Thalia Grace (wasatree) wrote in expresslogs, @ 2012-10-21 22:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | jason grace, {thalia grace |
WHO: Jason Grace and Thalia Grace
WHAT: Sparring
WHEN: Before Narnia
WHERE: Chance Car
WARNINGS: Low
STATUS: Closed/G’doced
Jason was restless. Unlike some of the others, he hadn’t had a chance to get off the train since he’d been here, and his battle reflexes simply weren’t finding themselves stretched by the few mortals he’d found willing to fight on the train. He’d always had to hold back, which had kept it from being nearly as fun as it could have been.
But with Thalia...well, he woudn’t have to hold back anything. And that was going to feel great. He’d finally get a chance to let out all his frustrations about being trapped on the train, all his worries about the people counting on him back home...and just...fight. There was a reason they had their battles at Camp Jupiter, or their games of Capture the Flag at Camp Halfblood. You just couldn’t leave that many halfbloods with nothing to do - they’d go mad. And that was exactly what Jason was feeling right now.
Making his way to her room with a spring in his step, he rapped on the door.
“Ten o’clock, Thalia. You ready?”
“Just a sec!” came Thalia’s voice from the other side of the door.
But she didn’t even need that long, as she opened the door even before she was finished. She was dressed for a no-nonsense beatdown (or an attempt at a beatdown) of her brother, with cropped sweatpants, a t-shirt, and her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Unlike Jason, she’d had a chance to spar with Percy and Luke and Buffy, so she wasn’t wound up with unspent energy like he was, but in her view, one could never get enough sparring in. There was no telling when the next monster would decide that it wanted a tasty demigod meal, after all. Even here, when there had been no sign of any monster attacks, she wasn’t about to get out of shape.
“This is gonna be so fun,” she enthused as she stepped out into the hallway to join him. She’d left her bow and arrows in the room, but she’d brought her spear and shield with her. She needed more practice with them.
Jason grinned a bit impishly, his blue eyes twinkling with both delight and excitement. He needed this so much, and he had no doubt that Thalia would be a respectable opponent, even if she didn’t win. He certainly wasn’t about to underestimate her. He was dressed much the same as she was - sweats, a purple t-shirt, tennis shoes, and in his hand he clutched the gold coin that was his weapon.
His eyes were practically snapping with electricity, he was so looking forward to this fight.
“Yeah, it is. So...we should probably say from the start what’s off limits. No biting, at least.”
“What?” Thalia said with mock surprise. “That’s half of my tactics right there!”
She obviously wasn’t serious, though, and she continued the conversation as they made their way down to the chance car. “No eye gouging. In fact, let’s just leave the eyes alone.”
“Right. No eye gouging. No biting. No...kicking in sensitive places. No actual stabbiness. No...maiming or killing or anything permanent. Other than that...no holds barred?”
He put an arm around his sister rather patronizingly.
“And I’ll try not to embarrass you too much.”
Thalia took opportunity of their close proximity to elbow him in the ribs, and none-too-gently at that. “Oh, you are so asking for it,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to beat you down and make you cry.”
She had no doubt that her brother was a good fighter - one didn’t get raised by wolves and then got to be Praetor of the Roman camp by being a lightweight - but she was no slouch herself. Jason might’ve been trained by the Wolf Goddess, but Thalia had been trained by the Goddess of the Hunt. Besides, she’d battled monsters much scarier than her brother.
Without a lot of ambrosia on hand, they weren’t ever going to be able to go full out on each other as they might’ve back at camp, but it’ll do for now. Thalia hadn’t actually fought anyone with powers of electricity before, so that’d be a nice change as well.
“Make me cry?” Jason scoffed, raising an eyebrow in amusement. “I’m not two anymore, Thalia. You can’t make me cry by stealing my cookies. And you’re certainly not going to make me cry by beating me at battle.”
He poked his sister back in the ribs in retaliation, but with an impish grin on his face. He knew that Thalia was going to be a good fighter - he’d seen her fighting at the Wolf House and only a fool could deny her skill. But he was pretty confident in his own skills, as well. After all, he’d defeated a Krios single handed, and while his sister was powerful, she wasn’t a Titan.
“We’ll see,” Thalia said with a chuckle. Despite her trash-talking, however, she knew that Jason was going to put up a really good fight and could possibly beat her. That was fine. She’d sulk over it a bit, but she was just happy she was getting a real challenge.
They were at the door of the chance car now, and she wriggled her fingers theatrically before glancing at him with a grin. “Okay, let’s see what the magic car has in store for us today.”
