2023-03-15: Encounter - Emilia Eschonbach and Sho Tachibana
- Cast: Emilia Eschonbach, Sho Tachibana
- Where: Ashford Academy
- Date: U.C. 0097 03 15
- Summary: It's Class Tourneys time at Ashford Academy, and that means Emilia is about to get bullied. Fortunately, Sho Tachibana, scouting Ashford out on a GUTS-related plan for next year, really doesn't like bullies. CONTENT WARNING: RACISM, CLASSISM, BULLYING
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Of all the classes that had stopped after exams, Gym was not one of them. And because Ashford is a Britannian School, end of year Gym means-
Class Tourneys.
All the first years have been gotten together for duels, and maybe a free for all for the best students. In practice it's an excuse for the rich and noble to show off, and to maybe humiliate some Elevens. There's a clear difference between the students with martial weapons provided by family and those borrowing from the school stash.
Unfortunately for her, Emilia is stowed in with the rich kids. Her role as treasurer- and as seemingly Milly's favourite- did a lot to protect her from the bullying, in here there's a lot of people who can easily find an escuse.
She sits alone against the wall, the German style arming sword her Grandfather insisted on by her side. She's in the PE outfit, with a white polo shirt with a dark green collar, a short dark green skirt, blue socks, and black pump sneakers. At least in an elimination tourney she can be eliminated quickly, and go hide somewhere.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho Tachibana shouldn't be here.
Well. Technically she's permitted by virtue of GUTS enforcing 'school spirit' cross-cooperation that even extends out into space for Tsutsujidai, but this is still occupied territory, and while her red hair deflects attention at a casual glance - apparently it's an extremely common hair colour in Ashford - a second glance, especially at her face, gives her heritage away, and the Jindai uniform she's wearing - jacket over her shoulders rather than properly worn, and the short skirt replaced with an ankle-length one, with a similar but distinct colour scheme to the Ashford girls' uniform - gives the game away completely.
She's getting sneering looks, and she knows it, but she holds her head high as she weaves towards Ashford's gym, slipping into the bleachers to watch the Class Tourney, boots thumping a proud rhythm on the wooden edifice as she leans on the railing to watch, sharp green eyes canvassing the potential of the students here - and settling on Emilia against the wall. Recognising her as Kallen's teammate back during the Millylympic Games, the leader of Akai Jindai narrows her eyes curiously, observing for now.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy watches Sho enter- as does about anyone but the six duels going on. All are 'Elevens' vs Citizens in the first round- You don't want to waste the best shows early. It comes out 5:1 in favour of the Britannians, but the kid who bloodied a nobles nose with a technically legal pommel strike then dropped him gets a small cheer from her peers. The Britannian is ushered back by his fellows, with foul words uttered.
Emmy, however, continues to watch the head of Akai Jindai, wordlessly. Why is she here? She knows she's an excellent pilot, Akai Jindai utterly trounced her team. She sat in her room sucking and dying about it for days.
The fashion is kind of rad, though-
"Eschonbach, you're up against Greenleigh. Move."
The Coach's words snap her awake, and she picks up the arming sword and moves into position. She salutes- but clumsily. Her movements are too wide, too forceful and reckless.
"If it isn't New Yark's Feeblest," Willow Greenleigh says, bringing up her halberd. Her Blue Cosmos pin shines in the light from the Gym's skylights. "I'd ask you to give your Grandfather thanks for all those horses he's given the Equestrian Club, but I think he'd much prefer a picture of you laid out on the floor, don't you think?" She smirks. "Why don't you get back to playing servant for the pittances the Elevens throw you to smack your ass and feel superior."
Emilia is silent, but it's easy to see the anger in her body language. When the bell charges, Emilia rushes in recklessly, and into a sweep-
Only to step on to the halberd haft and recklessly swing at Greenleigh's torso, barely scoring first point and going back to stance.
"Lucky shot." Greenleigh mutters, and the fight continues. It's close, and it's clear Emilia is having a hard time. She's light on her feet but the sword has range issues and the one handed grip limits her ability to power through. Greenleigh scores two clear hits, and then is granted a point when Emilia is punished for 'wrong footing'. The fight to five, however is a long one, as Emilia scores, then Greenleigh, then Emilia twice over a protracted rally.
Greenleigh is clearly incensed to be pushed so hard- and goes for a dirty shot with the haft of the Halberd, swinging it up between Emilia's legs- only for Emmy to lift her leg and swing around it, and drive the flat of her blade full power into Greenleigh's stomach, who drops both weapon and to the ground.
