2025-03-11: Fistfight at the park (pos)
- Log: 2025-03-11: Fistfight at the park (pos)
- Cast: Aurora Dusk, Liam O'Maol Chonaire, Lucine Azul
- Where: A park in Orb with nice grass suitable for fighting
- OOC - IC Date: March 11th, UC 0100
- Summary: Aurora runs into Liam at the park and ropes him into a fistfight while Lucine watches. The three catch up during the match. Lucine and Liam flirt while Aurora either doesn't or pretends not to notice the innuendo.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
The sky has enough cloud cover that the sun isn't constantly in your eyes, but the temperature is still warm enough to be comfortable. It's a great day to go to the park! So Aurora has. Finding the time was fairly easy, because she happens to be semi-permanently stationed in Orb (in theory, at least). It doesn't take long to rope Liam into it, whether by arrangement or by chance encounter. Fortunately, their schedules have aligned.
It doesn't take long for Aurora to realise something. She crouches to the ground, pressing a hand into the grass, testing it. "The grass here is soft and bouncy," she observes, giving Liam a Look. "Just like a mat. It's perfect. I think you could roll on it pretty well... It's been a long time."
Aurora tosses her field jacket, the one with all the patches on it, aside into a convenient spot, and then pulls off her grey cardigan, revealing her plain white sleeveless top she was wearing under it. She settles the cardigan gently on top of the jacket before strolling into position and stretching slightly.
The brawl begins by silent, mutual agreement (on Aurora's part, anyway). She ducks forwards and rushes into range, and her and Liam start trading blows, Aurora using the same type of agile footwork she usually does, trying to get around Liam's guard while avoiding taking too many full hits. While they haven't done this for a long time, Aurora, at least, hasn't stopped doing it. Neither of them are fighting for their lives, but it's still a serious match. At some point, they might wind up rolling on the ground hitting each other like children, but that's what the grass is for.
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
Liam excelled in close-quarters drills. It was one of the reasons why he was picked for Crucible's Mobile Fighter project, on top of all his other 'duties'. He hasn't actually fought someone in person for months, now, if not years, and drills can't hope to replicate the real thing in its entirety. Liam doesn't want to get rusty. At the same time, he doesn't have ready access to an opponent who'd be a fair challenge. Unless...
"Yeah," he'd said, looking down at that same patch of grass. "I think so, too." Now, his jacket lies on the grass beside Aurora's.
His strategy hasn't changed too much since their days in training. Liam is big, and has a long reach, but he isn't afraid to take a hit if it means getting an advantage. Aurora's already gotten in at least one bruising hit, but Liam is far from giving up--he takes another, and doesn't let it blunt his momentum. He rushes into her space, trying to drive her back with a body-blow that could crack ribs.
Miraculously, no one's called the cops yet.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
While Lucine has offered Liam to be his partner in a sparring match, there was the fact that the two of them were from widely different classes of 'fighter' when it came to hand-to-hand combat. First was the realm of knowledge, and the second, ability. That is, 'Liam is very able to injure Lucine's very unmodified body unintentionally'. She might as well ask Liam to spar with a child, for how much restraint he'd likely need to express just to teach her some basics of what he knew.
Having gotten done with errands for the Nadesico, Lucine knew Liam was in the area with Aurora, and intended to come by, provided her presence didn't interrupt the rare bits of bonding the two could now have.
Lucine may be a Newtype, but she didn't foresee this: a man of Liam's size, roughhousing (or what counts for it in this league of ability) with someone smaller but no less able in keeping up.
It would be easy to misread this as a fight, if it weren't for Aurora's field jacket set aside, along with her cardigan, as well as the child-like enjoyment radiating off the two.
The teal blue-haired woman watches on with a fond smile, tilting her head. If either slow down, she'll simply wiggle two fingers in greeting, adding, "... Please, don't mind me. I usually don't get to see Liam have this much fun."
