Plank Sinatra — Roleplayer Guild

Ben's arrival was remarkably prompt this morning. He was out of bed without much complaining, made sure his team was awake, and prepping for the day. First up was the week's sparring matches. He wouldn't know who he was up against til they got there, but the thought of a fight put a little spring in his step. He could use the chance to stretch his muscles. Hadn't had a decent fight since Grimm Studies the week before. Homework was a pain, but sparring was important. It showed him how he measured up to other people, pointed out flaws in his strategy and technique, and honestly, it was fun.

His prompt scheduling was probably a mix of excitement and a desire to make a decent impression on the group's newest member, as well as the administration. With Trad gone it was more important than ever.

What he didn't expect, though, was to be paired up with his newest teammate. A lazy grin spread across his face at the sight, chuckling quietly. To be matched up against Lorena their first day of classes. Someone, somewhere, really had a sense of humor.

"Hey, Lauren. We're fighting."

"...Ngeh?" Lauren had a massive chocolate bar sticking out of her mouth the way most businessmen chomped cigars, still half in the wrapper to prevent it from melting in her hand. It was just a small tool in the candy arsenal she'd brought to Beacon, and she usually had herself a candy bar a day before brushing her teeth and going to breakfast. It soothed the soul into the day ahead of it. "I thought we were all getting along pretty well."

She glanced at her team leader quizzically and aimed a confused chomp or two his way before her emerald eyes lit up in understanding.

"Oh oh OH!" the newest member of BASL exclaimed, pulling the chocolate out of her mouth and laughing. "You mean like the wallahi kind of fighting. Oh, man. Sweet."

And it was. A chance to show her team what she was made of, a chance to get muscles, synapses, and reflexes back in action, a chance to give her axe some well-needed loving...she relished the fight, though it was tempered with a rare caution; a team leader was nothing to screw with, even if it was a team as haphazardly thrown together as BASL.

Not that she wasn't growing to love the team.

"Sorry for your loss!"

“Yeeeeeah,” Ben said, a half grin spreading on his face as he stretched the word. BASL’s leader rolled his head and stretched his arms, working the sleep from his muscles. “I might be a bit rusty. Suppose we’ll see how this goes, won’t we?”

"Sure will!" Lauren, already mostly dressed in the uniform she'd signed a grudging truce with, broke off the bit of chocolate with her teeth marks and tossed it into the air. BASL's newest member leapt up to grab it in her mouth like a seal, tumbled in midair, and landed on her bed with an oomph and raised arms. 

crinklecrinkle

Lorena pulled down the wrapper over the rest of the chocolate and chucked it underhanded over to Ben's bed.

"For energy. Never let it be said that a Negasi woman let a man go into a fight at a disadvantage."

Ben laughed, taking an idle bite from the bar and slipping Artorius and Lawnslot through their loops at his waist. Each one had been tested and maintained the night before. They’d serve him well. And speaking of energy he knew that their batteries were just about full. Hadn’t been released in weeks so there was plenty of time to build up a charge.

He’d have to see how they played with the sparring system.

Taking another bite he looked over to Lauren.

“Ready to go?”

"Yuuuuuuuup."

Lauren hopped off her bed with a quiet yank of her collar and gripped her axe (she'd never really gotten around to naming it, which was a thing people did here...)   in her hands as casually as she would put a pencil behind her ear. Following the BASL leader at first, she quickly sidled up next to him once it was clear she wasn't going to get lost and wander back onto the next airship home trying to figure out where the hell she was supposed to fight at.

"I should probably say thank you," she brought up as they walked. "Not just for, like, carrying your impending asskicking on your back like a champ and all-" punctuated by an elbow to the ribs "-but for helping me get acquainted with the whole Beacon thing. You and Desire and even Sangue. I know I was a late addition and all, so, uh...thanks."

“Don’t mention it.” He grinned, glancing sidelong at Lauren. “You’re part of the team. And if anyone gets what it’s like to get here late, it’s us. Hell, we weren’t just late, we teeechnically shouldn’t be here.”

“Getting you up to speed was simple, and about as far from out of the way as it gets.” A lazy smirk crossed his face. ” Even if you are just a bit arrogant, there, Lauren.”

