sixty-four palm strike [open]

[Deleted]

Charlie's eyesight was still a little foggy after a few weeks. But it was clearing up and was starting to get better and better every day. She had an infection after the war and now Josh was missing. She was mad that he had gone missing again. Gods he was such an idiot. But she sat up after finishing tying her shoes and she picked up her sword. It had been a gift from her father months ago. It had served her well. There was nothing super special about it, other than it looked like a totally bad ass sword. One edge was sharp, constantly sharp and never needed to be sharpened, the other side was serrated with a wickedly jagged edge. It was made of imperial gold, but the blade itself was black. She grabbed her shield and tossed it over her back. Charlie wasn't sure what she was going to do with herself, She didn't want to swim or train or read, she really didn't want to do anything right about now. But she had to do something. Absolutely something otherwise she just might explode. Charlie, for once, was just at a loss for what she wanted to do. But maybe she would go with her old fall back, working on her kung fu. She always felt that she had to practice it, otherwise she would get rusty. It had served her well in the last two wars, many people expecting her to just go with the old roman training. Charlie had more than just that under her belt.

So she trooped out to the field of mars. Charlie placed her sheathed sword and shield against a tree before she squared up with a dummy. She placed her fist in her palm and bowed to it. She knew it wasn't a real person, but still, there were traditions to be observed. Charlie did some stretching before she slowly did some techniques. They slowly got faster and faster, to anyone outside of Mercury or MArs, or even her ex-boyfriend Chris might have been able to see her hands, but they were moving quickly. Each time she struck the wooden dummy it was a familiar sting to her skin. She missed the feeling. But she would have to resign herself to practicing like this more often. Faintly in the back of her mind, she could hear the ringing sound of a bamboo staff being slammed against the floor and her master yelling for her to do it again. Repetition was key, it developed muscle memory, allowing her body to react without thinking. she spun gracefully, striking the dummy with her foot with enough force to send the head of the dummy flying across the field. Charlie moved on to the next dummy. the same motions, the same stalwart style of kung fu. she would have loved to go see the monks in china doing the kung fu. staying at the monastery, practicing along side of the monks, oh the thought was her heaven. Maybe when she left the legion, she'd go herself. She'd have to learn Chinese first, but that didn't deter her much.

She crouched low, her leg muscles coiled as she leapt up, snapping her leg across the head of the dummy with enough force to snap then neck if it had been a regular human. Not that she liked killing, she didn't like taking lives, but sometimes it was necessary. If it was her life verses someone elses, well she would make sure that she came out on top. There was life in every breath, all life was sacred and to disregard that was to disregard other people. Her master had taught her that. She missed him. But she had friends here. She had her brother, even little annoying Mattie, Tessa, Mors, Josh, Chris, people that she could always turn to if she really needed help. But she felt as if she had been stuck in a rut for the past few days. She really didn't know what she wanted to do for the past couple of days. Nothing seemed to really strike her fancy. Again she struck, hitting it hard in the chest. Had it been human, the sternum would have been shattered, lungs perferated by the shards of bone, and there was that one time she had killed someone with a powerful palm strike. She really didn't think she had hit him that hard, but the kid just stopped breathing. maybe that kid was just a wuss with no sense of survival. It had also been during the war as well. The previous one, not the one just passed. maybe she had used excess force but she didn't dwell too much on it.

[Deleted]

Tag: Charlie Words: 568 Notes: Stealing

I'd rather sleep my whole life away Josh was missing. Again. A long sigh escaped Miyuki as she splashed cold water onto her face. She was worried, so very worried about her centurion and one of her best friends. Not only that, but Eve was getting close to Remus again. He had broken her heart once, and Miyuki didn't want to see him do such a thing again, but she knew they simply weren’t for each other. Remus could never hope to be worthy of Eve, not that he was a bad guy. Not that he wasn't a great guy, but simply he was not right for Eve. The way she wasn't right for Josh, there was someone else who was number one, and Miyuki would not accept that. Not for her, and not for her friends. She was still getting over Ryan's death. She had cooked food, shared recipes, shared a belief in peace instead of violence. Wanted to make cookies with him and help everyone in camp get passed the problems they refused to admit. Those might have been the main reasons she couldn't sleep well recently. Considering she was the daughter of dreams, it was hurting her badly. She couldn't have such long talks with her father, as she could with normal sleep. It was only a short time you were in rem sleep, that was where she would bother Somnia with all her griefs, and grudges. He would always listen and offer her advice. She loved her father so much. He'd been with her since she was a child, so she wanted so badly to sleep well again. To be able to talk to him, and visit the places he loved in her dreams. She drank tea to try and alleviate her stress, asked Tessa for that magical tea that was supposed to help. It left her dreamless though. She wasn't sure why, but perhaps for others that was helpful. For her it had the opposite effect, so she had to find another way. Perhaps some exercises. Something old and familiar. Roman training was fine, but she hadn't practiced her martial arts for some time now. Perhaps two months, which was quite long. In the fields of Mars she saw Charlie, someone who shared her martial arts background. A little bit at least. Miyuki had only two kinds under her belt, while she believed Charlie had six types. The ones she learned generally lead to diverting an opponents strength, perhaps because her parents knew she would be coming here. To America, where she would be so small. The martial arts she knew put that to her advantage. Her hands moved fast, but Miyuki knew where they were going. The flow of her moves weren't too difficult to see, though keeping up with it on the other hand Miyuki wondered about. Perhaps she should train with Josh some more to help increase her speed. Josh. She would have to visit his wife, make sure she was okay. “Reminding your muscles how to move? They aren't rebelling are they?” she said with a smile. Charlie was a good centurion, a good person if a little too intense for Miyuki's general liking. She was glad she wasn't in first cohort. “Oh you cracked this one, careful not to break them. Ronan has a lot of work to do again.” She was worried about him too. Another person to add to her plate she supposed. Than have you keep me from dreaming Lyrics from Fairytale by Sara Bareilles Code done by step

