Scene #9679: Trídéag School of Swordsmanship 2

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	Despite the absolute chaos of the Director disappearing for two days, you'd never know it from actually looking at Trídéag from the outside. That much is par for the course in the City, though that level of organizational opacity is usually reserved for groups at least ten times the size of Trídéag. The part that's much more unusual is that, following those two days, the missing person came back, and resumed her duties like nothing had happened at all. Combat training is mandatory every day of the week for local Fixers below Grade Six, five days of the week below Grade Three. Multiversal Elites work on a case by case basis, but it's nearly unhead of to get less than twice a week. The Director herself can't possibly supervise all of it, so after orientation classes, hands-on instruction from Lilian is twice weekly for locals, and monthly for Multiversals. Twenty-two months after opening headquarters, and nine months since recruiting the last wave of Multiversals, means that the occasion is only just barely 'tradition' for some. The day following 'the Suitcase Rebellion', and barely a week following the Walden, this particular apppointment, destined on the twelfth floor as it always is, develops more and more foreboding vibes the longer it remains unremoved from the schedule. But nothing changes. Not meaningfully. The layout out of the 'High Impact Combat Instruction Facility' is barely rearranged from last month. The practice swords are waiting in their usual places. Your locker are just as you left them. Llian is dessed in the same clothes, and her hair is tied in the same way. The slightly chilly air under the bright lights, a preemptively bulwark against the inevitable heat, practically dares anyone to say anything. Being told to get into your usual places almost feels like gaslighting. "Everyone in this class has reached what I consider the line of basic proficiency." Lilian says. "Some, albeit, just barely." She doesn't bother to look at anyone in particular. "All six standard guards, seven cuts, three thrusts, the fundamentals of voiding, closing, and crossing space with footwork, and how to evade, repel, and turn aside an attack. Some of you have exceeded this bar considerably, but in theory, this is all the knowledge you require to call yourself 'an apprentice'." For a second, it sounded as if she'd actually say 'swordsman'. But of course not. "I will be verifying that you've actually retained all of this. Your skill in executing these basics will be something I expect to see polished through repetition and constant self-review. The judgement required to use these at the right time, in the right situation, is something you'll have to acquire through experience; which necessitates the leap from this environment to what you will hear me refer to as 'live training'."
Lilian Rook	Up on the slight platform, despite not being all that far from anyone, launching right into her review is enough to make it feel as if Lilian were behind sixty feet of solid glass. Her own practice sword rests utterly unmoving in the permanent divot that her point-down habitual speaking posture has worn into the floor plate. "Those I have cleared for review this month, including you, will cleared for provisional live training next month should you pass it. Provisional live training will entail leaving this facility for a period of several days. During this period, you will bring your service weapons as well as your training gear. Should you do well under provisional live training, you will move to the class that will teach you advanced and transitional guards, improvisational and specialist techniques, self-defence against projectile and arcane weaponry, as well as grappling, blows, throws, and ground fighting." "So before that, I'll be expecting you to learn something I've begun newly drilling everyone." she says. The events of the real world finally creep into the almost religiously ritualistic setting, if only a little. "I'm no longer going to consider anyone fit for stage two training, much less stage three, until they're able to quickly and accurately identify where they've been struck, how they were, and how severely. That means you have anatomy homework to do after today, by the way." She is not beating the teacher allegations with that half-assed smirk. "You'll learn how to compensate for for these inevitable eventualities during provisional live training, as well as how to identify a situation where it is necessary to cut your losses and retreat. For now though, all you need to know is that it's imperative that you not freeze up or make stupid decisions when one of your guards fails. No matter how good you are, it will at some point, and people who die the first time it does, or survive a hundred battles, are chosen by whether they know what to do when it does." Lifting her training sword off the deck is the usual signal for 'at ease'. "Any questions before we begin? No standing around though; begin your warmups."
Sarracenia	Sarra is so out of the loop that she did not even realize the Director was missing for two days. She rarely sees Lilian as it is, in no small part due to their tendency to avoid each other. But, for some reason, Sarra has been almost religious in her dedication to the sword training classes. She has been here for every mandatory one, and a few that were not mandatory. Combined with her Liu training, she might actually be proficient by now. The princess is dressed in her usual workout clothes, one of the few outfits she allows herself that is not overly frilly, heavy, or encumbering. It is a simple outfit consisting of a breezy blouse and a mid-length skirt over a set of tights to keep her figure from being too exposed. The outfit is appropriately colored in black, green, and gold, and completed with a set of lace up, heeled black combat boots. Sarra does her hair up in a sporty ponytail, still wearing her crown and her Silver lotus, then heads out with her training sword. She moves to her usual place as directed and turns to stand at attention. She watches Lilian as the Director talks to them, and while her expression is definitely not friendly at this time she isn't saying anything. her eye narrows lightly when Lilian says 'some, albeit, just barely'. She stays still and quiet until the end, the only objection she voices is a soft huff at the mention of homework. She does not ask a question as she begins her warm ups. "...homework...I have not done homework since..." she mutters, though doesn't finish the sentence since she can't remember ever doing her homework outside of classes. But, after a minute or two of warming up, she takes a deep breath and lets it out before she finally asks, "...are you alright, Director?" even as she is already trying to show off her skills. It takes Sarra a moment when asked to perform a specific thing, but her warm-up is doing a decent job at showing she does know most of these things by now.
Angela	Ceri is relieved that Lilian wasn't, like, abducted by the Thumb or something but, really, wrecking havoc against the Thumb is something Ceri would be happy to do if Lilian was present, but it was to her the 'cautious' option to show Trídéag's enemies (and potential enemies) that Lilian's absence wouldn't render the Association toothless. When Lilian isn't managing training herself, it's usually up to her to supervise but when Lilian is here, she takes the time to go through her own motions along with everyone else. It's not just Ceri who is present. Knifty is present as is Joanne who, by virtue of her hefty demotion, technically has to do training every day again. Ok, Joanna probably doesn't need to train to get better at fighting but training is helping her by giving her something to do besides get totally shitfaced drunk so there's that. And her fighting style isn't really based in swordsmanship so she IS still learning. Finn is around too, having rapidly improved since his sister came to visit and the adoption of his old office as an associate office of Trídéag. Weather Report is here to do her best as are the Rats, though when it comes to matters of anatomy, Lenny would ace that test if given it today. Perhaps more surprising is Knifty, who gets a biiig grin on her face at the mention of anatomy homework. Nelly had probably given her some lessons in that regard but even for Knifty and Lenny, having an educated understanding of the subject doesn't mean they can necessarily quickly understand in the moment just how badly they've been hurt and where. Finn, in training, is the eagerest of beavers though at this point just about everyone looks forward to personal instruction from the Director or at least handles it professionally. But he's the guy who raises his hand into the air the most to ask questions and takes the most detailed notes. ''People who die the first time it does, or survive a hundred battles, are chosen by whether they know what to do when it does.'' And so he raises his hand up here the moment Lilian asks for any questions. "Director, while I understand the importance of learning this, how do we practice--and show--an understanding of how serious an injury is if pain is an unreliable gauge?" Question asked, he moves into the drills. Weather Report, one of the newest members, stumbles a little upon getting into position. Ceri pauses her own work and adjusts Weather Report's grip and stance before returning to her own. Knifty is so happy that she isn't last in the class anymore for sure.
