(no subject)

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly is--surprise, surprise--working in his room. It's proving harder than he expected--no, well, it's proving just as hard as he expected--to break down the language of 21st-century pedagogy into pieces that he understands well enough to build from by himself. But the effort is rewarding in itself. Just reading the first pages of an article on "the challenges of adult student persistence in library literacy programs" is an exercise in the foreign and the familiar. Students expressed two types of learning goals: specific 'instrumental' goals that must be reached in order to realize longer-term aspirations and broader 'transformational' goals that entail major life changes, such as taking on a new social or work role. Just that one sentence holds struggles that he recognizes intimately--and a way of thinking and writing that would turn away much of his Paris. Aspirations, transformations, new social roles?

So...work is going slowly.

Comments

[harryhotspur]

Harry knows Feuilly isn't as perennially patient as he may seem, but he still doesn't expect that form of retaliation. He starts back when the blow hits-- then surrenders at once to his instinctive response, attacking with a speed and strength that at least matches Feuilly's first blow.

[tu_vas_triompher]

No, well, he's a little bit ashamed of himself as soon as Harry responds--would be more ashamed, if he didn't suspect that Harry could use the outlet.

He keeps up as best he can, but after a few solid hits from Harry he steps back and raises a hand. "--I think you won that round."

[harryhotspur]

"Ah--" Harry lowers his sword. "--I cry thy mercy."

He takes a step nearer, tentatively. "I did thee no hurt?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Oh, no! No." He's laughing a little, and touches Harry's arm in reassurance. "Nothing I didn't earn." It's true: when Harry stops holding back--or rather, holds back less than usual--it's a sharp reminder of the difference between learning a craft your entire life, your life depending on it, and having picked it up a few months ago. "I'm fine. You?"

[harryhotspur]

"Yes." As ever!

He gives his sword an idle swing, feeling the weight of it. "When-- when I was born, my father was not young, and seldom would he spar with me-- but o! he had for any fault an eagle's eye. And when he thought me too sure and proud, enter he would to the lists and pay me just so. But one bout, one pass, and no more-- but in that could he ever best me."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Yes, that sounds about like he would have expected. "I've known some people like that." No judgment in his voice. It's not quite how Feuilly would teach a child--but you can't say that Harry didn't turn out a good swordsman. And Feuilly never had children of his own to teach, so who's he to talk? No children, no father, no place of experience from which to criticize.

"What about when you were older?" Because he has the feeling a Harry of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, might not be so easily put in his place as a little boy.

[harryhotspur]

"O, he ever knew me better than I did myself." It's hard to tell, from his expression, if this is a fond recollection. Possibly even he isn't sure. "Though I grew stronger, faster, he had the teaching of me, and ever knew some trick, some weakness I knew not of ere he did find it."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly's lips do thin a little at that. "And your strengths?"

[harryhotspur]

"Why, he trusted to them in battle, did he not?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"That's true." Except, apparently, at the very end. (The thought isn't one he welcomes, and he doesn't voice it.)

Feuilly shrugs a little. "I didn't train many people in the workshop, but--still--when someone is starting to get good, it's a mistake to knock them down in, in their confidence, too hard?" Eh. It's just--a thought. "But still, I guess your father trusted you wouldn't break."

Which is a kind of trust.

[harryhotspur]

"And right he was in thinking so," Harry says with a stubborn lift of his chin. "And well it served the both of us."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Oh, yes. And he had every reason for pride." He's sincere enough here, entirely sincere: whatever he may think of Father Northumberland, he had a hand in raising a truly excellent son.

[harryhotspur]

Harry runs a hand through his hair.

"Well." He didn't quite say pride, and isn't sure if he would. "Shall we to it again?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly is pretty sure Northumberland should have been proud of his son. He frowns, just a little, but nods. "All right. --I won't get too cocky this time, eh?"

[harryhotspur]

"Nay, I did not--" Oh, a joke. Right. "I think thou hast room enough for a touch more pride, ere it become a sin in thee."

[tu_vas_triompher]

That gets a laugh from him. "And room for a touch more skill, too, I think. Come on, let's go."

A little easier this time, too--at least from Feuilly's end.

[harryhotspur]

And Harry's, too-- all precise, deliberate, leaving no room to slip out of control.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Hm. He'd hoped to steer them towards something looser, more comfortable: but sometimes there's a comfort in hard precise work. Feuilly falls silent, keeping pace, minding his form, careful and grave.

[harryhotspur]

Harry seems to be finding some comfort in it, anyway. It's something to concentrate on, to direct his mind towards, instead of letting it drift to other things. And he has every appearance of being willing to keep at it all ay.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Maybe Harry can keep this up forever, but Feuilly can't. After a while he's sweating and breathing a little bit hard; a while after that he's making tired mistakes; and a while after that he finally steps back and lowers the point of his practice sword. "Time for a break?" Yes?

[harryhotspur]

Harry's tiring by that point, too, though that is usually when he doubles down in order to pretend that he isn't. But he steps back, too, and nods. "Ay, let us."

[tu_vas_triompher]

He wipes his forehead, letting himself catch his breath. And says, somewhat abruptly, "We still have some of those Western movies out from the library. We could take some dinner up from the bar, watch something?" Something new, something they've seen before, it doesn't matter: just something, maybe, where the honorable brave heroes win.

[harryhotspur]

Harry nods. "Ay." That sounds just right.