The Salle, Sunday Morning

[nottrivial]

Training early in the mornings wasn't new to Alec, especially now that he was used to the salle and starting to appreciate the relatively simplistic layout of it -- especially its lack of the Institute's high support beams for practicing balancing and flips, which had only ever made him fret about someone's safety cord snapping in the middle of training. He wasn't really much for those acrobatics anyway.

Since his bow had gotten a lot of use lately, today he was changing it up and practicing with seraph blades. He had three on him, each one dull and inert in his left hand as he assumed a fighting stance across from a target, steadying himself. Then he took one in his right hand, gave its name -- "Camael--" and as the blade extended and flames sprung up around it, making it glow, he hurled it at the target, where it landed cleanly in the right shoulder.

Not bad. He'd been aiming for the neck, though.

Time to try again.

[[open like a salle on a boring sunday!]]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

It was not a rare thing to find Natalie out and about early enough in the morning, even on a Sunday. The salle was a slightly less likely place for that to happen, though not entirely unprecendented.

Of course, when she noticed she wasn't the only one around, she stopped in the doorway to watch for a moment, and decide whether she wanted to take off again.

[nottrivial]

Alec was in the middle of firing off a second blade when Natalie arrived, so his focus was on that until he hit the target. When it finished smoking and he went to collect it, though, he spotted her out of the corner of his eye and slowly turned.

"Morning."

[whenshewasnice]

Well, so much for quietly leaving, then. Even if Natalie was kind of the type who wouldn't think twice about quietly leaving even after having been spotted.

But, she didn't leave. "Not just archery then, eh?"

[nottrivial]

"No." He just stood there for a moment, then let the hand with the inert seraph blades in it drop limply to his side. "These are... we all use these."

Beat.

"Shadowhunters, I mean."

Yes, Alec. She got it.

[whenshewasnice]

"Yes," Natalie said, probably both to acknowledge what he'd said and that she'd already understood the first time. "Is it somehow mandatory, or just a custom?"

[nottrivial]

Alec's brow furrowed at the question and he took a moment or two to figure out how to answer it. "It's... we're just all trained with them," he settled on after a moment. "I've never heard of anyone not using them. It wouldn't make sense."

Shadowhunter culture had a lot of that.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie would not be surprised. "I see," she said, although she wasn't sure she did. But she was chalking that up to different worlds. And possibly CC being CC. "And yet using one of those isn't what makes a Shadowhunter."

[nottrivial]

"No," he granted, still a little puzzled by this line of questioning, "but it's traditional." Tradition being a relatively prominent thing where he came from, and all. Shadowhunters were not so much with the adapting and changing. "Surely you have traditions where you're from."

[whenshewasnice]

"Everyone has traditions," Natalie replied. Mostly, she was just being mildly curious. Or just avoiding less civil topics. "There's nothing wrong with being interested in those of others, right?"

[nottrivial]

Avoiding the less civil topics was a theme for today, apparently. Natalie was lucky she wasn't getting the full-on Clary 'I don't like you' treatment.

...Well, she might not think so. But it was a good thing. Really.

"No." Though he sort of felt like he was being tricked into agreeing with her here. "Are there any of yours you'd like to share?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Playing Christmas carols on the piano," Natalie replied without a change in her tone. Neutrality, she was good at it, even when it seemed like she was quipping. "I don't like it much, but it's tradition."

And now she was wondering whether Shadowhunters did the whole Christmas thing.

[nottrivial]

"Right." Could that be a note of derision directed at the whole holiday-customs thing? Yes, yes it was. "It's like that."

He was just going to not comment on how Jace could play the piano too, thanks much.

"Though seraph blades are useful, so it's not as though I mind fighting with them." He just preferred the bow.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie would just have told him she was aware Jace could play. She was about as unmoved at her holiday traditions being derided.

"No, they seem useful enough," she agreed. "When you're close to your opponent, anyway."

Though the throwing had also been sufficiently impressive.

[nottrivial]

"Or when there's a clear shot to throw one." Which she'd obviously figured out, seeing as how that was what he was practicing. "Which is my preference."

Ordinarily that sort of comment would make him feel like he was sharing too much, but, again. Natalie seemed to have a decent grasp on how he functioned by now.

[whenshewasnice]

Observers like her tended to do that, yes. "Well, that lines up nicely with using a bow and arrows."

That was another one of those observations.

[nottrivial]

That left Alec wondering whether she was trying to make some sort of dig at him for not fighting up-close.

"Well," he said, visibly closing off a little. "They do share a certain element of distance, yes."

