fandomhighdorms | The Salle; Friday Morning [ 07/23 ].

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The Salle; Friday Morning [ 07/23 ].

Without class today and considering how much he'd been exercising his brain through his research, Alexander was up early this morning (as he was every morning, really, a habit hard and fast from years of waking before the crack of dawn), and had headed to the salle for a bit of practicing. He had woefully been neglecting his forms and, as he found a foil to work with, he amused himself with thoughts of his master back home, shaking his head in dismay at the prince's neglect.

It was a little strange at first to go into battling an imaginary opponant rather than his master or, on the rarer than she would like occassion, Rosella, but he soon got a rhythm going that had him in smooth practice and movement.

"Parry! Parry! Thrust! Block!"

And, yes, he called them out. It helped him to remember, since he'd only known them for such a short while, and, so far, he was mostly alone, anyway.

[[ open salle is open! ]]

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Dinah had not been slacking. Except by Arthur standards, since she didn't have two jobs and wasn't hitting both Reserves every week any more.

But that did mean she had extra time to practice her swordwork now, so why not do it?

She headed into the salle, and stopped when she saw someone else there already practicing, moving around to pull out the sword Kennedy got her until she was in his line of sight, then waved.

Once Alexander realized that someone had entered the salle, after a few more calls of his moves, he instantly felt embarrassed and wondered how long it had been that the girl had gone unnoticed. If he were not in training right now, he could potentially be dead, and that was terribly careless of him. More careless than he usually was. This place was lulling him into an unfamiliar security.

He made sure to finish with a very strong and hopefully impressive move before stopping, turning to the girl, and giving her a nod. "Hello. I can be finished if you'd like to practice, I've been here for a while."

"Sure, unless you'd like a practice match?" Dinah offered, stepping forward and offering the hand not holding the sword. "Dinah Lance. Graduate. That looked-- good." Well, it looked okay? ... possibly her standards had been corrupted by her Coach, though.

Alexander reached out for Dinah's hand but, once his fingers were there, a moment of uncertainty and small panic swept over him, realizing he wasn't sure what to do. One was to kiss a lady's hand, but did that still fallow suit when the lady was challenging you to a match? So there was an awkward pause before he decided to just stick with what he figured as more princely, bending in to give the preferred hand a light brushing of nervously respectful lips.

He cleared his throat, embarrassed as he straightened and gave her a nod. "Prince Alexander of Daventry," he offered in return. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lance. I would be honored for a match, if you were up to it." He tried a small smile. "I fear I owe it to my weapons master to at least try, to make up for ho much I have been slacking in my training since coming here."

Dinah gave him a pleased grin for the hand-kissing. Always nice to get that from a new guy, especially a cute one.

Then was left with the question of how to respond; she went with a tiny bow, since curtsying in work-out wear was just ridiculous. "Weapons masters are all the same, aren't they? If you're not practicing every hour of the day, you're going to lose your edge," she said, falling into Arthur's accent at the end. "And you can call me Dinah. If you like. Your -- majesty?" she checked. No reason to antagonize him after all. She was already moving over to the practice swords, just for safety's sake.

"Just Alexander, please," he said with a chuckle, glad for the girl's response. He held out a hand slightly. "Your majesty is my father. And you'll go easy on me I hope, but not too much? I'm afraid the technicalities of sword fighting are still fairly new to me, though I feel I've been picking it up well enough."

"I won't chop you up on the first spar," Dinah promised, grinning, and then held out a practice sword with a guard on it, similar to his own to work with. "How long have you been doing this? And are you okay with me using a longsword against your foil?" That should be kind of different.

"Absolutely," said Alexander, with a nod and giving his foil a dramatic sort of swishing in the air. "It should present a very interesting challenge. And I've only really started training a few years ago. A mere babe to it, truly."

Ignoring the fact that he didn't exactly need training to still slay dragons, but that was beside the point.

Maybe, but Dinah would've loved hearing about that. Dragonslaying! Woo!

She did the wrist-twirl thing. 'Cause she had to.

"I only started a year and a half ago, but it was a pretty intense year and half," Dinah said, falling into guard position automatically, sword up to defend herself two-handed. "But I'm not an expert at all... So, points for touches?" She started circling, grinning at him.

"Points for touches," Alexander agreed, nodding and returning the grin with a smirk as he drifted with her circling. "Shall we begin?"

"En guarde," Dinah agreed cheerfully, then made an experimental slash diagonally toward his legs. Woo!

Going for the legs was an interesting move, one that made Alexander grin as he hopped back a little and brought his sword down to block. It was the sort of move Rosella would make, and, with that blonde hair and the spirit she'd shown so far, he realized Dinah sort of reminded him of her a little.

"Nice start!" he offered, because he couldn't spar with a blonde without a little banter, and he brought his sword back up in an arch, before pulling it back and going for for a jab to her side, opposite his sword arm, crossing over himself.

"Thank you!" Dinah grinned and cut downward fast, to swing the tip of his sword away from side, and offered back, "You've got the style for swashbuckling, gotta say." And aimed a jab toward his hear, expecting he'd dodge. "Are you a pirate prince?"

"Interesting," said Alexander, looking slightly thoughtful, though most of his concentration went into meeting her quick cut and stepping back; he kept his sword against hers, but stretched his arm so that he as in a lunge, "that you might put it that way..."

