[OPEN] centaur archery lessons + oska interludes

[kisha]

CHARACTERS: Hayame (kisha) & you
DATE: 8/27, general Oska period
WARNINGS: none at current
SUMMARY: post this poorly worded offer, Hayame hosts archery lessons, and also can be found in various Oska locations

０１ ↣ 弓道教室 ↣ ARCHERY LESSONS [OOC information on the lessons here]

[You are one of the few, the proud... or perhaps, the desperate or foolish... who have signed up for archery classes run by one bitch-faced centaur lady. She has targets set up along the tree line between the village and the forest of Oska, and she trots along the line of students, watchful as a hawk for any sign of mistakes, lapses in attention, or slacking off.

Her tone is not kind- she barks out orders like a drill sergeant, occasionally whips an arrow out of her own quiver to demonstrate, and sometimes just stands there like a stone, arms crossed irritably over her chest and tail swishing in agitation. (Don't worry students- it's not you, it's her. Or maybe it is you.)

If you need help... maybe raise your hand. Or mess up- she'll be there in a jiffy.

Also, don't you dare say anything about what may be... nail polish she failed to fully scrape off her hooves.]

０２ ↣ 禊 ↣ "PURIFICATION"

[Really, she should have expected this. It wasn't like she didn't know her own body, and all its damnably female weaknesses. But with everything that was happening, her world having been turned upside down... it had snuck up on her.

There is a small waterfall in a clearing of the birch forest of Oska, and Hayame can be found there, scrunched under and leaning on a hand pressed to the rock behind it. It might look like she's meditating, just at first glance, what with the waterfall and all, but she's far too irritated for that, her expression cross and looking even more so with her black hair slicked to her skull and down her back, thin equine legs shivering in the cold.

At the sight of someone joining her in the clearing, though... the jinba can only glare through her slick bangs, lip curling up in a sneer. Hello?]

０３ ↣ 恥の秘密 ↣ LIBRARY SECRETS

[Navigating the interior of the Oska castle is not Hayame's favorite thing to do- not many people seemed to build their dwellings to fit horses, and it makes her uncomfortable, being encased so deeply in stone, surrounded by magic and tech she doesn't want to begin to understand. But she's on a mission, and she eventually manages to make it to the library.

Where she takes up... the entire aisle between bookshelves with the broad width of her flanks. A bit of a problem if you're trying to get past her, because she's not moving, frowning deeply, her fingers moving slowly over the spines of books, trying to find anything that looked like the characters she was familiar with.

If you don't say anything... she definitely doesn't care that she's blocking your path. (Also... has anyone ever told you the dangers of approaching a horse from behind?)]

０４ ↣ 厩の世迷言 ↣ STABLE MUTTERINGS

[Hayame does not sleep in the rooms ALASTAIR provides for their recruits. The castle is less forgiving to the four-legged, and she was never allowed anything but a stall before. It's all she's comfortable in now. At least this place sees to fresh hay and clean quarters- even if she has to share it with a variety of creatures she finds... unpleasant.

If you happen to be in the stables in the morning... you might just overhear a woman arguing with a giant goat. A horse woman arguing with a rather magnificant example of the goat species, actually, punctuated by some very loud noises that might just be... hooves kicking a stall door.]

If you sniff me again, I will skin you and use your horns for drink cups! Do not test me!

０５ ↣ 腹が二つ ↣ SHE'S GOT TWO STOMACHS

[The one thing Hayame is willing to go into the castle for is food. Even if she hates that she doesn't see any actual cooks, she has to eat far more than a human does to maintain her body, (as anyone who paid attention to her weight loss in prison would notice). She tries her best not to speak to anyone, to really be involved with anyone at all, not above outright ignoring people as she gathers food to take out of the castle.

But she can't find what she wants, and that unfortunately means... talking to someone.]

I heard there were peaches- have you seen any?

[There are some, part of a fruit basket. She just... hasn't ever seen one in person before, give her a break.]

