Private Fight! Fight!

[Astri Elyse]

Tag: Aris Noble

Astri hoped that Aris would be okay with her change of their plans. He had seemed really excited to spar, after all, and she had kind of just thrown a wrench in that. Sure, it was out of fear for both their safety, but she'd hardly blame the boy if he was disappointed. If someone offered to do something with her that she enjoyed, only to back out, she'd probably be at least a little bummed.

The way he seemed to grimace at the idea made her shrink into herself though.

"O-or we could do something else. O-or I could let you get back to your training. I'm sorry—"

"I can show you the basics of Epicanthix in turn, then. It would be a fair trade I think."

But then he spoke with a smile, and Astri was left extremely confused. But... at least Aris didn't seem to be upset with her. That was a victory, and she decided to take what she could get. Victories weren't very common, at least in her experience.

"I, umm... the Epicanthix have their own unique forms?" She asked, a little meek, "I... I had no idea."

All that time sheltered on Eshan, reading about galactic history, but she'd never bothered to read about other cultures. That had come back to haunt her on a near daily basis since leaving her homeworld.

 

[Aris Noble]

"Every family has their own distinct style based on the core of Epicanthic unarmed. Their history, the cultures they're ancestors hailed from, all change it to something personal to them. .. The Echani aren't the only warriors in the galaxy." He was practically grumbling by the time he finished his sentence. There was a lot of assumption that the Echani were it for warrior cultures outside the Mandalorians, and Aris had already faced that down too many times for him to be comfortable.

Still, he didn't want that to taint the conversation so he brought a faint, if brief, smile to his face.

"Why don't we start with your forms, yeah?"

Astri Elyse

 

[Astri Elyse]

Tag: Aris Noble

Astri nodded meekly at Aris' explanation. He was grumbly, but smiling, and she wasn't sure what to make of that. The bigger boy seemed nice... but really intense. It didn't scare her per se, but it did make her a little nervous around him. It reminded her a little of her father, stern, serious, and harsh. But... she supposed Aris hadn't proven himself to be harsh yet, so maybe there wasn't anything to worry about?

"I-I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I-I've never left Eshan before coming here. I'm not very educated on other cultures."

"Why don't we start with your forms, yeah?"

She nodded with pursed lips. Then she set her shoulders back, and lifted her chin. Astri didn't know how to be confident... but she also couldn't hide behind her shell if she was going to teach Aris how her people fought.

"O-kay!" She tried to project her voice, "Aris, what do you know of my people? Do you know why we fight? What it means to us? Those things are just as important as the forms themselves."

 

[Aris Noble]

"I don't. The Epicanthix view the Echani as a formidable culture of warriors, but also don't much care for fighters who leave their heart on their sleeves." Echani fought with the intention of communication through their form, as far as Aris was aware. It wasn't something he liked too much himself, even if he could understand the why. But, at the same time, he figured there was something far more to it all, and he waited for Astri to explain.

Astri Elyse

 

[Astri Elyse]

Tag: Aris Noble

"I don't. The Epicanthix view the Echani as a formidable culture of warriors, but also don't much care for fighters who leave their heart on their sleeves."

Astri frowned. It wasn't the first time Aris had lambasted her people. She was... she was upset. But she didn't have the nerve to say anything about it. So instead, she swallowed her feelings, and stuck her chin out once more. If Aris wanted to view her people through the biased lenses of his people, fine! She'd just have to prove that there was more to them then what he'd been taught.

"I-It's not just about feelings." She defended, "it's communication. It's about learning just who it is you're fighting, and having a dialogue with them. It's an intimate process, ingrained in our culture. You might not be able to grasp that part of it, having not grown up in it as I have."

In a way, it was like learning a whole new language. Astri, who knew a few of those, thought that was a pretty fair comparison.

"But you might find it more interesting if I put it this way: to defeat your enemy, you have to know your enemy. To know your enemy, you have to fight your enemy. And when you really boil it down, that's all that our forms are: coming to know someone through fighting."

 

[Aris Noble]

"Yeah, you have to know your enemy to defeat them. Or your enemy has to know you to defeat you." Aris tilted his head in confusion. It went both ways in his mind. "Your people teach you how to communicate. Mine teach you how to keep your foe from being able to understand and beat you. I'm not trying to insult your culture, just, that's how it's viewed. 'A warrior culture that focuses on openness where they should focus on control and restraint.' .. I don't mean offence."

Astri Elyse

 

[Astri Elyse]

Tag: Aris Noble

"Your people teach you how to communicate. Mine teach you how to keep your foe from being able to understand and beat you. I'm not trying to insult your culture, just, that's how it's viewed. 'A warrior culture that focuses on openness where they should focus on control and restraint.' .. I don't mean offence."

Astri opened her mouth to refute Aris, but stopped. Because... he had a really good point. If the Echani forms were about being open, then that also meant being open to an enemy, didn't it? Astri had never fought a real foe in her life. She'd only sparred with other Echani, who, appropriately enough, had read enough of her from her fighting to trounce her utterly.

And suddenly, Astri wondered if she'd stumbled upon the reason she had struggled with the forms all her life. All because Aris had made an observation that she—usually quite observant—never had.

"That's... fair." She admitted, "I really wish I could argue, but I can't. I imagine if you use our forms against most people, they'll have no idea what you're doing or how you're communicating. But if you're using them against another Echani—not even just that, against any other warrior with a modicum of knowledge of martial arts—you're really just letting them read you like an open book."

She paused, brows furrowed.

"I... I don't know how to get around that. I think it would take a better Echani than me to figure that out," Astri drooped, "but... if you want, I can at least show you the kata still?"

 

[Aris Noble]

Aris shifted from one foot to the other. He'd upset her. He could see he upset her. He had no idea what to say or do about that. He cleared his throat as he reached up to rub the back of his neck, trying to figure out something to say. He didn't think of anything, though, and just nodded. She offered the Kata, and that was enough for him to at least smile again. That he could agree to.

"Okay. How do we start?"

Astri Elyse

 

[Astri Elyse]

Tag: Aris Noble

"Okay. How do we start?"

"I'll show you the kata I practice, and you try to imitate my movements."

Astri took a few steps back to give herself some space, and lowered herself into her opening stance. Kata was a precise, practiced thing. A true fight was too chaotic, and too fast for kata itself to be useful—but practicing the motions made them second nature. Made them become an ingrained thing, that instinct could call upon.

When Astri moved, she moved slow so that Aris could watch her. Her movements were like water: fluid, one palm strike leading into the next without jerky motions or sudden halts. It was almost like she was on auto-pilot, her body running through the form without her thinking about it. And, in a way, that was exactly what was happening.

"There are three tiers to our marital art," Astri explained, even as she demonstrated for Aris, "I can teach you the first one. Every Echani—every person who learns our forms starts with the foundations, just like with any path of learning. And that starts here, with this very kata."

 

[Aris Noble]

Aris nodded once as he followed her guidance. Her movements. There was an almost robotic way he held himself. Not flowing, but copying the flow in an artificial way. He was skilled at keeping up, though. His mind was far too keen on just being able to copy what he saw. But it was more than that. He followed her movements, rather quickly internalizing them as his own. "It's different from my people's. It's more like a dance than combat."

Astri Elyse