Waystop

[Silva]

Pry tensed instinctively as she pulled back her hair into a messy bun. No surprise attacks, but she could tell one was coming.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Silva

[Cyanic]

@Sorana let's use tags so we don't miss each other's posts since there are a lot of people currently :OO btw, I posted a reply in the previous page just in case you didn't see it

[Life&Death]

Mr Amber considered how to attack.

I’m not training her, just sparing, so I shouldn’t attack faster then she can react. Keeping his face neutral he swung his cane towards Pry’s head.

@Silva 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Life&Death

[+Sorana]

@Cyanic

Quote

Sorry took me a while to write it. I'm not completely satisfied, but it will do.

Damaya took a few glowing spheres out of her bag and simply looked at them for a moment. The glowed in a soft light, almost soothingly soft. Almost. Taking a deep breath she inhaled the stormlight, it’s raging wrath and power terrifying and yet at the same it felt good.
“I know how to do illusions. There is only one little problem with them.”
she told Araha and closed her eyes. She hesitated a moment and then let herself fall into the darkness. It consumed her thoughts, her mind, everything else was pushed away until nothing was left, but the one thing she needed for an illusion. Pain and despair flooded her mind, let her double over when they hit her with the power of a fist falling down. She gasped and tried to get away, tried to flee, to hide. The darkness was fast, but maybe she could be faster. One single thought entered her terror driven mind like a candle in the night. She wanted to show Araha. And with an internal cry, so let loose, tumbled down in this endless pit hidden inside of her mind.

Stormlight escaped her body in a rushing motion and formed figures, the outline of a door in their background.

 

The man towered over her broken body, staring down at her whimpering form with dark, emotionless eyes.
“Craft an illusion. Something useful. Change my face.”
he commanded and Damaya breathed in some stormlight, felt the moment it started to knit some of the broken bones and stopped the bleeding of the gash on her arm. She tried to picture another face for this man, the details, his hair, his nose, his mouth. A scar on his cheek, his hair a light brown. Breathing out, the stormlight flew around his face – and evaporated, leaving her weak and hurting behind. With an exasperated grunt the man hit her again, grabbed her arm and snapped it with a slight motion of his hand.
“You will go back to this Waystop. And when you return, you are useful. Otherwise you will wish you were dead. And you won’t be for a long time.”
He turned around and left, throwing a few glowing spheres at here, before leaving the room.

 

Damaya fell to her knees, tears flowing over her cheeks, the illusion next to her vanished when she couldn’t sustain it anymore. Thankfully.
“Memories.”
she tried to say, but the word came out wrong. Her voice sounded wrong, raw. Hurt.
“The only thing I’ve been able to do are memories.”

Edited September 3, 2018 by Sorana

[Silva]

Pry ducked and let the cane fly above her. Mr. Amber regained his balance fairly quickly.

Good to know. She thought. Don’t depend on him over-swinging.

 She gave him a look of ‘are you going easy?’ then set her posture on the defensive. She wasn’t going to reveal her idiosyncrasies quite yet.

@Life&Death

[Life&Death]

Mr Amber grinned as Pry easily dodged his single attack. Concentrating, he sent his cane darting quickly at her, not letting up. A direct stab at her face shifted into a sweeping attack at her legs, intending to trip her. He then sent two blows towards her side followed by another spinning backhand towards the head, all with his left hand.

@Silva

[Cyanic]

@Sorana that was really good :OO (well the writing, not the situation she's in, poor Damaya :c )

Araha covered her mouth as Damaya showed a traumatic memory through Illumination. It was horrible, she never knew people could be that cruel, she'd heard about it, read about it, but that was the first time she saw it almost first-hand. At the man from Damaya's memory, she felt intimidated, but more so she felt anger. Who was he? What gave him any right to treat another like that? She also felt her own distress at how twisted stormlight could be, and sorrow for what Damaya had to go through, was this what Damaya felt and saw every time she saw stormlight?

Araha's emotions were a storm in her, many different ones. She wanted to intervene somehow, to help her friend, to do anything, but it was just an image made by Illumination, though not any less real.

When the memory was over, she saw Damaya on her knees, tears flowing. It took a moment, then Araha rushed over to her, kneeling by her.

“Memories.”
“The only thing I’ve been able to do are memories.” Damaya said in a quiet voice, almost a whisper.

Araha welled up, she wanted to help her badly.

Then she embraced Damaya, she'd let go if she felt her pull away, but right now she hoped Damaya would accept the gesture, at least. "Th-Then," she stuttered as she hugged, her own tears started to slowly flow. She sniffed. "Then let's make our own memories. Better memories." She concluded, still embracing.

