Stupid Practice

The Camien embassy is not large, and perforce, the training area inside is not large, but it will do for close quarters training. Chromia has been putting Nautica through some paces after a fairly simple lesson, half lesson, half refresher. Movements more restrained than anything she might display in true battle, she shouts out coaching instructions as they go. She's rarely at her sweetest in the ring; her patience as an instructor is not her strongest suit, except she seems willing to continue working for timespans that stretch to the obscene.
The close-knit trio have their strengths and weaknesses; Nautica's has never been combat. But recent events have convinced her that she needs to learn, and the Camien polymath is now trying to turn that brain of hers to learning a new skillset. Unfortunately, where intellectual skills are easily picked up, physical ones are somewhat less so, and Nautica's performance is nowhere close to meeting Chromia's standards yet. In truth, the problem is that she's approaching it as if it were another scientific endeavor; rather than just letting herself flow through the motions, she's clearly trying to figure out /what/ each motion means, how it fits into a bigger picture. And while that might well stand her in good stead someday, right now it simply hinders her from picking up the basics.
Flareup has been off on other 'Camien business' that is probably making fun of Hot Rod for not being instantly expert at bombs like /she/ is while they make plans to liberate the galaxy!! Or Cybertron. You know, being heroes. (Troubles.) But now that she's back to where she ostensibly should be, she's just going to make trouble here. "I don't know what you're doing, but it's hurting just watching you."
"Flareup," Chromia sighs. She does not explain; she shakes her head, her gaze narrowing with the slight shake of her winged head. "Come on, Nautica. Once more. You're overthinking it." It is probably not the first time that Chromia has delivered this particular advice. "Try to pretend to be stupider and let your body lead."
"I'm not good at pretending to be stupider, but I'll try," Nautica replies. After a moment, she makes crying noises and goes, "BOO HOO HOO! I'm a giant crazy shark." Evidently, when she thought of 'stupid' she thought of 'Sky-Byte'. However, despite this comment, she does at least continue going through the motions. And maybe the mock-stupid distraction /does/ keep her from overthinking it a bit.
"What!" Flareup looks at Chromia, entirely innocent and ignorant of what her mentor could possibly mean. It's interrupted with a startle at Nautica's sudden...outburst of...stupidity. "Uh. I don't know if that's really gonna help."
Chromia makes a noise that sounds a lot more like a cackle than it does like anything else. "Yeah, hard to get much stupider than that," she says. She takes a hit on her arm, swings out in almost a pirouette, and stops her foot just before she yanks Nautica's legs out from beneath her. "See how to get out of this?" she says. "I'm inside your guard, but I'm also inside your reach. Flareup, you see how, right?"
"Right now, what I see is the ceiling," Nautica notes. From the floor, staring upwards. Sitting up, she glances over over at Flareup with a smile. "Well, she /said/ to try to be stupider, so I thought I'd give it a go. She's the teacher, after all!"
"Sure," Flareup chirps, entirely unhelpfully as she refrains from adding anything else. See, fighting is more fun for dumber bots.
Chromia offers Nautica a hand the rest of the way up and narrows a sardonic look at Flareup across the room. "Welcome back," she says. "Since you've decided it's worth your time to turn up."
"I'll get the hang of it eventually," Nautica assures the other two. Taking Chromia's hand, the engineer starts to get back to her feet... and then tries to pull her friend /down/, instead. See? She can be creative! This is being resourceful, right? (This is also probably not going to work.)
"We should probably escort her everywhere," Flareup tells Chromia in a tone that may or may not be joking. She might have been about to answer Chromia's snark, but then she's too delighted at Nautica trying to get creative and she laughs aloud.
Unfortunately for Nautica, Chromia's weight is already planted and braced. She glances back at her friend at the sudden shift of her yank, and compensates for it in the shift of her weight so that it almost seems like Nautica is pulling on a wall. "I've discovered that there are practical difficulties with merely standing between other people and trouble," she says. "Because sometimes people disappear." After a beat, she adds, "Sometimes to Nyon. For days at a time."
"Oomph. Okay, this is /not/ fair. You've... what, deployed a temporal stasis field to lock yourself in place?" Nautica glances at Chromia's feet, even as she sort of hangs there half-up off the floor, unable to pull her friend over. She glances at Flareup. Little help? "And disappearing isn't /always/ bad. Sometimes people have good reasons for it." Like, you know, infiltrating evil science lairs.
"Well, /those/ people are probably better at this than Nautica," Flareup reasons. She shrugs helplessly at said scientist. What? It's not /her/ training. "Yeah! Super good reasons."
"Very helpful," Chromia says dourly. "You don't /start out/ good. /You/ didn't start out good," she tosses off at Flareup. Then: "How would I deploy a temporal stasis field? What did I do, commandeer your wrench? Look at my knees, watch the position of my hips. If you're really trying a throw from that position, you need better leverage."
