Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour

Posted by Cadet Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour

Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour

(snip)

Trenton gave Fayth a light pat on the back for encouragement, taking the moment to change the objects from boxes in a hall to platforms at forty-five-degree angles with targets on them. “I think we’ll need to build up your coordination confidence first. Honestly, it was pretty graceful to vault over the box and miss the wall, but it was clear you didn’t know what to do with yourself next so we’ll get you confident in your motion first. This one is really easy and will get you comfortable with the wall running idea. The shoes you’re wearing have a strong grip design so they are more likely to stick rather than slip once the weight is applied. Trust in them and in your body. As you go, you’ll short jump from angle to angle, have a three-meter area to build up speed, and a box at the end of a ninety-degree turn. Your goal is to end up on top of the box. Watch me do it first so you have the visual idea in your mind.” Ashlyn took off again, easily navigating the angles and not slowing her pace at all. When she reached the wall, with smooth practice she stepped up the wall, then next to it toward the corner, then on the other wall and once more before turning in the air and landing on the low platform at the end. Ashlyn wasn’t expecting much as the platform was low enough that it could be stepped onto with a little jump, maybe a little over half a meter in height. The goal here was to get Sharah confident in herself and all the voices in her head were shouting encouragement save the one shouting something about a peanut butter sandwich. “Give it a go Sharah! You can do this!”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah took a moment to look at the hallway again and try to see what she had to do in her head. She took off running and landed her foot on the far corner of the first 45, but her next step ended too close and she missed the 3rd completely. She went back to the beginning and started again. This time stretching her second jump farther making the third barely. Her fourth jump landed on the floor but she was able to keep moving to the end of the hall without jumping. She grinned ruefully and went back to the beginning. This time she made all 4 of the 45s but didn’t make the turn at the end, but landed on the platform. The last run was going smoothly till she got distracted by the static in her head. She missed, slipped, managed to roll and get back to her feet. She leaned up against the wall to clear her head. She held up a hand, “I’m alright, lost my concentration.” She walked back afraid she had twisted her ankle but only slightly stiff. She moved her foot in circles till the ‘stubbed toe’ feeling when away. She looked down the hallway again and then started running. This time she made all 4 jumps again and landed in the middle of the final platform. “I’m just not sure how to do that spin you did at the end.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn clapped excitedly when Sharah landed on the platform, “Don’t worry about the spin, that was me showing off. You did great though! Only comment I have is to not concentrate. Motion is instinct, if you have to think about it then you’re not experiencing the rest of what makes Parkour so great. Regardless, how did it feel? Tell me everything!” Ashlyn sat down with Sharah like an apt student waiting for the day’s lesson, her thoughts a whirlwind of compliments and celebratory hoots save the one still talking about a peanut butter sandwich. It wouldn’t be so jarring if it was a part of the rest of the noise, but it only seems to come up at the exact moment everything else goes quiet making it stand out more than it should.

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah shook her head. If only it was so easy to let go of concentration. Her loss of concentration let the static take over, but a few weeks ago she wouldn’t have recovered so fast, so she was grateful for that. “Well....scary,” she laughed. “It was kind of exhilirating when I finally made to that last platform. I didn’t particularly enjoy the feeling of my stomach ending up in my throat each time I fell. I’m sore and a bit winded, but,” she grinned at Ashlyn, “that was fun!” She looked around for the water bottle she put down and grabbed it, and began to slowly sip it.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Trenton took a moment to drink some water herself, spilling a little into her hair to let it run down her back generating a small shiver from the cool liquid. “Okay, at this point you have the basics. Now it’s just a matter of variation!” Ashlyn heads over to the console for the novice area and inputs several requests. The field changes and morphs to have multiple jump spots and platforms to move over, around, or under. All the platforms are low to the ground and even if one should slip, they wouldn’t have far to fall so there would be a minimal chance for harm as long as you don’t intentionally throw yourself into something you shouldn’t. “This course is fifty platforms that you can go at from several angles. The trick to this challenge, to keep you honest, is that once you get going the floor turns red. When the floor is red, you can’t use it, you have to land on a platform and make fifty consecutive jumps before it logs time for completion. You want to see me go for it first or do you want to try to find your own route to take?”

Ashlyn’s grin gets mischievously playful. “I was going to offer a dinner out on me for the first one that could complete it, but it looks like you’ll get an unfair advantage by already being at this point where everyone else is going to still be first day new.” Ashlyn turns and uses a pair of close walls to jump off them on her way up to lounge on top, looking positively like the cat that got the cream. “Unless, of course, you would enjoy such private time with me, then by all means use it as motivation.”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton