[PRP] Karate Chop, Hoo-Haa!

[Venti Mico]

Good exercise clothes, check! Hair braided and pinned, check! What else? Aija wasn't sure what else she'd have to bring to the class, so she hoped she had dressed well enough in her white tank top and blue gym shorts. She didn't exactly have any karate gear, so her work out clothes would have to do. Aija left her room early, getting to the rec room about 15 minutes before the class was about the start and bouncing on her feet as she entered. She held a water bottle to her chest, peeping into the room with wide eyes before she moved in.

"Good evening!" She greeted, bubbly and ready to go.  

[TawnyAngel]

Starting classes up again had felt awkward at first. He liked to think he'd hidden it well but he had been pretty sodding paranoid that somebody was going to laugh, or make a comment, or... or something. No such thing had happened however and so now, a couple of weeks later, Aulus was a lot more relaxed and actually looking forward to the sessions. If anything he was enjoying them more than he had before, maybe partially because the sense of purpose was a relief, maybe partially for other reasons he couldn't put his finger on. Oh well, whatever.

So it was that when Aija entered Aulus was pretty relaxed and engaged in doing some (one handed) press-ups while Rose set out the mats. He still wasn't up to many reps but he was managing one or two more every day and that was progress, which was good enough for now.

"Hi there," Aulus nodded to Aija's greeting, breathing a little hard as he got to his feet and dusted his hand off. "You're early," he added with a glace at the clock on the wall and another nod; "Good." He hadn't been entirely sure that she'd show; she had seemed enthused but sometimes people sounded interested but just never showed up for whatever reason. Not only had she shown up and shown up early she had shown up dressed sensibly for the activity which, again, was not always a guarantee.  

[Venti Mico]

Aija had to admit, she was impressed. One-armed push-ups weren't an easy feat, even if Aulus didn't have much a choice. She managed with regular push-ups, but one-armed? That was difficult for her. Now she was just a little more determined to learn- if only to get a little approval from a certain teacher.

"Yes, hello! I though, early was better. How may I help to set up? Is there anything I can do?" She asked eagerly, attentive. She looked at Rose and grinned, "Hello, Rose! Mans dārgais!" Aija leaned over to slip her shoes off before trodding on the mats(she had seen enough movies to know to take them off, thank you), hurrying over to Rose. "You are such good pokemon, so helpful!" She chirped, happy to see him too. Aija looked back at Aulus. "You said, last time, he helps with your classes? I am glad I came, who would not wish to be taught by such a good pokemon? Oh- but, yes! Should I warm up also? Stretches first, yes? Or should I wait?" Aija asked, remembering that Aulus had indeed been warming up when she'd arrived. Her excitement for the class had left her with more than a little energy.  

[TawnyAngel]

Wow! Was she always like this or had she drunk a cocktail of energy drinks in preparation for the class? With his brows slightly raised Aulus listened as the small woman talked nineteen to the dozen, processing everything she'd said and waiting a moment to see if there would be more before he replied.

"Stretches and warm up are a good start," he began with a nod, "you're athletic, yeah? A standard warm up will probably be fine, whatever you usually do, I'll let you know if you need to add anything else. Oh, if you want to help set up though you can go grab a punch bag." Aulus gestured to a cupboard. "The big red ones, the ones with the chains to hang them up." Rose could have done that, would have done that next, but if she wanted to help out then that was fine. "And yeah, Rose'll be helping out," Aulus continued, working down the list of things to reply to as he started some more stretches of his own. "He's got great technique, haven't you Rose?"

"Saaaw!" Rose grinned and waved the compliment off but he was obviously pleased by it.  

[Venti Mico]

"Stretches, yes! I will do this! I was in gymnastic classes for many years, warm-ups, easy peas!" She said, then looked over to the cupboard. She'd get the punching bag set up first. She scurried over and opened up the cupboard, dragging out a punching bag. Her luck would have it she grabbed one that may or may not have weighed more than her, and after she managed to drag it out(she only almost fell on her butt once, okay?), she looked over at Rose and smiled sheepishly. "Mister Rose... I would appreciate it very much if you would, ehe... help me hang this up." She said, laughing a little. She didn't much want the punching bag to fall back down on her if she attempted to hang it. Aija wanted to learn how to toss people over her shoulder, not be squashed by punching bags.

Stretches, right. Aija was sure how much agility and flexibility she'd need in karate, but she went along with her usual stretch. Arms stretched behind her head and across her chest, then legs; she reached for her toes, then sat on the floor, stretching a few more ways. Lastly, she stretched her back, pulling one leg over the other, pushing off her knee, and twisting her back, then repeat the opposite direction. She crossed her legs, looking to Aulus for instruction. "What kind of things will you teach? Basic form things?" She asked curiously, head tilted. In gymnastics, they never started someone with fancy moves or tricks. No, they had the basics drilled into them until they were perfected; Aija assumed this might be similar.  

