tampered | (no subject)

When; August 29th, morning
Rating; PG?
Characters; Amelia

concept_killer
Summary; Upset from recent events, Amelia tries to settle her mind. Shiki comes to haunt her.
Log;

Amelia didn't like for anyone to see her upset. Not this sort of upset. It felt uncharacteristic of her, something foreign and outside of herself, invading the body. With it dominating her body, she felt like someone she wasn't -- or someone that she shouldn't be.

So she left the apartment, heading towards the beach where she'd come for Chrono and Rosette. It was already difficult to tell where the fight had taken place; the beach, according to its ever-flowing nature, had rearranged the space, a combination of wind and water washing away telltale signs in the landscape. She stood there for long moments, trying to discern what had happened where and when. An impossibility.

They'd come here and fought because of her. Because Joshua had chosen to use her as a lure for Chrono. It wasn't personal -- she was just the bait. The damsel in distress used to hurt someone else. It wasn't romantic this time. It wasn't for her station. It wasn't even for Justice. It was just because she was there and because she could be used.

Hadn't she become the sort of person yet who could help rather than be a detriment?

She'd been happy that evening. She'd been distracted by that. Perhaps she should have been more forceful, more demanding. Worked harder. *Made* them see she was someone to be reckoned with, someone who wouldn't sit by and watch others be hurt while she stayed protected. Perhaps there were a lot of things she should have done.

She'd have to work harder. That was the only option. Become better. Become a more powerful force of Justice. Then these things wouldn't happen.

"Visfarank!" Her fists charged with energy, glowing with power, and she began to box the air in front of her, battling an invisible opponent. She would fight and train until she was tired, until the pent-up energy released and dissipated.

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It wasn't terribly hard to figure out if Amelia left and obviously there was only one place she could go. Then again, it wasn't hard to stalk her to the beach.

Sneaking up, it looked like she was getting rid of some excess stress. Shiki had the unconscious habit of pushing his stress to the side and forgetting about it but that didn't mean he didn't sympathize with her.

Quietly, he laid down in the sand and waited for her to notice him or for her to finish up with her practice.

That could be quite some time before she stopped . . . When ignited with fervor, Amelia's constitution was quite strong indeed -- and her powers of observation were low. Whirling as though confronted by an enemy from behind, Amelia banished the Visfarank spell, twisting her hands through the air, palms exposed.

"Fireball!!"

The gout of fire was quite large, roaring from her hands -- unfortunately towards Shiki's position.

Fireball. What an unfortunate word that Shiki already had plenty of experience with. Plenty of experience with...she wasn't kidding!!!

Shiki frantically did the only thing he could think of doing. He grabbed handfuls of sand and inadequately tossed it at the oncoming fire blast.

"Ameliaaaaaaa!!!!!"

"WAH!" Move!! Why didn't he *move*??

She yanked her hands up sharply, pulling them into the motions of another spell. "Freeze Arrow!!" The second spell shot towards the first, dissipating it with a sharp hiss. Likely the fireball wouldn't have *hit* him directly, but it certainly would have come close. Bits of glass showered down from the sudden heating and cooling of the sand.

Amelia gasped for breath, wide-eyed and thoroughly freaked out, dropping to her knees. Gah. Her stomach felt as though it had twisted itself into a small torture chamber of contortions.

"Shiki-saaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!" The word was half a yell, half a whine, born of sheer frustration and relief.

"Gaah! What kind of stupid idea was that?!"

Shiki flopped back into the sand again, taking a deep breath. "What if I died or something? Sheesh."

Shiki closed his eyes, happy that he wasn't suffering from 1st degree burns. Man, she was almost an inattentive as that stupid woman.

"You weren't supposed to BE there!" she yelled back at him. "MOU."

And another thing: "And if something's coming toward you like that, you should at least TRY to get away!!"

Her frame was shaking a little, her nerves shot. Managing to clamber to her feet, she trudged her way over to him, collapsing on her knees in the sand once again with a heavy WHUFF -- though this time intentionally. Her eyes checked him over anxiously. "*Are* you all right?"

Shiki pulled himself up into a sitting position so he could face her.

"Of course I'm all right. I didn't try to get away because I was pretty sure you could handle it."

And he added an unwanted addendum to his compliment.

"I was too lazy to dodge it anyways."

Her face screwed up into a wince, and she batted a handful of sand in his direction. "You're not supposed to *let* things kill you!"

Shiki gave her one of his signature looks of disgust, letting the sand fall on him.

"Really? I wouldn't have known."

He was so not helping his case. "I *mean* that you're supposed to dodge or do *something* when you have something like that closing in on you!"

He was frustrating. She was suddenly tired. She flopped back in the sand.

Heh, she was caught off guard now. He scooped up and armful of sand and dumped it on her.

"Have a heaping pile of justice, Amelia."

Squeak!! Amelia flailed, sending sand scattering in all directions -- though of course didn't manage to get all of it, ending up with a tidy pile on her stomach. "Shiki-san!!"

Shiki ended up rolling in laughter. He could help himself. Hah, taste of her own medicine.

"Hahaha! That's just too cute!"

Amelia would most decidedly contest that this was anything like her fireball. He was at close range, for one -- and sand wasn't anything like an enormous glob of *fire* heading for you. But she settled for a "HMPH," dusting off her belly -- and trying to get as much of it on him as possible in the process.

"Hey, hey! No need to be fussy."

Man, you could never tell with her. Hopefully she took it as a joke...

"So, you looked a little busy there."

She understood it was a joke, yes, so her response was half in playing along in her proper role. Half of it, though . . . she *was* tired and anxious and freaked out, and not quite as prone to being as playful as she might normally have been.

His words stirred her back into her thoughts. "Enn . . . Just practicing."

True. Somewhat.

"Just practicing?"

Huh. The way she randomly launched that fireball without looking...

"Uh-huh."

She glanced sideways at him to try to gauge his reaction without trying to *look* like she was doing it. "Enn." The sound was affirmative.

"Not trying to get rid of some extra anger or anything?"

...because if she was...

She was quiet at that, picking at the sand in between them.

"...so that's a yes?"

"I don't *know.*" The words were frustrated, but the frustration didn't seem to be directed at him. "I've never . . . I never really had anything like that happen to me before. I mean, I've been taken captive and tied up, but that was really for Justice and because I'm who I am. This . . ."

She pressed a small hole into the sand, piercing downward into the grains. "He just *used* me. And Chrono-san got hurt."

Used probably wasn't the word Shiki would have used. Chrono being gullible is how he'd phrase it.

"Chrono was just doing what he thought was right, even though he was wrong. I don't think you were used."

"But he wouldn't have done it if he didn't think Joshua-san would hurt me." She glanced up to him. "I don't think you would have stayed, either, if you didn't think the same."

"You got me. I'm a secret worrywart."

Okay, so, she was right. He probably wouldn't have stuck with her after that if he didn't think Joshua would have done that. But he couldn't help it, right?

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