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| No title. |
| (2012-12-16 - 2012-12-19) |
| No description. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | The mission at the Fiends' Temple had left Rinoa terribly shaken. Angantyr's fearsome skills in close combat had badly wounded her to the point that she thought she might even die that night. Fortunately, Angelo had revived her and dragged her to safety. Still, those memories had left her a bit nervous and more determined than ever to sharpen her close combat skills. Today, she is out by the chocobo fields, watching the calm scenery of chocobos grazing on the grasslands. Angelo is nearby, running around and playing and chasing the chocobos. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart has been at the ranch often, taking care of her chocobo. Since she was alone and the ranch isn't far away, she came here on a regular basis to check on her adopted chocobo, Premium Heart. Its a bright yellow chocobo that is currently eating out of her hand. She smiles, petting its mane. Its a relaxing thing, considering the latest events. She looks over to Angelo chasing chocobos, giggling a bit. Good thing that Angelo isn't agressive, chocobos make for a painful stampede after all. Its more like they are playing right now though. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Angelo rushes back towards Rinoa, but not before she spies Tifa and Premium Heart. With a bark, she rushes towards her happily, nuzzling against her as she seeks treats and goodies. Rinoa blinks, peering towards the chocobo and then it's owner. "Oh..Tifa! Hi!" She walks towards the girl and her chocobo. "Is this your chocobo then? How cute.." She reaches out to try and pet the big bird. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart smiles "Yes, this is Premium Heart. Nice quiet chocobo, but pretty good racer too." She grins, turning around to Angelo and giving her a bone treat from her pocket. "Here's for a good girl." She stands back up "Relaxing too?" She doesn't blame her, with all that has happened recently. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | "Wow, so you really race him? That's pretty cool..Maybe someday I can race chocobos too, but I gues they must be pretty expensive to buy and keep, huh?" she continues to scritch the chocobo, while Angelo happily accepts the treat, tossing it into the air, before skillfully catching it in his mouth. "You know, I'm pretty well trained in chocobo riding and training them too. I really love animals and nature.." Rinoa quips with a sigh. Ahh yes, this ranch is really relaxing, almost enough to take her mind off of stresses of late. "Yeah, I was hoping to relax here for a bit..I'm still a little shaken up after the fight in the fiends' temple. Who WERE those two monsters we fought? They were pretty scary. I really thought I was gonna die back there for sure.." |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart sighs and nods "I know. I don't understand either." She reaches up to pat your shoulders a bit, and then waves Premium Heart off to go play "It doesn't cost much for chocobos here, they handle most of the needs, you just come here to play with it, race it, or take it out if you need it to travel. The rest of the time its happy here too." |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods, smiling faintly at Tifa when she pats her shoulder. "Thanks. I guess maybe I really do need some training. Are you up for it? I need to gain more confidence in close combat training. But, maybe afterwards you can tell me more about chocobo racing. I used to have a chocobo back in Timber, but after the heartless attacked, I kinda lost sight of her. Maybe you can help me catch one later too!" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart smiles, nodding "I can help you. I need to keep in shape for whatever happens next too, so let's do that. I'll give you the basics here to start with, you already have a good, healthy body, so just need to push it in the right direction for martial arts." She moves toward the empty field, in the shade of a tree. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods. "Yeah, I try to keep fit. You know, taking care of a dog's a big responsibility. Angelo needs lots of exercise. She's also an Australian Shepard, so she seems to enjoy herding chocobos..Among other things.." She gives a little chuckle at some amusing memory of her past as she follows Tifa towards the trees. "I guess I had lots of practice sneaking out of the house back in Deling, and later on when I worked for the Forest Owls too. They were a secret resistance group in Timber.." A soft, sad sigh as she remembers Watts and Zone. " I wonder if Timber's out there, and Watts and Zone and the others.." But she'll worry about that later! For now, she wants to watch Tifa in action! "Alright! Where do we start?" