Training, in various ways...

[morganknight]

After a few days -- weeks -- however long he'd been here, Morgan had finally settled into what he considered to be an adequate training regimen, for those times when he wasn't needed in Medical.

As a general rule, he began his day in the Sensorium, shaping it in the image of the mountaintop dojo he favored. One lone building atop a peak in the midst of a mountain range, lacking walls so the cool, thin air could drift through as he ran through forms and katas. A path wound its way around the peaks, and the frigid springs that formed small lakes and streams that poured off the edges in grand waterfalls. Next to this path ran a series of poles on which he ran, or jumped, when his regimen called for that sort of exercise.

Training in a simulated environment like this was old hat.

After he finished there, it was off to the river, where he (with some effort) persuaded his plantsuit to retract till it resembled closer to a bathing suit than anything. For what felt, at least, like an hour or two, the Akashic stood motionless in the river, submerged up to his neck. Legs spread, arms out, and hair streaming behind him in the current, he meditated. Harmony and moving in tune with the universe were key to his philosophy, after all. The currents, the flow of water around his fingers and limbs, and the silence were magnificent for that sort of understanding.

Then, off to the W.I.T.C.H. bus! Since Kaya had so kindly allowed him use of its training facilities, he made good use of that offer. This section of his training he devoted to melee weapons -- primarily his sword, of course, but he allotted time for other swords, staffs, daggers and knives, and tonfa as well.

And last, perhaps the oddest of all training exercises if one didn't know that to the mind of an Akashic, all things are martial arts: Morgan returned to the sensorium, not to fight or exercise or run, but to play. Electric guitar in hand, voice lifted in defiance of his one-held belief that he simply sounded terrible, and whatever backing was necessary conjured by environment, he rocked out, mixing up from simple guitar covers to lead guitar and vocals in full songs.

That lasted until he was exhausted, satisfied, or -- admittedly -- hit hard enough by nostalgia that continuing became prohibitive. Then it was time to clean up, relax, and see what else he had to do.

Comments

[morphitudinous]

Billy often spent time near the river. It was essential to constantly monitor the water for safety, even though he knew it was supposed to be pure. Ship damage could happen, and he could take nothing for granted.

On one of those routine water checks, he happened to spot Stephen's friend, the new crew member: Morgan. He wasn't swimming or wading across, no...it appeared to be meditation. Billy had practiced with Kaya a few times, but even she hadn't done it in her native element. Not when she was with him, at least.

He sat on the bank and waited for a chance to talk, running over some last-minute data from the department while he did so. Taking a break from that to meditate and train was going to need a little effort.

[morganknight]

Not perception but intuition told Morgan that someone was nearby. He cracked an eye open to peer in that direction.

No one he was unhappy to see! "Hey, Billy. I'm not throwing some readings off-spec, am I?"

[morphitudinous]

"No, you're fine where you are. Anything your presence adds to the water is statistically insignificant. I'm monitoring for poisons, not sweat and skin cells."

Billy's mouth twitched into a little smile. Maybe that was slightly too specific. "That's meditation, right?"

[morganknight]

"If you come across any, let me know. I'd kinda like to get out of the water if it's gonna kill me."

He hung around Stephen, Billy; that was mild. You didn't identify the specific chemicals you were monitoring for.

"It is. I find meditation in a dynamic environment to be very fruitful, personally."

[nobel-berserker.livejournal.com]

Allenby was using the river for something else at the moment: swimming. She'd modified her plantsuit in a similar way, into a weird living one-piece bathing suit. Although she wore it often enough as normal clothing to be used to it, changing the shape made her acutely conscious of its weirdness again.

She'd been working on trying to move around underwater, but her lungs was running out so she surfaced, very unsubtly and drawing in a huge gasp of air--also so she could find out who this weird guy was standing in the middle of the water.

"Hey, uh--are you asleep?"

[morganknight]

He opened his eyes, blinking against the light, to look at the person who'd just addressed him. Then, unfortunately, his mouth started up before his brain could stop it.

"I can't be. The girls in my dreams aren't nearly so cute."

Exactly half a second later he groaned, slapping a hand onto his forehead with a self-deprecating smile. "I'm sorry. That was the worst line I have ever come up with, and it was terrible. Hi. No. I was meditating, actually."

[nobel-berserker.livejournal.com]

Allenby stared.

...And then she burst out laughing, falling back into the water rather overdramatically and swallowing some of it. "W--" She spat out a mouthful. "Wow, I'm glad it's the worst. But what are you doin' meditating in a river? I never heard of that before."

[morganknight]

Once she started laughing, he couldn't help but do the same, shaking his head in disbelief. "Well, it's certainly the worst one I remember. I may have used worst in the past and forgotten... or repressed them. But at least I managed to make you laugh," he said with a wink.

More seriously -- if not entirely -- he moved on to her question. "I like meditating in a dynamic environment. It's a lot more challenging, because it's harder to lose your sense of self when you have currents and pressure against your skin reminding you of your body. But when you DO settle in properly, the currents and feelings are all very grand and broad, so it's very easy to be in harmony with it all."

