l33t_winged_bat: (Fight)
[personal profile] l33t_winged_bat
A drop reaches her lip and Barbara Gordon-Grayson tastes the brine of her own sweat. She sucks in a harsh breath between her teeth. The bars she hoists herself up on feel slick under her hands, despite the powder she put on them - what? An hour ago? Two?

There's an annoying strand of red tangling in front of her eye. It's glued to forehead. She wills it aware and leans forward. One more step. One more

Step.

One -

More -

Date: 2013-11-09 07:13 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Maskless look over)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
Cass has been sitting not far from all this, keeping an eye on Barbara's progress. This was preferable to practicing reading, words lied, bodies did not. So the thin book sits on her lap, closed and untouched. It's frustrating in all the wrong ways, frustration in training she can handle, this is a whole different brand, one she's unaccustomed to.

As she watches Babs take the last few steps, already seeing that her body isn't going to let anything more than the next step happen, Cass gets up and moves quickly over with a slightly concerned look. It's after the fall that she reaches out to gently push Babs's shoulder with a look in her eyes that asked 'alright?'.

Date: 2013-11-09 08:01 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
Cass removes her hand and waits patiently, studying her mentor. There's concern, but no pity, she doesn't look at this the way most do. Barbara couldn't use her legs, and now she could. That was all, there was nothing to pity, there was work to be done, legs to be made stronger, but that was like with everything. One must practice to improve, a long unused skill was rusty, needed refining once more.

"Legs useful," she says simply once the outburst is through. "Just tired." She offers both hands to help Barbara up as she crouches next to her and shakes her head briefly to say 'no need for sorry'. Outbursts she could handle, from Barbara especially, she owed this woman a lot, and if she would stick through any perceived mistreatment, it would be for Barbara.

Date: 2013-11-09 08:35 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Bit shy)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
She nods and helps Barbara up, no questions asked about no wheelchair, it makes sense to her. Pushing yourself was the way to improvement after all.

"Yes," Cass nods seriously. She was always going to be of few words, and certainly not the flattery or niceties type. Body language was always obvious to her, direct, her speech was the same, so when she agrees, she really does mean there had been improvement. Cass then smiles and makes an attempt to say a bit more, for Babs, and because she's always encouraged to speak more. "Is better." She then almost shyly gestures with the closed book in her hand. "Is not better, hard. Not easy like bodies."

Date: 2013-11-09 09:28 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Looks like a normal girl)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
She holds out the book to Barbara, for her to see for herself but nods, it was indeed Aesop's Fables. "Tim says stories short. Make easier." Though the uncomfortable look on her face says this clearly wasn't the case so far. Reading was a slow and laborious effort for her. "Other languages easy?"

Date: 2013-11-13 05:37 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Bit shy)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
Cass nodded and noted the glance to the bars behind her but did not turn to look at them too. She couldn't say she knew the meaning to those three main parts Barbara had listed, but she'd try reading for her. Barbara was her sensei for this after all. "Read while you do bars?"

Date: 2014-02-11 11:56 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Looks like a normal girl)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
She just gives a brief nod of understanding, Barbara was the sensei, she wasn't going to question her sensei's decisions too much. Cass opens the book, even if looking just a tad reluctant, not enough not to, but it's always clear enough that this sort of thing isn't her forte and she's well aware. But reading was important, everyone said that often too, and it would improve her speech at the same time. If there was one thing she was, it was a determined student at least.

One preparatory deep calming breath, the same she started all her training sessions with, and Cass began at the title of the tale she'd picked for the title name really. "The Bat. The Birds. And The beasts."

Normally 'a', 'the' and other smaller words that she often saw as less than essential, were dropped in her speech. But in reading it was clear she was making the effort to hit them all, sometimes with a bit too much emphasis, evidenced by her including all the words in the title. Though a few were still missed in the short story and her pauses often made commas seem more like periods. But her vocabulary was better than it had once been, and her understanding of punctuation was certainly progressing at a steady clip.

"...peace was made. No battle took place. So The Bat came to The Birds and wish to join in the....re...rejoo...re-joo-ih...what word?"

Date: 2014-03-11 09:26 am (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Looks like a normal girl)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
"J. O. I. Not sure how go together," she admitted. "Know the I-N-G at end but not the ones before."

Date: 2014-03-16 02:22 pm (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Look down)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
"Re-" She takes a deep breath and recites to herself under her breath. "Coin. K-oy-n. Oink. Oy-nk. Oil. Oy-l. Oi...Oi...Oi." Another studied look at the word in the book. "Re-joy...king?" She frowns at herself and shakes her head just slightly before correcting. "Re-joy-sing. Rejoicing?" Cass glances up from the page to her teacher, to see if she'd gotten it right or there was more correction needed.

Date: 2014-03-19 04:58 pm (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
She nodded, focused as ever, as if mastering this sentence was learning a particular martial arts move. "So the Bat came to the Birds and wish-ed to join in the...re-joy-sing." She paused and played that back in her head to be sure she'd gotten it right before finishing the sentence. "But they all turned again-" Another pause, she knew that she knew this word, that stumble wasn't acceptable. "Again-st him and he had to fly away."

Cassandra just looked up from the book, back to Barbara, to see if her sensei had any feedback.

Date: 2014-03-19 10:58 pm (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Quietly listening on the side)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
She's about to take the non-word option, before shaking her head slightly, more to herself than Barbara. This was word learning time, she must work on using words, that was the point of training, of getting better. Though having to put the story into her own words with little notice made her go back to her slightly more simplistic language as a default.

"Bat not in battle. So Bat not let in victory."

Date: 2014-03-19 11:17 pm (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Good mood)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
The pride isn't lost on her and there's a small smile in response before it disappears in favour of that determined look. She shakes her head.

"No. Must put in work to get reward."

Date: 2014-03-19 11:58 pm (UTC)
oncesilentbat: (Smile)
From: [personal profile] oncesilentbat
No words are needed in true Cass style, just a small smile and affirming nod.

She doesn't glance back to the bars, but her smile gets a little wider with the next nod. This area she understood more. But because she found that people could confuse it if you nodded only, they weren't sure what part you were agreeing to, she verbalized her agreement this time. Small steps, but progress never came overnight. "Can help."

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