Mar 02 16:23:50 107 PA - Putting fundamentals to practice
From Chronicles
Logfile from Rifts.
The current game time is: Thu Mar 02 16:23:50 107 PA.
Kingsdale - Harry's Gym
The Sparring Ring of Harry's Gym is even more spartan than the rest of the facility. It is geared towards non and lightly augmented individuals as Harry's is by and large a family facility. Nonetheless, the walls here are chemically treated and renforced and many cameras keep a watchful eye on the goings on. The actual 'ring' is a boxing ring, complete with ropes and nearby is a large open area with mats to practice martial arts and other hand to hand techniques. Of real note is that there are two armed guards here at all times -- and the place seems to ALWAYS be in use -- and a nurse's office is located nearby in the case of injuries. Apparently, Harry takes the safety of the public quite seriously.
Players- Objects- Exits- Erica <O> Out
Having already limbered up some, Sage has arrived a little earlier than previous for the training that Erica has offered her. She moves through practice moves with the borrowed training knife. Her movements are slow as she spars against an unseen opponent.
Erica arrives a few minutes late she seems to be slightly flushed having to hurry over to the gym. "Sorry Sage I lost track of time. I hope you haven't been waiting too long." She says after letting her bag of supplies down on the floor. She starts to stretch and ready herself for todays lesson.
Since she doesn't stand around waiting, Sage doesn't notice the time passed as being overly significant since it is only a few minutes. "Its okay." She replies, relaxing from her own practice movements. "I've used the time to exercise... but, perhaps next time I may have to think of something for you to do." She muses lightly, "Although, I suppose I shall have to be a little careful for when I start teaching you something." She adds with a chuckle.
Erica giggles herself as she finishes her stretches. "Oh and what would you have me do?" She asks in a bemused manner as she fetches a practice knife from her bag and the impact pad from it's hook on the sparring room wall. "Well I thought we could do a little practice sparring today. Also maybe a little knife throwing depending on the time. What do you think?"
Sage hms softly as she purses her lips to the question, "Nothing big... maybe a little cleaning or cooking..." She comments, before offering a faint shrug. Then she tilts her head faintly as she turns to the consider the objects that the other woman gets. "We can give it a try." She comments, "And, I think I may know how to throw it... but practice may be good."
Erica keeps giggling as she nods her head. "Alright sounds like a deal." She comments with a little wink to Sage. She grabs a padded suit and some goggles and quickly puts it on. She moves around a bit to get used to the padding and then sets herself up un a ready stance. "Ok lets go"
An amused smile comes to Sage's lips as the proposal is accepted. She moves around a little bit as she waits for the woman to get herself set. She considers how the other woman sets up. She adjusts her grip to one suited for faster attacks. She adsjusts herself into a more aggressive posture thinking she's likely to be doing most of the attacks. Inching forward, she circles a little bit before making a lunging stab to get used to how the other woman is going to react.
Erica sets the knife in a reverse grip and starts moving quickly on her feet to keep herself a moving target. She flashes Sage a quick little smile and then her expression turns to one of concentration. The test lunge that Sage makes is knocked away by a downward stroke of th knife. Erica quickly follows it up with taking a step in and makes a low slash to Sage's arm, the one not wielding the knife.
Having noticed hoping isn't the best, Sage has taken to quick small steps to adjust her positioning. She also watches Erica's own posture from time to time to see if she can pick up on anything there. She lets her knife hand move with the motion for now, before she's able to bring it to a stop. Noticing the wide approach of the knife, she opts to move her free hand away with a slight shifting of her body away from the slash. This seems to allow her to bring her own knife on a diagonally up slash from where she's brought her knife under control after the parry of the other woman.
Erica moves back quickly after her slash falls short thanks to Sage's quick movements. The upward slash makes her bring down the flat of her own blade to deflect the slash Sage makes and while the slash connects against Erica's pads almost all of the energy was deflected by her parry. She brings her own knife up and thrusts the edge of the knife at the other woman's neck in a horizontal slash.
