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 Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 6:45 pm
Among the Cadets, Vyn tried not to make a nuisance of himself. Sure, he sighed, and he pouted, and he would wander off and sulk when he was feeling angry or despondent, but those were solitary things, quiet things, not likely to bother anyone unless they bothered him while he was in the middle of it. Otherwise, he went about his duties and studied what he could of Earth, and he tried not to cause trouble for anyone in the process.
But training was necessary, especially when one considered the war they now found themselves in the middle of. Vyn could train alone if he wanted. He often did. It was easier sometimes just to go out into the woods with his blaster and shoot at a target than to involve someone else, and when he wanted to train against an opponent, he had Aliez.
Except Aliez was… well… Aliez.
Thus, he turned to Andreiya. Or Andreiya turned to him. Or they turned to one another mutually. Whatever the case, they both needed practice, and while Vyn didn’t want to be a bother about it, he also couldn’t deny that it would be beneficial. Besides, Andreiya wanted to train, too, so Vyn wasn’t being a bother, he just felt like he was, because he kept to himself most days and therefore had no idea how to interact with his own friends.
Vyn darted through the trees, dodging where he could and ducking out of sight. He rounded the thick trunk of a maple tree that was in the process of shedding its reddened leaves, hurtling back out into the open to take aim and shoot.
Leaves crunched beneath his feet with every move — a distraction he did his best to ignore, even though the sound of it was… strangely satisfying.
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Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:05 am
On one hand, the leaves made it impossibly easy to tell where Vyn was. On the other hand, twice now had he gotten distracted and deliberately adjusted course to run in a particularly large, crunchy looking pile. He didn’t want to make a bad impression with Vyn, who he was certain must have been one of the Commodore’s favorites (if he had any) and while that made him competition, it also made him a good ally.
There were some other Cadets that he might not have trusted--not that he’d have admitted it out loud--but he trusted Vyn. So, he wasn't particularly alarmed when it was Vyn firing at him.
And, he’d already had a blade to his neck once this week, he wanted to make sure he was better at this.
So, no jumping in leaf piles. Yet.
Vyn’s blast was surprising and had caught Andreiya off guard; he hadn’t expected him to pop out like that, so he was only able to weave a bit out of the way--which still meant he got shot in the knee. It didn’t hurt, not really, but it wasn’t a pleasant sensation, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to chase after him for a few seconds. He dragged himself to hide behind the thick trunk of the nearest tree and sucked in a few big breaths while he raised his blaster up. He poked his head out for a second and fired at where he’d last seen Vyn before he disappeared behind the tree again. Andreiya kept his weight on his good knee while he tried to bed and massage where he’d been shot, as if that would get the feeling back quickly.
Technically he should have been quiet so they could practice this more, but he had to ask, “Do you find a way to install an auto target or was that a manual shot?”
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Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:39 pm
Vyn ducked behind another tree as soon as his shot hit, but peaked around the same time as Andreiya and ended up taking a hit to the shoulder. He hissed and slipped back behind the tree, cradling his temporarily useless arm against his body.
Right. It seemed Andreiya wasn’t as hopeless as Aliez. That was a good thing.
Vyn still pouted. He was used to easier wins.
“All of my shots are manual,” he said, shaking his arm out as the tingling and numbness began to fade. “For all the good our technology does, I wouldn’t trust an auto target not to fail at inopportune times.”
Was that arrogant, that he trusted himself more than a carefully constructed program? It wasn’t that he thought himself superior to anyone or anything, he just thought relying on an auto target came with its own set of risks, all of which could easily be avoided if he only perfected his aim. That wasn’t to say his aim was perfect, but… well, there was only so much Vyn felt he was good for, and this was one of those things.
Cautiously, he peered around again, keeping most of his body shielded by the trunk as he attempted to determine which tree hid Andreiya.
“Combat training was the only thing I really excelled at, but considering we don’t usually see much action, there haven’t been many opportunities to apply what we’ve learned, so… I’m sure I’m not nearly as good as tests and trials would suggest.”
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Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:19 pm
Oh, if Vyn excelled at combat training then he’d picked a good person to spar with. Maybe not if he’d hoped to win, but still. He wasn’t going to get any better if he wasn’t practicing with someone who was keeping him on his toes.
“Well, I think that’s a good idea. You have good aim,” he called back, even though he knew he was outing his location. “Very impressive.”
