[ Her instinct is to say no but being that aggressively cocky is going to serve anyone, least of all her. Hitting the gym to maintain muscle mass and feel as at ease in her body as she accustomed to, that's already a practice in humility. Accepting her limits takes getting to know them first, and then she'll be back to all strength, all the time. With a mean left hook on the side. ]
Just give me a few minutes. [ Lorna heads off to an empty corner of the mat to loosen up and stretch. Her opponent can find them a spot to throw down and Lorna will approach when she's done and grabbed knuckle-padded gloves, slipping them on and flexing her fingers. ]
[ jyn has no gloves. she's been playing bare-knuckled this whole time, which leaves them raw most days she comes down here, but she doesn't mind. it keeps her mind occupied when she isn't trying to get those parts of the station still locked to its populous. even though she's been here for some time, she finds them a mat by the big mirrors and does some stretching herself.
when she sees the other woman's reflection come up behind hers, she spins on her heel, smiling broadly now. ]
Should there be rules?
[ if there aren't they'll probably get hurt... but sometimes that's half the fun. she's feeling a bit reckless today anyway. or maybe just that bored. ]
[ Magnetic fields don't respond to balled fists. Lorna's fingers are her money makers. She's been told by one or more of the folks that taught her the ropes: Avoid the face. As like, a courtesy. Finally, it seems like she's found someone who won't insist on training wheels. ]
No powers, if you've got 'em. [ In a real fight, Lorna lives to cheat, but there's nothing she can make use of in here that wouldn't be taking things a bit too far. ]
[powers, of course. it's something she doesn't often consider, though she should. after the 50000th time trying to explain the force to someone she'd given up especially after the meeting on the bridge. she definitely hadn't seen lorna there either. ]
I'm not equipped with anything like that so that stipulation will have to be solely for you, if it applies.
[ she's already putting her fists up like a boxer though she's never boxed. this should be interesting. but just to drive the point home, she says: ] I don't have any to add. [ while bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. ]
[ Oh ho, oh crumpets and crisps! That was the most British thing she's ever heard in real life. It's too bad she doesn't have any abilities to show off, but Lorna cares less about who's a mutant and who isn't every day. They're all equally stuck here. ]
I'm Lorna. [ She puts her dukes up, obscuring her chin and protecting her face. Pointer number one, sooo important, but sooo pointless when they insisted she progress in baby steps. Her entire existence here is biding her time until she can get home to the people who matter. If she has to frack any more patience out of herself, she'll lose her mind. A couple bruises here and there make her feel like she's done something.
One foot settles behind the other, shoulder width apart. She sends out a quick right jab for Jyn's chest to break the ice, anticipating a block. ]
[ she nods curtly. ] Jyn. [ her stance is similar, waiting for lorna to make the first move since she seems keen in doing so. her arm comes up in a swivel, indeed blocking the blow headed for center mass and attempting to use the combination of their barred arms to push lorna back some as she once again shifts out of reach. her first attempt at a hit comes in the form of an attack from the side, pushing all of her weight into a punch headed for lorna's unprotected ribcage. ]
[ Lorna may not have the hand-to-hand combat experience others seem to have arrived with but her reflexes are fugitive sharp. Her task here is to partition the muscle memory and rewrite what's been weakened until she no longer feels helpless 50% of the time. Turns it out maybe might be perhaps possible to have some fun while doing it. And no she does not miss her friends or the Hellfire Club shut up thanks.
She's light on her feet from Jyn pushing back at her first swing, so even though the downward swing of her arm is a crappy block that still gets her side knuckle-grazed, she sidesteps and steers the momentum into the place she was just standing. She doesn't know quite which move to exploit Jyn's imbalance with; she thinks about how she'd handle the situation with her powers, and it's a half second she can't get back. Indecision isn't in her vocabulary so Lorna leans full aggro, hailing jabs against Jyn's fists and foreams to keep her on the defensive. ]
[ jyn finds herself grinning even while lorna gets a few good hits on her arms, as he crosses them to defend herself. she hasn't been this well-matched with anyone here yet and it feels right to finally let go. while the other woman is busy focusing on jyn's torso, her knee comes up in a hard crack at lorna's shin. the hope is that she'll lose some balance or at least be stunned as jyn ducks under the woman's arm and deals a double-fisted blow to her kidneys from behind. someone else doesn't play completely fair either, it would seem. ]
[ She's less adept with her legs, for reasons obvious to anyone who knows her, soo nobody around here since Sonya vanished. If she was ever here at all. Lorna loves not having the opportunity to think about that, stumbling from the hit. She doubles over from the blow to her back, crying out gutturally from rage. The healthy kind, for anyone watching.
