Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Screws fall out all the time"

Pandora Montgomery (pandacharms) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-05 20:04:00

Entry tags:

character: pandora montgomery, character: richard summerby

Who: Dora and Richard

What: Moving into the new flat

Where: Clink St.

When: around 3pm

Rating: SFW for now

Pandora made certain to be on time. She actually left early to make sure she could find it, and didn't have too much of a problem. She'd thrown all her (rather few) belongings into one of her self-made extra-dimensional containers and paid her landlord the last of what she owed him, dismantled her over-the-top wards, and headed on over. She didn't bother to wear long sleeves today, but enjoyed the cooler quality of short ones, and didn't bother to cover up her Mark.

After all, Richard already knew about it and had seen it before, and it was nice to have an element of comfort for once without having to hide parts of herself.

She pushed her hair back and looked around for Richard, knowing she was in the right place. This was a very nice area, and one she had a feeling she'd be more comfortable in than her former very poor housing. She'd grown up with money, and the last years had been rough in a way because it was so very different, though she was rather too proud to admit it.

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pandacharms
2014-10-06 11:52 pm UTC (link)

"Brilliant," she said. She'd be able to do a lot of work from here then, if she wished, and some of her best stuff happened at three in the morning when she couldn't sleep. "I'll do my best," she promised, though she could make no promise about accidental magic, though she was doing her best to not get that upset if she could help it.

Dora nodded. She was grateful to be able to monitor that much of it, it would make her feel a bit more secure. "Oh, yes, I was going to ask about Apparition," she said. "What about having other people in?" She wasn't the sort to casually key anyone into her wards; her trust didn't extend very far these days.

"I promise to try not to kill anyone," she told him in all seriousness. Most might think it a joke, but with her, it was serious. "I won't key up lethal wards." She couldn't promise on anything she'd do if she were actually attacked, but she tried to moderate her reactions. "I'll try to never put you in a position like that."

She flashed a smile and set down the bag she had slung over her back finally. "Let's go ahead and do a lesson," she said, eager to get started. Besides, he didn't need to know how little she actually had. "And talk about what kind of schedule and requirements you have of me."

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the_richard
2014-10-07 12:26 am UTC (link)

Richard shrugged as he led the way back out the door. "It's your flat. I only own your time during lessons, and if you travel with me as security. Your keyring has keys for the roof, the laundry in the basement, and the ground level entrance, which is locked at night. People can call up from the street phone for you to let them in."

He continued talking as he unlocked the door to the roof and went up the staircase. "I've learned to never say never about things like that. Shit happens."

The sat in chairs positioned so they could enjoy the skyline view across the river. "I'm out and about at 6am when I'm home. That will be your physical conditioning. Running, parkour once you are up to it, maybe some simple sparring. Evenings, say around 8pm, we'll get together for training, learning spells, simple exercises. I'm afraid you're going to have to find your own time for practice."

"Now, lesson one. I said I'm stingy with power. There is always someone bigger or stronger, or faster than you are. Fight like a miser. Conserve your resources. Use only what you need to in order to win. Most of what I'll teach you is wandless and wordless. There's no time for swish-swish-flick in a dark alley. You have to have absolute confidence in your magic and your combat skills. Have you had much practice with silent magic?"

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pandacharms
2014-10-07 12:50 am UTC (link)

"Just making certain for the wards," she said with a quick smile. Some people kept them tighter than others. She did look forward to exploring the wards when she had some time alone. "And you're welcome over any time." He was more than just a mentor.

Pandora followed him up the stairs, glancing around and taking it all in as she listened. "Well, I won't key them up unless something really bad happens. And I only promise to try not to kill anyone." Which was the best she could honestly do.

She nodded. "All right, 6am physical conditioning, 8pm learning. I can do practice on my own, I'm not worried about that. Every day, then, or do we get days off?" Not that she wouldn't find time to practice on a day off, but she wanted to know how to arrange her time now that things had changed.

She focused on what he was saying, though a lot of it was stuff she already believed in doing. It all especially applied to her for her size -- despite her surprising strength, she was smaller and many men would be stronger than her with a longer reach. She nodded at him firmly. "A fair amount," she said. "It was a good... survival mechanism to learn." Surrounded by much more dangerous Death Eaters, as a seventeen year old, she'd learned hard and fast and dirty how to do a lot of things witches twice her age might never want to learn. Her lips quirked up into a smirk, deepening more in one cheek. "You've not seen me duel in the last several years, I think."

