Another New Face? +Luka+

There were a few things that brought simple pleasure to Luka. One was the feeling of a new book, the first break of the crease. Another was when you got a sip of tea at that perfect temperature where it didn't burn your tongue but it brought a warmth down your throat and filled you with sweet flavors and earthy bitter tones. The latest pleasure he had was a smoke, a cigarette or a flavored cigarello. The latter was more of a guilty pleasure because he often got bugged for it but to be honest he just couldn't turn down the idea of a grape swisher sweet, which so happened to be what he was smoking as he watched the girl fence.

Her form seemed pretty good from what he could tell, he had watched the olympics and he had a mild fascination with various types of swordplay though he had never practiced himself. He admired those who could do it but his body just couldn't keep up. Speaking of, after his third puff he reached into his pocket, taking his inhaler out and taking a puff. That was his bodies way of saying that he wasn't having a good breathing day and smoking wasn't a good idea.

When he heard what was undoubtedly icelandic he perked right up, and approached the girl while giving her space so he would not be accidentally impaled by her epee. Luka, unlike the girl, was wearing his school uniform as he usually did. "The tongue you're speaking in, it's Icelandic isn't it? It's a very pretty language, really befitting." He smile but didn't hold a hand out to shake, not wanting to disrupt her practice. "I'm Luka, I was actually wondering, are you from Iceland?"

He had always wanted to go to Reykjavik and visit the nearby mountain. The whale hunting was something he wasn't super fond of but he knew there was an active night life in Reykjavik that he would love to experience. Besides, Sigur Ros was Icelandic and they were his favorite band.

"Oh? My favorite musical group is Icelandic so I couldn't help but notice, I watch a lot of their interviews and stuff." He explained, "That's really interesting though, and you speak it beautifully." The compliment came out naturally as he sat nearby. "I have to admit I'm not really that skilled of a swordsman in that I have zero skill as a swordsman, but watching you practice... you're really quite skilled." It was one thing to be able to appreciate someone's skill as a spectator and another to compliment from a position of know-how. He didn't have the know-how in practice only in theory, so his compliment didn't mean much sadly, but it was honest and that much mattered at least.

"Please, don't let me interrupt you. If you'd rather I not continue to watch you practice I'll respect that, but it's actually quite interesting to follow your movements and attacks. Have you been at it long?" He wondered because some people grew up learning to fence, parents having their children go to private lessons or groups, competing in youth tournaments and such. Others picked it up here sometimes because of fighting. Of course, in place of an actual sword they'd have some sort of practice item like a wooden sword or going as far as to have to use a branch to fight.

"Okay well how about this, I'll climb into this tree here, lay along the branches. That way I'm out of sight, out of mind. And if anyone tries to give you any grief I can just spidermonkey them." He shot her a wink as his hand went up to the tree branch. He wasn't very good at climbing things but his height made it a little easier. He put his foot up on the base of the tree, a raised trunk that gave a little bit of a boost and pulled up. "ARGHHH"

He forced his other foot high up, getting the heel around a large branch just barely. "If I fall tell everyone that I died honorably." He managed to swing around and get onto the branch. He had to apply a fair amount of leverage and good footing but it was done, not gracefully, but accomplished. He would look down and rest his back against the tree. He pulled his inhaler out and took another puff of it now that he was on the branch securely.

"I'm afraid I'll have to talk slightly louder, but to anyone passing by maybe you'll just have a talking tree friend. So, building up your worth. Trophy child situation? Were you a prodigy?"

"I think in literary terms the furthest thing from a trophy child would probably be the whipping boy," He said, thinking about what that must mean. "That or the black sheep depending on the circumstances. Parents have higher expectations of you I take it?" He queried, very curious about the circumstances. He wanted to figure her out now. She was fencing, she was in some part connected to iceland. She was taught fencing as a child but was far from a poster child... she went to this school.

"You didn't stab someone with a rapier as a child, did you?" He asked as an off handed guess, probably far off but the connected dots suggested that to be the most likely event in this case. The truth was never so simple and he knew that. With his inhaler tucked away he was able to relax his body and find that this spot was in fact quite comfortable. He noted that he should build steps up to it, nailing some boards to it so that he could come here often.

"If it makes you feel any better my parents aren't too fond of me either. Ever since coming here they've only talked to me through email. I visit them on thanksgiving and winter solstice and that's pretty much it." He didn't know if she had communication with her parents or anything but his were ashamed of him. The neighbors and PTA all said it was his parents fault for raising him wrong. He thought he was raised quite right.

He chuckled at her saying that he was kind. "I don't know if 'kind' is a word that I'd use for myself. I can be quite petty when I feel bullied or threatened. I mean, aside from that yeah I'm pretty okay. A little condescending but otherwise... well I'm not that interested in talking about me so much." He could see her exhausting her moves and her talents on an opponentless fight. He watched her from above and wondered just what it might be like to watch her fight with an opponent. His only issue was that he was not a capable opponent for her and would likely lose for having to stop every few moments and take an inhaler hit.

"Ahh, so it is fencing based then. Less slashy more pokey, gotcha." She thought about the kind of heart that would kill someone and thought about her previous behaviors. Nothing about them said killer, so he wondered if the kill was a fluke or self defense. Then again, perhaps the front was just that, a sheepish front for people to underestimate her actual abilities. "You carry yourself well then, for being here on assault or worse. I'm guessing people treat you like snow white, as if you don't have that blood on your hands. Forgive me, I'm not trying to be rude I'm actually trying to compliment you. That kind of attitude toward you should keep you relatively safe around here, or at least it'll keep you from having to prove them wrong."

He hoped he wasn't upsetting her or coming off as if he thought negatively of her. On the flip side he thought she was quite brilliant for what she was doing. It was kind of like him hanging in the background, not putting up a fight, not being a challenge to overcome. He was simply himself, just around and observant.

"Not without infecting them somehow anyway," He thought of what it might be like to stab someone with a rusty blade just to give them gangrene or something. He chuckled lightly at the idea of that being how you off someone, poke them with a rusted or unsanitary piercing object. "Slashing it is. Snow white the slashing slasher." He was proud of the title he had thought of and even wanted to see how much truth there was to it.

"How about this, we take turns guessing something about the other. Assumptions, and if we are wrong we have to live with the shame. If we are right all that's required of the person is a small acknowledgement that the assumption was right. It could be a nod or something," He thought about it before asking his first question. "My first assumption is that... you don't have very strong feelings of love toward your parents. Am I right?"

Of course she could reject the game but he was hopeful that she would not. She had been very accommodating and polite so far, humoring him pretty deep into this conversation about personal matters.

"Good assumption," He spoke with a small nod. "I'm not very confrontational when it comes to fisticuffs and I'm afraid I'm too squeamish for weaponry." He nodded as he leaned back against the tree, already craving another smoke despite his asthma acting up. It was always the problem when he couldn't properly finish a cigarillo. "So slashy slashy from me."

His hand whipped through the air as if wielding an invisible fencing weapon. He brought his guarde up and raised an eyebrow in her direction before returning his hand. "I'm going to assume you've shed someones blood with violent intent." He was thinking of her sword skills, guessing that it might have had a connection to why she was here, but not wanting to assume to much simply landed on that she had violently hurt someone with a similar weapon.

It did stand to reason in Luka's mind, he hoped he was right.