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Post by marci on Jun 23, 2011 18:59:53 GMT -5
She was rather surprised that he actually agreed to hitting her. Her brow raised, but she kept her face sincere and just a little bit mysterious. Elaine decided she liked Ace. He took things at face value, didn't think too much about all extra stuff that didn't necessarily matter, and actually allowed people the benefit of the doubt. Anyone who'd ever been nice enough to engage her in conversation before had been far too nice to actually believe her when she said she wanted them to try to punch her. Obviously in their minds it was unbelievable that she'd be able to take it, being a blind girl.
Her smile grew wider as she felt him shift is stance. She could tell everything he was doing, from the movement of his abdomen to the coiling of his body as he prepared to strike. She knew the hand he was going to us, the placement of his body, and the exact moment that he was going to let off, based on the finite movements she had her wind watching on him. That made it easy for her be ready for the hit, loosening her posture and hunching her shoulders a bit in order to get some flexibility. She widened her own stance the slightest amount, but her hands stayed at her sides, waiting for the attack to come.
And then it came. A real smile hit her features when he let loose, and she was truly impressed by his speed. But she'd already been ready for it, and she'd had the warning of her sight, so she stepped slightly to her right, leaning a bit and bringing her own right hand up. Like lightning herself, her right palm smacked his wrist just as he was about to hit her side and pushed the punch off course. Then she stepped forward quickly with her left foot, bringing herself inside his comfortable range—for he was bigger than her. In the same movement, her left hand came up and she rested her index and middle fingers on the side of his neck, a place where she knew she could not accidentally hurt him, but mere centimeters from his windpipe.
She held a quietly triumphant smile on her lips, and angled her face upward so that she could smile at Ace. Though she couldn't see him, she had no doubt that he looked surprised. She had moved quickly and with perfect balance—and it had not been learned in any martial arts studio, that was for sure. But her aunt had many sides to her, and she'd helped Elaine with the balance and movements of martial arts in order to keep her from being unsteady so often. As a result, Elaine was much more sure of footing than more other blind people, and when she used her wind sight she was able to use it to her advantage.
She took a deep breath. Although she could sense that she was only inches away from him, she didn't move. She just kept her gentle hand on his neck and spoke, ”I can see with my wind. No, no other wind elementals can do it. Yes, it does sap my strength. But only very barely, and because of it I have gained much more stamina than your average junior wind. Oh, and don't be fooled by how well I did just then. I had warning that time—normally, it's a much bigger struggle.”
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Jun 23, 2011 22:33:13 GMT -5
Ace was surprised, no more than surprised, he was astounded. IT happened so fast but Ace was able to catch every single move. He saw her move but by that time he was already launching his attack unable to switch course. He saw her step swiftly to the side and then faster than a snake her hand shot up. He felt the light tap that changed the course of his strike. Suddenly she was inside his striking distance and her two fingers were against his neck.
Ace looked down at her face and saw her smiling he couldn't help but smile back. Her stance was amazing and she practically glided over the ground. He could learn a lot form sparring with her.
She was close enough he could smell her and she smelled like the wind that crashes with the waves and the the glides across the plains. In short she smelled amazing.
Ace blushed at her nearness and to try and dispel his uncomfortableness by switching the subject. He opened his mouth but she started talking and answered all his questions. Naturally all he could say was "I like you." He said with a laugh, "That was amazing."
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Post by marci on Jun 24, 2011 9:49:38 GMT -5
Touch meant a lot to Elaine, but not in the same way it did for most other people. Other people could simply look at each other, take in social cues and the like without ever once touching someone they had a deep conversation with. But the blind girl had always used her sense of touch as a sort of sense of sight, and thus it was not as unusual for her. At the same time, anyone who didn't warn her before touching her turned it into something entirely different. They may have been used to other people automatically knowing when that thing was going to happen, but Elaine had an internal fear for her safety whenever she was surprised like that.
