Completed Overhanded and Sidearm Whipping

[Salara Kel'Halavath]

See below

[Salara Kel'Halavath]

20th Summer, 517 AV
Destiny’s Lass, Suvan Sea

Salara had grown proficient then bored practicing her newest maneuver, the Overhead Crack. It was obvious the crew felt the same because they hardly lifted their eyes to watch her practice in the dinner hour when a large portion of them were filling plates with Cookie’s latest concoction. Their main attention focused on if meat were in the stew or if the cook had managed to burn it. Burnt stew had become a bad omen of sorts. By Cookie’s crooked yellow-stained smile this was a good day, so anticipation of good eats was keen.

Today would be different from tedious practice as she approached Bowdel for her next test and chance to learn a new move. You’d think she’d be more comfortable in his presence by now, but his mien was still stern and aloof; although she suspected he was warming to her slightly as she’d gotten better at what had been the mark of his trade before he became a sailor with The Lass. Maybe he finally realized she was bent on truly learning the whip and not just playing around.

The last test had been very unnerving as the ex-slaver had made himself the target with a dangling rag held way too close to his body so Salara wasn’t about to let him pick the test this time. She had something else in mind. The nice thing about this maneuver was it didn’t really matter how much the ship swayed as the target would be above her head. She’d managed to find a relatively straight shaft of straw from a busted mattress ticking that she’d diligently sorted through. It was the longest piece she could find which was even more important.

Walking the foredeck, she found her trainer lifting massive coils of rope around a huge spindle. Each thick twist, as wide as her upper arm and twice as heavy, was pushed up around and into place. “Bowdel, if you’ve got some chimes to spare I’ve got something to show you.” There, the expected one-eyed squint of examination followed by a grunt of compliance from the man of few words. Another heave around the spindle and he was all hers. Skinny Bogart at the rail had caught wind of her words as well and grinned encouragement above a bucket of paint and dripping brush.

She’d already been warming up with full swinging circles sunwise and widdershins above her head until her snaky whip hummed smoothly. “If you approve,” she lays out the terms of her effort, “You’ll show me the next maneuver?” ‘If yer good enough, might show ye two,’ came his gruff reply, which brought a glint of anticipation to her eye. He was warming up to her. It was a good day indeed!

With the sleek black braid uncoiled straight behind her in the standard start position, Salara pulled the length of yellowish brown straw out and held it upright in her left hand above her head, pinched between two fingers adding nearly a foot to her height. She could only do this once as it had not been easy finding this straw in the hay sack so waited until Bowdel gave her the go ahead. With his nod, she drew a long breath and held it. In a smooth rapid motion she lift and swung the whip high, widdershins. Just as her hand reached position above her head at her right shoulder she turned the direction sunwise in a tight twist, coiling the whip’s curve back into a sharp CRACK that simultaneously splinters the straw’s length in two. She looked past half of the golden stalk flittering to the ground to see…was that a slight smile upon Bowdel’s lips?

Several of the crew hooted among mouthfuls of stew, some spraying crumbs from the crusty bread served alongside. ‘Oi! Ya done it Lady Cat! A fine show twas!’ Skinny Bogart had no trouble congratulating her effort with an unintentional spattering of paint he would need to wipe up before an officer noticed and took him to task.

“Thank you, Bogart,” she grinned proudly then turned with a lifted brow of expectation to Bowdel who rolled his eyes before turning to fetch his own whip from his bunk chest below deck.

Overhead Crack

Gift from Rohka <3

[Salara Kel'Halavath]

Soon Bowdel returned with his worn whip coiled in his palm swinging easily at his knees with each stride. The sight of it always gave Salara a chill knowing it’s history and today was no exception. His other hand held four small sacks of sand which he placed about three feet apart, side by side on the cargo hatch. Curiously she watched as instead of stepping his pace out from the targets, he uncoiled its length between himself and the sacks of sand taking a few steps further back yet and did not then stretch the thong behind in the start position she had learned, but instead kept it stretched out ahead of him.

