[training mingle] Let's get down the business!

[traumaticus]

Who: Everyone out there!
Where: Outskirts of the Aldrip - Training Grounds
What: It's time for the Boot(y) Camp! The Chosen of Aldrip have all been invited to train, learn and spar!
Warnings: Other than the general violence? TBA..!



It is early morning on the 9th of September. The sun is shining, the air is fresh and nicely brisk, which means that it is just perfect time for Aldrip's first ever group training! How did you find your way there? Who knows! Maybe you were one of the people who saw the original announcement on the network, or noticed posters about it around Adlrip. Or maybe you were brought here by friendly white boar. Well, whatever the reason is what matters is that you are here. Welcome.

The empty field near the outskirts of the City has been transformed into a makeshift training camp. There are couple of tents set up around the camp. Some of them work as rather simplified armories containing pretty limited amount of blades, axes, armors, firearms, bows and arrows and what have you. Feel free to pick your poison, so to speak, but be sure to return what you borrow. Richard is keeping an eye on the weapons and will notice if something goes missing. Of course, characters are more than welcomed to use their own weapons and armors etc. Other tents are for resting, ER practice and dining. The lunch is sponsored by the Sandwich Hut.

The official training areas and their respective teachers/staff are the following:

Spiritual training/magic: Kurama, Douman, Kakashi
First-aid: Ethlyn, Morph, Bones
Rescue training: Morph, Bones
Hand-to-hand combat: Jirk Jim & Spock, Kakashi
Tech support: Jirk Jim & Spock
Fire arms: Caitlyn, Levi
Swords & Melee: Richard, Hiei
Archery: Richard
Survival skills: Richard, Kurama
Military training: Jim & Spock, Miller, Richard
Endurance training: Bones
Lunch: Junpei (and Whitey the Albino Boar)

If there is an activity a character would like to do that isn't included in the list that's no problem. Feel free to create your own top-level with said activity or you know! Just the usual stuff that varies from silly hang-out to whatever your heart desires.

Also for references sake: here is the OG ooc info post about regarding the mingle

Comments

[endcaller]

Ah. So that is how you see your wickedness, is it?

[He sighs and looks away to turn his gaze again to the people training. Beneath his hood, his lips twitch into a smirk.]

The popular version of the tale mischaracterizes you as a villain when, in your truth, you are the tragic hero, maligned and misunderstood by the mortal generations...

Understandable, I suppose. But incredibly ordinary, wouldn't you say?

1/2

[nuraridouman]

I see wickedness as a tool and a strength, if used right.

[There is a placid calm in Douman's voice as he settles back into a comfortable sitting pose next to Fandaniel and watches those training as well. His shikigami will notify him if there is anybody looking to take him up on his own teaching offer, which leaves him to use his time however he pleases.]

Yes, it's- [and then Fandaniel goes and says that]

2/2

[nuraridouman]

Pfft--- HAHAHAHaaaaaahhahahhahaha! A he- gnnnhehehee, no. N-no...! [Sorry, he's laughing too hard at the very idea to get anything coherent out for the next couple of minutes.

It's just-- Him! A Hero??? That's so ridiculous that Douman has to quickly look aside, just so that he can push his mask off his face and wipe away the tears from laughing so hard.]

I've been never the hero of anything, young man! Well, I guess you could say that I've become something of a legend in positive way in a whole other world, but- GkHahahaha, nope, a hero I really am not! Not even close! I'm a bastard through and through and proud of it!

[endcaller]

[Fandaniel watches the laughing fit sweep over Douman with a detached interest that slowly forms into a smirk.]

Well! Full glad am I to hear it!

[He leans toward Douman and says in a husky stage whisper...]

Between you and me, I've always felt the villains of the piece have more fun.

[nuraridouman]

[Douman is still gathering himself, but his mask is back on properly as he bumps their shoulders for a stray moment before moving on.]

All the fun until the unpleasant end, you mean. Ahhh, I fear I've long outgrown those as well.


Although I'm still a rather obvious sadist.

[endcaller]

The end is only unpleasant if the hero wins.

[Fandaniel coos and gestures vaguely toward the sky.]

But that is how the play is usually written, I suppose.

[There is a moment of thoughtful silence before he speaks again.]

Don't think I haven't noticed you hinting at your great age. How old are you, O Wisened One?

[nuraridouman]

It is.

