2018-01-22: Filgaian Technique, Lunarian Fencer
- Log: 2018-01-22: Filgaian Technique, Lunarian Fencer
- Cast: Kourin, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: Great Aveh Desert
- Date: January 22nd, 2018
- Summary: Ethius happens upon Kourin as she trains in her swordsmanship. Catching her at a moment of rest, they have a short discussion about where she's been drawing this new knowledge from... and a little bit more about her life on Lunar. (To what end does this warrant his interest, anyway?)
================================================<* Great Aveh Desert *>================================================= The heart of the Republic of Aveh is its great desert. The rolling dones and blistering heat here are infamous, and all but the most foolhardy would ever dare to cross it on foot. Most do so via the great rail lines running north to south, east to west, leading as far as Krosse and Adlehyde. The ones who do cross it on foot will find the heat isn't the only danger. Mirages can lead men astray, oases are few, and great and terrible beasts sink beneath the sands until they find their prey. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddOSJ8571M
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin's been focused since recovering from her recent injury. She's tracked down some ancient works on swordplay and has begun refreshing the basics of her art with some of the styles and moves dictated in the Filgaian manuals and techniques. Indeed, she has mastered the base form of the Comet Strike, but this seems to be insufficient for her. By all appearances, Kourin is striving to push herself beyond her current plateau of skill with the sword.
To this end, she's taken up a daily training regimen, which has already resulted in visible toning to her muscles and improvement to her mood. The ritualistic performance of formally training seems to take away much of the young woman's uncertainty and apparent lack of direction in life.
Plus the daily runs are good for the dogs, too.
At the moment, she's training in a pattern activity, going through a repeated series of motions with sword in hand, as though in battle.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius shouldn't be walking around. He was pushing it when he decided he had to follow the rest of the Caravan Kinship back into Seven Sages. He's paying the price for it. Bruising and muscular aches - to say nothing of the concussion and the resulting headaches - fight back in full force. After all the fellowship has gone through, Jay is calling for them all to take a rest.
Ethius hardly rests. His body is going to quit on him one day over this. He at least has that quarterstaff to use as a makeshift walking stick for balance. Something compels him so, today. Maybe he's so bored he wants to go minesweeping again. He always seems to be obsessed about the possibility of a Kislevi or Aveh land mine no matter where they park the CaraKin.
Instead, he happens upon Kourin's training exercises. This suits him - he needs to sit down on this nearby rock. There's another pair of eyes there. That means it's reasonably safe to sit. Basic instinct sees him try and turn his head back ov-- ouch, no, no, ow. Neck hurts. It wants to stay in place. The muffled grunt might accidentally alarm Kourin to his presence as he rests a hand up against it.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin notices Ethius more because Spirit notices Ethius, the dog trotting over to greet the man with tail gently wagging. Kourin finishes out the repetition she is in the middle of, then pauses, turns away, retrieves her scabbard and a canteen of water from where she set them down, and after sheathing the sword, takes a swig of water.
Only then does the young woman turn to Ethius and nod in greeting.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Spirit gets a number of pats when they draw close. It's always the same number of pats. It's as much a practiced routine as is Kourin's swordplay. (Only he could break down such an affectionate gesture and make it come off as some kind of mechanical response...)
"My apologies, Miss Kourin. I pray that I am not intruding." He responds, withdrawing his hand from the patted canine pal.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin shakes her head, then wipes her brow. "It is fine. I should take a break now anyway." She begins stretching, which is an important part of any workout. "What brings you this way?" she asks. Spirit, who wants more pets but is used to Ethius, pads to a point nearby where he can watch both Ethius and Kourin, and lies down, head on his paws.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I am stretching my legs." He should probably use past tense instead, as he's now sitting on a rock and catching his breath while he soaks the aches and pains of a body that would rather he lie in bed for a while. He imagines after this, he will have no choice but to heed it. No matter what compulsions see him try and shove it aside in the most dire circumstances, as though he must at risk of... something.
