trans_9 | Tavros: Train. For once. [Closed]

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Tavros: Train. For once. [Closed]

Tavros has been on the meatship long enough to understand the grand-scale war they're all caught up in. Even if there was any way to escape it, there's no ignoring the sheer amount of training and battle preparation the entire crew gets up to.

And Tavros has been avoiding all of it.

Not out of fear, or unwillingness to fight... it's just a bit hard to joust when your steeds were all accidentally left behind to become Ohm fodder. The wheelchair can work, but it's just not as practical, and he's been a bit self-conscious about needing something so specialized.

However, there's no doubt in Tavros' mind that he needs to get ready too, just in case. Once he reaches the sensoriums, it's a simple matter of setting up his little jousting lane, having a few warmup practice runs, then tilting at the dummy for real.

The first tough part of wheelchair jousting is getting up the necessary speed, which is no real challenge for Tavros. He wouldn't still be alive if he weren't fast. The second is timing -- getting his hands off the wheels and his lance in hand before impact.

The third, and worst by far, is not getting thrown from the chair. Though he used to be able to keep his balance, he's fallen out of practice.

And, unfortunately, out of his wheelchair.

"Ugh... Jegus."

Tavros props himself up on his elbows, brushes the dirt and grass off, and lifts gently off the ground to go set his chair back up and try again.

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Fate didn't immediately notice Tavros when she stepped into the Sensoriums, but she definitely knew he was in here. She had been here before, after all; not that long ago, when the troll boy had been flying around.

She definitely noticed him when she picked up on movement out of the corner of her eye, though, and almost gasped as he fell out of his wheelchair. In the blink of an eye, she was by his side.

"Tavros! Are you okay?"

Tavros is fine. He's fallen a million times during practice, out of the chair or off an animal, and he's pretty good at doing it without injury.

He does look a little embarrassed to have been seen getting thrown, though. As he floats over to pick his chair back up, he smiles sheepishly at Fate.

"Fate, hey. I didn't know, anyone else would be coming. Did you need to, uh, use the sensoriums, for anything?"

"Not really," She said, smiling once he was settled safely back in his chair. "I was just passing by when I noticed the familiar scenery."

She paused, eying the training dummy for a moment before looking back at Tavros. "Training?"

"Yeah, uh, I'm trying, to get back into it. I stopped, after I got here, and now I'm out of practice."

He settles back into his chair and grins back at Fate. At least he's being fair about it and not cheating with his fake flight ability.

"So, I guess, I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Fate asked. "Sometimes sparring with a real opponent is better than just using a dummy."

"Uhh... but, then you'd get hurt. Besides, I still have to, uh, relearn how to hit. I mean, without getting thrown."

"I'll be fine!" Really. She can dodge and block all kinds of magic, so a normal lance would be no problem for her. She frowned just a little, though, when Tavros mentioned getting thrown. Hm...

"... Is there a way to strap yourself into your wheelchair?" She asked. "Maybe you can ask someone on-board for a chair that's more suitable for things like this."

Tavros looks a bit surprised by the suggestion. Not that he knows who to talk to about that sort of thing or what they can do to soup up the chair, even if he'd thought of it himself. "They can, do that?"

"I'm sure someone can." Fate said. "Even if it's not something Engineering normally does, I bet there are a few people that can whip something up for you."

"I... guess." Tavros looks a little embarrassed. "But I'm, not really sure who to ask, and they're probably all busy."

He rolls forward and then backward, testing the chair. Yep, looks like it still works the way it should.

"Just make a public post, then. Someone's bound to respond." After all, they can't be that busy if they're checking around the comms, right?

Fate watched as Tavros tested his chair out, and not for the first time, wondered just what happened to the boy that caused his paralysis. It didn't bother her exactly... she was just concerned, that's all.

"Good point."

He glances up at her, about to say something else, when he catches her look of concern. He smiles, misunderstanding.

"I know, uh, I guess I don't really, look like much, sitting in this chair. But I think, if I'm here, then, uh... Stacy wanted me here for a reason. And if that reason turns out to be, facing the Ohm, then I need to practice. I can't, use the accident as an excuse to get out of doing, um, whatever important work I'm supposed to get done."

An accident, huh...?

"... Hey, Tavros..." She paused, hoping it wouldn't sound like she was prodding him or anything. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to... but what kind of accident was it?"

"Oh, no, uh, I don't mind."

In all honesty, after telling someone he was hurt and being called an asshole for his troubles, Tavros has always assumed no one cares. Finding out people want to know beyond morbid curiosity or so they can make fun of him is still surprising.

"I was, playing this game, uh, well, first, I guess you probably never heard of a game, uh, called FLARP. Trolls play it all the time, but, nobody on the ship seems to know what it is at all."

He smiles a little, reminiscing. He'd play it again if he had it to do over. Just not with that one blue-blood he dislikes thinking about.

"It's pretty fun. You get to be, sort of, like an adventurer, and do quests and win all kinds of stuff. Like, strong weapons, umm, or treasure, stuff like that. My friend Aradia -- she was my teammate -- said I was playing, kind of a difficult class. Maybe I was, but I never got a chance to find out, since the girl who set up my game, uh... well, I don't really, like to talk about her."

