Solo Shame is the game

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

Shame is the game

Postby Reed on March 1st, 2020, 4:40 am

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18th of Winter, 519 AV


Reed groaned when he saw what awaited them on the training grounds that morning. Several wheelbarrows waited at the bottom of a steep incline, filled to the brim with dirt. Beside them, Miriam stood smirking at the squires as they filtered in. Setting down aside his Pollaxe, he shortly joined the small group that was gathering before the woman. Call it intuition, but he had a feeling they weren’t starting off with sparring today, which had quickly become the norm for them. The instructors seemed to prefer trying to exhaust them first, which Reed supposed made sense. It made it harder to learn how to use his weapons, but he supposed that would come later. Right now, the focus seemed to be on getting fit.

“As you can see, the training grounds needs some tending to, so today we are going to help. I’m thinking we can start by bringing this dirt to the top and going from there. If you are quick about it, we might just be able to get some sparring in today.” Unexpectedly Miriam turned around a grabbed a wheelbarrow and started making her way quickly up the hill. She moved much faster in plate than he than he’d thought was possible. The other squires and Reed hustled after her. Grabbing the closest wheelbarrow, Reed heaved the handles up and started trundling up the hill. Initially he made good time as the soil was hard packed near the bottom and he caught himself gaining ground on those in the lead. They were about half way up the hill, and suddenly lagging at half their initial speed which Reed took as a good sign till he hit a soft patch on the hill.

His first indication that something was wrong was when his wheel snagged, and he found himself scrabbling for purchase to keep moving forward. The front end sank a few centimeters before finding traction and then slowly, it crept forwards. Next his foot sank into the ground, and the mud sucked at his boot as he lifted it to take another step. Great, he groused to himself, and with considerable effort put his next foot forward. Now the crawling pace made sense, and he wondered which petching genius at the training grounds came up with this shite. As he cleared another two steps he saw Miriam burst back into the lead at her initial pace and hoped that meant that this mud patch wasn’t a long one. Around him, the other squires dealt with the mud with mixed results. Some of the younger ones like Galina and Coen really struggled with it, while the older ones like Reed did a middling job of it.
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Shame is the game

Postby Reed on March 3rd, 2020, 2:00 am

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Growling against the strain, he went at the wheelbarrow with all he had, and took a few steps in quick succession and finally caught a dry run. The wheelbarrow almost spun out from under him with the sudden traction, and only overextending his right foot saved him from losing his grip on the wheelbarrow and falling face down in the mud. With a grunt, he pulled out his left foot, and started pushing up the rest of the way, thankful to be out of the mire. Ahead he could see other squires not far away, setting down their wheelbarrows. As he crested the hill with the others whom had paced him, he saw some other supplies littered around, shovels, rakes, and some left over building supplies at the base of what looked like a recently built tower with a rope ladder. Reed looked back and picked out Coen and Galina still struggling with some of the others in the middle of the darker patch of muck.

A squire ran past him, and down the hill with a bundle of rope in his hands towards one of the figures that struggled down below. Well, there was an idea he thought and looked at Miriam. She seemed unresponsive from this distance, only watching which told him next to nothing. Down below the squire met up with his friend and tied a rope above the lead wheel, then started dragging it up from further up the hill, out of the range of the muck. Some of the other squires starting flagging at that, progress halting completely for a couple of them. Reed considered Galina and Coen for a few more moments as he caught his breath at the top of the hill and looked again to Miriam. Petch it.

With a shrug, he jogged over to the supplies and grabbed a line of rope. Then, despite his good sense telling him otherwise, he started picking his way downhill towards the two squires. They didn’t look up when he approached, but Coen had stopped to lean over the back of the wheelbarrow and catch his breath, while Galina still crawled forwards. Now that the moment was here, Reed chocked up, and instead just decided to do what he came to do and leave it at that. He didn’t know either of them well enough and was wary of insulting them if he opened his mouth. His attitude last time he’d sparred with these too hadn’t been exactly consolatory, and that was something he still needed a lot of work on. He knew plenty about maintaining relationships with those in authority but people in the same position as him he always seemed to fuck up socializing with.