Odette Raskins	With everything that's happened over the past few days, Odette's in dire need of something to occupy her hands. Her mind is something else entirely, but returning to the familiar and (more importantly) stable surroundings of the instruction facility does help her settle back into normalcy. Unnecessary gear goes into the locker, clothes are changed, and she practically autopilots her way towards her practice sword after tying her hair up into a high ponytail on the right side. There's even something resembling a relieved sigh coming out of Odette when Lilian addresses the crew, taking her usual spot on the right-of-center side of the group facing the platform. Even with that fog in her mind, though, Odette's still surprised by what Lilian's saying about the progression of training. The idea of bringing the service weapons off of Trideag grounds still feels like a foreign concept to her, after all, so being more confident in doing just that does light a fire under her that's hard to miss. Even the familiar feeling of fear bubbling back up inside her gut gets swallowed right down, listening as intently as she is to what Lilian's saying. When Lilian asks for questions, the EMT doesn't raise her hand right away. She's putting the questions together in her head first while she gets started on her stretches, ducking down with alternating leg extensions first and stretching her arms out after. "After we've finished stages two and three of our training, do we have permission to bring our service weapons out of the City?" She asks once she finally gets her thoughts together, even speaking with less hesitation and second-guessing than she usually does. "And if all of our guards fail, what should we prioritize?"
Timekeeper	After the misery and exhaustion of the Storm's two day marathon and the quarantining and reports that came after, Lilian at least took one evening off to recuperate. But for Sonetto, the Storm wasn't a divergence from her job, it was precisely her job description. Rather than coming back 'as if' everything is fine, Sonetto's immediate reentrance back into the eternal cycle of work is because everything is fine. Emergency personnel, field agent captain, frontline martyr, Timekeeper's assistant. Every job title she holds is one that ushers her to the forefront of the Storm front, caught by coincidence in the field when the rain began, but she would have been deployed as soon as possible even if she wasn't. Therefore there was no need for special treatment, even the opposite; by taking Sonetto as aggressively normal, packing every hour of her day with reports and interdepartment debriefings and field analysis paperwork, the others, less reliable, less loyal, less capable, could follow her into line. She was not informed of the rebellion happening on the Foundation campus. Hours after it began, she was told by someone who was shocked she wasn't the first to know. She had thanked them, and given no further comment as to the Timekeeper's insurrection, standing apart from it on granite and marble pedestals as Druvis is held by her plants. So of course she couldn't miss a regular training session at Trídéag either. Her uniform is impeccable, training sword on her hip, her massive volume of hair loosely held in a thick braid down her back. To the other person here who did make it through that Storm, there's no indication from either of them that they went through anything at all. The Sonetto of a week ago was sobbing in the rain into an empty hat while Vertin lay numbly on the ground, and the Sonetto of today is a perfectly attentive student who's never cried once. "Director, while I understand the importance of learning this, how do we practice--and show--an understanding of how serious an injury is if pain is an unreliable gauge?" To follow-up Finn's question with what she believes is the answer, Sonetto also raises her hand for Lilian to call on her. "Will we be practicing with contact damage assessments to gain firsthand perspectives on an injury's severity?" Read: will you hit us? The prospect not only doesn't bother her, it's pretty much par for the course. In fact, Sonetto got A's in every anatomy course she's ever taken, including this exact subject. She's mostly looking forwards to the homework as a recreational comparison of her own curriculum to what Lilian considers necessary.
Foundation Scions	Matilda Bouanich, Monitor Assistant of the SPDM, is used to having nearly no idea, through the Storm's lead-up and the day afterwards, whether Vertin, and all those around her, will trudge through unscathed, or disappear, suddenly, without a trace. Less expected, is that the only word she'll hear of how any of it went, from coworking staffers of the Foundation, is that the Timekeeper is receiving treatment of some sort with Laplace, and that no-one hears much else. It'd be easier to ask around, further, of course, were the FDMO's office-space transceiver radio console not, for no explained reason, vanished away to who-can-say. All these things, time and effort spent amongst divinations could and would draw some manner of answer out, but as with every Storm, the flurry of paperwork and urgency abates gradually, and as always, Mesmer Jr. isn't one to help out with the FDMO's responsibilities. Strange, where has she been? That Matilda's first real excuse to leave Foundation grounds is towards somewhere she's liable to run into Sonetto, who would have been there in the Storm, and Lilian, who she hears was there, may be coincidental, but it's certainly serendipitous. Leaky, waiting in hallways and outside locker-rooms to try and run into Sonetto, there's a dozen questions on her mind about what's been going on and where, some likely answerable by Sonetto's demeanor alone. Whispered, when she gets the chance, is "Psst! Sonetto? How is the Timekeeper, and, are you... doing well?" . . . 'Some, albeit, just barely.' Matilda may be the lowest-ranked Fixer assembled there in the training room, but the impenetrable armor of cope and confidence ensure she stays beaming, at-attention. Surely Lilian doesn't mean her! Surely! Overall, the start-off of the session here, with a claim to the group's promise, puts her overall worries over others' wellbeing, questions, and what-is-to-come, aside for at least the duration of Lilian's speech. 'That means you have anatomy homework to do after today, by the way.' Matilda Bouanich is an excellent student, always aiming for high marks! Matilda Bouanich is also a pervert, . The second the 'at ease' signal is called, she's craning her head to look towards Sonetto, and loud-whisper, with dubious intent, before taking the time to imagine what a non-inuendo study session would take the shape of, "Sonetto! Perhaps, we can study together?" 'Should you do well under provisional live training,' At the call for questions, a just-starting-to-get-moving Matilda raises her hand to be called upon, with the same excitement as starting a stretch- "Er- though it will certainly not apply to those-here, or me, what is to come of those who do not succeed at such training measures? Remedial course-work? If such a thing does occur, will there be a call for volunteer-assistants in administering such?" 'Will we be practicing with contact damage assessments to gain firsthand perspectives on an injury's severity?' A quiet-squeaky "Hein?" as Matilda, too, reads that as 'will you hit us'. She, however, is a little bit bothered!
Timekeeper	"Sonetto? How is the Timekeeper, and, are you... doing well?" Sonetto is caught by Matilda in the depraved position of sitting on a bend and fastidiously braiding her hair. There's a strange sort of rebooting delay to her response, reassembling the schema with which she interacts with Matilda like it's been a decade since they talked rather than a couple weeks. "I... am alright?" It feels like she's feeling the shape of the word out as she's saying it, uncertain and alien. She gradually picks up steam until she's just the normal amount of alien for her to be. "Hello Matilda. Timekeeper is in recovery in the Artificial Somnambulism ward after the Storm." "Her treatment is being administered by Mesmer Jr. Were you... not told?" Sonetto pauses and tilts her head, halfway-braided hair bunching up against her hands. With a faintly pensive look, rather than her usual blankly ambiguous, her eyes slip off of Matilda's face and look towards the ground. "I am told she will be alright. The mission was technically a success." . . . "Sonetto! Perhaps, we can study together?" Sonetto, while pressing her palms flat to the ground from standing, looks over at Matilda and says the words Matilda has planned in the shower a dozen times before. "Study anatomy together? Would you want to?" She straightens up, methodically stretching her upper body. "Ah... if there is anything you are uncertain about, I would be able to help."