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart smiles, turning around and taking her fighting stance "I want to see how good you are at first, just attack me a few times so I can analyze what I need to help you with. Its easier from there." |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods, stepping into a defensive stance of her own. As expected, it's more suited for assessing targets at a distance. However, when she sees Tifa's own stance, she attempts to mimic it as best as she can. "Alright, here goes!" she rushes at her, attempting to hit her with a flurry of punches. She did do a bit of play fighting with Seifer in the past, although nothing too serious. Still, there is some potential behind her punches, even if they're a bit unfocused. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart evades the punches easily, of course, she's trained and used to fist fighting. Rinoa is far from the level of her master when it comes to fist fighting, and she doesn't have the right form to make it effective even if it did hit her. She takes a step back though, just adjusting her stance so she doesn't hurt you either with a bad move. Its easy to take out an untrained opponent if not careful about it. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa bites her lip, nearly slipping off balance from the momentum caused by her forward lurch. "Erk!" She leaps back agilly, showing that she can be quite graceful and swift on her feet. All those years of dance lessons have paid of splendidly. Now if she could only use that skill to better use. "Wow, Tifa. You're so fast!" She quips as she spins around to face her again, hands up defensively as she tries to mimic Tifa's own stance. Of course she doesn't know exactly what she's doing and is probably too tall and too light on her feet, rather than well rooted. And her arms are probably not held in quite the right position or sturdy enough to deflect any incoming moves. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart smiles though, but keeps her focus. If she doesn't, she might have Rinoa hurt herself too. "Yeah, your form is lacking. You have some moves, but your arms and legs are full of unecessary movements when you want to attack. When you make too many moves, you lose effectiveness because you're not taking the shorest route, and you're tireing yourself. A more natural, relaxing motion is also much more powerful in the end, but that's something your body, oddly enough, isn't used to doing on its own yet. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods, trying to relax a bit more. "Oh, I see...But if I'm more relaxed, then will I be able to react at a moment's notice?" She sinks into the ground a bit lower although still finding it a wee bit akward. Tifa said natural, right? She holds her shoulders back, trying to adopt a more natural stance, waiting expectantly for Tifa to adjust her footing. "More like this? And how is the weight distributed?" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart smiles "You need focus, not tensed muscles." She takes her stand to show it. She rolls forward to back, from one feet to another. Her arms are fisted, but not tight, held at chest level in front of her, her left arm ahead of her right. "See, not overly tensed. When your muscles are tensed, you need to relax them before you can move them, so you lose some reaction time. But that comes with training as well. Your body isn't used to it, but the more you repeat the motions, the better it remembers, and eventually its as natural as walking. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa peers intently at Tifa, nodding slowly. Ahh, relaxed, not too tense. Focused. She tries again to mimic the monk's stance, clenching her hands into fists, flexing them a bit to get a feel for the difference between relaxed and focused versus tensed. "Oh, I see..Kinda like this?" Yes, it does feel a bit odd at first, and so Rinoa tries to get used to the strange position, positioning her arms in front of her, mirroring Tifa's own position. She is at least, a fast learner. "Alright..So how do I punch and kick and move in this stance effectively? I suppose we should take it one step at a time right? But still..Learning a little bit of everything's good too, right?" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart giggles "We won't get into it too much yet, but its repetitions. Anyone can throw a punch or a kick, but to do it with any amount of effect, the key is weight transfer." She shows it showly "First a punch." She leans a bit back, transfering her weight to the back leg as she pulls her right fist back, and then rolls it foward, her right fist surging forward into a straight punch. "Its the same logic behind sports as well. Again, its repetition that increases the effectiveness, not as much the strenght than the time it takes you to shift your weight. The impact comes of course from your muscle's extension, but also from your body weight. The most effective punches uses both fully. