[OPEN] Mingle Training Log

[actually112]

Who| Aang and anyone who wants to learn non-bending airbending
What| Aang and Zuko have been training anyone willing to learn. This is one of those training sessions.
Where| The Training Center
When| Dawn, after the mini arena is over
Warnings/Notes| Possible concussions

A

"Okay, I know a lot of people have had their bodies reset because of the arena. If you have, you should start off by getting your body to re-learn how to walk your bagua circles. Or if you're new this session, you should learn for the first time. You'll hurt yourself on the other equipment if your body doesn't know how to move."

Aang, looking chipper as usual and not at all like he's been recently murdered and brought back to life, picks up an iron ring in front of the group, holding it up so everyone can see it.

"Grab one of the throwing rings and put it on the ground. That will make it easier to walk a circle. Now watch, then try to do what I do."

Then he begins to walk with exaggerated slowness, explaining every element of the movement as he goes.

B

When one section is walking their circles, Aang leads everyone else to a strange series of heavy boards.

"Airbending is about evasion. Everything is done with spiral movements, and you're supposed to be able to change direction at any time without losing momentum. These are airbender gates, and they're probably one of the best teaching tools we have right now."

Aang flips a switch on the wall. Fans in the ceiling and walls start rotating, causing all the heavy boards to begin spinning at varying speeds.

"The goal is to get from one side to the other without touching any of the gates. You have to pay attention to how the air is moving and use what you know from the bagua circles. Watch me, then try to do it yourselves."

Aang smiles, pulling his arms close to his body, and then steps backwards into the spinning gates. For a moment, it looks like they're going to crush him.

But at the last moment, he's moving. Swirling between them without any visible effort; it doesn't even look like he's looking where he's going while he does so. He steps to the other side unscathed.

"Your turns."

Forewarning: he made it look much easier than it actually is. Most people will be turned into pin balls and at least one person will end up with a concussion. Those boards will leave bruises.

C

"Okay, this is the fun one!"

Now instead of spinning concussion machines, they're in front of a grid of tall, thick bamboo stalks, with standing posts on either side with a large hollow circle in the air. And Aang is holding a ball.

"This is a game airbenders play. It teaches teamwork and balance at the same time."

He jumps off the ground like a spring, twirling in the air and landing with on foot on one of the bamboo stalks. He should fall and break his tailbone, but he's able to stay perfectly balanced on the plant without any visible effort. "The rules are simple: you pair off into teams, then try to throw the ball into the other team's goal more than they throw the ball into yours. You can't touch each other and you can only catch the ball if it's dropped or thrown, but if you fall, you're out of the game."

He starts spinning the ball on his finger, grinning down at his students. "So who wants to play?"

[OOC: Zuko is having his own section on the other side of the room, but since he's been dropped and is due to die next arena, that will be handwaved. Otherwise, this is a mingle log, so anyone can tag anyone and Aang will just be flitting around. Have fun!]

Comments

[actually112]

"Oh! Careful." Aang hadn't meant to nearly knock him over and gives a sheepish smile.

But he had managed to catch himself, and that is a good sign. "Yeah, you will be. Just don't feel like you have to rush into it, okay?" Because concussions are no fun, but Aang's always glad to see confidence in his students.

[wizardplease]

"Eeh..." Haruto doesn't seem to be agreeing with that time assessment, judging by the sudden wrinkling of his nose and dimming of his smile. "I don't think there's a lot of time to waste. They'll be throwing us in another arena sooner rather than later, won't they?" Maybe it's calling attention to the elephant in the room to say it, but... well, too late to take it back.

[actually112]

"They probably will be. But beating yourself up on equipment you only sort of can use will only get you hurt and cut into the time that could be spent doing more basic training that still helps you later."

Aang doesn't seem bothered by drawing attention to it. That is, after all, why he set up these lessons in the first place. People need to survive.

But people won't survive if they try going to fast and end up getting nothing out of it. "The monks always taught that patience was the key to learning."

[wizardplease]

"A fair point. But I should be doing better than this." He exhales sharply, furrows his brow, and resumes his steps just as shown before. And they're a little better, a little smoother. "I've usually got magic helping things along. It's been a while since I've had to fight without it." It's important to be honest with your teacher. And the urge to brag about being a wizard never really dies, even when there's no longer anything to brag about. "I haven't had to be patient in a while, either...."

[actually112]

"I have bending where I come from. It's hard to adapt, but you can do it. And then you get better at doing it."

Fighting without bending wasn't quite as hard as he had expected--far more dangerous than he'd like, since he has to get much closer to his enemies than he's used to, but the moves he'd use to bend things are the same moves he would use to throw a person over his shoulder or into the ground.

[wizardplease]

"You've talked about that.... how does bending work?" His curiosity is to his detriment, for his next step is sloppy, but he catches himself in doing it and is back to smooth and careful motions once again. "I mean... it doesn't work here. But where you're from?" A wizard should be open to new concepts. Especially when you're a wizard that keeps getting chucked into alternate dimensions.

[actually112]

"Bending is just using the chi inside of yourself to manipulate the elements. Motion is the best way to focus your own chi, so each kind of bending has its own system of movement."

Aang gives a shrug and a sheepish smile. "The monks would talk about it a lot and how it worked, but I might not have always paid attention as much as I should have." So he can't explain how it works very well compared to people who've actually researched it.