Training Sequence.
She's gone to the gym, heading up to the pull-up bar and . So caught up in what she's doing that she hardly notices him coming in the back door.
Shifting to octopus form, he proceeds to wrap tentacles around Aurora in speedy succession. He tangles her up in the surprise grab, making sure to go easy with the suckers on his tentacles.
She glances over her shoulder at the sudden grab. Hazards of dating someone as strange as you. She learned from LAST time. Took on a puffer fish - double her width and spines - and left him with a lot of superficial, but painful cuts. "Hey! Those tickle!"
He smiles mischievously, or as much as an octopus beak can manage. "Not as much as they could." Amused, he has her quite tangled, but loosely, anticipating a possible freak out. He's proud that she thought before using her skills this time.
"I'm working on...keeping my head," she admits.
The grip becomes a firm, yet loving hold, pulling her closer. "Hey, it's me." He thinks for a second. "Just focus on the person you're with, not the being they are, and the feelings should be easier to handle. Need to nudge those barriers of yours somehow. This is one of the less threatening forms I could use."
She's squirming a bit* Never know what to expect.
"Always a good move. Don't wait forever, but judge before acting. Always."
"Used to be..." She tries to assemble the words before she speaks. "A lot better about thinking before reacting. It's all the stuff I learned as a little kid all over again. And I was never the best at it to start with, I'm embarrassed to admit."
"You might retread a lot, and get annoyed, frustrated, maybe even pissed off. I'm here to both talk to and duel with, if it helps you blow off steam. I'll be your pressure valve handle. Uh, no puns intended."
"Any time I've done that, I tend to put the brakes on it by remembering I'm around folks who want to help, not those jerks in Vegas."
His eyes sparkle, beak open in the equivalent of a grin. "And this is why we keep going Aurora. You genuinely want our help, and don't waste time, trying to do your best at whatever is requested."
She hangs her head. "And you, of all people, know why."
He curls around her comfortingly. "Hey, c'mon...I prefer your smile to your frown, Sunspot..."
She takes a deep breath. "I know it's a risky life. I know it means...well, it could mean...are you okay with this? It's one thing for me to be a couple thousand miles away in Gotham, doing this. Another thing to be here and watching each other go into danger."
Her to take a moment to think. "It'll...be hard. I won't lie. But I'm working to stop myself from old habits of shielding or stopping loved ones in the field. It's a helluva challenge when it's the most loved person I know out there."
"Another...oath." She bites her lip. "Any one of us is prepared, should they need to, to die or be otherwise sacrificed for the good to the whole. Brother Joseph's addition. It's another reason why no one tried to provoke McKay. The community is everything. The individual is a very distant second."
He's silent both surprised and not so by Joseph's addition, reminded of the saying from pop culture, twisted into a real-life usage. "The needs of the many...outweigh the needs of the few..."
"Very much so. You saw it. There are good parts, and very good people...people I miss. But it's not home anymore. And if this place, this team, is willing to let me call it home, then..." The rest goes unsaid.
Uncoiling most of the limbs, shifting back into human form, he pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her, holding her comfortingly. "Shhh. Someday we'll find a way. Someday."
"I'm not betting on it. The choices I've made take me away from there, but the foundation will always be part of me." The iron is there in her words. She points to her chest for emphasis.
Nuzzling her neck, he pauses and thinks before speaking. "Just don't discount it ever happening, okay? Hell, we might be in our fourties and get a letter, who knows. Sixties, seventies..."
Still even, still pragmatic. "It can happen. But I wouldn't call it likely."
"Improbable, but not impossible." Ah, Gar. Ever the optimist.
She steps out of his arms, eager to get off the subject. On with the training. "So, what's on for today?"
"Well, I was heading for 'getting free without beasting out,' but I kinda let go and shifted." He shifts, grabbing her limbs and chest again with the tentacles. "Of course, I never said I wouldn't try again."
She drops rapidly, jamming elbow into his gut, stamping on his foot, and using the moment distraction to shake off the two arms on her still. "Few more arms than the muggers, but thank Ms. Lance."
Winded, he's impressed, but in quite a bit of pain, rubbing his gut and hopping. "I...wOW...not...bad..."
