Well shoot me in the face.

@"Poptart"

Ftang.

“Dammit,” she muttered under her breath. “So close.”

And it was, indeed, so close; the arrow that Arabella had just launched was a mere two inches away from hitting the bulls-eye. She sighed, cursing under her breath. She couldn’t blame herself, really- she had only picked up archery after her arrival at the Academy, and while throwing knives was one thing, handling a bow was a completely different animal. Still, she hadn’t trained herself on a new weapon in months, and she wasn’t used to not being immediately proficient in handling it. Not to mention, this was target practice. A cakewalk. This should be easy.

She drew another arrow from the quiver on her back, looking out at the target, positioning herself just so. She closed her eyes for a moment, tuning out of the sounds of the near-empty sports field, focusing solely on the feel of the bow in her hand, the feathered end of the arrow between her fingers. As she opened her eyes, her impatience got the best of her, and she let go of the arrow just a millisecond too early. It hit the target, but slightly higher than the last arrow. She ran over to the target to assess the damage, and…

…three inches.

“Well shoot me in the fucking face.”

She took a deep breath, resisting the urge to break the arrows in half, reminding herself that these weren’t hers, that they were school property, and that she’d have to pay for them should anything go amiss. One by one, she plucked the arrows from the target, trudging back over to start again. This was going to be a long day, she was sure of it…

Arabella wasn’t surprised when someone else walked over to practice beside her- a lot of kids at the Academy were into archery, so it was reasonable that someone else would come down to practice. She also wasn’t phased when said person chose to take up the spot right next to her- she’d chosen the area with the least wind, and no doubt, the other archer noticed that as well and followed her example.

What did end up turning her head, however, was the sound of the other girl’s arrow flying perfectly from her bow and hitting right smack in the center of the target.

Her mouth involuntary fell open, and she quickly regained her composure, her eyes narrowing slightly. Trying to show me up, are ya…?

But she wasn’t, clearly, as demonstrated by her cheery and encouraging demeanor; and so Ara realized she was letting her own pride get the better of her once again. She shook her head, and with that attempted to shake her ego out of her mind as well as she faced the girl with a soft smile. “Clearly, not as good as you,” she said, nodding over to Kimiko’s perfectly shot bulls-eye. “Seems to me like you don’t even need the practice…” She extended her hand in greeting. “Arabella. Call me Ara, if you like. And yeah…” she sighed, reluctantly admitting her defeat, “yeah, I guess I wouldn’t mind some help. Archery’s not quite my forte yet.” She’d gotten this far on her own- it wouldn’t kill her to let another person help her polish her skills. Besides- if this chick was as good at archery as she was in other areas, this could be a potential training partner in the making...

Beautiful. Huh. Well that was new. It took Ara a bit by surprised to hear another girl call her beautiful, and so casually as well. She personally considered her appearance far too rough to be characterized by such a delicate word. Not to mention she didn't exactly fit the mold of society's standards of female beauty. But hey. It was a compliment. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't deny that it made her feel nice. So she gave her a small smile, and replied, "That's so sweet, thank you. It's really nice to meet you too." She hoped she didn't sound insincere- after all, this girl didn't even know her and she was being so nice, Ara was just not used to it...

She was also caught a bit off guard by how humble Kimiko was about her talent. She wanted to reassure her that she was probably good at lots of things, not just sports- but she didn't want to sound false or pitying in any way, so she thought better of it. Instead, Ara turned Kimiko's attempt to make her feel better around and used it to further compliment the other girl. "Well, hey, I'm sure all of that training has made you an excellent teacher. I trust you to turn me into a master archer in no time."

Kimiko got closer to her then, in order to better examine her form. Letting out a breath, Ara carefully picked an arrow out of her quiver and drew her bow, staring out at the target ahead of her. The position still didn't feel quite right to her- it felt more like she was playing pretend than actually attempting to fire a weapon. She looked over at Kimiko, uncertainly. "Um...is this right?" Pleeeeease fix me, she silently begged.

Arabella allowed Kimiko to move her limbs and her head with no resistance, letting out a small sigh of relief as she felt the tension in her shoulders relax slightly with the repositioning of her elbow. Her eyes fixed on the target’s center, she took in a slow breath, gripping the arrow tightly between her fingers for a moment.

She exhaled, letting the arrow fly.

She looked out at the target, and grinned. It wasn’t perfect, not quite yet- but at least she was only millimeters off of dead center, rather than inches. She looked over at Kimiko, smiling proudly. “Hey!! Not too bad!” She gave Kimiko a playful nudge, her grin growing wider. “You’re the best, you know that?” She laughed, giddy with her improvement- but only for the moment. She knew there was still more she needed to improve on if she wanted to hit the bulls-eye perfectly.

Once she had calmed down, she tilted her head back over to Kimiko. “Okay, so that’s the form…hang on, let me try it on my own now.” She reset herself, fitting in as perfectly as she could into the same position that Kimiko had placed her. “Like this, right? Now…what else am I missing?” Perhaps, she should watch Kimiko do it herself, and learn from her example? Ara didn’t know whether that’d be easier or not, but she waited to hear what her newfound tutor had to say on the matter before asking.

The ease with which Kimiko was able to set herself up was mesmerizing, and once again her accuracy was impeccable as her second arrow flew from her bow into the center of the target. Arabella was, indeed, thoroughly impressed, all the while paying close attention to the subtleties of the other girl's position and movements...so close, in fact, that she almost missed Kimiko's remark to her.

She blinked, snapping herself out of her concentration, and chuckled. "Actually, quite the contrary. I had never picked up a bow until..." She thought a moment. "Well, until about a week ago, probably." She shrugged, rubbing her shoulder. "I was curious to try it. I figure I should have the skills to use as many weapons as possible under my belt, for whatever situation might arise." She winked. "Just to be safe, right?" She chuckled again to herself at that, shaking her head.

"...However, hitting targets in general is kind of my specialty," she continued, nonchalantly. "I have enhanced marksmanship, hence why I was invited to the Academy in the first place. Although..." her lips curled into an almost wicked smirk. "I normally prefer to use knives to hit my targets." She pulled one of them out of her boot, showing it to her. "Care for a demonstration?"