Bal-tent bombardment of a traumatised baby

Spoiler:

Rin Wandered through the village, a thick bank of snow had poured down and coated the entire land, some places were completely impassable whilst others the snow was only a foot thick, but despite the difficulty the people of the town were filled with christmas cheer, the children darted about from place to place, estatically building snow men, tossing snow balls and all around enjoying themselves, the winter cheer was infectious and Rin couldn't help but let a smile plaster her lips, despite the cold her thick woollen jacket kept her warm, a beautiful hand woven scarf of pink and blue wrapped around her neck matching her equally comfortable hand made sweater, a thick pair of plain brown snow boots finished off the look with her plain black jeans tucked inside of them to keep out as much of the cold and moisture as they could. Not that it was really much of a problem for Rin if she did get wet, she could always dry herself off with a quick blast of fire chakra to evaporate the excess liquid. Of course that would have the unfortunate drawback of melting the snow around her which, with this much snow around her would be a bit of a show and she'd honestly rather avoid disturbing everyone or getting roped into clearing the streets of snow.

Of course even if she didn't particularly want to get drenched in snow, the children of this village had other ideas in mind, her senses screamed at her as she felt a shift in the currents of the wind aura around her, the chakra moving out of the way as something flew towards her, her finely honed senses had her ducking to the ground in a crouch before she had even processed what was happening, spinning around, a blade appearing in her hand, clutched close to her arm so as to be all but invisible to a cursory glance, as she looked up for the source of the attack a series of cracks hit the ground behind her, right where she had been standing a second ago, Her white hair with its singular Red streak flowing in the wind from one particularly powerful projectile passing by, it took her only a moment to identify where the attack had come from, a cluster of  children, stood atop a nearby apartment building, one of them just a little slower than the others to duck down and hide from view. With a flick of her wrist again the blade disappeared back into her sleeve as she glanced behind her, nothing but a few balls of packed snow lay spattered across the ground, no doubt the children trying to enjoy themselves and have a bit of fun with the passers by. Rin felt a twinge inside of her, it had been a long, long time since she had had the luxury of enjoying something so frivolous as a snowball fight and for a moment she considered sending a wave of snowballs back at the children; she even felt her arm twitch as she lent down to gather up some snow absentmindedly before catching herself, it wouldn't really be fair to bombard these children with snowballs when she outclassed them so thuroughly, it wasn't like any of them were trained shinobi after all.

wc: 552

If you had told Bali, she would have seen known, and she would have laughed and told you quite professionally to go fuck yourself and then get an apology out of you by making you feel wrong about assuming such a thing. It was the smooth movements that were poised. It was the air around her that even felt slightly… off. And today, as she looked out the window, she found an overcomer come with childish curiosity for once: Snow. She saw snow. Blanketing the village, she grabbed her longer cloak with its black faux fur collar and trimming and the little silver clasp at the front, but she needed something to wear. She put the cloak aside and went into her closet- peeking out the window again- snow. Cold.

She pulled on her usual outfit of the black, tight mesh under her typical cloak but worse, her high-waisted skirt and her cowl-necked dark navy body suit that ended in gloves. She pulled her cloak on and pulled out a pair of black boots and a knitted black top for them. She usually wore her heeled sandals, but she needed to be better prepared for the snow. Once she was done tying her shoes, she went into the hallway and looked around to ensure the coast was clear before she tied her hair up in a high ponytail of purple and blue hair and then snuck out the back.

It didn’t take long for her to get down to the snow levels, and her shoes took some time to bite into the snow to understand the taste, learn how to chew it and make her steady ground. She walked over and watched the children play and throw snowballs at each other in the snow. Could she do that- or maybe learn how to do that? She looked around to see any other people she knew and when she saw no one, she approached a small group of children, “Could you… show me how to do that?” The children stopped playing and had to crane their necks up to look up at her- which was a little cute- but then they stared at her in awe. “Can you show me how to make snowballs?”