"The winner is Miss Eschonbach. Would the following please advance to the dueling rings."
Emilia salutes her clumsy salute, turns her back on Greenleigh and starts to walk away.
"I won't take this... from a bastard..." She growls, lifting her halberd, and moving to hook Emmy's leg and yank her to the floor-
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
When Greenleigh says "New Yark's feeblest" she gets all of Sho's attention. The head pilot of Neo Getter-2 clocks the Blue Cosmos pin and that's all she needs to know.
Her green eyes are intent as Greenleigh and Emilia spar, watching carefully and analysing the two combatants. Greenleigh has a heap of advantages, but her eagerness to pick on 'the weak one' is going to piss her off and get her making mistakes, whereas Emilia is determined to at least not be an embarrassment.
... Plus she actually has solid body sense, the iaido artist notes as Emilia deftly evades the groin shot with the halberd haft.
She hasn't realised she's vaulted the railing yet and is already moving as Greenleigh goes down, but when her brain catches up with her gut they are united - the Blue Cosmos girl isn't going to take losing lying down.
Greenleigh grabs her halberd - and it doesn't budge. Sho is standing on the haft just below the weapon's head, grinning down at her. "I don't think so." She undoes the ribbon-bow at her collar and the top button, shaking it out and tying up her hair while she uses her weight and leverage to keep Greenleigh's weapon immobile. "If you feel like picking on someone, try me."
She's not armed, and this is live steel. Is she crazy?
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia turns around when she hears the voice, and- her eyes lock on the red haired woman. Her? She steps backward, seeing where the Halberd was going looks... sad but unsurprised.
Greenleigh, however, is incensed. It takes a lot of of effort, and standing, but she yanks her weapon free. "Who the hell do you think you are, Eleven? This was a duel between your betters." She pauses to sneer again. "Well, your better- and some hopped up half breed who thinks she's hot shit because Ashford decided to protect her." Emmy's eyes harden, but she doesn't close. "It makes sense that trash like you would bunch together."
A circle is forming of Britannian students- but the Japanese students are standing up too. Emmy, Sho and Greenleigh are locked in. The coach is... quietly leaving the room, to remove any supervision.
"You stuck your nose where it doesn't belong, Eleven. Let's do this duel for real, last man standing. When I win I expect you to grovel to forgiveness." Greenleigh pulls back her halberd-
"...You're... g-g-going to lose. Badly."
Emmy's words are the last thing said before Greenleigh swings.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho grins when Greenleigh responds to her challenge, stretching casually as she finishes tying up her hair. Her jacket's still slung casually across her shoulders - until Greenleigh starts swinging.
The Jindai uniform jacket goes straight for the Blue Cosmos girl's face, aimed to throw her off her stride and swing as Sho ducks low and slips in with a speed one might not expect from how lackadaisical she was treating this up to the exact moment the action started. Greenleigh doesn't have time to pull the blade of her halberd in before Sho blocks the haft with her left elbow, wraps her arm around the weapon to lock it there, and meets the other girl's chin with the heel of her free hand.
CRACK!
"Free advice," Sho remarks as Greenleigh stumbles back, using the shock of her strike to disarm the Blue Cosmos girl and slipping to the side.
"If you can't beat an unarmed fighter with one of the best polearms ever designed, you don't get to keep it." She spins, holding the halberd inverted so that the end of the haft connects cleanly with Greenleigh's stomach, leverage letting her lift the Ashford student off her feet and throw her back several meters.
Rising from the crouch she was forced into to get that leverage, Sho plants Greenleigh's halberd on the floor of the gym and looks around at the other Britannian students. "Anyone else?"
She spares Emilia a wink, though.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Greenleigh is a very good duelist.
That is a different skill to being a fighter.
The simple trick of the jacket throws her completely off her game, and then is stunned before going flying into a crowd that parts to let her hit the ground hard.
There's total silence for a few moments. The halberd is a signal of challenge. Then whispers start. Someone runs out the door. No one else follows up on Sho's challenge...
But Emmy walks up to her. "W-we should... probably l-l-leave." Emilia says, but she doesn't grab anything. "The g-g-gossip train will d-d-do enough." Phones are coming out for cameras. "That c-c-coach is on. Their side, th-though."
She doesn't grab Sho's arm, or anything, but she does give a pleading look, then indicates a back exit. If anyone knows the secret routes of this school, it's Emmy.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Glaring as if challenging anyone to come at her while she does this, Sho retrieves her uniform jacket before nodding to Emilia. "Let's get outta here."
