Mat Day (D2 EM Gym Open)

[John Slaktare]

He waves off the bottle, and points at his bag.

"Got my own. And I started early on in school. Wrestling first, helped me burn off the baby fat. Eventually I got into boxing at a local gym too. Got plenty of experience fight other kids. Kept it up on Solaris."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

"Ahh yeah I didn't do much in school, came from a pretty small planet though and an even smaller town on said planet. School didn't really have much in the way of sports and I only went enough to not get kicked out anyway." He explained

"Spent most of my time helping out with ice harvesting. Though I left home when I was young so really not much schooling in general." You grew up on a farm right?" He asked half remembering stuff he knew about John.

[John Slaktare]

"Yeah. We had a decent sized school for a rural area. Though I left before finishing high school. Spent most of my time working. Was a dairy farm so fresh dairy stuff. Miss the fresh mozzarella."

"Ice harvesting for what? Didn't have enough electricity for coolers?"

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek chuckles "that sounds nice, fresh dairy and the like. I grew up on a cold planet near Ryde, we harvested ice to send to them for water. Ryde is a valuable planet because of all the minerals and chemicals that exist there but the water is all tainted by sulfur and heavy metals. So my planet harvests ice that travels to them by ice ships."

He took a deep breath "I heard it was happening less these days as Water Pure Technologies set up a purification planet there. Great for them, not so good for the ice harvesters though."

[John Slaktare]

"That's a rough deal. I'm guessing there ain't a whole lot of skill overlap with ice harvesting and other stuff. Though they'd obviously be great workers. Hopefully they can find something new or a new customer."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

"Not a ton but It isn't so different from mining really. We'll see what happens. My mum and will be taken care of regardless." He said with some confidence

"be a shame to see the town go under though. Other planets need it to and not all of them are valuable enough for big companies to notice. I'm sure they'll do fine."

"So how does a farmer end up on Solaris in the arena if you don't mind me asking."

[John Slaktare]

"Medical bills for family. Never knew him but my dad was a warrior, so I figured I'd give it a go. Turned out I was a pretty decent pilot," he replied with a shrug.

"What pushed you to the arena?"

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek chuckled a bit "I was young and dumb. Ran away with the Mech after my dad passed. Being fifteen and on your own, arena is pretty attractive. Did a lot of underground stuff before doing an official match on Solaris."

"Feel bad about some of it but doing what I can." He said somewhat off handedly "you're a good fighter though, saw some of your matches. Glad we were in different weight classes." He said with a grin.

[John Slaktare]

"I saw a couple of yours too. You got some impressive Ws. Fifteen's pretty early though. Stable's owner must've been pretty cold to throw some that youn into underground shit."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek shrugged "underground doesn't have many rules. Plus I lied about my age. I was six feet tall and had done a fair bit of manual labor by then. They thought I had a baby face but not too many blinked when I said I was eighteen."

"Learned lessons fast down there. It wasn't easy but it taught me a lot."

[John Slaktare]

"I imagine so. Those fights can be rough. Lots of bad odds and sometimes rigged fights for the gamblers. Good thing you made it out in one piece," John says with a nod. And then he puts up his hands and waves Alek forward to throw practice punches, using Johns hands as moving targets.

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek falls into rhythm easy enough throwing quick but not overly powerful punches at John's hands "Aye plenty of cheating and dirty fighting a lot of stacked odds. I remember once they set me against a Gargoyle, nasty things big and fast but the pilot was a joke. A lot of men lost money that day" he said with a grin "a few of them were displeased, got a few new scars that day."

[John Slaktare]

"I saw a couple like that. Never understood why people like that. Closer odds and not knowing was always more interestin to me. I had some fights with clear favorites, but never so lopsided," he says. He continues moving his hands around, but also starts circling to try to encourage using good footwork during the exercise.

"Imagine there must've been a close call or two in those matches."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alekbmoved with the rotation smoothly light on his feet for a man of his size. He nodded "Oh yeah had the Mech almost totaled a couple of times, cockpit crushed more than once. Those gladiators love their stomps to finish fights." He said with an amused smirk.

"What about you? Legit rings aren't that much safer. Still warmachines fighting at the end of the day."

[John Slaktare]

"While others focused on guns, lasers and missiles I was figuring out how to stomp, punch and chop enemy mechs. Need to have real good handling to do that well, so I'm pretty good at staying upright. It put me in a position where I ended more lives than a lot of other pilots," he admits, continuing the exercise.

[Aleksandr Korolov]

The pair circled eachother for some time taking turns leading the exercise a good cool down from the more intense spar.

Small talk kept up about pasts and preferences the arena and mechs. Alek a loud and boisterous foil to John's quiet intensity and focus.

After a while Alek put his hands down and stretched "Well that was certainly good at getting loose and getting the blood moving! Thank you for the workout John, I'm sure I'll see you around." He said giving the man a large grin

"Get ready to knock that rust off, tomorrow we kick everything off. Be well John." He said as he gathered his things and made his

/exit

[John Slaktare]

"Yeah, see you around. Thanks for the practice," John replies to Alek as he leaves, giving a wave.

He packs up his bag then hits the shower, calling his practice good for the day.

/Scene, thanks!