The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
Raff glanced at Stormcrest for a brief moment, listening to the carefully considered reply. He could almost hear the wheels churning in the guy's head, still playing the game of Simon Says with every question. He was laser focused and probably didn't realize he was showing Terach just how damn smart he was acting-and speaking for that matter. He waited a beat longer, watching Stormcrest narrow his eyes --obvious tell- in mounting irritation.
Terach nodded his unconscious approval of his choice as the best thing to focus on right now.
"It's some rolls, but it's actually about angles in everything. How are ya at math?" Terach asked deliberately, the question with a hidden meaning in the ongoing game of Simon Says. If Stormcrest could continue to problem solve, physically move while reacting to new stimulus all while keeping up the question game, it would confirm that in a few years, Stormcrest would be a soldier to be reckoned with. No wonder he was such a dick to everyone--he was just bored as fuck! He'd definitely need harder training to keep him occupied then.
Moving closer to the dummy, he gestured to the sword still on the ground and then stepped back looking up at the eight feet it had been, tracing a triangle on the ground to the sword.
Noting its exact position in relation with his halberd, it was a perfect match. Since he'd answered the math question, Terach queried, "Ya wanna start with rolls which are more fun or do ya wanna work angle theories applied to all of it?"
Terach kept his expression neutral, showing no favoritism to either choice. Because it was a trick question.
Last Edit: Apr 14, 2023 12:54:44 GMT -5 by Deleted
If the nod was anything to go by, Terach seemed satisfied by Ber’s choice, which, good for him, but earning the lieutenant’s approval wasn’t particularly the soldier’s concern. He just wanted to learn something that would help him not get horribly injured the next time someone decided to turn someone else into a werewolf. Working on dodging blows from stronger opponents was versatile and could probably be applied to fighting in Dresmond as well, whenever they ended up going.
The thought of Dresmond, and specifically one particular Dresmondi whom he hadn’t seen since the ball, had his heart clenching. He still didn’t know how Zevran had been ‘dealt with’. But, as per the captain commander’s orders, that was neither here nor there.
Over the course of his life, Ber’s primary tutors had been the streets of Skia and the drill instructors in the military wing. The former definitely did not care whether he was remotely literate, and the latter only cared insofar as he could read basic orders if, for whatever reason, they needed to be handed to him on paper. His knowledge of mathematics was equally dismal. So when Terach brought math into the equation, Ber squinted up at him in confusion. “Well, I can count,” He said, unsure as to how the skill he only regularly applied to spending money would help him dodge werewolf attacks. Ber couldn’t think of a time when his usual combination of instinct and training had failed him in a fight so horribly that he needed to start counting something to win.
Mostly uncomprehending, he watched as Terach approached the dummy and wondered if he should have picked distracting the hypothetical werewolf instead. When he’d settled on evasion, Ber had imagined learning how to do the roll that he’d seen the lieutenant just perform, not thinking about angles and math and other concepts he didn’t understand. It seemed, however, that the other man had picked up on this, because he, mercifully, offered Ber a choice between the two. For this particular soldier, who didn’t really think he needed to understand why something worked so long as it did, there would never be any contest between rolls and angle theories.
“The first option,” He said, almost immediately. “Working on the rolls.” And, he decided, he would hold onto the question he’d get to ask in return until he had something worth inquiring about. Stupid questions gave Terach the opportunity to freely ask probing ones like the one about his math skills, and Ber didn’t like that.
Last Edit: Apr 14, 2023 15:17:45 GMT -5 by Deleted
Raff held back a smile, noting that Stormcrest was thinking about something else. He'd done it without even knowing it! The kid had ignored the werewolf figure threat and gone straight back to normally thinking only about himself. The rest would be some fun and effective learning but Terach had accomplished his goal here. Stormcrest consciously put aside any blatant or noticeable fears, giving them only secondary importance to the task at hand. As far as Raff was concerned, the guy was fuckin healed and mentally ready for work again.
"Counting's all ya need." he gestured to the figure's stand pole with his halberd, almost reaching the top, "that's about eight feet." He drew back to show the triangle on the ground.
"Eight feet standing don't look the same on the ground." the triangle behind the pole came to a point at the eight foot mark on the ground. "Iffen ya smack something eight feet tall, that's where it's gonna land eight feet on tha ground." he paused again and walked all the way around the pole in a radius, dragging a careful circle in the dirt with the halberd. "This circle is the circumference all the way around yer target that it can reach you in falling or stride."