"Law 28 of the 48 Laws of Power, Ben! Enter action with boldness!" Lauren said emphatically. "Save the caution for your own head, let everyone else see the confidence."

She beamed and elbowed her team captain's ribs again, decidedly more playfully.

Ben’s laughter resounded through the hall, the leader nodding his head. It made sense, especially with what he knew of Lauren, but the enthusiasm behind it was pretty incredible. He punched her shoulder lightly, grinning.

“Yeah, well, don’t think I’m gonna sleep through it and let you win. Not that lazy.”

"I'd be bummed if you did, bruh." The young woman stretched both arms behind her back and cracked her knuckles, trying to limber up a little as they walked to...wherever Ben had mentioned the fights were staged. She'd sort of zoned out making faces at Amy Desire behind his back, but she'd gotten the general gist of it! 

"I wanna win or lose fair and square. You're a team leader, and you must've been chosen for a reason. I respect that. I've spent my whole life dancing outta scrapes. I respect that about myself, too. S'gonna be hype either way."

“Well, you’re enthusiastic.” With a turn and a few more steps, Ben stepped into the designated arena. His chosen starting space left several paces between himself and Lauren, a fair starting distance for whatever style she had. A practiced movement brought his weapons to hand.

“Ready?”

"Aye aye, Captain!"

Lauren scraped one foot along the ground, as if testing it for something, then looked up at BASL's team leader. Ben's laughter was still echoing in her ears, and now that she was standing at dueling distance from him, she could almost feel the energy of a looming fight crackling inside her,  s l i t h e r i n g   a r o u n d  under her skin, seeping into muscle tissue. 

She favored him with a teasing smile.

“Alright then.” The leader said, bouncing on the balls of his feet briefly as he settled into a ready stance. With their fight set to start, the arena’s monitors shifted to display both combatants’ Aura levels; Lauren’s a full green bar, and Benjamin’s own missing a solid fourth off of its length already.

Artorius and Lawnslot rested easily along the path of his forearms, safeties disengaged and his fingers on the triggers. He returned Lauren’s grin, and settled in to wait.

It was time to see what she had.

Oh, so it's gonna be like that.

She'd expected caution from Ben, but was hoping that by not instantly jumping at the first sign of the (metaphorical) starting gun, she could slowly bait him into making the first strike. He was even more cautious than she'd thought, though, meaning it was up to her to make not just the first move, but make sure he stayed on his toes in the process. If she couldn't shake him, she would just exhaust herself before he turned himself on her in a swoop.

Plus...what was with his Aura bar?

Sketch-yyyyyyy.

She scuffed her other foot along the floor and lowere her head slightly, charging towards the BASL team leader with everything she had. She saw his twin tonfas ready defensively, fingers ready to twitch and drive her off her path, so she decided to beat him to the punch. Charging through his legs would have only gotten her tangled up, too - not nearly enough room to fit through the gap in his stance. Instead, Lauren veered to her right, Ben's left, crouching as though she were about to springboard herself into the air.

Instead, she kept herself low until she was feet inside the range of his tonfa's barrels and then dropped herself completely on her knees; now under his forearms entirely, she slid like a baseball player gunning for a base, wielding her axe (seriously, without a name the weapon felt positively second-class. Barry the Hatchet...?) by the head so that the hard metal shaft could clatter against Ben's shin bone. Tensed in a defensive position already, it had started to swivel as Lauren moved beside and underneath him, disrupting his momentum temporarily (and hopefully leaving his back leg throbbing) enough for her to bounce to her feet and send a sweeping blow with the axe straight for his gut.

Metal rang off metal, the interposition of a tonfa guarding Ben’s gut, but his back leg was definitely throbbing. He’d expected Lauren to be tough, but she was wilier than predicted. He knew his Aura gauge had dropped a bit, but despite the necessity of keeping an eye on it, he didn’t have time to look. A flick of his wrist brought his right hand weapon, Artorius, into a gyakute-mochi grip, the pointed end normally near his shoulder extending forward. 

Even as he hatchet collided with Lawnslot, he flicked the trigger mechanism of its twin, the recoil from its shotgun barrel sending the pointed end hurtling towards Lauren’s chest. Lawnslot, once the initial strike was blocked, was shifted to face its shotgun barrel just to Ben’s right; launched from a right-hand position, Artorius’ trajectory included a slight leftward curve.