The children were happy to do so and showed her how to collect the snow, pack it up, roll it and toss it a bit. “Now you just have to hit someone.” One of them said before one got pelted with a snowball by another group of kids and they rushed up a fire escape to the apartment roof while she looked around. She was a woman with light hair and a red street, and with all playfulness, she tossed it at the red-streak-haired girl, smirked, hoping to at leat get the other woman’s attention and engage in some playful snowball banter as well.

[ WC: 477 ]

Just as Rin was about to shrug her shoulders and move on about her business another ball of snow came rushing towards her from a nearby alleyway, the air practically hummed with the power of the throw as the condensed ice and water rushed towards her, she could tell in an instant that this ball was not thrown by a reguar child, even if it hadn't been thrown with any real intent this ball of frost contained the telltale traces of chakra that told her it had been thrown with someone who's body had been trained in the arts of a shinobi. Of course the force, speed, skill and accuracy with which the ball of ice and frost had been thrown was also a dead giveaway but hey, it was theoretically possible that some random child had built some sort of really fancy catapult to throw snowballs as well right? Rin mentally shook her head at the thought, no that was absolutely absurd, there was no way a child would have the engineering skill or the physical resources to do something like that let alone the time and ability to hide it from adults long enough to use it even once, not to mention that such a construction would have made enough sound that she should have heard it, even over the wind and noises on the streets. Twisting her body in a display of flexibility that once would have been absolutely painless, instead, the remnants of corruption within her body struck out, causing her muscles to scream in pain, she gritted her teeth and managed to avoid crying out, but she also had to relax her form, unwinding just enough that the snowball caught her on the shoulder, hitting her with enough force that it spun her around and left her falling into the snow. Rin lay there for a second on her back, the snow around her sinking down into an almost comical imprint of herself as she processed what had just happened. Even after all this time it was sometimes easy to forget just how limited her body now was, and the force of that snowball had well and truely caught her off guard, but even so she couldn't help but let out a slight laugh, one that turned to a chuckle as she pushed herself up on her one arm, the thick woollen coat she was wearing fluttering open in the wind as she stood and dusted herself off, revealing for a brief moment the missing arm that had been severed just below her shoulder, the thick woollen jumper that she had been wearing tied off to keep it relatively hidden under the thick winter clothing.

Rin looked around as she dusted herself off, her trained eyes expertly scanning her surroundings for the source of that particular snowy projectile that had knocked her over with such force. Her mind was in a bit of a dillema, her heavily traumatized and weary combat senses screaming at her to treat this like a life threatening attack, to respond with overwhelming force or to turn and flee for her life. She knew logically that this was just a bit of fun, and indeed much of her mind could accept that, the part of her that was still chuckling lightly even managed to draw a bit of joy from the childish merriment, trying to convince her that she was more than able to simply relax and enjoy this bit of simple fun without having to treat it like a war, but trauma is not always so easily stifled, even when you do try to ignore it.

Rin's eyes fell upon the dark alleyway a few buildings over from the one which her initial assailants had stood upon, she caught a glimpse of a number of childish figures turning tail and dissapearing back into the alleyway laughing and enjoying themselves as children are want to do, but that is not what caught her eye. No what caught Rin's eye was the sight of a woman in her early twenties, although at first rin more thought she was a giant than a person, at least compared to Rin and the surrounding children she towered over them all, but what stood out more than her height was her spiritual weight, Rin could quite literally feel the strength radiating off of her, the chakra within her system was quite clearly that of a trained shinobi, and one who was no doubt quite specialised in using her chakra for combat, and despite that she seemed to have a faint smirk on her face, a friendly looking face which caught Rin completely off guard.

It had been so long since Rin had been able to have a friendly fight without the threat of death and even longer since she had really been able to enjoy a friendly conversation, or indeed any sort of conversation where her life didn't feel like it was on the line, for a moment she was unsure what to do so she fell back on old habits, using an old trick that had once been her go to as a child she shot the woman a gleaming smile, flooding her system with chakra as she did so, the corruption within her veins throbbed a little, enjoying the power that it was able to feed upon and the old familiar technique took far more effort for her to perform than it should have, but something so simple and familiar to her was still within the realm of possibility for her, even with the Immense spiritual and mental wounds that she still suffered from. The chakra bled out of her, infusing the air around her and wreathing her in a cloak of chakra that projected her intent out around her.

