"I showed you mine, it's only fair!" Who: Satele and Rowanne When: Sundaay Where: A Park What: A Date! Satele comes to one of Rowanne’s exhibitions and more sparks. Also, the girls show each other their swords. Rating: Pg-13 for some inappropriate sexual overtones. But in a cute way. Also, the last link is not safe for work.
Was it a date? Maybe. Maybe not. Satele didn't want to think about that sort of thing just yet. What did one even wear to such an event? She had to do shopping. She wanted to look good, but appropriate. And be comfortable. She'd have to put her hair in braids. Most of all she looked forward to a stimulating conversation.
WAS it a date? Rowanne wasn't sure herself, but she had been plowing through her wardrobe trying to determine what exactly she was wearing out of her selection of tunics. Obviously, she'd be going with either the linen or cotton for the season, but there were color choices there. Did the red make her look too flushed? The green might do, and apparently it made her eyes look bigger, whatever that meant. Maybe that was a good thing? She wished she had someone to ask about this sort of thing, really. And that she didn't go overboard just in case this wasn't a date at all. Hard to say, really.
There wasn't a particular place she could go to shop, Satele realized. Not for something like this. She had some old silks of her mother's but that might be a bit ostentatious and rather entirely the wrong culture, though there was nothing wrong with the far East. That was a fascinating culture in its own right, even if not her primary realm of expertise.
She was going to be outdoors. She had sturdy boots and leather pants, and eventually went with something like this. It was simple, elegant, and she didn't mind if it got ruined. It would also be good in warmer temperatures.
After some consideration, Rowanne decided she might as well go with the green after all, since it would probably stand out best on the field and all. She did wish that she had been involved in this long enough to be part of the chivalry, as she would have liked to have had a device to wear. At least among her particular group of friends, you didn't do that sort of thing until you'd been elevated and gotten IN. It had seemed like a good system until you wanted impress someone.
Not that she was out to...Oh who was she to pretend that wasn't what was going on here? Even if it turned out to be friends, she liked that oppurtunity in spite of herself. And next, let's see...she'd have her hair scraped back and off her neck, and would hopefully be not too much of a mess by the same she saw Satele. She bounced a little at the thought of that somehow, How weird was THAT?
Satele spent entirely to much time on her hair. She'd need it up and out of the way, and ended up with several looping braids and one big one looped around the top of her head.
She carefully retrieved her sword staff, and headed into her garage. Instead of the Audi she went to her Range Rover - there wasn't enough room for the staff otherwise. She ran back inside, grabbed a backpack with water, several heavy books on medieval society, her iPad and a large sketchbook.
Then? She was on the road!
Rowanne went ahead with getting ready herself, slipping into a pair of gold toned hose and getting the right belt to go with her tunic, and laced up her boots which took a bit, then picked up her gear, loaded everything into her trunk, where she'd already left her other gear, included a fairly battered gambeson and some other padding and started out for the park where they were having the exhibition. All set? She hoped so!
Satele got there first. She found a nice spot to sit down and watch, wanting to observe. She was impressed with what she saw, and fiddled with her sword-staff. It wasn't proper to show off, and Satele was anything but a show off.
Rowanne appeared not much later, and started getting her stuff out and carting it over to a tent that had been set up for the fighters doing demonstrations that day, though Satele got a little wave, and, though it was pretty far away, the other woman looked GREAT in that shade, Rowanne thought, and sort of bumped into one of the guys coming through, who followed her gaze and said something or other that made her laugh and punch him. Though, when things were settled for now, she made her way over instead.
The green really did suit Rowanne and bring out her eyes. Satele was startled that she'd even noticed that, "You look fantastic! You fit right in. A lot better than I do but I really didn't think it through enough." She tugged on her own silk blouse.
"Oh no, you look...that's such a great color on you." Rowanne grinned. "I'm so glad you could come. This should be a lot more fun this way. I mean with someone here to..." she paused, realizing it sounded awkward. She wasn't given to blushing or anything, but she did notice this type of moment and all.
