Scene #9268: BB Supports: Orphan Operations

Owner	Pose
Rita Ma	AQULEIA, CAPITAL OF ETRURIA In a courtyard by the Tower of the Saint. Roy's army is fully rested by now- one might even say 'restless'. Walking the beautiful streets of Aquleia, you'd never guess there's a war on. Aquleia is a beautiful place; enough to make the snobbery of some of its nobles make perfect sense. For something so bustling, it's marvelously sleepy. For something so quaint, it's marvelously modern. Its pastries are sweet, and its wine is sweeter, and the murmurs of its bright-clad people and the whisper of the wind through the trees are a beautiful song... It's enough to make you feel like you're in on an unhappy little secret. When Merlinus talks to Khosa about trading in the lizards for horses; when Guinivere invites Lilian and then Echolalia over for tea; when Lucius asks to coach Odette through a bit more meditation; they're trading a look. And the look means "do these happy people know how bad it is?" And it means "will any of this still be here in a year?" And it means "I can't stand not doing anything about it."
Rita Ma	The Tower of the Saint, too, has had its scars fade. If you look very hard amid the grass of its little courtyards and gardens, you might be able to find a paint chip from the psychonauts jet. That's about all. R In the light of day, without the roar of battle or the thrum of magic, the Tower isn't overaweing. Like most things of religious import, it's not so vast to someone used to modernity. Like most things of religious import, it's all about the atmosphere. Lambent white-gold stone, the color of an angel's halo or a pale duckling's fluff, is woven into something like a steep ziggurat or a sky-grasping cathedral 'only' ten stories high. Members of its clergy come and go, along with townsfolk; their irregular ebb-and-flow is more like a place of errands than a place of services. Here people wander a little garden. There, someone leads meditation. And in the indicated spot... It's maybe a little strange that a holy site has dirt-floored training grounds. Then again, Saint Elimine was a soldier. It's a depressed area a bit larger than a tennis court; outdoors, breezy and shady; and with vined trellises keeping the sound in. In one of the corners is a rack of wooden weapons in assorted styles. Cecilia the Mage-General sits on some white-stone steps there, trying to teach the fresh-faced teen named Lugh by comparing a standard fire tome to the divine tome-weapon Forblaze. He's doing his very best, but... Rutger the fierce swordswoman, meanwhile, is trying to coach the older orphan Chad out on the dirt grounds. She has a sword sheathed at her hip, but doesn't draw it; she keeps trying to nudge and correct his stance, but it's easy to read mild frustration into both their voices even from afar. Lucius the elegant priest looks like he's weighing whether to mediate there, but as you approach, he rises from his ringside seat and walks over with a warm-tired smile instead. That clergy meeting must have really taken it out of him; at least he has Aureola and the Saint's Staff still with him to show for it. "So you made it. I feel a little silly calling on you just for a mostly-idle afternoon, but..."
Odette Raskins	Meditation with Lucius truly has become a peaceful routine Odette's looking forward to every time it happens. Even if it's at a tower that shot lasers at her earlier, knowings he's going there in a new context revitalizes her well enough even before she arrives. On the way there, she's going through her own routine of closing her eyes, breathing, feeling the world around her while emptying her mind, and just trying to feel. Her focus is, unfortunately a little occupied by a nasty papercut she had gotten just the day before. Could she heal it easily with medicine? Yes. She doesn't want to. She needs it to focus, to try and concentrate both Lucius and Cecilia's techniques properly. She taps her training staff against the cut on her finger, reopens her eyes, and... It doesn't sting any more. She slows to a stop to feel it a few times to make sure, confirms that it's not stinging from the slightest touch, and then she books it. She sees Lucius far ahead, and she throws her hand up just in time to trip over her own heavy work boots and land flat on her face. Undeterred, she picks herself right up off the floor, still running like a madwoman to get to Lucius with an excited look in her eyes along with dirt and blood on her face and lip from biting it on the way down. "Father Lucius! father Lucius! I-i-it worked! The.. Here!" She babbles excitedly, holding her hand out for him to see. It, too, is covered in dirt from the fall, and it's a little raw, but there's no blood on it (unlike her face).
Riku Asakura	Riku shows up at the tower, remembering his first time here. The holy light beat down on him as he tried to climb the tower. He also watched that same light nearly kill the priest who invited them out today. He's glad to see the priest out and about, doing good work in securing the relics for the army so they could secure peace for Etruria. Riku waves towards Lucius who had invited them to accompany him this fine afternoon. Riku waves off his words of apologizing to them for the time, speaking up for himself. "It's fine. I rather like the weather and the company. It's nice to get to talk without the world needing to be saved for a time," he says to the priest. "So what's going on... the orphans here are being trained to defend themselves?" he asks again, though is sure of the answer given the looks of frustration on the two leading trainers' faces. "Is there anything we can do to help?" he asks, though sure of that answer too. He's not a swordsman or a mage, his Ultraman power would be more of an exception than the rule here in this world. So for the moment he takes a seat near Lucius and watches Cecilia and Rutger train their charges.
Khosa	Lucius might feel a little silly calling them in on a sunny afternoon, but Khosa doesn't mind. With her history, a lazy day - such as it is, anyway; everyone is doing something, which since she doesn't like being idle either, makes sense to her - is still a bit of a novelty. Going from the Templars' slave to an emissary of the city has not actually left her much time to just live. "It doesn't bother me," Khosa says, and means it. Plus, that Look meant something to her, too. She's seen war, albeit not war the way Etruria does it. She knows what it could mean for a city like this. ...though the city is still novel enough to interest her too. It's so lush. And even just near the Tower of the Saint, there's things she doesn't understand: "How do they keep it so white?" she asks, rather suddenly. It doesn't make sense unless you look at her, and notice she's looking over toward the Tower of the Saint. "Well, near-white, at least. There's weather. There's wind. There's everything else. I'm sure they clean everything they can reach, but beyond that... is it magic?" She never did ask. Khosa's gaze drops down after that toward the trainees. She doesn't know a damn thing about the work Cecilia and Lugh are doing and doesn't pretend she does, but she watches Rutger push Chad into position a few times with a slight frown. "Looks like everybody's tense," she decides. It's both literal - Chad, to her, seems tightly drawn, and she doubts it's lack of practice that is keeping Rutger unhappy with his stance - and, well. That look again.
