Completed Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Tazrae furthers her knowledge with members of her Quintet.

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 13th, 2022, 4:25 am

Timestamp: 35th of Summer, 522 A.V.


The machete made her powerful. It strengthened her wrists tremendously too. Taz was always aware of her wrist alignment as she drilled with Gracelin, until knowing the orientation of her blade was second nature. She knew without looking whether she was going to land a blow on a cutting/killing edge or smack someone with the flat of her weapon. They didn’t often chop flesh with the machetes, but knowing Tazrae could with a mere slight adjustment of her wrist was invaluable. The orientation of the machete – via how she held her wrists – meant everything to the battle.

As they continued their sparring, Gracelin eventually added in more elegant footwork rather than standing stationary just moving through the four-step process. She added in simple things at first, having one person advancing as the other was retreating until they got good at this and it became second nature. Then, she upped the elegance even more, putting them on rough ground with obstacles all around that were tripping hazards and things that made the footing uneven. The hazards mostly consisted of stones, driftwood, hastily dug pits, and scrap lumber that was laying around from various projects going on around Garden Beach. Taz had to constantly watch where she was going to avoid literal pitfalls, and yet keep her eye and mind in the fight as she did so.

Buraga wandered by in those first few times, calling advice to the ladies as they battled. Then he himself dug some holes and added posts and pilons, small elevated bridges and walkways that he made the girls spar across or among. Taz found such things impossibly hard and felt her progress was slowing, but Gracelin was patient and constantly explained and reiterated that she was training her brain to do multiple things at once. That retraining was hard and wouldn’t come overnight. It would instead come gradually until she fought through the obstacles like they were second nature, even though they were changing constantly. Taz learned to stop watching the ground with her eyes so much and to feel it with her feet as she swung the machete at Gracelin and used it to block Gracelin’s own attacks.

As expected, it gradually happened. Taz got used to feeling the earth with her feet, trusting them to keep her steady, and moving in a way that tripping was a lot harder than it had been when she wasn’t conscious of how she had to plant her feet or what footwork pose her stance had to be in next to uphold her fighting position. Her mind slowly over time and over the endless drills this summer, changed and retrained, as Gracelin said it would. And as the footwork got better, Buraga and Gracelin both added in lateral movement driving Tazrae’s drills into the increasingly more complex movements. She had steps added, other factors considered, and distracts thrown at her mid-spar all designed to break her concentration and focus.

It was almost as if the pair had set her up for a crash course in entries, attacks, and defenses. That lead her into learning more tactical exercises like strike and block drills. Buraga especially taught her to look for openings and use more unique and unexpected entry strikes to gain the element of surprise in her fighting. Part of this involved the use of the circular strike that Gracelin had first taught her to keep her machete traveling around her body. Once she learned to keep her machete moving, without telegraphing what she was about to do to her opponent, then she could integrate blocking and striking together to turn the tide changing defense to offense on the part of her enemy.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
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Tazrae
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Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 13th, 2022, 4:27 am

The technique was easily turned into a partner drill… strike, hit, move…. retreat from the conflict… move forward into it unexpectedly… strike, hit, move…. giving both women the chance to utilize new attack positions and try to get past each other’s guards. Often, they just wore each other out driving each other back and forth with their bladework in what turned out to be exercised in endurance.

Swinging Sweet Refrain sure built Tazrae’s upper body strength, especially since Buraga made her use it with both hands, first on her primary side than on her secondary left-handed side. They would circle each other for bells while avoiding obstacles and encouraging each other with friendly taunts. The two women fighting so often also helped each other to understand how the other fought so that when Buraga took them on with his weapon of choice, and they had to defend together, they could move as a unit.

When they got too far away from their forms, Gracelin would put Taz and herself on a straight fighting line, one she’d draw in the sand or dirt of wherever it was they were sparring. Each of the training partners had to maintain a straight line.

One of them would strike at the other in an order they’d choose… Taz liked the neck, arm, waist, leg, then back up at the head. She’d strike first, or Gracelin would, and the other one would practice blocking in the same order, while they moved back and forth across the straight line. Blocks would turn into strikes as instead of strike strike strike, they would dance block strike block, strike, block, and keep the training going.

It was a nice change from what they always did… a simulated fight where one partner would strike and the other partner would block. Then, in a turnabout, the blocker would follow through with a strike while the first partner maintained a block and in turn manipulated his block into the next strike. Taz had grown bored of those exercises early on, because her body then knew they were simply training.