If Lauran dodged, then the easiest move at this range would be the opposite direction of that curve. Lawnslot, hidden like a snake in the grass beneath the primary blow, was positioned to fire off a shot should she follow the path of least resistance.

Let’s see how well you defend.

Not very well, as it were, but not in the way Ben might have been expecting.

Lauren, realizing that she wasn't about to take a shotgun blast to the torso and come away with much Aura, let alone feeling hype, ducked under Artorius and caught his arm at the bottom of the bicep as she straightened out her own torso. She knew she wasn't going to be able to hold him for very long in this position, especially as he repositioned Lawnslot, so she moved on impulse and started another charge, carrying Ben along with her head tucked in his diaphragm and her left hand gradually pinching down on the soft flesh beneath his bicep.

coochie coochie coooo

She laughed loudly.

After about fifteen feet, she suddenly stopped and threw herself upright. Ben, no longer carried by Lorena's momentum, was suspended in the air above her, and she bucked her shoulders suddenly, trying to throw her opponent over her shoulders and onto his back. If he landed there, winded, she could press the advantage with a backwards somersault, maybe plant her feet on his chest once or twice. If he recovered earlier than that, she could take advantage of that hurt shin of his and hobble him before he recovered a stance.

If he did something unexpected...well, good for him. Wouldn't be the first time for either of 'em in this fight.

Grappling wasn’t really Ben’s forte, he had to admit. And Lauren’s charge had been too unexpected for him to do much about it. As he hung suspended in the air, however, he had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. As he went up and over her shoulders, his teammate intending to make sure he slammed down on his back, he flipped Lawnslot forward too and fired both barrels, both cutting down on the force before impact and providing him with enough momentum to somersault forward, putting a little distance between him and Lauren.

A small burst of Aura, represented by an unhelpful drain on his gauge, fueled a small boost to his legs; pushing off when his feet neared the ground again brought him to his feet and put a little more distance between them in a single lunge. 

The short time they had been fighting, though, had already told him the most important thing he needed to know. He couldn’t let Lauren get close. In close range, it was harder for him to adapt to her unpredictable style. Mid or further, his skillset and loadout gave him enough time to react and attack. 

His opponent was a good fifteen, twenty feet away thanks to his space-buying maneuver. He couldn’t let her get closer than five.

Flipping back to a more standard grip he fired off a shotgun blast aimed in Lauren’s direction. With about fifteen feet, she was well inside his range. More importantly, he was far enough out of hers that he’d have some time to work with when she came charging in.

As soon as she'd watched Ben's Aura gauge dip without any further attack on her end, she had instinctively turned to face him, and so saw the shotgun blast coming at her from within a few yards. Still operating on instinct, she dropped to the ground and then pushed herself back up with her hands in an impromptu pushup, but she'd still been too slow - Lauren felt Ben's blast scrape her back up, resulting in the first meaningful drop on her own gauge. 

Crap.

He was gonna make her work for it from here on out, too. 

She pushed herself into a sprint and turned on her feet, giving Ben her back for a crucial second - she knew he'd fire on her again while she danced along the edge of his comfort zone, so she put her weight into a small backflip, barely enough to clear Ben's head. It was, however, good enough to get above and behind him, using the shaft of her axe and hooking it horizontally underneath his chin, both her hands gripping its ends to ensnare him in her hold. She was intent on pulling him down with her, and this time, only one of them would be on their feet.

Crap.

There was no pre-planning this time. Everything from the moment he felt the shaft hooking under his chin to the moment her hand closed on the other end was pure instinct.

And man. Was it unpleasant.

Deinamig flared to life, accompanied by the dip in his Aura that left his gauge hovering over the orange, and bolstered the muscles in his neck and back. Specifically, the group used to resist the force being exerted on his neck. On the plus side, he didn’t move; Deinamig ensured his muscles were stronger than the force exerted on his chin.

On the con side, the force exerted wasn’t negated. And the pressure it exerted on his windpipe as Lorena arched down was really, really uncomfortable. The first real impact on his Aura levels caused by her, too, given that it was what was preventing damage to his windpipe. He slammed an elbow back in desperation, loosening her grip on her axe just enough to buy him a little breathing room. A second application of Deinamig boosted his legs, a lunge putting a little space between them.