Petra Soroka	PHONE: Phoning Audrey Basque, Petra Soroka says, "But... sneaking in and out sure makes it look... even more, huh...." PHONE: Audrey Basque says, "Y-Yeah..." She's pushing her fingers together awkwardly. "So... I mean, if we just... keep an eye ahead, it's the weekend, so there'll be less people, and... it should be okay?"" PHONE: Phoning Audrey Basque, Petra Soroka says, "... Could we j-just teleport out?" PHONE: Audrey Basque says, "I'm... erm... i-it's limited to what I can see, so... oh! If we head to the roof then it's really not a problem." PHONE: Audrey Basque says, "Now I wish I had a room with a better view of the campus and city, that'd make it so easy." PHONE: Phoning Audrey Basque, Petra Soroka says, "So we just, um, sneak up to the roof, then teleport down to somewhere that people won't be watching, then... go from there." Sneaking around a dormitory to plot out a teleportation course to minimize the risk of being seen exiting the top student's room together after spending the night with her is not the gayest thing Petra has ever done. The gayest thing Petra has done is have sex with a woman. But this is ranking pretty high up there, which is frustrating, given that Petra, for once, is not acting with romantic intent towards a girl she's spending a lot of time with. So she's a little frazzled when she arrives, with Audrey, through the warpgate to Aquelia. Thankfully, that frazzling is only emotional-- getting a good night's sleep, having a nice breakfast, and taking advantage of actually waking up in a place with a shower and bathroom have done a lot to repair her image, plus wearing the outfit that she and Sophia shopped for together after the playdate with Fae, which is the most cohesively put-together clothing in her mirror-based bindle. The clothes she lost, that she tended to wear to excursions with the army, were actually from Lilian's simulation rather than from Elibe itself. This outfit is, instead, Etrurian through and through, because Petra loves pattern matching to her environment. She has a black cloak lined with gold trim, worn over a rust-brown shirt that's ruffled at the collar, with a leather corset around her waist, and white cuffed sleeves. Her black and gold pants have a belt fitted to hold Fourth Match Flame, which she takes out of her mirror purely for the vibe. It helps boost her confidence a lot, after the mortifying ordeal of being rumored to be a slut by, probably, the entire Nova Heliosanctus student body, again. She's chattering with Audrey to try and catch her up on some of the lore as they enter the tower, but without a structured lecture plan, her chatter is kind of undirected. ". . . So this is the tower of the Saint Elimine, who's a pretty major religious icon around here. She fought in the Scouring-- that was the war-- a thousand years ago against the dragons, and then the tower got hijacked by the coup to shoot death beams at us, but it's cool now. Lucius is a priest of her; he's pretty cool, and, like... well... his vibe's easy to get after talking to him. That's him there." She waves as the pair she's in and Lucius approach each other. "Nah, it's actually cool. I was wondering when would be a good opportunity to stop by anyways. Um-- this is my friend Audrey. We plan on walking around the city later and seeing about maybe, picking up some books on history and maybe Saint Elimine and stuff, for Angela's collection. So it's good timing."
Audrey Basque	If there's one thing Petra had noted that stood out, it's that Elibe was a beautiful place. That alone made the trip worth it, but beautiful can mean so, so many things. She didn't expect it to be quite that much, once she set her first foot in Aquleia. Audrey trails behind Petra a bit; sometimes it's a building that catches her attention, other times it's a stall, or someone wearing something quite outlandish by her standards but cool nonetheless. For once, though, let it not be said she wore her school uniform somewhere inappropriate; she's wearing a nice dark one-piece dress with frilly shoulders, dark hosery over her legs and red mary jane shoes. It is not, at all, setting-appropriate, but she also didn't know what would pass as normal clothing here, or have the luxury of a conveniently prepurchased fantasy look. Something to resolve later! If earlier she had the shameful look of someone who had to sneak someone else out of her dorm, she's regained color and energy through the sights of this city. This felt more like a place plucked right out of a fantasy novel than anything she'd visited so far, and that made it that much more special. "Dragons? You hadn't mentioned..." Tower death beams? Okay maybe she had some catching up to do. "I see, I see," Audrey nods, approaching the tower with a quiet reverence, noticing almost immediately that the place is sacred, and not just a little bit. As she's introduced to Lucius, she bows briefly, smiling. "It is good to meet you, Lucius. Please excuse me if I'm a little bit behind on the matters of your world, I'll do my best to memorize all the important details quickly."
Lilian Rook	For everything Lilian told Roy about pushing the army harder, months ago, after Cecilia's rescue, she has nothing to say about staying in the capital now that she herself knows she isn't in any position to push any harder. But even with the lack of catastrophic military-political flashfires left to fight, and the unenviable prospect of having to somehow assault Zephiel's position in Bern, the knowledge that it isn't exactly going to get any worse next week, and that the army is far better off rested and healed and ready, is lukewarm comfort. Lilian loves Aquleia. She loves it even more than she loves most of Elibe. She loves it enough that she'd feel unbearably guilty staying here any longer, if she couldn't find a way to make use of it. The compromise she's used to make excuses with herself is to move her daily regimen out of Trídéag's headquarters and get back to training somewhere with fresh air. She can only spend so long drawing Dieck if he won't take his shirt off. As a result, the training area is an easy place to find her lately. Not-so-sneakily, she's been visiting the temple by herself on off hours as well, spending an unusual amount of time inside or at small gatherings, drawing, meditating, conversing with the clergy, and trying to divine the answers to silent questions from ancient stones and a view of the sky. She hasn't missed Chad or Lugh's training where she can help it, too; she remembers how stressful it was to struggle with her own by herself, and figures it should be at least a little reassuring to see one of the most skilled warriors and mages in the army (self-described) subject to the mundanity of polishing her skills too. That way, it isn't just a remedial lesson for hopeless little children, but something everyone does. As much as she'd like to impress Cecilia, Lilian's sympathies are nothing if not predictable, and so she's been doing her stretches, then forms, then stances, and now chases, in the vicinity of Chad and Rutger, both making it slightly unacceptable to sound too frustrated, and also to be mild social camouflage. She'd originally warmed up in her armour-- for reasons likely familiar to the warriors who fight in it-- but since stripped down to a sleeveless cross-strap cutoff, belted short skirt and sandals outfit that barely fits the local fashion, hair tied back in a double celtic knot, as she'd worked up a sweat in a place other than a gym with a shower. 'So you made it. I feel a little silly calling on you just for a mostly-idle afternoon, but...''So you made it. I feel a little silly calling on you just for a mostly-idle afternoon, but...' "Don't be. Literally all of them need more training." says Lilian, more like a short huff between sequences, looking somewhere between Lucius and Chad in the distance. Her motions still have the stiffness of recent injury, but her skin looks to be fully healed, at least. "'Salvation' is probably too high a hope for them though."