Rin was far from unattractive, indeed even before she had taken to using this technique she was widely considered a beauty by the people of her home town, but there was quite a difference between a beauty in a distant rural town and someone who could be considered gorgeous in the world of political intrigue she had once immersed herself within. The chakra surrounding her, whilst completely invisible to the naked eye and all but imperceptible to those without the skill to sense her manipulation of the natural aura of the world, would flow out from her, encompasing the minds of all who percieved her, not least of which was the woman who's eyes she met calmly and confidently. It was a subtle technique, but one with long lasting effects, one that would leave Rin seeming like the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes upon, and one that would even leave those affected by it questioning their own orientation in many cases.

It had started as a technique to help lower the guard of targets of negotiations and asasinations alike, but she had slowly found that even in combat it was an effective way to distract opponents. With a flirtatious wink Rin bent down to the snow by her feet, scooping up a ball of snow within her hands as she patted it into a dense ball of frost, speaking as she did so. "You know, you really should be careful who you throw things at, you never know who might throw them back at you" she said pausing for a moment as she stood, a cocky smirk across her face even as she sent a mental command to a pair of clones that had been lurking behind her in the distance as she wandered, the two clones, mirror images of Rin in every sense of the word, right down to being perfect reflections of her, their own missing arm and missing eye, sitting on the opposite side to her own body.

The two Mirror images of Rin thought just like her and had already been getting into position, preparing their own quite supstantial piles of packed snow as they crept forwards along the roof of the buildings that lay along the alleyway ready to strike as soon as they sensed the command. As Rin cocked back her arm and threw her own ball of frost with just enough force to land at the girl's feet, just barely missing as if she hadn't given the snow enough force when she let it loose, she spoke again. "It really would be a shame for such a pretty woman as yourself to find herself drenched from head to toe because she wasn't paying attention. At her word the two mirror images of her would let loose their own larger piles of snow, using some short blasts of their own unshaped chakra to sweep some of the snow off of the roof of each of their buildings to land upon the woman.
wc:1467
twc: 2019

”Additional Mission: Home Alone”:

[ WC needed to complete ‘Snowballs!’ Missions: 23 WC ][ WC needed to complete ‘Home Alone’ Mission: 1000 WC ]

It would seem that perhaps Bali had picked the wrong person to pick on playfully. It was intriguing, watching the other woman move to dodge such a simple snowball of a blow, but then it nailed her in the shoulder, and she plopped into the snow. Bali damn near burst out laughing, and it was a shred of will that kept her from doing so, but then the woman got up, and she began to feel it-

The air was changing. On the edges of her sensory, there was a twitch of response and then a buzzing feeling that warranted a dilation of her pupils. What was the feeling of something moving and existing around this other woman- was that her ‘chakra,’ that magic the shinobi wielded in their witchcraft? The woman let out a light laugh and pushed herself up to her feet again with one arm, and that’s when the coat she was wearing opened to reveal something that Bali wasn’t expecting.

A view of a sweater as the woman brushed herself off, but the sleeve of her right arm was tied around the shoulder. It was masterfully done in such a way that it filled out the coat sleeve and made it look as if there was no missing ligament. Even Baliquis was food by this, but the view was cut short by the woman righting herself amid the childish yells and screams of playful delight and merriment. The woman seemed to look at her and notice her- uh oh- and Locked eyes with her. Another discovery was made; the woman’s right eye was missing. However, it was the remaining eye that caught her off guard. There was something there, and it seemed as if the more petite woman looked through her, and when Baliquis blinked to break their gaze, she felt a bit- breathless.

Though Bali had just surveyed her, the woman looked the same yet somehow… different now. Where her wool coat was plaid before, now it was tailor fitted. Where her scarf was a tacky mix of pink and blue, it was now a perfect mix to tie in the color of her hair and add contrast to her outfit. Her sad boots? Now rustic and vintage stylish. Her out-of-season and tired pants? Broken in, well-worn, and the best fitting she had seen. Even her sad and depressing beige sweater seemed more stylish and form-fitting. It was almost as if there was no way that Bali could dismiss or try to look at this woman from the wrong angle. Everyone perfectly turned in her favor.

