Meggan & Wade | Late Wednesday Afternoon

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Meggan and Wade meet in the gym to get started on her self-defense training.

NOTE: I am neither a boxer nor a martial artist. Any inaccuracies in Wade's explanation of things should definitely be taken as player error rather than character error and suggestions on fixing the problems would be appreciated. :)


Wade was waiting in the gym, going over the list of things he was going to talk to Meggan about today. It should be fairly simple to get her started, but he wanted to make sure he knew what her current capabilities were before he made assumptions. Not to mention that, since he was pretty sure she'd never done any actual boxing, he was going to have go back to basics and start out with simple things. Quirking a smile, he wondered if she'd mind the treadmill exercises and hand-strengthening reps he was going to tell her to do. The kata, at least, would be soothing to teach.

Meggan had brought all of the wraps with her, just as she promised she would. She hadn’t been certain if she needed to start wrapping her hands before she got to the gym, or after, so she had compromised by wrapping the pink around her left hand, and leaving the other bare for now. It all depended on what he wanted her to do first, if it was even needed right then, but she wanted to be ready. As she rounded the corner, opening the door to the gym, she gave him a little wave. “Hey, BO! I’m here, I’m ready.”

Grinning, Wade turned on his heel and put his hands on his hips. "Alright, Minion Number Two. Before we get started - how're you doing?"

“I think I’m doing good,” Meggan smiled. No bad dreams last night was certainly a point in the good column, and she felt good. “My shoulder’s healing up pretty well, so that’s great. It doesn’t hurt, it shouldn’t mess with anything you want me to do,” she was quick to assure him. It didn’t look angry and scary now that it was a few weeks out from being fresh. The slashes on her forearms were mostly healed up by now, since they weren’t as deep as a bite.

"Let me see the shoulder," Wade said, gesturing for her to come a little closer. "I'll need to check it to make sure I don't push it too much. I might start you out on the treadmill first, then we'll start on the kata."

Meggan let him look, pulling down the gauze for him to see the right one—the last little while, it hadn’t really needed any bandaging up, since it wasn’t doing anything. Either steady bleeding or oozing, since it was in the middle of healing and scabs. She just wanted to be on the safe side. While he was checking that, out of curiosity, she asked, “Is there a certain amount of time I need to be on it?” Or a specific number of miles, even, if it came to that.

"The treadmill?" Wade's voice was slightly distracted as he looked over Meggan's injury. "We want to get you up to a point where you're walking at least four miles per hour. I've got some squishy balls that you can squeeze with both hands to help strengthen them. Then there's wrist workouts and knuckle push-ups, but we'll get to those later. We're starting out slow, I think. And I'm gonna teach you how to wrap your hands up nice and tight. The wraps are just a precursor. They're good for practicing and stuff. The gloves come after that." He frowned a little, but the wound did seem to be healing up nicely. "Okay, so first the wraps, then the treadmill, then the kata. While you're on the treadmill, I want you to do an uppercut with every step forward - right arm with right foot, same for the left side. But only if there's no pulling or pain on the right side, alright? If you start feeling sore, then stop with the uppercuts and just walk."

Meggan nodded, taking all that in. Treadmill didn't sound hard at all. Squishy balls were great. While she hadn’t heard of knuckle push-ups before, she was willing to give it a shot somewhere down the line. “Did I do the wrap right? I put it on one hand already, just to see if I could. Do I need to redo it?” She hadn’t wrapped it tight enough to cut off any circulation, but it was tight enough that it wouldn’t be falling off whenever she moved muscle in her hand. “Right. I’ll tell you the first second I feel even the faintest twinge of sore there,” she promised.

Recovering the bite with the gauze, Wade stepped around and inspected her work on the wrap. "You did well with the tightness and, since we're not actually hitting anything today, I think you generally did a fairly good job. The purpose of the wrap is to protect your hand bones. There's also knuckle guards, but we won't be worrying with those for a while. Obviously, they do just what it sounds like they do - protect your knuckles. You'll have some soreness anyway, once we actually get started on the bag, but hopefully the knuckle push-ups will help with that. It's all about strengthening your hands and arms. The repetition on the treadmill will start setting some muscle memory, which is also important. It'll take a while, but we'll get you to where you can throw a decent punch." He gave her a smile, then, and took one of the other wraps he'd given her. "So, back to the wraps, the only thing I'd suggest, once we actually start hitting things, is to bring it a little farther down your wrist. Not much, but enough to brace those bones, too." With practiced ease, he took her other hand and wrapped it. "Not too tight?"