Rita Ma	"Oh! Oh, no, Odette!" Lucius can't hustle to her side quickly enough to stop her from falling, but he can at least fret over her while she rises, tucking the Saint's Staff under his arm to dust off her shoulder. "Oh, thank goodness. You're alright." Without sparing a thought for the sanctity of his outfit, he wipes away the blood with his sleeve, and starts to guide her back to where he's got another staff... And around then he realizes what she's saying, eyes darting from her finger to her face and back. "Really? You stopped it bleeding? Odette, that's wonderful! I'm proud of you! How long's it been, seven or eight months? It took me longer than that!" "Everyone! Odette's managed to use some healing magic!" he says to the Elites who come after. Still practically aglow, he leans around Odette to shake hands with Audrey- the dirtied hand, with the bloodied sleeve. Unfortunately for her chances of gracefully refusing, he's got a voice like an angel and a smile just-so. "Oh, an otherworld friend of Petra's? That's wonderful. There's no better place to learn history than Etruria, you know!" Over his shoulder, as he ushers Odette towards the corner where he was sitting before: "How is Angela doing? Did everything go well between her and Benjamin? She hasn't spoken to me in a while." Lilian warms him like an old friend. She is, in a sense! As he pours a little vulnerary onto some linen, and offers that to dab Odette's lips: "Would that we lived in a world where no-one needed such training at all, Lilian. As it is," with a nod to Riku, "whatever can be taught to them will ease my mind that much. If I could trust them comfortably to handle one Bernish soldier--" "You don't have to worry about me, Father!" the precocious little mage chimes in from his ringside perch nearby. "I'm afraid he does, if you don't focus on your lessons," Cecilia gently chides, foisting the book back on him. "I'm sorry... but what's the point of studying Forblaze, anyway? I'm never going to be able to cast it." "Lugh, in ten years you'll be kicking yourself for-- ah," she says- "How do they keep it so white?" "Wouldn't that just be the rain?" Innocent to why Khosa wouldn't have guessed it. "Is there anything we can do to help?" "Looks like everybody's tense." "She won't just show me what to do!" Chad finally raises his voice to complain to Khosa and Riku, dropping his wooden sword. Rutger takes a half-step back from pushing his spine straight and looks off to the side, annoyed. ". . ." "Don't look like that! It's not my fault! How's anybody supposed to learn to fight like this?" "Should've asked Dieck then." "Well he's busy, so--" Oh, brother.
Audrey Basque	Audrey and Petra appear to be locked in a half-panic whisper-whisper conversation for entirely too long, one that Lucius pulls Audrey out of with his good charms and wonderful hand. Audrey shakes it, because you don't just decline a greeting from a devout follower on their very own sacred land. Or in general, really! The blood would be a thousand times more concerning if she hadn't just seen the source, and ascertained it was Handled, which means instead of being soul-crushingly concerning it's only rather seriously concerning. She keeps her best smile on but Petra can tell from the way she subsequently minds her hand that she wants it washed quite badly. "I look forward to learning that history then," she responds, though she seems momentarily distracted by-- surprisingly not Lilian, who she did keep side-eying during the whiserfest with Petra, but Riku actually. "Oh! Oh, it's you! I didn't-- I never got to apologize for that time with the frog and the skeleton, did I? And I don't think I caught your name either. Please accept my apologies for sending you flying!" Half-bow, except she minds her hand to not put blood and dirt all over her dress. Yeah that's BUGGING HER A LOT NOW. She turns back to Lucius, to resume a thought: "This place is lovely, by the way. It's hard to believe you just had an incident here. Petra mentioned the tower can shoot lasers and had been turned on you?"
Riku Asakura	"I'm glad to see you're doing better too, Lucius," he says as he listens to what Lucius says about what Odette has accomplished. Riku's face brightens as he beams at her. "Congratulations, Odette, I'm glad to hear it! You can keep doing it!" he says full of admiration for her, because he sure as heck can't cast magical spells. Audrey turns to face him and apologizes for the incident with the frog and skeleton. He blinks at her and nods once, "Oh it's alright, not your fault. I wasn't watching where I was going after that blow. I'm just glad you're alright from me bumping into you!" he says. "And my name is Riku Asakura." he bows to her once, "A pleasure to get to finally meet you!" Chad turns to complain to him and Khosa. He isn't exactly sure what to do about training per se. He's no expert with a blade, he mostly relies on his powers to get through incidents. He has the Geed Claw, but that's mostly tied to what he can do and not a mastery of a weapon. Though his friend Lala has been showing him how to use a weapon, he's hardly competent with it. However, after listening, he's sure what's going on. "I think the issue here is that you're both not communicating with each other," he says both to Chad and Rutger. "It's important for both the training to express themselves so that the student knows what to do... but for the student to express themselves when they're not getting it. Both of you are frustrated about the other despite wanting to teach and wanting to learn!" "I'm not an expert with the blade, so perhaps I could work alongside you Chad and we can work together to learn from Rutger!" he offers, looking for a wooden sword of his own, while also picking up Chad's and offering it back to him.
Khosa	"Everyone needs more practice and training," Khosa agrees with Lilian, "and I mean myself too. If I'd known there was some going on I would've come earlier. She's impressed by Odette - magic is a slow thing to learn - and she smiles. "Hey, good work." And that's that, because any other praise she could add would just sound fake and it's not like she's an expert, anyway; she knows psionics, not magic (they are not at all the same, the skills aren't even particularly related, and Khosa has said so plenty of times). "Wouldn't that just be the rain?" "Rain doesn't scrub," Khosa says, though then she considers some of the rainfall she's heard about - real downpours, even floods. "Usually. But wouldn't it leave marks when it dried...? Or leave salt behind, depending. The sea's not that far away." Khosa assumes rain comes from the sea - where else would you get that much of it? Khosa, as usual, pretends Petra doesn't exist until she has to acknowledge her. That doesn't apply to Audrey, who she doesn't know at all and considers her for a moment. "There's lots ot learn here," she agrees, and leaves it at that because she's not the best person to introduce Elibe's history. But she does see something she can help with, when Chad raises his voice. "Excuse me," she says, and walks over towards the practicing pair so she doesn't have to shout back. "She's not because the point of it is so your body knows what to do," Khosa says. "If you're waiting to be told one of two things will happen: you'll get in the habit of waiting to react, or you'll get her style, not yours, which you won't be as good at, because you're not her. Your reach is different, your balance is different, your speed and strength are different." She considers a moment. "You mind if I try something?" she asks of Rutger. Her brow furrows as she thinks about how to explain it, which gives Rutger time to respond, anyway. "Okay, Chad. I'm not gonna teach you the way I was taught but I am going to show you one of the things I learned. The point of the stance Rutger's trying to get you in is so, when you move, you're not off-balance and you can use your strength and speed." "Swing at me," she requests, finding a spot and dropping into a slightly loose stance. "Seriously, just close with me and take a swing. If you smack me I can heal it, you've seen me do that before. Or swing at Riku if he knows swords, that might actually work better." Her gaze becomes a little more intense as she opens up - Khosa is psychic, but she's better at bodies than minds. So right now she is 'watching' Chad's body rather than reading his mind, feeling his stance, feeling where he's off-balance. Rutger used her hands to guide Chad; Khosa uses a combination of telekinesis and the sensation of unbalance, hoping to cause him to correct into better stances. "I know a bit, but I'm not the swordswoman Rutger is, it never was my favourite weapon," Khosa says, somewhere in there. "I can't do more than this. But you want to feel your body. It'll tell you when you're doing something wrong if you know how to listen to it. If you overextend, you'll be able to tell when you've gone too far to recover." Which she will exaggerate by 'pushing', so that he knows when he's doing it. It's good learning.