Bowdel introduced her to this overhand maneuver with only two words, ‘The Flick.’ As quickly as he spoke, he pulled the whip from front to back, dipped his knee in a lunge and, as if throwing a ball overhand, brought the whip across level with his shoulder forward and back four times over, each crack resulting in a sandbag being tumbled from its perch. Salara immediately saw the difference in outcomes as this effort did not shatter the bags but simply flicked them aside. Turning to her teacher for confirmation, he grunted, ‘Cart drivers and galley masters use for accuracy without damage.’ Ohhhh K. Regardless, she was glad this ship did not need crew to row.

Her first efforts were lame, to say the least, without creating any loop for the crack. Another effort actually wrapped the cord loosely about her arm and body. ‘No! No, no, girl,’ he thought for a moment, ‘This one ye must pay ‘tention to where yer thumb be.’ The ex-slaver took more time showing her the best positions for her thumb in relation to her body through each stage of the wielding. It took several frustrating tries where he nearly crushed her fingers into the handle of her whip as he tried showing her how to twist her wrist allowing thumb to position from top of the whip at the beginning, to parallel to the ground as it moved along her shoulder, to pushing forward into the flick crack.

Once she’d managed to create the loop and crack, Bowdel showed her the easier sidearm crack. His demonstration began again with the rust stained mast she had practiced with her first lessons and she was tickled to find this was the maneuver to wrap the whip about the target. He explained gruffly, ‘Ye ken use this one to wrap someone’s body. If done roit it does not cut.’ Salara watched as he began with both feet pointed forward but took a step forward into it as the whip was pulled from back to forward with the handle held palm up as if balanced on a plate. It neatly wrapped around the mast at the crack. 'Ye practice now without the target,' he directed.

She began calling this sidearm effort the “The Skip” because it felt very much like skipping stones across the water. It was opposite the Flick as the loop created was upside down and formed on the vertical plain by holding the whip more loosely across the palm then gripping more tightly as the hand passed the body to give it direction.

Even better, this one could be used on either side of her body as long as the vertical plain was maintained. From the left, the palm was down but the follow through was the same. Practicing first by swinging the whip along the ground from one side to the other to ensure a smooth steady flow she finally worked up to being able to actually crack the whip on the right then cross her body to crack it again underhand from the left.

Bowdel pointed out that the very first crack she’d learned, the Forward Crack was a natural follow through of the Skip crack. This was the first time it had been suggested that two maneuvers could be combined into one. Unfortunately, her attempt to bring the whip back into position by pulling her hand back before fully extending from the right side Skip to Forward failed as the end of the fall on the whip tended to zip back towards her. With the critical squint of one eye, ‘Ye should practice more before tiein’ em together. A lot.' He wasn’t suggesting. He was telling.

“Bowdel, up to today these maneuvers took up a lot of space.” He nodded suspiciously. “But it seems that these two new ones work without height?” ‘Yaaasss…,’ was his hesitant reply. She had an idea, “Ok! Great!” Coiling her whip tidily she grinned at her idea. As she turned he scowled as one word floated back over her shoulder, “…Rats!”

Skinny Bogart sidled up to Bowdel as the Kelvic headed down into the hold, "Yer gonna get 'er maimed, mate."

With a squint, scowl, and grunt the ex-slaver responded, "If yer gonna be dumb, ye gotta be tough." They both wandered back to painting and coiling to listen for the hollow sounds of cracks or screams through the deck floor.

Overhand Flick and Sidearm and Bullwhip Cracking
Gift from Rohka <3

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!

Salara Kel'Halavath

Skills

• Observation: 2xp
• Negotiation: 1xp
• Weapon: Whip: 2xp
• Planning: 1xp
• Tactics: 2xp
• Socialization: 1xp

Lores

• Bowdel: warming up to his pupil
• Whip technique: Overhead Crack
• Whip technique: The Flick
• The Flick: used for accuracy without damage
• Whip technique: the Skip

Awards & Retribution


Notes
A solid training thread. I didn't even know whips had finesse beyond Indiana Jones'ing bad guys. Please contact me if you have questions or concerns about your grade.