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Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #25 –
[ Ens. Ryuan Sel & Tesserarius Lorad | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Stegro88
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“Rules?” Sel replied stepping into the center of the padded area on the floor and jumping up and down a couple of times to loosen up. “Nothing above the shoulders, nothing below the waist. Leg hits are fine.” She assumed a combat pose, lifting her fists into a boxing stance.

Lorad said nothing as he lowered himself into his own fighting stance. Legs apart, knees bent and his open hands out to the side. The rules seemed simple enough and would work to prevent either of them sustaining any serious injury. After a moment of looking at the Bajoran, Lorad nodded his reddiness.

She took a breath, taking in his stance and the distance between them, measuring it all in her mind. And then she moved, quickly closing the distance and lunging forward for a quick jab.

Lorad watched as the Ensign Sel charged forward as he anticipated what strike she might use. It was purely a feeling out attack, not meant to do any damage but rather to see how he would react. Not wanting to give anything away, Lorad pivoted to the side and slapped the jab away from himself, turning the Ensign away as he did so. Despite the opening to counterattack, Lorad held himself in check.

With an ease and agile grace born of experience, Sel twisted around, planting her feet and jutting her elbow out to hit him in the chest. She moved more like a dancer than a fighter, her body more grace than force.

Lorad was impressed with how smooth her transition was. He immediately reassessed his opinion of her combat skills; this one definitely had experience that was not readily apparent. As the elbow lanced towards his chest, Lorad brought both his hands up and together to catch it. With a look of contempt that hid his true feelings regarding his opponent, Lorad growled deep in his throat and pushed the Bajoran away roughly.

Though it was no easy feat to keep herself from stumbling backward due to the force of the shove, dealing with it was a simple matter of twisting just right and keeping her feet from planting too firmly as she moved back nearly half a dozen feet. She used the twisting motion to build enough momentum to lunge forward once again, lifting herself up and aiming a kick at the Reman’s side; bending her knee and straightening it at just the right moment before impact, aiming to hit with her shin.

Lorad’s face broke into a toothy grin as the Ensign charged back in. Bracing himself, Lorad dropped his shoulder and braced his arm to accept the kick against his arm instead of his ribs. He didn’t think that the smaller woman had enough strength to break one of them but better safe than sorry.

Finally, a hit. Sel felt the hit ride along her leg and quickly pulled it back. Landing her foot behind her and thrusting her fist forward the instant she had her footing again, Sel attacked again. She didn’t take a pause, didn’t switch from the offensive.

Lorad decided that blocking and avoiding were not having the desired effect he was after and so chose a more direct approach. Without hesitation Lorad caught Ensign Sel’s fist in his clawed hand; squeezing his grip tight to prevent her from pulling away.

Sel didn’t expect that, but she also wasn’t going to do nothing about it. Quickly, Mistress-at-Arms used her other fist and aimed a jab at the Reman’s elbow, not hard enough to do damage, but definitely hard enough to encourage him to release her.

“Oh, she was most assuredly a fighter,” Lorad thought to himself even as his free hand snapped across his torso and grasped the Bajoran’s wrist in mid strike. Using his incredible strength, Lorad pulled Sel’s limbs apart; his greater reach and height enabling him to effectively immobilise her arms. Now, he wanted to see what she would do. “You trapped,” he declared though he knew it was far from the truth. It was more a provocative statement to bring about a response. But would she give up and wallow as she had done, or fight?

There was an instant, a single second, when Sel paused. He held both of her arms and for a moment she did think she was trapped, but that was well and truly not the case. But in a swift movement, she jumped up and slammed both her knees against him, stretching out her body in the process to wrench her arms from his grasp.

“So, she chose to fight. Good,” Lorad thought when he noticed the look on the Ensign’s face harden. Further thought was forestalled by Sel’s attempt at freeing herself. He wasn't sure if she was trying to pull him down to the ground or simply wrench her arms free but either maneuver was countered the same way; Lorad let go of the Bajoran’s arms and stepped back. With nothing now supporting her, Sel was at the mercy of gravity. And it was unforgiving.

