Completed To Teach Or Not To Teach (Stefan)

[Chandray]

Oh, oh … When Stefan did his lunge Chandray observed that he didn’t have the footwork in place. She had forgotten it when she explained to him how to do. She made a mental note to herself to try to become better at remembering important details when she was teaching. Luckily Stefan hadn’t injured himself, but if he had, it would have been her fault, she thought. She wasn’t a top class teacher exactly. Now when she was trying to do the job her trainers had done with her she understood it much better how professional they had been. She had a long way to go before she reached their level of competence. But her trainee didn’t seem to mind. Instead he was flirting blatantly. Chandray smiled back at Stefan and winked with her eyelashes, flirting in a careless way that meant absolutely nothing, except that she found it entertaining to flirt. She winked several times, playfully, and then then she laughed a happy laugh. To her this was just something she did in passing by. Flirting was entertainment, a way of spicing her easygoing way through life up for a chime or two. Chandray was simply a cheery and comradely kind of personality. When she flirted it was for fun and friendship, just a way to socialize. People with serious intentions and feelings were bound to get disappointed if they took her behavior for more than it was. She winked and smiled and didn’t think twice of it. But enough of flirting! She wasn’t done with the teaching yet. “Good” she said encouragingly when Stefan stood in the stance again. “You have understood the very basics. And you are definitiely betting better at it. Now I will teach you one last thing before we take a break. The footwork. When I watched you I realized that I had forgotten to tell you about it.” She corrected him a little bit and the she too took the stance again and briefly showed him how to do the footwork. She explained how he needed to go forward on the toe of the front foot while at same time pushing with the back foot for increased speed and force. “Just take care to not overextend your back knee” she said. After this she told Stefan she wanted him to lunge again, one last time for this session. She was going to watch his movements in a focused and analytical way. Afterwards, she told him, she would give him feed-back and answer more questions while they gathered their things for today and socialized on the way out from the Kendoka Sasaran.

[Stefan]

After the thrust, Stefan tried to pull the rapier out of the dummy. It was really hard, but after making force with the foot, he managed to take it out, miraculously without falling on his back, though he did stumble a little. Little he knew that, if that were a real person, taking the rapier would have been more difficult, as it would have remained stuck in the sternum. “Alright, that was interesting...” he said to himself, rubbing his face. At least the hit against the dummy didn’t leave any bruising, so he hadn’t anything to worry about, except if he had broken the rapier, which he didn’t. So his only worry was utterly embarrassing himself. And since everyone else was too concentrated on their training, and Chandray was instead flirting with him, so he didn’t worried about that either. Instead, still with the rapier in his hand, he winked back at his teacher. The flirting was resulting? He didn’t know. He was used to flirt with virtually every woman he had meet, with various results and purposes. This time, it was just to compliment her and help her relax, and it seemed to work. Now she was flirting back... he didn’t expect that, but he wasn’t complaining. Still, she seemed like a friendly gal, even though he slashed him in the face... but he didn’t mind at all. In fact, he took it with humour. Now, back to the training, Chandray told him about that he needed to work on his footwork before taking a break. It was odd, he thought he had done it right, but anyway, he could always improve. Still, he couldn’t help but smile when she told him that he was getting better at it. He did as he was told: he imitated Chandray as best as he could, like a mirror, or at least a broken one that didn’t gave the exact image, but it was really similar. He put more attention to the feet, just as he was told: his right foot was planted firmly in front of him, and his left one pointed sideway, with the leg as a support, like a spring. The good news was that it was easier for him to get in that position, as he was nimble with his feet. Again, he looked at the training dummy in the eyes, or where the eyes would be, like it was a long time rival. With his rapier in hand, the left hand now discretely in his pocket instead of being like a chicken wing, and his feet and legs in position, he got slightly closer, and using his back leg as a support, he lounged against the target, piercing it right by its throat with the point of the rapier. “Now that’s something!” he said again like an exited child, as he took out the rapier off the dummy. At least this time came out slightly easier. Carefully, he put it at the side of his waist, as if he had a hilt, and did a pose that reminded more of a clown that of a hero “How do I look, lass? Imposing? Heroic? Incredibly attractive?” he said with a overly exaggerated epic tone, and then laughed as he broke the posse. “You say you wanted a clown, right?” He laughed a little bit more, and then put the rapier back in the weapon rack, just as Chandray told him. “That was quite fun, my dear!” he said cheerfully as always.

[Chandray]

“Good Stefan. Really good!” Chandray was perhaps a little bit more enthusiastic over her trainees progress than he deserved. But he was the first trainee she’d ever had and she was proud and felt like her teaching had been pretty successful. To be honest he had held the left hand in a somewhat weird way, she had noticed that, but she was a bit lenient and didn’t feel like picking at him for it. There’s only so much a person is able to learn in one session, she thought, and it would be unreasonable to ask for perfection. “We’re done for today” she said. “There’s always more to learn of course, and there’s lots of more to fencing than what I have shown you today, but enough of training for now. Do you care to have lunch with me?” She put her rapier in the scabbard, donned her cloak and changed from leather gauntlets to the woolen ones. After this she looked around a bit in the Kendoka Sasaran. She hadn’t had time to make so many observations when she arrived because they had started at the training at once. But now she took time to give the location a closer look. The room was big and simplistic, an open space, with window on the sides to let the daylight in. Weapon racks and training dummies were placed in an appealing way, with enough distance between the dummies for the people that were training there to not distract or disturb each other. There were overall very few things there that could distract the minds of the fighters. It was an environment made to facilitate concentration and serious training - beautiful in its own way, but austere, simplistic and serene. She answered what more questions Stefan had about rapier fencing and the training they had done. However, when Chandray said they were done for today she didn’t mean to just idle in the training location and chat forever. She was an energetic,active and curious person. Even if they were done with the training, the idea of just strolling around didn’t appeal to her for long. Not when there was lunch to be had and new things to think of and explore. She smiled at Stefan and his shamelessly flirty banter, epic poses and witty wordings. “An up seems better than a down” she said with pretended seriosity. “You are looking incredibly heroic, but even heroes need to have lunch. Are you coming?” OOCI'll do as we planned and wrap up + hand in after your next post.

