(no subject)

[gluteus]

Who| Maximus and YOU, OPEN for Mingling - All District 3 will be 'Asked' to attend, but everyone else is welcome
What| Come get Combat Training from the Cyborg Gladiator
Where| The Training Center
When| Two days after the Motorcycle Races
Warnings/Notes| Nothing so far! Maybe violence, but nothing with gore since it's just training weapons.

Maximus was a regular in the training center, but today was different. Today he had set up a good portion of the hall exactly as he wanted it - a large training mat (one of the better inventions in the last few millenia),  a large rack of swords, shields, and spears. He couldn't find pilla, but spears would do well enough. The day before, he'd gone around to each of the rooms in district 3 and told them to report to the training center the next day, or face consequences. He also, however, asked Wyatt to attend, and mentioned it to anyone else he thought could use some training.

It didn't really matter who showed up, he would treat them all the same.

It took more than a day to make a soldier, but perhaps at least he could begin to get some of the tributes thinking like one.

Or maybe they would start seeing the benefit of working together.

His Sabertooth Tiger, Ferox, prowled around the edge of the training mat, watching the tributes as if one of them might make a good dinner, and occasionally coming up to rub its large head against Maximus' prosthetic leg.


[OOC note: Each tribute will be greeted, have a rough assessment of their skills taken, and then given a series of instructions for training. Trainees of a similar level will be grouped together, for team activities. Feel free to either tag in for the greeting/assessment, or create an open post for other people to tag you for mutual training.]

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy showed up today, because naturally it was a training session with someone else and she would be here. She'd never met the man before, but he was supposed to be good. She was ready of course: work out shorts, hair tied back in a bun, and she was already looking over the different weapons. Mindy knew other people were showing up, so she figured she would treat them accordingly.

[gluteus]

He knew her. Of course he did. Even if he hadn't watch Wyatt's death - and he had - he would know her from everything that followed. From the win. From her name, her face, everywhere.

It was strange, the disconnect. She was a child - a female child, no less, though he'd known for a long time that gladiators could be either sex - and she did not deserve to be in another arena. So for that, she should be out.

But she had killed the man he cared for most in the world. Had shot him in the back.

The fact that Wyatt returned was balm enough for that wound, but it still made the meeting strange.

He stepped over to her, formal and stuff.

"You are Mindy, if I am not mistaken. Our newest Victor."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy nodded. Right away she could see there was an air of uncertainty here, but why was hard to place. She could see he was definitely a man who held himself from another time, and this made her want to show him she respected that. There was a kind of unspoken thing when you met someone you knew was seasoned, that would make the cowardly fucks back home touting guns look like pathetic children.

She could respect that.

"Mindy, yeah. And you're Maximus, a victor before me. I came to see what I could learn here. I'm more proficient in fire arms, but I can use short ranged weapons too."

[gluteus]

"I am, yes." She didn't mention Wyatt so nor did he - it was no one else's business, after all.

He nodded solemnly.

"Show me what you can do, and I will see what I may teach you."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy took a little while, trying a few of the weapons in her hand before she settled on a spear an a shield. If Max had been watching Mindy only because of Wyatt, he might have only thought that the girl was a marksman, and so weapons might be a stumbling block. In actuality, killing someone required you to be just as fast with your weapon, and use what you could not to get shot. Mindy therefore was quick, and made good use of both the spear and shield, better on the former than the latter.

All in all, there was no doubt Mindy knew her stuff, but was better at offense, and her feet work still need a little bit of direction.

[gluteus]

He was surprised, when she took a spear and shield - thinking that the weight would be too much, considering how much smaller she was. However it became apparent quickly that at the very least she knew well how to compensate - that she had obviously been trained to use weapons out of her weight class.

Even if it appeared she was more adapt at killing than protecting herself.

He let out a breath.

"The shield is only hindering you," He murmured as he walked over. "You would move quicker without it, and keep yourself safer. The way it is now, though you may be able to block an attack with it, the weight is lowering your speed considerably. You forgo a good deal of balance by working a spear one handed. Though I admit I'm impressed - most would have difficulty wielding both at all, at your size."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy nodded. "I'd probably need something smaller in the shield department. I've been mostly trained to attack offensively, which you figured out anyway. It's one of those things I have to learn first off, if you're going to do what I do for a living."

She was actually pretty proud of herself: she could handle something taller than her as a matter of course, but coming here she had learned to do that in conjunction with with her speed.

"Actually, I can move even faster if its a smaller weapon. Doesn't hinder my speed."

[gluteus]

He raised an eyebrow, before taking the shield and spear from her grasp, replacing them back on the weapon rack, and coming back with a knife. It was a long enough blade to be effective, but was significantly smaller than a sword.

He nodded at one of the dummies.