[zenithianhero.livejournal.com]

Sofia still had no set routine, even after being there for so long. The days of adventuring had given her less of a schedule and more of 'take each day as it comes' philosophy, although her mornings were also filled with fight simulations in the sensoriums.

Each day was a half-gamble if someone else was going to be there first, although they did give the half-zenithian some of the rarer occasions of interacting with people, preferring to be an ice queen keeping mostly to herself.

The mountain ranges towered before her as she stepped in. She looked around, trying to see who had set this up.

[morganknight]

Easy to see the black-garbed blur hopping from pole to pole like he's trying to run a race by making sure his feet touch the ground as little as possible. There are no other signs of animal life up here -- it's too tall even for birds.

[zenithianhero.livejournal.com]

Birds maybe. But a small murmur of a bedragon spell and a few minutes later, the green leathery wings are hovering close by to the poles, watching.

[morganknight]

"Hi there, Sofia," Morgan said cheerfully, still focused wholeheartedly on his run.

How had he known it was her? Through the most unlikely means possible. He was so oblivious he had failed to notice her change in form.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

The mountains were beautiful. For a moment Anwei just stood by the doorway and stared, feeling the hot dampness of Stacy's air on her skin cool. The muffled roar of the waterfalls, the clean lines of the open-plan building, the background of peaks muted by distance - she wished she could have seen something like this, in reality.

She hoped she wasn't interrupting anyone.

[morganknight]

Interrupting, well, not quite; also, sorry the view is somewhat spoiled. The Akashic raced up the last of the poles as they drew level with the dojo, stepping lightly onto the floor as he came to a halt. He dropped his hands to his knees, took a couple of deep breaths, and then smiled. "Hi there."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"Hello," she replied, a little startled. The man had moved into her line of sight with sleek focus, perfectly balanced, almost flowing rather than running. But he was someone she had wanted to talk to.

"I wanted to ask your opinion about something, but if you're busy I could catch you another time." Catch in the metaphorical sense, that is.

[morganknight]

"Oh no, this is just normal training. Busy would be knee-deep in gore in Medbay, trying to save three lives simultaneously," he said. Lightly enough that it might have been a joke?

He ran his hands over his neck, gathering up the stray strands of hair that had gotten stuck to his skin from sweat. "Ask and you shall receive my bigmouthed opinion," he said, grinning.

[encourage]

The river was the happening place! Sakura loved it!

Or more practically, in one of her jogs after shift, she took herself down by part of the river, tempted to cross over and continuing jogging on the other side. She felt more restrained lately, partly due to what she blamed on Marco, for being in such a limited space when the city stretched far beyond what had been explored.

Yet without a team to work with her hands were tied for safety reasons alone.

All the odd thoughts on her mind when she realized she not only saw someone in the water, but she recognized them. Sakura slowed down to a walk, not wanting to call out and interrupt Morgan in his meditation. It'd been a long time since she'd seen anyone attempt water meditation.

[morganknight]

Everyone loves the river. Or possibly the mountains. No one loves the metal.

Meditation being all about the dissolution of boundaries between self and universe, Morgan's normal obliviousness had given up its job of preventing him from noticing things. Sensing rather than perceiving her presence, he cracked an eye open to flash her a smile. "Hey there!"

[encourage]

Ah, well. Sakura lifted a hand and waved back, smiling as she did so. "Hey. How're you doing?"

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"Thought I'd be able to find you here somewhere," Hit Girl said, dropping in on his meditation session. She had actually seen him, but waited a good while before she would interrupt him. She knew it would be rude to just bother him like that, and once he looked to be waking from it, shew showed herself.

"What does that do for you?" She asked.

[morganknight]

"Meditation in general," he said, cracking an eye open to look at her, "or meditating in the water?"

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"Either," she said. "Like, what's the point of it? I know people do it, but never, like, up close and all."

[burnedbrighter.livejournal.com]

Azula had to admit while it would never compare to the beauty of the Fire Nation, the mountains weren't bad.

She waited quietly hidden from sight till Morgan was running along the tall poles. When the moment was right...she struck!

A wave of flame blazed through the air like a blade of heat swiping at Morgans mid section.

[morganknight]

The one thing about flame -- it was so obvious even he can notice it.

He came to a sudden stop atop one of the poles, seeming to deflect the flame simply with a wave of his hand. As it guttered out in the arc described by the motion of his hand, he smirked.

"Was that just to test me, or should I interpret it as a mild flirtation?"

[burnedbrighter.livejournal.com]

"Don't make me laugh." She remarked and began to casually walk out to join him on the poles.

"You wanted training, as I see it the fastest way to learn is first hand." She punctuated the last word with a sudden sharp thrust of her palm and another fireball, and another, and a third each one bigger then the last.

And this? Was just a warm up really. Even she knew that.