After all that, Meggan wasn’t surprised by the soreness warning. That would undoubtedly be in store when she woke up in the morning and she’d be a slow mover, but that was fine. It would get better. “Other than the one lucky bop I got in with Kyle, right,” Meggan commented with a small smile. “Temporarily broke his nose, made him let go of my shoulder.” She felt where he’d wrapped her hand, moving a couple fingers to test it. She made a mental note to do it just like he had from now on. “No, it’s perfect. Fingers still movable!”

"Fantastic," Wade said, smiling. "So, do you use the treadmills down here ever?"

“A few times in the winter, yes, but not all that often,” Meggan admitted. “When I wanted to go for a walk, but didn’t want to fall into a snow drift, never to be seen again. Until Spring.” Because some of those snow drifts had been impressive before the thaw came, and she had wanted to walk, not fly over them.

Laughing softly, Wade nodded. "Fair enough. I'll show you how to do an uppercut first, since trying to teach you that while you're actually on the treadmill would be a little difficult. And then we'll start you out slow, figure out what speed you're comfortable at, and go from there."

It would be difficult to teach that while on the treadmill, it was true. Someone would end up stumbling or just flat out tipping over due to distraction if the speed went up a fraction too much. “Okay. Slow’s good.” Very good, especially if she wanted to try to commit every little thing to memory and not accidentally go wrong. “Is there a certain type of stance I need to stand in for the first?”

"When you're on the floor... you'll want to be on the balls of your feet with your feet about shoulder-distant apart, like this." Wade showed her. "Keep your hands up, about cheek level, fingers curled into fists, elbows bent. You protect your head this way, alright?" He demonstrated the hand positioning as well. "So for today's purposes, the uppercut is literally a quick jab from below, basically at your imaginary opponent's chin. One foot back a bit, you're bracing and pushing with it, alright? And you twist from the hips to put as much power behind your punch as possible. The object is to get inside his - or her - guard fast, do some damage, and withdraw just a fast. Always, always keep the hand you're not punching with up, on guard. It'll be a little different on the treadmill, since that's just building up endurance and muscle-memory."

Meggan looked down, shifting her feet to get them the correct distance he had described. She put her arms up as instructed, trying to copy every movement just the way he demonstrated. As he said the last, she quickly moved her other arm up to the guard position—she’d managed to miss that at first, but quickly corrected. That was a bad one to miss, she knew that. She tried again, making sure to do the hip twist and all, before asking, “Like this? Is this right?”

"Mm..." Wade walked around to watch Meggan's movement and coordination as she punched. "That's good. Shift this foot a little - like that. Now try again." After a couple more pointers on posture, he nodded his satisfaction. "That's good. Make sure you're not concentrating so hard that you forget about your shoulder. Now, when you're on the treadmill, it'll be a little different. Not so much with the twisting, but you're still punching up when you've got your off foot back, your other foot forward. Let's get you on the treadmill and see how it goes."

Meggan beamed happily for a moment when she realized she’d done it correctly, and inwardly noted to remember that shoulder. “Right, okay, let’s try it,” she said as she followed him over to the treadmill. She thought she had that part down, but they’d see if she still had it right when she was walking on the treadmill at the same time. She hoped so.

Wade started her out slow, just like he'd said he would. He didn't want to run her ragged - really, the mercenary was evaluating her abilities. She caught on fast. If she continued to work at this with dedication, he was pretty sure they'd make good progress. Watching as she moved, he said, "That's right - when you're on the treadmill, you can swing your arms a little more, if that helps you keep in time with your steps. We'll work on form when you're on the floor and at the bag later. We just want to get your stamina up for the moment."

