Training the Light and Shadow of the Moon
Collaberation of:
Th3king0fChaos [Desmond],
@dragonpiece [Ingrid], and
@BreathOfTheWoof [Zarra]
On a warm Lepedes afternoon, within the Zeno house of Fades-in-Moonlight, Desmond made his way over to the commons area where he had called both Ingrid and Zarra,
”Hey you two, I brought you both here to talk about the Trials and some of my worries. Specifically-”, Desmond looked to both Zarra and Ingrid as he then continued,
”in the physical challenges”.
“Can I opt to physically not be there?” We’re already starting off strong as Zarra dismissively but playfully quips.
”I wish, however you will need to be if we are to even come close to getting top 10 in the Trials, and this is a pretty important event”.
Ingrid was excited to try on her new set of workout gear. And exercising in the sun was nice. Plus this,
”I hope you brought your earplugs Desmond, Zarra is quite the screamer when it comes to strenuous activity,” Ingrid said smirking at Zarra.
Zarra rolls his eyes as smirks back, enjoying the banter.
“I don’t think Desmond is planning on cutting me open today, atleast...””No not yet with you Zarra. You are too frail for that”, Desmond said with a smile.
“Thank Ipte.” is the only thing the accurately scrawny Thunderchild can think to respond with.
“Should’ve been thanking Ipte last night when I let you cuddle me in bed, or maybe you were just cold from all the blood loss,” Ingrid couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at it.
Inside Zarra is as shamed as a red-nosed reindeer, but he attempts to keep his cool enough to bring his sarcastic defense mechanisms up.
“I can’t believe Ingrid of all people would be capable of spreading rumors.” He turns his attention back to Desmond, expecting that line of conversation to end.
Desmond whistled in response to such
provacative statements, as he then continued,
”Alright, alright, the poor boy have been harassed enough. So I called you both here to talk to you about starting a training regiment, are either of you willing?” desmond asked as he seemed to be waiting for a response before he continued.
Ingrid responded quickly,
“It has been quite a few years since I trained. But I’m sure it would do me good.” Ingrid wasn’t shy about training. In fact she been looking to train more since she has been eating more.
“I mean I kinda doubt it’s a bad idea, at the most I lose some time, and while I would prefer to do something like this by myself, I’d be lying to myself if I said I had the discipline, so having a couple partners would avoid that pitfall.” Zarra brings up thoughtfully.
Desmond had a smile on his face as they spoke, it was one that rested very easily as it was seen more often than not. Desmond said in a calm voice,
“Perfect! Well it would include waking up in the early morning everyday-” as Desmond said under his breath
before dawn break.
Ingrid already woke up early so this just meant her early morning coffee and pastry from Zeno Bucks. Maybe before hand as Ingrid has noticed the almost miraculous effect the dark brew has on her mind. Who knows what the magical liquid could do for you if taken before training.
“We should pick up some coffee before we train in the morning! My treat.”Desmond looked in astonishment as he asked,
”Oh do they open up before Dawn?”.
Ingrid's excitement vanished,
“Before Dawn?” Ingrid slouched,
“I guess it will be after…”“I’m lucky to get up before dusk, let alone the other twilight, is there a specific reason we’re doing it at that time?” he says this with a poorly veiled argumentative attitude.
”Well early morning is the best time as the exercise should take possibly 2-3 hours to complete properly. I don’t want to do late night as from what I know that you guys have something going on, so early morning” Desmond said with a relaxed smile.
”That sounds reasonable, it is just so early. But fine, I will accept your generosity to train me.” Ingrid didn’t like it but it would probably get her closer to her previous fitness and get her to looking shredded enough for her costume.
“You have the audacity to assume I do anything meaningful with my late nights.” This response is mostly a half-truth, it’s more designed to fit in than to actually correct Desmond.
Ingrid was slightly annoyed that he would describe his nights as unmeaningful and she did give him a glare about it but nothing more than that.
“Alright, we can either start now and get you guys started in understanding what kind of training you would do, and possibly embarrass yourselves in front of people. Or I can wake you guys up early and get us started a little earlier before dawn tomorrow to explain things”. Desmond clapped his hands together as he looked to the both of them as he continued,
”Your choice”.