Satele smiled back at her, and stood, her blouse falling into line with the curves of her body, "Thank you. I'm glad I could come!" She picked up her sword-staff, "Do you want to look at it?" that sounds dirty
“II'd absolutely love to see it." Rowanne leaned over to get a better look at Satele's staff. "Oh this is GORGEOUS."
Satele found herself flushing, "Thank you, I had it restored."
Rowanne was touching her staff, why was this
because it was an amazing staff and it belonged to HER on top of it.. "I can tell." Rowanne stopped running her fingers up and down the staff. "I can just imagine what you look like with it."
Rowanne wants on top of the staff? "Do you want to see? I don't want to show off, but I just sort of go with the flow."
"Oh I'd love to!" And there's even time and not too many people around for a demonstration and she could totally climb right on top of it too..
Nodding her head, the Brit stepped back, giving herself some room, before twirling the staff around. Her style was unorthodox and certainly anything but period, but it worked. The sword-staff became an extension of her body, moving, cutting through the air, blocking imaginary blows. The form was reminsicent of jedi numerous cultures. Her face was serene, her eyes focused.
Then they lost focus and she was somewhere else entirely. She blocked, parried, attacked relentlessly against a foe only she could see, against a foe where it was personal.
As quickly as it came, it passed, and she leaned on her staff, blinking her eyes.
Rowanne's eyes widened as she watched her moving. She was so graceful and fluid. It was completely different from anything Rowanne was used to watching, and it was fascinating to say the least. There was something about the new style that had such a life of its own that all she could do was stand there, watching, and then slowly start clapping. "You seemed to be somewhere else." She said at last. "Another world. That was amazing."
Satele felt like she'd been somewhere else. Her eyes adjusted and the forest was gone, the strange people with their glowing weapon and laser guns no longer around her. The power that had flowed through her body had faded, leaving an ache inside her. She swallowed, and replied out of breath, "Thank you, Rowanne."
"It....where do you learn that sort of thing?" Rowanne wondered, curious now because.."I've just never seen anything like that at all."
"I don't know," She replied, honestly, sitting down and patting the grass next to her. "It just came naturally." She rested the sword staff on the other side of her.
“Well, that's REALLY impressive then." Rowanne smiled at her. "And gosh, it suits you." She added "Me, well, I'm more the violent stabbing type." she finished, with a little joke on the end of that because it was true.
"Can you show me? I showed you mine, its only fair." Satele's tone was teasing, her voice still light from trying to catch her breath. She didn't know what she'd seen, or understand it. It naturally bothered you.
"Pretty soon." Rowanne promised, and pulled her phone out of her bag to check the time. "A couple minutes in fact. Hey are you okay? You look a little worried about something."
"When I was..doing those forms.. It felt like I was somewhere else entirely. My body was certainly more fit." Satele looked up at Rowanne, "As fit as you, I'd say."
"I.." Rowanne flushed a little. "You're not bad now yourself you know."Pause. "I mean, watching you like that. You certainly..." It was probably a good thing that she was getting called over for her bout now wasn't it. "Oh that's me!" she said, relieved as she started scrambling into her padding.
If Satele didn't know better she'd swear they were flirting. Part of her didn't mind. Another part of her thought the idea of attachment was terrifying and evil, "Do you need help dressing? With the padding I mean."
"I'd appreciate that, thanks." Rowanne's gambeson went on cardigan style, but needed to be laced up the front after, and was always kind of a pain to do when she was in everything else. And, well, getting male teammates to do her up didn't exactly work out all the time. Especially when a couple of them were exes. So, you know.
Satele got to her feet and walked over, "Here." She laced the other woman up, cheeks coloring slightly, "There, all done." She took a step back, "You look like you belong in that."
"Someday it'll be real armor." Rowanne grinned. "When I can afford it and actually use it well enough to make it worthwhile." she promised. "And thank you. That means, well, a lot. Let's hope you think so after I land in the dirt a couple times. And hopefully get some of the others in it too." Too bad it wasn't muddy, huh?
Or jello
Satele's eyes roamed over Rowanne, as she wondered how to get the other woman's measurements. She knew exactly who she could call to make a suit of armor, and price wasn't particularly an issue. She put a hand on Rowanne's shoulder, "Just do your best."
