For Curiosity's Sake [Sophie Daniels]

Moriko knows she shouldn't be doing what she's about to do. At least, she's pretty sure that she shouldn't be doing what she's about to do.

For you see, she stands before a door. A door that sits slightly ajar. A door that is usually always locked. But for some inexplicable reason, not only is it currently unlocked, but cracked open as well. Feeling a powerful curiosity, only tempered by her wariness, she turns her back to the door and does a careful sweep of the area of the building she's in.

She's in the school gym, which is ridiculously HUGE. It's two stories tall, for one thing. There's four basketball courts, two indoor tennis courts, and an indoor track circling the courts on the bottom floor. Pushed against the walls were unused bleachers, their metal gleaming bright in the early morning light.

There's another indoor track on the second floor, one side of the track lined with a guardrail. Someone running on the upper track could easily look down and watch anyone below as they ran. And this is only one section of the gym! Apparently there's a pool and other rooms for various purposes somewhere else in the the building, but Moriko has yet to visit those areas.

She's only been to the gym a handful of times, and always during P.E. class. Never outside of class. So she's never had a chance to truly explore the building in it's entirety. This is the main reason she's here. But unfortunately, her intentions have been a bit... derailed. For there is this door. This usually locked door, now unlocked and unguarded. An open invitation to enter, if only she would kindly do so.

Scan of the area complete, Moriko sighs in relief. As far as she can tell, she's the only person there. Which is not too surprising. It IS early Saturday morning. She hadn't really expected too many students to be out and about at this hour. Especially at the beginning of their weekend.

Nodding to herself, Moriko turns to face the door once again. The face-plate on the door reads Props and Practice Weapons. Definitely interesting. Doing another quick glance around, she pushes the door a bit to open up the crack. Surprisingly, the door moves smoothly and silently on it's well oiled hinges. The crack is now only large enough for her slight frame to fit through, which she promptly takes advantage of and slides in.

It's utterly dark in the room. It seems that if the room does have windows, they must be well covered. Squinting in the darkness, Moriko feels around the wall near the door. Bingo! Finding what she's looking for, she hits the light switch. Blinking from the brightness, she glances around. Dang! This room is bigger than I thought!

On the left side of the room are wheeled racks upon wheeled racks of clothes. Taking a closer look, it seems like they're costumes. Really high quality costumes. Gaze drifting around the room, Moriko steps farther into it. There are backgrounds and backdrops, of various sizes, which could only be for a play. Some wood and tools are off in a corner. A lot of paint cans, unused fabrics, and other supplies are in another corner, stacked around what could be a work table. Then her eyes fall on a section of the room to her right.

All along the right wall, and in bins and racks set neatly in front of it, are a slew of wooden and padded weapons. Eyes widening, Moriko moves over to stand right in front of them. Scanning the weapons, she finds her gaze drawn to a particular section of the wall. Mounted in place are some wooden samurai swords. Racking her brain for the word, she finds it. "Boken..." she murmurs.

When she was younger, her mother used to love watching old samurai movies. Moriko and her brother would watch them with her. Excited from all the action, and being active kids, she and her brother would often play act the fight scenes in the movies. They'd run outside, grab sticks, and try to hit each other. Her mother, seeing this happen more than once, decide one Christmas to buy them their very own boken. So then the two of them would run around, whacking at bushes and each other. They were never very good at using them though, and would more often than not end up hurting each other. Those were happier times.

Smiling sadly at the memory, a feeling of nostalgia grips Moriko. Leaning forward, she takes a sword from the wall. Stepping back, she holds the sword like she remembers the samurai in the films did. She frowns. This boken feels a bit heavier than the ones she and her brother had used. Shrugging she decides to give it a few test swings, not paying too close attention to the stuff around her.

A KNIGHT'S HONOR

Unsurprisingly, Sophie had been around the prop weapons more than once. True, they were somewhat basic. There were false longswords and foils for European plays, scimitars for acts taking place in the Middle East, and of course katanas and wakazashi for Japanese plays. And that just covered the blades, which of course, were most the weapons.

Being a bit of a knight nut, Sophie was holding a faux longsword, her imagination running wild. Truth be told, the blade was durable; not some cheap arcade toy. She could have probably swung it with all her might at the wall, and it'd have at least stayed fairly well intact. Sophie, unlike Moriko, had a bit more experience with a blade, although only in fencing.

Despite the murmur of the activity not too far from either of them, the only other sound that wasn't in Sophie's head or the roar of the air conditioning was Moriko's barely audible muttering. Sophie decided to investigate, though it only took turning a small corner to see her.

