[b]Jade and Dolly[/b] You feel the weight suddenly ease. The [i]Unseen Goose II[/i] has joined the effort, adding its strength to yours. Metal buckles and strains, and there is a sheer screeching as the cement slides against it, but in the end, Ada helps shove the cement-filled container off you, showering you both in dust and loose rock. As she’s working, she looks at you. “You’re lucky this is the last match, princess. If I could get knocked out of the tournament here, I’d have shot you in the knee and been done with the match. Family always comes first and I’m fighting for them above everyone. But that business is taken care of and I think the seeding matters less than a good match between us. And maybe something after, if you’ll put in a good word with my people that the Snow Geese just want a safe space all their own.” She recovers herself, brushing off some of the dust, an odd gesture reflected in a massive mecha-frame, but an immediately understandable one. “Now that your cloak is gone, we can have a fair fight. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving you all day to recover, if you can’t keep up, I’ll still knock you out! So, get ready or you’re going down in 5…4…3…2…1…” [Ada takes a string on Jade and chooses to allow the match to continue on (relatively) fair terms in the hope that friendship, rather than hostility, will benefit her family afterwards.] *** [b]Mirror[/b] “Ah!” Kiriala shouts as she feels the claws rake across her. It’s an exclamation, a mix of surprise and wonder more than any serious pain. She comes across the other side of the maneuver and tilts her head, thinking. “God, fuck, now I wish Shantri were here instead of me. She’s the one who would know exactly what to do here. I’m the one who’s strong and fast and can hunt by scent and does really good signals tracing work. But at the end of the day, I’m the muscle when it comes to these mystery things, Shantri’s the smart one.” You get the sense that she’s living in memory for a second. You clearly showed that even with her high skill level at mecha combat, she can’t just go at you. You did show her that you wouldn’t react the same way twice, and she’ll get to that in…well right about now actually. “Okay so, fine, fine. You said the conditions were set, but the variables changed. That’s something, that’s helpful. It means it’s not a fighting style or a commitment to a certain type of response. Not like how you started the fight. So, I need to just fight then. Ha, Shantri would be telling me I’m an idiot for not playing to my strengths.” Her tone gets a little bouncier again. “Okay, alright, let’s go let’s go! Show me something, give me something to work with!” She changes up her tactic here. Not a blind charge or a holding pattern like you’ve seen so far. Instead she’s maneuvering in a new way. She’s using the ground as a source of unpredictability, stepping with light jumps, like she could take off and fire thrusters to go airborne anytime she wants, but she’s not so she also keeps the option of pushing off the ground in any direction in addition to her thrusters. She’s coming at you, spear this time not out for a direct stab but instead for a slash, itself in an as yet unknown direction, she can adjust it quickly and easily. This is aggression, but in a different style, almost like if you were sparring hand to hand with staves and she was trying to bait you, circle you, and get into your rhythm. Not that you can’t shoot her if you want, but that’s in the calculations too, it’s just a longer-range staff with a higher recovery time committed to it. You’ll have to be careful, since she’s keeping low, that any attacks she launches don’t wind up tearing up the field because they didn’t hit you. Ditto for your own counterattacks, especially anything wide-burst. *** [b]Isabelle[/b] Your fight is over. You’ve won. Ksharta took the shot with just enough time to let out a final, primal scream, and then she was down. She’s not literally out, but you can see that she’s decided not to invite you to rip the Pulsar Cat apart while she’s recovering and has instead surrendered. A clean win. Dominant. No risks and no honor. Well, no risks now. You’ve made an enemy today, one whose enmity will live far beyond the combat arena. It is one thing to embarrass someone through superior skill, but quite another to make a fool of them. When you return to the hangar, Almira is there in person, dressed today in a burgundy silken shawl that sparkles with gold dust above her dress. As before, what should be the incongruous hangar jacket simply accents her neck and shoulders. “Competently executed” she says, when you land. “It gives me some reassurance we’re actually related.” There’s a great deal in that praise. Competence in switching to the Emberlight, in the fighting style, in the execution, perhaps in your choice of obedience. Absolutely no thought to the problems this could cause, or to whether you’ve done the right thing. Obeying Almira Lozano is, after all, the right thing as far as Almira Lozano is concerned. And you’ve done well. “Come, there’s going to be a gala held in Akkar, I hear they’re actually using the arena for it to celebrate the start of the knockout rounds. We’ll need to get you a proper dress for the occasion.” She turns and you’re expected to follow. [Take the experience for following the advice if you haven’t already] *** [b]Solarel[/b] “Sol I…” There’s a storm of thoughts in Akaithon’s head happening right now. The pain in that voice, the realization, the conflict. Akaithon’s smart, but this is a whirlwind of emotion. She wants to speak. You can hear it in the way she trails off, how now, NOW she has a thousand things to say. In her head there are questions of ethics and governance dancing with what friendship is even supposed to mean, and above that is her own love and what sort of foundation it rests on now that she’s heard you. Are you right? Are you wrong? Is it impossible to simplify it down that far, a position with a thousand different nuances to ultimately figure out the way to navigate life. All of that’s there and dancing, begging to burst out of her in a stream of words. But she doesn’t. After that initial reaction, the instinctive reflex that ran ahead of the rest of her, she is quiet. She takes that storm and she internalizes it. Lets it rage within her, through her, and instead she hefts her sword, your sword, and raises it in salute. You know her, you know all the words she must be thinking about, how much she’d like to debate forever. That she chose to do what you told her is an unparalleled act of submission and vulnerability. She hasn’t made up her mind, but it’s neither has she closed herself off to you. Not now, not like this. She charges, strong and direct, the style you taught her. Not knowing the extent of your prior touch. It’s on you, now, to show her what love means. [Take +1 forward to interact with her]