Normally, Baliquis didn’t really consider people as others did. She did not regard them- or herself- romantically. Being devoted to the temple for so long, it was implored that you were sinful for having carnal or primal urgers or any romantic attraction towards anyone. After so many years, it seemed to fade away, almost as if there was never the existence of it. After so long, she did not even regard herself in a womanly manner aside from the form and figure she saw in the mirror every day that reminded her she was, in fact, a woman. She had been blessed with her mother’s taller figure and stature and the near undefeatable ability to hold a good physique effortlessly. She could gain 25 pounds- and she had- and she could carry it all well and be more gifted in her assets or lose 30 and still not have lost much in the same spaces. Things like exploring her own body and sexuality had never been on the table for her, much like being a shinobi, but now they were. And so were the former. While she never spent time delving into where she stood as a woman in those regards, looking at this mystery woman now, who seemed more appealing than before, certainly made it a much more captivating and engaging subject. The woman winked at her as if trying to say something sultry, a momentary, sweet challenge of an invitation, and she was intrigued- even if Bali did notice the woman crouching down and grabbing snow by her feet to scoop it up in her hands. She patted it into a snowball, but it was how she playfully talked, “You know, you really should be careful who you throw things at; you never know who might throw them back at you.” Even her voice seemed easy to amend to.

But it was the feeling in her senses of others with the same type of presence on her senses- like this woman before her- that Baliquis was absently focused on. Two, maybe? Somewhere behind her but far as well. Either side of the alleyway had apartment buildings. Were they on the roof or the windows, perhaps? Either way it was awfully… coincidental that they just seemed to be nearby her when the children has already relocated away from them. So… was this a ‘shinobi trap’?

She watched as the woman cocked back her arm and threw the snowball toward her. Still, even as it sailed through the air, she watched it only land at her feet, "It really would be a shame for such a pretty woman as yourself to find herself drenched from head to toe because she wasn't paying attention.” Then the two other entities seemed to mobilize, and Baliquis looked up to see snow falling towards her from the rooftops. Not trying to ruin her outfit, Baliquis pushed her chakra into her body and turned to water right as the snow fell on her- taking advantage of her Hozuki heritage and her hydrification form- before sliding out from under the snow pile and to the side of it and reforming.

“You’re right. It would be.” Baliquis said and smirked before reaching up in her remade form and unclasping the clasp holding her cloak together at the front of her collar bone, “ Had you wanted to see me without a coat on, though, you could have asked.” She took off her cloak, wearing her mesh body suit over her normal, cowl-necklined boy suit, smirked, and she moved the cloak in her hands to fold it over an arm, “No need to get me wet by snow, of all things.”

[ 100 AP spent for Hydrification (S) activation ]
[ WC: 1043 ]

Rin smirked as Vis and Codex, her two mirror images, let loose their drifts of snow, the massive piles of frozen powder falling down on the girl in an instant. It had been a long time since Rin had allowed herself any real sort of harmless fun or allowed herself to enjoy a fight, and yet she even let out a brief chuckle as she saw the girl's form being obscured by the drift of snow, she couldn't help but let this small spark of enjoyment brighten her day. Rin strode forward towards the pile of snow, a smirk still on her face as she spoke, starting to reach her hand out towards where she expected the woman to be as she spoke, a coquettish smirk plastered across her face. "Oh my, who could have possibly have seen that comin~" Rin's arrogant smirk and playful teasing were cut off as her senses screamed to her that something was wrong, only a moment too late as her eye noticed a puddle of water leaking out from under the pile of snow, flowing against gravity and pooling to the side of the snow drift. Rin started to leap back, even as the puddle of water began to rush upwards, forming the indistinct shape of a person for a moment before solidifying into the figure of the girl a smirk upon her own face.

