#mirror drill

Prompt: http://catharsissociety.tumblr.com/post/56286945145/mission-1-mirror-drill

(I forgot about this until recently. I wasn't around to submit it to the group before the deadline. But heck I'll post it on my own page anyway.)

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Karina fidgets during the entire briefing; transitioning back and forth from either rocking on the balls of her feet or swaying side to side. Though listening, her eyes wander to the faces of the other freshman. Some seem confident, others nervous, and several are unreadable. Nico, on the other hand, stands perfectly still with his arms folded behind his back as he listens. Though it doesn’t show on his face, he feels a twinge of nervousness at their first “mission.” Karina and he are one of the freshman pairs that have known each other for awhile, but they’ve never sparred. Heck, they’ve never so much as gone jogging together. They use different weapons and even have different exercise routines. So the most either has done is observe the other training while passing them by. His head turns just slightly to his right where his adoptive sister stands nearby. And from there his face tilts upwards, given that he stands barely at the level of her knees. His eyes roll upon seeing her practically bouncing in place, then he looks back to the stage to hear the last bits of the briefing. When dismissed, he sighs and relaxes his stance. “So is now good?” Her voice is bubbly and her movements brimming with pent up energy. He lets out a low protesting groan. “Serious? They said we have all week to do it!” It’s not just that. Nico’s mind is buzzing as he tries to figure out how this “Mirror Drill” thing should be done. Watch each other train with some sparring dummies? Challenge other students to a match? Fight each other? His train of thought is broken when she suddenly squats in front of him, now closer to eye level. She creates a very forced pout and the accompanying whining tone she uses is teetering between the lines of irritating and slap-worthy “But Nickyyyy everyone else is already starting.” He sighs through his nose. “Talk normally, find an area with more space, and we will.” She gives him a smug grin. “Deal. Race ya?” She doesn’t wait for a response and takes off at a light jog. Nico follows suit and for the first time, really watches her. Like her personality, her run is well...bouncy. He also notices that her eyes for the most part are fixed on the ground directly in front of her. He wonders whether she's always moved like that...and whether she’ll fall into that habit during a fight. After claiming a suitably large amount of space, the two face each other with a short distance between them. “Alrighty! Powers yes, weapons no. You ready, little man?” Nico cracks his knuckles, his neck, and rolls his shoulders with a wide grin. “You asked for this, Kare-bear.” Her face has a forced frown, but her eyes still gleam. “Oh well um...I won’t be so uh...caring and...uh...” “Oh would you just shut up and fight?” he half says and half laughs before sweeping up a cloud of dirt around him and hurling it towards her.

Mirror Mission

    The air was warm and the sun cut through the clouds in the early morning of that late spring day.  The training grounds echoed with the grunts and thuds of people keeping their skills up.  From the new arrivals doing the first mission to the old vets keeping themselves up to date.   Erein and Filan stood there on an open section of soft dirt,  It was here they were going to have to learn how they both moved.   While they were experienced in other forms of movement this would be combat,  Which to Filan made no sense how to predict that which is by its nature unpredictable.   To hopefully get a hint they decided to for an hour or so watch the experienced fighters train,  Taking note of their almost ballet like precision and the fact they matched movements like ballroom dancing... When such an activity still took place that is.

    “Okay Erein,  you are the fighter of our pair here so try something anything and I will see if I can predict your movements and react.”  The giant nodded and thought only for a moment before taking a swing with his padded training weapon at his human companion.  And knocking the poor redhead over and back a few feet in human terms.   It was not a full power swing and was barely enough to wind his companion.  “Okay I did not even catch your movements there.”  Filan dusted himself off as he stood up.   “Well the key to my motions is to always watch my legs.  As the fighter of a team,  Leg movements will almost always determine future weapons movements with the hook swords..”   Something that was not totally accurate but at least for Erein he tended to make use of his legs so far.  “Also watch the eyes when possible.”

    “Hmm okay will try that but lets keep things simple at first.”  The redhead looked up at Erein and decided to test the giant,  Giving a slight eye slide to the training dummy he would see if his companion would see that as a signal to attack...  Which shockingly Erein did.  “Okay I see you are better at prediction than I am.  However I think we need to watch the experienced ones more there is some connection beyond visual I know there must be something bigger here.”  

    The pair agreed they needed more study on matching their movements,  Though perhaps when other skills were trained better they would have a closer link in combat.  With this morning of training done they headed off to study more in the expanse of books available in the library,  And would pick a spot they could watch the others train in the practice fields below.

  (My rust is showing here,  I have not written in awhile.)

