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

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

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

[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.~~]

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.

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"?

[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!

[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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

[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?

Descendents tend to forget. There isn't much sport in vengeance against people who do not know what they have done. After all, as the saying goes, in proper sport both teams know they are playing.

[Then, leaning into the cat metaphor, he stretches languidly, reaching his arms over his head.]

I could stay here all afternoon. Why, do you have somewhere to be?

Not really. But I'm a cruel man who doesn't indulge others without getting out of it for myself.

[That's quite the lie since at his core even Douman knows that he's become quite the sentimental old fool at times, but this isn't one of them. If Fandaniel wants to keep messing, he'll have to make it worthwhile to the nurarihyon.]

How about a game of ten questions?

[His eyes drift shut lazily and he waves a hand through the air.]

Mm?

Sure, why not?

Though I shall need you to explain the rules of this "game".

Easy. Each of us get to ask ten question that the other has to answer truthfully. Refusing to answer is not allowed, but saying that you don't want to answer that particular question is. It's supposed to help to get to know each other and help build trust.

[Which should become pretty hilarious, with them two playing.]

Is that all?

[With an airy giggle, his eyes flutter open again and he looks into Douman's mask.]

Very well, let us play.

[Says the man who'd spent his final mortal years so paranoid that he refused to associate with his fellow researchers and replaced them all with voidsent. Since then his paranoia has never gone away, it's just changed form a few times.]

[The wood-carved smile of the old man is as benevolent as always. The eyes behind the slits don't betray anything but confidence. Douman is a gambler with body and soul.]

Fine. I'll go first with something easy, then: What is your kind called? Do you have something comparable to our species name?

We're called many things.

[Which is true, but probably not a satisfying answer.]

I must ask, what if I were to answer in fibbery? Or refuse to answer outright? You say it is against the rules but there is naught stopping me.

Of course not. But if you break the rules, you can't expect me to keep them, either. Which'd be against the point, wouldn't it? It's quite the prisoner's dilemma.

[He chuckles behind the mask, trailing the tips of his fingers softly past the side of the Ascian's neck.]

Betray alone, and you gain. Betray together, and both lose. But what if you keep true....?

[Fandaniel's lips curl back as Douman's touch feathers the side of his neck. The expression is cruel, mocking.]

Then you would have the privilege of lying and gaining insights about yours truly at no risk to yourself.

Alas, we are at an impasse.

[He pokes Douman's chest with a curled knuckle.]

Or would be, had I aught to hide.

My answer is the truth. We are called many things, dependent on whom you ask.

[Maybe they are. But even Fandaniel's actions and denials still tell a story of their own. Just as Douman's must be, he figures.]

Mmmh, same here. And yet, I'm a nurarihyon.

[moving on]

What would you call yourself?

"Fandaniel", of course!

[He places a hand to his heart and looks into the mask hovering above him with an expression of false sincerity. That is not what he's being asked and he knows it.]

Is this your second question or another attempt at your first?

Second. It's your turn for your second now, since you used the first to ask for clarifications.

[There was a slight twitch at the obvious game Fandaniel's played, but Douman has learned how to be patient. You can't catch a mouse by patting at the first show of a whisker, after all.]

[His lips twitch into a smirk, then he reaches up and lays a finger against the mask's nose.]

Your escape tricks are quite impressive! How does one capture a nurarihyon?

...Do forgive me for jumping straight to a more complicated question but having wasted a question for the sake of clarity I must make use of what I have left. You understand.

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