"I've been told I am more intimidating in this form than my
human one."
After leaning Simon's gifts against the wall near a door, Cynthia
stood before Rowan—Dawn leaning back against another wall behind
her. "Well, uh—you don't look scary, but a little,
yeah. The way you act, is kinda.."
The blue-haired vixen had her weapon out, holding it loosely out to
one side in her left hand. She shrugged. "It isn't intentional.
Our 'empowered' forms can come with subtle personality shifts..or at
times, not-so-subtle. Mine tends to have me speak in monotone and use
more and longer words—unless I am angry enough. All of that is to
say, you shouldn't take my criticism too harshly."
"'Honesty is kindness', huh?"
"'Honesty is kindness', huh?"
She tilted her head slightly. "Well—I wouldn't put it that
way. But just keep in mind that whatever I say or do here, is
intended to help you survive. Not to hurt or discourage you."
Cynthia nodded. "Got it."
Risking his life almost daily for a couple of weeks now had really
put Blake's previous problems in perspective. Coming back to classes
was a relief; doing homework and projects was practically a vacation.
He felt like he could not merely tolerate, but enjoy even the
toughest or most tedious of problems that any of his
professors assigned, because none of them involved needing to come up
with a way to survive the next ten seconds. As it had been for the
entire portion of his life prior to becoming a "superhero",
that part was an assumed given.
He knew it wouldn't last, and anxiously watched the clock, checked
his phone. She was doing what Emma had suggested, letting
everyone know ahead of time where and what would come to kill them,
although the exact timing was still uncertain. As soon as he got wind
of a warning for their town, it would be time to turn into Light and
go straight to the nearest target site, awaiting the inevitable
fight. But, until then, school was a relief.
"I'll begin with the sparring match we had after fighting the
dragon, day before yesterday. As much as it represents a time we both
made less-than-stellar decisions, it did provide me an opportunity to
see how you fight up close."
Cynthia folded her ears back. "Which is...not good, huh?"
"If you were totally incapable, you would not have survived
fighting the monsters you've been up against so far. But there is
much room for improvement. You are often too eager to strike first;
your movements become predictable very quickly; and you frequently
commit too much and strike out too far, leaving yourself open."
Rowan raised her weapon to demonstrate. "If I strike forward
this way—" She stepped closer, slowly swinging her sword
down-sideways. "Not only am I off-balance, but my entire left
side is open." She pulled herself back, and made a slow-swing
with only a slight forward lean, ending just past the space right in
front of her. "A less aggressive, more precise strike won't hit
as hard if it connects, but leaves time to move aside or block if
necessary. Furthermore, you don't need to worry about hitting harder,
when you can wrap your sword in fire."
"...You got a point there."
She nodded. "Spar with me again, swords only. Try to watch my
movements and react accordingly."
"'Kay."
"'Kay."
Emma had been thoroughly mentally prepared for some heads to turn.
For people to look at her. She was not, however, ready
for people to talk to her. More to the point, she really
hadn't thought of the extremely obvious consequence that guys would
be hitting on her.
It was nothing malicious, really, and there were a lot of cute guys
she might've said yes to if she wasn't dating Amory right now, or
even if she was but wasn't enjoying it so much. It was
just...not what she'd prepared herself for, which resulted in a lot
of flustered verbal stumbling, excuses, and practically running away.
Between her first and second classes of the day, she went by a group
of guys from the soccer team, and sort of unconsciously hunched over
to try and make herself less noticeable. They noticed her anyway, and
some of them approached, easily keeping up with her brisk pace.
"Hey cutie, you busy tonight?"
"Uh—uhmm, p-probably, sorry."
"Well, what about tomorrow night?" (a different one asked)
"Uh—uhmm, p-probably, sorry."
"Well, what about tomorrow night?" (a different one asked)
"Uh, no, I, um—"
"You wanna go out somewhere this weekend? My treat!"
"Are you on the gymnastics team?"
"Uh, n-no thanks, I'm uh..I'm seeing someone already!" she was mumbling under the first half of this last question, then blurted loudly over the second half. "Uh—s-sorry!" Feeling very surrounded by the group (despite them only forming a semicircle at worst), she was just about getting ready to bolt.
"You wanna go out somewhere this weekend? My treat!"
"Are you on the gymnastics team?"
"Uh, n-no thanks, I'm uh..I'm seeing someone already!" she was mumbling under the first half of this last question, then blurted loudly over the second half. "Uh—s-sorry!" Feeling very surrounded by the group (despite them only forming a semicircle at worst), she was just about getting ready to bolt.
