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Lilian Rook     For now, there's nowhere to learn Trídéag-style swordsmanship from but headquarters itself, and furthermore, from the Director herself. Given enough time, that may eventually change, but until then, each Fixer has no choice but to report to twelfth floor training court before long; and the Foundation's representatives are no exception.

    Technically labeled on the corridor signage as the 'High Impact Combat Instruction Facility', more often just called 'the sparring deck' or 'the ring', the place that every new recruit sees on their orientation day feels a little bit different when it's actually in use. Separated by floor-to-ceiling polymer windows from the general use area for group drills, which overlooks the gymnasium and pool, being inside with the door closed immediately changes the soundscape, isolating and amplifying sounds until previously unnoticed footsteps and loud breaths come sharply into focus.

    The impact flooring currently in place, sectioned black and white and divided by Association-green lines, feels harder and smoother underfoot than one would really like. Bright lighting from multiple angles makes it feel whelmingly large and open compared to its actual size; and even that is half an apartment building level. A live camera is projected on two opposite walls with reverse angles, allowing entrants to view the room from both sides. The remaining wall, screened with another set of windows to form a corridor, lined with storage lockers, standing computer consoles, and emergency medical stations at each end, feels much less inconsequential once you have to navigate it to put your things away, clock in, and pick up the practice swords that are labeled with your height. Lilian waits at the slightly raised circle that occupies the center of the 'room', which both gives it a sense of possessing halves, and provides a focal point to orient around as well as demo space.
    You can tell that she takes this seriously, because she's not dressed up to look as pretty as possible in a uniform. Her hair is tied in back into a reasonable updo, she's dispensed with a skirt for gymshorts that necessitate short length and close fit for illustrating footwork, and her top, stitched like a thin vertical gambeson, with a light metal plate protecting collar and neck, is cropped down to bare midriff and arms, only incidentally showing half the tattoo on her back rather than through an intentional window. She has Association-issue short gloves on just for protected finger articulation, like for her knees and elbows and slightly hefty high-top shoes.

    She is, altogether, dressed purely to avoid discomfort; from heat and exertion and theoretical random blows to delicate points that hurt. Only her lily hairpin, and a simple black-striped white bracelet, remain in place as usual.
Lilian Rook     "We have a small class today, so line up all on one side of the platform." Lilian says, barely having to raise her voice for it to carry with these acoustics. "Hearthward, Raskins, Sundew, together. Bouanich, Finn, Sonetto, you're another group. Rita, at will. Over the next two hours, we're going to go through six basic guards I want you to learn, the core motions of a cut and a thrust, and most importantly, the fundamentals of your stance, gravity, balance, and recruitment of force. These things are ones you will be revisiting over and over again so long as you stick with the prescribed training; pay close attention so that repetition is as easy as possible." Taking a breath, Lilian looks across the crowd, and says, "Talk if you want, but not when I'm talking. I don't want to see wandering eyes either. Don't think I won't smack you for it; you'll get much worse on the streets, so learn to focus, now."

    Her instructional tone is a unique one for her. Rather than trying to imitate her first mentor's carefully neutral, often severe tone, or deliver her instructions like her second, loudly projected and professionally terse, she might perhaps be drawing more on the third, delivered with a softly serious expectation of attention, but just as laid back as if it isn't her problem. It feels like hearing pre-flight emergency instructions from a concierge who somehow has the leeway to just watch you drown if you didn't pay attention; pleasantly relaxed, and yet with a subtle sense of pressure behind it.

    "Before that, however, I'd like to convey something much more fundamental to you." Lilian says. Neither her look nor the sound of her voice changes one bit. "The reason that you carry a sword is that out there, in the City, there are things that want to kill you. Some of them are people, and some of them aren't. The purpose of the weapon that each of you has been issued is not to defend yourself. It is not to protect others. It is not to uphold justice. It is there to kill that thing before it kills you." Lilian pauses for breath. She sounds as if she'd only delivered today's headlines.

    "When you're dealing with human beings, killing them isn't always necessary. Most of your enemies possess enough self-preservation to retreat when they're badly beaten, or else enough combat experience to know when they're losing. But not all of them, and not always." Lilian says, pausing once more as a punctuation mark.

    "The reality that I want you to understand is that, at some point in the future, your body will sense an imminent threat to your life, and react as you've taught it to. When that happens, the sharp blade which you will be holding will cut through their skin and tissues, they will begin hemorrhaging more blood than you expect, and you will see them experience pain, fear, or both. If you've trained well, they will bleed until they collapse within one and a half minutes, and die in roughly four. If you've trained very well, or get lucky, they will be incapacitated immediately; most likely by shock, pain, and loss of physical coordination."

    "Your sword will not protect you, nor the lives of the innocent, in any other way. What you do with the human being that just tried to kill you, your comrade, or someone you care about, between the moment they stop fighting and the moment at which they may die, is up to you, but it cannot be nothing. If you train diligently and seriously, you will find your sword an incredibly effective tool of justice; but you have no business being on that street, in this City, unless you can accept and internalize these facts."

    Lilian takes a deep breath and exhales as a pallet cleanser, and then lightly bounces a couple of times on her toes. "Okay! Sorry that was a little bit grim! Let's get started. For now, just watch me, and I'll get you swinging in a bit, understood?"
Odette Raskins Today, Odette has some particularly important reasons to make it to the sparring deck earlier than usual. One is that she actually managed to get some sleep for once, and she's in top form after waking up only a few hours before it's time to report in. The second is that, being medical staff, Odette needs to make sure all the medical stations are properly stocked with everything that might be needed should anyone in this session take a particularly nasty hit.

The third is that she knows she needs to get a lot better at taking nasty hits, and better that it happens here where she's learning from it rather than in a true life-or-death situation. She's dressed for the occasion, too, between tight running pants (blue) for easy movement and a padded vest over a tank top to offer her some level of protection while leaving her arms clear to swing and block and everything else she's hear to learn today. Her hair is done up in a high looped bun to keep it all out of the way, her left arm from the forearm down is bandaged up with a long gloves over it, and she has an eyepatch on over her left eye to give it more time to heal.

Listening to Lilian's instructions closely, Odette doesn't actually move from where she is right away. Instead, she listens to the assignments and the expectations for today's session first, clutching her practice sword closely against her side like she's afraid it'll run away if she's not careful with it or something. Lilian's change in tone isn't what the EMT is used to hearing, but it's certainly enough to keep her mind and eyes from wandering unnecessarily even after that warning.

"One side... U-understood, Dame Commander. Need to really stick these fundamentals, get used to them like a... A limb, or something." Although it sounds simple, she's not expecting it to be considering how dangerous all the fighting she's seen has already been. Her gaze almost slides off Lilian to start looking for Kale and Sarracenia, but locks right back onto her when Lilian hammers in the weight of the weapon right into Odette's mind.

She's shot the sidearm a few times already, but the weight then feels so much different from the weight of the sword now. Could she really put this through someone's body, if she really needed to? The uncertainty lingers in her mind and on her face as she replays what Lilian says in her mind several times, and her grip on the sword gets a little tighter as she forces herself to really look at it from that perspective.

It's a tool. She's used tools before. This one, like many others, is something she needs to learn if she wants continue being someone worthy of the Association and her allies in the Watch, in Elibe, and everywhere else. She doesn't even notice that she hasn't blinked once until her eyes start itching, and when Lilian concludes what she's saying. That gets a startled noise out of Odette, and then she nods a few times before finally allowing her gaze to drift away.

"It's sharp enough, and with those extra functions that we saw last time... I-it's going to really mess someone up if we're not careful. Makes it really important to... Uh. To use it cleanly, yes." Clean means less follow-up, clean means easier mending if time permits, clean means less pain in the long run. That's how she can word it to herself to feel better, right?

Still tense from overthinking about what she'll have to do with the sword once she finally learns it and uses it, Odette glances around for Kale and Sarracenia. She needs to make sure she's going the same direction they'll be going, after all, and she's not sure which side of the platform they'll end up on. As expected, she's not going to make the first move in deciding where that'll be, but she's quick to follow along once one of the other two decides.
Angela Finn is a grey eyed, dusty haired young man. His hair is longer than it was before he joined Trideag as he's been growing it out but he's otherwise dressed in uniform and is using the Stigma-inspired blade of Trideag nowadays. He still works as hard as ever and he does get better, but it's slower going for him than those who have accepted augmentation which is, frankly, most of Trideag. He's the only one that has a ''thing'' about it. This means that he's fallen a bit behind relative to the others though he is still working hard and, frankly, puts the most amount of time in training. He's added sessions since the new swords came in beyond the ones mandated by Association policy.

But despite everything, Finn still hasn't done a killing. He is a little bashful about what Lilian has to say because he still remembers that time he got ambushed. The issue with the Stray Dogs is an ongoing one even as other jobs have been solidly handled.

He moves over to Sonetto and Matilda, bowing his head politely--if a bit awkwardly, giving a bit of a doubletake at Matilda, though it's quick.

He settles into position and doesn't even look bothered by the idea of a two hour session. This is normal for him, though he expects two of Lilian's hours to be intensive all the same. He's quite, he keeps looking ahead, this is a guy who likes to follow rules from the boss and his gratitude towards Lilian is sincere. The more he struggles, the more determined he is to prove himself to her and to make her proud.

''Your hands...will kill!!''

Finn's cheeks turn a bit pink, and he swallows down a bit of a squeamish gulp. He's from the City, so he knows what life is like here, but it's not something he's generally preferred to dwell upon. His work has generally been things like finding cats--really, he was unusual for a Grade 9 for being as ddetermined with that sword of his while also still not grabbing ahold of bodily enhancements while he could.

"Yes Director!" He says loyally and, when he has a moment, looks to SOnetto and Matilda, "Ahm...pleased to be training with you. I hope we all can improve together."
Rita Ma      It may not be entirely clear why Rita's in attendance for basic swordsmanship lessons, but she seems to be taking it seriously.

     "It's good to see you again, Mr. Finn! How's the training going?" she says, fresh off the elevator. "Odette, are you alright? It's nice to see you working hard, but you can take a break if you need to, you know." I hope she doesn't reopen any scabs...

     There aren't many chances to examine Rita's physique. Most of the time she isn't modestly clothed, she's in that white flesh-dress. This is different. She's wearing dark gray bike shorts and a sports-bra-like top, unusually exposing her arms and tummy. A magenta dappling accentuates them.

     She's slender in silhouette but soft in texture. You'd have a hard time pinpointing a single muscle on her.

     "Rita, at will."
     "Mm! Thanks, Ms. Rook." She pairs with Matilda, Sonetto, and Finn's group, but gravitates to Finn's side.

     "It is there to kill that thing before it kills you."
     Rita's eyes, unfortunately, do wander. Maybe she was exempted from the slapping warning, maybe she wasn't. But without diminishing the gravity of what Lilian's saying, she hardly gets a second free of thinking about violence-and-its-consequences already.

     Instead she judges, in the big reverse-angle screen behind Lilian's head, how the others are reacting. Odette, expectedly tense. Sarracenia's likely to protest, or struggle to steel herself. Kale might either give a businesslike "right, got it" or not-quite absorb the gravity, depending on the mood.

     It's Matilda, Sonetto, and Finn she's less sure of. They're the ones she watches closer. Maybe that's why she's here.
Sarracenia      Even though her primary weapon is a hammer, Sarra appreciates the artistry and elegance of swords and swordplay. She even sometimes wishes she had taken sword classes when she were younger. It is a much more romanticized weapon than a hammer after all. Her hammer served her well, but with how things are now a sword might serve her better in many circumstances.

