[closed]

[erbier]

CHARACTERS: Ilde, Mara, Batman
WHERE: Concordia
WHEN: DAY 33
SUMMARY: This is a training montage
WARNINGS: There's some violence and a tad bit of gore.

She has to go digging in Angel's clothes for 'athletic' wear. It is not a term Ilde particularly understands or even agrees with, but it seems that it would be best to follow Mara's instructions, for the time being. Still, any fight she gets in to... she is likely to be wearing a dress, why not practice in one? She only grumbles a little as she pulls into one of Angel's pairs of stretchy leggings with its panels of mesh. She pokes around for a shirt as well, but finds it more difficult to find a fit. She finally determines something that will have to do and goes to meet Mara on the rooftop. The rooftop of their building was the best compromise to be found. Perhaps somewhere isolated in the industrial district, but then it would have been the pair of them isolated on the far side of the industrial district. If something went wrong it could be troublesome. Besides, others have already used the rooftop for their fights. She's already had to move some of the plants into safer locations.

It's her turn. She is not so much nervous as excited. She has never had anyone like Mara in her life. There had rarely been other women, at all, once she began to live in the palace.

Even fewer, after Camille had been found a witch.

The blast of cool air as she comes out onto the roof removes that thought from her. It also catches her hair and blinds her for a moment as she moves to take control of all the long blonde locks and tie them up. She uses the same bit of twine she's always used to knot off the end of the braid.

Comments

[snaphiss]

The roof of the bearings is a fine enough place to spar. The floor is hard, and won't break Ilde's fall, but Mara's never been interested in being coddled, and assumes Ilde will feel the same.

She's been practicing with the link since she got here, trying to strengthen it without getting too lost in the flurry of emotions the Nest provides. She's been successful so far, and can manage to send simple thoughts and feelings without showing her hand. When Ilde arrives, she sends a spark of approval at her choice of dress, and how she's tied back her hair.

And that's all the interest she has in pleasantries.

"You said you killed a boy. Tell me how you did that." They may as well start with what Ilde knows, and Ilde didn't seem too shook up about the killing. Might as well jump right into it.

[erbier]

After all the disapproval her actions had received, it is very strange to hear someone actually curious of the technique of it all.

"I cut his throat," she says plainly.

A curved motion, mostly upward but with an inward angling, and then a sharp flick of the wrist at the end when she had pulled the knife back out: sliding the blade in under as much as she could and then twisting and ripping it out the side.

It was not a warning shot. She had intended to kill him, quickly and efficiently, and to shock his friends still watching her with the blood. It had worked out exactly as she had thought it would.

[snaphiss]

Mara cocks her head to the side, a halfway between amused and annoyed. "I assume he didn't just stand there and let you. How did he approach you, how did you approach him? I want to know what you're already good at."

Still, this is good information to begin with. She clearly has some experience with self defense, perhaps more than she's let on, if slitting someone's throat is such a practiced motion for her.

[erbier]

"He did not, but I did surprise him. He was not ready."

One could possibly argue then, that it was not self-defense, but Ilde doesn't know why she should wait for someone already being aggressive towards her to initiate physical violence. She would rather make the first move.

"I approached them to trade, their prices were low, and I left after informing them of such. They followed me and did not keep their distance when I turned, thus I struck."

This was all extremely normal behavior in the burned world. Violence was not a suggestion, it was always coming and as a child there was no one protecting you. You saved yourself or you were eaten, possibly kidnapped by a bandit, possibly just killed and left to rot in the wastes.

To Ilde it is self-defense, and she doesn't exactly care what anyone else says about it.

"I am quick, and I do not hesitate," she finishes with. That is what she is good at.

[snaphiss]

Mara nods, slow. Were she not so biased in favor of her fellow prisoners (a preferable way to think of it, rather than this girl, who is like me), and so biased against those in charge, she'd reconsider Ilde's story. But at the moment, she only nods and continues listening.

"Then that's what we'll focus on. You're small, but I was small at your age." Standing at an imposing five foot two inches, it's not hard to imagine. "You need to get one or two good strikes in before anyone else. Do you know how to stand?"

[erbier]

She takes a stance, turned slightly to the side, weight heavier on her back foot. The slight turn protects her center from a direct strike, the lighter weight on her front foot would free her to pivot or kick as necessary.

"The Prince had some suggestion to that."

She does not take the stance as squarely, as crisply, as he had shown it, but she sees a value in feigning looseness, it was how you stopped an enemy from knowing you were coming.