The actress smiled at the other girl, "It's definitely a good one too. I've seen some pretty crappy ones out there, but you could probably slam that one against a suit of armor a few times." And of course, with a love of knights came an interest in swords. Sophie wasn't exactly a true expert, but she had a pretty deep knowledge still.

"Anyways, I'm Sophie." she introduced herself.

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Shifting her grip a little, Moriko steps a few paces to the left. She's sort of got the feel for the weight of the boken now and she wants to try doing a side sweep, which requires a bit more room. She'd noticed how close she'd been to the racks of of other weapons, and didn't want to knock them over.

Thinking over the scenes in the old samurai movies, she remembers the one that seemed the most striking to her. It's the one, where the hero samurai stands over his foe, blade raised and expression grim, before he slices down in a side stroke. She always thought it was odd how the viewer was made to look up at the samurai from below, as if THEY were the villain he was about to vanquish. But either way, it was always dramatic and powerful. And she loves that pose.

Shifting her left foot in front of herself, she raises the blade just as she recalls the samurai doing. Setting her expression to mirror that stony look, she breathes in deep. Shifting her weight forward, she steps forward onto her right leg, bringing it to the front and shifting her left leg to the back. At the same time, she swings the wooden sword downward, her strike untrained but powerful.

Unfortunately, halfway through her swing, a voice speaks up behind her.

"Urk!" Jumping at the sudden sound, Moriko loses all concentration on what she was doing. Form completely breaking, her arms swing past the point where she should have stopped. Grip loose due to distraction, the sword tip slams into the floor. The force of the impact is enough to rip the handle from her hand. The sword ricochets off the floor and goes spinning into the room. It crashes into a set-up of wig heads. They go flying, the wigs adorning them doing likewise. It all happens in the blink of an eye, but it's a hell of a loud blink.

Frozen for a moment, Moriko can only stare in shock at the mess that's been made. Some of the wig heads are styrofoam. Oh no... A low groan of dismay escapes her. Suddenly, she remembers what had distracted her.

Whirling around, she instantly sees the other girl whose voice had thrown her off. She's so horrified at what she's done, she completely misses the other girl's introduction. All she can think about is how much trouble she's in.

In a panic, she blurts out, "I didn't mean to!"

A KNIGHT'S HONOR

No sooner had she finished did things go crazy. She honestly felt a little guilty, feeling that despite the end results basically being an accident on her part causing another accident for Moriko, she looked to the wigs, and started to move towards them.

"Well, it doesn't look like there's any damage." Sophie told her, as she uprighted one of the fallen displays, placing the wig back on it, "So really, it doesn't look like there was any harm done." Sophie smiled at her.

Honestly, she'd seen a bit of the stance. Sophie wasn't an expert in Japanese swordsmanship. She practiced European-style sport fencing rather than kendo. But she could spot a movie-style stance a mile away. Most of those kinds of movies weren't exactly made to be realistic; they were meant to awe the audience.

Ironically, she'd been trying to learn that a bit better, given the popularity of Flynning in theater, no matter how unrealistic the faux-fighting style happened to be.

Sophie placed the wig back on one of the syrofoam heads, "I'm a bit out of practice since kendo is king over here, but I'm actually a decent enough sport fencer myself." 'Pretty decent' was an apt description. She was always told she made good progress in the three years she'd trained in it, but that was due to enthusiasm more than natural talent or athleticism. Still, she'd take what she could get.

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Moriko stands frozen in her shock. She isn't supposed to be in here. She knows it, but she still entered the room. Now, not only has she been caught, she's also damaged something!

But the other girl doesn't even seem fazed. Without hesitation, she moves towards the downed wigs, her steps quick and sure. Bending down, she checks out the mess that Moriko had caused. Waiting anxiously, it's like a cord is cut at the strangers words. A sigh escapes her, the exhalation of a breath she didn't even know she was holding. The smile puts her even more at ease, though she's still a bit anxious over being caught in a place she's not supposed to be. She nods in reply, her expression grateful, and returns the smile with a small, unsure one of her own. Nervously running her fingers through her hair, she moves to the other girl's side and starts to help clean up the mess.

While they pick up the wig heads and place the wigs back on them, Moriko listens quietly as the other girl speaks. So far, she hasn't been scolded for being here, so perhaps her fellow student doesn't know that she's not supposed to be here. Either way, she's relieved.

She nods appropriately at the other's words, but pauses at the last part. Glancing sideways at the other girl, she asks, her voice soft with a slight Irish lilt to it, "Sport fencer?"

Not one who really watches or keeps track of sports, Moriko does at least know that they exist. But the only ones she's familiar with are the big ones in the United States. Outside of that, she's not aware of the many other sports that are played in the rest of the world.