Lilian Rook	'...are you alright, Director?' "Have you ever heard the phrase 'there are no stupid questions'?" Lilian says, lifting her eyebrows. "I don't use it. It's wrong." Funny enough, she isn't typically prone to doing Drill Sergeant tactics to Sarracenia to unite everyone else, so this is somewhat out of the ordinary. 'Director' "Finn." She doesn't point, but a name is less 'permission to speak' as 'an expectation that everyone else remains silent'. 'how do we practice--and show--an understanding of how serious an injury is if pain is an unreliable gauge?' "You can't rely on how much an injury hurts to tell you how severe it is, but you can and should use it as a barometer of what sort of injury it actually is." Lilian says, in the tone of a 'good question'. "Your internal organs don't have the capacity to feel pain, but the lining covering them does, for instance. The layers of your skin are innervated differently as well, and your muscles sense pain from their endpoints rather than the fibres in the middle. The absence, presence, and location of pain, are reliable indicators; it's only often the case that a painless injury is, in fact, much more severe than a painful one." After we've finished stages two and three of our training, do we have permission to bring our service weapons out of the City?' "You have permission if you can clear this, actually." says Lilian. "What safeties shall remain engaged will be up to me." 'And if all of our guards fail, what should we prioritize?' "At your level? Removing yourself from the enemy's space. Assessing the damage as we're about to begin with, gauging how it will affect your ability to fight, and compensating to maximize your own safety is the correct path of action, but you're not going to be able to if you're still receiving blows. Furthermore, should you be severely injured, distance allows one of your comrades to take over your position; or at least take advantage of the opening if you're pursued." 'Will we be practicing with contact damage assessments to gain firsthand perspectives on an injury's severity?' She calls 'Sonetto' next with obvious favouritism. The question makes her smile. "Correct. It isn't feasible for me to strike you hard enough to cause a severe injury just to practice. However, my focus will actually be in demonstrating the ways that your eyes and ears can mislead you, pursuant to the topic." "Your brain gives an overwhelming amount of prference in mental resources to your vision, and direct neural priority to your sense of hearing, which arrives at your conscious mind more quickly than your sense of touch does. Touch, of course, accesses spinal reflex first; you pull your hand away from burning it on a stove ring before you see or hear much of anything, but you'll understand what happened much more slowly than you hear the noise you made. The way your body automatically moves in response to receiving 'damage' is actually an important clue." 'Er-' "Bouanich." 'what is to come of those who do not succeed at such training measures? Remedial course-work? If such a thing does occur, will there be a call for volunteer-assistants in administering such?' Lilian raises an eyebrow. "Did your schedule open up all of a sudden?" she says, asked as a half-serious question, not-negligibly incredulous. "Those individuals will return to stage one training like this, with additional lessons to prepare them for reattempting provisional live training. You're more or less correct." she says.
Lilian Rook	Her attention, and tone, slightly wander. "Those who undertake provisional live training will be experiencing situations that are similar to how I, myself, learned, as did my ancestors. It will entail multiple days in wilderness locations, with minimal gear, few comforts, and limited medical access. You'll be applying the athletic and cognitive skills you've obtained towards traditional practises and real world scenarios. Live combat will be supervised, at a level of danger I would consider minimal, but unapologetically extant. Participation in several strenuous rituals will be non-optional." She breaks from stern recollection with another attempt at humour. She old looks tired when she tries to smile. "Well, traditionally, everything would be done nude, but I'm a modern woman." Ha ha. Laugh. "Now pair off." It's an odd command to give, considering the way she'd just confirmed Sonetto's expectations. "You have ten minutes of warmup free-sparring. During that time, you will call out when you've been struck, and as quickly as possible, without pausing the bout, say 'green' for an injury you believe shouldn't pose an issue, 'yellow' for an injury you believe will force you to alter your fighting strategy', and 'red' for an unjury you believe would force you to retreat. You will call 'black' if you suspect the injury would render you incapable of fighting as well. Once you've begun, I'll come from pair to pair to 'Instruct'."
Angela	Knifty giggles happily at the idea of 'getting hit' practice. She might have trouble finding a partner. As she excitedly looks around for someone to pair up with but most people are picking up people they joined the group with or are just weirded out enough by Knifty to not want to partner up with her for specifically an exercise like this. Others, coincidentally, have noticed that Sarracenia seems to be in a mood at Lilian and are also avoiding signing up with her for the session because that feels like just asking for trouble and, frankly, extra scrutiny, so that means Knifty ends up drifting towards Sarracenia, eyes wide, smile big, totally oblivious to Sarracenia's mood. r"Partner...!" She tells Sarracenia, bouncing on her feet hopefully. Finn looks towards Sonetto and Matilda at first because his instinct is to team up with one of his team-buddies. He gets to, "Ah, do either of you want to--oh, working together? I guess that makes sense." He pauses for a moment and adds, "I think I've heard that name before, your friend Timekeeper... Are---Was she hurt badly?" He doesn't know what an artificial somnambulism is and has an incorrect perception of Mesmer Jr from the name. Ceri ultimately moves to join Odette, volunteering to be her partner since she doesn't have the best idea of how capable she is as a fighter just yet. "Good to see you here again, Odette." She says.
Odette Raskins	The questions being asked are all things that have Odette second-guessing her own, already perking up a bit to await Lilian's answers. She looks off to the side at Sarracenia's to stare at a particularly interesting spot on the wall, relaxing slightly once Lilian addresses her concerns. The reply to Finn has Odette looking back over at full attention, though, nodding along slowly as she finds herself agreeing with pretty much all of it. Her hand goes over her left wrist absent-mindedly the longer she listens, rubbing the scar across it briefly before straightening up when Lilian turns her attention to the EMT. Sonetto's and Matilda's questions and resulting answers have her wondering about how much her own reactions might lie to her, especially considering her usual reactions to most combat situations. It's worrying, but the possibility of learning how to use those reactions based on this training have her looking forward to what's to come even more. Sonetto's and Matilda's questions about the "You have permission if you can clear this, actually." Even if the answer isn't that surprising, the pressure to succeed feels even heavier. "Understood, Director Rook." She responds, visibly starting to affirm something before stopping herself from putting her foot in her mouth. If she's going to succeed, better that she just do it instead of psyching herself out of it by saying so. "Removing . . . Assessing . . . gauging . . . compensating . . . opening" Odette ignores her instinct to write everything down, focusing instead on actually listening so she doesan't miss something. Indeed, removing herself from a situation sounds like her ideal sort of solution to most problems, but that's no longer an option for plenty of things she's involved with. More importantly, she zeroes in on Lilian's talk of allies and openings, and that turns on some lights in Odette's head. "So even falling back can be used tactically... Or stalling for time beforehand, so someone else can intercept and get the jump on them if I can put up a good act... Understood!" That's almost got her feeling good now. Soon, Lilian goes into what the provisional training will consist of, and that brings up a whole slew of concerns into Odette's head. Just as quickly as they start coming in, however, they start fading as she realizes that this sort of training would address most of them anyway. "Well, traditionally, everything would be done nude, but I'm a modern woman." "Just like the ancient experts..." Odette's not laughing, but looking awestruck for a moment before realizing that won't be happening. She's not relived nor disappointed, just accepting the statement head on. And then it's time to pair off! Ceri approaches Odette while she's looking around to see if anyone wants to pair up with her, and that helps her shoulders loosen up considerably. "Oh! Hello, Miss Ceri. Yes, it's..." It feels like forever since she's last seen Ceri. They might not be particularly close, but just seeing her and so many other familiar faces that she hadn't seen in the past few days is making her face suddenly feel warmer than before. She blinks away an unexpected tear, then shakes her head quickly and swallows to force the mild ache in her jaw down. "It's good to see you again, too. Sh.. Shall we start, then?" Trying to play it off as if nothing just happened, Odette settles into the first guard she learned: Left foot forward, knee past her elbows, pommel at her hip and sword at 45 degrees. "How're Knifty and Finn and Weather Report doing?" Once Ceri's ready, Odette's ready to go! She's still quick on her feet as she often is, but she's moving more heavily today as though she's deliberately slowing down to rely on the sword rather than flitting about. It's definitely not to her advantage. Her callouts for any contacts are fairly accurate, too, albeit leaning towards being too cautious and calling a yellow injury red.