Maintaining distance to regain her composure, Lorna comes back in feigning a right jab. She hides her full force in a left hook that comes around seeking the side of Jyn's face. Now she's into it, she's going for broke, even if drawing on her discipline (which she does have) could prolong the fight. Next time, she'll be less sloppy. ]
[ while lorna is doubled over, she uses that time to refortify her position, knowing it won't be long before retaliation. jyn plants her feet solidly, watching the other woman as he aims a blow for her right. before she can suss that it's a fake-out, she's catching the other woman's fist at her chin with an undignified grunt of her own even as she jumps backward to lessen the damage in the followthrough. ]
Lucky hit.
[ a taunt, though her lips twitch from the effort to stay serious. soon she's punching at lorna as fast as she can in turn, borrowing her technique from earlier to keep her off-kilter. she aims for whatever she can best reach, arms, chest, and the soft of her belly. ]
[ Yeah, it was, but Lorna's cocky it came from her fist regardless. Jyn's poker face outclasses Lorna's in every way. She's angry and thrilled, breathing hard through her nose, expanding her chest and keeping her smirk intact. Her eyes could be described as fully on fire. Shielding her face, she's forced back one step after another, unable to predict where Jyn's next blow will be directed. Props to her for that.
So screw it, Lorna takes one to the chest, though she tries to angle to have her fist glance off. Fails, but it was a good idea. Instead of retreating, she attempts to lock Jyn in with her, throws an arm over her back and uses the pain that's exhausting her to fuel the uppercut to Jyn's stomach. Ribcage. Wherever it lands. ]
[ the thing is jyn is scrappy. she has might to her one wouldn't expect from her slight stature. but said slightness gives her a vast disadvantage when it comes to leverage. so when lorna catches on and locks her in, all jyn can really do is stay put and try to stand her ground the best possible way she knows how. the punch lands, effectively knocking the wind out of her, but she refuses to allow that to be the end, using the other woman's hold on her to keep herself up so she can throw her elbow sideways directly into lorna's throat at point-blank range. the move is angry but calculated, even as her vision goes a little spotty, her body not quite recovered from the blow to her midsection. ]
[ Her effort to block comes too late, knocking Jyn's forearm aside after the strike has landed. The defense seamlessly crumbles along with her stance as Lorna coughs relentlessly, gripping her knee to stay upright and gripping her throat for no good reason except it hurts like hell. Fine, fine, she admits defeat, if that's a thing in sparring, or press pause or say uncle, by raising an arresting palm.
Lorna straightens up and covers her mouth, still struggling to breathe normally. Which is the worst because she wants to know everything about what Jyn just did. Stubbornness isn't willing the constriction in her throat away so she removes herself from the mats, headed back towards the weight bench to take a seat and get ahold of herself. Either from the punch or the hacking, she's going to sound like a smoker for the next few days, but at least it feels nothing like a shock collar. Just feels like, oh, all the rest of her. Whoops no regrets ]
[ it takes a full minute for her to calm herself down and to recognize she isn't in an actual brawl. this is safe, or it's supposed to be. her breast heaves but not like the other woman's and she hopes she didn't damage her too badly. jyn follows after her in a gait that's clipped but assured, handing lorna her water as her brow flattens out. ]
You should expect a rematch when we both heal up some. [ it's as close to you're scary and i like it as she can come to saying aloud tbh. ]
[ Lorna accepts the water since it's not flavoured with pity, no rubbing her back or asking if she's okay. She coughs out the rest of it into the crook of her elbow, then taking note of the sweat soaked through the end of her sleeves. It's stuck to her back as well but she goes back to not noticing it among the aches all over. Oh she made such a bad decision. And it didn't kill her. Fuck you, space!
