The problem with dangerous people...
Oct. 14th, 2014 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
noteasytobepinkWho: Clarice and other students
When: Off and on through her time in Bill's world.
What: Clarice stays sharp. Sort of. It's complicated.
She didn't do much until she was cleared, medically. Only an idiot pushed an injury when there was the option to rest. She even did physical therapy religiously, but given mutant bodies, well, she tended to heal better than expected. She didn't have a healing factor, no, but she did have the heightened metabolism and that tended to help when she had the option of decent nutrition.
She tried to take the down time as a gift, she did. She only ran at first. A lot, on the ground, along the mountains, through the trees, she just ran, keeping up her wind. But a month stretched into a handful of months and she took up climbing and woodland parkour, trying to simulate vectors and angles she encountered in combat.
Then it happened; it was simple, and stupid and it shouldn't have bothered her because she had a good thing here, but she got winded. Doing something simple, for her, was harder than it should have been. It should have been alright because it was a sign, right? That she didn't need the combat skills any more. Not here, there was nothing to keep her sharp...
...but she couldn't really believe that. Working as a florist, hah, dangerous stuff. Stepping up to deputy? A breeze, and...she couldn't let the skills go. Something small, and terrified, and grim deep inside said she couldn't, and that voice had never led her wrong.
That just meant she had to get creative because no one would approve, especially not Bil.
When trapped and unable to train? Go to the source. Go to the people Mr. Creed had lived with for a while that had given him skills to teach her.
...or go to that area of the world anyway and hope to find someone who spoke with fists and feet properly.
She went to Vietnam. Stepping away for a few hours here and there to comb dripping jungles, watching and waiting until she saw the proper style. Perisai Diri was obvious even to her who'd learned it piece meal and adapted to a young, flexible teleporter. She didn't know the language beyond afew polite phrases given as ritual to teachers; she didn't have to.
She did have to stand up to being tested, women, after all, were not known as fighters even in Vietnam. Not hand to hand fighters anyway. She was in shape enough to pass that at least, though no one would call her a master by any means.
She couldn't even dedicate a few hours every day in training over there, just enough to stay sharp. Just enough to know the people coming at her when they lined up in a class or in a brawl session could be better than her. That edge of 'I'm not enough' that was true training. She always managed to scrape through. She was a lot like those she trained with after all, a child of depredation and war. They trained to keep a tradition of holding their land, she trained against them to stay alive, and they taught each other some interesting tricks as snatched weeks bled into months which hemorrhaged into years.
Bill had his alone time to relax and do his own thing; she had hers. It was more relaxing, at times, than even sex because it was confirmation that she could survive. Even in a world such as this there were people who understood, as the man she was growing to love didn't, and so she allowed silence.
She didn't ask where he spent his free time when they didn't have plans; she didn't offer what she did with hers. It was the best she could do some days, even days like this when she slipped in the back door covered in mud along one side and eyes still glowing from power use and high emotion. There had been an honor awarded tonight; it was a good thing...she just...wasn't sure Bill would understand if she offered to share the honor as she'd been invited to.
She wasn't sure how to ask.
One thing was certain though, she'd need a shower before she decided anything, yes.
When: Off and on through her time in Bill's world.
What: Clarice stays sharp. Sort of. It's complicated.
She didn't do much until she was cleared, medically. Only an idiot pushed an injury when there was the option to rest. She even did physical therapy religiously, but given mutant bodies, well, she tended to heal better than expected. She didn't have a healing factor, no, but she did have the heightened metabolism and that tended to help when she had the option of decent nutrition.
She tried to take the down time as a gift, she did. She only ran at first. A lot, on the ground, along the mountains, through the trees, she just ran, keeping up her wind. But a month stretched into a handful of months and she took up climbing and woodland parkour, trying to simulate vectors and angles she encountered in combat.
Then it happened; it was simple, and stupid and it shouldn't have bothered her because she had a good thing here, but she got winded. Doing something simple, for her, was harder than it should have been. It should have been alright because it was a sign, right? That she didn't need the combat skills any more. Not here, there was nothing to keep her sharp...
...but she couldn't really believe that. Working as a florist, hah, dangerous stuff. Stepping up to deputy? A breeze, and...she couldn't let the skills go. Something small, and terrified, and grim deep inside said she couldn't, and that voice had never led her wrong.
That just meant she had to get creative because no one would approve, especially not Bil.
When trapped and unable to train? Go to the source. Go to the people Mr. Creed had lived with for a while that had given him skills to teach her.
...or go to that area of the world anyway and hope to find someone who spoke with fists and feet properly.
She went to Vietnam. Stepping away for a few hours here and there to comb dripping jungles, watching and waiting until she saw the proper style. Perisai Diri was obvious even to her who'd learned it piece meal and adapted to a young, flexible teleporter. She didn't know the language beyond afew polite phrases given as ritual to teachers; she didn't have to.
