The Beach, Wednesday Evening

[intraspective]

It was probably a stupid idea, really, to practice not one, but two not often used weapons in one day. Especially when it was freakin' freezing out.

But then, Ino told herself, absently adjusting her chakra flow as an errant wave of ice cold water washed over her boots even as she stood on the water and ran through yet another form with her spear… that was just incentive to keep training. She could totally curl up with a hot chocolate later. And have a hot bath.

For now, she spun slashing up and then to the side with the spear before stepping to the side gracefully and beginning another movement.

Under her feet, the water rippled, another wave cresting over her boots, as she moved and her spear went flashing in a downward arch. Up again, back, and twist. Getting faster, getting smoother, Ino thought, though she wouldn't want to take this weapon anywhere near a real battlefield yet.

Swing and slice and then dancing back over the water as if dodging an enemy.

Well, it was one way to spend an evening.

[Open as a beach is, yes.

ETA: Ino's thread with Zack is chronologically last, please!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Running! Zack was doing it! Because there was only so much excess energy a guy could keep all pent up like he had been, and being on vacation and killing monsters had gotten him back into the swing of being active, and why weren't there things to kill around here?

Oh, an Ino! She... wasn't something to kill. But he could absolutely content himself with standing on the beach and watching what she was doing with a keen interest. A spear? That was neat.

[intraspective]

She would hope that he wouldn't want to kill her, really.

And it was neat. She wasn't really great at it, going on oh, maybe three weeks of actual training under someone with it, and then practice on her own, but the few things she did know she wasn't bad at.

Just ignore the slight trip there, yes. Ino certainly was as she scowled down at her boots and brought her spear back up again.

From the beginning. Geeeeez.

[puppy_fair]

Zack couldn't help but grin at the slip, and the fact that she was starting from scratch again just served to cement some weird little flicker of respect that he had for her tenacity, somewhere deep down.

Standing there on the beach, he reached for the sword on his back. He'd taken to running with it in the evenings. The weight was comfortable and familiar, and it wouldn't do to be anything but comfortable with it back home. He watched her carefully for a few moments.

And then, over the sand the same way she was moving over the water, he began to mirror her movements.

[intraspective]

Ino was focused as she dipped and spun and cut but no one spent as much time fighting as she had without developing some situational awareness--threats, of course, would have been addressed quicker--but Zack and his giant sword didn't count as a threat. The lighting wasn't great, but he was pretty unmistakable. Between the hair and sword and maybe the fact she'd been paying attention to him and such.

Her lips curved into a smile as she realized he was following her pattern dance.

Of course, that meant, Ino was going to have to try and add a few more twirls and flourishes to it. Less useful in a fight but it looked impressive--and still good for training. Carefully though, she didn't want to cut her own head off just from seeing if she could trip him up any.

Ino wasn't counting on it but a girl could dream.

[puppy_fair]

She was trying to trip up a guy who could twirl a five-foot broadsword in one hand after battling a pack of bloodthirsty monsters! And Zack was so totally going to take that as a challenge.

The sword, of course, wasn't intended to move in all the same ways as the spear was, but Zack wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop him from putting forth his best effort. He had to adapt the motions a little here and there to keep from missteps of his own, but in the end, it looked alright.

If this kept up, he'd start being all proud of himself or something.

[intraspective]

Ino supposed she couldn't subtract points from him for the modifications he made out of his weapon being different.

So, that meant, naturally that the footwork had to get a more complicated. While the spear flickered and flashed and cut through the water (not as fast as she'd have liked, but Ino didn't want to press that too much when she was surer of her feet than she was of her hands and the weapon).

She was totally going to fall on her ass in icy water if she kept this up but right now? Right now she was totally grinning like a fool as she kept one eye and a quarter of her attention on Zack and the rest of her solidly focused on what she was doing.

[puppy_fair]

Zack's sword was flashing in the bit of light that the moon had to offer, scattering sand in a fine sort of spray as his blade cut through the beach underfoot.

His eyes were on her, moving on the water, and every now and again he could swear that he caught a glimpse of a grin on her lips as she went through the motions. He managed to match her footwork, a half-step behind as he paid attention to every twitch, and worked to adapt it to sand and sword.

Another cloud of sand flew up about him, and though he wasn't paying any attention to his own expression, it was safe to say that Ino wasn't the only one grinning like a fool, tonight.

[intraspective]

Distantly she was aware that she was cold, and despite the heat from her movements and the sweat she was working up, getting colder but Ino ignored that, locked it away, and kept going even though she was tired now.

What did being tired mean, really? Was it anything comparable to the darting and twisting and steady rush of work for muscles to deal with as she danced more than fought over the water? A few leaps now, for added measure, made harder for her by the fact that she had to maintain her chakra in her feet at the same time.

