Neutral Omens

Making his way outside, Mictain found War there. For a moment he wondered what she was doing before he remembered the note he had seen a while ago. Ah, yes. The practice session.

"Hi there, Ruby," he said, grinning. "Do you know if anybody is going to actually show up?"

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War grinned back, then shrugged. "Not a clue. I know a few people mentioned they were interested - but it's no skin off my nose if they don't, I was going to practice on my own if they didn't. Are you going to join me - or anyone else who bothers to turn up?"

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"Nah, I'm just going to stand here and look stupid," Mictain replied. "Of course I'm going to join in on the fun. I tould you I would, didn't I?"

He idly wonders whether anybody else is indeed going to show up. If they don't, well, it's their loss.

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"True," War replied. "You might have thought you'd had a better offer though," she said, raising one eyebrow and twitching the corners of her mouth in a smile.

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Mictain simply smirked in response. Then, he turned to look towards the Manor. "I hope more people show up," he commented. "I'd like to see people fucking up everything."

If nobody missed anything up on their own, he could always cause some chaos. Of course, this was a mean thing to think, but, well, he was a demon. A bored one.

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"Me too," War said, looking across at the man - Shadow, he'd said - and the woman who was now diverting his attention. "Do we know her?" she asked Mictain, adding, "I'm sure I've seen her somewhere before - not recently, though."

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"I've no fucking idea who she is," Mictain admitted. "Some god, most probably, since she sure as hell isn't pure human."

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War shrugged. "Probably some goddess who got associated with war and fighting some point, then. No doubt we will find out soon enough..."

So saying, she turned to Shadow, who had just spoken to her.

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Bast was just walking back to the manor when she saw the red-headed woman and the blonde man- demon, she corrected herself. Curiousity had always been her weak point, so she wandered over to see what they were doing, still a little unsteady on her feet without a tail.

Loki's advice had worked well - after trekking until she couldn't feel the manor anymore, she's tried to shift and found it suprisingly easy. Now she knew the right way to do it, she reckoned that she could be change here without much probelm. Only probelm - green really didn't suit her new skin-colour, and it was bit cold. She reached the pair, cocking her head to one side.

"Hey," She said, voice a little rough from lack of use but much the same as her mental one, "What you up to?"

There was something familiar about the woman.

((Little note you may be intersted in, war - Bast was a minor war goddess for the Lower Delta back in egypt.))

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Shadow was looking forward to the practice session; he really needed some exercise, and he could only imagine what the invitation to ‘bring any weapons you may wish to’ would result in, considering the type of people who resided in the manor.

He’d seen the woman, Ruby, around the bar occasionally, and he recognized her also as the woman who had attacked Pippin at the barbeque. War, Pippin had called her. Well, whatever.

“Hi,” he said, coming up her. “You must be Ruby. I’m Shadow. Am I early?” And then, before she could reply, his eyes fell on the other woman, dark-haired and beautiful.

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Hi Bast.”

Wow.

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Bast turned, and raised an eyebrow. Somewhere deep in her chest, a purr started.

"Hey Shadow," she smiled. "What do you think? Not exactly a leopard-print skirt, but not bad, right?"

He had to know she was teasing him - she couldn't help it. The poor boy looked like he'd been hit on the head with a very large stick.

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She was teasing, but knowing that didn't stop Shadow from blushing, just a bit. Nevertheless he grinned back at her.

“Not bad,” he agreed. (Boy that was an understatement.) “Where’d you get that shirt?”

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Bast laughed, and bit her lip. "Not so fine, is it? Loki lent it to me. I really need to find new one, probably, but it covers the basics..."

It was only a pity the necklivne only drooped enough to show her collarbone, she felt like saying, but that was probably too much.

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“It’d take a lot more than Loki’s hand-me-downs to make you look less than stunning, Bast,” Shadow said with a little grin. “But if you want I could take you shopping sometime.”

Wait, what? Generally that was not a good thing for a man to volunteer for. Of course, Shadow had gone clothes shopping with Laura upon occasion and those hadn’t been bad experiences, but usually she’d prefer to go with her girlfriends and to model her purchases for him that night.

Still, he looked at Bast hopefully, waiting for her answer. He realized that he wanted to do something nice for her.

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((Awww, he's such a sweetheart...))

Bast gave him an open-mouthed grin, and a slight pink tinge appeared on her cheeks - not from the cold. "Really? You're not just pulling my tail, are you?"

She pouted, perfectly aware of the effect it had on most males. "If you're being serious, I- I'd love to."

