Training [se] stronger than all of it
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
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Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#29
Deimos
A block, and then the eerie cracking of the weaponry – the staff’s shaft splitting. In another world, in another battle, in something that wasn’t training, it could spell disaster. A soldier outfitted with another weapon might have something left on their holster, on their back, grabbing hold and fighting onward. A warrior might have nothing, and be forced to flee or succumb.

He narrowed his eyes again and shook his head as she continued to plunge onward. The Sword had half an inclination to cease and desist the motions altogether, to end it all abruptly, set the target on fire, and call it a day. No need for recklessness. No need for hostility. No need for the strange desperation clouding over her features (and for what?).

But then, here was a safer place to learn than any multitudes of incoming battlefields. Than any high-stakes gamble. Than any place where enemies were coming to capture or maim, tear apart, desecrate. It was just going to be difficult. “Calm yourself,” he insisted, the boom of his voice clambering over the range of fields and sea.

Her charge wasn’t without its zeal though – the bigger effigy faltered as the staff butted into its chest, pushed back, stifled for half a moment. Now would be a time to strike. To knock and tear it asunder; a tipping point, and he wondered if she’d recognize it or not, in her rash fervency.
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
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Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#30
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
Handling the spear with one hand was cumbersome. The impact as it connected with the dummy nearly shook it out of her grasp entirely. But there was no time to pause and adjust, nor did Deimos booming call to slow down really mean anything in the moment. She could hear the words, but somewhere between understanding and executing there was a disconnect, lost in the haze of pain and brain ghosts.

She did see the dummy falter. Again her gravity pulse extended, lightening the target until it only barely maintained connection with the ground. Again Seren slammed her staff towards its torso, while a leg swung out, attempting to sweep the practice doll's feet from under itself. To bring it down, topple its bulk, slam it to the ground on its back.

It would be helpless there, she hoped. Easy to dismantle, and another win under her belt. It was vital. Had to be. Though in the midst of a throbbing pain from her arm that made her want to throw up, Seren couldn't quite remember why.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#31
Deimos
Perhaps the only credit he could give her maddening rush was that at least the target was being pummeled with far more brutality than the previous one. She’d either learned from that occasion, or simply drowned herself in emboldened measures; the possibilities were swarming, and he said nothing now, because it didn’t seem to matter.

Seren was nearly there – the target flinching, faltering, straight upon its back, and being so big, so bulky, it was difficult for it to roll onto its side, to do much more than flail for a moment. So he granted her the opportunity, she might’ve earned it, without causing another uprising with his magic, without much of anything at all – save for maybe the effigy’s kick out in her general direction.

But it was a lost cause, and she’d have to recognize it on her own: when moments were right, just, and necessary.
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#32
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
The kick landed with a nasty thud, and again there was a muffled scream from the young demigod. Her stance faltered as the previosly injured leg was aggravated again and threatened to buckle beneath her weight. But even though the pain clearly registered, Seren almost seemed to relish it, in some self destructive tendency uncovered by ire.

She added the weight of gravit to the blade as she swung the broken staff towards the head of the downed dummy. Still she did not pause or retreat to change her grip, even though it would make it easier on her. Faster too, and less likely to have her hand torn up by frayed splinters.

She didn't care. Couldn't be bothered to. Almost longed for another bite of sensation, now that it had begun; it was better than thinking.

Again she aimed a blow, meant to sever limbs and ens her opponent. For the first time a darkness colored her movements, bloodthirst leaking out past midnight veils.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#33
Deimos
There were about a hundred things to be said, and walled behind his teeth like a fortress within the moments where she appeared to have lost her senses. A maelstrom tucked away and then unbound, and he sighed, irritated, annoyed, and exasperated, because the point of these lessons hadn’t been to become unhinged or unrelenting, but to know where she stood, how to wield, how to sharpen, how to weave precision. This was something else altogether, and it was difficult to parse through the good or the bad.