"See? Super good reasons." Nautica nods towards Flareup. At the suggestion of commandeering the wrench, Nautica brightens. "Wait. Am I allowed to use my wrench?" Because that will absolutely end well.
"I totally started great," Flareup says, in a blithe, decisive sort of tone that sounds like she's just making it up and deciding it right then.
"Not in this context," Chromia says firmly. She shoots a glare at Flareup of high exasperation.
"Hrmph." Nautica gets back to her feet, giving up on the idea of using wrench-functions to sweep Chromia off balance. "Okay, so I guess it's all about... balance, and position, and weight. I can figure those out. Those are just elementary physics, right?" She glances over at Flareup in question, since she's been a student herself. She'll probably agree that martial arts and math are totally the same thing!
"Oh, Primus." Flareup drags her hand over her face. "It's not about /physics/. It's about -- I dunno, action." She glances at Chromia, accusing to her mentor's exasperated. Why does she have to help!!
"Let's break for a few," Chromia says after a long beat's pause, lowering her hands as she steps back. They fall to brace at the frame of her hips, the quirk of her mouth faintly sardonic. "If working out the ... physics helps you, fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with using your body." She glances at Flareup. "I'm no scientist either. Never mattered to me much why it works, so long as it does."
"But if I can figure out the physics of it, I can come up with new ways to /use/ them," Nautica points out, this time without the joking edge to her tone.
"You just have to use the physics faster," Flareup decides. "So it's like -- reflex physics. Muscle memory physics." Crap, they don't have muscles, do they.
Whatever, it's close enough for government work. Chromia slants a glance at Nautica, humor lifting the corners of her mouth. "I think you need to learn the basics before you start getting fancy, Nautica," she says. "Arithmetic first. Before you quantum whatever."
"Like how I can change settings on my wrench without looking at it -- or even thinking about it -- because I've done it so many times?" Nautica asks Flareup curiously. To Chromia, she adds, "Quantum martial arts actually sounds kind of awesome, doesn't it? Just imagine, you could be in two places at once! Or neither!" What.
"Yeah, like that," Flareup encourages, brightening to have found some connection. "Then you'll totally be able to bend space and time just to punch someone in the face!"
"Arithmetic first," Chromia repeats steadily, beginning to glower in the face of this combined enthusiasm.
"Arithmetic first," Nautica agrees, yielding to her teacher's insistence. But she glances over to Flareup and adds brightly, sotto voce, "And /then/ quantum space-bending martial arts!"
Flareup sets a digit on the side of her nose and tips her chin solemnly in Nautica's direction. Secret quantum martial arts.
"What were you doing out there, anyway?" Chromia apparently decides not to attempt to dissuade Nautica from fancy any further. She inhales, her head tipping slightly to one side as she returns her glance to her younger protege. (Probably.)
Nautica goes back to the basic movements. This time, she's actually approaching it as if each movement is itself an individual function in a grander theory, but focusing on just those functions for the moment. Perhaps she's able to do this without her habitual overthinking of things because she's got half of her attention on Chromia and Flareup's conversation.
"Oh, you know. Just -- stuff." Flareup glances down at her comm like she just got a really well-timed message or something how about that. "Oh look at that I'vegottarunseeyoulater--" She makes a beeline for the exit.
"You can tell that /loser/ hello, then," Chromia calls after Flareup's departure, just to make it clear she knows damn well what she was doing out there.
"Which loser? Hot Rod?" Nautica pauses in her exercises -- whups, distracted again! -- and glances over at Chromia curiously.
"Don'tknowwhatyou'retalkingaboutbyyyyyye." And then Flareup is gone.
"The loseriest," Chromia answers Nautica with a wry smile for her own (possible) unfairness. She squares off, facing her again with her hands at her hips. "That's where she's off to. Nyon."
"I don't know that he's /that/ much of a loser," Nautica replies, a little more softly. After all, she owes Hot Rod a debt for his part in helping her get free.
Chromia owes Hot Rod a debt, too, which is probably why she is complaining about him so vociferously. She scowls and says, "Fine, but for Primus's sake don't tell /him/ that."
"Oh, /Primus/, no," Nautica agrees, with a bright smile. "His ego would qualify as another moon, if I did."
Chromia makes a little snorfling noise, swallowed in the back of her mouth as she shakes her wing-crowned head. "At least he doesn't cry all the time."
"On the other hand, can you imagine your horny shark if he had Hot Rod's ego?" Nautica points out.
"I'm not sure he doesn't," Chromia says doubtfully. "I think it takes a great deal of ego to do what that ridiculous shark does." She considers. "Perhaps it is unfair to compare them. No one would follow the shark."
"Oh, I'm sure there are /some/ bots who would," Nautica offers. And isn't that a terrifying thought? But then she moves back into her practices once more.
"Mmm," Chromia neutral noises. After a moment she adds, "Better. Tighten up your form a little, though."
"Like this?" At least Nautica's making an effort now. And if Chromia's got the patience to keep teaching her, she's got the patience to keep trying to learn.