Family Ties

Aeon was never the type to go out and do things. She liked to sit in her room and read, maybe marathon episodes of Criminal Minds and eat oatmeal and salty potato chips while knitting. She knew that her sisters would be out doing something fun and nice--they were all younger than her, which burgeoning social lives and a certain degree of social grace that she seemed to lack on principle. Arguably, because of her unicorn heritage, she could be considered more graceful in the physical sense, but again.

Arguably.

Her current episode ended and she looked down at her bag of cheap, off-brand potato chips to see nothing but crumbs, and her bowl of oatmeal was scraped clean. She should probably stop before she put on too much weight.

Speaking of weight...

As she stood up to bring her dishes to the kitchen, she walked past her full length mirror and realized that she really... didn't look the same.

Originally she was flat like a board, a plank of wood leaning against another plank of wood was the best way to describe her. But she could see that she had something like a shape coming through now, compared to before. Aurum had recommended she eat more protein for muscle growth, but that had the fortunate (?) consequence of getting fat in the right places.

It was weird.

Carrying her dishes out, she saw her adopted dad, a mountain of muscle and cybernetics staring at something. "Dad?" She asked, holding a bowl in one hand and a crushed bag of "I Can't Believe its not Lays" chips. "Is something up?"

The unicorn shook her hair, strands of black and brown falling onto her face. "No, I wasn't invited to go so I was just..." She looked down at her empy bowl and crushed bag of chips. "...snacking, I guess."

Aeon tilted her head when Aurum said it was time. It was the strange thing that was in the living room. She'd assumed it to be some kind of round mirror, since whenever she'd seen it he was standing in front of what appeared to be a plain reflective cylinder of some kind, though she had no idea why he's want something like that.

But it seemed to become see-through, revealing a massive suit of armor, broken and dented and in general impossible to use anymore. She didn't need Aurum to tell him it was his--she couldnt imagine who else's it could be.

"Oh, yeah, all those war stories you told us." She walked closer to her dad, staring at the armor that completely dwarfed her. Strange, she didn't remember the armor being this... destroyed in the stories.

Aeon flinched. Shit. She wanted to argue with him, and her excuses came easily. I've trained hard all week,' she wanted to say. "Oatmeal is grain and chips are salt. Important for growing unicorns!" Which wasn't true, but when you wanna defend yourself against your burly dad, you took what you could get.

Despite these growing protests, she ended up just swallowing her pride and going to her room. Kept in a case was her weapon of choice, the resplendent La Guillotine, whose slashes were so bright and sharp that it could permanently destroy encroaching darkness. It was a weapon of utmost purity, a weapon saved for holy shepherds from before the world began. She loved it dearly.

Opening the case, the white and blue weapon, folded up into its compact carrying mode to protect the blades, seemed to shimmer and glow softly. She hefted it up and put on her back. The weight was balancing and familiar. Her sneakers, reinforced with steel specifically in cases where her dad might step on her feet, were her only armor.

Into the black room she went, staring over the lovely expanse of sand and grass. She took La Guillotine of her back and held it, as its mechanisms clicked into Axe mode.

Aeon breathed. Adrenaline surged through her veins and she could feel her palms sweat. She adjusted her grip. She'd practiced with La Guillotine so much that she felt like she could wield it like it was a part of her body, an extension of her arm. But she was worried. For all their training, they'd have serious spars, but this didn't feel like a spar at all.

This felt like someone accosted her on the street and was actually going to kill her.

She took a deep breath, and ran at her father. Her whole body was low, with La Guillotine being almost parallel to the ground. If her dad was normal sized, La Guillotine's length would let her attack without having to endanger herself. But his substantial size meant that as soon as she would be able to get a good hit in with La Guillotine, he would be able to get her with his blade.

No matter how dull it was, the last thing she wanted to do was eat the first hit.

She stopped advancing, just outside of La Guillotines optimal hit range, twisting from her lower body to bring the Switch Axe to lift it and bring it down in a parabolic motion. An overhead slash with a low starting position. The momentum of her swing pulled her forward about a half a foot, putting her into La Guillotine's--and Aurum's--range,

Her idea was this: If her attack started low, using the momentum of her charge forward, Aurum would have to attack down to hit her. Her rising axe would be able to block a downward attack. If he elected not to attack, it had her full body weight and the twist of her body behind it. It would be a strong attack, if it worked.

Well, that plan didn't work out how she thought it would. But that was to be expected--her attack was big and wide, the easiest thing in the world to block. And compared to her dad, she had the muscles of a twig. His block wouldn't be broken by something like that.

But, as promised, he begun telling her about his past.

Aeon backed out of the range before moving in. The Switch Axe wasn't the fastest weapon, especially since it needed time to change from axe to sword mode. She moved for stabs and jabs, favoring footwork this time. She was testing the waters. What would work against her dad? What wouldn't?

"I am Aeon Hyperion, previously Aeon Gunner, from Isle Doriggan. Second born daughter of the chief."