fandomhighdorms | The Salle; Saturday Afternoon [ 09/17 ].

Words could not express how grateful Rosella felt that her mother had not caught wind of that ridiculous Three Minute Date event going on at the local tavern. Although Rosella was certain that Valanice wouldn't likely find many of the young men on the island date-worthy for a princess, she could hear her mother commenting on how the socialization would be good for her. But Rosella could think of fifty gazillion other things she'd rather be doing that didn't include dating.

One of those things was sword practice. She'd been lazy about keeping up with her exercises and she realized quickly that sword practice was much more fun when she didn't have her fencing master criticizing her every move. She'd spent a good deal of time working with various different practice swords, leaving a few dummies quite beaten and poked in her wake, and then she decided to really have some fun.

Hey, if the shovel hadn't been there to begin with, she wouldn't have thought to use it. But it was just as effective as a weapon as a sword.

No.

The shovel was better.

[[ open salle is open, of course! ]]

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Wesley came in with something that was definitely not shaped like a shovel, because it was a sword.

"Oh. Hello."

He couldn't remember ever running into anyone in here other than Percy. That was a change.

After a very satisfying swing that managed to all but knock off the head of the practice dummy with the flat of the shovel, Rosella turned with a bit of surprise toward the sound of the voice. Here she was, loping around like a mad person and swatting at things with a shovel, and someone was there! She had the decency to blush a little bit before a grin spread onto her face and she settled the broad end of the shovel on the floor, using the handle as a sort of staff to lean on. "Hello. Come down for a bit of sword practice, have you?"

Either that, or he just sort of wandered around pointlessly, and that was okay, too. She let out a sigh to help her catch her breath from all the excursion, wiping a stray strand of blonde hair from her sweaty brow.

"Wh -- oh. Yes, yes, I have."

Yeah, Wesley, that was the sort of thing one tended to figure out when you were lugging around a great big sword like that.

"You seem, er... quite adept with that, ah, shovel there."

It was as if Wesley could not have offered a more flattering comment, the way Rosella's face lit up happily at his words. "Thank you!" she said, with a grateful nod of her head. "I admit, I've found them more useful for digging things up, but, every so often, one can really do well to be reminded on the various other uses of tools. Besides, a sword can be so dull after a while."

And, yes, pun completely and unforgivingly intended.

"Oh, yes, quite," Wesley agreed, catching the pun and grinning. "I've a whetstone and some sandpaper that should clear that right up."

Dorky humor! How he'd missed you!

"Ah, good!" Rosella beamed. "I'll leave you to it, then. I'm sure you've plenty more practice than I at polishing a sword. I tend to find the activity terribly tedious."

Dorky humor with a little bit of low-brow stabs thrown in for good measure, no less.

Right, Wesley missed the innuendo entirely, there. Oh, well. At least he was two for three.

"I suppose it is that," he conceded. "The routine of sharpening and polishing does get a bit tiresome. With a shovel, I suppose you don't have to worry about such things!"

Rosella's shoulders fell a little as that last part seemed to have not even remotely the effect she was hoping for, and she barely kept her sigh in check. But she supposed it was probably a good thing he didn't pick up on it; she could hear her mother's shocked voice in her head about how indecent it would have been, anyway. She let her smile slide back.

"It is a bit more to lug around, though," she admitted. "Truthfully, I don't usually use a shovel in a fight, but I saw it there and thought I should give it a try. I haven't a clue why the shovel was there in the first place, but I've found it's pointless to question things like that and just to accept them as they are."

After all, her entire kingdom was pretty much built on random things just laying about and being utilized effectively without question.

"Naturally," Wesley agreed. "That seems to be one of the keystones for survival on this island." He tilted his head, trying to determine if he recognized her, then inquired, "Are you from the latest batch of students, then? If you are, I have to say, it's impressive that you picked up on that so soon."

Wesley, last weekend had been a soap opera. A person would have to be comatose to miss it. And not the soap opera kind!

Rosella gave a faint smile. "I am," she admitted, "but I must admit to having a bit of a head start on some of my fellow new students, as I've visited the island before. My brother, Alexander, perhaps you knew him? He preceded me as a student here, and so I've had quite an advantage in knowing about the oddities of the island, as well as some first hand experience. But, really, such a resourcefulness has always been a good quality to have where I'm from, so that's as much to thank as my brother's trailblazing is."

"Oh! Alexander of Daventry, was it?" Wesley smiled welcomingly. "I ought to've guessed; you have the same accent." Because he was the sort of person who noticed the most subtle nuances in speech patterns, yes. Don't you judge. "Alexander, in point of fact, was the first person I met here at Fandom," Wesley offered. "He's a fine chap, really."

"Funny that you should say that," Rosella said with a little bit of a laugh, "considering he and I actually grew up apart from each other, in very different lands, but our world is much smaller than this one, so perhaps we all have rather the same accent, despite all of that. And I'm glad you think so; I think he's a fine chap, myself. A king now, too, if you'd believe it. Good for Alexander, really, he's had it rough, and he deserves his happiness."

There was (barely) a pause for a breath and another smile. "I'm Rosella, by the way. I don't know if he mentioned me."

[[ACK. That may have been a bad assumption on my part. I didn't mean to be all moddy!]]

"He might've said something, yes," Wesley said. Which he was pretty sure wasn't true, but that was the polite thing to say. "I'm Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Pleasure to make your acquaintence."

He crossed over to her, then had a brief spot of awkwardness as he tried to figure out what to do with the sword. Finally he bent down, placed it on the ground, and held out his hand for Rosella to shake.

Edited 2011-09-18 02:42 (UTC)

"Oh, yes, that must be where I've seen you before," Wesley remembered. "Yes! Quite a fascinating class, isn't it? I must say, though I've studied the subject matter before fairly extensively, it is nice to have a proper venue to discuss it. Particularly considering the range of backgrounds among the students!"

...He was such a dork about strong women.

"Oh, I hope so!" Rosella said with great enthusiasm. "My world is pathetically lacking in woman of such a nature, and I plan to change that quite effectively. The more examples and models I have to follow, the better, though I trust I should do quite well on my own convictions as well."

My, but that was quite the roguish smile on the shovel-wielding princess's face, wasn't it?

Too bad that, like the innuendo, that roguish smile went completely unnoticed by Wes.

"I'm sure you will," he offered with a smile of his own. "Wielding a shovel does tend to make quite the impression when one goes into battle, after all."

The Salle; Saturday Afternoon [ 09/17 ].

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