Clare in the Gym, take two. (Open)

[becauseimboring]

Characters: Clare, open. (M-m-m-multi thread!)
Time: (Backdated) Before the Hotel vanished.
Location: Blackstone Hotel's gym.
Content: Clare is trying to redouble her training so she's less useless. She also has some misplaced aggression to work out.
Format: I'll be using prose, you can do as you see fit.
Warnings: Nothing out of the ordinary.

Comments

[becauseimboring]

Unlike previous visits to the gym, and everywhere else, where knocking would startle Clare out of her skin she was remarkably calm this time. Helps that she finally realized things that would wanna kill her don't generally knock.

She stopped what she was doing, then turned her eyes to the door. Perfectly reasonable. Except... well, she figured there were not many reasons Mr. McCoy came looking for her. The immediate reason to mind was to chastise her for getting attacked by vampires. At least, as far as she could tell, that would be the most likely. "Yes, Mr. McCoy?" In spite of the most likely reason, she kept herself calm and collected. Maybe the exercise was helping her mood, maybe if she didn't keep herself perfectly contained she might break down with every emotion flooding out. Who knows.

[theblackstaff]

"Good to see you ain't jumping out of your skin anymore," he said, walking into the room. Despite the lack of people at the Blackstone, the gym still smelled vaguely of old sweat. Ebenezar supposed it sunk into the bones of the old building.

He took a seat on the bench press, grumbling a little under his breath as his joints protested, and looked Clare up and down. He didn't sound particularly angry or admonishing, just a little gruffer than usual on account of the headache, "How're you feeling? Still woozy from vampire spit?"

[becauseimboring]

Clare got a little sheepish at the reference to her original reaction to people coming and going. It wasn't like it was an unwarranted reaction to things, she was on edge by the place, the dangers, and everything else. Hard to blame her for getting started by anything. She then labeled this entire train of thought unhelpful and scrapped it.

And there it was, he was checking up on her, "I-" Her original intent was to say she was fine. However such a statement was far from true, and she did have this issue with being honest. However the venom was not bothering her, it was memories of what happened that were the problem, along with what Kairi told he that she didn't remember. She finally settled on an answer that didn't overshare, "The venom seems to have worn off. I was a bit dehydrated when I woke up, but that was easy to fix." A gentle blush ran the coverage of her cheeks, piecing together the night with Kairi in the morning.

[theblackstaff]

The blush that rose on Clare's face answered Ebenezar's next question. "Good. Then I don't need to do any more doctorin'. As long as you ain't feeling the need to go running after more vampires to get drooled on anymore." He eyed Clare. "Suppose you learned your lesson this time about going out at night, Miss Edwards?"

[becauseimboring]

"I didn't-" Clare sighed, that wasn't how it happened. Certainly the end results were the same, but she had to be clear. "I went out during the day and lost track of time. I would never go out at night, not here."

She tried to stand defiant at the idea she did something so stupid. Of course, 'losing track of time' got her chased down by three or four vampires, nearly killed, and blitzed out of her mind. That last one had a more lasting sting than the other. Well, that and if they decided not to kill her, and do something else. "I- I'll not do it again..." She finally resigned to the fact she was wrong, and she has to be more careful.

[theblackstaff]

There was something comforting in the fact that children tended to stay petulant when they did something wrong, no matter how strange the world got. Comforting, but still irritating, like most of the things that stayed constant in the world. "Good. I wasn't keen on the idea of locking you up until you saw sense," Ebenezar said, deadpan. A smile seemed to touch the corner of his eyes, or maybe those were just wrinkles of old age. Hard to tell, with him.

He waved at Clare. "Ain't meaning to stop you from your practicing. 'Suppose you can talk and do Tai Chi at the same time."

[becauseimboring]

Clare nodded, and restarted her motions. It was after a minute of her moving that she corrected, "It isn't Tai Chi." Carefully note of her motions, and a head for martial arts would confirm her statement. While she moved at a speed commonly connected to the art form, the movements were wrong. Clare simply decided what Minako taught her was of best use at a slow pace for better control of herself.

