darkinferno: (★ keep your weapons aimed)
dante "walking dumpster fire" rantanen | riku ([personal profile] darkinferno) wrote in [community profile] recolle2017-09-08 11:29 pm

[training log] september training sessions

WHO: Anybody on the Retrospec network!
WHERE: Utsuki Dojo in Tisse
WHEN: Sundays in September and the beginning of October (9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/1), 6pm - midnight
WHAT: FIGHT CLUB Weapons/self-defense training and trying new weapons out for new characters and information sharing!
WARNINGS: None expected; will edit as usual if necessary

HEADS UP: This will be the only fight club log posted for all of September! New threads can be started throughout the entire month (and fresh topleveling if necessary is fine; developments happen!) and everyone is encouraged to keep coming back periodically to check for new information!!



training sessions - September

i. I'm calling you from the future.

At 6:00, the dojo closes for the night, open to only those members of the Retrospec network. There's a good mix of people who have been coming for a while and people brand new to the network, but regardless of if you're new or old, you've got some time before everything really gets underway. Some might take this time to warm up and stretch out, getting ready for the evening, while others might be mingling or chatting and still others are examining the practice weapons available. Regardless of what you choose to do, things don't really begin until 6:15 when, as has become his norm, Dante Rantanen climbs up onto a chair to officially start the meeting.

"Hey," he says, a far cry from his normal openings. To those who know him, he still seems a bit more restrained than is really normal, but he takes a deep breath and continues: "I'm glad to see how many people made it out tonight. If you're new, you've probably heard about the stuff we went through last month--if you've been here a while, you lived it. Either way, these sessions are more important than ever. If you know anyone who hasn't come out here, try and get them to come at least once; Retrospec's sending people weapons whether you've ever used them before or not. You don't want to get caught off guard if they do it again.

"For those of you who are new: this isn't some sort of Skyler Murden Fight Club thing. We're not here to punch each other senseless. If that's what you're here for, the door's over there." Dante points, giving it a moment to make sure everybody's got his point. "The point of this is to test out and see if you've got any memories of fighting and, whether you do or don't, to learn how to fight in a safe place. We're not fighting monsters here, so take care of each other.

"Make sure you sign in before you jump into anything. There's a waiver over there--" he points to a table, "--just to keep things legal. We don't need the cops swooping down on us, not with the stuff some people have gotten back so far.

"Last thing: a lot of us have been practicing with our weapons for several months now and are willing to teach people how to fight. So those of you that are willing to teach, you know the drill. Go ahead and introduce yourselves."

Once the introductions have finished, Dante nods. "All right, I think that's it. Anybody needs anything, come and see me."


ii. To let you know we've made mistakes.

Did anybody wonder what Dante was going to do with the money he made from that bingo stand in July? If so, wonder no longer: alongside all the practice weapons available for use is a large wooden axe, shaped and crafted and sanded down smooth. Anyone want to give it a go? It's got a bit of a heft to it, but it's not overly heavy. Who knows, maybe you were a lumberjack in a past life!

Outside of the axe, the usual range of weapons are available to be picked from: wooden swords, with and without crossguards in various styles as might be found around the world, fencing foils all tipped with practice buttons for safety (again in a variety of styles, with quillions, without, bell guards or swept knuckle-guards, and so on), staves, polearms, spears and shields, and at the end of the row a handful of Nerf guns with a couple packs of new darts for the more modern fighters amongst them. (Sitting behind the Nerf guns is a sign, written in thick black Sharpie: "DON'T AIM FOR PEOPLE'S HEADS." There's been trouble in the past.)

Once you've selected your weapon of choice, it's time to get to work! There are multiple people offering help or instruction, but there are also training dummies to spar against if that's your preferred way to train. Perhaps you're a trial-by-fire type of person ready to spar, or maybe you're one of those offering your skills as a teacher? What will you do tonight?


iii. There's a fog from the past that's giving me such a headache.

