempting, challenging.) They had different combat styles. Different ways of moving. Perhaps the element of surprise would do both of their training some good.

[I'll roll init now. +8]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

"Nah, what would I learn if you went easy on me?"

(5+1d10)

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

Let it be said that her former companions were the ones who did most of the tactical things. They were the ones who thought things through. She wasn't impulsive so much as she was hindered. A few too many blows to the head, maybe the lack of hearing on one side, something made the reasoning part of her instincts slower. Made up for it in what was plugged into muscle memory.

She moved in, threw an elbow to the ribs. She does fight like she's had to deal with people. Something that spoke of learning rules and etiquette later. Let it be said, though, Lavinia acts and she commits

{action! Elbow to the ribs]

Ian

[Split action, 1a: Evade, 1b: strike to the kidney. First split Dex 5 + Athletics 4 (evasion specialty) -2]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Grace

"So it's evolving, right? The code itself mutating into new forms. You know how life evolves, right? Tiny errors in the DNA code occur when they get transcribed wrong and get passed down. Some of them are terrible, and some of them are beneficial, and the beneficial ones live on. The code of life doesn't think, oh, if I need to avoid light then I evolve an eye, so I'm going to develop an eye blueprint. It just randomly, chaotically, bubbles up.

"Sometimes an error in transcription isn't a bug. Sometimes, it becomes a feature. And thus, matter and forces and life and everything come into being, like an eye evolving on a worm. If there weren't errors, there would be no improvement either. There would just be a single, perfect zero. Nothing. The universe continually moves toward the one by cracking that zero apart, introducing errors which add stuff and do things that become its features. We use chaos to drive that movement toward something."

Ian and Lavinia spar, and Grace is more than content to watch and talk endlessly about chaos, because it's how she does. She's also thoroughly distracted.

Ian asks if Lavinia wants him to go easy on her, and she responds with violence. Grace laughs. "Noooope, she doesn't!"

Lavinia

[aaaand try and land something, dex3+brawl3]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )

Ian

[er, pretend I re-rolled those 10's]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[Dex 5 + Brawl 3 -3, +1 diff for called shot]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Jo Hamilton

"Man that ain't no fun. Then you miss all the happy-couple cosplay. Like for reals. That's really why people like get hitched. Cause you know, you don't need to like get married to get laid."

"Thing is, we don't know if like the universe doesn't think. I mean look at us right? We're just like low-end software. Stupid little things. And we're just like self aware enough that we like get it. And we try to mess with it. And since we're just like software, what is thought really? Like is thought what we think it is? Maybe it's just complex code itself that's like thought based. I mean like sure, rocks and stuff can't think, probably, but like...they're simplistic. What if like the more complex the code, the more thought it has? Then that like means like the universe is a thinker, and a better one at that. It's got small thinkers running around doing things so...ya know, collective thought Grace. "

"Course the problem is to think that logic is based on thought. But like, it's really just breaking down biases to like understand how things work. So like..I mean simplistic way.. I see like a cat, and it's white. So then I say, if it's a cat, it's white. Well...that's illogical because in the universe, there are coded many cats that are like many different colors. So it's not that our thought is logic, or like we're trying to like impose order, but that we're trying to understand the order and then like put that into the collective network to create a better program."

"I mean like I see what you're sayin tho, about errors and all that. I just don't know that like, it's chaos necessarily. I mean what if there is like an acceptable level of errors, and like nothing goes wrong beyond that. But that level is just like, there to like help move things forward? But I mean let's say that like sure, ok, chaos and all.. probabilities. You can still predict what's like gunna happen down to a tight likelihood. Like... when I play chess right? There's like certain things that beginners like to always do wrong. Swear it. Like always. I just know it's gunna happen. I mean sure you leave like wiggle room to like fix in case they don't, but nah.."

Jo squints a little as she turns her head to look at the two of them. "See... this is why I don't do that stuff. I mean.. it's voluntary pain. " She thrust her hand in the air though. "Get 'em! " Urging the blonde on.

Ian

Lavinia was fast. Ian only just barely managed to evade the blow, his spine curving back at a sharp angle before he spun on his axis and came around behind Lavinia, using her height to his advantage. She'd feel a sharp tap right over her left kidney where his fist made contact - a blow that could have been painful if he'd put any real force into it.