     The princess arrives in her formerly usual red royal gown, her crown, eyepatch and her Silver lotus hairpin in place. Her hair is back to its brilliant copper shine except for a streak of metallic silver covering the strands held by the hairpin, and her skin has returned to its (mostly) youthful luster. She enters the changing area quietly, and emerges in a dress made of light and airy materials. And also in proper Trideag colors. White top, black skirt, green accents. The skirt is shorter than usual, reaching only to just above the knee, and her legs are covered in broad horizontal striped leggings of green and black. And insted of heeled slippers she has on lace up, heeled, black boots with a pointed toe. She still has on long black gloves to protect her royal hands.

     After picking up her practice sword she heads out to join the others. She is happy to work with Odette, but Kale...sure he's been better lately but he's still a jerk. Sarra offers Odette a friendly wave as she takes up a spot beside the medic. A slight frown forms at the speech about the purpose of a sword, but Sarra nods lightly at the end. She knows what a sword is for. That's why she chose a hammer. That and it being a powerful family heirloom.

     Sarra listens to Odette's musings on the sword, and nods in agreement. "Using a weapon with which you are not proficient makes it as dangerous to yourself and your allies as to your enemies." she says with a light smirk. And since as Lilian said there is only a small class today, she just gets some distance from the other group before following Lilian's lead. For better or worse, her eye does not wander.
Foundation Scions     It hasn't even been a full day since Matilda had disembarked the sailing vessel her inaugural mission with the Trídéag Association, having been wave-tossed, besieged by pirates, mermaids, monsters, and mutineers, having gotten a taste of both hardtrack and seawater (from being thrown overboard, and, more metaphorically, a taste of both adventurous camaraderie and the bitter sting of betrayal. Queasy for more reasons than seasickness, tired for more reasons than physical exhaustion, it should be a blessing that she has rest time before calendar-slotted important practice sessions with the Association.

    What 'rest time' actually means is that Matilda had but just a night to deal with a stacked-up pile of paperwork and reports, on incidental things and her temporary absence, to spend a tiring number of hours in the SPDM library re-shelving (and re-re-shelving books others had put back wrong), and, in the wee hours of the morning, put in notice of her turnaround trip back to the City, with enough time for such an outing to be approved. Only then can she get some shut-eye, before she's up and at it again. You'd think her spending valuable 'vacation time' would get her out of overwork instead. Oh well.

    As such, when she shows up to the 12th floor, despite the amount of work she's tried to put in to look her presentable usual, there's the obvious touch of sunburn on Matilda's face, and saltwater frizziness to hair she's desperately tried to neaten up into her silly side-ponytail. At least skimping on sleep isn't a new enough habit to have such notable signs. Aside from necessary safety equipment, she's come in what is quite anachronistic of a sports outfit- a cotton romper (does she just really like outfits that have skorts built in?) in grey and white, with thick, tall socks and sports flats. She'd look more correct on a tennis court, or in the 1950s. Carried with her is a thermos of peppermint tea- people drink tea when tired, to get pepped up! Usually types with caffeine- but she likes this one. It totally works if you believe it does.

. . .
Foundation Scions 'Bouanich, Finn, Sonetto, you're another group.'

    Inside her head, Matilda fist-pumps. Outside, in reality, she throws an excited double-nod Lilian's way and veritably skips over to the designated area with the others. Fast-paced thought, she decides it looks cool to do stretches while standing idle for instruction overview- Sonetto will see how cool and athletic she is! Yippee!-

    And instead Matilda almost yelps from a slight overstretch, pulling too hard on shoulder muscles that are sore from clambering around on ship-side webbing. You should have done it more on the boat, Matilda! Then you'd be able to look cooler!

    That little idea gets quickly abandoned- that's fine! She'll impress Sonetto with how well she studies, right here, and right now! This is a lesson! Matilda knows how to be good at learning~!

'I don't want to see wandering eyes either.'

    Mumbled to herself, with the tone of slapping herself into focus, "Concentrez-vous, Mathilde! Rêvasserie n'est pas permise!"

    Matilda gives little nods of greeting to Sonetto, to Finn, to Sonetto again- and to Rita, friendly pleasantry, as if she's forgotten for a bit to be nervous.

'It is not to protect others.'

    Matilda would have gotten that wrong on a test question. As such, that snaps her attention way cleaner on to Lilian's words than her own little self-encouragements could.

'... And react as you've taught it to.'

    Matilda's thoughts, for a moment, go back to the ship- a pirate had just boarded, and cornered a crewmate, a Distortion named Weather Report, with, as it turned out, a lot of instinctual, and unrestrained, weather-related abilities. Was that the same sort of thing, a scared, instinctual lash-out, when her blast of lightning simply evaporated the pirate? It was sickening in the moment. It isn't a comfortable exercise to try and put herself in those shoes. Still-

'... Is up to you, but it cannot be nothing.'

    Maybe it's lucky that Matilda is so recently returned from her first real foray out into what this world (if not many others) are like, and so recently a witness to such realities. Even she can realize that she probably wouldn't have internalized much of it otherwise. She's uncharacteristically still and quiet throughout Lilian's pre-lecture lecture, though such a thing is likely only obvious to anyone who's spent time around her. To others, perhaps she's just that serious of a student!

'For now, just watch me, and I'll get you swinging in a bit, understood?'

    A second passes before Matilda realizes that's actually a question, and that she's supposed to respond, right-? "Ah- understood, Director-!"

'Ahm...pleased to be training with you. I hope we all can improve together.'

    A little unbalanced from the immediate-prior topic, Matilda blinks, and gets right back to her usual tone- "Ah-hem, yes! You most certainly will learn a lot, following along in my lead~!" Finn's actually picked up a sword before, she has NO place to be saying this.
Odette Raskins Spotting Finn heading over to Sonetto and Matilda, Odette raises her hand in a quick wave to the familiar Fixer. That leads her eyes to Sonetto and Matilda, too, and that trio gives the EMT some small sense of relief. There's people within her age bracket here! That means she really needs to step it up as their (technical senior), and what better way than to pay close attention to today's long lesson?

"It's nice to see you working hard, but you can take a break if you need to, you know."

"Ah.. H-hello, Miss Rita! Oh, I'm feeling better than ever. I got a whole... At least five hours of sleep last night!" Odette sounds particularly proud of herself as she greets Rita with a quick wave, turning to face her with a bit more energy than in recent days. The bags under her visible eye are still the same as usual, though, but at least her wounds are covered up tightly for now.

Noticing that Rita's dressed for today's exercises instead of her usual dress, Odette catches/stops herself from wondering too much about her unbelievable fighting prowess despite the lack of defined muscles. "What about you? This isn't the way you usually fight, right? Um. L-let me know if you need a hand with..."

What WOULD Rita even need help from her with, anyway? "A... Anything?" Odette adds with an awkward chuckle, already realizing there's probably not much she could help Rita with at all. There has to be something, but what?

"Using a weapon with which you are not proficient makes it as dangerous to yourself and your allies as to your enemies."

After greeting Sarracenia with a light wave in return, Odette looks relieved to be in line rather than faffing about aimlessly. Gripping the sword a little more tightly, she takes a deep breath before forcing herself to relax her grip somewhat on that weapon.

"Th.. That's true, yeah. That's why I... We really need to pay close attention, and learn how to use these properly. Enough to use them naturally, and..." Another deep breath, like she's trying to get herself used to the possibility of killing someone with this. Practice sword or not, it's still visibly weighing on her mind. "... Enough to make sure they're only dangerous when we want them to be."
Timekeeper     Sonetto *is* here to study the blade. Despite her general demeanor, and her actual history and training as a soldier-agent of the Foundation, she hadn't even properly held one before Lilian handed her the Trideag sword upon joining, but she is determined on every metric to succeed.

    Back in her world, it's not unheard-of to use a sword, but it's typically relegated to Zeno Armaments, and their... aesthetic symbology isn't one that Sonetto is personally fond of, what with the gizmos. The SN-13 is gizmos, sure, but they're on the *inside*, so they don't count. There's an elegance to swords like that, she thinks. Zeno does good work, of course, but being the enforcing arm of the Foundation isn't the same kind of image; there's romance to an Association of knights-for-hire in a wasteland of a city, struggling against impossible odds to save as many people as they can with their own two hands.

    Sonetto has diligently equipped the Association-provided athletic-wear, boots and all, as if training is something that she'll be evaluated based on uniform during. It's definitely far too hot, though, so upon getting into the locker room and seeing that Lilian is much more dressed down, Sonetto removes the outermost layer of the jacket and stores it along with her arcane implement and satchel. This leaves her in a skirt and boots, with a short-sleeved white dress blouse with the association colors and pins on the cuffs, and a thin green ribbon tied in a bow around the collar.

    It takes her about ten entire minutes to go through the process of undoing her ponytails and letting her surprisingly long hair down to then put it back up again. She ties it into two thick braids, sturdy enough but still cute, in practiced habit. On her hip is the white, personalized, sheathe for her sword, with the training sword in it instead of her 'Terra all'Amore'.

"We have a small class today, so line up all on one side of the platform."

    Sonetto is suuuuuuch a good student plus soldier. Shoulders square, spine straight, lined up attentively without her eyes wandering, *and* on top of it all, she doesn't even seem resentful to be following instructions! She seems downright *excited* to pay attention!

"If you train diligently and seriously, you will find your sword an incredibly effective tool of justice; but you have no business being on that street, in this City, unless you can accept and internalize these facts."

    None of Lilian's speech seems to particularly surprise Sonetto. Of course, there's absolutely no chance she'd interject out of turn during it, but she's invigorated by the end and bounces on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

    "Understood, Director! I'm prepared to learn!" Prepared is a bit of an understatement, since she's already read the fencing guide Ceri gave her and Matilda, albeit without the luxury of physically practicing.

"Ahm...pleased to be training with you. I hope we all can improve together."

    Finn seems nice enough! Sonetto smiles back at him. "I do as well. I have not had experience using a sword before, so I will do my best to keep up with your experience."

"Ah-hem, yes! You most certainly will learn a lot, following along in my lead~!"

    Sonetto's eyes widen at Matilda-- it's entirely unclear whether she's attentive enough to Matilda's appearance to notice tanned skin and salted hair, but there's no way she doesn't know about *multiple day long outings*. That's not what she's surprised by now, though.

    "Your lead?" Sonetto's not *unreceptive* to the idea of Matilda teaching swordsmanship... somehow... but it's not really what she's expecting.
Foundation Scions 'Your lead??'

    Bluff called, time to go all-in anyways, "Of course-! My raw talent is something that, no doubt, anyone could learn from!" She so so obviously has not one bit more insight into using a sword than Sonetto has, and likely, has less; whatever time she's spent with the fencing handbook has no doubt been more full of daydreaming and distraction than pure, focused, analytical study.

    "You'll certainly see so, soon~!" Do your best, Matilda.
Timekeeper     "Okay." No one has ever accused Sonetto of being sceptical! Of basically anything! For the short response, her attitude is pretty positive, maybe with a tinge of 'encouragement', but not *doubting*, smiling at Matilda. "Then I'll pay close attention as well."
Sarracenia      Sarra gives Rita a happy smile and wave when she sees her. "Ms. Rita! It is good to see you again so soon!" She greets Matilda as well, but with less smiling and more concern. "It is good to see you as well, Ms. Matilda. Are you alright? That mission was quite a trial, in more ways than one. If there is anything you need, do let me know."

