fandomhigh | Stealth and Deception, Workshop #3, Wednesday Morning at Cafe Fina

The students, upon arriving at Cafe Fina, were given a nice breakfast of croissants, pastries, and muffins; then ushered off down a series of twisting corridors, down a series of stairs where a number of symbols had been neatly and cleverly covered up, and then finally pushed into what appeared to be a large dojo.

Alfred was standing there, waiting.

"Good morning, class. Today we're going to discard theory for something a little more practically fun."

He grinned. "Today I will teach you how to move stealthily and, most importantly, silently.

Alfred stepped to the side and let the class get a better view of the floor behind him. The space had been seperated into a number of square sections, all of which had been given different floor coverings. Sticks, dry leaves, hard metal, shag rug, and, in one case, a very tastful hardwood design.

"Some teachers might try to break you in by showing you on something that naturally does not make much noise. Say, the reagular floor of this dojo. However, I'm of the opinion that all the training I give you will be completely pointless if I don't show you how to use it in a real life situation. I might as well be teaching you knitting at that point. Now, class, if you'll please follow me and keep on the dojo floor."

Alfred walked over to the first prepared square (hard wood) and stepped out onto it, still in his dress shoes. There was no audible sound at all. Alfred continued to lecture as he walked around the various surfaces in otherwise complete silence, explaining the proper way to move, where to place your weight, that your footfalls should always be toe first, instead of heel first.

As he stepped off the last panel (dry twigs) he picked up a cup of tea from a nearby panel and sipped at it. "If there are no questions," he said. "Feel free to practice this all on any of the test squares I have set up. If you need help, talk to me or someone who appears to be doing well, as I'm quite sure that some of you already have this skill." He nodded to Setsuna, Briar, and Walter.

_{[[Wait for the OCD. Have fun kids! Yes, you are now technically in the butler-cave, but there is absolutely nothing there that could connect it with Batman. Alfred made quite sure of that.]]}

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Jude doesn't know about a certain someone, but he's impressed.

So he's trying his absolute hardest to, if not do just as well, not fail completely. That . . . didn't work out so well. His sneakers squeaked once on the hardwood. The leaves rustled despite his best efforts. He snapped a twig, and then another when he tried to adjust to it. His shoelace pinged against the metal.

He breathed a small sigh of relief when he made the shag carpetting - until he tripped and fell flat on his face with an audible "Ooof!"

Oh, God. The wincing. The cringing. And the all-out burying her face in her hand when Jude went crashing to the floor.

Sakurazaki hadn't intended to display any of them, but they couldn't be helped. They were purely reflexive. She had...hoped he'd do well. She didn't expect a perfect performance, no. But she at least....wow. Just wow.

Biting her lip, forehead wrinkled with worry, she timidly approaches him. "You okay, Jude?"

Jude picked himself up, not looking at her as he did so. "'M fine," he muttered sullenly, tugging his tuque down on his head before turning towards Alfred. "Can I try it again?"

His voice was quiet and flat.

"Of course," Alfred said. "You can try as many times as you like."

Jude nodded and brushed past Setsuna, his face set. Think stealthy. Remember what he said. Toe first. Move your foot like that.

Moving so slowly he was barely moving at all, Jude retraced the course. He squeaked and pinged and crunched once more, but didn't fall. Small blessings.

Sakurazaki's shoulders slumped a bit when Jude passed by; she wanted to say something, to encourage him, but she felt so...brushed off. He barely said anything to her, wouldn't even look at her. She frowns deeply, worriedly, as she watched him try it again. But she wasn't so much focusing on what he was doing so much as what she could say to him when he finished this run.

"That was..." she starts, even more timidly that the first time. "You did better that time, Jude." Sakurazaki tries to smile encouragingly.

"Uh huh."

Same flat voice, still fixated on the floor. Right now Jude wanted to sink into said floor and never come up again. Every little sound he made echoed in his ears like booming thunder. He stuck out like a sore thumb. A loud, awkward, spastic, dumb sore thumb.

But he wasn't about to give up. He walked past her again, and again he tried, and again he made a hundred little sounds to give away his position. He couldn't balance properly, brought his foot too high or too low, turned the wrong way at the wrong time.

Sakurazaki draws in a deep breath. Why was he completely ignoring her? She could help him through it, and she wanted to, but every time she tried to say something...

Was there something else the matter? She knew she should probably ask him, but...biting her lip, Sakurazaki isn't sure she could handle being blown off for a third time...

...Besides, standing there watching him probably didn't help. He probably thought she was trying to rub it in or something, being all elitest and superiour. Of course, she didn't feel that way at all, but she did recognize that perhaps it looked that way.

Very reluctantly, Sakurazaki turns her head away first, and then her body. She had to talk to Alfred about the excersize today, anyway...

...She should have known that things were going far too smoothly in this class. She should have known from past experience that the demands of her field did not mesh well with the demands of the heart...

Stealth and Deception, Workshop #3, Wednesday Morning at Cafe Fina

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