Who: Drake Liu & Juliette Coulombe What: Sparring with the bb monk! Where: Bahamut Hall When: This afternoon! Rating: Old-school Disney tame, yo Status: Complete!
Now that things had quieted down at last, Juliette had fallen into a schedule of sorts -- guild tasks as needed in the mornings, spars with various stronger opponents in the afternoons, periodic social obligations or clinic volunteer shifts in the evenings. She had not spent a great deal of time in the field since the calamity that had befallen the city, though there had been a few small items here and there -- some wolves that had been harassing merchant caravans bringing construction and other supplies into the city (she had signed on with more experienced fighters and acquitted herself moderately well, though the lack of murderous vegetables certainly helped) -- but she had learned something from her few experiences with real battle even so. Her determination had only risen recently, with the increased presence of individuals in Kingsguard uniform in the streets and at the guildhalls. She still hadn’t said anything to Alys, but…
For now, she wasn’t ready, and it didn’t matter. She had to make herself stronger, first.
This sparring session had certainly served to move her in that direction; as she had expected, Councilor Liu had held back less on her than when she had fought him as a squire. Her defeat had been guaranteed -- but she had landed a few blows, and it seemed she had managed to surprise him at least once (a technique modified from someone else she had sparred recently -- but it did seem he’d not expected it from her). As she picked herself up from where he had finally knocked her to the ground, she smiled faintly even as she tried not to favor the leg that had been rather painfully swept out from under her. “Thank you for the le -- the spar,” she corrected.
These were no longer lessons in the strictest sense, even if she still approached them as such. But she knew she had to remove the habits of squirehood from her speech at the very least, else no one would ever take her seriously -- and that was the last thing she wanted.
He grinned at her. “I see you’re picking up some new tricks.” One of the blows that hand landed on him hadn’t been expected - he recognized it, or at least the base for it, but he hadn’t expected her to begin adapting things so quickly. She would do well if she kept that up, which was something he hoped she did. Juliette was bright, a hard worker, and a quick study - rarely did they get newly classed fighters with all three of those attributes.
“What have you been working on?” It had only been a decade or so since he’d transitioned to monk, but his instructor had been unorthodox, preferring to start him hard and work him into easy. It had made picking up the less difficult skills quicker, but it also had meant that while his other yearmates had two, three skills by the end of their first year, he had still been mastering one.
“I am trying,” she admitted, please that he had noticed and commented on the small success. “I suppose my training has been somewhat… unorthodox from the start.” Those few skills belonging to her current class which she had mastered -- or nearly -- had been imparted on her over the years by a variety of teachers. Her mentor had improved her strength, her endurance, her confidence, but he had not been able to teach her the skills that would elevate her from a decently solid hand-to-hand fighter to more.
“I have completed my study of Flurry at last,” she said, having given thought to his question. “It is not as strong as it could be, but I think that will likely come.” Her other skills were low in power even if they were now clean in execution. “I… have not yet begun the study of any chi-based attacks, though I have been reading about them,” she admitted at last. “Perhaps you might have some advice as to where I should begin?” Indeed, at his offer to spar with her, this question had come up immediately in her mind. Who better to teach her than someone she considered a nigh-unsurpassed expert?
“Probably chi blast,” he told her after a moment. “Pretty standard, first tier attack. You gather your chi and direct it forward.” The instructions were a bit dicey, so he looked around, spotting one of the practice dummies abandoned a little ways off. “Come here,” he said, heading towards it.
Carefully, he positioned himself in front of the target. He’d always had a slight problem with putting more energy into it than was necessary - a side effect from learning higher powered attacks first. He took a deep breath, his body immediately working through the steps of a kata - one leg slid back while the other bent at the knee. His back remained straight, his hands cupped in front of his abdomen. Slowly, he exhaled, pushing his arms out in front of him, and the bright energy of his chi shot forward, hitting the dummy square in the chest and knocking it back.
“Easy.”
“Easy,” she repeated, a bit dazed despite herself. She had seen such things in action before, of course. And her own energy was not entirely a mystery to her -- it could not be, with the sort of training she had undergone -- but although she had learned quite early to tap into the magic lying dormant at her core, this part of her training had not officially begun until… just now.