Sarracenia	As Lilian answers questions, Sarra's scowl decreases. At least until the 'no stupid questions' comment. Sarra mmphs in annoyance and shakes her head, but they are in the middle of drills so she holds her tongue. Thanks Xiao! Sarra goes still again as they are told to pair off, then mmphs softly and looks around at the others gathered as she realizes her attempts at warming up slash showing off are premature. "Sparring." she says, somewhere between surprise and approval. She hasn't gotten to spar with anyone in a very long time now. Finn asks how they know if an injury is serious, and Sarra huffs softly. It isn't really at Finn, she is just annoyed today. She smiles lightly at him after. She listens to Lilian, then of course adds her own input. "I judge by the location and the depth. And how effectively I can move after. But, my judgement in that area might be skewed by my use of green mushrooms." She's been thinking about it since it came up in radio chatter. Sarra offers a slight friendly smile and a small wave to Odette when she sees the EMT. "Miss Odette. It is good to see you. It seems like it has been forever." Sarra isn't really worried about bringing their service equipment into the City or beyond. She considers herself better equipped than anything Trideag provides to its low and mid grade Fixers. This is one of very few times Sarra has seen Sonetto in person. She offers a wave to her as well. "Miss Sonetto. It is good to see you as well." Matilda is offered a friendly wave as well, as is Joanne. Weather Report receives perhaps the largest of the small smiles Sarra is offering today. "Miss Weather Report. I hope you are doing well." Ceri is always a tricky subject for Sarra, but Sarra offers a polite bow of her head to the superior officer. 'Well, traditionally, everything would be done nude, but I'm a modern woman.' Sarra, predictably, turns as red as the outfits she usually wears at the idea of sparring nude. She lets out a short, nervous laugh. Sarra is fully expecting no one to want to pair with her. Her one eye tracks those that pass by her or look her way, somewhere between welcoming them and daring them to pair up with her. As such, she almost misses the much shorter Knifty approaching. She blinks in surprise when Knifty speaks up, then looks down. "Oh! Uh...certainly!" Knifty may be a bit weird, but she has been friendly to Sarra since they met. Sarra even giggles a bit at Knifty's bouncing. "Energetic as always." she says, then moves to take up a ready stance. Legs slightly apart and one fit behind the other, sword held close at a 45 degree angle. "Engarde!" Sarra is still using too much brute strength for a sword fighter. She's a hammer user after all. But, she has gotten much better about being more fluid and controlling her swings. She has hundreds of hours of swordplay under her belt by now, and her training in dance comes in handy for footwork. Sarra frowns lightly as the apparent 'reward' for doing well is to go on a survival camping trip somewhere. But, it doesn't sound too far from her Liu training (at least to her). "I look forward to it." she says.
Foundation Scions	Matilda, upon catching Sonetto braiding her hair, can't help but immediately mouth out under-breath one of the scent notes of Sonetto's hair products, in slight surprise-shock. 'Were you... not told?' Matilda shakes her head. "And, Mesmer Jr. is very busy, yes? No wonder she said nothing..." It's a relief to corroborate that Vertin is in treatment, and will be fine, but to not have been told is a little upsetting, as the other of the figurehead-individuals of the FDMO. It's no surprise at this point that the office hardly means the Foundation cares about informing her, or utilizing her, or her career prospects, but, Mesmer Jr. is her coworker! "Technically..?" Matilda asks, a little bit concerned- then, bleeding through with ulterior motives on two fronts, but still mixed with earnest sympathy, "Would you like someone to talk-with about it? Perhaps when there is a better time?" . . . 'Study anatomy together? Would you want to?' "Yes! It, is important to keep up to date on studies, after all, and studying together is more effective!" 'Keep up to date'? Anatomy really isn't a science that changes much over the years. Not even hiding that she's watching Sonetto stretch, Matilda interjects with, "Perhaps we can go over one-by-one the muscles of the upper body?" 'The way your body automatically moves in response to receiving 'damage' is actually an important clue.' Matilda lets out a surprised-interested little, Ça a du sens!". Just as a little fidget, she pinches her own forearm, tries to think a bunch about the feelings and reactions, and then pouts a little bit. 'Did your schedule open up all of a sudden?' Matilda blinks, and considers that for a moment- "No, Director, but it has-not become less free in quite some time!" That's not the same thing at all. 'It will entail multiple days in wilderness locations, with minimal gear, few comforts, and limited medical access.' Matilda's little practice-campout for the Foundation's baseline wilderness-survival capacity proved slightly embarrassingly simple, for the par of those around her, and so the idea of getting to test her mettle at something much more of an ordeal, let alone something traditional in this way, puts a competitive little glimmer in her eye. There's a second glimmer, entirely because of imagining Sonetto going through that along-side her as well. 'Now pair off.' Before even asking if the study-group equates to also being practice-partners, Matilda just sidestep-slides over towards Sonetto. Finn earns a desperate glare from Matilda, to please please please please let her have this, especially if it means anything about further training. "What an opportunity, to incorporate the same training-format into our regular sparring, too! Surely we will both excel at this exercise, no? Hah..." Matilda, pressingly, wants to lock down 'getting to spar with Sonetto' and 'continuing to spar as she already has been, with Sonetto', as she runs through her own stretches. "We should 'partner up', as is said!" That's not what Lilian said. Good luck.
Timekeeper	""Would you like someone to talk-with about it? Perhaps when there is a better time?" "Ah...?" Sonetto's tone tilts questioningly upwards, then slumps downwards, in the span of the one drawn-out syllable. She fidgets with her hair more than she braids it, comfortingly soft even to herself-- or at least, Matilda can imagine how soft it is. "Perhaps...? It is not... er... yes, it may be relevant to the duties of the FDMO." She laboriously convinces herself by speaking out loud, clearly wanting a reason and having to conjure one up out of nothing. Conveniently, it's one that requires that she talks to Matilda specifically about it. "The way your body automatically moves in response to receiving 'damage' is actually an important clue." The accumulation of knowledge enriches Sonetto in a way that fills meters she continues to be clueless as to the existence of. Her saturation level slowly increases as the training session goes on, and she remarks to herself, pleased as punch, "Ah, I was unaware of the science behind it, but that properly lines up with my expectations." As if to encourage-- no, there's no as if, she's encouraging injury-inducing contact violence for the sake of education when she says, "I have my healing arcanum as backup if necessary. And, Odette?" Sonetto looks towards her expectantly. If she did something annoying like leaving her medical supplies with the rebel group then Sonetto will be mildly peeved. "Those who undertake provisional live training will be experiencing situations that are similar to how I, myself, learned, as did my ancestors." This makes her lock the fuck in though. Where she'd been gradually immersing herself in the environment of Trídéag as the first place she'd gone outside the Foundation in days, the mention of some ancestral tradition lurches her heart faster than her body can keep up with. She stiffens up, doubling down on the warmup stances with her wooden training sword like a wind-up toy that got another crank. "Understood, Director! When will the dates for that expedition be available?" Obviously, there's no doubt in her mind that she'll pass the assessment. "Well, traditionally, everything would be done nude, but I'm a modern woman." However, tantalized by the faintest wisp of secondhand tradition and gifts of lineage, Sonetto's mouth moves faster than her addled brain. "Was there a practical or spiritual reason behind the traditional nudity?" When she hears the words coming out of her mouth, one might expect her to then belatedly take them back, but she just stays like that with a blank expression. "Ah, do either of you want to--oh, working together?" Sonetto looks confusedly to the side, trying to determine who Finn thinks she's working together with. Matilda slides into the empty space just as her gaze is directed towards it, filling the mental slot like a tetris piece. Satisfied by this, Sonetto concludes that she must have meant to pair off with Matilda after all, if Finn and Matilda both agree. "Oh, okay. Good luck with your review, Finn." "Surely we will both excel at this exercise, no?" "We will see," Sonetto says heartlessly, all the more so because it's perfectly neutral-toned. "En garde, Matilda." Sonetto is no longer in the habit of saying each of her guards and thrusts out loud as she performs them. That's a memorization technique, useful for arrays, exercises, and combat motions, but only a crutch for learning! Instead, within sixty seconds, Sonetto has methodically thwapped her wooden sword against Matilda's bicep, then her wrist, then prodded the point right into her kidney-- demonstrating, on purpose, the progression of green, yellow, and red.
