2023-01-04: Aiming for the Ace
- Log: Aiming for the Ace
- Cast: Seolla Schweizer, Ennil El
- Where: Kamesan Park, Tsutsujidai
- OOC - IC Date: 0097 01 04
- Summary: Ennil decides to help Seolla get a workout in as part of her recovery. Sparks fly, but not every conflict has to end in tears!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
It's been . . . nearly a week? Slightly over a week? Slightly less? Keeping track of exactly the time has been a bit difficult for Seolla - really, it always has, considering her schedule is typically 'whatever is decided for her'. All the same...managing the withdrawal of being without her usual spicy cocktail of performance enhancing superdrugs has been...a process. Some days better than most.
...Today, it's a bit of both. Seolla's antsy - as she often is when she's just waiting around, but she also is explicitly not supposed to be doing much. Normally in this timespan she'd be off on some training regimen, or pushing herself in some simulator, or anything else to manage the typical intense need for activity. But her mind's prepared that need without the drive to actually go forth.
...The outlet for that is tennis. Tennis in the dark and the rain. Seolla's been antsy to go to Kamesan Park to do something, and thus is clad in the typical short top and skirt one associates with tennis, beneath the wide-open dayglow yellow raincoats that one associates with just about anyone in Tsutsujidai right now.
Currently, she is in a staring contest with a cat lurking underneath a playground slide, duffel bag in hand, eyes fixated on this creature.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil El's primary skillset has always been scavenging. In modern Tsutsujidai, it serves her pretty well - giving her a comfortably rigorous schedule of long walks in the dark and quiet hours at a desk in Aya, repurposing the things the city has chosen to discard.
It's leisure she's struggled with, and today is no exception. A few insulated bags rolled under one sleeve, an umbrella propped over her head, the honorary Hyper Agent was on her way to pick through a collapsed hardware outlet before Borr mentioned a potential detour - Kamesan Park presents something to slow her stride.
A (mostly) slight figure in a bright yellow raincoat, with a familiar shock of bright white hair. Ennil lifts her other hand to the one holding the umbrella and makes a single, slow clap, careful not to make too sharp of a sound, as she swings her path wide to stroll up to the younger girl - realizing only as she approaches what Seolla was so intent on.
"Hmm. Did I spook them?" Her gloved hand slips into a pocket, searching for something... but her eyes track down to meet Seolla's, if she decides to turn her gaze towards a familiar red-headed sight.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The cat scatters, as cats often do. It more breaks Seolla from her trance a little bit, shaking her head and giving Ennil more of a once-over from toe to tip. She's...a little taller than Ennil, but not by too much, so it should be a relatively even match.
"Oh, I didn't even realize I was staring at it...I wasn't sure - I rarely see animals like that. That one's a cat, right? I kinda sorta remember..." ...It probably says a lot if Seolla isn't 100% sure what a cat is.
"Anyway, you look ready enough. Court's free. Have you ever played this before? I...am not the biggest on the exact rules. But. It's not complicated unless you're a pro, I'm sure." Seolla unhooks the gate to the fenced in tennis court, the artificial surface pattering with the raindrops, and experimentally bounces a tennis ball upon the ground to see how it splashes and reacts to the wet surface. "...nnn, not ideal...maybe a different game would've been better in the rain. Probably why I haven't seen many people at these...!" With a flourish, Seolla casts aside her raincoat dramatically . . . . and then realizes what she's done, and carefully walks over to retrieve the rubbery garment, placing it safely under a small shaded awning so it'll keep dry.
And she takes the initiative with one big, forceful serve-! *pwong*
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Good to see you up and moving again. And yep, cat. A friend of mine keeps some at his house... I check in on them sometimes. He'll show you the pictures if you ask. Tall, scruffy guy. You've probably seen him - he's been helping Dr. Mass."
The umbrella comes down, and Ennil finds a place for it and the rest of the bags. Seolla admits to not really knowing the rules of the game, and Ennil smiles a bit. "Yeah, I never picked it up. Well, we don't have to take it too seriously, right?"