He doesn't look her in the eyes, as a passing cloud in the distance for some reason - or it's better to say, for no reason that makes any sense whatsoever - proves compelling to stare out at the way he stares at everything.
"I have noticed you are honing your technique. Have you been struck by inspiration, Miss Kourin?"
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin shrugs. "That would be one way of putting it. I have...recently allowed myself to become complacent in too many ways. I thought my skills had reached a point where they would be sufficient to handle whatever situations arose, but...clearly this is not the case. So I have sought out manuals of training, and technique, from these lands, and seek to renew my discipline."
"One thing about the Guard," she admits, "that was nice was the discipline."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"...From these lands?" He sits up. The shift in his posture is visisble. Usually, Ethius' body language is so guarded that any shift in the way he sits tends to be incremential at best - as though trying to hide any changes in his posture. This is not one of those times.
Is he concerned? Surprised? The tone of his voice doesn't change any, but that visible shift in posture might say all about that point.
"...I see. It is wise to adapt one's approach in regards to one surroundings. I do not find fault in your initiative." He closes his eyes, as though satisfied with however long he was staring at that dumb useless cloud in the distance. It's nothing special. Just a puffy little cloud, doing its own thing, not getting in anyone's business. Ethius should be profiling clouds less. That is so rude of him. He must have something against clouds.
"My apologies. I did not mean to interrupt you." His neck sends a sharp pain through him every time he tries to turn his head to face her. His upper body twists in order to best facilitate this. His shoulder disagrees. He opens his eyes again.
"But I do feel compelled to inquire. What was the training regimen in your time with the Guard?"
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin nods. "I thought as much myself, but there is also the matter of access...I cannot access my old teachers from Lunar, nor the styles they taught, so if I seek to re-establish the basics and improve my skill with them, then I must turn to resources I can find here on Filgaia."
She pauses, closing her eyes to remember. "It was less intense than my current training," she answers finally. "My role was as a magic user and so I was generally not included in the swordplay drills; I sometimes joined but often other duties kept me away. There was a lot of patrolling, and regular mealtimes, which I...often missed intentionally."
She trails off for a while.
"I did not fit in."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius listens along to Kourin's reasoning. It does make sense, then, to seek local resources here if the original source for her knowledge and training was no longer accessible. Cutting oneself off from their one tether to their home... there is no other choice, is there?
"Thus, the Guard operates by assigning its soldiers to specific roles in which they feel they are most uniquely suited, then?" There is merit to that, he thinks. He brings a hand to his forehe--- agh, neck, agh. The neck cancels this well-used stock Ethius animation.
"As a sorcerer, missing out on one's meals is a most dangerous prospect." Ethius is not quite one to talk - he is a sorcerer, too, and it often seems like he only barely clears nutritional requirements himself. Everyone knows how he prefers his food - burnt to a level of crispiness one typically does not consider palatable.
"I apologize if it sounds as though I an opening old wounds, Miss Kourin." He remembers when they first met. She was separated from her allies of the time, too. "But I am willing to hear further if you feel you must share."
He is curious as to why she didn't feel like she fit in. Much of Lunar is an unknown - socially, politically, everything. Any detail he can get out of her would help.
To what end it would help... does he know?
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin sighs. "I did not go hungry, I simply...did not join the others. I had no other use for my stipend, so I spent it on food on my own and stayed away. Nobody seemed to mind much my absence."
"As you know I...am shy, and what I believe--what Althena's teachings show--is often different from how many of the Guard seem to behave. I did not engage in gambling or joking with the others, and this marked me as being separate. Even in practice drills..." She bows her head. "I have always striven to use the gifts the Goddess gave me to the utmost, that they not go to waste. That is why I work so hard, even now--but many of the Guard felt that it was because I held myself to be superior."
Quietly, she adds, "it was ever such. Even at the orphanage."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius listens along quietly for further tales of Kourin's loneliness and struggles with the feeling of being apart. He usually is a good listener for this sort of thing. (Especially when he is less 'listening' and more 'eavesdropping,' as the case often tends to be in just about any other context where he is present.)
