(no subject)

[runningred]

Jay’s in a dark mood as he comes up from garage. He's followed by four humanoid shaped sparring robots he found and several bags of weapons. It’s time to get back into training.

He stops in the main room just long enough to drop a note off at the bar –

To Security/Mel Fray

He heads for the lake and finds an out of the way clearing between the trees to get on with some serious weapons training with the sparing ‘bots.

{ooc: Botherable but sneaking up on him would be a really bad idea. He’ll be training with a different weapon for each new thread.}

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

It is completely coincidental that X follows his scent trail out of the bar and into the clearing.

(Hopefully Jason did not find the clearing in which X spars with Thor. There is a lot of blood in that clearing. And some downed trees. Downed, lightning-fried trees.)

Regardless, from just inside the edge of the clearing -- fully within Jay's view -- X speaks.

"Hello."

[runningred]

(Nope, no blood here. Yet.)

"Hey X." Jay doesn't need to open his eyes to know it's her. The fact she moves so silently is enough.

The four 'bots stand still to one side, inactive as Jay warms up with a slow kata that could be mistake for Tai Chi if it wasn't for the pistol in each hand.

[cutting_edgex23]

X flicks a glance from the pistols to the 'bots, then back again.

"You are sure the 'bots will intercept all the bullets? When you fire."

Beat.

"Sometimes people here are stupid."

Or, you know. Curious.

[runningred]

Jay flips a gun in his right hand and in a surprisingly smooth gesture as he moves from one position to the next, releases the clip and tosses it to her. It's loaded with blanks, designed to simulate the weight of proper rounds.

"I don't do gun drills out here. That's what the range is for. I just do the kata. I have paint guns for the 'bots to use."

[cutting_edgex23]

X studies the clip and its contents for a moment, then tosses them back in Jay's direction.

"That is probably sufficient. Unless people mistake the paint for blood. Then they will be concerned."

It's kind of funny, when you think about it?

"Aliens come here, too."

No paintball color is entirely safe. (Wait.)

[runningred]

Jay catches it, reloads and moves to the next position. "I'll keep an eye out for that. Each of the markers is loaded with a different colour so I can track where I fucked up."

[cutting_edgex23]

"Sensible," is X's only comment.

"Company is problematic? For what you will do."

[not_his_pa]

When he's out doing his chores, William notices Jay going out with the robots. Once he's finished up in the stable, he headed toward where he saw Jay going and made sure to make some noise as he approached.

[runningred]

Jay has all four 'bots active and in attack mode. Each of them armed with a knife, they come at him from all angles as he fends them off with an oak staff a little taller than he is.

He moves fast, ducking and weaving, striking out to keep his attackers at his range.

[not_his_pa]

William stares, Jay is more dangerous than he realized.

[runningred]

Sorry to burst your bubble, William. Jay's really not a nice guy.

He lashes out, catching one 'bot on the chin, before striking out to knock the knife from it's hand. Once he has the fallen knife, it's a brief and messy moment before he has the other three downed.

"Holt, reset." Jay mutters, picking back up his staff and stopping to grab a drink of water. He looks up, surprised to see William there. "Hey."

[not_his_pa]

"Hey, you're damn good at that," He's impressed by what Jay can do.

[runningred]

"You're kidding, right?" Jay rinses out his mouth and spits into the trees. There's blood where a 'bot got a good shot in an split his lip. "On this setting I should have been able to down them in under three minutes."

[balancingminds]

Charles has been staring at the church sign and then felt Jay's mood, which made him gasp.

He walks to see what Jay's doing and watches him spar, the robots are fascinating and Jay is beautiful to watch though his feelings hurt.

[runningred]

Jay is fighting through his rage and hurt, focusing them into force and control. The swords are light and well balanced and move lighting fast as he ducks and parries the 'bot's attacks. He's armed each of the 'bots differently, forcing him to react differently to each.

A knife scraps across his shoulder as he parries an attack a fraction of a second too slow, sending a small trail of blood flowing down his back. He growls, turning the sharp but shallow burst of pain into renewed violence. A few beats later and all four 'bots are downed. Jay crouches, one hand braced as he steadies his breathing.

[balancingminds]

The way he uses his emotions is hard to see for Charles, it reminds him of how Erik uses his anger to fuel his ability.

When Jay stops, he steps on a twig and coughs as he doesn't want to surprise Jay and face those swords, "Hello."

[runningred]

Jay comes up from his distraction like a man surfacing in the ocean. He blinks as he looks at Charles, coming back to himself and in many ways, shutting down emotionally. "Hey." He knows how raw he is right now.

He eases himself back to his feet with a slight stiffness. He's been at this all day. He commands the 'bots to power down and carefully packs away the swords. "What brings you out here?"

[balancingminds]

"Just a walk and then felt you. Anything I can do?"

He's worried about Jay but isn't certain of how best to proceed so he'll take it slow.

[runningred]

Jay lets out a low chuckle. "Only you would be able to pick that." He collects up the fallen weapons, checking the 'bots for damage. Okay, he has a lot of repairs to make.

He sighs, taking a long moment to answer. "I've been trying to work it off all day but it's not doing it for me. I think... Charles..." Fuck, words are useless right now. "Mind if we talk and play chess tonight. I need... help." That wasn't easy to say.

[slayer_fray]

Obviously, obviously she wastes no time in getting her ass out to where he is.

Best runner in Haddyn she may be, but Mel is a city girl, and she couldn't sneak up in the woods if she tried - nature makes noises when you step on it, for chrissakes. that, and the fact that she's brought a bag of chips out with her. She's been running all day and that makes a girl hungry.

So she doesn't feel the need to announce her presence before she says:

"This better be good."

[runningred]

Jay halts the combat program he's running and puts down his blades. "Thanks for seeing me on such short notice."

He gestures to a convenient log as somewhere to sit. "I don't know if you're aware yet but I recently ended up in the infirmary overnight. I let a bunch of factors get on top of me and I ended up passed out. One of those factors was that I'm in a consensual blood relationship with Eric Northman."

"I wanted to talk to you before it became a witch hunt because I know he has enemies here. I wanted you to hear the truth from me first before anyone has a chance to twist it."

[slayer_fray]

Mel's arms are already crossed out of protest about having to have the conversation. Now she sucks on her lower lip and her eyes dart upwards, an involuntary spasm towards an eyeroll that she holds back.

"Do you keep it out of the bar area?"

[runningred]

Jay's not exactly loving it either. "Yes, we kept it to private areas. Never in public or in the main bar. And the incident itself happened outside Milliways entirely."

"Look, I can tell you're not impressed and if you want to punch my head in you'll have to join the back of the queue. But you're the law round here and I thought you might want to know the truth."

[slayer_fray]

The corner of Mel's mouth twitches, almost into a smirk, before returning.

"Kinda think if a night in the infirmary's not gonna do it, a head punching from some woman you don't know isn't gonna change anything either."

Stupid people are gonna do stupid things. She knows this, as one of the stupid people.

[runningred]

"Probably not. Its the punch in the head from friends that's worrying me. One of them is not overly fond of the gentleman in question," read: hates his guts, "I'm not convinced she won't bring it up with Security, hence the heads up."