The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

His bruises had faded to a point where he could train again, so Arthur was, as usual, back in the salle to go through his morning routine, and to deal with his regulars as they showed themselves.

He was choosing to ignore anything that may have gone on over the weekend (although he was messing about with his Blackberry in order to finally let Reno in on what had happened on Friday. It was a work in progress, but he'd managed to work it down to ensorclld alli and he had hope that with time, he could both finish the last word, and add the 'golden fish' part. It was possible it would be easier if he simply figured out how to leave a voice-mail-- he was quite an expert in the field if he wasn't, in fact, lucid and sober) and took a good training sword instead to give his aching muscles something to remember.

Just an ordinary Monday morning, all in all. He had a vague hope it might actually stay that way for once.

[[ open salle as per usual! ]]

Comments

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona was there bright and early as she'd wanted to both make a good impression and assure Arthur that she took this seriously. She had her yo-yos with her, as she'd realized from Friday that she probably wouldn't hurt herself if she practiced with two of them along with one and the tessen, but didn't go seeking out the warfan just yet.

[bitchprince]

Well, that was a good sign, at the very least. Arthur paused in the midst of his own work (he was always ridiculously early; Father wasn't much fond of sloth) to turn, and to acknowledge her existence. "Ah, Fiona," he greeted. "I see you've chosen to turn up."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She had a snappish reply for that, but swallowed it down. She couldn't help the quick flash of irritation that flared in her eyes, though. Fiona could be respectful, but she wouldn't staunch the one emotion she could ever seem to get without trouble.

"Of course. It would be mildly ridiculous to request training and then fail to come for it."

She divested herself of the yo-yos, tucking them into her bag and leaving it on the ground for later.

[bitchprince]

"You would be surprised," he said, not unkindly, then nodded in the direction of the practice swords. "Pick one that doesn't fall too heavy on your arms. We'll deal with straining you beyond your limits some other time."

[puppy_fair]

After arts and crafts class, which was a demonstration in the futility of handing beads to Zack and getting him to make things with them, Zack grabbed his sword and made a beeline for the salle.

At least swordplay was something that he could handle!

"Hey, Arthur! How are you doing today?"

[bitchprince]

Watching part of your canon between pings.

"I'm fine, thank you," Arthur returned, idly, as he lowered his sword away from the dummy he'd been practicing on. "You're looking cheerful for once."

That was, in fact, a joke.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She nodded and made her way over, examining the practice swords with some care. They weren't the finest specimens, of course, nothing like what she'd seen amongst her Uncle Aaron's collection, but she was familiar enough at picking through that she knew which ones to avoid. She might never have touched a weapon before her 15th birthday, but she'd done enough research on metalworking and the production of them to have a good feel for it.

She came back a few minutes later with a relatively well-balanced piece of work that she could heft comfortably. Well away from Arthur, she swept it around to get the weight, the flow; there was a faint tickle at the back of her brain as she did, as the weapon almost seemed to speak to her. Was this how Eliot felt when he'd first touched a laptop? She'd have to call him.

The sword was held down by the time she approached Arthur.

[puppy_fair]

Mwahahaha! It's pretty!

"Every now and then, I manage to do that," Zack replied, grinning. As per usual. "I guess I'm starting to get back into the swing of things after those monsters invaded."

The Pixie Stix had helped.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Fortunately this week's spar with Ino had left Dinah in much better shape than last week's, hangovers dissipate when faced with Yakko, and goldfish bites heal fast. Plus, she had a maybe-date to look forward to today.

"Morning, Arthur." Dinah headed over to the practice swords and started her drill after a bright smile for Zack and a nod to Fiona.

[bitchprince]

He'd watched her examine the sword with a raise of his brow. It led him to a single question, "So what experience do you have with the blade, if any?" If she was hiding some kind of expertise on blacksmithing or whatever, he'd like to know.

His own blade was held equally low, and utterly casual. There were a few other things he'd like to know about her abilities, but he'd find out about that the old-fashioned way.

[bitchprince]

Far be it from Arthur to come between a man and his live sugar.

"'Swing of things'," he echoed. "That's an optimistic phrase for it." Hey, he wasn't heading anywhere beyond his usual level of disdain for all things today. "Here I was afraid you were going to wind up like a bruised damsel."

[puppy_fair]

Zack returned that smile with a grin and a bounce and a wave hello!

It was an awesome morning.

[I start the new job today, so I'll be away and gone in probably about an hour, but Zack totally had to acknowledge that he was smiiiiiled at!]

[bitchprince]

"Dinah, morning," he greeted in turn, and paused by her as she went to start her drills. "You've recuperated?"

He fretted about the girls. Hush.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"None," she said honestly.

"Other than picking up a rapier once or twice to try and make a point. A single thrust each time, nothing more.

"I've done research on metalworking, blacksmithing, Damascus steel, the folding techniques of Viking and Japanese artisans, but no practical experience."

She wasn't hiding anything from him; if he was going to teach her, she couldn't.

[puppy_fair]

"The worst I had to deal with on Friday evening were a few bruises and the sewer smell," Zack laughed. "Saturday morning was worse. I don't know what I did to deserve detention, but they made me clean."

Dried up gator goo. It had been an adventure.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona waved from where she was working. It was a little hurried as she was obviously still a bit nervous about things, but nonetheless heartfelt.

[bitchprince]

"The school does have interesting ways of disposing of anything foul," he agreed, approaching Zack more readily, his own practice sword still in hand. "Look on the bright side - at least you know you're good for something."

[bitchprince]

It wasn't so much that he feared her hiding anything (which was probably at least 50% arrogance, but let's not go into the specifics) as that he had his own ways of finding out about things. Generally combining it with the need to keep people on their toes.

He approached her in turn, halting a feet or two away. "Well, we'll have to see to that, then."

[puppy_fair]

"And here I was starting to worry that people were keeping me around as a decoration," Zack mused, glancing at Arthur's wee tiny! practise sword. Totally bemused. Really. "It's good to feel needed for things like scrubbing guts off of the front gate, too."

And raiding sewers. And such.

[bitchprince]

Oh, Zack. Decoration was only about two-fifths of the reason. "How did the raid on the sewers go?" Arthur segued, "I haven't caught you since."

He was kind of glad about that. It must've reeked worse than anything.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

[np ans awwww!]

A bounce back! And gleeeee! And then re-focus on the sword. First things first, Monday mornings.

[puppy_fair]

"More people showed up for it than I thought there would be," Zack replied, straightening a little. He was so proud of that fact, dangit. "Mostly fighters, but Ino showed up to tend to the wounded, if something happened. It actually went really smoothly, I think."

And that was considering the fact that they'd been joined by a trigger-happy bunny rabbit, at that.

"We all got out alive and well... Though a little smelly."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Hoping he was talking about the invasion and not her hangover-- and then remembering that Arthur never listened to Radio, and would totally ignore that the Awkward in the Common Room had ever happened-- Dinah nodded and held up an elbow. "Ten showers and a ton of antiseptic cream, and the only thing to show now is some nibbles. I'm fine." She dropped her elbow and grinned. "You too, right?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave her an encouraging thumb's up, not wanting to distract her too much. Arthur *so* didn't love that. But hopefully she'd get to spar with Fiona a little later!

[bitchprince]

Okay, the reeking would've bothered him for all of thirty seconds if he'd actually been there, which was why Arthur felt a little twinge of guilt he hadn't realised he had, giving way. "That's good," he said, and if those words were rather overtly sincere, then he'd just--

Well, he wouldn't have to blame something. He should've been there. He swallowed that one back. "Were there many wounded?"