(open)

[debtor]

Date & Time: Early afternoon, January 7th.
Location: The Hold; training facilities.
Characters: Allen Walker (debtor) and YOU
Summary: Allen Walker levels up! Also another training facility log, if you feel like doing some training.
Warnings: PUNCHING INANIMATE OBJECTS and shounen. And training. And character death (the punching bag.)


[From opening until lunch (and oftentimes after lunch, sometimes until closing), six days a week (sometimes seven), some kid with white hair and a bizarre facial scar can be found in the Hold's gymnasium, kicking and punching various objects and performing series of acrobatic feats. Like many in Exsilium, he comes from a world where his training keeps him alive; here, it keeps him grounded. Gives him something to work towards and focus on, in a life that's become abruptly, and painfully, directionless.

For some time, he tried training in private with his weapon from home, but lately, he's begun splitting his attention between that and the weapon he'd received from the Initiative. A month ago, he'd picked the pair of armored gauntlets from the armory because they had appeared non-lethal, but they'd also appeared unwieldy. Which was fine, because he didn't think he'd really use them. But now that he is using them, he's finding they seem to somehow fit more comfortably with each passing day, and punches are thrown more easily.

Today, dressed in a black long sleeve shirt and sweatpants, with a leather glove over his left hand and a gauntlet on his right, he's focusing his attention on a punching bag, knocking it back with quick, powerful strikes. (For anyone who might notice these things, it's obvious that he's had a lot of practice, but it's also obvious that he hasn't had any actual formal training in any particular style of fighting. He's just kinda whaling on it.)

And then his right fist smacks into the bag and rips it right off its chains and sends it flying back into the opposite wall with a heavy, resounding crash. It bursts open upon impact, spilling its sandy innards all over the floor.]

Ah...

[Whoops.

Hopefully no one was standing in the way!]

--

[Or, alternately, you could run into him at any point during his training routine; or come by later and find a kid, possibly with sand in his hair and dusting his shirt, sitting cross-legged in the corner of the facilities, eating a sandwich and making a face at it. If you'd just like to chat.]

Comments

[wilder]

Not that I know of, but I thought maybe it was done with magic somehow.

[debtor]

...I haven't got magic.

I'm an Exorcist.

[wilder]

An Exorcist?

[debtor]

The claw is a special sort of weapon— only Exorcists can wield them, so that we're able to fight in the war.

[wilder]

A special sort of weapon-

[Why does he get such a bad feeling about this]

- But it's your hand. Did you like swap your real one for it when you decided to become an Exorcist?

[debtor]

No, I was born with it.

[People are sometimes born with powerful holy weapons stapled onto their shoulders, IT TOTALLY HAPPENS.]

[wilder]

[Hey he can't judge considering he was holding one in his hand when he was born. Which hearing that? Makes him even more uneasy even if he's doing his best not to show it. He can't give himself away, not now not ever. ]

Born with it? How's that supposed to work?

[debtor]

[He pauses. He's picking up on some vague unease, but he chalks it up to Zelos being freaked by his arm. He wouldn't be the first.

But he isn't sure how to answer. It's just what he was told...!!]

I... was born with it. My arm's always been like this.

[wilder]

[yes, Allen, just go with that and ask no questions]

[Though you sound stranger and stranger]

You mean you don't know.

What did your parents say about it? [Because he is totally unaware of your horrific backstory okay]

[debtor]

[Excellent topic choice. His demeanor shifts, and he hitches on a smile, although there's nothing really cheerful about it.]

My foster father hadn't cared about it.

[wilder]

[..............]

[He's just gonna hope you were just evading and not just that entirely dumb he's never sure with shonens]

...Okay okay fine! You were born with a weird weapon. Okay.

[debtor]

[HE ANSWERED THE QUESTION and now let's segue back to...]

What was the weapon you had picked?

[wilder]

[...Crap. He was hoping you forgot about that.]

They did something to a brooch of mine. [A brooch attached to his skin.... though it's not visible as his tunic covers it] I don't really remember it all that clearly.

[debtor]

[He feels as though you might be omitting some crucial details here, but,]

...Could the brooch make your magic stronger?

[wilder]

[Shut up mister foster father didn't care]

Make it-

Can it do that?

[debtor]

[HE HAD SAID NOTHING OF THE ARM

Now it's Allen's turn to look at him as though Zelos might be missing a few brain cells.]

Yes. The weapons are meant to become stronger.

[wilder]

[And now it's Zelos's turn to look disturbed. WHY DO PEOPLE ALWAYS STICK HIM WITH MORE POWERS]

...Seriously?

So its messing with my magic?

[debtor]

The woman explained it all...

[WERE YOU PAYING ANY ATTENTION]

But it seems so, yes.

[wilder]

I wasn't listening.

[No]

...Great. Any way to get it to stop?

[debtor]

...Why would you want it to stop?

[MAKING FIGHTING EASIER = GOOD he sees no problem here.]

[wilder]

Gee I don't know, maybe I'm not interested in being turned into their weapon.

[debtor]

You're not planning to fight for them, are you?

[wilder]

You seriously think they'll give us all that much choice in the matter?

What else do you know about these things?

[debtor]

I spoke to others. I haven't heard of anyone being made to fight.

The weapons have an 'evolving sentience', they'd said.

[wilder]

So far...

[Yep he's forever paranoid don't mind him. And he'll stare at the last part]

- You mean they're alive.