After forcing down a couple small, careful sips, Lorna nods -- or, she does the raising her head part, winces, and lowers it a lot slower. She stands up again to hand Jyn her bottle back. ]
[ she takes a swig from it as well, clearly not worried about germs the way some people are on this rustbucket. she truly can't wait either though she can already feel her jawbone swelling. perhaps they made a bad decision but came out with a fairly matched sparring partner each. as far as jyn's concerned something like that may as well be gold. ]
In that vein, I'm headed to medbay - care to join me?
[ nothing says budding friendship like applying ice packs to one another. ]
[ It's a familiar bonding method. Before the Struckers settled in and Nurse Caitlin's skill took turned the bank mezzanine into a functioning infirmary, they all took care of each other as they needed to, and there was always someone needing to. She's still at war here, she thinks, but the enemy is unknown. And truly, she doesn't need another one, but living in ignorance of it has proven to agitate her and little else. Familiarity is good in a pinch.
Lorna acquiesces with a perk of her eyebrows, falling into step at Jyn's side. ]
[ jyn finds her stupid boots wherever it is she'd first abandoned them hours ago, slipping them on and wrinkling her nose at them. she hopes she's lucky enough to get her own clothes back - she knows these are supposed to be for safety or something but they're clunky and slow her down, especially after being knocked around a bit. ]
Are you one of the many from Earth?
[ it's asked as they exit the gym shoulder-to-shoulder. she'd come to notice it was a popular place to hail from in her first days here, but still found it more and more intriguing still. even the people who weren't from it seemed to know the planet intimately. there was a minority, people from her own reality and a few others, but it did seem targeted somehow on this one place - hardly random at all. ]
[ Until she can get her hands on some steel-toed boots, Lorna makes use of the same as anyone else, most of the time. It's no less cumbersome to clank around in steel anklets and while the gravity's functioning, the bracelets she uses to steer are impractical and pretty ugly, even to her soft punk sensibilities. She's fairly comfortable using the boots now, able to turn them on and off with her kinesis. ]
2017. [ she offers by way of confirmation. The different times people individually hail from is as intriguing to her as coming from beyond the stars, if not more, because she got proof of that when Sonya came and went. Coming from a distant galaxy is cool too though, she guesses. ]
[ jyn just frowns in further confusion. she hasn't heard a date in such a format, but then she realizes that's what it must be. that's how the people here told time too, so maybe they were from earth after all. ]
I'm not certain when that is in relation to my place on the timestream. I spoke to a man here who spent time in Iowa, is that anything like where you're from?
[ Lorna snorts. That question is the best case she's heard for arriving from farflung space. And hey, snorting doesn't hurt. She'll be getting a lot more use out of it in the next couple weeks. ]
I mean, is it in America? Yeah. Never been there myself.
[ oops was what she said funny? jyn looks uneasy for a moment then shrugs a shoulder. ]
I wouldn't know the difference.
[ it's a short walk to the elevator and she's taking another sip of water before slipping inside and pressing the '5' gingerly. she never ever remembers to engage her boots though, so when lorna is in and the brief moment of 0 G transports them to the lower level, she floats up to the ceiling with a soft huff before gently drifting back down. ]
Is it impolite to ask if you have - powers? [ that's the way she had phrased it, wasn't it? a quizzical look drifts over her face as she steps off the elevator and heads towards the medbay. ]
[ Truthfully, if Lorna woke up in a cornfield or whatever with no sense for how she got there, she wouldn't know it from Kentucky. She'd have taken it for a kidnapping base over this withholding notsteroid, no question. If Jyn is in fact an extra-terrestrial, her planet's environment can't vary that fantastically from Earth's. She looks human, like, suspiciously human, and she sure sounds local to the Sol system. She looks her over again in the elevator, in case she missed some pointy ears or Star Trek skin spots. Nope, not even from the vantage point of watching her from below, Lorna's mutation compensating for the gravity shift. ]
Not to me. [ Lorna fishes into her pocket for the screw she pulled out of the wall on her first day here. It floats out of her hand, twirling in a thready green mist ] Only works on metal. And small things. [ It's more complex than that but Lorna just doesn't want her getting her hopes up or mentioning the D word ]
[ People around here tend to have that reaction, which is refreshing but Lorna didn't realize she'd kind of gotten used to it, since she didn't even consider Jyn might take it badly. That's not great. ]
Yeah, it's genetic. [ Magnetic wisps evaporating, the screw plops back into her hand. ] It's called mutation. It's pretty common on Earth, though how it manifests varies by person.
