damned_institute | Night 43: F21-30 Hall

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Night 43: F21-30 Hall

[in F22]

Falis was sitting on Senna's bed, her back to the wall with the shinigami laying against her, when the weird intercom thingie went off. She looked up at the little box for a moment before frowning. What the fuck had that been? Damnit! Where was Dominikov when she needed him to figure shit like this out for her?

A sharp pain ran through the hunter's left arm accompanied by a searing heat she recognized from the night before. It seemed peoples' fears were going to be true this night. Taking a peak at the flesh underneath her bandage, Falis grimaced seeing the decay return and it work its way up to her shoulder. At least it stopped there, but she wasn't sure it'd stay stopped all night long.

Her eyes slid back to the sleeping shinigami. Falis licked her lips. Damn, she looked and smelled... No. She was not going to do this. She was stronger that whatever fucked up zombie sickness. Senna was important to the hunter. She may be Falis' prey, but not prey like this. Resisting the hunger that lay in her stomach, she idly combed her finger through Senna's hair as she rest her head back against the wall and waited for people to show up or for the shinigami to wake.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hokuto just sat back to watch; grilling Falis probably wouldn't get her anywhere, but detached observation just might. If something really was wrong, she'd find out.

"Aa. We'll see," Falis replied. She gave Meche a brief moment to focus her mind before striking at the woman's shoulder. She had more than enough control to stop the point once it got past Meche's guard to keep it from injuring her, even as distracted as she was.

Something in the air over by Senna and Soma had changed and the hunter had picked up on it. The hairs along the back of her neck were standing up and she ground her teeth together. She finally realized what her issue with Soma's presence was.

You want to rip her throat out. Admit it to yourself. She's another predator in your territory and you're having fucking issues with it. She doesn't mean it; it's not her fault. Do not go rip her throat out.

Meche was as ready as she could get when the strike came at her, but it turned out not to be ready enough. She spun her spear toward Alita's, trying to knock the girl's weapon away before it could hit. She'd moved much too late. The shaft of her spear clattered into Alita's from the side the way she'd meant it to, but only after Alita's weapon would have hit her. If this had been a real fight, Meche knew, she would've had a spear point wedged halfway through her shoulder by now.

She took a step back and went back into the core position. Well, she'd just call that one a warm-up. Now that she knew the kind of thing she should expect, maybe it'd be easier to block.

There was definitely an odd tension in the air... Hokuto frowned slightly, not sure what to make of it. Falis was deadly serious when she fought, but during a sparring match? Against someone she was just beginning to train? Something wasn't right here.

She couldn't help but listen in on Soma and Senna's conversation, though... and what she heard made her blood turn to ice. What--what happened last night isn't over...?

She couldn't even begin to think of what to do.

"Almost," Falis said to Meche, stopping the spear before it did any damage, but barely. "You've got the motion down, but now you need speed."

Bringing herself back to the core stance, Falis again gave Meche a couple moments to set herself. It also gave her time to glance over at the two by the door, Falis' eyes narrowing a bit on Soma.

When she turned back, she gave a slight raising of her chin as a warning before she struck down at Meche's thigh. For the moment, she maintained her control.

The warning helped, but Meche still wasn't quite fast enough, especially since she had to bring the spear down a little to cover her thigh. This time she flinched slightly too, almost putting Alita's spear point into her leg by herself. It was hard to get her body to stand its ground with a weapon coming right at it. Even when she knew it was just practice, her first instinct was still to try to get out of there.

She recovered and brought her spear back up again. "Sorry. They say third time's the charm, though."

[skipping Hokuto for now]

Fight or flight was instinctual and all living things had it. The choice between those two helped define whether someone was predator or prey. As a hunter, Falis understood the need for prey and what drove someone to be such. Prey deserved respect, even more at times than predators did, for without prey, what would the predator hunt.

Another predator, her mind conjured up, crimson gaze flickering over toward Soma once again. She ground her teeth a little more, forcing herself to smooth her hackles. She'd been a monster the night before and she could still feel it waiting under the surface. She always did. She still had control and control was what separated her from it.

"They do? I don't know that phrase," Falis replied, making herself use her other senses to keep track of everyone in the room so she could focus her eyes on Meche.

"Again," she said, striking at Meche's stomach.