Greenleigh's not getting her halberd back any time soon, because Sho is bringing it with her - at least until circumstance, like 'having to climb over something' forces her to leave it behind while following Emilia's lead as they slip out the back, then through Ashford's less-trafficked pathways and hideaways.
Once they've made their escape, Sho adjusts her jacket, having slipped her arms through its sleeves to keep it on during the process of their slipping out. She has a wicked grin on her face - the expression of someone who's just stepped up to a bully and managed to get away (for now, at least) with impulsive shenanigans.
"I hope someone snapped a shot of her face when I knocked the wind out of her," she cackles. "Fuckin' Blue Cosmos brat."
Collecting herself, she smiles at Emilia, offering her hand. "Sho Tachibana. You're Crown Princess Emilia, right?"
Oh, she's referring to prom. There's no mockery in her tone, either. "I'd apologise for disrupting your class, but bullies like Greenleigh need to learn their lesson now and then. Besides, you didn't really look like you were enjoying it."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy leads a path through the school, pointing at a good spot to dump the Halberd- 'I-If you don't w-w-want her t-to find i-it.'
The safe spot is not in fact in the Student Council building, but a quiet alley between buildings. A traditional spot to stay off the grid until it was safe to move to the next spot.
"P-probably..." She says, quietly. "I-if they did, it will b-be on To-witter t-tonight." Still, the anger Sho has for Blue Cosmos gets her a small smile.
And then a wide eyed expression follows, sheer shock. Crown Princess? Is Sho from Zeon? Like Killy? Like Mr Zinnerman and Marida and Minnie? Why are there so many all of a sudden-
Wait. No. She was at the dance. "Ah- C-Crown Princess was someone else. M-Miss Illustrious f-from Tokyo-3 was the Crown P-Princess. Um. E-Emilia is right, though." She skips over her last name, for now.
"I-If only sh-she was going to l-learn. I c-can get by." She looks down at the sword she's still carrying. "I w-w-wasn't. It's... the w-worst part of g-gym." She leans the arming sword against the wall. "I o-only do it b-b-because my G-Grandfather m-makes me." Emmy wraps her arm across her front, grasping her opposite upper arm. "I-I n-need to be able to d-d-duel, it's a 'marriagiable sk-skill'." The look on Emmy's face is... complex, as if she's mulling over her words.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho flushes a little when Emilia corrects her. "Oh, my mistake. Must have got the announcements mixed up since I was over in the gambling hall with misses Pommier, Statdfeld, Starking and Vermillion most of prom."
In full fairness to Sho, that table was very distracting. She smiles - but that quickly changes into a scowl when Emilia talks about 'marriageable skills'. "Tch, that kind of jackass, huh? Either he doesn't want you to be that valuable a prospect or that sword's important to him, because that is exactly the wrong weapon for your approach."
She hasn't ditched Greenfield's halberd yet - she weighs the weapon in her hands, testing the flex of the haft, then hands it to Emilia. "The way you throw yourself into your swings, you'd probably do better with a bit more leverage and a heavy head on the end of your weapon, so you can let its weight do a chunk of the work for you - especially with overhead strikes."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy recognises at least three of those names. "Oh... Kallen, Rin and Cascade?" She doesn't know this Miss Pommier, but... "I had wondered why they weren't on the dance floor..."
"B-both." Emmy responds, bitterness in her voice. "Not. Th-this sword. But th-this type of s-sword. It's... 'the family weapon'." As she says that, she kicks the flat to knock it down. It's something she bears no love for. "Wh-what he w-wants f-from me is to b-be able to seal a business d-deal..." A chill runs through her. "..a-and I. W-won't let th-that happen. N-no m-matter what."
She won't let that bastard keep her away from Milly.
Emmy... smirks a little. "I... M-maybe. I n-n-noticed during the Millympic G-Games that... that h-hammer felt. Really nice. T-to swing." Indeed, the Savage felt comfortable in a way her Burai didn't. "But... h-hammers aren't a d-d-dueling weapon, a-a-and it's not like... I'm ever g-going to be f-fighting."
She avoids eye contact with Sho, looking down at the sword in the grass. "I just. H-have to make it th-through school, r-right?"
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
"Yeah, that's them. Played a few good games of blackjack and mahjong with them. I guess they didn't have any luck finding dance partners either."