She landed hard, only managing to twist enough to land on her side, mostly on her hip. She hadn’t expected him to simply release her like that. It stung like a son-of-a-bitch, but she wasn’t going to let it distract her. She quickly got back to her feet and locked her gaze back on him. She’d lost the offensive with that and now she had to be more on guard. He was clearly stronger and well trained, and she wasn’t desperate enough to start fighting dirty.

Lorad could tell that her landing had hurt a little as he watched Ensign Sel climb back to her feet. But she hadn’t paused, not once. Which confused Lorad. Here she was, fighting without giving up to an opponent who was physically larger and stronger than her and at least as well-trained as her and yet she let herself fall apart when seperated from a person. Lorad himself knew from experience that it was better to fight to be together again than to fall apart. Falling apart got you nowhere. But how to make her see that.

Examining her stance for a instant, Lorad lunged forward before dropping into a leg sweep to send the Ensign back to the mat. His strength gifted him a unique boost in speed over a short distance and he utilised it to the full to bring him right up against the Bajoran. He felt his leg impact against her forward leg and he twisted his body to lift his sweeping leg up and away. He didn’t see the outcome of his attack as the maneuver left him facing away from her; but perhaps that was for the best. Insult to injury. “I hope she forgives me after this.”

She was already on a bad foot and she was never one to be good at defense, meaning she was knocked down much easier this time, falling flat on her back. “Fuck,” she cussed and quickly heaved herself to her feet, this time assuming her standard stance, a modified boxing pose. She was getting more and more flustered, and making mistakes, now it just meant that she was focusing too much on his legs, on the part of him that had just dropped her.

Hearing the Bajoran curse was almost music to Lorad’s ears as he stood there, his back to his opponent. It was extremely poor form, even disrespectful, but it did serve a purpose for Lorad. At the moment the Mistress-at-Arms was broken. And he was trying to fix her. To do that, he had to break apart the pieces that made up the woman and help her to put them back together correctly. Without doing more damage.

“Ensign Sel, I ask before, what you feared? If you fear loss,” Lorad reiterated. “You did not answer question.”

For a moment she didn’t react, then she punched him. Her first blow landed on his shoulder, but she couldn’t stop herself. She kept punching, each hit a little weaker than the last, each a little less of a perfectly performed punch. As she began to cry she grew sloppier, as her vision blurred and she could not make out the details of his back.

She wasn’t afraid, she couldn’t be afraid. She was stronger than that. She was a warrior and she had won every fight she had fought, yet she couldn’t win this one. It was like she wasn’t even really fighting him. As if she was fighting something else altogether.

And she kept punching. She couldn’t stop, if she stopped it would mean something. She didn’t know what it would mean, but she didn’t want it. She had to keep swinging her fists, had to keep punching. She didn’t have a choice.

Joint Post by Absinthe and Stegro88

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #26 –
[Tesserarius Lorad | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Absinthe
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Lorad was not surprised when Sel struck him in the back, although her aim could have been better. Lower back, beside the spine was the opportune target; not his shoulder. He barely had time to shrug off the blow before the next one came, followed by more after it. Their aim, well, Lorad wasn’t sure if they were aimed. And the force behind each one was decreasing as each landed. Soon enough, he heard the reason why; Sel was crying. And yet she continued to wail at him. Lorad stood there for a time, allowing her to expend herself.

But eventually, he turned around and caught her wrists with his clawed hands and held them between himself and the Bajoran. Her face was tear streaked and red from her emotional release and Lorad wondered if perhaps he had gone too far. He was in familiar and yet unfamiliar territory.

“Fear not a weakness, Ensign Sel,” Lorad proclaimed softly. “Fear reminder that you live. And living mean nothing set in stone.” Lorad himself knew fear. Fear for his sister. Fear for himself. Fear for this ship that was protecting his sister. Fear that he would let his father down. “If know fear, accept fear. Face fear. As I say before.”

“I do not fear. Fear stills the mind,” Lorad said, reciting once again the litany that he had learnt as a youth. “Fear is the moment that invites death. I will fight my fear. I will defeat it and learn from it. So that I fear it no longer. Only I will remain.”

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #27 –
[ Ens. Ryuan Sel | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Stegro88
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Fear.

