Closed Overboard (Moritz)

[Cleon]

65th of Spring 522 AV

It was about mid-afternoon when Cleon ventured his way over to the Tidepool bar. Ever since he had come into possession of a small wine bottle charm that allowed him to fill a vessel per day with his choice of liquor, he had been coming to Stu’s to do his part of returning Sivah’s favor by helping the bar out with supply a whole host of liquors. Of course he had to taste them first to properly picture them in his mind, but Cleon actually rather enjoyed the opportunity to try out such a variety. When Stu saw him coming, he gave a little wave which Cleon returned with a smile of his own as he walked up the dock to the Tidepool bar.

“Good afternoon, how have you been?” Stu asked, and Cleon gave a little shrug. Having just came from work he felt like he was caked in sweat, a condition which was only exacerbated by his curse which caused him to sweat more profusely than usual. He had to figure he didn’t smell much better either but a quick dip in the sea might change that for him. There were perks to dining by the sea after all.

“I’ve been better, but can’t complain otherwise.” He said, keeping his remarks light. Truthfully he didn’t feel that great, he seldom did these days. He had a hard time focusing although working helped with that as it gave him a chance to burn through some of the excess energy so he didn’t feel as insistent upon indulging in his addictions. Of course he didn’t need to unload everything upon Stu who had managed to remain abreast of the curses thanks to his connection to Sivah.

“What’ll it be today?” Stu asked with a genial smile as Cleon drew up to the bar.

“I was thinking about some Bluevein Gold. I think that might go over well.” Cleon said, already reaching for the empty container Stu had set on top of the bar as he was walking up the dock. It was a large glass jar with a narrow mouth and about as fat around as his chest. Stu had picked it well. Touching his charm to the top of the vessel, he pictured the Bluevein gold in his mind and then watched as the jar slowly started to fill up with the wine.

“Do you know anything about sparring? Randal recommended to me the other day that I should start learning how to defend myself.” Cleon said, and was glad that he didn’t have to explain the reason behind that recommendation because Stu had been on the beach that day when he had been conducting his little investigation. He hadn’t realized quite how much danger he had been putting himself in by reading peoples minds until Randal had pointed it out to him. That and that strange child who knew that he had been mentally spying. Just thinking about it almost made him shudder but Cleon did his best to keep his expression relaxed.

“Y’know, I do know a few things, but I think I’ve got a better idea of who to match you up with. Stay right here while I go grab him.” Stu said, walking away from the bar and leaving Cleon to fill up the rest of the jar of wine.

WC - 555

[Moritz Craven]

65 Spring 522

Moritz was taking a short break in the back of the bar when Stu came over. It had been somewhat quiet today, not too many patrons needing food, and since Stu handled the drinks and some of the food while Moritz handled the other bit of the food and serving, it had left him not much to do. And due to that he found himself with a short lull in his work with nothing much to really work on.

Trying to decide what he could prep for later in case things got more busy, his thinking was interrupted by Stu coming over. "Hey Moritz, guy out front, Cleon, wants a spar. Wanna have a go?"

Looking over at him and back to the empty table without much going on, Moritz responded.

"I mean I would, but you can see how busy I am, if I go over now all of our many hungry customers will go hungry."

Stu made a derisive exhalation of air in response to his words before waving for the Kelvic to follow after.

Since he was working he did not have much equipment on him. Just his button up suit which said his name clearly on the front, sandals, and the bracelet stuck to his wrist. Not counting items he could not remove or that were a part of him like the star embedded into his hand.

Following after it did not take long for Moritz to reach the bar with Stu, checking over the man sitting their taking a drink who apparently wanted to spar with him or at least someone.

Seeing the man enjoying a drink Moritz shrugged before speaking loud enough for both to hear him.

"Yes, because before I do a strenuous workout I always imbibe alcohol, always a good start to any physical work. This should go quite well... In fact, take an extra sip, should make things go ever better."

As Moritz made his way around the bar Stu would lean over to Cleon, meeting his eyes. "Oh, I forgot to mention, apparently the Kid is testing out sarcasm, he's been quite committed to it most of the season. I don't think he's quite worked it out, but just bear that in mind. Most if not all of what he says is gonna be sarcastic."

