Duty's Cost [training]

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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

Duty's Cost [training]

Postby Adrin on December 10th, 2010, 12:35 pm

Timestamp
Winter 10, 510 A.V.
Morning.
Location: An empty training room in the combat center.


Winters in Riverfall were always very harsh. Adrin knew that better than anyone. For all of the time he spend wandering around the sea of grass and training alone Adrin knew the full effect of the natural landscape around him. Still, it was time to get stronger still. Gripping the wooden training Lakan in his hand he faced off with the wooden dummy. The biting cold outside was only slightly alleviated at least by the sounds of workers fortifying the city from the elements. Akalak rarely concerned themselves with these mundane pursuits but he reminded himself to volunteer some time at it later.

Silently, carefully Adrin begin to stretch. The motions of the training form were second nature to him at this point and usually he could quiet his mind entirely during the process but this morning was a bit different. Errant thoughts filtered past his wall of meditation. His father was making a big for an increase in standing. He’d been trying for two years to get Adrin to produce a son. The efforts were sometimes pretty overt but in a few short weeks Adrin would be turning forty-five. Azeran would be redoubling his efforts.

The sound of a sickeningly strong cross-jab, his fist smashing into the head area of the dummy broke his current train of thought. Training, battle, tactics, and things. This was what a warrior should concern himself with. Adrin gritted his teeth in concentration as the dummy began to spin, propelled by his punches, kicks, and slashes protruding wooden poles would swing around with it aping attacks. Akalak took combat training seriously and even in training, his instructors used to say, you have to prepare as if your enemy was trying to kill you.

His enemy, Adrin’s unbidden mind started to wander again unfortunately. His father often lost sight of things that were important. Adrin knew that his people were on the verge of extinction but to go to the lengths that they had to ensure that didn’t happen? Adrin scowled. He didn’t like the thought.

Crunch Adrin rammed the wooden dagger into the wood and reed belly of the dummy he was fighting. He tried to picture it as an enemy as he snapped his elbow viciously into where the nose would be on a humanoid. “AAAH!” He yelled. The sound wasn’t a word or even an expression of anger but the sound of exertion… maybe a little frustration.

It wasn’t good for him to be this distracted. Unlike a lot of Akalak growing up in Riverfall he had a strong maternal influence growing up. Some people might have said it would weaken him but Adrin had proved everyone wrong at every turn. He had triumphed in training, he had triumphed in his rites of passage, and he was a man. But was duty more important than the lives that his people were destroying? It wasn’t safe to say. The dummy responded to his distraction though. With a lumbering creak it turned and knocked into the back of his legs sending him sprawling to the floor.

A good day for training indeed.” Adrin said quietly from the flat of his back. No one had seen him fall and he was quick to get back to his feet. Retrieving the training lakan he prepared for another series of drills.
Adrin
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Posts: 18
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Joined roleplay: December 8th, 2010, 6:21 pm
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Duty's Cost [training]

Postby Adrin on December 10th, 2010, 9:30 pm

Adrin’s training always took him to deeper places in his mind. Something about the tedium of battle the concentration of it was relaxing to him. As he continued to rain a series of punches, kicks, elbows, and slashes with the training lakan on the target in front of him he was forced deep in his own troubled mind. He wished it weren’t so but there it was all the same. There was a problem here.

Sweat poured from his brow as the rain of blows started to sound almost like music. He tried to focus on the noise, the song of battle but still his mind wandered. His mother had lived a life practically a slave. He knew it. He knew why it had to be that way and he even accepted that but still, doing that to someone else? There were plenty of others who would be willing to do the same thing. As far as him having a son, Adrin knew his father wanted nothing more than to start their family off on the path to success in Riverfall. He didn’t mind that. Azeran would make a good leader and Adrin would abide by him.

His body ached but he drove himself further, faster and further every time. The dummy spun freely now aping an opponent. Adrin raised his arms and feet blocking the blows and giving back as good as he got. Occasionally it would strike him and even those taps he would think in the back of his mind the words that his father told him when they sparred in his younger days. “That would have killed you son.” Adrin loved his father. This push… this push was the problem.

Power and strength and remaining calm. “I am a warrior.” Adrin said through gritted teeth as he picked up his pace more still. He could feel the exertion in his bones as he worked himself into a frenzy. The clack of his fists and feet and wooden lakan on the dummy started to finally work to clear his mind. For a moment he could feel Wysar’s eyes on him, at least he thought and he really was the disciplined fighting machine that He wanted Adrin to be.

Adrin leapt into the air and delivered a savage turning kick that sent the dummy spinning and even knocked its “head” to the side and damaging it. This time when that wooden peg came spinning to catch him in the leg again Adrin stopped the blow cleanly with the wooden lakan with his own it would have cut a man’s foot off.

