two prompts

[rose_liberated]

1. [PUBLIC]

Each and every candidate has their own methods-but Rozalin has elected to take the high road. Or perhaps you might call it the High society road-since the only people with invitations to tonight's fancy party (plus guest) are members of the nobility and demonic Overlords. +1 guest each of course, it's only fair to allow escorts. Everyone else? Well, nobility can be purchased at the door-For the low, low price of two million Hel per place.

Once ushered through the doors, one might find that she's finally shaken off that Christmas-decor from her room and moved on to something more...well, it's just genericly rich. There are Prinnies running around in uniform with serving trays of wine, liquor and sake.

And when everyone has arrived and been counted, the doors will open and all will be ushered in for 11 tiny courses of gourmet food. Meat features heavily, and it's all the grand old dishes that bespeak wealth and power.

Even later, perhaps you might be invited for a private conversation and a game of cards, or chess, or some other light entertainment, if there is the promise of real power to be gained by such a thing. Or maybe just negotiating who gets how much of the vote-even if you loose the election after all, there is power in being a mover and a shaker.

[2. Private]

Training for 'Yuki' has gone from bad to worse-her skills have leveled off and stopped improving well short of where they logically should be able to go. Tonight, lungs burning and already tired from the party, there is going to be a breakthrough-but not a good one.

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

"It's no big deal. I barely know if I can do it. I'm known less for attending parties so much as I am for crashing them. I just thought it'd be nice to sort of see what these sorta things have to offer. She can do whatever she feels like."

When it came down to it, that was basically how the two of them worked anyway.

"Oh yeah, that guy. I'm still trying to see if I can get Eva to lend me one of those globes, so I can get some classes with him. He's apparently pretty fired up wen it comes to actually being in his class, and works you to the bone. A regular hour or more a day is not enough for him."

[rose_liberated]

"Ahh. I take it that you were not raised with plenty of lessons in courtly manners and etiquette. But you certainly have a flair for dressing well." It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, but it was as close as she was willing to come at the moment.

"As for Mr. Champloo, I wonder if you really know what you are getting into with his training? The only instructor more demanding I can think of would be Salvatore, and she doesn't teach. I shudder to think of what you would be in for. He will probably try to cook you at some point to make you empathize with the food.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Uh, no, not really. I was a single child, and I was pretty much raised to fight. The dressing was something I picked up watching other people and seeing what worked. I'm sure anyone with a clear head can tell this is out of my element."

Hey, might as well be upfront.

Mindy grinned. "You know, that kinda stuff should make me not want to take him, but the more I hear how challenging it is, the more I want to give it my all. Hell, him trying to cook me should at least keep me on my toes, right?"

[rose_liberated]

Rozalin dropped her voice a bit. "Well, yes. But I am a gracious host, and I do not slight the deficiencies of one's upbringing. And in any case, you show some promise on that front, so I would not want to dismiss you from it."

At that declaration though, a slight smile crossed Rozalin's lips. "Or perhaps, if you are such a glutton for punishment, it suggests that you might be looking for more than simply culinary arts from his tutelage. I know you battle maniacs, such a thing is attractive rather than repulsive."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy didn't think there was anything deficient about her upbringing, aside from not really going to school enough, but that didn't make her not right. That knowledge was still annoying though.

"The way I figure it, if you're going to do something might as well do it extreme. I have decent cooking skills, but what he's talking about is intense and requires more than just mixing some spices. No way something like that would be repulsive to me."

[rose_liberated]

Don't feel to bad-compared to Rozalin, everyone else has had a deficient upbringing. At least in her eyes.

"Is there no place for moderation in the world? I don't suppose that you cross streets in an extreme manner as well do you? Not everything needs to be done in an over-the-top fashion. You will note that I have not included a tiny sandbox full of rubies and diamonds as I have heard sometimes happens at such affairs.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy laughed. "Don't get your panties in a twist, I didn't mean extreme in everything. I'm talking more about the type of stuff that I do. From the time I was born up to now, its basically pushing limits, taking things to the next level. So obviously I'm going to stay on that same kind of regimen for my body. I think I learn better that way."

[rose_liberated]

Rozalin's face shifted back to her carefully composed neutral features. "Ahh, is this the ethos of 'live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse?' I do not hold with that personally, but it is your choice to live the way you do. But there are some limits which are absolute, even for Overlords."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I'm starting to see that," Mindy said, thinking of a recent event that was still weighing on her mind. "Then again, if I'm going to learn those things anywhere, better that its here. That way, at least I have to worry about dying less."

[rose_liberated]

"Or you might learn careless habits and forget how to be careful when it counts. 'Drill should be a bloodless battle, and battle should be a bloodly drill'. I read that in one of the manuals of strategy I was given as a girl, and it seemed as wise then as it does now."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I sorta came upon that lesson the hard way already," Mindy said, and honestly, it was true. "I'm not really sure what that stuff about a drill means though. But yeah, I guess I got a little careless. People here were a little more...I guess, varied, than I thought."

[rose_liberated]

"Drill is anything and everything that an army does to practice battle. It can be marching or attacking dummies or practicing on a range. And if people here are not in accord with your expectations, then that is only normal. Most people are not as you would think."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Ok, so she meant an actual drill. Mindy wanted to make sure she wasn't using the phrase in another sort of context.

