combat training mingle log

[policier]

characters: everyone
location: the village gymnasium
date/time: every wednesday & friday throughout october
content: at the town hall last month, javert offered to set up a place for combat training. this is him making good on his promise. as he mentioned in his bulletin ad, these sessions are open to absolutely everyone, not just those who want to learn how to fight. partner up with someone and spar. do whatever you want, just don't hurt each other too badly—or javert will have words with you.
warnings: violence

setup

The gym's certainly seen better days, with it's crumbling walls and lost ceiling tiles. Javert doesn't need it to be pretty, though. He only needs it to be functional. In the last week, he's been doing what he can to clean it up, washing the floors and making some minor structural repairs.

Once the first day of combat training begin, the day after the ferry sinks, it's as clean as it possibly can be without any sort of overhaul. There are mats set up along one end of the gym, for people to stretch or otherwise use for sparring, and a collection of swords near the door. Some are blunted and old, perfect for training — though they may still hurt — while others are sharp or unwieldy, and will need to be handled with care. Use them, Javert says, but return them when you are finished.

There's a tiny collection of knives, too, though there aren't any targets to practice throwing them at. It's a work in progress. For light, there's a torch set up along the wall, illuminating the room and allowing combatants to spread themselves out from one another.

meetings

For the sake of not being micromanagey, there isn't going to be any formal structure to these practices. Javert is available to teach hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship, should anyone wish it. He's also enlisted the aid of Jason Grace, who will teach hand-to-hand and swordsmanship, and Bucky Barnes, who is proficient in knife fighting as well as hand-to-hand combat. Anyone else, of course, may teach others as they please. Just this once, Javert's not going to be a stickler for formalities. He just wants to see everyone making productive use of their time, in some fashion.

Training will run from seven o'clock to nine o'clock in the evening. Arrive promptly, or Javert will berate you for being disruptive. No one is required to come to every single meeting, so come as often or as little as you like. If regular exercise is supposed to help combat the effects of total darkness, why not give it a try?

Comments

[policier]

You crashed the ferry?

( His voice rises, mostly out of anger, but partly out of confusion. He should have expected that an assassin — a criminal — would be behind it, but did he not say that he doesn't do anything without orders? Surely, there must be another mastermind behind it. Javert drops his end of the mat hard on the ground and scowls. )

What was your ploy? To steal away like a thief in the night and leave the rest of us behind? I did not think you honorable, but I never thought to take you for a coward.

[worthallthis]

[There we go. Someone is properly angry with it. The Soldier stops work entirely and ducks its head a little again, as if awaiting a more physical punishment than just the yelling. It reports quietly:]

I didn't think it would work. Even if it did, Aziraphale would have come back for everyone if we found where the ferry came from and it actually could have sent people back.

[Proof that at least it wasn't working alone, as Javert expected.]

But the crash was my fault.

[policier]

Which one is Aziraphale?

( Javert has half a mind to go after him right now. But he won't. He promised that he would be here for combat lessons tonight, and that is what he plans to do. Nothing is more important to him than his duty, not even something as irritating as this. )

Our supply line may very well have been cut off by you and your accomplice's antics. And you did not think to consult anyone?

[worthallthis]

Aziraphale. White hair, light coat, English accent. Lives with Crowley.

[The rest, while true and obviously the reason the Soldier should be getting punished by now, ends in a question that makes no sense. Why would the Soldier consult anyone? That's not its job. Is it? Crowley and Aziraphale made the plan on its advice, the Soldier's just the one that fucked it up. It looks up through the tangle of its hair and says, uncertainly,]

No?

[policier]

( Crowley? That's a man Javert's not overly familiar with, but he tucks that bit of information away along with everything else. He's certainly seen a man fitting that description around. It was an oddity to him, and thus, something easily remembered. )

Of course not. Surely if you did, then someone would have stopped you.

( The only thing that's pleasing to him is the fact that the other man keeps his head bowed. As he should, Javert thinks, frowning despite the fact. )

But enough. Others will be arriving shortly and I will not have this place looking unkempt when they show.

[worthallthis]

Yes, sir.

[Does that mean it's going to have to wait for punishment until after the classes? That's not going to be pleasant to have hanging over its head while trying to teach, but it's fulfilled more difficult missions in more stressful situations. So it accepts the reminder of its prior orders, and gets back to rolling the mat out.]

[policier]

( It's not intended to be a punishment, but if Javert knew that was what he was waiting for, he may have let it hang there over the Soldier's head all the same. He goes about the rest of his business quietly, seething just below the surface, but his expression gives nearly nothing away. When the training is over and the swords are put away, Javert seeks the other man out and asks, )

I trust you will be here the day after the next?