He glances up at Fate, a little troubled.

"Vriska, the one who was clouding the session for me, um, put me up against, monsters that I thought were too high-level. I told her that, and wanted to stop playing, but, um. I was sort of, backed up against a cliff."

He motions toward the cliff edge near his hive. If Fate looks, she won't find any signs of a fight. There never was one.

"She was pretty angry at me for forfeiting, so she got into my mind, sort of like, uh, how I can with animals, but worse."

Pause.

"And then, I jumped off. Not because I wanted to, though. I mean, in my head I didn't want to, um, but my legs did it anyway... does that make sense? Uh, I'm sorry, if that doesn't make sense."

Fate, needless to say, was speechless. She could tell by the way Tavros talked about it that he really loved this "FLARP", and knowing that he was hurt playing something he enjoyed so much was bad enough... but her heart twisted when he said someone else did this to him. Just because he didn't want to play anymore...

"I-I'm sorry, Tavros." She said. She really sounded it, too.

FLARP can have devastating consequences, and he knew that going into it. He also knew that Vriska had reasons to kill her low-level victims; he was one of the lucky ones.

He feels a bit bad when he sees the look on Fate's face. He would've skipped the details if he'd known she'd be upset. "It's, okay. I mean, it's not okay, uhh, but, it is what it is."

He smiles a little.

"I'm still here, and if I can get stronger, then, I'm going to fight."

"... That's amazing." Fate said, once she recovered a little. "Even after something like that, you can be so strong."

Most people probably wouldn't think of Tavros as strong... but really, they couldn't be more mistaken. To not give in to the emotional fallout of such a traumatic event, to try to make he best of the way he has to live now.... not everyone could do it.

Well, it was keep fighting or die, business as usual for Alternia, and Tavros intends to stay alive. And it's not so bad. Being in the chair hasn't stopped him from playing his favorite games, or seeing his friends, or any of the stuff that's important to him right now.

It's made battle practice a real pain, though. Strapping himself in isn't practical, but he might try asking an engineer for help a little later.

"I'm not really, very strong. But thanks for, uh, saying so anyway."

He rolls back, putting a bit of distance between them.

"So, um, did you want to try, practicing a little? I'm not so sure, uh, about your Bard-thing, but we can still try it out, if you want."

"Right!"

Fate felt a little bad for completely steering away from their original conversation, but now they were back on track! She reached into her pocket, pulling out her Device and holding it up.

"Bardiche, set up!"

In a flash of golden light, Fate's normal clothes were replaced with her standard Barrier Jacket; an almost military-like long-sleeved jacket and skirt, a long white cape that fell down past her knees, a metal gauntlet covering her left hand, and armored boots on her feet. Even the ribbon tying her hair in a low ponytail changed, from a light pink to pitch black.

Bardiche had changed, too. Instead of a triangular pendant, Fate now held a long poleaxe with a yellow gem set into the head.

"Ready when you are."

Eh, Tavros has a buddy who's way worse about wandering off topic. Speaking of, Tavros can't help but think that Gamzee would've loved to see Fate's transformation, among other "miracles" on the ship.

Not that he doesn't appreciate all the new friends he has, but it'd be nice to see someone from home again.

At Fate's call he snaps out of his little reverie and nods, smiling again.

"Okay, uh, then, brace yourself!"

He's pretty confident she can fend off a disabled troll who's basically only good for one hit, though.

It only takes him a few strong pushes to get himself back up to speed, wheels practically singing over the ground. One thing you can say in his favor, he's fast when he wants to be.

The lance blinks back into existence, and Tavros braces himself as he strikes Bardiche, hard.

Fate, who was almost certainly the quickest mage in her circle of friends, was actually surprised at just how fast Tavros was. She wasn't underestimating him at all, she just... wasn't sure what exactly he was capable of.

She didn't summon a shield, but when Tavros' attack hit, she wish she had. She braced herself as best she could, but she was still sent skidding back several feet.

Tavros regrets not pulling his punches, so to speak, when Fate goes skidding. He'd been serious about training and put a lot of force behind his strike.

Turns out Fate was right, though. It's a lot different against a living opponent. Striking at the center instead of off to one side makes a huge difference, and after putting his weapon away he grabs the wheels, reclaiming control of his wheelchair and bringing it to a careful stop.

Without falling out.

Hell yeah!

But before celebrating, he turns to Fate.

"Uh, sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"Perfectly fine!" She says. There's not a scratch on her, nor a single crack in Bardiche, so it's all good!

"I'm impressed! For a first strike, that was very good."

Okay, she's fine. Awesome. He was pretty confident he couldn't really injure Fate, but for a second there...

"Thanks," he smiles, looking a bit embarrassed. "You were right, actually. There's a lot of difference, between sparring partners and practice dummies."

It might have been obvious to her, but he lived alone out by the cliffs. Except for defending against predators, he's never had a chance to do this. He settles back in the seat and rolls back from Fate again.

"Do you want to, uh, try again?"

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Tavros: Train. For once. [Closed]

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