UN: Epicyon -Text

[heromedal]

With all of the extra time due to the break, I'm looking for new projects. Apparel, mechanical devices, weaponry, etc. I'm also willing to research spells or other topics.

If it's for personal use, I'll work out a price of some sort but equipment for use in serving the academy's goals I don't see any reason to take from people when it benefits us all anyway.

You don't necessarily need to know what you want- if you've just got a problem, creating a solution would be my part of the process.

Contact me here or ask for Rex in the Anvil, I'm there most days, the staff know me. If it's closed, I'm probably in the Hall of Pythia. Or the Legionnaire Quarters. Thinking about it, just contact me here.

[ Because he could also be in a cave somewhere being weird or in a van being weird or planting onions in the woods. ]

Comments

[heromedal]

It would depend on what sort of restrictions would be applied- though considering the standards here I'd imagine not many. The school encourages us to reach our full potential, at least.

[ Is he throwing shade about her fussing over him?

Maybe a little. ]

I like to keep my momentum high.

[transfusionem]

There'd probably at least be rules so nobody, like, commits murder. They probably don't want us to die just yet.

[Rex, she will throw you into the garbage where you belong.]

You mean you want to crash and burn with a mushroom cloud.

[heromedal]

Exactly my thoughts- the literal least degree of restraint would be ideal. Rory Miller, in the book Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, stated that there is 'a flaw in training.' By that, he meant that when practising and sparring, you will be lacking something as you will be not be attempting to kill or disable your partner as you would in a real battle. Yet it is not practical to disregard that deliberate flaw completely, for obvious reasons. A problem to meditate on indeed.

[ Rex doesn't actually know that the thing that he would find most fun is a fight to the death without any sort of antagonistic feeling between him and his opponent, but... It's there. ]

That's a bit of an exaggeration.

[transfusionem]

You just have to learn not to hold back, don't you? If you're fighting to survive won't that come to you naturally? Nobody really wants to die, so the best would come out anyways, right?

[Adelaide has no idea. She's never really been in a fight before, much less a fair one. She's not really keen on fighting to the death, though she does admittedly have the advantage of already being mostly dead.]

Nope, seems about right to me!

[heromedal]

That's not quite accurate. When the inexperienced enter a battle to the death, they'll often lose their composure and start to rely on instincts- which are generally untrustworthy. Those with sports combat experience will sometimes find that holding back has become a part of their movements- plenty of people who learn to fight in dojos will enter a fight, knock an opponent down and drop their guard because in a match that would be appropriate. Fighting, sparring and killing are only superficially similar because they used comparable skills. To most, killing does not come naturally.

[ He chooses not to make a comment about the whole 'born of the battlefield' thing and how he doesn't fit into that 'most' because of it. It actually disturbs him how little killing disturbs him now, especially as the standards for justifying it seemed to slide lower every day until recently. ]

Anyway, I'll admit to a certain degree of overzealousness occasionally, but not to the degree you describe.

[transfusionem]

I guess that would be why we're sent on so many missions despite probably not being ready for them, huh? What's a better way to get us ready for real combat where we can't hold back.

[This...is kind of a shitty situation. She doesn't want to kill or hurt anything, not really - but does she get the luxury of choice?]

Of course you wouldn't. You think it's perfectly acceptable to work yourself to the bone.

[heromedal]

That would be my reasoning too. By the time such battles are unavoidable it would be best they’re not unusual.

[ It’s another thing Rex can’t quite grasp how it must feel for her due to his upbringing- many of his early memories are of his mother killing something. ]

You need not be dramatic.

[ Says the dumbass that just used the phrase ‘need not.’ ]

[transfusionem]

It makes sense, but it still sucks.

[But...she'll get used to it. She knows she has to. She'll just complain while it happens.]

I need not be a lot of things, but I'm still right.

[smh rex]

[heromedal]

As someone who has always lived in the Real World, it has invariably seemed a fact of life to me. I don't envy having truth thrust upon you.

Also, I'm fine. Don't worry so much.

