ximilialog | [OPEN] Ximilia Station

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[OPEN] Ximilia Station | April Catch-All

CHARACTERS: Ziggy and you!
LOCATION: misc. locations on the station.
DATE: April's resting time aboard the Ximilia!
CONTENT: Ziggy unwinds and does a little target practice. And watches Disney Channel movies.
WARNINGS: gun use is probably the most of it.

I. Welcome Back | Teleportation Area / Infirmary

[Ziggy returns to the Ximilia a bit shaken, much like she had after Badrock — not quite so traumatically, not with any lives taken by her hands, but it had been close. She's relieved in knowing she hadn't shot anyone dead, but there was the memory of falling into that chasm and seeing the fabled Long Cloak: she'd thought she was done for, and she had squeezed her eyes shut and had waited for that to be it.

... But she's still here.

Still alive.

She lingers around the teleportation and infirmary room, just to make sure everyone else is okay. Really, she just scraped up her hands and knees, so a few bandaids and an ice pack for her sizable black eye was enough for her. She stops long enough to help apply some antiseptic to someone's gashed arm, making a little face at them.]

Oh, don't be a baby. It just stings for a second.

II. Target Practice | Armory / Shooting Range

[The days that follow are her remembering that she really should continue working on her aim; she's not half bad, not after spending a huge chunk of time in Taeum practicing in the room with all the glass breakables, but there's always room for improvement. She gets herslef a decent holster for her hip and a typical handgun and spends a few hours a day shooting at those little moving targets in the distance.

Aim lower, account for the ricochet.

She recollects Peter's lessons, because despite how it may seem, she's better at following instruction than it seems.

... It just usually depends on who is instructing and what they're asking of her.

And how stupid they sound.

At one point, she picks up a — shotgun? It's kind of huge. She's never shot a gun this big before, and she's clearly trying to decide whether it's worth knowing how.]

III. A Day in the Life | Common Living Area / Item Drop Areas

[But it's not all grim, miserable training. She does stay in her room a terribly unhealthy amount of time still, but people may see her sneak out and actually be among her peers from time to time. The communal area with the couches is her favorite place to linger around — she likes to see what new books are left in the item drops, and this time she considers a book called First Blood, with a man running on the background of a red, fiery sky. She scopes some shirts and decorative things that look a bit like home. Which is a step from her leaving her room terribly barren, right?

She also practices the art of... becoming a fan of something.

It had started one night where she'd borrowed one of those fancy modern flat pad screens, or whatever they're called. There were a few selections to pick from on it, and she happened upon one called High School Musical. One of the few movies on there that had a teenaged cast, she's pretty sure (well, the characters definitely are teenagers, unless some idiot named it High School Musical for literally no reason). And the rest is history: she settles in, wrapped in a blanket like some old beggar woman, and watches High School Musical.

Anyone wandering by will notice she's too enraptured with it to pay them any mind.

Here's a visual of what one may witness:]

[Oh dear.]

IV. Wildcard / Make Your Own Prompt!

[Hit me up on

simpledog if you'd like, I'm open to pretty much anything! Starters, adjusted prompt stuff, whatever floats your boat. ;)]

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[She huffs a laugh.]

God, don't call me Miss Ziggy. I feel old. Or like I'm a Muppet. [No, she's not gonna explain what a muppet is. Instead, she cocks her head to the side and huffs:] Just Ziggy's fine, I promise. I'm not gonna, like... greatly dishonored or anything.

We have guns, though, yeah. A lot of people in my town are gun-crazy; I know my dad had one or two hidden away somewhere before he left. But I've never really bothered with them until now.

... Which — seeing as how the missions are almost always dangerous, it's high time to learn how all of them work...

[He makes a note to ask Gwen what a muppet is and laughs, inclining his head in acquiescence as he makes a considering sound. Reaching into his robes, he pulls out that same pouch she might remember from their target practice in Taeum.

And from that pouch, he pulls the same bow she'd been using then too.]

I know this isn't as compact, but I grabbed it for you. If you really want to learn, I was serious about teaching. [He grins.]

I'd like to learn. Knowing how any of this works could help in the future, right?

[But, uh.

As she approaches to take the bow, she can't help but stare owlishly the pouch.]

How are you doing that?

[Beaming at her answer, it takes him a second to realize what she means. His eyes drop to the pouch and then understanding washes over him. He'd had a similar conversation with Peter not too long ago. Such items are common in his world but really only among cultivators, so it's understandable that others might not be so familiar.]

Here. [He passes the bow to her and then holds up the bag for her to see.]

This is called a qiankun pouch. [Since it's otherwise empty at the moment, he flips it inside out for her to see. It has the appearance of a regular pouch except for the Chinese characters sewn into the lining.]

It's a regular cloth bag, but these characters—[He points them out] extend the bag's holding capacity. [He turns the bag right side again and then pulls something else out of his robes instead. This time it's a flimsy rectangle of paper with more Chinese characters and symbols painted onto it.]

Where I'm from, the correct combination of characters like these creates a sort of...spell, if you will. The ones on the bag make it bigger. This one—[He grins] make it do this! [And he tosses it into the air. The talisman explodes into a harmless and rather pretty display of butterfly shaped lights that dance in the air like sparklers.]

A — qiankun pouch...

[She looks inside of it, eyes a bit wide.]

