Quanil did their best to look as relaxed as possible, even slumping a little. If the provost said "relax" they were going to relax as hard as they could!!
But the questions threw them. "Oh, I... hadn't thought about that." They stood up out of their slump (but didn't return to the stiff, square-shouldered stance, either), and considered that, chewing on their lower lip a little. "Well, most of the heroes in the stories have swords, some of them have bows, or even both. But the seasoned explorers in the tales have walking sticks they're good at using, so there's that."
Their brow furrowed, their eyes looking through the ground as they tried to reason through this. "I don't know if there's something I'd naturally be best at, or if there's something suited for me. If the Loreseekers don't have a traditional weapon or defense style... I think the best is hand-to-hand combat because if there's no weapon handy, you can still do something, and it doesn't advertise what you're going to use, the way having a sword on your hip would." They snapped out of that and looked back to the provost to add quickly, "B-but if you don't want to do that, we can do anything else!" They thought over the provided options and chose, "Staff! Staff would be good!"
It would never, ever have occurred to them that provost might not know hand-to-hand combat, because surely the provost knew everything there was to know. Quanil was happy to learn whatever the provost deigned to teach them, but a staff seemed good.
Quanil had learned from the Fae woman the value of surprise, and they knew from their own life experience that no one expected much of them. So to either be weaponless or to have a weapon that didn't seem as 'weapon-y' as others seemed the best to them. Plus if I had a staff, I might have dealt with the Fae's spear better, they thought. Well, had a staff and knew what to do with it.
But the questions threw them. "Oh, I... hadn't thought about that." They stood up out of their slump (but didn't return to the stiff, square-shouldered stance, either), and considered that, chewing on their lower lip a little. "Well, most of the heroes in the stories have swords, some of them have bows, or even both. But the seasoned explorers in the tales have walking sticks they're good at using, so there's that."
Their brow furrowed, their eyes looking through the ground as they tried to reason through this. "I don't know if there's something I'd naturally be best at, or if there's something suited for me. If the Loreseekers don't have a traditional weapon or defense style... I think the best is hand-to-hand combat because if there's no weapon handy, you can still do something, and it doesn't advertise what you're going to use, the way having a sword on your hip would." They snapped out of that and looked back to the provost to add quickly, "B-but if you don't want to do that, we can do anything else!" They thought over the provided options and chose, "Staff! Staff would be good!"
It would never, ever have occurred to them that provost might not know hand-to-hand combat, because surely the provost knew everything there was to know. Quanil was happy to learn whatever the provost deigned to teach them, but a staff seemed good.
Quanil had learned from the Fae woman the value of surprise, and they knew from their own life experience that no one expected much of them. So to either be weaponless or to have a weapon that didn't seem as 'weapon-y' as others seemed the best to them. Plus if I had a staff, I might have dealt with the Fae's spear better, they thought. Well, had a staff and knew what to do with it.
