Training with the Swarm (open)

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Even though he was only gone for a few months, Torm feels a small wave of nostalgia being back on these training grounds. Everything was as it had been: the sandy desert, the icy slopes, the bubbling swamp, the verdant woodland, and even the extremely dangerous simulated JC Penney perfume department. What a fine facility. Only the best for students the Academy hopes will someday develop into the finest of operatives and warriors.

Today, Torm makes his way toward the wooded area. He does not carry his ladder with him today as he often does. No, all that burdens him is a leather satchel, chock full of metallic objects that clank with every step.

At this early afternoon hour, the wooded area of the training ground is pleasantly cool and shady. Torm wanders a ways in until he finds a small clearing, and sits on the ground and places the bag in front of him. Rather than start right away, he takes a moment to relax. The sky is quite blue, and there is a soothing calm in the air, rent only by the occasional distant shouts of students training elsewhere in the grounds. It was quite good to be alive, and quite good to be living at a normal pace again.

[Lienn~]

Absence. That was what she had been after experiencing Der Monstermeizer's class. Something had snapped within her, something popular, something dangerous. So she had left. During her absence she had learned of a blossom in the Antarctic. A snow blossom. It was a rare flower, but powerful. Brewing the blossoms into a serum, she could possibly control her shattered powers until she know how to handle them.

The thing about absences, however, was that when you returned to wherever it was you left, things tend to change. All of her friends from before had disappeared as well. The Priest, Ex, Tormaigh, Xeryth..just recently she had met back up with Leon in a mission in Paris, France. Seeing a familiar face had brought back all her memories, including a wave of guilt and longing. She missed all of her friends, she missed the familiarity of the Arcane she once knew.

While the serum was brewing, Lienn thought it a good ideas to take advantage of the day by training. She had acquired a new weapon in her absence as well, a wooden bo staff made of rose wood, held in a sling over her back. Lienn made her way out toward the dummy practice area, though a buzzing sound caught her attention as she entered. Buzzing? It sounded...mechanical?! A shock of orange hair caught her attention as she grew even closer, brows furrowing and jaw dropping with disbelief.

"Torm?!"

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

"Torm?!"

Torm's head jerks around at the sound of a familiar voice. As Lienn comes into view, he grins broadly at the sight of her incredulous expression. She is a sight for sore eyes; it's so good to be back in touch with people, good friends and new friends all inclusive. Torm notes that the young lady carries a Bo staff with her today, that is something new.

"Lienn!" He climbs to his feet slightly awkwardly on the uneven ground. Curses upon whatever madman decided that tree roots needed to stick out of the soil! Torm doesn't remember whether Lienn had been particularly fond of his little insects, but he hadn't taken any out of the bag yet, so it was all good.

Torm starts to extend a hand for a handshake, but then stops and laughs out loud at his own stiffness. "Ah, what the hell!" he chuckles, and draws her into a friendly embrace. "How fare you these days!? It feels like it's been such a long time."

[Lienn~]

Lienn grinned broadly as her old friend pulled her into a hug. It had been ages, it seems. This led the friend count up to two. Two familiar faces making Lienn feel back at home. It was wonderful "I'm doing well, enough." She replied, remembering the serum that was stewing for her as they spoke.

"You don't look at a day weathered since the last time we met." She grinned again, "But this place.." The pale blonde looked around, briefly before turning back to her friend, "It's...different, somehow. What happened?"

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

"I'm doing well, enough." Torm is glad to hear that she's doing well, but the lukewarm adjective 'enough' seems to indicate that she might be having her share of downs these days too. "You don't look at a day weathered since the last time we met." she continues, and Torm grins at the complement. "If ya don't mind me saying so, seeing you makes me pity Time itself, for it has clearly not spent more than an hour with you since our last encounter." Torm chuckles inside; overdone and over-the-top, but thats how he rolls.

"But this place...It's...different, somehow. What happened?"

Lienn's question throws Torm off guard a bit. Indeed, something has happened, but what is a very good question. He feels it in his bones. He first felt it that night several months ago, and it hasn't ever left the corners of his mind. No matter how nice the sky is or how soothingly the sound of wind in the trees placates his nerves, there in some small recess in his thoughts this feeling of unease can still be found.

I'm not sure...something has changed though... Torm answers in an uncharacteristically serious tone. Momentarily motionless, his attention is drawn by a spider up in a tree nearby, eating a moth caught in its web. A decidedly macabre image that didn't help at all. Torm has no idea why he left or whether what he did while gone would even matter in the end. Here's hoping that fate points you in the right direction once in a while.

Suddenly aware of his distractedness, Torm clears his throat and grins, usual cheer back in force. "Ah, listen to me, what a melodramatist!" He sits back down on the ground near his bag and leans against a large, convenient rock. "No, I'm not sure what's been going on; I was kinda hoping you could tell me. I'm a little out of the loop, it seems."

[Lienn~]

A smirk crossed the young woman's face at his blatant compliment...it was just like him. And nice, she hadn't really had a reason to smile in her absence, or even when she had returned either, when she found that almost all of her friends had packed up and left without a trace as well. There were so many new faces, new and completely unfamiliar. Her gaze followed his to the tree, and she make a weird face: Spiders weren't her favorite of all living creatures by any means.

"It seems like everyone I knew here just left. You have no idea how relieved I was to see a familiar face." She grinned, nodding at him. Relieved wasn't really the right word, but she couldn't think of a better suiting one at the moment. With everything changing, it was nice to find something that had stayed the same. "Have I interrupted you though? Were you training?" The thought occuring to her. They were on the training grounds after all.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

"Have I interrupted you though? Were you training?" Lienn asks. Lost in other thoughts, Torm had momentarily forgotten about his reason for being there.

"Well, I was planning on having more of a practice session than actual training, but I guess what I had in mind could be considered training of a sort." Torm pats the leather satchel on the ground by him, then reaches inside to pull out a single mechanical insect. "Rather than physical training, I was planning on practicing controlling my little minions. Coordinating a whole mess of them at once is a stiff chore, especially if you want them to have individual patterns of motion." He tosses the metal bug lightly into the air and then snatches it in a fist as it falls back down.

How about you? Torm asks. Indeed, the training grounds are beautiful and diverse, but it's just not the sort of place people go just for a peaceful stroll. Usually. You carry a weapon today. I don't remember you employing our jolly Brother Bo before; is this a new chapter in your manuscript of martial mastery?

[Lienn~]

Lienn turned her head, her left hand coming up to grasp her bo staff. "Oh, this?" She asked, pulling it from its sling on her back in a swift movement, hefting it easily in her hand. "Yeah, I got it during my travels. Being telekinetic, I thought it would come in extra handy." She grinned, flicking it through the air, bringing one end endward to rest against the grass. "I haven't had a chance to work with it yet, so I thought I'd train up a little. What's in the bag?" She asked curiously, pale hues looking at the buzzing ba gin his hands.




((ooc: sorry about the late reply and short ickyness, finals week sucks arse))

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

(OOC: Sorry for the delay.)

"Oh, this?" Torm hesitates for a moment, then shrugs. He holds the bag open for her to peer in. Inside can bee seen a frantic mass of Clockwork Beetles of various colors.

Six legs apiece and farily round when viewed from above, they somewhat resemble the stereotypical image of a scarab, though they are more akin in size to a large june bug. The hinged portions of the shell that cover their wings are colored with glossy paints that in would seem to indicate the insects' specific engineered purpose.

I haven't had any time to practice with these guys in a long while. Therefore, I made a point of making time for it, and here I am.