[training log] once you find your center

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: Day :153-155
SUMMARY: Get ready to sweat.
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.

EARLY ON DAY 153 after you have had some time to rest, quiet your minds, get used to the feeling of other people in your head and start to know them better than you anticipated or possibly wished to, there is a call.

Unlike before, when you first awoke, it is not warm and sweet and coaxing. It is instead almost devoid of emotion. Nearly as impersonal as a phone call or a person speaking to you across the length of a desk. For those of you who have met him, it is instantly recognizable as Prince, the words fit themselves into whatever language is most comfortable to you, but his tone is the same, the deep, level sound of his voice almost the same as if it were in your ear.

What he says is this:

'New hosts are expected in the Training Wing within --' and here the voice doesn’t falter, but it seems less like words, more like a concept, tapping into the part of your mind with a far clearer understanding of time than you once had. It’s about an earth hour, either way, 'to begin training for your first assignment. Attendance is recommended.'

And with that his voice is gone, leaving behind only the clear impression of a place, how to get there, and your own thoughts. Well, your own and everybody else’s.




IF YOU CHOSE to heed his advice and go to the Training Wing, you will find upon your arrival Prince: taller than average, broad, with warm brown skin and a serious expression across his face. The cape he usually wears is elsewhere, for the moment, and beside him is a stack of dark grey jumpsuits that look very much like the ones both he and Cathaway wear.

If you’ve been to the Training Wing before it seems slightly changed, although it is difficult to say how. Certainly it was this large before, and certainly there were as many chambers. When you approach Prince won’t have much to say at first, but he will hand you your uniform and point you towards the single locker room, and if you ask for clarification he will only say that he will tell you more when you are dressed and the rest have gathered.

You can take this time to talk to your fellow hosts and get used to the slightly honeycomb textured space spandex that you will find fits you to a tee.

When the allotted time has passed, Prince will request you all gather in a single area, and will explain the situation. Your first assignment will be in three day’s time. It isn’t expected to be dangerous, however most of you are completely unprepared. You don’t know your own strength, you don’t know your own skill, and you haven’t had much time to learn.

What follows is a rudimentary explanation of Iota and Rho symbiotic types ((as outlined in the setting)) as well as an explanation of specialized skills. He doesn’t tell you what yours is, and most of his words are a warning- yes, you are stronger than you were before, but you’re not as strong as you could be. Yes, you are faster, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to use it. Yes, you can see and hear better than you could before but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to look and you don’t know what you’re listening for. He suggests that you set yourself to learning, although he only teaches the willing.


And then the Training Wing is yours.

---

((OOC Notes: Welcome to the training log!

The Training Wing is large- bigger than the biggest gym, and it contains a number of specialized spaces for Host’s use. What follows is an (incomplete) list of amenities. Have an idea for another space? Drop us a line in the questions section of the OOC info post! The training wing itself is a central hub-type area with a number of hallways that branch out in a vaguely spiraling fashion spanning multiple levels. Below are a list of locations key to this log:

• Lockers - The aforementioned locker space. Features (open) cubbies, shower spaces, a bathroom, towels, and sets of shoes for those of you without proper footwear.

• Track - Centrally located there is a large track, multiple lanes wide, the ground coated in some sort of slightly rubbery, gripping substance. It’s big, it’s open, it’s white, and if you just want to go fast here’s your chance.

• Gym - Located not far from the lockers is an almost traditional gym space, with a number of pieces of exercise equipment, some of which is familiar and some of which is not. There are instructions that will read in a pleasant voice if you seem lost. You will find both strength and cardio equipment arranged in a somewhat sensible manner.

• Training Hall - A large open space with a number of pads on the floors and walls and a wide variety of dummies and protective gear. You’ll also find melee practice weapons ranging from swords and pikes to slightly more exotic weaponry here as well as room for a little good ol’ fashioned wrasslin’.

• Range - Lying closest to the Flight Hangar, this room features a number of targets and projectile training weapons. Here you will find everything from bows and arrows to laser guns. Nothing is capable of doing real damage, but it feels and reacts in a way that’s very real. Handy readouts will tell you exactly how accurate (or inaccurate) you are.

