Practice Makes Perfect (Paphos/Open

[Nicolette Van-Houseton]

The gymnasium was mostly empty, only a few other students remained doing various exercises and training runs. The sky had begun to darken long ago and now only the faintest rays of light could be seen through the large windows. Most of the other students had gone back to the dorms to finish homework assignments or go to bed, but the few left in the gym seemed to be tiring. The students in the pool were getting out and drying off, collecting their things and heading to the dorms and those on the track were nearing the end of their runs.

No one paid attention to the small figure in the corner, practicing on a dummy. She attacked it, slashing and slicing at it until she collapsed in exhaustion, feeling like a failure. How was she to fight darkness if she couldn’t even hit the right spot on a dummy. Instead of sitting and wallowing in self pity, she got up and tried again and again, promising herself that she wouldn’t leave till she got it right. The small dagger in her hand flashed in the fading light, moving quickly, in and out. It was brand new and sharper than she felt comfortable with, but it was a necessity

She smiled and stepped into her next attack, impaling the dummy right on the target she had pinned to its chest. Cheering in triumph, she pumped her fist in the air, spinning around. One of the girls on the track looked over at her curiously, but quickly went back to tying her shoes. Nikki snorted and picked up her bag, searching through it until she found what she was looking for. Unwrapping the chocolate bar, she bit off a small piece and looked around the room thoughtfully.

[Paphos Pygmalion]

An odd assortment of creatures stood in formation drilling with rifles. One looked like a large, teal, stuffed rabbit with white silk for its inner ears and black embroidery for the pads on its hands and feet. Its right eye looks to be a large black button. Its left a glowing cabochon of some odd material. Another looked to be made of grey clay. its body formed in simple shapes with little definition. Its hands had 3 fingers that looked like roughly tapered cylinders and its face barely formed. Depression for eyes and a thin line for a mouth. In its chest was another glowing stone. Another was a statue in Paphos' image made out of alabaster with jet eyes and golden irises. Another still a humanoid of clear glass looking like it was modeled after the grey aliens from scifi comics. Its head was large and round with huge black eyes being the only bit of color. Its tiny lips in a perpetual frown. A glowing stone was set in the middle of its head shining light out through its body. There were twenty five of them all together each made in its own style.

Each held a rifle and seemed to be going through the same routine. They would take them off their backs, ready them at a target, dry fire them, and put them back before doing it again. They did their best to take up as little room as possible with them standing in five rows of five organized by height so that they could shoot over each other's shoulders. The rifles were all built on the same basic design and simply made of different materials and with different artistic flare. They were double action with no exposed hammer. The design seemed to be based on a hunting rifle, but they lacked any sort of ejector or feed system. That would generally imply a muzzleloader, but its striker was internal with no obvious place to put the percussion cap. The exact size and bore seemed,to be based on the size of the shooter, but none of them seemed customized to the exact entity that was shooting. It was more like they came from a stock with various sizes. 

Paphos was trying to get this skill down well enough that even at his most dispersed the golems could do it quickly and easily. He wanted it to become second nature to them. Eventually they stopped as well noticing that everyone was leaving. With eerily precise timing they slung the rifles on to their backs and marched over to the pile of messenger bags around Paphos's body. As each collected their bag they filed into two lines. The light in the soul shards dimmed as they took their place and the excess shards joined with one of the golems that had not fallen into line yet. It was during this march that one noticed Nicolette. It hefted its bag on to its shoulder and gave her a nod. The next one in line, finding that it had it had extra time gathered its bag and brushed a hair out of Paphos' face before hefting his body onto its other shoulder.

[Nicolette Van-Houseton]

Nicolette took another bite of her chocolate, watching a girl pack up her things and walk off the track. When she looked away, she noticed a group of strange looking creatures standing somewhat nearby. They were all made out of a range of different materials and each had a glowing stone placed somewhere on its body. It was an odd sight to see, but it wasn’t the strangest thing she had witnessed, especially lately. Watching them go through their routine was fascinating though, all of them standing in a military type formation, each with their own gun. She flinched when they fired their weapons and leaned forward to get a better look. Her curiosity was getting the better of her and she picked up her things, walking towards the group.