Angela	''Finn glare!!'' "Aha, it's alright, I'll find someone lese this time." Finn assures Matilda, sliding over to Mang-chi, who swallows nervously. Finn's been at Solace's heels as far as results in training go, lately, and Mang-chi conversely has been spending most of his time with Sasha working on his parkour. A bead of sweat drops down his cheek. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THIRD WHEEL ''Engarde!'' Knifty doesn't have brute force at all, she joined Trídéag with arms as thin as APPLe's and they haven't gotten much better now that she eats more than once every two days. But she's quick on her feet, agile, and has the most training hours if you count Nelly's extra sessions. Since this is a swordfighting class, Knifty can't use the wires that Nelly instructed her on using, but Knifty uses her sword to rarely parry strikes, instead relying on footwork and her small size to dance around Sarracenia's attacks. She's attempting to lull Sarracenia into overcommitting for a strike or knocking her off balance with a parry before she even thinks of trying to go in for a 'kill'. The reward of wilderness training sounds awful. Knifty wants it more than anything. ''Shall we start, then?'' Ceri quirks her head, noticing the tear but not sure what to make of it. "As a medic, you should especially consider your own wounds. If you go down, who will treat everyone else if you're the only medic available." Joanna is trying not to demolish Weather Report completely so Weather Report actually learns something and also because if Weather Report gets upset she might cause a weather phenomena. Best to avoid it! "Finn and Knifty have made considerable improvement." Ceri says. "It would be cruel for me to speak as to how much Weather Report has grown when she's still so fresh. Besides, you should be focusing on yourself." Ceri has been a duelist her whole life, so Ceri isn't hitting Odette with her hardest stuff either. She's playing on the defensive, knocking away Odette's strikes but not moving to immediately capitalize on them--at first--but once it becomes apparent Odette's not going to get a good strike on her, she hits Odette in her wrist and then her shoulder right past her guard in sharp small thrusts. "You're movement seems off." Ceri says.
Odette Raskins	"It is good to see you. It seems like it has been forever." Much like with Ceri, Sarracenia's familiar presence gets a notable shift in shoulder tension as Odette greets her. "Same to you, Princess Sarracenia. Things have been a little busy for both of us, huh? Might be getting busier soon, too." She's totally referring to this training and not any rebellions or anything. "I have my healing arcanum as backup if necessary. And, Odette?" "Huh! Oh! Yes, I've got most of the strong stuff in the locker room, but I've always got the emergency supplies on me." She reassures Sonetto with a firm nod, suddenly wondering if she remembered to actually close her locker door. She doesn't say anything about what extra supplies she's left with the rebels while coming here, of course, since she's yet to confirm Sonetto's position on that. SHe's not about to bring it up here of all places, either, what with both Sonetto and Matilda being right there. Maybe later, if she could only figure out how to bring it up without sounding suspiciously relevant to it "If you go down, who will treat everyone else if you're the only medic available." "Besides, you should be focusing on yourself." "Even more reason for me to really nail this stuff. I can't be dragging everyone else down by being the weak link and one of the only medics at that, you know?" Odette replies to Ceri, nodding lightly as she gets the quick rundown on the other present members. "Good to know about them getting better, then. I'll be counting on you all, but I still want to be good enough to be a solid decoy." Unfortunately for Odette, Ceri's able to demonstrate the skill gap quite easily, especially with the medic being more of a defensive fighter. She grunts lightly at the thrusts, twisting her practice sword after the fact to briefly mimic the movement and recall which one was used at each moment. "Green, then... Red? No, maybe a yellow if it's shallow enough. Could draw it out in a real situation and stall for backup if that happened." She predicts, looking to Ceri for her assessment as well. "But if nobody was around, maybe a red would be warranted for this one?" "movement seems off" That, meanwhile, gets Odette to flinch briefly. "Erk.. Yes. I was trying to.. I wanted to focus more on using the sword instead of my feet." She replies, adjusting her back foot slightly once she realizes her stance has settled too wide. "I won't always have room to move all over the place like I'd want to, either because there's not enough space, or there might be someone I've got to stay in front of. So..." She purses her lips for a moment. ".. Should I keep doing that?
Foundation Scions	Seeing Finn give up and pair off with someone else earns Finn a different look from Matilda, this one blatantly a thank-you-so-so-much. Maybe Finn can cash it in at some point? 'En garde, Matilda.' "Hah- yes! En garde!" Matilda, too, has long-since stopped using the same call-outs as Sonetto, though in her case it's because of the long-lasting motivator of having embarrassed herself on-camera, and not wanting that to be repeated forever. But, though not as well and as diligently as Sonetto, Matilda still has been practicing! Taking three hits in sixty seconds isn't the worst she could do. With the instruction to continue through the calls, Matilda's trying to think just a bit-too fast to not give the colors in French, squeaking out 'Vert-' correctly at the bicep, 'Jaune- er, yellow!' at the wrist- and then, on the base assumption of Sonetto's personality, of strict-student perfectionist, Matilda's sure the next will be a red ('rouge') hit, and not a repeat. It's not really a hard guess, even in the heat of the moment! That doesn't really afford Matilda a lot of freedom, but for the seconds between strikes, because she also wants to be a strict-student perfectionist type, Matilda tries to use the inevitable hit she'll take to get a chance to bap Sonetto's head-region, and earn that fourth-in-sequence color-callout.
Lilian Rook	'I judge by the location and the depth. And how effectively I can move after.' Lilian, taken off-guard, blinks at Sarracenia, and says, "You judge?" before gathering up a mocking tone. "Beg pardon; you just seemed so surprised that one time it--" Hm. No. "Needless to say, you won't be bringing your handbag to provisional live training. Especially not those godforsaken green mushrooms. Assuming you'll be able to scarf those things down at a moment's notice has taught you all sorts of bad habits that you're partly here to unlearn." Lilian turns to the class as she steps down from the platform and elaborates. "The human instinct to avoid injury isn't something a serious combatant should try to overcome; it's necessary to being able to fight well." Lilian says. "Fear is a critical ingredient of sound decisionmaking. Hesitation is what has to be killed." 'Just like the ancient experts...' Humu humu. Yes. Praise tradition (when it's relevant to Me). "The awareness that you may be hurt or killed causes the brain to pay increased attention to sensory information and amplify its perception of time. By skipping unnecessary data, your reactions are shortened and heightened, and you become more reliant on heuristic thinking instead; for the sake of obeying instincts designed to get you out of trouble, of course, but polishing that heuristic thinking to be more accurate, flexible, and useful, means that you'll profit more greatly from the awareness of danger." 'Study anatomy together? Would you want to?' 'Perhaps we can go over one-by-one the muscles of the upper body?' Lilian catches herself staring that Matilda got anywhere at all with this. Slightly open-mouthed, stunned silent, she wonders whether to somehow congratulate her for some fucked up reason, but-- 'Her treatment is being administered by Mesmer Jr.' 'And, Mesmer Jr. is very busy, yes?' Lilian whistles ear-hurtingly loud. "Can I ask the both of you to stay on task?" follows, impatiently. "Come on. Don't force me to make a rule about that name." 'Was there a practical or spiritual reason behind the traditional nudity?' Sonetto is such a good student. Lilian's mood changes back immediately with an excuse to continue the lesson. "Surprisingly, the reasons are mostly practical. The 'ancient experts', as Raskins put it, frequently performed certain training without clothing because the sense of vulnerability that is created by exposing bare skin to every stimulus is an excellent tool to magnify, and thus help notice and become accustomed to, that altered perception while the mind is preoccupied only with protecting itself from harm." Lilian prods her own side, emphasizing the semi-padded cloth weave, then waves her own hand over where it meets her midriff, fanning air over both in a way that conveys nothing helpful without extensive use of one's imagination. "Ordinary clothing provides no meaningful protection and tells the brain to deprioritize the skin it sits on. Attacks to the head are easier to respond to, and harder to land, partly for the reason that our heads are exposed almost all the time."
