Week 42: In which Parvati tries to teach Tansai how to fight.

Tansai waited in the training hall she had rented for the day, hopping from foot to foot. She was wearing a fairly simple set of white training clothes which showed off her body, although she kept one of her masks on as well. She was fairly excited about the session. For one thing, she'd never had any one on one close combat training with someone she liked, and from the mission they had been on together Parvati seemed nice. And cute. Plus, Parvati was a telepath, and they were very rare and looked down on in EI, so of course Tansai was curious about them. And finally, Tansai had just learnt Hindi and wanted to try it out.

Parvati arrived at the hall, calm as she always was. Having so much time in Keelung recently she bowed to Tansai before she had even really thought about it. She Carried her bag slung over one shoulder and she wore a sari of red silk. "Sorry, I hope you haven't been waiting long." she says with a smile.

"Nope, not long at all!" Said Tansai, with her usual energy, and bowing to Parvati in return. "Are we supposed to bow? People in the movies bow before fights right?" She stopped herself before it became a full rant, and she looked up and the tips of her mouth were visible below the mask as she grinned. "Thanks for teaching me. A cyberwolf took a chunk out of me on the last mission, so I kind want to learn to defend myself better..."

"Sorry, I've just been spending a lot of time in Keelung." She says putting down her bag. She takes a moment to roll her neck to work out the kinks in it. "You don't have to bow, though respect for teachers is not a bad habit to get into." she says with a thin smile.

She Draws a sword from the Bag and sets it down beside the bag as she turns to stretch warm up her joints "I've been lucky, I've not needed to use my mellee skills in battle since I've been with Oracle. Mostly I've been able to keep my distance and use a far more powerful weapon." She says stretching leaning backwards and working her shoulders.

Tansai looked slightly nervous when the sword was pulled out. "Are we jumping to swords already? I'm really really not that good, you know..." she said, following the sword's point with her eyes.

Parvati smiles "Don't worry. Its mostly to make sure that you get used to the movements. I wouldn't go straight to sparring with someone who was new." She reassures with a smile. "Back at the Academy we were taught with weighted weapons. So that the swords we normally use feel easier to use when we actually change to them."

"What do you know?" she asks "what sort of training have you had so far?"

Tansai actually paused at that, and tapped her chin with her finger. "I've been punched a lot. Does that count as training?" she asked. "I've been told I'm really really good at letting people punch me."

Pavarti smiled "Not really, but its not a bad place to start." She says continuing her stretches "You should warm up, Last thing you want is to pull a muscle. We may not feel pain that much but damaging yourself is still a bad thing." she cautions.

"Did you Corp back home never teach you how to defend yourself?" she asks as she sits and starts to bend forwards to reach her toes.

Tansai went into her own stretches, standing on one leg. "They tried. I wasn't very good at it. That's mainly where I got punched to be honest."

She switched legs very quickly, still watching Parvati. "Levenson, the guy in charge of teaching me, once asked if I was prescient, since I always seemed to know the best place to move to get hit." She sounded weirdly proud of this fact.

She chuckles "We were taught hard, but then they expected most of us to develop the Psi-blade. You sound like me with guns, The number of guns I broke in training..." She shakes her head "Fortunately I've been better blessed with ranged capability." She says as she grasps her toes bending herself in half and then shifts through a few more yoga stretches.

"Okay." She says standing back "Lets see your stance" she asks with a smile. "Feet are the roots of all fighting styles."

Tansai tried remember how to take a stance. The little Parvati saw of it was very poor, but then Tansai's legs got tangled and she fell over backwards. (Int+Close Combat to remember the stance, critical botch)

Parvati stifled a giggle at Tansai's collapse. She shook her head "I see what your teacher was talking about." she says crossing to offer a hand to Tansai To help her up. "Now relax and we'll start from the beginning. Your too tense. Foot work has to become second nature. Last thing you want to be thinking about when your fighting is your foot work."

She waits for tansai to get to her feet "now, simply start with your feet about a shoulder's width apart and with your toes pointed slightly out." she says sinking to her knees to check the exact positioning of Tansai's feet.

Tansai adjusted her feet as instructed, pointing her toes out slightly too much and her feet slightly too close together. She obviously had to think about what she was doing, she couldn't just do it naturally. While Parvati prodded her feet into position, Tansai asked in hindi "How about you? How were you trained in this?"

"Master Abassi had a long thin cane, and if your feet were not in the right place he would strike with a fast direct blow." She says with a small smile in the same language. "We spent hours every day, going through Kata, stepping each and every move through a thousand times all of us together."

She pulls tansai's feet back until they are in the right spot and holds them firm "Can you feel that?" she asks "feel where the feet are and how they stand."

Tansai blinked for a moment. "Is everyone in Comoros named after it or a company it owns?" she asked. "Also, don't try that on me. I don't feel pain."

Tansai stopped talking for a moment, trying to focus on her feet's position. It felt weird and unnatural to her, holding this position, but Parvati seemed sure this was the best stance, so Tansai bowed to her deeper knowledge. Well, not literally. With Parvati kneeling in front of her, if she bowed their heads would slam together. But that isn't the point. The point is that when Parvati moved her hands, Tansai kept her feet in position.

She blinks as she steps back "oh, No. Abassi is a fairly common name in Northern Africa and parts of the middle east." She says with a smile "My name... well my name has its own story behind it." she says with a shake of her head.

She pauses watching Tansai's feet "Now step out of it and then back in." she instructs "Get used to the position and falling into it quicker and easier. Lets see you retake it and I'd suggest that you try it just during your normal time stepping into and out of the footwork."

Tansai stepped back into her usual position, feet close together and ready to bounce, before trying to step back into position. And again. And again.

After about five minutes, which Tansai mainly spent focusing very hard on her feet to avoid falling over again, she was able to step into the position almost immediately. Finally, she looked back at Parvati. "Okay. Now what?"

Parvati smiles "Not bad, keep practising that. A good stance gives you a better chance to survive or dodge a blow and better strength in your own blows." She says moving to pick up the sword and offers it to Tansai hilt first "Lets work on your grip next. a weapon is important but if held badly its just a danger."

"Don't swing it, just hold it. This is a pretty basic sword but each weapon has its own balance so always take time to learn the weapon." she says watching Tansai's grip carefully.

Tansai held the sword fairly gingerly, at arm's length, with a fairly loose grip. It wasn't great; a powerful enough hit to the sword could break her wrist fairly easily with that positioning, and she would have trouble moving to a different stance standing like that.

Parvati shakes her head "no, no." she moves in and carefully takes the sword from Tansai. She holds it with a firm but fluid grip her arms bent and over the centre of her body ready to block attacks from either side. "You have to think of the sword as an extension of your body, of your arm."

"Don't be frightened of the sword. Its not going to bite you." she gibes "Be fluid but firm."