He kept talking about fear. She wanted to make him stop, make him stop talking about it like it was real, stop telling her how to survive. She wasn't even sure she wanted to survive at this point. The only thing she had worth making it out of this shitstorm for was Sarresh and now he was taken from her. And now she wasn't going to see him again, she could feel that in her gut.

So what did she have now?

She pulled against his grip, already her arms were tired. Hell, her whole body was tired. She hadn't slept, hadn't given herself even a moment's reprieve, since the ship had broken up, since she had been forced to leave Sarresh behind.

She'd left men behind before, she'd fought in that hellish war. She'd gotten into shuttles and made those promises of seeing each other again, but then she had gotten the latest list and seen the name. She'd left people she cared for behind and she'd never seen them again. This time was not different. She'd left Sarresh behind and she knew in her heart she would never see him again.

"And how do you fight fear? How do you fight it when you know that you left the person you love behind and you will never see them again?" she demanded, doing her best to force the tears out of her eyes. "Tell me that, Reman. Tell me how I am supposed to fight the fear that I failed him and because of that he's going to be put through who the fuck knows what kind of tests and then likely killed so he can be torn apart. How the fuck do I fight that?"

She was done fighting at this point and simply let her knees give out from under her, dropping to the floor, landing on her knees and staring at the mat.

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #28 –
[Tesserarius Lorad | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Absinthe  
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Lorad almost bristled at being addressed as Reman. It was how he and his kind were addressed in the mines of Remus by their Romulan overseers. Reman. Never their name. But this wasn’t Remus and Sel wasn’t Romulan and so he forced himself not to react.

Instead he listened as Sel demanded an explanation from him. He stood and watched as the Bajoran Mistress-at-Arms collapsed to the floor. And he waited, giving the woman a moment in her turmoil as he considered how best to answer what she had asked of him. Deciding on a method, but still unsure of how successful it would be, the Reman Shock Trooper crouched down next to his sparring partner.

“To fight fear by knowing fear. I... understand it,” Lorad said, having to search for the right word to try and convey his meaning. It would be easier with the translator but Sel did not have her combadge. “Fear everywhere. Danger everywhere. But not let stop you. Or you die.”

“Victory is not letting fear win. Always fight, never surrender to fear,” Lorad advised calmly. He wasn’t sure if what he was saying was making any sense to the kneeling woman in front of him. “I not know about this man. Or where he is. But, if places changed, would he fight for you? Will you fight for him?”

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #29 –
[ Ens. Ryuan Sel | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Stegro88
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And there was the crux of the matter. It wasn't so much that she felt like she wasn't fighting or that she felt like he would not be fighting for her, it was that she did not know what to do to fight. Her task was to protect the ship, to uphold the security of those on board from any forces that would arise. But that task did not align with what she wanted, she wanted to turn the ship around and go find him, to bring him back to her.

"I don't even know if he's alive out there. He hasn't been at any of the rendezvous and even if the rest of the ship did come back together there is no guarantee that he would not be one of those taken by those creatures," she said dejectedly. She was defeated, too tired to fight and too damn pissed to fully give up. She was stuck and could barely bring herself to act. She had tied herself up in knots again and again because of all of this and she couldn't take it anymore.

"You make it sound like there is some battle to be fought, something I can do, but there really fucking isn't," Sel went on, frustration building in her voice. "All I can do is my duty and I can pretend that somehow that will make everything better when I know that chances are I won't ever see him again and I won't ever get to tell him how I feel, how I really feel. I've fought in wars, I know what it means when the team breaks up like this. It means there isn't a very strong possibility of meeting back up on the other side. It means that the happy ending is canceled."

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #30 –
[Tesserarius Lorad | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Absinthe  
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“I not know what mean by happy ending,” Lorad said after listening to Sel vent. He had understood most of what she had said though and it sounded like that she was not understanding what he was trying to tell her. He had to try and figure out another way to get his point across.

“You miss point,” proclaimed after thinking for a moment. “I hurt my sister. I blow up ship and injure her bad. Transported here but doctor not save her. He...uh, stasis her. Not alive but not dead either. Still hurt,” Lorad explained slowly. “Now, Samala need ship to stay alive. I protect ship to protect Samala. You protect ship so you see man again. His life in stasis. Not dead but not alive.”