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods and smirks. "Yeah, I figured as much. Any good training requires lots of repetition, doesn't it?" Another nod as she intently watches Tifa throw a punch. It's a little like how she operates her Blaster Edge, although that mechanism is mostly automated, and does not require her to exert any physical strength into the attack. All she has to do is point, focus, aim and release. "Alright, let's see if I can do this.." she mimics Tifa's form again, leaning back and forth on its own first, getting used to the feeling of weight transfer from one leg to the other. Once she's got that down, Rinoa then begins to practice punching. It's a little akward at first, getting used to using her body as a weapon, rather than just pointing and aiming, but it's not that difficult really, and after a few akward punches, she's already getting better with each repetition. Still, her punches could use a bit more force behind them. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart watches, and pokes a bit at Rinoa's hip "You're moving a little too much here. Try to limit yourself to just the needed movement. Don't 'break' though, basically think of it like a piston, it needs to move back and forth between two points. But if it went too short or too long, it wouldn't work as well. You'll get used to it though, just pointing it out." She smiles, and then takes a step back "Its the same idea behind kicks as well." She raises a leg up, standing on her left leg straight up. "First the weight is on the back foot." Thens he extends the right leg out in a sweeping motion "And transfer the body weight forward when you do the kick. You might not be as flexible as I am for kicks, but that's something we can work on as well, the tendons and muscles between our legs can spread that far, but lack of exercise in doing so ends up making them more rigid over time." |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods, chuckling a little. "Haha, it's amazing. You have to be so aware of your body..I guess it helps a lot that I am a dancer too.." Indeed, dancing requires a lot of body awareness, although it requires one to be lighter on their feet than combat does. She keeps that in mind, limiting movement to her arms while trying to keep her lower body more tense. It's a bit like the slightly tense, sturdy arm frame that a dancer adopts, while keeping their lower body flexible to move and sweep around the floor. "Phew..Alright..Like a piston. Got it." Then Tifa starts showing her kicks and Rinoa tries to feel her balance in her legs now, transfering from the front and back before lifting up her front leg, transferring weight to the back leg to balance on as she kicks. "Ow.." The kick is a bit low, and not too flexible, although she does manage to keep her balance. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart nods as she puts her leg back down. "When you train alot you get a sort of sixth sense about that, you get more aware of your body, your limbs positions. You ever wonder how I can flip in the air? That's part of it. Its not magic, but with training comes this kind of awareness." She brings a hand to help you lift Rinoa's leg a bit, smiling "If you have some dancing training, it shouldn't be that much harder. Don't you need to weight transfer to be able to jump? Its mostly the same, except you apply it to impacts. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa nods and chuckles. "Yeah, I have no idea how you flip in the air like that! It seems to defy gravity.." She shakes her head however, when she talks about dancing being similar. "Hmm, it's similar in that you have to be aware of your body. But dancing is gentler, it's about grace and fluidity. Whereas martial arts seems to be more about focus and power. It helps with the weight transfer and keeping balance, but not so much with focus and power and flexibility." She chuckles, "I guess you dont need to do the splits to be able to dance, like you do with martial arts. But, it doesn't mean I cant practice and learn!" |
| Aerith | "Oh no... it's more about grace and fluidity than you think." Well look who it is, standing at the door! A certain milk-chocolate-haired, clear-green-eyed flower girl! She walks in, her staff over her right shoulder and a grin on her features. "I see you're in need of some training too. Good!" