[JP] Ensign Maria Alvarez + Lieutenant Commander Artinus Serinus - Yin and Yang

[Piweh]

(OOC: @Alvarez is going on a LOA for a few months, but I wanted to show my appreciation for writing this JP with me. It was lots of fun. I hope you all enjoy it.)

 

((Gymnasium, Deck 2, USS Arrow))

 

Serinus: Let's step right over there. ::Nodding towards an empty mat::

 

Maria let a small smile form.  If nothing else, this encounter would certainly be an interesting one.  She couldn’t help but feel like Serinus was a bit of an impregnable monolith in terms of personality.  Perhaps meeting him on his own terms, she’d get some kind of insight.

 

Alvarez: Sure thing.  Looking forward to seeing what you’ve got.

 

The pair of them walked over to the empty mat. Artinus squared up and gazed across at Ensign Maria Alvarez, waiting for her to do the same. Then the dance as it were, began, as he started to circle. 

 

Maria carefully re-bound her hands, cautious to keep her hands protected, and made fully certain her hair was secure.  But she didn’t let the idle adjustment go to waste.  She kept a careful eye on Artinus, her mock opponent, mindful of gait, posture, and poise as if evaluating a stranger on the dance floor - her true comfort zone.

 

Finally, she settled into a comfortable posture: lowered center of gravity, high hands, but not committed to any one style.  Not until she had a sense of what she was dealing with.  With the chief of security playing the role of the instructor, she threw the first cautious jab.

 

She was probing his defenses, but he was likewise probing her offense. He stayed out of her range with some effort, before counter-attacking with some probing jabs of his own. He was more interested in getting a feel of her movement patterns at this point than landing one.

 

Maria was hardly slow, but she struggled to find a way to gain any purchase in Serinus’ well-practiced defense.  She figured that was just as well, since the point was to find a way to improve.  She made a tiny adjustment in her stance, and tried a new combination of strikes.

 

As he dodged and blocked the latest blows, he stepped in even closer, past her striking range, preparing to engage in the grapple, his specialty.

 

Maria felt the change in spacing between them even before she saw it, and found instinct helping her melt out of the way with surprising delicacy.  She flashed a white smile.

 

Alvarez: Almost had me there.

 

She certainly had the footwork down, but he had seen how she had held her own quite well, for a while at least, against Ghant.

 

Serinus: You do fight like a dancer. 

 

Alvarez: Aww, thanks!  You fight like a damn computer…

 

She cautiously let the range close again.  This time she chose to mix in a sprinkling of longer-range strikes to see if the reach those moves gave her would help connect a blow.

 

Serinus: You say that as if it were a bad thing.

 

Alvarez: It’s annoying is what it is.  But I suppose you’ve been doing this a lot longer than me.

 

He had been. He had started wrestling at the tender age of four or five, his parents finding that the sport took the boy boy’s mind off of the newly gaping hole in his life.

 

Serinus: As much as a fight has in common with a dance, it’s even more like 3D chess.

 

Plan, anticipate, goad, direct, misdirect. Always be five steps ahead. It was good to think like a chess champion, or a computer, as it were.

 

He pressed his advantage, feinted retreat, then hooked her ribs when she took the bait, quickly resetting to a defensive stance.

 

Maria found herself on the defensive again, this time raw intuition not operating quite fast enough against Serinus’ honed skills.  She opened the gap and nursed a painful bruise for only a fleeting second.  She’d had far worse.

 

Alvarez: Damn! :: She wiped her hand. :: Just how much practice do you have at this anyway?

 

She made another adjustment to her stance, and made a mental note to pay more attention to Serinus’ left shoulder.  She could have caught that one if she’d been looking for it.  She started in again, looking for the rhythm to the combat they were locked in.

 

Serinus: As far as striking, I picked most of that up at the Academy. But I’ve been wrestling since I was a very young boy. My real advantage here is situational awareness, and the tendency to plan. And, if it were most anyone else, conditioning.

 

If another soul on the Arrow had a similar amount of stamina, endurance, balance, and flexibility to either of them, their name certainly was not coming to his mind at the moment.

 

Artinus circled around slowly, and deliberately, dipping in and out, and changing course when needed until it happened.

 

Serinus: ::flatly:: You see, I’ve herded you onto the corner of the mat. ::break:: Let’s reset.

 

Maria’s eyes shot to her surroundings and scowled.  She knew better than to be herded like that, but she’d gotten caught up thinking about Serinus’ response.  Her problem wasn’t lack of planning, but more often not following through on that plan as intended.  She wasn’t totally convinced her situation was untenable, but there was little reason to argue when she knew she could do better.

 

Alvarez: Well I guess I take it as a compliment it took long enough to get stuck back here.  :: She smirked. ::

 

The Security Chief strode back to the middle of the mat and reset once more. Once Maria had done the same he counted down.

 

Serinus: In 3, 2, 1. Go.

 

Maria settled back into a neutral stance and began again.  She did her best not to let Artinus’ veiled pride in his superior skills irritate her, but it did serve as something of motivation to improve.

 

Alvarez: Right - don’t go easy on me now…

 

She opened up with a slight modification in pattern, keeping her positioning options more open this time.  It was somewhat uncharacteristically conservative for her, but she had the sneaking sense she was about to learn a new trick or two.

 

He threw another hook, very purposefully telegraphed. He knew most of the common blocks and evasions, and was interested to see which one she would utilize. He had handcapped himself thus far by sticking with the back and forth exchange of strikes, but it was time to show off a bit. Whatever her response, he knew exactly how to transfer into a grapple.

