open | cloudreach

[hassaran]

WHO: Yseult + others to come
WHAT: A catch-all for open prompts and maybe some closed starters
WHEN: Roughly now-ish, or backdated throughout April
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: If you'd like something in particular ping me on plurk/discord to discuss!

Comments

training yard

[staysail]

Darras, arms folded, leaning against a wall, takes a moment to observe his wife.

She no doubt knows that she's being observed. He's seen her sensibilities at work, that uncanny ability to pick up on such attention without batting an eye. She will also, no doubt, know who it is who is watching with her, even though her back is to his vantage point. She has a way of knowing such things. She always has, as far as he knows. Born with it, maybe.

All of this leaves him no choice but to be the one speak first. At least to establish some surprise here.

Well. First he watches another moment. She's very watchable, his wife. Especially when she's fighting, with all the grace of the actor she started life as. She makes it look like a dance, smoother than the brutal functional fighting Darras learned.

But, eventually.

"If I propose a duel, here and now, are you going to turn me down?"

[hassaran]

"Why would I do that?" is her reply. She may not need to look back over her shoulder at him--he's right, even here in the heart of the Gallows she's too alert to miss his approach and knows the sound of his footfalls on the stone too well to mistake it for anyone else's--but does, brows bending in opposite directions.

She pulls her blade free from the dummy and turns fully, stepping into the open center of the yard, where it's wide enough for proper dueling. Her blade today is a curved falchion, heavier than the rapier she actually prefers but not an uncommon choice for training. She spins it in her grip all the same, and spreads arms in invitation.

i said actor but i meant acrobat. i would swear i wrote acrobat. forgive me.

[staysail]

"Privacy."

He grins as she turns to him. Takes just one moment more to look at her, standing there with the falcion held graceful. It's funny how you can see someone and see all of what they've been before. There's nearly no one that Darras has known longer than Yseult by now.

He pushes away from the wall and goes to the weapons rack. "Maintaining the element of surprise." More for his list of whys. "Maintaining your air of secrecy. So as to not publicly embarrass me when you kick my arse."

Another falchion. Darras touches its hilt, first, superstitious. Then he grabs it off the rack and gives it an experimental twist, testing its weight. He shoots her another grin.

"Or will it be t'other way around today?"

never

[hassaran]

Well. Fair points, all of which crossed Yseult's mind in the time between noticing his presence and agreeing.

"None of that sounds likely," she says anyway, with a quick flash of a grin back. She attacks in the next heartbeat, a lightning-quick lunge forward as soon as he's prepared and not a second later. They both know he's bigger, stronger, and more experienced at this, so she takes her advantages where she can find them, aiming to slap the flat of her blade (edges dulled for just this purpose) just above his elbow and dance back out of the way of a return blow.

;-;

[staysail]

Bigger, stronger, more experienced, and not as light on his feet. Yseult's blow comes quick, and by the time Darras reacts she's already moved away. The slap of the blade leaves his arm stinging. He laughs anyways.

"Oh, so that's how it is? Tricky--"

He's shaking out his arm, apparently very distracted, right up until the point that his grip on his falchion tightens and he lunges at her, an overhead chop that he pulls at the last moment, switches to swipe at her side instead.