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Post by Beak on Jun 21, 2024 22:56:50 GMT -5
( OOC Note: This is for the Summer Festival/Giveaway Quest "Enjoy the Festival!") Stars above, has life been interesting in the past few days. Her newfound friend Marion had suggested that Beak needed to get out more, to sail to the capitol with him to enjoy the summer festivities. Since then, she's reunited with some friends and fought an eldritch monstrosity with them, and then met a frightened child who wanted her to attend the fair... which, in truth, she was here to do anyway. It was certainly livelier than returning to some bog somewhere in Marsh Flats to be alone and depressed some more. He'd been right about that part. Speaking of Marion.... "Ah, there you are." Her telepathic greeting comes with a tinge of amusement; one could sense that, were her face not a skull, she'd be grinning as she said that. The two had parted ways after getting off the ship just to see the sites and attend to their various businesses for a few days, but they'd promised to meet up again to enjoy the festival itself together, when it was time... and the elf was good for his word, it seemed. "So good to see you again! I hope you've been having a lovely time in the city."
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 1:15:06 GMT -5
"Hi hi! Same here- oh, it's quite hectic, but a load of fun already- I got to meet a new friend too! She is so cool, like, she specializes in prosthetics, as in artificial limbs for people that have lost them- and it's a blast talking to her! You should meet them one day, she's literally the coolest person ever."
The little elf literally jumped up and down and waved his arm over the crowd- and he ran up towards the other, giving her a hug as a greeting. He was as warm and soft as always and smell like he had already been sampling some of the fairground food stalls- cotton cany, most prominently.
"- I arrived abit earlier and saw all sorts of things we can try out- and they have games with prizes and magical rides and performances and everything! It's like the Harvest Bounty came early- "
Words tumbled out of Marion in his visible excitement, and you see his ears do this odd flapping motion like all the excess energy in him have nowhere else to go.
"And the city had been amazing- really crowded, mind, and I can't really imagine living here all day everyday- but its got everything from all over Charon too! I am going to visit the Mage's guild and the Golden Consortium later, I have letters written by Dada that he said would get me into those doors, and whether I want to join or not is up to myself... I mean, I did want to start on alchemy, so this would be a great opportunity."
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 1:46:58 GMT -5
Marion can be... overwhelming, when he's excited like this... but the skeleton wouldn't have it any other way. She had sought an antidote for that quiet, lonely exile she'd lived in for the past fifty years, after all. If she wanted to feel alive again, few people in the land could claim to be as alive as the hyperactive elf standing before her.
"The coolest ever, you say," she replies with no small level of amusement. She's hiding something... she couldn't have met someone even cooler, could she? Is that even possible?? (She is... perhaps... crushing on someone, at the moment. Maybe. Just a little.) "Yes, perhaps a meeting is in order, then. I could stand to make... friends. It has been ages, you know."
Games, performances, prizes... she had briefly feared that the elf would try to load her up with amazing festival foods that she couldn't eat, leaving her more sad about that than anything else, but it seems he's found more than enough attractions that someone with her... condition can still enjoy. He is immensely thoughtful, isn't he..? "I thank you, Marion. That sounds..." she was not expecting to say this, but... "... quite lovely, actually. I'd be glad to attend."
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 2:06:51 GMT -5
Clapping his hands together, Marion quite literally beamed- it was as if those peony flowers in his hair bloomed ever fuller when he did that smile- and reached out to hold hands with the other. He had always been very touchy after knowing Beak didn't mind the contact, and the elf guided the two of them through the flow of people, chattering all the way.
"Yep! I mean, you are also really cool, and Rena and Bell and the rest, and Everett and Cyran and- but she is from another world! Like , really- would you believe that! They didn't have magic there, it seemed, but their cities are even grander than the capitol and have really tall buildings- I do wonder how they went about doing that, it sounds so outrageous- but then to her world perhaps the sound of magic would be ridiculous too."
He seemed to be simply amazed by all sorts of new things that he had learnt and is really eager to share- and talked about how the two of them talked about prosthetics and how she had found a way to bypass the auto-immune reaction to a foreign attachment, and their discussion about the Formulae- the usual medical biological magical nerdy things that he tend to get all excited about, and you can begin to understand why he said C'Leena was the coolest person ever- they seemed to share the same amount of enthusiasm on similar topics.
As he rambled, the two had approached the first destination that Marion led them to- one of those game stalls which stood out from the rest by the simply audacious amount of stuffed toys they had on display, and the size of them are huge too- not Kweh sized huge, of course, but still so large that Marion could have easily hidden behind one of these and not a part of him would be able to be seen.
