bravenewworld | On The Mend... Or Something

On The Mend... Or Something

Closed to Excellen and Kyosuke - Within a couple of days after the Gigas event

Ryuko had been unconscious by the time her team had regrouped with the Union forces after the failed attempt in Gigas. And she'd stayed that way for the trip back to Union and some time after, not stirring even once. The Emperor's grip had crushed her ribs, the god-powered ice attacks had led to second degree frostburn all over her body. She'd been lucky, if it hadn't been for her resistance to Ice, those wounds would have been far more severe. Worse though, had been the mysterious and severe blood loss. A condition that couldn't seem to be explained by any of her injuries.

Still, her healing factor had kicked in after some rest, repairing her ribs and healing her skin. She'd woken up not long after and even though she'd been ordered to rest by the medical center... well, Ryuko Matoi is a creature of action and cabin fever set in quickly.

It's early in the morning when she creeps out of bed, fully-dressed and determined to get out of this apartment for at least a little while. The bedroom door sloooowwly creaks open and she peeks her head out, glancing from side to side before she begins to sneak her way to the front door.

Or she tries to anyway.

Open - A few more days later

Finally Ryuko was allowed to actually venture outside and get some exercise with the set-in-stone condition that she take it easy until further notice. That means taking more time off from her job with the Swords, and didn't leave much for her to do except wander around town and hang out. But that doesn't matter, as long as she can finally stretch her legs.

So, here she is... taking it easy.

Her Pokemon team are lined up in the park watching their trainer with blank looks on their faces. The trainer in question, is grappling with lifting up a huge rock onto her shoulders, grunting and straining under the weight. After a long struggle she finally straightens up fully, supporting the huge chunk on her shoulders!

"Ha! Got it--" She feels something creak around her ribcage and the rock suddenly tips wildly to the side. "WHOAH-WHOAH-UWAAAAAAAGH!"

CRASH! Over goes both Ryuko and the rock. Her Pokemon draw back as one and wince sharply at the sight.

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Oh, it's that girl who was excited about motorcycles. He doesn't remember seeing her anywhere else, but if she's toppling over like that she probably shouldn't be going around lifting boulders.

He picks his way over, leaning on his staff. He still has a few injuries that are yet to be taken care of, and much to his annoyance, they're slowing him down.

He peers down at Ryuko with a blank expression on his face. His Murkrow tilts its head with a similar look.

"Is that really a good idea?"

Fortunately, she managed to at least not be under the boulder when it fell over so she's not a pancake when Magnolia makes his way over to her. She's sitting up by them, rubbing the back of her head and muttering curses, and looks up when he speaks. She's a far cry from the girl who had excitedly gushed about motorcycles last time, not much enthusiasm but a definite level of stupid stubbornness.

"Yeah." She says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not just gonna sit around on my ass doin' nothing forever."

"Maybe you should try a smaller boulder, then." Magnolia certainly isn't going to advise something sensible like "don't strain yourself", mostly because if someone is going around trying to lift boulders then they're past sensible advice.

"Or something less strenuous?" Fine talk from the person who seems to be finding walking properly strenuous, maybe, but he can still give the advice. "Surely there's other things to do around here."

"That is a smaller boulder." Rolling her shoulder she gets back up to her feet, stretching out a little bit.

"Uugh, everybody's tellin' me that. 'Don't work too hard, take it easy.'" She turns back to the boulder, kicking one foot against it and pushing enough to make it tilt a bit. "But I don't got time for that! Day of Fire's in a couple of days and I gotta be ready!"

"Wouldn't you be readier for it if you rested your body for a while first? I'm not an expert, but training while you're injured can aggravate injuries." He's treated enough strains and sprains to know on a base level that working something that hasn't healed yet is a bit of a bad idea.

"If you broke something, you really wouldn't be ready for the festival," he says, after a moment of thought.

Ryuko opens her mouth to fire back, then closes it with a frown and a huff. It's clear that Mangolia has a point there... no matter how utterly loathe she is to admit it. She folds her arms and half-turns away with a growl.

"Whatever. I know what I'm doing." Truth is, she's tired of taking it easy, and she doesn't like everyone looking at her like she's made out of glass all of a sudden.

Ryuko's pokémon are not the only ones to wince. There's a collective whistle and series of chirps from several large flying types seated in the bows of the larger tree overlooking the girl's training location; a Talonflame and Braviary shake their heads, while the Altaria sat between them makes soft sounds of concern. That looked decidedly painful.

From behind Ryuko, there's a rush of air and displaced earth and dust as Gwendolyn sets down, her wings folding up against her sides, before she stabs her spear into the dirt.

And then offers a hand to the collapsed girl, concern writ plain on her face.

The dust from the impact takes a few seconds to clear and by the time it does, Ryuko's already pulling herself out of it, coughing and waving it away from her face. She pushes herself up and sits back against the rock, rubbing at her side with one hand when she notices the gust of wind from Gwendolyn's descent.

