Midnight Sparring

Midnight Sparring
Date of Scene:	27 December 2012
Location:	Southern Continent - Chocobo Fields
Synopsis:	Lavi steps out for some late night training and ends up delivering a few life lessons.
Cast of Characters:	Sable, Lavi

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Lavi has posed:
The broad expanse of the grassy plains known as the Chocobo Fields, for its abundance of the strange wild birds, is a peaceful place in the dead of the night. Overhead the luminous silver disk of the full moon hangs in the sky, its soft pale glow painting the landscape with a dim white tint that gives the evening an enchanting ambiance.

Very little stirs in the half-darkness. The indigenous life has bedded down for the evening in the safety of their nests and the nocturnal predators remain tucked away in the cover of the trees, waiting for a less illuminated night to seek out their prey.

In stark contrast to this quiet backdrop, a single massive figure moves in the light of several torches. Forming a broad circular ring in the center of the field, the brilliant yellow-orange glow creates a dome of illumination by which the armored titan goes about her exercise. Twin crystalline swords cut through the air in perfectly angled lines, their shimmering blue power fields leaving neon streaks of magic in their wake. The sheer speed at which the huge blades are whipped about gives little time for the afterglow to fade and the deadly weapons create a truly spectacular dance of interwoven lights that is easily visible for miles.

Sable has posed:
You never know when information may be useful.

But some nights-- he needed places like this to shut his brain down. The constant yammering dulls to a dull ache. The darkness closes in on all sides of the lighted glow, shrouding even those would aren't that far away. Sable is laying on the grass in the vast darkness of the plains. A faint breeze ruffles the grass in green waves, the stars overhead almost startlingly bright and immediate.

They are stark against the ceiling of black and he traces them with his eyes until he spots the fuzzier outlines of night beaten back by illumination.

Sable sits up, reaching behind him to grab his backpack and approach the lighted area curiously.

He does so indirectly, spiraling around the area in question once he catches the movement. Predators and prey remain tucked away as he passes, or withdraw a little further into their dens. Eventually he recognizes Lavi and his eyebrows raise slightly as he watches the smooth and spectacular movements. He stands there in silence, the light occasionally playing across parts of his face or body as he takes in the fighting kata with intense concentration, watching the play of every muscle and the trail of every streaking crystalline arc.

Lavi has posed:
The motions are smooth and crisp, each glowing line cut with impossibly perfect geometric precision. Most humans would find such a task practically unachievable with even a single small blade but both of the titanic swords dance in the giant's grip in tandem, carving out an intricate blueprint of death in burning blue relief.

The lingering power of the swords burns into the retinas the same as if one were staring into the glowing coils of a light bulb and trying to focus too hard on their whirling motions creates a hazy fog in the vision that makes it difficult to see the person behind their frantic motions. The effect is mesmerizing, like a mirage in the desert.

Lavi is alerted to the presence of her guest long before he comes within range of the glowing firelight. A mute chime in her ears and a shifting of the data runes spooling across her eyes points him out to her, matching his biorhythms to those of the boy from Traverse and the bar the evening before. She smiles but does not cease her practice for several minutes, waiting until the first drop of sweat begins to bead down the side of her face to finish up the set with an elaborate flourish.

Planting both weapons in the dirt, she turns and walks over to where a massive jug sits by the edge of the torch-ring, hefting it up easily in one hand and taking a draw from the fresh water within.

"There's no need to hide in the shadows like a rat, my friend." She turns her head and beams a smile at him. "Come, join me."

Sable has posed:
"A lot more than just rats out here.." Sable says in an even voice, still slightly disgruntled by the giant's fondness for drink and song and stories, and completely not in that order. This is shuffled aside by the look of abstracted awe on his face.

She wields those glowing crystal swords with an ease that make them look weightless but he is more than certain he wouldn't be able to even lift them. A few long moments of silence follow and when he regains control of his expression, Sable gives her a cautious smile, stepping inside the ring of torches only when he is invited. "But I didn't mean to disturb your practice.

I was just curious who else could be all the way out here." Sable readjusts the backpack slung over his shoulder squinting about and blinking several times as he tries to get used to the illumination again.

Lavi has posed:
Lavi chuckles, her smile turning into a grin as she moves back over towards the center of the ring. Unlike in town, her thundering footsteps are muted here by the lack of concrete or hardwood floors, and it allows the grace of her movements to shine through despite the sheer bulk of the armor encasing her body.

"There is nothing that lurks in the darkness which I fear, little one. After what I have lived through, I am not sure that I am even capable of such a thing any more." That was a lie, ofcourse. While she felt no dark apprehension or paralyzing shock the way that humans did, she was still capable of being worried about the lesser beings that she had been created to protect. The pain of the doom of an entire world under her aegis was something that would linger for a very long time.

