Alexander Faris || Gakuen Fantasia OU (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
class_struggle) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
phantasmalrift2018-08-07 02:32 pm
class_struggle) wrote in phantasmalrift2018-08-07 02:32 pm
First things first, I'mma say all the things inside my head [OTA Catchall]
Who: Alex and anyone else who runs into him
What: Training and training and training, with some relaxation at the end,all while wearing 100-ton boxer shorts
Where: the Station and environs; exact locations by prompt.
When: Over the month of August.
Warnings: Fight Club, general nerdery, possibly discussions of the mindwhammy he got from Joie Vivant
Alex is much cleaner, now, and smells faintly of grapefruit and cinnamon. He's replaced his adventuring clothing with jeans and red or pale blue button-down shirts, long sleeved but light. The utility belt and potions he keeps on his person, though; the goggles and hammer as well.
Week 1, library
His afternoons are spent in the library, enchanted waterskin to hand when he gets thirsty, reading everything he can on magic and the history of this world, taking copious notes on those colored index cards he found in town. When he gets up to leave it's because he's hungry, and he comes back right after to study more. When he stumbles back to bed he's exhausted.
Week 2, kitchen
When he cooks, he... mostly doing sandwiches, or frozen pasties/pot pies for his meals, along with fruit juices. Not that substantial, and fairly low-effort.
The one big exception is breakfast, which he doesn't skimp on - he does bacon or sausage, skillet potatoes, scrambled eggs with cheese and either jam or vegetables, and butter-toasted rolls - also with jam, topped off with milk or juices. If there are others in the room, he takes out a larger skillet and makes enough for more than himself.
Week 3, practice and fight club
Alex always finds time in the morning to visit the training grounds, Danger Rooms, and good areas to shoot fire outside the facility - but he takes on a particularly serious bout of training later in the month, at the height of the heatwave. He's brought a cooler of drinks and his waterskin, of course, but he's also back in his armor and bracers. Training from hell, indeed. Though he's not that bothered by the murderous heat.
He does elaborate practice katas, backswings with his hammer, followthrough that turns to footwork and new moves, surprising interspersals of gouts of flame from his hand or from runic circles he's burned into the rocks or the sand in glowing obsidian circles.
At some point in it he learns to slam his hands together with a kiai, and draw them apart - where his red-hot flames grow smaller but intensify, turning gold-white and hotter still; he grins whenever he manages that.
Now he's ready for fight club, if fight club will have him.
Week 4, Commons, games, It's time to d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!
He's started to teach himself Technophilia and other games, improving his deck from his early days with Phi, incorporating lategame and bolstering Harmonic cards into his old rushdown Force deck to create a midrange beast with an unstoppable Orbital force, a deck he calls The Only Way To Be Sure. His other experiments into Matter and Life techs are more combo-heavy and for fun, when he doesn't mind losing so long as he's learning.
He's still not touching Psychic decks. So that's something for his friends to challenge him with.
That's not the only game he plays; he's actually pretty fond of poker, and of boardgames (especially the more wargamey kinds), and looks through the Traveller gamebooks he picked up, contemplating what to do with them.
Shall we play a game?
What: Training and training and training, with some relaxation at the end,
Where: the Station and environs; exact locations by prompt.
When: Over the month of August.
Warnings: Fight Club, general nerdery, possibly discussions of the mindwhammy he got from Joie Vivant
Alex is much cleaner, now, and smells faintly of grapefruit and cinnamon. He's replaced his adventuring clothing with jeans and red or pale blue button-down shirts, long sleeved but light. The utility belt and potions he keeps on his person, though; the goggles and hammer as well.
Week 1, library
His afternoons are spent in the library, enchanted waterskin to hand when he gets thirsty, reading everything he can on magic and the history of this world, taking copious notes on those colored index cards he found in town. When he gets up to leave it's because he's hungry, and he comes back right after to study more. When he stumbles back to bed he's exhausted.
Week 2, kitchen
When he cooks, he... mostly doing sandwiches, or frozen pasties/pot pies for his meals, along with fruit juices. Not that substantial, and fairly low-effort.
The one big exception is breakfast, which he doesn't skimp on - he does bacon or sausage, skillet potatoes, scrambled eggs with cheese and either jam or vegetables, and butter-toasted rolls - also with jam, topped off with milk or juices. If there are others in the room, he takes out a larger skillet and makes enough for more than himself.
Week 3, practice and fight club
Alex always finds time in the morning to visit the training grounds, Danger Rooms, and good areas to shoot fire outside the facility - but he takes on a particularly serious bout of training later in the month, at the height of the heatwave. He's brought a cooler of drinks and his waterskin, of course, but he's also back in his armor and bracers. Training from hell, indeed. Though he's not that bothered by the murderous heat.
He does elaborate practice katas, backswings with his hammer, followthrough that turns to footwork and new moves, surprising interspersals of gouts of flame from his hand or from runic circles he's burned into the rocks or the sand in glowing obsidian circles.
At some point in it he learns to slam his hands together with a kiai, and draw them apart - where his red-hot flames grow smaller but intensify, turning gold-white and hotter still; he grins whenever he manages that.
