Dec 17 16.27.36 107 PA - A Final Day's Training
From Chronicles
Dec 17 16:27:36 107 PA.
HARRY'S GYM: SPARRING ROOM
It's only mid-afternoon, so the gym is quiet compared to what various beings would see at the zenith hour. Some people have good, honest jobs to be at, after all. Gabriel is already in the ring, with his combat bag and piled up outer-jacket over near the wall behind something that looks like a transparent "Iron Maiden" from the Spanish Inquisition, but worse. He's already armed with one of the training swords, and clearly practicing the advances, swings, and mock-parries that he learned before. Looks like he's been practicing, though going up against King Arthur at this point, or even Sir Gawain, or even d'Artagnan of the Three Musketeers, who ironically really only used swords, would be a very good idea. His back is to the entry door.
Gabriel didn't miss anything with his back to the door. No the first indication that Valeriya is present at all is her voice. "Keep your grip tight as a vise. As soon as it loosens that sword will leave you shortly followed by your life." She advises, coalescing beside Gabriel with a smirk. Calmly she moves to the practice dummy and puts her thump and index finger in place on the shoulder. "Strike the gap between my fingers."
Without even bothering to exchange so much as a "hello," the student does exactly what he's told to do, just like basic training, advanced infantry training, and the further, rather unusual training that he'd gone through fifteen years back. The sword strikes out, its point aiming for the designated spot.
"Very good." Valeriya compliments as the strike hits the designated spot perfectly. "Again." She says, quickly repositioning her hand to the would be opposite arm. "Some professional sword fighters buy a number of posts with blinking lights for this exercise, the faster and more accurate you can hit a target the better after all. Really hard core sword fighters have ones with speakers two and do the exercise blindfolded."
The training weapon is pulled back and thrust like a rapier again (albeit more of a longsword). It probably throws off his targeting, but he manages to grunt as the weapon moves, "Yeah, we did that with firearms," then plunk, impact. Somewhere.
Valeriya nods, moving her hand again after another successful hit as made. Not as strong and sure as the first but good enough. She moves and puts both her hands in position on each of the would be legs. "Well then you know it works." She comments with a pleased smile.
With a little bit of Kentucky pride, Gabriel allows himself a very tight, very military smile. As talking obviously caused his muscle memory's attention to wane with the last strike, he only responds to his trainer's statement with a monosyllabic, "Yes." The older man obviously takes more time to line up his shot this time, as there are two to hit, obviously meant to be struck in sequence. For whatever random reason happened in his mind, he chooses the target closer to Valeriya, then moves on to the further indicated spot. Thrust, withdraw, thrust.
Valeriya says, "Hmm you seem rather detached today." Valeriya notes as the first strike connects with her knuckle. She doesn’t wince, but is silent a moment. "Everything alright?" She asks, moving away from the dummy to collect on of the practice swords."
A small chuckle comes from the short man. "Sorry about that. I guess you overestimated my ability to learn." Gabriel grins widely at that and finally, as the sword is rested against his leg, "Thanks for coming, Miss Valeriya. Like I said, I do appreciate your time. Been looking into weapons, found some catalogs laying around here and there. Tell me if this sounds reasonable to you, if you'd be so good." He grabs a second sword from the floor of the ring. "I'm pretty ambidextrous. Good with both hands, pairing things up, you know?" They're hefted and circled, not perfectly, but fairly well. "Catalog says that Wilk's thing can't be used to block anything, because it cuts everything it touches. I don't understand the technology, but I do understand, 'can't be used to parry or block anything.' So I was thinking, maybe one of those, and one of these normal things - " he wiggles the training weapon "- not literally this, of course, but your 'standard' weapon. One to hit harder, one to parry. That sound reasonable, or bad?" Gabriel is obviously asking a serious question of a professional, and hoping for good information that he'll definitely consider, if nothing else.
Valeriya shrugs as she takes up the training sword. "Depends on how into the melee fighting you want to get. Personally I don’t like being two reliant on any one method. Is why I just spent a hundred thousand credits on two powerful pistols. Going into combat I keep my sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. Allowing either but not both." She explains as she takes position before Gabriel. "That’s just my personal preference. Others claim its easy enough to switch weapons on the go, I like being ready on the go."
