Completed Stress Relief

[Ana Sol Starris]

Winter 27th, 512AV Canopy Training Area In one hand there was a piece of wood shaped to look like a dagger, in its most simplistic form, and in the other was a cold iron blade, ten times heavier than the wooden one and cost possibly ten times as much as the dinky wooden one. Two hands weighed the practice weapon and the real one, balancing them, and then lifting one hand up and the other down at the same time. The wooden one was light, and the metal one was heavier, it had more force to it than the wooden one did but it was a practice weapon opposed to the cold iron dagger she now held in her hand. In front of her was a practice dummy, possibly the same one she had used yesterday if she remembered correctly. Puffs of white air escaped the crevice that was her mouth, a slight wind blew, and with it the hem of her black cloak. "Right," Ana mumbled to herself, though she had two weapons in her hand, she sheathed the real dagger as carefully as she could. Watching where both blade and scabbard would align, and let the sharp metal slide in with deliberately slow ease. There wasn't any need as of yet to play about with the real weapon, if she hoped to get out of this quick training session without any cuts and bruises. Don't think about the others.. Imagine they are not there! The thought briskly went through her head, fleeting, as her attention would be drawn to the other training inhabitants of the Canopy Training Grounds. Akalak and Konti in the most concentrated amount Ana had ever seen were all vigorously going at their own methods, and training with such a firesome determination it made Ana feel weak. "Just.. Let it flow out.. Like yesterday," she whispered, her eyes snapping back to her chosen dummy feeling extremely conscience over what she was doing. The thief had come alone that day, without Ximal or Zandelia to further her own skills alone, she felt she needed the extra practice if they were going to be leaving peaceful Spires. There wasn't any doubt in either the big ox, or the paranoid woman, that they could hold their own if such a situation were to happen; but what of Ana? She had little experience fighting, let alone enough real fights to make her feel comfortable with the flow of a spar. Not necessarily a battle, but definitely a lethal spar on either sides part, and Ana doubted she would be the one to survive such an ordeal single handedly with little confidence in combat. Clearing her throat, her eyes went down to the wooden blade, eyeing the craftsmanship put into the, the wooden grain and flow of the jittery lines. First she gave it a few experiemental swings, trying to take the small amount of experience she had with her shortsword and applied it to the dagger. If there was one thing she noticed immediately was that her reach was severely cut off, unlike the shortsword she had before, she retracted her arm and held it level with her chest. Her other hand went a little lower, but remained to the side to add a sense of balance with the wooden blade. Holding it uncertainly around its grip, she did a straight forwards thrust at the dummy, turning her body, and stepping lightly forwards as she would connect the tip to the chest area with it. Feeling small reverberations crawl up her hand at impact, she grimaced, her mind spinning on what to do next.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Rolling her wrist about with the dagger in hand, she wanted to understand how the dagger worked, or how to use it effectively (of course, with time and much practice.) It would end up being her back up plan if she were to suddenly be disarmed, and thrown in to a corner, at least she knew she would have it on her in case of emergency. The only trouble with it now was she had to learn how to wield it properly, her feet stepped out and to the side slowly, encircling the dummy while keeping her eyes firmly planted on it. The dagger was pointed at the dummy, but it felt far too uncomfortable to hold it at the maniken and keep it level with her chest- so she went with the next best, and most comfortable arrangement of her arm that seemed to make sense to her. Lowering the blade slightly, and off to the side; she let her arm relax into the flow and slowly as she stepped about, she pushed her arm out, and twisted the wooden dagger to land in the back of the dummy. Instead of quickly doing so, she made note as to how the movement of her arm felt, and whether or not it strained too hard to apply force. Stopping as she connected with the dummy, she tilted her head to the side, thinking carefully. If this was a real fight.. Where would the best spots be to incapacitate someone? It was really a simple thought, but in her anger of yesterday she had merely bashed at the dummy with little care at where she was hitting. Some areas were quite obvious, so she circled