[Exalted] Ship Shape

[Heaven's Reach ST]

Dojo

Exquisite Dynamic Synergy watched Kestrel carefully as she lead her though the ship, the alchemical exalted was extremely perceptive, far more then any mortal could be if she exerted herself, with the perception enhancements she had installed, and she could be more subtle as well. It was interesting to her that the girl seemed a bit more open and uninhibited then some of the more reserved member of the crew, she would have to keep watching her, and testing her a bit, see what else she could find out.

Meanwhile, soon enough they entered the Dojo, adjacent to the practice room and armory, which was carefully preserved and definitely devoted to the martial arts, as one might expect of a starship run by the Dawn caste, mirrors, weapons, a floor mat.. and Dyna stopped at the entrance.

"Here we are, practice grounds and Dojo, as requested."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel strolled into the dojo and looked around, taking it in.

Truth be told, it seemed a bit extravagant for a warship to have this kind of facility. Didn't they have simulations or something? This could be extra space for medical beds, or... Eh. She was digging pretty deep for criticisms if she had to go that route. Truth was that the ship was probably really old, and the room had once been storage or something, and when they refurbished it they decided to make it a dojo. Probably had something to do with Dan and his little woman.

She spun around once to get the whole layout, and wound up facing Dyna again.

"So what're the rules of engagement?"

[Heaven's Reach ST]

Dyna watched the other exalt move around the room, her eyes taking in everything the other woman did, doing her best to guess at what might be going on inside the woman's head. Of course, as a telepath, surface thoughts were open to her, if she wanted to push the matter, she did not, at least, not at this time.. maybe in the future, when and if Kestrel trusted her enough to allow it of her own will.. or if it was necessary to be certain of the other woman's intentions.

"For now, no charms or weapons, hand to hand only, let's just do a few exercises before we step things up a bit, test each other and see what we can learn from one another."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel shrugged and grinned, and brought her hands up into a guard position. Her friendly smile never wavered, even as she began to duck and weave sinuously in movements that suggested the 'Snake Style' of supernatural martial arts; head low, first two fingers of each hand extended, constantly moving...

It was a fake, of course. Any real student would spot the counterfeit. The point of it wasn't so much to fool an opponent into thinking she used Snake Style, it was to conceal the style she actually did use. And of course, if her opponent didn't catch on, it probably meant she'd win. Always nice to know.

The two circled warily, and right away Kestrel could tell that Dyna wasn't falling for it. Her guard was still very relaxed, very broad...not switching to the specific defense of neck and pressure points that one would use to counter Snake's lightning fast strikes on vulnerable spots.

Still...lets keep you guessing...

Abruptly Kestrel closed the distance. The vara shot a jab meant to force her back, but Kestrel ducked under it and leapt upwards exactly as she passed Dyna's guard. She tucked into a backflip, letting her feet fling out as she spun around to perform a kind of acrobatic roundhouse uppercut kick that Dyna was only barely fast enough to avoid.

Kestrel didn't have time to be impressed though. Dyna went straight from dodging to an attack of her own. Kes had only just barely touched down from her backflip when a metallic fist shot out, but Kestrel could see what was really coming in the slight pivot of her hips. She leaped again, letting Dyna's foot sweep woosh under her.

In midair, Kestrel, twisted her torso and swung her leg around with all the torque she could muster without anything to push against...which was still quite a bit. Caught off balance as she followed through on her low kick, Dyna wasn't fast enough to block that attack and was knocked sprawling over the mat.

Dyna was back up as fast as she was down, rolling to the side then back up to her feet and blinking just a bit. "Ow.. ok, enough, you are good... very good. So, besides the basics, what training do you have, and shall we unleash a bit?"

"You're good too," Kestrel offers sincerely, if perhaps a little lamely. This was why she didn't like sparring with people she didn't want to piss off. It was so goddamn awkward. "Seriously, we're probably at the same level overall. It's just...you know, one of us had to get the first kick in."

She grinned. "You okay? I'll buy you a drink." Did Vara drink? She hoped so. But then the rest of what Dyna had suggested sank in.

"Unleash?" Shit. Another reason she hated sparring. People just didn't let go. "You mean with charms? Eh...I dunno." She scratched the back of her head. "My techniques aren't really 'friendly match friendly', you know? They're kind of more...tear-a-hole-in-the-bulkhead-friendly."

"As for training, I had a teacher. Well, more than one, but one -real- teacher. The rest just built on what he taught me."

"Never mind then, a drink sounds good, I think, some time to let the bruises heal.. and I think this was worthwhile, for both of us." She walked over to the other exalted, and gave her a hug. "You're uneasy about sparring with me, fair enough, we can do this again only if you want too."

