itsjustagamerp | Swords at Dawn

Entry tags:

aqua,
iron liz

Swords at Dawn

Characters: Aqua and Iron Liz
Content: Swords. Puns. Possibly also discussions.
Location: The weapons deck
Time of day: Midafternoon
Warnings: None

While Aqua had come across this particular deck in her earlier explorations of the place, she hadn't had a reason to actually make use of it until just now. Even if she couldn't find a proper Keyblade here, she could at least make do with what there was, and besides. It would help her get her mind off the events of today and maybe - just maybe - it would give her an idea for how to deal with the sudden flood of interest people seemed to be showing in Terra. And if not, well, it would at least help burn off the jealousy.

So instead of dwelling on the day's events, she set about finding a sword that was at least a similar weight to the Keyblade she used the most. It wouldn't be quite the same, but it was close enough, she figured.

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Liz had already been there a while, further in the back of the deck where there was clear space. She couldn't help feel a little restless and there was still so much of the ship she hadn't really taken advantage of. And the weapons deck was the perfect place to start; she really missed the feel of a sword in both hands, and by some luck she even found a pair. They weren't Twinkle and Icingdeath by far, but they were just about the right size and weight, and they were beautiful. There were some real treasures around here if you looked hard enough.

She took a step forward in her clearing, giving the blade in her right hand a few test swings before raising them both into a fighting stance.

It took Aqua a while to find something that was as close to Brightcrest's weight as she could manage and at least somewhat similarly weighted. Even knowing that she wasn't going to be able to find something exactly the same, she didn't see any reason that she couldn't find the closest of the next best things. She was already at something of a disadvantage, she didn't need any more.

Once she had found the closest to what she was used to, she similarly took a few practice swings, before quietly stepping up to where Liz was standing and raising her own blade into a fighting stance. She had no idea if the offer would be taken, but it was clear she was willing to offer herself as a sparring partner all the same.

Liz blinked at first when she saw Aqua approach her. She didn't think anybody else would even have need of this deck.

Then again, she didn't even know this deck existed until now that she actually got to see the Satellite for herself.

"Ohhai Aqua," she greeted with a smile, not able to resist the Wiseu voice, and resumed her stance. Challenge accepted.

Any sort of reference that might have been in the voice flew completely over Aqua's head, but she offered a polite nod in return. Sure, she hadn't been expecting to find Liz here, but she wasn't about to turn such a convenience down. Neither did she imagine Liz was going to.

Of course, as always, she wasn't about to be the first to attack and she shifted her stance into a more defensive one. She didn't know what to expect here, and Liz did have one more blade than she did.

Two swords against one again. At least this time it was just a friendly sparring match and with a much smaller sword this time. Always better circumstances to have.

She took a few steps around Aqua, contemplating, before coming forward with a strike, much more controlled than usual; no sense in actually hurting anybody.

Of course not. If either of them came away from this seriously injured than one of them would most likely have been doing something seriously wrong. Sure, she and Terra had gotten carried away a time or two but that was someone she knew. It was different, especially given that she could usually heal the worst of the injuries afterwards.

Given that this wasn't that sort of fight however, it was simple enough to bring her sword up to block Liz's strike. She'd play it defensively for now.

She held the contact there for a moment, feeling the strength behind her opponent's grip. A good punster and competent with a sword; she knew she liked Aqua for a reason. Liz fell back just a little to feign low before bringing her other sword up to strike from the side.

She'd had plenty of time to get good at her weapon of choice. Saving the worlds from the darkness wasn't an easy task. Managing to make Master rank at her age was even less so, for all that she wasn't really about to mention that. (It tended to cut a little to close to bragging for her comfort.)

She had, however, seen just about enough feints to know to expect a sword to be coming in, as she stepped carefully back out of the way of the first strike while at the same time bringing her sword up to block the follow-up blow. If Liz wanted to land something, she'd have to try a little harder than that.