And then he was darting away, smooth and and agile (even by his standards.) When he met Lavinia's eyes again, he smiled subtly (pleased and impressed.)

Lavinia

That would have been bad. Oh, it would have been something that took the breath out of her, and she knows that. When she locks eyes with Ian she is alight, more the stars than the space between them. There wasn't any real force behind the blow, which speaks to his restraint. One, she thinks. One-zero.

He's grace in motion. He's fast. And she is delighted. Her lips upturned ever so slightly, restrained because she's in the zone. This is training.

And damned if she didn't love training.

Lavinia

[action! sweep the leg!]

Ian

[And again with the split action. 1a: evade, 1b: kick. Rolling to evade, -2]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5) ( botch x 1 )

Ian

[hahahahahaha]

Lavinia

[Dex3+brawl3, diff 7}

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 3, 3, 7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Grace

"It is chaos because otherwise we could not go anywhere with it. And it is ordered, because without order the chaos would fling us into nothing again. And it grows in the interplay between those two. It is possible for the universe to have many aspects. Like I said, there are very few parts of the universe that are an actual either-or.

"And, I've always felt that the universe thinks precisely because we are not separate from it. You are talking about how I see the thing, like a mind-fractal. Like, individual minds are fractal-shaped, but then beyond the individual is another level of the fractal -- the universal mind."

She leans back on the grass, content to watch the two at their voluntary pain. But see? The universe puts itself through voluntary pain as a way of improvement. Why not us?

Ian

Sometimes, the word really was aardvark. And sometimes cats didn't land on their feet.

Lavinia swept out her leg, mimicking the same tactic that Ian had used to defeat Jae-shin moments earlier. It was a tactic that often failed to be effective when turned on Ian (as Jae-shin could personally attest to,) but this time... it worked. Ian made to jump out of the path of Lavinia's combat boot, but he was too slow, and his balance tipped when she swept his feet out from under him.

He hit the ground hard on his side with a muffled thump and a tight exhale as the breath rushed out of his lungs. And for a second, he just lay there, as though he couldn't quite fathom how he'd managed to end up in the grass. In the distance, leaning against a tree, Jae-shin laughed.

Ian was going to have a bruise on his hip later.

He sat up, wiping some of the grass from his arm, and managed not to look too ungraceful as he got to his feet. When he glanced at Jae-shin, he raised his hand and flipped the other man off in a relaxed gesture. Lavinia, though, got a low chuckle. "I think that probably counts for two."

Jo Hamilton

"But why? I mean that's not really like, a reason. That's just like.. what people say when they don't have an answer but like they want someone to stop asking questions. Dude, it's not really a why, so much as a 'because.' If chaos is like necessary, then there has to be like a logical reason for it. Like why would it be like needed for progress? That sorta thing."

She curled her arms back, hand sunder her head as she watched the sparring. "I guess that's like a way to look at it. Guess I don't see it as fractal, but could totally work. Course not like I'd know how to like envision it other than like..binary or something. "

And then Ian drops. Jo would not consider herself a sports person, unless one counts MMOs and other online games as sports. But when Ian drops, she sits up and gives a "Yeah!" As if her team had just won a touchdown. "Man shouldn't we be like..making bets or something?"

Lavinia

She took a step back so Ian could get up. DIdn't get on top of him, didn't gloat, she just looked ready. That moment when adrenaline tries to push her senses. Her attention swung between Ian and Jae-shin, "you two are definitely friends."

A little admiring, that. Casual, but the barest bit of something else. It was a lonely road to walk, and she'd bid farewell to one of her longest standing companions, lost the other. Cooped up in a motel room waiting to find something to throw her full attention at. This was a welcome distraction, a welcome run of practice.

"Okay, so one-two? That one was more oh god, work than anything. You're pretty damn agile."

Kiara

"I'd go for the leggy blonde, myself. She's got attitude." That, from a voice drifting over near a tree close to Jo and Grace. There's a body leaning easily against it; knee high boots crossed neatly at the ankle; arms over her chest and this wild sort of tangle of dark hair set against dark red lips and a set of eyes harboring no lack of amusement for the scene in front of her.