A couple hours into the night, you might notice a number of people putting down their weapons to take a break. There's no specific structure to the evening, so maybe you've already taken a break or two yourself! At any rate, as it gets closer to 8:00, Dante will put finger and thumb in his mouth to give a sharp whistle, commanding attention once again. "Sorry to interrupt," he says, "but since we got called out by Jim and Maurice for trying to be secretive about these meetings, there's no real point in it any more. Head on outside if you want to talk about everything we know so far--" (on September 10th he'll add "--if you didn't get enough of that already with Souji and Dave.") "If you just got added to Retrospec this month and have questions still, this might be a good time to ask them."

What do you choose to do? Will you go outside and join those talking about the network and all its secrets? Or would you prefer to just stay inside and get some more training in? There are no wrong decisions to be made at this point.



[[September training logs! This log will cover Sunday, September 10, September 17, September 24, and October 1. Please use this log throughout the entire month to log anything that might happen at Sunday practices! You're encouraged to make new toplevels as necessary for any new developments that might occur throughout the month, such as new metaplot developments/reveals or character development leading to spars, or anything else you might think of! There will be a toplevel in the comments to OOCly collect all new metaplot details collected in the info-sharing meetings in one place.

Any questions, concerns, or additions can either be PM'd to me here or PP me at [plurk.com profile] journeys.]]
complementing: (✿ wait a minute [ TAM LIN ])

[personal profile] complementing 2017-10-09 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
[She stumbles and almost falls back completely when he manages to get a stinging hit on her side, but after training with him for so long, she knows how hard he hits, and uses the momentum of her fall to backflip and return to her fighting stance.

Patience, she has plenty of outside of fighting, but she has never been able to win in a battle of attrition if it's in hand-to-hand combat. So she closes in the distance again, sending several jabs at him before going for a strong high kick to his face, hoping it will land.]
negativism: end (A hard resolution that is true to the)

[personal profile] negativism 2017-10-10 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The recovery's good, he's definitely happy with how it's turning out, in that case. But that also means he needs to stop unintentionally checking her form and actually fight back properly now.

One, two blocked and he dips his lower half down, going for a sweep to knock Minako off her feet in the same twisting motion to garner enough momentum. ]
complementing: (✿ not really impressed [ ARAHABAKI ])

[personal profile] complementing 2017-10-11 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
[She's anticipating the leg sweep, and moves to avoid it, but the half-second's moment to decide if she should back completely out of range or keep pressing her attack after she dodges is her undoing. His leg catches her ankle just in time, and Minako finds herself landing hard on her side, thrown a foot or so away from him without having avoided it at all.

In a real life or death situation, she would keep getting up and fighting, but she imagines David has some pointers for her after this. So she concedes defeat and flops down on her back, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.]


That was like. Two, three minutes? Ugh. And here I was hoping for five.
negativism: (And watch the future unwind)

[personal profile] negativism 2017-10-11 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
You're lasting longer than you have in the past, at least.

[ He holds out a hand in front of her to help pull her up once she's ready while he grins. ]

And you've got the right idea to try and press the advantage to keep your opponent caught off-guard.
complementing: (✿ different strokes [ NAGA ])

[personal profile] complementing 2017-10-11 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
[She takes his hand and hauls herself up, rubbing her arm to try and get rid of the sting there.]

I just have to stop hesitating, I guess?
negativism: end (A hard resolution that is true to the)

[personal profile] negativism 2017-10-11 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a hard habit to break, but yeah. Think once we get a little further I'll start giving tips on how to disguise tells as well - that way it's not as easy to read what you'll do next. Granted that's generally more for competition and not self-defense, but it's a good thing to know just in case.
complementing: (✿ something bigger than me [ URIEL ])

[personal profile] complementing 2017-10-12 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds good to me! Anything that might help in a fight is worth learning.

[She raises her arms above her to stretch.]

Do you want to try using weapons now?
negativism: (And now our paths; they have to change)

[personal profile] negativism 2017-10-13 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. This'll be good for both of us, anyway - I can figure out how to work around it and you can get some practice in working around someone with or without, depending on how you wanted to do it.
complementing: (✿ everything will be okay [ ANGEL ])

[personal profile] complementing 2017-10-15 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
Your choice! I'm okay with either way.

[She trots over to the weapons rack, twirling a practice spear as she pulls it out.]

But don't expect me to go easy on you!