Still... Out in the rain, racket in her hands, she has to pace a couple times back and forth to get the feel for this kind of movement in a fancy suit. At least she skipped the heels today. "Alright, let's see what you've - "
Whoa. For someone still bringing themselves back from a pretty nasty crash, there's some force behind that serve. She's fast enough to get at it - working alongside four superhumans on a daily basis does sharpen your reflexes, and she was fit to begin with - but the return is a little sloppy.
Time to focus.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
"...Nnh, I feel...like I've gotta push on, but normally I'd go for something way more extreme. I'm ratcheting down to a little sport like this from what I'd normally do." There's a slight puff from Seolla as she makes that forceful serve, feet shaky on the ground for just a brief little moment - but she's clearly quite strong and adaptive to these conditions, and poised on the return, striking the ball like a vivid yellow comet over the net.
"...mmnh, I don't know...a lot about you. Hph-!" Another hit, this time arcing high up as a diversion. "...I'm just...a combat operative who...ngh. ...I came here before, dealing with that - hup! That dream monster that brainwashed people...was sorta here to collect, ah, 'payment' about how - ooph! - That thing did a serious number on my sister, and she's still recovering, but..."
Water and sweat alike are wiped away. "...there's some resistance, clearly, to...doing that-!"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Hff... That kinda girl, huh?" Ennil steps back, steadying herself... let the ball approach. Stuff like this is all about the right moment. "I get it. I'm always working - it feels weird to have to downshift."
The strike back is all shoulder, driving the ball clean back towards Seolla. No subterfuge, just a little yellow rocket trailing mist.
"Chh. 'Combat operative' sounds pretty serious. I'm just a Vulture - S'all work for hire, for me. Well, not here - came out to help some friends. That got out of hand, huh?"
Seolla mentions the 'dream monster', and Ennil's shoulders drop... she lets herself lean into it, crouching in preparation for another of those wicked returns.
"...Yeah, I get that. Can't say I'm a fan, either. Shinjo's had it rough, but she makes mistakes. Just not... the eye for an eye type, gh - y'know?"
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
There's a catch in Seolla's throat, in turn - at the mention of Vultures. Several powerful instincts flare up - on some level, the Vultures are considered troublesome outlaws, especially by the ruthless military forces she's been raised to operate in. Her brain quickly makes a few leaps - so this lady's some odd terrorist type, potentially?
...but she was told that affairs in Tsutsujidai are simply...volatile like that. It's drawn in all sorts.
Riposte - parry. Just like fighting with a sword in every way, tennis is. "...nnnh. I'm used to more than that...usually...the retribution I'm tasked to is...higher than what's been damaged. ...a thief takes the prince's eye, and my job is to take both of theirs, you could say. I'm used to it."
Seolla says this, right as she finally gets her overexertion catching up with her, and staggers, missing the ball on the rebound. Ennil 1, Seolla 0. "...takes a lot more out of you than I thought...!"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
The ball bounces two, three times. It's a little sluggish, but that's better for the situation, really. She has to let this girl breathe. It's obvious how quickly she tends to accelerate.
"Yeah. It takes a lot out of you."
It certainly does.
"Living that way... No matter how careful you think you're being, you're picking at glass."
Bounce, bounce.
"Even when you get what you want, it doesn't end things. The cracks spill out... it keeps on going. If you hurt Akane, won't you get hurt in return? When you're hurt, won't your sister want to hurt whoever's done it? Fighting that way won't keep her safe, don't you think?"
The ball twists in the air, and she twists forward, sending it sailing over the net in a smooth arc. It's not forceful, though -
She wants Seolla to respond.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
"Really, the plan was just to eliminate Akane. Then there wouldn't be more hurt coming from her." Seolla's eyes are a little glazed over. Her motions a little bit sluggish.
"It's not an endless cycle. If you're thorough enough with eliminating targets, they won't get in your way later." This one, Seolla does manage to hit back - even an exhausted rookie could hit such a soft, over-arcing serve. Her own is similarly low-key...but a little more spicy.
