The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

On Friday, Arthur had reached a decision. After the weekend, he wasn't in the best mood to follow through on it, but there were few reasons to let his mood interfere with what was, essentially, a duty of some kind.

The duty of survival. As Crown Prince, it was a real one.

Still, he thought, as he arrived in the salle, Dinah had best be grateful. And it was all tactics. His gut still twinged with the sting of clear betrayal, but his sense of morality was as confused on this subject as anything else ever was, and so he ignored it.

[[ open! ]]

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[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

After waking from those oh-so-pleasant dreams, Firekeeper stalked down to the salle with the intent to grab a practice sword and run through the forms that the Kestrel armsmen had shown her.

"Arthur," she greeted with a nod, trying not to remember how she'd called him a gundark (whatever that was) and his kingdom silly.

[bitchprince]

"Lady Blysse," he greeted in return, giving his sword a little whirl. He still smelled faintly of horse manure, he was fairly sure (although how much of that was him merely picturing it and how much of it was true was up to anyone who dared to sniff him) but at least the work was distracting enough.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Well, she could smell it well enough, wolf-trained nose and all. "You find horses yesterday?" she asked. Apparently feeling sheepish over name-calling didn't mean she was going to be any less blunt than usual.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice recognized the other girl, and offered her a quick (but still proper) curtsy.

"I don't know that I thanked you," Alice said. "And if I failed to, I should like to do so now."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper nodded, offering a slight bow of her own- she never could get the hang of curtsying.

"I was gived the task of being a voice between peoples," she said. "Am glad you feel I am doing right by it."

[raspberryturk]

Reno had spent the better part of yesterday on a perpetual sugar buzz, and waking up this morning left him still feeling the effects. Mostly in the 'unhappy guts' department, but he wasn't going to complain over something like that. It had been good cake.

Either way, he figured working it off couldn't hurt, so he'd grabbed his baton and made his way to the salle, with just that intention.

"Hey, Arthur," he said in recognition as he walked in, weapon resting casually on his shoulder. "Did Fandom's extra weird hit you, too?"

[bitchprince]

"Reno," he greeted.

Sorcerer, yes, but there was something wrong about the idea of being dismissive of a man who'd simply had his back. Arthur settled his warring loyalties on that score for the time being, and granted him a look-over.

"It would appear so."

[raspberryturk]

Reno allowed himself a bit of a wry grin at that.

"You'd think the island would decide that flyin' monsters were enough for one week," he noted, and then gave his head a shake. "Turnin' into little kids, too? Must be Fandom's idea of some kinda sick joke."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice dropped Reno a quite proper curtsy. One should always curtsy to one's card guards, especially the unpaid, volunteer variety.

"Good morning," she managed. There, she was quite sociable and entirely herself.

[raspberryturk]

Oh, yes. She completely was. Except for the fact that, to particular card guards who had stayed alive by knowing otherwise, she looked like she was trying entirely too hard to be quite sociable and entirely herself.

"Yo, Alice." And Reno was going to be mean and strike up a conversation, now. "How've you been? Some weekend, huh?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

The sugar crash meant Dinah had overslept. So Arthur would be at the salle by now.

But after a weekend of sheer silliness, and two weeks of being avoided, Dinah wasn't going to avoid him any more. She could deal. If he couldn't, well. That was his look-out.

Or at least that's what she told herself as she walked into the salle.

[bitchprince]

And there she was.

"Dinah."

Arthur didn't alter his movements in the slightest. He'd be the strongest in this conversation if it killed him. He wouldn't be able to have it otherwise. "You know you're not going to be able to fend off every invasion by throwing things," he said. It was a decent opener.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Okaaaay. What was up with that?

Dinah headed for the practice dummy without looking at Arthur, not sure where he was going with that comment. Was this a new way of pointing out how she shouldn't be existing in his airspace, or a new way of criticizing her preparedness? She put on her gloves. Ignore it, ignore him, ignore... Yeah, she couldn't quite do it. He was the one who'd backed out on that. She hadn't quit. She was still practicing.

"That was part of why I wanted sword training in the first place."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Dinah." The girl got a nod and a slight quirk of the lips that might have been a smile out of Firekeeper.

It might be noted that Blind Seer was conspicuously absent.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Blysse." Dinah smiled, still a little headachey from the weekend's sugar and running-around, then tilted her head, settling her eskrima sticks in her hands. "Not Tamara any more, right?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave Dinah a bit of a wave.

"Yo, Dinah," and it had taken every ounce of willpower to not call her 'Rookie,' "how you holdin' up?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Reno." Dinah put down her bag, and started to stretch a little, giving him a tired grin. "Wow. I need a weekend to get over the weekend." She tilted her head, thinking of Wednesday, and her smile widened a bit in gratitude. "Thanks for looking out for me last week."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan's movements, when he came to the salle on Monday morning, were stiff, a bit awkward; he felt as if he hadn't yet managed to shake the idea of being wee, of being a child, and his limbs seemed to move not-quite-right. He hoped that some action, some exercise, would help to loosen him up, get him used again to his own body.

Of course, the way he stiffened when he entered and saw who was there probably wouldn't help.

Still, he made his way to the practice swords and picked one out that seemed to approximate his own sword. He nodded to Arthur (whose name he still didn't actually know), and politely so, even, but otherwise ignored him as he began to practice on a dummy.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was practicing somewhere in Arthur's vicinity, and brightened when she saw Ronan. "Hey, you! Have a good and silly weekend?"

Step, step, curve the blade slowly in front of her in practice.

[not_in_the_book]

"Not so silly," Ronan said, not breaking his pattern as he spun and ducked into a low slice. "But good, yeah. It felt... odd, but not bad, to be so young again. I mostly kept to myself, though."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice felt more hesitant this morning than she had two weeks prior, when first joining the group.

Which meant she would stand in the doorway and fidget, and wonder about the propriety of this situation. Somehow, she'd never been advised on the technicalities of such matters. Presumably, proper young ladies would never be in such a situation to start.

[bitchprince]

"Lady Alice," Arthur said, granting her a nod from his place in the salle. "Take one of the light swords." It wouldn't be in the least bit courteous to even think about that whole... thing. So he ignored it.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice felt an epic, nearly crushing sense of relief, that he wasn't going to look at her strangely or call her to task in some manner. Not that she had expected it from him; he was King Arthur (though still Prince, now) and by all accounts, the man was quite chivalrous. Telling one's self that was still not quite so convincing as experiencing it.

She curtsied, briefly, and then went to fetch her sword.

"I feel as though I owe you my apologies," she said, quite carefully, "and I should like for you to know that you have them."

For the unpleasant, unfortunate bits that she was decidedly not referring to.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah turned while doing her sword forms, and grinned at Alice. "Hey! You in good shape to play with weapons today?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice smiled, faintly, and bowed her head. "I believe so," she answered. "I've finally accepted that it is, indeed, Monday. My younger self seemed less inclined to violence."