A genetic mutation allows you to do that. [ jyn repeats the information like that makes it easier to absorb, chewing on her lip. ] Where I'm from we have something similar, it's called the Force. Only those of certain bloodlines can harness its power.
[ The Force. Damn that sounds cool. A little "cry witchcraft" but society thinking it's moved on from simple-minded, hate-driven hysteria is half the reason it's alive and well. Jyn's implying she's not one of these Force users, which is unfortunate. The way she puts it, it sounds a lot rarer than the X gene.
The galaxy? [ It's the hard G combined the stress of incredulity that threatens to kick up another round of hacking, but Lorna stifles behind her hand. In the other, she catches the ice pack and presses it to her throat. And makes a note not to ask amazed questions at the same time that she inhales. Mixes terribly. ]
Yes. I'm afraid things are... dire where I'm from. Though hopefully less so after the successful efforts of my team, callsign Rogue One.
[ she picks up an ice pack of her own and just holds it in her hands for a moment. hitting people hurts and she presses the forgiving frozen gel packet against her knuckles at first while she goes to pour them each some water. she has a constant need to be in motion even when she's exhausted, like now, or has nothing to do, also now. ]
I know enough of Earth to know this will mean nothing to you, so I won't bore you with the minutia.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Just give me a few minutes. [ Lorna heads off to an empty corner of the mat to loosen up and stretch. Her opponent can find them a spot to throw down and Lorna will approach when she's done and grabbed knuckle-padded gloves, slipping them on and flexing her fingers. ]
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when she sees the other woman's reflection come up behind hers, she spins on her heel, smiling broadly now. ]
Should there be rules?
[ if there aren't they'll probably get hurt... but sometimes that's half the fun. she's feeling a bit reckless today anyway. or maybe just that bored. ]
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No powers, if you've got 'em. [ In a real fight, Lorna lives to cheat, but there's nothing she can make use of in here that wouldn't be taking things a bit too far. ]
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I'm not equipped with anything like that so that stipulation will have to be solely for you, if it applies.
[ she's already putting her fists up like a boxer though she's never boxed. this should be interesting. but just to drive the point home, she says: ] I don't have any to add. [ while bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. ]
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I'm Lorna. [ She puts her dukes up, obscuring her chin and protecting her face. Pointer number one, sooo important, but sooo pointless when they insisted she progress in baby steps. Her entire existence here is biding her time until she can get home to the people who matter. If she has to frack any more patience out of herself, she'll lose her mind. A couple bruises here and there make her feel like she's done something.
One foot settles behind the other, shoulder width apart. She sends out a quick right jab for Jyn's chest to break the ice, anticipating a block. ]
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She's light on her feet from Jyn pushing back at her first swing, so even though the downward swing of her arm is a crappy block that still gets her side knuckle-grazed, she sidesteps and steers the momentum into the place she was just standing. She doesn't know quite which move to exploit Jyn's imbalance with; she thinks about how she'd handle the situation with her powers, and it's a half second she can't get back. Indecision isn't in her vocabulary so Lorna leans full aggro, hailing jabs against Jyn's fists and foreams to keep her on the defensive. ]
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Maintaining distance to regain her composure, Lorna comes back in feigning a right jab. She hides her full force in a left hook that comes around seeking the side of Jyn's face. Now she's into it, she's going for broke, even if drawing on her discipline (which she does have) could prolong the fight. Next time, she'll be less sloppy. ]
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Lucky hit.
