The Salle, Monday Afternoon

[boneyard_girl]

There was really only so much Ada could practice hitting the little target in her room over and over. Hell, by now she could do it with her eyes closed. Which was going to make a great bit when she was back with the carnival, but wasn't so good in a practical fight.

Things she had discovered in Limbo City: being very, very good with throwing knives wasn't much use if SWAT was involved. Those shits wore body-armor.

...she was still frustrated by that, yes.

Which was why today she was in the salle, contemplating a training dummy with a determined expression and one of the knives Isabela had given her. It was kinda hard to practice the close-up bits with an unmoving target, but at least it was giving her a good idea of where the vitals were with an adult-male-shaped target.

Besides kicking them in the balls. She already had that part down cold.

[OOC: open, yes!]

Comments

[boneyard_girl]

Yeah... about half those words were not Ringo-words. It was making Ada's fingers itch.

"I decided 'bout th' time th' Brood punched a hole in m' stomach an' almost made me into a murder-alien that I was done being a victim. I'd liked what I learned in Hunting class, 'Bela got me the tools," she said easily, turning back around.

"Now, 'm curious, you get gremlin-bit recently?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hmm?" Crazy Apple looked surprised, but where Ringo's eyes would have gone wide with the expression, hers narrowed slightly. "No. I suspect I would have noticed that."

She let her ATs glide across the floor to take a closer look at the dummy. "Looks like you've put in some serious practice time." Knives weren't really her thing, but she could see the sort of precision that only came with hard work.

[boneyard_girl]

Wrong. Her eyes were wrong and the way she moved in the ATs was wrong.

"Thanks. I don't got any offensive powers, an' 'm not from somewhere that I'd be raised knowin' how t' fight, but I know how t' practice something until it's perfect, an' then work it some more," Ada said, since, well, that was the essence of carnival life. Everything was an act, and every act had to be flawless.

Learning how to use knives offensively wasn't that much different than learning how to read a Townie like a book, really, just physical training instead of mental.

Please don't be possessed, Ringo, Ada didn't carry holy water with her.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Knife's pretty easy to carry, too." So that was a point in its favor. Crazy Apple pursed her lips. Ringo would have just grinned in approval at the demonstration of skill, but Crazy Apple cared more for results than effort, so she kept talking. "Though there's a lot of stuff that'll shrug off a knife. I mean, around Fandom, anyway."

"Might want to look into getting some sort of souped up super knife."

[boneyard_girl]

"That's why I got a lot of knives," Ada admitted bluntly. "Sometimes it takes more'n one."

Also, Isabela liked finding them, and Ada liked making the pirate laugh.

"...you know Ringo would say something optimistic about 'keep trying' or 'I'll protect you!', right?"

Ada, no. Don't poke the Crazy Apple.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yes," Crazy Apple agreed with a casual nod. She didn't seem at all bothered by the observation.

"A nice sentiment, I suppose, but naive."

She glanced over at Ada. "I would try to protect you, I suppose." Ringo would want that. "But I've found that the island makes absolute guarantees pretty difficult to follow through on."

[boneyard_girl]

"Absolute guarantees are for suckers," she said with a shrug. "No one can promise a future."

She knew that better than most.

"Just sayin', if'n you expect people to think you're Ringo, you're doin' a shit job." Ada pursed her lips and looked over not-Ringo. "Who are you?"

She knew Ringo had sisters...she was pretty sure Ringo would have mentioned if one of them was a twin with a morbid streak.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Crazy Apple snorted at that. It even sounded like she was genuinely amused, though her eyes kept the same cold expression.

"No point in trying to do something like that."

She shook her head.

"I'm Crazy Apple. Not sure if Ringo mentioned me." She glanced over at Ada for a moment, then stuck out her hand as part of her introduction.

[boneyard_girl]

"Not that I recall, though some days I got the memory of a goldfish," Ada admitted, "--and you ain't here t' ruin her life or take over Fandom or whatever nonsense th' island has decided t' whip-up 'cause it's a Monday?"

Checking, before shaking her hand, because Ada did actually pay attention in her various 'beware magic' and 'surviving Fandom' classes.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Nah." Crazy Apple shook her head, and she looked sort of amused again even if the expression still refused to touch her eyes.

"I'm really mostly here to handle some stuff that Ringo figured she wasn't really capable of dealing with." Teeth flashed. "Like I said, nice girl, a bit naive."

[boneyard_girl]

"So, you're Ringo, but not Ringo," Ada clarified thoughtfully, shaking Crazy Apple's hand. "Which is how you know me. Huh. Interesting."

"What's got her in a tizzy?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Got it in one," Crazy Apple nodded in approval.

"And she was having issues dealing with that whole thing back in LA. With Kathy, you know?" She shook her head. "Couldn't deal with the nightmares."

[boneyard_girl]

"She went to go fetch a dead-girl," Ada pointed out. "That's kinda nightmare fuel."

Yes, it was very nice Kathy was alive again. But the idea of deliberately going to a zombie-infested world sounded like an invitation to a year of nightmares.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yeah." Crazy Apple nodded. No argument from her.

"And she tried." Shrug. "But she's not really the toughest mentally, you know?"

She leaned over, examining the dummy a bit more closely. "That's what she's got me for."

[boneyard_girl]

This was up there with the weirdest conversations that Ada'd ever had at Fandom.

"She's tougher than she thinks, 'm sure," she replied with a half-shrug. "Most people are."

She might not figure that out, with...Apple to fall back on, but humans were, on a whole, resilient creatures.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Crazy Apple shrugged. "Maybe she'll come around to your way of thinking. Though it seems like it's harder when what you're running from is who and what you are."

[boneyard_girl]

Ada couldn't help it: she started laughing.

It was either laugh or cry, and Ada tried to avoid crying.

"Everybody's always runnin' from who an' what they are, even if they don't realize it," she said, once she managed to get her mirth under control. "How else d'ya become who you're gonna be without leavin' that behind?"

She was...kinda an expert on the running from yourself.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, she's never seen it that way." Another shrug. "But, like I said, maybe she'll come around."

Except that Crazy Apple pretty much was a way to run away from herself.

[boneyard_girl]

But was she really what Ringo wanted to run towards?

"If she doesn't want t' be you forever, she better at least try," she said. "No offense. Y'seem okay for a girl called 'Crazy Apple.'"

She didn't say 'nice' because that was clearly a lie.

[soniaroadsqueen]

That smile which didn't reach her eyes was out again, and Crazy Apple shook her head.

"I don't get offended. I'm basically the parts of Ringo that she's not able to accept."

"She's fine with being offended."