Raff turned to look at the guy to see if he was focused on fear or learning and continued. He then drew a line across the top third of the triangle making a deep line in the mud with his weapon. He paused for a long moment and made strong eye contact,
"And THAT'S the largest area they can reach you in one stride. Count a third off the height, and the distance that remains, ya avoid that range, and nothin will ever fuckin touch ya again unless ya want 'em to. That's counting maths."
He propped the halberd on his shoulder and turned to Stormcrest. "Ya understand and ready for rolls now?"
Last Edit: Apr 15, 2023 13:11:20 GMT -5 by Deleted
Terach seemed confident that counting was all Ber needed to do, and the soldier watched as he pointed to the top of the pole with the halberd. That was apparently eight feet. Okay. He turned and noted the tip of the triangle, where the lines drawn from either side of the wooden sword still sitting where the makeshift werewolf’s legs stood. That distance was apparently also eight feet. Okay. At the explanation, he nodded. Something that was eight feet tall would, at most, cover a distance of eight feet when it fell on the ground. That made sense.
When were they going to get to the rolling part?
When the lieutenant began walking in a circle around the pole and the target, Ber’s gaze followed him for a moment before continuing to do so would have forced him to turn more than just his head. Instead, the soldier crossed his arms and shifted slightly in the other direction so he could more easily see Terach when he walked back into view. The circle that the officer had left in his wake, Ber noted, intersected the point at the top of the triangle, which meant that it was also eight feet from the pole. That meant— Well, Terach explained what it meant right as Ber himself came to the same conclusion.
As the lieutenant began drawing another line in the mud that intersected the triangle, he wondered if Terach had even heard what he’d said he wanted to work on. There was an awful lot of talking about angles and a distinct lack of rolling around on the ground happening here.
For a moment, Ber stared at the second line on the ground, waiting for the accompanying explanation, but when it didn’t come, he glanced up at Terach, who was looking back at him. The clarification he’d anticipated soon followed, and looking back down at the marks in the mud, he nodded.
“Stay behind that line to probably not get hit,” He said, pointing to the line across the triangle and picturing it circling the pole as an inner ring. “And stay behind the circle to not get crushed if it falls.” In response to the second part of the question, he nodded, beyond ready to begin doing something that required a little less thinking. Not really one for strategy, he tended more toward reacting to whatever was thrown at him rather than planning ahead.
He wasn’t entirely hopeless though. Ber moved to stand behind the line that crossed through the triangle and peered up at the top of the pole, which prompted him to actually consider the distances in the context of a fight. He would have no chance of hitting a target from outside the first circle with the eight foot radius. Even standing behind the line as he was now meant that he would have to move in close and then quickly retreat to land any blows.
Raff moved to stand within two paces of the guy and he glanced swiftly at Stormcrest as he mentally connected the dots. He snorted, knowing that the soldier was far smarter than he'd ever let on if he'd picked it up that quickly. The change in position showed his restlessness to put words and thoughts to action, as he'd clearly moved on from explanations that normally took three times as long for the average soldier because education wasn't exactly prioritized in Nevermere. Hell, signing your name was considered literate enough and counting to ten was high maths.
"Yes. Now the three starters for rolls are from standing, crouching and sitting so your angles have to be considered as well your target, velocity and length. Using one or both legs out will give you that extra third of a leverage in distance."
While Raff spoke, he moved his left hip and leg back at a forty five degree angle, resting his weight over between both legs. His left heel was solidly beneath his left hip. He kept his body facing forward and lowered his left arm to wrap to his chest. His right foot pointed forward as did his entire upper body and right arm extended to just under shoulder level. Dropping close to the ground with his right foot still extended, he tucked his left leg behind the right knee when his ass neared the ground, throwing his right knee hard into the air over his left shoulder, putting his right arm straight out flat against the ground. Following the line of the tucked left shoulder with his face turned left, the toes on his left foot touched the ground and followed the line of motion to rise up in a swift blur approximately eight paces away from Ber. Impetus and velocity did all the work if you knew where to put what and when.
"It's one of the rolls called Bear in the Cave. We'll need to start you with ground rolls first though. Do that first angle wrong and you'll snap yer own neck."
Last Edit: Apr 16, 2023 13:51:20 GMT -5 by Deleted
Ber cast a glance at Terach as he approached, and though the snort earned the lieutenant a somewhat suspicious narrowing of the eyes, the soldier listened as he began to explain the basics of evasive rolls. The part about how they could start from a standing, crouching, or sitting position was intuitive; the rest of it, well, he figured he’d figure it out when they actually started doing something.