Kiara Woolfe, if you please.

She hasn't just appeared, not without that tingling at the edges of awareness but it's been subtle tonight.

An idle passing of ways; the brunette's attire suggesting she was on her way from somewhere - or to somewhere else; somewhere requiring heels and a long skirt; a top with splashes of vibrant; glittering color and a short, fitted jacket that hugged in at her waist. A belt sat low on her hips and she seemed; with a brief cant of her head toward Grace; the dip of her mouth as she let her attention wander back to the sparring pair in the distance; quite content to remain a casual spectator.

Ian

And then there was Kiara, who Ian hadn't seen in... too long, really. And she'd just witnessed him getting knocked on his ass by a statuesque blond in combat boots. When he felt her presence, his eyes found her at the treeline and fixed there. Lavinia might wonder at the delay, but his focus was back a moment later, and this time when he looked at his opponent, there was a coil of predatory intent in the way his muscles tensed.

"So are you."

Grace

Ian hits the ground, and Grace's eyes widen like woah.

"Because, chaos is the most efficient method you can use to break a thing out of its limitations.  Efficiency. In code, in run-time, in processor cycles. If you want a good simulation, you set up some data, and you set up some simple-as-can-be rules that data has to follow, and then you randomize the fuck out of that. You don't engineer every little thing, because -- yeah, you could do it, but it'd take so much effort. You take it down to its most basic form, and let it evolve into what you need.

"Ian fell, and he'll learn a thing from that, and hopefully not do... whatever next time. Improving. He could have started out perfect, but what if perfection isn't perfect? What if the writer of this universe felt that nematodes were perfection, and created them perfectly, and allowed them to change, but never outside of 'nematode' because... how? Without chaotic fracturing, how would you accomplish that? It'd have to be recoded entirely from the ground up, if you wanted to make something new. It's all about efficiency."

Grace leans back so that her head goes backwards, to eye Kiara. "I'd go for Ian." Even though he just hit pavement. Somebody has to root for the 'underdog' right?

Lavinia

[Declare!: Splitting-

1a: punch to the wherever-the-hell-I-can-hit

1b: dodge the fuck out of whatever is coming]

Ian

[1a: kick, 1b: evade, rolling to kick -2]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

[Shit! evade! -3, because split. Dex3+Athletics 3-3=3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Lavinia

(and one more, because it goes first)

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )

Ian

[and the kick lands on Lavinia's side]

Jo Hamilton

"I know right? " Jo slipped her hand through her pockets, trying to locate something, given hat money wasn't exactly something she had a lot of. "Ha!" She sad as she pulled some piece of something out. "Taffy! I bet a... green apple taffy that she'll kick his butt like woah." Jo even waved it in the air, displaying her prize.

"Is it the most efficient? I mean like, what are we basing it on? See if the universe is built of a code we haven't like, figured out, and like don't know, stuff we're only getting snippets of, then it like, might be possible that the way we see data work here isn't like exactly the same higher up, or like..maybe we're misinterpreting it."

"Dude.. everyone knows mantis shrimp are perfection. I mean for reals. I bet those little guys are really the coders in disguise or something. Managerial programs hiding out like 'yah, we're just gunna be here in the ocean, like all awesome and stuff.'"

"I just figure, I don't know. I mean that's like the crux of it right? Completely got no clue. II'm still like, figuring out the first  code I ever ran across. So I figure there's somethin I ain't seeing."

Lavinia

[Attack! second split. Dex3+brawl3-3=3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[Dex+Ath -3]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 5 ) [WP]

Ian

[And they're tied again!]

Lavinia

She doesn't hold back, save for when she doesn't intend to hurt someone. She is invested, her movement is sound, confident after having actually landed a hit against her opponent, only to divide her attentions.

She'd said it before- Ian was agile. Ian knew what he was doing, had command over his body and she came close, so very close to evading that well-placed kick to the side but it made contact anyway. Close only counts with horse shoes and hand grenades, they say. Close to dodging doesn't mean actually dodging. She powered through the movement, tried to land her punch only to find it falling short.