Comments

03!

[signifies]

[ Clark is lost too. The library is huge. There's so much to read, and he's sure the librarians are going to frown if he uses super-speed for anything.

"Anything that looks interesting" is too vague. He's hungry for all the knowledge here. Some of it could be about Krypton, but Clark has long since learnt not hope for that too much. He keeps looking, just in case.

Clark doesn't see her because he's carrying a pile of books. He hears something in front of him. X-ray vision tells him it's a centaur. How cool is that?

Somehow, he doesn't fanboy her immediately. ]

Pardon me, ma'am.

[kisha]

[Hayame thinks she has found the right section, an area of the library where the books are written in kanji script, but they are unfamiliar to her despite the recognition of type. Learning to read had not been a part of her education- both for the sake of time and also trust. What human lord wished his messenger to be able to read his missives when they ought only deliver them?

But her fingers skim over the spines, looking for anything that seems... right, brow furrowed, muttering under her breath, focus solely on the dizzying array of characters-

Until the voice suddenly cuts in, at the same instant she realizes there's someone right behind her, (now, of all times, and the voice sounds like a man-) and before human rationale can catch up, already beginning to start, to color in a mix of embarrassment and irritation, human hands clutching to chest-

A back hoof lashes out towards Clark's legs.]

[signifies]

[ It might have occurred to him to fly upwards. Clark dodges (none of the books topple!) and keeps his distance. He looks out from behind his pile of books. ]

Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. [ Sheepishly. ]

01

[secondnature]

[There are two things that are apparent before long: that Keith picks up on things very quickly and he doesn't like having orders barked at him from someone pretending to be a drill sergeant. It's not as if the former thing has anything to do with the latter. Keith has always been good at things without trying. The problem is that he's always felt like "authority" can be shirked, which is why it's a good thing that Audentes hasn't ever appointed a leader.

After all, he would purposely be as contrary as possible.

It's not that Keith doesn't know that he's supposed to be better. He got kicked out of school for not being better. He's a leader of a team who's supposed to be better. But old habits kick in, and after his frustration leads to him missing a shot by quite a bit, he lowers his bow and glowers at her.]

Stop already. You're making this harder.

[Sometimes Keith is good at tuning people out. Right now, he's resisting telling her that he preferred sparring with her to being her student. (Though there's a chance that's still going to fly out of his mouth soon.)]

[kisha]

[His missed shot is greeted with a frown, and she thinks to lean over and flick his bow into proper position, but it's down, and he thinks he knows better how to instruct the bow.]

It shall not be quiet on the battlefield.

[Surely he knows this?]

The cries of men and the dying screams of their horses- that will make this hard.

03

[spacerhyme]

[ the doctor'd spotted her between aisles a bit earlier, mentally noted that they've got a centaur-form species here, and went back to doing what he'd been doing (browsing titles, himself.) he's read everything that's caught his eye up till now - he's a fast reader, and he's had weeks - and he's really just drifting through this section at this point. lazily flipping through books at random and hoping to strike gold.

but he notices, after a few more minutes pass, that she seems to be having even less luck than he is. could be that she's seeking out a rarer, more interesting text than he is. so he peeks around the shelves (safe distance) and asks her, ]

Looking for something?

[kisha]

[Safe distance was a good call.

She starts once she realized someone was actually speaking to her, stiffening up in a combination of surprise and chagrin, hastily crossing arms over her chest and biting her lip to prevent any of her more instinctual responses. This human was well aged, and in a place of much learning such as this... so perhaps he was some sort of... keeper of the books.]

I seek a book in the language of my world. Have you any written in the... women's script?

[An awkward red creeps up her throat as she forces out the admission that she requires not the educated works of men but the simpler characters used more prominently by women and children.

Forgetting, of course, that though she speaks Japanese... people hear things very differently in their own ears, and so language won't be the way for them to tell just what exactly the language of her world is without saying so.]

01!!

