Location: Ville au Camp (The Mill) -> Village outside of Munich, 1509
Skills: N/A
Skills: History, Alter Form
It was not quite dawn yet when Gilbert stepped into The Mill. It was a fairly secluded spot on the rounds of Ville au Camp; a freestanding building surrounded by tall, thick trees that helped to muffle the labors performed within. This was The Hat's workshop, and while he kept it more or less tidy, it showed the telltale signs of a place of utility and creation. Particularly if one were creating implements of death by the hundreds. Walls were lined with various pieces of weaponry and armor, divided by eras of human development. Ancient to modern, and more locked away besides. But the focal point was a smallish, round table with two cups of coffee, lightly steaming, with a platter of scones in the middle. Simple wooden chairs sat on either side, practically begging to be used.
Gilbert sat down on one side of the table and helped himself to a blueberry scone. Not bad, if he did say so himself. Today was going to be special. He should treat himself and his student first.
Sophia opened her eyes and started to stretch out, while letting out a slight yawn she started to get used to things by now, she looked over at the note that was under her door. She spent two months training with Evelina the first day was the scariest almost nearly getting dropped twenty feet and getting eaten by walkers. She'd be training with The Hat it seems as Sophia walked over and got changed for the day.
She left the main house and started to make her way across the grounds and over towards The Mill where the letter had told her to meet him at. When she got there Sophia noticed the round table with two cups of coffee in front of her and the Hat sitting there, as she approached him she gave him a slight smile and wave.
"Good morning." She said before making her way and pulled up a seat.
"What will we be doing today if I may ask?" Sophia asked, curious as to what they would actually be doing for their training.
Gilbert raised an eyebrow and set his scone down. This one was inquisitive. Probably for the best, though he did not want to encourage completely open discourse at the beginning of her training.
"Ordinarily, I would have you pick out a blade and give you a short lecture on responsibilities." he confided,
"You are a little different. We will get to that, probably tomorrow, but today you require something more personalized to start our time together. Tell me, what do you consider the biggest hindrance to your combat training?" He looked the woman over, eyes resting on her hands for just a second.
"Oh, and by all means, help yourself to some breakfast." Sophia smiled slightly towards Gilbert when he offered her breakfast and reached over for a scone as well as the cup of coffee and then leaned back in the seat as she took a bite out of it.
"Thank you for the breakfast by the way." Sophia said as her eyes then looked over towards him when he asked what would be the biggest hinderance for their training. She was grateful for the more personalized part of their training, before taking off the prosthetic hand and set it down on the table.
"I probably wouldn't be able to properly hold a second weapon with my left hand anymore, or some kind of rifle that does require to hands to handle either, and punching with a stump probably wouldn't hurt anyone much." She said shrugging slightly, she felt like her options would be a little bit more limited.
"Mmm, of course." agreed Gilbert, speaking through a mouthful of scone. He motioned with his cup before clearing his palate with it, cleared his throat, and continued.
"You have a liability. Something that makes everyday human function more difficult for you." The timeless warrior narrowed his eyes and leaned in toward Sophia a bit, his demeanor much changed from just seconds ago.
"And they sent you to me for combat training. Curious." He reached under the table and brought up a bundle of coarse cloth.
"Put this on and follow me." Gilbert rose and walked to the back of the Mill, past various sets of armor and and to a simple wooden door. Just before he stepped through, the tall Emendator called back,
"And don't forget your hand, Sophia." Sophia took another sip from the coffee, before finishing the cup and set it down her attention fully towards Gilbert nodding in agreement. Everything was a quiet a bit harder for her, even tying a simple knot was though a lot somedays as well Sophia raised an eyebrow towards Gilbert at his comment. Then he produced a coarse cloth and set it onto the table, she was curious what it was as she unwrapped it was a simple grey dress with a high collar and long skirt, a black corset, and a pair of black gloves.
"Just give me a moment." Sophia said as she stood up and then walked to the other side just for a little bit of privacy, before getting fully changed in the outfit that the Hat had given her.