She blinked. What was with that stumble?

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((Isn't he just? Also, as Pep-mun pointed out, Vin Diesel and Halle Berry? Hot.))

Shadow blinked too.

“Of course I'm not,” he said, and then smiled when she said she'd love to. “Great.”

He found that he didn't really have much else to say, so he turned his attention back to Ruby and the other man. “So, what's this ‘practice session’ all about, anyway?”

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"What it sounds like, really," War said. "Whoever wants to gets to turn up and do some training for a while. I hadn't got any fixed plans because I didn't know who was going to turn up, and how much they'd know." She looked at him speculatively. "How much do you know?"

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Shadow shrugged.

"What you learn on the street, mostly. I'm good with my fists, and can handle a knife okay in a pinch."

He'd never had to yet, being as big as he was, but working at the Muscle Farm had taught him some things, and being in prison had taught him a lot more.

(omg I can never ever type/read 'Muscle Farm' without bursting out laughing)

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War nodded. "Not a bad start. If you can handle yourself on the street, you've got to have a bit of a natural sense of timing and balance or you'd be lying in the gutter pretty sharp."

War had never ended up in the gutter herself, but she'd put a few people there in the past.

"Show me your fist," she said.

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Shadow made a fist, curling his fingers inward beginning at the middle knuckles and placing his thumb over the backsides of his fingers where it would not risk either being broken or dislocated by his punch.

He held his fisted hand out to her, wrist and elbow aligned mostly out of habit, and his hands slightly loose, since he wasn't actually throwing the punch yet.

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War nodded. "You do know what you're talking about, then," she said. "I've seen a lot of people with broken wrists from having the force to punch but not getting the wrist straight."

She held up her own fist, and added, "In my case, keeping the thumb out the way lets me keep the nails long too. Never know when they might come in handy." She grinned.

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As a rule, the sphinx didn’t read announcements. They weren’t of any interest to her. She did what she pleased, when she pleased and where she pleased, and while a being more powerful than her could make her change the way she behaved, she was hardly going to obey the commands of a piece of paper. And even if she had been aware of the practise session, she might not have attended. In fact, she might even have avoided going outside altogether. After all, you could never trust people not to be police officers in disguise.

As it was, though, Sphix was in the Manor garden. She rested her back against a tree trunk and allowed her mind to wander. Then the voices of several people talking broke her out of her reverie, and she stood, picking stems of grass and bits of tree bark from her clothes. She found herself curious and took a few steps towards the commotion. Who knew, the people might even be talking about her.

When she was closer she halted for a moment, searching for familiar faces. One of the women she had seen before, and the other… The sphinx was pretty sure she was an Egyptian goddess. Sphix had been through Egypt numerous times on her travels, and being able to recognize a local never hurt.

With the people somewhat sorted out, Sphix strode across the remaining distance to the group.

“So”, she said, addressing the woman she knew. “Aren’t you one of the redheads from the lunch a few days back. Scheming something?”

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War squinted at her. "You were the one at lunch the other day? The one with" with the bones, she was about to say, before realising it might not be the best idea - "with the rare steak?"

Knowing the answer to the question already, she carried on, "Not scheming. Just holding a practice and training fighting session for those as want it. You going to join us?" she asked, the angle of her head and the hand on her hip an unspoken challenge.

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The sphinx caught the challenge and allowed a smile curl her lips. “Join you? Perhaps I will. I’m all for games.” She enjoyed challenges, but she had only managed to stay alive as long as she had by picking her fights. Practise and training wouldn’t be lethal, though, would it? Sphix tried to remember when she had last fought just for the thrill of it. She could recall all those little rivalry matches with her brother, but after that… surely she had played after that?

Sphix shook her head a little and nodded at the woman. “So, since this is your game… What are the rules?”

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The corner of War's mouth quirked in a smile. It was times like this when lightning instincts came in handy.

"Alright, then," she said, looking round at the others. If they didn't choose to listen, that was their problem. "First rule - you do what I say. No getting creative, that's not what this is for - it's training, not a free style fist fight. Second rule - play safe. It's technique, today, not trying to injure each other, and I don't want Adam appearing out here to cart any of you off the the hospital wing."

Or chuck me out the Manor, she thought, grimly, to herself.

"So. Pair up, then - we'll split up the women and the men for now, two sets of two. And what I want you to do is..."

She attacked the air violently with a swift series of punches and blows.

"All clear?"

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Shadow got most of it the first time, but missed the exact position on one or two moves in the middle.

