trans_9 | Tightrope

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Tightrope

It had been a few days since the Outsider's gathering, where Hit Girl had finally been able to utilize her strength and talent to help others. All in all, it went pretty well: choices were made, friendships were had, blah blah and kumbaya. What SHE had wanted to show was that she was the type of girl who got the job done, and if anyone needed to be reminded, she would show that to them. Grabbing the flag had just been the start: now she wanted to make sure that whatever happened next, she would be ready, she would show people the type of person her daddy trained.

Which led to today's excursion in the Sensorium: she was doing tightrope walking, one of her weaker points, in order to maintain balance and poise. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop had demanded both, and while she had mastered that, she had not yet made her foray to really careful jumping in tight spots. To give her some energy, she had this playing in the background, and she jumped from rope to rope, her eyes concentrating, her tongue sticking out slightly in concentration.

Each step took courage, and the slightest imperfection would result in her falling, although of course it wouldn't be that big of a deal when you were in the Sensorium anyway. Despite this, Hit Girl demanded nothing less than imperfection: once she had this mastered, going to Negi and learning the delayed spells would be next, not to mention training Sasami.

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Wow. Running into a Warlock sounded like no joke. Then again, a warlock wasn't that much of a stretch from the scumbags she knew in her world anyway. If Frank D'Amico had known anything about having Warlocks in his employ, chances are he would have used it to torture and kill more people to keep his filthy businesses running. It seems that even on a ship like this, human beings tended to be nothing more than the scum on the earth, plotting to hold sway over other people and terrorizing them to do whatever they wanted.

Suddenly, Overlords didn't really sound like such a bad deal.

"The Overlord is like that, but he speaks in other terms, stuff like Mana or whatever. I'm still not sure what it is, but I think I'm getting closer to understanding what part it plays in the struggle of demons to rule over others. I have to keep training though: I'm not gonna rest until I fully understand what it means to be an Overlord."

She shrugged. "You can't really be on top without pissing other people off anyway. The Overlord is sure of himself because he knows he can accomplish what he sets to: he's done it before, so he figures in time, he'll get it all back."

Mana. That phrase was familiar to him, what with all the creatures of nature he'd spoken with.

"In respect to nature, anyways, Mana is like a spiritual well of energy inside you. Controlling nature requires you to expend this spiritual energy. Like training your body, you can also expand that energy." He sighed suddenly, "I was not strong enough to be a druid, though. So many adventures missed out on," he lamented.

A toothy grin replaced his frown, almost as if it were never there. Nokosi nodded his head, ears bobbing with the motion, causing a light chiming sound. "I suppose you are right about that. I never understood the thinking behind so-called 'white lies' to 'spare one's feelings'. It seems like such a silly concept. I do hope you succeed, though. I like you and your passion for perfection as well. It is all very refreshing."

Ok, so that was spiritual energy, likechi or auras, right? She wasn't a hundred percent on her terminology of course, but that hardly mattered, she had the gist of what he was saying, and now she might have a better idea of what the Overlord kept going on about.

"I think I can do that," she said. "It sounds kind of like working around the constraints of your body or whatever. It's probably gonna be difficult at first, I'm used to working purely with weapons or my fists, but then it'll just be an adjustment. But I'm Hit Girl, so I can do that."

She grinned back at him. "Now you're getting it: I don't do shit like this and do it half way. Dad trained me to fight as if you're gonna die, or at least that the possibility is always there, so overcompensate where you can and use everything at your disposal."

"My friend Ronnae would probably be able to explain it better than I can. She has those in her family who are very proficient at using both weapons and spells at the same time. They are very hard to beat in a spar."

"Wise words, I think. You might as well do everything in your power so there is never a moment where you regret something or you think 'I should have done...'" Granted, in Azeroth every day literally could be your last day, what with the demons, undead, silithid and other host of creatures gunning for the planet's destruction. The thought of death didn't bother him much, though that was no excuse to slack.

He realized, then, that in all their talking they hadn't once mentioned their names to each other. "Hit girl..." he said slowly, as if testing the name out. "It is a fine name. It is your hero name?" the elf questioned.

"I knew you knew that you knew her!" Hit Girl exclaimed, grinning. "So she has people that do a lot of fighting and spell casting huh? Makes me wonder how she can be as twitchy as a rabbit then. Oh well."

"Fuck that," she said. "Those slight moments are the times you better get in your mind that you have barely a second to think. When its time to step into action, you better explode and hold nothing back. You don't go half cocked, but you do go ready to destroy everything in the place if you have to. Dying is just not an option: the only thing is winning."

She nodded. "Yeah. I might tell you my real one someday. What's yours?"

