Sojaveña Wilds Clan Battlegrounds

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion raised a brow. “I mean, even if I think I need a style that won’t get me knocked out with a concussion immediately, I am willing to get hurt. Don’t you remember?” I let you fry my head!

Crossing his legs and casting his eyes away, Gladion closed off his posture. “It’s not like I’m any better at this with someone I know won’t hurt me. I spent my entire life knowing I could ruin it for myself and my partner if I let too much go. I have a reflex against honestly. I lean against it even when I should know it’s not the best option for me because I’ve spent so long doing it that anything else is like fighting a muscle memory.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

The Luxio nodded. If he was bothered by the retort, he didn't show it.

"I tell you, we're not rational creatures," he said, looking away again, as if searching for something. "It's hard to simply decide to do things differently, when the world has trained you in one way of being. Habit alone is sturdy enough – your reflex you speak of, that is not just normal for you. It is a protection you feel vulnerable without, lacking another protection. I did not only tell you to accept that you might be hurt, I told you also that there are many ways to protect yourself. Are any to your interest, strange friend?"

Seeing the confusion on Gladion's face, Halcón sighed amiably, and stood.

"I can train you in combat techniques so that you may better survive battle. I can also teach you how to be more comfortable around others without distancing yourself through dishonesty. If you would care to try."

The cat said 'also' rather than 'or'... That dounded like a deliberate word choice.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion stood up and met Halcón's gaze. "Yeah. 'Course I care to try, it's why I'm here and still talking about this. That much, I know for sure. A bit out of me depth in allegory for the latter, not like I want to protect myself from my friends. But I know it's not what you mean. I'll figure it out... I suppose the evasive part of the bit is you. But I'm not sure how that works for you. I mean, I can infer it does, and I can infer you care 'cause you're bearing with me right now, but you're still pretty inscruitible to me. Which I'm trying not to do, myself... Anymore."

Halcón wasn't cadgy in the way Laura had described him, but oddly he was still beginning to understand where that sensation she got that she'd been annoying him came from in spire of that. Why would someone want to have this conversation with him? The guy was hard to get a read on, and without that it was easy to worry.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Halcón's eyes – gold with orange sclera, like a setting sun – rarely showed all that much emotion. Escarpa were stoic. He was at least a little like Gladion – one who didn't quite fit in, who used irony and affectation to distance himself. Still, he had become increasingly direct, and there was definitely sympathy in there, now. That, and a little chagrin.

"Evasive," he murmured, thoughtfully. "Yes. That is me. I dodge attacks, and I dodge perceptions. People think they know something of me, and perhaps they do, or perhaps it is an illusion. I joke, everyone knows this, but what do I say that is a joke and what is sincere? Not everyone can always tell. I make very flat jokes, and I sound like I joke when saying something of importance."

He smiled, and it was hard to tell whether he was sad, or tired, or pleased with himself.

"I'm okay with it," lied the Luxio.

He smiled again, differently – with what seemed like obvious, genuine warmth.

"I like you, Gladion. You interest me. I will try to be... more solid with you. Not so much the uncatchable wind, eh?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“Uh, thank you.”

Gladion’s brain malfunctioned for a moment as he tried to formulate a response. One that didn’t sound weird.

“I’d gotten the impression you were also interested, but it’s nice to be sure.” It was good to know he hadn’t roped Halcón into bearing his emotional dump from some sense of social obligation.

“Like you, too,” he tacked on. Leaving off the ‘I’ in hopes not including it would make feel less… schoolgirlish-confessiony. Hopefully Betel would make sense of it in translation.

“I feel like I should be better with the whole ‘indirect speech’ thing. Happens a lot where I’m from. Maybe I’m off-kilter today, maybe you’re just better at it. Either way, I appreciate the solidity.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

The Luxio smiled at the reciprocation and raised a brow at the rest.

"As you said yourself, you're not as you were. You were human, then wore that helm, then broke free of it. Changing once and again!"

He chuckled a little, and began to walk across the dusty ground, beckoning with his head for Gladion to come with.

