The Salle, Monday Morning (before classes)

[bitchprince]

Being bruised and battered from the previous night wasn't going to stop Arthur from running his training early. He was, however, careful not to do anything too straining for either his warm-up or his own drills; not slacking off didn't mean pushing yourself to the brink of human endurance like an idiot.

His practice blade cut good time through the air regardless. His muscles stretched and screamed along with the motions - which was only familiar, really.

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[weetuskenraider]

It wasn't so much a matter of being able to take it as it was just a part of her temperament she'd never quite been able to curb. Something else she'd have to work on.

"Uh huh," Tahiri said, turning the hilt over in her hands but not powering it on just yet. "What, you haven't seen one yet?"

[bitchprince]

To be fair, Arthur was kind of a prat.

"Ben showed me one," he said, idly, even though he wasn't idle about the idea at all, "But I haven't seen it in action." Read: chopping things into tiny bits, or at least training to do so.

[weetuskenraider]

Well, yes, there was that. But there were reasons that "cooperate or I'll let her do whatever she wants to you" had worked as a threat on a couple of occasions in the past.

"I was just going to go through some form drills, but nothing really fancy today," Tahiri said, leaving out the because I can't do anything really fancy yet anyway so as to not give him that satisfaction. "Unless you want to be in the room when I'm knocking stun bolts around."

Tempting as the idea of "accidentally" knocking one his way was, she wasn't going to entertain it. Really.

[bitchprince]

In which she was a great deal like the one woman Arthur spent any amount of time with. Not that he missed Morgana, or anything. That would be ridiculous.

"If you don't mind," he said, exercising some of those legendary manners, and bowed his head, "I'd like to stay and watch."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri gave him a slightly odd look; she'd seen him being a prat, and now with the manners . . . well, it wasn't a new concept, but it was still mildly unsettling. "Sure, if you want," she said, thumbing the lightsaber to life with the familiar snap-hiss.

She fell into a basic neutral stance with the blade held vertically at middle guard, then launched into an intermediate practice form. It wasn't anything flashy, as she'd said, and none of the moves stood out for speed or power, at least not to anyone accustomed to Jedi reflexes.

A couple of blows toward the end of the routine were sloppy, she knew, and she badly bungled her footwork on one particular sequence, so by the time she was done Tahiri was scowling a little. She could have done without screwing that up today.

[bitchprince]

There were just times when manners were required. She was training to be a knight, and that earned some measure of respect (even if he liked to refer to his knights as Dung Beetles on a nigh-regular basis).

The show was still fairly impressive (being that he wasn't accustomed to Jedi reflexes at all), even if he automatically picked up on footwork, movements, stumbles. It was a bit like swordcraft, but different, and he warred with the idea of whether or not he could guess at enough of its foundations to pass any critique at all.

He was also still a bit busy trying to avoid staring at the lightsaber. It was still strange, alien, and somewhat disconcerting. It also held a certain fascination. "Does it always make that noise?"

He might point out the footwork later.

[weetuskenraider]

Definitely, definitely practicing that routine some more later. And a lot.

"What," Tahiri asked over the thrum of the still-lit blade, "this? Yeah, unless it's actually contacting something. Then it's louder."

[bitchprince]

The whole castle had a tendency to be loud. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that its weapons also tended that way. "Very atmospheric," Arthur said, his eyes darting back to the blade once before settling back on its wielder. "Thank you for the demonstration."

[weetuskenraider]

Atmospheric? Tahiri really gave him an odd look that time, because she'd never once thought of the sound she'd always taken for granted as 'atmospheric,' of all things.

"Sure, I guess," she answered, deactivating the blade, if only for a few minutes. "You know, I can tell you're intrigued by it."

[bitchprince]

Arthur paid her look no heed. There were times he thought he was going to go insane with all the noise around here, but he seemed to be one of the few who were even bothered, and he wouldn't go into it aloud.

"It involves a sword," he pointed out, "I've been known to deal with them."

[weetuskenraider]

"Really. You don't say," she said dryly. "Do you get like this over every new weapon you've never seen before?"

[bitchprince]

"No," he replied, without missing a beat, "Just the ones wielded by mouthy blondes."

You can't talk to me like that was a phrase unlikely to ever leave Arthur's vocabulary.

[weetuskenraider]

And this mode of conversation was exactly why Tahiri would never be cut out to be a diplomat.

"Lucky me, then," she intoned. "You must miss out on a lot of interesting weapons that way."

[bitchprince]

"Not really," he said tonelessly.

It was his you're quite about finished speaking now, thanks voice. "If that was the extent of the insight you were going to grant me, I believe we're done."

[weetuskenraider]

"You didn't specify," Tahiri pointed out, and it was probably a good thing she didn't talk as much now as she used to. She'd been exasperating then. "A hundred things you could have asked, and you wanted to know if it always makes noise. I'll just go over there and practice some more, and you can go back to whatever it is you were doing."

Ben really hadn't been kidding about the ego, had he?

[bitchprince]

Yes. Yes, the ego was that big.

"I think that might be best," he said, dryly, and barely refrained from rolling his eyes. He'd gotten a great deal of specifics from Jaina already, could probably get more, but bloody hell, nothing made noise like that.

Or was supposed to, anyway.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri did roll her eyes thankfully with no unnecessary descriptive phrases.

"Fine, then," she said, and switched her lightsaber back on before she headed over to the other end of the salle.

So there.

[bitchprince]

Arthur hadn't gotten to make a girl stomp off in a huff since he'd left Morgana behind at Camelot. He should probably feel accomplished.

But that would take too much effort, so instead he launched into another sword drill, victorious, as the one who hadn't moved. Not that that mattered.