Sweat out the wariness (Seth)

[Anonymous]

Demya woke up two days after being on the roof again. Her body was still physically fatigued from the strain of what she had been doing along with all the effort she had been putting into passing her candidacy. She rubbed her strain-wearied face and unfurled her wings from around her body.

The sight that welcomed her was not her favourite one: the vines of her nest had died when she no longer used her powers to keep them green and happy. The only things still green in her room were from watering them and sneaking scraps from the mess hall. One of them was a pot plant of tobacco: a present for Granby, who she was thinking of catching up with this morning for exercise and studying.

She clambered out of her nest and began the long task of preening and prettying herself to face the day. It took longer than it had when she first got to the ATC, she now had bags under her eyes she needed to hide. It also took time to adjust her uniform so that it didn't feel so cramped. She would have asked for a bigger one but it would just look baggy.

When she decided that she looked pretty enough to be seen she picked up Seth's pot plant. She looked at her books but decided against bringing them. If they ended up studying instead of training she would just come back for them.

The flight to Seth's dorm was uneventful. It would be when he opened the door that things would get exciting. She half expected him to be an angst-ridden wreck or to just close the door in her face and tell her to leave. She hadn't spoken to him since their last training session and the last time she'd heard from him he'd just had his kid taken from him. She preened herself one last time before chirping a greeting to him and brushing her mind against the very outskirts of his.

[Anonymous]

Seth was in his room playing with a new toy he bought on-line. A large wicked looking knife. He was practicing with his new toy on a photo of Seiteki on the wall. His dislike of the neglecting mentor was slowing growing to hate. Throwing the knife it hit the photo awkwardly with a bang and fell to the floor. Sighing he took hold of blade with his mind and it slowly went back over to the open palm of his good hand. This was a new skill he discovered a couple of days ago. Though at this point lifting such a small thing as a knife felt like a building to him.

Feeling a familiar presence brush his mind gently like a feather Granby put the knife in the sheath that hanged over his groin from the belt. "Hold on. I'm coming" Seth said as he started to make the room guest friendly. Opening up a drawer he pushed all the open study guides off the desk with a sweep of his cybernetic arm. Making his way to the door and kicking a girlie mag under the bed along the way Granby opened up the door.

The frown on his face turned to a smile. "Demya, long time no see. What brings you all the way out here?" He tried to act surprised. Standing aside to giver her room to enter Seth added. "Come in, I could use the company. The room itself was bland and boring. No posters decorated the walls. His bed sheets were still the basic issue whites. Strange as most candidates switched them out. Nothing that could entertain was visible except a computer. It could be easy to imagine someone going mad stuck in there.

[Anonymous]

All her cares in the world slipped away at the sight of her friend smiling at her. Obviously she had been in a flap over nothing, he seemed perfectly fine to her. She chirped out a laugh and practically fluttered into the room. 'You have no idea how badly I've missed seeing a friendly face! I swear this place gets more wearisome by the day, with everything they've got us doing it's a wonder anyone passed at all. This place is worse than...' she said, realising she was gushing.

'Oh yeah. I came to see if you wanted to head out to sweat it up in the gym and forget about this nuthouse for a while. And I brought you this. I have no idea how you smoke it but I hear huma- er, people use it to help with stress,' she said as she handed him the tobacco plant. With a little bit of focus she gave it a few more leaves, not many though. Her powers were too important at the moment to simply play around with.

Demya looked around the room with a whistle. She didn't know what to expect from Seth's bedroom but it hadn't been this. It looked more like a holding cell than a man's dormitory. 'Wow, you really took your time in decorating. One whole picture... with holes in it too. There is really something wrong with you. That's Icky Vicky's sister, isn't it?' she asked, pulling a face as she did. Seiteiki's "brother" was once her mentor but she had only seen him once and that had not been fun. Not fun at all.

[Anonymous]

Seth closed the door as his feathered friend came in. "They want it that way. Weed out the weak from the strong. Harsh, but effective" Sounded almost like he was praising the teaching methods here. Demya would know otherwise. He hated this place if not more then her. Granby was picking up some stray trash he missed when she suggested to go the the gym. He stood back upright to notice the potted plant.

"How thoughtful" He took the potted plant to smell it. Not really knowing how he would be able to use this he set it on the table next to the computer. Touching the leaves out of curiosity as plants were a rare sight these days Granby turned around to shrug. "Hitting the weights sounds good. I've let myself go a bit by doing more studying. Don't worry about calling me a human. God knows I've heard it alot this week with other colorful words." As a punishment for bringing his daughter on base Seth was stuck cleaning the dragons for a week. It was not something he enjoyed. Dragons hardly smelled pleasant in his opinion. And alot of them enjoyed tormenting him.