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart grins "Doing the splits is not for show, it helps decrease injury. Because you know, even if you have control over your body, a wrong movement can hurt. Let's say you try to kick me." She puts herself in front of Rinoa, lifting her feet toward her "But I block it like this." She raises a knee, kicking up Rinoa's leg just a bit "If you're unable to spread your legs this much, it would hurt, don't you think? It would distract you from the fight at least." She turns to Aerith as she appears, nodding "There's some grace and fluidity involved, that's right, martial arts is a sort of dance as well. Like this." She takes a step away, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. And this is when the 'dance' starts. She moves into a kata, a sort of training dance in martial arts. When you're alone, you don't always train by unching things, but also by repeating motions. And one of the ways to do it is like this. Its a series of punches and kicks, turns and sways, flips and steps, almost a dance in the way its shown. What makes the beauty of it is the precision of the attacks, each punch and kick seem to aim for the same point everytime, as if there was an opponent there. |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa smiles as Aerith joins them. She hasn't seen her in a long while now,although she heard she'd gone off to train just as Rinao had. "Aerith! Good to see you again. It's been a while. How has your own training gone?" However, she does nod to her comment. "Hmm, I suppose that's true. I've seen how Tifa moves when she fights, as if she is dancing. Still, dancing doesnt requires as much force and power in its movements. Quite the contrary, you have to be gentle with your partner.." Rinoa looks back to Tifa and nods again. "Of course. That's why I think I might take up something like Yoga. You know, something to loosen up my muscles. Because I dont want to tear a muscle or something afterall." Again, another difference. Dancing doesn't require as much of a warm up as martial arts as it is gentler on the muscles. Then Tifa does her kata and Rinoa steps back, watching in wander and awe. "Wow..It's beautiful.." She nods and smiles, "But yes, I can see the similarities with dancing.." |
| Aerith | Aerith smiled as Tifa finished up. "Well I might as well tell you guys now. I think I have enough to defend myself properly, but I need to confirm that." She glanced toward Rinoa for a moment. "If you want to know how this works in real time, maybe a demonstration is in order." Tifa would know what this meant, but Aerith would say it anyway. "Hey barmaid, got a stick nearby?" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart tilts her head "No, but we can probably get one at the ranch, like a broom or something." She smiles, moving over to the barn area to see if she can't find one. "I guess you got pretty confident now?" Tifa's not that good with staves, but she had a basic training either way, she could manage in a pinch at least, but she's still more effective with her fists. |
| Aerith | Aerith nodded and wrapped her staff over her right shoulder. "Yup! Matter of fact, I want to try something new with this." She glanced around for a moment, wondering if there was something to... Ah, there. Aerith headed for what she saw and soon, she'd robbed herself of the ability to see properly by tying a scarf over her eyes. "There we go... don't want to make this too easy." |
| Rinoa Heartilly | Rinoa arches a brow at Aerith, "Ooh? Got some new moves to show us? I'm looking forward to this." then Aerith ties a scarf over her eyes and Rinoa sweatdrops. "Woah..Are you sure about this? Fighting blindfolded? That's a little crazy, isn't it?" Sure, she went away to train, but Rinoa suspects she didn't come back so quickly as a professional black belt master! |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart wouldn't think Aerith to become so strong so soon either, but she has been diligent about her training, she'll give her that much. She comes back moments later with a broom stick in hand "Blindfolded huh? Even I wouldn't do that. I mean, sure, I got good sense around me, but there are still things that only your eyes can catch." |
| Aerith | Aerith shrugged. "That's the thing... I'm not so sure I need my eyes." Because she was special... and perhaps that would help. Aerith stretched her aura around the room, and at once, she could pick up Tifa, Rinoa, and each of their weapons. She could feel them too... not just sense, but /feel/. But the most important part was that she was aware of herself, and her own weapon. And to prove it, she executed a three-beat figure eight for three counts, then turned and dropped into a fighting stance... with her staff, body, and everything else pointed directly toward Tifa. "I'm sure you won't mind." |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart hms. Well, she's already warmed up, so why not. She slides into a stance, its similar to how she was standing with her fists at ready, but instead she's holding the staff. Its an odd way of holding it too, in a sense. Instead of gripping it, she's only supporting the staff between two fingers, as of it was resting top of her fingers rather than holding it. She has it pointed downward for now, and to the side a little, crossing over herself defensively. |
