2024-01-13: New Training
- Log: 2024-01-13 New Training
- Cast: Dias Flac, Rena Lanford
- Where: Central Kanto Plains
- Date: January 13, 2024
- Summary: Dias and Rena have a serious discussion about Dias's loner tendencies.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
The day and night cycle of Energy Nede is as artificial as everything else about the former planet. It bothers Dias a little less now that he understands why. Nonetheless, in the very early hours of what could barely be called morning, where the sky is starting to lighten but the sun (such as it is) hasn't actually risen yet, he silently slips from his bed in the Celadon City hotel room he shares with his companions, grabs his sword (which is of course on the bed with him), and slips out into the dying night.
He doesn't bother his companions, of course. It's not like he's ditching them. Indeed, this is just part of his daily routine. One of these days, he might invite Claude along, but today, like usual, it's just himself. He heads out of town and into the grasslands just beyond, faces the lightening sky, and draws Swallowblade to take it through a series of slow, elegant sword katas. With each repetition, he adds more and more speed, bit by bit, until those katas are just a blur.
After an hour of this, he's worked up a decent sweat. Dias sheathes his blade, breathing heavily into the cool breeze; then he starts to head back into the city to return to the hotel.
He's perfectly aware that he's had an observer for a while. It's someone he trusts, though, so he's been content to let her watch up until now.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
And it's in those very early hours that Rena was on the balcony of her room at the hotel. Grace was still sawing logs inside, and thus she was out here giving Shorty some pets on her lap as the two mutually watched night change to day. However, it was at that time that... "Oh."
She saw the figure of Dias, moving off from the hotel, and she quickly ducked down, murmuring, "Okay, back in your ball for a bit." The Ashound seemed amenable to that at least, as he vanished within it.
Quickly grabbing her bag and moving through the 'girls' room, she double timed it down the stairs and began to follow - not TOO closely.
She knows Dias well enough to know he'd probably sense her, and she'd get caught, so after he's out of town and started his morning workout she considers this for a time, and eventually - moves far enough away.
Eventually...
"Okay Shorty. Use Ember!"
"Ash! Ash! SHOUNNNNN!"
A pile of kindling was lit up enough for an impromptu campfire, and eventually...
-=-=-
"Good morning Dias. You're working hard."
Rena comments, and there's this lingering scent out of the basket, which demonstrates she's brought breakfast. She doesn't offer it immediately, it isn't an icebreaker after all.
It's an object lesson.
"I keep thinking about what you said, the other day. About how everyone is fighting their own battles."
Wait is she really going to just come out and say it?
"Dias, do you really think you're still fighting all by yourself?"
... Yep. She really did. She's definitely not shy to confront her big brother, this one.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
The irony is that Dias wouldn't send Rena away if he *did* catch her... not unless he thought she was going to give him trouble about something. And given her secretiveness up until she greets him, trouble seems to be the order of the day, first thing in the morning. He doesn't assume it immediately from her presence, but as he turns and takes in the sight of her and her basket, there's something in the look in her eye and the sound of her voice that makes his lips thin.
"I am," he replies. "Looks like you were too." Does he mean cooking breakfast or following him? He doesn't specify.
She launches right into it, and he swallows a sigh. He initially thought that she might say something about this eventually, but after a few days of silence, he'd started to think she was going to let it drop. It's his own fault for being overly optimistic. Of course she was just biding her time.
"Obviously I'm not. You're here, aren't you?" he points out. "If I were fighting completely on my own still, I would've left for Filgaia the moment we found out about the rift."
But that's not exactly what Rena's trying to say, and Dias knows it. Still, he's not about to make it easy for her. He might ultimately be unable to refuse her when she asks for things, but he's at least still going to make her ask.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
"Of course." Rena says easily when he points out how hard she's been working. "I have a morning routine I'm putting off too, even if it's not as intense as yours. But there was other work to do first."
Dias of course, is NEVER looking forward to this kind of conversation. After all, Rena knows he's the kind of guy who tries to run from his feelings. Or at least...
... that's the kind of guy he is now.
His response however, gets an instant reply. "You know that's not what I meant."
Rena immediately barrels through what he says as if trying to catch up to the feelings she knows he's running away from, "Even when we're fighting together, you still act like you're just fighting - alongside us, rather than with us."
It's perhaps a semantic distinction in a way, but she keeps on persisting in making certain it's an important one, "Like that time up on Marduk I tried to help you out and, you just say things like 'Worry about yourself'! And at first I thought that was just you being gruff, but with what you said to Blue...? It's clear that you're still thinking you're fighting by yourself, even when you're with us."
Eventually she steps up even closer to him, in her appeal, "I know you and Claude mean to train together... but - I think more than that needs to happen. If we're going to grow strong enough to defeat the Ten Wise Men, we need to start fighting together as a team."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
"You should probably be focusing on that routine instead," Dias says dryly. It's almost humor; at this point, he knows perfectly well that her confronting him is the whole reason why she's putting it off. Sure enough, she counters him without hesitation, to which he gives a thin frown. He doesn't quite meet her eyes, but he doesn't walk off either, even when she moves closer to him.
"Just because there are battles you can't let others fight for you doesn't mean I'm not fighting with you and Claude," he counters. They're his exceptions, after all--he told Joy as much the other day. But even with that in mind: "I know perfectly well the Ten Wise Men aren't so weak that anyone, even me, could defeat them all on their own. That's why I've been keeping an eye out on the battlefield for who's worth cooperating with. If you're complaining that I'm not good at teamwork, that's something you knew about me when you asked me to join you and Claude on your journey. It's not something I can change on a gella to be more convenient for you."
