Don't Throw Andrew in the Well [CLOSED]

[Koninbeor]

Not far from the tavern known as Soliloquy rests an old building that has remained unoccupied for many months. The building has been purchased recently and equipment is moving in slowly but surely. Unlike most buildings in the area, this one contains nothing that a person can purchase. The former shop is one large square room with eight symmetrical windows a door in front and back. The ceiling is vaulted, high enough for a Roegadyn to clown around without causing structural damage. Wooden floor has been carefully swept, and actually seem to be the structure's cleanest feature.

 

Each wall is filled with racks which remain mostly empty. The north wall holds a collection of wooden weapons, obviously meant for practice. The south wall supports some cheap plate armor suits of low quality. The east and west walls have nothing but empty racks. A large training mat takes up nearly half of the floor, placed in the room's exact center. The training mat has the symbol of Rhalgr carefully stitched in vibrant violet. Several combat dummies seem to be randomly placed along the east and west walls, and they have seen a great deal of use.

 

Dawn is approaching soon, only fifteen minutes away. Mikael is in the center of the training mat waiting in Chinese style splits. He faces the eastern entrance, eyes closed and head bowed. He wears nothing but a pair of loose-fitting white breeches, chosen for comfort rather than style. Sweat pours freely down his carefully sculpted body, hands resting at both hips as he awaits his first arrival.

[Gullio1]

A few minutes before dawn, a skinny, average height Highlander walks into the room. At first glance, one can see he was clearly not prepared. His clothing may be meant for comfort, but certainly not training. He walks in wearing a long sleeved green shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to his wrists, and a clean white pair of pants.

 

Walking into the building, he has but one thing to say. Shoes in hand, he asks, "So, where do I put these?"

[Koninbeor]

Mikael does not look as the question is asked of him. Instead, he gives an exasperated sigh, shaking his head slowly. "Anywhere but in here. You are late. Why do you even bother asking me such a question?" The Highlander's baritone voice is sharp and his jaw sets tightly. He places the palms of his hands onto the mat and straightens his arms, raising his legs up off the mat slightly. The broad-shouldered man holds this position for a few moments and then leans forward, bending his elbows slightly as he shifts his body weight, pulling his torso up and straightening his legs. He pushes with his arms until he is up in a handstand and then bends his elbows, only to give a final push and a grunt as he throws himself forward onto his feet. His icy blue eyes glare at Andrew.

[Gullio1]

Andrew looks at Mikael during his acrobatics with wide eyes, but he quickly regains his composure. "Because some people wear shoes during training, that's all.  Besides, I'm not late. It's not dawn just yet."

 

Andrew puts his shoes down in the corner of the room. "Alright then, so, what now?"

[Koninbeor]

"Oh, I see. So I you are saying that I, the instructor, am incorrect on my assessment of your punctuality? When I say be here by dawn, that means you show up fifteen minutes early. Minimum. You are late. Now you will run laps around this room until I grow weary of it. And I do not mean jog, boy. You had better run." Mikael takes a few steps forward, crossing his arms as his eyes narrow.

[Gullio1]

Andrew sighs, and begins running laps around the room. After 7 or so laps, he begins panting.

[Koninbeor]

Mikael shakes his head and sighs as Andrew becomes winded almost instantly. The man actually does a facepalm halfway into lap seven and then starts rubbing his temples absently. "Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop..." The large Gladiator looks to the smaller man with utter disbelief, all the of the anger and rage completely gone. "Are you trying to deceive me? Is this some elaborate jest? Is there anything you can do besides drink yourself into the floor?"

[Gullio1]

Andrew paces down to a stop, still panting heavily. "Sorry.. Never had to run for this long before.."

[Abaigeal]

A hint of a musical chuckle sounds softly from just out side the door. The usually barefoot dancer leans against the wall with one leg crossed over the the other ever so casually. She pushed off the wall and stands tapping a brown knee high-ed boot on the ground as if to adjust. She stretched raising her fingers to the sky her white cotton shirt rose slightly granting a small glance of a belly button that peek out above white cotton breeches. She has her favorite daggers in her dagger garter attached to her thigh. The laces of her shirt were casually loose. Not enough to be considered coy or flirtation with the intent of getting glances. However if one looked hard enough they would find her white small clothes barely visible. 

 

Not quite ready to disturb the men by making her presence known...though knowing Mikael He had already know she was there. After all he had invited her to come by. She slowly makes her way in like a cat with cautious steps of a dancer. Slipping into the corner by Andrews shoes she takes a knee and watches.