[hedonistic]

[Kagari's far from a stellar student. He cracks jokes, generally acts like a smartass, and occasionally asks nosy questions about her whole ... centaur-ness, because he's still not over the fulfillment of all his nerdy fantasy RPG dreams, okay. He probably gets smacked a lot, and he definitely whines and sulks like a two-year-old every time it happens.

But his saving grace is that he's not actually bad at the archery itself. His reflexes, she'll find, are excellent. He's got great aim, if not a whole lot of upper body strength specifically; his build isn't exactly suited to it, and it's hard to build up muscles in your arms when you spent most of your life cooped up in an isolation facility.

In fact, it seems the majority of the difficulty he has is getting the appropriate amount of tension in the bow for enough power to send the arrow all the way to the target.

One such arrow falls short, startling a bird on a nearby branch, and he S I G H S, puffing up his cheeks like a squirrel before he lets the air out like a deflating balloon.]

Man, I get why nobody ever uses these anymore. It's like five times the effort for a fraction of the power.

[kisha]

[She's almost getting tired of smacking Kagari... who may or may not be one swift kick away from getting expelled from this... "class".

But his problem with the practice is evident, and it's not something that can be corrected with a different stance or better sight, something that takes time... which she assumes he will not last through. But she had said she would do this, and even though she regrets ever even attempting to work the magitek yesterday... here she is, a warrior of her word.]

And yet, if one has power...

[One of Hayame's arrows streaks past Kagari, (a bit close to his cheek, honestly), and finds its target- the breast of the bird he startled, the now dead creature pinned to the trunk of the tree.

Don't smacktalk archery when your teacher is in earshot.]

01

[digiorno]

[If it were any other situation, any other encounter with Hayame, and Giorno ran across her with nail polish anywhere on her person, he would be as obnoxious as possible about it just because he could. Today, though, he's all business.]

[Today he seems like a different person, in fact. He's unflinching in the face of Hayame's loud commands; it's different from the constant high volume of his home in crisis, but he knows how to function in chaos. Even an arrow flying past his head doesn't cause him to flinch, because he's used to that too--bullets rather than arrows, but the principle of lethality is about the same.]

[Overall, he's better at the construction portion than the practical application, although even at that he's not terrible. The issue is twofold: he's got incorrect habits to unlearn or redirect from amateur gun usage, and his upper body strength isn't quite up to par. Still, he's a good listener, at least. The second Hayame hollers a correction at him, he adjusts without a word of complaint, and he tends not to make the same mistake twice.]

[About halfway through the lesson, he does take a break to stretch his shoulders, laying his bow carefully at his feet so he can hold one elbow with the opposite hand and stretch his arm up to the sky. He looks--frustrated? More than anything, he wants to improve at this, and as always he struggles with putting the cart before the--well, you know.]

[kisha]

[The nailpolish had been an ambush, she had nothing to do with it, and now it won't come off??? Someone send help.

She hadn't expected Giorno to actually show up, let alone to take things seriously. Hayame had come down harder on him initially than the other beginner's, not only because of her distrust of him and his motives, (what, honing archery to help in his shady activities?), but because... he actually possessed a certain degree of skill she could work with.

When he begins his stretches she just canters past him, because a certain someone thinks that their bow is a toy and she has to correct that right now, but.

She comes back.

And pokes him in the back with the hilt of her katana, (she isn't about to touch a grown man with here bare hands, let alone now, when she's having trouble keeping her damn tail down around the stench of testosterone as it is.)]

Stretch this one.

[The muscle she's... poked.]

01

[ofobedience]

[And he's here, despite himself, the first time he's bothered to emerge from the quiet flower-strewn privacy of his room, at least of his own volition. There's still a visible reluctance in him, something morbidly subdued, but this is the first sign of effort to engage that he's made since the party, if one discounts his earlier network communication.

Because there's something to be said for organised violence, something soothing in the act of firing a weapon. Perhaps it'll even help lift his tarnished spirits a little, who knows.