Since a bar with wooden floors was not a good place to spar Moritz would motion Cleon to follow before leading him off into the sands. If one of them fell down or had to do something landing on the sand would be much softer than the ungiving wood. It would be preferable to have a padded fighting area but... Well beggars could not be choosers.

Once they were off in the sand Moritz would continue, trying to question him but not managing quite well due to his curse.

"Now, what was your name? Its quite important for sparring to know names. I always start there. Mine is Jonathan Feffernel. The Third. And your current level, well no reason to explain that since we could always just start off with the face test. My master, he always told me its the best way to test a new fighter. You get a good stick, and hit the person in the face until they pass out. The more hits the better. Then once you wake up the number of hits will give us a measure to begin on. That sounds good right?"

Due to his curse Moritz thoughts were quite opposite of his words. He did not really care about the mans name, and in fact was notorious about forgetting most peoples. In fact this reminded him of his mother scolding him several times for forgetting the names of the two leaders of Lhavit after he met them... Ayes- something... And Taldor.... Or something... Nope, forgotten again.

As for fighting, his master who was a woman not a man, generally started him off by testing his stance and instincts, before practicing some simple kicks and punches on the air, but of course his thoughts in his head were not quite what made it out. Quite annoying, he thought to himself afterward, if only his words could exit his mouth properly and he could just explain things as he wished!

WC: 712

[Cleon]

He was mildly surprised at the young man Stu came back with. The man had the strangest hair he had ever seen, and eyes too for that matter. In fact it was hard not to stare as he finished filling up the container. Since the jar was nearly entirely full with the wine at that point, so removing the charm from the lip, he sealed it up before extending a hand towards Moritz, but he almost took it back at the man’s comment. Wrinkling his nose in confusion, breathing on his hand and then taking a wary sniff he traded a look with Stu before looking Moritz over.

“Hey, I haven’t even taken a drink yet.” He said, wondering if this was some weird way of trying to get him amped up for a bit of sparring practice. That’s how the stories went anyways, but it was hard to take anything seriously from a man with colorful hair. Still Stu had went out of his way to retrieve this man and seemed to think he would be good to train with so Cleon didn’t feel like he had much of a choice but to go along with the suggestion. After all, Stu had went out of his way to help with the gathering that Cleon had planned the other day so he felt like he kind of owed him. He also respected the man’s opinion a great deal, but still, this guy?

As he followed him along the dock, he kept scratching at the back of his head as he tried to think about where he remembered him from, and then recalled vaguely seeing him at a couple of the tenday gatherings. What was his deal again? Petch, it was hard to keep track even after walking past that list in the Protea day after day. He should have remembered easily given how distinct of an impression Moritz left, but he had started to think about drinking and now his mind was just totally off track.

He agreed with where the young man was leading them however, despite his reservations about whom he was following there. The sand would make for much better landing than the wooden deck, and besides he didn’t want to damage anything that belonged to Stu. That bar was practically a temple to Sivah and he wasn’t going to do anything that could possibly insult Sivah or Stu.

“Cleon” He said in a clipped tone, still a little miffed about the drinking comment. It was bad enough being cursed with such desires, he didn’t want a reputation from it as well, although that had come along whether he liked it or not. It always seemed to proceed him in the worst ways although it wasn’t much his fault in his opinion.

“Have you ever been hit in the face? Its not a very good way to start things. You get dizzy, you might pass out. You certainly won’t be thinking clear, perhaps for sometime afterward.” Cleon countered before he remembered what he should have earlier about Moritz. Slapping his forehead, he rolled his eyes as he realized why everything was so strange coming out of the young man’s mouth. “Sorry, I had forgotten about your particular curse. I thought you were being serious for a moment. Anyways, how do you want to do this. I suppose you can just show me with your body what you want me to do, and I’ll do my best to copy what you are doing. If you try speaking, well I don’t think its going to be very useful for either of us. Can you nod and shake your head without lying?” Cleon asked before immediately realizing what a petching dumb question that was.

“Nevermind, lets just do what I suggested first.” Cleon said with a little smirk as he brought his hands up, watching Moritz carefully to see what the young man would do.

WC - 655

[Moritz Craven]

While Moritz understood that the man had not drunk yet that day, according to him at least... The word yet still rung clear as a key word. He was not drunk, but did plan to be sometime today. Later, perhaps after the spar. And so while his assumption had apparently been wrong, which he felt was reasonable from context and what had been said about this mans curse, he still felt it was a fair thing to say.

