Work It! (Open)

[Horo]

    Horo walked out from the gym building with a hand shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight. . Today she wore tight black boy shorts and a red sports bra to accommodate the humidity and heat. The dark grey clouds were thankfully rolling away and taking the rain they had brought with them. Now the sky was blue, the grass was green and wet and Horo was ready to get started. ”Alright, the rain’s stopped and the sun shines like my glory! Wonderful, simply splendid.” Horo began to stretch her arms, legs and back, showing off her toned body. She took a look behind herself as the sound of the large doors fell shut and waved to Jena.

    Jena smiled as the wet water tickled her toes. At Horo’s suggestion, her outfit was new consisting of a light blue frilly skirt, a short sleeve white button up blouse and a pink vest also buttoned up. Jena enjoyed being dressed modestly in while in public and she was actually surprised that Horo had the fashion sense to accommodate her style. ”Horo, thank you for the outfit. I really like it.” Jena looked around the ground for a dry spot to sit, projecting an emotion of slight worry. Jena didn’t want to ruin her new outfit on the wet grass and mud.

    Horo gave a “don’t worry about it” wave back to Jena as the kind girl thanked her. Horo absorbed the praise with pride, but she liked acting a bit modest every now and again. Feeling the worry flow off Jena, Horo guessed that it was concerning the welfare of the outfit so she got to work. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath Horo began feeling out the vibrations of the water and lifting them into the air. The droplets caused millions of rainbows to appear scattered around the lawn. Soon all of the moisture was out of a small section of grass where Jena would be able to safely sit. Horo moved the water to the side and began to concentrate it into a single large droplet.

    Jena took a few steps back as Horo cleared a stop for her to sit. Nothing but amazement and gratitude came from Jena as she admired the rainbows and then took a set on the now dry grass. Jena took note of the grass’s amazement that Horo hadn’t removed any moisture from inside of them or the area around their roots, but some blades did comment on how the water was needed for survival. “I can ask her to put it back if you want.” Jena said to the vegetation. The grass swayed as a small breeze floated past and with a nod Jena spoke up. “Captain Horo, the ground is going to need that water back after you’re done.”

    Horo’s eyes opened as the droplet came to completion. It was around 6 feet in diameter and floating about 12 feet off the ground. She looked over to Jena and smiled. “Alright, Jena.” Horo said with a grunt as she tried to keep the sphere intact. Horo released another deep breath and slowly nodded. “Alright, let’s begin.”

[Sabata]

The bright sunny day wasn't particularly great for someone whose skin tanned about as well as ants under a magnifying glass, however Aislin decided to take a walk that day. For a safety precaution (she would regenerate any skin damage, but that didn't make a sun burn anymore pleasant when one was received) she carried a red parasol she had recently bought. Some sun block before she walked out the door was a nice addition as well. The sun block was probably an especially good touch considering she had removed the sweater she typically wore since it seemed like it would get hot that day, leaving her in the white camisole that she wore under it.

It was a lovely day, and the weather made it seem like absolutely nothing could go wrong. An interesting sight caught Aislin's eye though, that would be the massive sphere of moisture floating in the air and two girls who appeared to be students standing (well, one was standing, one was sitting) there. With her interest piqued, Aislin approached the two, curious about what was going on exactly.

Assuming the standing girl who appeared to be concentrating was the one making the water float, Aislin decided to question her. "How are you doing that? It's quite an impressive feat." Aislin inquired. She could likely replicate the task using her gravity based magic, but still, it was a feat since it seemed like the girl with wolf-like ears wasn't using gravity magic. Maybe she had good water control, maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, Aislin felt like learning.

[Horo]

    Jena was about to stand up and walk over to greet the new woman, but as her hand touched the ground, Aislin began to speak with Horo. She shifted to save face and regain her comfort on while listening. Since Aislin wasn’t talking to Jena, she wouldn’t force the connection.

    Horo slowly turned her head to face Aislin. A bead of sweat dropped from her face and began to run down her chest as she took in the breath needed to speak. “I have the power called Pulse, same as Professor Giovanni.” Horo began to compress the sphere of moisture until the atoms aligned in a crystal form and it became a spherical block of ice. Horo placed it gently on the ground and with her left arm wiped the sweat from her forehead. She rubbed her hand on her shorts before kindly offering it to Aislin. "I’m Horo, Captain of the Quickstepp club. She is my comrade and close friend Jena, she’s an empathy, talks to nature, hugs trees and stuff, and it is cute.” Horo looked back at the block of ice and placed her other hand forward, resuming her focus.

