( open )

[beknight]

Who: bruce wayne (beknight) & various others.
What: it's the eye of the tiger.
When: after this network post!
Where: the dojo
Warning(s): violence! more will be added if needed.

accompanying log for sparring training.

Comments

you're fine! I'm molasses tbh

[krasnaya_vdova]

[He's sharp enough he likely notices that there's a brief moment when he first moves where she reacts fast and then slows how she moves. A brief flicker of something sharper and far more dangerous; she's used to pulling her punches to keep from hurting, not to deceive. But there are questions she's trying to work out.

Normally, she might sidestep, try to grab his strike, take him off his center of balance and then take him down. Instead, she steps into it, blocks with her forearm, trying to feel out his strength.

When she follows through, her strike aims for just shy of his shoulder. Enough to seem like she was going for the weakness and just didn't quite manage it right, but instead she's probing. How much does he guard that injury, real or faked, and how does it affect the rest of his body mechanics. It tells her something.

It occurs to her that this feels almost as complicated as the few times she'd sparred with Natasha, where even bodies lie.]

[beknight]

[ She's stronger than she looks. It's a reason to hide, Clark does the same thing when he's trying to measure his strength to the new forms. But Ava's faster — practiced. She wants to feel him out. He defends the injury — it's not the time to show his hand. His body moves like it swallows pain. ]

[ Bruce strikes again, harder this time. How strong are you? ]

gosh sorry this is so late :(

[krasnaya_vdova]

[He moves as she'd expect if he was injured. Either he decided to do this while injured, or he's good enough to fake it convincingly, and while both are interesting, the later would mean he's trying to get a read on people without giving himself away. Something Natasha would do. And that's more interesting.

He moves in again, hits harder and she meets it, just enough strength to match him, reflexive response that comes faster than she can modulate. There's a lot she represses, especially in a fight with someone she doesn't know.

When she blocks his blow she steps in, a little faster, but still at some approximation of normal. Trying to balance pushing him and not telling him too much. She ignores his injury for now and instead goes for his ribs, aims a sharp kick to the side of his knee.]

np! I've been slow too

[beknight]

[ She pushes him, he pushes back. Blow by blow — carefully struck. Whoever holds back does so for a reason. He could show his hand to push her off-balance, this isn't the time. Not when there's so much he doesn't know. ]

[ But he doesn't make it easy for her. Strong and well-trained as she is, years of experience are on his side. They draw, to polite applause from the crowd. ]

[ He hands her a towel. ]

Who taught you?