whose face is in the mirror today?

[stavros]

Who: Kokoro and you
What: Training, research, and attempted dark brooding.
When: Early- to mid-February
Where: Around campus
Warnings: Nothing so far

[mythril cage - early afternoon]

[If you're around the Mythril Cage over the lunch hour, you might find Kokoro using her Rune Armour plus a drone of sorts, red and white to match it, floating beside her. She flies through a target test as normal, but it's not long before she gets turned around. While Kokoro still ends up hitting most of the targets herself, her Option is pointed behind her, leaving a trail of matching scorch marks on the back wall.]

...I shall need to learn to work with this.

[library - day]

[Or for a less destructive option, you can find her in the library, mulling over a handout and walking the aisles of the science books. If she sees you, she may flag you over.]

I seek input. Well, I seek an idea for a science project that is unlikely to catch fire. Following the... holy water incident, I suspect I may need to play it safe for the rest of the semester.

[pond - night]

[Puella's questions the previous month had weighed on Kokoro. She bundles up (not hard when she already wears a jacket and scarf all year long), grabs a few of her basic weapons because... well, you've seen what's happened at Daybreak over the past year, and slips out of the Lumière dormitory and out to the snow-covered green.

Given the crosses on everything she owns, it might be easy to predict that she'd end up at the Cross of Life, clearing off a space on the edge to sit and stare up at the towering mountains and ornate buildings. She takes a deep breath, gets up, and steps onto the ice-covered pond.

And promptly slips and skids down the ice with a yelp, because the world never takes Kokoro Belmont as seriously as she takes herself.]

Comments

Cage

[notbornguilty]

[Weiss just watches Kokoro train for a bit before speaking up.]

Would you like a sparring partner or two? I still need to work on fighting while I have a summon active.

[stavros]

I can, if you wish. With or without the Rune Armour? I may be testing out the addition I got from Professor Valvatorez, but I may need to practise on foot as well.

[Read: Hibiki made fun of her.]

[notbornguilty]

I was thinking that I would fight the drone myself. As for your opponent...

[A white glyph appears in front of Kohaku in the armor. An empty suit of armor forms out of white energy above it, sword in hand. It's roughly the size of the Rune Armor actually.]

Like I said, I need to work on my multitasking.

[stavros]

Very well, though you'll find that Stavros and Trigon are meant to operate as one. ...I'll admit that I'm working on it. Let us go, then.

[Kokoro activates her beam whip with one hand and starts shooting lasers with the other. As she flies forward in Stavros, the rune armour, instead of pointing forward, Trigon, the Option, points backward again, firing in the direction she's not facing.]

[notbornguilty]

Is that so? Well my Armor and I are one!

[The Armor moves with surprising agility, dodging around what laser fire it can and blocking what it can't. It steadily makes it's way through the beams towards Stavros.

Meanwhile, Weiss raises a thick sheet of ice between her and Trigon, opaque by design. As the laser fire begins to melt through the ice, Weiss uses the cover to create a repulsion glyph behind the drone.]

[stavros]

[Kokoro turns to the side and snaps her laser whip at the Armour. Meanwhile, her Option is suddenly knocked a bit out of range. Kokoro turns and hurls an axe, but she shoots too high, misses the glyph entirely, and ends up hitting the ice wall; Trigon, on the other hand, starts firing solar-powered shots straight.]

[notbornguilty]

[Weiss smirks as her Armor simply dissolves before the whip reaches it, reforming behind Kokoro and swinging it's blade.

Weiss herself jumps into the air, repulsion glyphs forming to keep her in movement. She swings Myrtenaster at the Option, careful to not actually damage it.]

[stavros]

What in the --

[Kokoro puts her arms up and ends up crashing down and skidding across the floor. Trigon is pulled along with her, but takes some hits from Weiss' sword, firing solar energy back at her. Kokoro staggers up and rises into the sky again, shooting regular lasers at the Armour.]

[notbornguilty]

[Weiss mostly moves out of the way of the beam, but it does manage to clip her. She flinches, reacting with a disproportionate level of pain. Enough that the Armor flickers for a moment before moving again.]

