[Knirin Gardens] A Gripping Discussion (Solo)

[Naeya]

Timestamp: Season of Summer, 1st Day, 512 AV - Sunrise “You sure you still want to do this? You’re always allowed to change your mind, you know.” Naeya looked up from the wooden practice dagger in her hands and met her brother’s concerned eyes. No, she wasn’t sure she wanted to learn to use a dagger - but she was well aware that Kobalt wasn’t referring to dagger practice. She knew he meant the journey from Riverfall to Mura that she was planning to take as soon as she found passage. Her older brother had been against the idea ever since she’d officially set her mind on it, and he had been very vocal about his grievances. After a time he backed off, realizing that his little sister had stubbornly set her mind on travel, but he was always eager to remind her that there was no shame in choosing a different path. “I’m sure, Kobalt,” she responded patiently, matching his use of Tukant. She reached a slender hand up to smooth her long blonde hair, the strands of which were pulled back into a fishtail braid in preparation for her training session. “Fine,” Kobalt replied, perhaps a little too tersely. “Then at the very least, you’d better learn how to defend yourself with a dagger.” “Will that make you feel any better about my journey away from Riverfall?” “No. But I’d rather you not be completely useless if you get into trouble. Remember when we talked about your nosiness problem?” He looked pointedly down his nose at her. “You’ve got to be able to defend yourself from the people you piss off.” Naeya sighed, and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "All right, Ko. Teach me your brutish ways.” Here we go.

[Naeya]

The muscular, cobalt-skinned Akalak held up his lakan for her to see. “I’ve only ever used my lakan, not the basic steel dagger you’ll eventually have. But I’m sure the concept is the same - or at least very similar.” He stepped away from Naeya and slashed his lakan through the air in a smooth, fluid motion. “You’ll have to figure out the differences and adjust the technique for yourself, but I’m probably a good starting point.” Kobalt made another seemingly effortless slash, and then thrusted the lakan forward as though he was stabbing an enemy straight in the gut. “First, we’ll start with your grip. Show me how you hold a dagger.” Naeya fumbled with the wooden dagger for a moment before settling on wrapping her right hand around and under the handle and resting her thumb on top of her forefinger. The dagger’s shape felt unnatural in her hands, and she grew aware of a distinct disconnect between the weapon and her mind. She knew that she held it in her fist, but she didn’t quite understand what to do with it. The tip of the dagger’s wood blade was angled upwards in the air as she looked at her brother helplessly, unsure of what to do next. The Akalak spotted her confusion, and gave her a small grin. “How does that feel, little Miss Pacifist?” he teased. She didn’t truly consider herself a pacifist, but her past aversion to combat and weapons was well-known to her warrior brother (a man who pegged any disinterest in fighting as pacifism). “Strange…” she replied slowly, her voice laced with uncertainty. “Am I even doing it right?” Kobalt sheathed his lakan in the scabbard that hung around his waist, and moved to Naeya’s side. “There’s not necessarily one specific right way to hold a dagger, Nae, but there are a number of possible positions - some of which you’ll find easier and more comfortable than others.” He wrapped his much larger hand around hers and squared her wrist so that it held the dagger with more control. “Right now, your hand is in what we call a ‘hammer grip’ position, but you could also hold it like this…” As he spoke, he shifted her thumb onto the spine of the handle while keeping the rest of her fingers in their positions. Naeya’s thumb came in contact with the bottom of the dagger’s hilt. She was slightly more at ease with this hold, but the weapon still looked and felt foreign to her. "...Or like this." Kobalt took the dagger out of her hand, flipped it so the tip of the weapon pointed to the ground with the blade facing towards the sky, and then wrapped her hand and his around the top of the hilt. He gently placed her thumb on the hilt's pommel, and tightened her weakening grip. How can Kobalt expect me to move as fluidly as him when I don’t even feel comfortable holding a wooden dagger, let alone a steel one? Her brother released his hold on her, oblivious to her inner turmoil, and the dagger dropped down an inch in the air as her hand regained control of all of its weight. “There are other options, of course, but these are three nice and basic grips that you should practice getting comfortable with. I’ve used them all with my lakan.”

[Naeya]