     'I got a whole... At least five hours of sleep last night!'

     Sarra blinks, mouth hanging open a bit. "F-five?! Oh sweetie. You should get at -least- eight. Perhaps even 10! Lack of sleep is -the- biggest contributor to mental stress and signs of aging. You must take care of yourself first if you are to take care of others properly!"
Angela ''How's the training going?''

"Well too early to say for today. I'm actually hoping to check in on my sister soon." Finn says, "Ah but don't worry, I won't cut short my training or anything like that." He may be struggling but he just takes it as a slow and steady wins the race anyway. Then he gives another quick look back to Rita. He blinks. "Is it a special occassion, Miss Rita?" He naturally has taken to using Miss Rita to coincide with Mr. Finn. It doesn't seem to occur to him that Rita is just wearing workout clothes because he's not quite realizing he hasn't actually seen Rita do much training before.

Finn is shaking off his queasiness.

"Oof--" Finn begins but then gets a read on Matilda that he elects to not actually directly comment on her pulling a muscle there.

''Following along in my lead~!''

"Yes ma'am. I'll do just that." He has no idea that Matilda hasn't picked up a sword before and is playing along because she's kind of reminding him of his sister whom he SUPER looks up to. Mostly in terms of energy and vibe, admittedly, but.

He bobs his head to Sonetto and adds, "I've heard you're a quick learner. I might be asking you for tips soon enough." Finn smiles at her and dips her head again.

''Your lead?''

"Hm?" Finn asks, oblivious. "Oh she already went out on a pretty big mission, Miss Sonetto." Unfortunately Finn ISN'T looking around outside of his group so he almost misses Odette's wave--her throws a quick one but is otherwise wholly focused on his group.

He seems to assume that means she had to have known how to fight right?
Lilian Rook     The training swords are exactly as heavy as the real thing. Of cours they are; they'd be useless (meaning slightly sub-par) if not. They must be solid metal for the most part, but the contact surfaces, hilt and pommel included, are coated in soft black resin, making them only somewhat more dangerous than wooden swords. Even Lilian has one; the pendant form of Night Mist is looped double around her neck to keep it close.

    The only thing that seems to disrupt her focus is Sarracenia, whom she looks at repeatedly, before and after her prelude. Seemingly growing impatient, she stops and stares with repressed irritation, and after a few seconds, mouths two syllables in distate. A subtle bit of blink-and-you'll-miss-it magic comes and goes.

    "In what you're learning, 'guard' is synonymous with 'stance'. The only ways you will ever stay still while holding a drawn sword are these guards. Your goal is eventually to assume these guards as part of moving around. For now, we're going to stick to six, and cover transitional guards much later." Lilian says, betraying nothing amiss at all. "They've been reinvented a dozen times in various places, with small differences. You'll find them in texts you read on your own time, by other names, but to keep things coherent, I'll be sticking to the colloquial names in the English tradition, because they're the easiest to memorize."

    Turning sidelong to the audience, Lilian emphatically plants her right foot forward, stomping a little to draw attention to it. She leans forward and backwards a little to move her knee, since she's automatically assumed 'perfectly above her ankle' out of habit. "Those fundamentals; your balance and gravity; are the most important thing for me to gauge at the moment, so we'll linger on the Lion for now." she says. Reaching down to clap the side of her own thigh, Lilian continues.

    "Lead foot forward, on your dominant side. Make a straight line down from your knee. It should be further than your elbows if you extend your arms. Turn you following foot outwards to support you, but let your other leg follow you at an angle; don't stretch it so far you can't push off the floor." Actually moving her sword now, Lilian straightens her back, and rests the hilt so that the pommel almost touches her hip, and the point falls naturally forwards at forty-five degrees. "Close to your body. Don't lock your elbows, but keep that grip to yourself. This is your most physically stable guard, so don't be aggressive with your posture; you should feel your center of gravity coming down from your chest, and between your hands." she says, demonstrating with quick gestures drawing an invisible line from her breast down behind her right hand and through her thigh. Despite releasing one hand, her sword doesn't wobble at all.
Lilian Rook     "Forty-five degrees exactly. Gauge it as best you can. It's like throwing something; the idea is to split the difference between vertical and horizontal reach so you can extend it as far as possible either way. The Lion-- the Gate, formally, or Posta Breve if you're Italian--" Ha. Ha. "Exists to evenly guard every part of your body, and allow for quick defensive responses, or controlling your opponent's weapon, with a minimum of motion. It's also the guard from which you can easily step back to avoid a blow, and from which you can most easily launch retreating cuts and thrusts. This guard, more than any other, will keep you alive."

    "Go on. Try it yourself now. Look carefully at what I'm doing, and don't try to do it by gut feel.""

    Once everyone is following her instruction, Lilian abandons the posture, and hops down from the raised circle, patrolling across the line of Elites to start gauging their effort. She doesn't look so pissed off at Sarracenia a second time, but she does quickly check her new outfit, open her mouth, and then decide to just move on instead, finding too little to complain about. "Don't tense your muscles, by the way. You'll notice just how fast they get tired. I'm afraid to say that I won't even consider you for rank six until you can hold this stance for an hour without going five degrees off."
Lilian Rook     'Need to really stick these fundamentals, get used to them like a... A limb, or something.'

    Patrolling down the line, Lilian starts responding. "Don't make it strange, Raskins. Whatever you heard from Parsons yesterday, try not to take it too seriously. He's obsessed with brains and nerves, not the martial arts."

    'Mm! Thanks, Ms. Rook.'

    "A pleasure to see the 'Star of the City' slumming it with us grunts." Lilian says, tongue in cheek, or rather, stuck out a little for a moment. "And the least dressy I've ever seen, in fact. I'm humbled~" she says, hypocritically.

    'Understood, Director! I'm prepared to learn!'

    "My. I'd certainly hope so." Lilian says, examining the sheath Sonetto brought with her. "I appreciate the initiative. The earlier you get used to how that affects your balance, the better. Is Terra all'Amore with your locker? I'll get you to cutting from this stance in a bit, and you can keep the waster in the scabbard." Yay! Good student points!

    'Of course-! My raw talent is something that, no doubt, anyone could learn from!'

    Matilda earns a long look from Lilian, though it seems like she's checking out her sea-beaten condition more than anything.
Rita Ma      Matilda's not anxious around her! Hooray! Clearly that means they'll have no issues in the future.

     Come to think of it, seeing Rita showing more skin than usual gives this odd impression of... 'having taken off the monster costume', somehow. Even knowing how she camouflages herself, it's easy to get the feeling that there's just nowhere for hypothetical tentacles to fit.

     "Odette..." she leans over, inter-group, to murmur in a lull between Lilian's first topic and her second. "You need at least eight hours of sleep. I like to get nine. Are you really okay?"

     "L-let me know if you need a hand with... A... Anything?"
     "I will! But you're helping already. Being around nice friends is the best motivation."

     When Finn talks about Matilda, Rita nods: "Mmm! She was a big help on the journey. And she even helped lots with that big fight too." She neglects to mention Matilda's help didn't involve a sword.

     Now, the stance! Rita's elegance-of-motion is mostly instinctual. When she has to do something deliberately she's a tiny bit clumsy, and she checks herself on one of those TV screens to get her knee's angle right.

     Still, the sword doesn't wobble even a tiny bit in her hands.

     "... the 'Star of the City' slumming it with us grunts."
     Rita spares a hand to scratch her cheek and looks aside with an embarrassed smile. "... I like your outfit too, Ms. Rook. It's nice with your eyes. It's been a while since I saw that tattoo, too."

     Explaining for Finn, and also maybe slightly for Lilian:
     "Most of my family's really amazing with swords. I always thought it seemed heroic, you know? And I was jealous," she says, with only the residue of a little slump. "Even though I didn't want to be 'strong', I wanted to be 'useful', you know? And now maybe there's not much point. I don't want to bother anyone for one-on-one training, but..."

     She trails off, and flushes slightly pink. "... That sounds really dumb when I say it out loud. Sorry. How about 'I want to understand the people I look up to better'?"
Sarracenia      The weight of the training sword doesn't bother Sarracenia. It is probably not as heavy as the weapon she usually wields. She wields it in two hands, though the grip is a bit awkward to her since she is used to having most of this blade length as handle.

     Each time Lilian looks toward Sarra, Sarra is either already or immediately looks to Lilian. Sarra returns the irritated look, though hers is mixed with confusion. Why is Lilian irritated? Lilian just said they could talk! The princess's head tilts slightly at the mouthed syllables, and Sarra mouths an equally quiet but much easier to read 'whatever'.

     Training with the Liu must have done some good, because Sarra endeavors to follow Lilian's movements exactly. Whether she is absorbing the lecture side of it remains to be seen. "...fourty-five degrees..." she murmurs at one point. Lead foot forward. Supporting foot turned outward. It is a completely unfamiliar posture to someone who wields a hammer. 'Don't tense your muscles, by the way. You'll notice just how fast they get tired. I'm afraid to say that I won't even consider you for rank six until you can hold this stance for an hour without going five degrees off.'

     Sarra takes it as a challenge. She -is- a grade six after all, if only in name. She stands as still as she can, sword held at the ready in both hands. Muscles not tense...but perhaps noticeably toned in this outfit.

     Only her eye moves as Lilian approaches her. Lilian's mouth opens, and...no complaints come out? Sarra blinks in surprise and her head turns slightly when Lilian moves on. Her sword lowers slightly in her surprise, but she lets out a little squeak and quickly brings it back to position before checking her feet and leg placements again and returning to her self-imposed challenge. She'll hold it as still and as long as she can.

     The mention of the tattoo draws Sarra's eye to it. What sort of tattoo is it? Sarra has probably had the opportunity to see it at some point, but she'd never taken notice of it before. And she has plenty of time while standing still.
Timekeeper     "I might be asking you for tips soon enough."

    Oh, Finn must be *very* new. But that's okay! Sonetto isn't the type to boast like Matilda, but she *is* a Field Investigator Captain, and even though it's only ever been 'arcane' focused, she's got eight to twelve years of combat training under her belt. She assumes Finn must be an enthusiastic civilian motivated by the recent disaster to step up and join an organization for the collective good, therefore making him a respectable person.

    "If I uncover any tips to share, then I will be happy to give them to you. But right now, we are all novices together, so I will be looking to you as well."

"Oh she already went out on a pretty big mission, Miss Sonetto."

    So even the people here consider it to be a 'big' mission! What good information for understanding the scale of activities in Trideag! She actually means to ask about that mission, but then it's time for Lilian to start giving them instructions, so Matilda will simply have to wait to receive attention.

"In what you're learning, 'guard' is synonymous with 'stance'."

    Sonetto is as receptive a student as can be, for someone who's never done so much physical combat as an arm wrestle. Certainly, she plans to read texts on her own time: not just the one Ceri gave them on fencing, or the manual included with SN-13, but much less relevant ones as well, that will probably only help in terms of exciting her into practice. The library has not granted her request for Fior di Battaglia yet, but it will. It will if she behaves good enough.

"The Lion-- the Gate, formally, or Posta Breve if you're Italian--"

    What a coincidence! That's *Sonetto*! Sonetto's Italian! She's looked at diagrams too, so when Lilian uses that particular term for it, Sonetto has the little flash of understanding necessary to ratchet in the small inconsistencies with her guard into place. She's strong, too, toned enough to be respectable and familiar a thousand times over with holding stances.

