fandomhighdorms | Outside the dorms; mid-morning

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Outside the dorms; mid-morning

Sakurazaki was not used to being this idle. Someone should not be able to finish Shogun in one morning. But she had done it, and now she was wandering the grounds out of pure desperation for something to do. She needed to train, but Yuunagi was far, far over the sea. She was hoping to find a big stick that would suffice.

Luckily, she did. She briefly considered taking it off school ground to practice in the park (what were the regulations on a makeshift sort of natural weapon used only for training on the grounds?), but she figured she had nothing better to do, and any trouble she might possibly get into would at least give her something to do. What a quiet morning.

Back to the eastern sun, Sakurazaki sets her stance, lifts her stick, and slices it down through the air in short, precise strikes. Lift, strike, back, repeat. Lift, strike, back, repeat.....

[[ooc: open, of course, to anyone. just watch out for the occational chip of bark flying off from the stick]]

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Pip happened to be jogging by this morning when a a chip of bark came flying towards him.

"WHOA!" He dodged and rolled to the side. "The hell was that?"

Should he decide to investigate the attacking woodchip further, Pip would find the wiry girl so engaged in her excersize that she notices neither the sweat dragging her usually spunky ponytail town nor the fact that once bark-covered stick is quickly shedding, like some sort of wooded serpent, with each of her fierce strokes.

She, at the moment, also doesn't notice unknowing victems of her spitting makeshift sword.

Being of an inquisative nature, Pip does so.

"Hey! New... person! You do know that you're endangering people with your practice?"

There was that phrase that, like a Pavlovian dog, makes Sakurazaki turn her head out of instinct. The end of the stick whumps down into the grass; it's like she's been pulled out of some sort of trance, only now realizing that her breathing is laboured and there is sweat in her eyes. She wipes it away with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry; what did you say?" she asks him, then sighs. It isn't an aggitated sigh, just a tired one.

"Your practice. With your wood sword. Chips of bark are flying off and endangering passer-by."

For a moment, Sakurazaki blinks at him, slightly staring. Being pulled from a training transe always made her feel dull and out of place, but, eventually, her eyes moved down toward the stick in her hand. She notes how it has changed since she started. The realization is slow to arrive, but it hits her and her eyes grow wide.

"Oh!" She glances around her, at all the bark. "Oh...oh, my..." Her eyes dart to him. "I'm sorry; did one of them hit you?"

A thought comes to her mind regarding how at least he didn't have to worry about it getting his eye, once she really saw him, but she angrily brushed the random idea aside.

"Almost hit me," Pip said. "I'm pretty quick. Next time you do this, you might want to strip the bark." He popped his neck. "I assume you're new here?"

Sakurazaki's eyes slip down to the stick again, and she scowls slightly. Strip the bark, yes, but with what? If I had something to strip the bark with, I wouldn't need to use a stick...

"Yes, I'm new," she finally said, "and bored to tears without a nodachi."

"Without a what?" Pip asked. "I'm sorry, my Japanese isn't that great."

"That's how I feel about my English sometimes," she mutters slightly. Sakurazaki scratches for a moment behind her ear, where the sweat drying in her hair is getting slightly annoying. "I don't think there's really a single English word for a nodachi...just...it's a large, but thin, sword." She hefts the big stick up in her hands, as if to display it. It's about as long as she is tall, but she is a little on the short side. "About this size," she explains, "although most people wouldn't bother doing this excersize with so big a sword. It's usually used for katana, which are smaller, but it's even better for your arms if you do it with nodachi. Harder, but better." She shrugs, dismissively, sure that she's probably now bored him to tears.

"I'm a knife fighter, myself," Pip said. "Well... if you asked the administration, you could probably get permission to practice with your... nodachi in the Danger Room. I've got a friend who got permission to do the same with a weapon of his."

"They...they have something like that?" This time, her eyes are widened in sheer excitement. "Granted, there is the fact that Yuunagi isn't here...that's a whole different story, but, I mean, perhaps Ojou-sama would send it to me if she knew that the school did in fact allow it. She wouldn't want my skills to rust while I'm here, I'd imagine."

Sakurazaki catches herself rambling, shakes her head. "Why the strange title, 'Danger Room?'"

Pip shrugged. "No idea. You'd have to ask the administration, I think. But if you talk to them, I'm sure they'd be willing to reach some sort of arrangement. That way you won't hurt the rest of us with chips from your make-shift... what's the word.... bokken?"

