What’s that in the woods? Why, it’s a nondescript blonde gymnast!

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

Watch the right. You favor your right when you turn.

Steph took a deep breath, and started a series of handsprings, occasionally aiming at one of the person-shaped outlines now covering a small circle of unfortunate trees. The outlines had red targets for fatal injuries, white targets for temporarily debilitating injuries, and pink targets for injuries fatal if not given immediate medical treatment.

Instead of batarangs (Spoilerangs, because she had painted them eggplant!), Steph was trying her luck with hexes. Using a weapon you didn’t immediately discard was hard to get used to.

She took a break to inspect the damage, and was happy to see that none of the red targets were hit. One of the trees was turned into a chicken, but you had to pick your battles.

((Open RP! Feel free to train/spar/bug/go chicken hunting with Steph.))

Comments

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

First move after Sorting: find and get settled in Gryffindor. First move after getting settled: explore the grounds. And since the suit was not something he cared to wear all the time, Manticore was exploring in street-clothes. If anyone recognized Justin Sinclair, well... he'd have to deal with it case by case. It wasn't like his secret identity was the best kept secret ever, anyway.

Coming across the training ground meant that exploring was put on hold for a bit. "Interesting setup."

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Oh, thanks! It's-" Don't say attack pattern alpha, don't say attack pattern alpha "-extra credit for defense against the dark arts. No chickens were harmed in the making of this extra credit assignment."

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

"I suppose turning the bad guys into chickens is one way to do it." Chickens moved fairly slowly, and weren't that dangerous even with a psycho super in a chicken body. "What's the plan for the other targets?"

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Disable them, while avoiding physical interaction. Or the chicken thing, in a pinch." She smiled and stuck out a hand. "Hi, I'm Steph. Enemy of trees."

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

He shook her hand with a smile. "Manticore, recent arrival." It didn't take long to decide to use his hero-name instead of his civilian name - just because he was okay with the idea of someone recognizing him or eventually going by his real name didn't mean he was going to use it in introductions right off.

She had the same height, same build, and same voice as the girl calling herself Robin he'd met at his Sorting. (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1206770.html?thread=61619186#t61619186) Not that that meant anything - he'd met an evil alternate-universe version of himself several times - but if this was the same girl, he had both of her names now, and probably at least owed her his real first name at some point.

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Wow, you're not even trying for the civilian identity thing, huh?" Steph smiled, very amused. "Or is Manticore your birth name? Parents were hoping you'd grow up to front a death metal band?" She could just envision the painted van/living space.

"It's me." The 'girl at your sorting swinging around in strangely flattering spandex' was implied. "I'd prefer Steph, if that's all right. When out of uniform."

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

"Steph. Gotcha." He shrugged slightly and half-laughed. "I've always considered the name to be the more important part of the civilian identity, but I begin to think no one here would recognize that either." He paused, giving her a speculative lookover, then shrugged again. "You can call me Justin, if you like." There were a lot of people named Justin in the world.

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Well, there were fifteen Stephanies at my high school alone." Anonymity wasn't such a problem with the name 'Stephanie Brown'.

She smiled. Someone revealing their real name was smile-worthy. "Hi Justin. How are you settling in?"

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

"Pretty well, actually. I like to think I'm pretty quick to adjust to new things." He was beginning to miss Paragon already, but that was mostly because he was pretty sure it would go to wrack and ruin (even more than usual!) without him. "The strangest part is... me doing magic? I checked, years ago, just in case. I'm pleased about it, but I'm not sure I trust it. Abilities that suddenly show up can disappear just as suddenly."

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"I hear you. Where I come from, meta-abilities change all the time. Almost from month to month. Remind me to tell you about Power Girl sometime." Poor Superman's Cousin/Atlantian/whatever she was these days.

"So, your offer to train me. Is it still good?"

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

"It happens where I come from too, actually. I've just never had any abilities to change." Hopefully this didn't mean he'd go insane if they ever disappeared.

"It's absolutely still good. I'd get bored if I only had academics to hold my interest." He laughed. "And believe me, there's nothing worse than a bored vigilante with unrestricted access to sharp things."

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Do you find that your hair and breast size change on a regular basis? And no one around you ever seems to notice?

"Oh, I believe you. Don't carry a spoilerbatarang around in my pocket for nothing. When do we start?" Without giving him a moment to answer, she asked: "Can it be now? I’m in workout clothes and everything. And there’s a chicken witness, which has got to be luck."

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

"Sounds Asian." She was enthusiastic, which was a good thing. Meant she'd be paying attention. "Now is good, sure." He never wore anything that would bind him up too badly in a fight, and when in plainclothes tended to carry at least one rubber band in a pocket.

While he used that to pull his hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of his face, he said, "You said you were acrobatic, right? So let's start with you showing off a little, to let me see where you are."

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I can show off." She flipped over to a couple trees, and propelled herself by jumping from trunk to trunk until she reached their branches. She picked three branches to treat as uneven bars, handstanding and doubling-back to her heart's content.

When Steph dismounted, she landed right in from of Manticore (which was admittedly a far riskier move than she would have tried without the no kill spell). "Ta-Daa?" She did tentative Jazz Hands, waiting for his assessment.

[terrorofme.livejournal.com]

Lucky her, he'd been able to tell from her trajectory that she'd miss. "Pretty good, especially if you haven't had any formal training." Shoes off, socks only. Shoes were a little too solid - there shouldn't be contact in this kind of lesson, but just in case, socked feet would be less injury-inducing. Also, less stiff to work in. "The trick with this style is that every acrobatic trick you know is a kick, a feint, or a dodge. Your hands and arms are used for movement and to break your eyeline. You will look like a drunk breakdancer."

The 'drunk breakdancer' was usually the dealbreaker.

[busty-robin.livejournal.com]

Steph copied Justin, glad that she remembered to wear socks today. They were fuzzy eggplant coloured socks, but socks nonetheless!

"Okay. That's what I mostly use them for anyway. And ‘drunk breakdancer’ is just icing on the cake!" Steph could only wish that her dancing abilities would someday measure up to that of a drunk breakdancer. As it was, her 'robot' was known to cause bodily harm.