♈ Aradia: Experience companion's lament.

[psych0p0mps]

[So he really is gone. The Doctor wasn't just sucked into a mirror or whatever the hell happened to all those other people. She checked the graveyard - he didn't die. She checked his door - but it's only Five's door now. (Doesn't help that Five forgot all about her, too.)

Maybe he's gone home, back to his adventures through time and space. Or maybe he's been taken somewhere else on this planet and forgotten who he is. She half wonders if this is what it's like to know him in his own universe. To know him, to make plans that involved him - because she'd been hoping he would come to Lastlook with her - and then for him to disappear, maybe forever.

She's not sure what she's feeling. Sad? Angry? Abandoned? He wasn't the first good friend to be taken away from her. But with Sollux and Ted gone, she isn't even sure who to talk to anymore. And worse yet, she knows that this is all being done to her for a reason. Getting attached and feeling bad - it just fuels the enemy, and that pisses her off even more.]

[Filtered to Cair Paradisa]

hows dinner you bastard
is my loneliness salty enough for you
can i get you a side of grub sauce with that

[Sigh. But ranting's counterproductive, it's all useless. It's not going to solve anything. She's got to get these feelings out somehow or other, and in the absence of both a moirail and a good pile to lay in, the best option she can think of... is violence.]

[Filtered to Ezio]

meet me in the gardens in ten minutes
come armed

Comments

[assassino]

[Something sounds up.]

Hmm? Of course. I will be there shortly.

[psych0p0mps]

ok

[She'll be there waiting for him, dressed in her Assassin gear and standing in a ready stance, arms at her sides.]

[assassino]

[He shows up, dressed for a fight, and looks at her with surprise.]

Dressing yourself for the part now, are you?

[psych0p0mps]

[Yup! She doesn't feel like taking part in this "conversation" stuff right now, though. Instead, she draws the obsidian dagger from the sheath on her back and flips it in her hand the way he probably taught her. The only thing that marks this as a spar instead of an attack is the fact that she hasn't otherwise moved.]

Ready?

[assassino]

[Ezio's even more surprised by the commitment to just, you know, starting, but he adopts a fighting stance with sword drawn.]

When you are.

[psych0p0mps]

[SHE WAS HATCHED READY. Aradia gets right to business, charging toward him with the dagger ready to her side, her feet tapping rapidly on the stone of the garden path. When she's close enough she'll feint right before ducking left, trying to get under his sword.]

[assassino]

[If Ezio fell for feints, he'd be long dead back in Italy. He moves with her, drawing his sword down to block her path.]

[psych0p0mps]

[Drat. At least being half his size means she can stop on a dime, though, and she scampers back out of sword reach, hopping left and right for a moment. Then she strikes again, this time head-on because fuck strategy, she's angry.]

[assassino]

[Your anger is obvious, piccolina. He draws his sword up to block, shifting his weight back to absorb it.]

[psych0p0mps]

[Blocked when she thought he'd counter, cool! Aradia drops into a spin, but partway, her feet cross and she trips, landing on her side with a yelp. Her dagger, dropped, hits the ground a couple feet away.]

[assassino]

[He stops, lowering his sword, and then steps closer to kneel to her level. He offers a hand to help her up.]

You seem a little...

[...]

Off your stride, today.

[psych0p0mps]

[She glares, flushing cranberry with embarrassment, but... accepts his hand, picking up her dagger with the other. Once she's up, though, she drops into a stance again almost immediately.]

Again.

[assassino]

[The side of his mouth curls in a weird sort of amusement. Wasn't he like this, when he was eighteen?]

Very well.

[This time he swings at her first.]

[psych0p0mps]

[She knows she doesn't really have the physical strength to block like he does, so she dodges inside and forward, aiming an elbow up at his gut.]

[assassino]

[He lets her have that hit, she seems mad. Oof!]

d'aww ezio

[psych0p0mps]

[A hit, a very palpable hit! She follows through with a closed-fist backhand toward his face.]

[assassino]

[That he grabs, and he's fast to use her own momentum to spin her around... and then pin her around the neck with his arm. Headlock!]

[psych0p0mps]

[Afkdsla;fjkds!!! Aradia thrashes around, trying at the same time to get enough traction with her feet to push him over backwards, and to hit his torso with either of her elbows, but she hasn't got the weight or the leverage to make either option work.

It's probably obvious she hasn't had much practice with grab breaks.]