“Thanks” Coen panted, and a little relieved, Reed just simply nodded and trudged over to Galina’s with the other end of the rope. Stopping her wheelbarrow, Galina trudged around it, and tried stopping him. “I can do it on my own” Chewing his lip, Reed hesitated to tie the rope off, and looked up at her. “But you don’t need to, there is no shame in working together.” Throwing up her faceplate, she tried tugging his arm away, but he remained where he was for the moment. “No thanks, I can do it on my own.”

“Fine your protest is noted, but I’m still helping. You can take it out on me on the practice grounds.” He said as he finished looping the rope through in a rudimentary knot. Galina opened her mouth to speak, but Reed interrupted, his patience exhausted. “Look, you don’t have to be the best at everything already. Somethings just need time. Right now, I’ve got this, and you’ve got your sword.” Breathing heavily through her nose, Galina turned in place and got behind the wheelbarrow while Reed stood up. Grabbing up the rope he pulled on it till it was taught, and fortunately it was long enough that he was on the steady ground above the mud patch. Looping it around his back, he pulled at the ropes as he backpedaled up the heel. Together with them pushing on their ends, the wheelbarrows creaked steadily forwards till they were finally out of the mud. Then Reed stopped pulling and simply carried the rope between them as they trudged their way up the hill, removing it when they finally got to the top.

Galina immediately moved to join Miriam and the others, but Coen stopped beside him, flipping up his faceplate. “Still got some growing to do I suppose.” Reed grinned and rubbed his hand under the padding on the back of his neck. “Nothing wrong with that. All had to start from somewhere” Coen nodded thoughtfully and walked over to the rest of the squires and Reed followed not far behind. Miriam started talking as the last few squires summited the hill.
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Shame is the game

Postby Reed on March 3rd, 2020, 3:17 am

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“Not so bad was it?” She asked, drawing nervous laughter from a couple of the squires. Reed kept quiet, his eyes alternating between Miriam, Coen, and Galina. They hesitated on the boy. Having trained with him on his first day, Reed liked him best out of the group. Probably because he reminded him of some of the street urchins, he met in Sunberth. He had something about him that inspired Reed to try harder. His eyes flicked to Galina and then quickly back to Miriam. These two on the other hand made him feel uneasy. Not just because of how he acted in the past, but because he wasn’t sure what to expect from them. He’d fought women in the pits before, that wasn’t the issue, but the urge to be subservient was strong when dealing with them. That had been part of his training as a slave. Don’t look, don’t talk lest spoken to, stay out of her way and sight, acknowledge her presence but find a reason to leave it as soon as was polite. His master had a lot of quirky rules like that and had made sure to beat them into him every chance he got till Reed was grown and obedient.

“Now, I want you to spread it out and get this field nice and flat. This will be where you will be sparring today so make sure you do a good job if you want to avoid any injuries” Dismissed, they grabbed their tools and set to work. Compared to hauling it up here, spreading it out was almost relaxing. Occasionally a few of them would have to go fetch more dirt, a job that Reed unfortunately got drafted for every time because of his little display earlier. He just grinned and bore it, satisfied that it was probably something Kaer would have done. Though his muscles might not forgive him later tonight, he’d be able rest a bit easier knowing he’d made some progress with working on his mentality. It wasn’t too long before they had the field done and packed down. Then Reed and a couple of other squires hauled everyone’s weapons up so they could begin their practice.

After everyone had their weapon, Coen found Reed on the edge of the field, going through a few slow swings with his Pollaxe. “Want to partner up?” Reed nodded and took the stance that Kaer had instructed him to, holding the metal que in front of him warily. Coen stood back and studied him for a few moments before readying his sword and shield. “Interesting weapon” He said taking a stance. “Yeah, it’s a bit slow, but I suppose that will change when I get a little better at swinging it.”