It didn’t help that he was distracted from what the other man was saying by what he was doing. While Terach moved easily into the proper stance, Ber silently did his best to copy him. Dark eyes glanced between the way the lieutenant positioned his legs and feet and Ber’s own efforts, and despite the unfamiliarity of the pose, he didn’t think he did too badly. Mostly content with his legs, the soldier had just tucked his left arm against his chest when Terach dropped low and, in a blur of movement, rolled a significant distance away. Frozen in place for a moment, Ber blinked after him: he’d definitely missed a few steps there.
When the lieutenant offered the name of the roll he’d just performed, he earned himself another glance with his emphasis on the word ‘bear’. Was Terach trying to be funny? He wasn’t sure. In Ber’s experience, officers didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor, and he knew for a fact that Woodwick wouldn’t have been able to tell a funny joke if his life depended on it.
For all of his efforts in trying to mimic the pose he’d seen the lieutenant do, it seemed as though he would be starting off with something different anyway. “Okay.” Shifting back into a more comfortable stance, Ber nodded his understanding, not sure that potions could fix a broken neck and not really wanting to find out through personal experience. “You mean something like that—” He gestured toward the place where Terach had rolled. “—Except from sitting down?”
"Yea, ya could try the on the ground ones first to ease into it. Bears walk with the feet turned in and they roll using the length of their arm."
Raff explained as he dropped to the ground on all fours, keeping his toes arched to the ground, putting his left arm flat against the ground, palm up beneath his right arm.
"Sink into gravity and follow the path of your arm so yer face is tucked into your chest- near your right knee, under yer arm like a bear does. Put yer right knee more forward than the left so it's face, knee and elbow near each other." His long body rolled at a strong forty-five degree angle, completely changing his direction. It was as easy at it looked.
Dark blue eyes scrutinized what the soldier would do, he nodded and then did it three more times, ending up in the same place he'd started. "If ya roll too slow--ya'll smack yer back, don't flatten your feet til yer over, so go for it or don't. Keep the roll momentum going forward til yer crouching again."
"Two left rolls like that would've let you attack, roll away, evade out of reach and roll return when any attacker was instantly going for ya." He paused and looked at Stormcrest's arm. "Ya can't do the right angle rolls yet, but it's the same thing once that's healed all the way. Have fun with it and think of it as rolling around like an egg coz that's what we're doing."
Terach crouched but stayed still, ready to move if needed. The rolls were also a calculated sneak move to attack people who are standing nearby to roll and kick their legs out from them from behind as a gentle knock over or break both knees from the front. But those details were on a need to know basis...
(try these, they're fun!!! alone is boring--2 or more people in a room *13 yrs n up,* and you will smack into each other and try to dodge flying feet!)
Last Edit: Apr 18, 2023 13:46:11 GMT -5 by Deleted
When Terach lowered himself to the ground, Ber did the same, though he remained kneeling upright to watch what the lieutenant did. He watched the other man perform the roll once - it seemed easy enough - before dropping down on all fours to try it for himself. With his left arm stretched across his body and under his right, he found the easy fall and turn to the side the next natural movement. Instinctively, he tucked his chin and kept his right arm folded so he could use it to push himself back onto his hands and knees as the slight momentum of his roll carried him over onto his right side. “Like that?” It felt a little silly, but that seemed exactly as easy as it had looked. He would try again with any corrections.
Terach explained a hypothetical situation in which such a roll could be useful, and Ber nodded, reminding himself that these were defensive in nature. Instinctively, he tended to stay on his feet during spars because falling to the ground seemed like a good way to lose a lot of mobility, but the ability to roll away from any attacks went a good way toward countering that. Plus… “People don’t expect you to dodge anything by dropping to the ground, do they?” Having done a few more practice rolls, where the movement became increasingly familiar, Ber now knelt with one knee on the ground and his arm resting across the other. He peered over at Terach as he spoke, his words more of a statement than a question despite the somewhat rising tone at the end. “Do you use that in fights a lot?”
"Yep. That easy. Relax your shoulder though so there's no impact-just a clean roll. If the side of yer elbow has bruises on it tomorrow, ya didn't relax yer shoulder."
He walked in a slow circle around Ber, noting his posture.
"Good, ya got shitty posture--that works well. Make sure you slouch and use yer gut to curl up good when ya roll."
Raff watched him closely, noting his aptitude at the quick question and then the obvious that it would lead to next. No one had bothered to put it together for further use or how it was applied. Stormcrest had potential with that kinda quick mind. The Lieutenant wasn't about to heap any praise on his head for it though. If anything, the harder the soldier was pushed in the last hour, had proved he thrived on the challenge and was literally asking for more.
"Yep. Drops ya to a third of yer height so they can't get a quick fix ta track ya easily with weapons or sight."
