Martial tutelage at the boxing gym

[Galina]

Grabbing another one of her bars with a light shrug.
"Do we though, or are we just so used to it?" Taking a smaller bite. "What do we do because we want it and what do we do because those around us want it, or for those we care for?" Another smaller bite. "Whatever they might bring so can we get stuck in a cycle that literally only brings pain, but is hard to break." One grand bite with the bar gone. "I genuinely do not know, but those are questions that does linger more on my mind ever since I started to see the world without the eyes of others to guide me." Loneliness does come with a price.

Softly shaking her head.
"I donīt think itīs that simple, its all the moving parts, but at the same time you are also right." Placing her fingers out into a peak to deliver another strike at the sack herself. "Control helps in a fight, or when I teach it as well it follows what I can grasp, it is soothing, it might sound odd but the martial arts and their boons have always helped keep me calm, even in the heat of a real fight there is calmness." A constant roar of anger, and ferocity but in a sense also dulled. "That, is not a bad idea but it feels like I might be generalizing people if I do that, does it not?" Turning her head over to her student with a puzzled look. "Well you werenīt flirting or wanted to draw attention to make your beauty seen so maybe your hair was getting in the way of your eyes or bothering you?" Those being the main two things she could think of and the attention one just feeling off.

Eyes quickly drawn over to Helen as she spoke. At first thinking she would have followed up with the martial words but quickly realizing it was words aimed at her, feeling the redness of her cheek slowly rise with each sentence, falling silent with a beating of her heart, pushing down the feelings that she could never let show.
"N..No, it sounds wise, just, just like a challenge I am still far from being able to fully tackle." Gulping with a slight look away, cheeks blushing red. "I am working on it though." With a varying degree of success. "I like those words, he sounds like a wise man, that was very much how my father taught me martial arts." Completely oblivious in the moment to how that might come off. "Ill, Ill, try that, thank you for your words of encouragement, they are appreciated, and very sweet." If they only knew the source.

The potential sarcasm of the words having slipped her totally by, having been to engulfed in her own nerves to even think of it. The little chastisement catching her off guard, only to rapidly move on from it.
"Knitting? That sounds fun, what kind of things do you knit? I have never had the patience for that." Nor really the stillness. "So umm any teams you are rooting for or sports in particular you like?" Wanting to ask about her job but feeling that two questions was already a limit stretcher. "Ohh well I watch TV with Amaya, my dog, and exercise some hours each day, along with streaming or filming for my job." Rapidly thinking for a moment. "When not those so am I either out drinking, or reading a light novel, or visiting the museum or other culture event. They are setting up the classic nutcracker in a couple of months that I plan to attend."

Looking back and forth between the two, not sure how to say anything or what to say so just rapidly firing off her own comments without much apparent sense.
"Yes big guy with a really calming aura but clearly some issues and it is a relief that he was alright my own skills for checking not really the best so I wasnt sure but it is sometimes hard to tell with those kinds of damages and it is not the easiest to know without deeper checks my own field is to deliver these kinds of things not to check for them so didnt really have a clue but it is still a shame it came to such potentailly serious issues both Helen here and the giant did seem to have a lot of good sides from what I saw that first meeting and even further proved by Helen here now have not seen him again since though but he had this calming effect around him a" Losing her breath with a light cough, having fired of far to many words in a jump back and forth between them both without a breath.

[Verity Carmen]

Okay she had a point about habit. "Habits are things we still want to do, if there was no want they would not become habit. Coercion still breeds a sense of want to even if that is a misplaced idea of duty. If you did want to do it strongly enough you would not." Now the reason for the want could be good or evil or fear or a myriad of other factors, but it was still want. "Trapped yes we can trapped by what we have been manipulated into wanting. Domestic abuse for example." Dangerous waters. "Terrible thing that it is, many don't even realise they are in it because they want to believe in love, or another justification." It's all about what you want to do, or want to believe I guess.

A shrug. "So what? sure you might need to start with generalising but you didn't start martial arts being a badass able to do all the stuff you can now, you started with the basics." I'm assuming anyway. "So do the same here start with the basics, get more comfortable with the general way of people then move on to things more subtle and more advanced." Exercising more then a modest amount of restraint to not tease the other, that would not help here. "Yeah exactly you got it. My hair was in my eyes so I moved it." See that easy. "It really can be that easy." A smile and thumbs are flashed the way of the martial arts master. Helens example while perhaps a little physical in its framing does convey the same idea and also works to sooth Verities concerns a little regarding Galina's affiliations. The Reeve was a straight shooter in her book so she was playing nice then it was a good chance Galina was fairly safe. "Ideally with less getting beaten up and more social embarrassment that fades as you keep working on it. But yeah otherwise what she said." No need to muddy the waters with a deluge of advice.

And thus she lets talk of interests exchange without butting in, quietly content to let this friendship blossom and see where it goes.

Talk of the giant was rapidly losing interest for her but the Reeve sounded like she was suggesting he walked out and lived the night so it was just a happenstance dust up. "Sounds like he got what eh deserved and walking it off was as a lucky night for him. Maybe he'll think twice before messing with people again hey." Although Galina seemed to have met some vastly different giant. "Calming? A guy who stepped past the line enough to need a beat down?" She can be a strange one that's for sure.