Lilian Rook	Encouraged to the point of reminiscence, Lilian lingers on an excuse to effuse about her single favourite subject. "The spiritual aspect is more complex and was often perceived differently from clan to clan. In the broadest sense, though, shedding the body of adornment in a ritualistic fashion was to set aside, in effigy and in psychological practice, the accumulated wisdom of man, and to return to being as God's creation again; a necessary part of refamiliarizing oneself with the physical vessel of the soul and its inherent, sacred connection to nature. It also represents a form of intentional estrangement from society by stripping that which unconsciously convey social norms and status; itself an intentional act of fully conceptualizing one's own mortality, before exposing oneself to the battlefield." "In other words, it's believed that if training were too cerebral and civilized, a warrior wouldn't be able to adjust to the somatic and emotional realities of combat when called for. Their body would still be their representation in society rather than an implement of service in battle." Just a little smugly, she says, "Of course, that was the case while I studied under Scáthach. If I had to describe it myself, I'd say my 'spiritual experience' was in how I came to think of my own skin as a sort of delineation to where my existence began and ended. It certainly did change how I fight." 'Understood, Director! When will the dates for that expedition be available?' "Oh. Good question. Next week at the latest." 'Finn and Knifty have made considerable improvement.' "Speaking of which . . ." Lilian motions Ceri closer, but not so much that it'd be all that secretive. "You and your Cinq associates have first call of the new workshop that's been set up in-house. I've finally got them taken custom commissions for variant Type-Thirteens. Give some thought as to what you'd like made, and speak with a craftsman or two. I'll have Joanna and Solace follow suit, and then Justin's guys afterwards. Elites come after that." Lilian looks worriedly at Sarracenia. "I'll politely ask all of you not to ask them to innovate anything that'd enable a hammer shape."
Sarracenia	Sarra is more agile than her height and preferred combat style would suggest, but she is still having difficulty keeping up with such a quick opponent. It quickly gets on Sarra's nerves, but she likes Knifty so she keeps it in check. She starts to fall back on her most practiced style, which is swing big. But, she swings big to try and get some space before she follows up with a few thrusts. "I am quite impressed, Knifty! I knew you had been practicing a lot, but I thought I was at least keeping up!" Unfortunately for Sarra, she is prone to overcommitting. It is kind of her thing. All attack, little defense. So, one of those slash and thrusts is particularly powerful and pushes a bit too far forward. Sarra ends up off balance just a bit, and while she will recover quickly it certainly leaves her open for an attack by a smaller, faster opponent. But then again, getting close to Sarra for an attack could just as easily lead to all that power finally finding its mark. 'Same to you, Princess Sarracenia. Things have been a little busy for both of us, huh? Might be getting busier soon, too.' Sarra hasn't been involved in Suitcase or Storm stuff, so for her things are getting a little less busy. "Oh? I am not so sure. Gregory's killer has been caught, and the Sundew Kingdom's security status is back to normal. But, then again, things can become quite busy quite quickly." 'You judge?' Sarra hmphs a bit haughtily at Lilian's surprise. "Well, I realized I was just thinking about it differently. It is something that is done so fast I did not consider it judging. As you said, combat does not stop for 'judging'." The part about her handbag is no surprise. Sarra hmphs in a haughty tone again. "My training with the Liu has already taught me much about fighting without my handbag and power-ups." she says. Which is true. At least...in combat. Outside of it, she makes generous use of them. Otherwise she would be positively covered in scars by now 'Lilian looks worriedly at Sarracenia.' Sarra hmphs softly. "I do not need them to make a hammer for me, anyway." she says, trying to keep her mind focused and not wandering to Lilian training under Scathach.
Angela	Finn is happy to help out a friend, and is feeling a little sheepish for not realizing her intensions earlier! ''Surprisingly, the reasons are mostly practical.'' "Oh then why aren't we training in the nude?" Knifty asks. "If there's such an important reason for doing so, shouldn't we be training nude, Miss Director? Should we undress right now?" There's a chorus of 'ows' as the Fixers who got distracted by that comment (including Mang-chi and Pete) get clobbered hard in that moment of distraction (Sarracenia too, if she gets flustered, though Knifty also gets a light hit on when Sarracenia overcommits, speeding up unexpectedly to get that hit in.). Lenny, annoyed, says, "I can't believe you, I normally don't hit you at all, but that's all it took?" Lenny complains to Pete. "Ghk--sorry, sorry, it won't happen again!" ''I wanted to focus more on using the sword instead of my feet.'' "You shouldn't have to think about your feet at all. Go back to focusing on your footwork. Stick to it until it becomes so automatic it doesn't slow down your bladework at all. Footwork is the most fundamental aspect of swordsmanship. If you don't have that, you'll trip over yourself in any real fight." Ceri tells Odette. "We'll do the drills until your feet feel like lead, alright? Once you get that down, the drills will feel a lot easier and lighter." Ceri doesn't turn her attention off of Odette, focused on her work. Ever since her recovery under Lilian's care, she's been at the height of her ability--frankly more in her element than she was even at Lobcorp--not until Lilian gestures for her. "Keep doing your forms, I'll be right back." She tells odette before approaching Lilian. She's honestly surpised to hear that her Cinq friends are getting first call, but despite their personalities, they are far more experienced Fixers than most of the newbies. "Mm... I understand. I'll let Solace and Joanna know to start thinking about it. I imagine my Cinq friends will want rapiers, it's the weapon they're most comfortable with, but I'll tell them to not rush to that conclusion." She glances to Sarracenia and then back to Lilian. "...I'm sure that won't be an issue." She assures Lilian. "I bet you hit good...!" Knifty assures Sarracenia.