Now he's ready for fight club, if fight club will have him.
Week 4, Commons, games, It's time to d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!
He's started to teach himself Technophilia and other games, improving his deck from his early days with Phi, incorporating lategame and bolstering Harmonic cards into his old rushdown Force deck to create a midrange beast with an unstoppable Orbital force, a deck he calls The Only Way To Be Sure. His other experiments into Matter and Life techs are more combo-heavy and for fun, when he doesn't mind losing so long as he's learning.
He's still not touching Psychic decks. So that's something for his friends to challenge him with.
That's not the only game he plays; he's actually pretty fond of poker, and of boardgames (especially the more wargamey kinds), and looks through the Traveller gamebooks he picked up, contemplating what to do with them.
Shall we play a game?
Gaming
It's not the first time she's referred to Technophilia by that name. She tried playing it a couple of times, and acquitted herself modestly well with one of Alex's spare decks, but found deck-building to be both difficult and boring, so she hasn't dueled since, restricting herself to using borrowed decks in multi-player games where an early defeat won't ruin her opponents' fun.
Re: Gaming
He realizes he’s sliding into babble and stops to ruefully smile.
“ - in any case. I’m more interested in seeding a star with planets and adventures than being the adventurer, I can do that at any Fissure. And I’ve dice enough to loan out, if I can find players. Though I may... soften results that outright kill a character in the prologue.”
Re: Gaming
"Heh. Sounds like Traveller. I heard you could die in chargen in that. Some editions at least."
Re: Gaming
“Among other things, it posits a world with starkly limited magic, and that in a mystical tradition,” he says, faintly smiling. “But it seems you’re familiar. I think I’ll need three or four others, though.”
Re: Gaming
"Oh hey cool," Harriet says. "I've only heard about Traveller but it sounded fun. I played a little Magic and 5e in middle school, you know, when I was scruffy and unpopular and one of the guys. Then I got cute and the nerds got weird about hanging out with me even though I'm gay, but I was still unpopular because I'm brown-skinned and neither Black nor Latina. So until I got into the cape life I had, like, nothing going on in high school." She shrugs. "Water under the bridge I guess."
It's clearly very much not, but it's also clear she regrets spilling her soul like that.
no subject
Of course, in his case, it had the context of a human-passing orc saying as much to him.
"You are most welcome to join our ship, if we can find a crew," is what he actually says. "Always. Or for anything else I find that catches your interest."
no subject
"Thanks, Alex," Harriet says, with a smile whose warmth reaches the depths of her eyes rather than her usual devil-may-care-but-I-sure-don't grin. "You're a pal, you know that?"
[ooc: +Trust, or level up your Confidant, or however you want to put it :D ]
common room
Hey, got a minute? Seems like you're the resident gaming guy, and I dunno how you play this one.
no subject
[Regardless of the answer, he starts to look through the cards - sorting them, absentmindedly, by color/border and cost.]
...more factional divisions, it seems, unless... do they represent adventurer classes?
no subject
[She shrugs.]
Your guess is as good as mine, probably.
no subject
I wouldn’t be opposed to that expedition; there were still bricks yet unpried from the storefront, [he comments, voice supremely dry.]
no subject
[She winks, cheerfully unashamed of her larcenous streak and the fact that her reputation has apparently preceded her.]
Never know when you might need a good brick.
no subject
Jailbreak, I presume. Marco and Lily think highly of you, among others.
It's worth a daytrip. We can stop by one of the less stable areas on the way and grab the regenerating buffet.
no subject
That's me. Nice to meetcha, mister card sharp.
[Because God forbid that she actually ask his name instead of giving him a dumb nickname like she does everyone else she meets.]
Sounds like a fun time, sure.
FIGHT CLUB
Hey, lughead. [ so rude. she says it cheerily though, though. ] You up for a punch out?
no subject
[Still, he points that hammer and grins. He has been looking forward to a spar.]
I'm not averse. Unarmed, weapons only, or full sword and spell?
no subject
So how about we start off unarmed and see how things go?
no subject
[He sets aside his hammer, off the mats. Then stretches.]
I'll allow you the first move... or rather, it's to my advantage to.
no subject
[ That's oddly restrained, coming from Erina. ]
no subject
Besides, if I try to beat you in a contest of speed, I'll surely lose.
no subject
[ And then with no warning whatsoever, without any indication that she's about to strike a blow, Erina lashes out – not with a punch, but a kick. There's a grin on her face, a look of mischief in her eyes – they might be on a reasonably level playing field but Erina's got no intention of fighting completely fair. ]
no subject
And he just - curls his arm up to catch her leg, intently analyzing every single vector of this complex physics problem.]
You're fast - On par with Miri and Grey -
no subject
no subject
[It sure is, buddy, and the real blow catches him right in his jaw. He spins with it, seeing stars for a moment, before catching himself on one knee three paces away.]
Hhha. Haha. Not bad at all.
[He considers. Her big advantages are natural speed - and, if this were a magic duel, innate power. He has to rely on analytical skill, tactics, and superior strength. It's a fair fight, unfortunately.
He springs into a feint of his own, the obvious uppercut into the actual body-blow that won him entrance into the Academy.]