11-24-2009, 05:22 PM
Sophia sat up from her near-fetal position and blinked free a few stray tears. She tried to wipe them off of her face with her arm, but it only served to wet her face more, as she had spent the previous ten minutes crying on it. She was crying, though she no longer felt the need to. Sniffing loudly, she stretched her legs out on the bed she was sitting on and yawned. Looking at all of her appendages, she couldn’t help but laugh. She would be been better served to shed her tears on something other than herself because, judging on how wet her knees were, when she cried, she cried a lot.
“Oh yuck,” she smiled. “What was I even crying about?”
Crawling from her bed, she frowned—what was she crying about? She suddenly no longer cared about much of anything, happy as she was. The healer giggled and ran to the door, swinging it open and jumping past its frame to the room inside. Sage should have been there, but when the blonde’s eyes landed on the chair on which she had previously sat, she found that the girl was no longer there. She must have gone outside or something; it seemed crazy to the healer, but Sage seemed to like the cold. She had to have liked it, since she could control it. She was like a snowman, in that sense, because…
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” she said, grimacing and putting a hand to her head. She was overbearingly joyful, out of nowhere, but she found it hard to concentrate. It was hard to even hear her collar beep when it happened, or feel the device when it started to vibrate. She closed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, letting colors swirl under her eyelids before she opened them again. When she found that the collar had swept her away for another combat situation, she was, somehow, delighted. The snow reminded her of the Friend or Foe competition, where she and Kaden had built a particularly awesome snowman, placed machine guns on its arms, and killed someone immediately after they were done.
Those were truly good times.
Looking around, she saw many of the same conditions that they had back then for making snowmen—most notably among those was snow. Shrugging, she picked up a chunk of snow and packed it into a ball. She began to roll more snow onto it, seeing if she could still remember how to even make one. The healer was so determined in her snowman-making technique that she barely even noticed that her opponent had arrived.
“Um…” the maid cleared her throat, garnering Sophia’s attention. “Are we not supposed to fight now?”
“What? Oh, right…” the former priestess glanced between the large chunk of snow that she had just formed and her oddly-dressed foe. “Um…can…can it wait? I’m kind of busy.”
“B-busy?” Tamsin’s expression looked a mixture of confusion and disgust. “Are we even allowed to wait?”
“I’m not sure,” Sophia shrugged. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we’re not. Piper got shocked once.”
“What? Who’s Piper?” Tamsin tilted her head.
“The point is that we need to hurry!” Sophia smiled brightly. At that point, she had begun work on the second part of the snowman. Pointing to the base, the healer continued. “We can fight after the snowman is done. I promise.”
“Um…okay!” the maid nodded. With the other girl’s help, the work went a lot faster. It took mere seconds more to complete the torso for the snowman, and the head just as long to complete from scratch. When their creation stood, fully formed, the pair of opponents took a step back to observe their masterpiece. Tamsin flashed a thumbs-up, and though Sophia shared the girls optimism, she couldn’t help but feel as though there was something missing.
“Oh. We’re not even done, are we?” the healer snapped her fingers in realization. “It needs, like, a face. And arms.”
“But where are we going to find them? We can’t exactly go anywhere…” the silver-haired girl spoke.
“We’ll have to make do…” Sophia said as she looked around for something—anything to use. Her eyes scanned the blanket of white until they landed on two icicles, each easily a few feet in length, just laying in the snow. Clapping giddily, the healer ran to them and picked them up, almost dropping them when the cold stung the skin of her hands. “These will work! Um…I guess you’ll just have to draw in the face with a finger or something while I put these bad boys in.”
Tamsin nodded, and both fighters did their assigned duty. When they were finished, they stepped back once again like two painters who had just put finishing touches on a large painting. Both stroked their imaginary beards thoughtfully until they were pleased with what they had done.
“Well, that was fun,” Sophia said, turning to Tamsin with a grin. “What should we do now?”
“We…need to fight,” Tamsin frowned. “I told you this not ten minutes ago. Did you really forget?”
“Oh right! Dante’s Abyss! Okay, well…” Sophia glanced around until the icicles protruding from the snowman’s sides caught her eye. Pulling the icicle out from the side closest to her, she pointed the sharp end at Tamsin. “En garde!”
“Very well, I accept your challenge!” Tamsin giggled, arming herself with the remaining icicle. The pair stared at each other, shooting mock glares while they tried not to smile.
“Ha!” Sophia grunted as she lunged forward, swinging the icicle downward. Tamsin, sounding a similar grunt, brought her icy weapon up, tilting it sideways to block the blow. Ice clanged on ice, and though the healer suspected that they would both shatter, nothing of that effect happened. Bringing the chunk of ice up closer to her face for inspection, she ran her hands along the surface—it hadn’t so much as cracked. She couldn’t even remember ever seeing ice any sturdier than what she was holding at that point.