    So, of course, once she finds the correct posture, she stays flawlessly still, without a second guard known to move to. Lilian said she would have to hold it for an hour, and by Sonetto's expression, she seems prepared to simply do that on the spot. Her hands on the hilt are likely her weakest bit of positioning, focusing too much weight on the fingers rather than the palms, as if her hands will need to do movements that her elbows and wrists should be responsible for instead.

"It's also the guard from which you can easily step back to avoid a blow, and from which you can most easily launch retreating cuts and thrusts."

    An assignment appears in Sonetto's mind! > Practice stepping back from this guard! She can't do that right now, though, because Lilian has only taught how to stand still so far.

"The earlier you get used to how that affects your balance, the better. Is Terra all'Amore with your locker?"

    Teacher's pet proud, Sonetto soaks up the praise without moving her body even a millimeter. "Yes! I would be happy to retrieve it when you deem appropriate!" The term 'waster' throws her for a loop for a moment, but she gathers from context clues what it means.

    Then, once they're all appropriately adjusted and graded on Lilian's first pass, Sonetto begins talking aside to Matilda. "I have not heard about it yet." For whatever reason, she thinks that's a sensible statement without context, only adding elaboration later. "The mission you returned from recently. You were gone for several days, I believe. How did it go?"
Odette Raskins "Perhaps even 10!"
"I like to get nine. Are you really okay?"

"Y.. Yeah, that's true. Believe me, it's not by choice or anything like that." Odette answers and manages another awkward chuckle at Sarracenia and Rita, rubbing her neck sheepishly with her free and unbandanged hand. "It's just been... Um. A little harder to sleep lately, that's all. Um. B-besides last night, anyway."

Conveniently, she doesn't mention the part where she just passed out to get those five hours, or where she passed out. "I-It's just some.. Er. Things that happened on the job. Just need a bit more to get that out of my head, and then I'll be ri-Er. I'll be okay, mhm!" She tries to reassure the two, even if it is kind of obvious she's stilll trying to be brave and bottle things up.

"Being around nice friends is the best motivation."

That, meanwhile, gets a genuinely pleased noise out of Odette. Just how does Rita know how to say the best thing all the time?! "Mmh..! A-alright, then. I'll make sure I'm around as long as you need it, then, no matter how fast you go." She declares to Rita, feeling re-energized as she takes her sword in both hands to get ready for GUARDS.

As Lilian explains the Lion guard, Odette's already trying to mimic her movements from that first forward step. Thankfully, she didn't injure her legs too much, so she's able to do the same stomping motion with her right foot out front. She tests that forward and backward wobbling a bit to let that first bit of balance really sink in, then swaps legs once she realizes she should be doing it on her dominant side instead.

Odette has to look down a few times to make sure her left knee and foot are actually straightened out, and she tilts sideways a little to make sure it's actually past her elbow. "So far, so good..." She murmurs to herself as she continues following along, feeling just a little silly with her feet pointing in two different directions. She bounces back and forth a bit as she keeps following along, however, letting out little 'ohhhhh' and 'aaaah' noises as some of theory already starts clicking into place mentally.

"Close to the body... Mm, mm. So something like..." Still mumbling to herself as she continues watching Lilian's movements closely, Odette adjusts her footing a little more so that she can still have the practice sword pointing forward almost correctly while still able to feel the ability to push off the ground with either foot. Eyeballing 45 degrees for her weapon is giving her some difficulty, but she doesn't seem to be having as much trouble actually keeping the blade stable in her hand.

More interesting to Odette, as much as she'd hate to admit it, is hearing how easily she might be able to evade harm in this stance. Guard? Guard. The instruction not to tense up comes at the right time for her, too, as she's been tense almost this entire time from the misguided notion that she needs to feel EVERYTHING to internalize how it all works.

"Don't make it strange, Raskins."

Letting that tension bleed out of her shoulders, the EMT's guard is still a little off by the time Lilian starts going down the line. For once, however, she doesn't sound startled when she's approached. "Understood! That Psychonautery stuff is definitely... Way beyond what makes sense to me, but this..."

Inhaling deeply, the EMT adjust her footing again to make sure her legs are actually bent (mostly) properly and her sword is still pointed forwards at that raised angle. It's still too high, and she's watching Lilian's eyes to try and gauge which way she should be tilting it. "This feels more... Like it makes sense? Being able to bounce which ever way really sounds good if I'm prepared, for sure. An hour, though..."

Another inhale. It sounds impossible to her right now, but Lilian wouldn't be saying it if she didn't mean it, right? Right. Odette's expression tightens a bit, and she commits that goal to memory. "... One hour as the bare minimum. U-understood!"
Angela Finn's gaze turns towards Lilian's foot, he mimics the movement with his foot with a little stomp of his own, then looks back up to Lilian as if to make sure he did it right, then back down to his foot. He shifts the weight on his legs slightly. He experimentally extends his arms and then adjusts again. This is the sort of minute adjustments one might expect from someone who has experience beyond the basics. He holds it at forty six degrees, then shifts back down to forty five. His ears pinken a little bit, embarrassed.

''She was a big help on the journey''

"Wow! I've never been on the Great Lake before, but I know it can be pretty dangerous--I'm glad you got to show your stuff."

''I want to understand the people I look up to better.''

Finn beams, eyes alight with excitement. "Of course, Miss Rita! I completely understand. I'm the same way with my sister. She's incredible...! So I want to understand her more and more. I...don't think it's stupid at all, Miss Rita!" Earnestness explodes off of him like an atom bomb. Seems like he really identifies with Rita's reasoning.

''We are all novices together.''

Finn winces and laughs, "Ah, well... I've been at this for a while, actually... But don't worry about it! I know I'm still low Grade." He looks to Matilda, "Yeah---once we've settled into practice, I'd love to hear how it went."
Foundation Scions 'The Lion-- the Gate, formally, or Posta Breve if you're Italian--'

    Matilda looked to see what she could find in the Foundation's libraries on a French tradition of swordfighting- and came up empty-handed! How frustrating! To leave out the gaping hole where the clear and proper best guard name would fit, is tragic! But she'll be soooo brave, and... probably call these by the Italian terms given that Sonetto might as well, and that way Matilda can... demonstrate that she's clearly better? Earn points in Sonetto's favor by using them as a cute bit of camaraderie, since they'll be training together? Use it because at least it's better than English?

    Matilda proves to be the type who, when really trying to concentrate, will bite her tongue with the tip sticking out, comedic-style. She has practiced stances in the mirror- both silly, action-hero ones before she ever looked at Ceri's fencing guide, and ones based off the guide's instructions. All that aside, she's notably a bit fidgety, the instinct to move to look at her own posture often causing her to readjust, without any practiced coordination to not overshoot when recalibrating.

    The gestalt of her inexperienced habits, when trying to copy off of Lilian, is that it looks like at any given moment Matilda is raring to move instead of trying to hold still in the exactingly-right position. Overall, her balance is actually really good- Matilda Bouanich is someone who is frequently carrying around heavy fragile objects like her orbuculum, or stacks of library books, dropping such things would be either expensive, or worse, a disturbance of a quiet zone, and what's more, she's also the type to balance and walk on fallen logs habitually. It's the fine-tuning of motion, and holding still that she just doesn't have the practice in. She can picture fourty-five degrees in the sky, but what does that feel like in arm positions, and the tightness of muscles?

' Is Terra all'Amore with your locker?'

    Uh-oh! Matilda still hasn't named her sword! It's hardly her fault- she's been busy on a boat, where it'd be inadvisable to bring a checked-out library book of poetry to study, but that task slipped her mind in the time since!

'You were gone for several days, I believe. How did it go?'

    "Pardon-? Had not heard of what..? Oh-" Normally, Matilda would jump to answering that, with something boastful, fibbing details to make herself sound better. At first, that excitement crosses her face- and then, strangely (for her), it just goes away. "We, erm, completed the task that was intended, so it was an overall, sufficiently successful journey. Everyone who set off, they returned not truly worse for wear."

    Matilda coughs, lightly, like she's trying to dislodge a thought, instead of clear her throat. "For the most part, it was, as would be expected, uneventful seafaring, so there is perhaps not much to talk about, truly." She is so blatantly trying to avoid talking about the rest of it. Awkward, with a return to excited-Matilda tone, "And so, there are people who will be bettered by its results, yes? Comme c'est grand!"

'Wow! I've never been on the Great Lake before, but I know it can be pretty dangerous--I'm glad you got to show your stuff.'

    "'Show my stuff'-? Well, perhaps, I did do a bit of that, the likes of my divination are irreplaceable in such an environment..."

    She totally did no swordfighting at all.
Lilian Rook     '... I like your outfit too, Ms. Rook. It's nice with your eyes. It's been a while since I saw that tattoo, too.'

    Lilian glances down at herself, squishes the side of her mouth in a suspicious-thoughtful look, then smiles again. "Well I can't be showing off my back all the time." she says, maintaining her familiar tone.

    '... That sounds really dumb when I say it out loud. Sorry. How about 'I want to understand the people I look up to better'?'

    "That's essentially how I got my start, isn't it?"

    Funny enough, despite Lilian usually being so sensitive and reactionary about touch, in this specific context, she seems to have no hesitation about laying hands on other; even Rita. Contemplating her stance only for a second, Lilian places her hands on Rita's waist, turns her slightly to the left, then presses on her outer hand, pushing her sword back into alignment. "You want your torso following the alignment of your leg, not twisted around to face them. Your arms need their full field of movement."

    Her tattoo, drawn between her shoulders, covering much of her upper back, is visible mostly between the straps of her top. The most Sarracenia could make of it is the obvious solar motif, with sun rays vaguely used like flower petals. It looks 'far eastern', but obviously incorporates 'celtic knots' as well. The ink is gold in a way that somehow retains a certain dark shine. She only has so a few seconds to stare before Lilian is on her properly.

    Her hands fall on top of Sarracenia's, prying her thumbs back slightly, and twisting her wrists several degrees outwards, so that her hands are opposites on the hilt rather than clenched around a haft. She stops to adjust her hips after, leaning down slightly to adjust her lower body into place. Sarracenia feels Lilian kick the back of her lead foot slightly, nudging it forwards. "I said don't lock your elbows. That includes letting the weight lock them for you. Your muscles should be engaged but not tense." That's it? Really? Well, she does tip her sword up with a fingertip as she moves on.

    She lingers on Sonetto for overly long. At first, it seems as if she might be feeling critical, but then it becomes clear that Lilian is looking over her twice, then thrice. An eyebrow goes up, just for a second. "And you've been studying in advance. Fantastic." Lilian says, softly impressed. "Ah, but you're very used to that pen, aren't you?" Upturning her hand, Lilian tenses her fingers to mimic Sonetto's current grip, then relaxes all of her finger at the middle knuckle.

    "Your thumb has to be much more engaged. It's not there to stabilize the sword, but to actively leverage it; it's your strongest digit." she says, walking behind Sonetto. Leaning against her back for the moment, she sights over her shoulder at Sonetto's grip, slides her hands over hers, and carefully makes adjustments by lacing her fingers. "That's a much trickier habit." she says, over her shoulder. "Do you march in a band?" comes out of nowhere after. "You have that feeling to your body." Standing up straight again, she flicks the flat of Sonetto's practice sword with her finger, probably to engrain the feeling of where the resistance is in her palms when it barely wobbles.