Focusing his mind at the moment Moritz tried to think on how to go about teaching this man, though was not entirely sure. The way he had lied about being shown by his master was clearly ridiculous, but it did make him think back to how his master had taught him. She had begun with stances, making sure he had a good one... And then had him copy punches and kicks while working on form. It was only after he got those down that they had moved on to actual sparring...

While he had not spent too much time teaching, he felt this was a valid enough way to do so. Even if he was just copying what he had seen others do. Still, he was not well honed instructor nor combatant, so likely that was the best he would be able to manage.

Perhaps from Stu telling Cleon before that he was practicing sarcasm, and other people working out that Moritz was cursed to lie, eventually Cleon seemed to work out what Moritz deal was. Which, he had to admit, made things a good bit easier. If he knew to not follow what he said, or perhaps did the opposite knowing it was not true, then perhaps things could work out...

"Of course I've done it before, like I said it was my masters favorite method to test a trainee, I remember it many years ago.... Well up until I passed out."

What followed was a series of ideas and back treading by Cleon, which Moritz more or less followed. Some of them seemed decent enough, including the final one he landed on. However since he could not really agree with the man without disagreeing he simply launched into a beginning of a lesson.

Taking on his ready stance he normally used Moritz moved his body one part at a time, so that Cleon could follow and mirror him. First he moved his legs so that they were wide, but not so wide, giving him a wide base. Then he lowered himself slightly by bending his knees, avoiding locking them or fully standing straight. Moving his arms he bent one up by his side close on the defense, and another up to the side and a inch or so away from his chin ready for an offensive attack or protecting his head.

"Now, when taking a stance, you want your legs and feet very close together, basically standing straight. Knees unbent, so you can appears as large as possible. You want to wave your hands about randomly while keeping them palm open, so you can slap anyone who comes near. And keep them away from your head and torso, its not like those areas need any protecting so avoid them."

All of his words clearly conflicting with what Moritz had said the Kelvic assumed he would understand from his actions and body movements. Once it seemed that the man was making an attempt to copy what he was doing Moritz would move over and lightly push or move limbs with his hands, making some small adjustments as needed to get him in the right shape. Bending an elbow here a bit, unbending a leg, moving one a bit wider, whatever was needed to put him in the right form since it was hard to fully understand the nuances from just looking without seeing it in action.

He would keep this up until he felt the man was close enough to the right form before moving on.

WC: 665

[Cleon]

It was odd. Moritz felt like a challenge for him. Not a physical one though he was sure to be that. No, Moritz seemed more like a puzzle to be solved. Perhaps it was because this serious looking young man kept saying silly things with a straight face, or perhaps it was because he was keenly aware about how hard it was too keep oneself together after dealing dealing with these curses for nearly an entire season. Whatever the reason, Cleon was pretty sure that Moritz had found a way to adapt just as he had. He wouldn’t be so well put together if he hadn’t, not to mention remain employed.

An Cleon wasn’t without his own recourses. He’d made a lie of omission without even intending to because there actually was a way he could understand Moritz without just having to rely on body language. Activating the charm on his wrist he made himself privy to Moritz’s thoughts, the effect lasting for about five chimes before it winked away and the thoughts vacated his mind.

Though in the end perhaps he wouldn’t have needed such an advantage. Moritz was pretty clever about what he was saying which was clearly the opposite of what he wanted to do. Their were limits to this of course, severe ones because of course the young man couldn’t accurately explain where he wanted Cleon to position his arms and legs though he more or less gathered what he was supposed to do with a significant amount of help from Moritz.

Spreading out his base made sense to him. It would make him harder to knock over, and would give him more maneuverability during their spar. It wasn’t something he would have thought of on his own but with the added benefit of Moritz’s surface thoughts streaming through his mind and his own childhood experiences to draw from he was able to make logical conclusions by putting the two together.

However, the rest of the position Moritz maneuvered him into was lost on him although he had inklings of insight here and there. As the young man went about making his knees bend slightly less, the left arm not as tightly curled to his side, the right hand closer to his chin, all of these adjustments made so that he could better emulate the young man’s style. As he did so, Cleon got a feel for the alterations while his mind tried to work out the purpose behind each piece of the posture. He’d never had a fight that happened straight on so a lot of this was unfamiliar to him. Usually Cleon relied on the element of surprise, and it had been a long time since he had an open encounter such as this.

