Lessons in fighting

[mindofathief]

Who: Duster, Open
What: Duster is giving out hand-to-hand combat training
Where: Aqures Ixen, Hero Training Facility
When: June 16
Warnings: None for now

[Duster wakes up surprisingly early this morning. The recent battles he went on and the news yesterday about the murders must have messed up his sleep cycle, and now he's waking up in the morning like a normal person. Huh. He finds that his shoulders are too tense and his mind unfocused to go out and earn money through battles, so today has to be a resting day. For a moment, he thinks of practicing the double bass all day, but a letter he forgot to clean off of his desk grabs his attention.

Ah. That's right. He promised Chrom to teach some lessons at the training center. Now that's something he can focus on instead.

Anyone arriving at the training center will find a handwritten sign by the entrance, words written neatly and spaced out like a poem:]

Self Defense Classes
Learn martial arts from Duster
Taught here all day today.

[There's an extra syllable at the end, but no one on the Nowhere Islands can write a proper haiku.

Duster can be found in one corner of the grounds, kicking a leather dummy. Each of his strikes hits the target in a regular, focused fashion, as if Duster is making sure he keeps a steady beat.]

Comments

[21stcenturyguy]

[At least that weak-ass punch is something to draw his attention away from...whatever it is about Duster that's got him so on edge. He uses his arm to block the punch, scowling as he does it.]

Your best shot sucks. [He points out flatly.]

[mindofathief]

Want me to go harder?

[Without a warming, Duster feints another punch, this one quicker and lower.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[If he's doing this on purpose, Aoi swears he's gonna strangle Duster.]

[But he did grow up with Akane, the queen of unintentional innuendo, so there's a chance that he's just talking about fighting. Which is almost worse.]

Shit! [He has to move quickly to block the second jab. Now that Duster's really going, he can't afford to be distracted.]

[mindofathief]

[Considering how introverted Duster is, it could be all on accident. Or it could be all on purpose. Aoi will never tell.

Just like he'll never see this gut punch coming. Don't worry, it's not hard enough to make him keel over, but he will feel something.]

[21stcenturyguy]

Ffffff- [The punch itself is not that bad, but it brings back the memory of a much harder punch. This is what Duster's supposed to be showing him how to prevent!]

Asshole! [He forgets about blocking and pushes his arms out to shove him instead. Not really the point of the exercise, but if he's gonna be a maybe-flirty asshole, then Santa's not playing by the rules either.]

[mindofathief]

Hey! [Duster takes a step back and quickly readies himself. Fortunately for Aoi, Duster doesn't fight back.

...He rubs his shoulder and squints.]

Let's try that again. Slower, so you can see how I move.

[Ugh. Was that even necessary? Duster's pretty upset now, despite how much he tries to hide it when he stands in front of Aoi again.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[He frowns at Duster, but it softens a little when he resumes instructor mode. He didn't drive him away with the asshole act, huh?]

Ok, just...not there. [He doesn't wanna associate Duster with anything that Ace...Hongou...did.]

[He might activate his Illusionist's Imitation skill to help him mimic the move. It's probably not cheating.]

[mindofathief]

[Still irritated, Duster feints another punch at Santa's chest, expecting him to block it like before.

He doesn't expect Santa to strike immediately afterwards with the same punch. He hops backward as he knocks his arm away.]

Woah! I guess you're learning fast! [Sweet, innocent Duster. He doesn't know about the power of an Illusionist.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[Aoi lets out a slow breath, and then drops the Imitation. It's not gonna help him in the long run, and Duster is so trusting it hurts. He feels a little better, now that he's gotten a hit in, so it wasn't a complete waste.]

Ok. Show me the block, but slow. [He does a slower version of the punch he just copied, attention focused on Duster's forearms not his stupid hands, damn it.]

[mindofathief]

[Duster nods. It's nice to see Aoi when he's calmer and cooperative. He kind of wishes he were like this more often, even if just around Duster.

He keeps his hands curled into loose fists as he moves his forearm from the outside and connects with Aoi's. Instead of the quick shove, he presses his arm against his downwards and away, directing the punch away from his body.]

Like that. Jumping back is optional.

[21stcenturyguy]

[Aoi mimics the motion, intent on learning the move. He's capable of dropping the punk act when he's got something more important to do.]

