Kenoma Team Training

[lachtara]

WHO: The Kenoma
WHAT: Training Activities
WHERE: Starts at the Citadel, varies per activity
WHEN: Starting on 6/4
WARNINGS: None yet...?

After a period of relative quiet, the Kenoma will receive a Communion post of utmost importance:

"Good day, everyone. This is Ciel. We may have received a passing grade from the Regent following the events in Venera, but they have sorely underlined how ill-prepared we were for a proper mission on Horos. Emet-Selch, Eustace, and I are in agreement, thus we have organized a series of training and teambuilding exercises. We ask that you all please attend, there will be... prizes."

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OVERVIEW

When trainees arrive in the Courtyard after the Communion, a plethora of training activities await them.

The courtyard itself is sectioned off into areas, one for each training activity for the day. The activities vary from one subject to another, and still manage to be related to their tasks as a Kenoma while still leaving room for "fun". Weapons training, tag, survival training, and strength training are all provided. Kenoma is also welcome to spar on their own if they so choose. (This is not included as a specific prompt to avoid too much PVP, but you can add it in a TL if you like.)

Instructions on each activity will be provided to the participant before they begin. For those who can’t participate or choose to show up for moral support or to dodge the activities, water will be provided so that you may gossip around the proverbial "water cooler".

Each of the three trainers are on hand in some capacity or another to provide instructions on that activity or training on a specific skill.

These exercises can be done at any point and do not necessarily have to be done on a training day with the group. Characters can return after the crowd has dispersed to train on their own or with a chosen individual. The equipment will still be there and trainers (or fellow Kenoma) can be brought here at their leisure.

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I. WEAPONS TRAINING

Racks of weapons are lined up on the far side of the courtyard. These range from swords to polearms and rather sizable knives to swords and tonfas. Feel free to grab a weapon of your choosing and have a trainer engage you to show you how to use it. Or, if they have experience, other students may also advise you!

The intent is to train on the proper use of several types of weapons and how to wield them effectively. It may also delve into how to most efficiently disable/neutralize/injure someone in a fight, depending on which teacher you wind up with.

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II. AGILITY

There is an open part of the field that has been roped off specifically for...tag! Rope bridges, mud pits, chest-high walls of rock, and even a large wall of ice (?!) dot the field to give people plenty of places to hide and run. (If you would like your own obstacle, feel free to comment to ask so we can make sure it’s within reason of what our characters could do.)

Participants will be provided with a waxy paint to put on their hands which will stain whatever person it comes in contact with with a very luminescent purple glitter. (It washes out, of course!) The last person standing will get a prize of…dubious worth.

Now get running!

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III. SURVIVAL

There’s two locations for this: the outdoor courtyard closest to the main citadel kitchen, and the kitchen itself.

For the outdoor location, bundles of tree branches and firewood are provided if needed, students are expected to start their own fire and cook wild game with what they foraged.

A - Foraging
Time for a field trip to the mountains and woods outside Achamoth! Students will be taught basic survival skills including: first aid without the use of magic, how to find and create shelter from natural terrain, how to identify and forage for food that is safe to eat, and how to create traps to catch wild game. Yes, you too can experience the joy of floor meat!

All foraged supplies can subsequently be used for Home Ec cooking lessons.

B - Home Ec
For the kitchen, there's a dedicated area where several Aions at once could attempt cooking with utensils and more elaborate ingredients. There are some servants keeping an eye out just in case and could be flagged down for help or assistance if requested/needed, but otherwise, Aions are free to make use of everything available to their own ends. Is this really useful for "training"? Cooking is a science that shapes and nourishes both body and soul, of course, it's important enough to have a part in the curriculum!

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IV. STRENGTH

Step up to the starting line with one partner. One person will carry the other across a small section of the course to the finish line at the opposite end. There are a few minor obstacles such as walls and puddles. Nothing that you have to put too much effort into getting around. The person who can see will guide the person carrying them to the finish line using only their voice. Try not to bump into anything.

If you feel *really* ambitious, extra weights will be provided. Or you can forgo the rules and carry two people (or more?). Your choice, really.

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V. REFRESHMENTS

For those who are not athletically inclined - or claim not to be athletically inclined - a large chunk of ice with refreshments dotted throughout awaits you on the sidelines. They will take a little effort to free them. Most will be freed with a little pull while others are completely encased in ice and may not be worth the effort.

Feel free to hand out refreshments, gossip about the participants, or scheme to your hearts' content.

Comments

[lachtara]

🟣 WEAPONS TRAINING (of a sort)
Emet-Selch sits in one of the chairs that border the training yard. His head is propped up on his hand, and his eyes are closed almost as though he has dozed off. Setting up the training yard has proved an exhausting task and he has come to feel that tiredness keenly.

Though, he needs to make sure he is present and available in case any chooses to ask for magic lessons. Any who ask may need to grab his attention first.

