The Salle, Friday Morning

[future_sandworm]

He could not afford to grow lazy. Having slipped out of bed early, Leto now stood in the middle of the salle, the blades in front of him on the floor. He pulled his shirt over his head and flung it aside, then stretched out his muscles, forcing away any remaining sleepiness. With a swift movement he grabbed the blades and hurled them spinning into the air, where they separated, so that a total of seven deadly sharp disks were spinning, hovering in the air. Best not to overdo it today. He reached out for the knives, waiting for the attack.

The blades attacked him from all directions. He dodged and parries, avoiding their trajectories. There was no time for mistake; he had to know every part of his body at any given moment. Pushing his body to extremes, he felt that stillness of mind that came with this training. The spinning discs kept retuning until he had forced each one of them off its path, making it strike and get caught in a hard surface. Leto crouched on the floor, breathing heavily.

[Open of course. If you want to know what this looks like, check here.]

Comments

[withoutverona]

Romeo was on his way to the gun range when he paused at the Salle. His glance in had been idle, but it turned into outright staring when he saw the discs whizzing about.

"How are you doing that?" he blurted from the doorway.

[future_sandworm]

Leto looked up and gave a nod in greeting. "That would take a long time to explain," he said with a small smile.

[withoutverona]

Romeo shrugged a little. "I've nothing but time. I finished my class for the day."

He was trying to decide if this was Leto or Gavin.

[future_sandworm]

The blue-on-blue eyes might give it away. "I meant more time than I have right now," he said with a grin. "And most likely more than I'll ever have here. But there is a basic principle: My mind affects my reality."

[withoutverona]

And as Romeo quit looking at the blades and took a second glance at the other man, the eyes came into focus. Leto. "That doesn't sound as if it would be easy to explain quickly," he acknowledged with a slight smile. "Do you mean you steer the discs with your mind?"

[future_sandworm]

He shook his head. "No, but my body. To an extent that I can control the world around me. Did you come here to train too? I did not mean not to leave space for anyone else."

[withoutverona]

"No, no, I was just passing by -- I go to the gun range sometimes and it's near. I'm sorry to disturb your work."

[future_sandworm]

Smiling, Leto said: "You were not disturbing me. I had almost finished." He laughed. "I need to remind myself not to grow lazy here."

[withoutverona]

"It's easy to get out of practice," Romeo said, shifting to be a fraction more serious. "There are few real threats, here. I've been here a year and no one's been killed."

No, that was never going to stop being surprising.

[future_sandworm]

Leto stretched his arms, turning a little more serious too. "I seem to get different opinions on how dangerous this place can really be," he said.

[withoutverona]

"I think it depends on what one's home is like," Romeo said, mulling it over. "Things are strange here, sometimes frighteningly so. But I've never woken up to news a friend has been shot for drinking in the wrong tavern, and that's what I judge by."

[future_sandworm]

"People seem to fear strangeness rather than death," Leto observed, nodding. "What would be the wrong tavern where you come from?"

[withoutverona]

Leto had put it well. "Exactly! Things are strange here but never deadly that I can tell," Romeo nodded as he considered the question.

"And that's rather its own long story. The shorter version would be that my family and a rival house have been fighting for generations. Any tavern hosting Caulets is not likely to welcome Montagues, and so the reverse. It is said to be better of late, but it's always a fragile peace."

... Romeo's short explanation was not all that short, no.

[future_sandworm]

"And you have to live in the same town? House Atreides had been enemies with House Harkonnen for generations, but at least we had a planet each." Leto assumed rivalry was similar enough though.

[withoutverona]

"Down to the same church," Romeo nodded ruefully. "I think everyone was too stubborn to move." Or ... something like that. It wasn't a question he'd ever understood any answer to.

"What is your planet called?"

[future_sandworm]

"I'm from Arrakis," he said, "But Caladan was the home of the Atreides until my grandfather's time."

[withoutverona]

"I'm never going to get used to the idea of moving planets," Romeo commented. "Is there fighting with your Harkonnen?"

[future_sandworm]

"We defeated them," Leto replied. Apart from those who lived on in the minds of the Pre-Born, of course.

[withoutverona]

"So you have peace now?" Romeo asked, hopeful.

[future_sandworm]

"There will always be enemies," Leto replied, picking up the blades.

[withoutverona]

That would make sense, of course. Romeo shifted his attention to the weapons in Leto's hands. "Might I have a closer look?"

[future_sandworm]

Leto offered the blades to Romeo. They were sharp, but he must have seen enough of the practise to notice that.

[withoutverona]

He had, which was why he took the blade very gingerly and held it just long enough to verify it was sharp before returning them to their rightful owner. "I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of that. Or any side, really."

[momslilassassin]

Ben had come down to the salle to get in some lightsaber practice (yes, before gym class. Ben was odd), but the hilt to his weapon came dangerously close to clattering onto the floor as he watched what--definitely not Gavin, but someone--was doing.

"Astral," he breathed.

[future_sandworm]

With a smile, Leto said: "The blades are not used in the first stages of the training. Does your people mainly rely on guns?"