About That Fruit (Aryn/Open)

[Aryn Valcoph]

'Well. Fuck.'

Better and better!

Aryn crossed her arms a moment, eyes still suspicious.

"Challenge accepted."

'Thiiiiiiiiis is gonna suuuuuuuuuuuuuuck biiiiiiiiiiiiig, hairy, nasty balls.'

Her arms dropped from their crossed positions. So, lightning, huh? Aryn frowned.

[Mr. Kaar]

"Ready?"

Once she was he'd throw a punch from his position allowing electricity to shoot at her.

He'd also dash to his right and come at her diagonally dropping low sliding in like a baseball star, pushing off the ground with his hands and left leg, he'd aim his right foot for her stomach to lift her up. If that worked he'd push once more with his left leg and hands to launch himself into the air as well, rotating to bring both hands around in a double axe handle to send her towards the ground.

[Aryn Valcoph]

As ready as she'd ever be with those kind of odds. She nodded, poised on the balls of her feet.

'SCREWTHELIGHTNINGSHITOHMYGOD--'

Aryn tumbled out of the way, winding up on one knee but shaking from the effects of the shock, a la combat roll...which was probably a bad idea, as her collarbone snapped with the pressure exerted from Leon's kick, though with her arms up, she tried to hold on to his leg despite the pain that had a shriek well up in her throat. If she was successful, she'd fight through the pain, hoping to lock his knee up.

...though she did realize he could go all electric eel on her, and he was stronger...

She adds a strike with her foot, high along his thigh as she falls on her ass, hoping to do it with enough force, and quickly enough, to cause the muscle to seize up and buy herself some time.

[Mr. Kaar]

And Leon did in fact go electric eel on her, as he came down to the ground he would shock her and push up attempting to rip his leg from her grip.

He would give her no time to recover from the electrocution if he got free turning around to aim his right fist as he fell towards her dropping to a knee to slam his fist full on into her face, to drive it into the ground.

~Come on! Call on it! Need it! Save yourself!~

If at the last second she didn't use her Qi, Leon's fist would veer off and slam the ground instead.

[Aryn Valcoph]

With the powerful shock, her body convulsed and Aryn lost control, allowing Leon to slip free, unhindered aside from a flopping limb or two.

Desperation took hold, and Aryn grasped at the pressure - burning hot or freezing cold, she didn't know or care - eyes wide and staring as Leon began his descent with his fist coming straight to her face. Leaf green eyes went wide and in a moment of pure panic for her life, even as she took hold of it and a few tendrils of smoke, fog, mist, curled in the air before and around Leon's fist and upper torso, Aryn did one of the most stupid things a person could do in this situation.

She clenched her eyes shut.

The feeling left. The power, gone. Disappeared in an instant, and panic drove her to open her eyes even though she swore she saw her life flashing before them, opened or closed.

Leon's fist obliterated the small amount of whatever it had been to careen for her face.

And hit the dirt as she jerked away. Despite her wide eyes and rapid, panting breathing, she was already going into a raging, internal fit for falling, succumbing to something she hadn't in years.

Maybe it was because practically everyone she'd faced off against before was ordinary, while Leon and those with him were extraordinary, and Aryn had been given a dose of what he could do. A fraction of what he could do. And she was terrified to lose her own life.

Her fists curled, clenching so hard she immediately drew blood on her palms as her nails broke the skin. She cursed her her breath, attempted to roll away to rise back to her feet.

"Almost had it, for fuck's sake, but I was much closer to dying. What pathetic bullshit was that, Aryn?!" Shame, frustration, rage, ninety nine point nine percent of it was self-directed. They all hit and beat her, seeming to do worse than Leon just had. If she was up, she'd simply turn her eyes to Leon, bright and burning with her emotions and a bit of the lingering terror. Her voice came, scathing but at a normal volume in comparison to her hushed, strained whisper before. "Beat me harder next time and it may work."

Her tone was clipped, curt, choked off. Her first test, a real one, not just hitting him, and she'd failed miserably when the pressure was on. Like a child that couldn't grasp a lesson.

Pathetic.

Aryn wasn't giving up. She was going to fight harder, overcome this farce of a failure, but damned if she wanted them to walk out and see it. She turned despite the lingering pain from the shock, starting to stride away, so long as he let her.