Jason grabbed the door handle, winking at his sister before dramatically opening the door, looking inside and grinning broadly as his eyes flickered around. He couldn’t help but let out a burst of laughter as he saw the expensive looking china lining the walls, and on tables all over the floor.
“Oh, gods, this is going to be brilliant.”
"Oh my gods, it gave us a china shop?" Thalia stepped in and got a load of all the delicate plates and cups in the place."We're gonna destroy it."
Then, picking up a plate with cats painted on it, she made a face. "Okay, we definitely need to destroy it. It's obviously evil."
Jason flipped the coin, catching his javelin easily.
“Oh. Without a doubt. This place needs to go. This may just be the most fun I’ve had in a fight in my life.”
He grinned at Thalia, a cute little smile that was ruined by the mischievous glint in his eye.
Thalia took out her mace canister. It elongated in her hand into her spear, and she twirled it experimentally, testing the dimensions of the aisle.
"Just try not to trip over and broken glass," she said with a grin. Then, without warning, she hurled the plate she'd been holding at Jason, and leapt after it.
Jason leapt straight up, his battle reflexes as quick as ever, summoning the air currents in the room just enough to keep him aloft until the plate - and his sister - passed him by, then flipped to land behind her, javelin at the ready.
“Nice try, sis,” he smirked. “But you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Thalia had realized that Jason wasn’t going to be where she thought he’d be just before she got there, so she was able to twist back around to face him. That little floaty trick was neat, she had to admit. Didn’t make her any more inclined to want to use it, though.
“I’m just warming up,” she told him cheerfully. Anyway, it was always good to test out the capabilities of your opponent before really rushing in.
“I should hope so,” he grinned. “Otherwise this is going to be way too easy.”
He grinned and raised his javelin - not to throw at her, but he began to spin it, his smile broadening as it began knocking the china off the walls as he pushed closer to his sister.
She needed to get out of the space she’d landed in, but she wasn’t going to be able to get out with him coming at her with china plates flying. What she needed was a good foothold to launch herself over him, given her lack of air control.
Thalia kept her right hand on holding her spear, ready to use it, but with her free hand she started throwing things at him: cups, dishes, soup bowls, price displays. She needed to disrupt his momentum.
Jason raised an eyebrow and grinned a little crookedly as she began throwing china at him. Some of them he simply knocked out of his way with his javelin, and he was more than a little tempted to simply start a nice little tornado with the rest. A swirling wall of broken cups and saucers to protect him from whatever his sister had in mind.
Eh, why not.
Calling the wind to him, he put himself at the center of the vortex.
“Come on, Thalia, you can do better than that.”
“Oh, you know I can,” Thalia replied, continuing to chuck plates at him. The vortex was a nice trick, but the problem with having flying pieces of china around you was that once the pieces got thick enough, it was going to be hard to see. Thalia was counting on that, because she was planning to be in a different spot than he’d expected when he finally dropped the vortex, with her charged knives at the ready.
That was, indeed, a problem that Jason hadn’t forseen. The debris was too thick to see through, and by the time he freed the winds and let it crash to the ground, Thalia was nowhere to be seen. It took him a second to locate her - and in that second he knew that showing off his wind powers to her had been a mistake. At least, showing them off as much as he had.
Because Thalia was already leaping towards him, a knife in each hand, her face glowing with the thrill of the fight. Static crackled along the metal blades of the knives, and she let it loose in quick succession, with one blast of electricity at him after the next.
Jason wasn’t particularly afraid of electricity, but that wasn’t to say taking a big dose of it didn’t sting. And he was more used to using it as a weapon than defending himself against it.
“Ow!” he cried, as a blast hit him, knocking him back a few feet. The distance let him recover his composure, however, and he gripped his javelin, his own fingers sparking with electric charge, and his eyes on fire. He’d never fought someone else who could use electricity, and it added a delicious challenge.
There was a part of Thalia - the Big Sister part - that cringed upon seeing her little brother in pain, but she squashed that thought. When it came to sparring, all bets were off, and she wasn’t going to do him any favours by holding back anyway. Besides, she wasn’t going to let her kid brother beat her.
Taking advantage of her first success, Thalia activated her spear again and leapt at Jason, hoping to catch him while he was still recovering.
Jason wasn’t ready to use all his energy summoning lightning yet, but that didn’t mean that electricity was off limits. After all, he’d been able to take care of Khione quite sufficiently with just the charge he held inside himself. Summoning that from within, and using his javelin as a way to guide and direct it, he threw a charge at Thalia, wondering if she - like him - would be entirely off guard at how to defend herself against such an attack.
