Black Widow (Ethan and me YAY)

"Inherited? Like someone was the black widow before you? Didnt think Widow was a thing for that long." He says, thinking to himself. He noticed a small flush in her face but he decided not to comment on it. "I guess i started ripping Cargo blimps as a copycat of sorts. Ive never killed anybody though. That i know of anyway... Crashed a blimp once, but it was just cargo i think." He comments, scratching the back of his head a little. The Black Widow was offering to work with him? Thats pretty unreal

"There was, yeah. She's gone now," Elise looked incredibly sad, staring at her hands in her lap. She listened to his comment and she looked at him, holding a hand out to him. "I'm not asking you to kill anybody. Where I'm going, I'm gonna need an extra hand to have around in case things get dicey. We'll train until then but I could really use the help and you'll be well compensated. Please?" She looked at him pleadingly, her hand reaching forward and grabbing his in her small hands.

What do you think i can bring to the table?" Will asks seriously, looking at her with a raised brow. "Im a petty thief, really. Nothing compared to the work you-or the previous widow- have done." HE looks down at her hand on his, turning his own and squeezing hers lightly. "I mean, i dont know. I can try, but im not sure im qualified"

"I'll help you," Elise promised, squeezing his hand back and staring intently into his eyes. She didn't want to have to use a spell on him but she was gearing up to use a "convincing spell" if need be. "We'll train before we go and I'll tell you the whole story eventually, I promise." She smiled at him gently. "You'll be even better than me eventually."

His eyes look away briefly, it was a little difficult to maintain eye contact for some reason, but he eventually brought them back. "I really doubt i will better than you, if the stories are true. But..." He starts, biting his tongue in thought. "Sure. yes." He says looking at her intently now, "ill do it"

Overjoyed, Elise squealed a bit and hugged Will tightly before her eyes widened, realizing that she may be overstepping her bounds. She quickly retreated and stuck her hand out to shake his enthusiastically. "To new partners?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear somewhat shyly. She was excited. She traveled alone so often and she finally found someone she actually connected with to journey with her.

Hopefully she could trust him.

The out-of-nowhere hug didnt really bother him, just got a small chuckle after she retreated. He glances at her hand and smiles back, reaching out and shaking her hand once in a tight, deal making fashion. "New partners." He was wary about what this meant for his future, its possible this could be great, or terrible depending on what happens.

((I'm going to time skip about a week or so.))

Elise threw the small curved knife hard and quick. It embedded itself in the tree trunk behind her and she smiled at Will. "You have to be able to protect you back. I do a lot of stealth missions and that involves a lot of taking out bad guys and not making any noise." She looked around the clearing and nodded decisively. Training was going well thus far and he was making real progress, even if he didn't quite see it yet.

"I want you to sneak up and attack me. I'll be blindfolded," she said, taking off her outershirt and tying it over her eyes. Her undershirt was very...revealing of her chest area. She stood in the middle of the clearing. "But if I hear you, you're toast."

Training was going decently enough that day, so far they had gone over various things like throwing knives and other forms of combat. Guess stealth was up next. This was one of the things he was half decent at already. He went to say something after she explained the exercise, pausing a little when she used her outershirt as a blindfold. Averting his eyes, he coughed and shook his head a bit to refocus. "alright, so sneak up and attack, got it. Just hand to hand for now i assume?" He was accustomed to having his wrist grapple launcher during jobs, but he could manage without it. "Ill wander off a bit so you wont know where im coming from" Will says before backing up into the woods

Elsie smiled, hearing his move around. She was able to see exactly where she was in her mind's eye, after already having scouted the whole area when they camped there the night before. "Yes, hand-to-hand for now. We'll move up to weapons later. This is a really good exercise for both of us. Usually I'm doing the stealthing. It's a fun, healthy change of pace to be the unsuspecting villain."

Will eventually settled a good few hundred yards out in the forest, waiting five minutes or so before going into stealth mode and heading back to where Elsie was waiting. He crept along the forest floor, keeping low and slow, making sure to not step on any leaves or twigs if he could help it. Eventually Elsie became visible again, when he could see her he stopped, thinking of his plan of attack. After a moment or two he decided he was going to try and trick her into thinking he was coming from somewhere else.

He found a decent sized rock on the ground that would suffice. He unlodges it from the dirt and krept forward some more until he was in the field again. His breath was slow and quiet as he aimed and threw the rock at a tree about 30 yards to Elsie's east.

"Why are you throwing rocks?" Lexi asked, her frow burrowed in confusion and concentration. She was using her magical abilities (that she refused to explain to Will about just yet) to be able to see the forest around her, even with her eyes blindfolded. It was really, really hard and while she never saw him pick up or throw the stone, she felt it hit the tree 30 yards east of her and tsked. It sounded nothing like animal or anything. "You can do better. If you want to really make me think that wasn't you, you'd throw it at a bush so it's more of a rustling and animal-like."