Eventually, this effigy too fell apart; its bulk ground into the earth, flailed into pieces and proportions, left adrift there on the idle grass like a sea of parts, without the blood. The carnage was fluff and straw, fibers once-stitched together, frayed away in Seren’s frenetic display.

“Enough,” he bellowed, and meant it; a command, a demand. Done, and over, and multitudes of machinations coiling about in his head. But he gave away nothing at all, as his features returned to their reticent stance, as his gaze swept directly to her. “What did you learn?” Zuriel remained where she stood – beside the Sword, both of them either waiting for a rebuttal or some other asinine refusal.
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#34
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
'Enough.'

The sharp command cut through the haze that had settled over her thoughts. As though were she a mere puppet on strings suddenly cut, Seren's arm fell to her side and dangled limp with the spear scraping the ground. One by one, scrapes and bruises throbbed to life until the ache became a living thing inside her. Blinking down at the severed remnants of the dummy, it took her a moment to realize that Deimos was talking to her.

"What? Oh." Learned? Had she learned anything? A muscle cramped at her back, a silent reminder. "I need to watch my back better..."

Had she really hacked that dummy to pieces like this? Strange. She couldn't quite recall the last minute or so. It was all a blur. And the spear...

"They're going to kill me for breaking my weapon." A mournful sigh turned into a hiss when another jolt stabbed through her wrist. She gave it a quick glance; already it had begun to swell, and would probably begin to purple soon. Was it broken?

Hm. For some reason, the damaged weapon still gave her more concern.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#35
Deimos
It was like she wasn’t even present; and he waited for a few long, long withering moments while the clarity either restored or she came back into fruition. No point in extending his voice, his words, if she couldn’t even hear them over whatever else bombarded her mind. And when she finally did, it was a rancorous disappointment. Perhaps that was why he was there at all, because there were many more things to fill in the holes of her education. “Weapons can be repaired.” Or made anew. He handwaved that notion aside, because a broken armament was nothing in comparison to the ridiculous nature of her actions.

A question first, before he settled into the rest of it; arms crossing over his chest, visibly unimpressed no matter how much she’d been striving for the opposite earlier on. “Why did you seek my guidance if you had no intention of listening to it?”
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#36
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
A soft frown suggested that Seren didn't have any idea what he was talking about. "But I was listening! Well... maybe not about the healing, but..." The look on his face made something shrivel within, constricting her throat. "I just... thought it would be fun."

There had been no deep meaning behind the request. Except for that already stated wish to impress, to flaunt the one thing she felt like she had some genuine skill in. An ego boost perhaps, to make herself feel less useless.

She didn't say as much, but the deepening color on her cheeks implied the line of self-centered thinking.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#37
Deimos
There was an assortment of lectures to pick and choose from. They’d already been over the nuances of striving to impress him, since battle couldn’t be about exhibitionist qualities; peacocking around didn’t signify any skill except raising an opponent’s irritation (a dangerous game). It mattered in between the moments – how to outwit an adversary. How to flank and drive and dissolve. How to disarm. How to ensure victory. How to instigate one’s own survival, and hopefully remaining comrades.

His features didn’t change; reticent and displeased. No amused arch to his brow. No cracking of foundational reserve. “I am not here to boost your ego. I thought you wanted advice, not to show off.” Perhaps he’d been mistaken. But the Sword was not an individual who handed out compliments to everyone and everything; they were earned, merited, warranted justifications. And then he sought to dig deeper, see if there was any logic into her actions, or if had been nearly all impulse and ignorance. “What was the point of refusing to be healed?”
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#38
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
The way he said it made her falter, nearly flinching from the implication that she was using his good will. Hackles rose within, hurt and defensive, and as her breath became unsteady gasps she had nothing to blame save her own thoughts. Far messier and less composed than she usually let on.