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the_richard
2014-10-07 01:32 am UTC (link)

Rich laughed. "My schedule runs from hectic to insane. I'll try to keep you up to date as to when I'm around, but there are times I need to pop halfway around the world to take care of business. We'll work it out. I also do a fair share of broom racing and test flying on the weekends. I'll do my best to fit it with your work schedule and I'll try to give you things to practice on when I'm not around."

"Right then." His grin took a bit of a wicked twist as he stood up and started walking away from Dora. It was a simple enough spell. Any teenage boy worth his salt could Banish a bra. The real trick was banishing his suit, shirt, tie, and shoes while summoning his workout clothes and fighting robes from his flat without letting his pants flap in the breeze, and while moving. Between one step and the next his outfit was changed. As he turned to face her, a sword appeared in his hand in a low guard, magical fire running down the blade like water and dripping off the point, vanishing before it hit the roof. He brought his shield up with his left hand. It was a very economical shield, barely enough to cover his body and angled to deflect spells, rather than block them.

"Want to go for it luv?" he asked, still smiling. "Dueling is what you used to do."

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pandacharms
2014-10-07 02:39 am UTC (link)

"That works for me, and if something comes up on my end, I'll let you know." Because she did have a few obligations she attended to, and the occasional night out. "I do have a ball to attend coming up."

Her grin grew positively wicked as well. She vanished her robe which left her in the very comfortable tank top and capris yoga pants she'd fallen in love with a while back. A wave of her hand had a quick braid in her hair, and she tucked her wand in it with a smirk as she summoned her staff to her with one hand and created a shield much like Richard's with the other, but then her fingers quirked and ball of magic hovered over her palm. "I never stopped doing it, darling," she told him as she took her stance. "I just stopped competing for a bit." She might not yet be an expert in the staff, but it was obvious she was comfortable with it and skilled enough to do some damage, and her wand could be easily reached.

She had no delusions of winning against him with a sword, not yet. But like hell she wouldn't go down fighting. She'd won championships for a reason. Skill and a vicious edge.

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the_richard
2014-10-07 03:06 am UTC (link)

"I got an invitation too. Judging by the number of daughters in the family, it's another day on the meat rack for all the marriageable bachelors."

She looked good enough, Rich would give her that. Of course in a real fight he'd have been three bodies past her by now. Rather than using his shield for defense, he brought his sword up to block. It was uncharged, and could absorb rather a lot of magic. In fact, it would be Pandora's after the fight, at least hers until he could have the goblins do up a custom blade set for her.

As the blade rose, he used it to summon the chair she had been sitting in. It was still right behind her, and she was between it and him. He let some of the spell glance off her shield as if he had missed the cast. At the same time, letting his own shield coast for a moment, he used his left hand to throw a hotfoot jinx at her shoes. It was a small spell, almost household magic, and didn't take much power. He took two quick steps towards her to close the range as he took back control of his shield, and as he reinforced it, struck with the edge of it at her face, a full-strength shield smash, timing it to arrive about the same time the chair would. Things were about to get interesting.

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pandacharms
2014-10-07 04:25 am UTC (link)

"Better watch my aunt then," Pandora said with a cheeky grin. "She's been looking to foist me off on any rich wizard she can find since I got out of Azkaban."

She waited, perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet. She felt rather than heard the faint scrape the chair made as it began to move; her shoes had been charmed all her life for sensitivity given her disability. She'd long since processed it as naturally as anything else. She waited just long enough, though not idly, so he wouldn't think anything of it. She flicked a few annoying spells at him.

As his shield approached, Pandora dropped to the side like a puppet with her strings cut. The shield got just a bit of her head. She ignored the pain, going into a rollto keep from being run over by the chair. On the way down, though, her wrist flicked and rolled, tossing conjured sand up at his face from where she was behind the shield; the rest of the wrist roll flung a vicious stinging hex at his groin.