"I'm sure you don't need to be embarrassed, or whatever it is you are feeling," he added. "Maybe you have done or said something recently that has left you feeling vulnerable? Or it is simply that I can now see your face when I could not before, and you are unsure how I will read you – that you cannot control your own expression? If it is any help, Gladion, I often do not know how to read your face! I was never all that good at reading birds, and you are something else entirely, besides."

It looked like they were heading to the ridge of raised ground. High enough to take a tumble from, but not enough to get seriously hurt.

"Do you know what emotions you have right now?" asked the cat. "I thought perhaps embarrassment from your voice and words, but I can't be sure. I will not joke – I was not trying to fluster you; nor to flirt. This is a joke: I can flirt, if you like."

Halcón rolled his eyes a little – at himself. This was meant to put Gladion at his ease, most certainly.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“All of those. At once.” Gladion laughed. It was still an awkward laugh, but one that felt more like a release of tension than a continuation of it.

He scoffed separately at Halcón’s joke, counting himself lucky his face was inscrutable. He was lucky Halcón explicitly declared that one a joke. “Scandalous. My mind is a sanctuary housing only the purest thoughts.”

He took a beat to stop and think more seriously.

“I feel out of my depth. Had a stable life back home. I can’t really just check out in the same way. Stuck with this looming uncertainty about what I’m doing, or if I should be here…”

Almost deciding to pause, he forced himself on. He had to keep talking or he’d flinch and clam up. “I feel some sense of responsibility about the problem this world is having with humans. But the whole situation is also tied up in a political situation we’re uniquely unqualified to navigate. I think part of me is just waiting for something to go wrong. Not used to being anxious like this.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

The Luxio listened with interest. His own situation might be very different, but he looked as if he understood...

"It is not easy – not at all – to not know how to chase down your goals, or to meet your duties... Perhaps it would be easier to focus on one thing, something you can do something about."

He smiled enigmatically to himself.

"You know, I don't hold you responsible for solving this world's problems on your own. This is a joke, but it is also true." The cat winked. "You are not a... a politician, are you? You should try to do whatever it is your old life prepared you for."

It might occur to Gladion at this point that he had recently done exactly that. Not that Halcón would know.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion blinked, as if snapped out of something. “I’m not so much worried about fixing everything, I’m not that idealistic. Just… worried about making things worse by accident,” he rationalized. Though at least in part he had been picturing wanting to make things better.

“And for my old life…” Gladion laughed. “Bit of a funny story. We rescued a member of my species from down in the Cipher labs. I did something quite similar back home, It’s why I ended up as one here. I can cross that off the list. Since then, back home, I’ve just been taking care of her. Before that is politics. I’ll keep an eye on Sage— the one we rescued.”

He looked down at his left talons, flexing one point, then the other. “Side from that, it’s getting better at fighting. Human bodies are too squishy for it, but I was a good trainer. I like getting to take part more, though.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Praise and honour on those who rescue hostages," quipped Halcón, sanguine as ever. "Fair weather to your new charge."

At the mention of combat, Luxio grinned amiably. "Well, that I can certainly help with."

He stopped, leaving the pair very nearly at the top of the ridge.

"Be on your guard," he said, as an imperative. For a combat instructor, he still sounded breezy and unhurried. Casual. "Forgive me, but I intend to hit you quite hard, my friend."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion tried to smirk, not that his beak accommodated it particularly well. Scanning Halcón to see who would make the first move, he dropped into a ready stance. "Threatening me with a good fight? Sure, somehow I think I can find it in my heart to forgive you."

Was he about to get his ass kicked? Probably. But that didn't bother Gladion, as long as he got to put up a good enough fight. Tumbling over that cliff would probably hurt Halcón more than him, that could be part of his game plan. Then again, Halcón had probably brought them here for his own purposes. (And if that was true, Gladion wouldn't ruin the chance to find out what Halcón would do with it.)

One way or another, he was going to get to sink back into that feeling of sparring with... a friend.

<><><><><>​