tampered | Log: Ongoing

Log: Ongoing

When; May 24, morning (In the future~!)
Rating; PG-PG13-ish? (not sure yet, but some violence, and possibly a bit of swearing
Characters; Elena (

lady_turk) and Autor (

freakyfanboy)[Unknown site tag]
Summary; Autor, ever the scholar, expressed an interest in learning hand to hand fighting with Elena -- so, she invites him to join her in some early-morning practice on the beach.

Autor had followed Elena's instructions to the letter--even if it was slightly unsettling that he recieved them by having his journal hacked. (If she was THAT good at hacking...perhaps he'd have to ask her to teach him that, as well...) He had dressed as appropriately as he could, which was probably overdressed, but he was a music student in his home world, after all. The best clothing he could come up with was an uniform shirt that was missing the top button, and a pair of old slacks that fit him loosely enough and that he didn't mind ruining. He made a note to himself as he walked that he should maybe check the local clothing stores to find some more casual clothing soon. Maybe Fakir would know....no, probably best to just leave Fakir alone.

He wasn't exactly sure what the Durandal was, but when he saw it he knew it couldn't be anything else. The large, massive structure stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the otherwise natural surroundings, particularly since it was painted red. Even in his time at the City, he had never seen anything mechanical be so MASSIVE. And it was supposed to be a...ship? What sort of ship could be so large and not sink...?
Autor was so busy gawking up at the Durandal that he forgot to keep an eye out for Elena, and merely continued to walk ahead, his head tilted up to look at the ship as he got closer to it.

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It wasn't hard to spot Autor. The kid stuck out like a sore thumb with the way he was staring at the Durandal and walking towards it, like he was in a dazed of some kind. That, and Elena had kept her senses on high, exercising more than just her muscles. Her hearing wasn't quite what a person would label as greatly superior, but she had been able to pick up his footsteps from the regular pattern of sound they made as he walked.

Dressed in shorts that stopped about mid-thigh and a plain tee, Elena cut quite the sweaty figure. One which she did hope to keep, thus all the exercise and training. She would have rather exercised in her normal attire, if it wasn't for the fact that Elena had originally planned to do a few more complex stretches and moves. She had dressed in such a way that it'd be easier to tell when and where she messed up some where or what might need more work.

Snickering from where she was sitting, legs stretched out on either side in a split, Elena reached for one of her water bottles and threw it, with a great deal of accuracy and strength, at Autor's head.

That'd get the kid's attention.

It was magnificent--no! it was THRILLING! Such a massive structure, appearantly made by humans...what wonderful technology other worlds had! He wondered if he could get close enough to it that he could touch it...surely that wouldn't be a problem, right? He could just walk right up and--

PLOINK! A plastic bottle came out of nowhere and hit Autor on the head. He stumbled to the side, belatedly throwing his hands in front of his head to shield it from another blow, and quickly scanned the area around him to find his attacker. After a moment, he found her--the blond woman he had come to meet was sitting on the ground, legs stretched, and looking rather amused. Autor adjusted his glasses (which had been knocked askew when he had been hit) and then crossed his arms, looking rather unamused.

"Was that supposed to be part of my training?"

Grinning, Elena languidly stood up, making the position she'd just been in seem as casual as any sitting position could be. Ah good. No lingering soreness. It meant that she wasn't as out of shape as she had been worried she might have been. Giving herself a small shake to pop out any lingering feelings of 'off=ness', Elena was still grinning as she quirked an eyebrow at Autor.

"The part where you try to dodge the things I throw at you will come later, once I figure out what I can throw at you without too much damage," the blonde woman quipped.

Walking over to where the younger boy stood, Elena did a quick mental scan of the figure she saw before her. Unless Autor had some hidden muscle or skill somewhere... She would have to be careful not to really hurt the kid with her blows.

