[Semi-open] Am I still tough enough?

[unlucky7]

Who: Ginia and anyone that would have any reason to be around Caster's temple
When: December 10th, flexible dates with wildcard
Where: Caster's Temple
What: Ginia deals with her problems the only way she knows how: drowning herself in training.
Warnings: Suicidal ideation, body horror in relation to the ablution.



A
If you can stand, if you can fight, you can train. A day of sleep, a sling to immobilize her shoulder, it's all Ginia tells herself she needs as she trains in the temple's training room. The rapid thunk of throwing knives embedding into a training dummy or the fainter swish and sharp crack of a wood practice sword fill the space. Ginia might be ambidextrous, but it's also clear her right hand is the weaker hand. What better time to practice and train up when her dominant hand is out of commission?

B
The forest making up the land of Caster's temple are full of large, spiraling trees, glorious and ancient. Their cavernous root structures and massive branches and trunks are perfect for climbing and running around on. Ginia sticks to racing and climbing along the lower levels of the forest, carefully checking and adjusting to her new sense of balance as she springs and runs about. Catch her leaping through the trees or perhaps accidentally dropping down in front of you.

C
Line!

It's been over an hour since Ginia placed a borderline in front of her, remaining stock still as she channels her energy into maintaining a strong barrier. She'll hold the barrier as long as she can, letting the hours running into each other. Hopefully she's not accidentally blocking your path.

Closed to Archer
Pal's wet tongue swipes along Ginia's face as she sits on the forest floor, arm slung around the white hound's back for support. Her face is pale, eyes unfocused, breathing labored. She's drenched through with sweat, barely able to keep herself upright but too stubborn to pass out. Her borderline snapped seconds, minutes ago, several hours after she began her training.

Not long enough. Ginia tries to rise to her feet as Pal wiggles into her lap, the weighty dog squishing her back down. There's barking nearby, Regal's rich, low bar. She looks over, the small motion feeling laborious, and sighs as the white guard dog runs over, Archer close behind.

"I'm fine," she signs, but really, she barely believes the statement herself.

D - Wildcard!
Have an idea? Hit me up over PM or at cordially! Willing to work with flexible dates.

Comments

B

[dredefulchilde]

Now that Joss has been here a few days, he’s starting to get restless. The Temple of Neptune is quite nice and all, but it’s boring. So now he’s wandering through the woods, not paying overmuch attention to where he’s going. Suddenly a huge dog is in the path ahead of him, barreling towards him, and—

Joscelin finds himself knocked to the ground, dog on his chest. His shout of surprise turns into a delighted laugh as the dog covers his face in slobbery kisses.

“Why hello there. Where did you come from?”

[unlucky7]

With how the wild forest of the West District bleeds into the forest of Dún Dealgan, it can be hard to tell you've entered temple grounds until one of Caster's hounds is upon you. They're large dogs, more wolf than domesticated canine, but Pal is very much less a guard dog and more an enthused greeter of near anyone who enters the temple's grounds (intentional or not). With little manners, he licks Joss's face, tail furiously wagging.

High above, Ginia lands lightly on a thick branch. She recognizes the child from the training day and frowns slightly. Rude child, but then again, her manners hadn't been the best either. Sitting down, she watches Pal and the boy. There's something to be said about how people treat animals versus how they treat other humans.

[dredefulchilde]

“You’re a friendly thing, aren’t you, boy?”

Suddenly, Joscelin knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a dog person. He reaches up and scratches Pal behind the ears, hoping that the promise of more petting—perhaps even a belly rub—will be enough for the dog to let him up. Joss is quite undersized for his age and Pal weighs a lot more than he does.

“Wish I’d saved some breakfast for you. Bet you’d let me up if I had a bit of bacon, wouldn’t you?”

[unlucky7]

Pal is a good dog in the way all dogs are good dogs and loves the ear scratches very much and flops around unhelpfully. A lap dog he's definitely not, though a dog of his size is appropriate for all the love he has for everyone around.

Ginia watches a few seconds longer before whistling at Pal. All right, that's enough boy. Her opinion of Joscelin is still neutral, but at least he's kind to dogs. Pal's ears perk up and he scrambles back, sitting down with barely concealed excitement, white tail sweeping along the forest floor and kicking up twigs and leaves.

"Sorry about that, Pal likes meeting new people." There's the voice from the phone again. Ginia's legs dangle over the edge of the branch. She waves with her right hand, left arm up in a sling.

A!

[darkestbefore]

[ Yona had swung by the temple in search of Caster, but the sound of sparring happening somewhere nearby had redirected her path towards the source of the sound instead. She doesn't look surprised to find Ginia training on her own, but it's not until the shinki pauses in her practice and turns partially in Yona's direction that she finally spots the sling.