| Aerith | Aerith on the other hand has an over-under grip, standard for opening a fight. She didn't announce her attack, just took three steps forward to close the distance, and with a short hop and a turn, a cross-body strike was headed toward the left side of Tifa's head. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart still has good reflexes though, so its not too hard to duck the swing. That kind of swing is easy enough to avoid if focused on the movements at least. She sees that Aerith got better too, the movement is pretty fluid there. She has to test Aerith's senses though, so she counters. The far end of the staff is flipped over, the movement sending the staff into a downward arc toward Aerith's shoulder. |
| Aerith | And Aerith responds in kind, pivoting to the right and blocking upward at a slight angle, catching Tifa's weapon in the center of hers. She then turns just slightly, pulls back, and jabs forward, aiming for the spot just under Tifa's rib cage. Potential damage: Breathing gone. Should the hit succeed, Aerith follows up with a strike to the underside of Tifa's chin... and that was where things would get interesting, as a flash of pale green energy travels along the staff, ending at the point of contact. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart Is a bit surprised, can't hide that. How Aerith blocked her off so perfectly. Even if she's not fighting seriously, she still wasn't making it that easy for normal people, Aerith is much further head than she was last time. Tifa shifts ever so slightly, just enough for the staff to jab in the space under her arm. And then a twirl, spinning on her back foot, evading the attack to her chin doing so, and tracing an arc with the staff, half of it along her back, turning on herself aiming the staff toward Aerith's side, increasing the tempo a bit more to see how well she can follow. |
| Aerith | First jab missed. Aerith didn't move however, electing to stay where she was as she retracted the staff. The attack came forth, and she twisted to her left, bringing the staff around in a side block. Clack went the staves, and Aerith used hers as a brace for what came next. With the back end on the ground, she leaned forward on Tifa's weapon just slightly and lifted herself up just enough to put her hips into a roundhouse kick, right at Tifa's chest. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart isn't pushing herself all the way yet either, but she keeps pushing on Aerith, using what skills she has for that. The position of her last swipe didn't leave too many openings, and that was the point as well. She brings the staff up, her two hands close to each other and twirling it overhead once, before bringing it down and planting it in the ground, intercepting Aerith's foot as she uses the staff as a wedge, letting it rest on top of her back when the foot comes down, as the barmaiden leans down to balance it properly. This allows her to use her entire back strenght to push Aerith away. From that proned position, she rolls around to attempt a sweep kick herself, since her staff was busy. |
| Aerith | Aerith was forced up and over Tifa's head, but she even had an answer for this. Coiling herself into a tight spiral, she twisted until she could 'see' the ground, and smiled as she spotted her landing. Tifa was moving, probably trying to catch her when she landed. Nope, none of that. Flowergirl exited her spin, raised her weapon in mid air... and hopefully, before Tifa was finished, brought it down on top of her head in a full-on chop. Should force her to re-think her strategy. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart still had her staff along her back from blocking Aerith's foot, so in the middle of her spinning sweep kick, she only needs a minor adjustement to intercept the staff before it bonks her head. She smirks a bit, and forces her staff to move, under Aerith's stick, along it, aiming to hit up her fingers. Weakning the grip on a staff is one way to disarm an opponent after all. |
| Aerith | Aerith however did what Tifa probably expected her to do... moved her hand. The staff was pushed upward, and Aerith caught it again just in time to push back against Tifa's weapon. It was a struggle of strength now... one that she tried to manage with an attempt to kick Tifa's right shin. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart isn't going to lose to Aerith in pure strength though, so being pushed like that puts her at an advantage. She can push back Aerith, but that kick on the shin is a bit of a surprise "Now that's not being nice!" So she changes focus. Instead of pushing Aerith back... Aerith finds herself pulled forward instead. The barmaid disapears from sight just for a second, as a boot finds rest in Aerith's stomach, and pushes her up, and then away, Tifa rolling backward and throwing off Aerith using her strong legs. Its not a kick proper though, but shows just how well she moves. |
| Aerith | And there was nothing Aerith could do as Tifa kicked her away. Aerith landed on her upper back, the jolt making her teeth rattle, but she rolled forward, her staff still in her hands after all that, and quickly assumed a fight stance again. She'd proven herself though... she could see Tifa without looking at her. It wasn't enough though... Aerith tried to stop Tifa from getting up again, moving just inside her range and poking at her head with her staff with a low thrust. |