One actually hurt him. Putting his hands to follow Demya's eyes over his room Granby nodded. "Beautiful ain't it? I could always come by your place to decorate sometime. He elbowed her in the side gently to wink. "You will be the coolest with the new Granby style." At the mention of his mentor Granby's pleasant demeanor quickly went sour. With a growl he grabbed the knife from the leather sheath over his junk and threw it. With a thwack, the knife stuck into the picture this time. He spit on the ground to further show his disgust.

That bitch is the root of all my sorrows. Before I worked hard so I could see my daughter. But now I will graduate just so I can get the chance to  kick the high stool from underneath that women" Demya clearly hit a nerve. The knife came out of the picture as Seth took hold over it with his mind. Taking it in his good hand the angry man put the knife back in its sheath. "Lets get out of here. I got steam to vent now"

[Anonymous]

'Wasteful more like it. Some people have to learn to be strong.' She was thinking of Vyomini when she said this. Though she hadn't seen much of the younger candidate but when she did, the girl was agitated about not having a mentor anymore. It put them in the same position and Demya should have been more attentive but she had bigger problems to worry about: namely, the Earth.

'Good, I can't wait to get out of this stupid uniform. Who's been calling you a human? Has someone been picking on you?' she said half in jest. Granby didn't seem like the type to be bullied. With all his scars people would be more likely to stear clear of him. Perhaps that was why they got on so well even though they had disliked eachother for what species they were.

'Oh yes, it shows off the destructive spirit in you very well. Thanks but I think I'll keep my dried up nest and feathers.' She'd torn up her sheets in the first week and intermingledher bed with vines until all that was left was twisted wire  and stuffing caught amonst her weaving.

When his features turned foul Demya stepped back with a squawk. She was about to ask what the matter was when he threw the knife at the holey picture of Seiteki. She frowned at the knife then at her friend. First Victor, then Mara and now Seiteki, were there any pilots that weren't jerks? Demya felt the urge to twist barbed vines about the floor but remained in control. The only sign of her agrivation was the set of deep gashes her talons were making on Granby's floor.

'You'll  be needing it. Don't think you're going to have it easy just because you've been studying like a good boy,' she said, a hint of a challenge in her voice. She had been studying hard as well but she guessed that more of his "studying" was trying to take the life of the photo.

[Anonymous]

Seth went to his closet and grabbed a bag to toss it on the bed. "Of course not, they never make things easy" Tossing a towel, tank top, and gym shorts on the bed he went over to start packing them. "God I just hate her so much" Sighing Seth closed his eyes as he zipped the bag and slung it on a shoulder. "I'm  getting  to angry so lets  just not talk about it anymore. Happy thoughts. Rainbows, flowers, puppy dogs and all that crap"

He went over to the door and opened it. Ready to bounce?" A younger candidate walked by and stopped to look in. Seth's glare sent him on his way. No one in this dormitory messed with him. Seth was just to weird and quiet for most to handle.

[Anonymous]

Demya didn't bring a towel. Her plans had been to take her clothes off, sparr, shower and fluff herself dry, perhaps fly around a bit to get the last of the water off. Using a towel still seemed a little strange to her. She gave Seth a worried look as he finished packing. She wasn't good with angry people, they tended to get worse around her.

'Of course. You'd better get focused before we get to the gym or I'm going to be wiping the floor with you!' She practically pushed him out the door. With all his glaring and scowling he was starting to sound like a broken mp3 file.

[Anonymous]

"yeah you just keep thinking that" He told her confidently. Honestly Seth did not expect to win. He was after all only human. But that thought did not deter him. One can learn still even in defeat.

When they got to the gym Granby signed in at the desk and said to Demya as he walked off. "I'm going to go get changed. Meet you at the weight room" He intended to do a few pyramid workouts to get warmed up and then spar with his friend. Taking off his uniform top Granby sighed to poke at the giant claw wound across his chest. It was deep and still  healing. "Stupid dragons" Seth muttered as he finished changing and closed the locker to leave.

Setting up some weights on a bench press bar he waved at Demya. "Can you spot me?"

[Anonymous]

By the time Seth left for the change rooms Demya was already unbuttonning her jacket. 'Stupid clothes, when I'm a Pilot I'm only ever going to wear vines,' she muttered. She flipped the jacket and her shirt over her arm and flew up to the top of the monkey bars*. There she swung herself upside down so she could curl herself up.She needed to use her wings to help because of their extra weight. There she chirped and waited for Seth to return. She was thoughly enjoying herslef by the time he arrived. This was what she needed to forget everything.