In the roll, she swung the staff around toward his knees, just enough power that she could break something of his at the correct angle. The other arm kept the shield up above her. She moved quickly, like the snakes of her house, and evenas the staff swung she cast with it, a sweeping jelly leg jinx. She kept moving, doubting he would stop either; she was always quick on her feet. She refused to be put down in the first minute of their fight. She would make him work for it.

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the_richard
2014-10-07 04:53 am UTC (link)

Pandora surprised Rich with the sand to the eyes, and he was forced to close them. She'd forgotten about the building wards. It wouldn't be fair to use them to attack, but he could also use them to see, just as she could, and he'd had almost four years practice with them. So he used the tip of the sword to swat the groin shot back at her while he caught the chair left-handed and jammed it down on the roof between them.

Using only mental control, he cupped his shield and slammed it down on top of the woman while another part of his head counted down the hotfoot. Catching the low line attacks coming with his altered vision, he did a one-handed handstand on the back of the chair, letting his momentum carry him into a front flip toward his opponent.

He grunted as the jelly legs caught a bit of him, but between absorbing most of the power with his sword, and the defensive spells on his robe, it hurt but had no real effect.

Rich had spotted the way Pandora had eyed the sword, so he started a fairly slow cut with it. She would have to block with that staff or hers or risk getting cut. As his mental timer on the hotfoot jinx reached zero, he closed his shield into a ball around her, the classic Aurora's scoop and catch.

He bounced a few steps backwards to see what she'd do next, shaking his head to clear the sand from his eyes.

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pandacharms
2014-10-07 07:09 am UTC (link)

Something in the air told Pandora the shield was coming, probably the sweeping compression of air, and she allowed it to press her back into another backwards roll. Her feet felt warm and she knew she'd missed something, but she'd deal with it as it came.

She was rather wishing her regular dueling outfit wasn't at the very bottom of her trunk. However, she'd make do without rhe spelled robes. She rolled back to her feet and shot several spells his way with her staff, aimed seemingly willy-nilly; some went with hot little burns at various body parts, some fizzed out near his feet, looking much like a firework. Her left hand drew the DisIllusioned knife from the belt that left her usually only to sleep.

The blade, held back against her forearm, reached about three quarters of the length of it. Instead of backing away from his blade, she stepped more into the attack, for it was slow and even if it did cut her around her own blade it wouldn't be bad, and he had no real time to add more momentum to it. Pain didn't frighten her; a year of Cruciatus had taught her to disassociate to an almost dangerous degree. The butt of her staff swung toward his gut in a short, hard move.

Dora almost missed the surge of his shield scooping around her. She barely popped her own shield around her and sent a surge of magic out before his closed, distracted for half a second by her hot feet. She Banished her shoes with a thought and pressed on her magic in her shield, shoving his with her and pressing forward. She sheathed her knife and drew her wand, sketching a rune in the air and pressing it through her shield onto his, an inverted Algiz, the opposite of protection.

She'd gotten the idea at the beginning of her apprenticeship six months ago, and she'd only experimented with Master Flitwick a few times, but it had a corrosive quality to such spells, though she had no good datum on how long it would take to help her break shields of others yet. She smiled sharply and pushed on, being the distraction while the magic she'd thrown previously sprouted and whipped around at his extremities, a rather virulent and very short lived poison ivy spell she'd invented for a duel in Romania where she'd won against a vicious bastard who'd put her in the hospital the previous time they'd duelled. There was still a dull throb in her feet, and she just then noticed some blood sheeting down, making her wand a bit slick. He was wearing her down, but her day at work had been long as well. She hated knowing she'd probably lose, but at least it would be a learning experience.

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the_richard
2014-10-07 02:15 pm UTC (link)

She was game enough. Rich gave her that. But she hadn't listened, didn't know, how to fight like a miser. She kept throwing spell after spell, which he either blocked, absorbed, ignored, or healed as he moved in.

The dissolution attack on his shield was a bit of genius magic, and would have taken someone who hadn't trained as an Auror right out of the fight. But Rich had conserved enough energy previously to have plenty to spare for a few moments. He used his shield to pick up Pandora inside her shield and shook her like a maraca a few times.

Under the cover of doing that, he cast a major stun trap on his sword. As soon as his shield stopped moving, he thrust the sword through his shield and into hers and set up an energy conduit, draining her shield and dumping power into his.

