[b]Tianic![/b]

You are beautiful and powerful in ways you've never known you could be. Your every step is smooth and flowing from one motion to the next, like poetry about clouds drifting through the skies. How does it feel to realize your potential all at once? How does it feel to find out the point of all those firmly planted feet and impenetrable defensive stances was to help you bend and pivot without losing the power of your stroke? 

Your sword has transformed from that kind of terrifying weight in your hands that always made you worry that either it, you, or what you swung it at would shatter with every loping swoosh of your arms into a paintbrush instead. And not just any paintbrush, but an enormous and show stopping one, the kind that's just perfect for putting on a show. The kind you'd use to paint calligraphy in the streets for people hang gliding overhead to read and marvel at, and the kind where your motion and your mastery of the art draw a crowd more than the finished product could ever hope to.

You're Squire Tianic of the Sky Castle, but tonight you're more than that. You're a beauty, battling in earnest for the first time under the moonlight. You're a swordfighter, an artist, and a future fairy too because why the heck not? Isn't this duel more magic than practice at this point? Didn't your first opponent ever turn out to be a cute girl who turned into a wolf, or a... cute wolf that turned into a girl, or a, uh... w-well, whatever the heck's going on here, but whatever it is you've gotta admit it's pretty weird and special right? And whatever else is happening, it was [i]your sword[/i] that turned Yue into the warrior with the dazzling dress and smile before you now, and that's bound to mean you're destined for special things, too. So you're, y'know, you're allowed to dream! And if you're allowed to dream, why stop at one?

Yue, which is to say the girl Yue who is standing in front of you, presents a very different puzzle than the mischievous wolf that's been wriggling her way into your heart this whole time. For one thing she's got fingers now, attached to hands at the end of quite long arms even, so even though her wooden sword has maybe less than half the reach of your steel one, she's suddenly working with something shockingly close to a range advantage. Which is to say nothing of the improvement in her technique! But more importantly than that she's... hm.

It'd be difficult to call her beautiful, exactly. At least in the sense that she's desirable. In [i]that[/i] way. You think? But her long, flowing, endearingly frizzy hair reminds you of nothing so much as cool milk tea as it bobs around in time with her steps. Her arms are slender to the point where your brain wants to use the word 'scrawny' instead, only for that word to slip off and go back to start for reasons you don't think have anything to do with politeness. And the curves of her body are so exceedingly gentle that she looks made for holding, and for dancing, and for admiring, and for twirling, and for so many other kinds of wonderful things that it honestly kind of breaks your heart when you realize you're probably not going to get to see most of them. Her dress is dazzling as it shifts about with every little move she makes (especially the way it keeps kissing yours) and it fits her so well she seems born specifically to wear it, and to swing a much nicer, more important sword than the one she's meeting you with right now. That girl was born to wander, wasn't she? She's a natural-born adventurer who's seen horizons from angles that'd baffle most people up here, and sooner or later she'll fall back down to the earth like rain (why does she make you think of water, anyway?) to go chasing those hills again. This castle can't hold her forever.

But right now, she's smiling. All for you. And the curve of her lips and the awkward little jam in her teeth are so dazzling and so... sincere and full of love that she seems in this moment to be the equal of a sunshard. Maybe even two! Not three though, that would be crazy. In any case, she's smiling, and when she moves she does it a lot like you are now, where every step of her dainty feet is directed six steps into the future, so that she arrives at the end of a pre-determined choreography that'll give her something that she wants. Like this. And like this. And like this. Ending like this. Again! The way her sword dances feels like all the wolf in her has leapt inside of her wrists and her blade and now all of its whirling pouncing dizzying and playful power is whistling through the air and leading you every which way around the arena. 

And the thing is? She might be winning. It's hard to tell, in a fight like this, but so many of her moves are so artful that yours bend to better match them before your mind catches up to offer its own suggestion. She leads you around in a circle, chasing your own sword again so that you can clearly see her fluffy tail wagging even though she doesn't have one of those right now, and where her stroke ends you can't help but notice she's pushed the tip of your brush into the next line of your mandala, and the next piece you started drawing when you finished after that. 

Sometimes she draws her own lines, too. But these are... not like yours. You honestly don't even need to glance down to know that this girl does not know the first gosh darned thing (excuse the language!) about letters or painting or any stuff like that. She'd be lucky to stay inside the lines of a coloring book for all the skill she shows at it. Awful. Simply awful. If she's ever had a teacher in her life that person should be hit with sticks. At least the lines she paints in the air are much sweeter, but she can't seem to help herself with the trying to be like you. She always brings the sword back down again and scratches another cringey line in the sand, and darned near bursts into giggles after she does it. Her twinkling blue eyes are alight with some strange mixture of adoration and playful mockery as she looks at you between her steps, always lifting her sword in salute between each dance. Like this. Then like this. Now like this. Ending like this. And flourish. 

You're certain of one thing, Tianic: this is the most important moment of your life so far. And you don't want to lose this duel. Neither does Yue. There's a special person waiting for each of you at the end of this, maybe even special lips and attention one or both of you's never gotten to taste for yourselves, at least in the way you deserve. But it won't be as sweet without the flower of victory to crown it, will it? There's multitudes inside that flowing fabric and the lupine shape of Yue's dancing, but at the center of everything is a shockingly simple question:

Are you having fun, Tianic? Do you enjoy this? She flourishes at the end of her pattern again, and smiles sweet enough for you to put her in your tea. Do you see it? The opening she's inviting through? Claim your victory, Squire Tianic. If not through points then by dictating the terms of how this will end. What's it gonna be?