She ticks it off, first she learned from Standing Ox and retaught by her former boss. "Instep, knee, solar plexus, nose, groin. In that order." She's a bit sheepish about that, but this IS combat training, and Ms. Lance was pretty stern on that.
"I'm glad you skipped the nose and groin...VERY glad." He looks a bit pale. "Ooh...I'm gonna...mmpf...sit..."
"Ew..." She feels kinda rotten to have done that. "Need ice?"
He checks his stomach and winces as his hand touches an area near his ribs.* YOW! *The hand recoils on instinct. "F...geez...!"
She winces, grabs ice, goes over. "Ms. Lance didn't know what to do on my freakouts, aside from teach me how to fight without shifting. Breaking a hold was the first thing she drilled me on." Applies the ice pack, still apologetic.
Shifting into another form, in seconds Aurora's arms are pinned to her body, her legs together, landing on her side, reptile still coiled around her as the boa constrictor's head hovers near hers. "Always make sure an attacker's claims are genuine." His eyes reflect the kicking he's giving himself mentally for being such a bastard to teach her these things. He's not enjoying it, but if it keeps her safe...
Narrowed eyes. "Okaay... your intent?"
"My true health is sore, but not as bad as it seemed. As an attacker, since this worked, I could do anything at this stage. Remember that, okay?"
"An inhibitor and I'd be smoked. So, make sure they really are as hurt as they look."
"Exactly. Last thing we need is to order more marble."
"Damn." Fighting the instinct to go pufferfish, she chides herself for being foolish.
Shifting back to octopus, he loosens the grip, becoming more loving than threatening. "I'm...I'm sorry. That was..."
Oh, no. You are NOT apologizing on this one, Gar. "You said it yourself. That was a dumb, and possibly fatal mistake."
He nods. "Yeah, but I didn't need to be such an asshole about it..."
"So you're not the one who should be sorry." Boy, that iron streak? It's out in spades.
He considers this, and he feels less like his ass should be kicked. "Okay. It's just that...being such a hard S.O.B is...pretty damn new."
"I won't pretend this will be easy for either of us, but the alternative?" She still is not wavering a bit.
He nods, his resolve strengthened. "Okay, I won't back down. But...there has to be a way to know if I've pushed too far..."
"You just...keep pushing. Or if you can't, please ask one of the others."
"I'll admit right now...if it gets too intense...I might need to." He looks away for a moment. "If that happens, it's my failing, it's on my head, and I know it. I can teach, sure, but when it gets to 'beat it into 'em' levels, I gotta draw the line."
"And the fact it's me...has to make it that much harder."
He nods, his grip warmly holding. "But I'm not going to just pass the job on. That lesson, just now, that's my first taste of that kinda teaching. It isn't fun, but yeah, I prefer you pissed at me than nothing at me."
"All right," She steps away, a meter out of reach. "Back on track. Have potential troublemaker. Not sure of injuries, but he's hurting or looks it."
He follows her lead. "If you have two or more people, one keeps control of watching and/or securing them while the other checks for injuries, or with just the one, depending on their abilities, secure their hands and check them. If they're metas, it gets trickier."
"Note to self then, carry some kind of restraint in my beltpouch. At least I can tie knots."
"Always useful. But metal handcuffs work a lot better, especially if the attacker is stronger than they look."
"Probably need practice before those become second nature."
He reverts to humanoid form. "I can be the crash test dummy if you need practice. Plus, a dummy doesn't fight back."
"I'll need practice with THAT eventually, too. The fighting back."
He wanders away for a moment, looking through supplies, eventually pulling out a pair of unlocked stainless steel handcuffs, coming back and giving them to her. "No time like the present."
She's never trusted those things. She's had them slapped on her wrists by Star City Police several times. Now, the challenge is getting them on someone else. She makes sure she knows EXACTLY where the key is before putting them on him. It's slow by his standards, but hey...first attempt.
He watches the attempt, at first with no resistance, to see her skill normally. "Okay, pretty good, but at that angle, I could have used my free hand to knock you away and escape one-handed. But right now he's unable to do much, hands locked up tight.
"More used to having them put on me for blocking traffic." It's a weak joke and she knows it .