Lilian Rook	'Everyone! Odette's managed to use some healing magic!' §Good for her. Also fuck her. It should be harder for her than for you. She doesn't deserve what you have for less than you paid to get it.§ "I did say that training would do them some good, didn't I?" Staring off stoically into the near distance to focus on swinging her sword is a good excuse to not make any expressions, and seem tersely half-attentive. Lilian looks like she's rehearsing her next sequence of thirteen, moving on from twelve and then eleven before, but the habit is hammered so deeply into her bones she could do it in her sleep. Hearing Lucius asking that sweetly innocent question about Angela and Benjamin downturns the corner of Lilian's lips, then kicks her heel off the ground, and spurs her sword through the advancing string of motions that whirls her forward across twenty feet of training ground to avoid thinking about it. Even with straps up her calves, the sandal straps still creak with the stress of stopping and pivoting back. 'Would that we lived in a world where no-one needed such training at all, Lilian.' Still. Lilian can't remain in a very bad mood for long, around present company that was the whole idea. She works her whole way back, planting her foot right back in the print she left behind, and then flicks accumulated droplets of sweat from her fingers, feeling her grip starting to get slippery from what works down her bare arms. She glosses over the dead giveaway she's been at this for a weirdly long time. "There's no harm in entertaining the thought, but the fantasy of 'would anything have been fairer' is a deadly one. It's easier to get intoxicated with it than anything you can pour into a cup." says Lilian. "I try to be in the habit of thinking absurd little things that don't hold up to scrutiny, but which make sense of it in the moment." she says, glancing back. "Like, 'if Elibe weren't in danger, I'd have never met any of you, and you'd never have come together like you did now'. Obviously, everyone would be happier without the war, but it helps break the spell by thinking of what little things would be lost if it were true." 'Lugh, in ten years you'll be kicking yourself for-- ah,' "Hopefully he need never pick up an Anima tome again, much less Forblaze." Lilian says to Cecilia, a little humour creeping into her voice, even going so far as to poke out her tongue.
Odette Raskins	"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm okay, I just-ah? F-Father? Your..." ODette's confusion increases rapidly at first as Lucius pays little heed to his outfit in favor of cleaning off her face, and she feels her heart beating a bit faster at how close he is. At how proud he sounds, and how he's announcing that success to everyone within ear shot. "Huh? That long already? I.. W-w-wait, it was just a little...!" She stammers out, overwhelmed by the rush of pride looping right back into embarrassment just like those time her parents had been so proud of her for getting her first job with the Company. Feeling that burning going all the way to her ears, Odette tries laughing it off casually, although the giddiness doesn't leave her even though her face is still kind of numb and stinging while she heads over to that corner. "I.. Um. I couldn't have done it without you, though! So I should be.. I mean, I-I am thanking you, because you're.. You're an amazing teacher, and the tips from Lady Cecilia really helped, too, and..." With a vulnerary-covered cloth on her face, she closes her eyes for a moment so it's a little easier for Lucius to keep... Oh. He IS right next to her face, isn't he? Did she remember to wash up right? Did she brush it enough this morning? Of course she didn't. That fall certainly wouldn't have helped, but maybe she could try that magic thing again and-wait. Vulnerary. She'd have to find something else to test it on, but he's looking right at her and she can't move right now while he's right there! "Is.. Uh. Is that Miss Audrey? Uh. H-hi!" Peeking one eye open and looking sideways since maintaining eye contact with Lucius at that range is way too hard right now, Odette wipes her hand off on the inside of her blue tunic before waving towards Audrey and Petra. She raises an eyebrow curiously at the whispering, but does calm down enough to look visibly relieved at seeing them. "I've heard your voice and seen you a few times before... My name's Odette. It's good to finally me-er. Talk again? I didn't know you were interested in..." She waves her other hand around a few times vaguely, then giggles for a moment before wincing. Her mouth still hurts, although the vulnerary is helping plenty already."A-anyway. It's good to see you again! And Petra, too, hi!" Wait, Petra's outfit is a new one. Odette gawks at her rather openly for a few moments, oohing quietly after a few seconds. "Just like a hero..." She murmurs, suddenly feeling a little more self-conscious about her own outfit with the blue tunic with the white sleeves and caduceus-symbol'd cape. "You and Miss Sophia really picked out a good one." Her eyes slide over a bit more to Riku and Khosa, still trying not to turn her head away from Lucius. Their compliments have her face burning a bit more from that giddy pride. Lilian's compliment has her giggling a bit, too, fighting the urge to nod for a second. "Thanks! I mean, I've still got a long way to go before I can get anywhere near what Father Lucius or Lady Cecilia or Miss Sophia or Dame Commander Rook or..." She pauses briefly, then stops trying to think of how many more people could probably do way more than she could already. "... B-but I'm going to keep at it, yeah. Need to... I'll make sure all that time and effort pays off! For you, and for everyone here."
Lilian Rook	'She won't just show me what to do!' 'Should've asked Dieck then.' §Finally. We're using our words.§ Lilian sighs, lowers her blade, rolls her shoulders, then frowns at the feeling of her muscles clenching, and redoubles the range of the flex. She plants her sword, and stretches over, working a gristly crunch out from under her left shoulderblade. It's also another little point of business to throw up a calm wall of partial engagement with. "Chad. Dieck is the only one in this army who uses a heavier weapon than I do. I really wouldn't recommend it." says Lilian. "Regardless of your determination or your talent, your body literally isn't developed in the same way yet. Unless you intend to wait three or four more years, Sacaen swordsmanship is by far your best bet." Reaching upward, placing a hand on her hip, then leaning sideways, Lilian says "Besides. Have you never heard that geniuses always make eccentric teachers? Mine won't even look at you unless you can cross a meadow where the grass is like steel blades and jump a bridge as long as that tower is tall. Please be a little more grateful for what you're being given." She finishes flexing one way, then alternates the other, frowning just slightly. "I'd sort of appreciate it if you didn't treat a woman I recognize as a genius as if she were a bottom-shelf fallback." 'I'm not an expert with the blade, so perhaps I could work alongside you Chad and we can work together to learn from Rutger!' "You're old enough that . . ." Lilian squints at Riku, and thinks long enough to be ready to stand straight up again, twisting her back one way, then the other, before making up her mind. "Perhaps you should ask Dieck, actually." Lilian sighs, claps her hands off on her skirt wrap, then picks her sword back up again in her little habitual fashion; the pluck from the hilt that gives it a little bit of airtime and catching it by the grip. "If it'd be easier, Rutger, I'll give the verbal instructions. I get the gist of what you're doing. Just try remember that he doesn't have the luxury years to build an immaculate foundation before he starts practising swings." she says, as if that were at all the issue. She slings Night Mist over her shoulder, resting on the flat, and brazenly struts past Audrey at danger close blade to nose proximity. "Chad. If Rutger hasn't said so already, let me: your breathing, your center of gravity, and your grip, are literally the three most important things. Forget your teacher; your opponent will assess all three in battle, if they're any good."
