fandomhighdorms | The Gym; Sunday Morning.

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The Gym; Sunday Morning.

Sakurazaki only had six days. Six days wasn't much time at all, so she knew she'd have to work hard, and she'd have to work smart. At that meant starting out simply, with a light but fierce run through her meditations and forms with the practise swords in the gym. It had been a while since she'd had to utilize some of the more complicated forms; she'd need to refresh herself with them before taking them to live steel.

[[open for all your gymly needs; interactions with my girl might be a little wonky and slow]]

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Parker grinned, feeling the movements become an tiny increment easier as she repeated them. Dance and aikido and boxing, now this; there was just a learning curve that her body had to adjust to. "Definitely. Archery, this, anything. And hey, if you want pointers on the 'wrestling' or guns, I'll be happy to oblige. Although I'm not really much of a teacher for a beginner."

"Not a beginner." Alanna corrected. "Just a lightweight. You're only right handed, right?"

"Mostly, yes. I can shoot a gun with my left, but for everything else, I use my right." Parker cocked an eyebrow. "Should I learn swordwork with my left too? And I could show you a few things to compensate for being, well. Light." She grinned, then pulled her concentration back to the movement of the sword as she followed Alanna.

Alanna shook her head. "Don't. I meant it only if you can already use both hands or have a tendecy to break your right arm a lot. And that would be cool. Now stop. I'm going to 'attack' and your only job is to block using those two moves, either on their own or in combo. Go slow."

Parker nodded, and took up a ready stance, watching Alanna's eyes. She raised the sword to block when Alanna aimed the practice weapon at her shoulder.

"Eyes should be on my chest and torso, that's what gives away where the next move might be." Alanna aimed her sword at Parker's head.

Grimacing, Parker re-adjusted her line-of-sight, and brought her sword up, feeling the impact hit and run up her arm, stronger than she expected. "You're tougher than you look."

Alanna grinned. "I get that. A lot. Use your left arm to help you with balance."

Parker braced herself, compensated, and the next hit didn't move her as much. "This is going to hurt tomorrow, isn't it. A lot." She switched to the second block, noting the difference between it and the first.

"If it doesn't, you're doing something wrong." Alanna fixed her grip on the sword and hoped that Parker got the hint to do the same.

Parker noted it, checked hers, and re-adjusted, holding the sword a little higher on the hilt, at a different angle. "I'm okay with that, just wanted to be sure I knew what I was in for." She backed away a little, then tried to do a combination of the blocks, one, then two. "So for your Knighting thing in December, who are you going to have to fight?"

"Um...no one, really. Well...it's more of a magical trial thing? We get put into a room and when the room is done with us, it spits us back out. And we have to be silent the entire time. Some go crazy, some loose limbs, a few die, most pass. I try not to think about it too much." Alanna made sure that her next two attacks forced two different combinations from Parker.

Parker got hit on the second one, and winced and backed off, correcting her grip again. "Gah. That doesn't sound like fun. At all. Why do they do it that way? That doesn't seem like a good way to build a fighting force."

Alanna waited for Parker to get back to position and corrected her stance. "We're not the fighting force, we're the ... elite force I suppose? The fighting force is the army and navy." There may have been a small twitch there. "We're trained as their leaders."

Parker frowned as she met the next couple 'attacks', putting that aside for a moment, then asking, "Okay, so you're leading troops you haven't served with? So being a knight is like... going through a military academy? Or something?"

"Fix your grip or your wrist is going to hate you." Alanna told her and fixed her own grip. "And yeah, pretty much. Rigorous military academy. But every noble family must have a son in service."

"Okay, that sort of makes sense." Parker frowned, adjusted the grip again, and blinked sweat out of her eyes. "So how do you become Duke and leader of the armed forces, like darling Roger?"

"The Duke part you're born into. Or you marry into. I'm a Lady for life. Which is better than Baroness, but not as good as Duchess. The leader part is by prooving that you're good at what you do. Or sucking up to the right people." "Or breaking the leg of the current general." "No proof." Alanna reminded Faithful and continued the drill.

Parker shot Faithful a look, then went back to blocking, and said, "How does he get to be general just because the other guy has a broken leg? How long does that take to heal, anyway?"

"Because we were about to leave and there was no one else to take the job. It was a wreck. And it took him close to two months. A messy break and Duke Gareth is no longer in his prime, no matter what he might claim. Legs." Alanna made sure her own stance was correct.

"That. Sucks." Parker shook her head, getting her breath back. "Sorry the guy you don't trust or like is in charge. But you're going to kick ass in December, I know it." She rubbed at her eyes, and shook her head. "More of this on Wednesday or Thursday?"

"Definetly. Don't forget to stretch and loosen up and sh-stuff." Alanna picked up Lightning from under Faithful.

"Heh." Parker grinned, and stretched a little. "I think I'll stay to go through an aikido routine or two. I'll see you in workshops later. Thanks again, Alanna."

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The Gym; Sunday Morning.

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