"They do," Meche confirmed, waiting for the strike.

If she was honest with herself, it was really just pure blind luck. When she saw Alita's spear coming at the center of her body, she jerked her own weapon down toward herself without thinking. She felt the crash of wood on wood again, but when she looked down a couple of heart-stopping seconds later, she realized the tip of the girl's spear wasn't aimed at her stomach. It was pointing harmlessly into the air to one side of her. Meche realized her own spear shaft was angled across her body, covering a lot of her torso. Just like Alita had said.

"Did you move it?" she asked, not quite willing to believe that she might have actually blocked a hit.

The hunter had to stop herself from automatically executing a followup strike that would have broken Meche's nose.

Her lip quirked up. "No. Why the fuck would I do that? No one learns anything when it's fucking given to them."

Meche laughed out loud. "I just had to check. I don't know if I could do that twice, though."

She lowered the spear long enough to wipe quickly at the drops of sweat that had started to form there, then brought it back up to the core position. Suddenly she felt a new rush of energy, as though she could keep this up all night. True, it was just a small thing and a lucky break besides, but it was definitely something she wasn't sure she could have done at all when they'd started. It felt wonderful. "Want to keep going, or should we go see what Senna and Soma are up to?" she asked.

"Sounds good," Hokuto said, but her voice was a little quieter than normal. Okay, obviously things weren't as bad as last night, but how long did it really take for someone to turn zombie? Last night hadn't helped, she hadn't seen when Porky got bitten, and even if she had, she still didn't have any idea how much time had elapsed between various events.

Fortunately, she had good control over her emotions, or the mere thought of the various possibilities would have had her in tears.

[and moseying back from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700157.html?thread=57992445#t57992445)]

It was around this time that the two other girls wandered back into the fray. Senna hadn't been paying that well of attention to the training, but the atmosphere seemed thick, and she had to wonder what, exactly, had been going on. There was no need to make the air heavier though, and Senna would rather lighten it anyway. Especially after the whole thing with Soma, where maybe Senna should have just held her tongue.

She walked over to where Hokuto was watching, and put on hands on the other girl's shoulders, leaning on her slightly. "Hey," she greeted warmly. "Glad to see you're okay." Senna smiled. "Nice dress you've got there. Go shopping lately?"

Teasing to the side, Senna inclined her chin at the others. "How's it going with that?"

Soma remained silent for the time being, too preoccupied with pushing her thoughts away from the apparent edibility of her newfound friends to worry much about conversation. Something about the way Alita smelled was slightly off--not quite as fresh or even interesting as the others--and part of her acknowledged an unspoken challenge she hadn't even known was there.

Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd been changed by last night.

She settled for a short nod and a very slight smile at the others, though it was clear neither were meant in particular earnest.

Falis' eyes zeroed in on Senna as both her and Soma joined them. There was the little rabbit... and the wolf following her. Shit.

"Aa. Meche's doing a decent job for her first time," Falis replied. Looking back at the older woman, she shook her head. "Nah, we're done. But give that spear back and take a seat over there," she said, nodding to Senna's bed as she took the spear back from her.

She then, knowing Senna would catch it, tossed the weapon lightly over to her roommate. "Let's show these ladies how it's supposed to fucking look, Senna," she said, placing herself between Soma and the rest as she rest the spear on her shoulder. Falis did not like the pale-haired girl so close to Hokuto, her eyes flickering over once before settling back on Senna, where she gave the shinigami a challenging smirk.

Hokuto smiled and leaned into Senna's touch for a moment. "It was in my box in the Patient Possessions room. Clearly, I'm sensible and fashionable here, too."

When the girl moved away, she looked at Soma, more than a little worried. "If you start to feel worse, let us know, okay?" It wasn't just for everyone's safety; she wanted her to feel cared for, more than anything else.

Senna feigned laziness, catching the spear out of the air as she made a face. "Ahh... Now? Man, I was hoping to relax tonight. I just woke up, and here you are, all warmed up and ready to go. Don't you want to swap horror stories, raid the kitchen full of people-eating monsters? Isn't that what a sleepover party is supposed to be like?"

She sighed, submitting to the fate forced upon her, then stuck out her tongue. She stepped away from Hokuto and twirled the spear around once, setting it into a position away from her body. She grinned, the expression a question. "This just for fun, or are we playing to win? Because I'm laying it down now--if it's to win, I get your dinner tomorrow."