[Stefan]

“Lunch sounds fine, lass.” He smiled at her, as he donned his cloak too and exited the training location along with Chandray. He hoped to get to a place soon, since he couldn’t stand the cold. After they exited the Sasaran, Stefan could observe Chandray’s personal rapier. It was quite nice, elegant, and beautiful. He wondered how much she had to pay for it, but didn’t dare to ask, since that would be impolite. Still, he wondered when he could get his own weapon... he should have to save some money. After a brief talk they both agreed to go to the White Crane, since it wouldn’t be so crowded at the time of the day. Stefan insisted to pay for the lunch, something that Chandray couldn’t decline, mostly because he didn’t allow her. The White Crane was quite far away Kendoka Sasaran, almost on the other side of the city, but that just mean that they could talk some more. So they walked, with Stefan discretely following her, since if it were the other way around, they would likely get lost. That noon, though cold, was really lovely. The sun shinned on the snow on the streets, with the waterfall as a spectacular landmark far away. Something that Stefan liked about the city was that the streets not only were clean, but also were filled with beautiful plants, even in winter. Again, it was quite lovely. “Well, then I travelled in the Suvan sea for three years, as a sailor. I honestly miss that, but Riverfall is a amazing city.” He continued to talk with Chandray, as they did for a while, each one saying something of their history. “Anyway, maybe someday I could take a boat, travel around like I always did... but for now, I must focus on my job, on a brothel.” Stefan said the last part almost with an emphasis, just to look at Chandray’s reaction. Of course, after a while, things got interesting. Just as Chandray walked, Stefan discretely hung back, and grabbed some snow in his hand. Unsurprisingly, it was really cold, but he managed to make a ball out of it on his hands before they became numb. Without a warning, more than a “Hey, Chandray!” he threw the snowball at her back. He started to laugh like a small child. “Sorry lass, I couldn’t resist!” he said, almost getting out of breath as he laughed. It was rude, sure, but she couldn’t deny it was actually funny. Just joking, bartering, messing and even flirting with her new teacher. OOCWhen they arrive to the White Crane, Stefan will buy two good meals and a wine bottle: -14 Gold Mizas.

[Chandray]

Chandray with her background as the daughter of anthropologists and sometimes living with swefra pods, cared little for who paid for what. She was perfectly comfortable with Stefan paying their nice lunch with food and wine, and said a cheery thanks. When Stefan told her we was working in a brothel she felt a bit surprised, but what was there she could say about it? She wasn’t involved in his work, whatever it was, and it wasn’t her business to ask questions. She had only known him for a day and was his new fencing trainer, and he had turned out to be a nice fellow. Her answer to his information about his job had simply been to tell him about her own job. She made a living as a busker at the moment, playing fiddle. But this was right now, and in order to earn easy money. She had more plans for the future, which she would tell him a bit about while they had lunch. They spoke while they ate slowly, none of them being in immediate hurry. By now Chandray had been in Riverfall half a season and had time to think and plan. She told Stefan a bit about her plans for the spring and summer to come. “The rest of the winter I’m going to spend all my time working so I can afford to stay in Riverfall.” Long term, she told him, she planned to become an explorer and treasure hunter. Sort of. She planned to have her permanent base in Riverfall, and start by learning more about lots of things she needed to know about. Some of it were things she could learn about in the library and at courses, for instance archaeology. Other things were outdoors skills like riding, climbing and spelunking. And there were other useful skills for a person with her goals. Luckily she was able to play fiddle too, so she could earn money in a quick and easy way and build up the funds for buying what she needed for her training and for small scale expeditions in the surroundings of the city. This was actually all the plans she had so far, and they were vague to say the least, but she spoke happily about them all the same. She had a good time eating lunch with Stefan and could very well have stayed there for the rest of the day, if she had been a less energetic personality. As it was, the lunch reached its end and Chandray was ready to go on with the day and her life. She thanked Stefan for the lovely lunch and told him it had been fun to work at the fencing. Perhaps he wanted more lessons at some point later on? “It’s been nice but I need to leave now. I live in Northwind Suites. It’s not far from here. If you take the same way I’ll point the place out to you.” All the food was eaten, the bottle of wine was empty and both of them were in a cheery mood. And so they left The White Crane and turned to the left, walking upwards on steep stairs towards the main street in the upper part of the city. Halfways there Chandray stopped and pointed to the place she lived in. “Well, there it is. Northwind Suites.” She smiled at him. “Thanks for today then. See you ! “ She went over to the suites and disappeared into the building, while Stefan continued up the stairs. She suspected he was going to practice the things he had learnt, and next time she would see him use a rapier he would already be better at it. OOCI'll hand this in for grading now.

[Caelum]

Thread Award

Chandray

Skills

- Flirting +3
- Teaching +5
- Weapon: Rapier +5

Lores

- Teaching: Prepare Well
- Teaching: Proper Commuication
- Rapier: Proper Equipment
- Rapier: Proper Stance
- Rapier: Lunge
- Rapier: Footwork

Stefan

Skills

- Flirting +5
- Larceny +1
- Stealth +1
- Weapon: Rapier +5

Lores
- Rapier: Proper Equipment
- Rapier: Proper Stance
- Rapier: Lunge
- Rapier: Footwork

Notes

Nicely done! Please edit or delete your post in the grade request thread to reflect completion and, as ever, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.