Training & Studying [OPEN]

[chore_boy]

Date & Time: Feb 21st - 24th
Location: Training Hall, Library
Characters: Coby & YOU
Summary: Nothing fancy! This will follow Coby's regular training and studying regiments, something he's going to be repeating indefinitely for the next ... forever.
Warnings: None expected.

Early in the morning, Coby woke up and left his empty apartment, content to rush to work a handful of hours in one of the local delis, putting in as much time as he could without sparing the expense of time he knew was best spent physically active. Working as a butcher didn't seem to help his sense of pride in being a Captain, but pride wasn't something that paid well enough for him to maintain rent, food and clothing. Free food tended to help, too.

He would work from Six to Ten every morning, diligently maintaining his allotment of travel time so he could arrive at the training halls on time to help anyone if at all possible. He spent the first two hours doing light training and doling out advice even if it annoyed someone--it was in his nature to want to be helpful even at the expense of being hit once or twice. When noon approached, he would separate himself and train alone for a number of hours--never exceeding eight of it. He would do simple stance and posture exercises, dead-lifting and a cyclical arena of stretching, punching and kicking until he felt his muscles tense up. Not once during his training would he seek out water or food. Starvation training was all a part of it.

Coby would leave around nine or ten o'clock and posit himself in the library, digging up a number of books he had checked out and sitting with them he began what seemed like the arduous process of logging tiny pieces of information from them in his notebooks. In reality, reaching the library on a daily basis seemed to be an immense reward to him and as he ate small and rationed pieces of fruit and meat with what seemed to be a prisoner's allotment of water, Coby tried his best to study as much as he could before the need to sleep would take him back home. It was his routine as a soldier.

(OOC: Feel free to toss times & dates in here via the subject header! Action or prose is fine.)

Comments

[lifemelody]

Fortunately for Coby, she was no stranger to death anymore. It'd be hard to be so after going through the things she has. Though she won't say anything to that matter.

"Oh...I hadn't realized there as a difference in the dummies," she said, trying to cover up her sheepiness. There was so little she didn't know about all this....it was almost embarrassing.

"Only for a little while...maybe half an hour?"

[chore_boy]

Coby ran his fingers over the indents of bladed weapons from the surface of the dummy itself. It was clear there were a few stabbing points on it, likely from the dagger that she was using in the first place. Though she couldn't dislodge it in the end all that easily, it was still a pretty deep wound she made in the wood. He smiled--confident she'd do well enough if she were caught and in need of self-defense anytime soon.

"Well, it'll damage your weapon and the dummy. Though it doesn't seem like it right away, but sharp edges can dull quickly if you train with them against wood," Since admittedly, those kinds of knives were made for cutting people, not wood.

"How about this, though? Air doesn't dull a blade as quickly as a target does," Coby smiled, setting his hands on his hips. "Use me for practice."

[lifemelody]

She listens intently until that last part, when she's taken aback.

"What?!" Was he serious? But if she hit him...! "I can't use you! What if you get hurt?"

[chore_boy]

Though Coby made such a ridiculous offer, he didn't hesitate to look a bit nervous at the prospect. He wasn't nervous because of worry for himself--rather that he wouldn't be convincing enough in his offer.

"It's alright!" He raised his right arm, pumping his bicep confidently. "I'm hardy, now! After the training I've gone through, the least I can do is take anything you have to dish. Though, if I have to convince you--I imagine I could show you what I mean."

[lifemelody]

She meanwhile was thinking Coby was insane. Who cares if he was hardy, a stab wound was a stab wound! Last she checked, anyone could fall from those.

Plus what did dishes even have to do with this?

"I don't know Coby...do you really think you could take an injury like that if I do hit you?"

[chore_boy]

Pessimism was understandable. Dagger's disposition easily reminded him of how he had been only three years prior--he had been pessimistic and realistic. In three years, it seemed almost as if all of that had melted off of him and one was left with a proper Marine. At that, Coby's smile brimmed and he held his hand open in front of her.

"Let me see it, please," He spoke up, trying to put on his lightest airs of comfort. "It won't do any good to avoid explaining exactly what I mean."

[lifemelody]

It wasn't so much pessimism as just...realism. You get stabbed, you die. Even for all of Dagger's naivety, she knew that much.

But reluctantly she'll hold out her dagger for him to take. "Here..."

[chore_boy]

Taking the knife, Coby spun it once on his fingers before focusing a moment and then stabbing it into his free, opened palm. Instead of it piercing him--a few sparks actually erupted from the tip and it bounced off of his hand harmlessly. There was the sound of steel striking steel rather than something much more sickening.

