View source for Logs:Silence and Self-Defense

{{ Log
| who = Edyis, G'laer, Jadzia, Jadzia{{!}}Savroveth, G'laer{{!}}Teisyth
| where = Plateau near High Reaches Weyr 
| what = G'laer finally takes Edyis for her first lesson in self-defense, G'laer-style. Turns out he enlisted help in the form of Jadzia. Shh, don't tell Quinlys.
| when = Day 3, Month 10, Turn 35
| gamedate = 2014.09.08
| quote = "Begin." And, "I want there to be a round two."
| weather = 
| categories = <!-- You can ignore this and select from the options under the edit box. The 'RP Logs' category is added automatically. -->
| mentions = Alida, Oliwer
| ooc = Glossy violence. Back-dated.
| icons = edyis secret.jpg, g'laer punched.jpg, jadzia scuffed.png, jadzia savroveth.png, g'laer teisyth.jpg
| log = '''Plateau near High Reaches Weyr
         
''Cold and windswept, this is not the most picnic-friendly locale, to say the least. There's no shrubbery, no trees, no shade, no respite from the constant press of wind that roams across this small, high-altitude valley. Only a few dragonlengths wide, semi-circular, the plateau sits high enough to command quite a view of the mountains stretching out and down toward the sea. Only a few hours of hiking from High Reaches Weyr, it still seems intensely remote up here, with no birds, no people, no signs of life for miles.
         
''Accessible by a path climbing up the west-facing side of the plateau, a winding and rocky trail leading at a steep incline. There's a little respite from the wind on the way up, a small indentation-- not even a real cave, just a slight depression in the rock-- that keeps the wind somewhat at bay, only about twenty feet below the terminal of the path.
----


He'd put it off. He had his reasons though of course he didn't see fit to explain them to either his prospective pupil nor his would-be help. When the time came, after the older weyrlings were installed in their own weyrs, both simply received notes with instructions. Edyis was to meet him in the bowl, before dawn, and Savroveth and his rider were to meet them at the plateau that served as one of the easier practice flight points outside the bounds of the Weyr proper. He didn't speak much to the scribe when she arrived, no pleasantries offered, no excitement, just foreboding silence broken up by the occasional noncommittal grunt in answer to a remark or question Edyis might have. The first colors of dawn are just starting to light the sky when they land beside the brown, Teisyth reaching her head immediately to high-one the other dragon before G'laer's even unbuckled. He hadn't ''said'' they'd be meeting someone, and in the very limited light, it might be difficult to pin an identity or even a dragon color on the other pair.

It was going to ''hurt''.  She knew that much going into this, at least with the sessions she had with Alida there was enough time in between to heal reasonably, even if it meant that she's spend most of her time healing and wouldn't be able to use the bathing caverns for a while to avoid questions.  G'laer's noncommittal grunts doing very little to lessen the anxiety.  There was no avoiding it though, best way to commit everything to muscle memory was practice. Edyis drew a deep breath and resigned herself, spotting the other pair. "I thought I'd mentioned the need to keep this quiet?" She murmurs softly, surely G'laer isn't one to have overlooked that very important fact. So whoever it is must both be necessary and able to keep silent. 

On the plateau, Jadzia is leaning against a very bored Savroveth. She has her flask in hand and he has his head swiveled around to watch her in the dim light. Right up until Teisyth appears. The brown doesn't move away from his rider, who would probably get pissed off if he made her fall over, but he does warble a smooth greeting to the green. It could probably be assumed that the greeting is also extended to her passengers. But, well, he's not really paying attention to them yet. 

G'laer, as might be expected by this point, doesn't answer Edyis before he dismounts. But then he's ''frowning''. He leaves the scribe to find her own way down off the wiggly-with-excitement green and stalks directly up to Jadzia and reaches to snatch the flask away, ''frowning'' at her in silence.

Edyis detangles herself from the straps, unbothered or perhaps more aptly, unsurprised by the lack of words or explanation. ''This was a positively brilliant idea.'' The thought pops as dark eyes recognize Jadzia through the darkness.  She closes her eyes for a count of seven, before exhaling and focusing on the greenrider more intently.  No amount of urging will make him speak, but perhaps he is ready for explanations? 

Jadzia straightens when there's a G'laer stalking at her. Her chin lifts slightly and the look she gives him is both alert and defiant. She pulls the flask away from his snatching, clearly sober enough to still be useful. "You can use your judge-y little eyes on your new girlfriend over there, handsome, but I'm good without them, thanks." She arches a brow at the greenrider, then turns to put her flask away in a bag that's attached to her straps. So far she doesn't seem particularly interested in the girl she'll recognize soon enough. 

Too bad! G'laer doesn't say so, of course, but Jadzia gets them anyway. So, about that explanation time... He turns away from Jadzia in a way that bears few actual signs but one might well imagine to be grumpily. He waves a hand over his shoulder. "Begin." And, "I want there to be a round two." In case anyone who's been drinking was thinking of doing aught otherwise. It doesn't look, initially, like he's even going to watch round one.

