Catch-all: Taichi

[ercnerd]

Comments

[ercnerd]

[Hm . . . ]

Should I spot you?

[goalsides]

[oh.]

...sure, if you're up for it. I was just gonna chase after it myself.

[ercnerd]

Don't expect me to do the same. But I'll watch and kick the ball back if it comes my way.

[goalsides]

Good enough for me. [give him a second to kick the ball a little further away, proceeding to start a few warm-up drills. soccer is a good distraction, and despite the grief he just gave sieg trying to get him to play he seems content to do things by himself.

wild.]

[ercnerd]

[Ah, youth.

Sieghart, meanwhile, is more than happy to stand by and watch in the comfort of the sidelines. It's not like he has anywhere urgent to be. Watching someone else hard at work can be relaxing in its own way.]

[goalsides]

[fine by him! it's pretty obvious that he belongs here more than he does in a classroom given the way he's controlling the ball and running over the field.

but after a while he does notice sieg is still there and purposefully kicks the ball to him. you know. just to see how he responds.]

[ercnerd]

[Sieghart watches the ball, expression unwavering, as it hits his foot and rolls away. The rascal. He brings a foot back and taps the ball with just enough strength to return it—quite lazily, as it were.]

[goalsides]

[sieghaaaart. predictably, he chases after it like a puppy.]

It's really not that bad. [exercise is good?]

[ercnerd]

I'm spotting you, remember? Running is your job.

[goalsides]

Surprisingly? Really easy to do both at the same time.

[ercnerd]

I like to do one thing at a time!

[goalsides]

Doesn't sound like a great strategy for a swordsman.

[ercnerd]

Doesn't it? I'm not a legend for nothing.

[goalsides]

Yeah but you've never really explained how you got to be a legend. There has to be more to it than just swinging a sword around.

[right?]

[ercnerd]

It's not as complicated as you think. I achieved numerous feats in my youth, like felling a hundred goblins at the age of twenty. It got to the point that the people started hailing me as their hero.

[goalsides]

Yeah you told me about the goblins already. [i'm not going to bully you into giving more feats in case his canon only really lists that as history.]

But what do you think? Do you actually feel like a hero?

[ercnerd]

[Just connecting the dots, Taichi.]

I was just doing what I wanted to do. If that got everyone to start calling me a hero, maybe I'm naturally one?

[goalsides]

I don't know about that. [brutal.] But...why'd you want to do it in the first place? What made you decide?

[ercnerd]

What's with all the questions? Are you looking to be a hero, yourself?

[goalsides]

[he kicks the ball back :|]

No. We might already be heroes, so I was just wondering. [heroes is a lofty word for what they do, but eh. if it'll answer the question fine.]

[ercnerd]

[He traps the ball under his foot. Easy there, junior.]

Might?

[goalsides]

[no, his ball... ]

Depends on what you call a hero. We've saved the world a few times but we were the only ones who could. [so it was a choice but also kind of one of those choices made because they knew they were the ones capable of fighting.]

[ercnerd]

Having the strength to save the world doesn't mean you'll automatically use it for that purpose.

[Sounds heroic to him. He boots the ball back to Taichi.]

[goalsides]

Guess not. [he stops the ball with the side of his foot, bouncing it a little up to his knee. he doesn't entirely know what to say next though so there's another pause. more curious questions.]

So which is it? You had the strength first, or you got it when you decided to start fighting?

[ercnerd]

I could take on most people with a simple tree branch when I was a kid like you. Fighting just made me stronger.