[Social] House of Wooden Blades

[Chase Delacroix]

Exploring the area around the house, Chase wandered into an outbuilding that turned out to be a dojo. And not the dark, gloomy kind the cult compound used; the normal kind. At least, it appeared to be.

"Nice," he said to himself, examining the practice weapons on display. Gathering his nerve, he picked up a wooden sword and tested its balance. It was perfect. Satisfied, he gave it a few test slashes. Despite his natural grace, an expert could easily tell he wasn't accustomed to curved blades.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Unbeknownst to him, someone was watching him from the doorway while he tried out the bokken.

"That's quite a big blade for an assassin." She commented, stepping forward to make herself known.

[Chase Delacroix]

He was surprised, but he did a good job of not showing it as he turned to face her.

"I was trained in longer swords, just Chinese one. But you're right that the Lotus wouldn't send us out with anything this size. Too cumbersome for their fighting style and too conspicuous for plainclothes missions."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa moved slowly to grab another free of the wall.

"I wasn't trained in blades until the institute. Before that it was all hand to hand. My cousins are all trained in boxing, but it doesn't suit my size." Said the woman who was dwarfed by the much younger man.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Before the Lotus got its hooks in me, I hadn't had so much as a karate lesson. Not that I remember, anyway. The martial arts are just a natural fit for my mutation."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"Care to test that theory?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"If you can excuse my lack of proper form," he said, stepping out into the middle of the room.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa smirked, and took her position across from him, squaring off.

"Alright little thief. Try me."

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase took a stance that wasn't too far off in terms of how to be able to wield the bokken effectively, even if the finer points of posture and stance were lacking.

Adjusting his footing, he said, "Ready as I'm going to be."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Once he said he was ready, Kiwa attacked without hesitation. She was fast. Incredibly fast considering her mutation clearly wasn't some kind of speedster or dexterity based. She moved to try to a swing in on a blind spot to test Chase's response.

[Chase Delacroix]

He blocked the strike quickly enough. What he lacked in years of training, he made up for with raw reflex and honed perception. Enough so that he may have had a sleeping talent for it before his days with the Lotus.

"You're not going to get the drop on me that easily," he smirked, freeing his blade and countering with a strike at her midsection.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

A block down with the 'blade' running down the length of her midsection kept him from striking her, but also telecast something to Chase-

She never actually stated what sort of swordplay she was trained in.

A quick step backwards and another dart to the left implied she was going to swing on him again, but she didn't, merely circling him quickly.

Testing again it seemed.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase kept his bokken ready to defend, only twitching it slightly in response to the feint. He sidestepped as he turned, the two of them performing a circular dance. Then he struck, coming in low only to abruptly change his angle and slash diagonally upward.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa easily dodged Chase's attack, even with it's very crafty feint. When she jumped backwards to avoid his attack, Chase could swear that he felt a breeze coming from behind him.

Chase would get the overwhelming sense he was being toyed with, and that he definitely was not the cat in this situation.

[Chase Delacroix]

Surprised, Chase jumped to the side to orient himself so that he could avoid and keep an eye on both her and whatever had been behind him.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

There was nothing there. And while he was distracted by what might be there, that's when Kiwa made her next strike, coming down on him from above.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase didn't have time to roll out of the way, so he planted his feet and blocked with his bokken.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

The block was successful, but the leverage it provided allowed Kiwa to kick off her own Bokken and literally drop down onto Chase to attempt to grapple him into an arm lock behind his head.

When she pulled his maneuver, Chase would again feel wind whipping up around him.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase defaulted to his training and charged backwards into the wall in an effort to dislodge her. Lotus sparring sessions didn't stop at first pin.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

As he did so, Chase could feel the air shoving backwards with his weight, and Kiwa was lifted onto his shoulders as his back hit the wall, looking down on him with a Cheshire grin.

Then she leant her weight forward and pulled them both to the floor together, the pair landing on their backs.

Once they'd hit the tatami, she began to cackle madly in amusement.

Apparently insanity ran in the family.

[Chase Delacroix]

"I'm going to tell myself I went easy on you because you weren't trying to murder me," he groaned with a smirk, chuckling a bit.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"Of course.

If I killed you, then I'd have to hide your body and there's only so many unused hiding places on an island this small."

Was it a joke? Who knows.

[Chase Delacroix]

His brief amusement was over.

"Do mums often... you know?"

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"We're not assassins, but we are bodyguards trained to give our lives if we must." She clarified as she stared at the ceiling.