The man nods, clearly considering the wisdom of both sides of the argument. His face ticks enough that he may have made a decision, or at least a partial conclusion, but if he has, it goes unsaid. Instead, Gabriel raises one of the swords in a Medieval-style salute. "You're a descent woman. I hate to kill you." His wink indicates that he clearly knows that he is still the student. With that, his feet are planted as practiced, but this time, with two weapons raised. He considers them for a moment, then tosses one to the side. "I should probably stay simple for now." Grin. "What have you been up to? I mean, it must be boring without having me around to pound on, Miss Valeriya."
"Looking into the resources of the city, and looking for work. Got a job for Sage coming up. We're going to go for a little jaunt." She replies, not bothering to return the salute as she replies. Of course she may catch Gabriel off guard as she immediately advances to attack him. But life as a student is hard.
Gabriel's sword comes up properly, but not quickly enough to shove away the oncoming blow, which solidly thumps his upper arm. As he shakes out the minor knot, he asks in a thick drawl, "What's it for? I could use a jaunt." Then, in an attack pattern that he's yet to use, his hands are raised high above his head, in a motion that would, in theory, bring the blade down, cutting diagonally from Valeriya's left shoulder to right hip. In theory. If nothing else, there's some weight behind the blow.
Valeriya smirks as she can't compensate fast enough to deflect Gabriel. "Your practicing has done you well." She compliments before shifting to swing at him again. "You'll have to ask Sage. Privacy and all."
"Can I tell her that you let half of the cat out of the bag, or do I need to be coy?" Gabriel asks of his instructor as he bounces Valeriya's blow to the side. Not a great move, but good enough to keep from being hit. Whether for demonstration or for honestly gaining better footing, the man skitters slightly to the side. Something rises on his face as if he's to say something, but his concentration apparently remains with his training sword, with a full-body-extension thrust toward his teacher's midsection.
Valeriya parries Gabriel's thrust with her normal ample breathing room. "You can tell her what I told you. I'm fairly certain I have a good impression of the friendship between you." She notes before making another swing with the normal sized practiced blade, turning about to catch Gabriel in the back of the neck.
The man is solidly whacked on the back of the neck, which is one of the places on the human body that is really sensitive to pain, and his rather colorful verbalization supports that fact. Again, he takes a moment to shake out his limbs, rotate his neck around its conical axis a few times. "Miss Sage is a good woman," he allows, right before he does his best to make a sudden slash at Valeriya's lower legs (which is easier for him to reach), and hopefully catching her off-guard at the same time. +roll 1d20+2
"That looked like it hurt!" A voice calls from outside the sparring mat. Sebastien wears a grey tee over a pair of navy trunks, loose about the knee and lacking in pockets. A faint sheen of sweat coats his close-cropped hair, and the scarred man peers curiously at the match. He lifts a leg, balancing on one to catch his elevated foot and pin it back against the underside of his thigh, stretching as he watches them.
"Sounds like it too. You're late." Valeriya remarks to Sebastien as she knocks Gabriel's blade aside. She's not being so callous as to divert her gaze from the antagonized student though. So she raises her voice to compensate for the lack of sound direction. "Sebastien wished to, and I quote, help you end my rain of terror. As well as offer additional pointers. Would you like that?" She pose to Gabriel as she delivers a swing to his lower ribs.
Gabriel grunts, hard, and is knocked back a few steps, taking a moment just to rub at his abdomen and lower ribs. Yes, even though it was a thrust, it was so hard that it became more of an area weapon. However, he manages to recover surprisingly well, raising his sword in a one-handed grip. There's a glance to the other man, the one with the robot horse (how strange does that sound?), but a negative reply. "No, I'm the one learning not him. Advice I'll take. Assistance, I won't. But I appreciate the offer." That said, a thrust shoots out toward the mid-point of his instructor's sternum. +roll 1d20+2
Sebastien hops, changing legs and landing neatly, if gaudily, on the opposite foot so stretch his other leg. "Work," he replies simply. "You know, saving lives, nothing more important than sparring." There's a smile on his face, though he adds, "Kid got stabbed. No time to get his blood type, we are running out of O-neg, it is ..." He shakes his head, voice trailing off, and then he adds, "I'll watch for a while. See what is working and what is not, and let you know what I think."
Valeriya's sword connected with Gabriel's for the parry, but parry it did not. Her angle of the dull blade not quite right, slighting uselessly along Gabriel's and it thrusts firmly into her chest. Her expression flattens with an angry glare and no wince is given. Clearly she does not express pain well. Or maybe she does as she spins around tightly to cut into the small of Gabriel's back with much force.
