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The Watchers are being much more polite to Tamara nowadays. They've never precisely been rude to her, but they are very good at being quietly, politely and oh-so-Britishly unwelcoming. Irritating, but she can live with it if it means she can be a part of the Council. But now their normal tactics have scared off their precious Slayer, and Tamara's the one who convinced her not to bolt; Tamara is now their lead to the Slayer and as such, she's being treated like she's made of glass.
She finds that mildly irritating for a whole different set of reasons, but it's such an improvement over the alternative that she lets it be. She's very careful not to seem as though she's taking advantage of her new-found position. She demands nothing, and makes only a few careful, diffident suggestions. This will not last forever; no need to burn bridges.
And of course, whenever she receives an email from the Slayer, she responds promptly.
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older_and_wiser
cross_and_bow
Anyway, keep me posted on what you think it might be, especially if there's witchy prep I should be going in with for it.
older_and_wiser
I expect to have a full report in a couple of days. Why don't I just meet you at class on Saturday? I'll bring copies of the articles I've found, in case you want to look at them.
cross_and_bow
Sounds good. And you can Watch me. What with that being your job title.
Bella turns up to her class on time.
Bella turns up to her class on time.
ego_custodiam
Her class is in a gym on the edge of town, slightly run down around the edges in a way that says 'well used' rather than 'neglected'. Other than the locker rooms, it seems to consist mainly of two large rooms; one with equipment and mats for traditional gym activities, and one clearly intended for fighting disciplines. There's a boxing ring, a large mat with some children practicing karate, and a variety of punching bags and boxing equipment scattered around in semi-organized chaos.
Bella and Tamara are met at the door by her new trainer. He offers Bella a hand when she walks in. "So you're the one I've heard so much about, then? Nice to meet you. Phil Anderson, call me Phil." He waves at a door on the back wall. "Hope you don't mind, we're training outside today. We've got a bit of a yard in the back."
Bella and Tamara are met at the door by her new trainer. He offers Bella a hand when she walks in. "So you're the one I've heard so much about, then? Nice to meet you. Phil Anderson, call me Phil." He waves at a door on the back wall. "Hope you don't mind, we're training outside today. We've got a bit of a yard in the back."
cross_and_bow
"Can't scare me," says Bella. "I'm supposed to ask you to concentrate on what I do if something tries to strangle me, did Tamara tell you?"
ego_custodiam
"Believe me, I have a whole freakin' laundry list of instructions, from both Tamara here," he grins crookedly at her, "and my wife. But as it happens, strangulation did not come up. Having trouble with that, are we?"
cross_and_bow
"Not yet, but it is expected to come up. Should I know who your wife is?"
ego_custodiam
Phil snorts. "Sorry, my bad. I'm married to Emma. You know- little, short hair, sews people up for a living?"
ego_custodiam
He smiles fondly. "Emma went full nurse on me. Endurance training, if we can figure it out; flexibility and anything I can come up with related to reflexes and agility which I believe Emma stuck under the subtitle dodging everything; a whole bunch of things I would probably just call PT but which break down to learning how to strengthen, or safely favor, specific areas."
"Now Tamara, let me see-" he pulls a Post-it note with a mostly illegible scrawl on it from his pocket. "Defensive fighting, escape-oriented fighting, minimum-damage take downs, blah blah fighting stuff. I'm told you have good instincts for this, but that's just instinct. Now you get it explained, in detail, and then you get to drill on it six ways till Sunday." He winks. "Sounds fun, right?"
He look at Tamara. "So! I miss anything?"
"Now Tamara, let me see-" he pulls a Post-it note with a mostly illegible scrawl on it from his pocket. "Defensive fighting, escape-oriented fighting, minimum-damage take downs, blah blah fighting stuff. I'm told you have good instincts for this, but that's just instinct. Now you get it explained, in detail, and then you get to drill on it six ways till Sunday." He winks. "Sounds fun, right?"