He let go of the sword, a major temptation for her to strike at it with her staff and trigger the trap. As he backed away he cast a body bind trap on the roof in front of him. Dora had been ready to follow him and attack, he'd see if she would chase him this time and run into the trap that waited for her.

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pandacharms
2014-10-08 05:37 am UTC (link)

The first shake snapped her head back, and it made her angry to be rattled about like a ragdoll. Her ambigiously colored eyes flashed and she braced on her own shield, balance held on it in a very dance like stance. She dropped it the moment she felt the drain start, landing on her feet like a cat and pushing off in a sudden dash of movement, already certain of what she wanted to do. He wasn't the sort to just let go of a weapon. She leapt onto the chair he'd left on the field of battle, eyes flicking across what terrain she had available to her. Besides, it was the best spot for the spell she wanted to cast.

She spun her staff in a fsst, controlled movement over her head and leapt back down, slamming the head of it on the ground and sending a large, strong wave of magic reverberating over the ground. Called misappropriately the Time Slow Charm, it bound conditions around one where it slowed their reactions by something like thickening the air while the caster remained unaffected. It definitely didn't fall under Rich's conservation rule, but sometimes it was go big or go home. She wouldn't have long, considering the spelled quality of his sword that left her at a severe disadvantage especially without her spelled robes and boots. Well, at least he'd have a nasty case of poison ivy to heal from that one spell. She was sure it had touched his skin.

Her staff apparently hit the unseen Body Bind trap and was ripped from her hands in a flurry of magical bindings. She grunted and took the punishment to her ribs and arm, shooting tingling pain down it, and dashed through the spelled area, knife in one hand and wand in the other. She didn't even realize that her knife glinted with magic, something she'd yet the practice. She formed a hard shield and slammed it at him, hard.

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the_richard
2014-10-08 06:33 am UTC (link)

"What a clever little Snake," was Richard's first reaction, as Pandora ignored the sword and let it fall to the roof. And then her spell almost brought a smile to his face as he dropped back into fighting stance. A beautiful variation on the Italian Lentamente, the Time Slow. Unfortunately for his opponent, he regularly used the International Apparation point in Rome and had become good friends with one of the Italian Auror, Ravelli, who had taught him the Corsican Counter.

And her reengagement, another thing of beauty. Despite the loss of her shoes, and then her staff, there she was charging down on him, wand in one hand, that knife of hers in the other. He took special note of the wild magic running over the blade. Wonderful instincts that really just needed training.

He'd have understood 'go big or go home'. Sometimes it was the only way you got to go home. And everything about Pandora's fighting style was big. Time to show her what being a miser let you do.

Martial artists called it ki, the centering of self, the point of focus. The object was to put all of yourself into the point of attack, maximum damage from minimum movement. He gathered the tiniest bit of his own shield to protect his knuckles, timed the advance of Pandora's shield with a Master's eye, and with a shouted, "Eeeyah!" put all of his ki and all of his strength into a single punch straight into the heart of the shield attack. A martial arts training fight was a rigorous as any duel, and usually a lot more violent. In past competitions Richard had shattered shields, even to the point of causing a recoil on the shield user. He flowed through the punch, and into the preparation for an asuto gari, a throw used against a person armed with a blade by one unarmed. It wouldn't do to underestimate the woman.

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pandacharms
2014-10-08 07:48 am UTC (link)

Shite was her first thought as her shield shattered. Pandora managed to turn her shoulder slightly where the recoil didn't quite send her back, though she did feel it. With most other opponents, she still might have gotten somewhere, but she could tell from his body language he had some move up his sleeve.

She knew it was best to stay out of reach of those hands. She was moving too fast to stop or turn, and with a mental sigh she knew what to do. A small part of her mind went 'this is going to hurt later,' but right now it would take something huge to knock her into pain enough to distract.

Dora dropped to her knees just outside his reach, still moving, sliding across the floor. She distantly felt the abrasions and wistfully wished for her boots or robes. Or both. She crossed her arms into an X in front of her face protectively, knife and wand still in hand, and pretty much barrelled straight at his legs from close distance at a pretty decent speed.

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the_richard
2014-10-08 08:18 am UTC (link)

Rich couldn't help but wince mentally as Dora did a skidding knee drop onto the roof. That's going to leave a mark, he said to himself.