Thalia dealt with it the same as she did with any attack: she threw up her left arm, and Aegis popped into place. The shield absorbed the charge, but it threw Thalia back several feet into a rack of china plates. The entire top two shelves fell to the ground, shattering, and Thalia gasped as the current went through her body, leaving her feeling singed and the loose strands of hair standing on end.
It was only due to years of training in the woods that she managed to find her footing on the slick shards of china. Eyes narrowing, she studied Jason for a moment, looking for a weak spot that she could exploit.
“Nice hair,” he grinned, despite the fact that he was feeling rather singed himself. He hadn’t missed the fact that the room was beginning to smell like a thunderstorm, or that he had a big singed hole in his t-shirt. His skin had totally escaped any sort of injury, of course, other than the tingly feeling that extra electricity produced. But he didn’t mind that. In the time it had taken her to get to her feet, Jason had fallen into a very defensive posture. He knew that she was going to want to get revenge for getting knocked on her butt, and he was determined not to let her. Or at least...try not to let her.
Jumping a bit too high for a mortal, with just a little help from the air, he landed on a broad shelf on top of her, keeping the winds rotating around him to offset his weight on the shelves. Looking down at her, he grinned and flipped his weapon to the air, catching it this time as a sword.
“You’re giving me the advantage,” he taunted. “You’re giving me the advantage by being afraid.”
“Like Tartarus I am,” Thalia retorted. There was a part of her that knew that he was just trying to rile her up, but she was okay with that. As long as she didn’t let it get to her to the point of making a mistake, she could use her anger to power her attacks against him.
But first, she had to knock him off his perch - easily done by yanking the shelf down from under him.
He wasn’t expecting such a simple tactic, and before he knew it, he’d smacked into the floor flat on his butt, his sword clattering out of his reach. Well, that was embarrassing. He was more than a little glad that his legion hadn’t been around to see that. Or even Percy Jackson. Well, at least in his favor, he was still conscious. He’d come to learn that that was far from being a given for him in any particular fight.
Scrambling to his feet, his sword on the other side of Thalia, he scowled at her. He was unarmed - as much as a son of Jupiter ever could be - but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. If nothing else, he was brave, and he’d fight to win until he could no longer get up.
Now it was Thalia's turn to do some taunting. "Not so high and mighty now, are you, little brother?"
She didn't give him time to respond, though, because she didn't want to give him time to regroup and give up her advantage. She kicked a pile of shattered china up in the direction of his face, and went in for what she hoped was going to be the finishing blow with her spear while she had him distracted.
Jason was able to whisk the china away from his face so as not to gain himself anymore scars, but it kept him from getting his sword, or getting into any position where he could attack. Still, he scrambled to his feet, finding himself nearly flattened against the wall, with no good means of escape and Thalia’s spear at his chest.
His fighting reflexes, the part of him that didn’t understand that Thalia wouldn’t really kill him - were causing his heart to race, and his fight or flight reflex to go wild. They saw the end coming and were in complete panic mode. He swallowed, trying to control his emotions. He’d been in much worse situations than this, against enemies that really were looking for blood.
He threw up his hands and offered her a cute little smile.
“I let you win, of course.”
Thalia snorted and pressed the tip of her spear a little more firmly against his chest - not enough to break skin, but enough to make him pay a little more attention. "Keep telling yourself that, kid."
On the whole, she was satisfied with her performance, though, and set aside her spear to offer him her hand. "Nice trick with all the air stuff."
He took her hand and let her pull him steady, then wiped the dirt from his singed clothing.
“Yeah. You could probably do it too, you know. Really. Not just giving you a hard time. You probably could.”
After seeing Jason put it in action, Thalia had to admit that it would be pretty useful. Even if she didn't use it to fly, that vortex thing had been really cool. She bit her lip in thought, then nodded. "Teach me?"
“Sure, I’d love to,” he said with a warm smile. “But why don’t we go for best two of three first?”
Despite the fact that Thalia's t-shirt was still smoking a little, she laughed. "You're on. But let's step out and get another setting. I think we've pretty much destroyed this one."
“It was fun, too,” he grinned. And it was, even if he did lose. That was a bit humbling. Jason Grace was not used to losing.
“But yeah, let’s find something else to break. And...maybe should we change? Or just stay singed?”
“Doesn’t matter," Thalia said with a shrug. Then again, she wasn’t the one with the hole in her shirt. She was pretty singed and sweaty, though, so she wouldn’t mind a change of clothes either.
In either case, she was heading back out the door of the compartment. The china shop had been fun; she was curious to see what else was in store for them.