thestormishere | ☈ strike #14 (action / voice)

☈ strike #14 (action / voice)

[ After the whole fiasco with having to take down Jack Horner's dragon form, Lightning's been thinking a lot lately-- namely, about her own trouble with maintaining a human form and fallout from failing against her will several months ago- both things which, frankly, she's been trying to avoid.

However, she can't just keep ignoring it forever, can she? Especially considering that ever since then, even if she's continued to grow slowly stronger and is currently safe from the ramifications of an active l'Cie Brand... the 'penalty' she was saddled with makes using her powers a lot harder than how it used to be.

And so she practices, attempting to get a handle on the magic that's there but no longer instinctive like it once was. Healing magic is fairly easy to figure out, the weaker elemental things like Thunder and Water are simple enough if difficult to aim now, but as for the more complicated spells...?

As for learning new ones...?

She can be found alternately in the battle dome and outside near the edges of town quite a bit during these last few days, with and without her gunblade and various other weapons from before and during her time spent here. She's not really doing much actual fighting, though; it's obvious she's trying to do something, concentrating for sometimes minutes at a time, before casting something that just seems to flicker in the air around her, or light up the edges of her weapons with bright-colored energy.

After some time and a lot of deliberation, she turns to the journals. ]

-- Filtered to House Lucky occupants --

Hey. Have a minute?

-- - --

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Shell... that's what, magic guard? [He's taking a wild guess, since the world means almost nothing to him, and takes the initiative with another charging attack. He's not sure what she just did, but since they don't know how long the spell is going to last, he's not about to just sit around.]

[ Ffffkgjsd she's definitely still outmatched here, especially since even though she reacts at once, suddenly she's not quite as agile with her blade as she was a few seconds earlier. However, rather than just the screech of metal this time as her weapon smacks into his, it's a burst of fire that marks the impact-- a bit sloppy, though, due to her having to do it a little quicker than she'd counted on. She hisses between her teeth, voice strained. ]

You got it.

Maybe I'll have to fill in the gap by tracking down that materia. It's good to balance out the skills, right?

[He does back off a bit, though, seeing her reaction - and the flames. With no magic barrier, he definitely feels that one.]

Whoa, that's hot, hot! How many spells do you know?

[ Her brows kind of come together at that, but he's a tough guy, right? Not too worried about burning him over here. She sidesteps carefully, looking to the edge of her gunblade, but of course it's not like she's done anything to it, either- as fragile as it might look, it's designed for and has been through a whole lot worse on a regular basis. ]

Mm. [ Uh... how many spells does she know? Asking her to math while she's got a gunblade in hand... seriously. ] Twenty? A couple dozen, maybe. Depends on how you count them.

... Hope knows a lot more.

[ And that's all he's getting before she tries to hit again, this time with Aquastrike - just like the Enwater spell she used on him earlier, though much shorter-termed. Might as well use up those last few seconds of the defensive spell on him, which she won't waste switching back out of using magic. ]

That's a damn good roster. [He meets her blade with his own, taking the brunt of the attack, but at the tail end of it the defensive spell fades away, and he's sent rolling backwards to land rather gracelessly on his ass.

...Welp. It was good while it lasted?] Okay, I definitely felt that one.

[ ... Oops? She raises her eyebrows as she steps over, switching her gunblade over to her left hand and then brushing the right off on her skirt before holding it out, looking the slightest bit amused. ]

You gonna be okay?

[Zack gives his forehead a rub, head shaking, then grasps her hand to let her help him up.]

Looks like it! You got me good, though. So what do you think, did your spell live up to your expectations?

[ Lightning sobers again as she straightens up - her feelings towards this magic? Pretty inconsistent, to say the least! While she can definitely be glad for it in some ways and usually has no problem with practicing it to become stronger, it can be questions like that that kind of set off some more unpleasant thoughts instead.