Now, granted, through that sort of repetitive training, Tazrae’s ‘machete ease’ as she called it had grown in leaps and bounds. At first, she’d been awkward with the weapons… far more at home with her kitchen knives than any sword or dagger that was around her. She liked her small hatchet, but it was a tool not something she saw as a live-saving defensive weapon. But her machete she grew to trust, to love, and most of that happened while she was trading block-strike blows while traveling down her body and back up again selecting targets.

Sweet Refrain felt normal in her hands now, like an extension, and Taz didn’t feel awkward or like a pretend warrior fighting with a weapon that didn’t belong to her. Taz owned the machete… knew it intimately, and practiced with it in all of its functions… even the magical ones.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
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Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 13th, 2022, 4:30 am

So when Buraga introduced new styles, traded things up, she used what she had… all of it. And both her Commander and her Quintet leader approved.

But the new style simulated, quite effectively, the attack of a robust enemy… one under compulsion or passion. Taz felt that conviction of one’s actions was a heady thing and by diversifying one’s actions and the way they trained, she learned more realistically since she hadn’t been battle hardened through any sort of war.

Her machete was becoming important to her. Taz never thought she’d feel that way about a weapon, but Sweet Refrain lived under her pillow often. When she was sleeping out in the field, the blade was often tucked beside her while she curled around it like a lover. It wasn’t her only mechanism of defense, but she was decidedly fully attached to it now.

Taz grew sleek and hard sparring with Gracelin, her upper body strengthening and even her calves and ankles growing stronger as she learned more and more about not just the blade in her hand, but how that blade could best become part of her. One of the key factors in that happening was settling down to meditate with the blade, lay her fingers over the fingering holes, and blow her magic into the hilt.

Resonance, something she could determine by the simply listening to an object, was part of everything. Taz quickly learned that if she listened to something, gained its resonance, and sang that resonance into Sweet Refrain’s hilt… the blade would vibrate at that particular oscillation and cut whatever it was resonating with like butter. Now so far, Taz had only got it to work for one strike – so that strike had to count – but she could easily cleave a piece of driftwood in half or slice through solid metal if she listened to what the metal or driftwood was resonating at. The ability was fantastical, epic, but Taz had quickly learned deadly only to herself in the heat of battle. She had to stop, listen, and pick up a resonance, then sing it back into the blade’s hilt, before the blade could be ‘tuned’ to that frequency. That cost her precious time, time she would end up dead in.

But if she ever found herself trapped somewhere, it might save her life. Taz was certain she could cut through solid rock one slice at a time if Sweet Refrain was turned and ready. It would mean she would have to sing into the hilt repeatedly, retuning after each spent strike, but progress could be made slowly but surely… and that was handy to have around and know.

More importantly, Taz discovered she could store infrasound and Ultrasound in the blade. Both could be weapons or could even heal depending. The machete formed acoustic projectiles through the combined useage of Tazrae’s multiple gifts and those projectiles could be flung out from the blade if one chanced to be store within. Taz wasn’t a priest of Rhaus, so her Audius projectiles weren’t nearly as controlled or calculating, but they did work if she was in a pinch and the crowd was large enough or the enemy bunched together in a wide group providing a good target rather than scattered.

Taz needed more practice with her Audius… namely learning to trust it to steer her in the right direction. Like all those marked by the divinity, the mark granted perfect knowledge of how to use the gnosis they were granted. But in Tazrae’s case, mixing gnosis with regular magic, or even something like a Voril Blade, merited further experimentation, hopefully well away from anyone or anything she cared about to keep it safe.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
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Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 13th, 2022, 4:31 am

And as she worked with her Machete, Taz came to know it. Sweet Refrain easily claimed the top tier of her weapons rack as her ‘home’ away from home… the ultimate home being Tazrae’s hand, unsheathed, and ready to bleed something. Taz slowly learned that she could send Sweet Refrain home or call her with a thought. All she needed to do is whisper the blades name in her mind or flex her hand, wanting to feel the machete in her grip. Once that happened, the machete would rise up, dance slightly above its weapons rack, and vanish. Then, moments later… almost instantaneously, she would pop into existence in Tazrae’s grip.

The blade had a personality of its own, a song that it sung within itself. Tazrae knew the song by heart and could hum it in the outside world as a way to summon the blade as well. Ending the blade’s song would return the blade to its rack at Tazrae’s Garden Beach just as easily. And she learned, through Gracelins ambushes and Buraga’s stories, that leaving the blade where she could not retrieve it was utter carelessness… so too was leaving the blade without its hilt charged with some sort of Audius or another. Taz also learned, rather quickly, that storing a specific person’s brown note in the hilt of her machete was not a good idea. That was doubly so in the case if that person was Buraga. It didn’t matter that her gifts gave her access to listening and knowing such things if she listened for such things. Storing the reproduction and then utilizing it was taking her life in her own hands.

