[Semi-ORP] Let's Get Down to Business [Fin]

[Venti Mico]

Jerome laying down the law got Lu moving to get in line, staying off to the side as much as he could. He slouched, hoping to look a little shorter, already feeling like he was standing a head over everyone else in the room. At least Kyle had shown up(though Lu worried Kyle might not really want anything to do with him), he wasn't terribly short.

After Zacharie spoke, Lu worked up a little more courage and decided he'd hurry up and get his turn over with. He lifted his head up some to speak. "U-um, I'm Grunt Lu. I..." What was he supposed to say for the 'tell us about yourself' part? "I'm here to... learn." Brilliant. Lu ducked his head down again, signifying he was done speaking. Hopefully no one would care that he decided to skip some parts of his introduction. He didn't want to tell the entire class his hobby was knitting and he liked gardening.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

What?! What was this? Zacharie was not only getting closer to Jerome than him, but he had befriended Frost, too?! It made sense, actually, with how like-minded they were; he himself had even commented on their similarities the night that Zacharie had come in. Still, though, it was getting to be too much for the irritable grunt to take. He even had the nerve to physically come between them, the brat! Was he scheming to take all of the older grunt's favorite humans away from him?

Had he asked himself if he were being jealous, he would have most certainly denied it. He loved all humans and they should have loved him back was all. To see them - especially the 'toys' he had gotten to know and play with best - suddenly seem so unfamiliar just because he'd been denied playing with them for so long... Well, wouldn't that have bothered anyone? And it didn't help that, at the same time, they all seemed so much more adversely friendly toward each other. Perhaps they had been happier and better off without Nakura there after all.

Well, too bad. He told himself he didn't care about his toys being happier or better off; it was about him and what he wanted. He just had to remind the humans that they were all, each and every one of them, his. Pawns couldn't really own one another, not like the game-player and owner could, so why would he have had reason to be jealous? All he had to do was reach out and, perhaps in a fake choke-hold or something, strangle the purple-haired problem. Shame now wasn't the best time for that.  

[Gwennythe]

Well, that sorted that.
Jerome's talent for seeming scary- though, to be honest, she just didn't see it any more- was certainly useful for getting students in line.
Tambrey somewhat wished she could have done similar, but trying to be shouty and 'big' and intimidating would probably have just resulted in her laughing at herself.
She made do with looking smiley but 'serious' as Jerome talked, and raised a hand in a small wave when introduced, though gave him a slightly bemused smirk at the wording.

As the students began to introduce themselves, she paid careful attention, happy to learn anything new, and made a note of Zacharie's interests; those were definitely worth talking about with the grunt later, she thought, if she got the chance.
Lu's quick introduction got an appreciative smile; he'd seemed kind of shy the first time they'd met, and the few words seemed to reinforce the impression; but he was here, obeying instructions, and even speaking up without -too much- prompting; that seemed good.

Frost, and Izaya, she was relatively familiar with; their reasons for joining the class didn't sound so different to her own, at all, though from quite a while back.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Kyle wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the way some basics lessons were run, but even if he had no idea what was going on, he wasn't about to start disobeying Jerome when he got into work mode.

The tall man took up a place next to Frost, not sparing the shorter blond agent any attention as he begrudgingly mimicked the stretching that Jerome was instructing them to do.
Damn it, Jerome was more flexible then he looked.
Somewhere through a poorly balanced stretch that didn't seem to give as much as he would have liked it to, Kyle managed to answer Jerome's question once it was his turn.
"My name's Kyle, I'm a Grunt in the Transport division as the driver for Agent Jerome's team." He paused "I'm here becasue Agent Aulus recommended I take it."  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay. Good. Okay. Okay? Yes.

As the clock ticked around to nineteen hundred hours Aulus stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave a piercing whistle. "Alright, enough chit-chat, the rest of you can introduce yourselves once you're jogging around the room. Before that however I have a few words to say." Okay? Yes, they would listen to him and they would watch and they would be respectful. If they weren't the first one got made an example of and that should shut the rest up.

Aulus folded his hands behind his back and started to prowl up and down the rank of Rockets facing him.

"All of you are here this evening to learn an ancient skill. I won't be going into the philosophy behind it here because I'm teaching it for practical, and of course totally immoral reasons." This would be news to exactly nobody of course, they were Team Rocket. He still worried about that sometimes but they were his now; his people, his family, and he was theirs. No family was perfect, right? "Basically I'm going to try to teach you to beat the ever-loving crap out of anyone from one of the many factions that would love to see us all dead or locked up.

