First Reply Building a Fire

[Théodoro]

Mornings started slow, but the early bird got the worm.

Theo had been at the training ground for about two hours now. Before that he'd gone for a quick run, then it was straight to the strength training. Weights, resistance bands, circuits -- everything. He hadn't exactly lost his last fight but it'd been made clear to him that he needed to be much stronger if he was going to contend with Force users in the future. Particularly because his next fight would be against a woman who was very strong in it.

At least, he hoped he got that fight.

In any case he worked hard, only taking short breaks for water and rest. By the end of the hour he sat down on a bench, wiping his sweat down with a towel. Without his armor and weapons there was little to mark him as a Sun Guard of Thyrsus. That would likely impress the owner of this particular establishment. The training ground was equipped with everything he needed, so Theo did not complain, but it was far from the quality of the training grounds on Thyrsus. He did not know the name of this place nor the name of the planet but he had needed to train, and this place just so happened to provide for him.

But he did know where he was headed next -- Rodia. The conflict between the Agents of Chaos and the Confederacy of Independent Systems had brought him the combat that he so craved. Nothing else was worth his time. The only pursuit for a Sun Guard was war, and for Theo it was his way to become legend in the same vein as Khonsu Amon, Escanor Ragnos, Emperor Carnifex, and so many others.

He quickly checked his nanodroid levels. Too low. He reached into his bag and injected himself in the thigh. Once he was done for the morning the droids would complete their work, and he'd be ready to continue training in the evening as well.

Next was reviewing the basics. Training dummies were nice, but trading blows with a metal man would harden his resolve and his skin. The training droids were old but useful, and Theo focused on finding the rhythm as he blocked and struck the metal thing. It was always disconcerting that droids could learn combat so quickly, yet the young warrior believed that the soul of a fighter was just as important as his talent. A metal man could have no soul, and in the end would always lose.

The hour passed in a blur, as it usually did. Theo picked up his towel again to wipe off the sweat and began to wander through the training ground. By now, other warriors had come in to train, and the Sun Guard watched novices and veterans alike practice. None caught his eye -- until he passed a more secluded training room off to one side.

The person training there had something... different about them, and Theo waited at the door until they had finished before speaking up. "Who taught you to fight like that?"

 

[Taru Cadera]

It was secluded, it was nice, and Taru was enjoying every second of it. Well had been enjoying every second of it.

He was bound to leave back for Vena within a few days, so he had stayed up all night here, making up the time he would lose when shuttling to Vena. He had started off with the normal stretches, warm-ups, and cardio, the cardio in itself taking over three hours as he pushed his two hearts to their limits. Taru then moved on to weights, stretching appropriately and then hitting the weights.

His gene therapy over, Taru was easily able to lift a creature of the weight and size of a wookie, and he applied the necessary weights to in a sense do so. Lifting was fine but apparently throwing the weights down onto the floor wasn't good and the bar bent.

Then he moved onto the fun part of training. Combat.

The Misini was good droid to go against, and its teras quasi was super hard to beat. Taru started off in his k'thri stance, which involved shuffling around kind of like dancing but keeping the opponent off guard. There was no hard stance in how he began the fight only his strength and speed. Moving in low, crouching down and bringing his right foot out in a sweeping motion towards the droid's legs to make it move out of the way. It did as expected, jumping over the outstretched leg and throwing its own kick back at Taru, who caught it with his right hand and pulled it in the opposite direction of his original sweep, using his hips to accelerate in the opposite direction than that of what his leg was moving in and hurling the Droid against the wall behind him.

He hadn't expected that to work, neither had the droid which had miscalculated Taru's strength, but he also didn't expect anyone to have entered the private room of that he had rented.

"I was taught to fight by my clan and whoever else they brought in to teach me."

"But what do you want?" Théodoro

 

[Théodoro]

Taru Cadera
​

The Sun Guard did not believe himself to be an intruder. When it came to training there was no better way to improve than to learn from others. This boy had caught his eye and thus Theo had decided to watch. The K'thri stance had been obvious, but the way the young Zabrak fought was not truly in that style. His physicality was the main proponent of how he defeated the training droid. Reflexes, speed, and strength were important, but technique, training, and experience would win the day. Most days.

Still, there was one more thing he saw. The way the Zabrak's eyes moved, the tensing in his forearms before he struck -- a dozen little details popped out to the Thyrsian that told him this Zabrak was a Mandalorian. His response and mention of his clan confirmed it. Still, the rather hostile question caused Theo to raise an eyebrow. He stepped forward and into the room.

The droid shouldn't really have been knocked away so easily. It weighed at least as much as a man. The Mandalorian was quite muscular but simply lacked the mass to knock the droid into the wall. After studying the droid for a moment his gaze turned back to the red, horned boy on one side of the room. "You caught my attention, so I watched," he explained. There was really no other reason to do something. Necessity or interest. Everything else was secondary.

"Are you Force sensitive? Or genetically enhanced?" He asked. "You seem too light for this sort of strength." He gestured to the fallen droid, who soon stood and awaited further orders.

 

[Taru Cadera]

Catching attention. Hopefully the good kind.

But the man who stood in the doorway of the room was watching him. And had probably seen Taru slam the droid into the wall, so it was best not to lie. Especially as to how he wasn't a force user. Cause they can manipulate minds. Adara could do that and now that he thought of that he quickly scoured his mind to see if he could catch a manipulation.

Finding none, he refocused on the man and answered the question. "I'm, well, enhanced. And no I'm not really too light—have you never seen force users before?" He had turned the question back onto the man, using it to better understand him. Maybe the guy was a force user himself, now that would be funny.

Taru wiped the bead of sweat from his forehead, not expecting to have found any.

"You looking to use the droid next?"
Théodoro