For the moment he's silent as he fires off arrows into the target with ruthless precision. Doesn't even mind her barked-out orders or her general coldness. It makes this easier, if anything. No effervescing emotions getting in the way.]

Hah.

[And yet, the sound is made a little flatly, with muted enthusiasm, as he strikes the bullseye of the target, yet again.]

[kisha]

[There were those here who possessed martial skill. Despite her call to pay mind to the weakness of some, and those who seemed to take offense at what to her was mere truth, the "team" itself possessed many who were strong.

That included this man.

Hayame watches him closely. He is not an archer, for though he has muscles and power in that lithe body they are not built in the way she knows from experience come from the repetitive draw and fire, the strength required to pull a full-sized bow back and hold. But his aim is impeccable.

Eventually, frowning behind him, she finally comments.]

It seems to me you may not require much teaching.

01.

[wolfchild]

[ mastery of the network is something she still lacks. zokla did not so much ask for a lesson as become curious, drift over, and end up staying.

the last time she held a bow, it had been a longbow and no matter how she tried she could not draw it. she had been promised a lighter bow in her size, but that promise, like so many others, came to naught. the new bow is lighter and she is stronger, but it still takes her time to get used to it. her fingers soon ache, and there are times she wants to throw the bow down in frustration.

she is determined, though. often returning early or staying a little longer, practicing as part of the group or continuing on her own. she works her way through a quiver, picks up every spent arrow, then returns to her starting point to do it all again.

still she favors the sword. she goes through the water dancer's stances and dreams of a slender hilt made perfect for her nine-year-old hand. she is all of eleven now, though, and the bow is real and useful so tries to remember not to chew her lip, and listens to the instruction, and says nothing to eyes boring into her back or cruel observations. they only make her double down on her efforts.

the first time she hits her target, she smiles.

the second time, she thinks the first was closer to the center and chides herself. ]

[kisha]

[A child had appeared, but Hayame had not turned her away. A child could die just as easily (easier) than an adult, and in her own world, the village she had been ripped from, she had taught even younger than this, mere foals with their tails still short and fluffy with youth. There had been no helping that, for every member in a group made of orphans and the lame needed to be able to defend themselves... this ALASTAIR had little excuse, but.

The human child is more serious than some of her adult students, so she doesn't need to harangue her so much as actually advise. The young were often too weak to work the bow for long but the child keeps coming back despite, and gradually Hayame starts paying her more attention.

The second time the target is struck she is standing just behind, towering at seven or so feet tall, silent with arms crossed, facial expression it's usual stony mask, until out creaks,]

Good work.

04

[deemed]

I warned he was a stubborn thing.

[Odinson has a barrel over his shoulder, standing easily in the entrance.

It's been a few days since his talk with Loki on the network, where the man suggested that the jinba could do with a drink and... other things. Hm.]

[kisha]

He will be a stubborn pelt if he keeps turning his nose in my dire-

[Her instinctive reply cuts short immediately when the swing of her head actually drives home who that familiar voice belongs to, and she stiffens immediately in surprise, coloring slightly in embarrassment even as she feels her tail lift slightly.

Damn his masculine cadence and silhouette.]

- Odinson.

[That would... surely do for a greeting.]

01

[feytality]

[Maybe surprisingly, for all her Mayaing and frivolous behavior and messing around, when Maya actually shows up to her lesson, she's focused, and serious. Most of the time. Sure, Hayame catches her getting distracted once or twice, but Maya endures any snappy remarks with a nod or, at most, a comment or two under her breath when Hayame's out or earshot. Her construction is on par and she's incredibly quick to pick up on that part, but when it comes to the actual shooting, it doesn't come as easily]

[But the problem seems more to be hesitance, than anything. She stares the targets down before shooting them, then her own hands and formation (even after Hayame corrects them), like she's second-guessing herself. As such, her first couple of shots are misses. The third, which, incidentally happens when Hayame barks something at her and startles her--]

Eek!

