Ripple
Paragons
Lian Au-Yong
don't hate me cuz i'm beautiful, hate me cuz i'm a bitch
Posts: 233
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Post by Ripple on Feb 4, 2008 15:47:38 GMT -5
Lian watched Leah doing the suicides. She was still waiting for Aideen to finish her talk with Ms Frost so that she could continue with the training and see what she was going to need to do next. She had tried to keep moving, but her attention was beginning to wander.
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Post by Ember on Feb 4, 2008 16:16:24 GMT -5
Aideen looked over at Katana and kept her face solemn and stern as she turned back the the Headmistress. "As a result of lateness to an official practice as well as forcing her teammates to wait five minutes for her to arrive and delaying our practice together as a team, Katana is paying the penalty and will hopefully come away with a lesson on the importance of punctuality. I cannot afford to have any of the team late, because we should all arrive as a team and practice as a team," Aideen said firmly images flashing of what her Uncle made her do whenever she was late for a training session. Being forced to run barefoot on the hot coals to learn speed, the hours and hours of training that resulted in being late for even a minute made Aideen inwardly shudder.
Katana got it much easier than she ever did. But Aideen stood firm by her punishment she had given to the girl. These things should not go unpunished. The basic things she expected from her teammates were not unheard of. She wanted them to work together, listen, and be on time.
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Post by Emma Frost on Feb 4, 2008 17:39:34 GMT -5
"When she's done send her over to me, but aside from that Ember, how is your first training practice as Team Leader going?" Emma said as she picked up on Katana's, as well as Ember's frustrations.
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Fleet
Paragons
Kyle Nomis
Posts: 551
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Post by Fleet on Feb 4, 2008 18:18:12 GMT -5
After dodging the last set if fire balls with a bit more control and then hearing abotu the break Jumper "Dialed" himself down and let his body relax. Then he noticed Ms. Frost appproaching, and with Haven of all people. He grumbled and shook his head. As they came closer Jumper turned and walked away to another tree some distance away. He still couldn't believe she was allowed back here. He slid his back down the tree and sat against it. Digging into his pocket he pulled out to nutrition bars and began chewing on them. It would help with the usual hunger that followed him using his powers. His usual chipper and fun mood had disappeared completely. But he kept his comments to himself.
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Post by Ember on Feb 4, 2008 18:34:37 GMT -5
"Very well, I shall do that. According to my calculations she is almost through," Aideen said in response to the Headmistresses request to see Katana. "As for the practice, we went on a forty-five minute run on the trails by the schools and hills. For Jumper's training I handed him my pedometer and challenged his speed. The final read was.." Aideen took out the pedometer and looked at the locked numbers on the screen. "995,786 steps in twenty minutes. Impressive on his part. Ripple was is learning to use her gymnastic skills in combat and had done a good job dodging the low heat fireballs that I threw at her. Jumper as well had joined in on this exercise and both have done well," Aideen said in her soft quiet voice. It had been a relatively good practice and after one more exercise that she planned to have Katana join in on, Aideen could dismiss them with good graces and with a good mind for a practice.
She spied Haven at the corner of her eye and wondered if she was alright. She almost felt responsible for her being locked up, for she was sure they would be easier on her if they had known the fate she had saved Aideen from. But Aideen could never explain. And so far no one had asked questions about anything from what happened in the woods with Sabretooth to why Aideen ran into the courtyard with a transformed Mystique in her arms. She wished she could talk and help Haven out, but it was too soon and it hurt far too much.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Feb 4, 2008 20:30:46 GMT -5
Katana, unable to hear the words spoken by either Ms. Frost or Ember, threw her self back into the suicides.
...47...48...49...50...She was in constant pain as her body was pushed toward her limit on the 51st suicide. Her mind switched from the thoughts of Ms. Frost's emergence almost immediately.
...52...53..54...She started going faster than she had ever gone on the trails. She lost all sense of space.
...55...56...57...58...By the 59th pass she was throwing out her fists in anger. Her body had gotten lower to the ground, and she was becoming feral and hissing in mindless suicides.
Her body swung violently as she continued~~60~~61~~62~~On the 63rd bones ripped farther out of her hands. The jagged four became foot long blood monsters as she slashed out in Agony.
~~64~~"AGHHHHHHHHH!!!"she screamed. On the 65th, three spikes ripped form her feet and through her boots. They stabbed the ground, turning the wet land to mulch. It's rich soil was churned as the final suicides glided far faster across the allotted section.~66~67~68~69~70~....
....Her body was in fever. Her body shook, it truly no longer knew which way was up or down, forward or backward. It spun across the section~71~72~73~74~75..
