aionlogs | Kenoma Team Training

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Kenoma Team Training

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."

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[When he feels Gray move closer to wind her arm about his neck, Liem slides his arm carefully around her back. Despite his complete lack of vision, being able to feel her moving does wonders to help him keep track of her when she jumps up; he catches her adroitly and straightens with her held against him in a capable bridal carry.]

You’re fine. I won’t drop you.

[He doesn’t seem to be bluffing as far as heaviness is concerned, carrying her without any apparent struggle. Rather than the weight in his arms, it’s the obstacle course that he’s concerned about.]

I believe you’re meant to be my eyes. Just direct us to the other end, and I will endeavour to follow your instructions.

[ He doesn't seem to be trembling or buckling, so she supposes he must not be bluffing. Still, she's mindful to stay still and compact so that he won't have to adjust too much as they go. ]

Alright. Then... you can start walking, and I'll tell you when you need to stop.

[ She keeps a vigilant eye, eager not to let him down. As promised, she'll dutifully (and politely) tell him when to stop as they come up on obstacles, then direct him to turn this way or that as necessary before telling him to go again. It's a slow, clumsy, not particularly sophisticated way of trying to guide him through the course, but she's earnest about doing a good job of navigating for him. If her chaperone were weak of muscle, they might have some trouble with the painstaking pace she's setting. ]

[Fortunately for Liem, years of bending a longbow on the hunt for monsters and criminals have done a thorough job of conditioning his upper body, especially his arms. Even considering the slow progress they seem to be making through the course, he's in no danger of needing to put Gray down. He follows her directions dutifully, keeping a fairly brisk pace between instructions to stop and maneuver.

But the cautious way that she directs them through the course doesn't escape his notice. After a while it starts to seem perhaps overly so, and he wonders if she's concerned about the consequences of making an error. Tilting his head slightly toward hers, he speaks quietly.]

How are we faring? Are you worried about being dropped?

Oh, no. I can tell you aren't weak.

[ She says this in a matter-of-fact tone. If someone who neglected their exercise were to carry her, then even with her small size, she's sure she would've been dropped ages ago. Meanwhile, she's felt nary a quiver nor a quail from Liem... ]

I think we're about halfway there. If... this is too easy for you, should we add some weights?

[Liem's brows climb a little when Gray suggests adding some weights to make his task more difficult. It's a surprisingly game suggestion given the unorthodox nature of their current activity. Truthfully, she seems to be taking it more in stride than he is.]

Hmm.

[He pauses while he mulls the idea over. It's true that carrying just Gray by herself isn't much of a challenge. Maybe adding a weight or two would be more in the spirit of the training.]

Probably, [he decides.] Carrying you like this is less of a challenge than I was anticipating.

[His lips curve slightly.]

I wouldn't want you to feel like you're wasting your time.

Ah, I would never think that...

[ She exclaims softly even though there's a high probability that he's just teasing her. Training is important, and so is reassuring him that she is very happy to act like a human lump of a GPS. ]

Then, um, please wait here. I'll be back with some weights.

[ She taps him on the shoulder to let him know that she's ready to be let down. Once she's hopped off, she'll jog away to grab weights as promised. Heavier ones, of course, because she doesn't want him to feel like he's wasting his time either.

In no time at all, she comes trotting back with two 100-pound (or 45-kg, what's the metric system in Achamoth) kettlebells, one in each hand. A servant trails behind her at a slower pace, encumbered by another of the same kettlebell — just in case Liem proves even stronger than anticipated. ]

I'm back, Mr. Liem.

[ She manages to tap him again before cradling the weights to her middle, keeping them centered so that he'll be able to pick her up more easily. Carrying them requires a bit of magical strengthening on her end, but it's a technique that comes to her like breathing. ]

[Liem lets his passenger down and listens to her departing, wondering belatedly if he should have specified how much weight she should be bringing back. She seems eager to help, and it’s possible she might end up overdoing it.

Still, he’s not concerned enough to call after her about it, or to take off his blindfold while he’s still on the course. Half the point of this exercise is meant to be to practise relying on others, right? So he waits patiently where he is, stretching the stiffness from his arms and shoulders.

As she returns, he turns his head toward the sound of her approach.]

So you are. Welcome back.

[Her footfalls sound heavier than they did before, and he can tell that there’s someone else following along as well. Something about that second detail especially seems slightly ominous to him. When he gets his arms back under Gray in order to lift her up, he finds out why.]

Oh—

[He huffs a short breath as he hefts the combined weight of her and her two-hundred-pound burden, widening his stance to account for the dramatic shift to his centre of gravity. She hadn’t seemed to be struggling as she was carrying these over, so he’d underestimated how much weight she’d picked up.]

This is very sufficient.

[ Excellent. The attendant shuffles away with the unneeded kettlebell while Gray gets comfortable, quietly pleased that Liem will have a good challenge in the end. She'd been feeling somewhat responsible for being too light for his purposes. ]

Okay, then when you're ready...

[ She'll begin to direct him in the same manner as before, methodical to a near fault. ]

[In contrast to the brisk pace with which he was previously following Gray's instructions, Liem's progress now is painstakingly slow. He trudges forward at a snail's pace, putting one foot heavily in front of the other on his way around the course's remaining obstacles, his face a mask of concentration. Before, his blindness was the biggest challenge he was facing. Now the burden in his arms demands his full attention.

He's grateful that he at least doesn't have to contend with any difficult obstacles while so severely handicapped, but as they progress along the course, the girl in his arms only seems to become heavier. By the time they near the finish line, tremors run through him and his breaths come heavily. It's taking everything he has to avoid fumbling Gray and her carried burdens right onto the track.]

[ For what it's worth, when she begins to feel his formerly rock steady support beginning to waver, her instructions pick up their urgency just a bit — but she's careful to remain precise, figuring that him dropping her won't be as catastrophic as him tripping over something, faceplanting, and then also dropping her anyway.

When they finally cross the finish line, she's quick to blurt out: ]

You made it, Mr. Liem! You can let me down now!

[Liem has enough remaining poise at least to not immediately blurt out “oh thank the gods” when Gray tells him that they’re done—but he does think it. And he doesn’t waste any time in going along with her suggestion, firming his stance again so he can let her down without falling over in the process.]

All right. Here we go.

[He makes sure she seems to have found her feet properly before taking the arm from around her back. For the time being, however, he remains more concerned with the hot, wobbly feeling in his biceps than with reaching up to bother his blindfold.]

Thank you, Gray.

[ He certainly is considerate. She touches back down on the ground with no issue, rearranging the weights from her arms to her hands. Pleased that Liem seems to have achieved a challenging workout (though he does a valiant job of not showing his tiredness), she smiles slightly up at him even though he can't see her. ]

You're welcome. If you need me again, please let me know.

[ With that, she's happy to scurry off and return the weights to their rightful place. Bye, Liem... ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kenoma Team Training

OVERVIEW

I. WEAPONS TRAINING

II. AGILITY

III. SURVIVAL

IV. STRENGTH

V. REFRESHMENTS

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