( There's something else he wishes to say, but he's going to be polite, for now. )

[worthallthis]

[The Soldier hasn't had much to put away, just the mats, since it hasn't spent any time this first day on actual weapons. So that's done, and it's pacing a circuit around the inside wall of the gym to get its emotional state back to baseline. This was a good thing, even enjoyable, but still hard.

At Javert's approach, though, spotted first out of the corner of its eye (the Soldier keeps close tabs on where handlers are at all times, when possible), it stops and turns to face him. Forces its expression into neutral and the plates in its arm down to stillness again.]

Yes, of course, sir. This is. Important work.

[And it's enjoyed it. Not that it will say that, but... it did.]

[policier]

It is. ( He agrees, his voice even, but becoming a little more stern as he goes on. )

And that is why I need you here, so that you can make up for what you've done. You will help the people of Beacon, however you can, wherever work is needed. You understand?

( That's to be his punishment. Javert sees little point in doing anything else, in locking him up or forcing pain on him. What good will that do? Nothing. It is better that he make up for what he's done, and repent for it. )

[worthallthis]

[That. That, is not punishment, Javert. That is basically what the Soldier would be doing anyway. The only real change is the implied order not to leave Beacon. The Soldier doesn't show surprise, really, but it does blink once, slow. Integrating that implication, adding the steel of orders to follow. Then it nods.]

Yes, sir. I understand.

[policier]

( He could scold him some more? But that would be just as pointless, given that the Soldier already knows he's done wrong. He looks pleased, at least, to hear the other man's understanding. )

If I find something for you to do, I'll let you know. For now, I suppose, our efforts will be focusing on rationing.

[worthallthis]

People on the network said we could go longer without eating, here. That will help.

[The Soldier may not engage with the network much, but it reads it obsessively. It's already decided to stop eating so damn much, itself. (Which sucks. But effective punishment, too.)]

Would you like me to watch the supply levels?

[policier]

( Now there's an idea. Javert gives him a nod, his look considering. )

That would be wise. The last thing we need is for someone to continue to gorge or horde supplies for themselves. I will endeavor to keep a watch on it as well. Perhaps we should even coordinate our schedules?

( Since they both patrol the town at different times, it shouldn't be too difficult. )

[worthallthis]

Adding a visit to the general store and Invincible to my route once a day would be simple.

[It hesitates, brain switching out of "self-pity" and into "tactical planning". There's some part of the Soldier that remembers keeping track of supply, to some extent. Not part of standard mission protocols, but... something else. The vague familiarity makes its sentences lengthen out, sound a bit less choppy and more natural.]

I don't know if I know enough about how to combine foods to know how to make what we have stretch, to estimate exactly how long things should last. But I can keep track of amounts of staple ingredients and do some math on it if given estimates from someone else.

[policier]

I know a little. Much of it is simply a matter of reusing ingredients, and saving whatever scraps we can for stews.

( Javert grew up poor, and as a police officer, he didn't have much of a salary. He knows how to make food stretch, how to conserve, and sometimes, how to go without. It isn't so great a hardship, not for him, at least. )

Though I do not claim to be much of a cook. I cannot say how long our supplies should last, not with any great certainty.

[worthallthis]

I will ask Handler Misty. She has been teaching me a little about cooking. She'll know.

[The Soldier knows how, too. There's something even beneath the programming that knows poverty and privation, knows rationing carefully to make things last, knows re-using and mending things until they can't be fixed anymore. It just doesn't always remember how it's done, now, with all of its experiences wiped away.

After a long moment of being lost in the attempt to chase that feeling, find any useful details to that vague memory-understanding, without any actual success, it shakes itself a little, blinks twice, and finishes,]

Sorry. You can just tell me when you will be checking, sir. I will fit alternating times into my schedule.

[policier]

Very well.

( The drawn out silence is disconcerting, but not so much that Javert feels he needs to draw attention to it. The Soldier snaps himself out of it quickly enough, and that is well. Javert looks satisfied, nodding and folding his arms across his chest. )

I shall send a note to you about it. We'll keep in touch. If there are no other pressing matters at hand, then you may leave.

( Since he suspects the other man might be waiting for his permission, he gladly gives it. )

[worthallthis]

[Why are you such a good handler, Javert. Even if you didn't actually give the Soldier any real punishment, you still seem to understand at least some of the things it needs. It ducks its head briefly, respect and submission.]

Thank you, sir. I'll be back in two days.

[And it collects its lantern, and heads out. Somewhere between bewildered, relieved, and hoping to hell Crowley doesn't get any more ideas about escaping, because now it can't help.]