With a slight sign of satisfaction on his face - not triumph, but satisfaction of increasing skill - Gabriel pulls his weapon back toward his body, chanting out, "Gabriel Blaze, Colonel, United States Marine Corps. Enlisted Richmond, Virginia, 1938. Serial number 391-24-099 -" at this point, his gaze does move off of his target of a moment. "- and blood-type AB-negative. It's important for all of us to remember those basics, if nothing else. They say that AB-neg is rare." As he swings another one of those diagonal strikes, he asks, "People still need it?" Probably not the best idea to distract yourself with idle chat while attacking.
"That's going to leave a mark," Sebastien laughs, pondering the effect of spandex and fluid dynamics on the eighth wonder of the world. "We need everything! Synthetic is only so goo-oh-ho!" He laughs aloud as Gabriel lands another hit, and Sebastien grins broadly as he wonders, "So Valeriya, you are teaching him, oui? This is all the luck of the beginner, or perhaps is he imparting a lesson of his own?" Valeriya looks to be the one distracted as a foot slip that caused a very wide miss on her retaliation continues to a narrow miss of the following parry. "Don't get cocky now, competence and confidence are often exchanged by mistake. Even by myself." She advises as she recovers with a brief smirk. "He's been practicing all week, he better get some good hits in this time." She says to Sebastien before turning her sword to but the hilt on Gabriel's forehead.
"Swords are new, close-quarters combat is not," the older Kentuckian says in response to the other man, his attention remaining very focused on the important matters at hand. Important matters like the pommel impacting his forehead quite soundly and causing his skull to ring like a tuning-fork. He is momentarily dazed, and in combat would clearly have left at least a small temporal opening for a second blow that would be unlikely to be parried. Maybe trying to dive out of the way, at best. In this case, he does hold up a staying hand when he's able. "Hold, hold, hold, Miss Valeriya." Gabriel shakes his head again and blinks his eyes slowly and widely. "Whew. Perhaps you and Sebastian should hack at each other for a few minutes. I'm afraid that I need a minute, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to call a 'time-out' in training combat." He doesn't even wait for an affirmative, just slowly climbs out of the ring and settles on his combat bag, leaning his head back against the wall, eyes closed.
Sebastien's there a moment later, on fleet feet to Gabriel's side. He rises on his tip-toes to inspect the impact site. "It did not break the skin," Sebastien notes, easing back and lowering as Gabriel does, sagging to crouch just under the man, to peer up and try for eye contact. "Gabriel, do you feel sick? How about the room, is it spinning or in one place?" Sebastien glances over his shoulder at Valeriya briefly, then looks back at the elder man. "Gabriel, open your eyes for me mon ami. Let me see them." He leans in to inspect the pupils, before deciding in a quieter voice, "He'll have a knot, no big deal. In a louder voice, "Gabriel, before you go back in I want to see your eyes again, alright?" And with a smile, Sebastien steps back to give the man some room, ducking momentarily to sweep up that dropped sword. With a look to Valeriya, he notes, "You should be wearing headgear."
The man waves a thankful hand at the man inspecting him. His eyes are opened enough to glance around and be inspected before closing again. "No, no Seb, I'm okay. Hard head." Gabriel's eyes then open with mirth and he glances between both Sebastian and Valeriya. "It may be hard to believe, but I've been hit harder." His eye winks, and he juts his chin toward the others. "Just let the blood do its thing for a few minutes. Think I'll be wearing a low-brimmed hat for a few days. You two go on for now. Have fun. I'll watch." For now, he will do just that.
Valeriya says, "I should be? He's the one that got hit in the head." Valeriya remarks. Her expression showed concern as Sebastien checked him out, but not remorse. "Besides, it's good to know just how debilitating such a blow can be." She says as Sebastien takes up the sword. "Now we see how good the connoisseur is." She states, slicing at Sebastien deftly."
Sebastien responds, but not nearly quick enough. The sword drops low and in, body over-correcting and positioning him square into the blade. With a grunt Sebastien takes three steps back, coughing once, and he shakes his free hand ruefully. "It's been years since I fought with an empty hand," he speaks, pantomiming a block with the empty arm. "Give me a minute to focus, I'll do better." He smiles at Valeriya, eyes narrowing as his breath comes in shallow. He'll stay that way, assuming she gives him his time.