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Aurora is no slouch either when it comes to on-foot combat. She placed fairly highly where she's from, too - it might have been why she and Liam were placed together, actually. Not that either of them are particularly likely to have been told that. Aurora isn't rusty, but an opponent on the level she's been trained to is rare, especially one that can keep up with an enhanced body.
Rare, but not nonexistent. Liam is a threat she has to take seriously. Aurora may have had her physicality enhanced, but all of those modifications are analog. There's a limit to how far doping and reinforcement can take a body compared to actual cybernetics, even if they have their advantages. On top of that, she's only an averageish height. If she wants to win, she has to actually get within close enough range to land solid hits, and that requires an aggressive strategy. Fortunately, she can do aggressive.
That body check HAS ended fights before, and Aurora knows well enough to not let it end this one. She tries to back away diagonally and hop back, at least not taking the hit head on if she can't dodge it. There is a very good chance it takes her to the ground if it hits, and if that happens, footwork doesn't really count for much anymore. (Their fights don't always end in rolling around hitting each other on the floor, but it's not unheard of.)
Eyes. Watching? Is that Lucine? In a lull in the fight, Aurora turns to look and waves back at the sort of fellow tealnette. (Aurora is more green than blue, though.)
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
Aurora has good instincts. Liam feels his knuckles brush against her shirt, but it's hardly the clean hit he wanted. Undeterred, he follows her, step for step, advancing into her space, and--
Aurora slows. She takes her eyes off him for a fraction of a second, and then waves, and with action that blatantly casual (compared to what she's been doing), Liam can't help but look, too. A flush ignites in his cheeks as he sees Lucine's face. Embarrassment is underscored by shame; it feels like she's walked in on something she might not understand. Liam steps back out of Aurora's personal space, raising his fists in a loose boxer's stance just in case this doesn't quite end the fight. It definitely blunts his relentless offense.
"...Fun?" Liam says, realizing what Lucine just said. The emotional equation tilts back towards embarrassment.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine keeps a wide berth at first as she watches them, not wanting to be in the way of her own body check.
Seeing Liam fight brings its own sense of pride, especially when it's against someone she trusts well enough. She doesn't feel worry in the moment; she could just... watch Liam stretch out his body.
Still, eventually, the two would have to notice her, and while she hoped they'd continue, Aurora's acknowledgment is followed by something unexpected from Liam: shame.
Liam's confusion and shame draws Lucine's mouth to a questioning o shape, but the following turnaround towards embarrassment causes the woman to chuckle softly instead.
".... You two were sparring, right?" For a moment, Lucine questions her own judgment as she taps her chin; still, she continues. "It's not like I've been able to help you much in that department... It's hard for me to help you when you're often having to be the teacher." She finds no shame in this, nor does any of the sort show on her face; as valuable has Liam's tutelage has been...
... she's always wondered if there was something more he could need in his own training, in order to keep sharp.
'Fun?' ".... I suppose... that was the wrong word to use." Lucine ponders idly, tilting her head. "You were... engaged. Like I would be, when dealing with something that allowed me to safely test myself." She looks to Aurora. "I apologize for interrupting, of course. Though.... with me here, it *would* allow the two of you to continue without more interruptions. ... beyond what I've just provided, that is."
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Aurora's entire anti-Liam strategy revolves around avoiding clean hits. She backs off a little further, preparing to lever his defences open... and that's about when she spots Lucine. She adopts the same semi-closed guard Liam does, for the moment.
Aurora isn't ashamed, herself. It's a personal exercise, but if it were private, she would've tried to find somewhere indoors. (Not that brawling in an apartment is a good idea.) Liam's embarassment is slightly perplexing to her. It hasn't really crossed her mind that Lucine might've misunderstood. Too busy with the fight and not all that well adjusted besides. This kind of activity is normal for her.
"Mm. Newtypes can feel that kind of thing. I'd know anyway, though."
