Open Post: The Arms of the Emperor are Never Idle

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon spends her mornings in the practice yard, bright and early, despite the cold. She jogs and stretches to get her blood pumping and her muscles warm before she draws her sword, and then after drills she brings Tally her coffee, and then after that it's back to more sword—unless Tally hauls her off to some other activity, which she pretends to hate but is secretly devastatingly grateful for. The absolute worst part of this place is all the time. Endless stretches of time, with barely any work to be done.

In some ways it's just like the Ninth—except on the Ninth she knew her exits. They were few, sure, and near-impossible, but she knew them: buy her way out, fight her way out, trick her way out, or truly earn it.

None of those apply, here.

She breaks for lunch, and wanders the halls trying to locate various Clues and Mysteries that might end up giving her a way out, and mostly just finds people. More and more people.

She's not antisocial. She likes the people here, more than she's openly liked anyone in her life, individually or as a group. But a gnawing restlessness keeps her on the move rather than letting her time fill up with idle conversation as so many here do. She's always hunting for something to keep her busy, to wear out her body so that when she sleeps her mind is forced to rest rather than serving her a lovely buffet of the worst things she's ever seen and even worse things she hasn't, the things she was yoinked away just in time to miss.

Sometimes it even works.

[This post is open in perpetuity until something happens to make me close it, at which point I will edit it and say so! Feel free to find Gideon in the morning doing sword drills, or tooling around inside, opening and closing drawers and trying peel the wallpaper off in case there's flesh underneath.]

Comments

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon sighs. "Yeah, there's a couple people here who seem to be able to use magic in combat, and not the way I'm used to people using magic in combat, which is basically by making corpses and skeletons do it for you. Those guys still go down if you can close with them, because in my dimension the trade-off for necromantic skill is having bones made of glass and muscles like a moth."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Neither can be said of Lan Wangji," in a kind of agreement, "this is likely true of the other Cultivators. I do not understand it, but I suppose I don't need to. In any event, I would welcome another bout with thee."

[ninth_cavalier]

"So would I," says Gideon. "Any time. And, uh—Lan Wangji also told me my sword is haunted, but it doesn't appear to me helping me out at all to have a ghost in there. I don't even think it's the ghost of a swordsperson. I think it's the ghost of someone who really likes guns."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Haunted?" He sounds interested, and a little concerned. "As in-- a soul or a spirit within it?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"More--attached to it, than within in?" Gideon says, though it's clear from her tone that she's mainly guessing. "Like, the sword is just a normal big fuck-off sword, but someone's hitched a ride."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Was it always thus?" He realizes then that Gideon has already answered that, so he adjusts to ask the question he actually means to ask. "I mean to say-- does it feel different than it used to?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon hesitates, then shakes her head. "Not exactly? It was weird at first, when I thought it might be helping me, or might be sort of—also wielding the sword. But once I settled back into actually using it, it's fine. I don't think it means any harm." She pauses, and then corrects, "I don't think it means me any harm."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"That's well, at least." He still looks thoughtful. "I believe I would mislike it, should I find out there was some spirit attached to my blade."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon shrugs. "I might be a little more used the spooky shit than most," she admits. "Lan Wangji did offer to banish it for me. But..."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot gives a little chuckle, "Spooky?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Yeah, you know," says Gideon, waving a hand. "Ghosts and ghouls. Though I guess I shouldn't assume—maybe you're a spirit medium in your spare time."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"It is not a word I've heard before-- I know of ghosts, though I have not been in contact with any spirits I'm aware of."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Gotcha. Well, happy to add to your lexicon. 'Spooky' doesn't have to be about ghosts, either. Really anything low-key scary and unnerving can be spooky. Bats... really dark rooms... Goths."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh, I add something new every day, it seems. Say, then-- if we were to have a contest, a tournament of fighting arts, that would suit thee, would it not?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"What, like people would come and watch? Hell, yeah," says Gideon. The only thing better than winning at swords is winning at swords in front of cute girls. She imagines putting Lancelot on his back again and then turning to wave at Tally, and Tress, and—well, no, she'd probably be fighting Gu Xiang. "Gives me something to train up for, too."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Excellent," looking sincerely pleased. "That is what I thought. We shall need to spar, then. Perhaps regularly. I cannot be shown up in front of everyone."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Regularly sounds great,. I love doing things regularly," says Gideon, in the completely normal tones of someone deeply used to and incredibly desperate for routine.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot knows that tone, actually. "Would-- would you be amenable to--" He pauses, "Dost know I drill each day?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon nods. "So do I."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Perhaps, at set times and a few times per week, we can spar after drilling?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"That would be great," Gideon says, honestly. "Not, uh, directly after, though. I have a thing."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"No, whenever thou likest-- I only mean to say that I rise quite early, and drilling is nearly the first thing I do. Not everyone is an early riser."

[ninth_cavalier]

"No, I do too—I just, uh." Gideon keeps her voice carefully casual. "Usually I bring Tally coffee in the mornings, when I'm done."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh." For whatever reason, he sounds pleased. "I see. I usually find Laertes has left breakfast by the time I have finished. We could meet in the afternoon, instead?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Laertes is an interesting person to bring up in this context, especially since he wasn't connected up with Lancelot in the sex spider Sagramore clued her into at Wanderer's Gather. But it's not like she and Tally are connected, either, in any kind of intimate insectical type way, either, so maybe Laertes is just Lancelot's friend. "Afternoon good," says Gideon. Afternoon more likely to gather spectators, too.