goneawayworld | 🟆001🟆

Entry tags:

🟆001🟆

Who: Tenten and You
What: Various
Where: Varying
When: After a few days have passed.
Warnings/Notes: None so far.

Part of training involves firearms training. Jorgmund is, at least, intelligent enough to know that not everyone deals with slugthrowers on their homeworlds, so they've set out an array to try out. Assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, etc. Everyone's given a basic rundown and scored at the end of each day. The scores, they're told, don't mean anything. It's just for bragging rights. The only reason anyone might swallow that is because no one's caught the range crew laying down their bets yet.

So far, Armstrong has the highest. That may be because he went first and Cayde-6 hasn't stepped up to bat, though.

The New Hires are taken to the range in small groups, to more easily control them. Two to four at a time, only whenever there's a gap in the regular Rig crew's training. When they go in, the range master makes a comment about forgetting some paperwork and slips out, locking the door behind him. The other range personnel are making themselves busy. Tenten, in the meantime, is peering at the firearms with a critical eye. She picks up a pistol and flips it over in her hands a few times, testing the moving parts. Trigger. Slidey bit. Switch for something there.

She frowns, then looks down the barrel, thumb pressed against the trigger. Was there something that was supposed to happen inside when the trigger was pulled? How was an arrow supposed to fit in here? Or did it throw tiny knives? Maybe she ought to pull the trigger and see what launching mechanism it had inside...

The Rig isn't very warm at the moment. In fact, even inside, temperatures don't crawl above fifty degrees. At least there's no wind to make things truly miserable. Even the gym isn't even that hot, at least when people aren't physically exerting themselves.

But Tenten's soaked through with sweat. She's been sitting there, eyes closed, with her hands twisted into an odd shape, for almost the entire after-dinner period. Every now and then, she opens her mouth, exhaling harshly, but that's about it.

There's quite a bit more warmth in the five feet around her.

It was frustrating. Lee couldn't do it, sure, but everyone else had mastered two other nature changes, the techniques for infusing one's energy with an elemental nature. Tenten-well, she was about the only member of their circle of friends who hadn't managed it. Her control was just too sloppy, as much as she hated to admit it. But now... Now she wasn't having any more luck than back home. She exhales again, a thin creeping of a small cloud flowing from her throat, and then breathes in sharply, exploding into a fit of coughing when the ash flows right back into her lungs.

Oh. She really should've brought a drink of water.

"Hey, you." Oh, look. Its your favorite person, Planker. He's kneeling on the floor, arranging some strings in a pattern. Strings, bits of plastic, some nuts and bolts, shoelaces, scraps of napkin torn into strips? "Lend me your shoelaces real quick, okay?" It looks like his are already down there.

Planker hasn't looked up once. He's just holding his hand out. He opens and closes it a few times, slapping his fingers against his palm in an impatient gesture. On closer inspection, he's just very slightly... off. Something's weird about him. It might just be the strain on his face, though, it looks like he's undergoing an effort just kneeling there.

Of course, there's a reason for that. It's Tenten, in disguise and forgetting for a moment that her fellow New Hires don't know about transformation techniques. The strain is pretty simple: Planker's a lot taller and heavier than she is, maintaining the transformation's taking its toll. She's spent the past while exploring the back halls, the stairwells, the access tunnels, trying to get a layout of the areas that the New Hires technically aren't banned from going, but aren't exactly allowed to go. It's been frustrating. All of the doors have weird locks, ones she can't pick. She's seen someone use a card of some kind to get in, but sliding a slip of paper through didn't work either.

So now she's just laying down a map, trying to commit it to memory before everything fades, in case she can get through the doors later somehow.

Of course, getting assistance might be easier if she weren't wearing someone else's face at the moment.

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Adora rears back slightly as the lump of ash comes out of Tenten's mouth. What the heck was thatdoing? She shoots her a curious (if disgusted) look and then gives her back a couple more (gentler) pats as she starts to finally breathe again.

"What the heck was that all about? Why are you coughing up... uh... that?"

"Ugh." She's going to have to clean that up later. "Sorry, it's nasty. I know." At least she's breathing normally. Now all she has to worry about is the fact that it's suddenly freezing, and wearing a wet shirt isn't helping much. Brr.