Petra Soroka	"Odette's managed to use some healing magic!" How can Petra make fun of this? She runs through the options, naturally, but it's Lucius who's proud of it and not Odette, so her steam runs out long before any insult reaches her mouth. And besides: magic is actually pretty cool. Petra can't cast any magic, mimicked psychic manifestations of Audrey's spells aside. Also, being dressed like this and confronted with people she respects suppresses the instinct to be cruel by translating it through her present persona. "Dang. Well, she had a pretty amazing teacher." She can't muster up any enthusiasm for Odette's sake, just congratulations to Lucius. "There's no better place to learn history than Etruria, you know!" "Mhm! I figured there'd be a lot of options around here. Honestly, enough that it'd probably help a lot if you or Cecilia or someone had any pointers on places to start." Petra eases her stance, absorbing the healing air that always improves her mood when she comes here. "We'll basically be trying to do that wherever there's books along the rest of the campaign too, if you could help keep an eye out for anything that's like, particularly unique. She's trying to make a whole stock of knowledge from all across the multiverse." "How is Angela doing? Did everything go well between her and Benjamin?" Petra winces. Lilian always, as ever, no matter the mood between them, is in the corner of Petra's vision, and her attention towards every breath and step of hers doesn't let her miss her tension. Evasively, obviously distracted and not good about concealing why, she just says, "Uhh... complicated. She's doing a little better at least." "And I don't think I caught your name either." Present company helps buoy Petra's mood still, and that doesn't just include the locals. After Audrey's back and forth with Riku, Petra smirks, arms crossed and leaning on one hip. "Wow. Your imagination's so good that you got Geed in it before even meeting him? Impre~ssive." "And Petra, too, hi!" Petra wouldn't normally bother to acknowledge Odette specifically, but being greeted and then having her outfit ogled makes her a little flustered. The outfit fits, she likes how it looks, and she's not exactly a stranger to 'dressing up' for excursions to other worlds, but it's still not her resting state. And she's far from peak condition, emotionally and physically, so it strikes her more vulnerably than she otherwise would be. Petra shifts her weight between her feet and awkwardly fiddles with the hilt of Fourth Match Flame, avoiding eye contact. "Yeah. H-hey. I mean, Sophia's a pretty good shopper, it turns out." "She won't just show me what to do!" Well-- this is Lilian's domain. Normally, that would draw Petra in rather than repel her, but.... "W-well... I don't want to get in the way of the actual master swordswomen here. I could definitely use more training, but..." She's not actually responding to anyone in specific, mostly just mumbling to herself and Lucius and Audrey nearby her to justify her inaction. "... Got plenty of other facilities I could do that at."
Rita Ma	"Petra mentioned the tower can shoot lasers and had been turned on you?" Lucius looks from Odette, fabric-on-face, to Audrey, in just a moment of bafflement. Maybe 'light-amplification-by-the-stimulated-emission-of-radiation' is one of those things that doesn't translate well. "Ah! Pillars of light, yes," he hazards. "Unfortunately, some of the clergy sided with Bern. But all's well." "The Tower marks the place where Saint Elimine demonstrated her enlightenment by transcending our world." A gesture with his hand, up ambiguously at the sky. "In the end, it's just a magic building that humans made, Audrey. But it's a building that's a symbol. In that way, I'm glad it's still intact too." His smile's distantly warm as he sets the golden-bound tome and metallic staff reverently aside. "That was the concern of the bishop, I think. If the Tower were destroyed... if the Saint's tome and staff were lost... in another thousand years, would people forget she wasn't just a fairy-tale?" A little pause. Then he laughs. "Ah, I'm very sorry. You can get the history lessons from the books, after all." "Rain doesn't scrub." "Hm. I don't know, then," Cecilia says, tapping her lips. "Maybe the priests use warp staves to clean up there." "Just to tidy a building?" "It's an important building!" "I hope no priest would be so wasteful!" "Weren't you just talking about symbols?!" They bond remarkably well. Despite being two decades apart in age, they've had about the same job. Later, Lucius's eyes trail between Lilian, spurred by the mention of Angela to throwing herself into her practice; to Petra, clearly uncomfortable at the mention of her name; to Audrey, apparently oblivious. "I... see. Ahh... I'll show you to the library of the Tower after, but Sophia has the most amazing oral histories from the Old Man. If you have the patience, I'm sure you could get her to dictate them for you? The account of the Scouring that Arcadia's passed down is subtly different from Elimine's, so..."
Rita Ma	"a woman I recognize as a genius..." Rutger looks away with her arms crossed, maybe a tiny bit embarrassed. Chad just droops. "I know. That's why I want to learn from her. But she won't demonstrate anything for me. Keeps saying 'I only--" "I only pick up a sword to kill." he pulls up his cloak over his mouth like it's emotional protection, "and it makes me feel... I don't know." "I just want to be useful." He says it loudly, but then slumps a tiny bit more, as if ashamed. Rutger's sitll chewing on something, but she nods her assent to Khosa, and Chad steps up to square off across from her. "Trust me, I'm not worried I could hurt you," the poor kid mumbles, before rushing in and taking his best shot a few times. His breathing's completely unrefined; grip is fair; instincts and reflexes are great, but he's clearly almost total raw material, with no discipline to his movements at all. Gradually, Khosa can fix that. "If it'd be easier, Rutger, I'll give the verbal instructions." ". . . No," Rutger finally says to Lilian, after Khosa's worked on Chad a bit. Something in her tone surprises . Deep breath. "I'll say the forms. You'll do them. He'll learn with you. Alright?" It's a sound idea. Lilian has the background and the core discipline to parse what Rutger's putting down. 'Basic stance for one enemy.' 'Sword in back hand; away. Seven-tenths of your weight on your back foot.' 'Now sway back. You'll feel a wobble.' 'Here, pivot left to swing right; pivot right to swing left; hop back if unsure; half-step back and two-hand sword into lunge if you see a chance.' 'Now, following through . . .' It's the most Rutger has said at one stretch in a while. The style is bizarre by any kind of Earth standards- it feels like what you'd cook up if humans had ten times the reaction speed and needed a somersault's worth of momentum to kill- but sound, and following the movements Rutger describes smoothly enough can almost catapult you forward. Chad is, hesitantly, starting to get it. "Like, 'if Elibe weren't in danger, I'd have never met any of you'..." "'Better in our time than in the time of our children.' I believe I understand," Lucius smiles. Seeing Odette still standing, he pats the marble steps next to himself in expectation that she'll sit. "There's nothing to rue about healing magic, though. And Odette... don't worry about 'making my investment worth it'. It's enough reward to see you flourish. I promise." "Hopefully he need never pick up an Anima tome again, much less Forblaze." Cecilia laughs, good-naturedly. "I don't know. In an ideal world, maybe war could be studied like a kind of captive animal. I don't like hurting people, but there are arts to fighting, aren't there?" "And there's lots of other uses for Anima magic!" Lugh pipes up. "Like cooking food, or smelting metal, or some people say even changing the weather, and..." "Which is aaaall the more reason you've got to study. Now, note see the difference here..."
