fandomtownies | The beach- Saturday afternoon

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The beach- Saturday afternoon

Rey's apartment was incredibly sparse, and way too big for her, but this did allow her to sometimes get some practice in indoors. She had two bedrooms and a study, what else was she supposed to use all that space for? But she also didn't like being cooped up too long, so today she was coming out to work with her staff out on the beach, because she hadn't quite gotten tired of being able to see that much water yet.

She really should look into maybe getting or making something that at least had the same feel of a lightsaber, so at least she would have some more experience with it when the day came that she had a working one again. But she'd also had such an insane time of it lately, feeling like last month was a thousand years ago, that her staff at least felt familiar. Could a weapon be comforting? Was it weird if it was?

Don't mind her, standing just far enough off the shore that she wouldn't get wet, beating up nothing.

[You know. Felt like the thing to do today. Open!

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Seeing this much water was still largely a novelty to Beau as well, growing up in the effectively landlocked Dwendalian Empire like she had, and even when she wasn't out on a run she liked to head down to the beach whenever she had the chance.

Like now, for example.

"Fine," she yelled as she headed over, her own staff slung across her back like it so often was. "Steal my idea, then."

She still sounded kind of cranky, but that was just the thing her voice tended to do, and her expression was relaxed enough that it hopefully didn't reinforce an impression of crankiness.

[OOC: Gonna be slow for a bit but I had to.]

"Can't help it if I was faster," Rey said lightly, finishing her move before stopping and straightening. She could use the breather, anyway.

Beau was enough of a jock that her competitive streak flared up just a little bit at that and she retorted, "I'm gonna use that as motivation for next time, then." But hey, at least she flashed a brief -- really brief -- smile when she said it.

"It's all good, there's plenty of beach anyway, right?"

"We can spar if you want," Rey offered. "Plenty of beach was exactly why I came out here."

"Listen, when it comes to sparring I basically always want," Beau told her. "It's fine in the gym and whatever, but it's a little too controlled an environment sometimes, you know what saying?"

Rey nodded. "All my fighting used to be done outdoors. Trying it when there's not sand to contend with, or weather, feels off."

Another reason to not just one one silent room of her ridiculous apartment.

"Which doesn't mean I don't need to get used to it."

Beau only had one bedroom and a study, but she kind of felt the same way about her apartment sometimes.

"The . . . people I trained with did most of that shit indoors, but we had like a sand pit and some other stuff to get used to different kinds of terrain," she offered. There'd been a lot of punching walls as part of the training though, too, and that had been annoying. She unslung her staff from her back and gave it a few warmup twirls. "Never know when you might end up in a fight indoors, on the other hand. I mean, I've known some mean fuckin' librarians."

Not to disparage the profession or anything, but it was the best way to concisely explain-and-yet-not the Cobalt Soul.

Rey frowned.

"Librarians... the ones with the books?"

Had to be asked.

"Seriously," Beau said, in the kind of deadpan voice where it was hard to tell whether she was kidding or not. "You'd be surprised."

Or maybe not, since arguably Rey had also gotten some fight training from a monk.

"I think that's how they sneak up on you. Anyway, I gotta ask: where'd you pick up your technique from?"

"Myself," Rey said with a shrug. "Someone comes at you, sometimes you have to hit them with a stick, and eventually you get good at hitting people with a stick."

It worked!

"What about you?"

"It was an extracurricular at school," Beau said with a shrug. It wasn't exactly untrue, but sometimes those old compulsive lying tendencies snuck back up and she had to vent them somehow. "You picked that all up yourself? That's kinda dope. Practical, though. Lot of people who have to get hit with sticks back home?"

"It's mostly scavengers, searching through wreckages to trade for food," Rey explained. "People get desperate. Or sometimes they're just terrible to begin with."

She was possibly too casual about this, but that's exactly what it was.

Beau snorted lightly. "Yeah, some people are just gonna be like that, I guess. Terrible people, that's kinda universal." Someone wasn't known for her optimistic outlook. Also she'd known a lot of terrible people. "And everybody else -- you do what you have to, right?"

"More or less. People tended to leave me alone, so what they did was their business," Rey said. "It's not quite that easy anywhere else, it feels like."

It said something when Jakku was easy compared to anything.

Kinda did, yeah.

"That sounds kind of nice, I have to say," admitted Beau, probably backing up the narrative. "Not sure I've ever been anywhere that's been that simple."

She twirled her staff again, settled into a defensive pose.

"And then you ended up here, somehow. On purpose, or by accident?"

Rey readjusted herself into a starting stance, saying, "First time on accident, this time on purpose. I needed help from a friend." Still super did!

And then she went for an easy strike to start.

Beau could have blocked the strike, but her defensive style was more about not being where the attack was, so she kind of just twisted out of the way instead and countered with a light jab.

"Hey, accidental arrival solidarity," she said with a laugh. "Was it like a totally rough adjustment?"

Rey barely blocked the jab, and wondering how well she could predict someone else's moves while talking.

"In some ways." Like food and comfortable beds and showers. "Mostly I kept to myself so I didn't notice. Aside from things trying to kill me."

Beau aimed the other end of the staff at her knee and huffed another laugh.

"I mean, hey, you didn't notice things trying to kill you, you probably wouldn't be here right now, so."

Indoor plumbing was still a total fucking trip, man.

"Wait, did things try to kill you like right after you got here?"

"This time, yeah," she said, catching that blow and turning the other side of her staff towards Beau's shoulder. "I was here three days before the toy mess."

Beau didn't quite dodge that one in time and took the hit to her shoulder with a grunt and a nod.

"Right, right. I remember you mentioning that. Guess that's one way to know for sure you're back in good ol' fuckin' Fandom."

"It was good practice," Rey decided, going in immediately for a blow to Beau's leg.

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The beach- Saturday afternoon

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