Never one to back down from a challenge, however unlikely she thought success would be, she mirrored his movements almost exactly, trying to take what little she knew about magic and cross it with what she knew -- from books -- about chi as she moved her hands forward.
She felt a tingling in her palms and… that was all.
“Perhaps,” she said, a bit flustered despite herself at the failure (even if she had expected it), “not quite so easy for me.”
He gave her an easy grin and moved to stand behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Relax. Connect with your energy,” he advised. “Take a deep breath and center yourself.” It had completely slipped his mind that she might not be able to access her chi - once he’d been told that joining the Bards’ Guild and becoming a corsair was out of the question, he’d picked the monk path early on.
And one of the things his mentor had taught was how to connect with his inner energy. He hadn’t actually been able to do it until shortly before his own exam - sleeping and skipping lessons were far more enjoyable than sitting still and concentrating - but he at least knew how to teach it. When he’d bothered to listen, his instructor had actually been quite good.
“Visualization helps,” he continued. “Picture the energy you’re calling as something small and light at first - something that gets bigger as you flow through the kata until it’s so big and heavy that you need to push it out.” Slowly, his hands slid to her arms to start guiding her through the movements.
Relaxation, as it turned out, was rather difficult with his hands on her shoulders and positioning her arms. Martial arts were a tactile business, of course, but there was a difference between being punched in the gut and… this.
Fortunately, from behind her, he would see only the tips of her ears redden, not her cheeks.
Still, she tried to do as he asked, discarding all of her notions of comparison to magic and beginning fresh. She could touch her chi, sense it, meditate upon it. It was not a mystery to her. Moving it, however…
She tried to do it while also simultaneously trying to ignore the proximity of her highly distracting teacher. Whether it was chi or simply nerves that rose in her was up for debate, but this time, when she completed the final movement, his hands against hers, a feeble stream of light shot out. It was not particularly impressive -- didn’t, in fact, even reach the practice dummy before fading out -- but for a start, she thought it was rather promising (though whether she’d be able to recreate the effect when her heart wasn’t trying to pound its way out of her chest, she honestly didn’t know).
As soon as the kata was finished, he stepped back, watching as her attempt fizzled out. “Not bad,” he told her, grinning. “Much better and faster than when I started.” He was glad the visualization had worked - it seemed the easiest way to explain it. His own manner of visualization was of a bucket filling until it overflowed. Sometimes, it was a hindrance and he thought he was going to drown in it, but other times it worked well.
Chi, despite it being a class specialization, had never been his strongest suit. He was fixing that, though.
“If you keep working on it, it’ll come faster and go further. And you’ll be ahead of everyone else.” He winked at her.
“It is not particularly impressive yet,” she disagreed, though her blush did deepen when he winked at her. Really, wasn’t it about time to get these reactions of hers under control? But she didn’t have time to berate herself right now, not when this fascinating new avenue of learning had opened up to her. “I will work hard to change that,” she promised.
She felt both bereft and relieved when he stepped away, though certainly it was for the better.
Drake shook his head. “You give yourself too little credit. It takes a lot of training and focus to get even that much of a jump on chi-based skills. It’ll take time, but you’ve got a good start.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “If you want, I could help you with it whenever I’ve got the time.”
Not that he had a whole lot of time, but Juliette was one of the few who liked to learn and sought out ways to better herself. It would be silly to not help her out, and he could always find time, even if it meant in the evening. Days were getting longer now, and reconstruction couldn’t last forever.
“You are too generous, councilor,” she protested, but in the end, she knew she would most likely call on him again. Especially now, with no regimented training program at her disposal, she had to be more aggressive in seeking out opportunities to grow. Foolish to turn it down just because she reacted so… unfortunately to a smile and a helping hand. “Perhaps… when I have gained some skill with it,” she amended. She would work on her own, see if she might be capable of something a bit more solid before she showed it to him again.
But she did smile back as he smiled at her, feeling suddenly very hopeful (if not about him, particularly, then at least about herself). “Thank you in advance for your time,” she told him.
She would do everything she could to endeavor that she did not waste it.