[color=lightgray][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h3][color=662d91][i][b]Alexander Polawski[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=662d91]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Outside Administration [i][b][color=662d91]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/BBfr494/Mugsy-1.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/color] Alexander returned the nods of agreement to Aeron, watching him pull out a knife and a pipe, making the General look just like of his own namesakes way back in the day in true MacArthur-style. Yes, Aeron the General was a good man, perhaps even a great man. That much even Alexander could attest to, even amidst everything horrible engulfing him both then and now. Try, try. [color=662d91]"Try, we all try our best these days. Everyone's told me to try and try again, what a wonderful phrase. I suppose it's only the Army that told me to do, not try. Right, Aeron?"[/color] The solemn words of Aeron made Alexander fold his hands and look out onto the water too, deep in thought. Aeron was right, this both so much like the wars of old and so different. Alexander nodded in silence, looking back and forth between Aeron and the water, trying not to extinguish the candle of light that had been lit ever since he met two girls on a TANK. As Aeron though gave him a smile along the shift of wind, Alexander pulled the side of his mouth into a smile himself, looking up at the blue sky with dotted clouds. [color=662d91]"The new normal…normal is having hope, even if it's foolish. Call me a fool or a Catholic, but I still find hope in the small things, if that means something. Seeing Thana again for example…"[/color] Alexander fought the urge to tear up, blinking a few times to catch the tears before they escaped and looking back on Aeron with his pipe. [color=662d91]"Oh no no, please do. Michael, that is the doctor, isn't it? I've not gotten the hang of all these names yet, I'm afraid."[/color] Alexander said, gesturing for Aeron to continue with the pipe. He had to laugh at the mention of tea-and-crumpets-cravings, giving a good chuckle and a slap on his good knee. [color=662d91]"Makes you look like an English Lord then, or a butler in the least."[/color] The old veteran quiped on, finishing the chuckle as Aeron offered him the pipe. Alexander sat quiet for a moment, taking in the offer, before nodding. [color=662d91]"Like two tribes offering peace and burying the hatches of war, yes I'd like to partake. Might help with my sore ass, so wouldn't mind. Haven't smoked since Judith made my quit in '81, so go easy on me, Aeron."[/color] [color=lightgray][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h3][color=B8860B][i][b]Nigel Cooper[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=B8860B]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Education Center (M) [i][b][color=B8860B]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/LrnKm2S/Nigel-Hadrian-1.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/color] Whatever the conversation was going on about in the corridor behind him, Nigel wasn't hearing anything. His entire world right then and there revolved around the office he sat in with the Professor and their own verbal exchanges. As he had given his first answer on quilting, Nigel wasn't thinking about the other activities he had actually discussed throughout that day. Something tugged in the back of his mind to relieve his lapse of judgement, to bring forth the true reason he had been taken here by Thana. Curse be to the imprisoned thought that could not escape his foolishnes! Nigel nodded silently to the Professors further comments, her opinion and suggestion for what the neo-Roman teacher himself would have meaning there. The more the word "quilting" reverbiated in his conscious, like the battering ram against a Hispanian wooden gate, the more two of the Professor's certain phrases came pummeling down at his shielded mind. Nigel sat silently listening to her speak further on, until her last stare at him with narrowed eyes finally broke barrier. He could not explain why he had suggested quilting as his first choice, though at a later time and place he might blame the Floridian sun for his less than preferable mental state. Perhaps the simple answer was that the many months, years of social isolation still hadn't completely washed off a man with interests most people wouldn't see as fit those more…normal. Nigel finally breathed out for what felt like a month-long siege, blinking his eyes as if to catch his composure as the Professor waited for his answer. Himself feeling awkward, Nigel scratched the back of his head as he finally answered her. [color=#B8860B]"Yes…yes, auditioning for a class sounds like something I'd be more fitting for, rather than quilting…If that could be arranged, I'd be more than happy to oblige and serve the school."[/color] Nigel replied with what felt like a hoarse throat, clearing his throat in-between the puzzle of words he had cooked up together. After a moment of silence though, the neo-Roman teacher fought the urge to look down at the desk, instead re-focusing his gaze at the Professor. Strength, courage and the support of Thana still standing behind him. Or so he hoped. [color=#B8860B]"Actually, there is one reason. Id quod plerumque accidit, or it may not come as a surprise of what I am asking about. I know I am but a newcomer to Camp Mexico Beach and what restrictions are lain upon us. However, may I ask of what I can and must do in order to sign up for, how should I put it, combat training? Sparring, fencing, et cetera. I hope I am not to bold in asking, but the art of the melee is important to me, as it must be for others here at the camp."[/color]