When Seth came back she pushed herelf up with her wings and swung down from the bar. 'Only if you cheer up and stop acting like someone broke your egg,' she said as she came over to the bench press. She dropped her uniform on the ground next to her, she didn't have much respect for clothing.
She stood behind the contraption and said, 'ready?'
*I have no idea what they're really called.

[Anonymous]

Granby lied down on his back to grab the bar with both hands. "yeah, yeah, I know. You can quite busting my balls about it demy" He took a deep breath and exhaled as he lowered the bar to an inch of his chest and held it there for a second. Exhaling and pushing the bar up he continued to do this repetitively while trying to keep a straight face. But it grew increasingly hard as the burning pain came to his good arm. Unable to surpress it anymore he laughed and quickly put the bar back in place above him. "I'm sorry, I just cant do this with a straight face." It was kind of hard when her tittys were practically hanging over his face.

Standing back up and shaking out his arm Granby took the place of the spotter. "your turn. He put his hands gently on the bar ready to take all the weight if Demya reached muscle failure. "Push out as many as you can" He told her.

[Anonymous]

'Hmph, my name's Demya not Demy, not Dems and not Prissy,' she grumbled as she remembered one of the names Victor had called her. She crossed her arms and gave Granby a cranky look. She immediately uncrossed them when Granby was ready and wrapped her fingers around the bar so that if his normal arm gave out, he wouldn't crush his neck.

'What on earth is so funny? I don't see anything,' she asked. She looked down at herslef, thinking there might be something spilt on her chest. He hadn't lasted very long and she didn't understand why anyone would just burst into laughter while doing weights.

Demya frowned as she looked at the contraption. She wasn't built to lay on her back or sit on a chair. They were human things. 'About that,' she said, raising her wing behind her. 'I really don't think it'll work.'

[Anonymous]

Granby looked to her and said jokingly. "Phf, excuses." he looked around for some buddy exercises she could do. When it was all said and done a hour had passed. Seth was doing curls with a 70 pound dumbbell with his good arm. "Whooh! Yeah baby! Feel the burn!" Putting the dumbbell back on the stand he looked to Demya. "I'm pumped! Lets hit up the sparring room now."

Last time they were there Seth was saved by a phone call. This time he would not be so lucky. The room was empty and the blue floor mats were dirty from the heavy use over time. Seth took off his sweaty tank top to look around and started to talk as if he were an announcer.

Lady's and gentlemen today we have the defending three time UFC  middleweight champion Seth Granby! His opponent with her eyes on the title. The fem Fatal Demya! But will she escape the strong arm of Granby? Unlikely!' Putting on a fingerless black glove on his good hand with the words 'TAP-OUT' stitched in. Granby put his fists up. To egg her on a bit Seth said her name the way she hated. "You know the rules Demy, No under the belt or throat shots"

[Anonymous]

OOC: totally love the avatar!

'Hmph. I wasn't made for lying about,' she said in a similar tone.

Demya got down on her hands and toes then began doing push-ups instead. It took more effort for her to do them than a human because of the extra weight of her wings. She pushed herself though, making sure she did at least as many as whatever Seth did. There was no way she was going to let a human beat her.

'What, you're burning on that much? I lifted more than that as a chick,' she chirped as they used the weights. 'You'd better not run away on me this time. You don't want me thinking you're chicken.'

Demya chirped with laughter as he showed off to an invisible crowd but the long scabs across his chest did not miss her attention. 'Caw! What happened to you? How am I supposed to fight a cripple? There's no sport in that!'  She lifted her arms up in front of her, amused that he needed gloves. She wouldn't be seen dead with silly little human protections. She'd survived millenia without protection and she wasn't about to start?

'Don't call me Demy, Grandma. It'll be the last thing you say.'

[Anonymous]

Seth wrinkled his face at the insult. The thing he hated most was being called a cripple. "I would like to see how well you do figuring out dragon fuck fuck mind games. They are not happy creatures when you fail the tasks" He went in quicky to give a few good jabs with his cybernetic arm and backed off to sneer at Demya. Pointing a sharp metal claw Granby said ominously in an attempt to dishearten her and possibly unerve.

"You will fail Demy. I will rip the heart from your chest! He closed his sharp claws for effect with a clack. I will cut open your belly and strangle you with your own entrails. Songs will be sung about the glory of the pain I shall infllict upon you!" Granby put up his fists again to move in and take a punch. "I will" He did not get to finish as a blow struck him in the jaw promply putting a end to the verbal nonsense he was spitting out.

Kneeling in an attempt to recover from the blow Granby shook his head to set his eyes back right as everything looked blurry. "Damn girl, you hit hard..." he muttered to stagger back on his feet holding a feather he plucked. "Oh no.... did i pluck one of your feathers?" Granby dropped the feather so it slowly drifted to the floor mats. "Tsk Tsk..... I guess I have to pluck the rest.

