"What would... be the point?"

Madeleine groans as she sits up. Willingness to endure pain is not the same as ability, and she has been running for hours. Her whole body is a very happy, contented kind of heavy, the struggle to make her limbs obey her that makes her smile a little before her face settles into deep thought. She looks up at the sky and watches it transform while the groundskeepers grumble to either side of her. They'd [i]really[/i] done a number on this place.

"A weapon wouldn't make me faster. And I don't know how to use any. And to have a trick, I'd need to think of one first. I wouldn't know where to begin. And as soon as one person figured it out, I'd be..."

She stretches her arms toward the sky, joining her fingers together over her head and reaching out towards the remnants of the sun, and then above it to the encroaching darkness. She turns her head away from the heavens, and just watches Machia as she too struggles to turn herself back into a functioning, mobile person. 

This had been the best training session she could ever remember having. The pair of them glisten in the city's glow. 

"When I run... it's quiet. All the voices that whisper in my ear, those miserable ghosts can't keep up, and then it's me. Only me. Of course I care about the game, I want to score, but... I only think about other players in the sense that I enjoy the game. What they do doesn't matter to [i]me.[/i] I just... want to run. Faster and faster. Faster than sound, faster than light.  So fast that everything else falls away, and all that's left is me."

It takes everything she has to push herself back to standing. Her legs are wobbly and even at rest for this long her breathing can't quite seem to get in rhythm, but she extends her arm toward Machia in offer to pull her up as well. 

"But I didn't pick this game by accident. I want to win. If you say I need to have a second skill to do that, then I guess... I can try. Thank you for today. But it's time for the evening session. I'd like to grab coffee on the way back, would you like to make that part of my challenge?"

She smiles: a sure sign of an unusual mood. Could she be feeling playful?