[Koninbeor]

"Andrew... The number of people you have been mugged by in the last two weeks actually exceeds the population of Ul'dah, Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa combined. You have been beaten to a pulp so many times that I do not think the world's greatest scholars can keep them all on record. How is it even possible that you have not ran more than seven and a half times the circumference of this room? I... I honestly find that so unfathomable that I fear my brain may actually explode and begin to ooze out of my ear." Mikael's words actually do sound sincere. The look on his face is one of shock and awe. He is so dumbfounded by the scenario that he has difficulty even thinking of what to have Andrew try next. "Pushups. You can do pushups, right? Drop and give me... a lot. Just... just drop and start doing them. And please do not count. I do not desire for the disappointment of your performance to cause my heart to stop beating."

 

Many rumors circulated about the broad-shouldered Highlander in Ul'dah but the rumors of Mikael’s stature were impossibly innacurate. They said that he was nearly 8 fulms and weighed around 400 ponzs. In truth, he was just under 6 fulms, 7 ilms and weighed 272 ponzs. Another rumor that was gaining prominence was that the Gladiator had broken a Roegadyn’s arm during a test of strength. Mikael’s sculpted form did little to discourage this rumor. His body was completely free of scarring save the small collection on his face. Each muscle was carefully defined by obsessive design, giving him the appearance of being chiseled from a single slab of solid stone. Claims that the young man was so heavily scarred that he was unrecognizable as a Hyur and that he did not even need armor to stop a deadly blade were clearly exaggerated. He had but three scars on his face, each with a tale to tell and a hard lesson learned; a vertical one over his right eye, a second diagonal scar on his right cheek, and the third another vertical mark on the left side of his mouth. The only other mark of note was a strange tattoo just below his neck on his back. The mark was a deep black and was a stark contrast to his fair skin tone.

 

Icy blue orbs shift to the side cautiously as Mikael detects movement in the room. He kicks himself inwardly for his lack of attentiveness. No one should have entered the building without him knowing immediately. He lowers his arms to his sides, fingers curved slightly as he lowers his chin a bit. "Whoever that is, you had better have no ill intent. I am not in the mood to give quarter today."

[Gullio1]

Andrew pants for a few moments, until he hears what Mikael fully says. He glances over to the corner and waves to Abaigeal. Then, he places his palms on the floor, gets into a pushup position, and begins the exercise.

[Abaigeal]

It was rather sad watching Andrew run about. Sad and yet comical. She pressed her lips together in a tight line as she looked the poor lad doing his push ups and shook her head. The kid had potential that was for sure. Twelve he really couldn't be that weak!?!

 

Emerald orbs continued to on look until a deep baritone voice that she was surprised hadn't called out to her earlier boomed with in the moderately acoustic room. A wry smile painted over her lips as she stood rolling her spine as she did so standing to her full six fulms and two ilms. 

 

Slow yet deliberate footsteps could be hear as she crossed the floor. One foot in front of the other her natural dance posture causing her hips to move a bit more languid then they should. The soft brown supple leather boots soon stopped a few feet from Mikael as she turned her head and pursed her lips.

 

"Ah'm shocked ye didn't hear me enter..." She smirked casting her emerald hued gaze up to her instructor. She took a few extra cautious steps toward him lolling her head to the side and quirking her brow. "So...did ye ask me to stop by to cast a raise or a cure on the lad? Or on ye when ye fell utter disappointment??" She chuckled and teased clasping her hands behind her back. Sheepishly she hooked her right ankle behind her left and stood watching One...or was it half of one? Alright maybe it was two push ups being done by Andrew.

[Koninbeor]

"Abaigeal." Mikael turns his head slightly as she approaches, sighing softly as he hears Andrew struggling to make a pushup. "I asked you to stop by so that you could show the boy how to train properly. You have had some practice at that. I did not anticipate, however, that he would be unable to take off his own shoes without becoming winded. COME ON, Andrew. The object is to PUSH your body UP away from the floor."

 

The Gladiator turns his body so that he is only watching Andrew out of the corner of his eye once Abaigeal stops her advance. "Cure? Raise?" Mikael's lips turn upward into a full grin and he shook his head, chuckling softly in response. "I spent some time in Gridania shortly after my..." He cuts himself short, eyes turning slightly as he carefully chooses better words. "I had some trouble in the Coliseum and decided to take an extended holiday in Gridania. I studied the arts of conjury there for some time before deciding to return to what I do best. If the boy needs healing then I can see to him, though I will likely not be as generous as you would be." He looks back to Andrew, shaking his head with a long, drawn out sigh.