Ok, you do me. [He's ready to give it a try in slow motion.]

...The jump thing...does it look dumb, or is it, like, badass? [Duster's answer may or may not determine whether or not Aoi tries to incorporate the jump into the move.]

[mindofathief]

That's- [Is he seriously deciding on self defense maneuvers based on how cool they look? That's the worst philosophy to have.] It makes you look like you know what you're doing.

Blocking's the more important part. Do that first without jumping, then we can incorporate that.

[He moves a bit faster than Santa, but his punch is moving slowly, giving Santa a few seconds to figure out how to block it.]

[21stcenturyguy]

Ok. [He'll give it a try once he's got the block down, then.]

[He does the forearm move and sweeps Duster's punch to the side. It's pretty easy, at this speed.]

Alright, do it faster now.

[mindofathief]

[Aoi wishes Duster could do it faster.

That first punch was just a test, and Aoi passed. Now, it's serious. Duster speeds up with each attack, still going more slowly than he would do in a normal fight so Aoi can get used to the speed. He's a quick learner, and after a few successful blocks, Duster decides to change it up.]

Watch your shoulder!

[A punch aimed higher! Still blockable, if Aoi is paying attention.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[Duster can do it whatever speed he wants. Aoi's not complaining.]

[His satisfied smile drops into a look of concentration as he tries to keep up with Duster's increasing speed. Duster's actually a decent teacher, so he's able to keep doing the blocks even as it gets faster, despite his lack of physical attack oriented job skills.]

Ok. [He's panting a little, but with the warning, he's able to block the high punch, too. He bets that if anyone was watching, they'd think the two of them looked hot, sparring like this. Because he was sure they totally did.]

Well, Teach, how was that?

[mindofathief]

Pretty good. I'll start mixing it up a little.

[Duster's starting to sweat from the warmup and the sparring. He's not tired, but he does breath out in audible bursts when striking. There's nothing like a good practice fight with someone who's just as focused as he his, even if Duster isn't putting too much effort. Aoi is pretty strong, but he shouldn't have been surprised from those muscles.

...He does catch himself glancing at those biceps while doing some mindless punches.

Happy with their progress, Duster throws one final punch - an attempted hook, but sloppy. He mentally curses at his bad job, but it should be above Aoi's level.]

Looks like you got the hang of it. We can move onto lower punches unless you need a break, of course.

[He's fine, but he's pretty sure most people need a sip of water after a bit of training. And Aoi's not going to rest if he doesn't look cool doing it...]

There's a water pump just outside this room. [Tilts his head towards the door before turning away. He's got to be proactive to make sure his pupil doesn't dehydrate.] Say, do you work out a lot?

[21stcenturyguy]

[Yeah, a break sounds great, but not when Duster phrases it like that. He's maybe getting a little sloppy with the exertion. That final punch glanced him as he moved to block it.]

I'm *huff* fine. Unless you're *huff* sayin' you wanna take me out for a drink. [He winks at his instructor.]

Yeah, I *huff* work out some. Gotta keep toned. [He's pleased that Duster is finally noticing that.]

[mindofathief]

[Yeah, that sounds like he needs a break. He can't let Aoi collapse from exhaustion just yet; they have more to do.

That wink gets barely a response. Typical Aoi, joking around at every opportune moment. Duster leads him to the pump outside, which has a set of ladles and mugs hanging on the rack for the people working out there. He takes one off the handle and tosses it to Aoi before grabbing one for himself.]

Catch. [It's just a few inches to toss it.] I was wondering about that. Most people I know don't get like that unless they do manual labor every day.

[21stcenturyguy]

[Yes, much more to do, indeed.]

[Aoi follows Duster out to the water pump, since he can't spar without his instructor anyways. The ladle is easy enough to catch, and he fills his cup with cool water.]

Thanks. What, nobody in your world works out just to keep trim? [It wasn't just about the aesthetics. Aoi'd needed to be strong enough to drag around drugged bodies and set up heavy machinery inside of his not-boat, and quick enough to keep ahead of everyone else during the games. Those Red parts didn't steal themselves.]

How do you keep so fit, then? Is it all the fish monsters? [He drains his cup in a couple of quick swallows, then refills it and pours the contents on his head with a satisfied sigh. The cool water feels heavenly on his heated skin, and his hair is already probably messed up from the workout anyways.]

