fh_trips | The Crown Princess - Monday [Cabins and Lido Deck]

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spring break 2009: crown princess cruise

The Crown Princess - Monday [Cabins and Lido Deck]

It was a beautiful day in the Caribbean! The sun was bright in the cloudless sky, casting no shadows on the open section of the Lido deck: Sunbathers beware. Luckily, the Horizon Court offered umbrellas at some tables for the sun shy.

Near the pools were large lettered signs discouraging guests from diving or jumping into the water due to the lack of depth.

[OOC: Cabin Listing | Ship/Shore Post | Cabins Thread | Pool & Bars | Terrace]

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"Exactly," she agreed. "It would be madness to call this impossible. Clearly, it's quite possible, as here we are. Unless I've gone mad again, in which case you're simply a figment of my imagination. But one can't live each day assuming one's in a madhouse, or one would never leave one's bed. Better to accept it and move onward."

His lips actually curled up into a smile at that, and he nodded. "Indeed," Arthur said, "Accept it, move onward, and hope there's something dangerous to slay the end of it, so that we may all have some fun."

"I haven't had a good fight in ages," she sighed. "What use is a blade if it's kept in a weapons locker?"

"You've a blade?" Arthur asked. By now, he was no longer surprised. "I haven't seen you about the salle yet. Perhaps I should."

Weapons: still shiny.

"Vorpal blade," she smiled, and her grin was nearly predatory. "A bit longer than a butcher's knife, and far more sharp. If one has good aim, it can be thrown at enemies, but then one has the difficulty of being unarmed until the weapon can be retrieved from the body. I haven't been to the salle; it seemed more for proper swordfights, I suppose. Is that your weapon?"

Alice's teachers had been desperation and need. She didn't know the elegant feint, and the dance of retreat. She knew how to carve and slice until her opponent stopped breathing.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:17 (UTC)

"Swords, lances, crossbows, flails, the spear..." he said, "It's expected of a knight to know any number of weapons." And Arthur may have prided himself on being the Medieval equivalent of a tank. "Have you seen a great deal of battle?"

That idea, he still had to learn to cope with.

"I should like to learn more weapons," she sighed. "A great deal, but only a short time period. Reclaiming the throne. I had few allies and few assets, so I fought with whatever I had. No proper training except that of survival. If one is still alive, one learns."

He was not about to suggest this. Dinah had merely been a project to stave off his own boredom and satiate his need for duty.

"I teach a pupil in the salle every Monday," he offered, earnestly, "If you're serious, you're welcome to join us."

"Are you sure it wouldn't be a bother?" she asked, hesitantly. "As I said, I've no formal training whatsoever. I might be such a novice that I would make a vexing student."

"Trust me," he said, dryly, "When I say that there's no bloody way you could be any more vexing than my current student. You've seen your fair share of a fight; I can hardly retract my offer."

Everyone was worth fighting for. Everyone was worth a chance to fight. Stupid, silly dreams.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:47 (UTC)

"That sounds like a challenge," Alice teased, "to try to make myself more vexing that your other pupil. But I shouldn't like to press my luck. Very well. The Salle, on Mondays? After clubs, or just classes? I have both Art and Entrepreneurship on Mondays."

"In the morning," he said, "No better time to get up and beat something in submission than right before having to face the light of day."

Arthur... really didn't believe in having a lie-in, no.

Edited 2009-02-25 20:58 (UTC)

"Metaphorically, or literally?" Alice asked. "Before dawn, that is, or do you allow for a bit of breakfast before we take weapons out and attack one another?"

Arthur feigned giving it some thought. "A bit of breakfast is all right," he said, "Any more than that, and I'll have to disqualify you."

"Is there a tournament, then?" Alice laughed. "Delightful. I shall be there bright and early, blade in hand. Don't imagine that I will go easy on you, King or no."

Prince, really, but Arthur wasn't the Once and Future Prince, so the other title stuck in her mind.

"Prince," he corrected anyway, because he would take no insult to his father. "If I wanted you to go easy, I'd have directed you to someone else."

"Future King, then," she said, falling into the cadence of it. "I thank you most humbly, Arthur of Camelot."

Still could not quite wrap her mind around that. It tickled quite pleasantly.

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The Crown Princess - Monday [Cabins and Lido Deck]

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