....The suicides continued into the 80's and when she reached the 90's she was far, far gone in her chaotic mind. Images of her father, the blood, the bones, and the fire swirled in her mind.
The ground was mud before long, and on the 96th suicide she slipped into her own creation. She fell to the ground in a thick thud. The mud and mulch lapped at her crashed body.
This extreme exertion reacted to the upsetting stop. She thrashed there, on the ground, for a few minutes. It was as if her body was still running, yet this time she went no where. Her body convulsed and her limbs lunged upward. Her back pushed out, and her arms swung out with sharp knives attacking the air. With her mouth open, whatever beast she had become wanted to scream.
Yet at that insane instance she started regaining conscious, and the following convulses were only her coming back. She heard voices around her as her muscles relaxed. Her body calmed and she just lay there, watching the sky. She noticed the trees, the darkness of the world looming over her. She let one final tear fall out as she sighed. She was drastically confused about the past few minutes, 'Oh my God, what the hell just happened to me?' She had no sense of the rage that had left her body shaking. 'No sense...'
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Post by Ember on Feb 4, 2008 21:55:16 GMT -5
Aideen had been watching Katana at the corner of her eyes and counting the suicides she was doing. Why the hell did she not stop at seventy? Was she honestly ignoring instructions again? Aideen sighed, blatantly pissed off now. She didn't understand why Ripple and Jumper seemed to get it. They knew that shit like this where emotions get in the way of training doesn't roll with her. If after everything Aideen went through yesterday and she was somehow able to put her emotions aside to concentrate to be a team leader, a position she did not ask for but nonetheless did what was expected of her, than Katana as well as her other team members should be able to do the same.
When she saw the girl collapse from exhaustion, Aideen sighed and looked at the Headmistress. "Excuse me Headmistress," Aideen said softly with a bow of her head, now a bit more annoyed at not having been dismissed properly by a Superior as she was brought up. Aideen grabbed a spare water bottle she brought along with her and walked over calmly to Katana, now lying on the snow covered ground. She bent down to balance on the balls of her feet as she looked at the tired girl's still slightly convolving body.
Aideen looked down at her with her usual solemn and stony expression silently for a long moment before she finally spoke. "You see what happens when you do not follow instructions? Now, because you allowed your emotions to fuel you, which was clearly evident in your demeanor, your body shut down because you did not focus on the goal, which was to finish you punishment," she said in her soft low voice. "I did not ask to be a team leader, nor do I want it. But it is my duty and I will do it to the best of my ability. Your duty is to be apart of this team and to follow instructions. Make life easier on yourself, as well as your team and not allow you emotions to get the best of you. I'm telling you right now this 'I'm-an-angry-badass' shit doesn't work with me. Control your anger and channel it in whatever task is asked of you. Use it in combat and in training of self-defense, but if you allow your emotions to get the best of you, and each time you will find yourself defeated because you were blinded by whatever your emotions were, just like now," Aideen said softly as she handed her the water bottle. "Your duty is no longer just to your own needs. You are apart of a team now, a very powerful team. It is time you learn to put your emotions aside and to do what's best for the team," she finished as she stood up to her full height and looked down at the girl.
"Drink the rest of the water to hydrate your body. When you are finished the Headmistress requests a word with you. Afterwards come see me for further instructions," Aideen said softly as she turned to walk calmly back to the Headmistress, allowing the girl to think about what she said.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Feb 4, 2008 22:31:43 GMT -5
'F*** YOU B***H'Leah, wanted to scream. She reached out, and grabbed the water from Ember. Glaring up at her Leader, 'What do you know about being a bad-ass!? Your just a snotty girl who thinks she's above feeling. YOU don't know what it's like to see your world die. You don't know what it's like to have bones ripping out of you, being called a freak. You haven't almost bled to death on the streets. Screw you, and this place.' She looked away in anger.
She looked down at her bleeding feet. The spikes had ripped out, and had been causing her feet to slightly bleed onto the ground. She tried to remove her boot but it wouldn't budge. She stopped, breathed in and concentrated. Yet, alas, her spike's wouldn't go back into her body. She winced as they bled more. What little movement she had made, had caused the healed cuts to bleed again. 'I can't do this, I hate this crap. I'll never be able to retract these god damn bones.' She wanted to cry again, but she had not the energy for it.
Getting up, she hobbled over to the Headmistress. The spikes scrapping across rocks and roots, which littered the ground. She was covered in mud, yet she felt better. The water had calmed her breathing. She looked like a mess, yet she made it all the way to the Headmistress. She noticed the young white haired girl. She remembered her, yet she could careless why this girl was there. She looked up into Ms. Frost's eyes. "Yes...you wanted me?" She half whispered in hurt tones, almost breathing erratically.
