Planning

I've begun cleaning my room because, well because it really needs to be cleaned and I can't sleep. As I move the various things back to there assigned positions, and more often then not assign positions to items that have drifted amongst the myriad of flat surfaces that my lethargy has declared shelves. These surfaces really are amazingly diverse in nature. A dehumidifier I'm not sure I've ever used, An old essentially broken keyboard, and the top of my old now defunct dell desktop have all been dubbed shelves.

So has the floor.

Going through the items I find myself either reflecting on when I used them, or taking note that they may have use in the future. I've decided not to move my car up to Seattle this winter, not so much because I'm unwilling to manually raise the roof of my car, but because I'm unwilling to have my first experiences driving through snow on a trip that would already be difficult. I've also decided to move my car up this summer. I'm going to try and gather the money to fix it, but failing that I'm going to use a combination of cruelty and force and cause it to be in a more useful state of non-functionality. It can't say for certain when the road trip will take place, I'm not sure how long I'll be in Houston this summer, but this grand journey will be the final chapter in Project Exodus. The singular grand reflection on it all.

While I could while away pages in romantic weavings about the trip, the nature of the sublime, and mind free of body I would like to remain on items of more immediacy. Namely my cargo. There are a number of items here which I intend to load into the back seat, if it can be called that, of my car when I make this sojourn. Most of them are books, a few of them are souvenirs and mementos of the earlier chapters of my life, but the one that stands out most is the flail.

While I'm not certain of the exacts of it's origin I'm fairly sure that I first received this flail as a gift from my brother. It's a legitimate medieval weapon, two spiked balls, chain, etc. It's part of the small assortment of melee weapons that I have on my mantle, none of which am I sufficiently trained in. I have a fondness for the flail though, and if I were pressed into some form of actual melee battle it's the weapon I'd choose.

Well, if I could I'd choose a high powered ranged weapon, but I'm assuming this is a relatively fair melee battle.

I think that if I ever faced someone armed with a melee weapon that wasn't an improvised weapon they would probably be using a sword or a staff. I think this because I assume the person will have some knowledge of the weapon they use, and that implies martial arts training, and almost exclusively eastern martial arts are taught in the states. The person would probably be armed with something they learned as part of Tai-Chi or Kung-Fu training. It could also be some other martial art, but those are the only two that I'm certain have an armed aspect to their curriculum. Going on that assumption the person will be fighting as an art form, they will have learned how to fight as a means of physical training and mental balance. If they're sufficiently trained they may even have a form of elegance.

The flail is a distinctly western weapon. It's design is based on Newtonian science, not on eastern artistry. It is devoid of elegance. They may be trained to use their own weapon defensively, to parry or divert an enemy blade. A chain can't be parried. They may try to brace the blow against their own weapon. My weapon has leverage. If you do manage to block just right and make contact with the spiked ball, you probably won't have the strength to actually stop it. And if you block wrong and hit the chain, the spikes will arc around and hit you anyway. The only real weakness of the flail is that it can't be used to stab. If my hypothetical opponent does make any kind of lunge manuver the battle will be instantly over. Either I dodged it, giving me a clear shot which I would use to cave their head in with my flail. Or I didn't, they stabbed me and I'm down.