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The Rocky Bits, Tuesday Afternoon

Arthur'd left a message to all about the change in location for today's drill, last week. He was in something of a better mood, although yesterday's spar with Lady Elspeth had knocked him back down to a normal grouch. At least he no longer looked like he was contemplating murdering his co-conspirator.

He didn't start speaking until he was fairly sure they'd gotten their haul of people for the day. "Today, we begin to work with our terrain," he announced, "And each other. You all have vastly different skills and powers at your disposal; now's the time to share them. You'll be venturing out to different defensible locations, spread over the seaside to your right," he nodded, "the Rocky Bits at your left," another nod, "And the ground you're standing on. Pick one, and set up a plan to make it defensible."

After a quick glance at Arthur, to make sure he had finished, Leto continued: "And after having made your own strategy for defense, some research will help you develop it. Find examples from various points in history of successfull defense of a geographic location similar to the one you chose and write a short report on your own conclusions."

[~~Wait for OCD!~~ OCD is up!]

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She was a little surprised to see the girl from the flower shop.

"Oh. Hello again."

Ino grinned. "Hi! I'm not just a flower girl, you see."

"I see. And I'm not just a flower buyer."

Which had sounded better in her head.

"Have you been a part of this long? The reserves, I mean."

"It's only been going for a few weeks or so?" Ino explained. "But, I guess, I've been here since the beginning?"

If only to mock it. But hey.

"Oh. Arthur made it sound like it'd been established for a while," she admitted, looking around.

"What do we usually do?"

"Arthur has attitude issues," she said, in a stage whisper. Because Ino was totally one to talk about attitude issues. "And thinks just 'cause he's a prince in his world that we've all got to act like he expects. He's getting better, vaguely. Maybe it's been as long as a month?"

Ino shrugged. "He takes this a lot more seriously than I do--maybe it seems longer to him 'cause of that? What are you able to do?"

She smirked at Ino.

"I threatened to hit him with my yo yo," she confided in something closer to a traditional whisper. That should tell Ino what she thought of his attitude.

"And how do you mean? In what context?"

"I haven't had to kick him yet, mostly 'cause he doesn't seem to take issue with my specialties being done by, you know, me. A yo yo?" she asked, intrigued. "Like, if you're here, most of the people generally know something about fighting, or scouting, or other things--what can you do?"

Edited 2009-05-12 16:34 (UTC)

She pulled out her weapon from her pocket, picking at the rubber band around her wrist nervously before showing it to the other girl.

Then she let the string drop. Pulling up her memories, she willed a cutting edge to either side of the string and turned the yo yo up. A faint blue sheen showed on either side of the standing string.

"I can cut anything I want to, as long as I have something for an edge."

She pushed away the feelings and let the edge go; the string dropped.

"Magic?" she asked, studying the yo yo. "Or something else?"

She shook her head.

"It's just what I can do. My mother can do it too; I get it from her."

She reached down then and picked up one of the rocks beneath them. She looped the string around half the rock and tugged the string.

Two pieces wobbled in her hand, the edges smooth as glass.

"Huh," she said noncommittally. "Does it tire you out?"

She shook her head.

"No."

When she got angry, the rage could drain her if she let it slip. But when she was like this, it was fine. It was simple. It was, in fact, a little too easy.

Ino's silence was a bit longer that way. "Cuts through everything, huh?" She shook her head. "Not the weirdest, I guess, though I don't see how it doesn't tire you."

"It's like a knife through hot butter," she admitted. "I can hardly feel it. I was afraid I'd cut myself once, but my uncle explained that as long as I don't want to, I won't."

Which made the fact that she had, and what she'd done, even more terribly ironic. Emphasis on terrible.

She was switching topics now!

"What can you do?"

Ino was definitely glad for a subject change. "Me?" She chewed on her lip. "A pretty good range of stuff, I guess? Walk on water, up walls; I'm not bad at hand to hand. I use kunai--they're blades a bit bigger than my hand with handles that have a loop on the end of them--and senbon--metal needles--and wire mainly. Explosives too, I guess."

Take over peoples' minds.

"I'm better at espionage and sabotage than all out combat."

She felt somewhat stupid for just mentioning the one skill since goodness knew she had others. She'd studied the greatest tacticians the world had ever known, knew half a dozen languages, and probably had an understanding of anything factual you'd find in a dusty old book to rival Benton Fraser.

~~...that was a conversation that had to happen one day.~~

"We never did much espionage. My brother would probably be better at that."

"Espionage doesn't suit a lot of people," Ino admitted, with a shrug. "There's a lack of glory, for one, and people think it's dirtier killing someone who'd endanger your cover in cold blood, than it is to do it on the battlefield."

Which Ino thought was beyond stupid. Dead was dead was dead.

"It's kinda my family niche, though."

"Well, we snuck into an army base once, but that wasn't really 'stealth' so much as--"

Her brother killing a lot of people. She still felt terrible about that, and she knew Eliot hadn't quite recovered. She wasn't sure he could, really.

"Killing is killing."

She thought about Perry Millhouse and wished she hadn't.

"And I understand about family."

"Depends on the family," she said. "But I enjoy what I do."

Even when others treated it like it was dirty-bad-wrong.

Fiona didn't, at least not in the cold light of day, but she could see the necessity in it. Perry Milhouse had needed to die. She'd just done what needed doing. And Amanda Lane was safe because of it. She had to start thinking of Amanda more often.

"That's important. And like I said, how it's done doesn't make it any better. Dead is dead."

She shook her head.

"We should probably get to the activity. I'd bet you have experience in this kind of thing, don't you?"

Fiona had book knowledge, but not much experience.

"Of course," she said, with a shrug. "This whole thing is a bit like a game to me."

True, though not because she knew it already.

"Though it's a bit silly to go at it this way. There should be sides, and we try taking each other over."

"That would make more sense. Maybe that's what they're planning but they didn't tell us since they wanted to see if we'd be prepared for it anyway."

That was... Grandmother-type thinking.

"Well," she said dryly, "that's what they'll say when someone comments anyway."

Ino's opinion of both the leaders of this, now that Reno was gone... was not high.

She noticed.

"You don't like Leto either?"

No judgment, just curiosity.

The Rocky Bits, Tuesday Afternoon

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