He made a small face, mentally scolding himself. Almost sarcastically he threw another rock into some bushes at a different area, north this time, more showing he got the advice rather than trying to trick her this time. At this point he started moving again, silently coming up from behind her. He eventually came within striking distance and went for a sleeper hold, wrapping his left arm at the front of her throat and bringing his right arm into his left hand to sinch it in

She smiled, hearing the rock through the bush that briefly made her believe there was actually an animal there. Well, done. She thought. Then the attack came. She felt him take one too loud of step and felt his arm wrap around her throat and she disappeared.

Some of your opponents WILL know magic. She said but he could hear it in the air around him. So you always have to be quiet and on your toes. She reappeared behind him and tackled him to the ground, pinning his arms next to him. "Very good, regardless."

At first it felt more like he tripped rather than got tackled, everything moved pretty fast for a brief moment. There was a small thud when she tackled and pinned him down, "ow." he muttered looking up at her. He actually wasnt able to move his arms much at all, stronger than she looked. "How the hell did you do that?" He asks

She smiled at him, strands of her hair gently brushing his cheeks. "I'm a witch. There are a lot of witches and most of them aren't our friends. If you're going to be traveling with me, you'll have to be able to defend yourself against magic users. Like myself." She gently released him and stood, brushing her hair from her face. "I can teach you SOME magic but unless you have potential, I won't be able to teach you much."

He sits up, looking at her with a small amount of wonder. He had never met a witch before, any magic he had seen mainly came from healers. "Id love to learn!" Will says enthusiastically, grinning wildly. This was exciting, magic would be so useful to know, if he could learn it anyway. "Can you teach me anything today?" Will asks. Looking around he did notice it was getting late, "eh. maybe not"

"Actually, I might be able to," Elise smiled, cupping his hands together. "I want you to focus on the energy in your hand. Make a teeny tiny flame, like this." She cupped her own hands and felt the electrical energy vibrating there, begging to be changed into something else. A small flame started dancing above her cupped palms, swaying in the wind and giving off a warm light. "Come on, you try."

He gave a skeptical look, "it cant be that easy is it?" he asked, mainly to himself. It couldnt be, every kid has imagined trying to make fire from nothing, maybe they lacked the will power. Whatever, he was psyching himself out now. He cupped his hands like she showed, concentrating hard on the energy and trying to change, well, anything. After a few moments he felt energy pulsating between his hands but wasnt able to get much else to happen. He gave and aggrivated sound, standing up and shaking his arms out before trying again, this time managing to get a small spark to appear, but little else.

"That's actually really, really good for your first time," Elise promised, gently placing her hands underneath his. "You have the potential but you haven't unlocked it yet. I'm gonna give you extra push." She concentrated on the very molecules in the air hovering around his hands, focusing her energy until she felt his energy give way. The energy flowed through his body and to his hands and back to hers and back again and she smiled. "You have a lot of it. Now. Try again."

He felt whatever manipulation she was doing, it felt weird like tiredness and awakeness flowing back and forth at the same time. Strange but not unpleasant in any way. He nods when she tells him to try again, backing up a step and shaking out his arms again, the felt tingly. Like they were asleep. He takes position again, focusing on the energy between his palms. He felt the vibration again and continued trying to push it, biting his cheek in concentration until, poof. A small flame appeared between his palms. He wasnt able to keep it long, it dissapated in a few seconds. but it was there

"Yes!" Elise clapped her hands and danced around him. "That's wonderful! I'll have you throwing fireballs in no time!" She grinned. "We should probably set up camp for the night. You get a fire going and I'm gonna hunt down a rabbit real fast."

((Do we want to time skip? I was thinking maybe a week or two into his training where he's mediocre but not amazeballs yet? I have an idea for when they reach the next village.))

Sure i am down))

Will and Elise were currently traveling to the next town on their way to the kingdom, and subsequently the blimp yards thereafter. Will was getting better at magic, he wasnt great yet, but better. Maybe he could pick up a book from a market in the next town.
His stealth and fighting had improved quite a bit though, able to get the jump on Elise a number of time in the past week in a 'always be on your guard to attack or be attacked' sort of training 'game' they were doing.

Elise pulled her horse into a nearby inn and paid for his sake keeping. And she stopped, seeing a sketch of someone on the nearby wall. Her eyes widened and she quickly tore it down and shoved it into her bag, hopefully before Will saw.

"Come on," she said, smoothly transitioning into the sweet and confident self she usually is. "It's still daylight but let's get a room so we can go shopping and explore this new town."

Will was preoccupied with looking around the new town to notice Elise taking anything down, it was larger than most of the places they stopped at so far. He looks over at her with a small grin and a nod, "sounds like a plan. I want to see if there are any magic books I can pick up while we are here. Im sure I will have to find second hand shops for it though." He says with a shrug. "Also want to pick up some new clothes. Starting to get colder out"