[Galina]

Simply shrugging.
"Maybe, maybe not, I am not an expert in these matters. Nor do I have many traditions I uphold, but I also have nothing that binds me to them." The shrine is for me though, as is the picture of him and our family, just as much as it is for his ancestral spirit. "True, what shapes our minds, what shapes the world around us, what shapes our perception can be just as much good as cruel, to break either harder than we tend to give it credit for." So many who claimed those in such situations were just weak or stupid for not leaving, the comments just disgusting. "What is stronger than our own mind to reason the most strangest of things, to give a horrible situation cause? Sometimes we need the look of a childs innocent eyes to truly see how messed up things are, or find external aid to break the pattern, or rather make us see that we need to."

Raising her arms as she strikes against the boxing bag with a wide unrefined swing worthy of an amateur of amateurs, utterly missing it to nearly fall forward, leaning backward with a stumble and falling on her behind.
"I would say that is pretty much where I started." Jumping back up after her little demonstration, as much meant to answer the question as to encourage her student. Eyes drawn down, looking away for a moment. "I know, I know that you are right, and it is what is needed, it is just a long road, but I will slowly traverse it." Just need to be careful, the wrong people, the wrong word, I do not want those red hands again but how should I explain that a rageoholic is calm in comparison to what happens if I get to angry? "Of course it was, but I fail to see how that ties into social situations." Looking a bit puzzled, not really sure what the exact message was rather trying to puzzle it together from a myriad of possibilities. "Thank you, both of you, I shall keep it in mind, and do my best." This country really do have some nice people. Softly chuckling only lightly forced. "I believe that I have embarrassed myself enough that doing it again will hardly make a difference."

Nodding at her single friend, hoping the number would soon indeed be counted as two the attempts with the young blonde had utterly failed after all.
"Yes, he made my spine tingle, screamed caution within me, literally towered over me, and looked like he could pop a persons head like a balloon. I havenīt met anyone else with such a calming effect since coming back to this country." Her face turning into a mixture of calmness filled with exhilaration, showing her own expression to be just as much at odds as her words.

"It is getting late though, does either of you need a ride home, I do not mind sharing a taxi if thats the case." Looking over to Verity. "Work on your fundamentals and next we meet so can we get into a bit more advanced things, otherwise I recommend looking up my videos on different at home training routines, thank you for letting me try to have a physical student for once I really appreciate it." It had been truly fun.

I will be closing this scene tomorrow morning if anyone want a last post in, thank you for the scene.

[Helen Kingsley]

Helen laughs. Loud. A lot. "That guy has been called a lot in his life, but wise ? That's a first. I'll let him know the next time I see him. He'll be insufferable for days, I bet." She goes right back to laughing. Yeah, he'll like that. What she likes to knit ? "Practical stuff. Scarves and socks, mostly. You can never have enough socks. Most other stuff ? Haven't had lots of need for those."

"Seattle Seahawks mostly. Reno 1868 was kinda okay, but they ain't there anymore. Sacramento Republic doesn't do too bad, although the college team is kinda shit, but they're improving. I mean, can say a lot about the States, but some good soccer is hard to find. There's also my home club, but I mostly don't get too many of their games over here and they've been really shit for like 10 years now, so the less said about them the better. So yeah, I do a bit of Football on the side, but I'm mostly into soccer. Dipping my toes into baseball lately."

Helen shakles her head.

"Nah, got my bike to take care of. But thanks for the offer."

[Verity Carmen]

It does great some interesting moments of reflection. "We are the wardens to the prison that is our own existence. Fully in the power to set ourselves free to frolic in fields. In the same breath we are held prisoners by none but ourselves in the cages we conjure with our minds." Funny isn't it, how not true that is. But it had expressed her thoughts and feelings on the very human condition of being trapped by tradition, habit, and your own self. And who would set us free but ourselves. A lonely sentiment. "I get that fails to really capture the image of it all, coercion, actually prison and all that." No need to have anyone thinking she was unaware of the vastly more complex nuances that came with putting one foot in front of the next.

Galina's example near mirroring most of her own pretty poor attempts of the evening. Nice to know we are starting in more or less the same place then. "You know I think I have yet to see you go all out." Now that could be an interesting comparison. Before an easy shrug. "It will get better, just keeping going at it, because hey as you've seen it does work from time to time." Point and case herself. And if the embarrassment doesn't stop her it will get better.

But now Galina does get a look that says something akin to ... what the fuck? ... "Well I think that's all I need to hear to put that guy on my steer clear list." No dangerous giants. "Because head popping is not under my definition of calming." Quite the opposite in fact.

A hand gestures to the doors. "I got a ride but thanks." Galina knowing that Verity drove of course after being dropped home. "Speaking of we should probabaly call it for tonight." And then the advise given to which she nods. "Yeah I will do, and thanks for showing me the basics." A warm as she can make smile is given to the strange young woman. As Verity collects her odds and ends.

Thanks for the scene both, was a fun one