"I wanted to have fun, and relax, and not be so bloody serious all the time!" she retorted, growing intense in her tone even though the volume of her voice did not rise. "I wanted to show you what I've learned, yes. I wanted some advice, yes. I wanted to see for myself how far I can go with you as an opponent - " and the frustration in her expressive shrug suggested that she had disappointed herself immensely. Again. "I've never trained while injured. I've never tried to do anything while in pain. I wanted to know what it's like. Whether I could take it. I want to know what my limits are, Deimos, what I'm capable of, what I can and can't do!"

Again she tried to flail her arms about, and nearly staggered from the renewed jolt of pain from the wrist. Clutching it to her chest, Seren dropped the broken pieces of her spear and sucked in deep breaths until the world no longer spun around her.
"Half the people I meet treat me like I'm almost Safrin herself. The other half like I'm something fragile that needs to be protected at all costs. Those who don't expect me to perform miracles and solve all the problems of the world act like I'm still a toddler who don't know anything about the world. And you know what? They're probably right! And I hate it! I hate not knowing, I hate not being strong enough, I hate that I can't do anything on my own!"

Snarling, with flashing teeth and eyes glistening with the depths of her emotions, Seren wanted nothing more than to rage and rampage, to let out all these black, hateful ashes of negativity that kept piling up within. It wasn't her. Shouldn't be her. She wanted to be carefree and happy go lucky and prance along beaches with her heart full of wonder, caring about nothing save the view from the next hill.

When had she lost that? It wasn't fair. She wanted that her to come back.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#39
Deimos
Where the Sword had expected a simple answer became anything but – so in one glance and exchange with Zuriel, he wandered over to the nearest boulder, staff in hand, toying with it as he sat down for the careening tempest unfurling before him.

Because there was far more below the surface. He’d take the jab about not be so bloody serious all the time (presuming it was aimed in his direction), tilting his head, listening to the intensity rise and the gestures fall, and everything else careening in a wayward state. There were some proportions readily understood and some not at all; experience and multiple lives too far embedded in his mind to ever have drifted so far back into the same deluge. And perhaps, some explanations required of him, for why he was cross, frustrated, irritated, and vexed by the willful, emboldened decisions she’d opted to make. “I have seen many do the same. They ignore what the pain is telling them. They push on. They disobey orders. They do not listen to anyone around them.” Foolhardy and reckless, with pride lacquering their senses and not much else, driven to onslaughts and danger, until it became too much. “And then the desperation leads to more stupefying decisions. Until they are dead.” Incapable of being brought back. Slung out on the battlefield because a mender couldn’t attend to them. Because they’d been too complacent. “This world is dangerous, and it does not take long for one false move, for one error, to be your last.”

His eyes focused on her, narrowed and not hinting at the amount of comrades he’d lost. Friends battered and gone. Bodies dragged out. Graves dug. Families told. The barrage settled against his chest over and over again. Across Isilme, Helovia, and even Caido; because he’d had his fare and share of decisions that had cost him dearly. “And while it may have been safe to do so here, you should have told me that was your goal.”

The armament rolled in between his hands as he passed it from palm to palm, while his mind was busy, extending a long sigh into the eaves of the autumn air, tones all the more composed and calm. “How do you want to be treated?” How did she want the world to see her? What picture was she orchestrating? To not be her mother? Or her father? His brow arched while the tirade continued, thoughts wandering back to a time where Kiada had fallen apart too, in the echoes of LongNight, when actions simply hadn’t been sufficient, and nothing more could’ve been done. “Most of us do not know what we are doing. We have goals. We try to stay committed. Some are not strong enough, so that is what they work on. Some crave wisdom, so that is what they aim for.” A snort followed through, glance tilting towards the sun, the wind, the vestiges. “You cannot have everything all at once. It takes time.”
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime
Seren Taliesin


Age: 25 | Height: 5'7 in (170cm) | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 30 - Luck: 16 - Int:
UMBRA - Mythical - Dragon (fire breath)
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,448 | Total: 5,765
MP: 1897
#40
You have so much of everything but still you wanted more
She had expected, almost hoped that the man would snap back at her. That they could clash again, erupt into more shouting and sharpened words so that the might finally vent all of the pent up frustration until none remained. But for a second time in short succession it was proved that Deimos was not easy to rile. His response was measured and intense, and left her with a taste of something foul curdling on the tongue. Like guilt and regret and embarrassment, that did nothing to make her feel better. The tears cloying her throat had nowhere to go now, and only made her feel more than ever like that child she both hated and loved.