"Don't get me wrong," Kestrel assured her. "It's not that I don't think you can take it."

The hug is a weird gesture, either 'best friendy' or 'going steady' and neither one is really what she's going for...but she returned it since NOT returning it is just a dickish thing to do. Not do. Whatever.

"It's just, when you start throwing essence around, that's pretty serious. I'd rather find out I can't block one of your attacks when it wasn't glowing and on fire, you know?" And regardless of anything else, you're much too pretty to break. Then something occurred to Kestrel. Something to distract Dyna from sparring, and get herself some answers that she'd always wanted to ask about.

"But hey, maybe you can help me with something."

Dyna smiled and nodded. "I understand." She replied even as she shifted slightly so that the hug was more relaxed, she could tell that Kestrel was still uneasy and she wanted her calmer. "It would be my pleasure, what would you like?"

The Night caste grinned and reached back to where a hand-sized disc with holes at just the right spacing for fingers to go in was attached to a metal nodule which hung from a strap she wore over one shoulder and across her back. As she plucks the disk from its resting place, it emits a metallic whine, like steel dragged over dry ice, and blades snick out around the circumference, making it nearly twice as wide as it had been. The blades gleamed with the prismatic gold hue of orichalchum.

"I've been practicing with this, but I thought you might be able to give me some pointers. It's Vara-made, right?"

"Hmm.. we rarely make these out of orchichalcum, jade and adamant are more common, but sometimes." She inspected it a moment, looking over the lines, then gasped.

"This mark indicates this is is of the Maker's design, it was made within the free stellar intelligence, Autochthon, who's design we Vara had a hand in creating. I wonder if it was made recently, or during the wars." Even as she spoke, she shifted toward the other question. "I know of a essence related martial art's style that uses this, we call it Thousand Gears Wound style, I could give you a few pointers in that direction, though I have not studied that style yet myself."

Kestrel's mouth opened in a cute little 'O' at Dyna's words, and her eyes got all round and shiny when she realized the device is even more awesome than she'd thought it was when she'd nabbed it. Then her fox's grin was back in force as she grabbed Dyna in a giant bear-hug and whirled her around. "Pointers!" she enthused. "That'd be awesome! Dinner's on me! You're the best!"

The Vara was slightly taken aback as she was grabbed and whirled around, the hug was rather tight, but once she was set down again. "So, not just a drink, drink and dinner is it?" Her stance shifted slightly. "A dinner date then?"

Kestrel shrugged, still giddy at the thought of having a real goddam -Maker- artifact of her very own. "Sure! What kind of food do you like? Sky's the limit." She danced away a few steps, twirling with her arms out as she looked up at the ceiling, unable to contain her energy.

"I have no idea, I can eat and drink, but it's mostly a recreational thing with my kind.. pick something, I'm always up to try something new." The Vara responded, curious to see what the other exalt might have in mind.

"Okay, I'll check out the...oh, hey, when are we leaving port?"

"Not for two weeks, need time to work some bugs out of the ship, resupply, get the crew used to the new officers and all of that."

Kestrel beamed. "Great! I'll come get you in a little while, gotta see what's here. Gotta PLAN." She laced her fingers together and shook them, then exploded them apart. "Okay, thanks for this! Can't wait to talk more! Seeya!" Practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, she catapulted from the room to find a good place.

Dyna watched Kestrel depart with a slightly bemused look on her face. Her exuberance was quite remarkable to the vara engineer. Though she had seen people react that way before to things before, it had been a while.

(moar to come!)

[Heaven's Reach ST]

As she watched the other exalt depart, Dyna turned her attention to the matter of the ship, she and Kestrel would be spending a bit of time together soon enough, it was time to make a check of the ship. Moving to the engine room, she went to the computers and as she did, what looked like fiberglass wires extended from her hands and arms to directly hook into the ships computers, allowing her a full interface, and she sent a direct mental command, for anyone watching a dozen screens would be blinking between data as fast as thought.

Ship Status Update, Engines, Hull, Computer Systems, efficiency update.

Working on the she also pulled up on a secondary screen, location of shipmate Kestrel while aboard the ship, so that she could and would respond when Kestrel sought her out again. On the third screen she pulled up a access portal directly into her own mind, accessing the Perfected Lotus Matrix within her own head, filled with the vast degree of martial art's related essence inspecting her understanding and then nodded, as dozens of kata and then essence refinement techniques for what she was looking at.

Learning for Thousand Gear Wounds style is fully accessible, my understanding of White Reaper is sufficiently advanced not to be significantly impeded.

She continued to follow Kestrel until the other exalt left the ship, then set the computers to alert her upon Kestrel's return.