Audrey Basque	Audrey smiles to Riku. "I'm alright! The fact you absorbed all of the impact is kind of why I'm alright, hence the apology. Pleasure to meet you now that we have a moment to chat, Riku. I'm Audrey Basque," she starts, and then pointedly cuts herself off out of the concern that Lilian is in range and-- well, this is no time for a scene, or to ruin her mood. Or Petra's, for that matter. Though, was Lilian always that... ripped? Audrey shakes her head and forces herself to look at Khosa instead, since she addressed her. "Oh. I'm glad, then," she responds, before adding: "Audrey. And you are?" She flicks around-- towards Odette, whom she waves at back (with her clean hand, intentionally). "Oh, that's right! You were in The City with us that one night at the club, and..." Keeping track is hard, but Audrey's memory is luckily not the worst. "It's quite nice to meet you where the grass is actually green, yes~. I'm quite interested! But I would be lying if I didn't admit it was at Petra's urging, initially." She-- realizes too late that wasn't the smartest thing to say out loud. Petra ribs her, and Audrey laughs, embarassed. "Y-Yes. Surely, it was all imaginary. Though I also got to meet him in the City, ever so briefly." She walks in closer to Petra, whispering: "Also, do you have anything on you for blood?" Petra seems like she would, definitely, and Audrey indicates the need by raising the bloodied and dirtied hand up. Then she turns to Lucius, quite grateful to be getting a live lesson at all. "It's no bother! Hearing it is always more pleasant than reading it. Some things you can only really get from first-hand accounts, or interpreted retellings. I'm glad you took control of your tower back, without having to destroy it. The loss of a sacred place is always a great wound on the land around it." SOME of her knowledge translates, sometimes. "I look forward to assisting however I can. The way Petra tells it, it sounds like the war threats more than just a city or kingdom."
Riku Asakura	'Pleasure to meet you now that we have a moment to chat, Riku. I'm Audrey Basque,' Riku smiles at Audrey, glad to meet a new person, especially one so polite and kind. "It's quite alright. I'm just glad nobody was hurt, well besides me, but I'm already better!" he says, making a motion at himself, but already feels the sores from the Week of hell at L-corp, and knows he's gotta watch himself better. As Chad and Rutger begin to communicate with each other, things become better between them. Eventually, Rutger instructs Chad through their paces, after Khosa's instruction and Lilian's comments and instruction as well. "See, nothing a bit of communication couldn't get to the bottom of! I'm glad to see it working out!" There is no credit to take, or anything like that. Riku is just happy that they're working through it now and thanks to everyone they are back to being instructor and pupil. However, Chad does say something that gets to Riku deep down. 'I just want to be useful.' It's... easy to feel like you're not being useful, especially when you're young and people have stolen from you. Riku remembers, bitterly, the day that Kaiju took his home and job from him. He also remembers the feeling of turning into Geed and taking those things back from it. 'Perhaps you should ask Dieck, actually.' Riku blinks at Lilian and then at her suggestion. "You think so? You're a better swordsman than I'll ever be, so I guess I could look Dieck up and see if he'll train me up on his sword style..."
Khosa	"Khosa," Khosa says to Audrey, with a formal but decidedly foreign slight bow. "I'm not local either - honestly I think I am from further away than most, ha ha! I'm not, really, but it feels that way sometimes with what you have here. Like the grass being actually green," she finishes, as a half-joke and with a slight grin. To Riku, she says, "Good, we can both work on it. You much of a swordsman? It's not my specialty, either Rutger or Lilian would kick me around the field if we both used swords and nothing else." Obviously the balance changes if she's allowed psychometabolism. "I just know the basics. Fortunately, we're working on basics." What Khosa offers isn't precisely swordsmanship, but is the very basics of what she considers combat: awareness of one's own body and how it moves. And she has things to say, too: "Always useful to be able to pick up a weapon, though it's probably more useful to figure out when to put it down afterwards." That with an inclination of her head toward Rutger. "Right?" Her skill doesn't entirely correlate to ability to teach it - Khosa does not want to put Chad through the way she was taught - but she is aware of this enough to consider failures to explain and follow mostly her fault rather than Chad's. She has patience, though it's probably more accurately called 'stubbornness'. She keeps pushing Chad until he gets it and doesn't take 'no' for an answer very well. But eventually she at least guides him to being aware of his body... a little bit, anyway. His reflexes being so good is useful for this - he can recover when she uses telekinesis to push, teaching him how to recover from being off-balance, and how to hold his sword so that her pushes don't shift it in his grasp. She wants him to internalize feeling his own movements, judging things like balance and positioning. She won't make an expert in a day, but that's fine. It's a process. When it comes to actual swords, though, she steps back. "Here I let the experts take over," she says, with a broader grin than before as she nods toward Rutger and Lilian. "Though if you want to try unarmed combat, axes, maces, or a few other weapons I don't know if you even have here except as exotics, I can help out a little more." Given Khosa's size (6'4) and obvious strength (she's buff), the melee weapons she likes to use are prrrobably a little too heavy for Chad, though. Maybe she has a hatchet or something. Or maybe she should be practicing with Riku, or Dieck. Or Echidna.
