Refresher Course (Open)

A soft voice on the wind forced Daniel out of the trance he’d worked himself into as the last steps of the current movement drew to a close. The shadows of arm assailants fell way and the splendor of the surrounding area came into sudden focus. He turned towards the voice with a spin of the heel and a thrusting of his fingers. His imaginary weapons discharged in the same movement, boring holes through whatever lay beneath the shifting cloth.



She had an odd way about her, this woman. Something about her stance carried weight like something one would expect from a veteran of some distant war. Her skin had a strange hue to it if you looked close enough, one that just didn’t fit with the “normal” pallet of colors one would expect from a human. Most striking were her eyes, which were positively brimming with something Daniel understood all too well: she knew what man looked like on the other side of the trigger. She knew what it felt like to feel the kick of a weapon in your hands, the smell of gunpowder as the round left the chamber in a fiery display, and the haunting sight of blood spraying high into the air. And the question she posed; it smacked of some deeper meaning few would understand.


Daniel saw all this and more, and saw himself reflected on the canvas that was the woman before him. He felt a level of kinship for her, a primal understanding beyond the reaches of the common man. They were—the both of them—islands adrift in a sea of ignorance about the cruelties of the world.


“No,” Daniel responded. "The enemy changed a while back. Same with the reason." A code easily deciphered: My battles have shifted focus to a new foe.

Daniel stood to his full height, searching for a dry patch of cloth on his shirt with which to wipe his face. He found one a short time later and dried the sweat that was still beading on his head. The motion briefly revealed the bronzed skin beneath. Though the muscle of his abdomen were no longer as pronounced as they once were, it was still clear that his was in better shape than most; not like the chiseled godlings on display in a museum, but certainly not lacking. He then attempted to pull his hair back into some semblance of order as to not appear too much like a slob; not much to be done about it, unfortunately.

“No worries,” came the reply. “Most people out here just stopped long enough to gawk at the weirdo doing some kinda weird dance in the park. You’re the first one to actually notice that there was more to the story.” He eventually gave up on taming his wild mane in favor of crossing his arms across his chest.

“So, what’s a lady like you doing wandering around in this area? You don’t look like a tourist, and I have a hard time imagining you as just another homeless bum looking for a spot to crash. Not enough slouch and desperation about you.” A bit of a knowing smirk crossed his face. It disappeared after scarcely a moment, swallowed by the blank poker face he generally wore. “It’s hard for people like us to fall drop that little bit of confidence we have. Makes us easier to spot, ya know?”

And that raised the question of why this woman was trying to seem like something she wasn’t. What could she possibly have to fear? He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, but a sort of morbid curiosity drove him. It wasn’t often that he met someone he related to so easily, after all.

“You got a name by the way?” Daniel asked. “I’ll give you mine in exchange, if you want it.”