At the same time, she noticed a few cues from Ace now that she was closer. The placement of her hand allowed her to feel his heartbeat quicken, and she heard an intake of breath that made her think he was smelling something. It was only when both these things happened that she thought about what it might be like for him, so she pulled her hand away and took a step backward. Once she had done this, she tilted her head a bit and released her pull on the wind. And with that, she could no longer see his actions.
He said he liked her, and her smile faltered a bit. But it only took a second for her to realize he didn't mean it in any great way. Just a 'hey, you're cool' sort of thing. The damage had been done, however, and though he followed it up with a sincere compliment Elaine only managed to get a small smile back on her face. People were surprising her left and right, these days. Was it too much to ask for a shallow interaction with someone every once in awhile?
”Thank you.” She said quietly, ”But no, it's not that amazing. I'm really not as skilled as I made myself look just then, no matter what it looked like. I specialize in defense.”
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Jun 24, 2011 14:06:21 GMT -5
Ace blinked when she walked away and he fixed his stance so that he was standing the way he was before she asked him to punch her. He saw her smile falter and did a mental face palm remembering that she could only hear him and not see his facial expressions which was a big thing in normal conversation. "Man I keep screwing up." he said quietly to himself.
He was usually a great talker to people, but then again he hadn't spoken to a blind girl before. He looked up as she thanked him for the compliment. "Well, like my old boxing coach said A good defense is the best offense." He said with a laugh. Before, he found out about his powers he took boxing up as a sport, he also took tai-kwan-do but thats another story.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a ball of snow heading their way, or more specifically, heading towards the blind girl who had just switched off her wind sight. "Watch out!" he said stepping in front of her. He couldn't use his powers to block the hit so he just took it. He grunted with the pain, then it registered their shouldn't be pain in a snow ball. He looked down and saw rocks in the broken snowball. "HEY ASSHOLE! THAT HAD ROCKS IN IT!" He shouted to the younger water kids. Pissed he formed a small bit of water and shot it, he called it a water bullet and it felt like a bb on bare skin, it hurt. When they ran away after being pelted by a few bullets he turned around rubbing the spot of impact. "Bastards." he mumbled to himself.
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Post by marci on Jun 24, 2011 18:07:33 GMT -5
”Screwing up?” She repeated, a little confused. Maybe he'd noticed the brief change in her demeanor. She didn't blame him, not really, though it was getting a little difficult to always have to think so much around other people. It was usual for other people to utterly confuse her with the things they said, because changes in expression were far too finite for her to detect well even with her wind sight. She would be able to, if she had a constant gale on them, but that would be rather...rude. So the blind girl shook her head a little, ”Don't worry about it too much.”
She tilted her head in a sort of positive response to what he said next. She normally won her fights these days, merely from the fact that she'd made a point of perfecting the avoidance of attacks. That way the other person basically defeated themselves, especially if they were fire and got annoyed at their constant misses. But she didn't have a good defense against thunder students yet, and she tended to tire herself out a little more when against water students. So she guessed it would be good to get a water sparring partner. She could teach herself more stamina. Elaine spoke quietly, giving him her own little motto, ”The one who stays standing the longest is usually the victor.”
Then he suddenly cried out, making her jump in surprise and shy away from him a little. The blind girl was a step or two away from him when she heard the tell-tale smack of snow against a body. Oh. A slight blush heated up her face as she realized that she had completely overreacted. But it was reflex—though it was not extremely common, there had been people who would lure her into a sense of security and then get her with some joke or another. She took a step forward, opening her mouth to ask him if he was alright, or maybe to thank him. But he started yelling again, and she had to bring her hands to her ears to keep the sound from hurting.
Elaine set another current of wind through the air, watching his reaction to whoever had thrown the snowball. Rocks? And they had meant to hit her? She closed her eyes against the sightless glare she felt forming, merely relaxing and letting the wind stop moving. Ace had been there that time to stop it, but eventually something like that was going to happen and she would not be ready for it. People were not doing it to her so often these days because she had spent several months pelting people with the snowballs they'd just thrown. But obviously, she wasn't being quite to vigilant these days.