🟣 III. SURVIVAL - B
Emet-Selch may have been many things, but being able to sufficiently fend for himself is not one of his finer talents. Cooking is where this becomes painfully obvious. It's such a bother to fuss over ingredients and tailor them to taste. Not something he cares to deal with.

Though a good leader puts themselves in the trenches with their own. At least, that is his logic when trying to bother to cook something. Even if he does it poorly.

He rinses off some vegetables and puts them in a pan. No salt. No pepper. Nothing else with them. Emet-Selch just folds his arms and waits for them to cook with the heat on as high as it would go. The kitchen staff looks on with reasonable worry on their face.

weapons training

[hundredpower]

In contrast to Emet-Selch, Barnaby has plenty of energy when it comes to training, either sparring with others or practising on a dummy. His daily routine back home often involved hours of intense physical workouts, so this is just par for the course here, too, even without any incentive of a group activity.

He's pausing for a break and refreshments when he notices a familiar face seemingly dozing off sitting nearby. Concerned, he decides to approach.

"Emet-Selch? If you're tired, you should head off and get some rest."

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch peeks one eye open as he is addressed. It takes a moment to parse what is said to him into knowable words as they are first filtered through a layer of grogginess.

"Resting was not my intention." He takes a moment to rub his eyes and try and wake up as best as he could. Perhaps drinking what the kitchen staff had provided to 'wake him up' had caused the opposite effect.

"What is it you need assistance with?" There must be some training-related purpose in his follow Kenoma addressing him. Others having concerns over him dozing off is the last thing he would assume.

[hundredpower]

"Assistance? No, I don't need anything," Barnaby says with some surprise. Does he really seem like the kind of person who would disturb someone from a nap just because he needs something...? He's more than capable of training on his own.

"I just wanted to check you were all right. We'll all be fine without you, so there's no harm in leaving early."

[lachtara]

The concern over his well-being is strange, and it is met with a skeptical look all the same.

He answers nonetheless. “I am hale and whole. It seems setting up the field has exhausted me more than I realized.” He yawns. “Rest will have to wait. I must stay and observe to determine who would work well together in future missions.”

[hundredpower]

Barnaby's eyebrows raise. "With all due respect, how are you supposed to observe anything if you're exhausted? Are you hoping your dreams will show you who to team up?"

While it could produce some... interesting... results, it's probably not the purpose of these exercises. He shakes his head.

"I can't make you go anywhere. But I hope next time you'll ask for help instead of overextending yourself."

[lachtara]

"I had assistance." Although, yes, his first instinct was to plan on his own, the setup was not the effort of one person. This is how tired this all makes him.

Emet-Selch stands up for sheer want of not falling asleep again. "I need not tempt exhaustion further. Come, let us walk." He motions ahead of him with a hand. "Mayhap you can provide me your invaluable insight on today's activities."

[hundredpower]

"All right," Barnaby agrees, if only because getting him moving is less reason to nag him. Sometimes old people are just stubborn... But as they begin to walk around the edge of the training area, he does fall silent briefly to mull over his thoughts.

"Truthfully, I'm not used to training activities in large groups. Back home, it would mostly be myself and my partner. However... I think this setup will benefit many of those less accustomed to fighting."

[lachtara]

"That is the intention with the selection of activities." Games such as this would be found nowhere near actual military training exercises. They would be considered 'embarrassing' at best.

"What kind of skills did you and your partner train?" Emet-Selch asks curiously.

III.

[gravings]

Alongside the kitchen staff is Gray with a look of identical, if not greater, look of worry on her face. Emet-Selch is behaving as if nothing's wrong, and his casual confidence is the single tenuous thread keeping Gray in line. For a few long seconds she jitters and shuffles her feet in place, her hands half-raised with a desire for action.

When it becomes clear that Emet-Selch has no intention of adding anything further to the pan, Gray breaks. She snatches up a handy bottle of cooking oil and runs to his side. She isn't quite panicked enough to start dousing the vegetables with oil herself to save them from scorching, but she insistently holds the bottle out to him.

"Ah — here!" She prays he'll take the hint...

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch looks down at his small 'helper'. He leers, but takes the bottle in hand all the same.

An obvious hint, but fine, he'll play along. "Yes, this should do." He says before pouring in a reasonable amount of oil.

He sets the bottle down and folds his arms. "I suppose that's all it needs?" There's something about his tone that is baiting, asking to be brought more.

[gravings]

She fidgets in distress, caught in the dilemma of having to tell him that there should be some seasoning (a.k.a. telling him what to do) and scurrying away and letting him live in ignorant bliss (a.k.a. beautiful passive safety). In the end, she caves under the pressure of the law of cooking and scuttles aside so that she can retrieve a couple small tins of salt and pepper that the cooking team has brought along.