[ a taunt, though her lips twitch from the effort to stay serious. soon she's punching at lorna as fast as she can in turn, borrowing her technique from earlier to keep her off-kilter. she aims for whatever she can best reach, arms, chest, and the soft of her belly. ]
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So screw it, Lorna takes one to the chest, though she tries to angle to have her fist glance off. Fails, but it was a good idea. Instead of retreating, she attempts to lock Jyn in with her, throws an arm over her back and uses the pain that's exhausting her to fuel the uppercut to Jyn's stomach. Ribcage. Wherever it lands. ]
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Lorna straightens up and covers her mouth, still struggling to breathe normally. Which is the worst because she wants to know everything about what Jyn just did. Stubbornness isn't willing the constriction in her throat away so she removes herself from the mats, headed back towards the weight bench to take a seat and get ahold of herself. Either from the punch or the hacking, she's going to sound like a smoker for the next few days, but at least it feels nothing like a shock collar. Just feels like, oh, all the rest of her. Whoops no regrets ]
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You should expect a rematch when we both heal up some. [ it's as close to you're scary and i like it as she can come to saying aloud tbh. ]
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After forcing down a couple small, careful sips, Lorna nods -- or, she does the raising her head part, winces, and lowers it a lot slower. She stands up again to hand Jyn her bottle back. ]
Can't wait. [ But definitely really should. ]
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In that vein, I'm headed to medbay - care to join me?
[ nothing says budding friendship like applying ice packs to one another. ]
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Lorna acquiesces with a perk of her eyebrows, falling into step at Jyn's side. ]
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Are you one of the many from Earth?
[ it's asked as they exit the gym shoulder-to-shoulder. she'd come to notice it was a popular place to hail from in her first days here, but still found it more and more intriguing still. even the people who weren't from it seemed to know the planet intimately. there was a minority, people from her own reality and a few others, but it did seem targeted somehow on this one place - hardly random at all. ]
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2017. [ she offers by way of confirmation. The different times people individually hail from is as intriguing to her as coming from beyond the stars, if not more, because she got proof of that when Sonya came and went. Coming from a distant galaxy is cool too though, she guesses. ]
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I'm not certain when that is in relation to my place on the timestream. I spoke to a man here who spent time in Iowa, is that anything like where you're from?
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I mean, is it in America? Yeah. Never been there myself.
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I wouldn't know the difference.
[ it's a short walk to the elevator and she's taking another sip of water before slipping inside and pressing the '5' gingerly. she never ever remembers to engage her boots though, so when lorna is in and the brief moment of 0 G transports them to the lower level, she floats up to the ceiling with a soft huff before gently drifting back down. ]
Is it impolite to ask if you have - powers? [ that's the way she had phrased it, wasn't it? a quizzical look drifts over her face as she steps off the elevator and heads towards the medbay. ]
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Not to me. [ Lorna fishes into her pocket for the screw she pulled out of the wall on her first day here. It floats out of her hand, twirling in a thready green mist ] Only works on metal. And small things. [ It's more complex than that but Lorna just doesn't want her getting her hopes up or mentioning the D word ]
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That's amazing. Have you always had this within you?
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Yeah, it's genetic. [ Magnetic wisps evaporating, the screw plops back into her hand. ] It's called mutation. It's pretty common on Earth, though how it manifests varies by person.
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Lorna's scoff comes out as a croak. ]
Let me guess: Everyone gets along great.
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No. My galaxy has been at war for decades.
[ she ducks into the medbay and goes to the medical cooler, taking an ice pack and tossing one to lorna. ]
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[ she picks up an ice pack of her own and just holds it in her hands for a moment. hitting people hurts and she presses the forgiving frozen gel packet against her knuckles at first while she goes to pour them each some water. she has a constant need to be in motion even when she's exhausted, like now, or has nothing to do, also now. ]
I know enough of Earth to know this will mean nothing to you, so I won't bore you with the minutia.