"- So, are you good at shooting things or punching things?" He asked, looking up at Beak and batted his eyelashes in a pleading manner.
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 2:24:02 GMT -5
"Another... world...?"
All right, she would have to meet this person. Not that she believes the part about anyone being cooler than Rena and Bell and the rest, but... well... she may be a little biased in that regard. Someone from another world... that sounds up there, at the very least.
Beak is pondering that so much--and trying to keep up with all of Marion's tangents--that she utterly fails to pay attention to her surroundings, following the elf somewhat blindly. It'd be unlikely she could find her way back to where they were if asked, now, and they were walking in a mostly straight line. Still, she does eventually return her attention to the surrounding festival... once he calls it there, at least.
"Oh, I've never trained in ranged combat... I've no aim at all, I'm afraid." Just when the elf started to look disappointed in response to her answer, though, she telepathically broadcasts a very amused self-satisfied feeling... if one were to look upon her skull at that moment, one could imagine a downright wicked grin. "Punching, though? My dear, I'm an Ibekki warrior. I know more about martial arts than you do about plants."
That's probably not actually true. There's no way to measure that, really, and she wouldn't want to place a wager on it even if there were. But she's just being playful, really. She is quite skilled at unarmed combat, at least.
... Playful. When was the last time she felt playful...?
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 2:36:47 GMT -5
Perking right up again, Marion tilted his head and gave her an arched eyebrow at that comment- the part of knowing more than he knew about plants.
"I don't really believe that- since I do know a whole lot about plants, but you are lucky since we are in just the right place to prove me wrong~ "
And he gestured to one of those colourful contraptions that was placed around this area- one with a bright red pad at the bottom, and a looong gauge, and a bell at the very top. And then pulled out a pouch of coins from his satchel, and gave it a little jingle.
"They all need these festival coins to be played, but if we get a good score on them they'd give us a lot of tickets- which we can exchange for prizes! Its not just plush toys, mind you, even if they are really tempting- there are some really neat items there too! Like, actually magical ones."
Practically skipping over to the punching machine, Marion declared that he want to try it out first as well, and he demonstrated where you should insert two of those festival coins, and then how you get one chance to punch the pad as hard as you can- While the elf did get a score, the score was, as expected, not really high. The machine churned out a few tickets from another slot, which Marion collected and stashed in his bag- before giving Beak a handfull of those coins and prompting her to have a go as well.
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 3:25:34 GMT -5
Beak gives a quizzical tilt of her head, a soft telepathic "hmmm" filling Marion's mind as the skeleton considers the challenge. A single punch, as hard as one can... as much as she knows about unarmed combat, putting all of her strength into single big hits is not her usual approach. She's fast, able to land many smaller blows that add up.
Though... hmm. It may be possible....
She takes off her gloves and hands theme to Marion for temporary safekeeping. One looks like a simple armored glove, something like leather but with metal plates affixed to joints along the fingers for extra punch. The other... is something of a nightmare; a glove with long, curved blades attached to each finger, something that looks like monstrous claws when worn.
Cautious as Beak is about having her bare, skeletal hands exposed to any random passersby... well, she has to be fair about this.
Sort of. She sort of has to be fair.
She won't use her punching weapons, and she won't even use all of her speed, but she will use some of it. If she can get... was that two punches that just landed in the blink of an eye? They hit so close together that the machine registers them as a single hit, despite her very clearly having started from a "one hand forward, one held back against the body" posture and alternated her hands like pistons.
Predictably, the result of the machine is... actually not high enough to ring the bell at the top, because no blow ever could be; these games are usually rigged, from what she understands. But it's significantly higher than Marion's performance, and really looks like it's actually going to win before finally stopping almost at the top, which is still worth a very generous payout of tickets.
"... If I'd used the gloves, I probably could have squeezed four hits in instead of two," she admits sheepishly as she takes them back.
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 3:38:33 GMT -5
"WHOA!"
Even if the bell wasn't rung, it was so high up there that Marion looked up and if he was wearing a hat it would have fallen from his head. As trusting as he was, the elf didn't come to suspect that there is a rig- but he thought that being able to reach that bell would be like, you know, some sort of feat on par of actual dragon wrangling. And Beak was so close, too!
"These gloves help you punch more? " He seemed quizzical at that idea, frowning abit in thought before an aha moment.
