xp_logs | Topaz and Kyle || Punching Lessons

Kyle wants to teach Topaz to fight. Topaz is bemused.

The gym, as a general rule, wasn't somewhere Topaz went often.

It wasn't an inherent laziness or anything - she just got her exercise elsewhere. Usually outside, or lately running around campus. Treadmills were alright if it was raining or she couldn't go outside without instantly freezing, but she preferred the fresh air to...well, the gym.

So being summoned to the gym by Kyle was...odd, to say the least. But since all her homework was done and her two classes for the day had been canceled because of the weather, she made her way obediently down to the gym to meet Kyle.

And found him standing there with a pair of yellow boxing gloves.

"...Did you text the right person?"

"Well, you're the only person in my phone listed as Topaz One Name Like Beyonce or Ke$ha, so yeah, pretty sure." Kyle tossed the gloves at Topaz. "You are a small smismy magic person and eye dee kay who did self defense when you all had it but if Ev and I hadn't been in the library when Clinto was an idiot..."

He shrugged. Describing what might have happened was probably crossing a line. "I know you guys all got self-defense. But I also know, I mean you got Topaznapped in India, this thing happened, the thing in Alaska happened, if shit goes down, I know I'd feel happier knowing my favorite half a librarian can break a kneecap."

Topaz caught the gloves automatically - because the alternative was letting them hit her in the face - raising an eyebrow. "Pretty sure I got self defense from one of the Canadian blokes."

Focusing on everything else he had said was better than thinking about what had happened in the library. The anger she'd taken off Clint and Matt had finally faded, but she could still feel the echoes of it if she thought too hard.

That worried her a bit.

"Alright, I mean, I don't know why you think I'd ever be capable of breaking a kneecap no matter how much training I have, but..." Maybe knowing how to throw a punch wouldn't be a horrible thing.

"Tee, a three foot tall midget can break a kneecap, knees are easy as crap to break." Kyle said, with a grin that spoke pages of how much he enjoyed watching a deserved kneecap get broken. "Not so easy to fix if you're not me, or, you know one of the "Canadian blokes" - he made air quotes with taped-up hands. "but easy to break, cause they only bend one way."

"Well I do like to think I'm taller than three feet," Topaz said dryly. "Even if everyone else is unnaturally tall. So how does training for this work? I assume I'm not going to be actually trying to break your kneecap."

"Well, not today you're not." Kyle pointed at Topaz's feet. "Not in those shoes, not the first time out, until I know you're not gonna break your toes." He picked up a large rectangular ... well, it was basically a rectangle, covered in black vinyl and duct tape. "Air shield. Today, we go over what you remember from self-defense, and maybe you work out some of what's making you twitchy as hell. Couple of punches, couple of kicks, and then you can try to make me hit the ground a few times." He grinned. "You know, emphasis on try."

"I imagine trying will look more like in a cartoon when the tiny character runs at a big character, hits the big one head first, and falls over," Topaz pointed out, flexing her fingers a bit. Self defense had never been her biggest concern as a student. Why learn how to block a punch when she could just put up a shield? She remembered what she had learned. She just wasn't sure how much she could put into practice. "Alright. Let's go."