Stepping forward, she waits until Ginia spots her so she doesn't surprise her out of her concentration as she approaches, a concerned expression on her face. ]

Good morning, Ginia. Training, I see. Are you alright? [ A nod towards the sling with a slight frown. ]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia lowers her sword when she sees someone in her peripheral vision, surprised to see Yona if only because the usual company she expects is her usual inhabitants of the temple. However, the brief surprise fades and Ginia manages a smile and a nod of her head. She sets her sword against the training dummy and picks up a towel and her phone, wiping off her face and hands before typing a message to play.]

Morning, Yona. What brings you by the temple? Caster's company? Archer's cooking?

[darkestbefore]

[ Yona gives her an answering smile, warm and friendly as she approaches, stopping before the shinki. ]

I came to speak to Caster, yes, but I heard someone back here practicing. I'm sorry if I've interrupted you.

B

[letteropener]

Celestia was most comfortable out in the forests, rather than diving into the temple properly, and she well knew Ginia's propensity for athletic exercise herself. Ginia wasn't in the first place she looked, the familiar hollow where secrets had slipped out of her, but her ears caught the sound of motion in the distance and she took to wing again to follow her senses.

After a moment's consideration, she called out, "Ginia!" Better to announce her presence than startle, right?

[unlucky7]

The twisting forest of Dún Dealgan is as good as any playground or obstacle course. Ginia can't go as fast or as high as she would like, but racing through the lower branches is still thrilling enough, especially with rock music pounding in her ears. She plots ahead as she runs, the focused lightness letting her leaps effortlessly from tree to tree, testing how far she can go without ever touching the ground.

The shout of her name carries under her music. Ginia slides to a halt on a thick branch, looking around. Whistling to mark her location, she sits on the branch and pulls out her phone, pausing her music and pulling out her earphones as she waits her sudden company.

[letteropener]

Celestia hadn't been certain Ginia would hear her, so the whistle winding its way through the trees is a relief. Turning neatly in midair, Celestia shot off that direction, sweeping through the branches with a grace and precision that belied the sheer size of her, particularly her wingspan.

No surprise arrival for her; she was eminently visible, light fur seeming to glow as if in the sunlight no matter how thick the trees. Just to show off a little, she turned a neat little roll in midair, tucking in her wings to brush neatly through a tangle of branches before catching herself in midair near Ginia.

"I see why you like running around in here!" she said, huffing out a breath that was more of a laugh than a need for air.

C

[reformedsinner]

It's late in the afternoon. Hakkai looks tired, his posture a little less straight-backed than usual, as he comes up the path towards Caster's temple; he lifts a hand to shade his eye from the sunlight, pausing as the subtle glitter of a borderline comes into view ahead.

"Ginia?"

[unlucky7]

Helping with Ayumu's ablution is arguably one of Ginia's greater mistakes, but practicing borderlines shortly after the fact is inching higher up on the list too. The sustained borderline burns at her energy; it's the last thing she should be doing, but there's been a lot of things she's been doing today she really shouldn't.

Ginia's focus is on the borderline, her position slightly off the path as she maintains a standing fixed position not unlike the stance for an ablution. Hakkai's voice disrupts her concentration, not enough to break her borderline, but enough she looks over toward him with a wide-eyed expression.

To her present knowledge, only a handful know about her part in the ablution and even less know the events of the ablution. Her knowledge also cuts off shortly after she was impaled too. Her hand moves up to hover over her ruined shoulder. She should be dead. Maybe it would be better.

Ginia pulls her phone out of her pocket and types up a single word to play.

"Sorry."

[reformedsinner]

"Please," he says, "don't apologize," and nods towards her shoulder. The way she's maintaining the borderline says to him that she's practicing. Perhaps she shouldn't be, so soon after her injury.

He can nonetheless understand the urge.

"I wanted to stop by to see how your shoulder was doing."

D ~ 12th, Library as planned

[swordofzero]

Suzaku had been aware there was a library in the heavens for a while but this was his first trip to it. He had been interested in the spells that had been mentioned in the pamphlet when he had first arrived and thought that the library was a good place to start.

Now that he was here though... There were a lot of books and he's not really sure how to go about finding the information he needs. So he looks a little lost as he walks through the shelves glancing at a few spines before moving on, trying to find the correct section at least.

[unlucky7]

Ginia is a frequent visitor to the library, visiting once a week when she can, sometimes twice or more if she's in the middle of research or engaged in an interesting book series. She drops off some books with the library workers before wandering among the shelves.

She pauses when she spots Suzaku, whistling lightly to get his attention and waving. Notably, her left arm is in a sling.

"How are you doing?" She asks through her phone.

[swordofzero]

He looks up a the whistle and smiles as he sees Ginia, though his smile quickly fades as he sees her arm is in a sling. She's injured again?

"Hello Ginia, I'm alright, how about you?" He nodded at her arm, "What happened?"