She approached the table once more and grabbed her hand, and quickly went to join Gilbert at the back of the Mill she took notice of the various sets of armor that were there. Which did get her interested in it a little bit.
"So how do I look?" Sophia asked looking over towards The Hat, wondering what was actually behind the door.
Gilbert gave a devious smile and motioned for Sophia to attach her prosthetic hand. To answer her question, he straightened his posture considerably and clicked his heels together in a fairly antiquated manner of etiquette, intoning with flawless German accent,
"Wie ein Deutscher, Fräulein Harris." He opened the smallish door to reveal a field of shimmering in the frame, the telltale sign of a portal suitable for Emendator and Paradox use alike. Gilbert's features started to alter, but not by much; he changed just enough to appear Caucasian while maintaining his same basic appearance. His clothing changed with him, though it was more drastic. For all appearances he looked to be a tradesman or merchant from an era long past, somewhere in central Europe.
"Holy Roman Empire, in what would now be Germany, 1509." The accent remained with the man, like a motivated method actor.
"A village tavern outside of Munich. I have something interesting to show you. Follow me." He stepped through the door and into the dim light of history beyond.
Sophia nodded as she started to attach the prosthetic hand onto her stump and made sure that it was on firmly as she pulled the straps tightly on it. Then she slipped the pair of black gloves over her hands, she watched as Gilbert started to change and shift slightly which was still amazing to watch to her. Sophia raised an eyebrow towards him as he spoke in German towards her, which she didn't know or understand either. Sophia listened to him as he gave her a brief description on where they are traveling which was the very early 1500's as the door opened and quickly joined Gilbert on the other side.
"What are you going to show me?" Sophia asked, as she stepped through the other end and looked back as they emerged out of an outhouse. She was certainly very curious and interested on what he would be teaching or showing her.
The portal in which they emerged was indeed inside of an outhouse. The structure bore a heart-shaped cutout, was painted the most brilliant shade of green, and for the meantime had a sign bearing the word "ACHTUNG!" across the front of it. It made for an excellent place to hide a temporal gateway. But that wasn't the point of their jaunt across the centuries; the tavern nearby was. Evening was just beginning to settle in, and the townspeople were putting away their tools of labor, many coming to this humble place of beer and sausage to unwind. Gilbert pointed to the tavern and ushered Sophia inside, saying,
"This night, a man by the name of Götz von Berlichingen is visiting this establishment. He was also known as 'Götz of the Iron Hand'." He smiled and selected a table for them in a out of the way section near a series of massive, untapped barrels.
"He was quite the character. Dangerous, but well liked by the common people. You'll see why in a little while. For right now..." Gilbert winked at a young lady carrying a tray of steins, traded her a coin for two of them, filled with frothy, red-amber liquid, and returned to Sophia.
"Have a drink and enjoy the show." Gilbert plunked the beer stein upon the heavy wooden table with a hollow, sloshing sound, and slid it across to his Paradox-In-Training.
Sophia looked among the people that were there, as they were finishing up their day of labor and then some of them heading directly towards the tavern. She looked back over her shoulder towards the outhouse that was their way back home, it was still very weird for her to go back in time. She quickly caught up with Gilbert as he led her into the tavern itself, and followed him towards a secluded spot in the establishment.
Sophia sat directly across from Gilbert as he sat down and ordered two beers for them, as Sophia quickly caught her stein and listened to him speak. Sophia wasn't to big on history growing up, she didn't know the guy The Hat had mentioned but she had a feeling his name would have some significance anyway.
"He sounds like an interesting man, also thank you for the drink." She then turned slightly to watch the scene unfold.
The man that Gilbert pointed out, Götz, was sitting atop a table with his boots in the chair in front of it, near one side of the tavern. He was resplendent in his military finery and big, black beard. Götz hoisted a drink with one hand, the other closed into a fist and laying in his lap motionless, covered by a black leather glove. Truly a man of the people, he was obviously of noble bearing yet was spending his time drinking and socializing loudly among the common folk.