Rin couldn't help but internally scowl a little, she had let her guard down, this was why she didn't allow herself to have fun or toy with her prey, this is what almost got her killed in her encounter with the ragdoll; this is exactly the sort of behavior she had spent the last two years trying to quash. Landing ten feet back from where the girl girl had reformed Rin ducked down into a combat stance, her own smirk fading to a look of seriousness; a look that lasted for all of ten seconds as the girl stripped off her cloak, a coquettish remark of her own flowing out of her mouth as she did so.

“Had you wanted to see me without a coat on, though, you could have asked."

She said playfully, casting the cloak to the side as Rin's face went bright read for a moment even as she tried to suppress it, she was no stranger to flirting and teasing, indeed in her early years, before her disfigurement at the hands of that accursed monster that claimed to be human, Rin had spent much of her time flirting and manipulating fidelity and finance from those young fools that were weak to her feminine wiles; Of course that was a long time ago and she hadn't had anyone express even the slightest interest in her since her disfigurement, of course she knew logically that it was no doubt at least partly a result of the technique she had cast on the girl only a moment ago as a distraction, but emotionally it still made her heart flutter, and a blush rise to her cheeks, a blush that only got deeper as she surveyed what the woman was wearing under the thick cloak that had hidden her figure until that point. The woman was clothed in a mesh body suit that did nothing to hide her curves and a tailored boy suit that only served to accentuate her figure. Whilst not explicitly revealing in any way it certainly served to make the towering giant of a woman seem even more imposing, so much so that Rin even heard a passing individual behind her drop their load in surprise, Rin could almost have sworn she heard a voice whispering "mommy" but surely she must have been mistaken, even so the thought had the flush growing even further down her neck, the combat hardened veteran now looking more like a ripe tomato than someone ready for combat.

The woman paused for a moment, taking a second to neatly fold her coat over her arm, something that gave Rin a moment to collect herself, turning her mental attention inwards as she cycled her chakra in a familiar pattern, trying to regulate her breathing and return her emotions to a more controlled state. Despite her history using her feminine wiles to her advantage the woman's brazen attitude combined with Rin's own internalized and repressed issues about her own disfigurement had put Rin on the back foot in just another interaction where she once would have been at her strongest. Rin could feel the anger and shame boiling up inside her as the thought crossed her mind that the ragdoll had scarred her so much as to even ruin her ability to flirt effectively, but she pushed those feelings down, just one more issue that she would need to repress until she could have her revenge. Rin turned her mind outwards again, even as she continued the breathing exercise she used to center herself, Her fist had started to ball up at the thoughts of the damage that day in sunagakure had done to her and she used that to her advantage, flexing her fist and gathering more snow into another snowball as she prepared herself. Some small analytical part of her mind was franticly churning through what it knew about water techniques to try and identify what the woman had done to turn herself into water there, but it was at the back of her mind, the emotional turmoil within Rin's mind taking center stage.

Of course just as Rin had though herself able to regulate her emotions the woman spoke again, with such a brazen double entendre that even in her prime Rin's mind would have frozen for a moment.

“No need to get me wet by snow, of all things.”

Rin's breath caught in her throat at the woman's words, the gears in her mind locking up as even the analytical part of her mind froze processing the woman's words. Rin's face, only just starting to loose some of the red sheen that had covered it turned the colour of a dying sun, Rin lost her grip on her chakra at the same moment, the energy, once being cycled in a calm and methodical method lashed and raged inside of her as its flow was disturbed, and Rin gave off enough heat that the snow around her even began to melt slightly, small puddles forming around her. Without thinking Rin stood and through the ball of snow that she had gathered up in her grip at the woman, a girlish scream erupting from her mouth, although she would deny that ever happened when asked about it in the future.

The ball of snow however... was no longer snow, nor was it a ball for that matter, the heat Rin was giving off had been enough for the frozen water to return to its natural state and as Rin threw her hand forwards nothing but a pitiful spurt of water flew a few feet. Having expected more heft from the ball of snow, and still reeling emotionally from the woman's blatant words Rin overbalanced, taking a slight step forwards to catch herself. Unfortunately for Rin the cobblestones around her, once thick with powdery snow to provide traction, had become covered in water that had started to refreeze into a liquid slurry that made the ground around her particularly treacherous. Rin felt her foot, intended to catch and steady her weight, fall out from under her, her view flying backwards as all she could see was the white of the sky, the snow falling down towards her as she slipped and fell.
wc: 1272
twc: 3291

Baliquis stood and waited, but that- unfortunately- taking off her cloak caused as much of a scene as her hair. After taking her cloak off, someone even dropped something behind her- and a whisper of ‘mommy’- but the woman’s reaction caught Baliquis’s attention the most. It was her flushed face. It was the fact that her face reddened and darkened as time went on and even the snow around them began to melt- the air warmed.