    Odette takes more adjustment, but an easy kind. Lilian lifts her foot to put her heel against Odette's knee, then push her back to be actually straight. "Don't try to eye it. Your knee is directly over your ankle when you don't feel the weight." It's followed by correcting the sword angle with her fingers. "The feeling of the pommel pushing up and the guard pulling down should be roughly equal in intensity; that's how you know it's at the right position. You saw what I showed Petra, didn't you? What I told her? If you let go now . . . imagine it coming to rest level on your right index finger."
Lilian Rook     "You don't actually have to stomp, you know." she says as she glides past Finn. "Though it's not a bad idea if you're just drawing your sword. We do need to work on your draws." However, despite his awkwardness, she has very little to say. She even breaks out a smile when he adjusts by one degree. "Excellent. I see all that practice is paying off here." she says. Lilian walks by, turning her back, then wheels around and slaps the flat of his sword with the back of her hand, testing how far it diverts out of position.

    "Tongue back in your mouth." she says to Matilda, poking the tip of her tongue past her lips like a very fussy teacher straightening out a uniform collar. "You'll bite it off if you're unlucky, and depending on the veins in there, that can kill you." says Lilian. Her hands clap down on her shoulders next. Lilian's eyes rove down her body, and she frowns slightly, pressing down slightly more and stabilizing what feels like left-leaning, but appears to be perfectly equal. Her hands then run down her arms more delicately, taking her time to lift them up further, then wrap her fingers around the pommel and drag it back until the bottom of her fist bumps her navel for lack of space.

     "That's not a tremor . . ." Lilian says, thoughtfully. "Do you ever have trouble focusing in class, Bouanich? Standing still for roll call?" She's assuming a lot about SPDM. "How well do you sleep?" This is not the glowing praise Sonetto got. "Your form is very nice, but it's worthless if you can't keep it still." she says. "An experienced opponent can read even subtle fluctuations in your center of gravity." says Lilian, releasing her shoulders.

    Then the instant Matilda restlessly shifts her weight, Lilian kicks the side of her opposite foot; not hard, but definitively enough to sweep out her foot on her weaker side and send her to the floor. "You're neither tall nor heavy." Lilian says, who isn't more than four inches taller, but certainly has fifty pounds on her. "It's critically important that you keep low, and don't shift, or else that nice form of yours is just wasted effort."
Sarracenia      'Don't make it strange...'

     The words echo through Sarra's head. If she reacts it will surely be seen as strange! But...Lilian is touching her! This is strange to Sarra on multiple levels. On the one level, Lilian has done warcrimes to Sarra. On the second, Exigent Serenity posing Sarra like a plaything. On the third...people don't hold Sarra's hand.

     And then there is the fourth. Sarra has a complicated issues when it comes to Lilian, a mixture between hatred and admiration combined with Sarra's general hero worship. Sarra's cheeks turn red as Lilian adjusts Sarra's grip and a slight flustered sound escapes her. The redness increases at the touch to her hips.

     'I said don't lock your elbows. That includes letting the weight lock them for you. Your muscles should be engaged but not tense.'

     In her flustered state, Sarra almost squeaks when she answers. "Er...yes, Director!" Her own response catches the princess off-guard. Which makes her blush even more and her cheeks puff a bit, but she keeps her stance and holds her elbows just slightly bent.

     <Did Petra's advice work that fast?! Or is this just 'this is this and that is that' again?! Are we on friendly terms now?! Did that count as holding hands?! No no, that was just an instructor doing instructor things, do not be foolish! She will hate you again tomorrow...but she did not yell or insult~!!> Thoughts race through Sarra's head, and one can almost see a cartoonish swirly eye expression.

     Matilda is hit, and Sarra is caught between that was kind of mean and also kind of funny and also kind of effective. The feelings sort of cancel out into a slight stare and a slightly open mouth, but the princess doesn't say anything.
Lilian Rook     Once she's completed a round of corrections, Lilian returns to the central 'stage', as much as it can be called one for only being a few inches higher. Giving no signal to let down the current stance of the group, she returns to her own. "The five more you'll get used to are the Hawk, the Stag, the Wolf, the Boar, and the Dragon." Lilian says, and in her 'we'll get to that later tone', it isn't even clear if she intended to demonstrate.

    It's much too quick to actually memorize, how she smoothly adjusts every part of her body to rotate her sword through all six positions; held high and wound back over her head, pointed threateningly forward parallel to eye level, hanging down slightly and partly crossing her upper body, out at forty-five, hanging from the same place with the tip nearly touching the ground, and mirrored behind her, as if being dragged. Lilian Rook is probably the only person alive who has Keyframes; it's all one motion, but it's smoothly transitional between the six.

    "These will accomplish being able to threatening your opponent's space, protecting your own, covering yourself from close-in, securing your weapon from binding, and attacking your opponent's unguarded body. Posta di Fenestra, Ko Gasumi, Ochs, Roebuck; once you get them all down, you'll be able to interpret every other fighting manual." she says, snapping the sword right back up to that lethal-looking, gaze-guided, cross-hand pose again, then relaxes it back to the Lion again. "So, enough taking it easy." she says, after everyone has had to hold perfectly still while holding eight pounds of weight even more. "You'll get a better feel for your center of balance with something exciting."

    Lilian looks a little bit proud of herself. She takes on a showy sort of posture as she stands up, planting her practice sword so perfectly point-down that it balances straight up without being held, letting her place one hand on her hip, and with her other arm extended, clearly snap her fingers through her gloves. "Nóiméad ansin."

    Suddenly in front of her is a bamboo pole. It takes a second to sink in that it is, in fact, growing out of a small dirt plot, suspended in a disc-shaped mechanical base that supports it a half-foot off the floor, with three telescoping posts partially retracted into the trio of short legs supporting it. Lilian plucks her perfectly-balanced sword up off the ground in that soft-launching way she likes, snatches the hilt out of the air, twists at the hips, steps forward, and slices-- thrice?-- through the post, from the top down to its middle.

    Three cleanly severed chunks of bamboo land in the dirt below, and then, before your eyes, rapidly decay into mulch, and sink into the soil. The living bamboo stalk rapidly grows back at the same time, reaching its original height within a few seconds. Two kinds of magic are involved, if the Foundation kids want extra credit, but the purpose is obvious.

    "The sword is ruthlessly fair. It is brutally honest. It knows exactly what is in your soul and refuses to express anything but. There is no way to master it without relentless focus, endurance, and repetition. You won't be taking breaks." Lilian says, skimping on explanation; she has no need of it, as several assistant staff, denoted by their red ties, are already carrying out triangular metal crates that each contain an identical apparatus, placing them before each Elite and keying a few buttons to retract the container slats back into the telescoping posts.
Lilian Rook     "It'd be a hassle if you started taking breaks between every few cuts. It's too difficult to work up a sweat that way." Lilian says, being wrong. "I'll show you the proper technique in a second, along with breathing, but for now, take a few swings at each of yours, in whichever way feels most natural to you, but without moving your feet at all. As you do, focus on where you feel your center of gravity moving. Try to take note if you feel yourself tilting or struggling to balance in one direction or another in the followthrough or windup. Then reel it in; remember that you're using a sword, not a baseball bat."
Angela The sword... holds steady! You did it Finn! He does breathe a sigh of relief when it doesn't go flying out of his hand like a cartoon skit though, which was a close thing. He glances to Matilda when she speaks about the trip. She sounds weirdly anxious about it? But he's not sure why if the trip was uneventful. Maybe she was hoping for more excitement on the trip? Finn sometimes worries he's missing a lot of the subtext but--

"Divination is really valuable here." Finn says, apparently forgetting this was originally about swordfighitng. "I mean, there's lots of fortune tellers who aren't right, but since you're a fortune teller that's right--that's incredible. There's a lot of dangerous stuff out there and even a little bit of pre-knowledge of what to look out for is invaluable as Fixers. There's a whole ASsociation that specializes in gathering that information so other Fixers don't have to bleed for that kind of intel." He smiles. "Thanks for looking out after everyone."

''You don't actually have to stomp, you know.''r
"Ah...yeah. I'm used to a lighter sword so it's taking somne getting used to, especially on the draw--and Yun didn't train me on draws--normally we draw our swords before anything like a fight could happen, but it's a wider range of work here."

He's happy for any praise, especially when he is starting to feel the struggle.

He takes a moment ot watch lilian again as she lectures once more, clamping his mouth shut, remembering the rules of the day. He's really impressed that Lilian ins't just strong, but she's knowledgable. Like, if there was a fighter college, it's like she graduated from that and is a Dr. of Swordfighting. He struggles to keep up with all the proper nouns and language all at once like that and does a doubhle take when a bamboo pole just appears but he can't help but whistle when Lilian triple-slashes the bamboo that readily.

He decides to focus on proper technique and breathing today. If he tries to do everything he won't learn a single thing.
Timekeeper     "Ah, well... I've been at this for a while, actually... But don't worry about it! I know I'm still low Grade."

    "Oh!" Sonetto feels a tiny bit of guilt, but she's not really *embarrassed* at the mess-up. Finn is simply too enthusiatic of a guy to be moved out of the 'brave and conscientious citizen' box in her mind, so she just wants to encourage him instead.

    "Perhaps that is why you were assigned to our group. Even if I have some combat experience, there are many things that can only be learned through proper mentoring. You may just not be aware of how much you have picked up over time."

"For the most part, it was, as would be expected, uneventful seafaring, so there is perhaps not much to talk about, truly."

    This is so wildly uncharacteristic that even Sonetto can't help but take notice. She turns her head, smoothly separate from her stance like an owl, to look over at Matilda with concern. Her eyes scan her face as if reassessing all the differences in her look and expression for the first time, lips pressed together.

    "Is that true...? Well...." Awkward avoidance after a field mission is not, actually, new to Sonetto at all. That doesn't mean she knows what to *do* about it. If interpersonal morale boosting was a class at the SPDM, it would be the only one that she grades poorly in.

    "I am certain that no voyage with you could be dull," She eventually decides on. "And it is no surprise to hear that those with you were impressed by your abilities, even if it was simple."

"And you've been studying in advance. Fantastic."

    When Lilian comes around to examine her stance, Sonetto stays as still as a statue, totally unflinching under either study or being handled around for adjustments. Sparkles emit off of her from the praise even though she hardly even changes her expression; it's like each word out of Lilian's mouth makes her commit even harder to the practice. When she's called on to speak, there's a moment of hesitation where she has to swallow in order to produce noise.

    "Mmm? I am holding it too lightly...? Understood." She adjusts her hands according to Lilian's instructions, grateful a little bit for what feels like... permission, somehow, to put her palms fully against the hilt. "My pen... actually, I have practiced stances for casting incantations as well, but not precisely the same as this one, so it's familiar. And-"

    She looks up at Lilian in surprise. "That is correct, one of my duties is leading the annual parade! Is it easy to tell?"

"You'll bite it off if you're unlucky, and depending on the veins in there, that can kill you."

    Sonetto watches Lilian stick her finger in Matilda's mouth in shock. Not at that, though. "I see! I had never heard of that before. It is a bad habit to break." It's kind of impolite to comment on Matilda's continued string of comments from Lilian, but... Sonetto is a diligent student, not a polite one.

"Do you ever have trouble focusing in class, Bouanich?"

    Sonetto quietly laughs, and the impulse to cover up her mouth with a hand is barely visible as anything more than a slight dip in the tip of the sword before she quells it. "Ah... weren't you and Timekeeper both...?"