[Silva]

Pry jumped backwards after Mr. Amber’s cane came towards her face. She recognized the routine, though the left hand messed with her a little. It dawned on her how out of practice she was when he glanced her head after she’d blocked the attacks to the side. Pry stepped to the right - he’d been backing her towards the edge of the training grounds.

”How do you prevent friction when you switch grips that fast?” she asked between attacks, barely keeping up.

@Life&Death

Edited September 3, 2018 by Silva

[+Sorana]

@Cyanic
 

Quote

Thank you. I somehow ended up with a real bad background for the character. I got carried away while writing the posts in 16yp thread

Damaya buried her face in Araha's shoulder and cried freely. She hugged her back, held to her, like a drowning man might hold on to a life line.
"I have to go back."
she sobbed.
"I have no money, no place to stay. They took me in after the war, when I was close to starving somewhere in the Alleys. I have no place to go except back to them."
"I would love to make new memories, but I don't know how."

[Life&Death]

"Practice, and my cane has a very smooth handle for these exact scenarios." He lifted the cane, showing the handle. It was made of a smooth polished dark wood, with gold markings on it. In fact, it looked more like a small sword or knife handle then a cane handle.

@Silva

Edited September 3, 2018 by Life&Death

[Sherlock Holmes]

Tena swung her staff, casually interfering with the sparring. Pry skid to a stop, and Mr. Amber scored a hit. “Most notably,” Tena commented, “you have to be aware of your surroundings in battle. If you’re fighting one soldier and another attacks, you’re toast.” Tena ignored Pry’s angry look and pulled out her cellphone, posting on Facebook that she was available for providing more orphans with shelter, food, and education if more should need it.

[Cyanic]

Quote

@Sorana yeah, but when done well, traumatic or dark pasts/backgrounds can make for really compelling characters, and I'd say you did this well!

Araha continued hugging Damaya, and she felt Ran turn into her woman form and stand beside them, putting her own hand on Araha's back. Araha's tears still flowed, which made it hard to speak. She sniffed, "f-for the time being, I can pay for your room. I talked with Ms. Yzabet about the price for the room, for both of us, if we help around, 10 chrysts a night isn't so bad." She paused, "but after our time here, I can take you to the village I grew up in, it's in the Alleyverse, but away from the city. Master Soren is kind, if strict, but he'd never hurt someone under his care. And if you don't like that, you can come with me, Master sent me out on a journey, and I don't think it stops here at the Waystop." Araha smiled, and pulled away a bit just enough so that she was making eye contact with Damaya without letting go.

"Those people, in the city, you don't owe them anything anymore, I think you paid your debts when they started..." Araha paused, finding the right words, "when they started being cruel."

Edited September 3, 2018 by Cyanic

[Silva]

She glared the woman who had interfered with the sparring, then traced her hand over her own cane. The light hickory wood had an indent carved in as a handle. Pry shifted her cane to her left hand. The indents from right hand made it feel wrong, but she ignored it.

”For a righty you’re pretty good on both sides,” she commented.

She swung at the air, the movement felt awkward with her other hand, yet still somehow right.

@Life&Death

Edited September 3, 2018 by Silva
Grammar

[Sherlock Holmes]

Iffina formed as two axes, the one in her left hand a mighty battleaxe, the other a smal hatchet with greater reach. “I’m left-handed,” she muttered. She swung the shorter axe and formed her Shardplate at the same time. The Shardplate looked and acted like Samus Aran’s power suit, oddly. 

[+Sorana]

@Cyanic

Quote

Thanks a lot for the compliment! I feared that it was a bit over the top.

Damaya stayed where she was, gradually relaxing. Her breathing turned deeper and more even, and she finally stopped crying. Araha's arms were comforting, offering nothing, but a silent "you are not alone".
"You don't have to pay for me. As long as I can work for a place to sleep I'll do that."
she said after a while and shifted back on her knees. Using a sleeve she tried to dry her face and smiled embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. Now I just poured everything over your head."
She turned her head around and looked over at Ran.
"Thank you. Thank you both."
Hesitating she looked down at Coru.
"You three."
Her hands tightened around Arahas and she took a deep calming breath. She could go? The thought felt almost unreal. She'd dreamed of leaving, but she had tried once, failed and never tried to escape again. The terror, the fear sat deep in her bones, holding her in a grip that she hadn't been able to break. And Araha told her, that she could leave? That they would find a way to survive, to journey the world. Even imaging the possibilities the opportunities almost made her dizzy. The darkness that had griped her outside slowly started to go away, fleeing from the hope that Araha had offered. She knew, that it would come back, there would always be days when it would be stronger, when it would take a grip at her, try to drag her down. When it would claw at her soul and try to swallow her up. But as long as she had hope, as long as she had a friend, she would find a a way to climb out, to withstand it, until it went sleeping again. It would be hard, but she could find a way. Maybe there was really a way.

