Salle | Afternoon | Monday | July 4

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

The practice dummy made a poor substitute for what he really wanted to be stabbing, to be honest. What he really wanted to be stabbing lived three floors up and had completely turned his back on everything Percy thought he'd face down and get through. He'd put his faith and his belief in the wrong person and it had backfired.

It was his fault. With a violent swing of the sword, Percy buried the blade in the side of the dummy's neck. He pulled it out and stepped back, falling into a fighting stance. Last night, he'd thought about going home for awhile and trying to find and end this with his Luke quick. There weren't any differences between the two Luke's in his head now. That's what he was forcing himself to believe, at least.

Percy kept swinging and slicing and stabbing, wiping the sweat that had beaded on his brow away with a swipe of his hand. He kept ripping the dummy apart and knew his focus was lost. If this had been a real opponent, he'd have been dead but it wasn't so he was still alive.

It'd be a miracle if he stayed that way before this summer finished. He already wanted to kill someone that lived across the hall and he knew that wouldn't be taken lightly.

[Salle is open, boy is tetchy]

Comments

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate paused in the door to watch for a few moments before she actually entered the room. Sensibly, she thought. Apparently there was someone with more pent-up anger than her in here today.

"Aw, that was the one I wanted to annihilate today." That was where her sanity ran out, however.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Find another one," Percy snapped, barely sparing her a glance. "I was here first and I'm not sharing. Cry into your cornflakes if you're so hurt."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate shook her head, "If you think I'm coming near you holding that today, you seriously misjudge my sanity." It wasn't that she thought he could beat her. The jury was still out on that one. But anger tended to blur the lines between play and the potential to lose a finger, and she needed those.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I don think I invited you over here anyway," Percy said, thrusting Riptide into the dummy's gut several times. "And if you're waiting for an invitation, you're gonna be waiting a long time. Better get a book."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I'm not that desperate to get close to you," she told him, rolling her eyes, "Though I'm sure your manly workout sweat is a delight." Really. "I can see why you picked something inanimate to play with."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"This is not the day to try and bait me," Percy half yelled, swinging around to glare at her. "You're real big, standing over there and hurling insults but you still don't wanna get close to me. Enjoy your distance, chicken."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I never underestimate the power of a lucky day." Self-preservation was a wonderful thing. "Or the fuel of some serious anger."

It looked like he needed someone to take shit out on today, and she couldn't care less if he yelled at her. Real people were always more satisfying than a stuffed toy.

"I don't think you'd want to come near me on my worst days."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You don't know me. Don't make assumptions about what I would or wouldn't do," he said, tightening his hand around Riptide's hilt before glancing back at the dummy. "I've faced bigger and more powerful. Trust me."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"You're right. I don't know you," she agreed. That much was absolutely true, which is why she'd lumped him in with 'most people' who backed away when she glared their way. "So why trust you?"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It was a figure of speech," Percy said, rolling his eyes. "I don't care if you trust me or not. You're not the biggest, baddest person I've ever faced and you never will be. Fact."

Not with Ares and Hades and Luke and Kronos running around back home.

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Killing my dreams. I might have to rethink on that crying into my cereal suggestion." She didn't honestly want to be the biggest bad. That was Voron's dream for her, not her own.

Kate shook her head, and pointed at his mauled dummy. "Is that making you feel better?"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Nothing's going to make me feel better," he muttered under his breath before stopping his aggression and glancing over at her. "Concerned for my health and well being all the sudden?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I can't ask out of pure curiosity?" Concern was probably a bit strong, but she didn't actually dislike the guy, just couldn't quite quash the urge to snark. "Maybe I want to find out if the end of this dummy's life had purpose?"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It's a dummy," Percy reminded her, shaking his head. "It didn't have a life, it doesn't have feelings and it's not sentient. Cows are bred to be hamburgers, dummies are made to be stabbed."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I'm gonna bet there's a cow shifter somewhere who'd beg to differ." If there were herds of were-buffalo, and things as odd as were-crocs, she hazarded there would be were-cows. "And next week that thing could rise and bite you in the ass."

It was the sort of thing she could imagine from both her own world and this one.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Good," he said and ran the blade through the dummy's gut once again, closing his eyes as he did. "Maybe killing something will make me feel better. Nothing else is working. Biting me anywhere would be the last thing it did. I promise that."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Killing things... works temporarily." Been there, done that. "Then you realize you got blood and weird unidentifiable shit on your only pair of boots and it's impossible to get that stink all the way out."