"Not bad!" Liz complimented at the second block, stepping back to give them both room again. She readjusted the swords in her hands before charging again.

"But how about this?"

Like feints, charging attacks were something that Aqua was intimately familiar with. Some places it had seemed like every single Unversed she ran across was inclined to try the tactic. However, in this, her instincts betrayed her. Normally when faced with a charging enemy, she simply called up her shield spell and waited. Normally, however, she wasn't somewhere where her magic was completely nullified.

She did realize her mistake fairly quickly, but nothing could save the fact that she was a second or two late in bringing her sword up to block and as a result it was something of an imperfect block.

An unusual delay, but it was still enough of a block. Liz continued her offensive.

"Gotta say, I never would've expected you to be a good fighter."

"I've sort of had to be," Aqua answered with a shrug as she stepped out of the way of Liz's strike before coming in with one of her own. While she was quite willing to keep to the defensive, it wasn't exactly terribly productive in the long run. Not to mention she wasn't exactly looking forward to repeating the mistake she'd already made.

"Being a Keyblade wielder isn't easy."

"Keyblade?"

Liz blocked with both swords crossed at the blades, pushing back Aqua's attack.

"It's a kind of weapon," Aqua answered, as she pushed against Liz's crossed blades, testing to see if she could manage to break through the guard. "They're... they look like the name suggests, really. Those chosen to wield it are supposed to help keep the worlds in balance."

Which was, of course, easier said than done, but she'd still done everything she could to keep the worlds safe and had she not been here she would have kept right on working out.

"Sounds like a lot of responsibility for someone so young."

Not that she was that much older.

Well, there was a reason for that. Namely that it was a lot of responsibility, although generally speaking the worlds managed to keep running well enough on their own.

"Mmm, it is, but it's also an honor to be chosen by the Keyblade."

"Is it hard for you?"

There was a moment of (relative) silence at that. It hadn't exactly been easy thus far, but then again she wasn't sure if what she'd been doing was really anything that could be called normal. Necessary under the circumstances, yes. But normal? Who could say.

"It hasn't been easy, really. But it needs doing."

"Well, I can certainly understand that."

These swords didn't necessarily carry too heavy a burden on them, but their use sure as hell did sometimes. It was all too recently that she needed to take that kind of responsibility...even if it wasn't necessarily carved into her fate in stone.

While Aqua didn't know the reason behind Liz's understanding, it was enough to know that she did. She hadn't really met all that many swordsmen (or women) but she would like to believe that the simple act of wielding a sword lent a certain amount of responsibility to the owner of the sword all the same.

"You can?"

Liz gave her a little smile at that, pulling away for a moment to catch her breath.

"Funny thing; they never warn you that dating a comic book nerd comes with a hearty dose of evil villains to fight. That's some fine print for you."

Edited 2011-09-27 05:47 (UTC)

Again, Aqua missed a good portion of the significance of Liz's words. She knew that there were people from other worlds, but not even that could give her quite what she needed to fully understand 'comic book nerd'. Her choice in reading matter had generally tended towards proper novels.

"You too?"

Liz chuckled a little and shrugged.

"Linkara, for the most part. He's kind of a magnet for trouble, especially since somebody decided to label him the 'champion' of our world. But he has my help, of course, since I know how to fight, too.

We put up with some funny things for love, wouldn't you say?" There may have been a knowing look reflected in her eyes as she smiled at Aqua.

Edited 2011-09-28 03:15 (UTC)

There was a moment of surprise at the mention of Linkara's name and something like a brief flash of remembered irritation in Aqua's eyes, before she shoved those feelings out of her mind. She wasn't talking to Linkara, after all.

"I guess we do," she answered softly, something in her own expression softening a little as she spoke.

Liz noticed that look. In all honesty, she didn't blame her at all for that annoyance; he'd gone a bit too far that time.

But...she didn't want everybody thinking her boyfriend was just a big asshole. Even if he could be, sometimes. Her expression turned a little more sincere.