[snaphiss]

"Then he's not completely worthless." She hasn't met the man, but anyone in charge of this operation has her ire. She steps closer, taking the opening stance, her arms in front of her with hands balled into fists.

"Do you know how to block?"

[erbier]

"Not well, it is not my preference to engage directly, or prolonged," said without any snottiness, she is happy to learn it, she is merely being honest about her current perceptions.

She watches Mara's hands carefully, warily. She knows they are training, but all of her survival instincts flutter at a level she can't quite control, a low thrum of fight or flight.

[snaphiss]

"Good," she says. "You're not strong enough to block. What you want to do is catch."

She looks at her hands, and then Ilde's. She's never taught this before, and isn't sure how, but perhaps a demonstration won't get her point across? Hm. "Try to punch me, and I'll show you."

[erbier]

She doesn't try to punch people often either, it was just another way to end up in a prolonged fight. If she was forced to be without her knife, she preferred her knees and elbows, sometimes her nails. But that does not mean no one will ever try to punch her and so she swallows, takes up a similar stance to Mara with fists closed and swings. Clean and swift but she does not follow all the way through, does she need to for this example?

[snaphiss]

Mara catches the punch and sighs. "Next time, when I tell you to hit me, I mean it."

But she has Ilde's fist in her hand, and she intends to use it. "If you were still throwing the punch, there'd be force behind it." She turns, taking Ilde's fist with her. "That's the basic idea of this. Now punch me again."

She lets go, and waits.

[erbier]

Ilde doesn't apologize, she dislikes doing so and reserves it for only the most relevant of moments. Instead, she simply squares up again without complaint, softly agreeing,

"Yes."

She puts her hips into the thrust this time, maybe even a little more confident about what they're doing now that she has seen the general idea of what Mara is trying to teach her. She does know that if she going to bother punching someone she needs to put herself behind it, she has never successfully knocked someone out, but she has broken a nose in her life.

[snaphiss]

Mara catches the punch, and uses the weight Ilde puts behind it to pull her forward. She turns with the momentum, drawing Ilde with her as she pivots on her back leg. Mara throws her down-- or would. At the last moment, Mara holds tight, just before Ilde would have hit pavement.

It's to build trust, she tells herself. Not to spare her pain.

Gently, she sets Ilde on the ground. "Did you see how I did that?"

[erbier]

Whatever the intent, Ilde is glad not to be thrown to the ground. She seems a little startled, a little flustered, but she straightens herself out as she's put back on her feet.

"Once more."

Once more squared up, once more twisting through her hips, once more pulled off her balance by Mara's pivot. She feels the shift of herself through her body, and when she straightens once more, she takes a step back, focused on herself. Focused on the way her balance would need to be maintained to do this, the way she would turn to keep the enemy's momentum moving past her.

"I think I understand," she agrees.

Not that she feels she needs no more practice in it, it takes muscle memory to put any of this to good use, but the concept is there.

[snaphiss]

Mara isn't sure if she's teaching too quickly, or Ilde is slow. The Emperor would not have approved of such things-- Mara was expected to learn with minimal instruction. The Emperor was a busy man, and the fact that he was willing to spend any time on her was a blessing.

Mara isn't the Emperor.

She goes through the motions again, this time more slowly. "It seems like I'm using my strength to pull you," she says, "but I'm really using your speed to redirect you. That way, it works better against larger opponents."

[erbier]

"If I lack the strength, it is better not to meet it head on," she agrees.

It is a lesson she knows entirely too well. Her entire personality is built around this fact, of dodging and weaving and redirecting to protect herself, not merely physically but emotionally, mentally. If she had tried to meet the Godking head on... he would have broken her, in entirety.

[snaphiss]

"Good." She nods as she helps Ilde back up, and repositions herself around the girl. "Then I'll punch you, and you'll show me."

She winds up, preparing to strike.

[erbier]

She barely has time to take a breath and clear her mind, but it is one of her better strengths. She does not try to worry about doing it perfectly, and instead just tries to trust her body. Her result is a little rushed and a little more push than redirection but better than being hit. It doesn't send Mara to the ground, merely past her.

"You would recover too quickly," she acknowledges, resets and is immediately ready to try it again.

[snaphiss]

"Because I know it's coming. Someone else wouldn't, and then you'd strike." To kill them, immobilize them, it doesn't matter. Mara's loyalties are far too direct and undivided to worry about that sort of morality.

"You also have the advantage of those shock gloves. Try to think about how they could be combined with these tactics."