"It's not like I had it planned out," she muttered, averting her gaze from the vexed blue of his eyes, far too piercing for comfort. "Besides... I didn't want you to hold back. Or make it easier on me. Or..." Or be kind. Concerned.

Slumping down to sit on the ground, Seren bowed her head until most of her face became obscured by a cascade of dark curls. It wasn't that she didn't listen to the cautioning tale - she felt it keenly in every aching muscle - but it echoed too much Remi's accusation of being a brat to be swallowed in the moment.

"I don't know... Like a person. Like I'm worthy of some respect and basic courtesy regardless of how long I've lived or whether I've fought a hundred battles or not." Her thoughts kept going back to the meeting, to the distaster and the way she had been snubbed off and ignored. Her jaws tensed; she would have to explain for any of it to make sense.

"Amalia called a meeting with the demi-gods a while ago. So we can work together. I told the others about my mission to explore the Sea of Glass... and both father and Remi just took over. Without even asking my opinion they vetoed you out from the expedition because of Morgan's return, and didn't listen when I argued their reasoning. It was - it still is - my mission, given to me. But they just took over like I wasnt even there.

"On top of that, I offered to help with another thing but father said no. Just like that. Like it was his decision to make. Like I have to be looked after all the damn time!"


It was... infantilizing. Humiliating. Rude and insulting. Disrespectful on a basic level, and when she dared to object and stand her ground she had been called a brat, like she was a spoiled child being willful around adults.

It still made Seren see red, and she actually hissed like a feral cat when fresh rage came welling up at the recollection.
Seren
Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Online
Change author:
Posts: 6,554 | Total: 10,647
MP: 9824
#41
Deimos
The staff moved between his hands, back and forth, while she talked, muttered, admitted to acting on impulse. He said nothing more on the subject, figuring his words had at least pierced somewhere in the midst of this barrage; no admittance of whether or not he’d held back (he often did). The monolith chose silence while she bowed her head and sat, quiet there on his rock, glancing out over the water that might lead to elsewhere.

There were a multitude of things gathered in her mind though, apparently leading, tending, and invoking this whole bombardment, and it wasn’t unlike experiences he’d had with Kiada. Wanting to protect, to shield, because there was a fear lodged deep in his chest for all the times he hadn’t been able to with so many others: saying nothing as she wandered out into LongNight’s terrors and tyrannies, desperate to bring back Ru’in’s soul, and comforting when she failed. How easy it was to be overbearing – and then not realize the amount of damage it could cause.

Like weeks before, when he offered once more to aid, and she refused. Nothing more to do or give from the Sword to the Harpy.

His eyes drifted back to the autumn ground while she spoke of meetings (and he wondered if there’d be a time where it wasn’t just demigods delegating; that they knew there were so many more willing and able to assist in the ongoing plight), and the words pummeled and hit harder. That he had been a subject in the whole discourse earned a spare shift of surprise, before brows furrowed back. Understandable. All of it was, to a certain extent. “They were likely doing so out of care and concern. They have lost a lot here. It does not excuse striving to take over your mission, but it does give perspective. Sometimes it is difficult to let go.” He paused, a few more thoughts processing in his head, before more came into the world, in between her hisses and outrage. “Have you spoken to either of them about this?” Setting boundaries, rather than fires and flames?
Out of sight and out of mind
Make everything alright
So let the sky and sea collide
Just not in our lifetime


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