"I will," said Soma simply. She hadn't missed Alita's glance, and she stifled the inexplicable urge to go for the other girl's throat. She'd always been impulsive, but this was something else; some part of her recognized Alita as a significant threat, some part of her that certainly hadn't existed previously.

It was illogical. She would be at a clear disadvantage, armed as Alita was and with her reflexes dulled as they were. She could only hope she could remain in control of herself tonight. The last thing she needed was a repeat of the incident with Exile. With near-deliberate slowness, she stepped aside, apparently content to watch for the time being.

"Never been to a sleepover party before, so I don't fucking know," Falis replied, moving out into the open space in the middle of the room.

Senna's questioning grin was met with Falis' challenging smirk. "Fuck yeah it's for fun and to win. I don't ever not play to win. You've got a fucking deal. You win, you get my dinner. I win, and you've gotta brush my hair out." Cause that's always an ordeal and she was so used to having Milano do it for her.

Bringing the spear down, the hunter rolled her right shoulder, hoping it would ease the pain, quite aware of Soma's movements, but not looking over at the other girl. "We've got rules for this, though. Since this is a spear demonstration for Meche, we've gotta stick to spear and staff skills, got it?" Which put Falis at quite a disadvantage against Senna - something she knew and was okay with.

"Okay," Hokuto told Soma, giving her a warm smile. They could handle this. No matter what, it shouldn't be as bad as last night.

She had to grin at Falis' response to Senna; this fight would really be something to see... enough so she suddenly worried that everyone in the room (probably excluding Senna) would be able to sense her reactions if they were actually visible or not.

...tonight didn't have much chance of being boring.

Pssh. Sure," Senna replied with another happy grin. "Neither option sounds that bad. I like this winning for fun deal."

While she was talking, Senna was shifting her weight, evenly distributing it between her feet, but keeping the center higher in her legs. Quick movements was how Senna was would. Falis was probably the stronger one, Senna wouldn't fight that, but Senna might just be quicker. "Alright," she agreed easily. "Just spear and staff stuff." No worries there. The girl moved the staff in front of her in a two-handed defensive grip, a smirk trailing the edges of her grin. "Let's go, princess. No use dragging this out."

Soma remained silent as she watched, trying to focus her attention on the match itself and nothing else. It was difficult; there was too much to think about as it was.

Still, she had been fighting as long as she could remember. In some ways, it was easy to ignore everything else in favor of it.

Falis drew up to her full height, angling her head so her hair fell about her shoulders and down her back regally. "Ah, the knight wishes for a quick ending. Is she, perhaps, lacking in stamina?"

Without the usually visible shift from princess to hunter, Falis struck, moving in. Wood crashed as Senna's spear met her own, deflecting the spear to the side, With a twirl, the hunter brought it back at Senna.

"I'll be disappointed if I wear you out too soon," she added on, the words and bearing still that of the princess, but the movement and primal look in her eyes that of the hunter. This was the mix that happened anytime she was the Forland vanguard on the battlefield.

Hokuto was tempted to play cheerleader, but she wasn't sure for who. She already on the edge of her seat, watching both combatants closely; this should be something to see!

"Ah, no, my liege," Senna fell in, continuing the theme. "I don't lack in that. I simply have much at stake here." Like dinner. As well as the simple fact that Senna would rather not play around in this. If they were showing Meche moves, they'd show her. It'd be a dance alright.

Senna spun her own spear as Falis' came towards her shifting it down in a sweeping motion that brought hers around again. Senna aimed for Falis' side and the crack of wood as Falis defended sounded again, loud in the silence. Senna grinned at Falis. Looked like their audience was paying attention to them. A fake sweep at Falis' feet, and then Senna swung at the other girl's shoulder. "Ah, nah. No worries there."

It was becoming apparent that Falis had more power, but Senna seemed to have the advantage of speed. Despite her own slight frame and considerable speed, Soma had always tended to prefer power; it would be interesting to see who would emerge the victor here.

She kept her gaze focused on the spinning spears, doing her best to memorize Alita's and Senna's movements. It was partially to distract herself and partially for practical reasons; if she wanted to conserve bullets, she'd have to learn to use her own spear at least half as well as they did.

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