Like the Doctor's TARDIS. I saw it on the inside once; it's usually, like, just some phone booth.

[Sorry, that's probably all just gibberish. But she takes time away from staring at the bag to watch with some rare delight at the sight of the bright butterflies fluttering on the air.]

How do you learn it?

[The pronunciation isn't exact, but he smiles approvingly because it's pretty close and obvious she's trying to get it right.

Maybe he'll ask her what a TARDIS is later. And also a phone booth. For now he only grins, excitement gleaming in his eyes. Talking about the talismanic arts is one of his favorite things to do and the people here on the Ximilia care about it a lot more than anyone back home ever seemed to.]

Well...[He pauses and pulls out another talisman. He could just explain it to her, but he's always been a hands on instructor.]

Here. I want you to take this and throw it out and away from you. It's a fire talisman. [He'd considered not telling her and letting her find out when she threw it, but in the end his better reason kicks in and he decides it's probably safer for her to know. If Ziggy does throw it, it'll create a short wave of flames that quickly burns out with nothing there to feed it.]

[Ziggy looks apprehensively to the talisman, like it may just jump to life and bite her. With fire. With a terrible amount of caution, she finally elects to throw it as instructed — and!]

Oh! Whoa, okay! Yeah, that seems — on the nose. Seems like what a fire talisman does.

[A grin tugs at her lips.]

You just make them yourself? How did your world know they'd work for the first time?

[He grins at her obvious enthusiasm.]

I make them and design them. [There might be a hint of pride in his voice at those words.] And I can't say for sure, but I'd guess the first person who made one successfully probably did so after much trial and error.

In my world, there are people called cultivators who...[He pauses to consider how to explain, not wanting to make this long-winded.] Well, everyone in my world has qi within them. People I've met here have it too. It's a type of energy within all living things.

A cultivator is someone who takes that qi and spends time honing it through meditation and specific physical trainings. When they do that, the qi becomes spiritual energy and that person is known as a cultivator.

[He pulls out another talisman, another butterfly lights one, and sets it off so that the butterflies dance around them as he speaks.]

A cultivator can inject their own spiritual energy into a talisman just like I did with that fire one. [Well. Technically he used resentful energy but there's no reason to get into any of that.] And the best thing about that is that when a cultivator does that, anyone can use the talisman like you just did.

Oh...

[She looks quizzically in the direction of his bag, already apparently thinking up the possibilities.]

So... like... Would I be able to learn how to be a cultivator?

Or does it have to be an actually special kind of person?

[You can break it to her however you want, pal; she's not all that magnificent, not compared to a lot of the people who run around on this station.]

[That's the question for the ages, isn't it? He'd theorized with Malleus about it a little, but hadn't spent too much time entertaining the thought at the time. With Ziggy though...]

Theoretically speaking, there are really only two things that limit a person's ability to cultivate. [He holds up two fingers.]

Time [He puts one finger down,] and age. [The second finger follows.]

I don't know if it'll work, Ziggy, but I think you might be the only person on the Ximilia who has any chance of cultivation at all. [He grins.] Cultivators have to start young and they have to be dedicated. You're a little older than where students usually start, but I'd be willing to give it a try.

I do have to warn you though, it's hard work and slow going. Would you like to give it a go?

[Her expression brightens at the thought.

Her, being able to use that kind of power? Even just something little? That would be... really awesome, actually. She puts her hands on her hips, giving a cheeky, sure grin.]

It's not like I have anything else on my schedule.

Why not learn something that might be useful to my crew down the road?

[His own excitement matches hers and he gives her a bright grin in turn, eyes lighting up.]

Alright. Hold your arms out in front of you like this. Make a fist with your right hand and lay your left hand over it, and then bow to your waist. [He demonstrates the gesture for her and then performs the same bow in mirror once she has done it.]

Now I have accepted you as my disciple.

We should meet every other day to begin with for at least an hour. Unless you want to do more than that. In the beginning, training will be mostly meditation but you'll have to learn the proper way to meditate.

[Ziggy's probably not the most culturally sensitive being in the Ximilia, being a sixteen-year-old from the 1970's, but by golly she sure the hell knows when to show some respectful bowing as a 'disciple'. She's seen enough old dubbed movies.

So she copies the pose, careful to make sure her bow is just how he wants.]

... Oh man, meditation. You're lucky I watched you actually use that power, or else I'd think you were just playing a prank on me. [But after a moment, she nods.] I can do an hour... I could do more than an hour, if it means learning faster.

[He grins, delighted by her eagerness.]

Well, if you really want to do this, meeting every day would be even better. Once we spend a few weeks working through proper meditation, you can do it anytime you want on your own.

Cultivation can't be rushed, but the more often you meditate, the quicker you'll be able to form spiritual energy. [He holds up a finger and winks.] That's the first challenge and it'll take a while. Once you have spiritual energy, then you'll learn how to use it.

Alright! Cultivating spiritual energy... How hard could that part be?

[She sounds like she thinks it might be hard. Do not let her words fool you.

But this is a start; let's get to cultivating, buddy.

... Er. Teacher.]

[That pulls a laugh from him and he instinctively reaches out to ruffle her hair, pulling his hand back a second later and offering her a teasing grin.]

Oh, this is definitely gonna be fun.

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[OPEN] Ximilia Station | April Catch-All

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