    Jena took that as her queue to begin speaking with the new girl. She stood up and walked over giving a curtsy to Aislin. “Hello, my name is Jena. It is nice to meet you.” Jena turned towards Horo and smiled “She’s training for that QiLong tournament, don’t mind her thought. She is like this with everyone. What is your name? Do you have any other questions for her?" By speaking with Aislin, Jena created the connection and could feel the curiosity that Aislin felt.

    Horo spread her fingers out and broke the one sphere into ten smaller chunks that she then reformed each chunk into a sphere of water. By moving a finger she could control a sphere and she began to make them dance through the air. “You’re in luck. I’ve recently learned more about my powers from Professor Giovanni, Pulse is the ability to control frequencies of vibration that all matter has. By controlling them I can effectively force my will upon all matter. Or, that is the short version Giovanni feels comfortable giving me.” Horo brought her fingers together and recreated the large sphere of water, moved it back to where Jena had been sitting and returned it to the ground.

     Jena clapped at Horo’s performance and offered her hand for a high five as Horo joined the two women. Horo gave it to her (the high five) before sitting her hands on her hips. Jena smiled and looked back to Aislin. “What are your powers?” Horo nodded, wiping her hands on her chest before scratching herself behind the ear. “I’m also interested in who you are.” Jena quickly turned to Horo “I already asked her that. Her name is:” Horo raised her hand to silence Jena “I know, but I’m talking about who she is as a person. Character. I’m looking for more members to join my club, and you look refined and well kept. I’m thinking you would be a good addition.”

[Sabata]

Professor Giovanni . . . Aislin tried to recall the name and see if she was aware of the man's powers. Once both girls had introduced themselves, Aislin spoke. "My name is Aislin. I'm pleased to meet you Horo. I'm pleased to meet you too, Jena." Aislin commented.

Aislin couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going through Horo's mind. She seemed like she might be in her own world really, but Aislin wouldn't criticize someone she has barely had the opportunity to meet yet. Well, not much, anyways. Horo definitely seemed to suffer from "delusions of grandeur." "I'd thought about joining that tournament, I'm not much of a fighter though. My magic is good, though I'm trying to work on my actual combat skills." Aislin said. Not that she thought her powers were that interesting anyways. Some people at the academy had truly bizarre or fantastic powers, not anything as simple as a force of physics.

Pulse sounds like a useful ability if one can get the hang of it . . . Aislin contemplated as Horo explained her abilities and how they work. She'd have to see if the library had anymore information on this power, if for no other reason than it seemed practical enough.

"My powers aren't anything as interesting as Pulse, just gravity." Aislin replied to Jena's question. To demonstrate she lifted Jena a bit off of the ground, then set her down again. That was a simple enough task. "I'm not entirely comfortable answering such a broad question, however, I would be happy to join your club. I do need more friends at the academy." Aislin replied to Horo.

[Horo]

    Horo smiled “The pleasure is all mine. I enjoy networking with new students.” Jena was quick to add in her own nod and comment. “And I like making new friends! Although I understand your plight. I’m not much of a fighter either.” Horo gave Jena a pat on the back, her sweaty hand left a slight wet stain on her vest. “Not everyone was meant to fight. I’m not nearly strong enough but with my pulse.” Horo lifted a rock off the ground and brought it up to her face. “Maybe I’ll stand a chance against them.”

    Horo forced the rock to float out to the side and smiled at Aislin. “Well Aislin, let this be your initiation into the Quickstepp club. Anyone modest enough not to talk about themselves is bound to be good company for someone like me. I need all the modesty to counteract my lack of modesty.” With her free hand Horo pointed to the rock. “What I want you to do is slowly increase the gravity pulling the rock towards the Earth and vice versa. I’m going to try my hardest to hold the rock at this level. I’m guessing you’ll know how many times gravity the rock is exerting on the Earth, so once I fail, let me know how I did.”

    Jena began taking a few steps back from Aislin and Horo, fearing that the Captain was going to begin lifting things into the air by trying so hard not to let one thing drop. While Horo’s powers didn’t work like that, Jena still felt the irrational fear feeding it to both Horo and Aislin. Horo’s ears began to twitch as her mind started to race. “Why am I afraid?” she asked herself quietly, trying to push the emotions out of her mind.

[Sabata]

"You could always take up Martial Arts and enhance them with your pulse abilities. I'm sure you could become very formidable that way." Aislin commented. Jena seemed to be a bit of an odd one. She was very soft spoken and Aislin couldn't entirely tell what she was doing with Horo. Jena certainly didn't seem to be helping any with the training at that particular moment. Horo was rather strange too, given her very open lack of modesty and her quite boisterous personality.

