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Atlas Gym, Saturday Afternoon

Ghanima was rather sure any serious training would be frowned on aboard a ship full of students and civilians, which is why she was at the gym today instead of packing.

Crysknife sheathed and ready at her waist, she carefully picked-up two bladed disks, weighing them carefully in her hands before hurling them into the air where they separated into ten spinning weapons.

Ghani grinned sharply, settling into the opening stance Alia had taught her so long ago. First, she would see how many she could deal with unarmed.

[OOC: Open gym is open! If you want to see Ghanima's idea of a workout, you can see it here.]

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Even if Minsc wasn't a bear right now, he didn't exactly have a lot of things to pack, so he wouldn't be doing that, either. Still, being a bear was pretty boring unless you were doing something fun with it. 'Fun with it,' he decided, would mean mauling things; far be it from him to take advantage of the battle capabilities of a new form! He didn't think mauling things in the preserve or threatening people to fights would be a good idea, though, so he went to the gym, hoping to at least find some practise dummies.

He did find, too, some very interesting training already going on, and decided that he could sit and watch it before tearing things apart with his new and impressive jaws.

There was... a bear. With a rather distinctive purple mark over its face.

"Sir Minsc, I presume," Ghanima laughed, knife slipping free of its sheath to take out one of the discs. "Do you make a habit of being a bear?"

With a very bear-y grunt, Minsc took a moment to, as if embarrassed (although he certainly wasn't; there was nothing embarrassing about being such a great creature), cover his face with his paws and shake his head, pretending to be rueful. Boo on top of it clung onto the fur of his head to keep from falling off in the motion. He then put his paws together a little, clapping a little, both in appreciation for the find work that Lady Ghanima was doing in the gym today and for her astuteness in recognizing who he was.

Ghanima smiled as she moved forward, knife flashing as she parried away more of the blades. "You seem to be making the most of it," she remarked, careful to keep any of the hovering weapons from targeting him. "Or at least, not moping about."

The sound that Minsc made was a very good one for a bear to communicate that he was a little puzzled; the tilt of his head (sending Boo scrambling again) probably helped as well.

Minsc just couldn't grasp why anyone would turn into something as awesome as a bear and mope about it!

"One of these days, the island is going to catch up with me, and it'll be my turn for an animal transformation," Ghanima called back to him. "I must confess, I'm almost looking forward to it, just to find out what I'd be."

Leto had named her the lioness of Atreides. Ghani was slightly curious to see if he was right.

Minsc chuffed out a response to that, but, as a bear, it was hard to exactly vocalize that he would be very intrigued to think on what sort of animal Lady Ghanima might become, but would never be so ungallant as to assume anything, as he did not know her very well, yet.

So that was one thing about being a bear. He could crush a man's head with his jaw right now, which was very handy, but, should he have a nice thing to say to a nice lady, it was a bit out of the question.

The last of the practice discs clattered to the floor, and Ghanima shoved her hair back out of her face as she turned back to him.

"Poor Boo," she exclaimed, finally noticing the hamster along for the ride. "He didn't get to be a bearcub too? What a shame."

She started gathering up the blades, snapping them back together for another round. "Did you want a spar, Sir Minsc? I'm not sure I would know how to oblige you."

Minsc was starting to think that miniature giant space hamsters were impervious to this sort of thing, really, but the thought of engaging in a spar definitely perked his ears.

It would certainly not be his usual sort of spar, though, and he had to imagine that the Lady Ghanima would realize that the fighting would call for something much different from his typical approach. He sat up a bit, to make his question of intrigue a bit more obvious, giving his front paws a few swipes in the air to make it known that, should she want to battle against a bear, he'd be very honoured to be that bear.

"I'm always up for a challenge," she mused aloud, setting aside the blades and selecting a weighted quarterstaff instead. "I rather think I'm about to get pinned by a bear - " and here she shot him a smile - "but it shall be educational."

Minsc took a moment, carefully putting his paws to his head so that he could move Boo and safely set him down a moment before striding (as a bear strides, anyway) out to where there was more space. He let out an encouraging sort of roar, and nodded his head, inviting her for the first blow.

Ladies first, after all.