[Mr. Kaar]

Leon was curious as to the smoke, and why it left when she clenched her eys shut. She felt it, he knew she did, she had brushed it with a needing hand. Her words did nothing to him as he stood there watching, but when she turned to leave, thats when Leon would speak.

"Oh? Walking away?"

Leon would begin walking towards her, to stop her and turn her around.

"What did you feel?"

Leon would be looking into those eyes, trying to calm her enough to think it through.

[Aryn Valcoph]

In such a high state of emotion, the last thing Aryn wanted to do right now was sit and talk this thing through. In that, she was almost - but not quite - polar-opposite to a certain other apprentice that Leon was becoming familiar with. What she perceived as his taunt about walking away caused her spine and shoulders to stiffen in outrage, but she expanded her stride and didn't stop until he actually caught up with her and made her turn to him. Even then she resisted as a tightly coiled spring resisted further winding.

"Either that or I'm going to find a mix of chemicals that will combust and decide to use it." Aryn made no attempt to mask her displeasure, though most of it was directed towards herself...it wouldn't take much to ignite the fuse to have her turn it towards him.

"That's a poor attempt at calming me down if you're literally meaning the touchy-feely crap. If you did, then take a wild bloody guess as to how I felt." 'When I reacted like a panicked, frightened kid.' Her eyes remained on his, defiance beginning to creep in. Much as she didn't want to say anything as to her state of mind or sit and think and talk it through right now, or even be the slightest bit cooperative, she gave him things anyway. A certain altruisticness. A naivete, perhaps, that she trusted despite not trusting--not even remotely completely. She just wanted this over with. She continued, voice low and husky with the storm ready to explode within. "If you meant figuratively: pressure. A burn. I couldn't say if it was hot or cold, and it slipped through my grasp like water."

Not sand. It had just disappeared. But it was still there, she knew. So how to turn it into sand, and then pearls to grasp, was the issue.

[Mr. Kaar]

Leon would let go of her shoulder and turn his back, for the first time ever giving a scoff as he looked away.

"Scared, desperate... Probably wanted the bad man to go away."

~Do it...~

"Perhaps it was a fluke and you dont really have the power."

~Hit me with it.~

"Maybe I chose wrong when I said you had power."

~Grasp it!~

[Aryn Valcoph]

'The bad man to go away. You fucking prick. Really. REALLY?'

Aryn knew she shouldn't rise to the taunts, but with her, reason hardly listened to emotion. Not in times like these. It was the scoff that got to her the most, though. Aryn was rarely, if ever, scoffed at. It might not have snapped her qi out, not just yet, but she damn well acted. She kicked her shoed foot against the back of his knee (and planted it on the ground, after) - 'Fuck' - already reaching out to curl a hand around the front of his throat so he wouldn't actually fall forwards, - 'This' - twist, and slam him backwards, - 'Shit' - down onto the ground.

"Just because I'm not on your level yet, Leon, doesn't mean I can't achieve that and more."

She wasn't necessarily afraid of him as a person, but the power he wielded was a bit of a different story with the scale tipped so heavily in his favour. She really was a child in comparison, for power and speed. She felt it again, the pressure building up, and waited, releasing him to almost stand and drive her foot into his face if she was at all successful in the maneuver.

[Mr. Kaar]

Leon didn't see her attack coming, purposefully having turned his back on her to allow such, he was driven to the ground, looking up at her as she spoke, feeling her anger, it wasn't good enough yet.

He turned over and started to stand, reaching up to block the knee coming towards his face, pushing it hard away he would rise to slam an average uppercut for her chin.

"Prove it... Guess not."

He'd ignore her as he turned to walk away.

[Aryn Valcoph]

The words were just childish. Certainly, they stung, but it was the uppercut that drove her further.

Not quite there. Not quite, but close. Metaphorically speaking, she had the sand, and it burned. She felt the heat, now, like liquid fire in her veins even though there was no real change to her body. Just sensation. Just feeling. And passion. Passionate anger, for the moment, but passion nevertheless.

Her hand rubbed her jaw, then dropped to her side.

A low chuckle started in the back of her throat, and grew to be audible. He was ignoring her, now? Her hands flexed, then curled into fists, nails finding the same bloody indents that left the bloody marks on Leon's neck.