He hasn't seen her since the forest, had she been injured after they parted ways?

A

[futhark]

[ There is probably no good way to deter her from the exercising. Caster gets that, he hated recovering, hated being stuck to bed, unless someone knocked him out, he was trying to get back on his feet as soon as possible.

So he won't stop Ginia, but he will be around to make sure she takes necessary breaks. That's what he's here for, bringing two smoothies. Food and drink in one. ]

Hey, will you take a break and join me? [ He shakes the cup full of delicious liqud meal ] You know me, I don't like eating alone.

[ That's how he shows worry ]

[unlucky7]

[The only good way to deter her from exercising is to find her something else to focus on, though Caster knows from the heavy stinging on the back of his neck any distraction is a bandage over the gaping wound the ablution left on her emotions and mental state.

Asleep for most of the 9th, there hasn't been a real opportunity to talk. With only a day between, Ginia doesn't feel like talking about things either. What's there to say anyway? She failed and all she can hope for is more weren't injured after the fact.

But she won't turn down her god's company either. At Caster's request, she nods and sets her training sword aside to accept the smoothie. She takes a sip and offers a bare smile. It's good.]

[futhark]

[ It's not good, but they are the temple of "THIS IS FINE" dogs, aren't they?

He can live with the sting, pain is easy to ignore. A wounded friend, with injuries that run deep, not just physically- is not something to ignore. But he can't press her for answer when she's not ready, it would make things worse. All he can do is signal that he is open for a talk should she need it ]

I made them myself- one day I will make them better than Archer. [ He does try to crack a joke here ] If you want to spar with a partner later, lemme know.

[ Beating shit out of each other is a valid coping mechanism ]

A

[irishfriskey]

...Ginia.

[He sighs as he looks at her. She really needs to be resting. He knows well enough that she's enough like all the other members of the temple in that she wants to keep working and training rather than resting.

All Lancer can really do is sigh as he looks at her. Before moving up to her side and touching her on the shoulder.]

Come. Let's sit. I'll bring you something to drink.

[unlucky7]

[Caster is her god. Archer is her exemplar. Lancer is her superior as he's been there longer, but without a title to hold to and no sense of expectation from him, it's easier to talk to him in some ways. It also helps he's just as polite and charming as Archer, but actually capable of smiling.

Ginia hurls the remaining two throwing knives in her hand as Lancer touches her shoulder. The six knives create a tight cluster on the dummy's chest; a real person would be dead or otherwise have a very bad day. Ginia still sees mistakes. Not close enough, not fast enough.

But... Ginia nods, rolling out her good shoulder as she grabs her phone and a towel and goes to sit down. Her thumb runs lightly over her injured shoulder, the injury covered with a patchwork of bandages. The possibility she'll never have the same range of motion in her dominant arm has crossed her mind.

She's also trying not to think on that.]

[irishfriskey]

[While Lancer may be her superior, he has no desire to feel superior over her. He would much rather be someone she can talk to if she has no one else in the temple that she can. He'd much rather be her friend than anything else. But that is how he feels towards Archer too.

Looking at the dummy, while he is impressed, it seems as she is not. Which means it's as good a time as any to take a break and a breather.

Lancer moves to bring over some tea, placing a cup in front of her. It's one of the few things, domestically, that he can do, so he's thankful he can at least do that.]

Please try to relax.

[He will sit with her. That way she has some company.]

[closed]

[boneofsword]

Archer eyes Ginia as he jogs closer. She's as stubborn as all of them and not capable of staying still, that much he knows. He's not ready for the brief spark of pain at the sight of her tired face.

Is any of them even 'fine' at all?

He sits down next to her, Regal immediately taking a spot on Ginia's other side to offer her support, and a hearthy lick. Archer offers a bottle of coconut water and some energy bars that he noticed her favor before.

"I don't think any of us is."

Honestly, he could point out how wrong is overworking herself after the injury, but that's not what Ginia needs right now. He's not sure if he can offer what she needs; all he can do now is to try.

[unlucky7]

Ginia leans into Regal and buries her face in between the guard dog's ears before she takes food and drink. She's parched, almost drinking all the coconut water in one go and forcibly slowing herself down to controlled sips. She starts in on an energy bar, chewing slowly as she stares ahead, unable to meet Archer's eyes again.

"What do you know about ablutions?"

It's the same question she asked Lancer that morning. She can't shake the feeling Archer would have held out longer, wouldn't have gone down so easily, but she knows she's the weakest by far of the temple.

[boneofsword]

Both Pal and Regal comfort Ginia in the way only dogs can, being warm and cuddly, with Pal offering slobbery kisses. They support Ginia from both sides, giving her their undivided attention.

"I've heard how it's done, although I've never had taken a part in one before."

Three shinki to hold the ablution line imprisoning the fourth that has to confess their guilt. He knows the theory, at least.