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Post by Ember on Feb 5, 2008 2:04:33 GMT -5
When she walked up the her Headmistress, Aideen checked her watch and realized the one minute water break had turned into about five minutes. She sighed, tired of the dramatic young girl's antics. She had no time for it and was trying her best to deal with it. Of all times to get attitude from a spoiled young girl, it has to be the day after what was possibly the hardest day of her life. Every time she glanced at the woods, she was struck with the clear image of her nightmare from the night of Wolverine putting his life out for her. It hurt her each time and the pain never lessened.
Aideen bowed her head again respectively to Emma Frost. "Excuse me Ms. Frost, but my time is up and I am in need to introduce my next exercise to my team," she said softly and excused herself just as Katana walked up to Ms. Frost. Aideen walked over and motioned for both Ripple and Jumper to join her. "The break was a bit longer than I intended due to unexpected circumstances and I do apologize. For a final exercise, I wan you two to work together against me. When I say work together I mean help each other. When you are in a situation when you know you won't win despite your abilities, your only goal should be to help your team members and those who need it most. That is what you will learn today. Not to fight each other, but to learn how your abilities can help your team mate in trouble. And so we begin," with those final words, Aideen used the heat she had been readying throughout that speech and made a large circle of flames surround Jumper about fifteen in height. The circle was loose enough to not burn him, but any close move, the heat from the flames would burn Jumper severely. The flames were white hot, with a bit of orange and blue visible.
Aideen had enough control of her power to be able to dictate where it would spread and what it would burn. "Ripple your teammate needs you. Do your thing," she said to the girl as she kept her eyes on the fire.
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Post by Emma Frost on Feb 5, 2008 9:18:44 GMT -5
"Yes, Katana I did call for you." Emma said in a quiet tone, her voice held a quality of one who was trying to measure their words. She did not want to lose her temper with this girl, that would be a very bad thing.
"Apparently you think I am a worthless Headmistress, is this so? The reason I ask you this is because you seem to think that Ember should be disregarded in her position as your leader, that is if I'm understanding what you are thinking. You see, she is my representative out here, for all intents and purposes- out here, in a team practice, she is me. Do you think that little of me then? Just a... what was it - oh yes, 'Snotty Girl' not one to understand what it's like to be called a 'Freak', I believe you thought. Have you forgotten who I am and what I do and where I took you away from?" Emma said as she looked down into the girls eyes.
"You are who you are young one, and don't think I don't know who that is deep down inside. You do not have to pretend to be someone else, ever, because you are a worthwhile person indeed! Try to remember who you are and why you are here. This place is for you to learn to deal with what you have inside of you that makes you special and different. The issues you face we all face in our own ways and to say that one person has no idea about what a 'difficult life' is, well that my dear is simply wrong. We've all have the most difficult life. Each of us has, at moments in their lives, felt the weight of the world crushing us- so lets not forget that." she counseled the young street tough as Haven looked on and listened.
"It will never get any easier. This is life child, and if you want it easy then the answer is 'no'. That's not my choice, by now you should know that is how life is. It's how life has always been. The struggle is it's own reward. There are many things you can do to make it better in your own way, and ease the pressure you feel inside. All that I can say to you is to try, and if you do your best then no one will ever be able to ask more of you, especially yourself. The best person to please is you, and if you know you did all you could and still didn't get the job done then at least you can lie down in your grave knowing you did your very best. Life is hard, it makes you want to give up, that I think is life's job, your job is to overcome the obstacles that life places before you. Remember sometimes you don't have to climb over the mountain, you might be better served to go around it, yes?" she allowed a smile to grace her soft features and she looked over to the rest of the girls team.
"Now it looks like you might be missing out on a lesson. Remember Katana, it is supposed to be hard- but always do your best, and you will have no regrets. It's a great recipe for success." Emma nodded her head as if to say 'just go and get back to practice'. Hopefully the girl would realize that she was being given quite a bit of leeway and she was certainly loved, wanted and understood. Emma herself came from none too different circumstances, well... in a manner of speaking.