But he said no more, figuring it could do him well to keep a certain mystery about that whole concept. His swashbuckling feet moved quickly, then, little shuffled as he moved forward in his lunge, looking very much the fencer as he moved his foil around Dinah's sword, building up the obvious tension as to when he might turn it into a strike.

"That's not an answer," Dinah pointed out, grinning. That lunge was just an invitation to get closer and wait for it, waaaait for it because she knew exactly what she was going to do when he finally did make a move.

"Well," Alexander reasoned, "you wouldn't expect a pirate prince to just come out and admit it, would you?"

And, of course, that as the perfect time to strike, swooping his sword out finally and going, again, to try for a nice little poke to her side.

She hadn't had a chance to try this one since she learned it in Fencing Club, so now seemed the perfect time. When she saw his arm extend, she spun around to block it, moment doubled, and got around to his far side. "No. But you might give yourself away!"

"You're quick!" Alexander said with a laugh as he turned to try to keep up with Dinah's deft dodging. It also worked as a nice (and obvious) diversion from the point of the banter, as hopefully his lunge forward into her new space might as well.

"You're dodging," Dinah offered, snickering, then eep'd as she jerked her sword up at guard, baring her teeth in a grin as she tried to get past his sword to get her sword to his throat. "And sneaky!"

"I feel," said Alexander, trying to circle his sword to force Dinah's down, "this spar is leaving you with a horrible impression of my disposition! To listen, you'd think I as a perfect scalliwag!"

One who then jerked his sword back, a little artlessly, to make a swing for Dinah's shoulders.

"Pirate! You're talking like a pirate, and fighting like one--" Dinah accused again, acking and getting a touch on the shoulder as she ducked. "Argh!"

Then swung for his middle, still laughing.

"Whoa!" said Alexander, chuckling as he hopped out of the way just in time to avoid the swing...and realizing that he did sort of dodge a lot, rather than block. Interesting.

"And I am taking a pirate class! Perhaps I'm just keeping with what I've been learning there!"

"Maaaaaybe," Dinah teased, then went for a high feint, then a hopeful slash at where he might move toward. "Maybe you're looking for new recruits!"

Alexander feel for the feint, earning Dinah a nice point against his shoulder, and he laughed, as if paying it little mind. "A pirate worth his salt wouldn't need to recruit," he pointed out. "His crew would come to him, or else he would kidnap and pillage for them."

He drew back a moment, before turning one of Dinah's card back on her, stabbing low with a dramatic lunge for a shin.

Dinah chortled, then had to save her breath for jumping when he lunged for her shin, coming down on both feet and sweeping the sword downward, trying to catch his blade on the side. "So, done any pillaging since you got here?"

The blades caught, and Alexander grinned, pushing up to arch them both to the otherside so that his would be back on top, so he could yank it back and then thrust against toward Dinah's midsection. "What pirate," he wanted to know, "pillages and then sticks around?"

"So you haven't done any pillaging lately!" Dinah stumbled back, not sure if that was a touch or not, but knowing it came waaaaaay too close, and deciding on a two-handed swipe at his neck, so he'd have to duck-- hopefully into her next lunge. "...I refuse to believe you're not a pirate instead."

Alexander did duck, and it as right into her next lunge and, not expecting it and not focusing as well as he could to the conversation, he fell back on his bottom, laughing. "What proof do you have that I am a pirate, anyway? Simply that I take a class on singing about one?"

And since Dinah seemed like a nice girl, he held out his hand, hoping for a little help getting back to his feet.

"And swash like one." Dinah gave his hand a look of merry mistrust, then sighed and reached for it. If he was going to try to pull her down, he was going to be in for it. But he seemed too nice for that, even for a pretend pirate.

Silly Dinah; of course Alexander was going to try to pull her down! You didn't have to be a pretend pirate to want to go for that move, hoping to pull her down while pulling himself up. He'd done the move a few times on Rosella, until she wised up and it stopped working.

"Eee! Alexander--!"

Dinah was being yanked down, but this not being her first rodeo, she yanked back, and dropped her sword to reach out and grab his knee, laughing.

"Pirate!"

Which effectively halted his progress, but not his laughter, not by a long shot, and he fell right back to where he was.

"Look who's talking!" he countered. "You seem to know an awful lot about pirating yourself, Miss Lance! Pot calling the kettle black? Trying to root out your adversaries by catching them red handed, are you?"

"I'd never be a pirate," Dinah said loftily. Or tried to, through the snickers. "I'd be a ninja. If I were going to be anything. Ha!" She pointed at him. "Best two out of three?"

"Best two out of three," Alexander said, nodding solemnly, and then shrugging, holding out his hands as if giving over control to the fate of the universe. "It must be so. After all, it is destined to be settled now, as the stakes have just been made clear to me. A supposed pirate and a possible ninja; why, is it not said that such battles between them must be epic by default?"

"Exactly!"

Dinah grinned, and got back into position, gleeful. This could take a while.

Alexander also got back to his feet, dusted himself off, and settled into position after what he felt was a properly roguishly pirate-like twirl of his foil.

He struck the pose. "And so it begins!" he said, and charged forward with a gleeful thrust.

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The Salle; Friday Morning [ 07/23 ].

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