fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Wednesday evening

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The Salle, Wednesday evening

The package had been waiting for her when she'd returned to her room. After a long moment of staring at the accompanying note, Dru decided not to think about what it meant. Instead she turned her attention to the package, carefully undoing the wrapping and lifting the slightly curved blades out of the box.

A quick voicemail later, she was on her way to the Salle to try out her graduation gift.

Anyone entering the Salle would find Dru experimenting with her new Malaika.

[Malaika are the completely made-up, traditional weapon of a Svetocha. They're a pair of slightly curved hawthorn wood blades. Think something like escrima sticks with a sharp edge.]

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So basically, if she'd been wanting a distraction, something involving shiny new weapons was the best one she could get; Kennedy headed for the salle the second she'd replied to Dru's message.

"What's the sitch?" she asked from the doorway, her eyebrows already shooting up as soon as she caught sight of the Malaika. "And hello with the massively practical and yet badass."

The commentary could have had a little more attitude to it. Most days, it would; today it was a little more low-key than usual.

Dru had been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to incorporate the Malaika into some of the traditional katas that she normally did. Kennedy's arrival was a welcome distraction from the thought of how much she actually had to learn in order to use the new weapon.

"A graduation gift from Christophe," Dru replied as she brought the blades over to Kennedy for inspection. "He says they were my mother's."

"Nice," Kennedy remarked, looking the blades over with a weapons geek's critical eye. She held a hand out as if expecting to get to take hold of one, which she was-- she was dying to check out the balance and feel of them. "If, being from Christophe, slightly creepy. This a Svetocha thing?"

Since Dru knew Kennedy would both appreciate the chance to handle and new weapon, and at the same time respect it enough not to do anything dumb with it, she handed both blades over without hesitation.

"Svetocha thing yeah. As in traditional weapon of," she explained. "Christophe says he might be pretty close to finding out who the traitor is."

The good thing about working with Dru was that Kennedy knew she'd understand that stepping away wasn't a personal slight; she wasn't dumb enough to start twirling the blades around that close to someone.

Giving the one in her off hand an experimental heft and slash, she let out a light whistle. "Oh, I am digging this so far," she remarked, trying out a couple of the scant dual-blade maneuvers she'd learned-- awkwardly, it had to be said.

Except there was that other thing Dru had said, catching her attention. "How close do we mean by close?"

Funny how that stepping back was mutual. Dru's dad had spent too many years drilling respect for any type of weapon into her for her to forget basic weapons safety now.

Dru would never admit to feeling a tiny bit of relief that Kennedy seemed to be moving just as awkwardly with the blades. In theory she knew that it took time to master any new weapon. In reality, it would have been nice if some sort of instinctive svetocha knowledge had kicked in and let her master them in a day.

Such were the stuff of day dreams.

"It's Christophe, do you honestly think I'd get a straight answer from him?" Dru asked, eyebrow raised. "He just said that he and Augie had a for more details to track down, then it would be safe for me to go to the Schola."

"Oh, great. That's reassuring," Kennedy huffed, scowling as she tried to work through the mechanics of a blocking maneuver. "Think he could possibly vague that up any more?"

She pivoted and slashed out hard with both blades, just to see how much force she could get behind the movement, then paused. "Are you planning on going, or what?"

Talking about plans to leave: so not high on her list of favorite topics right now.

"Maybe," Dru admitted quietly. "If it means answers yeah. And if it means that I get a chance to make Sergej pay for what he did to my parents, all the better."

She was just going to ignore the sudden feeling of glass through her brain the mention of Sergej's name brought.

"I'll wait till I can talk to Augie though. I trust him." He'd been her father's friend after all and had looked out for Dru one summer while her father had been on a hunt.

"Wish I could go too," Kennedy admitted. "I know, so not happening. But hey-- if it means you get a chance to really learn what you can do with these things, I say go for it. What we do's important."

A beat.

"Provided they figure out who's trying to kill you there, and get rid of 'em, of course."

"That's a given. Anything else after that's gravy."

Dru took a seat against the wall, content to watch Kennedy try out the Malaika.

"For the record, I wish you could as well. It'd be nice to have someone to watch my back." But since that wasn't possible, no sense dwelling. "What about you? What are you planning now that Tara's had to go?"

"She's not gone for good," Kennedy objected, bristling at the possibly unintentional implication that her life and plans revolved around her girlfriend... even if she didn't realize that was the reason. "But I am kinda thinking I might take off for a while. My mom's been making noises about me coming to visit, and it's been years since I've seen her, and I figure..."