• Pool - It’s a pool, there are lanes, so swim free. Please don’t drown. There is no sauna.

If you have any questions drop us a line at the OOC post

Let's get physical!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[adamance]

[Palpable discomfort won't help someone's strength. Seeming confident in someone's ability to fight is what matters most. If she seems weak, she'll be targeted. If she serves a purpose, she will be held on to, even if she's dragged to another camp. Of course, their enemies want them dead, but their enemies likely won't be the only ones they'll face.

What Lexa knows, understands, of a life of survival is that there are always threads that get in the way, pieces that complicate matters. No one can work alone. No one can have resources that depend on just themselves. That's why it had been important to bring together the coalition. They had warriors from all different walks of life under one umbrella, all aware of the importance of joining together to face their enemies.

Together, they wouldn't fight and cut each other's numbers down. Together, they would succeed.

The Nest offers a similar yet entirely different scenario, one where safety is and may remain a risk for a very long time.]

Relax. Set it down for a moment. [They won't continue forward. Not yet. Titus' lessons move through her mind. How to approach them?]

Why did you come here? [A beat.] Well, first, before you answer that. What is your name? I am Lexa. [To engage in something more comfortable, or to give the illusion of it. With Lexa, much has a political, diplomatic air to it.]

[circumspector]

[ She lowers the weapon, worried that she'd somehow completely misunderstood completely as the tip of the training blade settled beside her on the ground. Holding it out from her body careful, making sure not to drop it. ]

I'm, uhm, [ The casual diplomacy is something she can follow that -- that she does know. To put people at ease, to talk them through otherwise difficult situations, give them hope in the face of the insurmountable.

It's just odd to be on the other end of it. Flicks her gaze from the weapon up to her face again. ] I'm Angel. Thank you for helping me.

[ As for the second part, she stays quiet. She doesn't want to say the truth, not because she's practised at lying or finds a joy in it, but it's pathetic, but she knows what a waste her life is, how it sounds outlied. ] I came for the same reason everyone else did, it was an escape.

[adamance]

It was more than that. We can escape a great deal of things. It was the only option available to us if we hoped to live, but we could have accepted our death. We didn't. [Death is not something that Lexa fears so much as pain being caused for her people. She hoped to go along for survival, to ensure that she could return later. Survival is something she understands, but she also knows that it might have been her time.

Of course, that she took the path of escape, that she saw it as a way out, means she accepts that it just isn't her time.

Still:] Death is an escape just as much as living here is an escape. You valued your life enough to keep going. That's why you're here.

[Underlying this belief is the fact that someone recently reminded Lexa of the value of her life. Drawing upon the heart of that wisdom makes Lexa miss Clarke painfully; that pain resonates, but there's some happiness that she can draw upon, too. She knew Clarke long enough to deliver these words, and hopefully, by coming here, she secured her survival.]

[circumspector]

[ It's sobering, that pain with the inflection of deeper meaning, words that are precious, because of where they come from, who said them. Weighted, that way, where they would mean a lot as they were, the feeling behind them. Makes her stop in her fiddling, her eyes fixed on the other woman. Nodding once to show she was listening and something as faint as a tremor in return for the rest.

It's like standing on the edge of a cliff, what this woman spells out. All that's left is for her to jump over the edge. Her breath stills, and it's like something clarifies sharp and quickly. She chose this, she chose to do something other than die, because she hadn't ever wanted to. It was just the only thing she could do.

Living was far more terrifying than she ever had an understanding of, but she was never going to turn her back on it. Not now that it is finally hers to truly have. She was sick of being just a shell and a collection of bundled wires.

So once more, now, with conviction, the fear and the want and the need to grasp with her own two hands. ]

I know. [ Death was a choice, living was a choice, they had been her only ones. Says it with that pain in return, says it with a weapon gripped in her hand. This was hard, but she didn't care, she didn't care how hard any of this was. She was going to do this, for herself. ] Please, show me.