Still, dwelling on suffering was not the way of her people, and she shrugged the thought off even as it tickled at the corners of her mind. The giant plucks one of her blades from the dirt and casually twirls it around in the air, the power field flaring to life at her touch once more, and leaving a shimmering pinwheel of magical fire.

"You are not disturbing me, though. I came out here so as not to disturb the people of the city, actually," Lavi smirks. "So what of you? What business do you have alone in the dark?"

Sable has posed:
"I'm around people all day. It's better to see the stars from out here." Sable points up at the night sky above, keeping an eye on that pinwheel of fire rather than following the path of his words.

The teenager gives a rueful grin as he lets the backpack down on the ground, leaning it up against his leg as he looks up at her. "And if anything tries to pick a fight with me, I don't have to bother about picking up the pieces... or have to smile and pretend I don't want to stuff some of the people I work with into a dumpster."

Lavi has posed:
The giant casts her gaze skywards for a moment and lets out a soft hum of consideration. She could understand the need to have time to oneself, even if that was a luxury she rarely got to enjoy in the past. Now, with so much free time, she was finding it rather disconcerting to be completely alone so often.

"In my world there were no stars to see. The sky was filled with chemicals and magical residue that blotted out their faint light. Even the sun's radiance was tainted." Lavi looks back down at him, grinning again. "I prefer the company of others, myself. I was designed to be a protector, a guardian of the weak."

She grabs the other sword and takes a few steps back, twirling both of them playfully now. "However, I can understand the desire to cut loose without regards for collateral damage. Perhaps you would care to use me as an outlet? It sounds like you have some aggression that needs venting."

Sable has posed:
Sable looks at Lavi consideringly for a long time. A minute passes and then another as he shifts to the other foot and then freezes there, as though turned inwards and chasing some thought down a long and winding corridor. "Designed to be a protector?" he asks Lavi, not in a curious voice but in a flat one, mouth pursing slightly.

Like Lavi however, it seems he isn't willing to let himself dwell for very long, and snaps himself out of his daze. "Well." he says with a grin."You interrupted my perfectly good nap, so obviously you must pay." He takes a mechanism from his pocket, the pocketglaive snapping into position, the humor dripping off his voice as he tries to cover up his apprehension with blatantly false bravado.

"I'll try not to break your pretty glass swords." He keeps the blade by his side, gesturing for Lavi to go first.

Lavi has posed:
The bombastic remarks and show of bravery are met with a burst of hearty good-natured laughter from the titan. "Indeed? Well, I do appreciate your concern for my gear. I shall likewise make an effort not to mistake your weapon for a toothpick when I pause for a snack."

Quickly getting into the mood for some friendly sparring, Lavi mentally adjusts the power output of her suit to a less brutal level. Steam hisses softly as it is expelled from slender vents across the magi-tek armor and whirring actuators spin at the joints as the systems comply.

For a few moments, she sizes up the boy with a fresh look, now taking in him through the eyes of a warrior facing a challenger. The computers buzz softly in her ears as relevant information is delivered via magical sensors and processed into a short-hand code to be fed onto her eyes via blinking lights within the angled gorget. Time to see what he's made of.

The only warning Sable gets is a slight adjustment of the massive woman's expression, her grin expanding ever so slightly. And then she is in his face. The movement is so fast and sudden that it defies the ability for most humans to process that something so large could move so swiftly. It was something of a parlor trick that she liked to use to start duels against other knights in times past and usually only worked once. But it was amusing all the same to see the look of shock on the face of new opponents.

Her fist comes in, the massive size difference turning a simple punch into the impact of a hammer as it swings in towards in torso.

Sable has posed:
Sable doesn't move. He continues to stare at her with veiled apprehension and a little healthy fear. She IS after all huge and also wielding an unfamiliar sort of magi-tek armor.

As the fist drives in towards his torso, he doesn't react in the pattern in which this would usually go. An attempt would usually be made to attack or defend.Sometimes that would come too soon or too late and variables could be adjusted properly.

Instead he appears to keels over, crumbling to the ground in what looks very much like a faint.

His knees give way and his hands slap across the grass and only then is it obvious that he is about to get straight into her face-- only feet first.

The teenager throws himself upwards, slamming his feet towards her midsection and using her as a further springboard to launch himself back across the field to roughly where he had been standing. "Yeah. I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that. Not everybody can afford magical space armor."

Lavi has posed:
The fact that there are not really any form of meaningful martial arts in Lavi's homeworld leaves her somewhat baffled by the boy's movements but his clever counter to her overwhelming size becomes very apparent when the twin boots slam into her chin, launching the titan bodily into the air for a few moments.