She glances up, first at the hand offered to her then at the expression on the Valkyrie's face and back to the hand.

"Hey." She doesn't accept the hand-up, instead using the boulder to pull herself up and dusts herself off and striking about as casual a pose as she can. "What's up?"

All good here!

She isn't offended, per say, when her hand isn't taken, but once she gets a good look at the other girl, the Valkyrie evidently isn't impressed by what she sees.

"Barely you, apparently." Her arms fold over her chest, expression turning from concern to.. well, concerned disapproval. "I heard about the injuries you sustained in the Gigas fight. Even with the healers available here, should you even be out of your sick bed yet?"

It isn't that she's trying to offend in the first place, she's not even remotely subtle when that's the plan. But accepting help from others isn't exactly a skill she's ever developed growing up and she's done enough of that over the past few days to be well and truly sick of it.

Gwen's observation doesn't help much and she lets out a frustrated grumble.

"Everybody keeps askin' me that. Yes!" She spreads her arms out as she talks. "I heal crazy fast! I'm good! Totally back on my feet!"

Is empathy like a danger sense, too? Maka really doesn't know sometimes , it seems random, yet she's still able to know and pinpoint where exactly distress happens.

This time it's someone she knows trying to deadlift a rock with great emphasis on the dead part.

"For crying out loud, Ryuko," she sighs, rolling the rock up and out of the way so she can better inspect the other for injuries. It just hangs up there in the air as she kneels down to check, Stella and Viola--now evolved into a Kirlia--skitter over to accompany them. "This is the very definition of pushing it."

But holding a rock in the air with weird mind powers isn't.

Aw come on, Maka, Viola says in her psychic voice. She's too stupid to die, I keep telling you that.

"Violencia, you say everyone is too stupid to die," Maka retorts.

Dead lifting boulders and about to try it again if the look on her face is any real indication as she picks herself up off the ground. At least, she seems to be planning to until the rock just picks itself up and floats into the air all on its own.

Ryuko's left staring at the sight for a moment before the cause of it before Maka drops down in front of her, flanked by two Pokemon. Ryuko leans back at Maka's inspection but at least it looks like the rock didn't squash her when it fell. Besides her injuries still in the process of healing, she's just fine.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Now gimme back my rock so I can--" she stops short and casts a look toward the Kirlia, "hey. Who's sayin' what about who."

Nothing~ the Kirlia replies in a teasing tone. Maka just shakes her head, backing up a little to give Ryuko room and moving the rock higher into the air.

"Ignore her, she's just rude. As for this rock..." Maka casts a glance to it, rolls it midair, then drops it to the ground with a THUD. "You can barely even lift it without falling over, shouldn't you be trying some easier exercises before getting right back into it?"

Ryuko narrows her eyes, glowering at the Kirlia for a second before turning away with a huff.

"I'm good, I'm good. I just gotta loosen up a little, I'm stiff as hell from lying in bed for so damn long!" She bounces up an inch or two into the air when the boulder hits the ground beside her and she glances at it, mouth twisting a bit. "Brain powers are cheating, by the way. Just so ya know."

"Eh." She shrugs, wincing a little at how the burns on her skin still feel even after the rest she's gotten. Taking a direct hit from a Flash Cannon when you're a Fairy type is no fun. "I did some strength training with my teacher before she left, but I'm not to the point of lifting boulders that big yet."

Though Maka probably never will be considering, as said, her "brain power" is her strongest feature.

"Is that an invitation to train with you?"

It's probably not a party for anyone but at least Ryuko's resistance to the type had let her soak up the blow. Not so much luck with the ice stuff but that could've been a lot worse as well.

"Huh?" She blinks at Maka's offer, reaching back to rub the back of her neck. "Uh, sure, if you want to."

She doesn't quite say if you're up for it but the sentiment's there.

Look, Ryuko is the toughest person Ryuko knows.

[A Durant emerges nearby, metallic, mandibled head peeking from a hole it just dug. It looks the situation over, and takes the boulder between it's jaws and Guillotines it in half, leaving a startlingly neat split. The pokémon backtracks a bit, and then emerges from a different hole nearby, shaking some of the dirt off.]

[An Arcanine appears a moment later, bounding over the horizon, turning over it's shoulder to let out a low, reverberant 'arc,' signaling its human partner, one James W. Gordon, the old man not without his own injuries, though his are largely limited to an arm in a sling.]

Ah, Matoi. Recovering well?

[Ryuko grumbles and curses away, pushing herself up onto her knees after the spill, one arm wrapped around her ribs and rubbing her side. She jumps a bit when the Durant bursts from the ground, staring at it... as it chops her boulder right in half.]

Ah! [She jumps after it, missing the retreating Bug by a mile and finds herself leaning over the chopped boulder, shaking a fist in the air.] What the hell?! That was my rock, you little--!