He still smiles, amused by it. "It's an odd feeling, but knowing how they work can come in useful. But that's another lesson." What he didn't see was where the key went. "There's a latch in the middle with these, since they're a training pair, but the captured can't reach it."
"Oh, I've the key." She undoes them, but keeps a deathgrip on one of his wrists in case he wants to pull another "demo."
His leg curls, hitting behind her knee with his heel, sending her off balance. She drags him down with her, rolling out of the way of his attempt to tackle her, countering with a smack to the jaw.
And what a smack it is. "OW--shit! Mmmpf...nice one." He checks for loose teeth, finding none. "I was gonna mention you should be mindful of all of the attacker's limbs...but you countered pretty damn well."
"Fool me once..."
He laughs. "Another technique for troublesome attackers is cuffing hands and legs."
Wary, expecting another attack, she gets to her feet. He watches her, smiling, saying nothing. "Try roping goats that don't want to get roped."
Cogs turn in his head. She's giving him ideas. With effort, he's shifting, not out of humanoid form completely, but more felinoid, a cross between his own form and tiger, mirroring her own side that she needs to control, claws at the ready, green fur slightly bristled as his tail twitches. He wants to see how she deals with this.
"Damn," she growls. No shifting. She'd almost complain about this, but she vaguely imagines the smell of a Carolina Slim and the taunt "Tough shit, bestiality babe." This prompts her to go for a jump rope. There's also the rack of weights...medicine ball...*
He's forced the handcuff half open with a growl of his own already, blunting if not breaking the lock inside. Good thing they don't cost much to D.I.Y construct at the Tower.
She misses with the attempt to loop his neck. Crap. He knows those tricks from hanging with Donna so long. She backs up, grabbing one of the metal bars used for dumbbells, but without any weights on it.
He's broken the handcuffs free, and is now prowling, alternating between two legs and all fours, moving closer and closer to his prey. And when he makes that transition from two to four, she jams that metal pole right for his gut. It doesn't quite hit right, but does clobber his side. Damn, this is getting hard to keep normal form.
He yowls at the hit, batting the pole away hard, hissing at it more than her. That's hurt him, but it's also pissed him off a bit as well. She keeps scrambling, throwing a medicine ball his way to try and keep his attention elsewhere. Her hands are stiff. Not Good.
He bats the ball to the side, his green eyes' slit pupils look up at her. His tail is waving side to side, fur still slightly bristled. He hasn't stopped advancing either.
Fuck running at this point. She shrieks high enough that she KNOWS it'll hurt his hearing (because it sure as hell does it to her) and charges, diving for his knees. Her hands dig into his lower legs - her fingers are almost gone to claws
His ears lower in pain - that REALLY hurts. The attack to his lower legs sends him off balance, grabbing for her waist, or anything to stop him from falling to the deck.
Pacifist she may have been raised, but when it's clear she'll need to fight, she will not taunt an enemy, or make smart-ass comments. It's all business. "Keep...up...I'm gonna shift." It's either a sign to end, or a warning she'll go down fighting.
His claws are in, but he's still grappling, trying to get a better hold to take control of the situation. He's aware of what's been going on, with more control over this than she's had, he can think more clearly, and give the illusion, the assumption, that he's gone into a wild mindset. This is in fact not the case, he's actually in control for the most part, some of the wild instinct clawing at his focused mindset.
Her hands have now gone furry and clawed, and she pulls them away from his leg with effort. Training. Not life-threatening. No shifting.
Curving his neck around to reach her ear, he whispers, "Sometimes, the skill is necessary..." His claws still held in, he grapples to get a better hold...
Breathing hard. "I...think you hit my limit. No shifting…thought that was part of the -"
Pulling himself around, he holds her, slowly and gently, eyes looking at her curiously. "Do you know that? Or just fear that?"
"My hands...turned to claws. Thought we were trying to see…" She's trying to get under control. "How I did without them."
"I'm showing you sometimes you will NEED to use the skills you fear. Control them, but don't deny them."
"Gods, hope I did not draw blood..."
"I don't think so..." He focuses on the lesson again. "Shift. But try to keep the dangerous side under control. Sheath the claws..."