"It's not a requirement of the job, but it can happen when someone wants a piece of our ward and doesn't want to give it up. Accidents can and will happen." She replied. The reply sounded like she was speaking from experience.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Obviously our circumstances are very different, but how do you cope with it? Having taken a life, I mean."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

There was an awkward pause which Chase might attribute to a guilty conscience. But he likely would only think that up until she spoke again.

"You will have to ask Edmond."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Oh. Have to say, I didn't see that coming."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"Mmmm.... Of course. Assume the sadist is the one who's killed a man." She replied, in that very dry way Brits frequently do when they are trying to avoid an awkward conversation via humour that Chase would be used to now, given all his buddy time with Basil.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Sorry. I really should know better. It doesn't take a sadist to kill someone, or even the desire to kill," he said, growing slightly distant.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

In truth, Kiwa felt a little bad about joking with the kid now, but she'd never admit to it. At least, not directly.

Indirectly however....

"I was assigned to Edmond after the accident." She confessed." -So I don't really know what his initial reaction was to taking a life. But I know he did it because his last mum, my Uncle William, was nearly killed by someone who attacked them and he was trying to protect William. Edmond didn't understand the depths of his own powers. This was fairly common in his age group. They knew about mutants then, but many of our kind were not open, and the Institute hadn't grown to prominence as it has these days. I doubt a university was even on the table when I was attending the Institute.

To outsiders, it seemed as if the man attacked William, and then got hit by a city bus attempting to flee the scene after William managed to fend him off, sustaining some injuries in the process. Even William presumed that is what had happened... And so Edmond got off on the situation legally, as from all outward appearances he hadn't done anything at all. Though I believe the Spencer family has their suspicions of the situation, I wasn't exactly notified of their suspicions. I didn't find out until much later what had happened, when Edmond told me himself.

When I was assigned to him he had already become a recluse, albeit one locked inside a London flat instead of isolated on a sub-tropical island. I was told I should watch for him engaging sexually with women who could be dangerous to him. He had recently found out about Basil, and that on top of the accidental homicide put him in a dark place mentally. So far as I could tell, he mostly drank and moped about it.

I'm sure there was more to it internally, but his recovery from it was just... something we never directly discussed. We are British after all." She quipped again, hoping to cut some of the tension.

"Truth be told, I don't think he ever has. Not fully. That's why we're here now. The trauma from it all was such that as soon as any inkling of a problem rose in his life, he would retreat further and further to avoid another accident."

[Chase Delacroix]

"I'd say I'm coping, but honestly it hasn't been long enough since I've been... aware again to really place its entire weight on me. My memories of that time are still a bit hazy. Disconnected."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa was silent in thought as she laid for another moment before she came up with something that didn't sound too mean to a stranger.

"I will tell it to you as I told it to Edmond back then....

To say 'the past doesn't matter' is a lie that people like to tell themselves to make themselves feel better. It's them attempting to forget about the things that have happened to them or perhaps things that they have done, whether they intended to or not. An attempt at pushing things down inside of them.

The truth is that all of our experiences define who we are, for good or for ill. From the seemingly mundane things like reading a particular book, to the heavier stuff." She kept what she meant by 'heavier stuff' vague for Chase's well being.

"But we get to decide how they define who we are. Not anyone else.

No matter what you come to remember, you must remain cognizant of the fact that It is not the Black Lotus, nor the Institute, nor anyone else who gets to control that. That is for you to decide."

[Chase Delacroix]

"I'll have to let you know who that is," he said thoughtfully. He sounded grateful for the advice. It had restored some of his resolve to face that single most terrible defining moment and find out what happened on that yacht. He had plans to make. And, for that matter, tattoos to get rid of.

"So," he said, clearing the air as he sat up and turned his head to look at her, "What is your power? I thought it was hydrokinesis. I could tell you were doing something else."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa shifted a bit, looking at Chase, then looking away again.

"Hydrokenisis and aerokinesis.

Back at the institute, they called me Typhoon.

I hate it."

[Chase Delacroix]

"They didn't let you pick your own?" he asked, surprised. After all, nobody tried to give him one.

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

"Oh no, they did.

I was fourteen when I did it though. When you're fourteen things like 'Boom-Boom' and 'Negasonic Teenage Wardhead' and 'Lord Magneto' sound dynamite."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Honestly, Typhoon isn't that bad. But then I'm a teenager."

[Kiwa Ealdwine]

Kiwa didn't reply to his observation, instead she clarified.

"You know if you tell anyone I told you any of this I will murder you in your sleep, right?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"Yes ma'am," he said as if talking to a superior officer.