The Rocky Bits, Saturday Morning

[glacial_queen]

"I hate you," Karla sulked, nevertheless holding her stick up in the guard position. "Hate hate hate hatedy hate."

"Now, now, witchling," Lucivar said, a large grin splitting his face, "but sweet talk isn't going to get you out of sparring practice."

It was early, long before breakfast or showers or even coffee. Not that it was possible to tell that from Lucivar's demeanor. He was disgustingly bright-eyed and energetic, twirling his sticks as he prowled around, keeping an eye out for holes in her defenses. It was Lucivar's rule: whenever he and Karla were in the same place, sparring practice had to occur.

Before breakfast. Because no one wanted to dance around in that if someone got poked too hard in the belly.

"How much longer are we doing this?" Karla whined asked calmly and reasonably.

"Until I say you're done," Lucivar replied, swinging his stick towards her legs. "There's all that muscle you need to rebuild after all. Interested in talking about what happened instead?"

Karla blocked his swing and kept her mouth in a grim line. And maybe hoped for other people to show up to foist Lucivar off onto them.

[Open for everyone, participants and spectators alike.]

Comments

[olympian-herc.livejournal.com]

"You're right, she does need some more muscle!" Hercules taunted when he arrived on his severely roundabout way of heading to his office.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

Karla shot a frown towards her teacher and Lucivar took the opportunity to knock her on her ass--and then step between her and the strange male. He wasn't picking up any sense of aggression from him, but habits died hard--not that Lucivar was trying to change those habits as it was.

"I'm trying to figure out what happened to all of it," Lucivar called, when he judged Hercules has come close enough. "I don't suppose you know where it went?"

Since Karla wasn't saying...

[endsthegame]

Of course Ender stopped by to see this, if simply because he'd been warned of it in advance. Valentine had declined coming along, though, citing that she had work to do, and Peter-- well, bringing Peter to see Karla wouldn't be a good idea.

Alai, on the other hand, had followed him down and was looking... a little nonplussed.

"Wow, you guys run quite the bootcamp here," he said. "I can easily picture you running people around like that..."

"It's not really my field anymore," Ender said, and shot him an amused look.

[glacial_queen]

"That's because he's a bloody martinet," Karla said, trying to talk and defend herself at the same time. Thank the Darkness Lucivar was only running drills at half-speed. She could feel herself reaching the end of her limits already. "Kiss kiss Alai. Good to see you again."

You know, alive.

[life_inshadow]

"If they try to draft me to fight," Tara informed him, not terribly seriously, "I may hide behind you."

[wwiii]

Warren was actually looking forward to this spar with Lucivar. Yes, he was a little rusty. Yes, he was going to have his ass beaten all across the rocky bits. Yes, he needed the refresher course.

His only complaint, really, was that he'd made the mistake of inviting his father along.

... He'd thought that maybe it would be a good way to break it to him that there was a lot that he'd missed since Warren had taken off. It was... going to be a bit over his dad's head. He was okay with that.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"Ahh, Warren," Lucivar said, shooting the boyo a pleased smile. Well, pleased with a side of feral. He gave Jr a short nod, remembering all too well their conversation from the last Parents' Weekend. "I was wondering if I would have to come and fetch you. It would have been fun!"

Beat.

"For me."

[life_inshadow]

"So is the guy who kind of looks like you, um..."

Tara figured Warren knew where she was going with that, even if she didn't finish the sentence.

[sadist-son.livejournal.com]

There was a psychic scent on the island, trailing down the hallways of the inn in which Sadi and Tersa had spent the night, that struck him as all too familiar, and entirely unexpected on an island such as this one.

And there was no way Daemon was going to allow this weekend to pass without investigating.

That he was instigating this investigation with Surreal slung over one shoulder had absolutely nothing to do with anything. At all. Except the fact that she possibly had a bit of explaining to do.

He stopped, just on the outskirts of the rocky bits, and watched, one eyebrow elegantly arched, in silence.

No, Surreal had a lot of explaining to do.

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"Put me DOWN, you misbegotten whoreson!" she shrieked, yanking at his hair and doing her best to smash her knee into his nose. "I'll tell Tersa you didn't actually drink your milk!"

[glacial_queen]

Karla was resting after her spar when the unmistakable psychic scent of a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince reached her. It felt like Saetan's and yet...not. She whipped her head around in time to see a much younger version of her adopted uncle carrying a hissing and spitting witch up the hill.

That was familiar. And there was a bit of pleasure when Karla saw it was Surreal that not-Saetan had slung over his shoulder.

It seemed slightly less surprising to discover that the Prince had more polished and beautiful features than Saetan than it was to realize,

"Hell's fire, he's a Black Widow!"

Karla, WHY DO YOU TALK?!?

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Was anyone surprised when a few minutes later, Tersa drifted up to see where all of her little ones had wandered off to? "Oh, look!" she said, delighted. "The other boy is here! He looks like he's been drinking milk."

[life_inshadow]

"...hi," Tara said, very carefully and more than a bit intimidated by his frozen anger. "Can I ask you kind of a stupid question?"