From his place against the wall, Gabriel offers quietly, "Real combat doesn't always give people the opportunity to be 'given a minute to focus.'"
Valeriya sighs, letting her hands rest on her hips as everyone calls for a momentary break. "Are all men on this planet such wusses? That must be why they sign up to be remade as machines yes. Admittedly there was a time where I too begged for such moments, would have jumped at a stronger pain free body. Never given though. Made me the woman I am today." She remarks, eyeing Sebastien.
After those moments pass, Sebastien looks ... not quite at Valeriya. Just to her left, with unfocused eyes. "I did not expect it," he speaks, a touch distantly. "But it never hurts to ask." The young man turns then, eyes on the ground between them, and aside, and then over her as they sweep left, vaguely glassy as the blade comes up, teasing at her space. He swipes then, lightning fast high and across, where the head of a normal-sized man might be, but just above Valeriya's breasts.
Gabriel mumbles a very derogatory comment about people being turned into machines.
Valeriya smirks as she bends her knees ever so slightly to put herself out of the weak path of the blade. "I think I largely come off as unexpected. It's something I like to play too." Valeriya agrees as she continues in a fluid motion into a swing for the back of Sebastien's knee.
Sebastien's head ducks and he turns, his sword clacking off Valeriya's wooden blade as if in afterthought before he ducks into a crouch, presenting her a smaller target. His face is curiously blank, eyes passing sightlessly over Gabriel as the tip of his wooden sword rises, slashing along the inside of her right leg just above the knee.
The older Kentuckian is sitting up straighter now, with Gabriel taking some deep breaths and rubbing his forehead gently. Looks like he's recovering. Hasn't even been more than minute or two.
Valeriya easily deflects Sebastien's blow but not for lack of skill. No she looks quite impressed and aware of Sebastien's skill. Keeping it in mind is keeping her ahead for now. Sooner or later though she knows the inevitable without a change of situation. She almost seems to look forward to it.
Sebastien's turned aside blade doesn't seem to trouble him, but then he's not expressing much. He slides along Valeriya's weak side, his sword flung over her head, and he drops it to catch her blade as she spins to slash him on the other side. "It's the big blade," Sebastien notes, "It makes you dance." He ducks, keeping his sword ready to parry as he tosses a quick jab at her ribs to throw her off balance, "and I know the steps."
Gabriel actually stands - slowly, but he does get to his feet. Once again ambulatory, he starts to stroll around the sparring room, spinning his training weapon rather expertly, almost like a high school baton-twirler, but with a weapon. Not much longer until he'll probably have picked up all of his steam and senses again.
"And you think I've forgotten?" Valeriya poses to Sebastien with an accusatory glance. "You're faster than me. If this situation is perpetual, you win. I'm smart enough to see and accept that. And willing to change that if I feel necessary. What can you do to adapt I wonder?" She poses before slicing at him heavily again.
Sebastien ducks Valeriya's blade, low and fast to shoulder-roll away from her to slash at the encroaching Gabriel's ankles. He's a tight ball on the ground, balanced on the balls of his feet, a coiled spring as he watches the pair of them with a grin.
After two circuits of the room, Gabriel was obviously going to do something, but instead raises his sword quickly in an attempt to parry the man's blow. As it's coming not just from an elevated platform, but also from a much taller man, and coming completely off-guard, it's not a terrifically wonderful situation in which to find one's self.
"Apparently you are eager to try, engaging my student like that." Valeriya then notes, looking to take advantage of the divided attention Sebastien offers with an upward slice that could very well push him over with her strength behind it.
Sebastien grins down at the lower man while he delivers a tap to Gabriel's shoulder, not nearly so hard as Valeriya's strikes. He's still looking at the aging bulldog as he surges up, into Valeriya's strike to shove her back and give Gabriel room to enter the ring, before snapping his wrist down towards Valeriya in a move more characteristic of an epee strike than the broadsword the wood represents.
Gabriel's head takes another impact, but not nearly the same as the last one. In fact, he shakes it off nigh instantaneously. Still, he doesn't look happy, and marches over to the proper wall, grabs a second weapon, and twirls both expertly in individual circles with dextrous wrists. Positioning himself behind Valeriya as defense, he climbs into the ring. In a Kentucky drawl, he offers, "The man doesn't like fair fights, Miss Valeriya. Maybe pupil and teacher can train side-by-side?"
"Apparently he does not. Well then I see no reason not oblige him then." Valeriya agrees before uttering a dark phrase. With a gesture, she fades from view.