Sure, that had gotten into plenty of trouble and lots and lots of pain in the past, but it just felt wrong not to do it that way.

Ghanima watched to be sure Boo was safely out of the way before following Minsc, rolling her shoulders as she got used to the weight of the staff.

At the implied invitation, she ran the last few steps, lashing out with the end of the staff toward the side of his head.

In a normal spar, Minsc might have taken the hit to the head to see what sort of strength his opponent had or he might simply block the first hit with his arm, but he was sparring here as a bear. He had to think like a bear.

...How did a bear think?

Minsc decided that a bear would go straight for the a bearhold on his attackers legs, and take the staff to the side. A bear might also go to sink their teeth into the attackers shins, but Minsc was not really a bear, and that wasn't very nice in just a spar, besides.

Edited 2009-02-22 04:42 (UTC)

Ghani yelped in surprise, scrambling sideways to reverse the swing of her staff and bring it down across his nose. "Bad bear!" she laughed, trying to keep her balance and not fall over.

She had fought countless people and animals, but never sparred with a person-animal before. As much as Ghanima wanted to win, she didn't know how to fight with a bear without going for the kill, and it was making her pull her shots.

Oooh, a bop on the nose was a very good move! Minsc was definitely understanding that a bear and his nose could sometimes have a very love-hate relationship. He loved that it was very good for smelling. He hated that it smarted quite a lot when it was bopped.

He had to shake his head a little, but then, with a resolute growl, tried to dig his paws into the floor to keep from slipping, pushing in low in an attempt to get Lady Ghanima off her feet.

Another two quick bops, and Ghanima tried to jab the end at his throat as a plan formed in her mind.

The bear could not knock her over if she pulled a Boo, and was on the bear's back.

Three more blows, aimed at his sides with a good amount of force behind them to try and drive him back and gain her a better footing.

Oh-ho! A clever one, this one, though Minsc was not at all surprised about that. He made a little growl in throat at the maneuver, swiping back with his paws at each blow, a little too late on each one to be effective at all.

Each one got a bearish grunt at their force and then, promptly, Minsc rolled over on his side with equal force, hoping to undo the footing she'd gained.

Ghanima yelped as she fell backwards. "Oh, well that's not fair," she sulked, swinging hard to keep him equally off-balance as she scooted back to gain breathing space and get back on her feet. "You're bigger than me."

Minsc took the hit (he almost always did), shaking his head as he scrambled back up to his paws and tried to quickly (quickly wasn't ever his forte, especially not as a bear) kept on Lady Ghanima so she didn't get to her feet.

His goal just might have been flopping right on top of her. It seemed a very bear sort of thing to do.

Besides, it wasn't like a dragon was going to care and stop trying to eat or burn you just because you pointed out that it was bigger than you.

In all truth, Ghanima was used to her opponents having more mass than she did. She was just used to things like knees and arms making lovely targets to hit.

Ghanima planted her staff between them vertically, trying to use it as a lever to keep Minsc off her.

"We are doing this again when you're person-shaped," she informed him, drawing her knife to prick at the underside of his paws. Nothing that would draw blood, but they would be dammed uncomfortable if they connected.

Ow!

Minsc shook his paw at the prick, only to only do the same thing to get it pricked again.

Ow!

Hegaveout a little chuff of agreement that this would be far more interesting if he were armed as well, but, as it was, he would just try to knock Lady Ghanima's hand with his paw to disarm her.

Even if a lot more pricks occurred.

Disarming Ghanima would be much harder than that.

She focused inwards, summoning speed to keep him from knocking her weapon away. The fight might be easier if she used all her training, but Ghanima liked the challenge.

More pricks, and Ghani kicked out to send the end of the staff hurling up towards his chin as she rolled backwards and got back to her feet. A moment to gather herself, and she sprang at Minsc with knife drawn. She'd either get batted down or score a hit.

Or both. Minsc, as man or bear, was the sort of fighter to take a hit and, while taking it, use the proximity to score his own. Taking the jolt to the chin, he staggered back a little, getting used to the feeling of the hit in this body, and when she came in again, he sent a massive paw swinging to return the favour.

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Atlas Gym, Saturday Afternoon

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