Lilian Rook	'I have my healing arcanum as backup if necessary. And, Odette?' 'Huh! Oh! Yes, I've got most of the strong stuff in the locker room' "No." Lilian holds her breath for the second after the syllable leaves her mouth. She shakes her head in slow motion to try and push past somethng behind her eyelids. "Until you've achieved a higher level of training, the relationship between us, as instructor and pupil, shouldn't have ambiguity introduced into it. Until you're all advanced enough students to read advance intent into a strike, seriously hurting anyone as an instructor right now risks building up a negative association with my physical demonstrations." 'Even more reason for me to really nail this stuff. I can't be dragging everyone else down by being the weak link and one of the only medics at that, you know?' "A commendable attitude." Lilian says, distracted with fixing some invisible flaw in her updo. Once down from the platform, she wastes no time in touring around the pairs as they are. Her weird habit of getting way closen than she needs to remains. By now it's a given that no stray swing is going to hit her even when she does. She comments seemingly randomly as she goes. "Sorry, but the shoulder being a safe hit area is purely from the movies. For anything but a flesh wound, consider that arm gone." "Any breach of the chest lining will inhibit your breathing and get you killed, whether it hits your heart or not. Which is actually closer to the center, by the way. You'll notice a broken rib because it hurts like nothing else, but your lungs are actually operated by negative pressure inside the chest cavity; finding it hard to breathe because of pain is entirely separate from actual difficulty breathing." "Funny enough, the skull is actually much better at its job than you'd think. When you attack the head, most of what you're attacking is the neck, throat, and shoulders. Even thrusts aim to get under the chin. What you need to look out for is how quickly your head was suddenly forced to move. Gauging your sense of balance is the first thing to do; it'll bleed a lot even for a small scrape." "The outside of your arm is much safer than the inside. Even your wrist, which is delicate-- the guard of your sword exists to protect it-- is a potentially fatal injury on the inside. One of the big reasons that overhead swings are so risky is because it exposes your armpits. Sliding a sword under the arm is a classic way to immediately kill an opponent in heavy armour." "No, nothing is going to gouge out your eye in combat. You'd be shocked at how resilient those bastards are." Now Matilda actually gets praise for her guess. "Correct! The kidney and liver aren't organs that are remotely essential for combat, but a serious blow that ruptures an organ lining will incapacitate you with pain, and if not, render you septic in short order. Damage to either is cause to immediately retreat to receive medical care while you still can. The same goes for the lower intestinal cavity." She takes a moment to squeeze Sonetto's bicep to follow up. "Strikes to the outer extremities are the bulk of what you'll experience as 'unforced errors', and something you'll want to get used to 'fighting through'. As a rule, consider these severe if they strike bone; it's practically a coinflip to hit bone without striking an artery."
Lilian Rook	'Oh then why aren't we training in the nude? If there's such an important reason for doing so, shouldn't we be training nude, Miss Director? Should we undress right now?' "Because you're low-Grade Fixers and not Celtic Knights." Lilian says, offhand. "And there's nothing like 'nature' here at all." comes out with a bit more conviction. Annoyingly, though, Lilian is stuck with her incorrigible habit of 'having to analyze her own out-of-pocket thought'. More than usual. "And because my telling you to do so, as the Director of the Association, as well as the owner of the building, can't be taken in good faith; no matter how important the reason. Even outside of religious or moral objections, there's only so much trust that I should expect from people whose livelihoods depend on me." 'You shouldn't have to think about your feet at all. Go back to focusing on your footwork. Stick to it until it becomes so automatic it doesn't slow down your bladework at all. Footwork is the most fundamental aspect of swordsmanship. If you don't have that, you'll trip over yourself in any real fight.' Lilian snaps her finger sand points for corrective emphasis. "If you're still struggling with footwork, remember what I've said before. You can get anything done with void steps, lunging steps, and cross steps. If it helps to always keep your steps the same length, then just take more of them. Never let 'where I need to be' take over your stance." 'Mm... I understand. I'll let Solace and Joanna know to start thinking about it. I imagine my Cinq friends will want rapiers, it's the weapon they're most comfortable with' "Have them take time to consider the thermal mass of the blade core they're working with." says Lilian. "A traditionally sized rapier will be quick to re-ready, but the trigger will shut off to recharge after every use. What sort of hilts are traditional in the Cinq?" 'I do not need them to make a hammer for me, anyway.' "Is that so?" Lilian calls out. "Goodness. Seeing you move on to a real weapon would be a treat. The spear and poleax are lofty choices as well, you know." 'My training with the Liu has already taught me much about fighting without my handbag and power-ups.' "I'll see for myself." says Lilian. But . . . "Everything else you've done with them has clearly worked wonders. I'll admit that I'm impressed with Xiao. I was going to have her send you back after four months originally, but you're making such strides there I've told her to make the call herself."
Sarracenia	Sarra is definitely thrown completely off balance as Knifty suggests they actually do train in the nude right here right now. The still somewhat red princess is full on tomato after that, and then getting hit by Knifty a few times. "Kn-knifty! We cannot do that!" she exclaims in a squeaking voice, forgetting to even defend herself for a few moments. When she realizes she has been hit a few times, she huffs and gives off a few colors. She grades nearly everything as either red or yellow, except those that hit the outside of her arms or legs. 'I bet you hit good...!' Sarra's teeth clench a bit. "...well...I hit -well-." she corrects, mostly out of spite for being hit so much. "Let me show you!" Despite the fire in her tone, Sarra falls back on what she has learned here and at Liu instead of her usual. She lowers her stance to give herself more maneuverability and starts focusing on her ability to outrange Knifty, wielding her sword in one hand and using the other for balance and faster strikes. Almost like a proper fencer. Almost. She still uses too much power. And while she is not holding back with Knifty, she is still smiling some. It is hard to be in bad spirits with Knifty around. 'I'll see for myself. . . Everything else you've done with them has clearly worked wonders. I'll admit that I'm impressed with Xiao. I was going to have her send you back after four months originally, but you're making such strides there I've told her to make the call herself.' Sarra hmhms proudly. "I suppose working with a Director and Fixers who do -not- hate me does wonders! Director Xiao and Vice-Director Mirus even seem somewhat impressed with me! And I have a good rapport with my squadmates, Lian and Ying~" 'Seeing you move on to a real weapon would be a treat.' Sarra huffs softly. "I use a hammer for specific reasons. I will not abandon it so easily. Hammers are the weapons of my family, and are less likely to kill than a spear or poleaxe or sword."
Timekeeper	"Come on. Don't force me to make a rule about that name." "Ah- Understood, Director." Sonetto hates being scolded!!! She shouldn't have to be whistled at like that! She must change her behavior immediately! "In other words, it's believed that if training were too cerebral and civilized, a warrior wouldn't be able to adjust to the somatic and emotional realities of combat when called for." Thankfully she is loved here! She's an excellent student and this is the highest virtue possible for a girl. Sonetto absorbs Lilian's explanation with the rapt attentiveness of someone who would be taking notes if not holding a wooden sword, and believably will write down notes later on something she isn't even being tested on. "Ah, so it is a similar rationale to the survival training exam done for first year field agent SPDM internships. We were not naked, due to workplace decency concerns I believe, but thinking on it retrospectively, the purpose of forcing us out of bed in our pajamas for several days was likely to induce a similar sense of vulnerability. I am glad to hear the reasoning used for a long-standing cultural practice!" She recounts this with a smile, even though Matilda would know that she was probably thirteen years old at the time. "Until you're all advanced enough students to read advance intent into a strike, seriously hurting anyone as an instructor right now risks building up a negative association with my physical demonstrations." "Huh?" Sonetto tilts her head in confusion, but ultimately accepts the command, even if the reasoning is questionable. "Okay." "Funny enough, the skull is actually much better at its job than you'd think." Struck in the side of the head by Matilda, in a way that would clip the top of her ear and leave a cut running along her temple, Sonetto blissfully says, "Yellow," before retaliating the high-angled strike with a jab under Matilda's armpit. The sword is pinched by Matilda's shoulder when she tries to pull away, and Sonetto leverages it between her bicep and back to twist Matilda's torso forwards and down, side-stepping to both complete the takedown and exert more force twisting Matilda's arm. Forced down to her knees, Matilda is subjected to a repositioning of Sonetto's blade, like a wrestled headlock, to lightly touch her throat and force her chin upwards. Holding that position, Sonetto taps a finger to where Matilda 'cut' her, taking it away like she's envisioning the blood staining her fingertips. "This is a wound that would be more debilitating if more concussive force was behind the strike rather than simply relying on the blade's edge. The edge mostly threatens partial blinding by passing nearby the eye, either from exsanguination or wounding the eye directly, but it causes less immediate pain and little lasting damage to the temple besides that risk." She adds, presumably following through on Matilda's interest(?) in anatomy, "You struck the fascia of the temporalis and auricularis muscles, as well as the edge of the orbicularis muscle. As mentioned, concussive force to the same area can damage the zygomatic arch or other maxillofacial injuries, often resulting in impaired vision or severe pain from jaw malfunctions."