"Can you give us that again?" he asked, at the same time sparing a glance at his proclaimed partner, a blond man, strong-looking, and with an air of something more about him.

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War rubbed her nose. "Yeah... that was probably a bit quick. Mic, can you come here a sec? It might come across clearer if I'm not just pummelling the air. Standard block sequence, ok?"

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"I get to be your bloody demonstration prop? Fuck, thanks, Ruby. I fucking appreciate this." With a smirk, Mictain walked closer, stopping some way away from War. Although his position did not visibly change much, he prepared himself to block War's blows and punches when she would start the sequence again.

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"Well, I know I know exactly what you're doing," War said, with a quirk of her eyebrow. "Besides, in a moment, you'll be taking turns with Shadow... maybe if you're worried about blocking my girly punches you should think about some remedial training?" she teased, though there was nothing girlish about her tone, nor in her stance as she launched into the sequence of punches and blows that brought her up close to the demon. She found herself having to concentrate harder this time - the solo practice blows into the air were second nature, but she knew the demon's instincts and reactions were at least as good as her own.

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"My dear Ruby, if I couldn't block a few girly blows, I would have never bloody lived this long." Of course, he neglected to mention the fact that he had indeed been unable to block the blows of quite a many angels, which had led to him almost not surviving. And, fortunately, returning to the Manor. There was absolutely no reason for War -- or anybody else, really -- to know that.

He blocked all the blows with seemingly very little effort, although he had to work harder than he'd ever had to while practicing with other angels back in Heaven. After all, War was definitely a warrior of her very own class even when she was "only" training. A couple of times he was almost tempted to try a blow back at her, but that wouldn't do. Athough she doubtlessly would be able to block them, that might encourage her "students" into indeed turning the training into a fistfight. And besides, her game, her rules.

That, however, didn't keep him from smirking. "Is it just me, or are you quite slow today?"

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"But of course - I'm sure you've had plenty of practice defending yourself." It was a low jibe, as she knew full well he'd been out on the attack several times, but she could never resist the opportunity to rub in the fact that she got to go fight where she wanted, with whomever she wanted. She tended to get a little restless if she got cooped up with one lot of people who were all the same for too long. Fortunately, the inhabitants of the Manor were hardly homogeneous.

With a michievous glint in her eyes as she glanced at him, she turned to the others and said, "I'll run through it again now - at full speed - so you can see how it all fits together properly before I let you loose doing it." Her emphasis was slight, but War never did things like that by accident.

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The sphinx gave another sharp nod, watching carefully. The fluid movements of the redhead and the man - Ruby and Mic, as they had been addressed - were certainly a feast to the eye, and yet Sphix still found herself wishing for more. This manner of combat, as beautiful as it was, was still a bit too direct for her taste. Smaller than her brother - her only practise opponent in the early days - and much more vulnerable, she had learned to win by guile and by taking advantage of her surroundings. And while human fists could certainly cause damage, surely paws and talons were much more formidable weapons.

Overall, sphinx found herself a bit perplexed by this game. If no one got hurt, what was the fun? If the stakes weren’t high, why play?

Still, a game it was, and backing out now was out of the question. Thus, the sphinx watched, learning what she could.

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Bast had been listening carefully to the redhead's - Ruby's? - intructions, and drifting off slightly, remembering a time when she'd been almost nothing but the light on a spear and claws in the night. She regained focus as another being came up to the group, and spoke to Ruby.

This one was...familiar, in an odd way - almost like a cat, maybe a lion, but not quite...she walked up to the being and put her head on one side. "Sphynx?"

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Sphix turned around, startled by the voice. She looked the woman in skirt and T-shirt up and down again. Yes, probably an Egyptian, although she couldn’t be absolutely sure. The Greeks she could tell apart, but with anyone else her instincts got a bit blurry.

“I might be”, the sphinx answered. “Or I might not. Wouldn’t you just like to know?”

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Bast rolled her eyes, smiling. "Now with an answer like that I know it's you, sphinx. How've you been?"

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Sphix narrowed her eyes just a bit. The woman seemed to know her, when she had no idea who the goddess was. It was possible, she reflected, that they had met in the passing, but if they had, Sphix had no recollection of the incident.

“I don’t recall”, she said, her voice cold, “ever having to explain my beings and doings to Egyptian deities. And I’m not about to start doing so now.”

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"Me-ow!" Laughed Bast, not really offended. "Fine, I suppose your business is your own I'm in too good a mood to let curiousity kill the cat this time around."

She wiggled her fingers at the irrate woman, and turned back to the rest of the group.

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