Coen shrugged, and took a measured swipe at him. Shifting his grip, he knocked the slow swing up high with the metal butt and brought it back down before him at the ready. Coen swung again, lower this time. Reed twisted out of the way, and jabbed forwards which Coen easily blocked with his shield. Coen retaliated with a side cut that he failed to block in time with the haft of his pollaxe. The strike skipped off his pauldron and Reed took the hint and backed up, putting some distance between him and Coen. Immediately after moving backwards, he swung out with the hammer end of the weapon. It had the desired result of forcing Coen to back up, but to Reed’s surprise he charged back into his reach before he could bring the unwieldy weapon back into ready position. There he scored two light hits to his midsection before he could block the third with the cue.

Before Reed could land a strike of his own, Coen danced out of his reach. Taking up the chase, he stepped forwards and swung with the axe end towards Coen’s shield side. It looked like he was set to block it, but instead he twisted away from it, and got into position to come at him from his side. Remember the move from before, Reed tried to ready the weapon quicker by sliding his left hand higher up the haft so he could better control the weight of the head. Then with his right guiding the cue, he jabbed out at Coen to stop the charge he expected. Coen parried the blow with his shield and stepped into the blow, scoring a strike on his arm and chest before backing away again.

At that, Reed fell to a knee, and held up a hand, needing desperately to catch his breath. They hadn’t been sparring for very long but already he was out of breath, and exhausted. He breathed in hard through his nose and out through his mouth, the noise the only thing filling his senses for a few moments while Coen quietly limbered up at a polite distance. His chest heaving, he forced himself to stand up and regained his stance with the pollaxe. “Alright, I’m down for another”
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Shame is the game

Postby Reed on March 3rd, 2020, 3:19 am

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“What about me?” Galina called from somewhere behind him, and Coen waved. The young man grinned and shrugged. “You did promise her.” Nodding and suppressing an internal groan, Reed turned to face her. “Suppose its better to take my helping of humility earlier than later.”

“That’s the spirit” Galina said all too cheerily and flipped down her faceplate. Like last time, she started by circling him, her sword held out to the side, shield up high before her. She waited for him to make the first swing, which came in the form of a slight jab towards her shield. Already burned today by overextending, he wasn’t too keen on needlessly exerting himself and getting himself scored on. She responded with a slash of her own which he checked off with the haft of his pollaxe, pushing her strike up and away from him so he could try to get a low jab in. She blocked that with her shield and pushed the tip of his cue down so she could slash at his arm. Barely, he managed to catch the blade with the bottom of the axe end of his pollaxe. Grunting, she pulled away and twisted inside his reach, scoring a shallow slash against his left leg.

Pushing against her shield with the bar of his pollaxe, he created some distance between them, and took the moment to catch his breath and regain his ready position. Unfortunately, he didn’t get much more time than that before she came charging back in, slashing low, then high, scoring a strike to his shoulder after he blocked the former. Too close to strike with any speed, Reed brought the head down anyways and caught against her shield. Galina immediately made use of his mistake, reaching around to get a strike in on his back and side before they separated. Head spinning, Reed struggled to turn with her, and his foot ended up slipping in some loose, rocky soil. He caught himself, legs over extended, just in time to catch her next strike on the knee. He went down. Falling onto his side, he scrambled to get propped up on an elbow when he saw Galina’s shadow fall over him. “Need a hand?”

Reed forced a chuckle and grasped her forearm. With her help, he climbed to his feet, and dusted off the worst of the dirt that had caked around his knees and elbows. With a heavy sigh, he patted her on the shoulder. “See, I told you” Galina just laughed and walked off. Reed finished the rest of the session sparring with Coen and went back home feeling thoroughly exhausted from the days practice. If more days were like this, maybe this wouldn’t be half bad he thought as he made his way home to strip off his armor and relax.
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Shame is the game

Postby Alric Lysane on March 20th, 2022, 8:03 pm

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Reed


Hi!

Should you return please update your CS and PM/DM me for your Grade! :)

~ Alric
~ Thanks to Gossamer/Shiress for post Boxcodes ~
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