Completed [Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Orin decides to work on his weapons skills after a recent brush with death

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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]

[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 26th, 2015, 4:38 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love

48th of Winter, 514

Orin cautiously ventured into the Fighter’s Pits. He still felt really uncomfortable every time he came out here. But, after his run in with the Yukmen in the woods, he felt like he had to. It was a dangerous world out there. Even the simplest tasks could become deadly in an instant. Just venturing out into the woods had turned into a fight for Orin’s life, and he couldn’t afford to ever be that helpless again. Unless he wanted to stay in the walls of Syliras all his life, but even then all it took was one madman or even just someone with a grievance. Or, and Orin shuddered at this thought, one out of control drunkard. Orin’s father had nearly killed him once, after all, and that was just with his fists.

Orin resolutely shut down that train of thought. He didn’t dare reminisce about the past. It would send him down a path that he wouldn’t like. So, even though he didn’t want to, he moved towards the weapons rack. At least it would prove a distraction, one he desperately needed.

Stopping in front of the rack on the left of the pit, Orin suddenly felt indecisive. Remembering the scuffle in the woods and the events leading up to it, Orin felt that perhaps that simply working on his dagger wasn’t enough. His sprint through the woods had ended with Orin almost laid out on the ground after it, and his legs still ached. Maybe working on his running would be a good idea.

Shuffling his feet, Orin eyed the outside of the pit. Most of the people training at this hour were in the center. It left the outside relatively clear for Orin to make his way around it. As long as he could avoid the weapons racks he thought he’d be fine. While there was probably a better place to work on his ability to run, Orin thought if he worked on weapons or fighting later he could pass it off as part of his workout or routine. And if the owner got mad, Orin could always stop. He just didn’t want to get kicked out. He didn’t know of anywhere else it would be possible for him to work on combat for free.

Cautiously picking up his pace, Orin began walking next to the walls of the pit. He got a few odd looks from the fighters, but most of them were too focused on their sparring partners, their warm-ups, or their training to take notice. Feeling silly, Orin broke into a jog. He was cold after all, and at the very least this would keep the chill wind from getting to him. Soon he was moving at a comfortable pace. His lungs starting begging for more air and his breath got short. He wasn’t even moving that fast but he didn’t want to push himself past his limited physical capabilities. Orin could only complete two laps before he gave up. His legs were burning along with his lungs. At least this time he hadn’t gotten a cramp. He also knew enough now that he should walk it off. It would help prevent injury apparently but mostly Orin just knew it would make him recover faster.
Last edited by Orin Fenix on February 28th, 2015, 2:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
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[Fighter's Pit] Trying to Train a Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 26th, 2015, 5:30 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


Eventually, Orin caught his breath, or more accurately, got to a point where his gasps had become more regular and less frantic. He finally slowed to a stop. Orin scratched his head, wondering how best to proceed. He unfortunately didn’t have the funds to pay for a trainer or he would’ve asked for help. So, he was stuck on his own trying to figure out what he was doing. If he were more skilled with his daggers it wouldn’t have been a problem. But he was always scared trying new activities without supervision, especially if that activity just happened to have a higher than average rater of chopping his own hand off. Maybe he’d be better of working without a blade for a while. And he definitely wasn’t going to use on of the two daggers currently resting on his hips when he did. No, he was going to use one of the carefully dulled practice blades. At least, unlike last time he was here, he knew what weight and general weapon type he wanted to train with.

Moving to one of the numerous dummies scattered throughout the pit, Orin balled up his hands in fists. Bringing them up to his chest, he punched at the straw figure in front of him. He was facing the dummy square off, his shoulders directly across from where he thought the dummy’s shoulders would be, if it had them of course. The sensation of the punch felt incredibly strange to his untrained muscles. Also, he had forgotten his injured right shoulder and it gave a twinge of protest at the sudden movement. Orin punched with his left hand just to see if it was the injury making it feel wrong. However, minus the pain, everything still felt out of place.

He would’ve have put it down to him knowing next to nothing about boxing, but none of the other fighters seemed to be having difficult. Staring at them, Orin couldn’t figure out what the difference was for probably too long a time. Watching one pair in particular Orin tried to study their movements. He knew it was probably a lesson in futility but maybe he would pick something or other up. Luckily for Orin, the two were moving in slow motion, still working out their kinks, and hadn’t gotten up to full speed yet. They were also practicing a repetitive set of blows and blocks. High punch towards the face blocked by the forearm. Middle punch towards the chest, again with a forearm block. And finally, the low punch that appeared to head towards the gut, or, Orin thought grimly, slightly lower, also blocked. They would do a series with one punching, the other blocking, then switch jobs, then switch hands. The cycle was steadily picking up speed, momentum, and strength.

