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

Comments

[chose]

Transfixed is a good word for it.

Watching from afar - close enough for the front row experience but far enough that she goes unnoticed - Buffy is utterly transfixed. She's known since she first started teaching at the island school that Arya is beyond skilled and talented, but this is something else. This is a side of her that she hasn't seen in class, where most are just trying to get by on what they've learned (or, in some cases, show off what they've already mastered). It isn't difficult to tell that whatever the other girl is channeling, it's coming from somewhere deep down, and probably nowhere pretty.

"Hey," she calls, tentatively, before moving forward. The last thing she wants to do is startle Arya and have a sword lanced at her head (unlikely, but still possible, which is the more important of the two).

[lonewolflives]

Even with the intent of burning away all but the necessary thoughts, she was aware there'd been an onlooker. Syrio had taught her too well for it to be otherwise. And now everything else was rushing back in. Maybe she should run it again. Just keep doing it until she fell down or started getting cut.

"Hi," she said, shortly, retrieving her swords, glancing over only briefly. "Don't worry, when they go down, they stay down."

[chose]

Hesitant to move forward too quickly, Buffy remains at what she can only hope is a healthy distance, not nearly close enough for a good look at those spinny thingies and, as such, no closer to quelling her curiosity. "What are they?" She asks, and even if she were so inclined, there wouldn't be any point in masking the interest in her voice. Besides, from the looks of it, Arya could use a distraction. Maybe even a distraction from her distraction.

[lonewolflives]

"I just call them the discs," Arya said, flexing her fingers, shifting on her feet. She bent down and picked one up, holding it up so that Buffy could get a better look. "They showed up January, a while back. One of the times the island was nice."

[chose]

"They look fun," comments Buffy. Not a moment later, she thinks better of that assessment, adding: "Not fun fun, but... challenging. Training equipment doesn't usually put up a fight, you know?"

[lonewolflives]

"Some people think I'm crazy for training against something that's trying to take my head off," Arya said, pushing aside the desire to throw the disc at a tree, or something, to launch herself back into motion to burn off the restless, dissatisfied energy inside. "They don't get it."

[chose]

"You know what? I've seen you in class, and if anything, I'm more afraid for those spinny things than I am for you," Buffy admits, nodding down to the disc in Arya's hands. "You've been training for long, haven't you?" It isn't difficult to tell, apparent to anyone who's watched her move for less than a minute, but Buffy worries the question won't be well-received. She should probably stop being so nosy, anyway, given how her last conversation with Katniss went.