Even without her cloak on, Baliquis didn’t feel cold at all with how the snow was melting around her and how the air warmed. She couldn’t tell if it was because of the woman herself, but she could tell one thing: It felt interesting—possibly imposing. There had not been a time when she had been impressed, and Baliquis found it difficult to differentiate if this had anything to do with the strange feelings that arose in her earlier or if she genuinely felt this way about this woman. What was it about her?

Was it the way she fumbled to make a snowball? Was it the strange hair? Was it how embarrassed she got? Was it how her emotions seemed so in tune with her chakra control and its usage that the possibility of her being embarrassed managed to melt the surrounding around her, even if it was just frozen water? Either way, she couldn’t seem to leave that fact alone, and her mind echoed, ‘cute.’ Even though the word was hardly in Baliquis’s vocabulary, her mind still echoed it.

Then came perhaps the even better reaction- the woman let out a girlish yell of some kind, and the snowball she had been trying to make in her hand turned to water which she proceeded to try to throw…only it backfired. Drastically.

And by ‘drastically,’ the world played that out in the one-armed woman slipping and falling backwards and onto her ass on the cobblestones to which Baliquis walked over, unhindered by the water on the stones as she moved carefully, but stopped over the younger woman and leaned over into her field of vision as she bent at the waist. “Oops.” Baliquis said sympathetically, then chuckled as she asked, “Do you need some help up, then? Since gravity is your enemy?” Baliquis offered and made sure to keep her face as stoic as possible but kept her cloak in her arms and held it towards her chest.

[ WC: 404 ]

Rin felt the ground falling out from under her, she felt the moisture that coated the ground from the melted snow disrupting her balance as she toppled backwards, she braced herself waiting for the painful impact that she knew was coming, tucking her head forwards to avoid hurting her head too badly, but the whole time she couldn't help but feel anger, not at the woman who had been pelting her with snow, no that woman was just having a bit of fun and, even if for only a brief moment, that had let Rin have a small bit of fun herself. No what sparked that anger in her chest was how weak she had become, the ragdoll's corruption still raged within her veins and even the small parlour trick she had used earlier to get a slight edge had left her reserves drained.
She could cycle her chakra to protect herself here, indeed if it were not for the ragdoll's curse she would have been able to use her skills and techniques to simply avoid falling in the first place, but the damage she would do to herself using anything more than a small sliver of chakra would make the effort pointless, instead she was forced to suffer the indignity of falling into a puddle of melted snow; her outfit was going to be ruined.

The pain, wasn't as bad as Rin had been expecting, she had fallen on cobblestones before as a child, had taken beatings on them even, but for whatever reason the streets of this strange land were different from those of her home town. Whilst solid to the touch when she fell on them they almost had the same soft fluffy consistency of the snow that surrounded them, just another oddity about this strange town and one that Rin made a mental note of, she had seen so many small inconsistencies about this town now that she almost thought it some sort of genjutsu. She had thuroughly checked that possibility already of course, using Codex's advanced sensory capabilities to get a report in excruciating detail as to every single discrepancy in the flows of natural chakra throughout the town. She'd checked each one closely and whilst they all seemed tied to the odd properties of this place that prevented her from opening a portal out of this land, none of them had any trace of the sort of chakra that would be capable of manipulating the mind or the senses.

Using vis and codex to provide enough supplementary chakra she had even tried flooding her chakra network with enough chakra to release even the strongest of genjutsu techniques to no avail. Whatever was responsible for the strange quirks of this land they were no genjutsu, they were very real. 