"I always do." Rowanne assured her. "Having someone watching makes it even better." And she felt a urge to kiss the other woman for luck, but forced herself not to do that, and instead trotted over to take her place facing her oponent.
"Oh my," Satele murmured to herself. She swore there was nearly a kiss, there. She had no idea how she would have reacted, so instead, she found a spot to get a better look. She wished she had a little flag to wave.
If she came to real events, maybe she could bring a scarf that Rowanne could tie to her wrist as a favor or something. Not that Rowanne was thinking that far ahead. She had other things to accomplish first, and, while her style wasn't nearly as graceful when she fought, it was quick, and would, under the right circumstances, have been deadly. Use your opponent's strength against them, she reminded herself, and set about finding other weak spots, quickly scoring the first hit, as things went on from there.
A favor would be pushing things, wouldn't it? They were both women, and while Satele never had a problem with that sort of thing, a lot of other folks would. Especially if they were in character.
She felt an illicit thrill at the idea. She was on the edge of her seat, as it were!
Well, yes and no. No one would have to know it wasn't them as friends settling on something, since they didn't really know Rowanne was even into girls. If it was totally transparent and open, well, there could be problems that was true. But it was the sort of thing that this version of the middle ages could probably use to spice things up. In the meantime though, they were finishing up, with Rowanne one point ahead, her face flushed and hair falling out of its ponytail but triumphant.
"You can do it! Watch his left! He favors that side!" Was it bad form to give advice?
Nah, they did that kind of thing to each other all the time, but Rowanne noticed the new voice, smiled kind of stupidly, but swept in and got it. Score! Pleased, she pulled back, grinning at her opponent who also smiled and they both took their bows, then stepped back to let someone else in for a try. Rowanne grabbed for a towel, squirted some water into her mouth, and then made her way back over to Satele. "There's mine." She said.
She reached over, trying to fix Rowanne's hair and then gave up. She liked how it looked messed up, anyway, "That was splendid, Rowanne. You're very good!"
"Thanks." Rowanne looked pleased, and well, she'd had a good time besides all of the other awesome things going on here. "It's sort of been a thing since I knew this existed. Well, not being good at it. That part came later on."
"Through practice right? You could hardly tell." She brushed her hands down Rowanne's tunic, dusting her off, "You look like a natural."
"Well thank you. It just feels, I don't know, right somehow." Rowanne admitted. "Is that crazy?"
She stopped her hands, and smiled, "No, not crazy at all." She wanted to get closer.
Rowanne sort of wanted her to get closer too. "So...that's what we do." She concluded grandly. "Like it?"
"Its fascinating! I ought to make a field trip out of it." She wasn't pulling away, but she wasn't getting closer either, "But I enjoyed it with just us, too."
"Me too. Makes it...special...doesn't it?" Rowanne asked, and that time it wasn't an awkward pause, just searching for a way to phrase it right. "I...well, I'm really glad you could come."
"I'd come for you any time," Satele replied earnestly.
"It just, you know, means a lot to me." Rowanne eyedarted. "It's sort of hard to get people drawn in when it's not actually a full on completely immersive event. Though those are probably the BEST." she eyedarted. "I...if you have time, we do a lot of faires."
"My free time is proportional to the amount of grading I have to do," She replied, smiling. Satele clamped down on her body's impulses, quicker and more expertly than she imagined she should be able to do, "I do some research as well, but this could technically count as research."
"Research time then." Rowanne's eyes glinted. "I think you could probably get away with that, yeah."
"I think I'd enjoy researching you. With you. Researching with you."
"And you DID offer to teach me some things. I'd like to learn them from....with you."
Satele shook her head, then started laughing, mostly to cover up her embarassment, "I'd be happy to teach you."
"Sounds perfect." And everything else could maybe sort of fall into place itself, Rowanne decided.
Satele put a few steps between them, though it wasn't all that far. She couldn't afford attachments. Though where that thought came from, she wasn't entirely sure.