The young woman pulled back at that point. Not ready to give up, but still beaming, still burning bright- a captivating representation of eternity wrapped in a finite form.

"I gotta figure out how you spread your energy so well. I'm usually one and done, this is a stretch," she compliments. Looks to the trees, back to where she had been, takes in the sights because the sounds fail her.

"Want to keep going?"

Kiara

He feels different to her, Ian. It's there in the way their eyes meet - the way her expression shifts just so - the edge of her smile; the glint of her eyes in the distance and then she's dipping her chin; directing that smile down toward Grace when she's reclining back to meet Kiara's quip with the notion she plans to support Ian.

The underdog.

The Verbena doesn't laugh at that; but she does let her teeth flash. "He does have stamina on his side." Does flick her eyes over the dark haired female beside her as she chatters about data and coding and the universe and - mantis shrimp. Doesn't shift her weight from her vantage point but rather lets her eyes comb the area.

It's not without some suggestion of vigilance; not without the subtle precision of a predator aware of the potential for conflict; for ambush while exposed.

Ian

They were two-for-two now, with Lavinia's impressive sweep countered by Ian's quick evasions and precise strikes. He'd trained in both kick-boxing and kung fu, and the latter showed in the way he moved, particularly in the fluid way he avoided Lavinia's attacks. That kind of training didn't necessarily make him a better fighter, though. The style itself mattered less than the wits and skill of the person using it.

Did he want to keep going?

"I think they're placing bets over there. Let's go one more. We should give them a winner."

Grace

"We should be mantis shrimp. Who doesn't want to see in over twenty colors and create cavitation bubbles that collapse at several thousand Kelvin with their pistol-arms, right? Bad. Ass."

"I don't know if it's the most efficient. And that's the beautiful part of it. There's more left to find out. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're wrong. Actually, we both are. Almost certainly."

"Whatcha looking for, Kiara?"

Lavinia

She gives him a thumbs up, taking the second to recenter and regain her breath. And with that, she was ready again.

[And an elbow to wherever is available, she ain't picky]

Ian

[1a: sweep, 1b: tackle, rolling for the sweep Dex+Brawl -2, diff 7]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 2, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Jo Hamilton

"Totes. Mantis shrimp all the way."

Jo waves her taffy in the air again. "I got green apple riding on you. Like the best flavor ever. " She sat up to look towards the sparring two,  then Kiara. "You know like, you can totally come sit and all. I mean I don't bite... well.not like...unless you want me to." She wiggled her eyebrows at her. "But for reals."

Lavinia

[Ack! Stay up! Dex3+athletics3=6, diff8]

Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (2, 3, 3, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Ian

[rolling WP to revert to a defensive action since she didn't go down]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Ian

[And Dex+Ath to evade, -3]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[Dex3+brawl3=6, diff 6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Ian

[and they tied again, lol, dammit]

Kiara

[It's Kiara, she's throwing everything off with her witchy voodoo, tbh.]

Ian

[Between her and Lavinia, there is too much hotness. Ian is clearly distracted.]

Lavinia

[Hot people sparring breaks the universe. True story]

 (declare: knee to the somewhere that is legal and respectable to do in an actual fight and not a bar fight)

Kiara

[+1 diff, Kiara Factor.]

Ian

[1a: kick, 1b: punch, 1c: punch, rolling to kick Dex+Brawl -3]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 3, 6, 7) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Land this! Dex+brawl, diff 7]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Ian

[punch 1 -4]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 6) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[punch 2 -5]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Kiara

What's she looking for.

It's been an overcast day but not overly breezy; barely enough to shake the leaves as it passes through the park. Still - it skims over the brunette's form; the briefest gust; stirs the hair that's fallen over her face; ruffles the collar of her jacket. Kiara's focus remains drawn into the distance; a line marring her otherwise smooth brow; drawing her eyebrows together.

Grace's query seems to cut through whatever it is that's distracting her and her eyes swing back; slip between her and Jo. Her mouth reshapes itself into a supple expression of mirth; the faintest trace of flirtation sliding into it like a promise and a dare when Jo says she doesn't bite. "Oh, I always want people to."