[mindofathief]

[Duster pours himself a cup and gulps it down in one go. He wipes off the sweat off his brow with a sleeve before getting another and leaning on the pump.]

Nobody had a reason to. Tasmily's a farming town so we got all the exercise we needed. [Gulp.] Working out because you feel like it sounds more like a modern thing. Old thing? I'm not sure. Humans destroyed the world sometime before I was born and we tried to start over.

[That's a thing. Before Aoi asks further questions, he'll have to prep himself for answering so many things. One more cup for himself. His free arm gives the handle two good, slow pumps and fills the cup one last time. He's not not in the mood to get his clothes all wet just yet, and he won't comment how how Aoi's clothes are sticking to his body, which might make it difficult for him to move around.

...And it makes his muscles more visible.]

I've been training in the Thief Arts since I was small. I do some practice every day to stay sharp, but all this is from childhood.

[21stcenturyguy]

[Duster probably doesn't even know what he's doing, slowly working that water pump with those damn hands of his. Aoi lifts the hem of his shirt to wipe his face dry, to give him an excuse to look away for a moment. Because Holy Shit.]

Uh, yeah. That makes sense. I guess. Farming and training. Sure, why not?

[It's not his most clever dialogue, but it's hard to concentrate.]

What were you training to steal?

[mindofathief]

[He's surprised Aoi didn't go straight to questioning about the apocalypse. It's a long story anyway, and Duster doesn't know any of the details. Little does he know about the power of distraction that resides within his body. Or hands, in this instance.]

...The Egg of Light. It contained all our memories of the old world, and my dad and I were supposed to retrieve it from its hiding place in case Tazmily was in danger.

[Haha...look how well that worked out. On one hand, the Pigmasks took over the Nowhere Islands and nearly destroyed the world while killing Kumatora's family in the process. On the other hand, humanity would get a fresh start, and Duster discovered his musical talent.

He decides not to bring that up in front of Aoi anytime soon. That's more of a thing he'd rather talk to Jack Harkness about.]

My dad never told me what it was, just that one day I'd have to save the village. [He stares into his cup and swirls the small amount of water left in there.] So he taught me everything he could in nearly twenty years.

[21stcenturyguy]

[Please, Duster. Rebooting after the apocalypse is nothing new.]

Why would you want the memories of that world, if the people living in it screwed it up so bad that they destroyed the world? Wouldn't it be better to start over from scratch?

[He wasn't sure what the rules were for paradoxes in Duster's world. Maybe he had to jump through hoops as much as Aoi and Akane did. It's hard to pin it down in his mind, because now he's picturing Duster in a leather jacket and fedora, changing out some glowy egg-relic with a bag of sand. It's a good look for him.]

That's, uh... [He doesn't really know what to say about Dads and passing on knowledge and stuff. He barely remembers his Dad.]

...it's always good to have family by your side. That way, you don't get left all alone. [It's not really what Duster was talking about, but it's the only honest response Aoi can really give, unless he wants to get into tragic orphan backstory. Which, nope.]

[mindofathief]

[Nothing new to Crystallis, but he doesn't want to experience that again.]

Because if we knew why we messed up, we won't repeat the same mistakes. When the Pigmasks invaded, they sold all kinds of machines to keep them happy while they worked on their plan to create chimeras and destroy the world. If only we had known how people can destroy themselves, we wouldn't have been blindly following whatever they told us!

[He's not thirsty anymore. Duster pours out the rest of his water and tosses his cup to the "used" box. He wasn't one of the villagers being deceived on account that he was miles away with his memories gone. Tazmily changed in those three years.]

I guess. [He says in response to Aoi's comment about families.] Even if it's people you're not related to, it's important to have a family that will always be there for you.

[Dads are a different matter. Wess taught him a lot, but...it's complicated.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[Aoi frowns at that.]

I dunno, man. People screw themselves over all the time, even when they know the consequences. It's like the scorpion and the frog. It's just their nature.

[But humans being shitty is nothing new to Aoi. He pumps himself another cup of water and sips at it.]

But...can you have family when you're not related? Isn't that just 'friendship?' [Aoi's no expert on friendship. He's had, like, one, and she died. But he doesn't know if he'd risk everything for a friend like he would for his family. Unless Duster meant when someone fell in love and got married and became family that way?]

Do you mean...marriage?