“Which part of my fist should I use for striking? I’d like to avoid breaking my hand if I can help it. I kind of need them to do my job.” Cleon said, trying to interject some humor before the serious business began. He considered introducing the idea of using implements to spar with, but given their present circumstances he decided against mentioning that idea. Although he was loathe to admit it, his coordination had suffered over the course of the season and required an immense amount of concentration from him to maintain any sort of stability, and most days he had trouble mustering up enough focus to manage it.

So, he left it at that for the moment while his charm started to wind down. Patiently he waited for Moritz’s next move.

WC - 593

[Moritz Craven]

Moritz mind was busy. He focused tightly on one thing, before moving on to another, before then stepping back and rounding to a detail he recalled about the last thing, only to continue on with the new thing. And then he would branch off to a new topic, only to get distracted for a moment by a stray detail, before returning again. It was perhaps akin to jerking ones head about suddenly to look at one object then another, only to jerk it back and then on to a fourth new thing.

He also had a rather strong internal monologue, and if his words were busy outwardly then his internal voice which was endlessly running was much busier and less filtered. It was like a slow and steady hum overlaid with his other thoughts and things that caught his interest moment by moment. While he was opinionated he tended to not be too overly harsh on people, though he also tended to not focus very much on details about people.

Large male of this height and size who wants to spar, was a more likely designation in his mind than a name, which he seemed to have forgotten already since meeting the man and being given it. However having known Stu for seasons and seen him regularly when he thought of him it was by name and with random peripheral details he associated him with such as his bar and the setting in which he belonged within Moritz mind.

As he focused on the task of teaching him how to fight Moritz seemed to disregard most things about the man before focusing on what he felt would affect the fight and moving on.

Perhaps a drunk, admittedly not of his own volition, but smart enough to work things out. And good at following directions and odd nuances like his lie speech. Above average of a person on Moritz mental scale, though how that was decided was not fully explained since it was his own thoughts and he took some mental short cuts to arrive there.

He also had a habit of mentally picturing each action in turn in his mind along with the verbal thought of what he was doing, while actually doing the thing, though the mental picture was much less clear than the words.

A wide base made you harder to knock over, more grounded. Bending the knees made it easier to move whichever way, and was better than having them fully bent which could make you off center, or unbent which made you lock your knees and made you stiff. The arm near the torso could easily move to block blows at the ribs and sides, a common enough place to aim, while also being pulled back and ready for a good punch. The other hand near the chin guarded the head, and could easily move up to block a head blow which was the most important place to defend, or lash out with a quick jab. A blow to chest made it hard to breath, a blow to the head made it hard to think or act, and so he would prefer a body blow over a head blow. Such reasons ran through his head as he manipulated each body part.

"Ah, well you always want to aim for the mouth, best place to hit is a nice soft surface like teeth. That will put someone out of a fight."

As he said this a conflicting image ran through his head, and he moved and extended the mans legs for a moment in turn.

His image was of a bloody hand with gashes from hitting the mouth, and a much less hurt mouth with some teeth knocked out. Clearly the worst place to hit was the mouth, rather than other softer areas. The gut, the ear, the eye possibly... Or a good kick to the back of a knee. But, extending the mans legs, if one could they would prefer to use legs and feet since they were usually protected by shoes and less in danger from a strike. Here his mental and physical actions matched up as he lightly mimed kicking the man in the back of the knee, which would make his knee collapse under him and force him to fall if Moritz was not holding him up in place.

Helping the man regain his form once more Moritz moved over as he was satisfied with his form. Close enough...

Then he began to mime a punch into the air, using his right hand up near his head to punch with a quick jab at neck height. As he did his entire body turned, expressing his action. Then he did it again, waiting for the man to follow after and repeat the action until he got it right or perhaps even after that.

"Now with a punch, you just want to toss your arm out, don't use any other part of your body or you might pull a muscle. Just the weight of the arm is good."