He couldn’t have made a shot like that.
His blaster had recharged, so he poked his head out and fired again at where he thought Vyn was hiding before he tried to disappear behind the tree he was using for cover. “But you do seem to excel at this. I don’t believe it’s the only thing you excelled at, though.”
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Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:33 pm
Vyn managed to avoid the next shot. It hit the tree that concealed him in a burst of shattered bark.
While Andreiya’s blaster was recharging again, Vyn used the temporary reprieve to move from tree to tree. The leaves beneath his feet meant he had little hope for stealth, but he was fast enough to hopefully make up for it. The next time he jumped out within view, he’d managed to bring Andreiya back into sight. Vyn aimed a shot at his arm and fired.
He felt a little guilty for it. Andreiya was being kind to him. Thorough as their training was, Vyn couldn’t make himself cold and heartless — not when he was up against a friend. Maybe, if he ever had another occasion to target someone he thought of as an enemy, he’d experience less remorse.
With only one battle under his belt, it was difficult to say.
“You give me too much credit,” he said from behind another tree, hiding while his own weapon recharged. “And you’re not so bad at this yourself. Better than some I could name. If we ever find ourselves stuck in the middle of another battle like that night on the field…”
Vyn trailed off for a moment. He didn’t like to think about that night if he could help it, much less talk about it in depth.
“Well… maybe our training didn’t quite prepare us for that.”
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Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:30 am
Andreiya gasped when Vyn fired on him, and hit him in the wrist; he dropped his blaster but caught it with his other hand. He wasn’t as coordinated with his other hand but he wasn’t completely useless. He knew his blaster needed to recharge but he blindly stuck his blaster out from behind the tree and pulled the trigger a few times, just in case it might have been recharged any earlier than it was supposed to.
It had not, but he’d done his best anyway.
“I’m okay at this. But I want to be better. I have to say, I very much prefer the trees to an open field. No one can sneak up on me. Not with these leaves.”
Vyn already knew where he was, so he didn’t hold back from stomping in the pile of leaves next to him so he could enjoy it for a split second. He picked up a dirty stick and threw it a few yards away, hoping it would make enough noise to distract Vyn from where he was actually hiding. Maybe it was a futile effort, maybe he didn’t sound like a thrown stick when he moved, but it was something. He needed to buy himself a few extra seconds to regain use of his hand, anyway, and when he did he peeked out from behind the tree and fired once more.
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Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:06 pm
Vyn wasn’t distracted, at least not enough that he went after a stick, but the sounds of nature had a way of occupying space in his brain. They were so different to what he was used to on Velencya. Here on Earth, birds chirped overhead and leaves crunched underfoot. The bark against his back was rough through his bodysuit. The wind was cool, the sky a little overcast when he could see it through the trees.
Autumn was nice, Vyn decided. He wondered if the rest of Earth’s seasons would be as enjoyable.
When Andreiya shot again, Vyn made less of an effort to dodge. Sometimes he liked to take a hit, so that he could force his body to adapt to the damage. This shot hit his thigh, which went numb immediately and buckled beneath him, but Vyn stubbornly kept his footing.
He aimed at Andreiya again, finger on the trigger.
Vyn didn’t pull it yet, simply kept Andreiya in his sights.
“I saw some of the humans gathering them,” he said. “The leaves. They collect them into piles and dispose of them, but sometimes they’ll let their young play in them first. I thought it seemed impractical, to put in all that effort to gather them only to let their children make a mess of them again, but it seemed to make them happy.”
As the numbness began to fade, Vyn adjusted his stance, crunching more leaves beneath his feet.
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Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:09 pm
Andreiya couldn’t tell if he’d made a hit or not, and he was trying very hard not to make any noise and give away his position if Vyn hadn’t already figured out that he hadn’t moved. He pressed his lips together tightly to try and convince himself to say nothing but it was impractical and impossible and he exhaled in defeat.
“Perhaps it is something you must experience to understand. I do not understand why I find the auditory stimulus so appealing, but I want to understand. I want to collect them into a pile and step on them. The forest is full of leaves.”
He wanted to step on the pile next to him for a nice, fresh crunch, but he knew if he tried to Vyn would just shoot him.
“...If you helped me, I think we could build a substantial pile. Do you want to jump in one?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:23 am
Vyn kept his blaster raised for several long moments.
