Cuts deeper than swords.

[lonewolflives]

She'd come very close to cutting off her hair that morning, to simply hacking it all off with a knife. She'd been growing it for years, had only started growing it to prove a point to Lyanna. Why she'd kept it up after Lyanna had disappeared, she didn't know. What she did was that know the damn stuff went past the small of her back and took far

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[prodigaljaybird]

There are no trees to hide in this close to the water, and when she shouts, Jason comes, even if it isn't him she's summoning. He's seen it all from far away, enough to leave his mouth hanging open, envy in his heart for those training discs, and wonder, too. They're like something he'd have trained with back home, but without the tech here, he can't imagine how she's made them.

"Impressive," he says when he's close enough, giving no nod to girl or weapons, and likely meaning both.

[lonewolflives]

She looked up, catching her breath, and offered a minute shrug with one shoulder as she stepped to pull one sword out of the sand.

"I can do better than that," she said, not in any kind of mood to be satisfied with anything.

[prodigaljaybird]

"I believe you." She looks like she's been at it for a while, but there's still fire in her belly, Jason can see it, in the whipsmart cut of her movements and the burn of her eyes. She's come out here to work something out of herself, and she isn't done.

"Still like to see it."

[lonewolflives]

"Well, that show's over," she said, sheathing the one sword and picking up the other, repeating her check that it was clean before also shoving it into its scabbard with less care than usual. "There's no satisfaction in hitting something as dumb as those things."

The challenge was keeping track of them, moving through the gaps the random shifts and attacks made, but you hit them and they went down, just pieces of metal after all was said and done. Usually she did find satisfaction in it, in testing that, but well-executed moves didn't ease anything inside her.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason watches her clean the second sword, the care she puts into it, and it's been a long time since he trained with or against one but he'd be lying if he said the thought didn't make his heart beat a little faster in all the right ways.

"I'm not dumb."

[lonewolflives]

She lifted her head and cocked it, eyes raking him over, considering what she knew, what she'd seen of the way he moved. One corner of her mouth twitched up into the slightest of smirks that didn't so much speak to any of the turmoil within her being resolved so much as... anticipation. Something to do with it.

"We'll see about that," she said, interlinking her fingers and then stretching her arms above her head. "Swords or fists?"

[prodigaljaybird]

"Fists," says Jason, and it's been ages since he trained with a blade, had long ago decided that bullets and flame better served the dramatic message he wished to deliver, but he's not opposed to trying.

"Unless you want to lend a sword."

[lonewolflives]

She unhooked the swordbelt attached to the longer of the two, held up the scabbard, and then tossed it over to him.

"That one's name is Romance," she said, drawing Needle, the shorter. It seemed only fair, in some way.

Truth be told, part of her wanted to use her fists, to devolve down to that, but she'd start with this and see where it went.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason catches it out of the air, surprised to find it so light, but upon examination, it's much thinner than the swords he'd trained with in Russia. "Rapier?" he asks, because it seems an odd choice, but the point is sharp when he smooths his thumb over it.

"I've never handled one of these," he admits. For him, the appeal of swords had always been in their heft, not their thrust.

[lonewolflives]

"Just so," she confirmed, pulling Needle free, flicking it through the air to remember how it felt in her main, left hand. "Faster. Art over brute force. Not like I can overpower everyone."

Although she could stand to have a bit of brute force in her life, honestly. And she'd have a better shot at it than back in the day; years of training had given her enough muscle to have some leverage in that kind of fight. Still, she was slight.