As he showed him another punch Moritz went through each part of the motion, physically moving the parts of Cleon if he did not do so himself. A twist of the hips so that the entire torso was thrown into the punch, not just a light arm moving by itself. Also a twist of the legs along with the torso, so that the entire bodies weight was pushed into the punch therefore increasing the power. Arm turning as the punch was thrown so that the angle of the fist changed in the air. The connecting hips and torso and legs twisting into the punch before all returning at the end. Luckily for Cleon Moritz was a very mental person who thought through each action along with the physical changes he made on the mans body.

The lead leg and hind leg bent as such at the knees, as the torso moved, and then the arm... Moved with all that force while twisting. Any time he punched his entire body subtly shifted, rather than just the one arm moving.

WC: 1,021

[Cleon]

Stepping into another’s thoughts was never pleasant, and stepping into Moritz’s went a step beyond that. It was chaotic, overwhelming and kept him a step behind everything Moritz winded up wanting him to do. This is because he had to adjust between the conflicting verbal and mental ques Moritz was giving him as he helped put his body through the paces.

Meanwhile Cleon was busy wondering how Moritz got on with his day thinking like this and speaking like another. It must be maddening which he got an inkling of during his brief stay. He was suddenly glad that the charm only lasted for five chimes because the young man’s mind was disorienting at best. Cleon wondered if he had always thought this way or this was a relatively recent phenomena related to the curses.

Of course Cleon experienced his own mental confusion as a product of the curse so it wasn’t unreasonable to think that in his opinion. He just couldn’t match up the thoughts with the mannerisms of the young man that stood up before him, and after a chime he decided to stop trying.

He tried pulling himself back into the moment, focusing on what Moritz was trying to get him to understand and do in the limited way he had. Fortunately his thoughts were there to clarify certain points like why he should avoid the mouth all together. In retrospect he liked to reckon he could have figured that one out himself, but hindsight being what it was, he decided to keep such a comment to himself.

Moritz then demonstrated the effectiveness of striking the back of his knee which collapsed his leg with a surprisingly little amount of effort. He decided he would remember that the next time he ambushed someone from behind, if there was indeed a next time. It was hard to think of Syka in the same context of Sunberth, but with this existential threat looming over them for practically the entire season, it was getting less hard to imagine such a thing every day.

Then Moritz mimed punching his neck, and Cleon did his best to imitate, twisting his fist into the movement as he carried it through his upper arm and shoulder. He could readily see the value in such a strike, but he seriously doubted his ability to manage such a small target if it came to a real confrontation in the future. It was definitely something he would need to practice on if he was to succeed at it in the future.

Once again his words did not line up with what he was doing, but Cleon just tried to pull the grain of truth out of them as he had before by lining up how opposed what he was saying was to his actions. Still he ended up needing to be walked through the motions to carry the momentum of the strike with the weight of his whole body. Twisting more than just his arm into it, he tried to memorizing how each muscle of his body was interacting with the strike, and when that failed, he just tried to replicate the demonstration several times passing his fist through empty air.

When he felt like he had a decent grasp of going from one pose to another with the strike, he relaxed his position to see what they would be doing next as he rolled his shoulder backwards a few times.

“Well, I think I’m getting the hang of it at least.” He said with a hint of a smile as he stretch out his arms.

WC - 599

[Moritz Craven]

Now that he had shown Cleon the basics of taking a fighting stance and throwing a decent punch, the last thing he felt needed showing before a spar could begin with how to avoid being hit or hurt. How to stand, how to attack, and how to defend, those were the extreme basics of a spar between two people. While he could spend more time on other things, he felt it was a good enough place to begin and so that he could also show him some practical usages.

Theory and training was nice, but seeing it in action was even better.

Cleon seemed to do decently at the stance, though it did take some manipulation to get it right. As for the punch, well that he knew would take time and practice and would not so easily come in a few chimes. Avoiding an attack though, that was even more important, since if needed a fight could be won without throwing a single punch but by just letting your foe exhaust themselves... But no matter what a person needed to know how to avoid taking a hit or to minimize it, Moritz thought out in his head.

Dodging, avoiding the attack entirely. Diverting an attack or parrying in weapons terms, redirecting it and the direction it was going. And as a last resort other than just getting hit in the face, blocking an attack. With that you still got hit, but hopefully in less vulnerable spots. Such as blocking a punch to the face or stomach with ones arms.