[whenshewasnice]

Considering Natalie was planning to get archery lessons because the distance was appealing even despite her being physically predisposed to up-close combat? It wasn't a dig.

But she did take note of his reaction all the same. Observations.

She shrugged a shoulder. "You like what you like."

[nottrivial]

He watched her closely, somewhat surprised by the lack of judgment on her face. "It isn't quite kicking people," he said finally. "But it's what I do."

Like bluntness. For example.

[whenshewasnice]

"Fighting is a pretty hands-on thing where I'm from. Figuratively." Since she was actually more likely to use her legs. Which he had some personal experience with. "Could say it's tradition."

[nottrivial]

Huh.

Somehow Alec hadn't expected her to be so calm in response to that. Which had him wondering if he'd actually said that to her that as some kind of test, and if so, whether she'd passed.

"It's not a bad idea. Having skills there," he admitted. That was possibly his very first compliment to Natalie, which was possibly why he followed it up with the halfhearted disclaimer, "As far as mundane approaches go."

[whenshewasnice]

Too bad it didn't register as much of a compliment with Natalie, who didn't really take any responsibility for how she'd come to have the skills she did. Wasn't like she trained for it or anything.

She offered up another noncommittal shrug. "Guess so." Great conversation from Natalie Adams there, once again.

[nottrivial]

Alec... didn't really know what to say to that.

And a part of him thought his compliment merited a bit more appreciation than a 'Guess so,' even if that wasn't entirely fair.

He cleared his throat. "Well."

...Yeah, they were about evenly matched as far as conversational skills went.

[whenshewasnice]

Except Natalie felt zero need to be awkward about it. Which wasn't much of an advantage, but she'd take it anyway.

It meant she could spend a moment of silence on just watching him, before saying anything else.

"You seem to have bounced back from the weird week well enough."

[nottrivial]

"Not much alternative," Alec said, which was true enough -- though Natalie could probably tell that he was back on his guard. "That seems to be the done thing around here."

[whenshewasnice]

"Well it's either that or leaving," she replied, idly. "We don't tend to dwell."

[nottrivial]

"I guess not everyone always remembers everything," Alec said. "Which must make it easier."

If it looked like he was scanning her face for signs of recognition at that, well.

[whenshewasnice]

Yeah, he wasn't going to find anything there. Not a single trace of 'I know Jace is lying to you about not remembering things'. nope.

Her face stayed perfectly neutral, just as it had been. "Fandom seems to be fickle about that, yeah," she said.

[nottrivial]

Well, it was Natalie. Somehow he'd known he wasn't going to find much in her expression that she didn't want there.

"Do you?" he finally asked. "Remember everything, I mean."

He wasn't sure which answer he'd've preferred.

[whenshewasnice]

"Most things, as far as I can tell."

Technically not a lie, though it did leave room for subsequent lying. Natalie was good at choosing her words.

[nottrivial]

Alec just nodded. "It's strange. The... variation."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged. "Different plots require different levels of forgetting, I guess."

Sure, Nat, talk some nonsense at the boy, that's reassuring.

"And there's variety in all of the island's crap."

[nottrivial]

Alec... couldn't say he quite understood that first part, but he was just going to go furrowing his brow instead of outright asking about it. "Right," he said, looking down. "I guess."

[whenshewasnice]

It was usually best not to ask.

"Should I take this as you not remembering everything?"

She was just curious about how deep in denial everyone was going to be about certain things.

[nottrivial]

"No." He wasn't in denial, he was just keeping the obsessing about it fairly quiet. Which... wasn't hard, because he only ever spoke to like two people. "I think I remember all of it."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie didn't look surprised, but that wasn't exactly new, was it? With the way she didn't tend to give anything away.

"You think you remember all of it?"

[nottrivial]

Alec shrugged. "If there's something I'm missing, it fits out easily enough that I don't miss it."

[whenshewasnice]

"Guess that's how it works." Natalie knew she remembered everything but hell, things could have slipped through the cracks, somehow.

She flicked her bangs out of her eyes. "But I should probably leave you to your training."

[nottrivial]

"Guess so." He was still a little puzzled by how civil this conversation had been. It was almost a little annoying on some level, actually. Disliking her was simpler.

"I'll see you around."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie gave him an almost imperceptible nod, before vanishing the way she'd come.

Well, she supposed seeing him around again would be kind of inevitable.

[nottrivial]

Alec watched her go with a curious look on his face, then shook his head and turned his attention to his seraph blades.

"Ambriel," he muttered, and fired another one off at the target.