Buraga had made that very clear the first time he’d lost bowel control when she’d used Sweet Refrain’s ‘sing for me’ feature and its stored hidden bomb to release Buraga’s bowels. Gracelin had made a choking sound and whirled on Taz, disbelieving her usage of such a thing. Taz, in her defense, had claimed she had to try it out on someone to see if it would work, and that Buraga was a far better target than Gracelin. Buraga had no choice but to cut the spar session short and march off, while Gracelin and Tazrae did the best they could to hold in laughter and apologize at the same time.

Taz wasn’t cruel or one to taunt or torment someone. But in her defense, she had to try it to see if it worked. It had, beautifully. It would be something to withhold until she could listen to an enemy closely… someone like say her Grandfather… and release upon him in a time where he may or may not have her and those she loves backed into a corner.

Buraga was back the next day, and as a punishment that Taz felt wasn’t exactly a punishment, he had added to Gracelin’s four count drill to turn it into a five-count drill. Taz and Gracelin had long since got comfortable with targeting, blocking and movement, but when Buraga threw in the extra strike, both women found themselves losing ground. The five count had multiple variations, including but not limited to a thrust, a fake, a whirling motion… and an overhead shot.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
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Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
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Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)

Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 13th, 2022, 4:32 am

The overhead shots were killers on Tazrae’s upper body strength. They repeated them over and over again, integrating a parry into the drill to move the thrust to either side of the body. It was awkward, like when she’d first started learning the four-count, but not impossible. It meant integrating a parry into the drill to move the trust to either side of the body. So Taz struggled to move through her parry, into her trust, and finally add an overhead attack into the mix. That meant that her four-count, so carefully physically and mentally memorized, turned into a five count… which built on Taz’s core foundation. Gracelin struggled with it too and Buraga – seeing that both women were equally matched thus far- let them go on a bit before he introduced one more drill… to give them relief from the constant repetitive sparring.

They’d get back to the five-count after everyone had cooled down. Taz didn’t want to razz the teacher but she’d just gotten used to the four-count method and wanted to keep it that way. The five-count wasn’t so different… it just broke a cycle she’d worked hard to start and maintain, and it was giving her ideas she wasn’t sure she should have.

Regardless, the drill Buraga taught them was just the distraction they needed. The Wall Drill was Buraga’s way of helping Tazrae get comfortable with her parrying and blocking. It was a drill about trusting blocks and parries, and always done with a partner up against a wall. One partner, Gracelin this time, put her foot against the wall so she couldn’t bolt backwards in retreat. The other partner, this time Tazrae herself, practicing striking her. The goal, Buraga explained, was to learn to trust your parries and blocks because, with the wall behind them, they couldn’t move back out of range. That meant Taz had no choice but to block or parry the strike or get dead quickly.

The girls started slow with the drill, gaining confidence only over time. As it happened, the confidence and competence boost was much needed. They didn’t go fast, building trust, but they did pick up speed over time… as trust was earned. And it was how Tazrae came to rely so heavily on her blocks and parries. IF she could get Sweet Refrain up and in position, she’d have no cuts, no bruises, and could keep breathing. Gracelin basically learned the same thing, both of them needing trust in their weapons. And it came, slowly, surely… when one couldn’t retreat, all one had to do was defend. But it came… and that was the important part of her training… that trust. That sensation of knowing that her blade would always be there… coming up just in time.

Words: 2726
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)

Accepting The Reality Of The World We Live In - Part II

Postby Tazrae on August 28th, 2022, 1:27 am

Grading!


Tazrae -

Machete +5, Psychology +2, Tactics +2, Body Building +2, Logic +1, Vorilesence +2

Machete: Wrist Alignment Critical – Slap Flesh or Chop Flesh, Machete: Advance Verses Retreat In Footwork, Machete: Training The Eye To Avoid Tripping Obstacles, Machete: Training Feet To Avoid Obstacles Without Looking, Machete: Trusting Oneself, Tactics: Strike, Hit, Move, Retreat, Advance, Audius: Listening To Resonance – Resonating Sweet Refrain At That Resonance = Power, Sweet Refrain: Can Store Infrasound and Ultrasound, Sweet Refrain: Personality And Capabilities, Vorilescence: Calling And Sending A Voril Blade, Audius: Never Use Brown Note On Friends/Companions/Quintet, Machete: Overhead shot, Machete: Wall Drill
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)


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