[Douman consents, before he inclines his head thoughtfully]

In reality, everyone just dies at some point. Even what once looked like immovable history does.

[The new question makes him laugh. Not many- No, actually a lot of students have asked him the same question equally directly before.]

I'm half as old as the immortal firebird and slightly younger than the famed Shuten Doji of Mt. Oe, a famed grand youkai sovereigns of old. In human years I'd be about... No, that doesn't translate well. Let's just say that I'm pretty darn old.

[endcaller]

My, what an answer!

So many words and not a one of them has any meaning to me.

What a pity.

[Fandaniel taps his chin and blows out a soft, giggling sigh.]

It sounds like you are a fair bit older than the age you gave me earlier. What was that again... Twenty?

[nuraridouman]

Indeed. I can't help but notice that you have been more than sparse with any return-info as well.

[Not that Douman has asked. But most people would volunteer something, no matter whether Douman would want to hear those things or not. But this one here is still on his little act.

Their little verbal fencing is even entertaining in a way.]

Oh, "twenty-ish"? I always give that to strangers when I can't tell for sure what they are. Just in case they're humans.

[To make his point he holds up a hand that's suspiciously youthful for his claimed age and slowly wriggles his fingers.]

Saves me awkward questions.

[endcaller]

Aaah... So you mistook me for human, then.

[He smirks and holds out an arm, fingers outspread as if to examine his own hand, though it is wrapped in a leather glove.]

Easy mistake, that. Nothing to eviscerate anyone over.

[The vessel he wears is human, after all. Or hyuran. He's not sure if humans and hyurs are the same but they seem to be.]

[nuraridouman]

Out of pure curiosity, did that vessel come to you out of their free will, and how often do you need to change them?

[Once again there is no confirmation nor denial to Fandaniel's assumptions coming from behind Douman's mask. Mainly because his memory to that 'glitch' is sketchy at best.]

[endcaller]

Mmm?

[Fandaniel lifts one shoulder, bats his eyelashes, and fixes Douman with a coquettish grin.]

Whatever would make you think this is a vessel?

[nuraridouman]

[Douman considers for a moment and then taps the nose of his mask.]

You aren't the first monster that's literally wearing human skin that I've encountered. Let's just say that most youkai have a way to "tell" if a person's spirit energy is normal or not.

[Smell is the most common one, followed by sight. Douman won't tell Fandaniel that his own senses for those things are rather dull -- for a human they had been exceedingly excellent, but compared to many other citizens of the Supernatural they are hardly anything to write home about. Still, he has dealt with his fair share of corpse manipulators, possessing-type spirits and what else of that kind, and the way Fandaniel had acted during their fight had just been.... 'off' in the same kind of ways, somehow. It's really more a gut feeling, or an instinct, that's nagging at him claiming that the other doesn't seem to care about his body quite like he should. It's as if the spiritual energy sometimes moves just one frame before the actual body does, but you can never quite catch it right. So it's more of an educated guess mixed with a bluff what he's selling as confident knowledge here.]

[endcaller]

Monster?

[Fandaniel's eyes widen and shimmer as he wills a few tears into them. Crying on command; a vital tool in the kit of a thespian.

He throws his head back and wails.]

Oh! What a cruel thing to say, that you think a man's flesh is not his own. Do you feel this handsome face does not fit the mind behind it? Can I not be pretty and intelligent? Must my being one mean I am not the other?

I...I am wounded.

Truly, I may never recover.

[nuraridouman]

[Douman gives him the time to play his little act before he shakes his head with a pitying tut-tut.]

If any critic ever saw you like that, then you really wouldn't. From their scathing reviews, that is.

[He has had a tengu who could cry like a kicked puppy on command clinging to and mooching off his coattails for centuries now, not to mention that Douman is a very old hand at the red-light district and it's not-so harmless beauties. It takes more than tears and a little wailing to move him. If anything it'd feed his inner sadist if it were at least a little bit real.]

[endcaller]

Bah, critics.

That lot is never satisfied. Their harsh remarks are jealous ones! For they could never hope to match my thespian artistry!

[Saying this, he tips over sideways into Douman's lap, then rolls over so he's resting his head on the other man's thighs.]

The truth, then, though I daresay you will be disappointed in how very ordinary it is.

This, you see...

[He curls one hand into a fist and beats it against the center of his chest]

...Is a corpse.