around again to face the dummys front- she let the wooden weapon drag on the dummy as she did so. It came to rest at the stomach, sudden images of an unknown persons guts slid out gruesomely, making her tense with the squeezyness she felt- she was not looking for ways to kill someone, that was the farthest thing she wanted to do. The dead couldn't speak, they couldn't listen, they would be useless afterwards; and any form of undead was an abomination. "Dead." She said curtly, taking the dagger away and the angling it at the neck. "Doubly dead.." she whispered, throats being slit in Sunberth was common for thugs to do, she remembered the first time she met Wren; he had put a dagger to her throat. "..triply dead.." her voice paused, and then broke off. The dagger trailed itself downwards to rest on the chest, just above the heart, but let her free hand roam over her own body to feel the sternum in her chest underneath her clothing, and the skin. Tracing her lungs perimeter through the clothes, in the middle where the sternum would end, she would repeat with the dagger- if somehow the weapon managed to penetrate flesh and muscle in an upward motion, the blade would penetrate the heart most likely. The heart was what beat, and kept all living things.. Alive. Those were the only immediate places she knew offhand, and all of them would end up with the attacker or defender dead if she were lucky enough to hit either three areas. It came to her attention that she knew of nothing on how to stop someone, without ending up killing them by accident, where were the spots that were vunerable but not fatal? Ana stared at the dummy, her cheeks slowly flushing with color as she tried to run different situations in her head, not from embarresement, not from love, but from anger. She didn't want to kill anyone, but no matter what she thought, using the blade would end up killing the attacker or the defender from either blood loss, or a point she might have foolishly ended up cutting or stabbing. That was if they didn't have a doctor on hand.. Perhaps she wouldn't have to worry for awhile, she was still learning after all, and she doubted heavily in herself that she could end up killing someone with her measly skill. It just wasn't possible with the little she knew on how to fight, and defend herself, most of the time her only options had been to flee, and abandon the previous attempts of theft, or muggings. She just wasn't cold enough to take the life of another being, not yet, at least, hopefully for a long while. Innocence screamed itself to the forefront, a lucid shiver in her arms and legs, it was such a naive feeling and she knew it wouldn't last if they left Spires. Ana had to expect in herself that she would be the cause of ones death, or of many deaths in the making. Maybe not now, but definitely in the future.

[Ana Sol Starris]

If...? Paralyzed at the word, she remained in the same position for chimes as the implications of such a small word could change the fate of the world. Why had she thought 'if they left Spires'? That was foolish to think, of course they (she, Zandelia, and Ximal) would leave the Spires once and for all to never return! To think anything otherwise was nonsense, they didn't belong in this tree top city and quite frankly Ana was surprised their presence had been tolerated for so long now. Their kind was not meant to be in this tranquil, peacefully balanced system between life, death, and survival, they were to be in the chaotic urban cities causing mischief. To say they were anything else besides scoundrels, and troublemakers was a complete lie. Maybe not so much Ximal, the big mook that he was; but he, in her mind, would always be apart of them because they had come from the same city. There was no other way to explain. Forcing the movements out of her locked position, she swung with an incredibly slow turn of her body, arm up, and going as far as she could with an arch of her arm to slam the supposed carved pommel of the wooden practice weapon into the middle of the chest. Tendrils of searing fire seeped into her palm, and the muscles seemed to contract terribly, increasing the amount of pain of which she felt explode in her hand; she had gripped the handle so hard her knuckles must have turned pure white underneath the fur gloves. It was a mindless act of violence to the dummy that she had put most of the force she could muster into said pommel strike, one she was familliar with, the dagger represented pain, and despair to her. The dagger... Her eyes widened as the images would come at her, the dagger held many painful memorys for her- it had been the beating tool that Shroud had used on her when she was not complacent, or if she had annoyed him with her presence too much. The attack was very much like how he had handled it, pommel to an area that would most definitely hurt. Though