Ingrid didn’t mind going out now,
“How about we take a little fly over to the forest to train, it’s usually a little cooler.” Ingrid thought that would be a fun jaunt and it would save her from sweating her ass off in front of everyone.
"Does Desmond have the RAS to fly though?" Zarra emphatically points out.
“I’m assuming Ingrid was just gonna fly both of us over” Desmond said with a small shrug.
”I think it would be a good practice to fly the both of you over to the forest if you trust me.”"Are we going to do the exercises while flying? I'll admit it would be a little creative…"”Hu, I never thought of that, however, that also seems very unproductive. As you have nothing to push against or resist against so it might be very weak training” Desmond said while he seemed to think upon it for a moment before shrugging.
"What are you talking about? I bet I could push against Benny's ego from here." Zarra couldn't resist taking a jab at the more powerful student.
Desmond let out a chuckle as he said,
”Yeah yeah-” as Desmond fully shifted as they were to head to the door,
”Let’s go, we should talk more while we are going”“Alright then,” Ingrid closed her eyes and focussed. Ingrid absorbed the subtle power the planet had on their bodies making them light. She kept Desmond and Zarra close together as she then used it to move them through the air to their location. Slowly picking up speed as they went. Never going out of control but sometimes having a slight change of elevation. When Ingrid spotted a good spot she slowly lowered them into the forest. The landing was not the smoothest but overall save.
“Alright, here we are!” Ingrid exclaimed, still excited from the successful flight test.
”Nice going Ingrid, I felt unsafe only twice during that, not bad”.
"So, where's the part where I split trees and eat nails?" Not shying away from hyperbole.
“Not yet kiddo, you are thinking level 2, you aren’t even at level one”, Desmond said as he began taking a few steps forward to stand in front of both Zarra and Ingrid as he continued,
”You will be doing some basic physical training, getting you both into some shape through most physical effort before we would introduce magic to increase the difficulty and effectiveness of training”.
“Alright, where to start Desmond?” Ingrid had started stretching.
Desmond makes a line on the ground as he walks roughly 30 yards, as he then called out to them,
“We’ll start with sprints, you guys will run from that line all the way over to here. Once you do, you will then jog all the way back to that line and then do it again. You guys will do that 5 times before we move on to the next exercise”.
Running, Ingrid’s nemesis,
“Fine.” Ingrid ran and maybe got to the jog back on the third lap before she started to look ragged.
Zarra, true to his competitive nature, tries to run faster than Ingrid. Using a breathing technique of his own invention, he inhales with his nose and exhales with his mouth. He takes Desmond as literally as possible, going full speed for the first half and a healthy trot for the return.
Ingrid wasn’t worried about the anemic short stack that would make a peasant cry if he was the bird hunted for dinner. She had a longer stride and her full speed was much faster. Just not very long-lived.
Once they had finished the sprints, Desmond sent them through 20 pushups, then 20 situps, then 20 lunges, then 20 jumping jacks. Each one follows a pace set by Desmond, when messed up Desmond stops them and restarts the exercise before they complete it properly. As then they get to the last few exercises, the first of them being Crab and bear walks.
”Alright, now we are going to do crab and bear walks, you will lean back and go to all 4 as you crawl backwards 30 yards. Once you make it to the 30 yard mark, you then go and switch to crawling on all 4 with your belly down and go back to the starting point”. Desmond gives a basic show before he continues,
”Alright, you will do this 5 times, any questions?”“Does that actually test anything or is it just free embarrassment points?” Regardless of Desmond’s answer, the question is loaded, Zarra is unlikely to believe either way.
“Oh it’s both, you work out muscles that you probably never use lifting a book or a spoon to your mouth while I get to watch you make a dumbass of yourself”, Desmond said with his same old smile.
Ingrid didn’t feel particularly embarrassed but she did have to ask,
“So why not train through either sparring or with resistance? I know you can injure yourself but we have a binder here and I can press everyone down with force to make it more difficult.”“Oh because this isn’t just for strength, dexterity, and agility, this is also for longer form stamina. I’m trying to get you both able to strain yourselves for longer periods of time without tiring or slowing easily, it’s why the training consists of a few hours of exercise rather than just quick strenuous exercises to strain the muscles to then use magic to quickly reform it. That can come later if you really need to bulk up” Desmond said with a few movements, flexing when speaking of strength, doing jazz hands when talking about dexterity, bouncing when speaking of agility, and pointing to the heart when he speaks of stamina.