It was draining. It was exhilarating.

In and out, carefully upping the intricacy of her motions, Ino narrowed her focus to her, hardly paying attention to Zack right this second but knowing, and glad of, the fact he was there.

[puppy_fair]

What Zack couldn't do with the use of chakra, he made certain to make up for with sheer physical prowess. When she leaped, he flipped. When she leaped again, he leaped higher. There was a noise in his ears, between the sound of the sea and their concentrated efforts, and he realized for a moment that it was the sound of him laughing.

He hadn't done anything even vaguely like this since before Angeal sent him here. And it felt right, doing it alongside Ino. He stepped again, thrust his sword forward almost in time with Ino's spear, and with every movement, he reinforced dreams of honor that had nearly slipped away entirely, only weeks ago.

[intraspective]

Her grin was tight and once he started laughing--she was seconds away from it herself and part of her crowed that he'd broken first as if it was some sort of contest--it only brightened a bit more.

Leap, skip, hop; twist and twirl forwards and sideways and back and then leap again--

And make a mistake in her chakra control. Ino knew it the moment her feet broke through the water and she flung her spear away from her hastily to keep from inadvertantly hurting herself with a live blade as she, well, made a rather spectacular splash anyway.

Her laughing shriek rang out over the ocean as she righted herself, waist deep in water, hugging her sides from laughing so hard. She was soaked she was freezing she was totally going to come down with a cold. Her lips were going blue and she still had to retrieve her spear. Where had she thrown it?

It was an absolutely amazing sort of night.

[puppy_fair]

"Whoop!" Zack's sword was on his back and he was plunging into the water after her the instant she went under. Being on top of it was one thing, but this was totally no time to go falling into the At... Alt... Atla... Whatever this ocean was.

He held up one finger before ducking under the water himself to find the missing weapon, and then surfaced again, smiling and sodden and holding it out to her.

"Little cold for a swim, isn't it?"

[intraspective]

Ino, to her dismay, gave a tiny sort of sneeze at that as she reached for her spear. Her eyes were ridiculously bright though.

"Wasn't like I was planning on it," she protested, grinning up at him and making her way to the shore. "Made a mistake, that's all."

[puppy_fair]

"Mistakes happen to the best of us, true. Did you at least bring something warmer to change into?" Zack slogged along behind her, any illusion of grace that he might have been putting off before gone completely, now. He looked like a drowned rat. "This is so not the sort of weather to be running around wet in, either."

Puppy was worried!

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

One way to get yourself noticed, as well. A man approached, but kept his distance. He wore a uniform, green and modern. He crossed his arms and watched, the glowing end of his cigar definitely giving a good bead on his location, if the smoke had not.

He observed mainly, not wishing to interrupt.

[intraspective]

Ino picked up on the stranger's presence fairly quickly as she worked carefully with the spear, treating it with the caution of someone who'd had some training, but wasn't anywhere near proficient, really, and... well...

If her dancing path took her slowing over in his direction, well, Ino was a curious soul.

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

"Evenin', miss," Price said, when she got close enough. He was an old enough soldier to know when a drift in the routine was deliberate. "Planning on defending a castle?"

[intraspective]

"Not likely," she admitted, with a quick flash of smile. "Ain't much of a defender, really. More of an attacker. This is just practise."

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

"Reminds me of rhythm gymnastics," Price joked. "Still. There were times the spear was the most feared weapon of all."

[intraspective]

Ino twirled it before resting it at her side. "Most feared maybe," she laughed, "but not my usual style. I'm more of a ranged fighter 'less we're going pure hand-to-hand."

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

"And what would be ranged, for you?" Price asked, tapping some ash out of the end of his cigar onto the sand. "Bow and arrow? Sling?"

[intraspective]

"Shuriken and kunai--blades 'long as my hands, not counting the handles," Ino said easily, because that wasn't a secret or anything.

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

"I'm familiar," Price said. "Japanese in origin, at least in my world. I take it your world isn't know for its firearms, then."

[intraspective]

She shook her head, blonde hair flying about her face.

"They don't really exist back home," she admitted. "Don't really think it's a bad thing that they don't."

After all, it wasn't like they were lacking ways to kill each other anyway.

[stayingfrosty.livejournal.com]

"Probably makes the wars a bit more personal, if anything," Price said. "Though it seems like they're not lacking for eager soldiers."

He'd seen boys far younger with assault rifles in their hands. He wasn't even batting an eye at the possibility of Ino being in some sort of military service.

[intraspective]

Her lips quirked.

"It's a family tradition."