RL: Tutoring post [backdated]

[poison_puppet]

Himiko sat in the Honky Tonk, sipping coffee and waiting for any one of her numerous tutors to appear. The skinny woman lounged in one of the booths, watching the door, surrounded by various last minute study guides.

The man behind the counter would smile at anyone who would walk through that door. After all, Himiko generally brought in paying customers and kept up on her tab, unlike his most loyal - and broke - patrons, Ginji and Ban.

((RL open to anyone on Himiko's world, and any one who wants to show up at the Honky Tonk to help her study.))

Comments

[poison_puppet]

"Shibusen - that's where you work, right? Don't you have to have special powers to go there?" Himiko looked curious as she spoke to him, even as she scanned the cavernous room they had entered. There did not appear to be any 'welcoming committees' - something that only could be attributed to the fact that this was an unannounced and unplanned 'mission' into the Fortress.

"Yeah. From here on out things might get a little...weird." Himiko almost apologized but she recognized the light in his eyes. She had seen it many times in Doctor Jackal's face.

[screwloose]

Stein nodded, then shook his head at her question. "If you want to be a weapon, you have to have that gift," he said. "But meisters are generally just regular kids. Some of them do have special powers, like me, but all you really have to have is the strength of heart to train, and the ability to trust one's weapon completely." He cocked his head. "The weapon's chosen to be someone you're compatible with, too, so that helps."

He smiled. "I like weird."

[poison_puppet]

"Would it be possible for someone like me - someone from another world - to develop powers like yours?" She asks while walking cautiously through the columns of the under-fortress.

"Then you'll be right at home here." She says as she leads the way through a maze of corridors.

[screwloose]

"I have no idea," Stein said honestly, taking a drag from his cigarette and letting out a cloud of smoke. "We've never accepted a student from another world before. Soul Perception is genetic - you either have it, or you don't. But as you train and your soul gets more powerful, you might discover you have abilities no one else does. Wielding a weapon amplifies the innate abilities you have, so you never know."

[poison_puppet]

The transporter thought about this. "What kind of people are these 'weapons'? Do they just become scythes, or can they become other kinds of weapons as well? And -" She paused, scanning the room a final time. "would it be possible that my powers might come back if I worked with a weapon?"

She opens another door, and emerges into a sunlit street.

[screwloose]

"Each Weapon becomes their own kind of weapon," Stein assured her. "Anything from a gun to a knife to a flame thrower. And as for your powers, anything's possible at this point. It depends on exactly what happened to rob you of them in the first place."

He paused as they stepped into the street, a hand shooting out as he lifted his head to scan their surroundings. "I think someone's coming."

((Standard ambush? XD))

[poison_puppet]

"So I won't really know what kind of weapon I'd get until I'd meet them. That's cool." A pause, and then she explained. "I don't really understand how I lost my powers, beyond the fact that someone wished them away and the loss has made me sick."

Yet her illness was far from apparent as her body tensed in preparation for the attack. She trusted Steins warning instinctively, treating him as any other job partner. He allowed her the time to mentally prepare herself before the thugs appeared from around the corner, and for that she was grateful.

Himiko's eyes narrowed, and she tugged a bottle of flame-perfume from her sash. "Didn't think news would travel that fast. Better be careful, Dr. Stein. People here have strange powers." She uncorked the bottle, then warned him again. "The wind is with us, but still be careful not to breath any of this stuff." With that she blew the perfume towards their attackers. Any who inhaled it collapsed, coughing small flames as the perfume seared their throats.

[screwloose]

Stein nodded. "That's right," then frowned. "Well, hopefully we can shed some light on that, eventually."

He watched as she used the perfume, impressed. Then, sensing more foes coming up behind them, he turned and put his back to her. He cracked his neck to one side, his eyes eager, and darted forward, taking down their foes with accurate and devastating jabs of his hands and feet.

Martial arts wasn't his first choice, but he was definitely good at it.

[poison_puppet]

Just like Stein, Himiko's area of expertise was not pure street fighting. Yet she darted through their attackers quickly, attempting to conserve her magically-driven perfumes as much as possible. Part of her was glad the thugs were just the low level bruits of the Fortress, easy enough to defeat, even though they were tougher than the punks outside.

She allowed herself occasional glances at Stein, impressed at his skill. For some one who taught biology the man was amazing at fighting. If the school he spoke of taught that level of mastery along with the more mundane subjects, she was very interested.

[screwloose]

There was a reason people referred to Stein as the best meister in the history of the school. Though he didn't have a Weapon at the moment, he was still in excellent physical form and a vicious fighter.

Though these thugs weren't good enough to inspire him to the heights of his abilities, his residual curiosity about the Infinite Fortress itself carried him through the short battle.

Finally he let the last thug fall with a thud to the ground, gave him a passing kick to the kidneys to make sure he stayed there, and then walked back to Himiko, puffing on his cigarette.

"That was fun," he said, cracking his bruised knuckles before sticking his hands in his pockets.