srwug_alpha_rp | (no subject)

[1/Network]

We have taken a vote among all the elementals on board the Chalice and have agreed that one day per week of our CQC training shall be opened up to the ship as a whole and modified to accommodate those who are of a size closer to the baseline. The first hour shall be conditioning, the second technical practice and the third sparring. Expect practice with unarmed techniques and portable weapons such as sticks and knives. We owe thanks to Madeline Caine for helping to pioneer and test these modifications. I do hope I will see you there!

[2]

Although the elementals have indeed opened up their practice, they're still running through routines that could make Olympic athletes jealous. By the first hour, sweat stains the mats they've laid out and the setting sun is giving the room an orange glow. They've opened the windows to get fresh air in, which might be exactly what you want to get if you're not used to this kindof thing.

When the second hour comes around, Nikolai chooses the largest of his fellow elementals for demonstration purposes. Large as he is to most, he's dwarfed by his practice partner. Yet by dropping underneath her, he can hurl her over his shoulder or drive her backwards, like a house dynamited at its foundations. With a chuckle and some colorful metaphors he also explains the cringe inducing potential consequences of loading a 350 pound elemental on the top your head and thus your neck while practicing. The message therein: do not do it.

And for the third, they pair off, wrestling, strongarming each other into locks and strangles, kickboxing, striking each other with sticks, lashing out and tying each other up with ropes...They don't seem to make much distinction between the different types of combat and one easily blends into the other. They may encounter any of them, after all. Join in? Introduce them to the traditional pig wrestling of your homeland? Dip your toe in the pond by choosing the older but wily Nikolai? Dive straight in the deep end full of sharks by challenging ~~Only One Kenobi~~ Darius?

[3]

He's not getting any younger, especially around the joints and a little of the strong stuff helps him take the edge off of roughhousing with the young bucks. And so, having showered and rubbed Ben Gay on himself in a classic old person move, he hits the bar and asks for the house special.

[4/network/private to Lowe Gear]

Greetings to you, Lowe Gear. I am Nikolai Djerassi of Clan Goliath Scorpion. It seems Clan Wolf is quite pleased with your assistance in the creation of the Verfolger omnimech. As well your name has been recommended to me for a task: I require the assistance of an expert in Earth Sphere technology in the creation of a vehicle that can improve the survivability of an armored Elemental closing with an Earth Sphere mech on open terrain. The design could be based on the existing APC designs which have been around for centuries, though with heavy modifications and a semi-open cab to allow the trooper to exit in their armor.

I hope to hear back from you soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nikolai stops mid-sprawl, and gets up slowly, rather puzzled.

"What is not right?"

I acted with lethal intent. It overwhelmed me... against a human.

"Did you think you would hurt me? Or that you would only be fighting your own kind on this ship?"

He has to wonder about that second part. Maybe she feels apprehensive about being put in the position of killing members of the same species she left her people to protect? Well, she'll have to get over it eventually, he thinks. Better in a controlled environment than where it can get them really killed.

Fighting my enemies is one thing, whether they are human or Over Being. But this is supposed to be a "training".

He smiles and spreads his arms out as if to say 'see? no scratches'.

"Your caution is good, but worry not. It is very unlikely you will hurt me here. It would be prudent to be careful when sparring with other freeborn or the aerospace pilots though."

Indeed, the small, large headed aerospace pilot phenotype seems ill suited for this kind of thing, but they're in there too, mixing it up.

You cannot be sure what I am capable of. I am not sure myself. I'm not a human, after all.

[Texotic seems genuinely worried that her hands will pummel you - or anyone else for that matter, into bloody pieces of meat. Truly, that'd be a sight to behold.]

He wonders if he should show her the marks on his shoulders and wrists from dancing the scars so many times, recite his codex. But he left such bragging behind when he stepped down from the khanship.

"Texotic...Your body might have hidden potential but right now it is very weak. But even if it were a danger to me...I am a teacher. I do not know how it works in your society, but where I am from, the instructor must accept that the student's clumsiness with their new weapon...whether it be a rifle, battle armor, a mech or in your case, a body...may hurt you. It is simply a hazard of the job."

He gives her a somewhat stony but still present smile, the kind he uses when encouraging a cadet to climb into their armor, mech or fighter for the first time.

Edited 2013-07-20 13:31 (UTC)

A hazard that may as well end up killing you.

...

Very well. But I will focus on not losing control first and foremost. I came to this planet to save it, not cause more misery.

"Where I will be just as dead as if you were a sibbie handling a PPC for the first time."

There's a beep as technical practice ends and it's time to spar.

"What makes you think your body has hidden abilities?"

The bodies me and other Over Being are using are supposed to be identical to human ones...

But the circumstances of my arrival to this planet were not ordinary for my race. I wouldn't be surprised if my body wasn't, either.

"If you give them a sample, Clan Wolf's Scientists can look over your DNA."

He faces her in stance again and makes a come hither gesture. He can do this and keep up a conversation.

Sample?

[Texotic looks analytical, before deciding the best course of action is to... charge forward and flail ineffectively? Not sure what she was trying to do, but that's how it looks like.]

"Ah, how relaxing..."

Nikolai weaves through the blows like a man navigating a crowd. He's serene. He could be drinking a cup of tea.

"A blood sample. Most of us in the Warrior caste are born artificially as well, so we have developed the science of human genetics."

[Texotic has to pause after a flurry of wild hits, to catch her breath. Somehow, even if any of the hits connected, it doesn't look like they'd do much damage...]

That is... interesting...

I wonder what it'd say... about me...

He pauses too and pats the top of her head, as if she were a puppy that was learning its first tricks. He'd seen so many cadets come and go that it was natural he'd develop such a kindly but faintly patronizing attitude.

"Perhaps it might tell you about your ancestors, quiaff? Actually you have never told me how your kind reproduces at all."

No cultural taboo on this kindof thing. For ordinary non-clanners he remembers, but he figures it might not be in her culture either.

Hmm!

[Texotic cannot help but feel slightly annoyed at this display of affection.]

This body does not have ancestors, since it is artificially made. As for me... there is the Over Being Father. The literal mother of all other Over Being.

They usually hate it, or claim to, but he does it anyway. Why? Because their clumsiness is adorable and because he can.

"Still it may reveal some weakness in the artificial bodies you use. That would be useful knowledge to have."

Yes. It will not hurt to know.