Desmond then shifted in his stance as he put his hands on his hips as he continued,
“Also with sparing, it will come in a bit, I was planning this was going to be the work we do in the morning every day, while sparring comes on the days we have more time, like the weekends. But if you wanna spar now I can always oblige, but after you finish your first set of exercises”.
“Too bad we can’t just bind ourselves new muscles.” Zarra interprets wishfully.
“Well, what and how are we sparring? If we aren’t careful Ingrid may turn me into one of those multi-piece puzzles.”“Full contact I would assume, no magic or eye gouging.” Ingrid smirked at Zarra,
“Your pretty good at putting together people puzzles right?”“What about ear biting?” spoken sardonically.
”Alright alright, yes it will be full contact, just don’t go full force. We may have a binder however I don’t need you guys breaking each other’s bones or snapping necks alright?”“See, what I don’t like about sparring is that, it’s kinda inaccurate, don’t you think? Like if I’m genuinely fighting for my life, why wouldn’t I do things like pull hair or burn their eyes? I am aware the Trials have rules but that’s likely what I’m gonna do in the moment.” Zarra seems very confident in knowing his own instincts here.
You ever heard the idea, ‘do onto others that you wish done upon you?’. You may play dirty, but if you play dirty and Ingrid decides to drop to your level and it devolves into dirty tricks then either of you might go a little too hard and do something we can’t fix”. Desmond spoke calmly to answer the questions turned complaints.
“Besides you won’t get the full physical benefits of sparing if you both injure yourselves from doing such tricks. I’m not here teaching you how to duel at full force, we have neither the resources nor the time for that. Maybe near the Trials I will line you both up to do some practice duels, however, for the time being while we train, many of those dirty tricks, those full force attacks, stow them”. Desmond sliced his hand through the air as a signal to stop as he then switched topics,
”Alright back to exercise at hand, both of you onto all 4s while facing the sky you guys own me some crawls”.
Zarra aggressively waddles across the grass like some sort of non-euclidean being.
Ingrid had no idea what Zarra was doing but she was crab walking and hating it. Proper exercise.
Once Ingrid and Zarra made it the 30 yards he yelled out to them switch, where they would switch to bear crawling back those 30 yards they covered, as they repeat this 4 more times before they finished. Once they made it back from the final crawl, Desmond said,
”Good job, you guys have 1 last exercise.You guys will be doing sideways shuffling those 30 yards, and then coming back doing more sideways shuffles but facing the opposite way on your way back. You will do this 5 times and then we can move on to some sparring”. Desmond said as he gave a demonstration so they both understood what he was talking about before saying,
”Ready? Go!” Giving no time for idle chatter.
Zarra at some point hits a sharp rock, causing many things to go wrong to the point he just straight up collapses on the ground.
Ingrid would normally not have an issue with this but the current condition of her legs mixed with the forest floor created a unique challenge. She fell once or twice but she manages to get it done without any serious issues.
Desmond watched them and knew this was to happen, the forest is a difficult place to try exercises yet it provided a unique training he didn’t think about. As once they finished, Ingrid after a scratch or two, and Zarra plenty more, they ended up at the starting point where Desmond was standing waiting for them.
”Alright, so that was the first set you guys would be doing in the morning. Normally we would have 4 more sets, however we have a little less time today because we started in the afternoon and y’all wanted to spar” Desmond said with a slight shrug at the end as he then continued,
”So, who wants to go first? I’ll be both of your partners for today so please go easy on me~”. Desmond said the last part with the exact same smile he has always worn, yet his face seemed almost more sly than normal.
"How exactly does one go easy in a fight?" Despite the rhetoric behind it, Zarra seems serious about that question.