"I'd love to come with you. Where ever you go."
she replied, choosing her own path for the first time in her life.

[Cyanic]

Quote

@Sorana np, not over the top at all c: now the only thing that could really ruin this nice, heartwarming moment is if Araha was actually a mercenary working for the bad people that abused Damaya, Denth style D: but that's WAAAAAAAY too dark for me, and I would not write that in. Ever XD

Damaya smiled wider, "don't be sorry, we're friends now alright? And friends tell each other everything... well most things." she chuckled as she wiped her own tears and got up. She was happy that Damaya opened up to her. What made her even happier was her actually accepting Araha's offer of journeying with her. It was likely those cruel ones would try to look for Damaya though when they found her missing, but she'd be there to help her friend out if ever they were found.

"Let's head to my room for now, it'd be strange if I came back outside without finding the thing that I was supposed to be looking for!" Incidentally, her room was nearby. She left the door open in case Damaya wanted to enter, then found something sufficient to back up the excuse: her knuckle dusters. She equipped them expertly, and hit them together. With that, she turned to Damaya. "I'm going to head back outside, feel free to stay here if you want." Araha nodded.

Then she realized something.

She hadn't seen the dangerous man in the training grounds outside, that meant that he might still be in the lobby somewhere. "...on second though, it might be a better idea if we went back outside, the man I warned you about might still be in here, and it might be better to have more people around. Ran, can you cover our backs?"

"Right," Ran nodded and flitted around the hallway, looking in the lobby, then rushing back. "He's still there. I'll lag behind."

Araha nodded and motioned for Damaya to follow her, once she did, they'd jog back out to the grounds where everyone was.

Quote

these are what her knuckle dusters look like:

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ragnarok8812/images/0/0b/RO_KnuckleDusters.png/revision/latest?cb=20150125194624

Edited September 3, 2018 by Cyanic

[Life&Death]

“Thank you. You are not bad either, it takes skill to avoid those attacks as well as you did. How about you try attacking me next?”

@Silva

[Silva]

She swung low. Like she expected he reacted fast.

Perfect. Pry thought.

 She moved her dueling cane in and out higher up, close enough to make him think she could actually hit him, but that wasn’t her ultimate goal.

@Life&Death

[Life&Death]

As the staff whistles towards his legs, Mr Amber sent his own cane cracking like a whip towards it. 

Unexpectedly Pry changed its direction upwards. Stepping back Mr Amber avoided the blow but collapsed as his left leg twisted under him.

Groaning in pain, he landed on his back, his leg bent under him and his cane falling from his fingers.

[Silva]

“Are you okay?” Pry rushed over, feeling bad for not taking his leg into account when sparring. She knelt down and motioned for the woman nearby to come quick. “Is there anything I can do?” 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Tena lazily walked forward and healed the man's leg with Progression. Her 'power suit' deformed. 

Quote

This is what the armor looks like:

 

 

[Life&Death]

Cursing his stupidity Mr Amber stood back up. “I’m terribly sorry, I’m not as mobile as I used to be.” The pain from his fall left him as progression surged through his body. Nervously he glanced at his leg, but it remained twisted and weak. Angrily he shook his head. “I will not be able to spar very much, but my niece, who should be here shortly will be able to as much as you need.”

Quote

Sorry if you wanted to keep sparing with Mr Amber, it just wouldn’t make sense for his character development if he didn’t have this weakness. I’m happy to keep sparing with my other character.

 

[Silva]

Quote

Sounds good. I have no big plans for Pry, this works for now.

Pry held her hands out to help him up . She never quite knew what to say in these situations.

”It’s getting late. We probably should turn in for the night,” she settled on finally.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Silva

[I Am Witless]

Yzabet stumbled outside, inhaling some Stormlight to heal herself. She used Progression so rarely these days that she nearly forgot that she had the surge. The Stormlight was better than a drink from an icy mountain stream, and refreshed her beyond what it should have.

Yzabet spotted multiple people dueling, and paused to watch. Mr. Amber had taken to his role quite well.

[Sherlock Holmes]

"Yo, Yzy!" Tena shouted at the woman. "Have I met you before?"