When your enemy attacks, be elsewhere, Sun Tsu had said. While he didn't think her move was as much attack as desperation, that was still a sound principal. He'd already shifted his weight to his left leg and started to raise his right foot in preparation for the throw he'd planned. It was only a slight redirection of movement to step where her arms crossed and hop off his planted left leg as she slid through where he had been standing.

Still letting Dora do most of the work, and knowing both her knife and wand would be pinned for an instant he let her body catch his left toe, used her momentum to start his rotation as he threw a front flip with a half twist off her crossed arms. It was a pretty move, close and tight, landing on his toes and dropping to his knees behind her as Pandora slid to a stop. It would have been good for at least a 9.5 unless the Russian judge skunked the scoring.

He let all the magic he'd been holding ready ease off and pressed the tip of his index finger to the base of her skull. "Oops," he said quietly. "Want to talk about it after I've done some healing? And what is this damned itchy thing you threw at me?"

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pandacharms
2014-10-08 08:33 am UTC (link)

Dora grunted as all the sudden she had him somehow how her crossed arms. She had a flicker of gratitude as she didn't smash into his knees, however, as she really hadn't been looking forward to that. She flipped her hands up in acknowledgement that he had her to rights in this one.

She went ahead and simply flopped back onto the roof, knees still bent under her, not really caring as she focussed on her breathing. "Good match. That was brilliant," she told him genuinely, looking up at him from the ground and not caring. She'd held her own enough she was proud. "And healing would probably be good. I'm not really sure what's wrong with me yet." She would have to look herself over; she could, distantly, feel hurts, but her mind still wasn't terribly connected to them.

She smirked at him. "My own charm. A particularly virulent type of poison ivy. Itches like fuck, don't it?" She rolled onto her stomach and carefully stretched her legs straight, not really keen on rolling back and looking at the damage. "I think this is going to hurt tomorrow."

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the_richard
2014-10-08 09:01 am UTC (link)

"Right. Didn't even think to look to the plant world for a counter. He popped easily to his feet and walked over to the abandoned sword, sending his fighting robes back to his flat and keeping only his workout clothes. Picking up the sword he deactivated the trap spell, pushing the released magic into the blade. "This is yours, by the way. At least until I get the goblins to make you your own set. Partly charged with your own magic, too. Roll over and grab it. It will give you something to think about while I see what you've done to yourself."

Rich handed the blade hilt-first to Dora and reached down the back of his collar for his healing wand. "Obviously, this did not happen, I am not a healer." He touched the tip of the wand to the side if his neck and whispered a small spell. "Now, I can immobilize your legs while I do this or you can hold real still for me. Cleaning up what you did to your knees will be delicate work if I don't want to leave any scars."

He touched the tip of his wand to the knot he'd given her on the side of the head to take away the pain and the lump. That sort of thing he could still do quick and easy. When you'd trained to heal dragons, you worked fast and did big magics. But during the war Alicia had taught him delicate work, people healing. It didn't make him a real healer, but he was as good as any of the trauma healers at St. Mungoes.

"And the next thing for you to think about after you decide what sort of a patient you'll be, is where did things start going wrong for you when we fought?"

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pandacharms
2014-10-08 11:40 am UTC (link)

"I invented it after this damned Romanian wizard put me in the hospital during a duel. Showed him next time we dueled." Dora sighed and rolled back over and sheathed her knife before reaching for the handle of the blade, holding it above her, completely ignoring her legs. "So what all does it do when charged?" She asked curiously.

"I know nothing," she intoned, though she kept an eye on him as he used his wand on her. She levered herself up more sitting and winced reflexively at her legs, more at the sight than anything. "Well that's a bitch," she said, wiggling her toes. She tugged up the fabric a bit on one side, wrinkling her nose. "I can hold still. I'm not really feeling it yet. And my vanity would appreciate the lack of scars, please." She eyed him as he fixed the bump on her head, which had been her biggest worry up til then, if she were honest, even though her arm still slowly bled.

She lay back down, leaving her legs half bent and accessible in front of her while she went back to studying the sword a few inches from her face. "Well they started to go wrong when I locked and warded my trunk and didn't grab my robe and boots beforehand," she stated matter of factly. "You had the advantage on me from the start with that. That, and you had the home ground."

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