"It's a technique, actually," Coby spun the knife once more, presenting the handle to Dagger. "Something you're supposed to learn in some ranks as a Marine."

[lifemelody]

Dagger had been posed to cover her eyes when he got stabbed, but instead she'll jump back in surprise at the sparks shooting off since she was NOT expecting that. When he offers the knife, instead of grabbing for that, she'll grab for his hand that was stabbed JUST to make sure it's okay.

"You really- how-!" This was insane. "I've never seen anything like that!"

[chore_boy]

"From what I've heard, there aren't any rokushiki users here besides myself," Smiled Coby sheepishly as Dagger looked over his hand as if she doubted he left that little situation without a scratch on him. He looked aside to the knife, reassured in his endeavor to prove himself despite the fact that it would always be a ridiculous gamble. "We can harden our bodies like steel and move even faster, so--it's not as if I'd be dispatched easily in the middle of training. That's essentially why I don't mind if you try using it on me, Miss Dagger."

[lifemelody]

Rokushiki...? Yeah, that was something Dagger had certainly never heard of before, so she listens to the explanation. "That's incredible. It's not harmful to do it too much, is it?"

[chore_boy]

"As a technique, it doesn't cause me any harm. However, it's not invincibility. Someone who could cut steel could cut me--and, if I'm struck hard enough, it'll hurt all the same," Coby reached up to touch his scarf and glasses to take them off, beginning to fold the latter within the former.

"But, I imagine you'd quit if that became an issue, right?"

[lifemelody]

"Of course I would!" She seems to take that a bit more seriously than intended. Dagger sometimes needs to learn to chill.

But with a little huff she calms herself.

"Alright, then let's begin!"

[chore_boy]

"Alright," Coby began, raising his hands. He kept one hand up, emulating how he began to explain to Dagger how he figured she should have held the knife. "Put your thumb on the handle of the blade and keep it straight. Don't grip it like you'd hold onto a rail--you want to hold it so you have control on where the tip goes."

He flattened his palm, holding both hands in front of himself, "When you're ready, swing at me. If you want to really hurt someone--aim to stab towards their chest. Most people lean forwards when they fight, so it's a more shallow attack on your part. So, you'll catch someone at the height of your momentum. Otherwise, you shouldn't be often-times slashing with a dagger, not until you have an advantage."

[lifemelody]

She listens to the instructions and fumbles around a little on the knife until she seems to have a grip kinda close to what Coby is explaining. "Like this?"

Okay, she thinks she has it, she try for a lean forward swing at his chest. It's a bit on the weak side, she's not really used to slashing and swinging- but it's getting near his stomach-- because let's be real that's as high as she can reach.

[chore_boy]

Coby nodded to Dagger, taking one short step back. Rather than even letting the knife strike him or knock it aside, he followed Dagger's hand with his own, gently pushing her swing off course. At the very least, she wouldn't likely teeter over by just plain missing. He shifted his weight, intent on keeping things like that.

"See?" He placed his hand in the open air, just under where she tried to stab at him. "It gets more comfortable when you don't lock your muscles. If you try to slash with such a small object, you'll be going against how your muscles are usually supported to shift. So, this kind of attack is better for you in terms of movement."

[lifemelody]

Fortunately, Dagger's had enough experience in fighting that she doesn't teeter over, her balance is pretty well off as she moves into it.

"Don't lock my muscles...okay," she repeats the words, making sure to remember them later. "I'll try to remember."

[chore_boy]

(OOC: Hope you don't mind me skipping ahead. Playing out Coby doling out advice is going to kill me)

Towards the end, Coby had a better grasp of what he had to teach, happy that he could at least be of a little help. If anything, he didn't want to tell Dagger he was new when it came to training others. Even as a captain, he had minimalistic experience.

"Did it help? You've gotten much better!"

[lifemelody]

[haha that's fine!]

She'll nod when he finishes, feeling a bit more confident....though at the same time, like she still has a long way to go.

"Yes. Thank you very much, Coby. You were a good teacher."

[chore_boy]

"Thank you very much," Coby returned her compliment with a smile, reaching aside to pick up his glasses and headband, slipping them back on. It wasn't far into the day, but he would have to return to the clinic eventually--if only for awhile. After a round with Saber the other day, Coby hadn't exactly been in good health.

"Would you like me to leave you with any exercises to do on your own, Dagger? I'm going to leave for a little bit."