Her own momentum does most of the work, Sable's strike merely deflecting her bulk and weight in a new direction. She staggers and falls to one knee, her assault stopped cold by a normal human for the first time in her two hundred years of battle. Lavi cannot help but laugh out loud.

"Unbelievable! This world is more full of surprises than I would have ever imagined. Oh this is going to be /fun/!"

Without acknowledging his request, the massive knight charged in again, her speed still defying her size but not completely breaking the laws of physics this time. She did want to be sporting, after all.

Her body tilted forward, the armored pauldron of her shoulder becoming the head of a living battering ram as she rushes towards him. Her fist rises up from this attack, swinging out from her body like a flail at his chest, trying to avoid any permanent damage since he seems disinclined to wear protective headgear.

Sable has posed:
Sable seems more surprised by her surprise than anything else. He starts to smile but an instant later Lavi is back on her feet and charging onto the attack again. He bends around the attack like a crash test dummy. He raises his arms just in time for the armored pauldron to slam into him, forcing him back several steps sliding across the grass.

He goes flying from the fist, rolling hard enough that he's knocked several revolutions. Sable rolls onto his feet, a little dusty and battered but none the worse for wear. "Man. Now I know what it feels like to be hit with a train."

The teenager leaps forwards, the knife slicing down and the handle lashing out to try and bonk Lavi on the head as the teenager flips off the armor again back onto the grass this time behind the armored woman. He slices at the armored back twice as he comes down, left and right in shining arcs meant to only lightly score the metal.

Lavi has posed:
The titan swipes testingly at the boy as he rushes in, but once again, he proves to be faster and more skilled than she gave him credit for. The haft of the polearm smacks her on the top of the head, causing her more chagrin than pain, even as she feels the caress of the blade glance off the metal carapace from behind. The battle computer in her armor registers the hits as solid wounds, cutting the flow of power to simulate an appropriate level of damage.

"Hahaha! Impressive! Perhaps I don't need to be so gentle with you after all."

Spinning about, she brings her own blades to bear now, their glowing crystal blades still filled with brilliant blue light, but it is harmless illumination now. The twin swords weave another illusionary pattern about her as they cut through the air, the immaculate control the demi-god of war allowing her to swing at full speed and pull the strength from her strikes at the last second. The effort is more taxing than usual, but such a thing is barely a drop in the ocean of her nigh-endless stamina and concentration.

As the blades finish their deadly dance, she lowers her hands to her sides, unlocking the seals on the linked massive-bore machine guns tucked away within the gauntlets. Harmless tracer rounds made of compacted phosphorus rip into the ground, filling the air with dirt and noise meant to distract and suppress his efforts to strike back.

Sable has posed:
Sable doesn't even try to fend off the whirling blades. He simply keeps attempting (and succeeding mostly) to keep out of Lavi's reach because he knows what happens when she gets a hold on him.

One blade comes close enough to almost scrape into his shoulder from forearm to collarbone. As the blades stop, Sable takes a moment to collect himself that is well spent because tracer rounds to a person who has never seen tracer rounds are pretty much the same of 'Oh Crap. GUNS' as the real deal. As such the teenager's eyes widen a second before he dives to the ground.

Sable slams something into the ground as he rolls up to his feet. There is a brief explosion of light and he seems to flicker and vanish in the brilliant glare behind him, leaping up onto one armored pauldron and then down again before slamming the handle of the glaive into the back of her powered knee joint.

Lavi has posed:
The titan grunts in appreciation at the technique being displayed by the boy as he kept just out of her reach, moving with a grace that she had not come to expect from mortals. Perhaps this was one of the differences between her world and the others, that mere men could rise to such impressive heights without the aid of magic or technology. How things might have been different with others like herself to assist in pushing back the horrors of the Great Fall.

Ofcourse, she is still only playing with him. The explosive power contained within her body boiled beneath the surface, carefully held in check by powerful wards and mental discipline. That sort of strength was something Lavi had no intention of calling upon again unless the situation were dire. The consequences were a little more severe than she had come to believe were necessary.

The tactical strike at her exposed joint, forces her to one knee, throwing off her aim and sending tracers ripping into the sky for a few moments before she stems the tide of ammunition with a thought, wincing as her armor becomes heavier in response to the mounting faux damage.

Something would have to be done to turn this around, lest the boy make a complete fool out of her!

Pain killers flooded her system in the simulation, relaxing some of the pressure on her body as she turned to face her spry sparring partner again. Her grin renews in strength and she gives a playful battle cry, stomping towards him in a flurry of blades and light. Like a whirlwind of death, the giant swords fill the air around her with shimmering lines of neon blue that encompasses her like a grid, leaving little room to dodge or parry their blinding weave, again testing just how much he can handle

Sable has posed:
Sable might look impressive on the outside, but on the inside he is a whirling storm of barely suppressed panic. The sort of panic you feel just before you fall down a flight of stairs. There was no real or implied danger here, from all indications from both sides, but this was still a fierce combat with an even tougher opponent and he believes he's just barely putting enough together to keep Lavi at bay.