_{[[OOC: Pip's French. Just in case you want to have fun with accents.]]}

"Ah, bokken, yes. I considered possibly bringing one, but...really, I dislike using them. They're built to resemble katana, not nodachi, so they aren't helpful. Although I suppose I could get one made like nodachi...." She becomes a little ponderous. "And it would be safer, yes." She smiles a little. "Looks like I've got an assignment for today, but there's still the fact that Ojou-sama was against me bringing a sword at all..."

"...Like I said, though, that's an entirely different story."

[[OOC: it just makes me wonder if the conversation is interpretable to any eavesdroppers....French accent against Japanese accent has got to be hilarious!]]

"There's probably one or two places in town where you could get that done," Pip said. "Actually, wait. Before we go any further, my name's Pip Bernadette."

She smiled slightly. In all her flustered, mid-practise numbness, she had wondered if they'd get to that. She nodded with a gentle, relieved sort of sigh. "Nice to meet you, Bernadette-san," she practically sung the familiar phrase now, with that lilt of her broken accent. "My name is Setsuna Sakurazaki."

Pip nodded in return. "Do you prefer Setsuna or Sakurazaki?"

Her shoulders stiffened slightly; this is the first time she's actually had to deal with confronting the issue of her name straight on, except for with Saotome-san, who understood. In fact, now that she thinks about it, it seems as though people have been avoiding using her name. Couldn't say she blamed them too much...

"For now," she said, trying to smile so she does not sound rude. But he asked, so maybe he understands, like Saotome-san, "I would prefer Sakurazaki, if you don't mind."

Pip shrugged. "I call people what they want to be called. Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Sakurazaki. I'm assuming you're from Japan. What time period?"

"What...time period?" Sakurazaki's head moved back a little with the strange question. Was she translating that in her head correctly? Maybe his accent was throwing her off. "Um...this time period, I guess...I was born in 1989, so..."

Pip gleaned from her confused expression that she hadn't met the out of timers yet. "Not everyone who goes to this school is from the same time period," he explained. "My best friend is from the 1940's. A lot of people are from other planets and other dimensions. Do you know about the aliens and vampries and mutants and demons thing?"

A look of rememberance flashes in her eyes. "Ah, yes, I did know about the vampires and aliens and demons" she responded, knowing the she, at the very least, shouldn't have forgoten about the demons, "but I guess it had slipped my mind. It really shouldn't surprise me as much as it does. It's nothing new for me. I had a classmate back in Japan who was also from the '40s...We had vampires and robots and...and demons. I guess it just surprises me that Fandom and Mahora are so similar, and I actually expected Fandom to be normal..."

Pip laughed. "Definitely the wrong place for normal. So, you are vampire, demon, robot, alien, whatever?"

Her eyes widen. This Bernadette-san and his questions! She would have never imagined, not in a million years, that anyone here would bother coming right out and asking a question like that. She gripped her make-shift sword as if ready to just return to her training and ignore him. She had let her guard down, skirted danergous territory, and now was face-to-face with a possible confession. But she wasn't ready.

"It's a secret," she says stiffly, slightly turning away. Her shoulder blades started to twitch slightly.

Pip grimaced. "Sorry, sorry. It's the usual batch of questions people ask new people. People want to know what to expect. Whether they can... I dunno, invite you to go to the beach with a bunch of friends, for example. Though since you aren't exploding into flames, I'm assuming that you aren't a vampire."

"Not all vampires are prone to the sun, you know," Sakurazaki had adopted a suddenly airy tone to her voice, as if her knowledge was superiour. It was a defence mechanism, if anything. She was now extremely uncomfortable around Pip.

After a moment, though, she did realize that she was being ridiculous. He obviously didn't care too much if she were demon or vampire or mutant from planet Zebulon. She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry; I guess I'm just feeling sluggish from my training. I think I'm going to have to say goodbye for now, Bernadette-san; get myself a nice shower and some breakfast."

[[OOC: Actually, I have to get myself to work...]]

Pip nodded. "Sorry about that, really. I guess I'm just used to people being fairly free with it. I'll let you get back to that,' he said, jogging off.

Once he was out of earshot, he mutered to himself. "//Well, that could have gone better.//"

Frowning slightly, Sakurazaki watched him as he jogged off. That was a close one; she might have to work on avoiding that patched man if she could help it. Tossing the stick to the ground, she turned toward the dorms and muttered to hers, "//Well, that could have gone better..."//

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Outside the dorms; mid-morning

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