[ Says him, a Worry Tumour, the badass grandma of a Worry Wart. ]

[transfusionem]

Eh, the truth isn't so bad. Just a lot to take in.

[And that's...mostly true. While she wishes she had learned about this kind of stuff a different way, she's...okay with being here. Mostly.]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[And don't tell her what to do!!]

[heromedal]

To be perfectly frank I find the secrecy surrounding it to be baffling. It's extremely impractical.

And how exactly would I be capable of proving this particular hypothesis?

[NO you don't tell HIM what to do!!! Him BIG BRAIN do as say!!!!!!? ]

[transfusionem]

I don't know how the world as a whole will take "Everything you thought you knew about the world is a LIE" but it's probably a good idea to get it out there before Nightfall happens.

You could start taking care of yourself, for one.

[It's very simple!!]

[heromedal]

I don't truly understand why we started lying about it in the first place. It all seems a little silly, but then again most traditions are.

I've been doing that the whole time.

[transfusionem]

I dunno. Maybe people thought it was safer that way? Or they want to keep all the good stuff to themselves.

lol okay. Whatever you say.

[heromedal]

I'm inclined towards the latter. It certainly seems in keeping with what I know of mage clans to be selfishly obsessed with secret-keeping.

[ He's not fond of mage clans, being a weirdo who taught himself magic. Tell him your secrets, mages. Part of the reason he prefers to be called a wizard. ]

Please don't be sarcastic about my self-reliance.

[transfusionem]

I doubt all clans are that bad - but I think it's just a natural thing, to want to keep things secret and safe. Kind of dumb when keeping it secret could lead to a bigger risk down the road compared to sharing it.

[Technically, Adelaide's cover is that she's being sponsored by a mage clan, but, you know. She knows nothing about mage culture.]

I won't be sarcastic about it when you actually take care of yourself beyond the barest of minimums.

[heromedal]

I can assure you that the majority of them are awful.

[ Of course, his experiences are skewed because a) his mom took him around the world to watch her headbutt evil mages to death and b) he then worked for the same sort of mages.

The nicer sort he's had little interaction with and what there was mostly like... Stealing from them. ]

You'll have to give me an example of what you mean by that.

[transfusionem]

You'd know better than I would.

[At least when it comes to magic and everything involved with it. She's still got him beat on how to be a normal ass person.]

I think the most obvious example would be pretty, you know, obvious.

[Remember when you almost passed out from blood loss? Sure, that was for a purpose, but Adelaide remembers hassling you into taking some rest!]

[heromedal]

Though I will confess as I've never been a part of one all of my interactions are as an outsider.

[ Weird ass hobo wizard, ain't got no family, nothing beats the hobo life, stabbing folks with my enchanted knife. ]

I meant examples of how exactly one would meet your standards for 'caring for myself.'

[transfusionem]

Still more on the inside than some of us.

[Which is a hell of a thing to think about.]

You could start by sleeping every night.

[Which shouldn't be asking a lot, but it's Rex.]

[heromedal]

I suppose- just another viper in the pit.

[ cheerful ]

I do. This is just my face.

[ People fall for that a lot more than you'd think because they feel bad for insulting his face accidentally. ]

[transfusionem]

You're not THAT bad.

Your face would look a lot better if you got adequate rest.

[Adelaide will insult him. She don't give a fuck. (She gives lots of fucks.)]

[heromedal]

Just a phrase.

[ That literally no one has ever used but him. ]

It would also look better if I had another face, but this one was a gift, so I shall keep it.

[transfusionem]

Uh huh.

[She doesn't think so!!]

If it's a gift, you'd think you'd take better care of it.

[She would tell Rex that his face isn't so bad, constant exhaustion asides, but she feels that would lessen her point.

...Also telling someone they're objectively hot is a kind of weird Adelaide's not ready to commit to.]

[heromedal]

[ Not gonna rebuke an 'uh huh.' Gonna let that drop. ]

There's only so much I can do when this is what my face looks like at the best of times.

[ He's sticking to the idea he just looks like this, in the hopes she feels worse the longer he sticks to it and gives up. ]