"''Not his girlfriend.''" The words clipped and tightly controlled, dark eyes fixing on the brown rider now, probably in judgement.  "Let's avoid the face please.  I don't want to have to explain a black eye,  everything else is easy to cover."  Calm, and strangely devoid of irritation compared to earlier words,  she falls easily into a basic stance, it lacks the polish that years of training might afford, but is fairly solid for someone just beginning. All attention keenly focused on her opponent.  

"No shit," says Jadzia to Edyis' claim, like she's said something particularly idiotic. "I'd say he has better taste than that, but his ''real'' girlfriend is old as fuck. So we already know his judgement is shit." Talking about G'laer like he's not there is always a fun pastime. But she's not just going to stand there and let him smack her when there's someone else to beat on. "I don't think anyone will care if you end up with a black eye. It might even help the view," says the brownrider before she's rushing the scribe.

Because it's totally not distracting for G'laer to turn back and say quite firmly, "Face and head are fair game. ''Everything'' is fair game. It is in life, training is no different,"  as Jadzia makes her move. "Besides," is added as his eyes follow the motions of the pair, "if you want this training to be discreet, wouldn't you like it to seem just another day if you ever need to use it?" Surely, the greenrider is not proposing either Edyis or Jadzia show up to work each day with new visible bruises, but to make the occasional incident seem not so odd. As for Jadzia's comment about G'laer's ''girlfriend''… Well, as the training session progresses, G'laer does take his revenge. Two bouts, which he breaks up before much real damage can be inflicted, are observed carefully before he breaks out hand wraps, head, eye and mouth protection. It's then that he begins taking the pair through a series of exercises meant to correct flaws he spotted or to expound on techniques already there. G'laer is, for his part, quite a competent teacher if wholly no-nonsense and no flicker of sympathy or any other sort of emotion. For the most part, he lets Jadzia demonstrate the technique on him and then Edyis on her, but once or twice it's claimed that she's not doing it quite as he'd like to have Edyis repeat it and she gets a few noteworthy knocks that are almost certainly his payback. They close with another bout so G'laer can see the tactics taught in action. It doesn't seemi that any actual explanation is forthcoming.

Surely Edyis has a pithy reply tucked away some place in that brain of hers, instead she chooses evasion and dirty tricks, like trying to trip up the charging blonde with a dark smirk curling on her lips.  Of course violence isn't her strong point, and the brown rider has more experience and training under her belt than the scribe, so naturally she can't entirely avoid contact, which doesn't mean she won't try to avoid letting on that said contact ''hurts''.  "If I ''have'' to use it, I've done something terribly wrong." She quips in reply, but G'laer's stance makes her far more conscious of avoiding blows to the face.  "I'm sure it's normal for you." She states to the swearing drinking blonde. As the lesson progresses however Edyis just falls into silence, paying close attention as each move is demonstrated.  She's good with the memorizing portion, even if the lack of training to her muscles makes her execution somewhat sloppy and ineffectual. 

Savroveth has enjoyed the fighting. A lot. He's even tried his own nipping and neck wrestling versus Teisyth. But not very well because that would mean not staring at the humans while they do their thing, and that's clearly more important. He doesn't seem to mind Jadzia taking a good thump here and there, either. It's all in good fun! Even the brownrider seems to be having ''some'' fun, not all seriousness. Not even when G'laer gets her back for talking shit about his weyrmate. But there's definitely something different in the way she interacts with the greenrider and the way she interacts with Edyis, somewhat less rough with the latter while still retaining a coolness that's reversed with the former. 

Jadzia doesn't have to answer Edyis' quip as G'laer does it for her: "What's normal for her is being good enough to ''avoid'' black eyes," 'seek to emulate' is implied but unspoken. "Now shut up and fight." Simple. "You can talk when you're good enough to avoid black-eyes." And worse. Then he, too, shuts up and takes it in until the teaching. Once he's called an end to the last exchange, he says, "Stretch," and he settles himself to do the same, expression thoughtful.

There is a rhythm to this, and when complaints seemingly fall on deaf (or at least unsympathetic) ears, she stops complaining, taking the command not to speak perhaps literally. The pleasure that Jadzia takes in the fight and perhaps those little differences in the bouts when opponents change seems to have a relaxing effect on the scribe, the initial stiffness slowly fading. It isn't just the moves and techniques Edyis observes but also the interactions between her instructors. There are obvious questions brimming as she stretches, but seems to be waiting for some indications that she's allowed to speak again.

When it's over and she's working her way through stretching, taking a few moments to prod at a tender spot, Jadzia seems to have none of Edyis' hesitance about talking again. Even if they aren't supposed to, which she clearly doesn't seem to think is the case, she's never been great at listening to instructions like that. "I was worried you might have gotten all soft and useless in your old age, G'laer." Which he's apparently proven is not the case. She doesn't look at the greenrider, though. Her gaze, instead, shifts toward the scribe, who she watches openly without comment.

