Boot Camp

[earthborn]

Who| Shepard, select victims, and OPEN
What| Boot Camp Lite
Where| The Training Center
When| Not long after the Crowning
Warnings/Notes| swearing, will update as necessary

The Training Center level was a gloriously open floorplan. Cement was the rule of décor, flat grey painted over in crimson and yellow, with pools of light illuminating each of the proscribed practice areas like museum pieces on a diadem. Say what you like about terrorist organizations, but Shepard had only ever seen this particular economy of light with legitimate governments— she didn’t approve, but she could adapt. Had adapted.

That was the rule of the living, after all: Adapt, fight, or die. Or wish you could die, maybe.

Regardless, there was purpose of movement here. There was business and the thump-thump-thump of putting oneself through the paces on a treadmill, through a weight regimen, or on the sparring mats. There was firestarting and camo practice and enough weapons that if they hadn’t been looking at armored Peacekeepers with guns, it might’ve meant something as a store-room. Still, better than nothing, when it came to that.

Shepard was planning, as she often did about this time between Arenas, in spending the entire day here, then getting up to do it all again the next day. She hated the artificiality of it, but it was better than sitting around or trying to schmooze with the sponsors. Jane really wasn’t suited for schmoozing. But what she was suited for, was this: taking young, relatively green fighters, and turning them into… Well, most of them had turned out alright, anyways. She couldn’t take full credit. Those who walk under her eye today, are going to be drafted into an impromptu training session, and invited back for more. Don’t say she didn’t warn you: she might not have, but only a fool would ask to see if she cared.

Comments

[savedbyasong]

Shion had seen the network post, and he had seen Rat's response but he had come anyways. Because she was right, he was weak, he was a burden and Rat coddling him would do neither of them any good.

He was still angry at her for killing Rat, but it was not enough to stop him turning up here looking around with purple-black eyes, his hair was still bright red from the crowning.

He looked around for Shepard trying to ignore the urge to throw up.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Shion. She earned his name from the replay later, and had to admit, she was glad he was here. The kid needed to learn from this just as much as, say, Elsa or anyone. His boyfriend might object, but in Mindy's personal opinion, there was nothing more cloying than a partner that thought they could always help you.

Nevertheless, aware that they had a rather tumultuous history, she was on the treadmill, already getting herself ready.

[savedbyasong]

Shion noticed her across the room and reminded himself to breathe. He wondered if this was a trap, he had steeled himself for being in the same room, with weapons, as one of his killers. But two?

[earthborn]

He could be angry all he wanted, Shepard didn't require the people she worked with the like her. In fact, by her measure, a certain subtle hatred of one's immediate authority figure was probably healthy. But none of that mattered, so long as he fell in line and worked hard.

But really, guy, you look like a cartoon or something, with that hair.

"Didn't think you were coming," it's dry, as she stands astride her domain, regarding Shion with skepticism, "You sneaking around, or did he change his mind?"

[savedbyasong]

"I'm not sneaking." He blushed, going almost as red as his hair. "I don't have to do what he says."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy hadn't bothered replying to the message, talking about targets being painted on some of her charges back and all of that. It might have been an initial reaction, but when she thought about it? All of the things she said were true. She might not have named names and all, but she had a point, and if it got their asses down here to start training, well, she certainly wouldn't complain.

She knew OF Shepard more than actually knew her. She'd seen her in the training room because, well, they both frequented the place enough. She knew the woman didn't blink an eye when she fought and, most obviously, cared little about making friends. No, she had fight on her mind, and she could get behind that, already finding a hand knife and setting to go to town on a dummy.

[earthborn]

There were many children here who had absolutely no business participating in bloodsport. That was probably a reflection of children in general having no useful place in combat except as targets, and the subjects of tragedy.

Mindy wasn't one of them.

Shepard had known, the first time she'd seen the girl fight onscreen that someone had taken the time to train this kid, to prepare her for pain and to react well. Someone had already done her job and whatever Mindy lacked in tactics and strategy was more a matter of seasoning and experience than anything else. When Mindy had won the Games, Shepard had been dismayed— Mindy could take it, and there were people who couldn't that had gone by the wayside. Not that Shepard blamed her. It takes a special kind of asshole to make a martyr of yourself for the sake of such nebulous altruism.