Arm swinging did, in fact, help Meggan a little, so she continued that from time to time as she kept up the pace. While also keeping tabs on her shoulder—so far, at least, it wasn’t giving her any problems, she was keeping a steady pace that wouldn't leave her breathless, and the healing wound wasn’t throbbing. She wanted to be absolutely certain that she wasn’t blowing anything badly, or hurting herself. It didn’t seem like she was, but she was new at it—although, she was certain Wade would tell her if he saw her move a way that just should not be done in proper defensive circles. “Stamina first, then that Kata thing?”

"Yep. We'll give this another ten minutes, so long as your shoulder's not bothering you. Then we'll start on the Kata. I want you to be careful when doing that, too - don't over extend your shoulder muscles or anything. They should be warmed up from your movement here, but it's better safe than sorry." Wade grinned. Overall, she was doing very well. It was small things, to begin with. They needed a good foundation from which to build up her repertoire of defensive techniques and strategies.

“No, no, it’s doing good so far,” Meggan assured him. If it pinged with any amount of pain, she knew she should inform him at once. “I promise I’ll be extra careful.” She knew to heed the warning, because she didn’t want to bungle something in the earliest stages. Small things were good at this stage.

"Good," Wade said, nodding his approval. He watched her for the next ten minutes, making sure she continued the uppercuts properly and didn't tip over or anything on the treadmill. Once her time there was over, he waited as she turned the machine off and then nodded toward the large mat in the center of the gym. "This is usually enough space. You can run through the forms whenever you like, so long as the space is large enough. I've found a good spot in the greenhouse and some awesome places on the grounds. Also, the front lawn, so long as it's not too hot out. So, stand next to me and we'll get started on the forms."

“Okay. Maybe in my room, before bed? I think there’s enough room in there, too,” Meggan questioned as she took her spot beside him. Certainly not ever perched in a tree, she was positive there wasn’t enough room in one to stay balanced enough to do all the moves, not even on a sturdy branch—maybe beneath one. If centering helped to stave off a nightmare some night before it even happened to get started, it might do her a world of good with residual things. Just as long as she didn't stand in the wrong area and bump a lamp over.

"That could probably work," Wade said, nodding. "You'll just want to be aware of your surroundings so you don't hit Molly in the face if she pops up unexpectedly. I don't think she'd really mind, what with being invulnerable and all, but still. It's the principle of the thing. Or something." Moving slowly so Meggan could observe and imitate, Wade walked through the first form with her.

“Yeah. Even if she didn’t mind, I’d mind. So avoiding knocking the lamp, and suddenly appearing Molly, and anything that might happen to be on the floor at that exact second,” she nodded with a grin. If such an accident did occur, just out of a weird sense of guilt and to say she was sorry for knocking her over, Meggan would probably be bringing Molly a breakfast in bed of chocolate pancakes for a week. Because she didn’t think they’d last if they snuck downstairs for night owl breakfasts for that length of time. As Wade slowly moved through the motions, so did Meggan. Carefully, to be certain she did it right, adjusting when it looked like she almost didn't.

Running through the Kata was such routine for Wade these days that it was only a little distracting, keeping an eye on Meggan to make sure she was following along properly. He paused every now and again to adjust her stance, but overall they made it through the first form without any trouble. "Repeat that a few times. You probably won't remember all of it right off and that's alright, but we can practice this every day if you want. We'll work on the boxing stuff once every two or three days."

Meggan smiled her thanks when he made one more adjustment to her stance. This really did feel like it would be nice and relaxing once she had it right. “Okay. That’d be nice, yes, to practice every day. Just to be certain I have it all down correctly, and one small but important bit doesn’t fall out of my head here or there.” It might be a broken kata if that happened, not really accomplishing anything. She didn't want to risk that.

Wade smiled. "So how about we meet on the front lawn tomorrow tomorrow, probably under a tree because shade is your friend."

“Perfect! It is very much my friend this time of year,” she answered. If it somehow became too hot beneath the tree’s shade after a certain point, and they had to stop, Meggan could always hang out in the tree’s branches. There would be more of a chance of a breeze drifting through, the higher up she was.

"Excellent. Once you get this down, we can start on the others. You'll get good enough at it that you don't actually have to think about it so much. It's just breathing and movement." Wade nodded, pleased with the session. "So I'll see you tomorrow, Minion Number Two."