What he saw on his Aura gauge, as he coughed and started to breathe properly again, wasn’t pleasant. He’d dropped into the orange a lot sooner than expected. 

No choice.

“Points,” He coughed. “For pushing it this far so quick, Lauren.”

As he turned to face her, his finger found the button just above Artorius’ trigger and pressed it.

And felt Aura flooding back into the fuel tank.

Ohhh, fuck me.

Lauren recovered quickly from the initial shock of seeing his Aura gauge make an upwards climb that would leave mountaineers blow their wads with the knowledge that he was still coughing for breath. The recovery process as he drew back into the green would take precious seconds. Maybe...

With his finger still holding the button of Artorius, she readjusted her grip on her axe and swung it wide at his head, fully expecting the tonfo to block it. Her real goal was Lawnslot; if the one weapon had the potential to replenish his Aura, she had no idea if the second could do so independently as well, and so if he brought it up against her while her axe was busy trying to conk him in the head, she got ready to shift her weight imperceptibly, ready to kick Lawnslot right out of his hand and separate him from a final Aura boost.

Ben had learned the first few times better than to stay within Lauren’s range, whether he could block her or not. Rather than block, he fired both shotgun barrels at Lauren’s torso; this served the dual purpose of seeking to cause damage, and ensuring that there was extra force behind his foot pushing off of the ground. The combined momentum sent him flying back, though the axe head rather unpleasantly skimmed across his face, registering as a slowing of his gauge’s recovery. 

Rather than wait for her to take advantage of his still-in-progress recovery again, Deinamig fueled his legs to let him jump back once more with equal force to ensure she couldn’t get too close. 

After a moment’s hesitation, he flicked the release on Lawnslot’s battery, too. He hated to spend them both, given how drained it was going to leave him for the next few days, but he needed the extra juice. The first release had mostly served to boost battered Aura reserves back up to normal. The second was the real turbocharger; as the stored Aura rushed back, he was operating at a suplus, rather than a deficit.

Deinamig had plenty of fuel for once.

It had been Lauren who was pressing most of the offense in the fight, so it wasn't as much the second drop in her Aura gauge - registering as a fuck fuck fuck spinning half-dodge in the two seconds it took for her to realize Artorius wasn't moving - that bothered her as it was the fact that, for the first time, Ben had her at an energy advantage. She could make it up given time, if she managed to avoid many more of those shotgun blasts, but it would involve being quick and continuing to press at him from forward and behind. The exhilaration they'd both been feeling walking into the fight was aching in her legs, giving her the ability to at least amp herself up for continued sprinting, but there were risks inherent with the strategy. If he could squeeze any shots off...

...

...but it wouldn't matter if he couldn't even move an arm. And there were no charges left for him, whereas all Lauren had to do was keep him adrenal. 

Alright.

Alright.

Lauren found herself charging again, this time in a sickle shape swooping in on Ben's left - the throbbing in his shin may have been subsiding with his Aura boost, but it was better than nothing - yet again. She ducked down and skidded on one knee, fully expecting the tried-and-true shotgun blast and leap-frog backwards of his that she'd come to rue. This time, as soon as she saw the slightest twitch of Ben wanting to retreat to mid-range again, she darted out with her axe, hooking the tendons on the back of his superpowered pogo ankle of ruefulness~ between the shaft and head of her axe and pulling the BASL leader to the ground. 

She dove for his left arm as soon as he wobbled, trying to land on it and pin him to the ground with her knees while her axe came back up over his chest to catch onto Lawnslot.

She’s blocking my right, left arm’s pinned between her legs...

...

Gonna have to apologize for this one later.

Rather than try to evade the pin, Ben actually did his level best to make sure she had as much of the limb pinned as possible. When they came to a momentary lull, the time Lauren needed to adjust to her new position and attack, his elbow was situated somewhere past her knees. Said elbow bent up, allowing him to angle his arm up and, after releasing his grip on one of his tonfa, plant his hand on the small of her back.

"Why, Mister Darcy~!"

... Not even going to deal with that right now.

And then use Deinamig to pump a large strength boost to his left arm. With a feat of strenth far exceeding what he would normally have been capable of, he rolled and flipped Lauren as he did, planting her on the ground not-too-gently.