”Ah very good question, going easy in a fight would include: Not putting all of your weight into a punch, kick, or throw. Making sure when you throw someone to the ground make sure not to throw them onto their head. If you put someone into an arm lock, leg lock, or any other form of lock not to go through with a full break, just add tension ‘till your opponent gives up. When you have someone in a hold to choke them out, you may knock them out however you are not to try to break their neck or hold them for an excessively long time. Really it’s ‘try not to kill each other or cause irreparable damage”. Desmond made sure that Zarra knew everything he needed, it might be something that inherently made sense to Desmond or even Ingrid but something that might not make as much sense to a Noble boy who has just left home.
Ingrid didn’t need much explanation for what amounted to try not to kill each other. She thought a standard level of empathy and a lick of intelligence was enough to read what Desmond meant. She was surprised to see Zarra needed it explained to him so thoroughly.
"I guess I can go first, just be aware I might go down super quickly, never been one to just accept blows, being Greyborn and all." Zarra sort of approaches, not really sure exactly how to stance, however, he ultimately goes with an open hand stance, rather than the generic cuffed fists.
"I guess I'll try using some stuff my brother taught me, can't promise it will be graceful though…"Desmond starts to back up slightly as he began to roll up his sleeves,
”It’s alright if you aren’t any good, we’re here to start teaching you how to be better”. As once Desmond saw Zarra get into some stance desmond stopped his back peddling and took up his own stance. Having 2 closed fists with his right hand being near his face while his left lower towards his stomach. Desmond still had his smile as he said,
”Alright how about you make the first move”.
Zarra nods in acceptance, then immediately rushes Desmond, intending to slam his foot into his top of the opponent’s, or at least get a shin strike.
Desmond saw Zarra rushing as prepared for multiple different strikes or possible grab attempts, as he saw Zarra lift his foot and go down into a stomp, he waited to watch Zarra’s shoulders, yet there was no other movement, only a full force stomp. Desmond shifted his leading foot inward to be aimed in between his opponents' legs as he lunged forward shifting himself so he would be only centimeters away from Zarra as he loomed over Zarra before he attempted to shove him away.
Zarra did something Desmond likely didn’t expect, rather than attempt to strike Desmond with a knee or elbow combo, Zarra took advantage of Desmond essentially counterapproaching him to grab him by the knee and roll with all the sprints momentum, which if goes through will cause both of them on the ground on their sides and Zarra capturing Desmond with a nasty kneebar.
Desmond didn’t expect this much, it was impressive that Zarra had enough thought to try and get into a situation like this without flinching when his enemy closed in with a possible counter. Yet Desmond knew this maneuver well, the best way to counter would be to drop his weight and allow Zarra to essentially run into his knee, yet Desmond wanted to see more. So Desmond let his weight drop even further as he met Zarra’s tackle with his full body and got him into his grasp. Desmond knew he couldn’t disengage easily, so he was to check the tackle and keep Zarra standing, trying to see what Zarra will do when he is in a bad spot.
Despite possibly being dubbed cheating, Zarra decides to use magic here. He jumps with his both legs and then uses Kinetic to swing himself unusually fast, intending to kick Desmond’s knees out from under him and throw him head over heels.
Ingrid had been watching the spar as she rested knowing her fate was next. She was impressed by Zarra’s ability to outright ignore fear and go in for his own counter. A skill that could definitely help you win a fight. But Desmond was far too seasoned to be stopped by someone who merely isn’t afraid. Desmond countered and was in the process of putting Zarra into a bad spot when the little shit head pulled out magic. A kinetically enhanced kick was dangerous, it had more power and size than a punch but usually lacked speed for a beginner. Being enhanced made it something that can break bones. Ingrid didn’t hold back and performed the skill Dead Stop. For her it was nothing at this point to stop someone of his size. She did her best to express a finite control to not affect Desmond but she did partially.
Tch, needs more practice, Ingrid thought before letting out an irritated voice,
”No magic Zarra.”.
The moment Desmond saw Zarra move much too fast for someone in his position and his level, he knew Zarra just used magic. Desmond’s senses heightened to an increased level as he focused on where Zara could have been. Desmond knew he had but a moment to dodge, with Zarra’s body position he last saw, Desmond knew Zarra was going from a low stance to a shifted sideways stance. Desmond took a bet that Zarra was coming from the side to bring him to the ground. Desmond didn’t feel a large shift so that meant Zarra was going to be low so Desmond was going to hop the possible kick. Yet the moment he leaped and brought his legs to his chest, he felt himself in the air for a moment as he felt the energy in his body gone as the only thing that left his mouth was,
”Ehe~”, as he then fell onto his ass.