So when Mindy walked in and started putting herself through the paces, Shep gave her a little nod and made no further comment. Being a Mentor would be the harder job, for her, but nobody got ready to lead by sitting in the shadows and hiding.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy would be observing, at least, on one level. She wanted to start whipping her own tributes into shape, but between losing two of the other mentors and having the last one not be on good terms with her, she knew she had to do this right. So seeing someone who had the guts to get people moving was a good thing, and had partly motivated her here.

The other part, of course, was for herself. Mindy never turned down learning from someone else. She knew how to fight and how to survive, but there was so much more there she knew she didn't know. It had never left her mind what her real goal was, and to get there, she couldn't be content with just winning the Games.

She was working her way to weapons anyway: chances were, she might spar with someone, and she wanted to be ready.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy hadn't argued. She hadn't protested.

She arrived promptly when she was told in her training gear and though she looked unsure, she was in a much better state then she had been at the party.

Because the simple fact of the matter was...she trusted Pruna to win, or die fighting. And she kept telling herself Pruna was too popular for the Capitol to let her go so easily.

But training...training was what Sandy needed. And Shepard had already proven herself trustworthy and bad ass.

So she watched and waited and fought with the butterflies in her stomach who were apparently already training for a marathon the way they were circling her guts.

[earthborn]

Sandy was a good girl.

That was her weakness, too. She tried hard and meant well and made assumptions. She had little friendships and she didn't like to think of the worst case scenario. Jane had never been like that. But then, when she had been Sandy's age, her job had been running drugs for a street gang, so what did she know? Hell, the truth might even be that Sandy had a similar life, back home, and wasn't eager to go back to it. If someone had scooped Shepard off the streets at that age, would she have turned out the same?

So when she spotted Sandy loitering around the edges, she lifted a hand and waved her over with an easy, "Ready to work?"

[paidinbeer]

Orc did not understand why Shepard had asked to see him. In fact he hadn't even known till a handler saw the notice on the network and played it for him.

So after a cold shower to sober himself up as much as he could he trudged down to the training hall in all his glory and looked around for the woman who had put his wandering corpse out of it's misery only a few weeks earlier.

"Yo." He grunted in greeting holding up a thick stone covered hand.

[earthborn]

"Hey," she replied, when he came close enough for conversation. Orc was an odd one. He was big, and had a lot of force, but he moved with less control than he might, hunched over as if to make himself smaller, to fit a world built around humans. She'd seen that he was human, under the stone. Another kind of freak, and that much she could sympathize with.

Sympathy won't often save your life, though, so she launched right into it, "You ever take up sports, Orc?"

[burnedbrighter]

It was of great interest to Azula what Shephard had set up down in the training hall.

While she could not convince the woman to train with her previously, nor could she convince the woman to ever consider a future as a mentor if she won the games, here Shepard was somehow commanding respect by helping the weak links. And though some seemed to fear her they all obeyed her.

What was her secret? How was this working for her and why couldn't Azula make it work?

Perhaps it was because of their age difference, perhaps it was because Shepard was so much taller then her.

Or perhaps Azula simply could not connect with anyone who wasn't as full of themselves as she was.

Either way she would watch, and perhaps if she felt generous and someone wasn't being directly aided by Shepard she would step in and assist. She could set aside her district loyalty for one day if only to aid the woman who seemed to do her job better without actually being a victor.

She would study Shepard. She would learn from her.

And someday be an even greater mentor.

[earthborn]

Shepard's method of dealing with Azula had three modes, to date. Often she engaged with her, bitter conversations laced with half-truths and rolled eyes. Once, maybe twice, she'd been something more honest, but mostly Shepard took the third option, which was to ignore her.

Azula was like speaking to an Asari, one of the Eclipse. She had a touch of class, and she had her own self-aggrandizing concerns, but there was little enough she had in common with a rank soldier like Shepard. And where they did intersect, their needs were often at odds. No, Azula would either fall on Shepard's side of the line in the sand, or not, and it'd compromise too much to find out which way she'd go, before the actual event. Better to watch and wait, not burn too many bridges.

So she ignored her, and went about her business of correcting Sandy's form, because Azula's observation was the least annoying in a long line of annoying people who were watching their every move. At least Azula had the grace to just come out and stare.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wasn't too impressed with being called out on the network but the promise of special training was enough for her to turn up out of interest anyways. She looked around, looking for Shepard, fully aware that the woman might try to sneak up on her.

[dying]

She must have been the girl that Shepard was talking about. Thane's steps were silent. They came with the practiced ease of someone who would only be known if he wanted to be known. "You must be Pruna," he said, getting closer to her.