And Rowanne well, attachments were fine, really. It was just that...well, she was kind of confused here too. She'd always sort of imagined someday it might be a boy in this place. She wasn't creeped out that it wasn't but in her head, well, she'd built up the mental picture, and there were maybe two of them that had persisted. Satele certainly wasn't those. It took a bit of mental rerranging was all. ( Satele bit her lip, "I'm not the only one feeling this, am I?"
"I...something like that, yes." Rowanne agreed, a little nervous.
She nodded, exhaling in relief, "I don't really date. I try to avoid romantic entanglements."
l Rowanne nodded at that. "And I, well. I haven't done the whole thing much. I mean...it's happened but hasn't exactly gone anywhere. And well, there's this." she swept a hand around. "It's kind of difficult unless it's with someone who gets it. And almost everybody here is attached or a jerk."
Satele laughed, somehow relieved, "I couldn't even tell you the last time I had sex."
"Oh geez, sex." Rowanne paused to try to think about that one seriously, then just laughed too. "I THINK it was at the wars but definitely not the last couple years. Campground. Historical tent." Headshake. "Not memorable other than that."
That actually sounded kind of hot, and Satele's face colored further, "Ah..Uh..." Oh she sounded SO educated, really, "I think it was back at Oxford. He was an adherent to 'lay there and think of the Queen.'
l That got a snicker.. "Oh dear." Rowanne commented, giggling. "Wait. The queen? That uh...now, no offense or anything but the queen's not exactly one of the royals I would want to picture."
Satele made a face, "Fine fine! Think of England?"
"There we go. England is far more pleasant, isn't it?"
"Oh it is. I miss it sometimes." She looked up at the sky, "Except on days like this." She dug her feet into the ground a little bit, before they propelled her next to Rowanne again. This could be troublesome.
"I can imagine. It's funny." Rowanne mused. "I grew up here but I've always sort of felt almost drawn to England. But then days like this happen."
"Mmm..." Satele thought it would be dangerous to be alone with this woman, "I should get going. Do you need a ride?" Oh lord why did she ask that?
t would, wouldn't it? And yet Rowanne kind of wanted..."Actually I don't but thanks." she said, regretfully, really.
Satele felt the incredible urge to Meditate. That is Meditate not 'meditate.' Pervs. Too bad she didn't know how, "This was..wonderful. We should see each other again."
"I'd like that . A lot." Rowanne smiled. "I'll email you."
Satele held up a finger, "Private email." You know, just in case. What am I thinking?!
"Of course, just in case." Rowanne assured her, winking. Winking? What was she DOING?
The other woman found herself speechless, her mouth hanging open slightly. She just winked. What was she implying?
Rowanne didn't really know herself. "I mean. I won't send you, you know, photos of me posed naked on my shield or..."
Satele's mouth just hung farther agape, her face now the color of a red flag, "That's..that's too bad. No, its..oh my."
"Sorry." Rowanne said quickly, then gave her a little shoulder pat. "I uh...that just slipped out."
She closed her eyes, licking her lips and centering herself. The blush faded a little. Serenity. Peace. That's better, "You really know how to make my blood grow hot, Rowanne."
Rowanne grinned a little sheepishly at that. "I'll keep it in mind." She told her.
"And who knows, maybe I'll surprise you." Satele replied, winking BACK at her.
l Rowanne would have to come up with some pictures of her own then. If she wound up doing that and all. She could probably uncover some interesting ones.
Unable to resist just one hug, Satele wrapped her arms around Rowanne and squeezed, murmuring, "I'll.. See you."
"I...yeah." Rowanne agreed, squeezing back and then, impulsively, nuzzled her shoulder a little before letting go. "Definitely see you."
Once again Satele found herself standing stunned and speechless. She blinked, eyes dropping to Rowanne's lips.
Rowanne actually flushed a little as she pulled away, but not too much, all things considered.
Without another word, Satele turned and walked away, in a hurry, but not so much as to be rude. She might need to change her email. Only she didn't want to.
And Rowanne watched her go, but she was smiling and didn't think it had ended all that badly really. So far, so good.
Well, Satele reasoned, it wasn't like romantic entanglements led to bringing down galactic civilization, or anything.