"That's right," she says in reply to Lucine's initial rhetorical question. "It's something we haven't gotten to do together in years." Something inside Aurora laughs a little when she hears that there's something she can do for Liam that Lucine can't, but she doesn't really have the experience to process that, either. Sisters really are irreplacable. It's an odd feeling, especially when it mixes with the acknowledgement that comes out when Lucine mentions that she experiences the same kind of feeling.
It's perfectly natural to enjoy fighting, from her perspective. It's the perspective she was raised with, too. The background radiation of her childhood... well, it went a little further than just sparring, but it included that, too. It's not like Aurora enjoys murder, but there isn't quite anything like combat, and she hasn't gotten a proper engagement in a while, so the fight she's in now is helping.
"It's fine." The interruption hasn't really irked her. Happens sometimes.
Aurora turns her gaze to the jacket. That keepsake is the proof of her long... can you call it a career when you're still technically in training? Regardless, she's applied a bunch of keepsake patches in the same manner other soldiers do: there's one commemorating the Nega Force, one with a slightly esoteric design that Liam and Lucine have probably never seen before, a few units, and one with a patch commemorating her having been in the Crucible. Not that she was really a member of their fighting teams, but she did graduate, so as far as she's concerned she earned it. (Liam ran away before graduating, but he WAS basically on his way out... he's probably earned the right too, she thinks, as she looks over to his jacket.)
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
"Yeah," Liam says, meeting Lucine's gaze for a moment from across the melee. "Sparring." He rolls his shoulders, and as Aurora seems to disengage from him, he does the same. He doesn't take his eyes off her entirely, but he changes focus to Lucine. Aurora stays firmly in his peripheral vision.
"You did okay," is his first response to Lucine saying she can't keep up with him. "Really." He means it, even though he feels a familiar flustered sensation building in his chest. "She's got good instincts, and knew how to throw a punch without cracking her knuckles open. That's more than a lot of people." Aurora looks down at the jacket. Liam follows her gaze for a moment. A logo catches his eye. Is that--
Liam sucks in a quick breath, holds it, and lets it out.
"...Do you want to watch, Lu?" Liam says.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"It's good to work some energy out, isn't it, especially with the weather..." Lucine nods slowly, tilting her head just so. Liam's compliment, meanwhile, brings a flush of pride to Lucine's chest. "Ah, really? I do try. You've been a wonderful teacher."
It's not an empty comment, either, though... Lucine has her biases.
"My dad managed to pass on a few things to me, at the very least... even if I was too much of a crybaby at the time to be a proper bruiser," she says to Aurora. "... But I'm more of a terror in the skies than I am on the ground, compared to you two."
Her gaze travels down to the jacket as Liam's eyes do, sensing the brief spike in emotion. However, to her eyes... the label doesn't quite carry the same amount of meaning.
The Martian shall always look at things a little differently, in some ways.
Liam asks if she wants to watch. Lucine's lips split into a grin, as her eyes twinkle mischeviously. "Only if neither of you would mind. I'll try to keep neutral, of course, though I have my biases..." With a cheeky grin at Liam, she instead looks to Aurora. "I'll be rooting for you. I do like a good heroine story..."
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
A ways away from Liam, Aurora stops bouncing on her feet. She isn't flat-footed, though.
She nods towards Lucine. "Primarily a pilot, then. Not every pilot is also good at ground combat, but most are at least trained with pistols and the like."
Aurora also feels the emotion spike. Hm. Liam already knows she was Nega Force... well, he didn't know until recently. ("Was" Nega Force, she thinks. She was an understudy, really.)
On closer inspection, Aurora's jacket has her serial number where the surname usually goes. NT-294. It's not the only number she's gone by, but it was the first, and it's the most public one.
"Ah, that's my jacket," she says, looking at Lucine. "The personal one I put patches on. Do you have a jacket like that?" She briefly scans over Liam's jacket, too, looking for patches.
"You can watch. It's a public park." Rooting for... Aurora? She doesn't really know how to feel about that. She's not quite sure what to feel about Lucine in general... some of those feelings are warm.