"I mean, I've heard that line often enough, but...it's not like people turn into ghosts or anything. All you have to do to keep people safe is be so strong that retaliation doesn't work - that the people who would fight back can't anymore."
The ball comes back, and back again, and Seolla's quiet for a few rounds.
And then, out of nowhere, her racket cracks out like a whip, putting an unimaginable amount of force, the kind that'd throw out arm muscles. A firm grimace is on her face...
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Just be strong enough... so, whoever's strongest is right?" Ennil sighs a bit, pacing up and down the court to keep the ball moving.
"I guess that is one way to decide things. But the pain doesn't go away. People just end up living lives that don't bring them any joy. Maybe that's a safer world, but I don't think it's a better one."
A flick of her wrist sends the ball soaring, and she smashes it down on the return, only for Seolla to crack it back towards her lightning fast. There's a bare instant of her eyes tracking the return, blue glimmering. A smile. She steps in, arm extended to return it and... It plows into her chest, near the armpit. She huffs out an uncomfortable little cough and watches the ball collapse to the terrain, that little smile vanishing, though there's still a quiet lift in her eyes.
Seolla gets her point.
The ball goes up, but Ennil lets it come back down to her hand. Another toss, another catch. One more, the ball hanging tightly in the air, turning over glacially slow...
"I don't think there's a right way to hurt people."
And a snap of lightning, in turn.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
"Ugh, it isn't about the world or anything. It isn't about what's right or wrong or all that." Seolla does..wince a little bit as her strike hits Ennil square-on like that. "...it's just about what has to be done sometimes. I'm not the one who gets to decide that. All I can do, all most of us can do, is protect the people closest to us."
---protect from who-
That interruptive thought is enough to make Seolla stagger once Ennil serves back all the sudden, bringing her to skid on the slippery puddled-up field and go careening into the containing fences - naturally, losing her the point without a single re-engagement. "D-damn it. ...I'm...totally off balance now. This should've just been something simple and fun, but now I'm all...nh. ...Nothing that's your fault..."
...she's breathing way too heavily. The racket in her hand is shaking slightly. ...it's no surprise that she's quickly putting on her coat, closing her eyes and taking in a long, deep breath.
"...you're good at this game, I'll admit."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Holding onto the people close to you... Only doing what you yourself can do..." Ennil is quiet as she bends down, storing the racket back in one of the bags and moving to offer Seolla a hand, umbrella left beside for the time being.
"As long as those are the reasons you're fighting, I think you'll get where you want to be eventually. Do you have time for a little walk? If you don't have to get back to the doctor right away, we can dry off and share a bit of hot chocolate."
She smiles at the other girl, one hand out, the other prying open the bag around her shoulder where her racket is sitting so that Seolla's can join it.
"It's my own recipe. A little cinnamon and vanilla. Chili powder, if you're brave, but I'll let you make the call. Warms you right up after a night in the rain. There's no hard feelings."
She casts her head up at the red locks pressed close to her eyes by the downpour. It might not be obvious how hard she was sweating, but...
"Yeah. You're good, too. I'll have to worry about the rematch, when you're feeling better."
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
...it's always hands extending out. Why always. . . why is it something so universal-
...Seolla balks at taking that specific offer, but as she pulls her coat back around, leaving it stylishly* unbuttoned up front and pulling up the hood, she does, instead, follow Ennil to where the hot chocolate is located.
"...I'd get the chili powder in it. That sounds pretty zippy. ...After that I think I'll...I should get back to where I'm staying..."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil gives a little 'hm' at being left hanging, but she doesn't comment. When Seolla at least agrees to enjoy a little hot chocolate, she grins, and snaps up her umbrella, tossing it open and shaking off a little rainstorm.
"Sounds good. Do ask Calibur about the cats, though. He loves to share."
It'll be off to Aya for a moment... and she'll make sure to see Seolla safely off, too.
So that she can keep doing the things only she can do.