"Show me."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy took the knife quietly, and looked at the dummy. She knew what she showed him now she would not show to many others. People had seen her in the Arena, and thought that they knew what she was about. She was quick and fast, sure, but she would use whatever she could to get what she could.

But here, in the training arena, Maximus would see exactly how much Mindy restrained herself. When she went for the dummies, she attacked vital parts of them: places where the person would have been bleeding hard, pieces of themselves that would have left them incapacitated. Mindy was quick, deliberate, and worst, efficient.

She had wanted to win in the Arena, but not like this. She saved THIS carnage for those she hated.

[gluteus]

His face was stern, but his heart fell. She was indeed incredibly adept - he was not surprised, that she won the games. But it was hard to disconnect the ability from her age, and it saddened him.

"Good, that's enough," He rumbled quietly, frowning. He exhaled. "There is little I can teach you, with such a blade. Where did you learn this?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Cool," she said, turning her blade in her hand a little bit. "In my world, people who have enough money through corruption tend to make sure the law can be corrupted too, and look the other way. So sometimes, people have to fight outside of the law to take them down. Me and my mentor, we're like that. He trained me as soon as I could walk."

[gluteus]

"My world, too, had similar corruption," He said heavily. But it wasn't about money. It was about power.

That being said, however... "I cannot imagine why a man would make a child into a soldier from such a young age."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Oh, there was always power. They both pretty much went hand in hand.

And we were back to this again. The short answer to that was revenge. But he probably wouldn't want to hear that.

"To make someone strong, you have to start early. You have something to prove, you keep going. Most kids probably wouldn't have taken to how I was trained. But as you can see, it has its up side."

[gluteus]

Maximus wasn't sure he agreed, at all. He was trained from a young age, himself, as all boys were, but 'young' and 'old enough to walk' was a completely different matter. He considered Mindy's age already young.

Even if he had trained his son to fight from such an age, he still would have died.

Nothing would have been gained, save for the loss of the boy's childhood.

"No training makes a man immortal." He said, stiffly. "And I think we have a very different opinion of what is considered 'early'."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"You got that right. It makes me good, but only I can make sure that I can be great. I've come close to death, on my world, twice. In my first Arena I met and stalked death. It's only because of their sport I'm still here."

She shrugged. "But I was also given a reason to want to be that strong. That made the difference."

[gluteus]

"It is indeed that which keeps us alive," Maximus agreed. "Doubt can take down the strongest of men." It had nearly took him down, after all.

"I will spar with you, if you wish, but I fear there is little I could teach you. You will have to learn to hone your abilities simply through practice."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy never doubted, not where death was concerned. Regret, certainly, but when death was at her door, she met it head on. It's the only real way to do it, in her book.

"I don't know if I agree with that. I watch the tapes. I'm not where you are yet, but someday I'd like to be."

[gluteus]

"And I was never a young woman," He offered.

"I could not move the way you just have - and you could not use the weight or strength that I do. But you do not need to. There is strength enough that is yours alone, and while I cannot teach you how to use it better, I can help you hone it."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy nodded. The praise was definitely appreciated, and she could see exactly what he was saying.

"In that case, if you're offering, I would love to learn from you."

There was no wariness here: she could see someone who'd had hard met battles in his time. There was not but respect for him here.

[gluteus]

"Of course," Maximus said with a stiff bow. "I'll show you my training regimen."


[ooc: feel free to skip ahead until after they're done training!]

[hit_girl_mindy]

[Gladly!]

A hour later, Mindy's hair was out of place, her clothes a bit dirtier, and her hands feeling significantly bruised. Obviously, she was smiling after, her heart beating fast in her chest.

"Whew," she said, wiping the sweat off her brow. "That was more intense than I thought!"

[gluteus]

Maximus was still in good shape - he was much more used to the regimen, after all, so though he displayed a sheen of sweat he looked otherwise unaffected. He smiled at her warmly.

"You did very well," He said proudly. "I have seen men beg for their mothers half way through a session."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy shrugged. "Never met mine, but I have more than enough drive. Meant to see this through, so I did. Still feels good to get some validation anyway."

So thanks for that Maximus. Mindy reached over and took a long drink of cold water. "How many men have you trained?"

[gluteus]

He frowned as he tried to think.

"Hundreds," He offered eventually. "I cannot recall. Once I was made general, it was no longer my duty, but I often helped men train regardless. And the gladiators, once they were convinced, we all trained together. I could not start to count the men with whom I've fought beside."

[hit_girl_mindy]

See this, Maximus? That is the look of barely contained awe. Mindy liked some of the adults, obviously, and cared for more, but ones that just had her respect were hard to come by and Maximus just had hers.

"So you're back from that long ago. Shit. As much as I rag on being here, I'm pretty lucky to earn from someone who's earned his status there and here. The Games for you must have been just another kind of an arena, huh?"