The Salle, Friday afternoon

[future_sandworm]

Being a girl and looking like his twin sister was no excuse for not showing up to teach his students. In fact, it offered a wonderful opportunity to confuse them, one that Leto certainly wanted to make the most of.

He had picked two knives and were doing some drills, trying to get used to moving with precision in this body.

[very open!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla steeled herself and entered the salle. Maybe Leto had been spared. Maybe he'd be fine. And maybe, just maybe, she'd be okay with seeing him as a female. Maybe it wouldn't be too weird.

Riiiiiiiiight.

So Karla was a bit surprised when she saw Ghanima standing in the salle. "Lady Ghanima?" she asked, coming forward. "Did Leto send you--"

And then, as with Ender, she caught a bit of the familiar-but-not psychic scent. "Leto?!" she asked, shoulders slumping. "I hate this."

[And I, sadly, am for bed. Night!]

[future_sandworm]

"Karla," he said, smiling. "I should have known you could see through this. Too confusing for you?" He approached her, offering her a knife.

"But don't think this is an excuse to escape your lesson," he added with his best Ghani imitation.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Claire entered the salle and blinked in confusion. "Lady Ghanima, it's a pleasure to see you."

[future_sandworm]

Leto smiled back. "And you too, Claire. Are you here for your lesson?"

Let's see how long it would take Claire to figure this out.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Probably not too long, since her boyfriend was currently her girlfriend and wearing her clothes presumably that will happen in the morning at least.

Then again, if Leto was really good at imitating his sister, perhaps not.

Claire nodded. "Yeah. I practiced some of the stuff you've been teaching us in Fight Club yesterday though."

[future_sandworm]

Well, he could probably imitate Ghani quite well, but the situation might give it away.

He nodded. "Show me?"

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Of course," Claire said.

She was wondering where Leto was. And why Ghanima was in the salle. But, she'd let it go for now as she demonstrated some of the strikes that they had learned recently.

[future_sandworm]

Those were good questions, really, but Leto wasn't going to offer any answers.

"Good," he said. "I can see that you've been paying attention." And he proceeded to give some suggestions and further instructions, doing his best to express himself in a way that Ghanima would.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

The phrasing was definitely a little off and it caused Claire to tilt her head.

"Leto's been helping me too," she said. "Where is he, by the way?"

[future_sandworm]

"Not here, obviously," Leto replied. "So someone has to take care of the lessons he promised."

No, he wasn't expecting to keep this up for very long.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Not too much longer, no.

"Uh huh," Claire said, studying the woman in front of her. "It's not like Leto to wander off and miss lessons."

[future_sandworm]

"I'm sure he'd be pleased to hear you have such confidence in him." Now Leto didn't even bother to make an effort to sound like Ghanima.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

That clued Claire in to the fact that this was very likely Leto.

But just in case she was wrong, she had to test it.

"Well, it's easy to have confidence in someone as handsome and kind as Leto," she said, her tone shifting to one of a simpering girl. "I just wish he would notice me."

That should do it.

[future_sandworm]

Even if Leto hadn't been good at knowing when people lied he wouldn't have believed that. "Now, exactly who are you trying to fool?" he asked with a smirk.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"What do you mean?" Claire asked, putting on her best innocent face.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela wasn't entirely sure why she'd shown up. It wasn't like she needed Leto's training.

Wait. Yes, that was it. She needed the training. That was a much better explanation than that she just wanted to see Leto. Right. Training.

[glacial_queen]

"Don't!" Karla said, almost flinching backwards. It was worse when he imitated Lady Ghanima's inflections and the like. "Just...don't. You're Leto, regardless of what form you wear."

Someone wasn't handling this well.

[future_sandworm]

Leto looked at her. "Good afternoon, Triela."

He wondered how long it would take for her to guess what had happened.

[future_sandworm]

He raised an eyebrow, just looking at her.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Claire gave him a cute smile. "So... do you want to reschedule my lesson this week?"

[future_sandworm]

"I am," he said cheerfully. "But I have a perfect opportunity to try and impersonate my sister."

He turned serious. "But if it troubles you badly I won't. What's the matter?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"... good afternoon." Triela was relieved (not disappointed, dang it!) to find Ghanima in the salle rather than Leto.

"I didn't realize you worked out here," she said. Because Triela was totally a regular.

[glacial_queen]

"This!" Karla said, waving at his body. "This is all wrong! There's more to gender than just a body. It's deep, it's intrinsic to who you are! It shapes and forms and molds you! You can't just wake up a female!"

Gender was a huge deal in Kaeleer. To suggest that it was something to be taken so lightly was messing with Karla's head. A lot.

[future_sandworm]

"Karla, I am still myself. I was born male. But you know I have the memories of my ancestors - including the female ones." He looked at her. "I seriously doubt it's going to last. So try to look past the image, and use your other senses."

He wasn't going to question her assumptions about gender.

[future_sandworm]

"Why?" he asked, grinning.