She shrugged, giving Dru a half apologetic look. "I should maybe not keep blowing off the chance, you know?" Dru's dad, Sookie's Gran and cousin, now this... she could only take her relatively charmed life for granted for so long.

"Not for good. But it definitely changes any plans for summer fun you might have had."

For the record, it was a totally unintentional implication. Hell, Dru was kind of jealous that she did have someone to plan around.

"No, you shouldn't" Dru said, nodding in agreement. "All it takes is one second and suddenly you don't have any more chances. Then what do you do?" Besides deal with the regret that is.

"And the understatement prize goes to..." Kennedy went through one last short sequence of attacks with the Malaika before handing them back-- looking a tiny bit envious of them, maybe, as she did. "Yeah. That's what I've been thinking, so... I've been looking into an itinerary."

If Dru could possibly swing it, guess what Kennedy would get for Christmas?

"Oh? How many frequent flyer miles are you looking to pile up?" she asked as she moved to the center of the floor and tried to copy the attack sequence Kennedy had gone through.

"You obviously have me mistaken for someone who doesn't suck at math," Kennedy snorted. "No, try it from a little more of an angle, I think. Not sure yet. I'm sorta winging it? But if getting free trips was something I worried about I might be racking 'em up."

Kennedy did have a point, Dru realized as she repeated the sequence with the improved angle. She was probably going to fly first class the whole way. "Well I'd suggest someplace warmer to start. And with less smelly Vikings."

Kennedy huffed a laugh, but nodded in approval at the adjustment.

"Well, Portugal. Maybe home for a bit, since I officially get to move into my new place after my birthday..." Of course, realizing her girlfriend might not be back in time for her birthday put a little bit of a damper on the prospect. "Other than that, not sure yet. I could do a spur of the moment multiverse tour. It's a post-grad sort of thing, right?"

"It is," Dru agreed. "And considering the whole multiverse thing, you definitely have more options then the average high school grad. Maybe talk to Karla? It'd be cool to see the dragons again."

"Yeah, I was talking to Sookie about that a while ago," Kennedy agreed, absently chewing on the knuckle of her right index finger. "I think Beka's offer to go train with her and the Guards in Corus is still open, and Elena said I could check her world out sometime, and stuff, but... I think I want to hang out with my family some, first."

"Do that then." She carefully twirled the blades thinking of ways they'd be useful in a fight. "And if you're enjoying yourself stay. But you have an out if you feel like you're going to start climbing the walls."

"I have a lot of them, actually," Kennedy said with a slight smile. "Which is... kind of cool, when I think about it. Dad probably wishes I had those kinds of options back when I was a kid and constantly breaking shit in the house trying to train."

"Gran used to send me out to work in the garden when I got too rambunctious." Dru gave a small laugh. "I pulled a lot of weeds."

"Mom tried that for a while," Kennedy replied, laughing. "That lasted about as long as it took for the grounds staff to start begging her to keep me away from the flowerbeds."

So about a week, basically.

Dru hadn't had that problem. She was the ground staff. It meant she learned the difference between a flower and a weed pretty quickly.

"When do you think you'll leave?"

"I don't know yet," Kennedy replied... and realized, finally, just how annoyingly indecisive that sounded. God, was that so not her.

She took a breath and nodded firmly. Seriously, Kenn, what the hell.

"A lot closer to the sooner end of the scale than the later one now, I'm thinking."

"Oh, well all the better to get the adventure started then," she replied, trying not to think about how with Kennedy gone she'd pretty much be on her own.

"Yeah, well." The thought of heading out did not come without its own bonus package of guilt over leaving Dru behind, but Kennedy forced a flippant shrug. "You know me. Not so much with the waiting."

Dru was a big girl. She'd cope. She had shiny new weapons to distract her.

"Bigger and better things are out there. You might as well," she agreed. "But you'd better send me postcards."

"Postcards? Postcards?" Kennedy echoed, laughing. "God, old-fashioned much? I was thinking I'd email you a hell of a lot of pictures, but if you really want me to go the snailmail route..."

"Do both," Dru said as she packed the Malaika away. "Lots of pretty pictures in email and the tackiest postcards you can find."

Kennedy snorted. "Like I hang out in the tacky tourist venues, please." She didn't; just the incredibly ostentatious ones. "But just for you, I'll find the places where the tackiest postcards live."

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The Salle, Wednesday evening

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