Knowing the slash will have her own blade out of position, Sage lets the motion of the arm coming back towards her push her a step or two back. She keeps the blade moving as she realizes the other's attack is going to be high. She aims to have her knife meet with the other woman's knife. She's still getting used to a small object having to hit another small object. As a result, the impact will likely be anywhere along the blade. She can't help but try to move her head back a little and her neck along with it.
Erica nods her head in approval as Sage manages to block the slash at her neck mostly. She uses her slash to give her more horizontal movement, helping her as she spins around while dropping into a crouch. Her leg comes shooting out as she trys to sweep Sage's legs out from under her.
Not being quite as confident and realizing the other woman's intent at first, Sage is just able to hop back away from the leg sweeping out trying to catch her's. As a result, she can only retreat a little to reset herself.
Erica switches her grin into a regular hammer grip with her thumb on the back of the blade while she spins completely around. She springs up from her crouch in a leaping thrust at your midsection trying to both tackle you to the ground while thrusting her knife at the side of your belly.
Watching the other woman's movements, Sage seems to focus on the knife itself rather than how far Erica's body will be moving in this movement. She brings her knife as a final defense in front of her, but turns her body slightly to give her free hand a better angle at knocking the other woman's blade away from her body towards the place vacated by the shifting of her body. Their body's do crash together, though, and she begins to lose her own balance...
Erica lets her knife get knocked away and parried by Sage's knife as she crashes into the other woman. Using the others lose of balance she shifts a leg behind Sage's legs and trys to use her upper body to knock Sage back hoping to trip the other woman. Her knife isn't really used, she is just holding it in her hand while using her arm and right side to try to trip Sage up and onto the ground, where knife fighting gets dirty.
If this were a sparring match without the knives, Sage might not be so focused on trying to focus so much on the knife aspect of the sparring match. She keeps her own knife as the in close defense still, as she isn't sure whether she should be attacking with the knife or responding with her own normal hand to hand techniques. As a result, she ends up grabbing the other woman as she's being outmaneuvred and trying to drag the other woman with her. Of course, the positioning of Sage's own knife will likely end up straight up like an impaling stick in a pit trap by virtue of where it's located. If only, it were on purpose.
Erica lets the other woman pull her down and instead focuses on using her knife to knock that impaling stick away. She moves her hand down as fast as she can to use the edge of her knife to try to knock Sage's knife down and away, not entirely successfully. She lands with a grunt and tries to use her knife which is already in a low position to cut at the other woman's inner thigh, where arteries lie.
Ground fighting is a little unfamiliar to Sage as she's not used to the techniques being used to being at a distance. Her boxing experience isn't useful either as the rules are a bit more strict. She tries to use her free hand to reach for the other woman's knife hand. Meanwhile, she tries to bring her own knife to stab at the other woman any way she can. In the end, she may end up with the receiving end of what would be the more fatal blows due to inexperience.
Erica reaches up with her other hand to try to stop Sage's stabbings as best she can. It starts to come down to a test of strength between Sage and Erica as both try to struggle against the other to move the knives. She grunts with effort as she trys to move her knee, to knee Sage into the side, hoping to distract Sage enough to cut into that inner thigh.
Feeling like she's just a little weaker than the other woman, Sage finally seems to slip out of the mindset of just using the knife as it seems to be stalled with the other woman's attempt. She tries to roll with the other woman only to receive a knee for her troubles. It catches some of her stomach with an 'oof' sound coming from Sage. Her strength of defensive grip reduces slightly as she tries to recover from the unexpected blow.
Erica decides that this is a good place to stop for a moment as she relaxes and lets go of Sage's hand and lets go of her own practice knife. "Good Sage good. Keep in mind that sometimes fighting gets pretty down and dirty. I think you did really good. You might have had me if I hadn't gotten a little lucky. What are your thoughts?" She asks as she moves away if Sage will let her.
With the distraction of the knee, Sage doesn't have the knife primed once her hand is released. She remains laying down for a moment as she considers the words spoken and the course of events. "You were mixing it up with your body and knife... while I was too busy trying to focus on what I was supposed to be doing with my knife..." She comments, not really paying any mind to the other woman's moving away. She begins to move into a sitting up position after a moment.