About to move on to the next, Stormcrest gave his statement, not question and Terach knew he'd have to explain the rest of it. To be fair if he was smart enough to problem solve that it could be used further, he should use it all the fuckin way.
He nodded and looked closely at how he was crouched ready to go. Making the decision to let him in on what really shouldn't be a secret to any soldier.
"In the combat ring--anyone can kick anyone's ass--on or off the clock. All ranks have a duty and a right to refuse any order that causes harm to another soldier outside the combat ring, on or off the clock. But here--it's no holds barred Stormcrest." Terach's blue eyes took on a gleam of unwholesome delight and he smiled as he continued in the same quiet even voice.
"Getting out yer aggressions here, in the combat ring, off the clock, has no rules fer drawing blood or maiming."
The tall lanky man measured out two average strides away from the soldier and turned his back on him.
"Look at yer angles, make the adjustments I suggested, and see if ya can hit the backs of my knees as ya finish that roll. If ya get the angle exactly right, we'll both know it. But it has to be perfect. And if ya want even more challenge, shift and roll after you strike. Up to you..."
Last Edit: Apr 18, 2023 17:31:31 GMT -5 by Deleted
The lieutenant confirmed what Ber had suspected, and then something in his tone changed as he kept talking. Eyes narrowed slightly as Terach effectively gave him permission to do his best to kick the officer’s ass, and, well, who was Ber to turn down such a blatant invitation? Dark eyes watched as the other man moved closer, and when the soldier shifted slightly to be balanced on his toes and one hand instead of resting on one knee, he could feel the street rat in him raising its head to stare down the challenge.
Once he’d grown enough to properly defend himself, Ber had never been one to run away from a fight.
Like the lieutenant had said, Ber took a moment to consider how he should orient himself such that he would be able to kick out at the backs of Terach’s knees and adjusted his position accordingly. If he landed the blow correctly, then the other man’s legs ought to buckle… which meant that second roll was probably worth incorporating in. Ber took one last moment to study where his target was before letting out a breath and going for it.
This time, he made more of an effort to relax his shoulder, and only had time to note that the impact was easier before he was caught up in the motion. As he rolled onto his right, he turned his head to look down the length of his body and lashed out with his left foot as he pushed himself up on his right arm. Then, keeping the momentum going as his weight settled on his left elbow and knee, he kicked out again with his right foot. Letting his left arm give under him, he definitely felt the impact on his left shoulder and hip as he fell considerably less neatly into his second roll. He would undoubtedly have bruises tomorrow - perhaps that was what he got for improvising and trying to be fancy - but he hardly minded.
Now back on hands and knees, Ber looked over in time to see Terach falling and grinned.
All six foot two of Raff dropped to his knees hard, making him sit down fast on Ber's right leg as he tried to roll away. He'd wanted to trap both, but one would do. Terach laughed and growled at the same time. Stormcrest might've got the knees, but he didn't know how to roll from one knee yet so he'd used both legs. It was a gamble to use both to kick instead of just one and Raff was enjoying the consequences. With Ber's right leg pinned fast, Raff did a swift side roll to the left, locking Ber's knee in place between Raff's ankle and right knee.
A small rip showed on the pants of behind Raff's right knee, a cut within showing exactly how sharply Ber's shoe had sliced a hundred percent accurately. Which was probably why Raff wasn't using his much harder hit left knee. The little bastard had got him good.
Terach let go abruptly and rolled backward to stand up again. The pants leg over the front of his left knee wasn't ripped, but it was a shiny wet dark spot that was blood, mud or a combo of the two.
"Some trick there, ya lil fucker, using both feet instead just one. No guts, no glory huh? Stay right where ya are and watch fer a sec."
He walked about fifteen feet away and explained, "Standing roll, changes your height and makes you harder to track for long range attacks, but the biggest advantage.." he took a single step and lowered into a front roll to rise from it about five feet from Ber.
"..is long range distance coverage. Your Bear roll is good for close range and changing directions fast. If ya think what ya did was good--you can do twice as good with yer arm healed up."
"The next one, you almost did out of necessity--It's like doing somersaults as a kid, that one knee crouching roll." He crouched and knelt on his right knee, appearing to rapidly roll almost directly into Ber and stopped just short of it, showing it was about five times faster than any of the others shown before.
"That's the fastest of them all and will take you in any direction but down. They hit the hardest and do ten times the damage as an angled bear roll."
Terach slouched and dropped down spread eagle on the ground, just under two paces from Stormcrest. "Then there's side rolls too in any direction, straight or angled." He exhaled slowly and smiled.
"Which one ya wanna try with yer fucked up arm and my fucked up knee, next?"