| Tifa Lockhart | In the position she was in though, there was many possibilities. She could roll sideways, sure. Instead, since she was still on her back after tossing Aerith, she instead shows her flexibility again and intercepts the end of the staff with the sturdy underside of her boot. Over it, Aerith can see the smirk of the barmaid. Not a mean one, rather an amused one. Of course, that's if Aerith's sense can see through that blindfold obviously. Intercepting the staff is only the first part though, as her second leg comes in, kicks the staff to the side so it releases her boot, and then using her arms she springs herself toward Aerith, legs on each side of her head, attempting to simply use her weight to push back Aerith down. Would that work, Aerith might find herself laying down with a barmaid sitting on top of her. |
| Aerith | Aerith can feel it indeed, and she's not too surprised by Tifa stopping that attack. Instead she does the prudent thing and, as soon as her staff is kicked away, jumps right over Tifa as she starts her upward motion. The result is an over-under, Aerith diving forward as Tifa sprang back. She rolled over her right shoulder and turned, her staff whirling above her head as she did so. Fighting stance assumed again, and she ran forward, spiraling her staff in a tight circle before delivering a thrust to Tifa's lower back... that was, if she was fast enough to catch he before she turned around! |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart has already rolled around by the tiem Aerith tries to get to her. The same motion that pushed herself toward Aerith, she lands down facing where Aerith has jumped to, so its no surprise when Aerith's staff meets with broomstick again. She keeps the weapon lock there for barely an instant, before bringing the upper side of her stick down, and then stomps her feet down on her own stick, locking Aerith's staff in a downward position like that. And then a finger flick on Aerith's forehead. |
| Aerith | Thrust blocked. Cool. Aerith withdrew the weapon as soon as it met resistance, stepped of the way of Tifa's now potentially falling weapon, and tried to deliver an overhand smash to the top of Tifa's head. She'd gotten it pretty good, now it was high time she gave! |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart stepped out of the way again, a simple sidestep when an attack comes straight down at her head really, even out of position like that its not that simple to hit the barmaid. When the staff hits the ground, the booted foot comes on top of it again "Alright, I think I've seen enough." She shakes her head, trying to slow down the almost 'rabid' flower girl now with a giggle. |
| Aerith | Aerith giggled as well as her weapon was stopped. She pulled the blindfold off and shook her hair out. "So then... d'you think I pass or what? I mean, I just fought you blindfolded to almost a standstill." Almost. If she hadn't taken that one attack. |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart laughs "Well you did better than I expected, I didn't go full out obviously, this was only a spar, and I was using a weapon that I'm not used to. But yes, if you can do this blindfolded, you're already way over any random person out there, and a notch over standard SOLDIER in my book." |
| Aerith | Aerith grinned and gave Tifa a hug. "That means so much to me!" She stepped back for a moment, a hand on TIfa's right shoulder. "You know, other people gave me the idea of how to do that. But you agreed to train me in the first place, so this started with you." The grin didn't seem to die down. "I'll never forget this, you know." |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart pats the top of Aerith's head with a giggle "Well, you trained well, you have the right moves at least. You just need to keep training in that direction, and develop your own special attacks. You can't rely on stabs and swipes only, hm? |
| Aerith | Aerith chuckled and shook her head. "If you knew the things I can do with this thing, you'd think differently." She shrugged. "I'll let you see that later, though. For the moment..." She sighed and headed for the doors. "I think I'll head back to the bar and take a nap... You do have the inn above the bar set up now, right?" |
| Tifa Lockhart | Tifa Lockhart hmms "Well not entirely, but its almost ready now, the renovations are well underway, its not quite habitable yet though, but you can use the bed in the storeroom anyway." She moves back to the barn to leave the broomstick she borrowed. |
| Aerith | Aerith turned to look over her right shoulder with a smile. "Thanks! I can't wait to see when it's finished!" With that, she left the barn, an extra spring in her step. She felt ready to help take back Manhattan now, for sure! |