Lilian Rook	Lilian has absolutely been stiffly ignoring Audrey. Even if she explained she's 'a studen from the same shcool', it'd only raise a million new questions, and place Audrey uncomfortably close to her inside a circle Lilian has very carefully drawn around herself to be exclusive. But seeing her hanging inoffensively around Petra, acting normal towards Lucius and Rutger, eyeing her current state less than Cecilia, seems to both put Lilian at ease and mentally distance herself a little bit more. §Every bit the student of the academy she should be. No twists, no surprises, and not even a reason to read her mind. She'll fade back into obscurity if I just let her.§ Lilian returns to swinging. 'If the Tower were destroyed... if the Saint's tome and staff were lost... in another thousand years, would people forget she wasn't just a fairy-tale?' "The people of the faith are amazing." Lilian says, between cracks and whooshes of air, ruffling her hair and disturbing her released breath. "That they believe because it mattered, and not because it would be convenient if it were true. They're totally different to the faithful I know." she says. "I think that faith would survive even without the tower. But not unaltered. I like the way things are now; how Elimine is an example and an inspiration, as a human being. Not just . . . an ideology, to be aligned with." 'Maybe the priests use warp staves to clean up there.' "Maybe they simply find volunteers." Lilian says, completing another thirteen, exhaling, lowering her shoulders, and moving on to the fourteen. "It's a big city, and a beloved place." 'I only pick up a sword to kill.' 'and it makes me feel... I don't know.' §Of course. She'd refused to use even a wooden sword on Dieck; but not her fists. I imagined that swinging at empty air would be before the line, but . . .§ ". . . It's the nerves that live in the hilt. The blade remembers like a muscle." Lilian says, cryptically. '. . . No, I'll say the forms. You'll do them. He'll learn with you. Alright?' "I'm glad to hear it." says Lilian, smiling ever so slightly. "I appreciate your confidence." There's a strange sense she doesn't quite mean 'in the swordplay', though Rutger's faith is far from misplaced in that either. In fact, Lilian's comprehension of precise directions, and her ability to kinesthetically follow them to the most minute degree, is nothing short of quietly freakish. As if hyperaware of where everything down to each fingertip is in space at all times, she settles into the exact stance, raises her sword to the exact degree, carefully measures her weight forward to within a single percent margin of error, and executes with decimal precision in the twist of her hips. The way she contentedly concentrates through the whole affair, taking on a slightly different mien and attitude when she knows that she is performing something for the sake of being watched, seems like she doesn't know just how unusual it is. 'I don't know. In an ideal world, maybe war could be studied like a kind of captive animal. I don't like hurting people, but there are arts to fighting, aren't there?' "A woman after my own heart." Lilian says, smiling wide, now. "I wasn't born into war. But I was born with a sword in my hand."
Odette Raskins	"You were in The City with us that one night at the club, and..." "Right! And I think I saw you at the start of that.. Um." Odette snaps her fingers a few times to jog her memory, then perks up a bit once it comes back to her. "The mountain! with the wolf cult. They... H-how'd that go on your end? We didn't really get to talk because of the rocks, but..." Wait. She only saw her at the start. "Just how fast did you get up there?" She asks, clearly impressed by the natural conclusion of Audrey just being that much better. The awed look remains even after she mentions Petra's involvement in getting her into the City, but there's no judging look or slow realization on Odette's end. Instead, she actually looks even more pleased and laughs lightly after a second. "Did she? That's not too surprising, actually... Um. A-at least for the little while I've known her." "Well, she had a pretty amazing teacher." "I did... Hehe. The best, even. And I don't think I would've even though about trying it if not for you, so..." Odette trails off while agreeing wholeheartedly with Petra, hoping that should make things evident enough to Lucius about his influence for the better part of a year. Seeing Petra actually get flustered by something she's saying, meanwhile, gets the EMT's eyes widening for a brief moment. She can't recall seeing this side of her before, but it's- "Cute..." Too late to stop herself from murmuring that absentmindedly. She doesn't get embarrassed or anything like that, though, instead looking over Petra's outfit again with the same awe she did earlier. "If you ever go doing that again... Um. Could I bug you two to help me out with one, too?" "I just want to be useful." Taking a seat by Lucius, Odette feels her heart sink just a little at hearing Chad say that. She knows the feeling all too well, but it's still hard to hear someone younger than her saying those kinds of things. Her grip on the edge of her tunic tightens briefly, and then she releases it just as quickly as she perks up at Lucius encouraging her again. She could stare all day, but she can't let herself do that. It'd be weird! "I know, but... I-I mean, you've probably heard this a hundred times before, but I want to be a student you can be proud of for what I've done, not just what I could do. Even if it's just a fraction of what you can do, I want to do more with this. I want to be more to y-" In a rare moment of clarity, Odette actually catches herself and quickly pivots! "-everyone. This group. This world." "Mine won't even look at you unless you can . . ." Odette's mind finally shifts away from how close Lucius is in favor of absolute confusion. She's seen grass, and she's seen blades, but putting them together isn't clicking in her head. On top of that, there's supposed to be a freakishly long bridge, which... That's a lot easier to believe, so she's just hung up on the grass blade thing. "How do you even walk through that? I-I mean, if your boots aren't hard enough to handle walking on top of them or..." She starts asking, but the confusion keeps getting worse. Listening to Lilian's instructions to Chad, luckily, gets her to refocus on something that makes more sense and also gives her ideas on how to improve her own technique. She's clearly having trouble parsing the more directed instructions Rutger gives Chad, though, even though Odette can see Chad following what she's telling him to do. "Like cooking food, or smelting metal, or . . ." "Or cauterizing wounds without a tool, or restarting a heart without..." Odette's eyes widen as Lugh's commentary starts getting her mind to wander further. "That wouldn't even require a massive use of magic, would it? Even a... A small, sustained fire. O-or a quick jolt, not enough to wound someone, but enough to..." The PDA comes out, and she starts tapping away on the screen rapidly to get those ideas in before she forgets.