Sebastien makes a small noise as he catches the second weapon coming in to play below, and he blinks once, hard, as his opponent fades from view. "What I would not give for my multi-optics helmet!" He utters, taking three fast steps and leaping, with a hand on the top rope, to land in a shoulder-roll on the mat below to come up near the weapons bench and draw forth another sword. He runs back then, leaping to belly-slide in, surging quickly to his feet on the far side. Swords up, a long breath following. OK. Invisible. Right.
Perhaps it's because of Valeriya's surprising disappearance, perhaps it's because he wasn't expecting the man to abandon the ring... and then rejoin the ring. At any rate, Gabriel simply stands his ground in a defensive position, one sword in each hand. Yes, they may be new, but close enough to the end of training that he feels somewhat comfortable using them as such. He says but two words, "Miss Valeriya?" Of course, expecting someone invisible to reply is probably not something that one should really anticipate. The man waits.
"Actually I have another spell to mask my thermal signature as well. Just wouldn’t do to get shot up by a 'borg or automated turret after all." Valeriya's voice replies, showing little change in her position as Sebastien retreats. Though as he returns her unseen fist is there to catch him in the chin.
Sebastien moves, suddenly, turning and grunting as his head snaps back, and when he comes back his jaw works and he spits blood on the mat below. "Am I not ugly enough for you already, you overgrown invisible woman? New rule; stay away from my head, or this gets a lot more real." Sebastien licks at the inside of his lip, testing his teeth for chips, and he scowls at thin air, his calm shattered.
Perhaps what comes next is surprising. "Hey, what the FUCK!" Gabriel shouts, his swords down at his sides and being used as gesticulating pointers, not weapons. From his tone and the look on his face, he's addressing both people in the ring. "Training causes injuries, yeah. It happens. This shit isn't training, you cracked the hell out of the guy like it's fucking combat! And you -" his gaze turns to the other man "- take the blow and either hit back, or take the blow, realize it's not combat, and walk away. Threats only make things worse, and this seems like no time for worse. In fact, Miss Valeriya, in your expert opinion, do you think we're done here? I don't want another lesson, but this one's over."
"Yeah, you're ready. You have the basics and no particular bad habits. But I would like to point out this isn’t real. Really I could punch his head clear across the room. Really he has other skills to prevent me from doing that. That’s the final lesson, the bigger fish. Never think you're the biggest fish. It'll get you sucker punched in the chin at least. Always be prepared to adapt, or retreat. Big fish win, but small fish survive." Valeriya's voice calmly advises Gabriel before turning to Sebastien. "Didn’t mean to hit you that hard, your momentum really carried you into it. But maybe that’s enough sparring, at least here."
"Is it?" Sebastien wonders, waving at Gabriel. "She hits you over the head with that wooden sword, and now she is invisible, smacking me in the face while she hides behind her magic. Where is the lesson here? What kind of training is this? Or is it something else?" He stares hard, somewhere off to Valeriya's right. "When it is done she'll just laugh about how fragile men are here." Sebastien's eyes focus then, and he hucks one sword into the air, and then the other. They stick, suspended in thin air, five feet over the sparring ring as Sebastien gives Gabriel a look. Turning then, he grabs the top rope and hops over, landing on his feet below to feel at his lip with his free hand, getting ready to walk away.
The Kentuckian seems to relax at his tutor's words, and he even manages a smile, once again raising the hilt of his practice-sword level to what is ironically now a forehead with a small welt. "I think you, miss." Gabriel's head cants to one side. "Never expected that I'd need to know this, but I do, and now I can, at least at a basic level. Perhaps I'll speak with Miss Sage, and we'll see where to go from there. Goodnight to you, and a safe trip home." To both, as he departs the ring, he offers, "I know that I'm the small fish, I guarantee that. See you all around."
Valeriya shrugs, her practice sword reappearing in the rack en route to the change rooms. "Men around here are too hard on themselves." Her voice notes from their entrance.
Sebastien's most of the way to the door when the swords drop from their aerial perch, landing in a clatter in the corner of the practice ring. He gives the security guy a look, and then ducks his head, hanging a left as he goes. Going for the showers.
Gabriel hangs the practice weapons where they belong, noting Sebastian's exit to the showers. He does a few post-exercise calisthenics, good stretches, cool-downs, then puts on his jacket again, grabs his bag, and leaves the gym.