Though he'd said it quietly, Elaine's keen ears easily picked up the curse. She turned slightly away from him, feeling a little at a loss of how to respond. Did she thank him? Did she go over and ask if he was ok? Or should she just leave, letting him cool off before trying to deal with a problematic blind girl again? For a few seconds, she felt her cool demeanor come back, and she took one step away from him. He wouldn't want to deal with her while he was in pain, and he certainly wouldn't want to have to take any more hits for her. But that day in the classroom with Josh popped into her head, followed by the time she'd spent with Alex. With a sigh, she turned back toward Ace and said, ”You didn't have to do that. I've been hit by worse.”
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Jun 24, 2011 23:30:40 GMT -5
"Thanks." He said for telling him not to worry about it. Healing his ego a little bit. Then he smiled at her motto. He liked people's motto's, since he didn't really have anything like that of his own. He didn't like sticking with a permanent motto. So he made one up every time he was asked about it.
When he turned around "Sorry about the shouting." He said apologizing. He touched his chest and looked down at it through the collar."Oh thats just beautiful." He said sarcastically. "Don't worry I don't think that they were aiming at you. They just got careless." He said with an annoyed sigh. "I'll teach them a lesson about their aim." Ace said cracking his knuckles fire in his eyes.
Ace listened to her sigh and something came over him. Not knowing what he was doing he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and lowered his head to hers. "Hey," He paused to know he had her attention, "When I'm around I will always, Always, protect my friends." He said gently but with authority.
Ace had a messiah complex and would try to save and protect people at the cost of himself. He knew he had it but he wouldn't get treatment for it because he wanted to help them that badly. He didn't like other people in pain. He would even help Fires if they were hurt.
He realized he touched her without asking and he pulled his hand away. "Sorry about that." Ace said apologetically. He backed a step away and straightened himself up.
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Post by marci on Jun 25, 2011 14:13:01 GMT -5
”I....” Elaine started, not really knowing what to say. She didn't like to deal with angry people, not able to see the amount of restraint they had because she couldn't see their faces. It didn't matter how disciplined a person was, anger came out in their voice in some way when they felt it. But Elaine was hardly worried about Ace turning around and hurting her—after all, he had just apparently taken some rocks in the chest for her. Her voice was just as calm as usual as she tried again. ”Don't worry about your shouting. It's nothing to some people's.”
He told her not to worry and she laughed a little. Elaine? Worry? She wasn't really like that. Things that bothered her were dealt with in anger or crying, not anxiety. And if a person had hit her with a snowball full of rocks, well.... Elaine nodded in agreement when he spoke of their aim. That had been very bad aim. She didn't know many students who would throw rocks at a blind girl. They picked on her, but they didn't go quite that far. Usually. She chuckled a little, angling her face towards him, ”They are very lucky you were there to get in the way. I might not have been so easy on them.”
Not that she meant he'd been easy on them in any way, but Elaine had a streak of temper. She was a viper when she had to defend herself or someone she cared about, and that did not bode well for the people who hurt her. One fire boy had gotten a power punch to the balls when he wouldn't stop harassing her, so how much more would people who threw rocks get? She didn't really want to think about it, knowing that with most people, if she hurt them, they'd just rally and get her back.
He put a hand on her shoulder, and though she shied a bit, she contained the initial frustration. His words were gentle, so she was able to focus on that and release the stress of being touched without warning. He really did that a lot, didn't he? She senses his face close to hers, and a bit of a blush came over her. She felt really uncomfortable with this, the barely-there sensation of his breath on her face as he spoke. So she stepped away, breaking contact with his hand and turning partially away from him.
”It's fine.” She said when he apologized, though she sounded closed off even to herself. She took a deep breath and shrugged a little. ”Am I your friend? We only just met.” Sure, they had agreed to be sparring partners, but other than that there was very little understanding between them. Not to mention, he had a knack for making her feeling on edge. Which she wasn't sure she liked. But he was a nice guy, and she a patient girl, so she figured that if anything, they would end up friends. And if he annoyed her, she'd have plenty of reason to vent her frustration sparring with him.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Jun 25, 2011 20:59:08 GMT -5
"Oh." Ace said realizing she's seen worse. He didn't know what that was like. He had a happy family and didn't know that, that stuff happened until he had seen it happen to a friend of his. And him being him tried to stop it happening. He failed but the kids father went to jail for abuse.