Which only served to make you angrier, in her experience.

"But I guess, not a problem if you're sticking to dried out dummies."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" Percy asked, staring hard at her. "You're really pushing it and with how I feel today, I won't feel bad if I open up the earth under you feet and let it suck you down. I really freaking won't."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"What? I wasn't even trying to piss you off that time!" That was just some shared wisdom, right there. Obviously she had some natural talent at infuriating.

But still. Earth sucking. It didn't sound like funtimes.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I'm not just sticking to dried out dummies but I can't exactly go kill what I want to kill," Percy said, gesturing around them. "Here, that's called murder and I'd rather stay out of jail."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I do recall the concept of murder," Kate assured him. "I wasn't actually encouraging you to go all homicidal. If you notice, I highlighted the downside."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"And right after that, you made a quip about me sticking to dried out dummies," Percy said, pointing his sword her way. "Seems like you contradicted yourself there."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"When I get pissed, I just take off. Head out into the wilderness, give it a couple of hours, and something is bound to try and kill me. Then it's justifiable."

And usually not human. Which is what she'd meant about not sticking to dummies.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Whatever," Percy said, shaking his head. "The freaking blood in my veins attracts enough people to me that I don't need to seek it out. It's a talent of mine and all my cousins. Lucky us, right? We've all got radars in our damn blood."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate snorted wryly, and bit back the sarcastic 'yeah, that's unique', that initially came to mind. Like they were the only ones with blood that screamed a super-special heritage.

"They ever find you here?" That was more of a tactical question. A couple of months, and she was wondering if Roland could get at her here even if she did let her guard down.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yep." Technically, they hadn't but with Luke doing what he did, Percy was going to count that. "And if he tries anything, he knows I'll kill him but yeah, someone found me. And I hope he tries something. I hope he does."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

That... made a lot of sense to Kate, at least. Sometimes, you did just pray for the attacks purely to justify taking someone, or something, down.

"Might want to get over this crazy dummy whaling stage before he does." No offense Percy, but crazy beatdowns generally weren't the best fighting style. "Free advice from me to you."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It's called training," he said snidely, shaking his head. "Some of us tend to do it. Free advice from me to you, don't make assumptions about things you don't know anything about. Seems to be a bad habit of yours."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Yes. She knew nothing. Training and fights were alien to her.

Anger fueled, but at the same time, that heat could make you focus too closely, and forget everything else. Kate gave a short laugh, and tugged Slayer smoothly from its sheath in preparation to go through some drills of her own.

"When you're done, if you want to put your point down and try and hit someone real, let me know."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Oh, are you lowering yourself to come closer instead of whipping insults at me from your safe distance away?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. "How surprising."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I haven't insulted you in a good ten minutes," she argued. The comment about his sweat was the only one she actually counted.

And yes, apparently she was.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, whatever you say," he said, tone heavy with sarcasm. He kept Riptide pointed at the floor so he could lean on it, give himself a breather. "I still wanna open up the earth right below you and see who you're insulting then."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I prefer to to keep my sparring without powers." Throwing hers around, at home certainly, was bound to bring her the wrong sort of attention, and in order to have a chance against earth swallowing she'd probably have to use magic. She wasn't willing to risk discovery just to prove herself.

It was better all around if she didn't.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't do that because we we sparring," Percy quipped, rolling his eyes. "I'd do it because you're annoying and you know I'm pissed but you kept poke poke poking anyway."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate shrugged. "But maybe it gave you five minutes being annoyed at me to distract you from what's really eating you." Which she was guessing from his dummy abuse, was a hell of a lot worse.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Was that really your aim when you started in with the quips and assumptions?" Percy asked dubiously. "Because, from where I'm standing, I think you just wanted to piss me off more."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Initially, no." Well, the aim going in hadn't been the piss him off at all. "But you didn't find my hilarious jokes funny."

They hadn't been that good.

She shrugged, swinging her sword in a controlled arc to warm up a little. "I might have to work on my wit."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"That was humor?" Percy asked, raising both eyebrows. "Guess what, you should keep your freaking day job. I know dead things that are funnier than you and they're not funny at all."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I guess I'll stick to irritating the hell out of you," she said, drawing smooth lines in the air, pausing only to throw him a little smirk. "That does seem to be a forte."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Congratulations to you," Percy said, resting Riptide against his hip so he could give her a little sarcastic round of applause. "Want a cookie for that very bright ambition of yours?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"You can treat me later."

Yeeeep, because that was really going to happen. But hey, cookie, you didn't say no to that!