"I can do that. It seems like good training." Aisling replied to Horo. Now, don't overdo it, you've trained your gravity magic heavily and use it every day. You don't want to overwhelm her for some basic training. Aislin thought to herself as she began to concentrate on increasing the gravity exerted on the rock. She started increasing in small increments, then slowly increased the gravity to higher and higher amounts, eventually reaching the gravity levels of a very dense gas giant.

Meanwhile, she felt fear creeping into her mind, and wrote it off as having not used her magic for a purpose like this. Still, it was odd, given there was nothing really to fear all that much. The purpose of the magic in this case was quite innocuous, making the sensation of fear that Aislin felt all the more bizarre. She needed to keep concentrating on helping Horo trained. She was nervous though, if she kept increasing Gravity higher than she already had, she wasn't sure what would happen once Horo could no longer lift the rock.

[Horo]

    It was an idea, to use martial arts to supplement her pulse abilities. Her punches wouldn’t be worthless and her kicks would do more damage than a mosquito did if a blast of vibrations was short through their body. Yet it was something that would take a lot of time, a lot of training. Horo thought through the martial arts she had heard of and debated which style would be right for her to use, ultimately deciding that aikido, judo, jujitsu, or maybe even pankration. Judo would be interesting, she thought, but Horo wanted to master her pulse abilities at this moment, not go to the martial arts buffet.

     ”Yes it would. However, I’m the Captain of this story and I need to be able to evaluate the battle field and see the bigger picture. I need my pulse more powerful than ever to do that.”

     Horo’s eyes blinked the sweat from her brow as she held the rock against the force generated from the increased gravity. Her mind flashed with information that she could glean from her abilities. The mass of the rock, 5 kilograms, volume about .23 meters squared. Horo began to manipulate the form of the rock, twisting the atoms around and changing the crystal structure until the stone was in the shape of a rhombus. Volume now exactly .23 meters squared, stone pushing down with 123.95 Newton of force.

    It wasn’t much challenge to keep it up weight wise, but transforming it had taken a bit out of her. Horo was breathing heavily, constantly blinking sweat out of her eyes as the seconds moved by like molasses. Horo lifted the stone higher into the air until it floated well above her head. Horo’s brain continued to glean information from senses. Height 18.7 meters.

    Jena watched in awe at the women before her. She could feel the slight pull of her body to the stone and it caused her to become more frightened. Mistaking the gravity for Horo’s pulse Jena crouched into a fetal position and placed her hands overtop her head for protection. The waves of fear had increased to tsunami levels, the animals in the area scattered and the nearby trees began to lose their leaves. Jena was sure that she would be lifted soon. Zeran’s words flashed in Jena’s mind, Stand up for yourself, damn it or something like that. She lifted her head to Horo and tried to clear her throat. It felt dry and her lips seemed like they had been sewn shut.

    This increased her fear; tear drops slowly pooled at the edges of her eyes. A small, humanly inaudible whimper left her voice box causing Horo’s ears to twitch. Jena tried to move away, but her muscles had locked. She was stuck, helpless, just like so many times before when she had been bullied, save for this time it was caused by a friend. Jena’s face had now become wet with tears. Her eyes were wide with uncontrollable fear that forced itself into both Horo and Aislin. Jena was about to crack when she felt the cooling sensation of water evaporating from her face.

    It took all the strength that Jena could muster to pull her hear up and cast her wide eyes upon her friend. With one arm above her head, outstretched and visibly shaking from exhaustion Horo held the stone that now looked like a pebble. Jena noticed that Horo’s other hand was pointed towards her with Horo’s devious crimson eyes fixated on her. Jena tried to speak, ask her what and why, but Horo interrupted her.

    ”Don’t cry. I’ve got you.”

    Jena’s fear began to die away as Horo finished ‘wiping’ the tears from her face. Her muscles and joints unlocked and the powerful sensation of fear that resided inside of Horo and Aislin transformed into hope and courage. Jena stood back up and fully regained her composure. With a smile from Horo she turned and took a few steps backwards and sat down in the shade of a tree. Watching safely from a distance.

Horo smirked ”Aislin, crank it up.”

[Sabata]

Well, Horo certainly seemed to have a lot of confidence over this whole matter. Asilin wasn't so sure. She didn't want the gravity causing the rock to go plummeting into the core of the planet. Aislin really hoped Horo could keep control of her pulse and wouldn't just suddenly lose it when the gravity got too high, just that the stone would start dropping and Aislin and Horo could mutually turn off their powers.

