fandomhighdorms | The salle, Thursday after classes

Tahiri was usually more excited about this. Today, she stopped on her way into the salle long enough to pick up a bokken -- it was about the length of her lightsaber, though of course with more heft to it -- before walking up to Dinah.

"Weapons today?" she asked in a tone that was less request than not so subtle suggestion. Her expression was a little worrisome, too, mostly neutral but with a visible undercurrent of tension.

Dinah studied her, then gave her a nod. "Staff? Or gaderiffii?"

Tahiri shrugged. "Whatever you want. I'm going with this."

"Staff," Dinah said. "I need the practice." She retrieved her favorite from the rack, and said, "You're still up for this, right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Tahiri asked, still oddly detached. "I've been in real battles in worse shape."

Dinah couldn't even say what had her worried, so she nodded, forehead crimping. "Okay. Ready when you are, then." She set her feet, staff in front of her, eyes on Tahiri's arms.

Normally Tahiri would have given Dinah more warning; a nod, a verbal confirmation, something.

What she did give Dinah was a quick glance, sizing her up defensively, before lashing out, fast, with a cut at Dinah's side.

Dinah swung the staff to the left, to block the cut, already knowing this would be more like a practice with Arthur than their usual good-humored attempts to best each other. She jerked the butt of the staff toward Tahiri's knee, as fast as she could.

Tahiri would apologize for this later, she really would. For now she was in a mood to fight -- more in touch with Riina than she cared to admit. The bokken slammed into the staff hard, sending shock waves up her arms, but she gritted her teeth and cut back down to block the shot at her knee, putting enough into the move to knock the staff clear.

Dinah stepped back and spun the staff horizontal, swinging it right then left then right, starting to circle Tahiri, biting her lip as she tensed her muscles to meet Tahiri's attack.

Tahiri let Dinah circle, her eyes falling half closed as she reached out in the Force to sense her. Both hands were gripping the bokken, firm but loose, although not quite as relaxed as she ought to be to keep her full range of motion. She didn't attack yet, just waited, reading Dinah's motions for the first sign of hesitation.

She was not normally nearly in as predatory a mood. Thanks, Riina.

Dinah had to wonder what brought this on, but thought maybe if Tahiri fought her way through it first, she'd be more willing to talk later. She swung the staff two-handed at Tahiri suddenly, aiming for her knees, expecting her to jump upward, and swung it back equally quickly at waist-height.

Tahiri did jump, throwing herself into a somersault away from Dinah and taking one hand off the bokken to reach out, midflight, with a hard telekinetic blast -- not hard enough to hurt, as she was still in control of herself, but hard enough to knock Dinah back a good fifteen feet or so.

She'd be so, so sorry about this later. So sorry, Dinah.

"Hey!" TK while they weren't wearing padding? Without warning? "Tahiri!"

Dinah had just enough temper to shove back hard, even as she landed on her butt about ten feet away. "Not funny!"

Tahiri had started to use the Force to stick herself to the floor when she caught a sense of Dinah's reaction and froze, so she did skid back several feet and fall over.

"Sithspawn, I'm sorry!"

Dinah got up, dusting off her legs, and stretched a little before warily approaching the other girl. "Dude. I mean. I'm good with practicing TK with weapons, but I'd like to be wearing a catcher's mask first." She frowned at Tahiri, then offered her a hand up, worry and irritation creasing her expression. "What was that about?"

"Sorry," Tahiri blurted out again, using the bokken to help herself up rather than taking Dinah's hand; considering her mental state, she didn't want to risk accidentally blasting Dinah with any of her thoughts. "Force, that was stupid. I wasn't thinking. I just --"

Came way too close to being what she didn't want to be.

"-- got carried away. Maybe you're right, and I shouldn't be doing this. I don't know."

Letting her hand fall, Dinah studied Tahiri another long moment, irritation fading with Tahiri's apology. "It's okay," she said uncertainly as Tahiri got to her feet. She shook her head. "You're more careful than that, usually. Is this about last week? Are you still dealing with that?"

"Dealing with it would be nice," Tahiri said quietly. "Except maybe I don't really want to."

Dinah bit her lip, wondering if her problem was like Rachel's, of having sensed too much, or something to do with her and Ben, and the efforts she'd heard something about on the Radio. Or something even more complicated, and unique to Tahiri? "Why not deal?" she said, keeping her voice quiet. "What could it make worse, to talk about it or think about it? Whatever it is?"

Tahiri looked up and met Dinah's eyes. "It's not what. It's who."

. . . which would make it option three.

Ohhhh. Right. Damn. Dinah studied Tahiri with even more worry now, but tried to keep her mental shields up so as not to make any turmoil worse for her. "Fighting more definitely wouldn't help with that, yeah." She shook her head slowly. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She'd said almost the same thing to Ben earlier, knowing the answer would be no. Karma, Tahiri would say if she was familiar with the concept, was a bitch.

"I could go for something chocolate," she admitted. "Just not ice cream."

"Hunh." Dinah said, mildly confused, but agreeable. "That works. Let's find some chocolate-covered pretzels and chocolate truffles. And talk about something that would bore other people silly." Translation: and make Riina go away out of frustration, yay.

Tahiri gave her a sheepish look. "It's the safest thing I can think of right now. I owe you a real spar later, okay?"

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