So in her head, all she can imagine with those words are people competing to... build fences?

Her confusion is clear in the tone of her voice and slightly furrowed brows.

A KNIGHT'S HONOR

Sophie chuckled a bit. Right. Fencing wasn't as popular or famous a sport in Japan as it was in the states, and even there, it was a second, maybe even third rung sport. No matter, there was an easy way to compare it. Of course, at this point, she was assuming the girl was Japanese, or at least Asian. Moriko's mix of traits made it a little ambiguous to her heritage, and her lack of knowledge of fencing falsely suggested a Japanese upbringing. Actually, she reconsidered once more at her Irish lilt. She... really couldn't peg her. Ah well, basically time to play the field and use as many references as she could.

"Fencing is a lot like kendo in that its sport swordfighting. There's a few big differences though, including there's more an emphasis on defense and a thinner 'blade'. I'd talk about it more, but I doubt you'd want me to ramble on and on about it." Sophie explained, chuckling slightly at the end.

While curious, she didn't want to ask about Moriko's heritage. That seemed like a bit of a personal question to ask someone when you've literally just met them.

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Oh, sword fighting! Moriko nods in understanding, though she doesn't quite have an exact image in her head for the kind of sword fighting that the other girl describes. But she does know what kendo looks like, so that's what she envisions. Head titling to the side a little, she asks, her curiosity peaked. "A thinner blade?" She shakes her head at her companions words about rambling on. "No, it's interesting. I don't mind."

Placing the last wig on the last manikin, Moriko gives a slight smile of satisfaction. Nothing had been damaged. Thank goodness for small miracles. Moving around the wig table, she heads in the directing of where she'd seen the boken go flying and begins to search for it. Glancing behind her, she asks, "You said you fence... Done it for long? Are you good?"

Stepping over a pile of dusty cloth, she finds the sword handle sticking out of a deep fold of one of the larger pieces. Bending down, she grips the handle and pulls it out. Unfortunately, this stirs up a puff of dust that hits her right in the face. Moriko turns around and faces the other girl quickly, but it's already too late. She starts to cough hard from the dust, bending over slightly at the force behind them. Her eyes close and tear up from the action.

Cracking one teal eye open, she peers over at her companion with a teary eyed gaze. "Sorry... dusty," she manages to get out in between her coughs.

A KNIGHT'S HONOR

Sophie nodded, now that she knew she was at least a little interest... and because she asked for a bit of clarification, "Fencing uses light, thin dueling swords, rather than heavier weapons like a bokken. Also, they're first and foremost thrusting weapons, even though you can cut with a rapier." Sophie could go on and on about fencing, of course, but she did have a respect for kendo and samurai. Samurai, after all, were the Japanese counterpart of knights.

She smiled when she asked about fencing, "I mean, I'm good enough. I've been doing it for several years now, but I doubt I could really continue. Fencing's kinda not a super popular sport. I mean, its definitely not obscure, but its uncommon enough as is in America, and Japan has kendo instead. I doubt I could find any Fencing Clubs if I tried."

The fencer grimaced as she saw her new acquiantance start hacking and coughing, feeling a bit sorry for the other girl. She sighed, "Hey, don't worry about it. Just take your time." Honestly, Moriko apologized too much."

At least the room was clean again, the American supposed.

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Her coughs finally subsiding, Moriko steps forward, the rescued sword gripped lightly in her right hand. A thin layer of dust has settled over her shoulders, face, and hair. That piece of cloth must have been sitting there for a while to gather that much dust! Granted, it was tucked away behind a supply laden table, so maybe it simply got missed during clean-ups. As she moves forward, Moriko attempts to brush the dust off of her clothes with her left hand.

She steps past her companion, a sheepish smile of appeasement twitching her lips up, and moves over to the sword racks. Stopping right in front of where she got the boken, she raises the sword and places it back into it's spot. Turning around, she heads back to the other girl, that awkward little smile still in place. The dust on her face and hair goes unnoticed by her, even as she now uses both hands to try and get the rest of it off of her shoulders.

Raising her gaze at her fellow student's words, her expression turns to one of admiration. "Oh wow, for several years? You must be very good, then!" Finally halting arm's length away from the other girl, Moriko's eyes sparkle with enthusiasm. "It'd be cool to see you in action," she says, her voice soft but interested. She may not follow spots particularly closely, but that's more due to lack of exposure than anything else. Also, no one she knows plays sports, so she doesn't have anyone to cheer on, and thus no reason to have an interest in them.

"I don't know much about fencing, but it does sound interesting," she adds, her head tilted at a thoughtful position.