He walked away from the dummy now and pulled off his tunic. Placing the lakan on the rack where the boys would be able to retrieve it Adrin got his own from its sheath and walked off to where a straw mat had been placed on the floor. Training wasn’t done.
Adrin
Always Faithful
 
Posts: 18
Words: 11126
Joined roleplay: December 8th, 2010, 6:21 pm
Race: Akalak
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Duty's Cost [training]

Postby Adrin on December 12th, 2010, 12:33 am

I am the center of everything…” Adrin said quietly. The beginning of the lakan form was always the hardest. Adrin went through the motions slowly. Drawing his arms inward he took a deep breath in through his nose. A cleansing breath, the instructors used to call it that. To be Akalak is to master one’s self. To be controlled, to be disciplined is to honor the father of all Akalak. Adrin felt that pull to darkness. He felt it as much as ever. Deep in his chest and ching to be let free, his inner demon bellowed with fury especially as he mastered himself.

I am a son of the night….” Throwing himself backward into a roll he barely managed to recover from Adrin pulled himself to his feet and thrust his lakan into the air blocking an imaginary blow. The sayings, the words were important to the form. Things to focus on… to quiet the mind. His mind desperately needed quieting.

His whole life had been this, and his whole life would remain this. Discipline. It needs to be something that you grow within. Humans, shorter lived races, and weaklings never understood. It can be planted in anything. A perfect warrior demands perfect faith in his ability to remain calm. Remain calm. Adrin crouched down low and squint upward facing off against an opponent who only existed in his mind. Forms, drills, and training prepared the body. In battle you didn’t have time to think, your body had to think for you. Your mind had to only do one thing, stay quiet.

Adrin could feel the chill from outside seeping into the empty training room. It sent a chill over his dark blue skin which was damp with sheen of sweat from the training. He scowled as he dropped forward and slashed at the knees of a human sized target. His other hand flew upward as he rose into the air in an uppercut that might shatter the jaw of anyone who was in the way of it. His knuckles popped when he made a fist. They always did. Years of training hardened an Akalak boy so that when he became a man he could become harder still.

I am the center of everything!” Adrin cried out loudly now as he attempted the backflip kick… and landed on his back. He laid on the ground for a long moment winded. One day he’d get it right.
Adrin
Always Faithful
 
Posts: 18
Words: 11126
Joined roleplay: December 8th, 2010, 6:21 pm
Race: Akalak
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Duty's Cost [training]

Postby Adrin on December 12th, 2010, 3:43 am

From the flat of his back Adrin cursed quietly to himself. Getting winded was never an enjoyable experience but his father had shown him a technique a long time ago for how to deal with it. In a painstaking effort he swallowed air and then held his breath instead of struggling to catch his breath. The weakest answer was usually your body’s natural instinct. Struggling for breath meant a longer time of being without it than learning how to discipline you.

The sunlight now poured into the training room. Adrin closed his eyes and finally felt confident to draw in a breath. He still felt that sag of relief when it caught in his lungs and he tasted the sweet morning air. For the first time today Adrin seemed to be managing to quiet his worries. Silently he drew another breath, and then another. Adrin realized what was happening and closed his eyes.

The dark quiet calm seeped into his consciousness. In that darkness Adrin could find the peace he was looking for. With everything quiet he could collect some measure of discipline from this training. Adrin just breathed.

When he opened his eyes again a significant amount of time had passed. He hadn’t slept but he had successfully quieted his mind. Training was over for today. He gathered his things quickly and quietly and made his way outside again nodding a greeting at the boys who were coming in for training.
Adrin
Always Faithful
 
Posts: 18
Words: 11126
Joined roleplay: December 8th, 2010, 6:21 pm
Race: Akalak
Character sheet

Duty's Cost [training]

Postby Baku on December 28th, 2010, 2:03 am

Image


Thou has written, and thou has completed, so I award thee the following....

Adrin: +3 Lakan, +4 Hand to Hand, +2 Meditation,

Lore: Winters in Riverfall, Training in the Cold, The Pressures of Standings in Riverfall, Disagreements With Akalak Measures for Continued Population, Differences in Upbringing, Pushing Yourself to the Limits, Concentration and Focus in Training, The Creed of Many Akalak, Proper Breathing, Recovering From Having the Wind Knocked Out of You, Quieting the Dark Thoughts

Additional Notes: An interesting training thread. It’s something many Akalak’s go through, but the internal process which you brought to the thread along with the external and physical made it that much more interesting to read. While Akalak culture makes many of the large blue men seem all the same, it’s their internal struggle that often makes them unique and sets them apart so definitively from the other races. You captured a small part of that in just 4 posts. Kudo’s to that. But also remember, that the internal struggle is as much about finding balance internally as it is discipline and honor. Keep that in mind and you will go far with your character’s development.
Image

~Not all dreams, are meant to be had.

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Baku
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