Smiling back at the man and his comment Moritz moved forward again, tugging on the mans arms and motioning with a quick mimed jab for the man to punch at Moritz. After this the Kelvic would jump back in front of the man and wait for him to go, egging him on until he could complete his demonstration. Still seeing as the man had not really thrown a proper punch before, he was not expecting much... But being Moritz, he would still prepare and make ready as if he was more skilled.

As he stood before Cleon waiting for some punches to come, Moritz met the mans eyes. He was sensing for some kind of hint of direction, a focus or other such tell of where he would try to aim. To begin with though he would start simple. When Cleon punched, Moritz would dodge backward out of range. After a moment he would move back to the starting point, and then wait for Cleon to punch again. This time he would dodge to the side, sidestepping and making the blow hit empty air.

Moving again to a neutral spot Moritz would wait, bouncing a bit lightly on his feet, moving a bit from side to side rather than just standing there. This time as Cleon moved to punch Moritz would move forward and in towards the punch while off to the side a bit, throwing one palm up. Aiming for the mans wrist he instead landed the palm on his forearm, a much bigger target, and shoved. Applying pressure instead of hitting him the punch swept wide and missed him again. He did this once more, letting the man see with his slow punches how to react.

Lastly he wanted to show him blocking. Taking on more of a boxers stance Moritz held his arms up in a guard, still bouncing around on his feet. Then he waited there, and let Cleon punch him. However when he did he would move, trying to make it hit his outer guard rather than center mass. So long as he did not get hit center mass or had his arms missed he would consider it a win. Then lastly he moved back again, and waited for Cleon to throw one last punch. This time as he bounced about on his feet like a boxer he moved backward as he was hit. Rather than taking the hit straight on like the first block Moritz moved backward and let the blow push him away rather than just sinking in. If nothing else he was sure Cleon would feel the difference between these two method. One just stood there like a wall and took the hit. The other moved back and turned the force of the punch into motion instead of an impact, taking the energy to move him backward and away from his foe.

As he did each of these, dodging, blocking, redirecting, Moritz pictured the force as a series of invisible white arrows. His moving back as the punch missed. The force line of his palm turning one way and bending the force line of the punch away in the redirection. And then the difference of the two blocks, one just moving outward as it hit, the other with some being diffused into his backward motion.

If that did not give the man an idea of the most common ways to react to an attack, he did not know what would.

WC: 838

[Cleon]

Cleon didn’t think he’d ever seen someone use a stance before so holding one felt weird. Fights in Sunberth were usually as short as they were brutal and frequently features whatever implements the opponents could reach at the time. Nearly everyone had a weapon which meant that there wasn’t a lot of unarmed fighting going on, or at least it didn’t go on for long before someone pulled a blade.

He’d managed to avoid most of the trouble by going out at night and avoiding taverns. Stealing was so much easier when the majority of the city was sleeping one off or working over a mark. It was also about the only time Farren was home to watch Faye.

Needless to say he spent much of his life avoiding fights where he could so all of this was new to him. He knew how to creep by someone, but taking them head on was a different beast altogether.

Moritz though seemed well acquainted with defending himself or at least he looked confident at it. He seemed to have a firm idea in his mind about how Cleon should stand, and so he followed his instructions carefully without complaint. It was a bit awkward at first. Cleon wasn’t particularly happy about having to be touched, but he managed to squash that emotion while Moritz walked him through the steps.

When it came time for him to throw a few punches, Cleon shot Moritz a nervous look before taking a step forward. He wasn’t sure how hard he should punch so he just went for it, punching his right arm straight out while focusing his gaze on Moritz’s center mass.

The young man dodged it by jumping back and Cleon did his best to pull his hand back into position though it felt slightly off. No matter, when Moritz got back into position he jabbed forward again, this time looking at the young man’s left shoulder and stepping forward as he did it to try putting his weight in the strike.

This time Moritz side stepped the strike and again Cleon got nothing but air. Giving the young man a chagrined smile, he pulled his arm back into position as he circled back around to their previous positions.

Moritz started bouncing from side to side, and Cleon watching had to wonder if this was a new layer to their training. Stepping forward, he jabbed up with his left, trying to swing up with his hips as he did so while focusing on Moritz’s upper body. This time Moritz stepped forward and to Cleon’s shock pushed his arm aside so his punch struck nothing but empty air. He stumbled forward with the thrown punch, and managed to catch himself after a few steps, before turning around to give Moritz a got me look.