[--actually lands close to the target, and Maya forgoes the serious training mode (and recovers from being startled) for a second to pump a first into the air] Hey, I hit it!

[kisha]

[If the gods existed, and apparently they did, Hayame was pretty sure at this point that they despised her. Her charitable offer to uplift the weak had faced mockery and exposed her to ridicule, she was yet marooned in a place that made her feel like she'd gone insane, she'd been robbed even of her chance to take her own life... and to top it all off, she'd gone into heat yesterday.

If she's feeling a bit testy... it's only partially because she thinks half of her students are wastes of her time.]

So you did.

[She doesn't bark that one, but her tone is hardly kind, arms crossing where she stood behind Maya, having been watching too close to mistake that shot for precision aim. To celebrate such a mistake-]

Now, attempt it again.

05

[unholey]

[As it so happens, Fugo happens to be looting the fruit baskets in search of his own favorite: strawberries. This would probably be a lot easier if the kitchen would just set out a little bowl of strawberries but, no. It must be working out some lingering celebratory spirit, because all of the fruit has been arranged prettily into fruit baskets.]

Peaches? [Fugo looks over his shoulder-- and then up, because of how tall Hayame is-- at her question, then down to the baskets.] -- yeah, there are some right here.

[Fugo sets down the handful of spears that he was de-strawberrying, so he has both hands free to fish out a pair of peaches from the basket to hold out to Hayame.]

[kisha]

[At least this person (someone she vaguely recognizes from her recognizance but has no name to attach to) seemed to know his way around a kitchen counter.

Hayame does her best not to look annoyed or impatient, but her "attempting to look neutral" face always just comes off looking bitchy anyway, lips pursed and brow furrowed. To have to ask for aid for such a thing as this-

But then he presents her with two peaches, and she leans down from the waist to look at them more closely, skeptical.]

Is the flesh not supposed to be white?

[The concept of different breeds of fruit is another that escapes her.]

05!

[qarn]

[ titan isn't exactly making a regular haunt of the kitchens, but he's spent more time in them during his first few days than he'd like to admit. he too tries to adhere to a strategy of avoidance; it works best when there's more than two people present, though, and it takes him a moment to realize there aren't any other potential targets for hayame's question. guess that means he has to respond, then. ]

Sorry. They're right... [ his voice trails off as he actually turns to face her. somehow, hayame's appearance is equal parts stranger and more sensible than he was expecting.

the multiverse, huh. his ears flick when he realizes he's staring, gaze sliding over to the fruit bowl instead. did she just not see it? ]

[kisha]

[They're right... ?

Hayame, displeased by his lack of answer, turns towards the bright-haired man and waits, arms crossing beneath her modest breasts as she waits...

Follows his gaze to a fruit basket, half the contents of which she has no idea about, and back to him.]

Did you misplace your tongue?

4, tags this three weeks late because i do what i want

[bladefaire]

[ The stables hold no particular interest for Lon'qu most days, horseback (and ....otherback) riding not a skill he's ever bothered to learn or will ever bother to learn. Still, he's not deaf, and so when a few choice phrases drift outside, he can't help but stick his head inside, a look of deep consternation on his face.

Recognition flickers his eyes at the familiar form, though his voice holds no particular love as he speaks up (probably because he's sulking over his defeat at her hands some days earlier). ]

What in the name of the gods are you doing?

[ You're interrupting his perfectly good training session here, how rude. ]

look at u go

[kisha]

What in the name of the gods are you doing-

[Automatically, Hayame turns her ire on the next thing that presents itself to her with a male scent, her physical senses heightened towards that particular detail while her more intellectual sense rejected base instinct.

And actually recognized the intruder as the man who had been so keen to spar with her not days past, sharp teeth clicking audibly as she bites back the rest of her rushed response, fingers digging into the wood of the stall.

(Why were there so many men in this place?)]

...

[She intended to say something else, but instead, she grinds her teeth.]