    And then Matilda is floored! This, actually, is pretty much par for the course for Sonetto. It elicits a bit of a gasp, but in moving her foot away from where Matilda falls, she tries to do it in the most natural way without breaking guard, cheekily pre-practicing a backstep.
Rita Ma      "That's essentially how I got my start, isn't it?"
     "Huh? It... is?" All the facts about Lilian were there for Rita, but she hadn't aligned them in quite that way. Finn approving of her at the same time knocks her off-guard even more, deepening her little blush. Surely their pursuit of the blade is so much more noble and serious than her own that it doesn't bear comparing, right? But... "Huh."

     She nods after the corrections- being touched so unhesitatingly is refreshingly new- and lets out a breath, looking a bit more resolutely focused with the encouragement. Is she breathing at all, when she doesn't need to talk?

     "How *has* your sister been, Mr. Finn? Sometimes I forget she's someone you look up to so much. I wish I had a more solid image of her... it'd be nice to meet her someday." Rita might be projecting a bit too much of Bota on him, and a bit too much of herself on her.

     Rita beams after Odette as she goes, with genuine warmth, but more than a little concern. "Thank you. You're one of a kind, so... please be gentle with 'you'."

     Then it's bamboo-chopping time!! "Oh, thank you, Ms. Bamboo-Setter." Rita doesn't let her amazement at most kinds of magic get in the way of her Sword Gravitas, and stances up. First cut! Rita's body tenses; for just a moment the taut ligaments make the hints of muscles stand out, and...!

     Crrrk.

     Hm. She hadn't quite gotten the angle right, and so while her blade cuts through by merit of force, the wood splinters instead of shearing cleanly. She bends down to pick up far-flung fragments and drop them back into the pot to try again. Next time it's a little cleaner.

     "Is that true...? Well...."
     Noticing Matilda's reticence, and Sonetto's confusion, Rita confidently misreads the situation. "She handled it really well, Ms. Sonetto," she confides aside while scooping up bamboo splinters. "but someone else made things really emotionally messy. She might still be uncomfortable..."
Odette Raskins "Your knee is directly over your ankle when you don't feel the weight."

The physical readjustment, although not entirely unexpected, still gets a briefly started noise out of Odette. "H-huh? Oh, ah... This straight up, I see. So I don't feel the-" She bounces on her heel once to feel the difference, eventually letting out another 'aaaah' at Lilian's instruction. "I get it now...! S-so I'm not supposed to feel like I'm tipping.. Okay, okay, yeah, now it's coming together..."

The sword angle guidance, meanwhile, has the EMT first remaining completely still. Part of that comes from long-ingrained lessons to not move a sharp object suddenly while someone else is nearby, and part that comes from how much she's focusing on feeling what she can in her wrist, her hands, and her elbows as Lilian corrects the way she's holding the blade. "Ahah... I-it's subtle, but.. Oh, that's why these were specific to each of us! Then the pull at the right angle would be just right..." She guesses, looking over at Lilian in wide-eyed awe. "Wow, Miss Rook. Y-you really thought of everything. If I can the angle correct, and then I let go here..."

She starts trying to picture it first, closing her eyes as her fingers go a little more slack around the grip. With better over the weapon and her movements, Odette is already imagining the sword staying right where it is, perfectly balanced by its own weight on her index finger. She doesn't actually do it, of course, because she's not confident enough to do that when everyone's watching, but it's a nice shot of confidence and motivation to improve further.

As she keeps adjusting her stance to get her knee properly placed back far enough instead of tilting forward more and her feet shifted far enough apart with her knees in a relaxed-ish bend, Odette keeps her blade steady in front of her. She flicks the blade back up an inch to keep that proper angle, occasionally dipping the blade forward to really make herself feel that difference even with slight angle changes.

Odette's already less afraid of it now than she was before, but she hasn't actually taken a swing with it yet. Still, that doesn't mean she can't try to memorize that feeling in her arm, and she even has time to crib some notes from what she's hearing and seeing. She takes particular note of the advice Lilian's giving Rita about the torso and leg alignment, adjusting her own stance to aim her left shoulder a little more forward.

Even from a distance, Odette can also see how excited Matilda is to be training today, and she can see how prepared Sonetto is. The contrast between the two has her holding in a giggle, and then she goes right back to steeling her expression to try and get her mind back on track even while internally cheering for the two. Matilda even gets a sympathetically encouraging smile after that foot kick, and Odette bends her knees a bit more to keep herself that much closer to the ground.

"please be gentle with 'you'."

Once again, Rita manages to nail Odette right in the chest with that plea, and the EMT feels another pang of guilt at worrying her like this at all. "Ah... Y.. I-I will! sorry, Miss Rita. I just need to.. Work through it, mhm. Gotta get that.. I-image out of my head. I bet by the time my arm heals, it'll even stop showing up whenever I try to sleep." She suggests, laughing awkwardly at the topic that's still a fresh wound in her mind and on her face in the literal sense. "And... Thank you. Um. F-for worrying. It really means a lot."
Odette Raskins "The five more you'll get used to are"

Just when Odette's almost feeling confident enough to ask about swings, though, Lilian gets ahead of her with a new set of guards! The temptation to get that into her PDA is strong, but she's actually able to fight the urge in favor of actually watching Lilian go through those poses. Trying to memorize the names with those poses is going to be impossible for her right now, but she keeps that in mind while remembering their eventual applications:

Actually cutting someone down. Good or evil, that's what the weapon is ultimately meant to do, even if it's the EMT doing it. Once again, Odette feels the weight of the weapon suddenly threatening to drag her arm down. How much heavier would this be once she finally uses it to cut someone down in a way she can't save them from?

The self-growing bamboo trick does take her mind off that, at least, and gawking at that for long enough helps Odette focus on the task instead of the future. "Not moving at all? Oh.. Ah. Okay. From here..."

Should she have taken a different stance before? It'd be easier to swing with more force if she had a two-handed grip, but would she be able to reach the bamboo properly? Instead of wondering endlessly, Odette just gives it a shot: Two hands on the handle, left hand over right. Being reminded that she's holding a sword does stop her from putting too much extra effort into that, at least, and she goes back to the more natural-feeling one-hand grip.

Forcing herself to not move her feet turns out to be a bigger stumbling block for Odette than the actual grip, though, since her body wants to move with the weapon instead of just kind of swiping with it through the air. Her first few swings, without the benefit of a demonstration, are done based on what worked in other contexts.

The first: Sliding it smoothly through the air like she's wielding an oversized scalpel against a very large person.
The second: A backhanded upwards slice that's visibly awkward even for her in mid-swing. At least it's more of an actual swing instead of a line-drawing, but she's twisting it in mid-swing.
The third: A diagonal overhand chop that might be more appropriate for an axe or a pick than a sword.
Lilian Rook     'Er...yes, Director!'

    For some reason, Lilian double takes at that. The way she squints at Sarracenia is downright baffled, but her sense of professionalism is too strong to be interrupted by just that.

    "Good. I see you've finally caught on." Lilian says to Finn instead, waving behind her. "If you still insist on avoiding augmentation, losing your hold on your weapon is the last thing that happens right before approximately ninety out of a hundred ways you could die. You have to control it even better than your enemy; the more the stronger they are. Work hard."

    'That is correct, one of my duties is leading the annual parade! Is it easy to tell?'

    Lilian smiles again. Just a little. "The way you're conserving your energy while standing like that made me think of it. Veteran officers do something similar; the former just seemed more likely." she says. She has seen Sonetto's parade outfit, after all.

    'I see! I had never heard of that before. It is a bad habit to break.'

    "If the vein goes all the way through instead of forking near the end, a tongue piercing might kill you." Lilian says. A little fun fact. How interesting to share.

    'Huh? It... is?'

    Lilian blinks, staring at Rita. "Well, it's not as if Nova Heliosanctus teaches swordsmanship, is it?" she says, in a faintly incredulous way.
Angela ''Perhaps that is why you were asigned to our group.''

"Oh! Maybe!" Finn smiles. "With this sort of thing, there's a lot of invisible stuff to pick up you might not realize." He hesitates a touch and adds, "If you spot anything, feel free to echo it back to me! It'll help me out, for sure." He's accustomed to talented people rising past him so it's not something that he's going to cause a fuss over--and he doesn't exactly have that sort of issue with his pride--but he does use it as motivation to work harder--though at the moment, he's pretty much at his limit of how much effort he can put in--that's why he always makes sure to show up when Lilian provides a direct class. That's something he can't do on his own. He is inherently an all around above average fighter in a world where that's the most dangerous thing to be but with Lilian's guidance he threatens to become ''good'' which is the third most dangerous Fixer to be. The second most dangerous type of Fixer, of course, is to be a Color. No Color has ever retired peacefully into an administrative role in recent history. That's one of the reasons why even active Colors are wary about the Purple Tear.

Though that's not really a Finn concern. If he saw a Color in his life he might faint on the spot. It's an uneasy blessing that Lilian hasn't gained a title like that yet or he might have been unable to focus on the lessons. He's had time to adapt to a Grade One in his life now though.

''I am certain that no voyage with you could be dull. And it is no surprise to hear that those with you were impressed by your abilities.''

"I heard Ceri complimenting you. I think she really appreciated how you acted as a ''representative'' of the Association." In other words, adherance to Association ideals.

''Leading the annual parade!''

"There's a parade?" Finn asks. "I've never seen one. What's it like?"

''How *has* your sister been, Mr. FInn?''

"Oh she's all healed up. I don't really have to pay medical bills anymore, but now I'm not really sure what to use it for. Just giving her the occassional gift or souvenir is barely biting into my budget." He seems embarrassed. "Do you have any idea of what to do with all this extra money I don't need? I've saved up some in case of a rainy day or if there's a sudden health complication, but I'm a little worried..."

Since he hasn't been purchasing augments with his own money at all that means he's just kind of ... getting wealthier? He feels awkward and weird about it like it doesn't fit him. "I can schedule a trip out soon. Let's find a time that's good for both of us and if anyone else wants to come along, we can invite them along. She's been really excited to meet you, Ms. Rita."
Timekeeper "The five more you'll get used to are the Hawk, the Stag, the Wolf, the Boar, and the Dragon."

    Sonetto is vaguely agitated when Lilian shifts through the forms too quickly for her to commit them to memory. Like tugging a toy away from her mouth just before she bites down, the hint of more knowledge to come leaves her feeling unfulfilled and eager for more, and it's only through the teacher's pet determination to see her first subject to completion before continuing on that she endures. Learning the next guard is a little treat she can have once she's done the responsible thing of perfecting this one! This tactic got her through many classes when she was young.

"Nóiméad ansin."

    It's normal for arcanists to have a flair for the dramatic, but Sonetto still buys into it with bated breath. She's been promised something *exciting*, which means more advanced tutoring! She's actually studied Lilian's (family's) magic a little bit before, so the manifestation of the bamboo after the incantation is a kind of cause and effect that she can put together quickly, despite the lack of cause for that particular effect. Magic of earth, time, and teleportation! It's so clever!

    "Thank you," She says in passing to the clerk who passes out her bamboo plot. Sonetto stands up to revert her stance, and then tries to line her guard up with the bamboo, settling into it a second time to ingrain the 'motion of adopting it' and not just stiffly staying in it. She shifts her hands around the hilt, feeling the balance of the sword across the fulcrum and then breathes slowly.

