[closed]

[sistershoggoth]

CHARACTERS: Alnair Brood, Asuka, Murphy, Bellamy.
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY(S) :041/042
SUMMARY: Annie organizing other people's lives for them because that's the only way she can deal with her own.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

Comments

[sistershoggoth]

[ Sometimes you just have to take a hit and you can't be scared of the pain. She'd put full commitment into waging war on him, and now that fucking shield is coming right at her. She doesn't get the chance to put a foot back and brace, she stumbles to the side, teeth grit against a grunt of discomfort. A twinge of anger to have gotten thumped like that, it motivates her.

The whole exchange is fair though. First time fighting someone, you don't know all their little tics and tactics for working their way around a difficult situation. Her eyes narrow at him as she resets. The facts of this match up are clockwork and cold. He can get rid of that shield as easily as he pulled it up, but he can also keep her at bay with it as long as he has it. She has to plan for both simultaneously. Options: get the thing out of his hands, get behind him quick enough to bash him in the back of the head, or knock him off his feet, making that shield more a liability than a guard.

The easiest option would be to get behind him and loop this chain around his neck... But like a bolt she realizes how much that would telegraph between them. She gives a rueful smile, and carries on thinking about it as she circles him. ]

[somnifacient]

[He's presented her with a problem, then. That much is obvious by the way they've settled into circling each other, assessing how and when to move next. He keeps his shield up, and it's enough to obscure the majority of his face and body, but Noctis' voice echoes from behind his new defensive position.

He sounds irritatingly amused, despite the tingling tension in his body, wrought from adrenaline.]

What's wrong?

[A flash of a grin, obvious through their link.]

Done already?

[Provoke her into acting first; it's easy enough to do, if all Noctis has to do is turtle up.]

[sistershoggoth]

[ Fair, fair, fair, what is she going to do just stay on the edges? Doesn't sound like her. She's going to have to do something a little off the books, a little wild to see if she can push his reaction off balance. That would be the best way to possibly sneak around that shield... She doesn't stop to think about it. She's not worried about him attacking her any faster than she can react, so when her hands lift like she might just try bringing them down on his shield... what she's actually doing is using the momentum of her entire body as she swings a leg around, chambers it back, and then kicks out from the hip with everyone she's got.

Which was a good amount before, she has a build like a gymnast, tiny but strong. But never anything more than human without her tentacles.

Until the metal under the heel of her boot collapses into an obvious dent. ]

Oh shit.

[ She actually stops to peer at it. ]

[somnifacient]

[The thunk might as well have reverberated through his bones. Noctis shudders with the force, grimacing against it, doubly so since he was expecting swords ricocheting off the surface of his shield — not the heel of Annie’s boot. A foot moves back to catch his balance, and from this side, it’s impossible not to notice the sizable dent suddenly poking through towards him.

The flow of the fight is definitely interrupted now, if only because Noctis suddenly feels like a child who’s just knocked over an expensive lamp. It’s his shield, of course — it’s a part of him, it’s an extension of himself and yet… it wasn’t always. He still feels some weird, unreasonable accountability for the state of all of the Royal Arms.]

…oh man.

[He actually lowers the shield a bit, while Annie peers at it.]

She’d be pissed.

[Who’s she? The Queen it belonged to before him, his ancestor, and though he’s certainly never met her, he’s pretty sure she’d be scary.]

[sistershoggoth]

[ She lets her swords slip from her hands, fingers curling around the chain instead, looking at that dent suspiciously, a hand on her hip. ]

How old is that thing...

[ Since when can she dent steel ok. She's good, but not that good. ]

[somnifacient]

Really old. A few hundred years, probably?

[He's not 100 percent certain, since he never took the time to memorize his way down the Lucis Caelum family tree. Frowning, he looks from the shield to Annie.]

You've been holding back. [If she has that kind of strength, then she could have overpowered him when they were clashing blades at the start.]

[sistershoggoth]

[ Maybe, slightly. But not a lot, like the normal amount you held back when you were trying to get the measure of someone that you knew you'd definitely have a rematch witch. ]

Not that much.

[ Knowing her own strength was very important, you made your choices based on what you could and could not accomplish... Not knowing where that line is... Exciting. But also irritating. ]

[somnifacient]

This thing has been hit by a behemoth and it's never dented.

[A flash of the creature in his head, for her benefit. Giant, all muscle and claws and fangs and rage. Purple-ish, too.]

Just another example of my power being kind of a joke here. [Especially if she had been holding back on him. Some "baby god" (as she would have put it) he is.]

[sistershoggoth]

[ She gives him a bitter, lop-sided grin, ]

You'll get used to it.

[ She stills remembers: waking up halfway across the world, powerless, small. ]

[somnifacient]

I'm not so sure.

[Are you used to it, Annie? He chooses not to voice this aloud.]

You wanna continue still? [With his shield and its dent. :( ]

[sistershoggoth]

[ She opens her mouth to say yes, but then-- ]

Uh. Actually... let me figure out if I can do that... consistently or not... Before I break some of your freakin' bones or something.

[somnifacient]

...All right.

[It sounds reasonable enough, and so Noctis dismisses his shield. It flickers away as he speaks.]

Let me know if you figure something out. You already have enough changes going on, what with your chest. [You know, leaking.]

[sistershoggoth]

Ugh. When is it your turn to do freakin' alien puberty...

[ So she can laugh at his misfortune, obviously. ]

[somnifacient]

One puberty was enough, thanks.

[Can you imagine Noctis going through puberty, he would be 1000% more awkward than he is now.]

I don't need an alien one, too.