Solo [Antinous Training Grounds] Spears and Scrapes

[Asen]

17th of Summer
515 AV

Asen stood on the outskirts of the Training Grounds, a halfspear hanging loosely in her grip. She'd been informed that another patron was assigned to her, and she was to meet them at the Training Grounds. At what time? She wasn't told and she didn't ask, so most of her day had, once again, been spent training.

It was around the sixteenth bell that a relatively plain-looking woman in her late twenties approached her. She was pretty, but in a generic sort of way that didn't stick with the blonde. Nondescript was a good word to apply to her. The woman stopped a few paces away and gave her a hard stare before moving close enough to stick her hand out.

"Sera Marissa Olander," she said, "but just Marissa to you."

The half-Dhani gripped her patron's hand and gave it a shake, taking note of the elaborate inverted triangle on the inside of the woman's wrist that sat on her pulse point. "Sessaschenaasen."

While most seemed to try and replicate her mouthful of a name and gave up after the second or third try, this woman only gave her a sly grin and motioned with her own halfspear to follow her. "You look uncomfortable with that spear in your hand. Have you ever used one before?"

It wasn't a jab at her incompetence. It was a genuine question. "Uh... Once, I did. Couple days ago."

"Mm. You aren't used to it, I can tell. You're afraid of using a weapon, but you're a fighter. I felt the calluses on your hand. The spear isn't going to bite unless you cut yourself on it. Have you tried just walking around the Training Grounds carrying one?"

Asen frowned at the back of the woman's head. "No. I never felt the need to. I never really used a weapon til now. It en't my style."

Marissa's grin widened as she glanced back at her squire. "Well, now it will be. I'm going to train you in the halfspear. You like it, don't you?"

The blonde nodded slowly. "Yeah, it en't bad."

The knight clapped her hands together, though the effect was lessened by the haft of the spear. "Excellent!" she exclaimed, dropping back to walk beside her squire, "I can tell you all about myself while you get adjusted to the spear!"

Asen groaned, though she was actually grateful. Normally she would have been completely opposed to someone chatting away without her being able to speak, but recently she was content with simply listening. Speaking had become an exhausting and unnecessary practice.

[Asen]

For almost half a bell Marissa kept up a stream of words. It was as if she sensed her squire's desire to keep quiet and filled the silence with her own voice. It wasn't an unpleasant voice. It was actually rather melodic.

"-and then Jander, he tried to climb the tree and grab the eggs out of the nest. Of course, mama bird didn't like that all that much so he got pecked a bunch. I tried to tell hi- Hey! You're comfortable with it now!"

Asen looked at her patron for a moment in confusion. The story about Marissa's friend attempting to steal a bird's eggs was pretty interesting and had her attention. "What?"

"The spear, Sessaschenaasen. The spear." She'd managed her name without a hitch. What a curious woman.

"Oh." The half-Dhani directed her gaze to the halfspear in her hand. She hadn't even realized that she'd been twirling it to the best of her ability. Was that unusual? Was it good? Considering Marissa's reaction, she figured it was.

"It en't that big of a deal, really."

Her patron stopped and stared at her for a moment, then blinked twice. "Yes it is. If you aren't comfortable with your weapon, you're not going to use it well. Your weapon is an extension of your body, and if you don't believe that then you'll be awkward and uncoordinated."

Well, it made sense to Asen in theory. She'd heard it from various warriors. 'A weapon is an extension of your body!' Okay, but how does that translate into reality? Limbs are so flexible, they're connected to a person. A weapon, a spear isn't connected to you. It's heavy and cold and wooden. It's lifeless, and that creates problems. Asen trusted her own hands and feet, nothing else.

She knew, however, that if she wanted to become a proper knight then she'd have to use a weapon. And also a shield. The shield really put a damper on her mood. It was a giant hunk of wood or metal that just sat on your arm and hindered your movements. Why in the world would she want to use it when she was all about being quick and dodging things?

Her patron strapped a buckler to each of their arms anyways, ignoring the look on the half-Dhani's face. Almost as if it was an afterthought she took the spear from her squire's hand and did a quick inspection. "No, no. This isn't a good spear. Let me go get a better one," Marissa said as she darted away.

When she returned it was with a halfspear that was a bit shorter than what her squire had originally selected. Asen took the spear and hefted it. It was lighter but still strong, stiff but still flexible. Marissa looked at it approvingly. "Feels better, doesn't it? The closer a halfspear is to your height, the harder it is to use. It's more unwieldy. You've got to get one that fits."

Okay, that also made sense. She wasn't about to argue even if it didn't. "So... are we going to spar now?"

Marissa smiled, something glinting dangerously in her eyes. She dropped into a stance that Asen attempted to copy and stared down her squire.

"Why not? The best way to learn is hands-on."

[Asen]

The first thing Marissa did was step out of her stance. The second thing she did was walk over to her squire. "No. Just no. This is awful, absolutely awful. What is this? It's shyke, that's what. Do you even know how to distribute your weight equally on both legs? If I pushed you even the slightest bit you'd fall over."

Asen looked away from her patron and let her arms drop. She hadn't meant to disappoint her, but the hands that forced her limbs into the proper position said otherwise. When Marissa was finished she took a step back and watched the blonde carefully. "Okay, well. That looks better. Still crappy, but better."

Another chime of staring and the half-Dhani began shifting uncomfortably. Her muscles were beginning to burn and the weight of both the buckler and the halfspear were dragging her arms down. A sharp command from Marissa made her huff, but she stopped moving.