Clare was kind of a klutz, mostly about her legs. Which given the number of things to run away from were important now.

However, that didn't ruin Clare's concentration as she continued her exercises. Watching her kick showed why she favored her arms for her offense at speed. At least, it hinted at it. Extending her kicks slowly showed a decent time wobbling on her one leg, and she could never get those kicks very high. Even with the understanding that gravity removes a large amount of force in kicks aimed higher than waist level, they still looked more impressive and gave more options. After a little more time moving she spoke again, "Your book on magic doesn't offer..." she paused as she wobbled through another kick, the motion was clean except for her nearly falling over, "much defenses against spiritual or mental attacks. Or chemical, if we count Red Court venom as different from the above."

[theblackstaff]

Ebenezar shrugged at Clare's answer, easing himself onto a bench as the girl wobbled on one leg. The cold was doing a number on his joints, even more so than usual, and it showed with the slow, stiff way he moved. There were things he could do for it, things that used a touch of magic to ease the pains of old age, but Ebenezar considered the aches and pains more badges of honour than anything. Trophies for surviving as long as he had.

"Fool book was written for practitioners," he answered. He was a little surprised that the girl had found a copy, but not too terribly so. After all, she had a good head on her shoulders despite recent events. "Apprentices and the like. Didn't put much about actual defenses in there 'cause I ain't want to prejudice someone just learning towards or away from ways of thinking. Let 'em figure out their own ways of thinking about defense. They pick up enough bad habits from their teachers; I ain't looking to add to it."

[becauseimboring]

"So you just hope their first run-in isn't a bad one?" Clare had stopped what she was doing to turn full face to Mr. McCoy as she questioned the sanity of that out of hand. Because, well, she wasn't expecting the book to be so... wishy-washy. She was expecting something closer to a textbook, instructions to the ins and outs of magic. What she got was fluid... like a description of faith.

Of course, the book wasn't meant for her, so after her outburst some of what he said made some sense. She blew out a slow breath and went back to her exercises, "Sorry... just, I was hoping for a bit more understanding. I mostly ended up with more questions. Like how not to be overtaken by vampire saliva or love potions." She had a purely theoretical understanding for magic, the same way she had a purely theoretical understanding of the guitar. So of course she had questions after reading that book. It just sucked, not being able to defend herself.

[theblackstaff]

"You hope their first run-in's bad enough to scare 'em into thinking hard about these things," Ebenezar corrected. He waited as Clare seemed to collect herself, stopping to think and then return to her exercises.

"How to keep yourself safe? That's on you to figure out, girl. I can tell you what Red spit does to your brain, or how love potions lower your inhibitions, but it's up to what you got between your ears to figure out how to use that information." It wasn't the most satisfying way of teaching, Ebenezar knew. Hoss had been particularly adamant about some of his methods. One of the old cows was still spooked.

"Seen a lot of folks, Wardens and the like, who got complacent. Who learned how to defend themselves one way and never thought about again. Gets 'em killed."

[becauseimboring]

Clare was at first horrified by that teaching system. It was as old testament a solution as you can get, and while she loved her faith very dearly she always wondered how an all loving God could just... do things like that. He had to have his reasons though, even if she couldn't fathom them. So Mr. McCoy had to have reasoning too.

She figured it was a simple way to teach, those who succeed will be much better for it. It was cold and inhuman, but it was a reason she could at least accept. "Yes, not knowing as many ways to defend yourself would get a man killed." Clare went back to her motions, letting that thought hang there to see if Mr. McCoy figured out that both her concern and his were connected.

After a little while, mostly Clare calming down so she could think rationally, "Magic, like the red venom or a potion still activate in the body like any other poison, right? Just in place of it being a physical process it's a spiritual one, right?"