[Wait. "Arc?" She turns her head, looking back over her shoulder, stopped in mid fistshake to see the old man himself walking up.]

Uh. [The hell, why does she suddenly feel like she got busted?!] Yeah, no problem. You?

[The Durant moves over to meet Gordon. It's basically impossible to read any sort of expression on the mandibled face, but it almost seems smug. The old man looks to the Durant, then to the nearly bisected boulder, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Luckily for Ryuko, even if his Pokémon do blab, it's not like he'd understand them.]

Better than most. The sling is mostly about making my wife and daughter happy. And since my Pokémon know who's been preparing those lunches, they've largely decided to enforce it.

[He gives a resigned little smile.]

I have an appointment to get it looked at in a few days.

[He smiles.]

We don't all bounce back like enlightened.

[She watches the Durant head back over to its trainer with a sullen expression. Smug little.... Hmph. She doesn't pursue the matter any more though. Instead, she plants her foot against one boulder half and shoves it over so the flat end is on the ground and then sit on it. Her Pokemon start to mill around the park a bit, never quite going too far to lose sight of their trainer.]

Huh, sounds rough. [Not that she knows one way or the other, family to worry about and be worried about by isn't something she's ever had. She glances down at the Cubone beside her rock eagerly waving her bone club at her and reaches down to catch it and swing the Ground-type up into her lap.] Guess an old dude like you can't take any chances though, huh?

[Gordon smirks as she calls him old, but it's a good natured thing, he got over being offended by his own age some time ago.]

You been talking with my wife?

[He chuckles a little at his own joke, but sobers slightly.]

Though, really, given the option, I'd rather get hurt than watch you kids do it. Call it being a stubborn old man, call it a father's instinct, but it's simple as that.

[He looks to the girl and her cubone, then to the split boulder.]

What brings you out on your day off?

[A father's instinct, huh? Funny, just the other day she was thinking about how a father's instinct was to fuck off and pretend you don't exist for seventeen years. She almost starts to say as much but cuts herself off, instead making a face like whatever she'd been about to say had left a bitter taste on her tongue.

She's got enough going on, she doesn't want to think about him on top of it. Instead, she grumbles.]

I can take my own hits, thanks. [She looks down at the Cubone in her lap and leans back on one hand, the other petting the Pokemon's skull helmet while it snuggles up to her. Skullface hadn't left her side for a second since she came back home wounded.] Nothin'. Just got sick and tired of havin' this many "days off" stuck in bed. Needed to stretch my legs before I went nuts.

I'm sure you can. Just... old habits die hard.

[He looks at Ryuko and the Cubone, giving a soft smile, then turns to the rock, split so neatly in two, the Durant at his side resting like it just finished a job well done.]

Little friendly advice? Not from a superior, not from an elder, just one stubborn cuss to another? Pace yourself a little.

[He gives her a wink, and jerks his head towards the half of the boulder still flat side up.]

Should be easier to lift that size.

Hn.

[She grunts in response, giving a sullen look to the boulder and back to the old man. She doesn't look happy at the idea of swallowing the pill that the whole thing might have been too much for her but... well, maybe it was just because Gordon hadn't tried to tell her to outright stop what she's been doing but she at least doesn't argue. Not too much anyway.]

Guess I don't got a choice anyway. That was the biggest rock I could find.

[Gordon grins.]

Pace yourself. You'll be lifting Gravelers in no time.

[With that bit of friendly advice, he pats the Durant on the head, and turns, offering Ryuko a wave, and a smaller, gentler wave to the Cubone.]

I could do two.

[Well, that might be a little much but she's saying it anyway. Skullface returns the wave before going right back to clinging to her trainer. Ryuko watches him go for a bit before sitting forward and calling after him.]

Hey, gramps! Don't go replacing me or anything at work, I'll be back on the job before you know it!

[The Arcanine looks over it's shoulder, smiling a bit. Gordon just gives a small chuckle, and holds up a hand, waving again.]

Wouldn't dream of it. Besides, there's only one Ryuko Matoi.

[That pressure. That unmistakable pressure of a looming Kyosuke Nanbu holding a bokken and barring Ryuko's way. It's here!]

[She feels it. She feels it before she even turns the corner but she's not backing down. She stands, looking a rather pitiful sight even as she manages to glare up at said looming Kyosuke.]

Move it.

[Her glare has hardly any effect, Kyosuke returns it with a calm, steely gaze]

Make me.

[A stand-off, then! She might just go ahead and throw down but she is admittedly still pretty sore... and besides, she'd just cleaned the damn place up. Instead, she puffs up some in frustration and stomps a foot stubbornly.]

Aaagh! I just wanna go out for a little while, jeez, what's the big deal? I'm goin' crazy cooped up in here!

You may leave when we are assured you have healed.

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On The Mend... Or Something

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