 

Maria found herself on the floor, sprawling in an attempt to keep any semblance of control on the situation.  The entanglement was hardly a surprise, but she struggled to respond against Artinus’ practice and skill.  To her credit, the downward spiral to defeat didn’t spin out of control as fast as she’d expected.

Finally, she tapped out when the outcome was obvious.

 

Serinus: You gave it a good go.

 

Alvarez: Well, that was hardly unexpected.  But the point of this wasn’t to win, the point was to learn.

 

She shook her limbs out and readied herself again.  She smiled despite the situation.

 

Alvarez: Alright, alright.  :: beat. ::  Again.

 

The Security Chief pulled away and offered a hand up, before going back to the center of the mat and resetting.

 

Serinus: Ready when you are.

 

Maria forced herself to relax and not let her attention wander or focus on any one thing too much.  Sparring Serinus was almost like trying to meditate.  She didn’t particularly enjoy meditation either, however useful it was.

 

Alvarez: You know what the problem is with fighting like a computer is, right?

 

Someone as famously, or infamously stubborn as Maria Alvarez must have an ego to back it up with, and perhaps a witty riposte would be just what he needed to throw her off of her game.

 

Serinus: Not off of the top of my head, but I'm sure that you'll tell me.

 

Maria let the flow of the fight continue, not seeking any particular advantage, hoping to see where Serinus would take her.  She worked to keep her breath settled, in case she’d need it later.

 

Alvarez: There’s always a boundary to the program.  You just have to find it…

 

Serinus: We'll see.

 

It was never a good idea to underestimate one's opponent. Not on her end, and he certainly would not allow himself the same error. However, the sparring mat took away some of the complexity of actual combat, namely concerns of wildly variable terrain, along with the fact that one’s partner wasn't trying to kill them. Allowing him to focus on the limited movement and positional capabilities of the standard humanoid body type.

 

Artinus stepped in quickly, and locked up.

 

This time she slid into the grapple, allowing it to happen around her.  At the critical moment, she wound together a technique inspired by the unlikely combination of jiu jitsu and mok’bara to reverse the advantage.  In a flash, she nearly had him in a submission hold.

 

It was an unconventional combo, a hard swatting block into a standing arm drag, threatening to pull him under. The much taller of the two winced for a second then squatted low, setting his weight against the downward momentum, bracing himself as his attacker took them both closer to the mat. With a low center of gravity, he turned into his attacker and used his free arm to rip her grip away. In a fluid, predatory sweep his arms flew outward, pinning her wrists as he positioned his torso, sitting  on her abdomen to pin her hips. Once he distributed his weight properly, it was all about waiting, unless she were able to roll out. He, of course, was already planning for that contingency.

 

Maria shot an incongruous doe-eyed look at him, then laughed.  She knew perfectly well the situation she was in: in a real fight, it may have been retrievable, but the gambit was over without risking serious harm to herself or Serinus.

 

Alvarez: You’d love it if I tried to roll out, wouldn’t you? 

 

He nodded and disengaged standing and backing away. He leaned down offering a hand up to the Ensign.  She took it and rebounded back up to her feet.

 

Alvarez: Almost got you at your own game there, too.  :: She gave him a squinty grin. :: Maybe next time. 

 

Serinus: Very clever. Was that a Mok'Bara block?

 

Alvarez: Indeed.  Dance isn’t the same as it was hundreds of years ago.  You have to study all kinds of movement, from all kinds of cultures.  Makes for a much more dynamic and capable dancer.  :: Beat. :: And person...

 

Serinus: I've read more about Mok'Bara than practiced it. Some Terran commentator called it Klingon Tai Chi, Dat'r, son of Gur, a pretty important Klingon Martial Arts master in turn called Tai Chi Cowardly old man Mok'bara. ::He cracked the slightest grin at this joke.::

 

Maria laughed in reply - that sounded like a Klingon thing to say if ever there was one.

 

Before the woman could reply, he heard his combadge ring out. 

 

Ops:=/\= Ops to Commander Serinus. =/\=

 

Serinus: One second.

 

Artinus quick-walked to his gym bag and rang the device.

 

Serinus: =/\= Go ahead Ops. =/\=

 

Ops: =/\= Yes sir, you have an incoming subspace call. =/\=

 

Serinus: =/\= Thank you Ops, I'll take it in my quarters in five. =/\=

 

He looked up from the bag and back toward Ensign Alvarez. Then he slung the bag over his shoulder and walked her way.

 

Serinus: Thanks so much, it was the best sparring match I've had in a while. Really  kept me on my toes. ::He gave another slight, wholly professional this time, smile.::

 

Alvarez: Of course. Happy to provide a challenge.  We’ll have to do this again sometime - no way to get better without some bruises.

 

With that, the Magna Roman started towards his quarters so that he could see to this call of his. More importantly, he left with enough time to ponder the contradictory enigma of one Maria Alvarez.  Competent in many ways, but complacent in others. Seemingly wise one moment, foolhardy the next.

 

Maria popped a [...]eyed grin as Serinus left, and she returned to practicing on her own.  She pondered the stoic security chief.  For the list of commonalities they shared on paper, they were maybe the most dissimilar people on the whole ship.  She wondered if there was something underneath all that seriousness, or if it struck all the way to his core.

 

NT/End

 

- Lieutenant Commander Artinus Serinus

 

   Chief of Security

 

   USS Arrow, 

 

   NCC-69829

 

   Publicity Team/Social Media Team

 

   C239607AS0 -

 

And:

 

Ensign Maria Alvarez

Ops Officer, USS Arrow

A239710MA0

Wiki Operator