The tactic left her pinned on the ground, tucked into the crook of a super-powered arm, with a shotgun barrel jammed up against her ribs. A quick glance at her Aura gauge reassured Ben that her Aura wasn’t low enough for firing to be genuinely dangerous, so with a swift squeeze of the trigger, he let loose.

No no no no no OW FUCK FUCK GIGGITY I MEAN  F U C K

One shot. One shot was all she'd allow him. She wouldn't afford herself the time to look at her gauge; the time for a peek was, coincidentially, the exact amount of time it would take Ben to put a second round into her ribs and deplete her Aura even further. She was at a deficit, she knew; if she wanted this match, she had to fight for it. And given Ben's prom night grip, she thought she knew exactly how to get him - with his own two mistakes. The first had been discarding Artorius at all in order to catch her in the pin; the second had been leaving open one arm in order to catch her with a shot.

In one move, the wrestling girl exacerbated both.

Her right arm, unpinned, coiled at her side and wrapped around the barrel of Lawnslot, with her fist wrapping tightly further up the tonfo's stock. Teeth gritted, she rammed the butt of Ben's own weapon up into the soft flesh underneath his own left rib cage, then again, until his grip faltered. Then, rolled forward, she executed her disarming manuever - twisting her arm to send the tonfo skittering across the floor, bumping into the discarded Artorius and lying prone feet away from the pair, where Lauren had pinned Ben only sixty seconds before. Disarmed and winded from his own weapon's blunt force, BASL's newest member had her opening.

Her ensnarement of her team leader began with the hard clang of her axe's steel shaft against the fine bones of the insides of Ben's wrists, and then a harder clang as she pinned them both to the floor. Slithering up along his average frame, Lauren planted both her knees on the insides of his biceps as he laid sprawled. This left her open for her real manuever - sitting on her legs, with her toes digging into the same soft flesh underneath the ribcage and her heels laying in wait above Ben's undefended hips, the tank wrapped her thighs around her opponent's head and squeezed hard, ensuring that she had a solid grip on his face.

"Sorry, Cap'n," she chuckle with an apologetic grin, just as her thighs twisted and sent Ben's head snapping to the right. That sent the Aura gauge dropping, and Lauren - heart starting to race in excitement - readjusted her position with the cruel precision an accurate hold required.

Secure the core. Finding the same spot under Ben's left ribs where Lawnslot had made contact, as well as his as-of-yet unwinded right ribs, Lauren's toes dug in hard, while she readied herself to slip backwards and bring her heels down hard on the bones of his hips if she had to.

Check.

Secure the arms. Lauren dug in with her knees harder into the soft, pinched skin of Ben's biceps, while she started to massage the fragile bones inside Ben's wrists with her axe's shaft like a rolling pin before bringing it just to a halt underneath the butts of his palms.

Give him a silver lining. Lauren squeezed her thighs almost playfully, as if to remind Ben that, hey, you could be in worse positions right now - even though only a handful of those positions would result in the kinds of repeated neck snappings Lauren Negasi had in store.

Aaaand...get ready.

Lauren tensed her legs and grip on the axe, ready for the second crack of Ben's neck.

Fuck.

A theorist would tell you that Aura prevents injury. Benjamin Lloyd would tell you that prevention of injury doesn't mean prevention of pain. Pain lanced through his head, his response urged on by the fact thathe was not going to go through that again. Lauren's stance gave her a lot of options, but she was too spread out. No solid base. 

Planting his feet solidly on the ground, he pushed his lower body up and pumped Aura into the muscles of his right arm, bringing the limb forward at the same time. The result destabilized Lauren's stance, and then exerted a tremendous amount of force to use her own grip to shove her off. Balance of probability, she'd be forced off of him. Even if she wasn't, she'd have to relinquish her grip on his head to keep from falling.

I've got more Aura. Need to get her off, and get a few good hits in. Released both batteries, so I've got a big stockpile.

I won't give up this match. Won't. Won't won't wont.