Perhaps notably, he doesn't actually address the emotional core of what Rena's saying--why he would tell her to worry about herself first, or what battle he's fighting alone even now that he's part of a larger group.
But then, Rena already knows all that too, doesn't she?
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Dias' dry humor washes over her with just this, look of 'You're not getting out of this one Mister.' from her face.
He does start countering with rather good points, after all, he's made a lot of sacrifices for them in his way of life. In a way Rena knows she's being selfish, and unreasonable to ask him to sacrifice more.
And yet it breaks her heart to see her big brother living this way. Not as a Swordsman, but just, emotionally distant from other people.
"Dias you know I'm not complaining that you're bad at it! I'm just- I'm just worried about where your head is at about this. Even... accepting those facts, doesn't mean you're not still doing things the way you have for the past eight years."
Rena does sound frustrated but she's trying to keep it under wraps, "I promise - I'm not asking you to change everything about the way you do things on a gella. What I'm asking is that we start working on it, together. Slowly but surely. That you're - open to us working on it, going forward."
That's perhaps what she was more worried about in the end, that he'd remain closed off to working on teamwork, the way he is closed off to other people. "I really don't think I'm being too unreasonable with this kind of ask."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Rena's not wrong to be upset about it, either. Dias may be powerful physically as a swordsman, but emotionally, he's never really left the Sacred Forest. That day still haunts him. But what can you do if someone doesn't want to talk about it? He can only barely talk about it with her, and only because she already knows. Even then, he still hasn't brought up the matter directly.
And, a little to his relief, neither does she. She does hint at it, but he can't fault her for that--or for her worry that he might just walk off one day after all. He did warn her about that, and she still asked him to join. Though at this point, he doesn't think he *could* walk away anymore--maybe never really could walk away, regardless of what he said before. Not that he's going to tell her that.
And because he can tell she's frustrated, but also that she's trying not to just push him into doing what she wants, he sighs a little, shoulders sinking. "...You aren't," he admits. "Fine. I'm open to it." If he weren't, he wouldn't have agreed to join them in the first place. Plus, as he's already acknowledged, the Ten Wise Men aren't foes that anyone can beat all on their own. Dias knows that Rena and Claude won't hold him back, and while he doesn't know Ethius that well yet, he's seen his Symbology and he's got nothing to complain about. Grace... well, they'll just see how that one goes.
"Tell me what you want to do, and we can work on it," he concludes, meeting her eyes at last. "If you're fine with it being slow, then I can at least put in the effort."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
It's to Dias' great relief that Rena didn't bring it up - and perhaps it's to Rena's relief too. She doesn't really like hurting him, but she thinks failing to confront him on difficult topics will just hurt him more in the long run.
If he'd been stubborn, then...
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
No doubt Rena's right. Dias can train his body as hard as he likes--and he's made incredible strides on that front, to the point that he was famous among the fighter community only two years into his own journey--but his failure to strengthen his heart is what made him vulnerable to Innominat, that day on Marduk.
...Not that he'll be bringing that up either. But rest assured, it's been on his mind.
"Hmm..." Her suggestions are sound. Dias doesn't nod, but there's acceptance in his red eyes. "Obviously," he says of her teaching herself to fight after he left. "...It's good that you did."
Rena being able to defend herself means she won't end up like Cecille. Especially if he wasn't there. ...even if he *was* there. He knows she isn't trying to guilt him--knowing her, she'd get upset if he tried to claim otherwise--but that doesn't matter.
"Hmm," he repeats when she suggests that he and Claude not just spar but also learn to complement each other in a fight. He's not so sure it'll go as well as she says, but... he doesn't think it'll go terribly, either. Claude might have resented him at first, but these days he seems much more eager to accept him.
"I was planning on heading to Armslock City at some point," he says. "They craft weaponry there, and I hear there's strong Pokemon in the area. Seems like a good place for all of us to train while we're waiting for information on the Four Fields." They'll need to get Claude in on it too, of course--but Dias doubts he'll turn them down.
"Until then, if you want to train together, just you and me, we're already out here, and I just finished warming up." He gestures at the grassy fields he'd just been turning back from. It might have been an hour of exercise, but he's had time enough to cool down. Going again right now, but with Rena this time, will be good for both of them. "What do you say?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Not that she'll be bringing that up either, now that he's been agreeable, but rest assured, it's been on her mind too.
"Yeah. I'm glad I learned before I set out with Claude... I don't think I could ever be like Celine, just, standing there slinging spells."
That way of fighting feels too vulnerable to Rena, and it's quite possible that Dias will guess why she decided to learn to fight in close quarters, despite being a spellcaster. It is so she won't end up like Cecille, certainly.
And won't let others end up like Cecille.
For all that training though, for her first challenge to be Allen with a gang of thugs...
... well it was eye opening.
"Armslock? That's- ah! I heard about it, from a shopkeeper."
Apparently Rena must have tried to inquire about purchasing weapons or armor too, and it hadn't gone as expected. This really is such a different world from Filgaia, "That'd be great, there's a certain weapon I'm looking for. And - I have a long way to go as a Pokemon trainer too."
She does smile at him, "I'd like that." She tells him, but then raises the basket, "But first, want some breakfast before we get started? I made Omurice, and I wouldn't want yours to get cold."
She had intended it as an object lesson in case he'd rejected her overtures, but now it's just breakfast.