"Yo, guys, c'mon, back off. The lady, ain't interested."
One of them came up from behind the pack which had been (not really)
surrounding her, spreading his arms out to sort of block them from
continuing to follow her. "Back off, 'kay?"
"Alright, alright..."
"Just having some fun, dude..."
"Spoilsport..."
"Alright, alright..."
"Just having some fun, dude..."
"Spoilsport..."
"Maybe she plays volleyball..?"
As the rest of them wandered off, the guy who'd rebuffed them came up in front of her. "Sorry 'bout that."
As the rest of them wandered off, the guy who'd rebuffed them came up in front of her. "Sorry 'bout that."
"Uh, i-i-it's okay, really. I'm just...nervousaroundcrowds."
On actually looking at him, Emma blushed hard; he was a tall, buff
guy with dirty blond hair, green eyes, wearing a tank top that didn't
do much to hide his abs. "I uh, I really am dating, someone else
right now though."
"Eh? Ah, naw, don't worry 'bout that," he said. "You uh, no offense, but you not really my type?" he shrugged. "Just wanted to get my teammates to behave is all. Name's Thad, short for Thaddeus."
"Oh, uh—Emma," she said, which resulted in Thaddeus tilting his head hard at her.
"Duuude, really?! No way. Little Emma?"
"Uhh."
"We were in, uh, remedial math together last semester," he said. "You ditch the glasses?" he said, making a gesture like throwing a pair away from his own face. "Workin' out lately?" (He flexed an arm.)
"Uh, yeah, and, um—some. I had kindofa, growth spurt, the last few months.."
"I'll say! Hahah." Something about his chuckle sounded slightly disappointed to her, but maybe it was just her imagination? "Anywho, I got class to get to. Those guys give you any trouble, tell 'em I'm watchin'. Or...somethin' like that anyway," he said, his voice trailing off as he quickly walked off behind her and to the left.
"Eh? Ah, naw, don't worry 'bout that," he said. "You uh, no offense, but you not really my type?" he shrugged. "Just wanted to get my teammates to behave is all. Name's Thad, short for Thaddeus."
"Oh, uh—Emma," she said, which resulted in Thaddeus tilting his head hard at her.
"Duuude, really?! No way. Little Emma?"
"Uhh."
"We were in, uh, remedial math together last semester," he said. "You ditch the glasses?" he said, making a gesture like throwing a pair away from his own face. "Workin' out lately?" (He flexed an arm.)
"Uh, yeah, and, um—some. I had kindofa, growth spurt, the last few months.."
"I'll say! Hahah." Something about his chuckle sounded slightly disappointed to her, but maybe it was just her imagination? "Anywho, I got class to get to. Those guys give you any trouble, tell 'em I'm watchin'. Or...somethin' like that anyway," he said, his voice trailing off as he quickly walked off behind her and to the left.
She breathed a small sigh of relief after that. Maybe she just need
to be more assertive and less mousy if that happened again...it
wasn't like she couldn't be assertive, right? She'd screamed
at something way more powerful than any human to shut up a
couple of nights ago. Telling some guys she wasn't interested should
be nothing by comparison...
Emma kept up a brisk walk anyway, hoping she wouldn't have to test
that theory.
Cynthia lost. She lost again and again, each time for seemingly an
entirely different reason. Compared to two days ago—when she was
injured and exhausted from fighting a dragon, alone—Rowan
was visibly moving slower, and occasionally flinched in a way that
Cynthia eventually figured out meant her body had been about to
exploit an opening practically by reflex but she consciously
decided not to. Still, Cynthia couldn't get a single hit in, and
didn't feel like at all she was improving.
It was just impossible to keep everything in her head at once: Keep a
firm stance but not so stiff; don't try to strike first if you can
help it but don't neglect opportunities to attack but also don't
attack too hard; dodge what you can't block, block what you
can't dodge; don't strike so hard that it loosens your grip; don't
feint so weakly that it's obviously a feint... It felt like her head
was going to explode! Or maybe just her temper.
Sometimes Marcus wasn't watching where he was going. Sometimes he did
that while carrying an instrument—like, say, a violin in a case—and
his backpack with somewhat heavy armor in it that he wasn't used to
carrying around in addition to his notes and books and sheet music.
And sometimes, when he didn't look where he was going, he ran into
someone else who probably hadn't had a chance to look.
"Oofh!" He sort of bounced off of the other party into a
backwards stumble, dropping the case loudly on the hallway floor and
landing on his back like a turtle. "Ahh, oww...sorry!" He
tried to crane his face forward to properly direct this apology.
"Uhhh..."