A trio of armed men suddenly burst into the room, pointing at Götz and yelling angrily in the local German tongue. Whatever the meaning of the exchange was, the intent was clearly to inflict great bodily harm upon the man. They advanced, swinging their swords wildly.
"They won't bring the fight this close to the beer barrels. Priorities, you understand. They aren't savages." His remark came with a smile, though admittedly it was easy to remain calm when one was the veteran of a thousand wars.
Sophia took a quick sip of the beer as she turned her head as she heard the door open seeing three armed men entering the tavern, she turned the chair slightly to face the action. She couldn't understand a bit of German as they argued amongst each other for a moment, before the fighting broke out. One of them aimed for Götz, when he blocked it she could instantly hear the telltale sign of the blade hitting his metal hand. Which was pretty smart, seeing that it didn't cause any injury or harm to his hand, she then turned to look over at The Hat.
"What happened to his hand?" Sophia asked, the title was fairly obvious that he did end up losing his hand at some point.
The fight raged on, even as Gilbert and Sophia spoke. The bearded Götz was doing remarkably well against the armed men, and without so much as having the need nor opportunity to draw his own slender sword from its sheath.
"Cannonball." said Gilbert, answering Sophia's question.
"Blew it mostly off. He had to have the rest amputated. It was supposed to end his career. He had another plans." One of the men in the fight, apparently realizing the mistake he had made, ran as fast as his legs could carry him away from the "crippled" man and out of the door of the tavern.
Sophia listened to Gilbert as he answered her question how Götz ended up losing his hand, shuddering slightly it probably was a lot more painful than getting bit by a walker and having it getting chopped off. She leaned forward as she continued to watch in interest as the fight continued to rage on. Until one of the men finally started to chicken out and then ran out of the tavern, seeing the crippled man was still surprisingly holding his own.
"He can certainly hold his own actually." Sophia said looking back over towards Gilbert.
"Yes, he surely can." agreed Gilbert, paying attention to the fight with familiar interest as it raged on. The one-handed Götz was demonstrating martial superiority against armed men without so much as drawing his sword. Almost wistfully, Gil continued,
"There are many like him in history that I can show you. A Roman general named Marcus who lost a hand and had a gauntlet commissioned for him so he could still grip his shield, for one. A young warrior woman from India who lost a leg, supposedly given an iron one from her gods so that she might continue fighting. Oh! And a somewhat arrogant man from Michigan with his own supernatural and undead problems; he had to remove his own hand in a battle. Replaced it with a chainsaw and, like the others, became even more dangerous because of it. Do you understand the conclusion I am leading you toward?" Sophia watched a little bit longer of the fight seeing Götz holding his own well enough made her feel easier that she could do it on her own someday as well. Her attention went back towards Gil as he spoke, she gave him a nod as she understood it very well from various people who went through the same thing that she did as well. Though the bit with the guy with a chainsaw was a little bit farfetched to her, but again anything was possible at this point to her now as well.
"I'm understanding more now, I wouldn't be as useless with more practice over time." Sophia said giving Gilbert a friendly smile.
"True, but that isn't the whole of my point." returned Gilbert. His eyes seemed to brighten with the idea that his Paradox was beginning to understand, which would make his time with her considerably more productive than he had anticipated.
"Every one of these people, including 'Herr Iron Hand' here, turned a liability into an asset. You can do this, too. I will help you." He looked to the fight in progress which was already winding down, the ironfisted German fellow the clear victor.
"The lesson is over. Let's finish our beer and go home." Sophia brightened up some more and nodded, she would certainly like that a lot and learning from someone like Gilbert would help, she took another drink from her beer before putting it down again.
"I will certainly look forward to learning a lot more from you." She said as she could hear the fight starting to wind down more, looking down at her hand once more wondering how to make it even better in the future. She soon finished up drinking the last from the stein and looked towards Gilbert she was ready to head back whenever he was.
"Excellent." replied Gilbert,
"Your earnest training begins tomorrow." He immediately slammed back the remainder of his beer, plunked the empty stein down on the table, and rose.
"Alright, let us get back home. To the Scheißhaus!"
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