"I'm downright cuddly." G'laer answers Jadzia without pause and like he might be talking about the weather, "Just ask my girlfriend."  Not that there's been any sign of softness throughout their special time together. "No booze next time. Your lefts were slow and your dodges were sloppy." Not that they might've seemed so to ''Edyis'', but to a guard trainer's eye? Of Edyis' performance, he doesn't yet comment, but it's a safe bet that if he and Jadzia are exchanging barbs, she's probably permitted to speak too.

Its an almost canine expression, that tilt of the head as she studies the two former guards in moderate silence, it is the most obvious right after G'laer declares himself ''cuddly''.  When Edyis does finally decide to speak, it's naturally to ask a question.  "So are you going to explain how you two know each other or do I have to sit here and invent something? Because if you want me to invent something it's likely to wind up being all sorts of ''colorful'' at this point." 

Jadzia does glance at G'laer when he gives his wonderful feedback but she looks away again with a roll of her eyes. Now she even ''smiles'' at Edyis, which can't be a good sign. "Oh, he was totally obsessed with me a few turns back. When I was in training under him at Crom. He wanted me to be ''more'' under him, if you know what I mean. And he wouldn't take no for an answer, so he had me kicked out." True story, bro. "We didn't talk for a long time because he's a dick," obviously, "But once he found me again, he Searched me and brought me to Reaches so he could tap it behind his girlfriend's back. He pays really well, by the way." She says the last before turning her head to grin at G'laer, "You should have just ''started'' with the money. Would've saved you time." There's a small possibility that Savroveth is rubbing off on her.

G'laer doesn't give Jadzia the satisfaction of a frown, but nor does he stop ''her'' colorful version of events. To Edyis, "Can you do better?" More colorful he must mean, because obviously this isn't the true version of events. Jadzia wouldn't be so obsessed with G'laer's girlfriend if it was, would she? And then to Jadzia, "Should I tell her about the sketches?" Nevermind that Teisyth is settled happily beside Savroveth, her boxy body shaking with chuffs of draconic laughter. She thinks Jadzia is a ''riot''! To the green, though surely he could have expressed this silently, "Don't encourage them."

"Depends on if you want believable or completely unrealistic." She smirks at Jadzia's explanation and the greenrider's question. "Cromese guards then or guard and - drop out?" It is more of a question than intended barb for Jadzia. "Though you are pretty enough to play prostitute I suppose." Edyis comments off handedly, finishing the last of the stretches as she does. "You can fight though, I will certainly give you that." Not that "she" really has an eye for it.

A glare is directed at G'laer for mentioning the sketches. It's apparently only okay when Jadzia's giving ''him'' shit. Not the other way around. And then her attention is drawn back to Edyis. Her good humor has faded into something more serious, almost haunted. She's quiet for a few moments before allowing, "You weren't horrible." Then she's moving so she can start making her way over to where Savroveth is trying to copy Teisyth's laughing. "I should go," she tells them without explanation, reaching to find her flask as soon as she returns to the brown's side.

"Come by my weyr tomorrow night," it sounds a little like an instruction to the brownrider but must really be an invitation. G'laer only looks at her while he issues it, and then he looks to Edyis. "Ready to go back?" Apparently, he's really not going to explain. Maybe she should just get used to it.

Curiously she watches the brownrider, brows furrowing.  "Sketches…"  It isn't really a question, or at least it isn't one she expects to be answered. "Thank you Jadzia, for helping." Watching the blonde's movements quietly.  "Yes." Monosyllabic but then, this isn't social hour is it.  "Thank you." Presumably to G'laer. 

After she's taken a long drink, Jadzia mounts. She doesn't look back at either G'laer or Edyis, so she either hasn't heard them or she's deliberately ignoring their words. Savroveth gives Teisyth one last head bump before he's moving to give himself enough room to take off. And then the brown pair is gone, on their way back to the Weyr.

G'laer doesn't presently push the invitation to Jadzia, but rather rises from his own methodical stretching and moves to where Teisyth is up on her hind quarters to watch the brown and his rider take off, thumping back down to the ground in a way that makes the ground in her immediate area vibrate. G'laer is up into the straps in no time, and this time, offers a hand down to the scribe, having lapsed into silence again, of course. No answer for her thanks. No acknowledgement he even heard it. G'laer's such pleasant company!

At least Edyis doesn't seem to need to worry about questions.  Instead accepting the hand up in equally matched silence for the rest of the trip home.  She doesn't speak except to ask for some of the ointment G'laer mentioned that he makes and thank him again, even if it falls on deaf ears, and of course to find out when the next session would be. 

The ointment is produced from a bag, the greenrider prepared for the request, perhaps having intended to give it to her even if she hadn't remembered to ask. Scheduling involves comparing the current training times she has with Alida and scheduling his own well clear of them, the simple explanation, "Healing time. You can't focus as well when you're hurting." So they'll start slow, until she gets better at avoiding the hits. Some of the techniques, he mentions can be practiced in the workout room unless she can find somewhere better with a punching bag. Then without a real goodbye, he's heading off in the direction of the infirmary, though he sustained no injury that warrants the trip. Perhaps G'laer has his own report to make to a certain trauma healer.
}}

[[Category:RP_Logs]]
[[Category:Fight_Logs]]