[He'd might as well admit the truth, or at least parts of it. The truth has never bothered him, and he's never seen it as a threat like other Ascians did. Lying is just more fun. Why reveal himself when he can keep people guessing?]

The lad who once inhabited this flesh met a most grisly end. Since he had no use of it any longer, I decided to help myself.

[nuraridouman]

Thespian? ....Oh.

[That's some theater term, isn't it? But Douman has never been one for classic entertainment, so Fandaniel might as well just be complaining that nobody likes his nation's sense of art. That's unlikely, but wouldn't it be both sad and hilarious if it were true?

He considers this idly as he moves his hand to rest on Fandaniel's forehead, feeling the warmth of the supposedly stolen flesh and the softness of undead(?) hair. It would be so easy to just roll them over, sit on Fandaniel's back, pin his arm joints with his heels and then just hook his fingers across his throat and pull until something gives. If they were on Hyakki Island Douman would have done it, just to teach the other that such casual touching him isn't going to be healthy for anyone who dares.

But this isn't the world he's used to....

So his fingers stay at an oh so gentle caress, even as he mulls over his next move.]

So you're an undead, then. Did you have a hand in that "most grisly end"?

[endcaller]

[The hand caressing his hair is pleasant if only because he senses the danger behind it. At any moment the fingers gently threading across his scalp might seize his throat. It's thrilling.]

Undead? Oh, no, not at all. I live, I breathe, my heart beats.

[He reaches up to pat Douman's shoulder.]

But the body I wear is not the one I was born in...

And no, I had naught at all to do with his death, if you can believe it. He was murdered by his cousin. A fate undeserved, some might say. Others would say 'twas very deserved indeed!

[nuraridouman]

[He raises an eyebrow beneath the mask as Fandaniel's attempt to pat him simply end up dispersing his body like some hologram cast on fog. It will reform the moment the Ascian stops his antics, as firm and real as it always was.]

You can be dead and alive both at the same time when you are like we are.

[Douman's voice is almost a soft purr, a whisper that's only not hoarse because there is no real excitement in it. Undead-types of ayakashi are simply those whose orgins are connected to the dead rather than the living to him. It doesn't really matter if you're a zombie, a ghost, a curse moving a thing or a collective of souls that found their new home in a bundle of bones.]

Does that sort of drama attract you? Do you sometimes miss your original body?

[endcaller]

Drama of all sorts attracts me but it matters little when claiming a vessel.

[He frowns as Douman turns incorporeal beneath his fingers and drops his hand back to his stomach with a sigh of forced disappointment.]

As for my original body... I don't think of it much. Why bother? That was so many lifetimes ago.

[nuraridouman]

Ah.

[The petting stops as Douman withdraws his hand. Right now he will tolerate being used as a pillow, but he won't encourage that sort of tomfoolery. Not when the other party involved only wants to mock god and the world.]

I see. It seems that we have that in common, then. I don't usually think of my time as a human, either.

[endcaller]

Oh, I was never "human".

[He purrs.

It's a fun thing to say, as it is both metaphorically and literally true.]

'Tis a tedious thing, isn't it? Immortality.

[nuraridouman]

Less-immortal-than-now, then. [Douman rolls his eyes behind his mask.

But the follow-up question his him pause and frown.]

........ I won't say that I've grown tired of it yet. [Not when he doesn't even know if he's truly become immortal or has simply turned into one of those monsters who just won't die unless they're killed. Considering who turned him and at which cost, it could be either.] The only thing that gets annoying is when somebody has the bad manners to die before I can finish my business with them.

[endcaller]

Oh, yes, that is terribly rude!

[Fandaniel has to agree.

He jabs a finger toward the sky.]

How am I supposed to enact my best-laid plans for vengeance when mortals have that annoying habit of dying first? My own fault, I suppose, for overthinking things.

[But some plans only take a few hours to form, others take a century or two to truly perfect.]

[nuraridouman]

[Once again, Douman gives the Ascian in his lap a Look. What has the poor sky ever done to you, young man?]

True. The worst is when they die in mid-payback and leave you dry and hanging with all those things you'd still meant to do to- I mean, for them. Descendants or legacy are not even close to satisfying for the rest.

[He shifts a leg that's slowly falling asleep with Fandaniel's weight on it.]

How much longer are you going to play lap-cat by the way?