”Ahhh, ow. Thanks for the save Ingrid” Desmond said as he gave Ingrid a thumbs up
Much to Zarra’s disintention, he stops midkick and clashes with the ground rather brutally, likely pulling the grappled Desmond with him.
“Sorry, I was trying to make sure I could perform the move, I wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt him.” Zarra hopes he comes off sincere enough to be taken so, as is trying to be but he knows as a Greyborn he is expected to lie often.
Desmond rose from the floor and brushed himself of the dirt as he said,
”Alright we’ll call it there. That would have been a little serious if we went further”. Desmond said with his same smile as he clapped his hands together getting the dust off of them. As desmond pointed towards Ingrid,
”Alright Ingrid your turn”. As Desmond slowly back peddled again as he started to adjust his sleeves.
“Alright, lets do this,” Ingrid wasn’t ready to spar but she needed to. She started to make way towards him at a moderate rate. She kept distance with her reach and tried to find perch on his clothing to get him into a grapple. Slow and steady at the start was the best way to have a good spar, then ramping up as you go.
Desmond too kept his distance, he kept just out of his own arms reach as it would mean Ingrid would need to step in and go aggressive, he used Vai-to’s methodology of ‘all the way out’ fighting by periodically throw long kicks to send the ball of his foot to her shins and thighs as he shifted away trying to force her to try and stop him, either by closing the distance or trying to read his strikes.
Ingrid tried to read his strikes and catch one of his foots.
The moment Desmond sees Ingrid going to grab his foot, he leaned into the strike to make sure it plants firmly into where it is going rather than the lighter hits he’s done to annoy her. Desmond held himself back from changing his stance to transition out of the grapple he was going to get into as he wished to see how well she can do in transitioning without giving him wiggle room to get out.
Ingrid absorbed the strike and moved in, putting pressure on his inner knee to hopefully knock him down and get into a mount. The kicks hurt but Ingrid believes as long as she gets the mount she is fine.
The moment Ingrid started to take hold of Desmond’s leg, he went with her takedown as she got to a mount. Her skills were quite good, they had been practiced, yet they needed work. Her strength is lacking in some regards, while her precision was decent her speed seemed sluggish, it might be from her lack of use she might not feel perfectly comfortable in changing speeds, yet it was good enough. When desmond landed to his back he instantly shot his hips up to destabilize Ingrid as he closed up his guard. Desmond prepared to defend and was willing to bide his time to break out.
Ingrid lost her balance as he buckled his hips up,
“Fuck”. She fell forward and in panic she tried to punch him on top of his head instead of salvaging her grapple. A shameful mount but Ingrid is not giving up yet.
Desmond noticed Ingrid began to panic in her spot, instead of fighting him to reestablish the grapple, she instead transitioned into a pounding with hammer fists to the top of his head. Desmond took a few hits to the top of his head before he established a guard as Ingrid continued to rain down blows. Then it finally came, Desmond found an opportunity to break out as he shot one of his legs out to drop his body to off-balance Ingrid again as he attempted to grab onto Ingrid’s hips before trying to roll her to put her to her back to finish with a mount transition.
Ingrid had hoped that the hammer fists would be more effective but instead he got a guard up. She kept hammering to keep him from reacting but he then flipped her. She got thrown onto her back and tried to stop full mount but she found herself too winded and was easily subdued.
Desmond found the mount lacking, it was too easy as when he fully mounted he saw on Ingrid’s face her exhaustion. Her face was red as she was heaving breaths with a guard loosely thrown up waiting for blows to rain down. Desmond disengaged the mount as he said,
”Alright, we’ll call it there”. Desmond stood up as he let out a sigh, he lightly patted himself down to clear himself of the dust.
