The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

He'd been able to put his annoyance with Morgana aside yesterday, but Monday was a whole new day, and Arthur was going to make use of it.

By applying anger and yesterday's languid sense of good-day into on calculated assault on the salle's practice dummies. His movements were tight, his anger palpable, and the dummies... probably to be pitied.

[[ open salle! ]]

Comments

[future_sandworm]

He should have remembered that Monday mornings were not a good time to go to the Salle, as Arthur seemed to have made it a habit of always being there at that time. But turning in the door seemed stupid, so Leto entered, giving Arthur a quick nod, and walked over to the other end of the room.

He picked up the blades that he had brought and chose two daggers.

[bitchprince]

"Leto," Arthur greeted, with only a grim twitch of his mouth as he went about his own drill.

[future_sandworm]

"Arthur," Leto replied neutrally as he adjusted the blades. "Bad day?" he added. The dummies looked a little battered.

[bitchprince]

"Merely a few lingering concerns," Arthur replied, in that tone of voice that implied he was well aware Leto didn't particularly care and Arthur didn't care about Leto not caring.

[future_sandworm]

Shrugging with one shoulder, Leto didn't reply. He hurled the blades into the air, where they separated into a total of six, all of them spinning towards him. As they got close, he blocked them, moving fast and with precison.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Have they offended you?" Merlin asked after a few moments of watching him kill the dummies.

[bitchprince]

"I think someone is trying to seduce Morgana."

Which obviously meant he was going to have to practice how to punch someone's lights out, be his suspicions true.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Because Arthur clearly didn't have enough practice at trouncing people in a fight.

Really.

"Should I be concerned?"

[bitchprince]

"You should," Arthur growled, "What if he lays a hand no her?" And of course Morgana didn't see a problem with that.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...Have you spoken to her about this yet?"

[bitchprince]

"She told me. Clearly, she's being taken advantage of. She knows better than to engage herself into some kind of fling." Beyond to give him a headache.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...Right." This could only end in tears. "How about I talk to her about it?"

[bitchprince]

Arthur scoffed. "I can handle my father's ward."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Of course you can."

[bitchprince]

Arthur squinted at him. "If there's a 'but' in there, Merlin..."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I didn't say anything of the sort!

[bitchprince]

There was a clear suspicion in the way Arthur went, "Hm-hm."

He gave his sword a twirl. Subtle.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin just shot him his most innocent of looks.

[bitchprince]

"I can handle her," he grumped, "No matter what you think."

She really was just doing this to make his head explode, wasn't she? That would explain everything, actually.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Morning," Dinah said, pretty perky again, then blinked at the whole Engine of Destruction thing Arthur had going on again. "...and I won't add the good there. Swords?"

[bitchprince]

"Swords," Arthur agreed, making a motion as if he were beheading a dummy, then came to a standstill.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah bounced over to grab her sword, then thoughtfully picked up the shield too. "Today seems the day for it."

[bitchprince]

"If this is some weeping woman's tale about Valentine's day, I don't want to hear it." Easy for Arthur to say, really.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Noooooo," Dinah said, giving Arthur a weird look. "I got flowers and candy. Plus friends. Did you have a bad Valentine's Day?"

See, that impulse control? Still a work in progress. Or she wouldn't have asked that, 'cause wow. Not wanting to know.

[bitchprince]

"Mine was fine," he said, dryly. "Nevermind that our practices are different from yours." So, so not venturing into TMI territory.

...

He wasn't Merlin.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"So the murder-death-kill on the dummies is just Monday. Gotcha." Dinah did not want to know about medieval dating practices. Knowing about Leto and Jenny and having suspicions about Eric was waaaay more than enough. "Should I kill the dummies now, or can we skip to the part where you're killing me a lot?"

[bitchprince]

...What medieval dating practices? They worshipped some of the saints on this date. Hardly Arthur's fault they turned it into some kind of lovefest.

"We'll proceed onwards to a spar," Arthur decided, twirling his sword idly.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yay!"

She so needed to meet his knights, sometime. Although they never said 'yay' aloud, she bet.

Dinah got into fighting stance, shield in place, and grinned.

[bitchprince]

"Do at least try to pretend like you've got some discipline," Arthur said, settling into his own stance. Rigid, defined, and ready.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

That's it, Arthur, slay the joy before you slay the girl.

"Ready!" Or try. Dinah's stance was looser, waiting for the first move. Monday morning death match! Live at the Salle!

[bitchprince]

Arthur... didn't move, either.

He was waiting to see what she would do. Anger or not, he wasn't about to hurt a trainee.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah's Impulse Control Monitor was having to kick in hard not to just take the first swing. Vibrating in place with it, in fact. But she kept her sword in the guard stance, evaluating Arthur. Not. Gonna. Swing. Noooooo.

[bitchprince]

Arthur still didn't move a single muscle. He looked impassive, if anything; a statue.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Okay, enough waiting, she didn't have that much fuel for the Impulse Governor.

But she did feint, first, toward Arthur's left, mind already working on the follow-up.

[bitchprince]

Arthur caught the feint by the way she'd shifted. His own sword moved suddenly, striking out at her right, fast.

He generally took it down a few levels while he was sparring Dinah. Not today.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which made it good that Dinah had opted to have that shield today, sliding around quick-fast, then yanking back to raise her sword to clash with his.

Battle! Also, whoa.

[bitchprince]

Arthur didn't falter for a second, striking low again almost immediately, beating her back. He didn't have a shield of his own to fall back on, but he was more than confident he could handle it.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Low block, middle jab!

And yeah, Arthur was doing just fine without the shield, but Dinah was pretty pleased so far with hers; it still didn't put them on equal ground, but it did level it a good swath.

[bitchprince]

Which was the kind of overconfidence that Arthur could use. If she felt more protected with the shield... well.

Divesting her of it, or the sword, would be a good demoralizer.

He parried easily, suddenly kicking out at her knee.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Ow!" Dinah jumped back at the kick but not fast enough not to take it on the side of her knee, hard enough to bruise, and she quit concentrating on the sword-and-shield work and slashed out, low and hard.

[bitchprince]

Arthur blocked that, pushing hard, taking the advantage to shove his elbow at her shield-bearing arm. Equally hard.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had to brace herself, but she still stumbled back a a few paces, off-balance, some part of her going okay, way harder this week, another part gleefully noting tactics to recycle on someone else, and the rest of her just concentrating on getting her feet back to the right place and her arm up and whoa, don't get killed like the dummies!

[bitchprince]

Arthur had his advantage now, and he would press it, moving forward with her stumbles, striking again, trying to keep her shield-arm off balance.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah got her balance back and managed to remember not to telegraph, especially with her shoulders. Which helped when she kicked out, then followed with a swing to deflect his sword. Stronger, yes, better, yes, faster-- not as much these days. Training was paying off that way.