"Oh, is it like- well, casting with a conduct makes it easier to focus energy, does the same thing happen with fighting? But I guess we can't use these on the machine, I mean, these claws are so wicked- like a wolverine's! but they'd wreck the punching pad too."
Collecting the tickets- it was a huge bunch and Marion had to take some time to fold them up and roughly count them, the elf hummed.
"It does seem like you know a whole lot about how to punch! Like, how do you do it so fase? Like- wham wham! You'd hit them twice before they can blink."
Marion sort of tried to mimic the motion himself, but it was obviously nowhere close to an effective attack at all- and he seemed to simply be in that 'curious about everything' moment.
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 3:44:48 GMT -5
"Well, this one does." She puts the non-clawed glove on first, the one that has the metal to make it punch harder. She leaves her other hand bare for now, because the clawed one would tear up the pad. This is about punching power, not, like... whether she can carve the machine into slices with her hands.
She makes sure not to put any more coins in the machine so that this attack won't register. It's deactivated, it's not measuring, this one is just for fun.
And... sure enough, she does the same thing again, but with four hits this time, in the same amount of time it took her to hit twice in her official attempt, and in the same amount of time most people would take to hit once.
"It has a... kind of a speed enchantment," she explains, while casually putting the clawed glove back on as well. "So wearing it not only hits harder, because of the metal, but faster too. And I'm already fast, so, you know...."
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 4:02:05 GMT -5
It was not a day when Marion was left wondering at how it is physically possible for someone to punch so fast, but he's seen it with his own eyes now. Sure, there is enchantment, but still- if you gave Marion a speed enchantment he would probably be able to cast faster...? Maybe? But certainly never be able to deck out punches so fast they look like a literal blur.
"Can you see where your fists went when you do that? Or do you sort of... feel it out? I can't even keep up with how your arms moved."
Interest quipped, Marion came up close and trotted around her in a circle, the motion more like when a dog want to check you out and they circle under your feet while looking up? That.
"Can you hit different spots with those punches? Like maybe hitting them right and then left so they get knocked around like that?"
Despite his aversion to actual violence, Marion sure did not see a problem to talk about it in a theoretical sense and finds it fascinating as any other sort of subject, as he pondered.
"Oh, hold up, hold up! I think I know just the place." It was a cheeky little grin, when he waved for Beak to follow before heading off again.
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 4:13:37 GMT -5
"Ah, the more I have to think about--multiple targets, changing direction, that sort of thing--the more it slows down. It's more like... in my mind's eye, I envision a target, and then I just... feel it. I don't really see where my fists are moving, either. I'm not looking at my fists; I'm looking at what my fists are targeting. Or even... looking through the target, a lot of the time. There's a sort of... a spirituality to it. It's like your magic, in some ways."
The attention is flattering, too be sure. So long has she been used to either hiding in her lonely swamp somewhere or being reviled on sight... and now here Marion is admiring her. Between that and the... "date?" she had the other day, it would seem things are looking up for her, socially....
That said, her head tilts once more at the latest suggestion. "Eh? Where are we off to now...?" If it's another punching game... well. She just demonstrated that she has something of a knack for those. She's genuinely unaware of what else they could have besides the one they just played, though. Well, wondering won't solve anything; there's only one way to find out. She simply follows along, waiting to be surprised.
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 4:39:40 GMT -5
Lo and behold, whack-a-mole.
There are multiple machines, and with how many people have already chosen to forgo the hammer and tries to beat down the stuffed mole figures with their hands- well, punching them wouldn't be so out of left field for them to do.
"It sounds abit like... meditation? Like when you dont think about one thing intently but all of the things at the same time? I couldn't really do that, mama said she could, though, and it's good for me- but whenever I think about something it just jumps onto another and another, and its much more jumping and not floating. But that's a great point though... looking at the target and not at your hands- it would make a better aim, when you think about it like this."
Taking the hammer and putting in his two coins, Marion announced that he is going to try to implement that takeaway with this game- and it is proven by how he totally missed the first few because he doesn't have a good sense of where his hammer is. But he sort of adapted to it, and when the moles got faster as the game went on, the elf actually got more hits in than before- and the amount of tickets he earned was considerably more than what was from the punching machine. This got him to do a little victory flourish with the hammer with a giggle- and ducked down to collect the tickets before cheering for Beak to have a go at this with her fists.
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 7:06:01 GMT -5
Before inserting the tokens and beginning the game, Beak... stands there for a while, in obvious surprise, and seemingly with a lot on her mind all the suddne.
