Blackaeronaut: I'm more excited about the lack of eyestrain than anything else. Ability to skip sleep is a survival skill- not something I'd use regularly. I like my sleep! As for food, I need more than most, if only to power magic.
Proginoskes: What you missed was a throwaway line in StrikerS episode 8, during the bit where Teana is training herself into the ground. Subaru mentions that she can go without sleep for four or five days, even with their training schedule. I sort of thought that was too major of an ability to give to the prototypes and not the Numbers, so I assume all of us have it.
**********
Entry 29 (Day 271)
Now that I've got access to my full abilities, the CQC training has kicked into full gear. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't need to rest, and when you barely need to sleep. We've been abusing that ability maliciously.
About a week after my... episode... Tre declared my basic CQC training finished. She made it very clear that I wasn't some sort of martial arts master now. In classic Tre fashion, this involved smacking me around the training room for ten minutes straight, until I felt like one big bruise. I'm well enough trained to survive against a master fighter, but only long enough to disengage. I can hold off the less well-trained fairly well, or defeat novices in close combat.
Now that I'm not totally hopeless without a weapon, we've moved on to armed combat training. For me, that means learning to wield Malleus in combat.
Malleus Bellum's basic form is basically an oddly shaped armored bracer. It only took a week to work that into my unarmed combat forms- basically learning to block blows with him, and add a few backfists and elbow shots to my offensives up close.
Okay, I've not had to defend myself yet today. What gives? What's she looking at?
Most days, when I show up for training, it starts the instant I walk in the door... usually by way of a surprise attack. Today started with a five minute wait while Tre watched about a dozen windows worth of data, and then a short conversation.
"I have reviewed your Device's design specifications. Starting today, I will be teaching you to use its second form in close-range combat."
Without my prompting, Malleus initiated the transformation into his second form. First, the 'nose' section of his first form disassembled itself, parts warping into whatever form of storage the Device uses. Then, the barrel section glowed blue, rearranging itself into a more typical round shape, and extending itself out about twenty inches past my knuckles.
Out of thin air, additional parts appeared around the end of Mal's barrel, assembling its new nose section. First came a reinforced rim, complete with tactical spikes, around the edge of the barrel. Then, a metal plate, locking around half the barrel, and extending out and back diagonally. From the back end of the diagonal plate came another two feet or so of armor; in this case, a flat metal sheet, half an inch thick and three inches wide, grew up and out of the barrel. The end result was an arm-mounted cannon, the side opposite my wrist armored and reinforced for combat.
For this session, Tre left her usual energy knives unsummoned; instead, a weapon rack rose out of one of the ports in the floor, carrying duplicates of Mal's current form. She took a pair of them, locking one to each arm, and settled into a stance. I took a long, hard look at her stance, walking aound her to get every detail into my memory, then took my best stab at reproducing it myself.
WHACK. "Your arms are too stiff."
SMACK. "Turn your right foot in about an inch."
WHAM. "Lower your knees."
This went on for some time.
We've been working on second-form armed combat ever since. Some of the techniques I've been taught resemble tonfa skills from back home. Others feel more like fencing, and still others feel like extensions of the unarmed skills we started with. I suppose it's fitting- Malleus is a bit of an unusual design.
[I AM AS YOU DESIGNED, MASTER]
I didn't mean it in a perjorative sense, Malleus. You're simply unique.
[ACCEPTABLE]
I should also note that learning to fight with Malleus is a significantly different experience than learning unarmed combat was. With the unarmed moves, it was more like I was shaking rust off skills I already had. These moves? Well, I understand them in theory, and I have the basic skill to put them into practice, but I don't have that sense of familiarity- the ability to know when I had the moves right or what I had wrong- I relied on before. It's slower, but much less disconcerting.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Proginoskes: What you missed was a throwaway line in StrikerS episode 8, during the bit where Teana is training herself into the ground. Subaru mentions that she can go without sleep for four or five days, even with their training schedule. I sort of thought that was too major of an ability to give to the prototypes and not the Numbers, so I assume all of us have it.
**********
Entry 29 (Day 271)
Now that I've got access to my full abilities, the CQC training has kicked into full gear. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't need to rest, and when you barely need to sleep. We've been abusing that ability maliciously.
About a week after my... episode... Tre declared my basic CQC training finished. She made it very clear that I wasn't some sort of martial arts master now. In classic Tre fashion, this involved smacking me around the training room for ten minutes straight, until I felt like one big bruise. I'm well enough trained to survive against a master fighter, but only long enough to disengage. I can hold off the less well-trained fairly well, or defeat novices in close combat.
Now that I'm not totally hopeless without a weapon, we've moved on to armed combat training. For me, that means learning to wield Malleus in combat.
Malleus Bellum's basic form is basically an oddly shaped armored bracer. It only took a week to work that into my unarmed combat forms- basically learning to block blows with him, and add a few backfists and elbow shots to my offensives up close.
Okay, I've not had to defend myself yet today. What gives? What's she looking at?
Most days, when I show up for training, it starts the instant I walk in the door... usually by way of a surprise attack. Today started with a five minute wait while Tre watched about a dozen windows worth of data, and then a short conversation.
"I have reviewed your Device's design specifications. Starting today, I will be teaching you to use its second form in close-range combat."
Without my prompting, Malleus initiated the transformation into his second form. First, the 'nose' section of his first form disassembled itself, parts warping into whatever form of storage the Device uses. Then, the barrel section glowed blue, rearranging itself into a more typical round shape, and extending itself out about twenty inches past my knuckles.
Out of thin air, additional parts appeared around the end of Mal's barrel, assembling its new nose section. First came a reinforced rim, complete with tactical spikes, around the edge of the barrel. Then, a metal plate, locking around half the barrel, and extending out and back diagonally. From the back end of the diagonal plate came another two feet or so of armor; in this case, a flat metal sheet, half an inch thick and three inches wide, grew up and out of the barrel. The end result was an arm-mounted cannon, the side opposite my wrist armored and reinforced for combat.
For this session, Tre left her usual energy knives unsummoned; instead, a weapon rack rose out of one of the ports in the floor, carrying duplicates of Mal's current form. She took a pair of them, locking one to each arm, and settled into a stance. I took a long, hard look at her stance, walking aound her to get every detail into my memory, then took my best stab at reproducing it myself.
WHACK. "Your arms are too stiff."
SMACK. "Turn your right foot in about an inch."
WHAM. "Lower your knees."
This went on for some time.
We've been working on second-form armed combat ever since. Some of the techniques I've been taught resemble tonfa skills from back home. Others feel more like fencing, and still others feel like extensions of the unarmed skills we started with. I suppose it's fitting- Malleus is a bit of an unusual design.
[I AM AS YOU DESIGNED, MASTER]
I didn't mean it in a perjorative sense, Malleus. You're simply unique.
[ACCEPTABLE]
I should also note that learning to fight with Malleus is a significantly different experience than learning unarmed combat was. With the unarmed moves, it was more like I was shaking rust off skills I already had. These moves? Well, I understand them in theory, and I have the basic skill to put them into practice, but I don't have that sense of familiarity- the ability to know when I had the moves right or what I had wrong- I relied on before. It's slower, but much less disconcerting.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.