Cooled down (for bladeinthecrowd)

[blindingtrust]

Ivy had a long day. Tests and final papers plagued her since the last time she had been here. The life of a student could be stressful which is why she was taking a much needed break. She was in her usual clothing which consisted of her long coat, which lay unbuttoned, a white collared shirt that had the top two buttons undone, and dark slacks.

But her shoes had been removed. As well as her socks. She had even seen fit to remove her sunglasses. She was just content to sit and let her mind unload all that information that kept spinning through her head.

She's not dozing off. Really. Her head dropping against her chest means nothing. It's just the tree she's under is so nice and the air is so warm. She can't help it if she's relaxing and just happens to find herself snoozing a bit.

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[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr was beginning to recognize the signs for his unusual meetings in the Nexus. When he didn't see the sign, felt no compulsion to ask a question, and barely recognized the surroundings as Nexus-esque--he knew he was about to find Ivy somewhere nearby if he just kept walking.

He was tempted to stop and stand still. To defy cruel fate.

But with an annoyed sigh he kept trudging forward. Eventually Altaїr found the tree, and beneath it, naturally, was Ivy. He watched her doze off, somewhat amused by the act.

The Assassin decided on a different approach. He already knew Ivy would hate him for this one.

Altaїr searched the ground until he found what he was looking for. A moment later a fast moving object passed in front of Ivy's face, merely inches away from her nose. If the air current from that particular rock didn't get her attention, then the next one that flew by her ear hopefully would. And then another on the other side. And until she woke up...

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

And like expected it does wake her up. Her head jerks up and she tilts her head. Someone's tossing rocks? It sounds like it. Or maybe pebble would be a better word?

"Who's there," she snaps. To her this isn't funny. She just wanted to relax. Though she hadn't expected to doze off.

She isn't very happy right now. She doesn't know it's Altair and is likely to be ready to either read him the riot act or fume in frustration that she didn't know it was him.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr remains silent and simply throws another rock at her face. This one is aimed precariously close to her, and even brushes through her hair as it passes by.

He has his reasons. I swear.

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Ivy jerks back and climb to her feet quickly. Though now she buttons up her coat then pauses to get out her cane. She even twirls it in her hands while listening.

Where are you punk? She's listening and then turns. Is that where he is? No. She's facing the wrong way.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

The cane twirling intrigues Altaїr, but he's not fooled by the gesture. He can easily see faults in her simple movements. She is horribly out-classed here. Or anywhere he can think of really.

He throws another rock and this one actually scratches against her cheek.

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

It stings but she figures out where he is. The cane twirling is more of a way to help her focus anyways.

"Got you," she mutters and turns. What to do. What to do. She listens and sniffs the air a bit. Huh. What the hell?

For a moment it looks like she might run at him. But that doesn't happen. She runs dissapearing into the other trees. She left her shoes behind.

Go and find her Altair. It looks like she's dissapeared all ready. The tell tale sound of her rushing through the trees has stopped.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr shakes his head and gives chase at a steady pace neither fast nor slow. His eyes dart here and there as he searches for signs of her passage. It's not hard to notice the obvious path she created during her "escape."

It doesn't even take him long to find her hiding spot. But he plays dumb and wanders around the area aimlessly.

Then he disappears behind a tree and all sound of his passage cease. There is hardly a sound, even for her keen ears, as the Assassin makes his way towards Ivy within the branches of the surrounding trees. He reaches down and waves a hand in her face just to prove his skill.

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She hadn't meant to leave a path. But it was hard not to when she had triped a few times due to not having her shoes on. And also...blind people are still terrible at running.

For a moment she thought he had went another way but...here he is.

She looks up and smiles a touch. And well, looks like she got a scartch on her cheek by mistake. Deep sort of. There's a nice fresh steak of blood there but she looks far too ammused to care.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr does something a little odd even for himself--if only Ivy could see him. He was hanging upside down from one of the branches, his knees wrapped around the limb tightly to hold him in place. He almost had a smile on his lips. Or maybe a pseudo smirk. It was hard to tell.

He swings idly as he speaks. "You're not careful enough. It would have been so easy to end your life. Or worse," he tacks on the end just for emphasis.

He glances at the blood on her cheek and shakes his head, an almost comical gesture in his current position. But it manages not to be by sheer force of will. His face is completely straight.

The Assassin frowns. "That won't do..."

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Ivy just had a vauge feeling of him being abov her. She had no idea he was hanging upside down.

"I suppose I'll have to work on that, then." Though the last bit has her cheek twitch. Which is an odd reaction.

"What won't do?" She actually hasn't noticed she's bleeding. She thought it might be sweat anyways.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr reaches down once more and dabs a finger in her blood. The feel of it is familiar--the sight of blood on his hands not new in the least. He stares idly at it, then turns a 'bored' look on her.

"Everything," he replies. "You're reaction, you're timing, you're lack of skill. And..." his sentence is punctuated by a grunt as he jumps off the branch, an interesting sight to see for those with sight. His legs push off the branch with some effort and he twists his body around like a cat mid-flight so that his feet hit the ground first. His knees bend on impact but he doesn't kneel or seem phased at all. He simply stands straight and crosses his arms over his chest.