The person he'd just bumped into, who had managed to only stumble off
to one side slightly and remain standing, and had a look of concern
to return back to his apologetic expression—was Amp. Well, human
Amp, whatever.
"It's okay, that didn't hurt," he said, coming closer and
offering a hand to help Marcus up. "You okay?"
Marcus took the hand and let himself be helped up, but otherwise reacted with what felt like extremely visible apprehension. "Uh, yeah, hahah..just a little clumsy sometimes, uuuhhmm...person I haven't met befooore..?"
Marcus took the hand and let himself be helped up, but otherwise reacted with what felt like extremely visible apprehension. "Uh, yeah, hahah..just a little clumsy sometimes, uuuhhmm...person I haven't met befooore..?"
Amp tilted his head slightly. "Sure you have," he said, which confused Marcus immensely. That is—he had, but also nobody else watching this scene of two guys running into each other like that was supposed to know that! "Last year?" he continued in response to this confusion. "You were in a study group I did. Amory?" he offered.
Study group...? Oh—OH! This was the guy who'd been in charge of helping a bunch of underclassmen in non-science majors—including Marcus himself, of course—pass their core science classes. He'd...totally forgotten about that. "Uh—oh. Ooooh, right, yeah. Yeah, you—totally saved my bacon," he said, meaning that in a much more recent sense in addition to the one anyone would infer from watching the scene. "Sorry again, I wasn't uh, looking where I was going."
"Hey, it happens," Amory said, shrugging and picking up the violin case to offer it to him. "No harm no foul, right?"
"Uh—ye, yeah..hahah.."
After taking his instrument back, Marcus remained standing awkwardly in place for a long moment. Then he remembered he was already almost late for class—hence his swift walking speed while he was not looking where he was going—and quickly spat out a "Uh, gottago!" before hurrying off to get to class.
He could not have choked any harder about keeping these
secrets, he thought. At least Amp—er, Amory—had been very adept
at smoothing it over. No telling how poorly things could've
gone if two Marcuses ran into each other...or, something like
that anyway.
"...We should take a break." Rowan dismissed her sword, and
Cynthia did the same after frustratedly tossing it off to one side
(where there was, thankfully, nobody present to get hit by it).
"RrrrRRRggh! What is even the point of this!? I'm never
gonna get any good at it, and those monsters ain't gonna be your size
anyway! Most of 'em don't even use swords, they just grab and
stomp and eat people! And what's it matter if I lose it anyway!? I
can just summon it back again," she said, demonstrating this by
making her weapon reappear in a plume of flame from her hand.
"Yes," the short, blue-haired vixen nodded, "but this
is not about the way you handle your sword. Not really."
"Wh—but that's all we've been talking about! What do you even want from me, then!?"
"Wh—but that's all we've been talking about! What do you even want from me, then!?"
"Our powers come with instincts on how to fight," Rowan
said patiently. "Everyone's instincts guide them differently,
but relying on them entirely is always dangerous. Your
instincts seem especially disadvantageous to me. They drive you to
charge in recklessly and do as much damage as you can, without much
regard for your own safety or survival. Am I wrong?"
"...I guess not? All I think when I see one'a those things, or..if I'm in a fight at all, is just to beat it down as fast as possible. I guess I figure if I kill it fast enough, it don't matter 'cause it won't get a chance to hurt me anyway."
"...I guess not? All I think when I see one'a those things, or..if I'm in a fight at all, is just to beat it down as fast as possible. I guess I figure if I kill it fast enough, it don't matter 'cause it won't get a chance to hurt me anyway."
"That is the problem," Rowan said. "Our enemies won't
die so easily, as I'm sure you've noticed by now. I don't fault you
if you would prefer to risk yourself over others, but consider that
taking more risks yourself compels everyone else to take on more risk
in order to protect you. Dawn cannot fight at her best if she is
preoccupied with keeping you safe—which is not to say that I fault
her for that, either."
Cynthia paused, glancing over at the tall vixen, who'd sat down cross-legged in the grass to watch them and appeared surprised to hear her name called out at this point. Dawn had no particular retort to this, however, only paying more attention to the conversation.
"Your instincts can be good," Rowan said, "They
can prompt you to notice things you otherwise wouldn't, and allow you
to react to situations faster than your conscious mind can keep up at
times. But you have to guide them and use them, not allow them
to completely control you. At all times, you must pay
attention to your surroundings during a battle, and you must think.
I'm not asking that you come up with a complicated strategy in an
instant, just that you always think ahead to what at least your next
move should be. What to do if you find yourself in danger; how best
to avoid being in danger in the first place."