I’m going to have to keep this, Sophia thought.
“I will not lose!” Tamsin shouted long before the healer was ready, striking Sophia. The tip of the icicle glanced the blonde’s cheek—blood trickled from her wound as she reached up to touch it.
“Ow! No fair, I wasn’t ready! You’re not playing right!” Sophia groaned, pouting her lips.
“I’m…I’m sorry?” Tamsin shrugged, looking at the bloodied tip of her ice weapon.
Sophia swung her icicle suddenly, clipping the maid’s shoulder and forcing her to drop her weapon. As the girl gasped and clutched her wound, Sophia giggled. “It’s okay. I forgive you!”
The pair shared a laugh, though Tamsin wound back a fist. The healer smirked and grabbed the other end of her icicle with her off-hand, lifting like a batter lifts his bat to bunt a pitch. The maid’s hand connected with the solid ice, causing the girl to recoil in pain. Sophia chuckled when nothing happened, though it shattered just when she thought she had won the exchange. A few stray shards of ice pricked the skin of her face—she didn’t feel a thing, though she knew that she would likely be feeling it later.
“Don’t give up now!” Tamsin shouted as she extended both arms as far as she could to each side, charging large ki orbs in both of her hands. Sophia pondered her options as the ample amounts of energy she had collected gleaned off the surface of the ice and into her eyes—she could have tried to match the energy she had collected, or she could have employed a more…unorthodox strategy. Either way, she figured, it would be awesome.
Raising her arms in a cross, she dug her feels as far into the snow as she could. When Tamsin threw her attacks, she grimaced and shrunk back a little bit. She had only been able to absorb ki through her hands before. It made sense that she could theoretically absorb it from anywhere, though it hadn’t crossed her mind until just when the attack hit that maybe that moment wasn’t the greatest time to test out a theory. The ki was strong, much stronger than she anticipated, and she knew immediately that even attempting to absorb all of the energy would kill her much faster than actually taking the blunt of the attack. The energy that she did absorb trickled into her veins as the rest of it exploded on contact, knocking her a few feet backwards and onto her backside.
The energy inside of her burned immensely, but she didn’t care as she crawled to her feet. “My strategy actually worked!” she shouted. “Well…kind of. I’m only halfway done.”
“What are you mumbling about?” Tamsin began walking towards the healer.
Sophia raised her arms and discharged the ki she had obtained. “Pew! Pew!” she emulated a laser sound as the energy flew towards Tamsin.
“Oh yuck,” she smiled. “What was I even crying about?”
Crawling from her bed, she frowned—what was she crying about? She suddenly no longer cared about much of anything, happy as she was. The healer giggled and ran to the door, swinging it open and jumping past its frame to the room inside. Sage should have been there, but when the blonde’s eyes landed on the chair on which she had previously sat, she found that the girl was no longer there. She must have gone outside or something; it seemed crazy to the healer, but Sage seemed to like the cold. She had to have liked it, since she could control it. She was like a snowman, in that sense, because…
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” she said, grimacing and putting a hand to her head. She was overbearingly joyful, out of nowhere, but she found it hard to concentrate. It was hard to even hear her collar beep when it happened, or feel the device when it started to vibrate. She closed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, letting colors swirl under her eyelids before she opened them again. When she found that the collar had swept her away for another combat situation, she was, somehow, delighted. The snow reminded her of the Friend or Foe competition, where she and Kaden had built a particularly awesome snowman, placed machine guns on its arms, and killed someone immediately after they were done.
Those were truly good times.
Looking around, she saw many of the same conditions that they had back then for making snowmen—most notably among those was snow. Shrugging, she picked up a chunk of snow and packed it into a ball. She began to roll more snow onto it, seeing if she could still remember how to even make one. The healer was so determined in her snowman-making technique that she barely even noticed that her opponent had arrived.
“Um…” the maid cleared her throat, garnering Sophia’s attention. “Are we not supposed to fight now?”
“What? Oh, right…” the former priestess glanced between the large chunk of snow that she had just formed and her oddly-dressed foe. “Um…can…can it wait? I’m kind of busy.”
“B-busy?” Tamsin’s expression looked a mixture of confusion and disgust. “Are we even allowed to wait?”
“I’m not sure,” Sophia shrugged. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we’re not. Piper got shocked once.”
“What? Who’s Piper?” Tamsin tilted her head.
“The point is that we need to hurry!” Sophia smiled brightly. At that point, she had begun work on the second part of the snowman. Pointing to the base, the healer continued. “We can fight after the snowman is done. I promise.”