Erica nods her head slowly as she smiles encouragingly at Sage. "Yes remember the knife is just a tool that can be used, but you should use your entire body as well. Don't forget that. But you did really well I thought. You blocked pretty much everything. I think your skills are really improving." She says with that encouraging smile as she reaches out and pats the other womans shoulder affectionatly.
Sage considers the other woman's response quietly before nodding her head. There was a fair bit that she has learned so far. Yet, it seems there will be some additional training before she can wrap her mind around this kind of fighting. Smiling faintly, she grabs the wrist of the other woman once the pat is received. "Help a poor defeated woman to her feet." She says with faint humour, letting her hand loosen a little bit if the other woman wishes to use her hand instead. Then, without trying to pull too much, she moves to rise to her feet.
Erica helps Sage to her feet using her hand to help pull Sage so the other woman doesn't need to use as much effort. She keeps smiling as she nods. "Well that was a pretty good work out. Do you want to go again?" She asks while she rolls her head from shoulder to shoulder and trying to relax a bit of the tension from the sparring match.
A mischievous grin takes Sage's lips when the other woman suggests going away. She pulls the other woman towards her as if in a hug, but uses her other hand to stab gently against the other woman's side. "I win?" She asks with a faint tease in her tone. "You did say it could be dirty..." She chuckles before backing up, and giving a faint shrug. "We can if you like... since I don't think this wooden things are well-balanced for throwing." She comments as she considers her's. "And, I think you'll find that learning boxing will be quite the workout... but, I suppose we should pace ourselves and think about holding that another day or later on."
Erica laughs happily as Sage pulls her in and stabs her side. She sticks out her tongue and makes a fake dying sound. "Ugh you got me." She exclaims before breaking into giggles. "You seem to be catching on quick." She says with a quick little wink. "Well I hope to learn more about boxing from you at some point." She shrugs her shoulders and nods her head. "Yah I guess your right. Don't want to go too overboard."
Sage nods before stepping back closer to the other woman, "Of course, when we do start training for boxing ... I'll have to insist on sparring within the rules. It isn't kickboxing, wrestling or martial arts." She comments, "That doesn't mean you can't be creative, its just you'll get a bit more out of it if you don't ad-lib with things that you may be stronger with." She reaches out to touch the other woman's shoulder. "Of course, we'll be going over some basics... some of which you'll already know."
Erica nods her head as she listens to what the other woman has to say. "Well you'll have to teach me the rules first before I can follow them, but I will try not break any rules. And you'll be the teacher so I'll follow what you have to say." She says with a little grin and a wink. "I assume I can't use things like elbows."
Sage's hands reach out to claim the other woman's, trying to position them as if they were about to dance. "Yes, you will have to know the rules." She comments, "And, it is a lot like dancing in a way. A lot of footwork..." She makes a simple step toward Erica hoping the other woman will move with her. "And, you use your hands..." She says, trying to make the other woman do a slow twirl. "Its just the objective that's different... and dirty moves like punching a guy below the belt isn't allowed... but, how you use your skills afterward, is your own decision."
Erica giggles a bit as Sage takes her hands. She moves with the other woman letting Sage take the lead. She follows those footsteps and twirls around as Sage twirls her. Her lips turn up into a soft smile as she dances and moves with Sage. "Sounds like an interesting sport. I look forward to learning it."
A soft smile comes to Sage's lips as the other woman seems to make the transition to a soft dance. Then she draws Erica closer into a hug. "And, there's a sort of hugging allowed... although, we'll get to how to do that properly and why you do it later on." She comments, before letting the other woman go. "Now then, do you wish to spar again or have I distracted you enough to consider that a lesson for now."
Erica returns Sage's hug with a hug of her own. "Well let's try one more spar. I'm sure you'll kick my ass this time." She says with a smile and a wink of encouragment as she draws away from the other woman. She bends down to pick up her knife and moves into a ready position.
Once they're both ready, the sparring much begins a-new in a flurry of motion...