“Need ship find him. Do job. Protect ship,” Lorad continued as he gazed at Ensign Sel. “You say chances say he is dead. That may be true. But until know for sure, must continue to hope for best. You cannot lose hope. If do, you die. Always hope. If fight to die, die you will. Must fight to live.”

“I help if can,” Lorad announced, he deep voice suddenly seeming to reverberate around the room. “I may be Reman, but I have honour.”

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #31 –
[ Ens. Ryuan Sel | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Stegro88
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She was beginning to think she understood, at least in part. She needed to protect the ship, needed to do her duty, and in doing that she'd make sure that she would have the best possible chance of seeing Sarresh again. If she kept the ship she was on safe, and kept moving forward she'd be more likely to see him than if she stopped and wallowed in her grief and despair.

"I think I've got it," she said, forcing herself to stop crying, forcing herself to focus on the world, on what she had around her. She had tasks to do, jobs that she had shirked, sleep she'd put off. "And if I don't take care of myself, I can't do my job, and if I can't do my job then I can't make it back to Sarresh." She nodded as if deciding something. She was going to have to move forward. She was going to have to move forward without Sarresh, at least for the moment. She'd stopped and waited, holding herself back and waited for him. She had forced herself to stay awake and on duty, just in case the moment had come. She needed to do her job. She needed to stop acting like a cadet and act like a fucking officer.

She slowly pulled herself to her feet and rubbed her wrists. "I could use a drink, care for some? I have a bottle of Fire Water I've been saving," she offered with a heavy sigh.

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #32 –
[Tesserarius Lorad | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Absinthe
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“At least I did not have to hit her again,” Lorad thought to himself as he listened to Ensign Sel reiterate for herself what he had been trying to tell her. He wasn’t perfectly sure the role she played in protecting this ship but the title of Mistress-At-Arms sounded important and when he had first seen her; in his opinion, she was incapable of doing her job whatever it was. Now, now he could almost see her mind working, analysing how she had been acting and determining a way to set things right.

“Fire Water,” Lorad repeated silently after hearing the Bajoran’s offer of a drink. “I never expected to hear that term outside of the holonovels I used to read. Even I know that it is an archaic term for alcohol. And I am terrible at Federation Standard.”

“Thank you, Ensign Sel,” Lorad ground out in Standard to the Bajoran. “I would like drink,” the Reman acknowledged. “I happy I not have to hit you more. You understand now. Not good live in past. Not see future," Lorad asserted. “Future unknown but may have treasures not looked for.”

“But you offer drink,” Lorad said as he returned his mind to the present. “Please, lead way.”

Re: Chapter 05: Supplemental [ Day 04 | 1900 hrs. ] Weapons Of The Heart

Reply #33 –
[ Ens. Ryuan Sel | Security Training Room | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Stegro88
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Sel could not help but smirk a little. The reman man had a unique way to wording things and as she pulled back on her undershirt and jacket she made a not of it. She could go off duty anytime she wanted at this point and she felt like she'd been on duty long enough. She had saved the bottle for a special occasion, for something important, but given that she wanted a drink and she didn't feel like trying to figure out where else on the ship might have anything close to real alcohol she figured this was a good enough reason to break into her stash. She'd smuggled a crate of the shit on board when she'd first been stationed on the Theurgy and back in those days, she'd thought it would be pretty easy to get more. That had proven to not be the case. She didn't know how much longer she'd even have the supply she did have.

"I can't say it's as potent as Romulan Ale or whatever it is you're used to, we Bajoran's have a hearty constitution, but I swear whoever invented that shit had a duranium lined stomach," she said jokingly as she fastened her jacket most of the way up, leaving the collar unfastened. "Hope you don't mind drinking in my quarters, I'm not technically supposed to have this shit on board and I don't feel like losing what little I have left due to some stupid fucking technicality about non-trade approved alcohols. The Fire Cave Distillery isn't registered and no one on Bajor gives a fuck, so why does Starfleet?" She shook her head and gestured for him to follow as she made her way out of the training area.

- FIN
 
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