Two chimes later her biceps were quivering from the strain of holding the spear up and keeping her body still. She used her peripherals to peek at the knight, who was pacing around her and nudging her into place whenever she deviated from the proper stance.

"Alright, relax."

Oh thank petching gods. Asen breathed a sigh of relief and sat down, rubbing her face. If Marissa continued these exercises she would be so incredibly sore and would probably end up hobbling around like the old lady she was.

"I didn't say you could sit down. Get up. We need to fix your awful aim. You have no idea how to hold the weapon properly."

The blonde groaned in protest but stood anyways. Marissa adjusted the spear in her hand. "You have to hold it at the balance point. Don't hold it further back even if you want the extra range, you'll just strain your wrist. If you want the range, couch the spear. I'll tell you about that later."

Marissa paused, then held her own halfspear to show Asen what she was doing. "When you hold it at the midpoint you can attack and block with both ends of the spear. It's a little difficult to get the twirling motion right, but with some practice you should be able to get it. See? There you go. Okay, follow me."

Her patron motioned for her to follow and she walked to a huge boulder, patting it approvingly. Two squires sped across the boulder, one after the other in a game of chase. They'd been pitted against each other to see who had the better endurance and their patrons watched them from a distance.

"Sessaschenaasen? I'll just call you Asen. Okay, so you see this rock? Well, you're going to take your spear," she said as she grabbed the tip of the spearhead, "and you're going to tap it against the rock until I think you've got better aim," she finished, placing the tip of the halfspear against the stone.

The half-Dhani nodded and began the exercise. For more than ten chimes the only sound the two heard was the tak-tak-tak of metal against rock, though the silence was occasionally broken by a command from Marissa. Don't lock your elbow, she'd say. You'll lose the ability to pull the shot.

Asen is speaking | Marissa is speaking

[Asen]

When Marissa was satisfied with Asen's tapping, it was noticeable. Her eyebrows shot up and she changed position from leaning against the boulder to standing with her legs akimbo, but didn't say anything. She let her squire continue for another chime until she put her hand out to stop the exercise.

"That's good enough. Your wrist and elbow are both probably hurting, but you're doing well. You'll build up the muscles eventually, so don't worry. What we need to do is fix your awful posture," she said as she walked away from the boulder.

The hole that already had its place in the half-Dhani's chest widened due to her patron's words. She was a failure already, and the day hadn't even ended. Her shoulders slumped and she felt like crying, but a tiny voice in the back of her head snapped at her to suck it up and stop being a baby.

Marissa seemed to notice this and nudged her squire with an elbow. "Chin up, kid. If you think you're awful, I was ten times worse. You learn quickly. I can tell you're resourceful, too. Quick thinker with quicker hands, but you look like the person who acts first. Once I get you trained up enough you'll be better than I ever was or will be."

The blonde stared numbly at Marissa. No, I won't be. I'm a steaming pile of shyke who can't do anything right. I en't gonna be a good enough squire to become a knight. Don't lie to me.

Her patron picked up on the desolation emanating from the squire and frowned. She'd never dealt with depressed people before and had no idea how to handle it. Training would work, right? So training would be what they did.

"Anyways. You're really unbalanced when you stand, so that needs to be corrected. Imagine a weight attached to a cord that's tied around your hipbones and hangs about mid-calf. You need to keep that weight unmoving and centered. If you're doing it right, it should be pretty hard for me to push and keep you off-balance.

Asen made a noise and stood in the stance she'd been positioned in earlier. Closing her eyes, she visualized a heavy ball connected to her hips by a length of cord. Her weight was distributed differently with the buckler and halfspear on her person, though when she found her balance it resonated through her body and she knew.

The press of Marissa's hands against her back was easier to recover from than it normally was. A soft chuckle slipped from the knight's lips that gave the blonde a bit of hope. Perhaps she wasn't a total failure after all. Marissa sounded pleased, at the very least.

"Alright, that's good. You got it well enough. When you were tapping, did you notice that you could use your momentum and the momentum of the bounce back to set up your next tap?" There was a nod, and then she continued. "It's tempting to let the halfspear do all the work, but in a real fight you won't have the time to let it bounce back. You'll have to use your muscles, which we'll need to build up."

That was understandable. Even though she was a fighter, the half-Dhani still had very little defined musculature to speak of. She was too thin and probably wouldn't last very long in anything other than a fistfight.

"Anywho, I should probably head out. I've got stuff to do. We'll meet back up here every... three days? So two days in between each training session. That way you'll have a day to do whatever you want and then a day to get back on track. Sound good to you?"

Of course it sounded good to her. It meant she had a purpose again, and purpose was what she needed. Desperately. "Yeah, that'll work."

Marissa smiled and clapped her squire on the back. "Excellent. I'll see you in three days."

Asen is speaking | Marissa is speaking

[Sayana]

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request. If there's anything I may have missed, please PM me and I'll be happy to look into it.

 

Asen

Skills

• Socialization: 1
• Weapon: Half-spear: 3
• Bodybuilding: 2
• Acrobatics: 1

Lores

• Sera Marissa: New Patron
• Getting accustomed to holding a weapon
• Weapon is an extension of one's body
• Selecting the right sized half-spear
• Half-spear: Proper stance
• Half-spear: Held at midpoint
• Acrobatics: Improve balance by centering weight
• Regaining purpose in life

Shield Points

• Patron: 1
• Training: 2

Comments: Lovely thread. It was a lot of teaching/talking from Marissa so I couldn't award you many social skills. But it was still a great training thread and touched upon some very interesting concepts like getting comfortable with a weapon and practicing aim in that manner. Great job.

Your Grader,

Sayana

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