she didn't know if slamming said pommel into that one area on the chest would be detrimental to the health of her attacker. What would happen on a real person if she were to strike there? She shuddered at the thought. Exhaling through her nose, she circled the dummy again free from her physical restraint now, observing it, examining, pointing out where parts of a body may be. Arms, legs, chest, feet, hands, the whole deal; in turn she hid the wooden weapon underneath the cloak she wore. Much like a cat getting ready to pounce on its prey, she tried to imagine the dummy as a real person, she was encircling him like the fool he was, and she had a predatorial look about her. Perhaps said fool had crossed her, and was begging for mercy, and perhaps he had been trying to play tough guy. Whatever the case, it didn't seem to matter to Ana as she would move the dagger out to pierce his flesh in the side- that was if she hadn't caught the tip of the wooden weapon on her cloak. The outrageously large cloak had gotten in her way, and now it was pressed against the dummy, if it had been a real blade, well, Ana could only guess that maybe the cloak itself would have been torn, or actually pierced. Would the cloth ruin the effectiveness of the dagger? She took the weapon away from the dummy again, disentangling the cloak from its tip and held it out at visibility. Stupid cloak, she was only wearing this because it was so petching cold outside.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Ana was about to take the dagger away when she noticed the positioning of it, if the dummy were a real person it would definitely be lodged in the side; mimicking that with her free hand, she placed that hand on her side where the dagger could possibly go. Underneath her clothing she could still feel ribs, but not as bad as before when she had been in Sunberth, if the dagger were to somehow move past the rivetts of her rib bones then that could possibly hit her lungs (if the dagger were long enough.) The thought struck her hard, the dagger would pierce a lung through the flesh and bone and then the victem would most likely have trouble breathing, she had killed the dummy again for possibly the millionth time in a row. In a heart beat she became extremely angry at herself, how stupid was she to use the blade of the dagger, why not the pommel more often? Out of frustration she turned her wrist and raised her arm up, arching her arm back and brought the carved pommel down on the head area. She stepped around as she did so, one foot in front of the other and repeating the pattern over and over again, she twisted her hips to circle in front of the dummy as she would then raise her arm up and strike again with the pommel. In turn with her next step to the side, she retracted her arm and heard the tip of the wooden dagger drag across the chest area. She was stuck in her own world, her fantasy, there was no one around her but she herself and the stupid inanimate object called a dummy (that played as her willing victem, call her partially a sadist if you will.) Whats the point of the dagger anyways? Ana prodded the dummy irritably with the tip impatiently, and repeatedly. It's small, and sort of like a shortsword, but not, it's much shorter... She thought to herself, poking the dummy with the tip and then tapping it with the pommel; the tip now directed at her face stupidly, rolling her wrist and bending her elbow to do the transition. Well if it's small then wouldn't it be easily concealable? Memory of Zandelias dagger she had pulled from a boot backed that thought up. The steel of such a small weapon glinted in her eyes. That would mean it was used for stealth purposes, she stepped back, her form becoming spazzish at every noise, she prowled around the dummy much like a cat would stalk a mouse. Alot of thieves and thugs used these, she recalled back to Sunberth times, digging around for what she could on how to use the dagger apropriately. There were two 'techniques' that Ana could remember vaguely in her time back in Sunberth, they were used the most often, either the tip was pointing outwards and you held it like any other sword; or you held it backwards, pommel facing out and the tip downwards. Currently she was doing the old fashioned way of having the dagger used much like a one handed sword was, but with this way she could raise her arm up and do a pommel bash to the opponent with the arch, and force of her swing downwards. The only problem with that, Ana noted carefully that the practice dagger had come dangerously close to her own body with these wild swings. If the weapon had been anything other than wood, she might have ended up with quite a few cuts, instead of bruises. With her few deductions, and reasoning, she calmed down considerably but the anger lingered underneath, festered to come out another time.