He look at Tamara. "So! I miss anything?"
older_and_wiser
"I would probably not have summarized my suggestions as blah blah fighting stuff," Tamara says dryly, "but otherwise that seems accurate. "Ultimately I'd like Bella to come out of this with a better idea of what, exactly, her instincts are prompting to her to do, and why."
cross_and_bow
"I have every confidence that it can be made fun. Also, um." Bella digs around in her bag. "There is this thing I do where I am very interested in what goes on in my head? My combat instinct package did not get into my head in a conventional way but it's there now and I've been looking at it. I might be able to sort of change it directly if I knew what I wanted to change it to." She pulls out a notebook. "This is all in note to self format, though, complete with made up words."
ego_custodiam
Phil looks at it suspiciously. "Just for you, right? If you start asking me to write things down for you, man are you ever not going to be able to read them. If you want to take your own notes though, knock yourself out."
cross_and_bow
"I will be happy to use my own handwriting to commit to paper anything you tell me to do. But I'm wondering if it's worth the time to tell you what the instincts are telling me to do instead of having me show you the long way around."
ego_custodiam
"What, so you can explain your fighting instincts without actually fighting me? Sign me right up, that sounds great. Don't think I won't test them out the first few times, though."
cross_and_bow
"Yeah, sure. I might have to show you a few things to provide a glossary of the made-up words, since I don't have the first clue to explain that which I am calling 'flomp', but, you know, work in progress, maybe there is a real English word for flomp."
And Bella opens up her notebook and takes Phil on a guided tour of her brain's new resident instincts.
And Bella opens up her notebook and takes Phil on a guided tour of her brain's new resident instincts.
ego_custodiam
"Hmmm, okay, so this dodge is probably what boxers would call slipping-"
As they go, Phil provides actual terms for a few of the symbols and identifies a bunch more as having rather more formal versions in various martial arts disciplines. Most get "Yeah, that's vague, we'll walk through it later so I can see it." Those that he recognizes in whatever form get additional details as he recalls them, anything from "best used on taller opponents" to "be careful using this on us breakable folks, it's easy to snap a wrist."
As they go, Phil provides actual terms for a few of the symbols and identifies a bunch more as having rather more formal versions in various martial arts disciplines. Most get "Yeah, that's vague, we'll walk through it later so I can see it." Those that he recognizes in whatever form get additional details as he recalls them, anything from "best used on taller opponents" to "be careful using this on us breakable folks, it's easy to snap a wrist."
ego_custodiam
Eventually Phil nudges Bella. "Okay, enough pen time for now. Something something strangulation, right? Come on, up up up, time to actually break a sweat."
cross_and_bow
"Something something strangulation, yes. Also the indescribable vocabulary terms."
Behold! The Slayer in action, where "action" means "a lesson, with a fragile baseline human".
Behold! The Slayer in action, where "action" means "a lesson, with a fragile baseline human".
ego_custodiam
'Fragile baseline human' will be making copious use of helpful items such as punching mitts as necessary to protect himself. His wife is a nurse, not a miracle worker.
Once outside, he starts with their stated plan of anti-strangulation; analyzing her indescribable vocabulary is a stretch goal, not the objective. How to try and break a hold, with verbal footnotes about attacker height, weight, speed, or competence; failing that, ways to try to protect her windpipe as much as possible. A couple things he makes a point to emphasize that most people can't do and should be avoided in front of an audience. They will run out of time eventually, and Phil will be probably be more winded than Bella is, but progress will be made!
Once outside, he starts with their stated plan of anti-strangulation; analyzing her indescribable vocabulary is a stretch goal, not the objective. How to try and break a hold, with verbal footnotes about attacker height, weight, speed, or competence; failing that, ways to try to protect her windpipe as much as possible. A couple things he makes a point to emphasize that most people can't do and should be avoided in front of an audience. They will run out of time eventually, and Phil will be probably be more winded than Bella is, but progress will be made!
cross_and_bow
Bella's not particularly winded. They do after all keep pausing to tweak her form and allow verbal remarks, and she's not trying to move too fast for him to see. This was educational, not tiring. She makes notes about things gone over in the lesson and peers at them before she heads home.
older_and_wiser
Tamara did not feel compelled to stick around once the lesson got into full swing, but the pile of photocopied articles was left waiting for Bella next to her notebooks.
older_and_wiser
There's a note stuck to the top of the pile. The articles are in chronological order. The earliest relevant article I found is dated 1923. A girl named Minnie Huff was strangled and drowned by her boyfriend in the bathroom during prom. Students attending prom without dates have been dying of strangulation or drowning in the same bathroom ever since. There are a few possible causes- vengeance demons, some supernatural echoes, those sorts of things- but by far the most likely is a reasonably corporeal ghost. How are your witches on their ghost lore?