One detail Orin did pick out from the two of them was that unlike Orin, their upper bodies were turned almost perpendicular from their lower bodies, although their feet still pointed straight ahead. As they threw a punch, they turned their shoulders in the motion of the punch until their bodies pointed in the forward direction. Orin couldn’t fathom why they didn’t and it wasn’t like he was going to just go over and ask them. Still, it was probably worth a try.
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[Fighter's Pit] Trying to Train a Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 26th, 2015, 8:46 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


Returning to his dummy, Orin decided to give it a shot. He attempted to turn his upper body but also accidently turned his back foot as well. Frowning, he faced forward again. It shouldn’t be that difficult. He just needed to isolate himself from the hips up, but the twist it made in his body feel completely unnatural. He supposed this was why people spent their entire lives training to be fighters. Otherwise, as Orin was coming to discover, your body just didn’t move in the right way. Frowning in concentration, Orin moved his shoulders while keeping his feet firmly planted where they were. It still felt uncomfortable, until Orin remembered that the men had one foot slightly behind the other. He moved his left foot, since he wasn’t sure how much abuse his right shoulder would tolerate, and would be punching with his left hand.

While his body still felt contorted at least the motion was manageable now. Orin decided to practice just stepping in and out of the stance slowly, until his body finally started adjusting to it. Stepping back to neutral, Orin switched to his right side, moving foot then shoulders. It felt just as awkward, but at least he knew the movement now. He alternated feet until it started to feel a least a little bit more normal, though still far from natural.

Orin realized something clever as he moved from one side to the other. He could practice this whenever he had some down time. It wasn’t as if it required special equipment, and maybe if it became instinctual. It was kind of like any of the numerous techniques Orin used on a daily basis. When he had first started out he had been slow and made all kinds of mistakes, but now that he was a bit more skilled he didn’t even have to think about them anymore. Maybe something similar would happen here.

Ending on his left side Orin pulled his hands up to his chest. Now was the moment of truth. Orin would find out if all that funny preparation had actually done anything or had all been for naught. Taking a deep breath, Orin struck suddenly. He thrust this left hand, held in a fist, towards the center of the dummy. Like clockwork, his body pivoted, left leg coming forward as his fist flew. He was amazed at the amount of extra force just that simple change made. It was truly incredible. Taking a step back, Orin dropped back into what he was quickly coming to think of his prepared stance. He moved slowly this time, trying to catalogue all the different ways in which his muscles and his body was moving. Orin hadn’t had any idea how complicated such a simple attack was. It seemed so easy when everybody else did it.
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[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 27th, 2015, 2:25 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


Sighing at his complete and utter lack of physical prowess, Orin turned to his right side. He figured that working out only one side of your body was probably frowned upon. So he’d give it another shot, literally. Assuming the correct position, Orin swung his fist. It connected solidly with the center of the dummy. Unfortunately, this sent a wave of agony from his wrist through the shoulder. Orin bit down on his lip to keep from shouting, or worse, screaming. Now that would have definitely drawn attention. And it would have most definitely been the type of attention that Orin really was trying to avoid at all costs.

Sucking his breath in between his teeth, Orin waited until the pain subsided to a more manageable level. He rolled his shoulder to help relieve some of the tension. Orin hadn’t realized how annoying trauma was until this moment. Sure he’d been hurt before, but it either had been so minor that it didn’t interfere with his daily life or so major he couldn’t work. This in-between state of not being bedridden, but not quite being able to do all the tasks he was accustomed to doing was wearing on his nerves. Hopefully he’d healed sooner rather than later. Until then he’d have to be especially careful whenever he was doing anything especially strenuous with his right hand. Lifting any heavy objects was definitely out of the question. And as he’d just discovered, he should probably avoid punching anyone. Not that he was planning on punching someone, or anyone in particular, but one never knew quite what was coming up.

However, even though his right arm was out of commission for now, nothing was preventing Orin from using his left. So, he settled back into a ready stance. Orin decided he would try out those high, middle, and low strikes. Unfortunately, without a partner, Orin couldn’t work on his blocks. But the thought of someone deliberately punching at him, even if it was a controlled environment, was frankly more than a little terrifying. So, Orin would stay here with his safe, immobile dummy.