[TawnyAngel]

Rose chuckled softly and hummed agreement, helping Aija to heft the bag into place.

Aulus watched as Aija performed her stretched and gave a satisfied nod when she finished. "Alright, good, now we jog a couple of circuits." With this said he set off around the mats at an easy pace, presuming she would join him. "Yes, we'll just go through basics today," he affirmed with a nod. "I'll take you through some stances and a couple of basic strikes but not looking to put any force into them today, got to get the technique right before you really punch something or you might damage yourself. I'd say we'll work on balance too but I don't think that's going to be a problem if you've done a lot of gymnastics." Balance wasn't exactly his best skill right now anyway so he was glad to avoid the issue; he'd improved a lot since... well, yeah, but if he didn't focus he was still off and prone to having his weight not quite where it should be.

Anyway though, it was always good to have somebody in who was starting above the very basic level of fitness required to pass basic training, and of course some people let that slip once they'd passed if they weren't in a 'public facing' position.  

[Venti Mico]

Aija gave Rose a grateful nod and smile before she took off jogging with Aulus, having to work a little faster to keep up with him, but mostly unfettered. She was used to running harder to keep up with stupid tall people with longer legs, and there was no way she'd let herself fall behind him.

"Balance, this will be easy! Stances and the strikes, I am excited to learn this!" Really, she wanted to move on to the cool stuff, but she knew it'd be a while before she actually got to do that. That was fine, whatever... surely if she was a good enough student, she'd advance fast anyway. It wasn't like she had a whole lot taking up all her time; her time off would definitely be used to impress her new teacher and hopefully get on to learning the good stuff. Aulus seemed like a strict kind of guy, disciplined to an extent; she had a feeling she'd have to prove herself before he'd let her move on. Maybe she could convince her roommate to join her in the classes so they could practice together, or maybe she'd be willing to be used as a practice dummy... maybe... probably not. But Aija could try.

"Do we do the yelling thing, with the strikes? The hah, hiyah!! Will we do that?" She asked after they'd gone a few rounds, slowing down once she felt warmed up enough. The warm up had calmed her excited nerves slightly, but she wanted to go already; where was the rest of the class? They needed to hurry up!  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus gave a snort of amusement and glanced down at Aija. "You can if you want to but it's not obligatory," he replied as he jogged to a halt and did a few more stretches. He had to admit that it was nice to have keen students, the peppy might be a bit much in different circumstances but in this instance it was uplifting; somebody was taking an interest in what he knew and had to teach. "Rose and I can demo some more advanced stuff if you're interested in watching," he added, "some throws, stuff with weapons and suchlike." He couldn't exactly use his staff properly right now but there was still stuff he could do with it one-handed and the same went for knives.  

[Venti Mico]

"No? Hm..." She paused, seeing Aulus do a few stretches and quickly repeating him, this time doing the same stretches Aulus was. Aija stood up straight so fast she almost lost her balance at the mention of demos; she quickly righted herself, hoping Aulus hadn't noticed that, as she had just made it clear she considered herself well-balanced. Without leaving time for Aulus to say anything, Aija chirped, "Yes! Yes, I would like demos! Weapons! That is so awesome, seeing weapons, especially! Is there knives? I am good with those! That is so cool[/]- not to say, um, that it is not very useful and practiceful too... you are man of many great talents." Aija stopped herself, actually bothering to curb her enthusiasm for once, hoping he didn't think she wasn't taking him seriously. But still, it was cool, who would deny that? ...But if she got the chance to use knives here, one thing would be set in stone. Aulus would never get rid of her. Especially if he was good with knives, too!  

[TawnyAngel]

Woah! This was a girl who really liked her pointy things hu? Well that suited him fine and he actually smiled a bit again for a moment. "There are knives, yeah," he nodded, "and yes they're cool and practical as well in the right circumstances. You don't want to bring a knife to a gun fight, but you never know when there might be a knife fight on the cards right? Knife work is mainly what I do with my students because they're easy to take on missions unlike, say, a sword. If you're interested in sword work though I can train you privately later on, same goes for a staff which is my favoured weapon actually."

A staff lot more practical to carry around now he had his new fancy one and in fact he felt like a bit of a tit remembering himself walking around the place with six feet of wood in his hand (insert crude snickers here), it just wasn't subtle at all.

Heading back over to where he'd left his stuff Aulus picked up a foot long rubber baton and held it up to Aija to inspect for a moment before twisting a small dial with his thumb which caused both ends to shoot outwards and left him holding a six foot metal staff. Smiling for twice in as many minutes he twirled it over his hand with practiced ease because, yeah, it was cool and it was cool that somebody else thought it was cool too.  

