Snippet #1473722

Kali was of course a lot smaller than the Captain, her small form and weight about a third of his and though she was prepared for him to block her, the force of impact was painful. Her white teeth flashed, being pushed back slightly from the older man, she forced herself to take the full force of the impact rather than letting it run through her. With anyone else as a practice partner, she would have been fine to skitter back a few steps, allowing herself damage and more space to move; but with him she could not. Her grin of anticipation however was unmistakable, she was loving the chance to stretch a little, since her leave she had not been able to find many people to partner her, they didn’t like to attack wounded girls. The Captain was not often free, so she did not often practice, but now she was back from leave, the others would have no choice. Her muscles absorbed most of the reverberating blow, her short sword singing a merry tune at the parry. Her knees rocked back for a second, feet moving ever further apart to keep her balance.

Her eyes went wide as he lunged at her stomach, dark orbs sparkling in the sun; sweat beading on her perfect tan. She could not risk knocking the blade to one side, her master was quick and everyone knew that. Her reflexes were equally quick though and her spine bowed, arching back with a supple grace that none here owned. Muscles contracted as she did so, unhappy at moving so quickly into a hard position. Her arms came around her sides, her sword jabbing unhappily into a gap between cobbles, causing a rough unmusical clatter. This meant her whole back was parallel to the floor, her legs bent to balance out the position. Along her lower abdomen started the touch of the blade, hissing along her chainmail harmlessly, she had moved just quick enough to be unharmed. As it reached high, over her shapeless chest and collar bone, she tossed her hear back the blade terrifyingly close to her face. A few strands of her hair floated off into the air, not fast enough to miss the swords sharp cut.

Her eyelids fluttered closed, sending a short prayer of thanks that she had been so quick, bent as tight as a bow. She however smiled for anyone who much have been looking at her face, not that they were, entranced by her flexibility. Kali raised her foot, giving the man above her a good kick and let him fly over her with all the force he had already used to jab at her. As he soared above her, her face was scraped by his chainmail, draping down from his chest, but this was to fast for even her to move. In mere seconds all this had happened and she was more than glad for both her own and her Captain’s speed, otherwise one of them would most defiantly have been killed, both of them played for keeps. A laugh burst from her lips as she pushed herself up, using her sword as lever and came to her feet, though not standing. She crouched low, her back to the other man, her muscles already a little sore. She tossed to one side her sword, a sign that she really wanted a stretch, taking from her boot her ceramic knife.

She turned around in a pirouette, moving to stand, though somewhat bent at the knee, her upper body tilted over her legs. Her hair whipped around her in a fan of ebony black, a short hunk hanging before her eyes. She did not pause to push it out of her eyes, knowing that her master was better than to let her do so. Blood dripped down her almost beautiful face, it was almost beautiful, she had all the features that separately were very much so, but together, they were eerie and unnatural. It was only a small graze, but deep enough to bleed quite a lot, dripping down off her chin. Her eyes stayed on the man before her, weary of his next attack. She herself paused, waiting for him, she wanted him to attack her with full force, she had no wish to win, only to learn to be better every day. Blood dripped down onto her dark chainmail and then soaked into her blue camisole, her mother would hate to see it like that. She grinned, she could move back here she was sure, that meant she was free to do as she wished again.

(I hope you don’t see this as god-modding I’l change it if you do)
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“Do I have a name?” She asked him or was she asking herself, she wasn’t sure really. “I am a MacBookPro number 12876926642805312” She spoke with clarity in her voice, this was something she knew, though she was unsure if this counted as a name. She tilted her head as she watched him walk away with her coin, she had no idea of money, so this did not faze her, nor had she ever owned anything, this too was new. She did however watch how he walked with hungry eyes, trying to do her best to learn how to move, she looked badly put together currently, sure fine craftsmanship, but like her runes had not been completed. She thought on the idea for a name, something that would tell who she was without a long string of numbers. She had truly never thought of a name before, what had her owner called her, her registered name was Macintosh, Megan not feeling to creative that day. She supposed she could take the name of one of the characters in the novel her owner had been writing. Who had she liked best? Percy (for Marlaina could see no difference in truth between male and female, only the clothes they wore, and sometimes not even that) who had been the male lead in “Across the sea” he had been a fine chap, but she had not like him for playing around with whores. Tarnia had been a daughter of one of the sailors and she loved the short accounts around her of letters sent home and how she missed her daddy, but she too was not right, she was to small, her name just to small. Marlaina was a character from her owner’s new book and she was unfinished, the Golem nodded, yes unfinished was good, then she could fill in the other bits.

Her eyes opened hearing the man coming back towards her, once more watching how he moved, how his feet touched the ground, her eyes mapping the ways his bones would move under flesh, a lot more helpful than the bendy squishy flesh. She did not understand humans need for a soft outer casing, it seemed silly to her, they could be so easily harmed, beetles had gotten it right the first time. Still she smiled her latex lips, quite like human flesh putting effort into it, moving the side of her cheeks so she didn’t look to automated, though anyone looking would know she was. She was just a Golem, she may have been the best ever made, but she still had all the things they had. Had one of the craftsmen looked at her, they would have been amazed at how she was built. She was built in materials that though suited the time in look, were not something that could have been created until the time she had come from. Latex was something that was unheard of, the high-pressured ceramic body work, now hidden by her dress, harder than any metal ever created here.

“You caaaaan call me Marlaina.” She told the man as he stopped by her. “Thaat is whaat you should caal me.” She gulped, she really needed to get used to this talking business.

“I mean, you can call me Marlaina, I am sorry I do not speak to well.” She bobbed her head, an unconscious motion “I am not used to being able to talk, to have my own words. I am learning.” She stood slowly, motioning that they should walk, she wanted to get used to walking, moving as well as talking and she was under the understanding humans could do both at the same time. So interesting, the humans were such clever creatures, they had after all created her, but she knew so little about them thinking on it. Any writing she had read, it had been told from a humans point of view and told to humans, she only understood part of it. She looked at trees, her eyes scanning them for electric signals, sure they had them, but it was so weak that she quickly dismissed them. She could hoot up to them later and see what they did in this world. Her eyes seemed to gravitate towards plants, she had never seen them before and her owners descriptions did not do the justice. Of course she had no idea that these in the market place were scraggily and dying, they were utterly beautiful to her.

“Us?” She asked tilting her head to one side “Other humanoids of our time do you mean?” Marlaina asked, taking one step after another, all the time calculating the next step, how to make things smoother, was she getting noticed, doing something odd? On top of this she did statistics, had others come through, if their were two, both knew and had met up. She knew the world was vast, so they must have been placed locally for the two of them to meet, so if their were others, which their was a chance of, they would be in this city. Numbers rant through her head at a speed no one who is human could understand weighing probability and then trying to see how many and the spread of them. She nodded as she walked, not taking much heed of her surroundings, thankfully no one wanted to bump into her hard form. She did not clank anymore, nor were her footsteps heavy. She went back to analyzing the world around her, hair reaching out to touch the things around her, be they people, walls or plants. She seemed particularly drawn to plants and when they were done talking, she would look at them further.

“There is a 23% chance other people have come through and a 64% chance that they are in the same city as us, after the chance of us two meeting, I would say they are pread around a central point in the city.” She paused “But I will not know where the center is till we have found the others if they are here.” Her words were clipped, every inch of a human computer.

“Will you tell me where you came from and how you got here?” She asked, full of questions and wanting the information to store away.