Stepping back up to where they had been, he decided to remember that little trick although he wasn’t sure if he could perform it himself outside of a demonstration.

In the heat of the Sykan sun, he had begun panting as he squared up again with Moritz, getting ready to make another pass. This time when he threw his wait into the blow, he’d more than half expected that Moritz would dodge it again, so he was pretty shocked when it glanced off the edge of his upraised arms. It didn’t feel like he had expected it to, and the sensation went by almost too fast for him to properly process it.

Giving his hand a weird look he flexed it back into a fist while giving Moritz a little smirk, thinking for a moment that he had got one over on the young man before he realized from the man’s expression that he had been expecting it. Cleon’s expression similarly turned serious as he took a step forward to take another jab that Moritz caught on his arms and rolled back with the momentum so that Cleon didn’t fully connect.

Panting hard now, Cleon let his arms drop to his sides as he relaxed his stance and gave Moritz a measured look.

“You’re pretty good.” He admitted in between breaths as he pulled his sweaty shirt away from his skin to get in some air. It was kind of fun he had to admit when the circumstances weren’t quite so serious but it quickly tired him out after working at the shop. Now though his muscles felt loose, and warmed up he felt like he had a bit more maneuverability while he tried assuming the proper posture once more.

WC - 760

[Moritz Craven]

With all of the steps in place, Moritz step back and examined Cleon for a few moments. He had shown him a good stance, how to punch or at least its basic elements, a knee kick move, and various ways to react to an attack thrown at him. With all of those things sorted one by one, he felt the instruction portion of his lesson was over, and now it was time to move on to the more practical part of his lesson. Namely, a spar.

He realized though afterwards that the man did not realize what he had been trying for in the mans punches. He had meant it as a guided tour so to speak, seeing him react differently and in many of the various ways one could in response to an attack. Instead he seemed to think he was truly attacking Moritz and either failing or succeeding, which had not been his intent at all. Of course he could not further explain this due to his curse, so he simply had to let the man think what he would while hoping he paid attention and got what Moritz was trying to show him.

Looking at the man it seemed he was sweating and somewhat winded, but Moritz had only just finished with the warm up part of the lesson! Was the man tired already? Perhaps he should work on improving his pacing a bit... Or perhaps the man just had horrid stamina and did not know how to endure much sustained exercise... Yep, that seemed more likely. It probably also did not help that he drank and did all manner of other things, Moritz reminded himself.

Once his display was over Moritz hopped back and took on another ready stance, simply boring his eyes into the other mans in an attempt at an intimating gaze as he spoke and complimented him. Whether this gaze worked or not he was unsure, though he hoped his clearly non-humans eyes would give him some natural ability in looking unnerving.

He kept at this for a bit, giving the man a chance to pause and catch his breath, as he examined him both all at once and in portions. He considered his entire body as one unit, each part an extension of another. Arms, legs, chest, torso, neck, head, feet, fingers, toes, ears, eyes, nose, all was one thing. But also each was a distinct unit.

The fingers met together into one unit as a hand, which could be balled into a fist. This went up by the wrist into the forearms, then past the elbow to the upper arms and shoulders. Toes would meet into feet, going up to ankles, leading to calves, and then past the knees into the thighs. At that point was the hip joint meeting at or near the crotch, another fatal flaw and open point some might target... Though not one he planned to aim at for a spar like this.

The arms and legs would meet at the torso, down to the butt and up to the gut, past that to the chest and finally the shoulders. And above that the vulnerable neck, holding atop it the head which was both a critical place but also heavily fortified with a tough skull... But even that had openings and weak spots. The mouth had teeth so it was a miss. But the ears were weak and painful if hit, as where the eyes and nose. All bad places to be hit.

Having looked over the man in whole and in part Moritz paused, examined the man for movement, and then launched himself forward. Once he got into range he would toss a single punch aimed at the mans chest. Though he would do his best to show good form in the punch he would not go with full force as he did not want to hurt the man, just let him taste a punch on the other end.

Whatever he did, other than an unexpected grab, Moritz would react afterwards by hopping back a step, only to pop forward again and aim a kick at the back of the mans knee like earlier in his examples in an attempt to ground the man.

If he did score a good hit or knocked the man down he would stand back and give him time to catch his breath and regain his footing without doing anything more.

WC: 740