She did have to stand up to being tested, women, after all, were not known as fighters even in Vietnam. Not hand to hand fighters anyway. She was in shape enough to pass that at least, though no one would call her a master by any means.
She couldn't even dedicate a few hours every day in training over there, just enough to stay sharp. Just enough to know the people coming at her when they lined up in a class or in a brawl session could be better than her. That edge of 'I'm not enough' that was true training. She always managed to scrape through. She was a lot like those she trained with after all, a child of depredation and war. They trained to keep a tradition of holding their land, she trained against them to stay alive, and they taught each other some interesting tricks as snatched weeks bled into months which hemorrhaged into years.
Bill had his alone time to relax and do his own thing; she had hers. It was more relaxing, at times, than even sex because it was confirmation that she could survive. Even in a world such as this there were people who understood, as the man she was growing to love didn't, and so she allowed silence.
She didn't ask where he spent his free time when they didn't have plans; she didn't offer what she did with hers. It was the best she could do some days, even days like this when she slipped in the back door covered in mud along one side and eyes still glowing from power use and high emotion. There had been an honor awarded tonight; it was a good thing...she just...wasn't sure Bill would understand if she offered to share the honor as she'd been invited to.
She wasn't sure how to ask.
One thing was certain though, she'd need a shower before she decided anything, yes.
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Date: 2014-10-23 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-25 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-25 05:31 am (UTC)"I think you just made monks up in the mountains cry."
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Date: 2014-10-27 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-29 06:35 am (UTC)"It's okay though, at least you won't try to convert me to Mormonism or something. I've run into some of them, they're scary!"
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Date: 2014-10-29 09:09 pm (UTC)So yes, Mormonism was definitely off the books.
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Date: 2014-10-30 06:41 am (UTC)Regardless. "Does lazy apply to everything? Because I'm a little sad you haven't bothered kissing me yet..."
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Date: 2014-10-31 08:52 pm (UTC)"Haven't bothered? How do you know I ain't been sittin' here waitin' an' hopin' that you'd kiss me?"
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Date: 2014-11-02 12:00 pm (UTC)Honestly her main reason for not doing so was she didn't feel she had the right, at the moment, when she'd upset him so much earlier. It'd bother him if she said that though so instead she shrugged and teased fingers up his shirt buttons, "well I didn't want to interrupt you as you established the oral tradition of your religion and all."
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Date: 2014-11-02 07:22 pm (UTC)"Oh, I'm done talkin' religion." He smiled, leaning in to kiss her.
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Date: 2014-11-03 07:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-03 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-04 08:20 am (UTC)"You are very sadly clothed." He had a shirt on. SAD TIMES!
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Date: 2014-11-04 07:15 pm (UTC)Smiling against her lips, he reached for the hem of his shirt. "Easy enough t'fix, ain't it?"
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Date: 2014-11-05 09:43 am (UTC)"Mmm, yes. I like how you think. I have to warn you though lover, I should be in bed early..."
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Date: 2014-11-06 04:20 am (UTC)It was a little bit of a trick to do, but he managed to sit up enough to tug his shirt off without losing too much of the proximity to her. With that done, he let it drop to the floor and combed fingers through her hair before planting another kiss.
"So let's go t'bed, then." Obvious solution, right?
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Date: 2014-11-07 07:11 am (UTC)"Oh, right, why didn't I think of that?" she teased, plucking a pencil off the end table to charge. Why give up a comfy cuddle just to move after all?
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Date: 2014-11-08 05:52 am (UTC)Nuzzling her ear, he shrugged, tightening his hold on her in preparation for the jump. "You were too busy thinkin' about bein' lazy?"
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Date: 2014-11-08 07:30 am (UTC)"Seems to defeat the purpose to burn brain cells thinking about not doing so..." she noted, popping them the short trip to the bedroom. "Besides, I know a good way to get a lazy many active." It involved running a tongue along his collarbone, yes it did!
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Date: 2014-11-09 09:02 am (UTC)It was just smart living, really! Besides that, though, his real and true motivation was still doing what he could not to screw things up between them.
"Do you now?" he asked right before his breath caught with the run of her tongue.
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Date: 2014-11-09 09:28 am (UTC)"I know I'm too keyed up to sleep and I'll need rest anyway so it's in my best interest to make sure you help wear me out enough to nap!" It was flawless logic!
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Date: 2014-11-10 07:30 pm (UTC)"Oh I see, so I'm just a workout to ya, huh?" he teased.
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Date: 2014-11-11 05:37 am (UTC)"You're a very sexy workout?"
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Date: 2014-11-11 08:36 pm (UTC)"Mm, flattery'll get you everywhere." And he'd be stupid to complain anyways. He truly didn't mind being her sexy workout in the least.
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