in the morning light [OPEN]

[selfrespecting]

Who: Martha Jones and OPEN.
Where: The grounds, near the gardens. (Also the clinic!)
When: 4/14 - 4/18
Rating: PG
Summary: Martha's determined to stay fit and be more prepared for any future dangers. The answer to that? T'ai chi.
The Story:
It's not that Martha's meant to slack off on her morning exercises. It's just that sometimes she has to work and ends up too lazy to get out of bed early enough to exercise before her shift. Either that, or there's an event that comes around and completely distracts her and throws her off of her routine.

Since February there haven't been any serious dangers that have hit the mansion, but that only makes her more convinced that something's coming, and soon. She's already given up one death out of five now, and she doesn't intend to let her life slip away from her again.

T'ai chi is more of a defensive form of martial arts, but it's a place to start, at least -- and with help from Blake, she's gotten decent at it. So each morning on this particular week, Martha forces herself out into the dewy mornings to train her body. She usually picks a spot out on the fields, not too far away from the gardens. It's also a way of clearing her mind, a meditation of sorts, and she finds that it puts her in a good place for the rest of the day.

Does she need to learn some actual offensive methods too? Most likely. But she hasn't quite worked herself up to ask around for that yet.

Later on in the day, Martha can be found in the clinic, as usual. She's just gone out of her way to make her shifts the afternoon ones, at least for this week, so that she can become more serious about her own training. Wonderland offers plenty of free time and she would rather make the most of it.

Comments

[selfrespecting]

Right, well, she isn't going to be suggesting he try any sports again any time soon. Martha just raises an eyebrow at him, wondering why it is that he's so against the idea. Not much of a team player, then?

At that question she shrugs, then rolls back her shoulders and stretches her arms out behind her. She may have had her workout interrupted, but she can still take this time to stretch and keep her blood flowing.

"I ran across someone else practicing it. John Blake, if you know him. I was curious, so he started to teach me, and it just sort of went from there. I appreciate the fact that it's defensive rather than offensive."

[alwaysnext]

Not much of a team player at all. Luke likes to focus on things he's good at; to receive positive attention and not be shown up in front of his peers. Kinda difficult to do that during sports when he can't kick a football without falling on his face. He might improve with practice, sure, but his brain's so messed up, the bits that control balance and coordination and spatial awareness wrecked beyond coping, that it's easier to avoid the issue altogether than to fail miserably and be screamed at by some oblivious teacher who can't understand why he can't walk on grass and catch a ball at the same time.

Feeling awkward just watching, he copies what she's doing, stretching his arms over his head and pulling out the early morning kinks in his back. “It’s going to sound really awful, but I’ve never heard of him.”

A year of being here, and he still doesn’t know the name of that many long-term residents. They aren’t that big a group, but they’re so spread out it’s like there’s entire populations of people he just never sees.

"I thought it was offensive, though? Isn't martial arts, like, kicking people in the face?" He drops his arms to do some cheap, fake arm movements he ripped off a cheesy tv show. "All that Batman kinda stuff?"

[selfrespecting]

It doesn't sound awful to Martha. She's well aware that some people simply run in different groups, and it's not like a person can spend all day chattering away at people on their mobile. She certainly tires of it after a point, at least.

"Well, if you ever do run into him, he's trustworthy. Helpful." It's always worth pointing that sort of thing out. They're hardly in a short supply of people who want to do the right thing, but even so.

"Some types of martial arts are definitely like that. Most of them may be, even. But t'ai chi is about redirecting energy and using evasive maneuvers in a fight." Which probably isn't going to do her any good if there's a monster charging at her, and she knows that, but it's still a start.

[alwaysnext]

There’s no need to question why Martha would need to say that. Not after what happened with Tom. Tom, who had seemed like the helpful, trustworthy sort, too, right up until Luke saw him burying a pickaxe in America’s chest.

The tension of that memory leaks away when Martha explains her process. Not the bloody action movie violence he was picturing, then. “Oh, right. Sounds more like your type of thing.”

And Luke’s sort of thing, too. She seems to be talking about things Luke’s been thinking about for himself, lately. Some kind of balancing… mental health… energies thing. Keeping his body healthy has never been a problem, but sorting out his mind… that’s trickier.

“D’you think I could learn it, too? I know you’re probably sick of showing me how to turn on hospital equipment, but it looks good."

[selfrespecting]

Yes, Tom. Helpful, trustworthy, and then he'd covered the clinic in Martha's blood. She's well aware that he's got a host of mental problems that are to blame for that, though, so she's been doing her best to be understanding. She's let him stay in her clinic, strange as that has been.

T'ai chi is her type of thing, or as close to her type of thing as any martial art can get. Martha isn't all that surprised when Luke asks for lessons, either. He may not be a team player, but this is a very solitary sort of exercise, save for the teaching portion.

"Well, I'm still really more of a student than a teacher when it comes to this sort of thing, but I could certainly give it a try."

She's had a lot of practice with tutoring, considering how many people have come around the clinic for lessons there. She wonders if she'll have any success with a subject like this that is far outside of her comfort zone.