[adamance]

[The meaning is clear. Or rather: the shared understanding is clear. They are here to fight for their lives. The fight didn't end with the escape. For as long as they would live, there would be more fights. Lexa has only ever known a life of war, and she had just stepped onto a path where she had a chance for something else when she had come here.

She'll never know what that was truly like. She can only hope that her efforts to make that possible for her people didn't go in vain.

(Hope is a funny, fragile thing when it comes to Lexa. She doesn't really believe in its existence, not really.)

But people can make hopes reality by taking charge of the life in front of them.]

Much of this is repetition at first. Much of it is set that way so that you don't injure yourself while fighting another. You'll learn what you can manage in time. [The practice blades are also lighter, easier to manage, and she shifts her own back up, placing her left hand behind her back. The finer methods of fencing hadn't passed down to her people (that would have been impossible), but there are simply things that would be passed among any culture.]

What you can learn here can be applied to a smaller blade. If it seems that will suit you better, we'll proceed there. [But it's clear that she's undertaking this as her responsibility. To Lexa, it's a duty, and an important one. She can't just trot around acting like she knows everything. Being a leader (no matter how much she isn't one here—which is a reality she's reluctant to recognize) comes with actions as well as words.It comes with obligations, and this is one she takes on gladly.]

[circumspector]

[ It's something she understands, fighting doesn't end, fighting never ends, whether that's here, or on some wasteland plain of Pandora, or on a planet a hundred years away. She's died screaming and choking on purple stained blood, she might die like that again. Doesn't change anything, not really.

But she can change how she meets it, this time. Not through machinations. She's done with it - she'll burn this time. She wants to be bright, not a cold girl and shell of a body. One day she won't just look with envy, she can been seen as something other than pathetic.

For now, she gives herself over to Lexa's teaching, to her keeping. Her attention is rapt, given completely to observing and storing away. In that manner, her mind is exact, controlled and regimented so that everything has a place. Like she's build a folio just around Lexa herself. No detail left spared. ]

This one's a little heavy so far, but I think that's just practise. I've never really used these muscles before. [ But Prince had already said there was nothing for that but training. ]

[adamance]

You'll want to find weights to train with, as well. [There are none in here, but Lexa assumes she's seen the thorough arrangements elsewhere. If, for some reason, she didn't take in what was available, she'll only supply that information then.] Working with a blade will do a great deal for the strength in your arms, but you'll need more than that. Either way, there is a good chance that you'll be sore early on in your training. Get used to it.

[Not just from blows, but from adjusting to the repetitive motion. Bruising of the muscle will come into play with the pain at hand, but there will be much to change.]

But so long as you practice, you'll adjust. If you trade down for a smaller weapon, I advise you to keep up the practice with something larger. [But that's a bridge to cross later. This is all rather preemptive, as it's only the beginning.

Still, showing that there's some flexibility to it is important.]

[circumspector]

[ Hours later, she'll have to remind herself that she asked for this. For the sore muscles and the ache to her limbs. It was the price of this freedom and the choice to do something with it.

But at the time she doesn't say so much after that, only questions as to this stance, or that hold. It's tiring, she's exhausted much quicker than she can ever remember - but it's a different tired. Her muscles not used to working this way, and the blade quickly becomes heavy.

Still, she does as she's asked, for as long as she is told to. Not that she's a perfect student, she gets distracted quickly, mind prone to wandering across planets, and the repetitive motions make it easy to trail off from what she's doing. Still eventually, she mostly remembers to stick with what she's doing, what she's asked to. Accepting the corrections when they come with stiff little nods, swallowing her pride when she'd had a lifetime of things coming easy.

Because there was no magic drug to fix her this time. Just what Lexa and Prince had both said, hard work, to work at it. That's what being free means, she realizes.

So she'll take whatever small consolation of this will be worth it later that she can get when she falls asleep in a pile at an odd time. Exhausted but satisfied with herself and the training, and so very, very grateful for the patience showed to her. ]