Sable grins back reflexively at Lavi as she roars at him and this time braces himself for the next charge. Time to face fears, not run from them. He lashes out with the blade, trying to turn the swords just enough to keep them from landing home. He lashes out with an armored fist occasionally at the sword hand of the giantess but mostly he ducks, weaves, counters and clashes with only the one blade to bring to bear.

He takes more than a few 'wounds' which are relayed to him by a shocking tingle and abrupt feeling of pressure. After a particularly ragged 'cut' numbs his sword arm up to the elbow, he charges /forwards/ instead of back-- barreling into the armored giant rather than the retreat denied him by the whirling blades-- aiming to knock her hands up just long enough to dip underneath them and slam an armored punch with all of his strength straight into her midsection.

Plus side-- actual armor to armor contact. Otherwise, he'd probably break his fool hand.

Lavi has posed:
"You are doing well!" Lavi says to him through the flurry of sword strokes. "But you must be faster! Do not simply react! Move before I do. Out think your oppone-oof!"

The thud of his fist in her midsection is met with a satisfying grunt as her advice is cut off mid-sentence, causing her to falter in her assault. The crystal swords slam into the ground on either side of the boy, burying themselves deeply in the dirt so as not to accidentally fly into his body during her momentary loss of control.

More 'pain killers' are injected in response to counter the injury and the titan merely grunts at his boldness. Her heavy arms come up, the hard edge of her elbow dropping down to give him a solid knock upside the head for his efforts, followed by a swift boot to the chest to put some distance back between them.

Sable has posed:
Sable chuckles, wincing as the very edge of the elbow clips him in the temple as he tries to extract himself. The boot to the chest smashes into his chest, causing the teenager to go flying prone. He tries to right himself but twists wrong, landing hard on one shoulder with a groan of pain.

He comes up favoring that shoulder and chuckles. "Is that better?" he says in a weary but teasing voice. He reflects that at one point, he would be feeling pretty good-- triumphant even, but right now he just feels sore and very tired and more than a little unnerved.

He's realized now from the slight shaking of adrenaline in his limbs that he hadn't been holding back (Well.. for any certain amount of holding back..) --He thinks the only reason the seasoned warrior has been bested so far is that she underestimated him. One of the few advantages he possessed without magic. "I think--" he coughs and laughs a little, rubbing gingerly at his head. "I think I should quit while I'm ahead and you don't kick me into the middle of next week."

Lavi has posed:
Lavi smiles triumphantly at him, clenching her fist in the air in a show of warrior salute. "Indeed! You are far more capable than I gave you credit for, little one. You are brave and you think on your feet; both admirable traits. I think with some training you could become quite the knight."

The sleek armor hisses magical steam once more as the training program deactivates, bringing her suit up to basic operating power and releasing the pressure on her 'wounds'. The fallen swords are gathered up and returned to their place on her hips, maglocks sealing with a sharp click and she wanders over to Sable, patting him on the shoulder.

Soft whirrs and mechanical buzzes can be heard as a full routine of checks is run in the aftermath of the training, ammunition recycled to its storage chambers, power charged into the blades, and biological scans run to ensure no accidental wounds were incurred.

"If you ever wish to hone your skills, seek me out."

Sable has posed:
Sable chuckles faintly. "Knight." he mutters to himself with something like bitterness. The word has barely left his mouth though before he spits the sourness out like biting into a lemon. "Thank you, Lavi. I.." he pauses, frowning slightly and then shaking it off again.

He grins. " I would like that. Especially since Hearts Intertwined is starting to pack up it's operations in Traverse Town as people move on to other chapters or--" he gestures, shrugging. "get on with their lives, I guess." he pauses.

"I guess I should start getting on with mine." The teenager smirks. "And.. somewhere a drink figures into this. And a story. Because they go well together." he /ostensibly/ does not mention the third thing.

Lavi has posed:
A gentle amount of pressure was applied to his shoulder, her fingers squeezing him in friendly encouragement.

"Ofcourse, young one, ofcourse. Remember the past but do not dwell on things you cannot change. Ensure that you learn from your mistakes and do not make them again, that is the best way a man can grow in character and deed. And, naturally, the best way to share those deeds is over a fresh drink."

She grins down at him one last time. "I will hold you to that offer."

Lavi's hand releases him and goes back to her side as she turns away to gather up her smattering of belongings and extinguish the torches, breaking down the camp to prevent any accidental wildfires. It seems that's all the wisdom she has to dispense the evening.