"Um, these too!" She thrusts the tins out at him without managing to spill any of their contents, leaving him (perhaps unwisely) to decide on how much he wants to put in.

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch makes an acknowledging 'Mmm' noise and takes both containers in hand. He sprinkles a suspiciously competent amount of seasoning on the vegetables in the pan. It's almost as though he has an idea of what he is doing but is unwilling to seek anything out for himself in such a large and unwieldy kitchen.

"Would you like some?" He offers politely.

[gravings]

Gray looks between him and his pan with a small amount of confusion, followed by mild suspicion as she wonders if he's just very lazy or very lucky with his ability to eyeball amounts of seasoning. Either way, she feels a bit silly and a bit much like she's being teased.

"... Yes," she mumbles, looking like she'd like to board an elevator straight into the ground. Behind her, the cooking staff look like they feel a bit sorry for her.

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch gives her a faint smirk. It is plain to see that what he makes is below par at best. "Though I appreciate your polite repartee, you need not suffer for the sake of graciousness." He reaches forward and smothers the cooking flame.

"Shall we find you something worth eating?"

[gravings]

She looks back up with yet more confusion. His vegetables look... a tiny bit scorched, but they're still (probably) edible. It seems like a waste to just toss them. For lack of any other opinions to lean on, she glances toward the cooking staff uncertainly. Though she's an Aion, there are enough people on the staff who seem to understand that she's also a shy and awkward teen in need of help, and they give her exaggerated nods of encouragement. Someone will eat the reject food... probably.

"Okay," she says, giving in to peer pressure. "Did you have something in mind?" Also, aren't they supposed to be survival training??

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch glances at the nearby kitchen staff. They busily prepare food and one of them walks by with a tray of bite-sized fish Hors d'oeuvre. "Ah." He scoops up the tray in a single graceful movement and sets it down in front of Gray - Much to the chagrin of the servant. "This will do nicely." He says optimistically.

"I know our assignment was to cook using the supplies we gathered, but there is nothing that requires us to suffer its taste." So he picks up the little morsel and snacks away!

weapons training

[lifespanned]

Misa sneaks up on him as best she can with a wooden staff in both of her hands, mischief written all over her features. This guy seemed so serious before, and now he's dozing off right in the middle of their impromptu training camp? It's too funny.

With the quietest of whispers, she creeps ever closer to his chosen resting space.

"Sleeping on the job, are you? Wakey wakey."

And she swings the rod so it'll lightly bap him in the back of the head, unless he senses her and moves out of the way.

[lachtara]

The 'sneak attack' seems effective enough. In a way. The edge of the bat comes in contact with something invisible that glistens in the light when it's touched. The force ripples over it to reveal an invisible circular shield, which seems to completely disappear again as soon as the 'force' ceases.

It is enough to rouse Emet-Selch awake, though. He looks back at the culprit with a squinted glare as he tries to adjust to the concept of being awake again. "I see we're having fun." He glowers disapprovingly.

[lifespanned]

Oof, what a weird feeling to knock against— a feeling that is obvious on her surprised features. Right, some people have forcefields, she totally forgot. She gives a lighthearted laugh, immediately holding the rod behind her back with two hands.

"I'm being responsible. I thought you were supposed to be helping everyone! But all you're doing is dozing off."

She says, trying to defend herself from that disapproving glare. Look, she's doing this for the best of everyone??

"It'll just get harder to stay awake the more you try to nap, you know."

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch makes his way to his feet with a sigh that gradually evolves into a long yawn, and he daintily covers his mouth with his hand.

"I assume you are in need of some training help, then?" Since she made a point of waking him up under the guise of 'help', hopefully, she actually needs something.

[lifespanned]

Mercifully, she does have a reason for waking him up, aside from being a nuisance. In response to his question, she just gives a small nod, holding up a finger as she makes her point.

"Sure do. Let's just say I learned a little something in Venera."

She keeps things vague, of course not knowing to what extent she's supposed to prove that she has powers.

"I wanted to learn about how best to measure an ability, but... are you sure you're awake enough to help?"

[lachtara]

"I will manage." He says, to which it is followed by the slightest of yawns.

Emet-Selch stands from his chair and looks on with more attentiveness. Her description is rather cryptic. "Could you describe what you've learned so that I might understand what it is we 'measure'?"

[lifespanned]

"Oh! Well, it's kind of like... sort of..."

She starts off strong, so she clearly has the intention of explaining it to him - but then she starts to fumble, hemming and hawing over how best to describe it.

"It might be easier if I just showed you? I can really only use it on another person... I think." Which she's sure reveals a little bit of her own practice she's been doing, but she doesn't think it's such a big deal - who wouldn't try to practice something like that after they discovered it? "Ever heard of medusa? It's a bit like that."

[lachtara]

"Are you asking if you can turn me to stone?" Emet-Selch asks, clearly offended by the mere idea.

If that is the case will be a firm 'no'.