Training Day (Open to One)

It hadn’t taken long for Meninas to fall in love with the advanced training system that Administrator Kleinmund had created and it became a sort of daily ritual for the pink haired Quincy to spend her mornings there, trying out the various programs. Some were battle simulations, some were Hollow hunting and some were like the one she’d come across that morning, a simple martial arts program where she could hone her well developed skills. Meninas had been boxing since she was old enough to tell a jab from a hook and to come across such a program was perfect for her.

Dressed in workout gear rather than the Quincy uniform, Meninas would be exchanging punches with an artificially created opponent, one who was certainly keeping the Scot on her toes. It moved like a pro and the pink haired woman soon found herself fully engaged in the spar, her powerful blows being met with equal strength. She’d lost track of time and was enjoying her workout so much that her focus was purely on her foe and nothing else. Jabs, crosses, uppercuts, there was no quarter given and judging from the hits that she’d taken, the program was a good one. Still, Meninas was no slouch and she’d already downed the hologram twice during the bout.

The only real difference was that the program never tired out and while Meninas was certainly durable, there was eventually going to be a limit to her stamina. That being said, she was a stubborn girl and as she ducked underneath a massive right from her foe, she’d take a step forward, rise up and smash her right fist under the chin of her foe, causing its head to shoot up from the force, before tumbling to the ground again.

At that point, a sign would pop up in front of her saying that she’d completed the program, having knocked her opponent down three times.

Wiping her brow, Meninas would remove her gloves and then walk over to her corner, where her water bottle was waiting for her.

Gloved hand outstretched, Anis took a deep breath and commanded the ambient reishi to gather. It was difficult, through her Konrei Gloves, as her power was reflected back into her to keep it from raging out and destroying shit every time she spiritually twitched, but that was the point. She needed that difficulty, because that was how it was going to be for the rest of her life. These gloves didn't change that, they just represented it in a way that wouldn't hurt herself or others.

Slowly, she began to bring in small Reishi particles. It was a fight, like when she activated her Blut, but that was something she made sure to do in the morning every day so she had experience with it. She could fight it back now, with time and effort. Like it used to be, before the dark times. Slowly, piece by piece, she began to build the most raggedy ass Quincy Bow ever made in the history of being a Quincy. But she did not get even that far before it fell apart. And so with a sigh of defeat, she would look over to the boxing woman. At least she was doing well with her training...

So focused had she been on her own workout that Meninas hadn’t spent a moment watching anyone else’s. Once the bell rang, the blinkers were on and everything else seemed to fade away into the background. It had been a coping mechanism during her childhood, in order to ignore the constant provoking and bullying from her four older brothers and even now with them gone, she still had a tendency to do it. Still, it meant that she was always fully invested in her training and the pink haired Sternritter thought that it was a positive rather than a negative.

That being said, as she rested in the corner, her gaze did start to drift around the large training area. There were quite a few Quincy that day, practising all kinds of techniques, some of which she recognised and some that she didn’t. Meninas was well aware that she was still growing as a Quincy and that there were many abilities that were still beyond her. Creating afterimages was the one that she was truly struggling with and while she could do it now and again, the concept was just difficult for her to grasp. It was within her grasp but not quite there yet. One day she’d get the hang of it.

Turning her head to the right, she found herself meeting the gaze of the blonde woman who’d been training next to her. Meninas naturally felt rather anxious, her old struggles returning once again. New people were always a bit of a challenge for the 6’3 Sternritter and she struggled to figure out what to say at first.

She got there in the end but not without a bit of umm and err in her head.

“Hi there, I’m Meninas, can I help you with something?”

Ohh. The boxing woman spoke to her, and it wasn't in a cruel tone either. That was nice. Anis was getting back into the habit of having people talking to her nicely, and it was good to see. So she broke into a big smile and waved at the woman.

"I don't know" she exclaimed, to chipper for such a reply. "Do you want to help me with anything?" Anis would continue, putting it out in the open so there was no obligation, but also an opening if the woman wanted to give anything like tips or something.

The Sternritter wasn’t sure if she’d ever heard such an enthusiastic answer before in her life. It was like the other woman was like a fully charged battery of cheer but Meninas would be lying if she said it didn’t help her relax. She’d half expected to either be told to mind her own business or that they weren’t needed, so to hear the opposite was a pleasant surprise. The pink haired woman wasn’t actually all that used to helping other people with their training, given her own awkwardness around people but the blonde seemed nice so why shouldn’t she at least make an effort?