[Venti Mico]

There were knives! And swords! Holy s**t, he knew swords! Stepping back, Aija knew that was entirely impractical and she would probably never have any use for them... hell yes she wanted to learn how to use a sword! "I am good with knives! Er... well! I have had much experience with them, I should say! I do not know if I am good," Nah, she thought she was good, "I cannot wait for your lessons, I think- I think I want to do all of them- is that alright? Doing all of them? The fighting and the knives and the swords and the staff?!" If Aulus knew how to use all of those, and he knew how to do it well enough to teach... Aija was capitalizing on all of that. Hell, she might even make him piragi as a thanks- did he like bacon? She hoped he liked bacon. Aija made a mental note to ask later.

And then Aija completely forgot about asking him if he liked bacon when he took out his baton. She gave it a curious look, which quickly turned to awe when it expanded to... really really long. Her mouth hung open for a second, then she snapped back to attention. "It was like- like magic! Was all tiny, now it is bigger than me! And the- the moving- the- is it heavy?! Do you beat people with it? How do you not hit yourself?!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Heavy?" Aulus thought about this for a moment and then shrugged. "Not really, about three pounds. As for not hitting yourself... well you just get used to knowing where it is and where you are, and yeah I do beat other people up with it. It is kind of like magic though, the weapons department made it for me." It had been created based on his description of her staff, with a shocking twist - har har. If he ever saw her again she would be in for a shock - har har. A taste of her own medicine, yes, and he'd take her hair as a trophy and-

Aulus shivered as he jerked his mind away from that spiraling train of thoughts and made a couple more slow passes in the air with the staff to focus his mind back on the present. "The basics of using a bo is to more or less treat it like an extension of your arms; a lot of the strikes you use are fairly close to the empty handed stuff, so it's one of the easier ones to learn. Knives though? What kind of knife work have you done?" Like her gymnastics anything would be a good start... well so long as it wasn't complete bullshit that had to be un-learned anyway but he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt on that for now.  

[Venti Mico]

Aija wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to manage a staff- bo- whatever he called it. Not unless it was a lot shorter, or she was positive she'd be tripping and smacking herself with it constantly. At least Aulus was about as tall as the bo was- Aija thought she'd do much better more suited to her size. Not that she'd say that out loud. "It seems like a lot of coordination..." She murmured, looking at the bo and admiring it. Great engineering too, if it was that light, collapsible, and still sturdy enough to be used for beating people.

"For people who are, ahem... not very tall..." She muttered that part quietly, "Is there shorter bos? Because, something that big, it is almost like two of me. Perhaps I would be better with knives than with the bo..." And she was more than happy to work with knives. "With the knives! I have mostly only done knife throwing, you see. It is not so good for combat, because moving targets are very hard to hit, is like with gun. People think, oh, can shoot willy nilly and hit target, easy! No, not easy, and same with knife throwing, mostly good on still target. But I am good with throwing them! I do not have any with me for demonstration, though..." It was one thing to say she was good with knives, and it was another to show it. However, she wasn't one to carry knives when she didn't need them, as that tended to get a person in trouble. Aija knew her aim was good, as well as her upper arm strength. Aija would rather show Aulus than tell him. "If you have knifes that would be good for demonstration, I will be pleased to show you! If no, I can bring my own next time?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hu," Aulus nodded, "nice. I don't have any balanced for throwing though so you'll have to show me another time. You can get bo staves in different lengths though yeah, standard is six foot but they make them in four foot and five foot commonly too and of course you can get your own custom made at any length; what you want in a bo is one close to your own height.... If you're interested I can get hold of one about right for you to work with." He could borrow one from one of his sparring buddies in Camphoreon, probably, and if not... well he'd get one from somewhere; he was a Rocket damnit!  

[Venti Mico]

"Balanced, psh," Aija laughed a little. She liked to think she was good with just about any knife, but she'd refrain from bragging. "Will bring my own, next time! You though, you bring target. Unless you wish me to stab walls." She wasn't afraid of it... but she had a feeling metal walls might damage her knives, and that just wasn't cool.

Aija listen to Aulus' talk about bos, feeling skeptical. She was sure she'd do any better with a bo even if it was more her height... but she'd never say she didn't think she could do it. Not to mention, Aija didn't want to tell Aulus no; if it was his favourite weapon, then she didn't want to decline. "Would be happy to learn, if you can find one good for my size!" She said without hesitation, "Am fond of long range weapons! I am sure, I will like it!" She did like long range, yes, but the rest was a lie. Oh well. If Aulus was happy to teach her the bo, she'd do it anyway, even if only to stay in his favor. "In meantime, you will show me good way to beat bigger people, yes? I am no good for close range fighting." She said the last bit with a bit of a pout; she didn't like admitting it, but it was fact that taller and stronger people could easily overpower her. It was the main reason she liked long range; guns and throwing knives. Aija told herself maybe she'd learn to like the bo too, if she could figure out how to use it without smacking herself.