"I was trying to breathe fire and, uh. Messed up." Because that was totally natural, right? Tenten pushes on, not realizing that it's unusual in the least bit. "It's hard, but I thought I could focus enough in here to get it done. Guess not."

"...you can breathe fire?" Adora sounds impressed and a little curious. She knows people with powers, but she's never met someone who can breathe fire. Pretty neat, honestly. Adora offers her a hand up.

"To be fair, it's hard to focus in just about any part of this place..."

"I'm uh." Tenten glances down at the ash. "...Still working on that." She takes Adora's hand, pulling herself up with a little grunt. Even that pathetic result really just took a lot out of her. Way too much. "I just can't work my chakra just right."

This was why she stuck to throwing lots of sharp objects and explosives around.

"If I were any good, I'd be able to do it in the middle of a fight. But..." She cuts herself off with a disgusted noise, then sighs. "Sorry, I don't need to be venting at you. It's just something I've gotta get right someday."

"What's a chakra...?"

Adora has no clue about any of that ninja stuff even if she does sort of know how magic works. A little. Still, she knows the struggle of not being able to use one's powers as one would like. She remembers that experience all too well.

"It's fine, really. I know the feeling. Definitely been there with... stuff... not working."

Oh. Right. Not a ninja. Why should Adora know what chakra was? "Chakras are an energy we all have inside of us. It's your mental energy and your physical energy." Her tone is almost like she's reciting from a schoolbook. "Ninjas can knead them together and do, well. Just about any technique."

She pauses, then glances down at the lump with a slightly downcast expression.

"...Assuming, y'know. You do it properly."

She just sighs and moves off. It's not dismissing Adora, she's heading to the area where they keep the wipes for the equipment. Best not to leave that on the ground. She tears off a bit, then saunters back to start cleaning up her mess. "What do you do, Adora? Or is that just a general... 'stuff'?"

"That sounds like magic..." Adora replies thoughtfully. A lot like some of the stuff her friends could do, but not quite the same. None of her friends could breathe fire, but she feels like that would have been very cool to have.

She folds her arms as Tenten comes back and she shrugs her shoulders a bit awkwardly.

"I'm... a soldier? And I am - I was - She-ra. But I'm not so sure about any of that anymore. It's a really long story and it's complicated."

"Magic's a word for it," she agrees. It's probably simpler to call it that, really. There were definitely mystic techniques involved in a lot of it. But Tenten's called it 'ninjutsu' for all her life, so...

She kneels, scooping up the pile and clearing out some of the stray liquids around it. There's a pause and she glances up at Adora, eyebrows rising. "You see my packed schedule. Was She-Ra a title that you lost or something?"

"...not... really," Adora admits. She seems uncomfortable talking about this - to her it was only a short while ago - but she feels like she needs to get it out in the open. If she doesn't, she's going to keep stewing in it. Even if most of the people here won't truly understand.

"I found out that my powers were... sort of the key to a planet-wide weapon and I was supposed to activate it and hurt and kill a lot of people in the process. So I broke the sword that gave me those powers."

Tenten's not twisting her arm, she didn't need to talk about it. But, well. Adora was. Her eyebrows shoot up at the implications of a weapon that powerful. What could she do with a weapon that had a planet-wide range?

...Best not to think about that too much. "Sounds like a reasonable decision to me." Possibly not the one she'd make, but definitely a safe one. "You're sure that got rid of the powers, though?" What if Adora had internalized it?

"I mean... pretty sure," Adora replies slowly, "I didn't have any of them until I had the sword."

She also doesn't have them here, but maybe that doesn't mean anything.

"Huh. Weird." Well, she obviously didn't know the whole situation, but she shrugs anyway.

But that's a little bit of an awkward thing to leave the conversation on, isn't it? So she pushes on. "You probably made the right choice at the time. Anyone who'd be too comfortable with that much power should probably worry people, right?"

"I mean... yeah... I didn't even know I had that power, either! Not until I was one the verge of using it to wipe everything out!"

She is deeply uncomfortable with the idea and that still feels horribly fresh. Not great.

"But Light Hope kept insisting that I had to use it to defeat the First One's enemies and-" She groans and runs her hands through her hair, "...I don't really want to think about it."

...That sounds like it's time for a change of subjects. There's a lot to unwrap, and a lot more questions Tenten's got bubbling up, but if Adora's not wanting to talk about it, well. Best thing for them to do is do something else.