Walking over to the woman, Meninas would smile softly. “Sure, I’ll give you a hand if I can. You want to show me what you were working on and we can go from there?” She wished now that she’d paid more attention to those around her while training but once she was in the zone, the Sternritter tended to block everything else out.

Getting close to Anis, there was a strange feeling about the Quincy. As if something had once been very wrong, and then fixed in a way that the cracks still showed, but were firmly sealed regardless. The smile, the look in her eyes, the way she held herself. it all spoke of a deep past trauma she was moving past with every step into the future.

"Mmm! I am trying to build a bow" she exclaimed, gesturing with her gloved hands. "It's...not going good. I've, got trouble with fine motor control. But a proper Quincy should have a bow, it would be gauche and uncouth to just smash people over the head with condensed balls of reishi" Anis continued, holding out her hand and gathering tiny shards of Reishi with way more effort than such a simple act should ever need.

There was a notable moment where Meninas looked rather sheepish as her fellow Quincy spoke about using weapons other than a bow. It didn’t last very long but the blonde might just catch on to it if she was sharp enough. Rather than hide it though, the pink haired woman would scratch her head awkwardly. “I must admit that smashing people in the face is what my main spirit weapon tends to do. My primary one is a pair of gauntlets and it took me a while to learn how to manifest my bow. I can understand the difficulty you’re having as I did too.”

Still, she was willing to try and help, taking an archer’s stance before taking a deep breath and visualising her bow in her mind, moments before it formed in reality. Despite the impression the Scot gave with her fondness for martial arts and brawling, her bow was rather feminine in appearance, the frame completely pink, while the head of her arrow being heartshaped.

“For me, it is all about visualising what I want. I take my stance, place my hands in the right position and simply focus. I know it’s not a method you’ll find in a textbook but it worked for me. I believe that sometimes we Quincy tend to overthink when it comes to figuring out our powers. It’s just a matter of will really rather than pure technique.”

"Huh. I thought most Quincy went for ranged weaponry because getting touched by a Hollow makes us puke our liver out" Anis would comment, so blunt and brutish that it was perfectly in keeping with her apparent characteristics of her weaponry. She would then listen to the other woman, and nod softly, though she seemed to be going the other way with what the problem was, so Anis would explain that.

"My trouble comes from scale" she would state, holding her hand out. Reishi was voraciously gathered in her hand, like a whirlpool consuming everything in it's path. And a ragged but solidly condensed ball sat there, ready to be launched out as she needed. "I can't control it properly enough to make fine work like any kind of actual weapon. My gloves are reflecting my energy inward to reduce how much force I can output every second, and even then it's a struggle to fight against the tide. If I took them off, I am worried I might rip someone's soul out or something..."

Meninas listened as her fellow Quincy explained her situation, tilting her head with interest. It wasn’t a situation that she herself had experienced and so she mused that perhaps she wasn’t the best one to be giving verbal advice but from what she could tell, the situation might not be one that required such deep thought. It was still a matter of simply harnessing one's abilities and learning to control them rather than the other way around. The blonde Quincy before her obviously had a great deal of spiritual power, it was just a matter of getting a grip of it.

“It’s a start at the very least and shows that you have at least some control over it.” Meninas replied, glancing at the ball of Reishi. “Honestly though, I believe that as simple as it sounds, your issues might just be a case of confidence and anxiety. You state that you’re worried about what your powers could do if unchecked and if you have those thoughts in your head then you’re going to struggle to get anywhere. If you can form a ball then you can form a bow. You need to make this whirlpool obey you. I know it’s easy for me to say but trust me, I had people in my life who filled my head with a lot of doubt and it was murder overcoming that but once I did, everything seemed easier.”

It felt rather strange for her to speak like that and it wasn’t normally her approach to things but it felt right.

"You are nice. We should date" Anis would exclaim, nodding her head and throwing the Reishi ball in the air so it could return to nature in a cracking boom of released compression. She was so forward and forthright with the words, that it was easy to miss what she had actually said. Though the idea of a Whirlpool was a cool one. You didn't try to control a Whirlpool, you merely guided your ship relative to it. And her new friend slash maybe girlfriend was not using a bow, so it wasn't like she had to use one of them. Maybe if she stopped with the fancy fine shit that clearly not everyone had to use, she'd get somewhere further.

Hmmm...This, called for big brain things...