<@Dreol> [Buda, Hungary, April 29th 1262, 10:30 PM] <@Dreol> [Rolf and Eliana have found a large, empty dungeon room. Probably used for interrogations. There are several shackles and instruments of torture on the walls, but the floor is mostly clear. Screams can be heard from other parts of the dungeon.] <@Dreol> [Begin.] 06* Rolf has told Eliana to meet him in the dungeons, and not in her finest clothing, given what she's asked of him. He's sitting there with a wooden practice sword, and a not-so-wooden practice sword, one across each shoulder, just leaning slightly forward and waiting for Eliana. 06* Eliana walks briskly into the room, paying no mind to the screams. She's wearing peasant traveling clothes. "Here, then?" she asks Rolf. 06* Eliana , for the record, still has the two talisman-turned- bracelets: one on each wrist. Now that she's not in a cloak or wearing a garment with ridiculously long sleeves, they're pretty easy to see. 06* Rolf nods a little curtly and stands slowly. "Easier than pinnin' up a deer carcass for you if things don't go so great." A small pause, then, "I don't know how to get you to, uh, get you understandin' how to get to being tough-as-Kindred, but it's gonna involve some pain." Don't figure you for havin' been a page before, so I don't expect you've got years wortha beatings in yer past. 06* Eliana smirks a bit. "No. Women being pages... that's not typically an option. I have masqueraded as a boy in my time, but it wasn't for combat." She looks around, assessing the room and then Rolf. 06* Rolf chuckles a little lowly and says, "Yeah... my sire'd disagree, but she ain't really here to argue your sida it." He hefts the wooden sword. "So here's how I figure it. When mortals get tough, whether they're kine or deer or whatever, it's 'cause they get hard. Scarrin'. Calluses. And that's useful when someone's hurtin' ya. A lotta the time, it's still cuttin' and bashin'." 06* Rolf puts down the sharp sword. "But then I was thinkin'... we Gangrel are always a little extra tough, and that's what you're here for, right? But the other things we're naturally good at, as Kindred... dealing with animals and bein' like the beast inside. How's that anything like that toughness that us Gangrel got?" 06* Rolf then gestures idly with the wooden sword. "So, c'mon over and brace. I'm, uh, gonna soften you up a little before I tell you what I'm thinkin'." 06* Eliana eyes Rolf for a moment, then walks closer to him and braces herself against the wall. She looks... far less than eager, now that Rolf's actually doing what she'd asked him to do. 06* Rolf exhales slowly, and then suddenly swings the wooden sword around for Eliana's midsection. Fast, but with no followthrough, so she can't dodge it, but it'll bounce off her. Painfully. 06* Eliana winces and hisses through her teeth, but outside of that, she doesn't do anything. 06* Rolf does this a few more times, mainly aiming for the shoulders and body. His face is pretty flat the whole time, but his eyes glow as he looks at Eliana for her reactions. 06* Eliana doesn't resist, really, though her eyes squeeze shut after a point and her fingers curl into the wall. She does manage to hold her tongue, though. 06* Rolf exhales and stops, letting the sword rest on his shoulder again. After a moment he says, "No matter what you figuer out 'bout being this special kinda tough... most of the time it's still gonna hurt. While you're figurin' it out? It's gonna hurt. And your body ain't built to make it not hurt any." 06* Eliana remains still while Rolf talks, and after a time, her fingers relax. "No. I've been too busy training my mind." But it's become clear that focusing solely on what I have a predisposition for won't do. 06* Eliana remains focused a point on the wall while she talks. 06* Rolf shrugs a little and says, "Well, this is gonna be 'bout your mind some. Because you're gonna be a bit sore. But here's what I figure... the reason Gangrel are tough is because that thing inside us, that animal bit... it's got toughness, and we're the closest to that animal." And then he swings again for her midsection. You- 06* Eliana lets out all of the air in her lungs when the sword hits, and she has to take another breath to say, "You want me to harness the Beast?" 06* Rolf shakes his head slightly. "It ain't like that. It ain't 'bout snarling and snapping, it's like..." he trails off, then idly swats at her again. "It's hard to explain this to someone who doesn't do physical stuff much." It's like breathing right, but instead of breathing up your strength, or breathing up your speed, you breathe up that... toughness that the Beast has. 06* Eliana was more prepared for that strike, and she weathers it relatively well. "I've not had to breathe for a long time." 06* Rolf sighs. "I know. But I do anyway. Learned it a long time ago. And you watch soldiers train, young... and they teach 'em about breathing. You breathe right, and it's like breathin' in strength. But Kindred... instead of breathin' in strength, we can breathe in... fortitude. Maybe it's like drawin' from a well instead?" He swings again for her shoulder. "But I think that's why Gangrel get 06* Rolf it. We're right near the beast. Just like how we can make our eyes glow." It don't need to scar over or anything. 06* Eliana winces as she's hit again, and she has to try to not fall. She's trembling, slightly, and it shows in her voice. "Breathing then. Bracing oneself." 06* Rolf nods a little. "Right. Just tryin' to get that... toughness and pull it into yourself." A small pause, then, "Like when I stood in front of that demon's fire. It just hit me and... nothing happened. Like it broke upon the rocks." He swings around to her other side. 06* Eliana tries to breathe, but the breath is knocked out of her. "How do they teach soldiers?" she asks, when she gets it back. 06* Rolf chuckles a little and says, "Practice. And then they beat them senseless while makin' em practice, 'cause if you lose your breath, you'll lose your footing and then your head. Same as anything when you're a soldier." He swings at her again. You gotta do it right, then you gotta do it when you're tired, hurtin', and wearin' a bunch of metal. 06* Eliana gets hit again, but her breathing was a bit more steady that time. "Should I stand without support?" 06* Rolf shrugs a little. "It's not a big deal now. I don't really want you fallin' over either, and I don't wanna break a bone on accident, which is what I'd do if I kept hitting you over the shoulders." We'll probably get some of that when the weapons get sharp. 06* Eliana says, calmly, "I expect as much." For that matter, once Rolf started talking about breathing as a way to focus, she's become increasingly calm. 06* Rolf nods a little and swings around the sword again. Thwack. "Sometimes Gangrel talk 'bout this, they talk about it coming out when they got nothin' else left. But really, uh, I don't know much about teaching anything but the mortal side of fighting." So this'll probably take a while. When I have nothing left... Maybe. 06* Eliana gets smacked again, then continues, "I typically respond with fire." 06* Rolf chuckles lowly. "Yeah, that's pretty good. Maybe your beast is more, uh... something on fire. Is there some sorta thing that's always on fire?" 06* Rolf resolves his confusion by hitting Eliana in the upper back, off-center. 06* Eliana laughs, and then she's hit again, which seems to knock the laughter right out of her. Still, she sounds amused: "The sun." I don't think yer beast is the sun. 06* Eliana snorts. "No." She takes a breath, readying herself. "Yours?" 06* Rolf shrugs a little. "As any other. A wolf, a bear, a big furry hunter." He swings the sword around in an arc, not pulling it nearly as much as it connects with her side. 06* Eliana lets out a little shout, and her fingers dig into the wall again. [End, I think!]