((Transcribed from private chat last night.))
Shifting to octopus form, he proceeds to wrap tentacles around Aurora in speedy succession. He tangles her up in the surprise grab, making sure to go easy with the suckers on his tentacles.
She glances over her shoulder at the sudden grab. Hazards of dating someone as strange as you. She learned from LAST time. Took on a puffer fish - double her width and spines - and left him with a lot of superficial, but painful cuts. "Hey! Those tickle!"
He smiles mischievously, or as much as an octopus beak can manage. "Not as much as they could." Amused, he has her quite tangled, but loosely, anticipating a possible freak out. He's proud that she thought before using her skills this time.
"I'm working on...keeping my head," she admits.
The grip becomes a firm, yet loving hold, pulling her closer. "Hey, it's me." He thinks for a second. "Just focus on the person you're with, not the being they are, and the feelings should be easier to handle. Need to nudge those barriers of yours somehow. This is one of the less threatening forms I could use."
She's squirming a bit* Never know what to expect.
"Always a good move. Don't wait forever, but judge before acting. Always."
"Used to be..." She tries to assemble the words before she speaks. "A lot better about thinking before reacting. It's all the stuff I learned as a little kid all over again. And I was never the best at it to start with, I'm embarrassed to admit."
"You might retread a lot, and get annoyed, frustrated, maybe even pissed off. I'm here to both talk to and duel with, if it helps you blow off steam. I'll be your pressure valve handle. Uh, no puns intended."
"Any time I've done that, I tend to put the brakes on it by remembering I'm around folks who want to help, not those jerks in Vegas."
His eyes sparkle, beak open in the equivalent of a grin. "And this is why we keep going Aurora. You genuinely want our help, and don't waste time, trying to do your best at whatever is requested."
She hangs her head. "And you, of all people, know why."
He curls around her comfortingly. "Hey, c'mon...I prefer your smile to your frown, Sunspot..."
She takes a deep breath. "I know it's a risky life. I know it means...well, it could mean...are you okay with this? It's one thing for me to be a couple thousand miles away in Gotham, doing this. Another thing to be here and watching each other go into danger."
Her to take a moment to think. "It'll...be hard. I won't lie. But I'm working to stop myself from old habits of shielding or stopping loved ones in the field. It's a helluva challenge when it's the most loved person I know out there."
"Another...oath." She bites her lip. "Any one of us is prepared, should they need to, to die or be otherwise sacrificed for the good to the whole. Brother Joseph's addition. It's another reason why no one tried to provoke McKay. The community is everything. The individual is a very distant second."
He's silent both surprised and not so by Joseph's addition, reminded of the saying from pop culture, twisted into a real-life usage. "The needs of the many...outweigh the needs of the few..."
"Very much so. You saw it. There are good parts, and very good people...people I miss. But it's not home anymore. And if this place, this team, is willing to let me call it home, then..." The rest goes unsaid.
Uncoiling most of the limbs, shifting back into human form, he pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her, holding her comfortingly. "Shhh. Someday we'll find a way. Someday."
"I'm not betting on it. The choices I've made take me away from there, but the foundation will always be part of me." The iron is there in her words. She points to her chest for emphasis.
Nuzzling her neck, he pauses and thinks before speaking. "Just don't discount it ever happening, okay? Hell, we might be in our fourties and get a letter, who knows. Sixties, seventies..."
Still even, still pragmatic. "It can happen. But I wouldn't call it likely."
"Improbable, but not impossible." Ah, Gar. Ever the optimist.
She steps out of his arms, eager to get off the subject. On with the training. "So, what's on for today?"
"Well, I was heading for 'getting free without beasting out,' but I kinda let go and shifted." He shifts, grabbing her limbs and chest again with the tentacles. "Of course, I never said I wouldn't try again."
She drops rapidly, jamming elbow into his gut, stamping on his foot, and using the moment distraction to shake off the two arms on her still. "Few more arms than the muggers, but thank Ms. Lance."
Winded, he's impressed, but in quite a bit of pain, rubbing his gut and hopping. "I...wOW...not...bad..."