In any case, she did ask for this, so no use randomly pulling it all down. She sighs. ]

About as pleased as it's possible to be, I guess. Probably won't save anyone 'normal' from taking a hit that would completely smear them going without, but... [ A nod, and her voice dips quieter. ] I'll take what I can get.

Yeah, any improvement on someone's defense is always a plus in battle. With the kind of enemies we get around here, we should take what we can get. [He grabs his sword and swings it around to reattach it to the clip at his back, resting his hands on his hips.] You okay? You're not too tired or anything, are you?

[ She follows suit a moment later, flipping her weapon over in-hand so that it folds back into its vaguely gun-shaped form, then hitting it back into the holster hanging behind her. ]

It'd take a lot more than that to really tire me out. [ Said plainly rather than boastfully- it's the truth, after all! Uh, but, she tilts her head back a bit, raising her hand to push back her hair again. ] ...I think I've had enough, though. It's too hot to be playing around with magic all day.

No argument here. [He nods - not questioning the "tired" issue, since he's pretty much the same - and stretches his hands up over his head. Feels good to move naturally again, without that weird feeling of a spell on him.]

You want to grab something to eat before we head back, or just go home?

You're hungry? [ She crosses an arm over to the other as she turns to leave, glancing at him briefly before looking up thoughtfully. She eats... er, well enough, but it's not something that's really on her mind much. ] I don't care; we've got things at the house, but... either way.

[...Oh, Light. He's trying to ask you out to dinner here.]

I just think it's nice to have someone else cook for you, especially after a hard day's work.

[ ... Oh, Zack. You'd have to hit her over the head before she'd fully realize the implications right away, you know. Her mental image of being asked out to dinner doesn't involve... like, still carrying weapons because the people who own them just got done idly trying to slice each others' limbs off with magical enhancement. So. ]

Ah... I guess you're right. Yeah.

[ Thoughtful pause, because this just wouldn't be Lightning without them! Her own cooking is... well, that sort of thing was definitely all inherited by her sister. There's a reason beyond just taste that she sticks to things no more complicated than needing to boil water. So yeah, she can definitely agree here. ]

Where were you thinking?

[Well, she's dealing with the guy who regularly brought his sword to dates with Aerith because he was on duty at the time, so they didn't exactly do much of the romantic-dinner-for-two thing either. Customary dating would be weird at this point.]

Seventh Heaven's been my favourite since I got here, but that might just be a bias of mine, who knows.

[ Therefore, Lightning is unsuspecting. ... Sort of? She's never done any dating at all, aside from early-teenager stuff. ]

Bias? [ Her voice is low as she idly messes with the fastenings around the wrists of her gloves. ] Because of Tifa...?

Edited 2011-08-09 00:02 (UTC)

[Zack shakes his head, a smile crossing his lips.] Not quite! Actually, I didn't really know Tifa that well. Before I came here, I'd only met her twice. Back in Midgar, I met I guy in the slums who was talking about opening a bar. He asked for name suggestions, and I told him to call it Seventh Heaven. Years later it turns out that he did open Seventh Heaven, and Tifa worked there! That's how it got the name here in Luceti.

... You're pulling my leg.

[ She raises her eyebrows-- but is she mad or amused?! There's been some wacky coincidences that have popped up in her own life, sure, but that's just waaay too much of a stretch for her to swallow right off. ~~Oh, Square Enix...~~ ]

No joke! The bar opened up in the same slum area the guy was in, though, and Aerith knew everyone in the slums pretty well, so it's no wonder we met. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have been down there at all.

Right...

[ She still has like a month to go before she actually hears about the falling through the roof story, so. She just keeps staring at him as she walks- it's not that she doesn't trust him, exactly... just that she really doesn't like potentially being fooled. You can probably count on her checking the story against Aerith later; hopefully the other woman will be able to do Zack a favor and confirm it?? ]

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☈ strike #14 (action / voice)

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....hafta turn that icon randomizer off

and here I was thinking RAWR JEALOUSY D8<

not quite xD

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