Once desmond felt cleared enough he clapped his hands together as he said,
”Alright, you both did pretty decent for your first spar. You Zarra need to learn restraint when using magic as this was a test of control in dire situations, as the over-application of magic can lead to you injuring or killing your partner or opponent, which in the Trial’s will lead to us getting disqualified”. Desmond said with a smile and a nod, while he looked to Ingrid who was still recovering,
”While you Ingrid will need to get into a better condition. You have decent skills, and an okay intuition, yet some of them need to be refined, like your temper and your physique. You tired too quickly from this bit of exercise and a small bout. However, we’ll work on that sort of thing quite more rigorously as that exercising you did was the first set of what is normally 5 sets”. Desmond gave a small nod to Ingrid that she did well as he then finished with,
”Alright, any questions?”Igrid gave a thumbs up as she continued to catch her breath. There should be more sets after this and she needs to be able to stand up to do them.
“So are we going to learn like a fighting style of some kind at all? I think having a general idea of what we’re supposed to be doing would better anchor our training focus. Me being so light I find myself always wanting to use Kinetic to give myself artificial agility, like you almost had to deal with there. Seriously, sorry about that, it’s impossible to believe you hit hard when you’re as scraggly as me” ”Well of course I have a style I am going with. Now seeing your skills I will be using your natural agility and dexterity to pivot you into Zebaka. Its emphasis on maintaining momentum and kinetic energy seems right up your alley. However, no matter what I teach you for fighting, you will need to have a much better physique as a whole”, Desmond said with a quick wave of the hand as he began to slowly walk around as he continued,
”The Trial’s is not just fighting, it is games of different forms with different levels of physical exertion in ways that could make it difficult to keep up, day after day without some assistance in other ways such as healing and Binding. Magic is a fantastic ability that makes lion of men, however, to fully rely on it would eventually wear you out in the long run by exerting yourself too much and injuring your manas which will affect you into even the next games. The more you can use not only magic but your physical body would mean you can physically exert yourself for longer. And if this eventually becomes a slugfest as the days drag on, the more you can recover, the better chance you have in the next rounds of the games”.
Desmond finally pivoted on his heel as he then looked to Zarra and Ingrid,
”So, our training will not change, it will be quite the same, however, the times when I am teaching you both fighting, I have very specific styles in mind for both of you to do, and both of them I am decently proficient in”.
"Isn't that the one where I do like a triple lutz backflip and launch people into landing with their face?" Zarra twirls in place on 1 foot to emphasize.
”Yep it is, hopefully you are able to actually perform the backflips without landing on your face” Desmond said with a smile and a chuckle before he looked to Ingrid and asked,
”Do you have any questions?”“So you’re also going to teach us how to fight? I been trained a little in Kastäng before but never taught how to use it to fight. Or are we tossing that for something new?” Ingrid asked. She understood that although she may have some prior training, she may not be very good at it since it wasn’t something she practiced consistently.
”Well I am of two minds on it. With your build, your skills, and experience I think I have a style that could really use your innate height and already learned skills in grappling. But I also understand that you might want to stick with your home nation's traditional style as it is one you feel comfortable in”. Desmond said with a thought on his mind before shrugging and putting out first his left hand and then his right hand,
”So, I’ll give you the option. You can either stick with Kastang and I can start teaching you more in-depth on how to get aggressive with it. Or I can teach you Vai-to the style I was using against you, which uses either full range kicks or steps in for full body strikes and takedowns, which I find can become extremely useful for someone of your build and stature”.
Ingrid didn’t need long to think,
“I think I will stick with Kastäng. We don’t have that much time before the trials. And besides, if you're willing to mix in some other skills, I promise I will learn them.” Ingrid was just estimating her skills and keeping with Kastäng and having strikes mixed into it just seemed more efficient than starting clean, maybe even worse off if she had to unlearn certain things.
Desmond gave a smile before clapping his hands and saying,
”Alright, with that settled, break time over, now time to get back to those 4 sets you owe me. If you wanna make it to dinner you better start now”. Desmond spoke those words while never breaking his smile.
As the training lasted a few more hours before they had finally finished, as at that point they had neared and were forced to face their limits before the training was over. Desmond always stood by with his smile as he called out exercise after exercise, giving little time for rest. Once it was finished Desmond loomed over the two tired bodies as he said,
”Great job, you both made it through the first day, now let’s go get some Zeno Buck’s, I’m parched”.