"I'd kind of like to take a shower," she announces, tugging at her sweat-soaked clothes. "Catra usually keeps people from walking in on me, but would you mind? We can check out the rec room or the museum after, if you want?"

"A shower sounds pretty good right now, honestly," Adora replies, visibly relieved to be moving on to something that's less complicated, "I'll keep an eye out for you if you keep an eye out for me!"

Wait a second.

"Wait, Catra's been helping you?"

"I can do that." The relief is far too obvious here, and Tenten almost feels guilty for getting Adora onto a topic that's that tense. They might return to that conversation again, some day, but she won't be racing for it. Way too awkward.

"Uhm." She nods in the affirmative, eyebrows raising a little in question at the taller girl's tone. "I mentioned I felt a little creeped out by showering with guys and she promised to make sure that no one spied on me." Was that... Not usual? Catra seems like okay people to her, at least so far.

"Oh. That was... nice of her," Adora responds slowly. She's trying to wrap her head around that. The only person she ever remembers Catra doing nice things for was her and that definitely changed once they had their whole split.

"I'm just not used to hearing about her going out of her way for people, I guess," she continues, which sounds kind of awful.

"I guess she's getting better?"

Tenten blinks, rubbing the back of her neck. Well, that was certainly-huh. A little awkward. Maybe not how Adora meant to phrase things? Then again, who knew what problems they had?

"Well, I don't know her like you apparently do, but I like her. She's cute. Sure, she's not the friendliest, but I've known worse." She shrugs a little. "Maybe she just empathized with not liking mixed baths?" After all, who really did?

"Don't let Catra hear that you called her cute," Adora laughs, "She'll probably yell at you about it."

She does want to get closer to Catra again. To mend that rift between them. The problem is taking the first few steps, isn't it?

"I think she gets what it's like to not really have privacy. Life was like that for us, once."

"But would she be cute when she yells?" Tenten grins. All in good fun, right? "But, yeah, she doesn't seem the type to appreciate that."

Those first few steps can be the hardest, but they can also be worth it. Not that Tenten really knows much about that kind of thing.

"Showering with other girls doesn't really bother me that much," she comments, folding her arms over her chest and suppressing another little shiver. "I'm used to public baths and all. It's just that they usually have a barrier between the men's side and the women's side. Not that it keeps some guys from trying to sneak a peek." She draws a little face and shakes her head. Perverts were a dime a dozen. Realistically, she probably didn't have that much to worry about with the likes of Dave and Steven, but why take chances?

"Depends on what she's yelling..." Adora signs. She can definitely remember Catra being cute, but she can also remember the two of them exchanging barbs and locked into mortal combat. It's not easy to get past all of that, even here. Even when they have to work together. She needs to figure that out, though. One way or another.

"I mean, I'm used to public showers," Adora shrugs, "So I can handle it as long as - well. Like you said, as long as no one is being weird about it. I don't think anyone here would be. Well, at least not anyone I've met...."

Tenten giggles and shrugs, ceding the point. "Sounds like you'd know better than me." But, yeah, Catra was cool by her. Granted, she hadn't actually had Catra angry at her yet, so that might be a thing. Ask her how she felt about someone like Temari if they were here and she'd probably be a lot less chill than Adora is managing to be about all this.

"Why take a risk, though?" Okay, that sounded a little mean. "I'll admit that most of the guys don't seem like the type to be a problem like that, but sometimes..." She just trails off and shrugs again. It was kind of a common problem in Konoha, thanks to certain people who shall go nameless.

"Yeah, it's better not to have to deal with that," Adora replies after a moment of thought and then nods, "It was never a problem for us... thankfully. Although the Fright Zone wasn't exactly great in a lot of other respects. none of the other cadets tried being... weird."

She doesn't want to finish that thought. It's just strange.

"Guess that's why it's the 'Fright Zone' and not the 'Gross Pervert Zone'," she laughs. "But, yeah. Let's not dwell on that too much." She'd just wanted to explain Catra's protectiveness, that's all. "Catra's good people, as far as I'm concerned."

"She... can be," Adora replies slowly, her eyes sparkling a little, "But I'm so glad to hear that she is being 'good people' here. She... wasn't, exactly, back home."

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