She says it while setting up for another punch. They're going to do this again and again and again, until Ilde gets it right. And then some more, to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

[erbier]

"You matter just as much as anyone else." Blunt? Perhaps, but it's something Ilde has been forced to contemplate quite a lot lately. There was a power inequality within her brood that caused friction that could not be resolved. Who knows, one day she and Mara might not be on the same side either.

She does think about the shock gloves, but as they practice their movements over and over again, as they move to others, Ilde has something else she has been contemplating.

"May I try something?" She asks... well, mostly because she likes Mara and does not want to be untoward.

[snaphiss]

"I've been training like this since before I can remember, with a much harsher teacher." It's the reason Mara doubts there were other Hands. They wouldn't have survived it. "The best way to win a fight with me is not to have one."

Blunt meets blunt. It's a boast, yes, but it's also true. After all, she thinks with a fond smile, she killed Luke Skywalker.

So they train, and Mara does start to see some improvement, but maybe it's wishful thinking? She's never trained someone before, and it's slow going. When Ilde asks to try something new, that's a good sign. Creativity should never be wasted. Mara stands back, wiping a strand of hair from her brow, and waits. "Go ahead. It's why I'm here."

[erbier]

She doesn't mind Mara's boasting, she also sees it as merely a statement of the facts, but... Ilde stands by her own words as well. There are too many within the host who could stop her, control her, and she means to outstripe them all. Even Cathaway. Even Dreus. The greediness of it beats a hideous tattoo inside of her, a darkness stirred. She does not want to give up her self but then, who is? It will be decided over time. A negotiation.

For now, she simply takes a stop back, a pinch appearing between her brows. The technique of it has been boiling in the back of her mind ever since the bombing, ever since her powers over fear stabilized into something stronger... But she has had no one to test it on. Only briefly and incompletely the Darkling, even then that had only been a vague demonstration. There's more. She can feel it.

She rocks back and forward from heel to toe for a moment, trying to get down the rhythm of syncing up her body with her mind.

When she finally feels like she can do the two things she wishes to do simultaneously... She moves, rushing forward.

The knife comes from nowhere, and she plunges it into Mara's neck with all the viciousness and torque that she had mimed out when asked how she had killed that boy. First it slides in deep, the it twists, then it rips and--

Ilde stops with her empty fist poised at Mara's temple, not making contact. Her eyes are dilated and her cheeks have gone read, face sweaty as if she's broken out into a fever.

[snaphiss]

Mara feels it hit her like a whip, a sudden livid spike of fear. Finally, her training in the Force pays off; she can tell it's not her. Instinctively, for a split second, she thinks it's C'baoth, but that passes. This is a power Ilde possesses alone, and its potential is tremendous.

She blocks Ilde's blow from muscle memory, but when it doesn't connect, her arm goes slack. She's panting as well-- knowing the fear isn't hers does nothing to calm its gnawing presence in her mind. She wants to calm it, to meditate, to be safe, she wants an ally, anyone-- but it's not real. She takes a deep breath. It's not real.

"Very good," she says, tired but impressed. "If I hadn't had my training, or expected something, you would have gotten me."

She looks over Ilde, breathing quick, clearly tired even from this exertion. The strength she has from the Nest isn't like the Force, and yet... "You said you were receiving training from a Jedi?"

[erbier]

"He is not a Jedi." She doesn't know the politics very well, but she knows that much from Ahsoka's utter contempt for him. "But he does wield the Force, and he is very powerful."

Ilde's answer is shaky, forcing a specific image is a new task for her, the mental pull seeps through her physical body, making her feel weak, unfocused. It seems they are both ready to take a break from this, but... There is some satisfaction in it. A sense that Mara truly can teach her something worthwhile.

"He will open up the floodgates to crash into my mind... To build up my endurance to such an assault."

She is very good at it. It was how she had weathered his complete meltdown after Anakin's death, despite having no reserves left whatsoever after using her powers to influence and entire room full of fighters and spectators.

[snaphiss]

"Good for him," Mara mutters. She doesn't think highly of the Jedi herself, doesn't think much of their methods. A Jedi, the Jedi is her first and only friend, but that doesn't mean she doesn't think he's a fool. No one in their right mind would befriend her.

But that's besides the point.

"That's good. It's the way I was taught." So clearly it's the best way of learning. "But you need to learn offense, not just defense. To send an image like that will take practice."

And she's not exactly raring to be the testing dummy, but she needs practice as well.

"We'll train in that, too. You'll hit me with what you've got, and I'll block you."