“Um…okay!” the maid nodded. With the other girl’s help, the work went a lot faster. It took mere seconds more to complete the torso for the snowman, and the head just as long to complete from scratch. When their creation stood, fully formed, the pair of opponents took a step back to observe their masterpiece. Tamsin flashed a thumbs-up, and though Sophia shared the girls optimism, she couldn’t help but feel as though there was something missing.
“Oh. We’re not even done, are we?” the healer snapped her fingers in realization. “It needs, like, a face. And arms.”
“But where are we going to find them? We can’t exactly go anywhere…” the silver-haired girl spoke.
“We’ll have to make do…” Sophia said as she looked around for something—anything to use. Her eyes scanned the blanket of white until they landed on two icicles, each easily a few feet in length, just laying in the snow. Clapping giddily, the healer ran to them and picked them up, almost dropping them when the cold stung the skin of her hands. “These will work! Um…I guess you’ll just have to draw in the face with a finger or something while I put these bad boys in.”
Tamsin nodded, and both fighters did their assigned duty. When they were finished, they stepped back once again like two painters who had just put finishing touches on a large painting. Both stroked their imaginary beards thoughtfully until they were pleased with what they had done.
“Well, that was fun,” Sophia said, turning to Tamsin with a grin. “What should we do now?”
“We…need to fight,” Tamsin frowned. “I told you this not ten minutes ago. Did you really forget?”
“Oh right! Dante’s Abyss! Okay, well…” Sophia glanced around until the icicles protruding from the snowman’s sides caught her eye. Pulling the icicle out from the side closest to her, she pointed the sharp end at Tamsin. “En garde!”
“Very well, I accept your challenge!” Tamsin giggled, arming herself with the remaining icicle. The pair stared at each other, shooting mock glares while they tried not to smile.
“Ha!” Sophia grunted as she lunged forward, swinging the icicle downward. Tamsin, sounding a similar grunt, brought her icy weapon up, tilting it sideways to block the blow. Ice clanged on ice, and though the healer suspected that they would both shatter, nothing of that effect happened. Bringing the chunk of ice up closer to her face for inspection, she ran her hands along the surface—it hadn’t so much as cracked. She couldn’t even remember ever seeing ice any sturdier than what she was holding at that point.
I’m going to have to keep this, Sophia thought.
“I will not lose!” Tamsin shouted long before the healer was ready, striking Sophia. The tip of the icicle glanced the blonde’s cheek—blood trickled from her wound as she reached up to touch it.
“Ow! No fair, I wasn’t ready! You’re not playing right!” Sophia groaned, pouting her lips.
“I’m…I’m sorry?” Tamsin shrugged, looking at the bloodied tip of her ice weapon.
Sophia swung her icicle suddenly, clipping the maid’s shoulder and forcing her to drop her weapon. As the girl gasped and clutched her wound, Sophia giggled. “It’s okay. I forgive you!”
The pair shared a laugh, though Tamsin wound back a fist. The healer smirked and grabbed the other end of her icicle with her off-hand, lifting like a batter lifts his bat to bunt a pitch. The maid’s hand connected with the solid ice, causing the girl to recoil in pain. Sophia chuckled when nothing happened, though it shattered just when she thought she had won the exchange. A few stray shards of ice pricked the skin of her face—she didn’t feel a thing, though she knew that she would likely be feeling it later.
“Don’t give up now!” Tamsin shouted as she extended both arms as far as she could to each side, charging large ki orbs in both of her hands. Sophia pondered her options as the ample amounts of energy she had collected gleaned off the surface of the ice and into her eyes—she could have tried to match the energy she had collected, or she could have employed a more…unorthodox strategy. Either way, she figured, it would be awesome.
Raising her arms in a cross, she dug her feels as far into the snow as she could. When Tamsin threw her attacks, she grimaced and shrunk back a little bit. She had only been able to absorb ki through her hands before. It made sense that she could theoretically absorb it from anywhere, though it hadn’t crossed her mind until just when the attack hit that maybe that moment wasn’t the greatest time to test out a theory. The ki was strong, much stronger than she anticipated, and she knew immediately that even attempting to absorb all of the energy would kill her much faster than actually taking the blunt of the attack. The energy that she did absorb trickled into her veins as the rest of it exploded on contact, knocking her a few feet backwards and onto her backside.
The energy inside of her burned immensely, but she didn’t care as she crawled to her feet. “My strategy actually worked!” she shouted. “Well…kind of. I’m only halfway done.”
“What are you mumbling about?” Tamsin began walking towards the healer.
Sophia raised her arms and discharged the ki she had obtained. “Pew! Pew!” she emulated a laser sound as the energy flew towards Tamsin.