Last Edit: Apr 18, 2023 19:10:51 GMT -5 by Deleted
Although he’d tried to be fast, Ber wasn’t fast enough. As he tried to roll away, he found his right leg caught fast under Terach before the lieutenant’s roll had it stuck in place even more securely. With a grunt, Ber tried to yank himself free, but his efforts were futile until the officer decided to release him. Dark eyes watched as Terach rolled backwards onto his feet, though their owner simply climbed to his own the normal way. Delight at the success, even if he gotten trapped afterward, had a smirk ghosting across the soldier’s features, and he chose to interpret the lieutenant’s words as a compliment.
“Twice as many chances to hit,” Ber said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug, though the satisfaction was still evident in his tone. No one made it long on the streets without developing some nerve and a willingness to take a gamble. “Paid off, didn’t it?”
When Terach demonstrated the other rolls, however, he let the sense of achievement fade into the background in favor of focusing on the new maneuvers once more. Both of the forward rolls from the standing and crouching position looked familiar enough, and the side rolls while laying on the ground promised to be exhausting. By the time the lieutenant gave him a choice, Ber was already considering which roll he wanted to try next - though the mention of both their injuries had him pausing. Was there a right answer? If there was, Ber didn’t know it, and in lieu of trying to figure one out, he opted to go with the roll whose speed had caught his eye. “The crouching one,” He said, lowering himself back down into a crouch as he did so. “And I wanna know how you caught my leg like that and how to get out of it too.”
"Damn right it did." Terach had to give credit where credit was due. He laid there a moment longer, soaking in the nice cool ground from working up a sweat and turned into a lazy as hell side roll to the right. He rose from the roll to kneel on Ber's left knee and jammed a foot behind his right one, locked their limbs in place and did a slow torturous second side roll, locking their legs together solidly; his stomach pressed into the ground.
He grunted at the painful move for both and responded, "Looks and feels like a cluster fuck. Don't ever tug backwards--push down and into my leg, go with the pull-never against it! Ya point your right toes to shove away my calf while rolling only your hips, forcing you and yer legs to the left, this will separate the rest of the leg contact to release us.. both. Done right, you'll be far enough I can't grab at ya, done wrong, we're both limping away hard from this."
Last Edit: Apr 19, 2023 18:10:44 GMT -5 by Deleted
With Terach broadcasting his movements, Ber held still and watched as the lieutenant trapped his leg again. The twist that had the soldier landing on the ground earned the officer a quiet grunt, and Ber resisted the instinctive urge to try to tug himself free as he recognized how tangled together their legs were. He found feeling so trapped and immobile disconcerting, even if he was meant to be learning how to free himself.
A clusterfuck was right.
After listening to the lieutenant’s instructions, Ber nodded. “Okay.” Keeping the warning about possibly limping away in mind, he opted to not rush through the motions as he pointed the toes of his right foot and twisting to the side. He thought he was doing alright and applied a little more force to free himself, and then—
Ber’s leg slipped free. There was a twinge up his trapped leg, as if he’d twisted something a little too far in doing so, but he had managed to free himself without major injury. He decided that he didn’t like that particular hold. “That worked,” He said, running a hand down his formerly trapped leg as he sat there. “But that’s tricky to get out of. Seems like you’re more likely to accidentally hurt yourself than escape.”
"I guess so, but ya didn't roll your hips fully to the side-which makes your thighs follow. That's where ya fucked up."
He slowly rose to his full height and shook each leg in turn, trying to get the circulation going back to where it should. Not too much full contact for him just yet. Raff had pushed too far too fast and needed to slow it down. Back to basic rolls. With a dark eyed gaze he checked over Stormcrest to make sure he wasn't hurting to badly.
"Walk with me over here." he said, discretely side eyeing the way the soldier walked to confirm Stormcrest was walking alright. When they were approximately fifteen feet from the pole, he crouched and took a knee.
"This is for speed and injuries. Not a coincidence here to state the obvious. If you wanna cause injury or have ta keep going fast despite one, these help. Ya can go forward, left and right angled as fast as back, back left and back right. Get distance between yer heel and crotch as much as possible to start to get speed." Raff rolled forward, threw a pebble at the post as he finished, and the momentum had him standing and limping away from the roll. He paused mid walk, crouched swiftly and made a rapid right angled crouch roll forward to stop in front of the pole and retrieve the pebble.
"Ya can do multiples to attack, leave and come back or get distance. Rising from them as you finish feels natural and your body will automatically make you want to finish rising from one knee. Try it to the pole here and count how many rolls it takes to reach it. Or be creative and see if you can aim something as you approach the target."
Last Edit: Apr 21, 2023 20:32:12 GMT -5 by Deleted