Martial Matter (Calypso, Sabriel)

It had been quite a while since the centuries old Arrancar had found a little time for herself and Sabriel had leapt upon the moment by taking a delightful trip to the human world. It was far more pleasant than Hueco Mundo in terms of scenery and the dark haired woman desperately needed that. Her little band of minions had been causing a bit of a stir lately, jostling for position and trying to climb into her good grace. It was an amusing situation and Sabriel did nothing to stop them from trying to garner her favour but it became a little tiresome after a while. So, she had left her second in command named Lirael in charge to keep them in check. She trusted her fellow Arrancar enough to perform the task and the redhead knew that if she failed then she’d be spending an evening or two tied to the elder Arrancar’s bed although whether that was a true punishment or not was questionable at best. Lirael did seem to have an unnatural desire to be helpless, at least with her anyway.

So what was the dark haired beauty doing in her free time? Well, scouring the shops around her of course. Sabriel had paid little mind to the country where the Garganta had led her to, leaving that up to chance but from the looks of the locals, it appeared to be in Western Europe somewhere. At first she thought she had landed in Italy but after getting a good read of the language, it appeared that she was in fact in France. The devious Arrancar had a fair grasp of many of the human languages and French was one of them.

Her attention was naturally drawn to the stores that sold books and Sabriel spent most of the morning gathering quite a varied collection. She had no idea how long it would be before she could return and so spared no expense in satiating her various interests. The Arrancar had such a wide palette when it came to knowledge and the humans had gathered an exceptional supply of it. By the time she was done, the Arrancar had a couple of bags filled with them and was more than ready to relax for a bit.

That desire was what led her to a rather nice looking restaurant, where she would sit at one of the outer tables, with a nice view of those walking past her. For the most part though, her eyes would be focused on the book before her, a manual of Martial Arts of all things. It was not an area of combat that she was particularly versed in but Lirael had been nagging at her to increase her skills in the area recently although Sabriel believed that she only desired that just so they could have more fun in the bedroom.

Kinky redhead.

The eyes of the Arrancar turned towards the ginger haired woman as she spoke, as if she was trying to get a read on her. It was not an intimidating look or anything like that and if anything, Sabriel looked more amused rather than annoyed by the interruption. The redheaded woman made a valiant effort at speaking the local lingo, effort that Sabriel appreciated, knowing how much of a pain French was to learn. There were certainly easier ones out there and the Arrancar would not claim that it was her favourite either. So, she was rather relieved when asked whether she spoke English and Sabriel nodded her head.

“I most certainly do.” She answered with a smile of her own, speaking it without a moment's thought. “I do not know about you but I find English a lot easier to speak than French. All of the masculine and feminine stuff is enough to drive me mad after a while. I take it that you are not a native?”

Naturally curious about the young woman before her, Sabriel would offer the seat across from her politely. “Take a seat if you like. My name is Sabriel, Sabriel Ventress. What is your name?”

Softly taking the offered hand with her own and shaking it, Sabriel would reply with. “Likewise. A pleasure to meet you, Calypso. I have visited Norway once or twice in my time. I must admit that the scenery there is to die for, even if the climate is a little cold for my tastes. Always preferred a warmer climate myself." She decided against stating just where exactly she hailed from at that point, not wanting to perhaps spook Calypso off by mentioning Hueco Mundo. Not everyone took kindly to Arrancar and the dark haired woman had no interest in making a scene today. Pleasure was the aim rather than destruction or torment.

At the mention of her book, the Arrancar would raise an eyebrow. “I confess that I have not delved too deeply into it just yet but the philosophy is certainly intriguing, more so than what I was expecting. A friend of mine suggested that I take a more active interest in the world of martial arts but she did not mention that it required a rather radical changing of one’s view on life in order to fully understand them. I find that this manual can be somewhat contradictory at times which I find awfully curious.” Considering how often she spoke in half truths and contradictions, Sabriel could not help but find amusement in saying such things.

Glancing back towards Calypso, noticing the girl’s rather impressive physical presence, Sabriel would ask. “Are you interested in such arts yourself?"

Calypso spoke with such passion that Sabriel could not help but admire her for it. Every word was spoken as though it was gospel and the Arrancar would admit that it was somewhat more stimulating to hear such a philosophy spoken verbally rather than simply in her own mind. There was obviously far more to it than simply Calypso being interested in martial arts and Sabriel could not help but wonder just how much the former was underselling it. In the mind of the Arrancar, it always seemed as though the red headed human was almost completely besotted with the words that she was spouting. A true believer, so to speak.

The philosophy itself was intriguing for the Arrancar, a woman who tended not to take the violent path when there was another to follow in general. All Hollow of a certain level had an aspect of death and yet Sabriel’s was not one that would generally stir up images of destruction. Desire was hers, desire for knowledge, desire for pleasure, desire of a young and beautiful creature laying by her side. That was what motivated the centuries old woman and it had led her to making decisions that most Arrancar probably would not. She had ignored war completely, instead living entirely by her own whims and while no coward, Sabriel simply had little interest in combat for combat's sake. The Arrancar would fight to protect herself or her little band and perhaps if her latest plaything decided to put up a fight against her but otherwise? Not so much.

“I think that maybe interest is an understatement.” Sabriel commented, speaking her thoughts aloud. “You live by this creed, do you not? It is the heart and soul of your being or at least that is what I gather from how invested you appear to be. Am I wrong?” She was neither judgemental or patronising in her tone of voice, simply curious.

“Maybe not now but there is no reason to think that you will never be able to reach that level. I have found in my travels that as long as one has the will and ambition to succeed then they can achieve whatever their hearts desire. Mental as well as physical strength.” Sabriel glanced at Calypso’s well toned form and added after a moment, a smile once more creeping across her features. “I will tell you this much. I would certainly not want to take a punch to the face from you as you are, let alone once you have become stronger.” The Arrancar was well aware of her own weaknesses and had eventually learned to think of them in a rather self deprecating way. She could not count just how often such an attitude had gotten her out of a sticky situation.

“I have to admit that I find Ulv’s way of handling a situation to be rather admirable and I find myself feeling rather similar when protecting my own…well, I suppose I would call them family.” Harem might have been a better word to describe the relationship between Sabriel and her band but that was not something that she wished to mention to her new friend. “Where I hail from, it is rather dog eat dog so I found myself aligning myself with others in order to survive.”