"The way the Overlord talked about it, I thought that this place was going to be full of demons that bent rules, that were always seeking power. So I was preparing for that, still kind of doing it. So here I am, and now there's all sorts of people with all kind of degrees of good and bad. It gets so overwhelming, so I try to simplify what I can."

She did take a bit of cavier, squinting slightly. "So why do you want to be on this student council thing?"

[rose_liberated]

"Well, Zetta would describe it like that. Most demons, him included, are a bit overly simplistic in their worldview and tend to not like it when you point out that they frequently pass up opportunities for chaos and power." Rozalin gestured to herself. "I am under no such illusions-and just because this is a netherworld doesn't mean that you don't get Heroes."

"Why do I want to be on the council? Because we all have our places, and mine is at the top of the heap. Is that reductionist enough for you? I would not be noble if I did not seek out such things. And I have experience in politics as well."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Good to know," She said, shaking her head. "If there's one thing that hasn't changed from where I was last, it was that. Back then, I was still under disguise."

Much had changed since that time, particularly going from the suit she and her dad made to a barrier jacket that had increased her power ten fold. It was possible now to just be Hit Girl in public, because the danger was not as dire now.

"Yeah, it works. Even I can understand when someone want to get higher up the pole. Never was one for politics though: tend to be pretty dirty stuff in the long run. In my world, it tended to get in the way."

[rose_liberated]

"You mean that there are heroes here? Most of them are visitors, passing through, but a few are...well, rebels you might say. Though the only people who run around in disguise that I can think of would be the Prism Rangers." The Prism Rangers...well that said alot. Even if you didn't know about them.

"Oh, dirty stuff is it? My, my, it's almost as though it is like what happens when you plot and plan and try to work against your rivals. Try playing Diplomacy with your friends sometime, you'll break the board over their head and loose friends." That was good advice-don't play Diplomacy. Whatever that was.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah, I'm beginning to notice that down is up in a place like this half a time. I got roped into serving that moon princess, and she has this assistant that has a weird idea about what constitutes good and evil...and common sense, when you get down to it."

She smiled, half to herself. "I was thinking more of how politics worked in my world, at least on the end of actual protection for people. I hear what you're saying though, and you might have a point. I almost wished that would work for me, but my plans tend to work themselves in other ways, I guess."

[rose_liberated]

"Only half the time? My my, we have been slipping. I shall have to order my servants to do something nonsensical."

"Ahhh, the noble end. Too bad it is often about putting the squeeze and pain on someone else, especially in populist politics. As for plans, they are useless. Be prepared to throw them out at a moment's notice. But plan anyways, planning itself is very useful." Now that sounded like nonsense.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"The other half of the time things are kind of boring, so I have to go and make some fun for myself. i'm lucky enough to have a girlfriend who knows just how to make the same kind of dumb risks as I do, so I'm not in a bad place there. I guess I don't really mind the craziness, I just wished it was more constant."

Noble. That was a laugh. There were plenty of words used to describe Hit Girl, but she wasn't sure that noble had ever been any of them. "Plans ahead of time are pretty useless, I know that much. But anything you can draft on a whim, do something with and make a definitive power play? I'd say its something worth looking into."

[rose_liberated]

"I find it more sensible to have someone who will prevent your foolish mistakes while you cover yours. Saddly, I am currently without such support." Rozalin turned slightly, staring off into the distance. It wasn't fun, being without her friends and...well, you know, the boyfriend.

Well, Rozalin didn't know Mindy, didn't know Hit Girl, and would have said that she had noble intentions if not methods. Ends, not means. "Well, flexible thinking is good, but it is what you do not know you do not know, the outside problem, that will do the most trouble. That is part of why I am here tonight after all. One should get a feel for the competition."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"This way I can make mistakes and own up to them all on my own," Mindy said. "I'm sorry to hear that you don't have your people here though. If it makes you feel any better, the only person left from my actual world is dead."

Twice, which was hard to think about, so Mindy chose not to.

"That was a little confusing how you said that, but I get what you mean. But that's why you always make up a plan on the fly. You have to roll with the punches in just about any kind of situation, after all. If I didn't think that, I probably wouldn't be here."

[rose_liberated]

"You have my condolences. That sounds like a very sad tale." She really didn't understand how that worked.

"Planning in the heat of the moment is no time for such things, no time to really think at all. It's a time for reaction, not deep thought. It's part of why I prefer to fight my battles at range, with heavy artillery and several thousand rounds per minute." That was with a smile-if they were trading battlefield stories, Rozalin had several that ended with 'And then I fired several hundred bullets at them and it ended there.'

[hit_girl_mindy]

"It's sad, but it was the way things happened. In my line of work, you have to be prepared, even when the worse happens. Hell, for all I know my planet is still blown up. That was the sorta reality I had to face before I was here."

Mindy nodded. "Well I was talking more about when you have the ability to actually plan things quickly in your head. What you sound like you're talking about is battle instinct. Before the ship, your kind of fighting was the only kind I ever knew, aside from short range bludgeoning when I had the chance."