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Twisting the wooden dagger so that she was holding it pommel facing outwards, and the tip facing her, but tilted to the side. She would give this way a try before calling it quits for the day, her limbs felt so much heavier lately, the most she wanted to do was crawl into bed and just ignore the world. However, she knew what happened when she did that, her mind would wander, and continue to travel to different thoughts and ideas, and some of them just weren't the best to be thinking. They lowered her mood considerably, and it made her horrible to converse with afterwards, there just wasn't any cheer in her words or actions, to anyone smart enough, or willing to notice, they could have said she was depressed. Did anyone notice how her moods just went all over the place? Or were they all just waiting for the day she got herself kicked out of the Spires, uncaring to those who were different from them, and had come from a foreign land. Her cheek twitched and her teeth grinded together, the Spires was a despicable place, peaceful, tranquil, amazing and wonderful but underneath.. They were all scared cowards that couldn't face the truth even if it hit them sqaure in the face, they chose to ignore the wiles of the world outside their safe little haven of paradise. Her body tightened, and her muscles spasmed as she swung the dagger at the dummy, feeling frustration creep underneath the surface, crawling through her skin, and poisoning her mind, the monster underneath pled for release. First she used the pommel to bash into the stomach area, stepping once, and pushing forwards to add to her momentum. Stepping to the side, and around, she weaved back and forth on two feet. Most of her time in Spires had been spent alone, the denizens found it too hard to interact with her, and she to them. They were simply too different to even get along, or perhaps Ana was just frightening with her dark appearence, the Spires people and Ana came from entirely seperate worlds practically. She had come from a world filled with pain and hate, trickery, deceit, and lies; bloodshed, murder, and homocide, whilst they the Spires people as a whole lived in this little hide away up in the trees, safe from the pain and corruption outside their world. They lived the good life. Ana gasped and rushed at the dummy, eyes wide and stinging as she swung wide and smashed at the side of the dummy's supposed face hard enough to make it vibrate and tilt a bit. The wooden pommel had hit the face of the dummy, but with her swing it had passed by to let the blade run across the now bruised flesh (if the dummy had skin, and was living, that is; silly Ana, thinking the dummy is living.) She twisted her body so that her back was now facing the dummy, stepping as she did so, but this time she swung backwards as well to lodge the wooden blade into the dummys gut. Pulling the wooden dagger out, she stepped away from it, moving forwards, before turning awkwardly and with the dagger she tried to flip from the pommel outward technique and back to the tip outwards technique and ended up dropping the dagger in the process. Ana swiped to grab it mid air but ended up slapping the side, in slow motion repeatedly just attempting to catch it, in turn it spiralled upwards and unfortuantly jabbed Ana in the cheek before falling to land on the ground and leave a stunned thief at what just happened. She rubbed her cheek, the tip had struck the bone and caused a great deal of pain. So much so that she felt as if she had been smacked in the face to stop what she was doing; there was laughter around her as she held her face. The idignance of which she felt burn through her face formulated into a forced grimaced, she snatched the dagger up and stormed to the weapon rack to put the wooden dagger back. She was done today, she wanted nothing more than to crawl under the covers and escape the embarresement that she felt; how could they all laugh at her?! She was just learning still! Hot tears threatened at the corners of her eyes as she marched off, her form akin to a snake bunching up its coils and getting ready to launch off at whatever poor soul decided to get into her way. I'm going home. Ana thought firmly, pulling her hood up and stalking out of the training grounds.

[Limey]

Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Dagger 3 Start Small And Slow Observation 2 The Sweet Spots Acrobacy 1 Technique: Pommel Bash Daggers: Reach Vs. Concealment Take Care Not To Wound Yourself Violence is Theraputic Additional Notes : Nice little training thread, I did like the background you put in here, about the thugs and lowlifes in Sunberth adding to Ana's experience in blades. Not much here for Bodybuilding, but learning some flexibility with the blade would kinda add up to Acrobatics. Enjoy! Any questions or queries, please PM me.