In this case at least, those strange inconsistencies had been to her benifit. Though her butt and back ached a little from the impact itself she could tell from a quick cursory inspection that it would barely bruise. Rin groaned a little all the same as she sat up, putting her weight on her one arm for support; as she did so a shadow passed over her face, blocking out the sun even as it stood over her. The towering shadow loomed over her, the bright sun almost surrounding it in a halo of light as she looked up. Rin had to blink a few times before her eye adjusted to the sudden change in light, the looming shadow resolving into the figure of the woman she had been exchanging balls of snow with.

"Oops" the woman said with a sympathetic smile, one that Rin almost took for genuine before the woman let out a chuckle that sent the gears in her mind turning, certainly it could have just been an awkward laugh, or a genuine laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but Rin was too used to betrayal and subterfuge to accept that out of hand; had she been tricked? had this woman done something to cause her fall? Rin's mind ticked over what she knew, listing them out. The first thing was that the woman had managed to turn herself into water a moment earlier, the water pooling out of the freezing snow and reforming into her. That told her two things, firstly the woman was a water artist, and quite a skilled one at that given her ability to turn herself completely into water whilst still maintaining her consiousnes, Rin hadn't even heard of someone being able to do something like that before; Secondly the cobblestones she had slipped on had been coated in water, the temperature was still frigid and nowhere else had melted, at first she thought she might have accidentally let loose enough fire chakra to melt the surrounding snow... but a water artist of this woman's skill could very well have bade the frozen water to return to its natural state for her. 

Rin pondered this, it was sneaky, underhanded and absolutely not in the fun spirit of a snowball fight... but it was also exactly what she would have done. Rin wasn't sure wether to be furious or impressed at first, but in the end she had to admit if the woman had pulled it off that was a masterful move and she had to respect it, which was good as the woman had just extended her hand to Rin
"Do you need some help up then?" She asked, a sly smile flitting along the corner of her mouth as she added in a playful jibe "Since gravity is your enemy"

Rin's mind paused for a moment before that flush ran up her neck again, she half considered knocking the woman's hand away, but she had already decided that whatever the woman had been responsible for it was more impressive than anything else so, letting out a reluctant sigh, She let go of any residual frustration at the woman even as she reached up and grasped her hand...
Of course even having forgiven the woman for whatever trickery might have been afoot, Rin couldn't resist a bit of playful fun of her own, once the woman gripped her hand tight she would give a playful yank, as if trying to pull herself up using the woman as an anchor... if the woman didn't expect it and ended up being pulled into the puddle with her... well that would serve her right
WC: 1074
TWC: 4365

Mid-Thread claims

Claiming rewards from the 5x E-Rank Mission, "Snowball Fight!"
[ 5000 ryo (missions)+ 2000 Ryo (Rank bonus), 25 AP , 1,250 Winter Equinox Tickets ]
( Total WC by my most recept post: 1924 )

Tech Claims: Dragon Attacks Tiger ( C-Rank ) 1000 / 1000
Debuff Bolt (C-Rank) 924 / 1000

What was this feeling she was getting? It was equal part fluttery, light and flickering, as it was buttery, smooth, and easy to melt. What was this? Was this a continuation of how she saw this woman before, or were these new? Were these feelings insincere, or were they genuine? It usually took Baliquis only a short time to understand or answer these types of questions- or anything for that matter.

Was this something she always had access to? Was this feeling something that was always there, or had she recently acquired it? If the latter, then it begged the question: when had it appeared? Was it when she began to see this woman in another light, or was it before? Then Baliquis’s mind began to swirl with the long, questioning narrative of whether these emotions and feelings had always been there and active or if they had been dormant this whole time?

Then it led to a new series of questions that were more rhetorical and internal than anything else. When was the last time she felt emotions outside of today? Had she gone her whole life stoically through the mundane motions of everything she had to do and everything she needed to get done? Robotically and emotionlessly working through her workload as an Elder and working through her temple duties? No, that couldn’t possibly be true because she remembered it. She remembered laughing with her little friends, which consisted of a scorpion and an orchid mantis. She remembered the happy memories she had made as a child. She remembered how easy it was to smile, but it seemed like so long ago, and now? Now it pained her face to stretch them, those atrophied and forgotten muscles that helped pull her cheeks, lips, and face into a smile. Now she grew self-conscious with that thought and wondered how different she smiled then to how she smiled now.