He stares at her unblinkingly. "...this blood on your face. A foolish endeavor to run away. All you've managed to do is hurt herself."

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She hadn't expected that. Of course now it starts to dawn on her. When she had run past a low branch and felt it scrape past her cheek...could she have scratched herself?

Oh. He decided to begin training her. That's what this is about. "Well. What can I do to...start changing what I did wrong?"

Now her hand goes to her cheek. "Oh. I...didn't notice that."

She flexes her toes then moves to get up. She’s not putting much weight down on her heels. Mostly to avoid them getting whacked on anything she doesn't notice on the forest floor.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

"Several things." He uncrosses his arms and lets them hang at his side. "Let's start with the basics first, since I don't think you've got even that." He shook his head and grew agitated when a low branch caught on his hood. He untangled the cloth and then waved back the way they had come.

"I take that back--let's start by leaving this area. We need space." He started making his way back towards the clearing.

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

Ivy moves to follow after him. She taps along to avoid tripping. After all that would be rather humilating. But she does reach the clearing. With a leaf caught in her hair but the wind tugs it out.

But before Altair can begin the lesson Ivy fetches her socks and shoes and pulls them on. She even undoes the buttons on her coat and lets it fall to the ground.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr waits patiently for Ivy. He seems more interested in surveying their surroundings anyway. He grunts once, the sound indeterminable as either an approval or disapproval.

He glances back at Ivy just as she returns to him. The Assassin takes a lengthy look at her body. The way he looked at her brought no blush to his cheeks--he was all profession. His face was smooth and calm.

Altaїr shrugs his shoulders in a few circles to relax them. "Besides the fact that you obviously need to work out your body more often..." he starts, eying her ruthlessly. He knows she can't see it, but he's relying on the fact that she can feel it's intensity. "We also need to work on a few other basic concepts. Particularly balance."

He'd discuss the fact that he was very disappointed in her initial reaction (simply standing there, then the whole running away thing--and running away very badly, mind you) later. One step at a time...

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

Ivy doesn't feel any shame. It's been almost six months since she's workled out due to her health. Now that she's better she should start again.

Which means she'll hve to divde some part of the day to returning to the gym she used to frequent. Maybe doing some sit ups and push upss in the morning before class as well.

"That..makes sense," that's all she says on that.

She will likly not defend her actions though. To her they made sense. And what he was ding now also made sense. It also gave her a way out. If she could see him as her teacher it would let her emotionally distance herself so it wouldn't bother her when she wasn't around. This...was much more ideal. At least that's what she'll keep telling herself.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr took one more quick look around his settings. Apparently spotting what he wants, he turns his attention back to Ivy again. "This way," he says as he grabs her by the wrist.

They don't walk very far before Altaїr stops and lets her go. He walks away briefly and the sound of heavy lifting and dragging can be heard. Then he walks back to her and takes one hand in his and places the other on her back. He guides her forward carefully. "Take a step up... here."

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

Ivy will never ever compare this to being led around like a pull toy. But in a tiny corner of her mind, this is nice. Justt a tiny part. Don't woory folks Ivy will not think on that for very long.

Though his hand on her back? That has her mentally do a cheer. But now orders are being given so she is going to follow them.

And she takes that first step. Is she on some kind of blance beam?

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Indeed Altaїr had managed to find a way to make a pseudo balance-beam out of a huge fallen log. No worries, he checked to make sure it wasn't rotten or anything beforehand.

"Walk in a straight line until I say 'stop'," he said as he let go of her carefully so as not to unbalance her. Yes, he was expecting her to trust completely in him to not let her fall or walk off the end of the log.

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

Good because Ivy is trusting him to not get her hurt. It would break that trust a bit if she fell through a rotting log.

Ivy nods and keeps her cane just in front of her. Then she steps so she's standing side ways. She moves very carefully so she's standing like normal after a few steps. She's mostly testing to see what works best for this. But she is moving at least. A few times she does stumble just a bit in the middle. But it does look like the center of her sense of blance is in the cane. Without it she's lost. They may want to work on that.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr is actually already one step ahead of this; when he sees her relying heavily on the cane he swipes it from her rudely. He does, however, leave a hand at her elbow to make sure she doesn't fall when he does this.

"You'll never get anywhere relying on something other than yourself," he says without emotion. After a moment he removes his hand and waits for her to continue.

[blindingtrust.livejournal.com]

Ivy nearly fell. It was like being really blind. To not have that cane to give her a sense of where she was well it was very difficult for her to do anything but stand very still.
"Bu..." She stops speaking. Then focuses on just moving. She wobbles pretty badly at first. It takes her a few steps before she looks almost comfortable doing this. Or it could be she's good at hiding her facial expression.

[bladeinthecrowd.livejournal.com]

Altaїr watches with a stoic face. He seems uncaring, but his eyes flicker rapidly upon the entire seen before him, carefully calculating every moment he sees. His hand never jerks up as if to steady her, but then he never sees the need for this motion, and his body is tense from the need to uncoil into motion when he does need to.

After a moment Altaїr speaks softly. "Stop," he commands. Then, watching her intently, "Turn around now. Do not step forward another inch. Do not lean back when you are facing the other direction." He had cut it a little close. The edge was very near her front foot.