She straightens a little and moves around her tree to lean her spine against it; the edges of her jacket falling open; the heavy collection of necklaces jangling together as she does. "Nothing, in particular. I guess it's just - " This, to Grace, with another brief look over; away.

"Habit."

Ian

[Final score: Lavinia 4, Ian 6]

Ian

If it'd been a real fight, things might have gone differently. Maybe that strike to the kidney that Ian had done at the beginning of the round would have ultimately won him the edge he needed to take Lavinia out. Maybe, after knocking Ian onto the ground, Lavinia would have had just enough time to dive in for a killing blow. Real fights were much more brutal, and much less predictable, than sparring matches.

But they weren't really fighting, and it showed in the way that Ian grinned, panting softly as the setting sun lit a warm glow on his tanned skin. In those last few moments, he'd abandoned his efforts to evade Lavinia's blows in favor of an all-out flurry of attacks, striking out with a swift kick that was followed by two strikes from his fists - one to her side and one to her jaw. The final blow was barely a graze, tapping her in the chin as he reeled in his momentum.

She'd landed a solid knee to his rib-cage. If this had been a real fight, it would have broken bone.

"We should do this again some time. Lavinia?" She'd given her name earlier, but not to him.

Grace

"Mmm. I understand," says Grace, and she remembers a time of furtive looks and predator lookouts. It happens. Their lives are not easy ones, but whose are?

"I believe you owe me a green apple taffy?" Grace says, swiveling a look at Jo.

Lavinia

She had no idea what was coming. Expecting one blow, preparing for one, knowing that she could land another, keep them tied, but she wasn't expecting for Ian's sharp mind and sharper reflexes to beat her out in the end. There was one hit, a solid hit, one that was landed in purpose to the gut but she left herself open. Couldn't possibly divide her attention so evenly as Ian could.

His first blow lands easily, she expected one but not the second. Not the third. The final blow was a literal tap on the chin, something she didn't shy away from but did make her exhale sharply, close her eyes for just a second.

There was a certain degree of brutality that came in real fights. There was something she had originally grown accustomed to, that her original knowledge had come from desperation- like being a cornered animal. Growing into something more sophisticated, more practiced, more poised because someone taught her what to do instead of letting panic take hold. She knew this wasn't real, knew it was training and seemed to delight in the fact. Revel in the moment that she'd missed this.

They should do this again. The world came back from pinpoint focus, from the moments where she was paying attention to what was directly in front of her. "Yeah," a confirmation of her name. "Yeah," she repeated, catching her breath and beaming- all radiance, this one, "I'd like that. Do you have a phone number or something?"

A second.

"Or a name?"

Jo Hamilton

Jo grinned. She pulled back her lips to show her white teeth in the widest grin she could  manage. "Ha!" She pronounced at Kiara. "Well you know, if you like waltz over here, I'll totally take a few nips. Course you'll have to share with her." She gestured her thumb at Lavinia, finally looking back at the two of them as they sparred.

"Ah man." Jo let out a huff and held the taffy over to Grace. "Next time champ! Next time!"

Grace

[I think I'm just going to have Grace pass out on the grass, because I need to pass out XD]

Ian

He didn't have his phone on him, so he jogged over to the trees where Jae-shin stood, bending down to pull his cell out of the athletic bag that rested near the Akashic's feet. As he did so, Jae-shin murmured something quietly in Korean, and Ian glanced up. He didn't respond, but the two of them exchanged looks that held traces of teasing fondness. Lavinia hadn't been wrong on that count - the two were clearly friends (as much as Ian was ever really friends with anyone.)

When Ian returned, he held out his phone. "Ian." And when she handed him hers, he added his name and phone number to her contacts. There was a lingering sense of until next time about the way he handed it back.

When they were done, he jogged lightly across the grass to where Kiara stood. The sun was going down on the horizon and splashes of sunset hues shone through the leaves above her head. Ian glanced up once, quietly thoughtful, as he took in the underside of the canopy: the light, the colors, the pattern of branches. The leaves whispered against each other in the breeze.

He was sweating. He wasn't wearing a shirt (or shoes,) but this was hardly an unusual sight (hardly something she hadn't seen before.) When he met her eyes, he smiled.