[assassino]

[Ezio keeps a firm grip on her.]

Not practiced enough, I see...

[psych0p0mps]

Nngh. [She refuses to comment on that, but flips her knife so the blade's above her hand and tries to take a jab at the arm holding her. There's not a lot of room to strike above his armguards, of course, but that's what she's aiming for (doesn't want to stab herself if she misses).]

[assassino]

[He lets go, but he does it in such a way that he spins her away from him by that same fist -- don't get disoriented, now!]

[psych0p0mps]

[She almost manages to pull out of the spin without stumbling. Almost. But she's back up the next second, and... charges again! RARR.]

[assassino]

[He lifts his blade to counter.]

What has you in such a rage, little one?

[psych0p0mps]

[And her blade just sliiiides off his, wrecking her balance. She stands and pushes some stray hairs out of her face.]

I'm not in a rage!

[Except, you know, she totally is. Swings the dagger at him again, sloppily.]

[assassino]

You fight so clumsily I'm tempted to call it flailing!

[Easy block. Come on, girl!]

[psych0p0mps]

[By now, yeah, it's getting to be flailing. She erupts into a flurry of pitiful, aimless slashing, each strike easier to block than the last, and spits out a few words between each one.]

Well excuse - see how you - like having one - guy you thought - would always - be here - GRAAHH!

[assassino]

[Ezio tolerates that for a bit, but decides he doesn't want a flailing girl waving a blade in his direction, so he takes an opening to extend a hand to her shoulder to push her away from him.]

Aradia, stop.

[psych0p0mps]

[Pushed! Buuut, she's unable to catch her balance in time, so after a moment of pinwheeling arms, she trips over the edge of the path and lands on her butt in a patch of rhododendrons. She makes no move to get up again, though. It's kind of a pitiful sight, even if she didn't look to be on the verge of tears.]

[assassino]

[He approaches her and then squats down to her level.]

Aradia. What is wrong?

[psych0p0mps]

[... Yup here come the waterworks. Or... Kool-aid-works. Eye leaks. She raises the back of her hand to wipe them.]

It's stupid.

[assassino]

Hey! Nothing we ever cry about is stupid. [He sits down properly. In that protective big-brother tone:]

Tell me what happened. Who is this guy? Did he hurt you?

[psych0p0mps]

[Sudden and emphatic.] No! [... and softer.] No, he'd never do that. He just... it's castle crap. He got sent away.

[assassino]

Ah. [Sympathetic.] That is always difficult.

[psych0p0mps]

I know. [It's why she didn't make a post to whine about it, or try to bug any of her friends about it. Everybody's lost somebody here. Hell, she herself has lost lots of somebodies, and occasionally the same somebodies more than once.]

I just ... I really liked him, you know? I mean, like him. I'm not gonna stop liking him just 'cause he's off somewhere else forgetting everything.

[Rub rub. STUPID EYES, Y U NO STOP LEAKING.]

[assassino]

Of course not. But that does not mean you cannot feel sad about it.

[psych0p0mps]

[Sniff.] What am I supposed to do? If - if everybody keeps leaving like this. We'll never get anything done.

[assassino]

We continue on without them! Someday you will be an Assassin. There will be no time for tears just because a brother has fallen or disappeared.

[psych0p0mps]

["Someday you will be an Assassin" eeeeeee - But but]

But it was different when I knew what happened to them. What if-

[assassino]

[cuts her off]

What if, nothing. You cannot know the future, so there is no sense in troubling yourself over it.

[psych0p0mps]

[BUT BUT BUT........ sigh. hey guess what Ezio, knowing the future is one of her buttons! :'| ]

... I always used to know. I was so excited when I stopped knowing how everything was going to turn out. It was like having the illusion of free will all over again.

[assassino]

Such a thing is not natural, Aradia. You are better off without knowing the future.

[psych0p0mps]

[It's only because her future self didn't tag her spoilers :( ]

I guess. [Sniff] I hated it so much. I never thought I'd look back and ... [yeah that train of thought has departed.] I hope he's okay. That they're all okay, wherever they are.

[assassino]

[He reaches to put a hand on her shoulder. Poor little girl.]

I am sure they will be fine.

[psych0p0mps]

[She just... puts her hand on his arm, and leans her face on it. ubuuu.]

[assassino]

[He strokes her hair with his free hand. Bambina :'( ]