(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]

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.

[debtor]

In a way, I suppose...

[He doesn't really consider 'evolving sentience' to constitute life, but.]

[wilder]

...Wonderful.

[How come every time he tries to achieve a normal life, his life seems to go in the OPPOSITE direction?]

[Plus what if this too is made out of human lives? Then the Initiative is serious bad news]

[debtor]

[MAYBE

YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION.....

He looks down.]

If you don't train with it, it likely won't grow stronger.

[wilder]

[PLEASE LIKE THEY WOULD'VE ADVERTISED THE HUMAN LIVES PART.]

Hm.

Guess no more training for me, then.

[debtor]

[This entire conversation has totally backfired!]

...Can't you train without your brooch?

[wilder]

[ Y E P ]

Heh heh, I really can't.

[debtor]

[His brow knits in confusion...]

You're not using your magic if it's simply hand-to-hand!

[wilder]

Even then there's influence from the brooch, I'm afraid.

[debtor]

[He thought it must just be some sort of magical amulet or something, but now he's not really sure.]

What sort of brooch is it...?

[wilder]

[There's a slight pause; but he'll decide to go for it. Allen won't know it's meaning, and what would he even tell other people?]

[So he'll reach up and pull down the neck of his tunic to reveal a red crystal and gold metal piece around it, embedded in his skin]

The sort you can't take off.

[debtor]

[He's gonna go make a public post about how Kaneis has a weird brooch now!!!

He makes a slight face at it; he's seen stranger, but that's still. Jewelry embedded in his skin.]

And you cast spells with that?

[wilder]

[And Allen was then stabbed and hung on a tv antenna welp]

It helps with spells. Makes them more powerful than they would be without it.

Same with strength, reflexes, endurance and overall physical capability. [And wings and senses but you know let's just play it up as a normal exsphere]

[debtor]

It affects everything?

Then, I don't know if you can stop it from evolving...

[wilder]

[On some level, Zelos had already known that to be true. It's one thing to stop training, it's another to stop doing well- everything else in his life. He had long since forgotten to where his normal capabilities ended and the crystal's influence began- it was all intertwined now. The most he could do in normal fights was try to hold back as much as possible]

[But Zelos hates having to ADMIT that level was right, so he covers up that crystal again and crosses his arms, seeming a bit sullen. ]

Yeah, maybe not.

[debtor]

I don't know if there's a way to reverse it. You could ask them...

[Though Allen doesn't really trust the Initiative much at all, and he's not sure how they'd respond to that sort of question.]

[wilder]

[Oh so dryly]

Oh right I'm sure they'll be super willing to help.

[debtor]

[He sighs.]

I'm sorry. It's possible they could help, but you can't know unless you ask. Otherwise, you can't remove your brooch, and you can't stop using your reflexes... [So you're kind of out of options.]

I don't intend to allow them to make me into their weapon, or let them do the same to anyone else. They can give us whatever power they like, but if we're going to fight for their side, it'll be our own choice.

[wilder]

Which means I'm pretty much outta luck. [He has no qualms just putting it out there]

And nice words, but how exactly do you intend to stop them if they try to push you into it?

[debtor]

I'd push back.

[wilder]

[That answer? Is so simple and ridiculous. There's no way it'd be that simple. Not a chance. He has the feeling if the Initiative wants to force them into something, they'll find a way]

[Yet the kid seems to think it's that simple, and he seems so sure. That it's just...]

[After staring for a moment perplexed, Zelos for the first time since coming here? Cracks up laughing at all of this. It wasn't even that funny, nor is it really a snide laugh- just you reach a certain point with stress and you can't help but find anything funny]