[observationalhazard]

Hanji wasn't there to train. Just to watch. She'd already done her share of bootcamp back home, thank you very much, but she wanted to see if it would end up any different here. Really, the best way to find that sort of thing out was to ask. So she looked for Shepard, weaving through the training center, gaze alert as she tried to take all of the new stuff in.

She didn't bother with any formalities - as soon as she spotted Shepard, she raised her hand in a wave, cupping a hand to her mouth so she could yell across the room, "Hey! You're the one doing training today, right?"

[earthborn]

New face, but an enthusiastic one. Well, she's worked with worse, although hollering across the entire echoing expanse of the underground Training Center was not Hanji's more impressive tactic. It got the job done.

But she's not yelling back, so she raised her own hand in a clear affirmative. Yep, she's the one, kid.

[dragoon_pride]

Facing Shepard in person again wasn't going to be easy. Even though he'd been crazed with the masks and the general weariness of several weeks in an arena... Kain still couldn't get the memories out of his head. He probably never would. He wondered if anyone ever got used to sharing space with the people who killed them. It's never been something he'd ever have to consider in his world, where the dead didn't return.

But he took his responsibilities seriously, and he knew that in this unusual arena, he'd better prepare. Perhaps work with other tributes as Shepard was indicating. He'd do what he could.

As soon as he entered, Kain immediately went to arm himself, preferring to at least have a weapon in hand if he was going to face her.

[earthborn]

Kain was somethin' else. Most people here came from a world that had some semblance of a framework. Military structure, politesse, rules of conduct beyond the relative simplicity of personal honor. She didn't know Kain's story yet, but the way he carried himself was something apart. Not an envoy of a foreign land, but an exile from it— like something out of a fairy tale, the good ones, with plenty of blood and high adventure. He was serious, and she could respect that, if only he'd bend his back to a greater cause.

After all, whatever he might be at home, she'd bet with real credits that he'd never seen biotics in action, before meeting them head-on. And he still responded when she called his name.

"I'm not actually gonna try to kill you, y'know," she called out, when she saw him turn towards the waiting racks of spears and bows and swords. There's something a little bit funny about a man picking up a weapon in anticipation of a glorified sparring match, "That's a li'l counterproductive, don't you think?"

[aintyourdad]

Joel had never made a secret of his contempt for training, sparring and the like. But Shepard actually seemed to have her head on - more or less straight, and even their brief conversation over the network had earned a certain amount of respect from him. More than he'd felt for anyone after such a short time in quite a while.

At least he could tell right away she wouldn't bullshit him - she'd told him without any fuss about what Garrus had done to Ellie, and hadn't blinked an eye when he responded with a perfectly reasonable promise to kill Garrus permanently if he ever laid a finger on Ellie again.

So it was that, and curiosity about what kind of actual skills Shepard actually had that brought him here today. Watching others train was useful, at least.

[gunshiptotheface]

He had the suspicious feeling that Shepard had drafted him for a purpose more than just training people who didn't have the best skills to keep themselves alive in an arena. Seeing Joel walk into the room confirmed an idle suspicion at the back of his mind and immediately had him looking for Shepard.

Last thing they needed was an incident in which drew more attention to themselves in the Capitol's eye.

[gunshiptotheface]

Being told to meet Shepard at the training hall should've been enough warning that he was being volunteered to help out. He had the training and the knowledge to fight, now he was just helping to share it around.

Still the training center felt more at home to him than a lot of other places, taking his time on the sparring mats and putting a few people through their paces was his goal. There were quite a few new faces in the room then he remembered, but he wasn't surprised, Shepard did know a wide range of people and most of them looked like they needed a hand with more than a few skills.

[carnagecarnival]

She said, don't bother her. Clearly that was open invitation to bother.

And so at leisurely pace as their network conversation rounds to its end, he makes his way to the Training Center. He watches her going about, training person after person, an amused expression on his face and arms folded over his chest. Like hell he would take to training. He didn't care how arenas went he'd fought and culled more than most here, of that he's sure.

But he'll take a fight where it's offered and oh Messiahs, he hopes its offered.

[earthborn]

The best insult one can offer someone as full-of-himself as Kurloz is, is to ignore them. It was like Krogan— and wasn't everything with Alternians, it seemed? They might do some damage if left to their own devices.

But god help you with what they'd do if they got the reward of attention for it.

Besides, it's not as if she weren't busy.