Limb with a View (OPEN)

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare knew where his brother had probably gone; there was a huge forest, it didn't take much thought. So he'd headed in the opposite direction, toward the lake. Not that he didn't love his brother, but they'd spent hours in a train car together, and he wanted to be alone for a while.

Dare found a straggler of a tree just off the lake, but near enough to count. He looked up a moment, then jumped, catching the lowest branch with one arm as he swung his sketchbook up with the other.

Before long, he was sitting on a sturdy branch, his back against the trunk, legs hanging over either side. It was a great view. He opened his sketchbook and shook out his self-inking quill, then got started.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Her hands shook as she glared down at the letter she had received from home. There was an evident feeling of absolute hostility rolling of her slightly shaking frame.

"Stupid father." she muttered burning the letter with her wand scowling. She shut her eyes for a moment letting calm over take her, it was just a letter it meant nothing.

Lucretia sat on the cool grass and leaned against a tree, unaware of the figure sitting above her, she wasn't paying attention to the legs hanging from above.

Her lips moved as a steady murmur escaped her lips, she was singing to herself, calming herself even more which slowly allowed her body to relax.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare had seen the girl come up and watched quietly, waiting for her to notice him. But she'd obviously been distracted, and she hadn't seen him, so he'd continued watching, an apparently invisible observer to a private moment. When she sat below him, he craned his neck, looking down at the top of her head. She seriously had no idea he was there.

He paused, thinking, then decided she'd probably appreciate finding him later even less than she'd appreciate being interrupted now. He closed his sketchbook, his quill trapped between the pages, then swung one leg over the branch and announced his presence. "What'd your father do?" he asked.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

The voice startled her as she flinched away from it. It took her a moment to get her heart to a healthier rhythm. She looked up seeing a male figure in the trees. She stood up to get a better view of him. he was definitely not someone she met.

"Being a dark hole of my life... not that it matters." she shrugged it off, uncomfortable with the fact that he had probably heard her mumbling, which also meant he must have her her singing. She blushed a bit, the thought of having someone watch you was uncomfortable, but she pushed that aside taking in his appearance she was positive she never met him before.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare smiled, a disarming curve of the lips, and looked at the girl, his eyes tracing the curves and lines of her face. "It always matters," he said, bringing his eyes back to hers. He gave a light grin and grabbed up his sketchbook, then dropped out of the tree, landing in a crouch not far from the girl. He didn't straighten entirely when he stood; at six foot one, he tended to slouch a little, a long-ingrained habit that was an unconscious attempt to draw less physical attention. For all the good it did him, considering his hair.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked, gesturing to the open grass beside the girl. He'd give her the opportunity to get rid of him, but he'd prefer to stay. He was already growing rather attached to the lake, even if his view had changed.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia nodded her head, she wouldn't deny that she would like to have male company other than the usually for once. She also couldn't deny that he was attractive.

"How rude of me, haven't introduced myself. I'm Lucretia." she said with a small smile on her lips, she extended her hand, the least she could do was be nice, despite it not being her 'style', but some people she was willing to make exceptions for, especially when it came to the opposite gender.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's disarming smile returned as he sat beside the girl. "Nice to meet you, Lucretia. My name's Alasdair, but I go by Dare." He took Lucretia's hand in a brief shake, more amused at the formality than put off by it. "I just transferred here. Me and my brother Silver. You been at Hogwarts long?" There was really no telling. It seemed like there had always been new transfers at his old school, so he figured it was a safer bet to just ask.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

It was a unique name, but still stood out, a positive in her books. She know knew why she had never seen him, he was new to the school.

"No I've been here for a while, pretty much the only wizarding school I've ever been to." she looked in the castle direction, it was her second home, one she liked better than her own home.

Lucretia sat back down on the grass, leaning back on the tree. Her legs were stretched out in front of her as her ankles were crossed.

Lucretia's eyes trailed to the object in his hands. Her eyes were resting on the sketchbook before returning to look at him.

"You're an artist?" she asked, she bit down on her lip, the answer was obvious and the question was stupid, but it just sort of slipped she couldn't undo the 'damage'

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare grinned. "I dabble," he said, brushing word artist off; he wasn't really into labels. Still, he picked up his book and flipped it open to his most recent sketch, an ink drawing of the landscape, framed by the leaves that had been hanging around him. He offered the book, or a chance to look over the drawing, to Lucretia, but went back to the topic of conversation.

"So what do you mean, pretty much the only school? Did you go somewhere else? Homeschool or something?" Dare bent one knee, leaning one elbow against it as he looked at Lucretia, interested in her answer.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

She took the sketch, a grin pulling at the corner of her lips. She liked it and not because of the same old 'beauty' that you hear often. It was more of something in his perspective rather than in the way people would want to see it.