"Your devotion to self-improvement remains admirable, Miss Kourin." Encouraging words, even if it's that same nearly deadpan tone of voice he uses for virtually everything else he says. It might be about as heartfelt as someone like him can manage. He's actually maintaining eye contact! A rarity.
"It is my earnest hope that your devotion remain true." He does seem to often try to encourage her down, specifically, the concept of devotion whenever it comes up. This time seems no different. "Though, before you resume your regimen... may I trouble you to see the aforementioned reference material you were discussing?"
His curiosity here is odd. He is not a fencer.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin nods. "It is a book in surprisingly good condition. I have stored it in my room aboard the CaraKin. I will be happy to share it with you. That...and this." She heads back over to where she got her water--she must have a bag with her there--and produces a scroll, which she brings to Ethius. "This bears the methods of the Comet Strike technique. It is...different from the styles I normally practice; I hope that by reinforcing my understanding of the basics of the style it is based on, I will be able to adapt it to a form more...suitable to my own style." She hands the scroll to Ethius.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius takes the scroll in his hands and opens it. The secrets of the Comet Strike - is he interested in expanding his own combat technique? Come to think of it, no one ever really sees him practice or train. He's never asked anyone to spar. Just about any time he brings his combat technique to bear, it is utilized as a means to destroy - to kill. Is it just a matter of holding back, or is there something else to it?
His eyes go across the text and the pictures. "I see..."
His voice noticeably trails off. This very scroll is considered sacred by those who worship Equites, the Sword Guardian. Much of its text seems to involve ceremonial dialogue in prayer as much as there is useable information as to how one channels their power and technique in order to perform this sacred secret technique.
He closes his eyes for a time. This 'a time' measure is lengthy as to be awkward. Why? Is there some level of disbelief? Disapproval? Is he somehow of a position of knowledge and experience in which to elaborate further on what this scroll offers? He closes the scroll back up, keeping it held between his hands for a few seconds more while remaining motionless.
A little too quiet. His eyes don't open back up.
"I appreciate your permission in allowing me to indulge in my curiosity." Ethius gets long-winded where a good 'thank you' would work just fine!! He's always bad about that. He gently presents the scroll back to the student of the sword. He says to be thankful for having been allowed to see it, but what benefit there is to him reading this remains - much like far too many other things about this man - unknown.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin smiles as she returns to the bag--which, this time she hefts onto her shoulder. "It is time I should be heading back to the CaraKin--the puppies will want feeding soon. Would you join me on the walk, or do you wish to rest awhile longer?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Yes. I will be joining you." Ethius gets those words out after what might be a sigh? Some kind of exhalation, anyway. For what he's been through, he is undeniably in great physical discomfort. He can't hide that, as an attempt to turn his body and flex the necessary muscles in which to stand up stalls with a grunt of exertion he rarely allows to be heard.
"Otherwise, I'm afraid the rest will worry." Worry compared to his strong language concerning the complete erasure of Professor Castle? Perish the thought - some would probably breathe a sigh of relief if he stayed out of their lives for a while longer than the span of his time and conversation with Kourin.
"If it is no trouble, Miss Kourin, I will require you to take point on the way back." Speaking as though they might be vulnerable, might be exposed to danger - but he's always like that.
"Please be mindful of the possibility of buried land mines." Again with the land mines!!! Does he ever shut up about the land mines?!
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin takes it in stride. "Spirit is trained to detect such traps--though not the specific mechanisms you speak of, there are...similar concepts back on Lunar, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius nods his head once. Yes, that is good to know that the threat is understood about buried explosives. He quietly limps along with help of his quarterstaff behind Kourin along the way back to the CaraKin.
Now one hopes that he does not get bowled over by puppies. (He is going to get bowled over by puppies. It will be very cute, but also immensely painful.)