"Yeah, I figured it was something like that. Create an image and then force your family to conform to that ideal, instead of finding ways to encourage the actual people in the family to show off what they're good at."
She nods when Emilia talks about 'dueling etiquette'. "There's gotta be a heavy enough weapon that suits you, if Greenfield's toting around a halberd." She rests the polearm against the wall, then frowns. "How do I put this. Surviving school is one thing, but what about after? It sounds like you want to live your life in a completely different way from how your grandfather wants you to - you should think about being able to stake your claim, and protect it when challenged."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy blinks a few times. Really? Those three had trouble getting dates? Even Sho? Surely that table had at least ONE self solving problem.
Emmy takes a long pause. "...Y-you're th-thinking of him... F-far too favourably." Emmy's not smiling. Her period of protection was officially over. He would be moving soon, surely. "I'm n-not... f-f-family to him. I'm too much of an emb--arrassment."
She seems to smile saying that. It does bring her some small joy to embarrass him. But Sho gets her to pause. "St-stake my claim?" Emmy looks almost confused. "...All I r-r-really want is to st-stay with Milly..." But he'd take that if she could. So would Milly's mother. They said they were going to fight for each other. To stay together, but...
"P-P-People still d-d-don't duel to m-marry someone, d-do they?" It's such an outlandish idea, like a fairytale. And... there's more to her than who she is on the surface. She'll need to be able to fight as a black knight to get freedom, won't it?
"...I c-c-can't fight e-every enemy with a sw-sword. Especially n-not s-someone who is bringing p-paperwork or a g-gun." Emmy says, silently. "B-but that doesn't mean...I w-won't need to be able to f-f-fight s-someone with a sword... right?" She looks to Sho, wondering if she's stumbled across the right logic. "That's... what you m-m-mean?"
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho clicks her tongue again. "He sounds like the worst." She can also read between the lines of Emilia's grandfather having so much control over her life - she doesn't press the matter, just listens when the other girl works out her line of logic.
"Exactly. You can fight paperwork with paperwork, at least, but it's like you said - dueling is a 'marriageable skill', so you need to be ready for challengers who lean on that tradition to get their way instead of 'more polite' ways. Besides," she grins, "her name's Milly, you said? Think for a second about stepping up to protect her honour against some jackass trying to push you both around - or her doing the same for you. After all, being close to somebody is all about letting each others' strengths cover your weaknesses and getting stronger together, right?"
It's how it works for her team, at least. "As long as you're prepared and know what your partners can do, you know when to step up and when to fade back and let one of them take the lead."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"...He is." That's all the response Sho gets for now. She looks at the Halberd... A weapon with a head, and weight. So that wouldn't quite do it. And a hammer isn't for dueling...
That statement seems to catch Emmy off guard. She stares at Sho for a few moments. If she wanted to defend Milly... In a fight at close range, what would she grab? How could she protect her most...
Especially since she was too far away to do so when Milly needed protection.
Milly's the sort to defend you with harsh words, but she's smart. She's not the sort to get in close.
"...So I. N-need a w-w-weapon that can..." She can't think of anything she can use to protect her from a gun- short of a mobile weapon.
She seems slow to come out of her thoughts. Milly doesn't know everything she can do- does she know everything Milly can do? Can she tell Milly everything yet?
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho looks around as she sees Emilia thinking hard. "I had better make myself scarce. Would suck to get caught now after we made such a good escape." She grins. "I can see I've given you a lot to think about, but... You want to be with her, no matter what, right?"
She waits for the obvious affirmation, then nods. "Then eventually you're going to have to plant your feet and stand your ground against people who want to split the two of you apart, and need every tool in your arsenal to do that."
She fishes out her phone. "If you want to talk some more sometime - about this, or anything - and you can't find me at Jindai, you wanna swap VERTEX info?"
Her account, sky_jaguar_2, has a profile picture of a pair of aviator sunglasses and a lot of birds-eye-view photographs of Earth's surface.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia snaps back at mention of a good escape. "Ah, r-right! There's a, um, patch of ivy on the walls th-that way that's strong enough to. H-hold a climber once y--you get up the p-palettes. I'll, um. Smooth over th-things with th-the student council."
Sho's question, though, gets a firm nod in response. "...Yeah..." She looks slightly worried... like that time is closer than she expects and she isn't prepared.
"Ah, r-r-right!" She pulls out her phone just like that.
FairyFan80, in response, has a lot of blurred outfit shots and Sheryl concert photos and several playlist reqs. If only she felt safe showing her face.