She ticks it off, first she learned from Standing Ox and retaught by her former boss. "Instep, knee, solar plexus, nose, groin. In that order." She's a bit sheepish about that, but this IS combat training, and Ms. Lance was pretty stern on that.
"I'm glad you skipped the nose and groin...VERY glad." He looks a bit pale. "Ooh...I'm gonna...mmpf...sit..."
"Ew..." She feels kinda rotten to have done that. "Need ice?"
He checks his stomach and winces as his hand touches an area near his ribs.* YOW! *The hand recoils on instinct. "F...geez...!"
She winces, grabs ice, goes over. "Ms. Lance didn't know what to do on my freakouts, aside from teach me how to fight without shifting. Breaking a hold was the first thing she drilled me on." Applies the ice pack, still apologetic.
Shifting into another form, in seconds Aurora's arms are pinned to her body, her legs together, landing on her side, reptile still coiled around her as the boa constrictor's head hovers near hers. "Always make sure an attacker's claims are genuine." His eyes reflect the kicking he's giving himself mentally for being such a bastard to teach her these things. He's not enjoying it, but if it keeps her safe...
Narrowed eyes. "Okaay... your intent?"
"My true health is sore, but not as bad as it seemed. As an attacker, since this worked, I could do anything at this stage. Remember that, okay?"
"An inhibitor and I'd be smoked. So, make sure they really are as hurt as they look."
"Exactly. Last thing we need is to order more marble."
"Damn." Fighting the instinct to go pufferfish, she chides herself for being foolish.
Shifting back to octopus, he loosens the grip, becoming more loving than threatening. "I'm...I'm sorry. That was..."
Oh, no. You are NOT apologizing on this one, Gar. "You said it yourself. That was a dumb, and possibly fatal mistake."
He nods. "Yeah, but I didn't need to be such an asshole about it..."
"So you're not the one who should be sorry." Boy, that iron streak? It's out in spades.
He considers this, and he feels less like his ass should be kicked. "Okay. It's just that...being such a hard S.O.B is...pretty damn new."
"I won't pretend this will be easy for either of us, but the alternative?" She still is not wavering a bit.
He nods, his resolve strengthened. "Okay, I won't back down. But...there has to be a way to know if I've pushed too far..."
"You just...keep pushing. Or if you can't, please ask one of the others."
"I'll admit right now...if it gets too intense...I might need to." He looks away for a moment. "If that happens, it's my failing, it's on my head, and I know it. I can teach, sure, but when it gets to 'beat it into 'em' levels, I gotta draw the line."
"And the fact it's me...has to make it that much harder."
He nods, his grip warmly holding. "But I'm not going to just pass the job on. That lesson, just now, that's my first taste of that kinda teaching. It isn't fun, but yeah, I prefer you pissed at me than nothing at me."
"All right," She steps away, a meter out of reach. "Back on track. Have potential troublemaker. Not sure of injuries, but he's hurting or looks it."
He follows her lead. "If you have two or more people, one keeps control of watching and/or securing them while the other checks for injuries, or with just the one, depending on their abilities, secure their hands and check them. If they're metas, it gets trickier."
"Note to self then, carry some kind of restraint in my beltpouch. At least I can tie knots."
"Always useful. But metal handcuffs work a lot better, especially if the attacker is stronger than they look."
"Probably need practice before those become second nature."
He reverts to humanoid form. "I can be the crash test dummy if you need practice. Plus, a dummy doesn't fight back."
"I'll need practice with THAT eventually, too. The fighting back."
He wanders away for a moment, looking through supplies, eventually pulling out a pair of unlocked stainless steel handcuffs, coming back and giving them to her. "No time like the present."
She's never trusted those things. She's had them slapped on her wrists by Star City Police several times. Now, the challenge is getting them on someone else. She makes sure she knows EXACTLY where the key is before putting them on him. It's slow by his standards, but hey...first attempt.
He watches the attempt, at first with no resistance, to see her skill normally. "Okay, pretty good, but at that angle, I could have used my free hand to knock you away and escape one-handed. But right now he's unable to do much, hands locked up tight.
"More used to having them put on me for blocking traffic." It's a weak joke and she knows it .