Lauren Negasi felt the tide turning yet again when Ben's waist bucked underneath her, and her feet began to slope in more and more of a decline. At the same time, she felt her axe give way underneath his arm - his goddamn Semblance -  and wobble as her mount slowly disintegrated on both ends. Instinctively, she moved to her right, rolling out of the way of his strike before Ben could use Deinamig and cleave her face in twain with a strike. Her aura was still hovering in that tenuous just-orange zone, enough to sustain several more hits from her team leader, but all the same his Aura bar was still resting at full - above full, thanks to those thrice-damned batteries. Any other opponent on the planet, and he'd be in the red right now.

But she could even that out.

Before Ben could even adjust his stance and tweak his neck. Lauren was flying at him from the side, closing the gap from mid-to-close range yet again with axe flying.

The first strike hit Ben's superpowered right arm when he turned to block it, and in the brief second that the axe made contact with his clothing he realized that Lauren had disarmed him before her latest mount; his tonfas still lay a foot from each other a yard away from their current positions. Ben was still weighing the thought of going after them and finishing Lauren off with a few shotgun volleys when he found himself back in the uncomfortable - and, lately, more and more familiar - position of being down on the ground while his newest teammate adopted a spider guard. Instinctively, Ben went to kick up again.

Lorena Negasi started to laugh.

Jumping up into the air, both her legs came down hard around the inside leg of her team captain, sweeping from a heel hook into a leg lock that only cinched down tighter by the second. Sitting upright, she tossed her axe from right palm to left and took it in her grip tightly. This is it. This is it. I've got him good this time. She watched Ben wince in pain, and knew that she had the match in the bag.

SCHWINK. SCHWINK.

As she watched, the Aura meter on his Scroll was whittling away, shrinking, shrinking. It was going to dip into orange any second...and there it was, orange. Same as hers. For a brief second, Lauren Negasi had the lead, and victory, between two rows of white, beaming teeth.

SCHWINK. SCHWINK. SCHWINKSCHWINKSCHWINKSCHWIIIIII--

WHAM

Ben, right arm still powered up from Dienamig, finally struck back hard and fast, sitting up the same way Lauren had and twisting his body - at the cost of any good feeling left in his legs - to deliver a hard punch right to his teammate's jaw. Watching her reel for a second, just out of range of his arm, her eyes set in new determination. That, he knew, fazed her. 

WHAM

WHAM

SCHWINK SCHWINK SCHWINK

The two BASL members had gone into full mutually assured destruction mode, Lauren beating into Ben's face with her axe like Lizzie Borden while Ben's right arm hammered away at her head. The dipping of their Auras, neck and neck, was almost lost to both of them.

"Forfeit?" Ben asked, pulling back his fist. Pusing as much extra Aura as he felt comfortable with into his arm, he gave Lauren the strongest grin he could muster through the soreness in his body. Despite her bravado, he was pretty sure his teammate was feeling the same way.

"Sorry for your loss," she quipped, tightening her grip on the axe and swinging with all the momentum she had in her, even when Ben's arm shot forward with the strength and speed of a--

WHASCHINK

...

...

...

"Owwwww."

Ben winced at the sliver of blood running down his cheek.

"I'm in the red," he said, with a heavy sigh and a congratulatory smile for Lauren - who, he noticed with a jolt as he looked up, was holding her eye gingerly. 

She slipped away from the leglock with the ease of a serpent and sat, cross legged, with as wide a grin on her face as she'd had during the fight itself. With a laugh, she let out a muffled "fuuuuck" through her palm and held up her Scroll with her free hand for Ben to see. Her eye stung as her face stretched out in a wider grin; no doubt her eye would blacken within the day.

"Don't beat yourself up," she replied good-naturedly, tapping her red Aura bar with her thumb. "I'm in the red."

With a lazy look towards Goodwitch, both members of BASL dropped into a prone position on the ground, complete with unison "ayys" and a single tired groan.

For a moment afterward, there was silence.  Evidently, a technical tie did not occur too often in Goodwitch's class.  A few seconds later, however, the combat instructor found her voice.  "Well done.  Such determination will serve the both of you well on the battlefield.  Full marks for each of you today.  If you need assistance, miss Dei will help you out."  The clock was nearing its end; more than likely, the duel between Ben and Lauren would mark the last match-up of the day.  There remained a few students who hadn't gotten the chance to fight yet, but with the impending deadline, combat class would be coming to a close shortly.
Plank Sinatra Member

the reaper won't come when you're ready for him

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