This time he did not go in to strike. Granby was on the defensive.

[Anonymous]

OOC: Er, you don't have any set limits so if I go too far, just tell me.

Demya's face dropped to a look of concern. She didn't like her friends getting hurt and Granby was one of only two people she could consider friends in the whole of the ATC. She lost focus of the fight and paid for it with several quick punches to her side. 'Ouch!! I was worried about you, you jerk!'

What Granby said next made Demya step back and stare at him in shock. She'd heard all this before but that was in an age where people actually did do that type of thing. To hear it from him in such a serious tone was just sickening. She stopped him the only way she could think of: knocking him in the jaw. She didn't do it hard enough to break any bones but it would smart for the next day or two. She walked backwards, still watching him intently as he knelt.

'Don't talk like that Granby,' she said with as much control as she could. She was on the verge of snapping at him and she really, really didn't want to hurt him. Only humans... and dragons liked hurting other, 'you're too young to know what it means.'


Demya watched the feather fall while keeping close watch on Granby unless he tried to attack again. 'SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' In the days when her and her sister had rampaged, their screeches would make grown men cower in their homes. Though very few knew of the legends any more, her screech would still instill some fear.

Demya ruffled her feathers, stretched herself to her full length and pelted towards Granby. She flapped her wings hard do that by the time she was near him, her talons were level with his arms. She clung to the cybernetic one as she flew past and dragged him across the floor. She only let go when she had enough momentum to throw him against the wall.

Demya flew in a circle to land in front of Granby. Her face was twisted in a look of intense worry. She hadn't meant to do that. She hadn't wanted to. She shouldn't have. She bit her lip and took a step closer, making a soft cooing noise as she did.

[Anonymous]

OCC: Dont worry. There are no limits for Granby. Well, except killing him of course.


At the high pitched scream Granby grabbed at his head and shut his eyes tight in pain. "Stop!" He yelled out loud. But Demya did not head his words it appeared. Feeling something grab his arm Seth let out a yell as he was yanked backwards. He dug his heels into the mats in an attempt to slow down but it did little to help.

"DEMYA!" he yelled as she threw him hard. Hitting the wall hard with a thud he fell forwards to the ground gasping to reclaim the breath knocked from him. Sitting up his back made some popping sounds. "OY! My back!" He groaned leaning his acheing back against the wall Granby started to chew Demya's ass. "What the hell did you do that for!? This was suppose to be a friendly match! So you want to play like that huh? I got something for your ass"

Opening up his cybernetic claw he pointed it to her and hit a button on his arm. With a loud hiss of air the claw went shooting off. It hit demya's face with a smack and latched on.  Forcing himself on his feet seth yelled to do a roundhouse kick into the side of Demyas head. Satisfied, Granby hit the button on his arm again and the Claw locks released causing it to fall away to the blue mat floor. He hoped her head hurt.

Holding his lower back like an old man Seth said. "Okey, we are even now. Lets call it quits" Wether or not Demya thought they were even was another matter. All seth wanted to do at the moment was get some ice on his back and study.

[Anonymous]

He wasn't too bad if he could still get his tail feathers in a knot. Hopefully he wouldn't have another crazy moment and threaten to pluck her again. Foul humans, nobody is ever going to pluck me. 'Friendly?! You call that barbaric rant friendly? You call threatening to pluck me friendly? I've met friendlier Mordecai,' snapped Demya. Though she had also been plucked by someone she suspected was one.

Demya held her ground when the thing latched itself to her face. She would not let him pull her anywhere, or at least that's what she thought he planned to do. She tried to pull it away from her eyes so that she could see but it refused to be pried off. She wasn't expecting him to kick her in the head, thinking it was too high for him to reach.

'OUCHY! If you hadn't gone all crazy on me I wouldn't have done it,' she grumbled, rubbing the side of her head before looking him up and down. He looked like he might not be able to walk the whole way back to his apartment.

'We're definitely not even but I'm not going to attack you when you can't even stand. Demya gave him one final glare before flicking her fingers towards the scars on his chest before saying, 'before you decided to use my head as a soccer ball I was going to say I know some things that will help you. You should at least have gone to the medical wing.

[Anonymous]

OCC: Sorry this is short. kinda busy....

Seth stared at Demya for a good minute before finally speaking. "I was only talking crap. You can't take everything I say seriously." Granby slowly made his way over to the claw on the ground. "Listen, I gotta go." Once again he was just up and running off. It was probably safe to assume it was Seths way of trying to discreetly flee while maintaining some sort of dignity.

But like most things. There was more to the situation then met the eye. He was still under punishment for his bad dission making. And cleaning dragons was just the easy stuff.