aionlogs | 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

The petite girl settles in next to the magician, legs outstretched. She attempts to hide it, but is at least a little relieved to not be dismissed outright. It was not that long ago that she didn't care what other people thought about her, but this world has done much to let her know she is not at the height of power she was accustomed to. Feeling a little more vulnerable then normal had slowly begun chipping away at her stubbornness and general surly attitude.

"You know that many spells?" Again, she seems impressed. "I really only know three kinds of magic, and none of them allow me do anything like you did." She raises a finger, a little orb of purple light forming at its tip. She casually flicks it into the air, where it explodes in a flash of light. "That is one of them. Of course when I have to defend myself, it tends to be a little less cute."

Her mood seems to sour nearly instantly. "Not that it did me any good in Venera. Do you remember what I told you before? I refuse to be powerless, and that.....thing, it did just that. It made me remember things I didn't want to. I probably would have never made it back if I hadn't been found by someone."

A scowl touches her face. "I hate it. I didn't see whatever it was, but I want to kill it. To watch the life fade from...." She cuts herself before saying a word she hadn't had much use for in her life. "...Sorry. I'm probably being annoying, aren't I? You just wanted to rest, and here I am making it so you can't."

Howl watches the show of sparkling purple light and smiles at Majorita's words. It's a bit hard for him to imagine anything like that not being cute, but considering the shift in topic, he keeps that thought to himself.

"You needn't apologize," Howl says gently at the end of it. "I'd wager most of us feel exactly the same. For all the extra tricks I may have up my sleeves, I couldn't do anything to stop it from infecting me, either. I'd probably have turned to stone if I was found just a few hours later."

When it isn't a little fingertip bubble but instead an orb of explosive death the size of your head, that is when it isn't cute. She had performed a few during her own little training session and it should go without saying the targets she'd used had been rendered useless afterwards.

"I don't even know why I did. Its not like me." She doesn't seem ashamed to admit that she's normally self-centered. "I guess the whole thing really got to me. I thought our only enemies were the rebels standing against the Regent, now who know what is gonna happen? We were being petrified last time, what is the next thing going to do to us?"

Her voice has a quiet tone to it. "The pain of waking up missing parts of myself wasn't as bad as what it made me remember. That is why I REALLY hate it. It made me remember before anything had gone wrong. I still knew what it felt like to be happy back then. I'll never get THAT sort of feeling again. Too much has happened. It wasn't always other people's fault, either."

Howl listens quietly and can't help but feel his curiosity being piqued. He's seen Majorita's magic by now, but he really knows nothing about her.

"When you say 'before anything went wrong,'" Howl says slowly, "what do you mean?"

Maybe she won't answer, but there's no drawback to asking from Howl's perspective.

She looks away, out towards the people still training. It isn't a great topic for her, but she's the one that brought it up, so she won't

"I told you a little about it before. It started when I lost my family in a pointless war. We weren't fighters, we just got caught up in it. I don't even know what was it about. I never will, everyone involved other then me is dead now. But before it, I was a much different person. I guess it doesn't mean much since we haven't spoken that much, but I'd be unrecognizable compared to who I am now. And that THING brought my mind back to how it was back then. Knowing it was all fake makes me want to blast it to pieces."

A scowl touches her face. "Because I was actually happy back then. After that it was a constant struggle to survive when no one cared about me. I had to learn to fight and kill, or would have just been another useless corpse. Eventually I had the bright idea to stop letting myself be chased down, and made a reputation for myself. It was not a good one."

Howl listens quietly. Majorita won't be able to tell just from looking at him, but her story affects him greatly, reaching down into his heartless chest to rustle up deep and sincere sympathy. He can hear the truth of the story in the way she tells it, and it brings him back to the conflict happening in his own world prior to its destruction — and all the things he was doing to try to stop it, even if only some of it. The lengths he was willing to go to prevent stories like Majorita's from happening at all, and how powerless he knew he was to actually do so. These thoughts even pique the grip of the Kenoma around his soul, sending a familiar and validating squeezing sensation through his mind.

"That's a horrible story," Howl says simply, not in objection to having to hear it, but out of a desire to let her know that her feelings are valid too. He studies the condensation on the outside of his glass for a moment, choosing his words.

"I saw a similar sort of... idyllic past, as well," he finally says. "And neither am I the better for it. It is akin to... humiliation, I suppose you could say. And to know that such a past was shared with others, without my consent, is unconscionable."

So, he gets it. He really does. And he hopes Majorita knows she isn't alone in feeling that way.

"But... what happened in Venera wasn't a complete wash. No, we did not know the full extent of what we were up against, and probably still don't, but isn't that thing's existence this proof that we are on the right side?"

Kenoma Team Training

OVERVIEW

I. WEAPONS TRAINING

II. AGILITY

III. SURVIVAL

IV. STRENGTH

V. REFRESHMENTS

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