"Oh yes. We are from the same world. Our people are currently at war with each other," he said with a smile. "She just tends to have a lot of what most refer to as 'shame and embarrassment', however I am not too familiar with those concepts."

"I agree. Though I would not consider myself particularly ruthless, there are those who frown on certain tactics but it is sometimes those things that will win the fight at the end of the day." It was true; shooting an arrow at an enemy that had explosives tied to it wasn't seen as the most humane of tactics, but then again he was a Survival Hunter. Poisons, explosives, snakes? It was all fair game in a fight that meant something.

"While I can not fault the actions of those who are truly altruistic in nature, I sometimes believe that they do not see the big picture of things."

He smiled cheerily,"If such a time comes to pass, I would be honored. I am Nokosi, by the by."

"Yeah, why is that?" Hit Girl asked. "I mean, I'm just going by her stats: she's pretty, curvy, has been in wars and kicks all kinds of ass everywhere: if anything, she would be a little like me. Is it because she's hot that we aren't alike? Does that make people, like, different somehow?"

There were some things about the adult world that went beyond Hit Girl's grasp. Abuse was one of them: if anyone tried to lord themselves over her, she fucked them up, just like her dad taught her how. That anyone could make Ronnae do anything and shame her was just a strange idea to Hit Girl.

"They can frown all they want, if it takes care of the problem its something that can be used. The people in my world would use whatever they could to fuck us up. The whole idea of vigilantes fighting as dirty as them scared them bad enough to take dad and another costumed guy and broadcast them all over getting beaten up and tortured, and then try to burn them alive. You never, NEVER underestimate the enemy that can kill you and will do it for a dime."

She learned that lesson all right. "The big picture is that we all wanna live how we can, and your enemy will do anything to end that. So you make sure they don't get the chance to take you out. If that makes me crazy, and I'm sure the way I fight would agree, then I am."

She grinned. "Cool. It was awesome meeting you, Nokosi. You're pretty bad ass."

"It was..." what was the word he'd been taught? "Self...self...es..teem?" he sounded out. "Self-esteem problems? Yes, due to her time at trade school, mostly because of her heritage. Half-breeds are universally disliked everywhere and because of this, she was treated harshly and began to take the taunting and words of her peers to heart. To wit: she believes she is nothing more than 'worthless, half-breed, trash.'"

It didn't occur to him that he was probably giving away an egregious amount of personal information. To be fair, it hardly ever occurred to him that 'personal' information was to usually remain as such. "I do not think these things make people 'different', but 'society' seems to have strange, illogical rules that I have yet to fully grasp."

"You are right, of course. Unless you're seeking to tempt fate, well, you should probably see things through. Generally I don't actively seek to 'do good' wherever I go, but even one as detached from society as I am can realize that some people need to die. Beheaded if you really do not want them to come back," he casually added. "I do not think that makes you crazy, though. You would fit right in," he laughed.

"Thank you. You are quite the 'bad-ass' yourself, Hit Girl. And wise, given your age. Perhaps Ronnae will learn a bit about 'confidence' from you, as my attempts at consolation and the like tend to be terrible. I can only hope."

Hit Girl shook her head. "Rough. Bad enough you have to be mixed, but to have people constantly make you feel like shit about it? I can't imagine how that must be. She's on this ship thought, so its not like she's going to have anyone calling her halfbreed or whatever. Even if that happens, its not like I'm not going to punch their lights out for them. The girl's skittish, but she's all right, you know? I like her."

She rolled her eyes. "'Society' can suck my ass. People spend too much time giving a shit about useless things that has no bearing on any real person. Like being a half breed is supposed to mean anything except being less prone to diseases 'pure' people get down the line. It's so stupid."

She laughed. "Oh I'm pretty crazy, even I'm not going to dispute that. Cutting people up with gusto and laughing about it generally doesn't put you in the sane person category. But what the hell? Society's version of normal isn't really my bag to begin with."

Hit Girl looked thoughtful about it. "I could learn some stuff from her too. She seems to be a pretty good soldier."

"That is just how it seems most of Blood Elf culture is, though my people are much of the same. Xenophobic and even the those races who are 'allies' of the same faction treat each other with distrust and plenty of caution. On on top of that the fighting between both factions." He shrugged, "Honestly, my dealings with Alliance society have been fairly recent but sometimes they put focus on the silliest things. I imagine the Horde is just the same."

He laughed at her words and shook his head, "I should clarify, then. In Azeroth you would not be considered crazy, merely one who gets...plenty of enjoyment from their 'job'. Perhaps one who is overcome with bloodlust in battle? Though from what Billy has told me of his 'Earth' you do sound like one of those who would be jailed, so I understand this is not common 'hero' behavior. Tell me, though; if this is the case, do the guards and other law enforcement officials try to stop you often?"

