Have We Been Humbled - Or Did We Prevail? [Open]

[northswainbraid]

WHO: Agrias Oaks (northswainbraid) and anyone who wants to chat/train/watch/bring her food/laugh at her/whatever/etc
WHAT: Training and re-mastering Hallowed Bolt
WHERE: The beach
WHEN: Day 140 from dawn until a little past suppertime

Comments

[speedy_devilbat]

Since Sena had not managed to visit Agrias when she was seriously injured, the boy turned girl decided to do so now. After all, everyone else spoke the truth- she had to get out sometime. And since it was so close to the fullmoon, Sena had been feeling antsier than usual.

At least this time, she knew what was comming. Tracking Agrias's scent through the journals was rather difficult- even as her senses improved each day closer to the full moon, it wasn't that good to track someone down without an object of theirs in the first place.

But she needn't be worried. After all, all she had to do was follow Agrias's battle cry. Tightening her jacket around herself, Sena ruffled her own hair to make it spike up and shifted her basket(containing some fruit and five riceballs that Sena had nicked from the kitchen before hiding away) and made her way down to the beach.

With her hooded red jacket(her old favourite blue one had not survived the clinic fire) and basket of food, she must've reminded people of Little Red Riding hood, going down to visit her grandmother in the forest. But, of course, she wasn't so little anymore- whereas the change mostly affected everyone else's chest sizes, she seemed to have shot up in height.

She didn't know whether to be annoyed or not that even her girl form was taller than she normally was.

[northswainbraid]

It took Agrias a quick second to remember who this was before her. The whole gender-swapping trick was wearing off, but a few remained. Sena was one of them.

"Ah, young Ser...or should I say Lady Sena! It is good to see you. Adjusting well enough?" She smiled and stopped swinging her sword, resting in the warm sands and looking up at the sky.

"What brings you here? Do you want to learn to wield a blade as well?"

[speedy_devilbat]

"A-Agrias-san!" Sena replied, flustered and embarassed. "I-I think I prefer Ser Sena...I mean, I'm still a boy...even if I'm currently in the body of a girl." Sena sighed before smiling crookedly.

"But yeah, I'm adjusting- hopefully, I'll be able to change back soon."

She then gestured to her basket. "Actually, I wanted to bring you some food as "thanks" for helping me back then when I was transforming. But now that I think about it- I'd like to learn how to use a sword too."

Sena pulled out the short sword from within the folds of her jacket.

"Hiruma-san gave me this sword awhile ago-but ah, it's kinda useless since I don't know how to use it at all."

[northswainbraid]

"A meal? For me? You are too kind, Ser Sena!" She was smiling widely.

Agrias stood up and took the sword gently from Sena, looking it over. The scabbard, the blade, the hilt, every part had to be inspected throughly. She took a couple swings and put it down, taking a small pouch out of her pocket.

Inside were various sword cleaning and repair tools Haruhi had given her for her birthday earlier. Agrias removed a cloth and gave a fast, hard rubbing to the blade, shining it up, then tightening the hilt a bit and swinging again. Much better.

"Keep good care of this blade. It is the right weight and length for you and with the right care, it should serve you well as long as you need it. Now then, shall we snack or spar?"

[speedy_devilbat]

"Maybe we should eat first? You've been out here training all day, haven't you?" Sena smiled again.

"Besides, I still need to learn the basics."

[northswainbraid]

Agrias smiled and sat in the sand, sword next to her, wondering just what Sena brought her.

"A wise idea! I should replenish my energy before teaching. I must be at my very best if I am mentoring."

[speedy_devilbat]

Sena lifted the cloth from her basket, revealing a box of five large riceballs, a small thermos filled with tea and a collection of fruit- bright red apples, bananas, mandarins, grapes, assortments of other berries. He too sat himself in the sand, placing the basket between them.

"The riceballs were made by Mamori-neechan, so you can gurantee that they're really good."

[northswainbraid]

"R-Rice...ball?"

Being from Ivalice meant you had never seen, let alone eaten, oriental food. There was some rice, but it was mostly used as filler, served in soup, or cooked alongside chocobo meat. To see it shaped like this, especially with a bit of seaweed on it, was somewhat surprising to the knight. She lifted one to her face and sniffed it curiously. It did smell nice, especially after working so hard. It was light and salty; quite an inviting scent. And so she bit down, and within a minute, it was gone.

"What a simple, yet filling snack! I have not encountered something quite like it ever before!" Agrias poured and sipped a bit of tea, eating a few berries and an apple afterwards, helping herself to a second riceball. "Do thank this Lady Mamori for me, would you? These are simply delectable!"

[speedy_devilbat]

Sena had taken a riceball herself and was eating it at a normal pace. She did have breakfast after all and didn't feel the need to eat a lot to feel her stomach.

Sena smiled brightly. He knew the feeling of rarely ever eating foreign food- his mother strictly cooked japanese food all the time and the only times he ever got variety in his diet was when he visited Mamori at her house or when he was taken out to a restraunt that specialised in foreign food.

"Mamori-neechan would be happy to hear that her food is being appreciated by someone other than Riku and I," Sena replied. "I think she misses making food for large groups of people."

Her heart gave a quiet pang as she remembered who the people were- she missed her team, her family, everyone back home. Some times were more painful than others. But she always managed to put a brave face on and keep her head up and her bright, smiling expression didn't falter in the slightest.