Can't Take Me! // O; Training

[SirDio]

♛ PLEASE DON'T GO, PLEASE DON'T GO! I LOVE YOU SO, I LOVE YOU SO! Please break my heart. PLEASE DON'T GO, I'LL EAT YOU WHOLE I LOVE YOU SO! I LOVE YOU SO! —

You know that feeling when you want to improve, no matter the pain you endure? No matter the pain, no matter the struggle? Medusa felt that after her return, and even more after Rhine's return. She knew they had raids to do, and god damnit she was not going to stay behind. She was going to fight, weak legs or not.

She had started stretching her legs every morning before going on patrol. Stretch out, bring in. Stretch out, bring in. After patrols, she would stretch again. Stretch out, bring in. Stretch out, bring in. Did it hurt? Sometimes. Did she care? No. In fact, the pain made her more eager to get stronger. It was working, too. Things started to hurt less. Hopefully she'd be in enough shape to perform well at the Typhoon raid. Hopefully? No -- absolutely. She would absolutely be in shape for it.

It was a cool morning, the day she decided she was going to do some combat training. Not against anyone.. yet. Against a little training dummy she had made. She had set it up out of camp, on the sandy beach, facing the ocean. In a way, she was also proving to herself that the ocean was a bitch, but a respecting and respectful one. It had no bias, but provided the clan with food. Maybe soon she could finish her plight.

Her hind legs were stronger now, not as shaky, but she was only able to keep them up for maybe up to two hours. As she faced the dummy, she acted as though it was her. It made Medusa more violent, yes, but when it came to Stheno, she felt that violence for violence was the rule she had to go by. Even if it was the rule for monsters and beasts.

She lunged, clamped her jaws around the clothen neck of the dummy, and twisted so that she could be on the back. Always get on her back. That way, Stheno couldn't bite her. She was out in the open, though, so anyone could see her training against a cloth-and-straw dummy.

"Speech."

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px COLOR2; font-size: 24px;"]— MEDUSA ♛

#psychosocial.

[RHINESTONE.]

RHINESTONESTAR ❝ RHINE ❞ LEADER
"TALKING" || "TELEPATHY"

Rhinestone had been going through an adjustment period as well, ever since his return. While he was obviously glad to be alive again, and glad to be rid of the sickness that had slowly been killing him, this new body did have a few issues of its own. Namely, the eyes. The pitch black eyes were that way, evidently, because of an injury that had caused them to fill up with blood. While he could still see, things were very blurry, and the entire world was often doused in a thick sheen of overwhelming red. So much so that it had been causing him headaches ever since his return, although he was mostly able to power through them. Nevertheless, it would take him a while before he was used to how smeared and messy the world now looked from his point of view. In fact, when he had initially approached the beach that day, he hadn't even realized that it was Medusa that was training. Instead, he had just seen the vague rusty shape of a body, lunging at something else. He assumed it wasn't someone else who was living, considering they didn't seem to react at all.

As the leader grew closer, however, he came to the realization that who he was seeing was Medusa. Her scent was thick on the air, and the snarls that left her certainly had the edge of her voice. That alone surprised the serval, considering he had grown so used to the senior warrior avoiding the ocean at all costs. With a bit of an enthusiastic grin playing on his blue muzzle, Rhinestone spoke up cheerfully, "Medusa! I wasn't expecting to see you out here. Especially not training so close to... you know." He jerked his head in the direction of the ocean behind her, the longer fur on the back of his neck shaking with the movement. Vaguely, he wondered how hunting would be in this new form. Would the new condition of his eyes make it difficult for him to hunt aquatic prey? He hoped not, considering he had taken a great deal of pride in his abilities to do so. In the back of his mind, the male also found himself wondering about the why of Medusa's training, but that wasn't a complete mystery. After all, they still had another raid to prepare for – one that he would hopefully be ready for as well.

tags + roleplayed by stilly + the palm glades

[number nine.]

Number Nine honestly felt a bit guilty, since he hadn't been training a great deal for the upcoming raid alongside the Coalition. He had trained pretty thoroughly for the night after Rhinsstone's vigil, but that hadn't specifically been for the raid. Rather, he had just desperately needed something to keep his mind off the state of things, and both hunting as well as training had come to mind naturally. Thankfully, it was hardly as if he had fallen out of practice when it came to fighting. He still occasionally took smaller bounty jobs, and he had ended up training for the Alithís Evgenis raid, even if he hadn't ended up taking part. He was hardly weak, and that was something that he was proud of. However, he also knew that he needed to be in top shape for the upcoming raid. The Typhoon wasn't a small group, and even if they were going in with the Coalition as well, things could always end up taking a turn. It was because of this that the warrior had found himself drawn to the beach that morning, lured over by the sound of fighting.

