Private Catch the drift (Noelle)

[Shira Varanin]

Eshan in winter offered more than its share of beautiful frozen hellscapes - home field advantage for Noelle Varanin . Right now Shira was regretting extending that courtesy to her younger cousin. Regretting it hard. Frost encrusted every metal surface, of which she had plenty. She ran durasteel fingers through her hair and shook half-melted snow away onto the thick lake ice. Nowhere on this surface would break under her weight, but a high Force jump, a telekinetic blast, or - hey - a lightsaber would certainly compromise it. Though she wore boots that offered a decent grip, the ice was still ice.

She eyed her second cousin once removed and fired up both ends of her sky-blue lightsaber: a tacit invitation.


RELEVANT PROSTHETICS

• Left arm: Diamant Katarn
• Right arm: Phade
  • Aurek socket: Second Wind
  • Zerek socket: Steadfast

 

[Noelle Varanin]

A smile ghosted the edge of Noelle's lips, her eyes following the dance of light across the ice as the saber was lit. No words were wasted, the silence as tactical as the space between them. She pulled her sword, the alchemized metal reflecting back the harsh winter sun. She bounced the sharpened tip against the ice, chips flying with every rebound.

Challenge accepted.

Noelle felt the bite of cold against her lungs. She welcomed it, her steps slow and meticulous on the ice she had grown up on. She walked in a semicircle, feeling out her second cousin once removed's mindset through the movement in her response. Noelle was entirely composed of fragile flesh, but fighting was her native tongue

Crunch, Crick. Thrang-- every step Noelle closed in was another slash in the ice, the impact ringing through the air. The smile grew. Cousin taunted cousin.


Weapons:
Sword- alchemized sith sword (use ur imagination)
Back up- Short sword
Her superior genes

Shira Varanin

 

[Shira Varanin]

As Noelle circled closer, Shira held her ground without turning. In a moment, Noelle would leave her peripheral vision.

Shira held the lightstaff loose in her durasteel right hand, down by her side. That sword would hit like a hammer: she'd need to be ready when Noelle shifted from games to effort. Shira kept her weight loose on the balls of her feet. Her boots dug in there, gripping the ice for every iota of traction.

"Come on then, princess."

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle's attention slipped downwards, to Shira's heels. Tension lingered in them, unseen toes clenching... bouncing... bracing...

Hazel eyes flickered upwards, alight with a plan already forming. "I'm not a princess anymore." She lunged, her steps gaining speed as she closed the distance. Noelle made no attempt to temper her approach, her footing going flat and bracing she slid the last yard. It was a basic tactic. The power behind her approach and the stance of the slide gave her a foundation that could only be met head on, or dodged.

It was a simple choice, but it said so much about a person.

A single, testing slash was leveled from Shira's shoulder down to her hip. Momentum did the work for Noelle, through she was not without strength.

Shira Varanin

 

[Shira Varanin]

Shira twisted, right boot somewhat firmly planted, and slid her back foot behind her in an arc. In the same motion, her lightstaff came up and around with a backhand parry that guided the Sith sword's mass instead of opposing it. The goal was to draw the sliding girl a little farther than she'd meant to slide, maybe off balance.

In passing, the sword took a sliver off the blade emitter and another off the little finger of Shira's right hand. Her durasteel grip held, but it was a close thing. That Sith blade could shear almost as well as a lightsaber. The grazing impact jeopardized Shira's balance just enough that, if her play worked, she couldn't take advantage of it.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Shira moved out of the way, flowing like water as she redirected Noelle's sword. The contact pulled her off center, the sword pulling her torso back as her legs followed her momentum onwards. A drastic flail was used to self-correct, her sword yanking away as she caught her footing and turned back around.

It wasn't quite like wearing skates, but it preventing her from lifting her foot to take steps.

Shira had clearly picked up on the value of that too.

Noelle huffed, the sheered metal laying between them. There was no blood. No screams. Nothing earned, nothing gained, and yet Noelle's nostrils flared in a rush of satisfaction. "Did you lose your legs too?" She took a single step forward, her foot never lifting, bracing herself on the side of Shira's stance.

From this position, she only had to slash down to test her question.

Shira Varanin

 

[Shira Varanin]

Shira regained her balance around the same time as Noelle did. She set her feet, sinking her stance, with a two-handed grip on the lightstaff. The incoming sword skidded down her left blade and glanced away - one of the few things a lightstaff did better than a normal lightsaber. A spark of anger rose at Noelle's taunt.