There was a chance Andreiya was attempting to lull him into a false sense of security. Once he had Vyn’s agreement, perhaps he’d take advantage of the lowering of Vyn’s guard and shoot him, all in the name of winning this little training exercise. It would be a poor showing for Vyn, who tried to be more clever than that.
But this was a training exercise. If he lost it, he lost it; he acknowledged that and accepted it. Andreiya was a friend. Vyn could lower his guard around a friend the way he never would around an enemy.
Ultimately, he lowered his blaster.
“We don’t have any of the standard equipment,” he said. “A rake, or… those handheld cannons that blow air. The ones that make all that noise. But…”
No one seemed to care to clear the leaves out of the woods. There were enough leaves coating the forest floor that they could maneuver large quantities at once, with only their hands if they must. Vyn holstered his blaster and crouched down to do so, and had the beginnings of a small pile in a matter of seconds.
“The colors are truly extraordinary.”
Reds and yellows and browns — brittle leaves that fell apart without much exertion, mixed up with a scattering of browning needles from some trees that still boasted lush green foliage.
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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:37 am
Andreiya could hear the rustling of leaves. He couldn’t see what Vyn was doing, but he sounded distracted. He sounded like he was collecting leaves. Andreiya didn’t know he was following suit, but he holstered his blaster as well and kicked some leaves into a pile before he wrapped his arms around them to gather them up.
He wanted to take this collection to Vyn and add it to his pile. He trusted that the exercise was over--or, at least, on hold, and moved around the trees. There was a gap between the trees, close to where Vyn already was, he expected that looked like a good area to prepare a pile.
“We are resourceful, we don’t need those tools,” he rationed, and for a split second as he rounded the tree Vyn was behind he was afraid he might be shot. His concern was short lived when he found Vyn crouching, and he dropped his armful of leaves nearby.
Bits of dry and broken leaves stuck to his uniform and he brushed a few off--but then promptly began collecting more to add to a pile. “I like these colors. And they smell strange. It’s not like Velencya at all. I’m glad we don’t have to clean up this mess back home, it would be very impractical. But I think it’s okay for Earth.”
They didn’t have to rely on a carefully constructed air filtration and recycling system. “I don’t think I want to be on Earth for so long, but I do want to see the different seasons. For educational purposes.” And leaves. “So we can be prepared for what Velenia will be like when we restore it.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 10:22 am
Vyn glanced up, glad to see that Andreiya was joining him and not taking advantage of a successful distraction, if only because it meant he’d read the situation accurately.
“Velenia…”
The thought that they might one day be able to return there was… overwhelming, to say the least. Velencya was all any of the Cadets had ever known, and yet in many of them there remained a longing for something more. Earth had more, but it wasn’t home. It would hopefully be nothing but a temporary stop on their journey to restore their world.
Vyn longed for Velencya, and Velenia, too, but there were plenty of intriguing things about Earth to study in the meantime.
If only researching potential solutions to the problem of their dying world was as simple as collecting a pile of colorful leaves.
“When we restore Velenia,” he said, climbing back onto his feet once they had a substantial pile, “we can teach the next generation of Velenian children the Earthen concept of jumping into leaves. Now that we can test it our for ourselves…”
He turned to Andreiya with a smile and offered, “You first.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:30 pm
Andreiya wondered, albeit briefly, if it was a trap to make sure the leaves were safe. But, after training with Vyn, he really didn’t think he would have encouraged him to do something that could have hurt him. He looked at the pile for a moment, nodded, and then jumped into it feet first.
It crackled. It crunched.
He wanted to hurl his entire body into the leaves but instead he stepped out and added a fresh pile of leaves to the top to try and restore some of the freshness so Vyn could experience the same.
“We should do this more often. I would like training more if it ended like this.”
Jumping in leaves. And then, maybe a snack afterwards. And then he could write a report on it so no one thought he was just playing around.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:12 am
“A thorough training session should always end in a reward,” Vyn agreed.
He jumped into the pile, listened to the crackle and crunch, the shifting of the leaves. It was wonderful, if a bit silly — perhaps not the sort of activity two distinguished Cadets should be engaging in, but no one else was here to catch them at it, and they would eventually put this research to use.
When their own world was returned to its former glory.
Somehow, some way, they would make it happen. Vyn had to believe that.
Until then, they would experience as much as they could. Every new adventure, however small, was an opportunity to learn something new for the sake of their people.
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