"It's lovely." she said handing it back to him, musing over the question he had given her. It was kind of odd, the other 'schools' she went to, but she supposed she might as well tell him.

"I went to two others, but I suppose it's not the same as learning magic. The first was was strictly etiquette, my parents wanted to raise me to be a proper lady... I suppose I'm there biggest failure yet, and they don't like to fail." she was amused by remembering the mishaps she had on her first few lessons, but now she was forced to change, she learned that the hard way by absolute abuse, that didn't bother her anymore though she was grown up.

"I also forced my parents into training me defense without wand-use. I kept telling them that it wasn't unlady-like as there is always a chance of being disarmed or caught off guard." her features slightly darkened as a specific memory came to mind.

"So I took a bit of self-defense really, nothing big." she shrugged it off, not going into specifics. She had told her parents she was just taking the basic stuff, but extra money tended to get you whatever you wanted, and she had used that to her advantage.

"Sorry I'm rambling, you can tell me to shut up whenever you want." her expression was no longer dark, but returned to shear amusement.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare gave a light grin, his eyes brightening. "Nah, I don't mind," he said. "So you took some kind of Muggle self-defense? Like karate or something?" Not really the most eloquent way to phrase the question, but it got to the point, and considering all Lucretia had just told him, she seemed like a no-nonsense kind of girl.

He folded his sketchbook closed and set it aside for now, giving Lucretia his attention. He could see the effects of whatever training she'd had--or maybe it came naturally to her--in the way she held herself, but she didn't sound at all like the kind of snob he would have thought came out of an etiquette class. Yet another proof that stereotypes were highly overrated.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

She felt good having someone actually listen to her and not be paying attention to her words and not other parts of her. She felt like an actual person more than a cheap play toy.

“I took a few things. Wado Ryu Karate, Iaido, kendo and Dim Mak.” she grinned lightly. She found that those moments were times where she could be herself, she didn’t have to worry about what people thought or said, and it was a great way to fuel her anger.

“You’re probably the first person to know that about me.” it was a relief that the guy wasn’t the type to launch into pure lust for her body rather than actually pay attention to who she was. She was a little bit cynical, and had a sadistic side that she found was diminishing slowly, but no one really knew the other care-free side of her.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare reached up, pushing his fringe aside with a sweep of his fingers, though it fell right back into place. "I'm a lucky guy, then," he said. "And it sounds like you could pretty much kick my ass, I'll have to stay on your good side." He wondered how much her parents really knew about the classes she'd taken, considering the fact that she'd had to convince them in the first place.

"So how do you keep in practice? I can't imagine there are a lot of kids at Hogwarts who know enough martial arts to keep up. This school is like, in the middle of the UK, not exactly a hot spot for that kind of stuff." Not that he'd researched the UK, though he'd guess Silver probably had, but it made sense to him.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia followed the movement of his hand, watching as he pushed away the fringe of his hair as it fell back into place. He was the first guy she met so far who had what her mother would call the ‘devilish’ look.

She laughed, shrugging a little bit. She could but she wouldn’t she preferred using her wand as if she started to get physical, she might make a big mistake and hit a person a little bit too hard.

“Recently I haven’t had much time for anything, I barely get a chance to read, to sit down and write, let alone practice sword fighting and kicking ass.” she scrunched up her nose childishly a the thought, a little bit disappointed by that thought as well.

“I don’t think I can practice on someone, I could always use the room of requirements and ask for some sort of dojo with dummies and stuff, but recently I feel like I’d rather just relax then get all pumped up over sore muscles.” She did realize that she hadn’t really trained much at all and the last time she had it was a long time ago in summer. She didn’t count the random attacks she did in her room when wanting to vent stress, but it was training in a way.

“Besides I’m strictly forbidden to use two out of four of those as they can be fatal, while one of them I need a sparring partner.” she sighed wistfully thinking if maybe she could get a few of the people who took classes with her to join Hogwarts or something, at least then she wouldn’t have to hold back on attacks when with them.

“Enough about me though, there’s nothing interesting other than that, don’t you have any other interests?” that was as much as she could tell him. She couldn’t go on about how she was treated at home and how she was brought up, she didn’t want him to distance himself away from her because of her family, which she constantly cursed.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"What, besides art?" Dare asked, his lips quirking at the thought. "Music, but that's pretty much everyone. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, one all-consuming passion is usually enough." And art was an all-consuming passion. Yeah, he'd do little sketches on the edges of things, he'd throw out a half-fleshed portrait, but in general, he couldn't get enough. There was always something more, always something he couldn't get out unless it was on paper. "I've been drawing longer than I can remember."