With the lull in the battle over, a nostalgic shine appears in Aurora's eyes, and she resumes bouncing from heel to heel, pulling her fists up before skittering over the ground towards Liam. "That's enough warming up. Here I come, Twenty!" She opens her renewed assault with a rapid series of strikes to the upper body, trying to feel the counterstrikes and relying on her enhanced body to dodge them before they come.
"...Ranka's gone missing. Did you... get a chance to see her before then?"
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
"I have a wonderful student," Liam says, returning Lucine's grin with a coy little smile of his own. He never, ever thought he'd feel comfortable flirting with anyone in public, and yet, here he is, flirting. (A little.)
Liam shakes his head. "No," he says. It's a little strange that he doesn't have one, given the fact that he's a pilot, and they're ubiquitous among modern military forces. It takes him a moment to articulate why, during which he goes a little distance. "Felt weird putting insignia on civilian clothes." Those go on uniforms as a sign of affiliation, not on things you wear when getting groceries and going to the movies. It speaks of how much he was shaped by being a child soldier.
Liam sees that gleam in Aurora's eyes. His form tightens up instantly. He raises his fists, and meets Aurora's attack with his guard, bobbing and weaving behind it. A few of her strikes hit home, sending stinging jolts through him, but he always was good at enduring pain. Liam shifts right, and tries to counter with a jab, unconsciously seeing the brief, faint lull of Aurora speaking.
"I," Liam says, eyes wide. It's a moment of vulnerability.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Hee." Lucine grins back at Liam with a merry glint in her eyes, before looking to Aurora. "Correct. My training was... not exactly in a military setting. My dad was the one to teach me how to fly... he was a Martian cowboy. It was never with the expectation that I'd... do what I did now, but such things happen."
Aurora points out her jacket, and Lucine nods, taking a seat on the grass lawn. "My dad had one, but..." Her grin is lopsided. "It was in a little different context. ... He just had brands he liked. As for me... it just... never felt right. The Nadesico's relationships with different factions changes so quickly, and..." She winces with a self-effacing grin. ".... I've been guilty of acting on my own whims in years past. Logos are for uniforms, is my thinking. But... that doesn't mean it's the same for others."
"Yes, but some things are better when there's not an audience," Lucine says, softly. "Though others... well, perhaps Liam would appreciate showing off a little." Her emotional aura is gentle, trying to be aware of the two's own bonds while keeping a healthy rein on her own curiosity.
She thinks back, to Sheryl. Perhaps, she considers, it's a matter of laying low. "After what happened... I imagine she has her reasons," she says, looking to Liam. If Aurora takes that moment to strike, Lucine will have to stifle a grunt of alarm; this is part of sparring, after all.
Taking advantage of weakness is one lesson her father taught her well, though such methods often meant she was on the other end of that trade as well.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
The jab wings Aurora in the stomach, getting her enough to hurt, but she endures. She's had worse. Lucine's potential alarm doesn't come to pass. Aurora is using the lull to make small talk. She's usually bad at it, but still. Points for effort?
"Your dad?" Aurora tilts her head. She isn't really familiar with this side of Lucine. Aurora would bring up being taught how to fly by her own parent-figure, but that would be Incriminating. Maybe she could futz the timeline more, but that kind of thing just makes things more complicated.
She's not really familiar with Liam flirting, either, but she only knew him from the lab, back then. It's nice to see.
She nods along to Lucine's explanation of why she doesn't do the same thing with her jacket. Hopefully, those shifting allegiances won't make them enemies in future. Liam's explanation, too. "That jacket technically isn't civilian clothing... well, it's not really a uniform either. It's a memento that I keep so that I have something to put patches on. I don't think I could get away with wearing some of the ones I have on my actual uniform..." Aurora looks thoughtful. Probably couldn't wear the Nega Force one. Crucible is illegal... "...depends on the company."