"I'll show you the proper technique in a second, along with breathing, but for now, take a few swings at each of yours, in whichever way feels most natural to you, but without moving your feet at all."

    This gives Sonetto a mission: engineer her natural feelings in such a way that she intuits exactly what Lilian will teach them in advance. This instruction is a trap. If she swings it wrong, then she'll have done badly and Lilian will have to correct her next time, and Sonetto *hates* being used as an example of 'what not to do'.

    Laser focused, Sonetto narrows her eyes at the bamboo, honing her focus along the edge of the blade and visualizing the path of the sword. She's forbidden from taking a step, so she can't mimic Lilian exactly, but keeping in mind what she did to demonstrate, she brings her rear hand up and twists, leveraging the entire length of the blade to...!

    Still not do it all that well. The splinters sticking out of the top of the stalk are evidence of her shame. Sonetto's face falls a bit, but she gets right back into trying several more times.

"She handled it really well, Ms. Sonetto,"

    Being reassured about this after having just expressed confidence in it makes Sonetto blink, but, it doesn't really give her a reason to contrarianly *disbelieve* that it's true. But by that same token, she also doesn't have a reason to disbelieve Rita's explanation for why Matilda might be awkward, so she dips her chin in a subtly sympathetic nod.

    "I see... it is often the case that people's emotions are elevated during missions like that. Especially during ship travel. Were you aware that is the origin of the term 'cabin fever'...?" That's a fun boat fact from Sonetto!
Foundation Scions 'I am certain that no voyage with you could be dull,'

    Matilda's heart skips a beat. "Perhaps, next chance there is, you could put such a claim to the test-! Even though, of course, it could not be!" She forgot what prompted this, she simply has to boast Sonetto's way. "Er, but... to say more, it was not an exceptionally pleasant time. One such as I could, of course, handle it quite easily, and pleasantness is not an expectation in important duties..."

    As Rita says, it's pretty clear some of it weighs on her.

'Tongue back in your mouth.'

    Matilda's face immediately reddens in embarrassment, and reddens more, when she isn't given a chance to fix it herself before Lilian corrects it for her. That it could have been a dangerous little habit just makes it worse- but it's not something to defend or talk back about, after all! Having to simply nod in acknowledgement makes it seem like she's about to pop like a corn kernel.

    Maybe, if she's super lucky, Sonetto will get distracted, and not see and hear! Luck is so often on her side, is it not?

'I see! I had never heard of that before. It is a bad habit to break.'

    It's not.

'Do you ever have trouble focusing in class, Bouanich? Standing still for roll call?'

    "N-no, of course not!" Matilda lies. "Not habitually!" Matilda corrects, not a lie- she may have been on the more rambunctious and restless side of the SPDM's students, but it is, in many cases, a capable institute at training students out of that. Matilda has as much an aversion to disciplinary action as most people do.

'An experienced opponent can read even subtle fluctuations in your center of gravity.'

    "Right- yes, Director! I'll get it right-!" Matilda nods again, for emphasis- she may be easily embarrassed, but she is not easily deterred! She'll fix it, she'll stand still, she'll adjust her center, and Sonetto will see that she can do it, she'll get praise for it, too, because she'll do it even better-

    The ceiling stops being up for a moment, and Matilda hits the mat, hard. Did she mess up her adjustments? "Que s'est-il passé..?"
Foundation Scions     Sonetto's gasp, and Lilian's continued-on as if nothing happened instructions, prompt Matilda, embarrassed and totally handling it great, to do an uncoordinated scramble-hop back to her feet, without aid. If there's anything positive to be said about her fall, it's that, somehow, she didn't drop her sword! Wiping her face on the wrist sweatband totally isn't something she does to sop up any embarrassed tears, nope! It's fine. This is important instruction! This is to make sure she doesn't go and die out on the field of battle!

    But Sonetto saw! So, basically, she already did die on the field of battle, but like, one of those deaths where the horse just rolls over on top of you and you pop like a balloon, not a cool one!

    Matilda is steadier when she gets back up to continue, if only because, in trying not to let it look so blatant that this is getting to her, she's way more focused on the smaller motions of her body. Is that the trick? Be hyper-vigilant of embarrassing yourself in front of your crush, to do form practice better?

'You'll get a better feel for your center of balance with something exciting.'

    If that was boring, Matilda's little heart is cooked and fried.

    "Such speed..?" Matilda's looking at the plant, not the sword- "To grow and re-grow again and again... Director, do these arrays work à perpétuité? Er-- in perpetuity?" Some day, she'll get it in her head that people can understand her in either language she uses. "Or will eventual systemic decay set in?"

    Enough dilly-dallying! Matilda has to swing her own sword, finally! She's Extra sure to keep her feet planted-right, and not move them at all, to stay low, and- is that all..? Is she forgetting something?

    Matilda swings, and quickly, before nearly throwing herself off to the side, corrects even lower (read: correct) again. Whoopsie!

'I've never seen one. What's it like?'

    "Oh, it is most marvelous an occasion! The uniforms, the music... one who has watched it will never forget~!" It's a pretty normal parade.
Sarracenia      Sarra is not going to remember all those stance names or the form that goes with them. Or what they will accomplish. She listens quietly, but the information is gone almost as soon as Lilian stops speaking. Her eye does widen when that sword balances perfectly on the tip. How is that possible?! Why does Lilian have to be so amazing and so frustrating at the same time?!

     Sarra flinches when that bamboo pole suddenly appears. "Hweh?!" Her stance falls for a moment, but she quickly gets back into position. She watches wide-eyed as Lilian displays her prowess at cutting bamboo...with a -dull- sword. Sarra looks skeptical that such a thing is actually possible, much less that they can do it.

     Sarra listens to the talk of the sword and its honesty, and of their next exercise. Sarra mmphs in annoyance. What feels most natural to her -would- be the baseball swing. You don't do little controlled swings with a hammer! (At least, she doesn't)

     Sarra raises her sword over her head and much too far back over her head. Then, she swings down with...all her might! Maybe if she hits it right in the middle very hard it will split despite the dull sword! Of course...her aim with a sword is definitely nowhere near good enough to land that on a full power hit. She misses completely, then mmphs in annoyance and raises her sword again. Her feet don't move at least. She taps the end of the sword to the top of the bamboo, then raises and taps again, then lifts her sword and brings it down with about half power, focusing on trying to hit that bamboo at all.

     "...what do you mean it would be too difficult to work up a sweat?" Sarra asks, her tone containing suspicion. She tries a few more swings, managing to split the bamboo eventually through sheer force if nothing else. She doesn't try anything but vertical downward cuts though. She does have -some- knowledge of weapons, and she isn't going to waste her time trying to cut a soft, flexible stick sideways with a dull sword.

     Sarra does her best to ignore the doubletake and the squint after her 'yes director'. Sarra is basically doing the same thing mentally to herself, and her cheeks are red from everything. She just keeps her eye focused on that bamboo until Lilian's gaze leaves her, then lets out a sigh of relief.

     'I am certain that no voyage with you could be dull,'

     "I am not certain if it was because of Matilda, but the voyage was anything but dull." Sarra says. "We had a pirate crew led by Nonon. We had plenty of enemy pirates and sea monsters to fight. We had a legendary treasure to find! And at the end, we were betrayed by our pirate crew as is customary when working with a pirate crew!" Sarra sounds far too cheerful about it. "-AND- we reformed them! I am quite certain we will see most of them around here eventually!" Sarra says all this between swings of her sword.
Lilian Rook     "Patience." Lilian says. A sideways glance catches Sonetto, but really she could be talking to anyone. "We have twenty minutes per guard, after all."

    'Were you aware that is the origin of the term 'cabin fever'...?'

    "Oh? That's sort of interesting." she says, lightly, turning her back to Matilda. "I certainly felt it on that travel-by-ship in Elibe, even with fellow nobility and proper entertainment." She meant Larum and Roy and such. Music and board games. That.

    'N-no, of course not! Not habitually!'

    "Oh? Well, that's good. As these classes get more routine, you'll have an easier time calming down, then." Lilian says. Very charitably, too! "I have a few bits of advice for a persistent habit, but it sounds as if you won't need them."

    Pausing to look back over her shoulder at Matilda on the floor, Lilian says, thoughtfully. "Mm. I'll make certain to cover falls as soon as possible. Breaking a fall or being stunned by it is almost always a matter of life and death in combat." Then, back to work. "Scáthach used to shove me out of bed until I hit the floor guarding. I barely got any sleep for weeks."

    'Director, do these arrays work à perpétuité? Er-- in perpetuity?'

    Well, that gets her attention again anyways. "Hm? Is that really relevant?" Lilian says, still in that evil concierge sort of tone. "If you place it close to a leyline it will. Otherwise the energy expended by the cells metabolizing will eventually cause the bamboo to die. I'm flattered by your interest, but does this really matter?"

    
Lilian Rook     Finally taking her proper place on the stage, Lilian says "Now that you've taken a few practice swings, it's about time for what you've been waiting for." Turning her head just to the side, she raises her voice slightly, and adds, "Fetch them proper swords, please." for the assisting staff, without any need to sound nearly as niceys about it as she does. Within seconds, the red ties are scurrying out with weapons that are properly honed, rather than left blunted, taking your practice swords and handing off the replacements; your own personal issue SN-13, if you've brought it, or a fully disarmed model of similar dimensions if not. "You're very welcome!" can be heard from a smiling blonde who handles both Sonetto and Rita in one go, on purpose.

    Lilian draws Night Mist, instead. The typical manipulation of chain, the 'underwater smoke', and the flowing dissipation of blackness from the blade, happen in their usual sequence, as if it were something totally unremarkable. Lilian turns in side profile to face her bamboo again, and the bright, sterile, multidirectional light in the room starkly highlights every fine engraving along the length of the blade. The way she settles into 'the Lion' looks like sitting down. The motion is strangely natural. You can oddly feel a sense of secondhand ease from it.

    "First, your leading hand should be just under the guard. Your following hand shouldn't be choked up underneath it; leave it all the way down at the pommel." Lilian says. She demonstrates by sliding her own intentionally misplaced hand down the length of her practice sword's hilt, taking a slow, focusing breath as she does. For some reason, it's strangely easy to feel the texture of it; the phantom sensation of fingertips brushing over the grip, caught secondhand, and the exact pressure of her squeeze on the base of the hilt.

    "The weapon you're holding has no need of 'force', but rather 'velocity' and 'precision'. How swiftly the edge is moving, and the angle at which it strikes, determine everything. You will become stronger only for the sake of delivering your edge as swiftly as it desires. The blade doesn't care for your ego, so discard it." Lilian says, altogether like the same thought, next. Having not blinked for twenty seconds in a row, focused exclusively on the length of bamboo in front of her, her tone takes on an almost meditative quality.

    And yet, her meaning is oddly clear. Intuitively, even. The word 'ego' comes with a sense of tension and pressure; coiled up power, clenching grip, bulging muscles, mass and force. The attribution of 'desire' conjures to mind a feeling of momentum where a phantom blade is practically pivoting in your hand of its own accord, slicing through the air so cleanly that it can't be felt. "The cut is a living thing, and your purpose as a swordsman is to breathe life into it."

    'Breathe' couldn't be a better choice if it were conscious. Lilian draws breath loudly enough for you to hear in the room's acoustic enclosure, then exhales it, drawing bar lines on either side of four quarter notes-- somehow that's exactly what it resembles. "Breathe in with your diaphragm, not your throat. Draw it all the way down into the root of your chest, but don't strain. Exhale it from below, through your mouth. Don't use your nose at all." she says. Something about her delivery invariably draws attention to a fix point of warmth between and below your ribs, stoked hotter with fresh air, expanding into the cold of your chest.