Tensing up, Orin slowly threw a punch aimed at the dummy’s makeshift head. It landed, obviously. Taking confidence, Orin tried it just a bit faster. Again, it hit where Orin was aiming. Feeling a bit giddy, Orin again punched at the dummy’s head. Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, his aim was off and it only grazed the side of the straw man. Groaning, Orin ran his hand through his hair. Obviously, his precision needed quite a bit of work. Especially if he was planning to go at anything other than a snail’s pace. But, as they said, practice makes perfect. Moving back to the correct posture, Orin brought his hands up. He started punching. He took as much time as he needed to get it right and he made sure to correct his feet when they started sliding out of position. Eventually, he got the punch, if not up to full speed, at least up to a place where it could do some damage.
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[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 27th, 2015, 3:20 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


When Orin was at least satisfied with his progress on the high punch, he decided it was time to shift his attention elsewhere. Of course, he hadn’t even tried either the lower punch or the middle one, so those seemed a good place to move to. Frowning, Orin scratched his head as he tried to recall what the middle punch looked like. He didn’t want to glance over at the two fighters he had been watching before. For one, he was afraid they would notice his attention and take offense. For another, and this was more important, he could see out of the corner of his eye that they had started sparring for real and their attacks had become a blur of motion that Orin would most likely be incapable of following. So, he was stuck with his own rather faulty memory to help him out with the proper technique.

Orin attempted to simply duplicate what he’d been doing before and just aim lower, but the motion felt ungainly. There was more of an arc to the motion when it was higher. The distance was simply shorter, and in basically a straight line. Orin moved his arms until they were in the middle of his ribcage. Bringing his hands in and making fists, Orin compared his current body position to what he could remember. The elbows were slightly pointed out, he thought his hands were about the right height, and his thumbs were pointing upwards.

Shuffling forward, Orin faced squarely towards the dummy. He hadn’t noticed the two using the step back then step forward exercise with this particular move, so Orin would hold off on including it until he had discovered it was necessary. Finally, when Orin couldn’t think of anything else to add or prepare before he got into it.

Still wary of doing anything that would wrench his shoulder, Orin couldn’t decide whether he should even try to punch with his right hand. However, he figured that if he moved slowly enough, and stopped at the first sign of pain it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Treating his arm as if it were glass or, as if the air was molasses, Orin let his fist creep forward. About halfway between the dummy and his body, Orin turned his fist until it was parallel to the ground. Finally, after Orin could only describe as an eternity, his knuckles finally brushed the center of the dummy.

On the bright side, there hadn’t been even a single twinge beyond the dull ache Orin had gotten used to ignoring. However, Orin was well aware that nothing at that speed, with that little strength behind it was essentially useless. Orin debated with himself whether or not trying it faster was worth a try or whether that was risking an even worse injury. Orin figured that as long as he just kept picking up the pace in the smallest increments, he could avoid seriously harming himself. And, as soon as he found the threshold where it became dangerous to continue, he would stop. So, Orin pulled himself together, and set about doing just that. He threw punch after punch, until he finally reached the point where he was doing more harm than good. He gave it a rest, rather pleased with the speed he had managed to get up to before he had to stop. Now it was time to switch sides.
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[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 27th, 2015, 6:06 pm

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


Shifting his weight to his left side Orin set himself up for the next series of exercises. Having already gone through the motion multiple times with his right hand it didn’t take him long to settle in the proper place. Starting significantly quicker than he had with the right, Orin jabbed forward. His fist connected solidly with the dummy and Orin felt a grim sense of satisfaction. Pulling back, Orin threw his fist forward again. He made sure to attempt and send it to the same place it had landed before. He succeeded that time. Emboldened, he struck out again. He continued this routine, correcting his aim when is started drifting away. Soon Orin felt he had built up a fairly good middle punch with his left hand.

Taking a break, Orin stretched his back carefully. The pit had started filling up as the morning went on and now there were quite a few people either training, sparring or simply warming up. There were a variety of weapons in use, from bare hands to broadswords to bows. It was actually quite an impressive sight, as people of all skill levels showed off their numerous abilities.

Turning his back on all that activity, Orin focused on the last and final blow he would be attempting. As far as he could tell, this blow started as low as possible, then came slightly up as it sped towards your opponent. Dropping his hands to his hips Orin slightly bent his knees. He didn’t think this motion would feel very good on his right shoulder so he’d stick to just his left hand with this one. Orin bounced on the balls of his feet to get his blood pumping. Finally, Orin felt ready. He threw an uppercut. It crossed up towards his right shoulder as it traveled before solidly thwacking into where the gut would be if this were a real person. That felt really good, and Orin reset and punched again almost immediately. He kept at it until his arm finally started tiring out. Shaking it out to prevent it from aching too badly, Orin grinned. He didn’t know why he found that particular punch so satisfying, but he did.