"I usually just get milk, I don't like anything else" Zarra says, trying to add to the conversation.
Ingrid decided to flex her other muscle, her RAS and fly them over. Ingrid listened to Zarra and said,
“You should still drink some coffee! It will energize you and keep you going. Remember we are still seeing eachother after school. I recommend a large Cafe au Lait, extra milk and 4 servings of honey since it can be bitter for children” Ingrid didn’t even give Zarra a smug look. She just kept flying.
Desmond chuckled as he heard Ingrid sling out a roast towards Zarra about his choice of drink. As they landed near the stand Desmond approached the stand and made his order which was quite a simple one,
”1 large Black Coffee”. Once ordered Desmond looked to the others as he made a light bow and a sweeping gesture for them to order as well.
Zarra seems to be thinking about his drink more than he’s ever have in his life,
“Go ahead and order, I’m still choosing.” Somehow he’s indecisive when there’s only 7 things on the menu.
“Okay,” Ingrid went up to the counter to order. Seeing that it was one of the usual workers, Ingrid smiled and asked for the usual, a large Cafe au Lait. Ingrid just loved a little milk in her coffee.
The binder ultimately decides, opting for something more creative today.
“I’ll have a large milk with 3 servings of honey in it, I’ll also take a Brioche.” The cashier of that day sort of gives him a mildly confused look, but ultimately accepts the order.
Desmond listened to each of their orders as when he heard Zarra’s order Desmond laughed as he said,
”Is the milk too strong for your pallet las? Do they need to add sugar for you?”Zarra snorted back immediately, knowing Desmond or Ingrid were gearing him up for hazing
“Is the honey gonna be too strong for your laundry?” Clearly implying he’s going to dump the drink on him.
Desmond laughed as he said,
”Not at all, I wear cloths not silk, it’ll come out fine”. As he lightly patted Zarra on the back as he was jesting, while also preparing for the drink to come to be wary of it.
Ingrid listened in knowing Zarra wouldn’t dump it on her if he valued his hand. But to be sure she spoke out,
“Zarra you can dump it on me but you will be buying me new clothes and paying for my next 20 drinks. Got it?” She felt the financial burden would keep him away.
“20 drinks? My Shune, I better buy you an umbrella too.” “If you would be so kind to at least get me some earplugs, you cry like a Perrench girl”“Literally why does that bother you? It was your idea to turn me into a pincushion, and you have the audacity to complain about my screams, why you gotta have so many double standards?” Despite the blatant bullying, Zarra seems mostly unphased by it, seeing it as play rather than an actual threat.
Seeing that he sees this as play makes Ingrid feel at ease but him saying this infront of Zeno Bucks makes Ingrid cautious. She weighed what she should say but elected to retreat back her statement as what he said could be easily construed as her being a terrible women,
“Oh Zarra, you know I only jest. Besides, this is your research, we can stop at any time.” She wanted to move any suspicion off of her to him if some religious folk took it as her performing Blood Magic.
Zarra, still not really seeming to grasp that what he said could be taken poorly out of context, answers back.
“I did sign a contract that I basically wasted your time on, I’m pretty sure that’s my own fault. Plus, we did promise to try everything, even the less than stellar stuff.” He touches his hand in subconscious relief, thanking the gods he is a binder and can undo all superficial wounds.
Ingrid really needed to get out of here before Zarra made her seem even worse. Luckily her coffee was done. She took it and left at a fast pace. Dropping the needed money with the worker.
Zarra took his milk and honey combo and dumped a piece of his Perrench pastry into it, finding it surprisingly enjoyable and compliments himself for the decision.
Desmond sighed as he watched Ingrid left in a hurry, he knew why, the conversation was leading somewhere that could paint them both in a terrible light, and Desmond did not want to get involved. Desmond looked to Zarra as he then grabbed his drink and said while walking away,
”Good job, Prince Charming. Welp see ya for our next Training Session”.
Their interactions officially end as Zarra stands there, left wondering what ‘prince charming’ is supposed to mean when Ingrid was the one who brought up screaming of all things.
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