As the strike drove the left blade down and back, Shira pivoted left again and lashed out with the right blade. It slashed down at the crook of Noelle's neck and left shoulder. Her grounded pivot gave the strike a small amount of oomph - but not much, lest she skid on the ice. A grazing burn would shut Noelle up just fine.

Well, maybe not.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Deflect and redirect.

Noelle felt the pattern form in the depth's of her cousin's movements. The rippling of Shira's abs betrayed her intentions. Together, intuition gave Noelle enough time to duck, but nothing more.

The smell of burnt hair touched the air. White locks drifted to the ground between them. Noelle's eyes flashed, the anger matched.

No more words. She allowed the duck to continue to a full fall.

Her long dagger jumped into her hand, the force singing around it as it caught her weight and embedded into the ice. It bought her an anchor point as she swept her leg, her muscles flexing as tried to catch Shira behind the knees. The action would end with her back to her cousin. It was a vulnerable position that gave Noelle no space to attack further. She shoved off the ice, the dagger giving her purchase, and aimed to grab the chance at a reset.

Very well then. Two swords it was.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Shira flinched at the sight of the long dagger and couldn't say why. She hesitated a moment too long. Noelle's sweep wouldn't have done much against her sturdy prosthetic legs, except for the ice. Shira went over hard, keeping enough presence of mind to deactivate her lightstaff. One metal elbow crunched into the ice and sent spiderweb cracks radiating out.

She needed time and space to regain her feet and balance and mental equilibrium. Keeping the saber in her left hand, still sprawled on the ice, she brought up her right. The hand folded apart like a flower and emitted a wide-angle riot gun blast that could knock out the average target for days.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She turned, lips parting--

Boom.

A belated shield erupted over her, catching the worst of the blast that sent her flying. Her back smacked into the ground, sliding across the raw ice. Her ears rang viciously, blood sliding out of a broken ear drum. Disorientation overwhelmed her. She took the moment to appreciate the sudden distance as she laid there, her shins aching at the answer to her taunt.

She groaned and found her way to her hands and knees, groping for her weapons. They were scattered left and right. Never mind, then. She leaned forward onto the ice. Her palms pressed flat as she found Shira's gaze.


"That," she commented slowly. "Was cheating." Her fingers spread out. Cracks burst from her finger tips, running deep in the ice and they spread for her cousin's feet. Rapidly.

The smile grew a little more.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Shira got up as fast as the slippery ice allowed, right hand re-forming, and reactivated her lightstaff. She spat a little blood. "Are you always this whiny-"

She cut herself off as Noelle's touch sent deep fractal cracks through the ice. Instinct drove her sideways, but she lost traction. The ice shattered under her. Freezing water closed over her head. By habit she deactivated her saber as if the water had shorted it out. It could operate just fine underwater, but Noelle didn't need to know that.

Consequences cascaded through the physical shock. There were Jedi techniques for staying warm and holding your breath for a few minutes, and to remain functional down here she needed to use both. With a wary eye above, feet planted in the lakebed, Shira did what she needed to do.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle kneeled frozen, waiting.

Her weapons dragged across the ice, the only noise spare the ringing as she called them to her. Her eyes slowly widened, a flash of concern hitting her as Shira did not reemerge.

Noelle was not use to street play. Etiquette and formalities had made up the life of a princess in a culture where a duel was an art form. It overrode instinct and drove her forward. "Cousin?" She called, as if the water could talk back.

Her attention fell to the ice beneath her, jerking to and fro for a sign of movement, or an unconscious body being swept away by hidden tides. She sheathed her weapons, moving with certain haste to the edge of hole that had swallowed Shira whole.

Wouldn't the cybernetics just weigh her down?

 

[Shira Varanin]

Slowly - holding her breath and not going into hypothermic shock took most of Shira's attention - a deactivated lightstaff drifted up toward the ice beneath Noelle's feet. Shira kept it pointed toward Noelle to minimize the cross section.

When one of the blade emitters was right underneath Noelle, it turned on. Just for a moment, the blue blade speared up through the ice at her legs. Then the saber deactivated and sank back toward its owner.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle fell backwards, hard on the splintered ice. The sound of the cracks resounded deeply throughout the lake, echoing into the trees. Danger, it sang. She was in danger. It was the searing pain across her calf that held her attention, the saber retreating just as it came. She scrambled backwards, her pant leg catching the wind.

"Fecking Jedi," she cursed, slamming her palm back into the ice.