"...Is that what you do?"
"As much as I can," Rowan nodded. "I began at a disadvantage; my power was weaker than a normal vixen at first because I 'inherited' it from someone I killed in self-defense. I had to be frugal with magic and rely mostly on using my sword, or else exhaust myself quickly.
"As much as I can," Rowan nodded. "I began at a disadvantage; my power was weaker than a normal vixen at first because I 'inherited' it from someone I killed in self-defense. I had to be frugal with magic and rely mostly on using my sword, or else exhaust myself quickly.
"Even so, I have tended to have the opposite problem. My
instincts provide me somewhat of an unfair advantage when fighting
with my sword, making complicated movements feel like reflexes. Most
of the time, they make me feel as if I should fight
defensively, wait for my opponent to make the first move and only
aggress when I have the upper hand. I have to deny them in order to
take risks and be proactive in a fight, instead of allowing everyone
else to do all the hard work. I suppose that influences my
perspective—I must make a conscious decision to strike hard, so I
always plan that strike out to try to ensure it will succeed."
"Well...I guess it'd be nice to not get myself killed or eaten
again," Cynthia said. "I can at least try. You wanna
go for another round?"
Rowan nodded, producing her weapon again. "I am almost out of time, unfortunately. But one more should not encroach on my schedule too much."
Rowan nodded, producing her weapon again. "I am almost out of time, unfortunately. But one more should not encroach on my schedule too much."
To say that Dr. Rory Quinn was popular was perhaps an understatement.
From the moment word got out that she was in her office, there were
students coming in nonstop to see her, ask how she was doing,
gush about how awesome she'd been in the recent monster fight or the
ones before that that she couldn't actually remember, ask how soon
she'd be able to teach her own classes again. Eventually one of the
grad students she'd agreed to meet with showed up, and she had to
shoo out a bunch of undergrads in order to actually hold the meeting.
"..Phew, sorry about that," she said. "I don't really
get what's going on. I thought I was a pretty strict teacher or
something?"
"Well, you aren't strict just 'cause," he said, shrugging. "You care about them getting things right, and, ultimately, being good scientists. I'm sure being a literal superhero didn't hurt your popularity either, but—some of them are probably hoping you can get back to yelling at them for handling the equipment wrong real soon."
"Well, you aren't strict just 'cause," he said, shrugging. "You care about them getting things right, and, ultimately, being good scientists. I'm sure being a literal superhero didn't hurt your popularity either, but—some of them are probably hoping you can get back to yelling at them for handling the equipment wrong real soon."
"I guess I'll need to remember the right way to handle it
soon, then. Anyway—like I said, I'm sorry but I don't, actually
remember what we were working on. Explain it to me like I'm not an
expert. Maybe a high schooler."
"That bad, huh? Well, okay—it might help me get straight what I'm stuck with anyway..."
"That bad, huh? Well, okay—it might help me get straight what I'm stuck with anyway..."
Cynthia finally managed to score a point, getting the flat of her
blade against Rowan's side. "Much better." The blue-haired
vixen's face took on the exceedingly rare expression of a very slight
but visible smile as they both dismissed their weapons.
"You were goin' super easy on me, right? I can tell.
D'you know you kinda flinch weird when you wanna block or somethin',
but decide not to?"
"I could feel that, yes," Rowan nodded. "I was not
making it any easier than the previous times today, however.
Nonetheless, you took advantage of a fairly subtle opening."
"Yeah, yeah..." Even though she knew it wasn't much of a
victory, Cynthia couldn't help feeling happy about it. It felt like
something she had accomplished, not just her powers,
and this was a distinction she hadn't really been fully aware
of before now.
"Keep this in mind the next time you fight something for real,"
Rowan said. "Those monsters can have very predictable patterns
to their attacks, which can be exploited very effectively by the
attentive."
"I'll keep an eye out, sure."
"I'll keep an eye out, sure."
As someone pointed out in the comments to the previous episode, we're getting close to episode 100. I think it's unlikely that something especially momentous will happen in-story by then, but I'm considering doing something else special to celebrate the (admittedly arbitrary) milestone. Basically, there's a lot of background thinking and stuff that doesn't go into the narrative which I don't think it would be spoilers to share. It ranges from some internal reference material of sorts to discussion of various hypothetical things that would never exist, like how I would picture the story being adapted to an animated show or video game. Maybe, either before or after episode 100, I could make a post with some of that stuff in it? Let me know if you'd be interested; I don't want to take up the effort to write it and have a post on this blogspot with it if nobody really wants to read it, after all.
