noteasytobepink | The problem with dangerous people...

Who: 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

That got a startled reaction from Bill and his worry jumped up several notches.

"How d'you mean 'break'?"

From:

steahl_npc

"The final forms are dangerous. To be a weapon you hone your body and you know it better than you do your husbands or wife's body. I am not a fighter like this, but the dangerous ones? If they learn wrong they can damage themselves inside. It will not kill them but it is like making a sword. If the blade breaks during the forging it is discarded and cannot be used."

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill frowned hearing that, eyes drifting back to the path Clarice and the others had taken.

"She didn't tell me none of that... "

From:

steahl_npc

"Nor did my wife," he admitted with a soft, strained chuckle. "I am a doctor. They would not wish us to worry, and they are very skilled."

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill would bet the man's wife had at least told him she was training like this, but that was a bitter thought he didn't want to hang onto, so he let it go.

"Yeah. I'm sure they'll both be fine."

From:

steahl_npc

Actually he'd come back from a medical tour to find out about the selection but he'd known if he panicked his wife would kick him in the head. "Yes, and yet I can't look away," he admitted wryly.

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill chuckled, shrugging a shoulder. "That's what a woman does to ya."

Makes you wait in a jungle, staring down a path for her to come back.

From:

steahl_npc

"Yes, easily." Women did that to everyone really. "I found out yesterday. And my mother threatened me with a spoon. Speaking of, here she is with food." And a rather sour look for the men who had both stayed put instead of coming to her porch.

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

"Same here," he sighed about finding out, somewhat comforted knowing he hadn't been the only one.

His manners had him standing up on the woman's approach, and he dusted his hands off before nodding to the old woman.

"Thank you, ma'am."

From:

steahl_npc

"You good boy," she noted. "And both idiot men. Girls be fine now eat!" She pushed a bowl of noodles and broth into Bill's hands before staring down at the top of her son's head. "AND YOU TOO!"

"Yes momma, thank you."

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill accepted the bowl and inclined his head. "Thank you."

Settling back down beside the son, Bill looked over the bowl. "Smells good."

From:

steahl_npc

"Black hen soup," the son supplied. "Mother says it will calm our nerves." It wasn't chicken noodle by far, it had real vegetables in it for starters, but there was a reason even second and third gen Vietnamese Americans didn't cling to the American foods.

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill poked at is bowl a little before giving it a try.

"S'good," he said in surprised approval.

From:

steahl_npc

"You are surprised?" The son almost chuckled. "Why are strangers always surprised? Americans." Weirdos every one of them.

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

"Well it ain't that I thought it was gonna be bad," Bill replied. "I just didn't know it was gonna be this good."

From:

steahl_npc

"Ah, talk like that will have my mother disowning me and inviting you to marry my wife in my stead since you have not married your pink woman," he chuckled.

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill chuckled and shook his head.

"All she'd have to do is talk with my own mom for a little while to find out what kind of pain in the neck I can be."

From:

steahl_npc

The old woman spoke something swiftly while eying Bill, then sat down to her own meal.

"She says that you look like a man who would drive people crazy but responsible, I would suggest running before she gets you married."

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Bill gave a guffaw when he heard the description of himself, smiling as he spooned up more of the soup.

"I ain't all that bad. An' my girl would have a thing or two to say about me gettin' hitched."

From:

steahl_npc

"I do not know if mother would say it is her fault for not marrying you sooner, or if she would say something like 'that's alright you may have a wife in each country' or something. She enjoys making people blush I believe." At least talking was helping the young man relax slightly? He even snuck a glance at Bill instead of staying glued to the path!

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

Talking was a good distraction, and Bill was happy for it himself.

Laughing, Bill shook his head. "I'm pretty sure my mom would kill me if I did that. Much as she'd love t'see me get married, two wives would be one too many."

Regardless of each wife's location.

From:

steahl_npc

"I don't even want to think what she would say to that," he admitted with a soft, short chuckle. "But maybe your mother would like my mother. They could plot together."

From:

wheelsy_sheriff

"You think that would end well for either of us?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. To his mind letting his mom conspire with anyone about him wasn't a very smart idea.