[Gullio1]

As hard as Andrew tries to do pushups, he continually keeps failing at it. It would appear he was just too tired to actually do them at any decent pace without panting for a minute. His breathing begins to morph into a wheeze.

[Abaigeal]

She blinks and looks to the Mikael with a chuckle. "So Ah can...what?!" She quirked a brow and burst into a chuckle. "Alright...if that's what ye want..." She smiled and paused tilting her head to the side. "Ye mean ye know healing magics too?" She mused though it was obvious she wanted to fish about more.

 

A hand ran through raspberry colored locks and shook her head. "Ye know..Ah think Ah might ask ye about it some other time."The corners of her lips curled up almost making it seem that her emerald hues were smiling as well. Unhooking her ankles she scuffed a foot on the ground looking to her toes.

 

 

With a bit of a sigh she stretched to the ceiling. Her shirt rose a bit but fell as she shook out a bit of tension. "Well..here Ah go... ye coming?" She purred patting Mikael's shoulder before sauntering over next to Andrew. Gracefully she knelt down to the ground and assumed a push up position she could tell the lad was tired.

 

" Come on...ye can do this..." She waited for him to come back up and slowly lowered her toned frame the floor and pushed back up. "The trick..to make yer self think yer not tired...ye like games and challenges Aye?" She grinned and winked. As the two make at least two or three push ups in a row.

[Koninbeor]

Mikael nods wordlessly to Abaigeal's questions, not offering her any kind of explanation. He seems satisfied when she puts the inquiry on hold. The large man does not respond immediately when he is asked to come, choosing instead to simply watch as the woman gets down onto the ground next to Andrew, encouraging him by doing pushups alongside the little man.

 

The Gladiator takes a few steps over to the pair after she manages to get the run to do two full pushups. Mikael stands up tall, rising to his toes, and then leans forward. He falls forward to the ground, nearly falling onto his face. His hands reach out at the last possible moment to catch him and the Highlander's icy gaze moves to Andrew with a sly grin. "Are you going to let a girl beat you, Andrew? Maybe you should change your name to Anita."

 

Mikael pushes himself up from the mat and holds his body steady. He pulls his left arm away from the ground, placing it behind his back, lowering his gaze to the floor. Carefully, steadily, he lowers himself on one arm and then exhales slowly as he pushes himself back up. He pumps out enough one-handed pushups to catch up with Andrew and Abaigeal. "Time to be a man. Get to it, Andrew. I am going to feed you to Abaigeal if she manages to beat you."

[Gullio1]

Andrew's face morphs into a grimace as he begins to wheeze harder. His pace is significantly slower than Abaigeal's or Mikael's. Half way through his sixth pushup, his arms begin to wobble, his face reddens, and his wheezing turns into a loud, hacking cough.

[Koninbeor]

Mikael does a couple more one-handed pushups and then hears Andrew hacking like an old man with a bad cough. He pushes himself up, straightening his arm completely, and moves the other arm from behind his back down to the ground. The large Highlander pulls his knees to the ground and rises up to a kneeling position, spreading his knees wide and pointing his feet inward so that the big to on each foot bare touches the other. "Enough. I cannot teach you, Andrew. You do not have even a tenth of the constitution of a half-starved orphan. If you ever want to be more than a punching bag then you are going to have to work. Here is what you will do. You will come here every day at dawn. Every day. Every day you will run one hundred laps around this facility. After you are finished, you will drop to the floor and do one hundred pushups. I care not if you have to do them from your knees like a weak little girl and I care not how long it takes you. You will do this EVERY day. And I will not show you a single technique until you can show me that you can run one hundred laps and immediately drop to do one hundred pushups without stopping. Once you have shown the dedication to do this, I will teach you. Now get out of here before I become cross enough to break your nose."

[Gullio1]

Andrew stumbles up onto his feet, still breathing very heavily. He rests, leaning on his knees for a few seconds, then responds. "It's okay... I'm fine. I'm fine, I can continue."

[Koninbeor]

"No, you are not fine. You did six pushups. Six. Go home." Mikael gives an exasperated sigh and rises to his feet, shaking his head slowly as he points to the door. "Leave now."