Orin still had a bit more time before he’d have to go off to work. Feeling a pleasant warmth coursing through his muscles, Orin wondered how he should best spend his time. He didn’t really feel up to running any more and felt he’d reached the limit of what he could do without a weapon. So perhaps it was time for him to move on to working with the dagger. Moving towards the weapons rack on the left, Orin shuffled through the items until he found what he was looking for. Picking up a dull looking dagger, Orin grinned. It looked like the same blade he has practiced with last time. Realizing he probably wouldn’t be able to work very well with his right shoulder messed up as it was, Orin swapped it to his left. The grip felt incredibly awkward in his non-dominant hand. He moved his fingers around the hilt until it finally settled in to something Orin felt he could work with. He gave it a few experimental swings, keeping well out of the way of every other combatant. A sudden idea struck Orin and he stopped to think about it for a second. He wondered if, kind of the same as with his blows, there was a high, middle, and low slash Orin could be working on. It might be worth experimenting with.
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[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Orin Fenix on February 28th, 2015, 1:31 am

Orin Fenix
Food Equals Love


Coming back to the dummy, Orin stood squinting in the weak sunlight. Orin didn’t have any model to work off of. That meant he would just have to test his theories in terms of whether or not something felt right. It struck him as far from a surefire way to actually figure out what in the world he was doing with his weapon, but it wasn’t like he had any choice in the manner. No one in the pits was working with a dagger other than Orin. Swords were the most popular weapon, followed by quarterstaffs and spears. There were a few axes as well. Orin couldn’t really figure out why the dagger was so unpopular. He obviously wasn’t a weapons expert. Maybe it had something to do with the weapon’s size. One had to really get up close and personal before it was possible to get any damage done to your opponent. So, the extra reach you gained was probably a nice bonus.

But, Orin reasoned, there were a lot of benefits to using a dagger as your weapon. For one thing, you could bring it pretty much anywhere. It could be disguised as an eating knife, or even just used as one. Larger weapons only had one purpose. Also, Orin reasoned it would be possible to potentially hide your dagger under clothing if you wanted to lull your opponent into assuming one was unarmed. That wasn’t possible with anything too big. Finally, it simply took a lot more strength to wield a heavier weapon. For a person such as Orin, who didn’t have the muscle mass needed, it was probably best to stick to something he could handle without breaking his wrist. And since Orin didn’t have any plans to get into any major battles any time soon, he didn’t think he needed to become experienced in any of the more martial disciplines. This training was honestly more for self-confidence and in the event of a worst-case scenario than anything else.

Coming down out of his thoughts, Orin shook his head at the rather strange path his mind had just taken. Whatever the reason, it was probably good that Orin was working on his physical form. At the very least it would help him work up an appetite. At best, it might save his life some day. Readjusting the knife is his left hand, Orin walked up to the dummy he was quickly beginning to think of as his. Raising the blade, he held it against the humanoid shape’s neck, thinking it, or the face, would be the most likely target of a high slash. Then he moved down to the vague area where the ribcage would be. Finally as before, he ended up at the stomach. He decided those three areas would do nicely for him with his practice. After all, they were pretty much exactly the vital spots Garland had told him to aim at in the long ago session Orin had engaged in with the squire. Orin smiled at the memory. That was the start of a good friendship there.

Crouching down slightly, Orin swung his dagger in an arc, sunlight glinting off the metal. As it sliced across the neckline, the dull edge made an odd sensation since it couldn’t actually move easily across the uneven surface of the dummy. On top of that, it didn’t feel right to be using his left hand to attack. Frowning, Orin repeated his strike. That time at least it felt a little easier to be using the left side. Soon enough, he grew bored and switched to the middle slice, and then finally ended up going for the gut. Orin decided that if he ever actually were to end up in a fight, he’d be better off just stabbing with his dagger, since trying any type of slash didn’t come easily to him. Suddenly, Orin realized that more time had passed than he’d realized. Yelping, he urged his protesting legs into a trot. Dumping off his knife, Orin moved as fast as he could to The Rearing Stallion. If he didn’t at least make it up to a jog, he’d be late for work. And he’d never hear the end of it from Rondo.
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[Fighter's Pit] How to Train Your Cook (Solo)

Postby Sayana on March 21st, 2015, 6:27 pm

Image


Orin

Skills:
Skill EXP
Running +2
Planning +1
Endurance +2
Boxing +5
Unarmed +5
Observation +2
Body building +1
Weapon: Dagger +1


Lores:
  • Location: The Anthonius Fighter's Pit
  • Boxing: Basic stance
  • Boxing: Using your body to add extra force
  • Boxing: High, medium, and low punch
  • Pros and cons of a dagger
  • Dagger: Using your non-dominant hand

Comments :
Nice simple training thread. I liked how Orin really thought about the various skills to figure them out. Can’t wait to see Orin throwing random punches in the kitchen while he’s waiting for something to cook =) Also, I awarded both boxing and unarmed combat because I interpret boxing as a subset of unarmed combat. Therefore since you were only doing boxing moves, you would consequently be doing unarmed combat in each of your posts too.


Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease.

If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message.

Enjoy.
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