Although Autor would have probably insisted that he did have some sort of hidden talent, that would have been a lie. He had almost no advantages when it came to combat. At 5'8" he was neither short enough to have any particular skill in dodging, nor tall enough to be particularly strong. The natural clumsiness he had inherited from his mother certainly didn't help things, nor did the fact that he wasn't quite grown out of that awkward stage for teenage boys when their limbs seem to be not quite the right length for their bodies. His recent training had given him at least some athletic ability, but...certainly nothing to brag about.

His advantages were simply his speed, and his willingness to learn. But whether Autor was aware of that fact or not...the love of learning supersceded everything else. He wanted to learn combat skills, and he would--come hell or high water.

So when Elena approached the boy he straightened, squaring back his shoulders and doing his best to appear confident. A slight smirk appeared when she spoke. "Well, I think we already know that water bottles are on that list, then?"

Elena made a noncommittal noise from the back of her throat at Autor's inquiry. He got half a point for teasing back, but that wouldn't be much till she got a better idea what kind of person Autor was. Walking around him, arms crossed, Elena didn't bother to hide the fact that she was indeed checking the teenager out, trying to find something to work with or if she'd have to start from scratch.

Petite, borderline on short, with long legs for her size, a slim waist, large eyes, and a very pretty face, not to mention a pretty decent bust size, Elena knew that her looks made a great deal number of people underestimate her, thinking that she was weaker and less of a challenge. One reason she was thankful for the Turk's uniform. It didn't make her look quite so feminine and delicate and was bulky enough to hide her figure from most eyes. With this sort of experience as her background, Elena took extra care to really judge a person and not go by first assumptions.

Coming to a conclusion, Elena nodded once to herself before quirking an eyebrow up at Autor, a small, smug grin on her face. "You don't look that much like a fighter, but I think I can work with what we've got."

Taking a step back, Elena seemed to shift almost as her voice took on a slightly more commanding tone than the easy, teasing one she'd been using. "There's two ways we can go about this. You can try to attack me and we'll go from there, or I can start you off with a few simple moves and stretches. Your choice."

Autor felt uncomfortable as Elena looked him over. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew he didn't particularly...look impressive. In any sense of the world, really. (People had complimented his hair during the Rome curse, but they were probably just being nice.) He pushed his glasses up his nose and watched her as she circled around him, hoping that she couldn't detect his nervousness.

Of course, while he knew that Elena's evaluation was probably the correct one, it wasn't one he was very pleased with. "I've won a few fights in my time, you know," he said as he frowned. Of course, the fight he was thinking of was against a very, very, veeeery old man. But he had an axe! Surely that counted for something, since Autor had only been armed with a book. That was impressive, right?

...Of course, Fakir always beat him whenever they fought, but...

Autor sighed. "It probably would be best if we started off with you showing me the moves and stretches first."

The grin Elena gave him was predatory and showed a bit more teeth than what should have been possible with a single smile. It almost looked like she had fangs peeking out from the corners of her mouth, though at any other time that wouldn't have been the case. Her teeth were normal, just... they didn't look it right then. "Really? Did you manage to make them spill any blood?" she asked, practically purring with each word she said.

Really. Sometimes it was just too easy to tease and taunt the innocent like this.

Chuckling, Elena nodded and stood back for a moment, going over her options since he'd chosen to ask for a demonstration rather than give one. Best way to figure out that though... Would be to just ask Autor why he wanted to learn hand-to-hand.

"So I know what not to teach you, why do you want to learn how to fight?" Elena didn't think Autor wanted to learn how to fight to kill a person, but wouldn't hurt to ask. "There's different set of stretches and moves, all depending on what kind of outcome you're looking for."

Autor grew a little pale when she mentioned spilling blood. "I...I don't know. In the excitement, I didn't really look."
Actually, his glasses had been knocked off in the fight, and after the fight he had collapsed on the other side of the room, so he didn't have a clue. He had hoped that he didn't cut the man with his axe...Fakir had said he didn't...