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Ripple
Paragons
Lian Au-Yong
don't hate me cuz i'm beautiful, hate me cuz i'm a bitch
Posts: 233
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Post by Ripple on Feb 5, 2008 14:31:13 GMT -5
Lian regarded the fire for just a couple of seconds before beginning to move. It was imperative that she checked the situation before going in. If it was a real fight, she would need a couple of seconds to make an assessment of the situation and the circumstances. She wouldn't want to go running straight into trouble. Having satisfied herself that she wasn't doing anything the wrong way, she walked slowly through the fire, unsure as to exactly what would happen. She had never tried fire before, only solid objects. She knew she could go through it, she just didn't want to risk surface burns on the way past. Once she was inside the ring though, she didn't know how best to proceed. She and Jumper were now on the same side of the ring. 'What do you want us to do now, Ember?' she called. Surely if Jumper had wanted to get out of the ring to begin with, he could have just teleported out. Perhaps it was an exercise to illustrate how Lian could get to an injured team mate or one who could not get out of a situation. Certainly if Jumper had been telepathic instead of being able to teleport, or if he had had another power that didn't involve transport of any kind, he would have been stuck behind the growing flames.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Feb 5, 2008 15:37:29 GMT -5
Leah watched the ground as Ms. Frost spoke. She tried to look up at the woman, yet she was ashamed to even put herself on par with the powerful Headmistress. She hated the words spoken to her, because she knew they struck true. She tried to rationalize that Ms. Frost was wrong, that the woman should not have entered her head. Yet, alas, she realized the words were right, and her hate turned around. She now hated her thoughts, she hated who she was.
As Frost continued, about how she was loved, Leah looked up slightly.'Me loved...?' As the conversation ended more thoughts hit her. 'It's not Ember, It's not....I'm just....I don't know...' Wanting to believe she was loved she turned away in acknowledgment from Ms. Frost. Wanting to believe the words she heard she walked over to her group.
She stood outside the battle between the students against the Leader. She knew she had not been told to join, so she waited for instruction. She hated her hypocritical nature, how she was angry, and wanting independence. For she knew she was extremely dependent on this group, these walls, and these mutants. She needed them to be there for her, yet she didn't know how to be there for them. This internal conflict played across her face, 'What am I supposed to do? Should I join my team. I've done this before, I've jumped a column of flames. I've attacked to join these mutants...and I got burned as result. WHAT!? What do they expect me to do, I don't want to do this...' She had been yelled at for staying put, yet she had been burned for trying. There seemed to be no option, yet to wait for Ember to pick a choice for her. To pick an option she had already been reprimanded for. She figured Ember would yell at her for any action, so her best bet was to not act. Yet it scared her soul to stand like a statue against the encroaching fire making dragon.
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Fleet
Paragons
Kyle Nomis
Posts: 551
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Post by Fleet on Feb 5, 2008 16:00:31 GMT -5
Jumper blinked as the fire erupted around him. It was hot and he didn't have much room to operate. He could have tried to run through as fast as he could, but there would still be heat and fire burns on him. Then as he was thinking of his next move he saw Ripple walk in through the fire. "Well hey there beautiful. Am I making you hot?" He grinned and winked. Then held out his hand. You think you can lead me through this fire without being burned?"
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Post by Emma Frost on Feb 5, 2008 16:45:56 GMT -5
"Do you see Haven-" Emma said speaking to the rebellious little turncoat "everyone has some doubts, some insecurities and some issues. Not one person alive hasn't had a bad run of luck at one time or another. It's how you deal with what life throws at you that determines your self worth."
She looked down at her as Haven looked up and Ms.Frost said "We all must learn to rise above what problems we encounter. If you buckle under the pressure you know where you'll wind up. You've seen some hellish places, yes, but there are worse- know that and let that knowledge be enough, don't go looking for them."
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Post by Ember on Feb 5, 2008 18:06:12 GMT -5
For now, Aideen watched as Ripple entered the fire unharmed. She wanted Ripple to push herself with her power for the sake of allowing her to concentrate on getting her teammate out with her the way she came in. Ripple had expanded her power in that form in the Danger Room and she wanted to see if she could do it with a much stronger factor pushing her, meaning fire. Aideen was quite confident in her teammate and knew she could do it.
At the corner of her eye, she saw Katana, looking very battered after not following her instructions with the run. All in all, Aideen was not happy with her for this practice. They all had their own problems, and somehow Aideen, Ripple, and Jumper had been able to concentrate on the practice without any problems. Yesterday had been a trying day, and Aideen still couldn't get it completely out of her mind. But nonetheless, she did her duty and pushed her emotions aside to concentrate on the team. And this girl, rather than participating with the team was trying to be a badass little brat and Aideen wasn't going to take that from anyone. On this team, she wanted them all to work together with respect and trust and it just didn't suit well with her that one girl was determined to want to stand out from the direction the team was going.
"Katana, you are currently in no state to participate in practice with your ruined shoes. For now you will watch and try and learn for next time how this team will work," Aideen said in an emotionless voice knowing full well that she should make her participate anyways and suffer with the damage she caused to herself, but Aideen refused to ruin the practice for her other teammates because they had to deal with as much as she did this practice. They at least to get something out of it and not think their training was being neglected.
"Come Ripple. I know you can do it. Help your teammate. Concentrate," Aideen said softly to her.
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