"Well it sucks," Hit Girl said, thinking of how skittish Ronnae was. "She couldn't even enjoy a public bath with no clothes on, and she freaked out on me when I got mouthy about it. She apologized later, but I could see its because she's used to it. I don't like that. It bugs me. Why the hell do people have to care so much about blood?"

Like that freak Big Zero: the whole big fat bag of fail that she was embodied everything she wasn't.

"Yeah well, we worked incognito. Law enforcement look the other way because they know we're doing the shit they can't. They have to follow the rules, and what are they gonna do if their fellow law enforcers are taking bribes and willing to sell out anyone who talks against them? Not much, that's what. So we made sure we took people out and vanished without a trace. It;s part of our line of work."

"Yes, it does. It is strange but I suppose it has to do with how much she trusts a certain person. She has no trouble getting naked in front of me, but I could see where she would be troubled being naked in front of a lot of others." Too much personal information spoken in the most casual ways, again. If Fontaine were around he would surely be telling him to 'shut the hell up' already. "She tends to be consumed about what negative things she believes they are saying about her. In all honesty, I do not think my three-plus years of pointing out the obvious has helped her much; I seem to be rather bad at things like that."

"I can understand that. They were smart for looking the other way, then. In a way, the leaders act much of the same. Allowing Warlocks and Death Knights to work alongside us for 'the greater good'."

"I don't get that completely," Hit Girl admitted. "I would kinda kill to know if my body would look like that. I mean, with all the exercising I do, I sorta look like a twig with a big head, you know? She is a fairly pretty person, and she's got all of this military training and stuff. Yet she cares so much about what other people think, and that they're saying things about her. She must be a pretty confused person."

Maybe pretty people were: not her. She wasn't complicated and she wanted it that way. Feelings, pains: those were the things that other people were bogged down with.

"So long as we didn't give them trouble or mess with the way they did things, they couldn't really object. Scared people become lazy people, you know?"

He laughed at her description but bobbed his head in agreement. "I can only assume that it is so ingrained into her that she assumes it must be true. She knows that lying is too troublesome for me to even begin bothering with, but she very rarely believes many of the things I say on that matter. The things others say about me hardly cross my mind." Nokosi scratched the scruffy stubble on his chin, his brow furrowed. "I can easily say that the weapon she hauls around makes things much worse, though."

"Scared people seem to only be lazy unless there is something they can gain from it. Then they become just as ruthless as that which made them afraid."

"Huh." Well that was something she hadn't known about Ronnae, though if she had wanted she could probably have guessed. It made her wonder exactly what would happen if someone wanted to exploit the things about her that made her so defensive. Hopefully that wouldn't happen anytime soon. "What do you mean, the weapon that she carries around? What's so special about it?"

Oh, she knew that to be the truth all right. People had a tendency to look out for their own selves, even if doing that very thing meant that others had to suffer. It was a pretty sad fact.

"Gotta wonder why people aren't after destroying humanoids sometimes," she said. "Then again, corruption is probably a universal thing anyway."

"The axe. It is a Runeblade- a weapon that is inscribed with demonic or magic runes that grant the wielder extra power. Mostly they are used by Death Knights, as they're a part of them, but those that are not are usually intelligent, evil weapons. The Lich King wielded a Runeblade known as 'Frostmourne'; not only did it grant power, but it also had the power to devour the souls of those it slew. From what she told me, one of the generals in the push against the Lich King decided to fight 'fire with fire', essentially.this general claimed that they would need something of near equal power," he explained.

"That power were the Runeblades known collectively as 'Shadowmourne'. Each was crafted with very perculair components, very very hard to come by." He furrowed his eyebrows in thought, attempting to remember the items that Ronnae first lamented on, when she set off for that quest. "Saronite Ore, the blood of the Old God, Yogg-Saron," he made a face. "They are worse than the demons, really. Shards of the Frozen Throne that was made by Kil'jaeden (one of the more powerful demon lords)," he added. "Oh, and the souls of a thousand of the Lich King's servants, collected by slaying them with axe."

"The weapon seems to feed off of her insecurities and actually serves to make them worse since the souls speak to her and others." Nokosi paused, his expression just a bit more than displeased. "I will just say that I am not very fond of the 'fight fire with fire' method. Silly and stupid."

Well that was just...a hell of a lot of information that made Hit Girl's head swim. Had this been the first time she got here, she would have laughed and said that Nokosi had been hitting the World of Warcraft games a little too hard. Obviously she knew better: if anything, all of that warfare and infighting was exactly what she had been saying earlier. If you were desperate, if you were able to fight off all the people you could, it would be a power at whatever cost, wouldn't it?