    Or rather, at this point, you're clearly 'overhearing her thoughts'. Or perhaps 'drawn into them'. Even your plasticky practice sword feels like it's supporting its own weight as much as your head is atop your neck.
Lilian Rook     "You'll push forward with your following foot, off the toe, but you'll put most of your force into the heel of your lead. Step forward, but only shortly. Your whole body doesn't need momentum; all you have to do is add your own velocity to your sword's. At the same time, turn your hands to angle your sword outwards, without lifting them, and just as you feel yourself hit the fastest part of your step, extend your arms nearly fully, and sweep in the opposite direction, like you're tying to balance yourself. Pull with your following hand and push with your lead; the base of the doesn't need to travel; you're tracing an invisible circle with the point, and it's revolving as fast as you can make it."

    Rather than immediately jumping to demonstrate, Lilian expels one more breath. "Just as you start to move, breathe out. Quickly, but don't force it. Your chest should feel half-full as your arms move, and your lungs should empty as the blade makes contact. When you do it right, it'll feel smooth. Like your exhale is operating the mechanism of everything else." The comparison is nonsense, but you can somehow see it. The springs and levers embodying your own limbs, ratcheted up by air, released and spun out. "Don't try to do it all at the same time, or in a certain order; the sequence will come naturally from your stance."

    A wave that propels energy down through your body and the bottoms of your feet, into the earth. The inevitable motions that unfold through the mathematics inherent to the human body, discovered only in the moment. The animism of the blade, alive and perfectly in synch, both of you focused on the same divine arc. The electric spark on your fingertips and the singing of the metal's perfect resonant frequency. Reiterating all the same thoughts as yesterday, in Elibe, reinforces them, amplifying Lilian's instructional psychic radiation to be palpable nearby. A certain phrase she'd used, then, comes irresistibly back to mind.

    "Forget all your ideas about gathering up your strength and releasing it. To cut the enemy, all that is required is to speak the incantation with each part of your body. Your blade knows the words."

    Lilian's strike would almost go without notice, like the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, just for how natural it feels; that is if you weren't subject to the secondhand spark from somewhere below your heart, and a faint sense of explosive energy thereon. The bamboo stalk doesn't so much as twitch, though you clearly see the sword go through, and hear the soprano hum and tenor thwack of the motion and impact. The top third slides down the diagonal plane sliced through it over a few seconds and tumbles into the dirt, and only then does it feel like your attention in the room is released from local gravity being at its center.

    "Reset your stance between each try. Ten right, then ten left, five sets." Lilian says, motioning to flick back her hair where it isn't, and playing it off as brushing a sidelock away from her eyes. "Then I'll go through you one by one."
Rita Ma      Swing number two. After her first failure, Rita's much more thoughtful and deliberate with how she lines up the blade itself with the angle of her swing, which means--

     Crunch.

     She does even worse this time. The bamboo shatters with half-blunt force, but the pot almost knocks over, and she has to dart in and steady it to stop the dirt spilling. Oh no!

     "Gotta get that.. I-image out of my head."
     "Image?" Rita says, looking up with a pained-worried scrunch as she crouches by the bamboo-pot. "Odette... most people don't go through that. What's happened to you?"

     "Were you aware that is the origin of the term 'cabin fever'...?"
     "Hm?" Rita says, straightening up- and then she takes a pleased-to-tell-you Tone that, for just a second, makes her resemble Matilda. Hand to her chest: "Actually, that's just a myth. Living on boats is really normal. It's the treasure that makes people go crazy."

     "... now I'm not really sure what to use it for."
     "Aww, Mr. Finn," Rita says warmly. Forgetting that she was lined up for a third swing, she counts off on her fingers:

     "Well, if you have a good place to live... and you've got all the things you want... and you're safe if there's an emergency... and all the people you care about are cared-for, then..." She perks up and smiles, as if it's obvious. "The only thing left to do is give it to people who need it, and get involved with your community. Right? Look at Ms. Rook; she sort of has the right idea."

     "She's been really excited to meet you, Ms. Rita."
     "She... is? I mean, she has?!" Rita looks almost startled enough to drop her sword. Reputation preceding her is one thing; reputation preceding her in a good way might be utterly new. "... I'd really like that, then. Thank you, Mr. Finn. It means a lot to me."
Sarracenia      When brought a proper sword (once again the disarmed model), Sarra takes it carefully and gives it a few slow swings to make sure it feels the same as the previous sword. She then settles back into the Lion stance.

     Sarra continues to follow the instructions being given. And as she does, she remembers something she heard mentioned offhandedly by Lilian at some point. That proper breathing is highly underrated, or something along those lines. "...no need of force...?" Another foreign concept to the hammer-happy princess. Sarra does the breathing exercise a few times. "...not force...velocity..." Sarra says a few times.

     How does one produce specifically velocity and not power? Sarra isn't sure she knows. But, pure power -can- produce velocity, and that she does know. So, she goes through several attempts at cutting using the breathing technique, letting out her breath through her mouth before swinging with all her overswinging might.

     Of course, her blade alignment is terrible on the first swing, but on the next few she is able to cut the bamboo pretty cleanly, if very inefficiently.
Timekeeper "Perhaps, next chance there is, you could put such a claim to the test-!"

    Wow... boat voyage.... Sonetto seems to seriously consider it, presumably to Matilda's delight. She's not even *totally* ignoring the fact that Matilda would be there too! Just, Sonetto thinks that going on a boat again would be a thrilling adventure and give her the chance to see beautiful scenery in other worlds, and it's fine if Matilda is there too!

    "Hm... well, if it is appropriate for a mission, then I would have no objection to it."

"I am not certain if it was because of Matilda, but the voyage was anything but dull."

    Sonetto absorbs Sarracenia's description of events, trying to synthesize it with Rita's explanation and Matilda's brushing off of the entire thing. Uneventful, she said... with a pirate crew and sea monsters, searching for a treasure. This leaves Sonetto with three options: either Matilda is somehow entirely used to such things, Matilda is so deeply uncomfortable with the mission that she's lying, or Sarracenia is misled about the nature of what happened. Perhaps Sarracenia saw a particularly large fish and assumed it was a monster, like people did in ancient times, and a sordid-looking crew of legitimate sailors appeared as pirates to a princess.

    She settles on none of these options. If directly stated events are mutually contradictory, then Sonetto will simply forge ahead without interrogating any of them. "I see... that must have been difficult and dangerous."

"Patience."

    She can be so patient! She's so patient that she doesn't even need to be reminded! In fact, if Lilian looks in her direction, she's being even more patient than anyone!

"I certainly felt it on that travel-by-ship in Elibe, even with fellow nobility and proper entertainment."

    The logical direction for Sonetto's mind to go, when talking to someone who lives in not only the modern world, but one in an era sixty to one hundred and sixty years ahead of hers, would be to a modern cruise. Nobility and boats both still exist, after all! But Sonetto is holding a sword, and so is Lilian, so her mind wanders to "An oversea adventure with nobility...."

"Scáthach used to shove me out of bed until I hit the floor guarding. I barely got any sleep for weeks."

    A mission appears in Sonetto's mind! > Get shoved out of bed regularly!
Foundation Scions 'Breaking a fall or being stunned by it is almost always a matter of life and death in combat.'

    Matilda adds another tally to the times she'd have died if this wasn't practice! Soggy-tone, mid-getting up, "I'll study..!"

'Hm? Is that really relevant?'

    Squeaky high-pitched, "No, not truly, I was only curious- please think nothing of it!" Still, that is her question answered- entropy isn't mitigated from some self-contained magical power-source, yay, yippee! Sating curiosity has earned her: another callout in the middle of (basically) class. That counts for a 'times died' tallymark!

. . .

'The blade doesn't care for your ego, so discard it.'

    Matilda doesn't really know how exactly to follow that instruction, but by the effort it looks like she's putting into it (furrowed brows, eyes nearly crossing, lips pursed) she's sure to figure it out, right? Maybe it'll take her a while to get around to what she's supposed to intuit.

    Still, she does hear the advice, and likewise, the actual instructions for motion. So, when it's time to copy and demonstrate the proper way to strike, her first one of the (multiple strikes, in one of the multiple sets) is actually honestly good- which surprises Matilda, and makes her too conscious to have the others be how they ought to.

    Still, that's something she can be a little proud of (and work more on (and hope Sonetto isn't watching anything else oh god she's already ruined her image so much today (it's probably not changed at all)).

'Scáthach used to shove me out of bed until I hit the floor guarding. I barely got any sleep for weeks.'

    On an entirely different note, Matilda perks up like a shark that smells blood- "Sonetto? I could help you practice by utilizing that method!"
Timekeeper "Sonetto? I could help you practice by utilizing that method!"

    Sonetto turns to Matilda in surprise. "Out of... my bed? But that would be in my own bedroom?"

    On one hand, Sonetto has practiced one singular guard for less than half of an hour. She barely qualifies as a novice, and she has approximately one thousand hours of basic fundamentals before gimmicky torment like that to instill reactive muscle memory makes sense even a little bit, if it does for anyone. She has absolutely no business doing something like that, and it'll mostly just result in her getting shoved to the ground regularly.

    But on the *other* hand, Sonetto has to be the best student and Lilian, as their mentor, is the representation of the ideal path. She's been *expressly* encouraged to study in her own time, both with texts and exercises. Surely this counts! Or else Lilian wouldn't have brought it up!

    She gives Matilda a firm nod after several long seconds of befuddled consideration. "Okay. I think that would be a great help, thank you."

    "Director?" She turns her attention to Lilian, now determined. "Are there other study techniques you have learned from her?"
Foundation Scions 'Out of... my bed? But that would be in my own bedroom?'

    "Surely, you have, erm, *not*, forgotten the dormitory quarters here within the Association..? It is a convenient spot for such a practice type, as well as many other things one could spend time doing!"

'Okay. I think that would be a great help, thank you.'

    Still, if Matilda has to give Sonetto a wake-up call in her normal quarters at the Foundation each day, and further cut into her time to do anything else... so be it! That's a step in the right direction!
Timekeeper "Surely, you have, erm, *not*, forgotten the dormitory quarters here within the Association..?"

    "What?" She did. She wasn't even considering it as an option. She only really uses it for extremely light storage, spending less than fifteen minutes in it in total per visit to the Association.

    "Have you... slept here regularly? I have not, and could not fit such into my schedule, I believe."
Lilian Rook     'Sonetto? I could help you practice by utilizing that method!'

    "Matilda . . ." Lilian sighs, beginning to exasperate.

    'Okay. I think that would be a great help, thank you.'

    Lilian's voice jumps an octave with the word "Huh?" She glances rapidly back and forth between the two.

    'Director?'

    "Yes?" She's staring.

    'Are there other study techniques you have learned from her?'

    ". . ."

    Lilian's lips part, and no sound comes out. She shuts and opens her mouth twice, wordlessly both times, and stops it by hastily biting down on her thumbnail. Eyes wide, gaze restless, her face is clearly paler than before.

    "A-ah . . . None that I think would appropriate for . . . that I would recommend to . . . " Lilian coughs quietly into a curled fist. "Prized students of SPDM in good standing. I wouldn't want to . . ." Why is she staring at the floor off to the side? "Create administrative friction."