Terho stared up at Nero with a suspicious look. He had no reason to be suspicious, but after the mission they were just given. He was totally in thought of what this giant, that he has befriended about a month ago, would do to him. The mission was that these two would have to get to know each other better... No not relationship, they already worked that out. For this mission they had to learn each others movements in battle and try to be able to predict each others movements so they could work in unison in future battles against them Sykes. Nero just stared down at the little guy. This mission wouldn't be too hard, Terho is quite predictable. He already knew that before Terho would attack or prepare to do something, he would grin a toothy grin. He mentally sighed thinking that Terho would likely fail at predicting Neros movements, he had quite the poker face. He blinked and finally spoke up. “If you really need to know, i can tell you what i know about myself before i take acti--” “NO NO NO!!! I CAN DO THIS!!! NOW STEP ON ME!!!” Terho shouted, interrupting him. “I will predict all of your movements! >D I will know all of what you do, your eye movements your arms, legs, butt!!!” He grinned widely. Nero lifted his foot over him, making him fall over, caught off guard. “WAH!! HEY I-i i thought you would do that!! b-but!!” he whimpered looking up at him. Nero sighed. “Terho, you really need to learn to calm down and observe someone. When i move, i flex my muscles. When i attack, my pupils slit. I know its weird but thats who i am. I’m not much for expression. You know that.” He kneeled down and helped Terho up. Terho sighed sadly. “I can’t... i told you i have a short attention span... its hard to focus on one thing...” Nero looked at him sternly. “Terho... I know you have ADD, but honestly... You truly need to be able to focus... your protection is at risk... You can’t place all the caution on my shoulders, thats why they gave us this mission.” Terho looked up at him and nodded. “I understand... But how can i focus so much on the details?” Nero picked him up and placed him on his shoulder. “How about we go and do some breathing exercises?” He stared him down then looked stern again. “I will be very strict. and it will be very quiet. You may go a bit crazy but i won't let you get bad.” “Fine...You won't step on me though right?” He punched his neck hard almost breaking his own hand, Nero’s neck was freaking muscular. Nero just stared at him with no expression. “Why would i ever do that. I just moved my leg a bit and you completely freaked out.”  Terho burst out laughing and the two of them walked onward together to a more quiet study place, and soon they would prepare for another practice, hopefully Terho would learn that Nero’s poker face, wasn't truly solid.

The new Freshmen students have been gathered outside in one of the practice fields near the school. In front of them, the land gently slopes up until there is an abrupt change of a sheer ledge that has been elevated. On it are standing a few familiar faces, the Heads of Houses of Shark, Scorpion, and Elk. They are talking amongst themselves on the makeshift “stage”.

Lexi: She boosts herself up onto the "shelf" of earth made by previous Elk members using her air power. She joins the other HoH members that are already there on the outdoor "stage". They all look at her and she nods, ready to start the introduction. She walks to the edge of the "stage" and raises her hands, waving them slightly to try and shush the murmuring audience of Freshman. “ ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! ATTENTION please!” The crowd doesn’t completely quiet down. “HEY!” Silence. “Now then. Everyone, listen up! This will be your first mission.” Whispers of excitement can be heard throughout the audience. “Don't get too excited, we're not sending you out into the field, YET!” Excitement turns to groans. “While we appreciate you guys being here in Labeo’s time of need, you're not going to be any use to us dead. As Freshman with extremely little to no skill in their powers, your lifeline is your partner.” She gestures to pairs in the crowd. “That means that first, we must get to know them better.” Some students scoff, having known each other for a long time. Lexi glares. “Some of you may THINK you know your partner well, but not as intimately as you need to now.” Lexi side-glances to Kelly.

Kelly: When Lexi’s eyes met Kelly’s she paced across the stage casually as if she were going to simply going to step forward to interject into the instruction. A few steps in, she focused and rammed a foot into the ground. The ground violently split into a fissure, launching a good sized boulder right at Celio, her Conjuror. He quickly found his footing and took the grunt of the impact with his strong arms. The diamond in his forehead was aglow, as he took on most of the boulder’s mass with magic. He’d surely be unconscious with the force behind that boulder if he hadn’t read her movements, it was flying fast. He let the stone mass go and gave it a strong punch, breaking the thing to smithereens and dusting all of the Heads of House with finely grained soil. Kelly gave him a dirty look and his childish face beamed a grin back at everyone on stage.

Lexi: She stares back at the shocked audience. “This is what I mean. This is what you and your partner will be working on for a week. The other Heads of House will explain it further to you.” She places her arms behind her and walks backward, letting Niran go next.

Niran: “Alright, kids! Listen up! I'm not about to repeat myself, and although I'd like to see you all make fools of yourselves, this is some important exercise. You will be participating in what we call the "Mirror Drill." No, you won't be staring at my pretty mug the whole time, you'll be with your partner. Body language is extremely important to get used to, if you miss the signal from your partner it could cost your precious little lives.” He let’s out a trail of smoke with a huff. “Of course, I have perfect understanding of my Shaman.” He snorts and crosses his arms. “So kids, you will find out what makes your partner tick, and will act with the proper response. The Heads of House will be watching to see if you have what its got to pass the mission.” He puffs on his cigarette again.

Autumn: She lithely steps toward the front of the stage. “No one here is perfect and no one will react the same way in a fight. You're going to need to study your partner with your own eyes and see how and when they will decide to attack. It could be as obvious as your partner clenching their fist or muscles flexing before the attack, to being as subtle as heavy breathing or glaring. They may decide to insult the target - a Possessed or not - or joke with them.” She points to the air, moving her hand back and forth. “Which, by the way students, you should never insult anyone! It’s very rude and uncivilized.” She stops waving her hand. “But, in this case you may need it to see what they unknowingly do milliseconds before a strike.”

Kelly: She steps forward. “In other words, you need to know your partner as well as you know yourself. If you can’t read them, then you could very easily be injured while in combat. Fighting Sykes is not a game, and you could lose your lives if you cannot work with your partner well enough. In one week, you are to present to us what you learned about your partner’s body language, whether that means mirroring a gesture and explaining its meaning, or elaborating on your partner’s behavior and explaining to us why what they do is important. Before we allow you to risk your lives on the battlefield, you must show us that you and your partner are capable of working together. Now, dismiss and resume your training, I wish you all the best of luck: we will convene again in one week.”

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Admin Note: this mission does not require RPing with other members. This is to be considered a warm up writing prompt for yourself before going in to rp with other people to get yourself accustomed to the world and writing again [as we know a lot of us haven't done that in a while].