He felt different. More like himself, in a way.

"Hi." He let the soft weight of that greeting linger a moment. "I have to get going, but... we should catch up soon."

Kiara

There is laughter at that; a slide of the brunette's dark eyes over Jo's face. The way her chin lifts just a touch. The idle motion of her fingers where they're sliding over the rough surface of the tree behind her. It all speaks to something but there's that sense she has no deeper intent (at present) to pursue it. That the seductive coil of her form where it stands (as if Kiara really were ready to pounce in some manner for the right development) and the lingering consideration of her stares are but a passing moment.

A little focus from a creature who feels as if she's peeling back your skin for the sole purpose of laying a hand to the most vital part of you and jolting you back to life. It's hard not to watch Kiara and wonder if she doesn't take satisfaction in it - unsettling others.

Pushing at the confines of comfort without ever quite overstepping beyond the limit of no return. "Buy me a drink, first." Jo's response as Kiara shifts her weight; smiling in the near-stranger's direction as Ian and Lavinia approach; Ian jogs toward her and the Verbena's focus shifts to him; her smile shifts a little; opens up; there's an awareness to it; a familiarity for the other.

"Hi, yourself."

Also an intimacy in the way she touches his body with her eyes; those long lashes dipping to cover the dark irises. She pushes off her tree; smells like the sunshine and spring and some vague; undefined thing. Something sweet; something potent. "Me too."

Get going; her arm brushes his bare skin as she passes close on her way to; one imagines; to just that. Beltane eve; the pagan must have engagements; celebrations to mark the abundance of the earth. "Call me, I have a feeling I've missed some developments."

Lavinia

She types quickly enough, like a person who clearly wasn't some erudite creature. Typed evenly and rhythmically- Lavinia Cervantes, and a phone number from Texas. Dallas/Fort Worth area. She handed it back with a little wave of her fingers, checked the phone to see what name he put himself under, and committed it to memory. (Along with noting where the area code came from. This isn't her first rodeo, to quote the song I've been everywhere, man.)

Her attention swung again, over to look at Kiara and something... clicks.

"Wolf," she said, then shook her head, "I mean Woolfe... right?"

Dawning recognition, though she met her in colder seasons. More Yule than Beltane, but Beltane was coming. Lingered at the back of her mind, she'd never been the solitary sort but it looked like it was ritual for one this year. No need to mope about it.

Jo Hamilton

She flops back with a bit of a groan. "Man chicks are so needy." She looks towards Grace for a moment, noting the now napping woman. "Right well..." She gave her a small nudge, and when she didn't move, she shrugged and embraced the concept of napping on the grass.

Kiara

The cant of her head is rather wolfish in response. A slow blink and then that subtle; suggestive smile. The red lips parting to reveal sharp white teeth. Wolf, without question. "Right. Kiara." A beat; Lavinia needs little to pull focus to her; her presence is enough.

The brunette's eyes stay on her face for a beat; her body half twisted in a prior inclination.

"Nice moves out there. Not everyone can keep up with him." Ian, referenced with this slight little look.

Ian

In that fraction of a moment when Kiara's hand made contact with his skin, the rest of the world went still. Then Jo said something, and Ian glanced toward her, noting for the first time that Grace had fallen asleep in the grass.

"I will."

For what it was worth, he sounded sincere. But Jae-shin was waiting for him a few trees down, and the evening was fast encroaching into night. So he nodded a goodbye to Lavinia and loped off quietly into the grass.

Lavinia

There's something in the way she positions herself. A little far back, enough that she positions herself a little to the left, keeps people on her literal good side, but clear enough that she doesn't turn away from them. She's aware, aware that she doesn't have the luxury of not keeping her back to some exit. Not if she didn't want to hear half of her conversations at least.

So there she is, with those dark eyes like the space between the stars, that light up like lightning does. Something like torches, with a voice that cuts clear and says fear not without having to say a word. She drew attention to herself, obvious without ever having to lift a finger. Her eyes stay with Kiara's, a smile grazes her features.

Ian gets a bit of a wave- more a raise of the hand than anything- and she continues onward, "he's something else. Felt great to actually be doing something instead of waiting for something to happen, you know?"