As she approached, she sheathed her dagger on her belt and smiled casually. She didn’t want to seem like a threat to these creatures even though it was clear they were just practicing. There was no telling if one of them might overreact at the sight of a weapon, especially since the person who seemed to be controlling them was lying limply on the ground surrounded by bags. Each creature walked up to the pile and picked up a bag, one of them nodding at her as it did so. She covered her mouth, stifling a giggle and raised her hand in a half wave. It then lifted the boy onto its shoulder, giving Nikki the feeling that he wasn’t really in a talking mood. This didn’t stop her from walking up to him and poking his seemingly lifeless body. His power was quite new to her, she had never met anyone who could create and control beings made out of random materials. Golems Her brain supplied the word. She had never seen one, nor did she know much about them. Just that they were usually made out of clay, or rock. Something like that, and were controlled by other people. If this guy could control several at once, then he could probably create an army with enough practice.

“Hey, umm. Are you alive in there? Not to sound rude, but you look quite dead and I just wanted to make sure. Soo, if you could maybe give me a sign?”

She poked him again, glancing up at the golems to see their reaction. She was hoping they wouldn’t attack her for disturbing their master, or something like that. She wasn’t sure she could fight off one of them let alone several. She wasn’t even sure how many there were, but there were quite a few and she wasn’t willing to even consider that possibility.

[Paphos Pygmalion]

When she asked if he was alive the golem holding the body shook its head. Then it motioned to two of the others. They were the glass aliens and each reached into their bags. One pulled out a handful of lollipops the other a handful of marzipan fruits. They held them out before the light in their bodies disappeared followed by a cascade of disappearing lights in all the golems. Until finally the stuffed bunny dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. The weight of the body it carried and its gear all pulling it down. It did serve to cushion Paphos' fall though and he went to the ground with no further injury beyond being dead most of the day.

He wore a white silk gown with a black cherry tree and cherry blossoms dyed into it. The tree was on the back with branches going as far as his sides, but the blossoms appeared all over the garment as though the wind had swept them into the air in the scene. His shoes were black flip flops tied to his ankles with a bit of silk string. He inhaled sharply as his body was restored to health and quickly sent back out pieces of his soul to restore his army. He kept most of it in his body for now, but a dim light was restored to all members. From the ground he said, "I live again."

His voice was weak bringing a bit of doubt about how long that might continue to be true and lacking orders, the golems did not move to help him. Even the restored bunny stuffed animal under him did not move to stop being squished under his weight. The other two nearby continued to hold their gifts out to the lady having had enough sense before to make the offer to put her at ease, but no longer having the sense to move at all now that they had less power in them. The others stood in their orderly lines not moving or caring about what was going on.

[Nicolette Van-Houseton]

Nikki wasn’t sure whether or not she was surprised to get a response from the golems rather than the man in their care. The one holding him shook its head and two others reached into their bags. She took a step back, fearing they might be pulling out actual loaded weapons, but instead all she saw were sweets. They held them out like a peace offering and their lights dimmed. One by one each of the creatures dropped like a stone, all but the two holding the candies and she looked to the man, checking if he was alright. If the others fell, then the one carrying him must have as well. But he was lying peacefully on top of it, undisturbed by the sudden fall, and seemingly uninjured. That was good, but this had to be one of the strangest encounters she had ever had with another person. Not the strangest, but it was definitely up there, right alongside her meeting with Sparrow.

His quick intake of breath caused her to jump and she put a hand to her chest, breathing out a sigh when she realized what had happened. His comment though, caused her to giggle, and she turned her head trying to contain herself. She felt she was being rude ,but she couldn’t help it. It wasn’t every day you heard someone say that after literally coming back to life. He sounded tired, but that was to be expected. She assumed it took a lot of strength to control a golem, especially that many. When their lights had gone out, she had relaxed slightly, feeling safer at the thought of them being deactivated, but they soon returned to life and she tensed slightly, trying not to let it show. Looking at the man on the ground she decided to ignore them and instead walked up to him.

“Hey, are you alright? You sound kinda tired, would you like some help?”

She held offered her hand, smiling anxiously at him. She was concerned that he might be too weak to stand, but she was sure she could help him over to a bench. She had some snacks in her bag that she could give him. Food would definitely help get his strength back, and water would really help as well.