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.

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Zenos, likewise, is there... not exactly on sufferance, this is far more to his taste than the party had been, but it's clear he has little interest in the Games beyond what observing can tell him of others' worth; he, as usual, does not intend wasting time on anyone incapable of keeping up with him, and right now 'him' includes all his frustration at the Venera situation and his desire to see what regenerated flesh is capable of, so it's doubly important the first fight be a good one. So he waits, and watches, and makes a mental list of those that might be worth bothering later.

Speaking of the Venera situation...

He has not been avoiding Howl, exactly, but neither has he sought the other man out. He tells himself this is because he's been busy (as if recuperation has been an active endeavor, not a passive one) and not because this conversation is one he very much would rather not have, and that being the case it is definitely camaraderie (~~whatever that means~~), and not the desire to prove how little the prospect has him phased (~~except in all the ways it's definitely the second thing~~) that has him offer a lightly amused "That was certainly unconventional." as their paths cross - Howl on his way from watercooler to tree, perhaps, and Zenos headed back towards whatever duel is currently in progress.

Howl sees the man, whose name he still does not know, long before they come close enough to speak to each other. He's... absolutely enormous, and very hard to miss. But suspecting him to be one of the most formidable Aions among the Kenoma, he has no intention of giving him the impression that he is intimidated by him in any way — even though he definitely is. At least a little.

Howl actually stops in his path when he's addressed, drink in one hand, to look up at the imposing man with a calm, neutral smile. Are neither of them going to address what happened in Venera, then? What Howl saw? He's okay with that, honestly. So many people had private moments from their past exposed to others. Howl had taken no pleasure in being forced to see any of it.

"I'll take that as a compliment," he says smoothly. "Sir...?"

... of course, the unfortunate side effect of Talking To People is that invites Conversation in a way his demeanor otherwise very much does not, especially here, where he is stripped of the protection Status and Reputation usually infer when it comes to people weighing up whether to keep said conversation going or seek the nearest possible polite exit.

So it's to be a prolonged exchange and not a single salvo? Fine. "Just Zenos will suffice" he responds; had he been inclined to (which he's not, especially, preferring personal infamy to the inherited sort) there's not really a title he can insist on at this point, even had their world not reportedly been destroyed.

He could stop there, but if they're doing this, then they might as well do this, and he will not be the first to flinch. "And you are... not actually from Ingary, wherever that might be?"

"Oh, I am indeed from Ingary," Howl responds with a coy smile. "Save for some grand cosmological coincidence between our two Worlds, it's not any place you'd be familiar with."

Interesting that he does not ask for Howl's name. But, as for his name... 'Zenos.' Not... 'Zenos-Selch,' or anything else that might hint to the connection that Howl knows exists between the enormous old man and this enormous younger man. Even if Howl had not peered into each of their pasts, the odd mark on both of their foreheads would suggest a relation of some sort. Howl strains his mind for a moment, trying to remember what Emet-Selch had called that thing, but that was months ago now, and it escapes him.

"And you," Howl says after a pause, pointing at his own forehead, where a similar mark would be if he had one. "Actually some prince of somewhere, then?"

Perhaps it is a habit he should have gotten into by now, but those of an entire lifetime are harder to break; he still expects to be Told who people are, if they are worth noting.

Zenos laughs, disparagingly - "In another life, yes." - though the smile becomes less amused, and something nearer cruel, as he glances past Howl in the direction of the weapons training - where Emet-Selch sits and half-dozes. It's obvious he has very little love for their shared homeland. "Has he told you anything of Garlemald?"

"Garlemald," Howl repeats, pondering the word as it leaves his mouth. There's a feeling in the back of his mind that he might have heard it before — and he sort of has, as Emet-Selch had told him about that mark on his forehead, months ago — but for the most part, Howl does not recognize it.

"Is that the name of your kingdom? Or, should I say empire?" he asks, purposefully not following Zenos' gaze towards the old man currently hogging Howl's ire. "You don't sound terribly fond of it."

"His Empire." he corrects, letting his gaze linger a moment before returning it to Howl. "In his time it might have had some worth, when it was still a wild and hungry thing. Not the bloated corpse my father bequeathed me."

Zenos shrugs lightly. "Either way, naught remains now but ashes."

His empire. Ugh. Howl is already mad at Emet-Selch for conspicuously never mentioning this whole empire thing, even after hearing all about Howl's struggles dealing with the Crown in his home world, but to hear someone else point it out yet again inflames his ire. The wizard sighs to himself in frustration and looks down at the ground.

"You know," he begins in a light, casual tone that does not match his annoyed demeanor, "I'm not usually one to care about who a person was in their past. I care about who they are now. But... who they've been in the past is sometimes a very reliable indicator of who they are now."

... is there trouble in wizard paradise? The part of Zenos that feels the absurd need to stand straighter when The Renowned Founding Father's eyes are upon him cannot help but take some small pleasure in that (he will never, however many boundaries he transcends, rival a sorcerer of even a fraction of Howl's skill). The rest finds the attempt to hide that tension deeply irksome.

"I have none of his talent for games." he says simply, his tone flat. "If there is something you wish to know of that past, ask."

'Games'? Howl wasn't trying to be coy or cryptic. He'd really just meant to express his frustration with the old man, almost as if talking to himself aloud. Or, with Zenos, just trying to make conversation... in an odd, exasperated way.

But faced with the offer to learn more about Emet-Selch, Howl isn't sure he wants it. The part of him that holds out hope that their friendship can still be saved is afraid of what Zenos might tell him. The rest of him is not particularly eager to make himself more upset.

There is one thing, though. Howl crosses his arms and looks back up at Zenos.

"You and Emet-Selch are... related, but not directly?" he asks. "What do you mean, by 'in his time'?"

Sorry Howl. Zenos' bar for artifice sits substantially lower than most, and he has no patience for it. Still, it is simple enough inquiry the wizard offers, and he responds equally simply.

"I know him not as Emet-Selch, but Solus zos Galvus, first Dictator of Garlemald, and my grandfather's father." He shrugs lightly. "His rise to power was some... 70 years ago, perhaps, from the time I was brought here from. Long before I was born."

Howl is quiet in the wake of his information. It's a lot to take in, and he senses the long path of history behind the brief answer. Dictator, he said... and the first of Garlemald... so, not simply an emperor, but an emperor builder. The thought makes Howl's stomach turn with a mix of disgust and anxiety. He suspects more and more than Emet-Selch has so intentionally lied by omission in their casual conversations that it really does count as lies.

"I see," Howl mutters. He thinks back to all he saw in both Emet-Selch's and Zenos' memories. Neither of them were happy, but it does little to make him feel better. An empire is an empire is an empire. Another weighty beat passes before he speaks again. "Thank you. For answering."

Howl looks away, towards the block of ice that marks the break area. His mind is swarming with new thoughts and worries, and he'd be content leaving their conversation at that. But he does not move, hesitating to excuse himself at the same time he waits for any further response Zenos might give.

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Kenoma Team Training

OVERVIEW

I. WEAPONS TRAINING

II. AGILITY

III. SURVIVAL

IV. STRENGTH

V. REFRESHMENTS

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