Elena spoke again, snapping Autor back to reality. It was a good question...why did he want to fight?

Autor took a deep breath, and turned, looking Elena straight in the eye. "I want to protect people I care about."
Funny, Fakir once told Autor the same thing...

By his reaction, it was obvious that if he had, it had been accidental at best, and probably not even all that much. Well, he was just a kid. He probably had grown up in a fairly decent place as well. Not his fault that he was squeamish about the thought of spilling blood then. Feeling a slight moment of sympathy, Elena decided to let up on the mentioning of any blood or the like. For a while at least.

He wanted to protect people did he? Guess that meant he'd have to learn a few offensive moves, as well as defensive, which she had been primarily thinking about focusing on. It just meant switching out a few moves for others.

"Right then," Elena stated briskly. "Since your goal it to protect, it'd be best that I teach you some offensive and restraining moves, alongside some defensive positions. Positions, mind you. That means you'll be taking hits, but they won't hurt quite as much if you respond correctly."

Taking a step back, Elena shifted her weight, though it wasn't noticeable from the outside. If she was going to teach it, she might as well perform it as well. "All right. First things first. You need to learn to shift your weight easily from the heels of your foot to the balls of your feet. Rock back and forth between the two and try to keep your balance while doing that as long as you can."

"Well, that's simple enough," he said with a smug gleam in his eyes as he positioned his legs apart. He had already learned something vaguely similar in his swordfighting lessons, so he felt fairly confident he'd be able to accomplish it. Keeping his balance was at times a little difficult for him, but...he could manage it.

Slowly at first, he began to shift his weight as he had been instructed. Heel to the balls of his feet..and back. Heel...toe...heel...toe...
Heh, this really WAS as simple as it sounded! He sped up slightly, smirking. He knew that his balance wasn't going to be a problem after all! It probably was just all in his head. He just needed to be confident. How long had he been doing this? Two, three minutes? He could probably do this all day! He was just good at this sort of thing!

...Of course, that's when he got a bit too confident and stopped concentrating as much as he should've been. He shifted his weight too far back on his heels and started to feel himself falling backwards. He yelped and quickly thrust out his arms in an attempt to keep his balance, flapping them as if he was some sort of big, awkward, featherless bird. He swung his weight to the front of his feet, but then realized he had simply caused himself to start falling forward. He threw his right foot forward to counter the fall and managed to right himself again, throwing a sheepish glance in Elena's direction to see if she had been watching or not.

"...Heh."

Elena sigh, even as she repressed a snicker at the thought of someone not being able to handle such a simple exercise as rocking back and forth on their own two feet. She hadn't even given him a stance to fall into. It really was going to take quite a few lessons before Autor was at a reasonably competent level.

"You have to keep your mind clear of distractions, regardless of the situation and no matter where they might come from, either internal or external," Elena lectured, walking over and lightly rapping Autor on the head with the back of her fist. "That includes doing things such as simple exercises. If you can't do that, then you'll mess up when you need to and the ones that you're trying to protect will be the ones to suffer."

Leaning back and crossing her arms, Elena waited to see if her words had made any impact. Sure, right now things were easy going, but if Elena was going to take this seriously at all, she wanted Autor to be of the same mind-set.

Autor turned to glare at her when she hit his head, rubbing the back of it with his hand. For once, however, he stayed silent and listened to her, because...he knew she was right. If he didn't pay attention, someone he cared about might get hurt. Rue seemed capable, but what if she got herself into trouble? And what about Pique and Uzura and Ahiru? Even...Lilie? The City was far too dangerous to not be prepared to fight.

"I know," he admitted, trying his best not to grumble. He lowered his arm. "Should I try again?"

"Tell you what. Since it seems that you have no balance control, I'd like to see what, if any, kind of control you do have," Elena suggested, seeing that her words had made something of an impact. "We'll work from that."