Was it sincere? Did it hold a certain amount of insincerity when she did it to others, even when she didn’t mean it? She had practiced for so many years in front of a mirror until the ‘smile’ on her ‘mask’ was perfect, poised, and effortlessly becoming of someone in her position. Where it seemed friendly and welcoming even if she couldn’t be bothered or didn’t want to be there. She never had to bother trying to keep things at any personal level because that meant an emotional investment- which meant the possibility of an emotional attachment- and she could afford it. She couldn’t afford to pay such prices when she couldn’t muster up her emotional attachment to her role in the same Temple she practiced in. She didn’t want to be there any more than she wanted to be an elder or any more than she wanted to be in the religion. She had lost it.

The whole point of being there was to use herself and her body as a bargaining chip. As leverage. To make sure her sister could go ahead and live as she wanted, and she could be the wall that kept the Temple and the churches at bay. However, Geni had been returned, and with the catastrophic loss of her twin came with it the devastating shatter to her purpose within the Temple. She had none. Her sister was gone; what point was there for her to remain and remain loyal even to the church? None. She was restricted by their expectations; however, she could not be physically restrained by them- not as she was and not as she had made herself.

They avoided her in hallways since she had that ‘mental breakdown’ or whatever they wanted to call it, whatever they wanted to label her. Their labels never fucking mattered to her unless they served her, and to those ends, she would easily manipulate and twist to get the result to how she mentally planned it out. To flick against the taunt, universal strings that held these marionettes around her so that the vibrations alone moved them just enough to fall into the lines of her expectations and follow the path she mentally foresaw and wanted. The path to get her the best answer these useless little dolls could give someone like her- someone real, flesh and bodies rather than these wooden, hollow toys. The twang alone sent shivers down her spine of, something…that put her at ease. That was pleasant. Something that invoked a feeling of safety and relaxation, that made her soul echo, ‘All is well, and it’s taken care of,’ so it was one less thing she had to worry about. Indeed, those were emotions and feelings, were they not? Indeed, those were emotional reactions and arrivals? Either way, the others in the order were now wary, but she didn’t give a shit. They had served their purpose.

And what was hers? What was her purpose?

Even as she extended a hand to help the other woman up, she did so out of duty. Out of trained ordinance to do such a thing. Even as their hands clasped, Baliquis never questioned if the act of helping another person was ‘righteous’ or ‘the right thing to do’ even with her’ mask’ on because she had been trained and taught it was the correct thing to do. It’s easier to mimic and manipulate people when you open yourself up to suggestions, give them the notion they are helping you, and let them see your vulnerability as uneducated and open to teaching. It was easier that way than to forcibly pry information out of people. However, she was still open to being educated by the universe- as when she went to pull the woman up, the woman instead pulled her towards herself and the puddle.

Clearly, this woman was not another marionette and was not open to the divine suggestion of “Doing things Bali’s Way,” as the action of pulling her down made Baliquis lose her balance, let out something that was strangled between a young yelp and a surprised gasp, before all her and her 125kg worth of weight crashed down- gracelessly. Her cloak bounced out of her hands, and she crashed down, rolled off the more petite woman, and fell into the puddle, which blatantly splashed the freshly-melted-and-icy-cold snow water all over her and her bodysuits. Baliquis let out a gasp of shock and horror at both the burning icy sensation radiating from her nerve endings and the fact that her outfit was ruined, and she just fell to her side on the ground- laying there, holding her upper half up with her arms. At the same time, the water soaked her chest, entire front side, and legs, and the cloak laid just a bit aways. Also wet. She was dumbfounded as she tried to register what happened and where the fuck she went wrong in her own hubris. Still, to at least cover some of the humiliation from her mouth open in bewilderment, she brought a hand up and covered her open would from view behind her manicured hand.

What a fucking day to be alive and be bested by a goddamn puddle of all things.

[ WC : 1,195 ]