Above Shira, the ice began to rapidly reform. The cracks filed in. The ground beneath Noelle, if given time, would grow thicker. A psychic pulse rippled down through the water, lending Noelle the foresight that she lacked.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Delay too long and that ice would freeze over unnaturally. That was fine: Shira could only hold her breath under freezing water for so long and stay functional. She gathered the Force, bent her cybernetic knees, and leaped straight up through the fresh-forming ice.

She gulped air. In her mind's eye she'd meant to blast up out of the water like a breaching whale. Instead she scrambled gracelessly up over the edge, grateful for the distance between them, modest though it was. She activated her lightstaff again and spat what felt like half the lake.

"Where were we?"

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Laughter hit the air, gut wrenching and unhinged. Noelle tried to snuff it out, only to keel over to another wave. "You look ridiculous," came a good natured statement, the tension shattering as both girls sputtered and heaved on the ice.

The rare laughter continued to fall from her lips, a single tear dewing on the corner of her eye. Her hand encircled around the long dagger. It whipped through the air, her pale skin a blur as the force let her sped.

It went end over end, aimed for Shira's core.

Noelle took the chance to jump to her feet, favoring her right side as she followed the dagger in.

 

[Shira Varanin]

That long dagger came in hard. The kriffing thing weighed three times as much as it should, after all, and it was three feet long to begin with. Shira met it with the best block she could muster, using the full strength and leverage of her cybernetic hands on the long saberstaff grip. The blade ricocheted wide in a pinwheel spiral that nearly took her head off. The impact jarred her damaged right hand - not with pain, but with an audible 'spang' of tensors snapping. She kept her feet, barely.

Anger burned deep in the part of her that was still human, and a puckish, petty desire to make her cousin choke on that laugh just a little. So Shira held out her broken hand and clenched her fist as far as its twisted workings would allow. The goal here was to choke out Noelle Varanin to some degree, get the blood thundering in her ears, get her body panicking even if her brain didn't.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle's approached stopped dead in its tracks, wild steps sending her smashing onto the ice. The cause of it all was only noted by the pinched noise coming from her throat. Her eyes bulged. She made it to her knees before lack of strength and distance left her without immediate retaliation.

She was use to fists and swords. The choke was dirty. It was unsportsmanlike.

Noelle fell forward, her lips reaching for air that could not come. The panic set in, as much as she hated it. She clawed at her sword for a mindless moment, until her vision grew a heartbeat and found a moment of singular clarity. This wasn't a training room.

A second psionic pulse shot from her finger, wild and damaging as it rippled through the lake's surface.

A crack echoed from far away. And then another.

She didn't hold back, seizing the force with every once of strength she could spare. Water raged under the surface, as wild as the ocean. Spiderwebs of cracks grew shore to shore.

Even if she was released. Even if she could breath, there was no stopping the chain she had set into motion.

What? Shira started it.

 

[Shira Varanin]

Dank ferrik the kid's strong-

The ice buckled and heaved under Shira's feet. She lost concentration on the choke, or sacrificed it rather, because getting to the shore had become of paramount importance.

Minor problem: by far the nearest point on the shoreline was directly behind Noelle Varanin

There was another option, and not a great one. Shira clipped her lightstaff to her belt in one quick motion and turned to lunge for the short sword that Noelle had thrown. It was a few metres away, its unnaturally sharp point embedded in a slab of ice. Hold onto that, and it might be a decent raft to ride out the worst of the Force storm. Shira skidded the final stretch and latched onto the protruding weapon's handle. It held firm for the moment as the lake heaved.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle crumbled onto the ice, choking on her coughs as the hold released her. She watched almost helplessly as a wave smashed into her, taking her sword over the edge. Her limbs shook at the cost of what she had done. Her nailed clawed at the ice, stopping her from going over too.

The back of her neck prickled. A shadow grew over her. She sat up, gaping open mouthed at something behind Shira.

Fifty feet away, a massive glacier keeled heavy end into the water. The opposite side rose... higher... and higher. The thick slab hovered ominously above them... before it pivoted on it balance point and came careening back down.

A massive wave splashed up in it's wake, coming towards them both.

Her nostrils flared in panic.

Another glacier came flying towards her. She let herself tumble haphazardly forward, a slopping jump landing her on it. It crashed into the one she left behind, dissolving it into countless pieces.

She might have made a mistake here.

She leaned into her desperation, finding the strength to raise her tired limbs and move onwards. She took another erratic jump landing her on the next glacier, the bitter cold numbed her as her body screamed out its limits. She ignored it.

She turned, a thin wall of ice summoned behind her. It could be in Shira's way. It could not. Noelle was hardly looking, more focused on the next glacier and the wave that would swallow her whole.