"First thing's first though, I'm going to give you a bit of an object lesson," Aulus continued, coming to a halt and turning to face the class with his arms folded over his chest. "Let's be clear; you do not have to be big to be good at karate. You don't even need to be very strong. You need fitness, good balance, discipline, and skill; it's my job to train you in the second and last, you should already be up to scratch on the first, and as I believe has been made abundantly clear if you lack the penultimate one you will be dealt with. To be more specific the next person to step out of line gets used as a demonstration and then thrown out; you will show me, Agent Tambery and Agent Jerome proper respect and you will respect everyone else here too. I don't give a damn what your rank is outside of this room; in here you are equals, and the three of us are your superiors."

Okay, this was going well. Right? Yes. The tension started to ebb out of Aulus' muscles and the uncertainty crept back into the corners of his mind; they were going to start doing and with that he felt on very solid ground indeed.

"Now for that object lesson on why you shouldn't worry if you're small and weedy, and why you shouldn't be cocky if you're big and strong." Aulus' gaze lingered on Kyle for a moment. "Strength and size will help you against an opponent of equal skill but the point here is to become more skilled than whoever you might be fighting. So then, Agent Tambery; would you please demonstrate a shoulder throw on me? Any one you like."  

[Gwennythe]

Did he just call her weedy? Probably not, actually; Aulus never seemed to be deliberately insulting, as far as she'd seen, unless you'd made him -really- angry...
Oh, superior; that was kind of neat. Even as an Agent, she didn't really consider herself to really outrank people most of the time; just meant she got to do more interesting stuff more often now.
Tambrey stood a little straighter, gaining no more height whatsoever, and looking as intimidating as an Azurill.

Right, demonstration.
"Yessir." She smiled, nodded, and stood to face the other agent.
A quick bow- just because it was a demonstration, and a class of criminals, didn't mean respect should go out of the window at all, besides, Aulus and Jerome had just done a large spiel on getting the class to respect the tutors, the simple action was probably a good demonstration of the idea.
That done, it was straight into a ready-stance, inviting Aulus to attack; her plan to block his hands with her own, then dodge her body to the side to bring her right leg into contact with his, while moving her arms to allow his forward momentum to continue.
The goal was that she could, hopefully, cause Aulus to flip himself in front of her, while remaining upright herself.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus nodded, returning the small bow and sinking briefly into a ready stance before advancing on Tam quickly and striking out with a simple punch. Tam blocked neatly, moving to the side in the same motion and-

Yes, he was on the floor on his back.

It had all taken only a second or two.

Aulus allowed a moment for the class to consider what they'd just watched before flicking himself neatly back onto his feet and dusting himself down. "And that is why you don't underestimate small people. Unless any of you have skills you haven't mentioned Agent Tambery could do that to any one of you as easily as she flipped me just now. Any questions?"  

[Tori Honoo]

Riley, after taking in her surroundings a bit more, moved with the group, deciding that, as she had nothing else to do today, and even less defense skill, that it would be in her best interest to join in the class. Tambrey was here, apparently helping with it, and she wouldn't be the only grunt... She listened carefully--with a little difficulty, as Jerome's colorful vocabulary almost made her wince each time a new swear was introduced-- and joined in the group, listening and making mental notes as the others introduced themselves and trying to figure out just what she would say for herself when it came to her.

When the instructor-- Agent Aulus-- called them to attention, however, she turned her full attention to him, tilting her head a little as he announced his 'object lesson'. Oh, good, big wasn't a requirement... Though tall, the girl was thin, perhaps even 'scrawny'-- or in the sensei's words, 'weedy'-- by most standards. She watched as he asked Tambrey to demonstrate, and almost gaped as the Agent had no hesitation.

When her friend was able to toss the man, she did find her jaw dropping a bit, her already large eyes huge in surprise.


(( Haaaaa, sorry about the 'Riley is still there' post. I promise I'll make better ones soon! D: ))  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie wasn't entirely sure if the 'weedy' comment was directed at him (it probably wasn't) but he brushed it off without batting an eyelash all the same. He knew he was scrawny and small, even for a male his age, and had been this way for as long as he could remember. No need to dwell on it.

Instead he turned his attention to the demonstration. He knew smaller people could mange such things but it was one thing to read about it and another to see it done in person. The teen muttered the muscles used under his breath as he watched intently, trying to catalog what he would need to do when it would be his turn to try. But theoretical knowledge and practice were two totally different things and he highly doubted he'd be able to pull it off.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Alright then," Aulus nodded, "five laps of the room, all of you, come on!" Not waiting for a response he set off at a brisk jog.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Guuuuuh..." The Grunt groaned under his breath, softly enough that no one except those standing particularly close would be able to hear him. He didn't want Aulus to catch him complaining...that guy was scary! So he bit back his sarcastic complaint -Which was hard for him, mind you- and started a lazy jog around the perimeter of the room.  

[TawnyAngel]

There was, to be frank, a long damn way for most of these people to go before they even sniffed competence... but well he'd signed up for this hadn't he? It could be worse.

[I'm going to close this here! If anyone wants to assume their character came to more than one session please poke me to chat <3]