Luceti Appointments

[i_speak_softly]

Need a thread with Don, but don't have a post for it and don't feel like starting one? Stick it here. Please note date, time of day, location, and any relevant circumstances.

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[i_speak_softly]

[Don nods, surprised and gratified that Robert understood.]

Only if you want it...

[semper_cogitans]

[Even he can guess things right sometimes.]

... Ah, I... I do not mind.

[Though he looks a little shy, Robert nevertheless approaches the mat before pausing in front of it.]

... Er, my... my sword techniques... those are best practised with the actual weapon in question, but... training swords are acceptable for the p-purpose of demonstration...

[i_speak_softly]

[Anything you want to use is fine with him. Don sits up into seiza, showing respect for the display he's about to observe.]

[semper_cogitans]

[In that case, he'll use a training sword. Robert takes one of the smooth, polished-wood swords down from the weapons rack and steps back onto the mat.

As if his body has been programmed, he closes his eyes and sweeps into a respectful bow - it looks a little odd when he does it still, but that's because it's a Turtle's bow on a human's body.

Then he begins to move. As he works through the phases of a common warm-up kata, he brandishes the sword with an odd sort of lanky grace. It's the kind of precise movement that comes from repeating the same actions over and over, but it looks strange on somebody like him.]

[i_speak_softly]

[It does look strange - Don recognizes the telltale signs of someone who learned from a teacher of a different species than themselves - and there are several points that could use correction, but when Robert is done Don merely claps. That's not usually good form in a situation like this, but it's the best he can manage right now.]

[semper_cogitans]

[That's okay, Robert doesn't mind. He offers a slightly-awkward smile in Don's direction - this still is odd for him, even months later.]

Ah - you... approve?

[i_speak_softly]

[Nods emphatically. Even with his normal powers of speech it would be difficult to describe how much he appreciates this, in several senses of the word.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Though Robert is smiling still, his expression clouds a little when he looks down at the wooden sword in his hands.]

... I am glad that... that you do. I never expected to be... p-proficient at such a thing, but...

[Trailing off, he shifts his grip on the sword into one more befitting of a combat stance.]

... I suppose we have... both come quite a ways, here...

[i_speak_softly]

[Don tilts his head. Does Robert know what he's communicating with that gesture?]

[semper_cogitans]

[Not quite. But it becomes clear in a second when he starts another kata, of his own volition.

This time, though, he isn't silent while he does so. Though his gaze is fixed at a middle distance, he speaks as though conversing normally with someone even as he goes through the motions of the kata.]

... To think, that... a year ago, I would never even have handled such a weapon as this... [He half-steps, pivots, and swings the sword downward at a nonexistent opponent.] ... Much less... learn to utilize it...

[And then he stops.]

... This place has... ch-changed me irrevocably, in... in some ways. But I do not... regret it... especially not if it makes you happy.

[i_speak_softly]

[Robert, talking about the philosophical implications of martial arts training while practicing katas is one of the most attractive things Don has ever seen you do. The ninja stares openly, memorizing this moment and willing it to continue.]

[semper_cogitans]

[It's a good thing Robert doesn't mind the fact he's being stared at openly. In fact, it's... kind of nice. From anybody else it might be unnerving, but if Don is this interested...]

... Quite some time ago, you told me that... th-that there was much of your life I still had... yet to understand...

... [Though a ninja would be able to see it coming easily, Robert steps into one of the relatively-quick strikes Leo has taught him.]

... I... w-wonder if I might not have come any closer to... to understanding this part of your life. Of your... family's life.

[i_speak_softly]

[Undoubtedly. Aside from Robert's new insights into the moral difficulties attendant on knowing how to hurt people, he now understands something about the diligence required for training, the pain and satisfaction of physical exertion, and the dojo-kun that is so ingrained in Don's day-to-day behavior.]

[If only they could have a real conversation about it...]

[semper_cogitans]

[If only. But Robert manages to understand that he's said something profound, enough that he nods a little.

Straightening back up into his normal posture, now.]

... Still... you have done this for... for most of your life. I have only done it for half a year...