[Deleted]

It really seemed that it had been a good while since she had practiced. Charlie had been in the hospital and then the trials and then it seemed like everything had compounded atop one another. Just a chance to get out and to practice, well Charlie was happy to break the monotony of camp. She'd have to see about getting another chance at getting back into the swing of how she used to do things. But Mors was busy and her friends, well, she didn't have any friends any more. Well there was Chris, but he was her co-centurion and an ex-boyfriend. All of her friends had left her. She had no one. Just her brothers and sisters. Even they wern't close. It just seemed like that no matter what, people just kept leaving her. First her mother, then her grandfather, then her grandmother. Maybe she was just meant to be alone forever. She knew she had Mors, but he was a god. She was just waiting for the day that he would find someone more preferable to be around. It was only a matter of time. She knew it deep down in her heart that he would find someone else, he would move on and so would she. Mors deserved someone that he could be with forever.

But she looked up to see Miyuki, someone else who had shared her martial arts background. It was hard to find that here in America, and in New Rome. It was crazy to see how the lack of people just drove her nuts. Everyone needed to know how to protect themselves. That whole helplessness drove her up the wall when it came to that whole damsel in distress thing. She absolutely hated that whole being a woman made her helpless. No, she wasn't helpless. She was a strong Roman, and from Mars's blood at that. She could take care of herself without a problem. Though it was nice to have Mors to lean on on occasion. “Hey Miyuki. How's it going?” She asked as she planted her foot in the torso of the dummy. Miyuki was a nice enough girl. She was a good friend to Ronan and she knew that she and Josh had dated at some point, but past that, she really didn't know the girl from the fifth cohort so well. Maybe she should. Charlie trusted Ronan's judgment in people, Edmund non withstanding, but josh's judgement was lacking at times.

“Not so much that they are rebelling, I just needed a change of pace, y'know?” She said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. She looked at Miyuki with a smile and she stifled a slight yawn. She placed a hand on the dummy where Miyuki had mentioned that it was cracked. “I see it here. I'd rather not increase Ronan's work load. He needs a vacation.” Charlie stated in a matter of fact voice.

[Deleted]

Tag: Charlie Words: 484

I'd rather sleep my whole life away Her voice was fitting of first cohort centurion. Strong, steady, well projected. It was funny how you could tell a lot about someone based on how they sounded. Of course it also includes how they hold themselves, but generally everyone knows that. That's why you're told to stand up straight, to keep good posture and look forward. Looking down people assumed weakness, at least around here. Miyuki stood tall, straight. Not that it helped she was only five foot two inches. Average height for a Japanese girl, short in America. Especially around Mars children. Still Miyuki gave this girl who was nearly half a foot taller than her a smile. She didn't flinch from the thud of her foot against the dummy. Though that might have just been a bit of the Legion training. "Any day I can see my friends safe and sound is a great day." she said with a smile, though she had friends who died on the battlefield. She still had Ronan, Josh, and Eve though. As long as even one of her good friends was still alive, she would have hope. Miyuki always had to make a conscious effort to keep her aura of sleep off, not that it put anyone around here asleep. Romans where too disciplined, it made them a bit tired, but that hardly affected any of them. Little kids in New Rome, and babies though. She had that magical effect of putting them asleep, they just couldn't resist. Kids could curl up and nap anywhere anyway, not legionnaires though. They almost always had something to do. Still, she preferred to keep her aura off, having sleepy people with swords wasn't a good thing even if they weren't going to fall over immediately. When Charlie yawned though, Miyuki checked herself. It's a bit difficult sometimes, similar to how you may not realize your glasses are on your face, but you look for them. Having her aura off had become something like that, she had become so used to it. Her black hair fluttered in the wind. Perfectly straight hair, unlike the centurion standing in front of her. Blonde and amazingly curly, some days on the verge of matching the family tree in curves. Perhaps not that bad, or so she hoped. If Charlie’s hair ever got that curly it would have knots. "Change of pace it nice, Asian martial arts is certainly different from the Roman hand to hand combat." she said with a smile. It was good to know she didn't want to encourage Ronan's slight work-a-holic existence. It seemed like everyone else voted for anyone in the forges to always be there, working. "Perhaps he'll listen to you, he always says 'It needs to get done'" she said in a terrible impression of Ronan's much deeper voice. "We're short staffed already' You know, things like that. I say he should higher taller staff then." Than have you keep me from dreaming Lyrics from Fairytale by Sara Bareilles Code done by step