seasonsrpg | [Open Log] Faith alone can't get me where I need to go

WHO: Jean Kirstein & you
WHAT: Jean's training arc continues, with new skills, old skills and slightly overworking
WHEN: December
WHERE: Specified in the prompts
WARNINGS: will add as needed

A. New Skill Unlocked
[Dayrise, Grand Coliseum] [Warning for Elastic/Extending Limbs]

At first, Jean had only been able to make his fingers longer. It had felt really weird, so he hadn't tried it again for the moment. But with time he got used to the feeling and kept practicing.

So now someone may walk into the coliseum and see Jean with a three times longer right arm, grabbing onto something in the distance. He was still testing how well he could use his fingers when they were so far away from him. Not very well, especially when it was hard to see what he was grabbing.

Another problem was when the arm returned to its regular size, it... kinda came back with a force and ended up slapping Jean in the face. All part of the learning curve. But also very frustrating.

"GAH!"

B. Fire Control
[Dayrise, Grand Coliseum]

Practicing fire was something Jean was more accustomed to, but he was still struggling a little bit with a certain fire skill. So instead of going around throwing fire punches or kicks in the air or forming fire weapons, he's focusing on his breathing.

A tiny ember formed with a short breath. Then a deeper breath and a longer trail of fire, going through the air where he wanted it to go, not catching anything else on fire. Everything was going like he hoped. He could do controlled fire.

Then he took a deep, deep breath and put all his strength into blowing out fire. The goal was that it would just travel through the air, harmless. Just like the other two had.

It went straight to the ground and started burning sand all over instead. It definitely didn't go where Jean intended it to go, so that was still a work in process.

"Fuck."

C. Training, training
[Dayrise, Grand Coliseum]

Does it ever feel like anytime you run into Jean, he has a different weapon? It probably does feel like it, since he has so many different weapons he was trying to master the use of. A sword that he was already pretty good at, a polearm that he was still studying but getting better all the time, and most recently a chain whip that he was really new at.

If he doesn't have a weapon in hand, he's practicing hand-to-hand combat in different kind of forms he's learned from various people or doing simple parkour around some obstacles in Dayrise.

Yeah, it's more common to see him training than not. Recently, he's even gotten more fuel to his training fire, thanks to new arrivals that he very much wanted to keep safe and sound.

D. Exhaustion catching up
[Solarpeak, Dayrise, Blossomcrown]

Of course, when you train too much, eventually you run out of energy, which means Jean is often taking a nap in a little unexpected places. He may be napping at the Solarpeak beach, or maybe he's crashed in the middle of the Grand Coliseum in Dayrise. It's also entirely possible to see him almost falling asleep at some bench in the Blossomcrown Park when he's supposed to be watching one of his and Mikasa's three dogs (a white husky named Snow, a German Shepherd named Hazel and a Pegasus Puppy Akita Inu named Maru).

Yeah, he might be overdoing it, just a little bit.

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Jean huffs a little, his ears moving a little as the dogs make sounds in the background. "I know. I hate it. They're not as bad as my tail, though."

Which is clearly saying he doesn't hate it that much, otherwise it wouldn't still be quietly wagging.

"Good thing it's just for three nights in the month..."

Marco tilts his head a little bit, considering Jean.

"Do you think you could transform not during the full moon?" he wonders out loud. "Like - could you get the ears and tail outside of then, if you wanted to? Maybe learning how would make it so you could hold it back during the full moon."

"Hmm", Jean's ears perk up as he thinks. "I mean, I can do animal transformations pretty well. So if it's possible for me to change without full moon, I'd know how to go about it."

Just a second, he's scratching his own ear.

"I haven't properly tried to control this form during moons, so that might be a good idea, too."

"Well, why don't you give it a try right now? Unless you're worried about something bad happening."

Marco could understand Jean wanting to be cautious, but if he was, then Marco would insist to know how it went another time.

"Maybe I should", Jean agrees, but then his ears perk up even more and his tail starts wagging again. "Oh, Mikasa's back."