Not moving, or even bothering to pretend that she thought Autor might be any kind of challenge, Elena tilted her head and smirked. "Try to land a hit on me. You can use whatever method you want and we can go for as long as you want, but the ultimate goal is for you to land a hit on me somewhere."

This was sure to bring a laugh.

He was about to blame his bad balance on his mother, but he decided to shut up before he said something that would embarrass himself. He took a few steps towards her, then balled his hands into fists and positioned one foot in front of the other. He took a deep breath and readied himself, for a brief moment wondering if doing this sort of thing was unchiverious. ...Then again, she had told him to, and he had a feeling this wasn't going to be as easy as it maybe seemed. He pulled his arm back and punched, aiming for her shoulder.

It was ridiculously easy for Elena to turn her shoulder to the side to dodge the blow that was directed at her shoulder. She didn't even have to pivot any to grab a wrist and give it a slight tug, changing the balance of Autor's movements so that there was more momentum going forward. She'd be surprise, but pleasantly so, if he managed to avoid falling flat on his face.

Sadly, Autor's cooridination hadn't decided to be any more impressive now than it had been moments before. Autor realized what was happening and tried to correct his balance, but his reaction was too late. The only thing he could do was hold out his hands to keep his face from diving into the dirt. He swore quietly under his breath after he hit the ground, but took a deep breath and pushed himself up off the ground.

"If you're going to aim for something, aim for a larger body part or one that will disable your opponent," Elena stated, tone dropping all familiarity and openness. Instead, she was speaking in a tone just short of snapping, and her words were clipped and precise. "Don't aim for an area that's hard to hit unless you have a follow up plan of attack."

"Now try again."

The change in tone surprised Autor, although he tried not to show it. She was starting to talk more like a soldier. What sort of background did she have, anyway...?

He stood up and considered her words carefully. A larger body part or one that will disable, huh?

He paused for a moment and frowned, glancing away...or seeming to. He was really watching her out of the corner of his eye, preparing himself...
And, hoping that it seemed sudden, he took off at a running start at her, this time aiming to punch her in the stomach.

A bit better, but still not enough. He needed to speed up his reaction time and spend less of it thinking. Though it was a point in Autor's favor that he took to the instructions she gave right away. Or at least he did for the next immediate action.

As easily as she had for the first one, Elena easily dodged Autor's next attack, taking a step back and to the side at the very last minute, letting Autor pass harmlessly by.

"Don't spend so much time thinking about where and just aim. Now. Again!"

Autor grit his teeth and whirled around quickly this time, only taking a small step backwards to keep his balance. He ran towards her again and punched at her stomach with his left arm, the immediately after followed with a punch at her jaw with his right.

"Decent," Elena granted, catching the fist aimed at her stomach with her left hand and blocking the fist directed towards her face, deflecting it with her right arm. At the same time, the hand that had caught Autor's fist closed around his wrist as the one that had blocked the upper blow twist around to grab Autor's forearm as well.

With her grip on both arms, Elena locked her elbows, twisted, and flipped the unsuspecting teenager over and onto his back.

"But still not enough."

Autor's breath rushed out of him as he hit the ground. He knew he was bad, but he wasn't quite expecting to be this bad. It was almost a little discouraging.

No, wait...he knew he wasn't a good fighter. That's why he was doing this. So he wouldn't just be in the way in battles. So he could protect the people he cared about.

Autor quickly pushed himself up and kicked out with his right foot, trying to knock Elena's legs out from under her. Hopefully that'd be enough of a surprise.

Kicking as a retaliation for the flip was a good idea. However, it would have been better had Autor not pushed himself up quite as much and just gotten his upper body off the ground and swung his legs out instead.

Hopping, and tucking her legs underneath her to avoid the kick, Elena let the balls of both feet touch the ground, before pushing upwards and back, out of Autor's immediate range once more.

"Too slow."

[ooc: If you want to time skip you can? Elena will be doing a lot of dodging and aiming not to get hit mostly. Ad lib as necessary?]

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Log: Ongoing

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