Look, this was going to bug her if she didn't.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had been out for her morning walk around the island, and now... Bounce. Owie. "No faaaairs. My turn!"

Yes, despite the casts. Big woo, she still had TK and she was so bored with staying on the sidelines of fighting.

Oh, and, "Hi Lucivar!"

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"Dinah." There was no nod or answering smile. There was only a sharp look and then a Lucivar bearing down on her. "What happened here?"

Casts, Dinah. You were in casts. He bit back a snarled Where were your males when this happened only by the sheerest of will.

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan raised an eyebrow. "Don't," he said, "even think about it. You're not undoing my work less than twenty-four hours after I did it."

[trigons_child]

Raven didn't like the sparring, but she understood it was part of Karla's culture and apparently (despite Karla's crankiness) necessary. Still, she was going to be there for healing if necessary.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"Raven," Lucivar rumbled, coming to stand in front of her. "You still intend to be part of Karla's Court?"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan had been coming out to the Rocky Bits to do some sword work, keep himself in shape and in practice.

That was getting placed to the side for the moment; his pen went back into his pocket, and a bag of popcorn got pulled out of his claudication as he settled in to watch the... sparring.

If he was keeping a few healing spells lined up in his head, well, he was a responsible healer. ... For certain definitions of responsible.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

Lucivar recognized the male from the bakery last night. A slight smile flickered across his face as he gestured to the impromptu ring. "Care for a bout, boyo?"

[furnaceface]

Look, Raven was here, and Jono was completely reserving the right to be the overprotective boyfriend today. He still wasn't entirely convinced that this weekend wasn't going to go horribly in one way or another, and so he was playing boyfriend-shadow.

And anyhow, Karla would probably kill him if he came to the island and didn't stop by to say hello. So. Here he was, standing along the sidelines on the rocky bits, arms crossed over his chest while he only wished he could pull out the popcorn.

[glacial_queen]

"Jono! Jono!" Karla gave him a tired wave. "You were a surprise, right? Cause I didn't tell Raven!"

About anything, Jono. Like your new habit of getting speared.

Snerk

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

Cassidy had been ducking her brother and Ranon and had decided that the rocky bits would be the perfect place for a witchling to hide.

That would be before she noticed all of the psychic scents that were in the same area.

"Karla?" She stepped forward to make sure everything was all right, but she was ready to run if Karla told her to.

[glacial_queen]

"S'okay, Cassidy!" Karla called, most of her attention on keeping Lucivar from whacking her a good one with the stick. Her clothes were filthy and sweat-stained and she already had a few impressive bruises under her clothing. "Sparring. Lucivar thinks this is an excellent way to learn. Bruises teach me not to be there when he hits."

[warren-jr.livejournal.com]

Warren Worthington, Jr. had been invited to see his son sparring today, after a... somewhat tense reunion yesterday at the picnic, and he wouldn't dream of turning down the opportunity to spend more time with his son.

... Around the time that the temperature started to drop, he was beginning to regret that, if his boy's unexpected competence with those weapons in his hands hadn't been enough to cause that.

If anybody needed him, he was going to be over here, trying to remember the way back to the hotel.

[glacial_queen]

After the standoff between Sadi and Lucivar had been diffused slightly (that had probably taught Warren, Jr a new depth of meaning to the word 'tense') and Karla could move without worrying that she'd be pinned to the ground, she made her way over to Warren's father.

Hey, she'd promised Warren she'd be polite. So this was her. Being polite. "Mr. Worthington," she said with a nod, hoping he wouldn't mind that she was sweat-soaked, filthy, and bruised. "You made it."

That was...probably a good thing?

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

When Surreal wasn't getting her ass handed to her by Daemon or his suddenly-appearing brother, she was working by herself, trying to make her drills into reflex.

She'd take another sparring partner, of course, but she wasn't likely to pull her punches.

[life_inshadow]

"Didn't you tell me you didn't really know Karla?" Tara asked, sounding a bit puzzled.

[life_inshadow]

Tara hadn't planned on doing anything in particular during the weekend, but she was willing to come out and observe sparring practice from a safe distance.

At least, she hoped it would be from a safe distance. She didn't want to be asked to swing sticks at anything.

[OOC: Fair warning: I may be spotty for the next several days, but I love everybody in this post and am not too proud to beg for SP.]

[glacial_queen]

Eventually, Karla dragged her tired and sore self over to Tara's side. "Can I hide behind you?" she asked. "Lucivar looks like he's getting his second wind."

[We love you, too! All the SP for you!]

[momslilassassin]

Ben had totally missed this post until linkdropping time been running a little late today--so many people to stalk and Sith to be annoyed by--but he couldn't miss an opportunity to spar with Lucivar, so he trotted up to the Rocky Bits to wait for his turn.

He didn't really understand why most people weren't excited by the prospect of doing this.

[furnaceface]

Jono, who had been here because he was being a bit of a relentless Raven-stalker this weekend, couldn't help but notice the familiar face, and, since Lucivar seemed a bit occupied at the moment, was totally making his way over to Ben to grovel say hello.

//Ben, mate. It's been a while.//

A few years for Jono, actually.