Odette Raskins	Humu humu. Finally, Odette's hobbies are actually relevant! She didn't quite expect it to be so relevant, but she's soaking up everything Lilian's explaining about nude training and seriously considering the merits of fighting without her uniform on. Her sense of shame'll probably kick in the moment she tries to act on that, but at least for right now? It's a very cool-sounding idea to her. "Should we undress right now?" chorus of 'ows' Or it can finally sink in for Odette right at that moment, as she realizes that there'd be far more people than just herself seeing everyone else. "W... Well. Maybe that kind of training could be useful, too? To get everyone used to it, so they don't get distracted by that if someone just starts a fight without pants on?" She's trying so hard not to snicker, forcing a clenched jaw and everything. She's someone's role model somewhere, so she has to keep it in. "Because you're low-Grade Fixers and not Celtic Knights." Somehow, that's what gets her to calm back down. Even she's not sure why. ""forcing us out of bed in our pajamas for several days"" That, meanwhile, gets Odette to blurt out a worried "Huh?" and stare at Sonetto, jaw agape as she gets dumbstruck by that. Does this mean Sonetto's one of those child soldiers she's heard about in those banned tapes? The worried expression lingers, but she's not sure how to address it just yet. She'll need some time to sort that out. "You shouldn't have to think about your feet at all." "Never let 'where I need to be' take over your stance." With both Ceri and Lilian asserting the importance of using her feet instead of planting them, Odette takes a moment to breathe and reconsider what she was doing. Focusing too much on the sword instead of letting her legs do what they're good at certainly hasn't gotten her any results, and these two have probably forgotten more about combat than she's ever known. That's more than enough to convince her, and she exhales softly before settling her practice sword back into its proper position. "Void, lunging, cross... More steps to keep it flowing, move until it's automatic. Understood. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Miss Ceri." She nods quickly before starting to shift her feet around again, going through the guards and steps just as she had learned. Letting herself actually use her feet to go through the forms properly makes it evident that Odette's actually retained quite a bit since the very first lesson! Her steps are accurate and quick, and even the wasted movements while going through those steps flow naturally enough that it wouldn't be out of the question for Odette to be able to do this on uneven ground. Repeating the drills she's learned once Ceri's stepped away, it's easier to see where Odette's weaknesses lie. Even with her improved and now-existing footwork, her slashes at the air show that there's still not a lot of power behind any of the swings. They're quicker than they are strong, and most of those swings look like she's focused more on keeping an invisible opponent at bay rather than trying to sink her blade in or lop something off. At most, it looks like she's trying to slice bits off with just the tip instead of really sinking the bulk of the blade in or through a limb. Hearing Lilian mention just how bad a shoulder or armpit injury could be reminds her of exactly why she's doing that, though. "A traditionally sized rapier" "The spear and poleax are lofty choices as well, you know." "Can that... Hah. Is that something we can choose? Er. Later?" The thought of it hasn't really occurred to Odette until now, even though it's not too surprising to think about. "I mean... Wouldn't that bring prices way up, if everyone that passes ends up asking for something different?"
Angela	Knifty says, "Yes, Director!" She doesn't mind being corrected and unfortunately for Sarracenia, Knifty's desire to get hit sometimes isn't overpowering her desire to do her job right anymore. She'll be THRILLED if Sarracenia clobbers her but she's not going to make it easy! ''What sort of hilts are traditional in the Cinq?'' "Typically full or three quarter hilts, though my experience is largely in the South Section, I know that the East Section typically fight hand to hand utilizing pyrojade bangles to get a similar effect as to your Stigma Workshop blades." Ceri says. "They like their hilts ornate back home, though. I've lost my taste for the performance aspect, but I still appreciate the honor and focus of a proper duel." She glances at Sarracenia for a moment but shakes her head, setting aside that match as a thing of the past. "Dart and everyone, they still have some idealism and love for the Cinq's methods, they followed me here because they still see their vows to me as active. ... And now they see their vows in you, no doubt, similarly." ''I hit -well-'' Knifty is confused by the correction but while she has been demolishing Sarracenia so far, something shifts as Sarracenia focuses on getting into her own pace and is no longer letting Knifty distract her. She HAS been doing those Liu drills a lot and they are nothing if not disciplined. Sarracenia's tendency to use too much power is still causing her problems, but she's starting to outpace Knifty's swordsmanship, ultimately hitting her head in the chest. "Ahhh...kkkk... Eheheheh....Hahhhh... yesss...Red. You got me..." She steps back from Sarracenia, smiling broadly. ''Director Xiao and--'' Ceri looks to Sarracenia for a long moment. Director Xiao is only a Section DIrector, but she's a well known one, considered on track to become a Color. "If you were able to impress her, even a little, then you must have taken your work there seriously. But understand this, if you slip--if you let your pride encourage you into being disrespectful to ''our'' Director, you'll be insulting her faith in you. And encouraging us to second guess her judgement. You say it is because they do not hate you, you now have a chance to prove you'll honor that." That done, she starts to move back to Odette. She wonders if the lack of power behind those strikes are because of her nature as a medic, perhaps she loves life too much to be so ready to take it away. But it'd be so rude to ask about that in such a way.
Foundation Scions	5r'Correct! The kidney and liver aren't organs that are remotely essential for combat,' "They are needed in-general," Matilda says, afterwards, happy to have gotten it right but moderately embarrassed to have taken the hit. Matilda needs her organs! Owie! 'but thinking on it retrospectively, the purpose of forcing us out of bed in our pajamas for several days was likely to induce a similar sense of vulnerability.' "Not only to emphasize the dangers of climate exposure..?" Matilda, who is to this day a bit miffed to have not gotten to take such an internship, is at least a little bit outside-enough from it to squint a little at the positive conclusion being to scare children. Here, at the association, such a training makes sense! But the SPDM already makes so many feel vulnerable, she can see that in the students she's responsible for- especially now, after the Storm, with the confusion as to the necessary security. But Sonetto is agreeing with important-sounding training, and likening it to this- so Matilda has to get in her agreement-points, with "It must be very effective if it is not only traditional, but also independently-common!" 'Yellow,' No! No! That wasn't the plan! Curse the skull and its structural rigidity needed to safe-guard a vital organ! This was her chance to one-up Sonetto, and prove how cool she is and how she should have her as an assistant rather than the Timekeeper! A little exasperated, it's the cherry on the cake to then be quite-efficiently struck at the shoulder (also 'Yellow?', though Matilda's cry might be in protest to Sonetto's. Sputtering, down, and with the sword against her throat, Matilda calls 'Black' in English, focused now. Her face cries 'red', though, flushed. That's embarrassing! If this was a real fight she'd be dead! Well, if it was a real fight, Sonetto would probably subdue, only. "I, will keep that in mind! The concussive force, I mean!" Fidgety, there's a part of Matilda's brain that snags on the fact that Sonetto even remembered the details of that enough to devote effort into lecturing, and that it's a lecture for her- '"You struck the fascia of the temporalis and auricularis muscles, as well as the edge of the orbicularis muscle.' "I know that one! It is easy to remember! It sounds very much like orbuculum, and, of course, encircles the eye!" A pause, "Un moyen mnémotechnique!"