And my experiences are... very different. My home universe alone... [He looks back down at his hands. They're still small, and soft - delicate, yes - but they no longer have the exact same never-experienced-work fragility. His whole body is no longer as frail and breakable as it once was...

These things would brand him as a traitor to Terran society, were he ever placed in a position where they would show. And this is to say nothing of what he knows, now.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don puts on an appropriately understanding expression, ready to listen. They had talked about this a few months ago, but Robert seems to have a different perspective now.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert drops into seiza (without any associated pain or even much hesitation) next to Don on the floor, sitting across from him with a slightly uncertain expression.]

... If I ever return home, I... I will be deemed a menace to society... unless I lie about what I have learned here...

[And even if it runs at-odds to what Robert knows his world does, to what it understands - he doesn't see it as wrong, anymore. Just... just different.]

... I do not wish to... l-lie about you. Or... or about myself... about what this means...

I can protect people when I could not have before...

[In his own world it would have been unthinkable. Disgusting. The actions of a psychopath - any true Terran would gladly be martyred rather than do something so irrevocably barbaric.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don listens quietly, seriously, not wanting to interrupt Robert's thought process. These are things the man is struggling with, and Don had promised he would help if he could...]

[semper_cogitans]

[Even being a sounding board to Robert's thinking helps. If nothing else, saying them aloud serves to give them coherence and meaning besides simply bouncing around in the recesses of his mind.]

I do not wish to think that... my a-abilities could be used to indiscriminately harm. But when you have such a skill as mine... is it not t-true that the knowing of it... is essentially a sort of weapon in and of itself...?

[Robert's gaze is distant as he speaks. This is rhetoric that he has been far-removed from for so long, but even now it still makes a certain degree of sense - a warped sort of sense, perhaps, but sense.]

... As you know well... on Terra, all violence is... i-innately harmful, or considered as such. Even the... possibility of it is... abhorrent. This is why... this is why the mere knowledge of how to perpetrate such acts is... considered dangerous. This is why... culture does not reflect such seeming-atrocities, or... or why education does little more than assert it once existed.

[He looks down at the hands folded in his lap. Here in Luceti, they are comparitively nearly harmless. Here he is as weak as a paper doll.

But on Terra, these would be the hands of a potential murderer...]

... In order to... e-escape the threat of violence... Terra neutralized it, by... forcing violence to cease to exist in... in its entirety.

But... but I am not so certain now, that... that such a method is even possible completely. I am not so certain that... it is true.

[Having seen what intellectuals can do on both sides of the morality spectrum...]

[i_speak_softly]

[Robert has been doing a pretty poor job of recognizing Don's current needs, but he's made amazing progress in understanding the things that have always been important in his partner's life, and it helps Don feel connected to him in a way that's been missing these past weeks. It's a relief to have that again, and it might show in the lines of his face and shoulders.]

[semper_cogitans]

[And luckily, Robert has known Don long enough to recognize at least some of that relieved look about his countenance. The small smile he puts on is in response to that.]

... Thank you for... listening. You are always... g-good at that, Don.

[Even if he does wish Don could speak back aloud, having his presence here, his warmth and understanding, is enough.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don smiles back, a little, then looks at the sword lying at Robert's side, by way of asking what the man wants to do next.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert looks back at the sword himself, picking it up in the slow, careful way associated with proper seiza.]

Did... did you want me to... j-join you? With... what you were doing prior to my arrival...?

[If they can't connect as easily through shared knowledge and opinions anymore, maybe there's a way to connect through physical experience instead.

... Not that Robert really knows what to do. But he trusts that Don will at least try to show him.]

[i_speak_softly]

[What Don was doing earlier, was lifting twice Robert's weight. While he's not opposed to company, he's not sure how to include his partner in that kind of activity.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Let him watch? Let him attempt to lift some pitiful excuse for a weight? Laugh at the inevitable result of that?

Or he could just sit. That's also okay with him.]

... I do not mind... being a spectator...

[i_speak_softly]

[Don has his reservations about this next suggestion, but... it would mean so much to him.]

[He looks over at the rack of bo staffs.]

Will you... see me do that?