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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"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!"

That sounded interesting. "Moving pictures...like illusion magic?" He asked, looking thoughtful for a long moment. Finally he nodded, "I think I like your idea of 'love', more. It seems a bit more exciting than your usual arranged marriages. As for the Pig and Whistle people..." he laughed.

"When I first decided to leave my home and visit the other cultures, I spent plenty of time in the capitol of the Humans. Stormwind, it's called. I spent a great deal of time observing the people there but I quickly found out that many of them have short tempers or really do not have the 'time of day', so to speak, for strangers. One of the places I went to was the Pig and Whistle. I later found out that it was a bar. The patrons there were very cheerful, chatty and generally answered any of the questions I had to ask. In the end, I find that you get into a lot of trouble when you receive conflicting information about things that are generally seen as the 'wrong' way to do things."

"But really, I would be honored to join you or any of the number of people that you mentioned, on an adventure. Fontaine would be very excited to go, too."

"Yeah, something like that," Hit Girl said, knowing it was pretty fruitless to try to explain how movies work. "My idea of love is just what I've seen. All these people bandy sex and love and emotions, and its just gets into this weird, crazy mess. If I were to ever like someone, I'd want them to know where I stood. Complications are just annoying."

Hit Girl just laughed a little at the story. "Yeah, sometimes its just best not to take other people's ideas when it comes to people. Humans are pretty weird creatures, but people in general tend to really confuse me sometimes. They're all looking for something, and most of the time, the fights everyone have melts down to one person's way of life differing to anothers'. I barely get it half the time, but I don't think I need to at this point."

She nodded. "I'll definitely think about it, trust me."

"Yes, I complications are highly annoying. It is why 'beating around the bush', as the Dwarves say, can be frustrating. And though I might follow my own ideas when it comes to people, they are...well, not generally the best when interacting with people, I suppose."

He held up a hand, counting off fingers as he listed. "I have been lectured in 'personal space', 'tact', and 'common social knowledge'." Nokosi regarded her with a lopsided smile, "I'm still terrible at all three."

Hit Girl was slightly confused with the way he was wording it, but she could get the jist of what he was saying. "I tend to stick to myself, usually At least, that's how I was until I was brought to the ship here. It's one thing when you live in a big city, its another when its the ship and these people are pretty much the only people you're gonna get to know."

She grinned. "Let me see: good with personal space, shitty with tact, and social knowledge is definitely something I could be doing better at. But I guess I could help with some of that stuff. My partner could use help with two out of three of those too."

Edited 2011-03-27 22:22 (UTC)

"It does not seem much different for me, but from what Beastboy showed me of his 'West Coast' city I suppose I can see the difference of a 'big city' and a ship with finite space and people. I have no qualms about being by myself, but I do enjoy being around others, I will admit."

He laughed, "Not so different, then. I attempted to learn these things as Ronnae told me they were necessary to functioning in normal society...without angering people and having them raise a hand against you." He shrugged, "It all seems very troublesome; far more trouble than it's worth, though."

She nodded. "Yeah well, its not just any kind of city or ship: at least, where I'm from, there are nowhere near this many kind of interesting people. If this place had been like NY, likely I would have just kept to myself. As it turns out, there are a lot of really fascinating people."

She shook her head. "It's sometimes important. I mean, I'm the kind of person that wants to make sure I know as much as I can about the people that surround me, so getting those societal norms down are kinda important."

"It seems like it would be more of a non-issue considering the different places that we all come from, but I suppose I've observed that there are certain standards and mainstays that go beyond race, planet and societal differences. Those mainstays are the few things I try and maintain, such as not touching others or their property. Everything else...well, if I want to know more about them, I will just ask them. Most people tend to indulge in curiosity, even if it is only smallest bit. Especially if it is about themselves."

"Yeah, I can tell you that it usually is the case. For instance, for someone like me, I usually need space, no one getting in my face mostly because that's just how I roll. And you know, if you were to go and touch my stuff I'd probably be looking for your fingers. If anything,w at it sounds like is that you need to b a lot better at not getting caught doing stiff like that."

He blinked a few times in confusion. "If I am touching someone's earring or some bauble or bracelet, why would I need to do so stealthily? It has caught my attention and so I would like to feel the texture of said object or know more about it. It seems counter-productive to do so 'without being seen' since I am not a rogue and have no intention of pilfering said objects." Well now he knew he shouldn't try to touch her cape and most definitely not her mask. Oh well, maybe next time.

"Oh," Hit Girl said. So that was what he was talking about. Well, she could see why he would need to be educated as far as what to touch and not touch. In this case though, there seemed to be a pretty fair solution.

"In that case, why don't you just ask?"

He wasn't sure what other way she could have taken his words to give such a response. Perhaps it would be best to know so he wouldn't have to repeat it all to Ronnae, later. "In what context did you assume I meant?" he questioned, bemused expression still adorning his face.

"Though I do not ask right away because that is not the first thing to come to mind. My first instinct is to touch, hold, listen to or smell it."

"Well, I'm not sure. I just thought you went around poking your face into people's personal space and bothering them. I didn't know you actually went and touched people's things. That they're kind of particular about. Even I wouldn't like someone going off and touching my shit without asking."

She nodded. "Yeah, you should probably start with asking though. That would definitely help."

Well that was kind of true in a sense. Either or would be what most of the glares and disgruntled words were about. It was probably a wonder he had all of his limbs and digits intact, but then again he'd been rather good about not touching anything on anyone since arriving on the ship. Though there was that time he snatched Billy's glasses, but he was sleeping at the time so it hardly mattered, right?

"So I am told, though it is surprisingly difficult to undo a hundred and fifty plus years of instinct," he said simply.

Hit Girl snickered. "Well try," she said. "There's a lot of things we all have to deal with when we get on this ship. Being touchy about other people's stuff is definitely not gonna help you when they lose their temper, you know? And I'd rather they didn't to you: you seem all right."

That was what she thought anyway.

Tightrope

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