She... she just taught someone something.
Sure, she hadn´t meant to. SHe didn´t realize that was what she was doing. She thought she was just making a conversation, explaining how martial arts feels in her mind when she does it. Just friendly chat. But Marioin took it as advice. He changed his style to be more like what she was describing, and it worked, and he improved his score.
It was one very quick and very simple lesson about a very simple concept, but... she taught someone something. She took a piece of knowledge that she had, and she passed it down, and her "student" adapted it, and...
mm?
"O-oh, yes, I'm fine," she answers when she hears what sounds like Marion asking if she's all right, trying to snap her out of her sudden trance.
stars above she did it she taught something she's a teacher maybe she can actually be Gri'kka after all maybe she'll have students and she'll pass on all her ways and her wisdom and she did it she's doing it she can do this
"Y-yes, I'll play. My turn. I see. Thank you."
Right... a simple game of striking the targets quickly and precisely. Now this is more suited to her strengths. That mallet looked clumsy and unwieldy, but of players are allowed to use their fists... actually, the mallet implies they can use weapons, too...
She removes the clawed glove and gives it to Marion to hold--again, this is about striking the targets, not ripping the entire machine apart. She keeps the cold iron glove, though, along with its speed enchantment. She is about to embarass this game.
And she does.
No target stands a chance. Even when they start coming out faster and faster, toward the end of the round, each falls almost the instant it rises.
Her score... is perfect.
The noise of the ticket dispenser distributing its highest jackpot attracts some stares from curious onlookers.
This is the best game ever.
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Post by Marion Aurea on Jun 22, 2024 7:29:19 GMT -5
The cascade of tickets from the machine was downright outrageous- well, it is another part of the effect of trying to draw in more (less skilled) players with an extravagant display of promised victory, and Marion picked them all up in a pile hugged between his arms and started to fold them the same way he had did with the previous bunch, not seeming concerned at all at how long that would take him- the little elf is just ecstatic at not only the perfect score, but also how great that whole display was- he did try to do it himself, and getting partial success many times makes someone realize how much skill is needed than getting an utter defeat.
"I was trying to track them all, but I couldn't really divert my attention like that or else my hand would try to go the other way... is that something that can be trained?"
He mused, hands working away at folding the tickets.
"I mean, I have never learnt martial arts before... and I'm not all that strong either, but it would be nice if I won't be utterly defenseless if I ran out of mana, and Kweh isn't around. But maybe it's not something so far out of my reach."
And then you see him backtrack in his own mind. You'd come to notice how he does that when he just stopped talking and did not look like he was contemplating, more like concentrating- and then he made a little 'oh'.
"- Was there something on your mind? You sort of skipped a beat before you started your go. I tend to say alot, but I'd love to hear about what you are thinking as well! If you want to share, that is."
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Post by Beak on Jun 22, 2024 16:44:38 GMT -5
"Oh, it's...."
How to explain it? Marion is so pure, so sweet and kind and supportive, that he doesn't always understand when others aren't accepted. Beak could be moved to tears because Marion accepts her as a friend even though she's undead, and he'd just look at her with confusion, genuinely unaware that that was supposed to be a problem, somehow... why, do other people not like undead? That's weird.
So it is that she's moved and honored by his gesture, but now she has to explain why it's so moving and such an honor.
"Ah, it's nothing. I... you... you listened to me. I wasn't trying to teach you anything, about looking at the target... I was just answering your question, explaining how it feels when I do it... but you took it as advice, and you tried that, and you actually did better because of it. I, ah... I... taught you something. I actually taught you something."
She shakes her head. Okay, now she's figured out how to put it. "You know how I was saying I wanted to be Gri'kka someday, right? To learn all the rites and rituals and be a spiritual representative of my tribe, not just some dumb uneducated warrior? Well, part of being Gri'kka is passing all that down... there's no point to learning all of that stuff if I just keep it with me, right? Like... I want people to know about my people... I want someone out there to care about who they were, and what they believed... but that means I have to teach them. And, uh... I've never taught someone before. It just... it means a lot to me, that that worked."
She tilts her head, considering his proposition. "You know... I'm not sure I could get you to the point where you're attacking four times per second like that or anything, but... if you really want to learn martial arts, I might be able to put together some kind of beginner course... teach you the basics... it'd be good practice for, uh, teaching people things, you know?"
Not right this moment, of course. The two have a festival to enjoy. But... something to consider in the future, for certain.
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