There and Back Again [closed/Erek]

Erek had heard the rumors, and he couldn't care less. The ring on his finger flashed slightly in the light of the window-- he'd been recently appointed as the Sternritter "Thorn", though he and Freyleif were working on the reorganization of the Order's rankings, for now, that ranking stuck. His fingers were rapidly moving across the keyboard of the laptop on his desk, as he went through the physical documentation that needed his signatures and stamps, interactions with Shinigami on patrols, patrol reports of Hollow activity, training sessions for his Clan back in Britain underneath Martin-- there was all this and more that required his attention.

The ring was his new Quincy "Cross", and of course, it also represented his status as the head of his clan. With that title, came the responsibilities associated with such. He had quite a bit to do, especially with the private lessons to Niji, Martin, Natalie, and several others. Reaching over to the at his desk, he took a swig of the burning whiskey before he blinked and glanced up-- feeling the shift of a familiar reiatsu signature traveling through the castle. It was a familiar one he had felt in the castle before recently, but he hadn't approached the man yet-- though he had intended to eventually.

Instead, it would seem the man was comfortable approaching him instead, and as if on cue, the energy approached and knocked on his door-- the reishi in the air shifting as the door swung inwardly, opening for the man as Erek simply arched a singular brow. His outfit completely different from his original that he had met Raphael in a few months ago, hauling himself up slowly at the words as he circled around his desk to lean against it, dress shoes tapping lightly against the ground. His outfit was formal, but plain-- simple black dress pants, a white dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up and several buttons unclasped near his throat with a simple black leather belt around his waist.

His hand lowered, the dog tags changing softly with the movement as his lip curled in a slight smile, "Erek is fine, Raphael. It's a pleasure to meet you again," he replied simply and would give him a firm, single handshake just like when they met before he tucked it into his pocket to watch the man with a curious air. Training, he had said-- he could remember the man's abilities relatively well-- so he wanted combat experience and real training capabilities, was it? The request was fair enough.

Grunting, he leaned back, closing the laptop before he turned and would nod his head once, "I don't mind offering my help, what specifically did you have in mind? General combat training, with my advice placed as you need it-- or anything specific that you'd like my assistance on?"

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Tags: @raphaellaurent
Post Words: 474
Thread Words: 474

Raphael shook Erek’s hand as he approached the man, though he felt rather embarrassed. While Erek was dressed in business casual, white shirt, black pants, Raphael himself was dressed in jeans, tennis shoes, a white shirt and the blue jacket that his father had given him. One of the biggest problems about being in a military organization when you, yourself had very little sense of military fashion. Raph would’ve loved to do nothing more than spend all day in dress up, but he had yet to grow in strength, and this was beginning to become disconcerting.

A smile graced his face when the man said to just call him Erek. Better yet was the fact that he didn’t seem to be all that concerned with the rumors swirling around about Raph and Frey. But he should’ve figured that Erek’s head would’ve been screwed on a bit better than that.

“It’s good to see you again too, Erek. I’m glad to see that you made your way here. The order definitely needs someone of your raw talent.” He thought for a few minutes, at Erek’s offer. “I’d say that general combat efficiency training would be fine, but with an emphasis on weapon and hand to hand techniques.” He smiled. “You think that’ll work?”

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The handshake was firm, and it was something that Erek could respect-- it would seem that he hadn't lost anything from when he had first met him, though he had to wonder what had caused this sudden step into a desire to better himself, it had been months-- and as far as he could tell the man's level of power felt about the same. Still, as the man would calmly tuck his hands behind his back as his gaze would look Raphael over slowly as he commented on his own "talent", and a single eyebrow would arch at the statement.

"You misunderstand something. I have no more natural talent than anyone else, I simply don't allow myself to remain passive-- if I have time, then it can be used to train, work, or study. That's all," with that, he would then take a moment to contemplate the idea of "general efficiency" and what that could entail, he wanted to focus his training on hand to hand and weaponry, which was something he could certainly understand and approve of, but it seemed an odd choice for the man.

"I assume you're confident in your ability to manipulate your power, then?" he would inquire curiously before he would grunt, pushing himself up once more from the desk, "I don't mind if you're confident enough, I've been teaching quite a few people martial skills after all lately," a slight shrug of his shoulders was the response, before he would motion toward the door, either way, they would need a training room to work in. There was no need to damage the castle itself for something as simple as martial training, after all.

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Post Words: 279
Thread Words: 753

Raph listened intently, eyes trained on the man, as Erek explained that the reason for his strength was that he didn’t rest on his laurels. He was constantly trying to better himself, whether through training, studying or working, he was always doing something. He reminded Raph of how he’d been before the forced acquisition of quincy abilities. Raph couldn’t deny that the man had a point. Raph had a bad tendency to rest when he shouldn’t. That had casued his abilities and power to atrophy to the point that they were at now, as well as allowed that proto-hollow to attempt to take over his body. That was another thing that had bothered him, thinking about it. The experiment had been a failure; perhaps due to the nature of the soul of the quincy. His mother had said that they didn’t have antibodies to protect them against hollowfication, almost like this hollowfying was a disease… Maybe he’d been looking at the problem all wrong, best to introduce antibodies into quincy…like Adimus had done. Experiments to be done later.

“I am quite confident in my ability to manipulate my power. The issue isn’t manipulation so much as simple imagination and planning. It’s the imagining of what I want to happen, happening. What I need to learn most is how to handle myself if I happen to run into any close encounters of the hollow, Shinigami or spiritualists, hell even quincy with ill intent!” He paused for a moment and watched the man. “I can form just about any weapon that I want from the surrounding area.” He held out his hand and a blade formed from stone of the castle around them, the cracks in pieces being held together by pulsing blue energy. “It’ll hold together, and with enough thought I can actually use them, but I’ve always been a bigger fan of using my fists in battle. Could you show me some fighting techniques, or even just the basics of a fighting style that might help me to stand more of a chance, were to come up against someone as…” He had to think for a moment. “Ruthless and tactically minded as yourself? Mind you, that’s a compliment. I just know that if I’m ever going to…” and he trailed off. “Be useful around here as a field agent then I’m going to need to work three times as hard as I ever have. So don’t hold back, Erek! I’ll take everything you can throw at me!”

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