Naeya considered what Kobalt had taught her. He had said that there wasn’t one particular correct way to hold a dagger, but logically there had to be a reason to hold the weapon in each position… didn’t there? She voiced her concerns aloud. “Is there a difference between the three grips, Ko, like a cost-benefit to using each one?” Her brother smacked his forehead in response to her question. “Oh, right! Yeah, you’d probably want to know the ‘official’ reasoning behind each. While I explain, though, I want you to practice switching between the first two grips and decide which one feels most comfortable. After you pick one, switch between that grip and the third grip. The goal is to feel at ease flipping between the two.” At ease?! Naeya was privately questioning if she would ever feel at ease with a dagger, but obediently followed her brother’s instructions. She twisted her wrist so that the sharp edge of the dagger pointed down at the grass and her elbow pointed awkwardly at the sky, but then couldn’t figure out how to gracefully switch from that position to the hammer grip. She attempted to curl her fingers around the dagger hilt, but felt the weapon slipping out of her hand just in time to stop its fall. One more attempt… No such luck. The wooden dagger dropped indelicately from her hold and fell vertically onto the dewy grass. She rolled her eyes at the clouds above and bent down to pick up the weapon. Her hands wrapped around the hilt, her thumb resting on top of her forefinger once more, and she began to switch between the first and second positions that she had been shown as Kobalt rattled on about the variations. “The first grip gives you more reach, see? The knife is angled away from your body and can ‘reach’ your opponent at a farther distance than some of the others.” Kobalt began to pace back and forth in front of her, clearly absorbed by the discussion. “The problem is that when your wrist is further away from your body and in that position, it’s weaker. The person you’re fighting might be able to get it out of your hand with more ease. Like this!” Without warning, he grabbed Naeya’s wrist and twisted it so that her grip on the dagger weakened. As he twisted, she leaned to the side in order to escape the mild pain that flashed up her arm and dropped the dagger once more. “Really? Was that really necessary?” she scowled, and rubbed her wrist with her left hand. After a moment’s pause, she seized the wooden weapon. This time, she began with her thumb underneath the hilt that jutted out underneath the blade and tried to wrap the rest of her fingers around the rest of the hilt like Kobalt had shown her. She noticed that the blade tilted slightly lower than the hammer grip, but couldn't be certain of the significance until her brother continued his explanation. "The second grip technique is called a 'saber' grip, and it allows you to apply more pressure to the dagger because of your thumb placement. The biggest weakness with this grip is probably the fact that it's less secure in your hand, since your fingers and thumb aren't clutched together like in the hammer grip." As Kobalt spoke, Naeya improvised in an attempt to further increase her comfort level with the practice dagger. She made a thrusting motion with her right arm, her hand gripping the hilt using the saber technique, and imitated the movement that she had seen her brother make with his lakan. The dagger moved up and out, though her feet remained in her normal standing position which caused her to feel unbalanced. The movement itself gave her a better idea of how at ease she'd feel with the dagger if she were forced to use it, however, and she repeated the thrusting motion with her fingers positioned in the hammer grip. Her brother raised an eyebrow at her movements, but continued on without mentioning the thrusting. "Both the hammer and the saber grip are called forward grips because, clearly, the blade tip points out and away from your body." He stopped his pacing and looked at her critically. "Now, which one do you feel most comfortable with? You don't technically have to use just one or the other, but I think that picking one grip might make it easier for you - especially since you could be leaving tomorrow for all I know!" Naeya paused her thrusts to consider her options, ignoring Kobalt's obvious gibe. She wasn't particularly sold on either of the grips just yet, mainly because she had yet to wrap her mind around actually using the dagger. The hammer grip had been how she'd started off, however, and at the moment she felt most capable of remembering that particular technique over the second. "I guess I'll go with that first one," she declared, giving the wooden weapon a dubious look.

[Naeya]

The young Konti woman then attempted to follow Kobalt’s second set of instructions, all while he rambled on about the third grip he had showed her. She stretched the thumb of her right hand back in the hope of reaching the base of dagger hilt’s pommel. Surprisingly enough to her, her small hand managed to make the connection. Naeya then slowly and carefully wrapped her hand under and around the dagger and triumphantly pointed the dagger’s tip towards the ground. She’d done it! She’d actually managed to switch from grip to grip without dropping the weapon! Kobalt looked less than impressed, however. “Don’t be afraid to be a little more loose with the dagger when you flip it around,” her brother advised, eyeing her poor technique. Naeya nodded, keeping her gaze on the weapon in her hand. A little more loose… This time, she tried to switch from the downward facing grip back to the hammer grip. She attempted to change her hand position more quickly from the hilt’s base to the end closest to the blade, but loosened her grip too much. The weapon promptly slid from her hand, but this time she picked it up without complaint. Her older brother continued to speak. “That new grip you’re doing, where the blade tip is pointed downward instead of up, is called ‘edge out’. It’s a reverse grip, which just means it’s the ‘reverse’ of the forward grip. Simple stuff, really.” “What’s the cost-benefit to using it?” she asked absent-mindedly, her focus consumed by the grip switches. Hammer grip… and then the edge out grip… and then the hammer grip again. She flipped five more times between the two, moving slowly but steadily and only dropping the dagger once more during her practice. “The benefits are many,” Kobalt began. “It allows for you to hold a more defensive stance, because your arm isn’t so extended when you stab and thrust. The grip is also powerful and secure.” He watched as she tentatively stabbed the wooden dagger downward through the air using the reverse grip. “It doesn’t give you as much reach as the forward grips, however, which means you’ll have to be closer to your opponent. It also only really allows you to stab downward or to the side.” Naeya switched from the edge out grip to the hammer grip while her brother turned his eyes to the sky. The sun had fully risen over them, which meant he had to be off to his own training session. “Nae, you’re doing well but I’ve got to head out now. We’ll meet here same time tomorrow, though, okay?” He began to walk away from her, but turned his head and raised his voice so she could hear his last few words. “Practice those grips tonight! I want to get you comfortable with that dagger, even if it’s only wood right now.” Forward grip… reverse grip… She was sure she was going to be repeating these images in her mind all day. End.

[Mist]

Thread Grading! Naeya XP/Skills: +1 Interrogation, +4 Weapon(Dagger) Lore: Dagger: How to hold, Aversion to fighting, Dagger: Purpose of basic holds, Dagger: How to flip a dagger between holds Item/ Consequences: N/A Additional Notes: A short little thread, nicely done. Interesting to see, and I am glad you are working to learn how to fight, before heading off to leave the city, or to travel. While Riverfall is relatively safe, other places are not, and the wilds even less so. I am sure I will see her working on this skill more in the future. -If you have any questions about the grade, don’t hesitate to PM me.