But that price thing bothered her. It made Ronnae's problems worse, whispered things to her that made her doubt her own self. Hit girl was a person who demanded he be clearheaded wherever she went, and that meant once the battle started, ended and the aftermath.

"If she knows all of that, why does she even want to keep it?"

"Something about owing a debt to the souls or something along those lines." He puffed out his cheeks and furrowed his eyebrows, making a face akin to an angry child. "Dumb, considering his servants were pure evil. What would she owe? Feeding them when all they vowed to accomplish in unlife was killing all the living of Azeroth and raising them to be Scourge?" He waved a dismissive hand, though he still looked annoyed; comically so.

"In any case...I have been trying to get rid of that weapon since we arrived." He glanced to the side, "It hates me for that, though. Before Ronnae was involved with Billy, I used to spend a lot more time at her 'home' and the souls tended to speak to me when she was not around or was sleeping. Hungry, I suppose. For the most part it did not work but with the way Ronnae is...I do not see her being able to willingly part with it anytime soon."

"Hmm, that sounds a little like someone I met in the marriage planet, Karis I think it was. But yeah, I think I agree with you there. What would be gained from having something like bouncing around in a weapon. I like my weapons to be nice and precise and kill when I want them to. not have a mind of their own and try to tell me what to do. I hope when you get the chance you can do something about that."

She shook her head. "I don't get that girl sometimes. You'd think, with all of the shit she's already been through, that the last thing she would want would be a weapon that could complicate her life and make her do things she didn't want. Does Billy even know that she has this thing? I can;t see him being too happy about it."

"Now he does, and you are right. He was less than pleased, especially since they decided to speak to him as well. They did not have kind words, of course. It frightened him, it seems, but it is understandable as he is not used to such things that can twist your fears."

He rubbed his chin, "In any case, I believe I would need to speak to someone with some knowledge of the thing. It might not be telling the truth, but if it is there might be quite a backlash for Ronnae if the thing is destroyed."

"That guy," Hit Girl said, "is not going to sit back and let that thing do things to that girl. I may not knkow him well, but I've heard more than enough about him. In my world, I've seen what he's able to do, and I know the values he has. That guy is going to fight whatever that is, and chances are? He'll have help too."

She nodded. "Hey, you do what you gotta do. You said you were like me, I figure that means you'll find a way. Something tells me you've fought some fears back yourself."

"Well yes, I would say he will. For now it is a big help that he is merely there; that alone took away much of her feelings about our world," he spread his hand to mimic an explosion, "being gone. Mostly personal things, now that might lessen over time due to him being by her side."

His lips curled into a smile at her words, "I've had to fight them much less than most of my 'peers', I'm sure of it. A hundred plus years of relative seclusion paired with the curiosity of an exceptionally annoying child gives you a very...different outlook on life. In any case, an adventure is an adventure; this is just more mentally dangerous than others."

"Yeah, I could see that he was doing something for her," Hit Girl said. "I dunno, it must be something, falling in love or whatever. All those feelings and stuff, I guess it gives you a kind of power somehow. But that's just me, I guess. I'm not exactly a people person."

Then again, she WAS talking to him, right?

She snickered. "Sounds pretty fun to me. I think I'd like to do what you did, really. I mean, I'm on my own at this point. But I guess there are plenty of adventures to get involved in, just now I have some people to do it with."

"Probably. I'm told it's supposed to be this great, amazing thing unlike anything else so," he furrowed an eyebrow, "I went seeking it but found nothing but injuries and disgruntled words. In retrospect, I should really cease following the words of the inebriated patrons at the Pig and Whistle."

His eyes lit up and his smile stretched into an ear-to-ear grin. "Yes, many adventures despite how plain some things seem around here. If you ever, ever need someone to go on an adventure with, let me know!" Really, most of his adult life consisted on finding the next exciting thing to explore or interesting place to jump into. "Unfortunately there's no monsters or the like in the city to present that sort of challenge," he shrugged, "But it's still fairly fun."

Hit Girl grinned. "I have a lot of reference material for that shit. In my world, they made moving pictures where you could see all of these versions of it. Personally, I like the idea of randomly meeting someone that you wouldn't really have met under any other circumstances, and you just click for some reason. It's rare I guess, but I'm a hard person to like, even now. I figure if that's gonna happen in the future, I gotta be taken by surprise, you know?"

And she wrinkled her nose. "You may need to explain the Pig and Whistle guys though."

She laughed here. "You'll be the first to know. Usually that's the kinda stuff that Ruff and I tackle, sometimes Negi and Sasami and I, you never know, but still. But I'll make sure to look you up. You seem like you'd be a good person to have our back!"

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