What he came upon was both Medusa and Rhinestone, although he was relieved to see that it wasn't the two of them that were fighting. Rather, the senior warrior seemed to be trying to get some practice in before the real battle, which Nine could certainly respect. As he came padding up beside Rhine, he spared a glance and a nod towards the serval, although he was unsure whether or not the tom actually saw it. He then turned his covered gaze towards Medusa, a grin on his face as he watched her tear into the dummy, "Well, somebody's getting some practice in for the big day. Your form is pretty good... you must really hate that dummy, eh?" He reached a broad paw out to press lightly at the straw and cloth dummy, surprised that it was still standing with Medusa on top of it. Perhaps he could get her to make one of these for him, and they could train together some time.

HELLBENT ON MAKING YOU LOVE ME TOO

[SirDio]

♛ PLEASE DON'T GO, PLEASE DON'T GO! I LOVE YOU SO, I LOVE YOU SO! Please break my heart. PLEASE DON'T GO, I'LL EAT YOU WHOLE I LOVE YOU SO! I LOVE YOU SO! —

While she struggled with the dummy, she relaxed as Rhine approached. She grinned at him, snake teeth visible, as she jumped down. Eyes shifted to Nine, nodding to him as he approached. "Hey..! Yeah, I'm... well.. not as scared of the ocean as I used to be. I am a little uneased by it, but at least I'm not horrifically terrified of it. I have a clan to serve, and I've already died, so.." She rolled her shoulders in a shrug.

She chuckled gently, but the chuckle died in her throat, replaced with a half-hearted hiss. [color=#004620]"I suppose I do.. but in reality I just had this image of... her- in my mind and well.. she and I don't get along." She paused for a moment, before, [color=#004620]"Stheno, I mean."

[color=#004620]"Speech."

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px COLOR2; font-size: 24px;"]— MEDUSA ♛

#psychosocial.

[RHINESTONE.]

RHINESTONESTAR ❝ RHINE ❞ LEADER
"TALKING" || "TELEPATHY"

It was a pretty big relief to hear that Medusa was no longer as terrified as the ocean anymore, especially considering Palm Glades's relationship to it. The waves were undeniably their life force, and having a senior warrior that was petrified of even getting near them? It had been worrying at best and a huge threat at worst. Thankfully, it seemed as though dying and coming back had provided the hybrid with a new perspective – something Rhinestone definitely understood. With an appreciative hum leaving his throat, the black eyed serval nodded a bit before speaking, "That's good to hear. It was honestly a bit lonely, not having you visit around camp as much as you used to. Although I suppose we've traded off, since I've been having a few more issues with the ocean lately. Bit difficult to swim properly when I'm still dealing with my eyes being like this." He gestured vaguely with one paw at his eyes, still able to feel a faint feeling of pressure in his skull. It really would take him a while before he was entirely comfortable in this form – not that he had any choice.

tags + roleplayed by stilly + the palm glades

[number nine.]

Stheno. The name didn't sound very familiar to Number Nine, but he could definitely hear the way that it rolled off of Medusa's tongue as if it was acid. It was pretty clear that she didn't think highly of whoever the name belonged to, and Nine couldn't help the chuckle that left him at that fact. To him, the hybrid had always seemed so kind and motherly, that it almost seemed insane that she had some kind of mortal enemy. But, the jaguar could certainly understand it. He had one or two of those in the past, usually because they had either threatened his husband or those that he considered to be family. He imagined that it was a similar situation for Medusa – or perhaps Stheno had just wronged her in the past in a way that couldn't be forgiven. Either way, the winged beast found himself nodding, smirking faintly as he muttered in response, "Ah, imagining a certain someone's face on the dummy? I've certainly done that before. Although I don't think I've ever met this Stheno person. From the sounds of it, I suppose I should be glad that I haven't." If Medusa didn't like her, then she was probably pretty shitty, and Nine didn't have a lot of patience when dealing with shitty people.

HELLBENT ON MAKING YOU LOVE ME TOO