Lucine's attempt not to be intrusive is appreciated. Aurora isn't quite crazy enough to go off her head with jealousy, and it helps that Liam didn't actually ditch her for Lucine, since he met her after. The disquiet fades some more.
"...I didn't know Ranka, or why she would run away. ...it was surprising when the SMS revolted... I was there, actually. I didn't fight, though. It was SAL business. I did get to see a... dinosaur tank in space?" Even Aurora was surprised by that one. And the Qeaudluun. Flay did pretty well for herself against it.
"Oh, also. The payroll issue is fixed. I'm getting paid again." Aurora might not be jumping for joy, but she is happy to get her meagre coin again. Granted, her food, board and medical needs are all taken care of (she technically pays for all of that out of her wages), but it's nice to have a little spending money. Even weapons want a little treat, now and then.
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
'Yes, but some things are better when there's not an audience.'
Liam does not double-take. His focus is elsewhere, in the kinetics and head games of the sparring match. But he still wonders if Lucine meant that.
But he's still ill at ease over the matter Aurora just dropped in front of him. She might not have meant to distract him, but it's happened regardless. "I'm glad you're getting paid again," he says, deciding to tackle the simplest part first. "The rest we can--talk about later. Okay? Tell me about the dinosaur tank."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Could sweet, innocent Lucine mean 'that'?
... The answer is 'yes and no': no, in that she didn't mean it originally, and yes, because her mind naturally wandered to it as an example.
The bonds of family, whether created through trauma or lost then found, was first in her mind, as she looked on Aurora.
Family. "Yes." Lucine nods, at Aurora's question. "... He's the reason I'm a pilot at all. He... went missing, during the Mars invasion several years ago."
Aurora explains her jacket's significance, and Lucine nods, thoughtfully. "I see... having something you can customize... it's important, to be able to signal your identity as a person." The words may be unneeded; Liam and Aurora's shared origins were the reason for that statement at all. Is it really good for her to say that? What if Aurora's identity needs that solidarity of her past still? Could Lucine judge her for that, when she has her own things she keeps with her?
"There were many things we weren't aware of. Ranka got into her role to sing. Perhaps... the recent aspects, where so much weight was placed on her... I don't think I could stand up under that. Ranka did, but everyone has their limits. Some quiet may be what was needed, but... I could be placing my own take unfairly on her."
Aurora mentions the payroll to Liam; Lucine raises a slight eyebrow, but lets it go. "Maybe I should get going myself," she says, then, getting up and dusting off the back of her pants. "It was good to see you again, Aurora. Ah, Liam, I should mention-- I managed to get some potatoes, so... I think we'll be doing dinner this Wednesday. If something comes up, we can always postpone it, but it may be good to have in the fridge too. You know how leftovers can be after a hard mission." She grins, at that.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"The tank? I didn't see much, but..."
Aurora nods, when Lucine mentions her father going missing. She never knew her family, but part of her can still understand that pain. For her, it's the pain of absence more than the pain of loss. A phantom pain for a limb she doesn't remember having.
The jacket... "A lot of soldiers do it. Putting past unit emblems on their jacket, to show off past assignments and training programs and things they've been a part of. Like a service record..." Like proof of existence. Those past stations are often a part of a pilot's identity, even long after they've ended. Some like to remember the experiences that formed them. Others simply can't let go of the past. Aurora has had very little to call her own, in terms of identity. It's no wonder she keeps the jacket around.
Ranka, like Aurora, had her role, her use against an enemy. Perhaps like Liam did. "Hm. Ranka reached her limit and ran?" Aurora's mind goes back to Liam. She was upset when he left, back then, but... maybe that was his issue. He reached his limit. Aurora doesn't feel like holding it over his head that she didn't.
"The payroll computer was bugged. A few people didn't get paid for a while. Logistical logjam. I was fine, my room and board is covered anyway."
"It was... nice to see you too." Aurora radiates a slightly awkward feeling, before turning to Liam. "Now, about that dinosaur tank..."