Fuck the fear.

The fact he was ignoring her pissed her off. It smoldered in the air between them, smoke, black as pitch before it shifted and turned, and fairly exploded into being, directing the force of the explosion of heat at Leon's back. Untrained, but fairly powerful with the added kick of rage. It wasn't normal fire, but it was fire all the same.

The only problem now was that, Aryn swayed from the amount of force of strength and will it had cost for such a feat, and the black flames started to eat away at Leon's clothing.

"...shit, how do I put it out..."

[Mr. Kaar]

Leon sensed it at the last second, spinning around and seeing it blasting towards him, erupting electricity at full power around him in a dome of protection, mostly because he didn't know how strong it was, luckily his Qi was stronger, but the flames that where on the ground... They wheren't dieing off. There was no fuel for them except the air around them...

Leon would drop the dome and move out of the way of the flames.

"Thats... Some pretty potent power..."

Leon said, honestly... Astonished by the ability.

He kept a watchful eye on her though unsure if she was going to continue following her rage, or pass out fromt he experience of the uncontrolled outburst of energy.

[Aryn Valcoph]

Yep. Nope. Aryn shifted on her feet to maintain her standing position, dangerously close to sinking down to a knee, or crumpling altogether.

She murmured something along the lines of being fucked sideways, turning her head this way and that slightly. All of the flames were in her field of vision, but she felt the steady draw of mental power it was taking for the flames that hovered off the ground under her own power.

Her eyes flicked to Leon, and almost automatically, the flames shifted, too, following her line of sight to 'go after' Leon in an almost comical fashion. She started to glare--

And down to a knee Aryn went, muttering all sorts of things under her breath before she shut up and used her hands as a visual cue to hopefully shift the fire into a group.

Nope.

"Screw you." Leon or the black flames? Both?

A sigh, but soft, as she didn't really have the energy required for such feats. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and she experienced a wave of what could be vertigo.

"Let go..." It seemed logical. She released the sand, so to speak, yet the flames that had hit the ground completely continued to burn. Undirected for the most part, Aryn groaned and started trying to force the fires to diminish.

It only made them larger.

"No. No bloody way. Out, damnit."

Her power was going to be such a joy. She could just tell. The residual anger wasn't helping, not when it only added fuel to the flames and made her weaker. She tried closing her eyes. Well, that made it so there were no new flares of flame, but she'd probably have to have some help. Aryn doubted she could stand at the moment.

So instead she turned her focus to wrestling the flames to something that could easily be extinguished...and that was a struggle in itself.

[Mr. Kaar]

~Holy shit!~

Leon would dart away to get out of the way of the black fire. Deffinitly didn't want any of what that was. He'd run inside real fast grab a water jug and try to douse the flame... To no avail. Aryn would have to do this, or she'd have to lose conciouseness. If that even worked.

Leon would rush over to behind her and wrap his arms around resting his head next to hers, holding her up pretty much.

"Calm yourself... Think about what you want the fire to do... Its just you, an extension of what you really desire."

He was being as soothing as he could, laying the charisma on thick.

[Aryn Valcoph]

It was a struggle to not follow Leon with her eyes as he darted back into the Peace Cafe. They started to, and that only made things worse. Much worse. The fire started to spread with the motion. Aryn's eyes snapped back into place and she struck the ground with her palm, a hiss escaping between clenched teeth.

When Leon came back with the water, she watched as it turned to steam and left the fire in tact. Her eyes widened, and she just stared, dumbfounded, as Leon rushed back over. She didn't allow herself to sag into him.

Instead, her eyes narrowed but remained on the black flames.

"What? Now you want to cuddle up to me? Seriously?" It was half spite, half not. She was tired, but perhaps foolish in not taking the respite despite the fact that, beneath the surface, she was grateful for the support. But the charisma worked. If it didn't, she would have tried to get away. But that was completely counter-productive.

Would she trust him enough?

She groaned in the back of her throat and, yes, allowed herself to lean into him to conserve some strength. A deep breath in, a slow one out, bolstering her focus as she stared long and hard at the flames. She was able to draw them together into one cluster, leaving burnt trails of ash in their wake, and slowly, they began to diminish. Unfortunately, as they did, she also leaned further against Leon.

Pride for pride.