Aislin's confidence in the plan kept falling and falling as the gravity kept rising and rising. She assumed that it was because of her own nervousness about the situation, unaware of Jena's powers projecting her feelings into Aislin's mind. She barely payed any mind to Jena's presence, mostly concentrating on keeping her control on gravity together so that nothing catastrophic happened. Suddenly, she got a burst of confidence though. It was rather curious, one moment she was nervous and a bit scared of the situation, the next moment she felt absolutely fine and like the situation would turn out perfectly, even if either her or Horo flubbed. She nodded at Horo as Horo told her to crank it up. Aislin did so, carefully and incrementally. "How much, I can go much higher, but I'm afraid if you randomly drop the rock while the gravity's this high, the rock might go really deep into the planet." Aislin commented. She turned up the gravity a bit more, only a bit of something to tide Horo over while Aislin waited for an answer. "Really, if your pulse can't handle it tell me so I can start turning it down a little." Better safe than sorry, though Aislin doubted Horo's pride would let her tell Aislin if anything was amiss.

[Horo]

Horo couldn’t help but smirk at the challenge. This was her moment to show herself how much she had grown recently. It was tiring, it was painful but holding it up was her challenge and she was going to embrace it. ”Take it up… Another…” Horo began to think about what she was asking. Her muscles were aching and her eyes were filling with sweat, burning them as she tried to focus.

Horo took a deep breath as she made the decision. ”Aislin, actually take it down. I’m getting, puttered out.” Where many would feel embarrassed by the act of asking someone for something and then instantly revoking the request, Horo felt content as she had reached her limit. She slowly brought the stone out of the sky and placed it on the ground. Once Aislin had returned the stone to normal gravity Horo lifted it up to her eyes. She thought for a moment before moving it over to Jena. ”Hold that until later for me, please.”

Aislin had performed well and assisted Horo splendidly. She trotted over to Aislin with a bounce and placed her sweaty hands on the gravity controller’s shoulders. Wiping sweat off her forehead with her bicep Horo began ”I’d be happy to have someone as powerful as you in my club! The Quickstepp Club is devoted to making a difference in the school! You are in! I’ll make you a membership card and drop it off to your dorm later on.”

Jena couldn’t help but smile as Horo inducted Aislin just as she had all of her other members excluding Dewdrop who actually asked… Or did she? Jena couldn’t perfectly remember, but the thought of Zeran brought a blush to her face. She didn’t want to push him out of her mind and slowly rose to her feet. Her happiness increased inside of Horo and Aislin as she came closer to them. ”Welcome to the Club Aislin! We have slumber parties and trips to the bath houses in Savle! Although, they are few because of all the reconstruction. I’m so happy someone so nice is going to be joining!”

Horo released Aislin as Jena embraced her in a loving hug. ”Once again, my name is Jena Tiger-Flower and I’m an empathy. When I talk with people I make a psycho-emotional connection with that person, so we share emotions! It helps me understand people better, but I can’t control my power… So it happens every time I talk, or someone talks to me. I can also converse with nature.”

Feeling compelled to reintroduce herself Horo stepped in. ”你好。我叫快侯柔。 Hello, my name is Horo Whitetail. I’m the Captain of the Quickstepp Club which I named after myself. 快(Kuai), you hear, is the equitant of quick in this language. It is a pleasure to add you to our ranks. Truthfully.”

((Nihao. Wo jiao Kuài Hóu Róu. 你好。我叫快侯柔。))

[Sabata]

A sense of relief swept over Aislin as Horo's hesitation became evident. She slowly eased the amount of gravity down until it would no longer be a burden to lift and eventually just brought it down to normal. The strain wasn't too heavy on Horo, but it had evidently taken a tole on Horo, given the sweaty hand placed on Aislin's shoulder that made her flinch slightly.

"Ah, you give me too much credit, really. I'm just good with Gravity control, I'm not as skilled in anything else, really." Aislin replied, giving a somewhat sheepish smile in response to Horo. "Thank you, though. It's nice to finally be getting involved in extracurricular activities. Who are the other members of the club?" She hoped she hadn't gotten involved with a club that was basically Horo with Jena as a lackey of some sort. That would be rather awkward, and wouldn't be terribly fun.

"Ah, trips to the bathhouses sound fun. I really love a good bath." Aislin commented. Hopefully the baths had adjustable chemical composition if all they had was pure, freshwater. "Ah, those must be interesting powers." Aislin responded to the introduction. Horo introduced herself as well. "Aislin Nero. I have gravity abilities, as you just saw. It's really a pleasure to join the club, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together." There was her introduction. The whole experience left her with apprehension, but excitement as well. Horo and Jena seemed like they would make good friends.