He still smiles, amused by it. "It's an odd feeling, but knowing how they work can come in useful. But that's another lesson." What he didn't see was where the key went. "There's a latch in the middle with these, since they're a training pair, but the captured can't reach it."
"Oh, I've the key." She undoes them, but keeps a deathgrip on one of his wrists in case he wants to pull another "demo."
His leg curls, hitting behind her knee with his heel, sending her off balance. She drags him down with her, rolling out of the way of his attempt to tackle her, countering with a smack to the jaw.
And what a smack it is. "OW--shit! Mmmpf...nice one." He checks for loose teeth, finding none. "I was gonna mention you should be mindful of all of the attacker's limbs...but you countered pretty damn well."
"Fool me once..."
He laughs. "Another technique for troublesome attackers is cuffing hands and legs."
Wary, expecting another attack, she gets to her feet. He watches her, smiling, saying nothing. "Try roping goats that don't want to get roped."
Cogs turn in his head. She's giving him ideas. With effort, he's shifting, not out of humanoid form completely, but more felinoid, a cross between his own form and tiger, mirroring her own side that she needs to control, claws at the ready, green fur slightly bristled as his tail twitches. He wants to see how she deals with this.
"Damn," she growls. No shifting. She'd almost complain about this, but she vaguely imagines the smell of a Carolina Slim and the taunt "Tough shit, bestiality babe." This prompts her to go for a jump rope. There's also the rack of weights...medicine ball...*
He's forced the handcuff half open with a growl of his own already, blunting if not breaking the lock inside. Good thing they don't cost much to D.I.Y construct at the Tower.
She misses with the attempt to loop his neck. Crap. He knows those tricks from hanging with Donna so long. She backs up, grabbing one of the metal bars used for dumbbells, but without any weights on it.
He's broken the handcuffs free, and is now prowling, alternating between two legs and all fours, moving closer and closer to his prey. And when he makes that transition from two to four, she jams that metal pole right for his gut. It doesn't quite hit right, but does clobber his side. Damn, this is getting hard to keep normal form.
He yowls at the hit, batting the pole away hard, hissing at it more than her. That's hurt him, but it's also pissed him off a bit as well. She keeps scrambling, throwing a medicine ball his way to try and keep his attention elsewhere. Her hands are stiff. Not Good.
He bats the ball to the side, his green eyes' slit pupils look up at her. His tail is waving side to side, fur still slightly bristled. He hasn't stopped advancing either.
Fuck running at this point. She shrieks high enough that she KNOWS it'll hurt his hearing (because it sure as hell does it to her) and charges, diving for his knees. Her hands dig into his lower legs - her fingers are almost gone to claws
His ears lower in pain - that REALLY hurts. The attack to his lower legs sends him off balance, grabbing for her waist, or anything to stop him from falling to the deck.
Pacifist she may have been raised, but when it's clear she'll need to fight, she will not taunt an enemy, or make smart-ass comments. It's all business. "Keep...up...I'm gonna shift." It's either a sign to end, or a warning she'll go down fighting.
His claws are in, but he's still grappling, trying to get a better hold to take control of the situation. He's aware of what's been going on, with more control over this than she's had, he can think more clearly, and give the illusion, the assumption, that he's gone into a wild mindset. This is in fact not the case, he's actually in control for the most part, some of the wild instinct clawing at his focused mindset.
Her hands have now gone furry and clawed, and she pulls them away from his leg with effort. Training. Not life-threatening. No shifting.
Curving his neck around to reach her ear, he whispers, "Sometimes, the skill is necessary..." His claws still held in, he grapples to get a better hold...
Breathing hard. "I...think you hit my limit. No shifting…thought that was part of the -"
Pulling himself around, he holds her, slowly and gently, eyes looking at her curiously. "Do you know that? Or just fear that?"
"My hands...turned to claws. Thought we were trying to see…" She's trying to get under control. "How I did without them."
"I'm showing you sometimes you will NEED to use the skills you fear. Control them, but don't deny them."
"Gods, hope I did not draw blood..."
"I don't think so..." He focuses on the lesson again. "Shift. But try to keep the dangerous side under control. Sheath the claws..."
((Transcribed from private chat last night.))