Ahh! What was that, pure sunlight?!

[stavros]

That's right!

[She takes the opportunity to fling an axe up in an arc, then go for the straight hit to the Armour with her beam whip.]

Statistically, I'm likely to need it more often than not. Are you hurt?

[notbornguilty]

It's nothing that won't heal, but I feel like I'll be cursing my parentage a lot during this fight.

[A glyph intercepts the axe, launching it back to sender. The Armor, for it's part, abandons it's sword to the whip and goes to just punch Kokoro.]

[stavros]

That seems to be a theme!

[Kokoro flies backwards to attempt to dodge both, firing lasers forward and cursing that all her weapons are long-range. She starts trying to gain some distance, Trigon still moving with her and firing at her blind spots whenever she shoots.]

Perhaps this wasn't a mistake.

[notbornguilty]

[Weiss actually does a flip as she dodges the fire this time, landing on a glyph a few feet in the air. She uses Myrtenaster to make several ice chunks in the air which she sends flying towards Kokoro with some repulsion glyphs.

As for the Armor, it dissolves once again. Rather than appearing behind Kokoro however, it reforms above her, sword already in motion in an over-head swing.]

It does seem like it would be effective against the less agile sort.

[adjectiveprince]

[Night time is uncomfortably cold, but daytime is uncomfortably bright, so Zagreus often does stuff at night. He peers over the edge of the pond at Kokoro.]

Er...Are you alright?

[stavros]

[Kokoro can't get her shields up in time, and she's knocked back, Stavros denting a little from the ice. With the back-spin, though, Trigon is still covering her back, and it fires on the Armour as it's about to land. Kokoro rights herself and throws a few vials of holy water.]

Always adapt!

[stavros]

Gk--! I'm fine!

[Kokoro drags herself up to a sitting position and brushes off some snow, grumbling.]

I suppose I should have expected some people out at night. I simply wished to think some things over.

[notbornguilty]

[The Armor dissolves once again, reforming in position to shield Weiss from the holy water. The bottles shatter harmlessly off of it, and it charges again, sped up by glyphs forming on the ground in front of it.]

You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this.

[stavros]

Good!

[Kokoro aims forward, but doesn't shoot. When the Armour gets closer, she immediately moves to the side and arcs her beam whip to the side and up to cover where she expects it might show up next.]

[notbornguilty]

[The Armor actually doesn't vanish this time, instead going into a roll and bringing it's sword up in a diagonal swing as it comes up. Weiss stabs Myrtenaster into the ground, causing a sheet of ice to form on the floor and spread to Kokoro.]

[stavros]

What in the --

[She flies up on instinct, but takes the hit from the sword; however, as she does, she drops something onto the Armour.

Something glass... and pink.

The Holy Science Project bubbles and bursts into flame as the glass breaks, while Kokoro's still reeling back from the attack she took at the same time.]

[notbornguilty]

[The flames eat away at the Armor, false metal melting where the water touches. In a last-ditch effort, Weiss skates along the ice and pushes the fading Armor towards Kokoro with a propulsion glyph. So, uh, it's falling on her now.]

[stavros]

[Kokoro activates her shields and drops to the floor, so it's falling on her but hits the shield bubble. Trigon hovers beside her, but she puts out a hand to call time.]

Was that too much?

[notbornguilty]

I'm not even sure what that was. Holy water shouldn't affect my summons like that unless it's of a blighted being. Then again, I suppose it wasn't the best idea for a dhampir to try to fight someone with your specialties in the first place.

library

[silksoul]

[ Hornet is lingering in the library, inspecting the books. She's still unfamiliar with them; she's used to reading things in silk or stone. ]

If water is flammable, things truly are different outside the Outlands. [ She tilts her head slightly. ] What sort of projects do you enjoy?

[stavros]

That... was my science project.

[She sighs, rolls out of the way, and takes down the shield, then starts to disassemble her Rune Armour.]

It's no worry. Not every enemy is tailored to one's strengths in a real fight. I believe I managed to learn a good bit, too. I may not have set up my Option correctly, but you know, I think I'll leave it like that.