Ace laughed, they were lucky he got hit instead of Elaine. He was sure she wouldn't show any mercy, and if she got hit he wouldn't either, even though they were his element. Then he remembered hearing a rumor about an earth girl totally punching a fire kid in the gonads. "Wait are you the girl who punched the fire kid in the balls?" He said curiously. He was lucky he had never gotten smashed in the balls before. He knew quite a few kids who hit on girls too much and received a nice 'gift'.
Ace grinned when he realized that he made her blush, it made her look cute but he didn't want to mention it to her in case he got on her bad side and their sparring session became a beat down. He liked when he charmed girls he's charmed a lot over the years especially at parties down at maple hollow. Some girls called him a playboy but they still ended up giving him a kiss at the end of the night, sometimes more. He liked to think of himself as a dashing rouge sorta like Han Solo.
"Oh," He said a little sad that she didn't think of him as a friend "Well how about acquaintances then?" he asked with a smile behind the words. Maybe after they spar and get to know each other they'll become friends. He thought the best way to know someone was to fight or spar them.
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Post by marci on Jun 27, 2011 11:44:06 GMT -5
He asked her about punching a guy in the nuts, and she burst out laughing. She did suppose it had gotten around, though it was rather funny that Ace had heard of it and the current fire leader had not. Ah well, Alex hadn't been fire leader when it had happened. She laughed for several moments before she wiped her watering eyes and grinned in his direction. ”Yes, yes I was. Only it was a little bit more than a punch....” She'd been practicing on her own that year with different air pressures, and trying to figure out if she could propel things by suddenly releasing highly pressured air adjacent to them. It had worked.
Instead of explaining that, she blushed a little and tilted her head, ”Well.... He was on the ground for a good fifteen minutes or more, so I guess I understand how you'd heard of it.” According to other people, it had been one of the most hilarious spectacles they'd ever laid eyes on. Elaine hadn't been in much of a mood to appreciate the humor at the time, though. She'd been angry when she did it, and she'd been stressed out for the next month, trying to stave off revenge from the fire students. Eventually they'd made her pay for it. But she didn't regret it—serves him right for trying to grope a blind girl.
Elaine picked up on the disappointment in his voice, and she shrugged a little, giving him a soft smile. ”I didn't mean I was opposed to it, but....” She trailed off, a little uncomfortable despite herself. She didn't make fast friends, that was the thing. It took awhile to build her trust, and she normally started quietly considering them to be friends for weeks before she'd say it out loud. Alex had been an exception, but then again, he was so genuine and talkative that if he'd meant to hurt her it probably would have slipped out in the first conversation.
She shook her head a bit, ”I'm just cautious, that's all. After all, I've only known you for about five minutes.” That would hopefully work. The blind girl refused to go on to him about how much bullying and tricks she had to deal with, so if he didn't understand this, then he was out of luck.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Jun 27, 2011 13:04:35 GMT -5
Ace smiled at her laugh, it was a nice laugh. More than a punch? What could she mean by that, did she maybe use her power? He didn't understand it with only those details but he had a feeling when they sparred he would figure it out. He didn't know her well enough to know what would tick her off to make her punch a kid in the balls. Though it was probably for something like bad touch or annoying harassment.
With a grin he nodded at her statement, it meant that they could be friends if he played it right. "I understand." He said they did only know each other for like five minutes. Then he smiled, the best way to know someone is to spar with them so he thought since he had nothing to do why not spar each other.
"Hey I have nothing to do for the rest of the day why don't we spar?" He suggested though he would have to go back and get some of his sparring gear. "If you want to, meet me at room 300 in," He paused and looked at his watch, "fifteen minutes. The room is one of my sparring rooms and it's usually empty." He said, then he started walking back to the water dorms.
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