"I'm sorry about him. He really is a good guy, once you get past the snark."

That remark got a moment of silence in response. But it wasn't so much a bad sort of silence as it was a considering sort of silence. He had, essentially, been willing to listen and she knew it wasn't entirely fair of her to keep sniping back like she'd been, even if there was a small part of her that tried to insist that he deserved it.

"How long does that usually take?"

Another small chuckle. "Well, it's more of a case of 'how long does it take you to get used to it,' if you ask me.

He never really means to offend anybody. It's just his job to make people laugh. Literally. If he thinks it's funny, he'll roll with it, and sometimes that means poking fun at someone a little bit. Trust me, even I don't get a free pass on that.

And...I think he has a tendency to jump into things without thinking. It's gotten him into more trouble than just a smack upside the head, I'll tell you that much."

Aqua would have sighed, were it not for the last couple of sentences. Even if Terra didn't suffer from quite the same abundance of snark that Linkara did, she'd heard more than one mention of him jumping into something without so much as a second though as she followed him across the worlds.

"Mmm," she answered with a nod. "I can imagine it has." And if her thoughts happened to turn towards Terra and not Linkara, well, that much was likely to be expected.

Of course it was to be expected. Liz knew this kind of thing a bit too well.

"Really, it's nothing personal, unless you do something to really make him mad. And he's one of the only critics I know that I can say that about." She's mentally looking at you, Nostalgia Critic.

Well, that made one of them then. For all that she knew her feelings on the matter, trying to figure out how (very specific) other people felt about the matter was something else entirely, if not quite the topic that was currently under discussion.

"It's not?"

"Of course not!" Liz offered her a smile, "He just has to remember we're not at home anymore; his sense of humor is a bit fine-tuned to our pop culture and banter with his friends. It's all in good fun."

Again Aqua nodded. If someone had spent their entire life on a world and had fine-tuned something to be relevant to specifically that world that it did make sense that it wouldn't translate quite so well outside that world.

Mind, she still wasn't about to let him entirely off the hook, but she nodded her understanding all the same. She could live with that explanation.

It was the least she could do, really. Linkara wasn't really one for explaining himself. At least not in ways that didn't make it worse, half the time.

"And don't worry," she added with a mischievous smirk, "If he ever really crosses the line, I know a nice tender spot on his head."

Ah, now there was something that she could understand. She wasn't about to ask where this spot Liz had mentioned was (it was probably none of her business anyway), but she could certainly agree with the sentiment that lay behind it. Sometimes there really wasn't anything better that could be done. Especially with people like Terra.

"That's good," she answered with a smile.

Not that Liz intended to make a habit of slapping Linkara, of course. Her hand hurt enough last time as it was. Besides, he took enough beatings from people who weren't his girlfriend. But that didn't negate the concept anyway.

With a smile, Liz took up one of the swords again. Just one, this time, to balance things out.

"Now where were we?"

Of course not! Aqua wouldn't have dreamed of making a habit of doing similarly to Terra, so it would only stand to reason that Liz wouldn't want to make a habit of doing so to Linkara. But it was still nice to know anyway as she raised her own sword in kind.

"Just getting down to the point of things, I think."

"Oh come on, that one was just obvious."

Liz smirked, readying herself for another attack.

"I think you need to sharpen your pun skills a little more."

Of course it had been obvious. She'd had to start somewhere after all. Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't capable of coming up with better things, as she readied herself to defend against the oncoming attack.

"Are you saying my skills aren't honed well enough?"

And with a smirk, she stepped up to strike.

"I'm saying you'd best keep up, or I'll foil you yet!"

Not terribly surprisingly, Aqua grinned as she moved to block the swing. They might not have been going at it particularly hard (or at least she wasn't) but that didn't mean it wasn't fun anyway. She didn't usually have people willing to keep up with her puns.

"Oh, I think you'll find my edge the very cutting edge of wit," she shot back. "I won't be so quick to yield."

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Swords at Dawn

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