Petra Soroka	"If the Tower were destroyed... if the Saint's tome and staff were lost... in another thousand years, would people forget she wasn't just a fairy-tale?" Lucius echoes a feeling that Petra's already been having for some time about Elibe. The current state of the entire world seems unstable and unsustainable, like the last thousand years have been the full life span of the era and now its dying gasps are shuddering the magic and history and society that have seemed like bedrock for so long. Zephiel and Iðunn or not, Petra can't imagine another thousand years keeping anything recognizable to the world they're sharing now. "... Yeah. A thousand years is a really long time. I mean... even besides the Tower... does anyone really remember what she was like a thousand years ago already? A thousand years ago, she was a person who went through the Scouring with, like, as many little day to day stories as we've all had during this war, and then she, you know, ascended. Now she's remembered as a Saint, but all those little stories are gone, so the 'her' that's remembered is already way different. And what about the other heroes? Basically the only physical records of their legacies, for most of them, are the Divine Weapons, and those are finally breaking down. So...." Petra blinks. "Eh-- eheh, that was heavier than I meant it to be. But that's sort of why I'm interested in gathering all the, like, snapshots of history now, about the world and the Saint and-- I guess it'd probably make sense for that to include, uh, us too?" "I'll show you to the library of the Tower after, but Sophia has the most amazing oral histories from the Old Man." "That's such a good idea." Petra nods several times in a row, firmly enthused. Her emphatic nodding makes her sword belt wobble and slip a bit, and she tries to surreptitiously readjust it. "That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for." "You were in The City with us that one night at the club, and..." Petra's attention is drawn towards Odette by hearing Audrey say her name, but rather than thinking on any of the implications of what Audrey said, she's distracted by something else. 'The club in the city'... it's so mysteriously vague even though Petra of course knows exactly what she means. Realizing she's been staring for a while without saying anything, Petra just adds the most accessibly surface-level thought that pops to mind to round off what Audrey explained. "Oh, I lured her here with pictures of Fae." "Cute..." That line from Odette immediately ends the shyness that Petra felt at Odette complimenting her outfit directly. Straightening her posture and tilting her chin up, she stares back at Odette. "Don't get ahead of yourself." "Also, do you have anything on you for blood?" Petra, automatically, pulls out her compact mirror (the red, black, gold, and mother-of-pearl casing for it does definitely compliment her outfit) and flips it open. "Yeah, no problem, I've got..." She presses her hand to the mirror, and then realizes-- ever since the war, she hasn't actually refilled her supply of hand sanitizer. She stays there stalled, thinking about how she can solve this problem without having to backtrack on a Helpful Service she already promised to provide. "Uh... I've got...." Petra hesitantly pulls out her Silver FullBottle, and flips the cap on it with her thumb. Rather than explaining what she's about to do, because there's no good explanation she can work up, the morphmetal slithers out of the bottle and drips onto Audrey's hand, pouring over every crease and joint. Warm and smooth, it encases Audrey's hand like gel, but unlike when she felt it before, it's accompanied by a pleasant champagne-bubbling feeling, almost ticklish. After wrapping a few passes around Audrey's hand, it retracts back into the bottle, and the blood is gone. Petra cannot possibly explain that it basically just digested it off of her hand. "There we go. Clean."
Audrey Basque	Audrey makes an embarassed face at Odette. "I was at the top within seconds, but I think that was..." A mistake? No, the more she thinks about it, the more she needed that lesson. Not just about not rushing ahead to prove herself, but what Hiromi said to her, and having the chance to experience Real Power, one on one, even for only a few minutes... invaluable. Scary, and invaluable. "Luck. I got lucky. I'm still not sure, weeks later, if I misunderstood the nature of the challenge completely, or if I did what I was supposed to." A bit of both, she reckons. Khosa earns a giggle. "Yeah. I've been a few too many places already where the grass doesn't feel green at all. This place, it's..." It reminds her of home, but not visually. More a feeling. The purity in the air. The Phantom Circle is always good to return to, because you take a deep breath and it's like you're breathing in magic directly. It's invigorating. This place... it's not literally like that, but the air, the people, the view. It gives that feeling, too. Then again, this is her first Fantasy Land(tm). She may just be easily impressed. She listens carefully as Petra speaks of heroes and divine weaponry; it's going to be a lot of reading, then, but it sounds like it'll be a good read. She does confirm: "She did. Fae is adorable. Shame she isn't here." Petra helps with the BLOOD PROBLEM, which Audrey does not question. She'd already gotten to feel the metal up, and the way it didn't leave a mark-- it's a bit surprising it can clean, but not that odd. And she can't understand the implications, either. "Oh, thank you. That's... incredibly handy," no pun intended. "Does it have a limit on how much dirt it can suck up? Like... can it replace a shower?" She presumes no, because she knows Petra showered in the morning, and even if it could she would probably still want a shower after ANYWAY. She definitely still wants to wash her hand. Just, a bit less urgently.
Rita Ma	". . . It's the nerves that live in the hilt." Rutger nods distantly. She might leave it there, on any other day, but maybe the instructing is loosening her tongue. ". . . When I put my hand on it," she says slowly, tightening her fingers around air until they almost close on a nonexistent hilt, "it's every time I've ever drawn it. Don't want that to be 'now'." "Whoa..." "Focus." "Y-yes ma'am!" The shape of Sacaen swordsmanship becomes clearer as Rutger elaborates the forms: it's "fragile" because it demands full-body motion with no room for injury compensation, it's "predictable" because each move can only flow its momentum into one or three others, it's "less heavy-hitting" because digging your sword into a corpse risks braking your flow, but if you can nail its cascading momentum just so, it's hard to imagine anyone mounting a defense. Lilian can sense it kinesthetically: a dangerous, frictionless-feeling 'sweet spot' when she rolls her ankle and shifts her weight into a swing just so, tripling her speed on the next swoop. Intuitively, it's clear how riding that line perfectly could have almost limitless payoff; and how bending that perfect flow to an actual battlefield could be the work of ten lifetimes. Chad doesn't need 'perfect' though. After drilling on the fundamentals and rehearsal on the basic forms, he accidentally nails one ball-of-foot-landing-into-pirouetting-slash, sails eight feet through the air off his own momentum, and lands in a heap. "!" "Chad!" "Agh-- I'm, ffhh, fine!" "Ah... please, do take a rest for now." "But--" ". . . You did well." "Okayyyyy. ... Thanks, everybody."
Rita Ma	Lucius lays his arm around Odette's shoulders, beaming gently, and pets Lugh's hair in exactly the same cadence, which makes the poor boy groan just slightly. "Father, my lessons...!" "You're right. Forgive me!" And he laughs. "I have, though. Heard 'I want you to be proud I'm useful' a hundred times. Often from Chad, and sometimes from Lugh. It isn't bad to be useful, Odette! Only... it's the nature of the old, to want young hearts to flourish. Is tending others' really what will nurture yours? I am proud of you, but don't hasten to be grown for grown-ness's sake." Odette is really, really in good company in this army. "That they believe because it mattered..." "... does anyone really remember what she was like?" Lucius wears an almost heartbrokenly blissful expression for Lilian's praise, but it dims to serene thought with a nod to Petra. "What we've seen of her in figments and memories... it's challenged me. However she may have changed between the Scouring and her ascension, I'd never have guessed she was so hard. Yet--" Falling quiet for a moment, and then tiny-laughing, approvingly, about Petra's scrapbooking: "--It's a worthy pursuit, Petra. Even if Elimine were a fairy-tale, her words could still be true. The value of knowing she was real, I think, is that..." The way he looks up at the sky above the Tower, as if searching for some sign from that vanished woman who nearly shares his face, is a look of condensing some grand feeling into inadequate words. "... it means that we aren't beyond saving, just because we live and breathe. Does that make sense?"