He can both hear her walking further away and smell her scent.

Two dogs run to greet her and Snow gives a so called piggyback ride to Maru too, so that Maru doesn't need to rush in there after them with those little wings.

By the time Mikasa and the dogs arrive back to the living room, Mikasa is holding the puppy and giving tiny kisses to him here and there all over his face before she notices the boys. She stops and smiles at both of them.

"Hey."

Wow, Mikasa, so many words.

Marco waves to Mikasa from where he's sitting, a bright smile on his face. He's sure Jean is going to leap up and greet her, judging by the way his tail started going before she even entered the room.

"Hi, Mikasa! Sorry I was a little late coming by."

"Hey!" The greeting is very eager and Jean gets up.

Normally he would leap to hug Mikasa, but instead Jean stares at Maru, who's happily snuggling Mikasa. Perhaps even pouting a little bit for all the attention he was getting. Normally he wouldn't be this jealous (just a tiny bit-) but feelings like this were unfortunately amplified.

So he stands there instead, folding his hands over his chest.

"Marco and I were talking that I should try and see if I can control my form. It might make things easier if I can."

She would wave right back at Marco if Maru didn't steal and demand all the attention from her hands now when he can happily cuddle against Mikasa again.

"It's okay. The door's always open to you."

She looks and sounds soft, gentle and friendly while saying that.

. . . But then Jean doesn't do that leaping thing and she can easily guess why (she is not wrong.) Seriously??

And then her entire expression and everything goes much more serious as soon as he says that. Hey, this time she frowns even more because seriously?!

"Right now? Or while you two were still here all alone? It might also make things anything but easy. You never know what happens, no one ever does, so at least have an Ackerman, or more like at least one Ackerman, in the room to make sure it doesn't go to hell."

That's harsh and blunt, but she knows she is not wrong!

Marco gets up as well when Jean does, watching Jean look a little huffy about the puppy getting cuddled instead of him. Really, Jean? He's just a puppy.

Mikasa's admonishment does have Marco raising a finger to scratch under his nose, a nervous habit.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Mikasa. The way Jean has been acting, I didn't really think he'd be a threat. But you're right." A werewolf had been dangerous enough to scar Jean, after all, so Marco should have been thinking of it.

Jean's ears and tail go down, like a puppy who's ashamed.

"I was going to wait for you to return", Jean says, a quiet whine escaping his throat when he talks. "I know werewolf things aren't something we can take lightly, after all."

He's seen for himself when his siblings went berserk on the mountain.

Maybe it's their apologizies or the fact that Jean says he was waiting specifically for her return or the combination of both and everything else including Jean looking so ashamed, that makes her expression soften again. Maru is also helping with that by licking all over her face like Mikasa looks way too serious for her liking and the sudden different mood in the room isn't something, that the puppy likes either...

"It's okay."

It's not like anything bad happened here. Mikasa gives some kisses to the puppy before she lets Maru go and tells him to go play with Snow and Hazel into a room far away from this one. Just in case. She trusts Jean completely but she doesn't trust the werewolf at all with how reckless that side of him could be intentionally or not...

"Well, I'm here now, so how do you want to do that test?"

Clearly, Jean's mood goes up, too, since his ears perk up and his tail starts swaying again. Maru makes one stop to boop Jean before going to with the other two dogs. Snow also rubs her face into Marco's leg before going. They'd be back, soon, but just in case it took a while.

"Mm... I think I'm just going to have to concentrate on myself and my form, to see if I can nudge it towards any direction. I guess the most sensible thing would be doing it in the cellar, since the cage is still there."

The cage he hasn't really needed, but is still there just in case something goes wrong one full moon.

Marco watches the puppies follow Mikasa's instructions very obediently before he looks at the both of them and then quirks an eyebrow up.

"You have a cage in your basement?"

He knows they probably built it for this very problem, but he can't help teasing them a little.

[Open Log] Faith alone can't get me where I need to go

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