Control was more then that in Tai Chi as the flow of energy through oneself was part of the skill needed in mastering the techniques, but most would find that tricky to wrap their mind around it. It was an essential part of his training, though the Chinese teachers were much more into that part then the other teachers. Sometimes he wondered if that learning plus his language studies were what allowed him the mind set to advance in the art well to attain weapons skills. It was rather quantum to think about really, but his instincts told him there was a connection between those. "Hmm, that's always possible. I probably won't settle in one spot for a long time though so let's leave the thought open. If I inherit the train from my father someday I may end up traveling the rest of my days," he smiled with a chuckle sound to his voice.

His was not a life so far to settle still for very long except in the winter. Odd how people could stay in one place for so long but he assumed it was a comfort things mostly. He shrugged at her praise about his skills, not comfortable yet with praise for what he saw as basics. "It was tricky, but I guess I started young enough. My parents travel enough that I've picked up several languages so maybe it's a matter of access as much as effort. I don't know that I would have mentioned it except because it's part of my lessons." He wasn't much of a bragger, he just told things as they were and in most of the arts you were supposed to accept the fact you would be forever a student learning every day so the skills seemed to get more minor the more you mastered them.

Aiden was in the process of getting ready when she spoke sitting down and he hesitated then felt confused himself. "Um, I think we got some thoughts crossed. I wasn't bringing you here to spar right now, I was on my way to fencing practice when I stopped and saw you, though I did agree to spar sometime, I just wasn't thinking now." A hand through his hair as he stopped, his jacket half buttoned in place. "I wouldn't spar with you in this to begin with as this is fencing gear and that uses weapons which you said you don't study," he waved at the bag with the hilts sticking out of it, "But we can sit and talk for awhile if you want to." Pulling his wand out of his bag he conjured two simple stools as he couldn't sit in the fencing pants comfortably and took one (having conjured the other mainly out of politeness as she was already sitting).

@heathersong

Heather just kind of shrugged when Aiden said the idea of working with her was possible, but that he also might want to travel a great deal one day.

"Just a thought," she said. "It must be interesting to be able to travel all over the place. I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of the sights in the world, but I don't know if I could handle interaction with so many strangers." Heather clammed up at that, and imagined being lost in some strange place with a lot of strange people. If Heather had any kind of fear, it was that.

Heather noticed that Aiden didn't seem egotistical when it came to talking about what he did. He didn't make himself out to be some phenomenal martial artist or anything. He just spoke of what he did. Heather could respect that, and that was probably one of the reasons she was growing so fond of him.

"Yeah, it definitely helps not to start at a late age," she said. "I remember when I was very young, my mum would already teach me in our home, but made it out to be a fun game. I didn't realize at the time that she was helping me memorize some basic moves for when I actually began training. And she did give me the choice to train with her or not. She and my father have always believed that I should do what I want to do, and not what they want of me."

Again, Heather felt embarrassed at the misunderstanding over sparring. When she asked him to spar, she meant doing it in the Requirement Room, but apparently she wasn't clear enough. This didn't help her social awkwardness in the least, but she didn't say anything else about it and simply moved to the stool Aiden produced. She then frowned.

"I... um forgot what I wanted to talk about," she said. "I'm not good at this."



AIDEN URQUART

He nodded, personally agreeing with her assessment of traveling. Of course, his was because his family had a way to do it and his mother led a traveling company for a job otherwise it would not have happened. And it wasn't as if he got to go do things at every stop either, but it was still an advantage he guessed. "hey, maybe you could start you own studio and when I returned you would be well established, and I could begin a second half to the business. That way it would sort of expand over time like." He shrugged, not saying that was the way the future would go just pointing out a possibility. Her comment about strangers did strike him though and he wondered if that was a large part of how her reactions came across a bit...off.

"Hmm, but you don't have a problem teaching or the thought of teaching, do you? Because that will probably involve people you don't know, especially at the beginning. But then you will be the one in charge and they will be coming to you to pay for a service so you will be the one in charge. Will that make the difference you think?" Otherwise no matter how good she was, this was going to be hard to pull off! Although the way she spoke about how her mother had raised her sounded just fine. "Yeah, if we hadn't traveled since before I was born I don't think I would have learned languages the same either. Dad decided on what he wanted me to learn and it just went from there. The Cantonese is what I chose."

He smiled, trying to be reassuring. "That's okay! I apologize for not catching the difference a moment ago. Since I do my Tai Chi in the mornings, I don't often think of it when I'm coming up here for my fencing. It's odd, even the swords are different, though this is really an epee. The fencing is almost completely offensive and based on targets with a lot of dropping your defense to do those strikes and the other is so much more defensive and energy movements." He pulled out the epee so she could see it, a simple weapon for sure. "When up against a normal sword it wouldn't be hard to snap this in two if you were not careful. But it's also safer for someone learning cause there are no edges."

He pointed out the sharpened tip had a guard over it to prevent it from going through anything too.

@heathersong

Heather smiled a little at Aiden's idea to help her out business-wise with the studio when he came back from his traveling.

"Sure, sounds good," she said. "I mean, it would help me too. I'm good at teaching and all, but I haven't really grasped the business side of it all. I guess my mum will show me all that after I graduate." Heather knew she would have to learn that aspect, but the good news was that her dad would be a big help in that area as well. Even though Heather was more interested in the Muggle end of her family, her father still loved her dearly and tried to help her where he could. She loved him too and couldn't ask for a better wizard to be her father.

Heather shrugged again when Aiden asked if her being in charge and being paid to teach would make any difference.

"I suppose so," she said. "I mean, it will definitely be a different feel for people to rely on me to train them right. But I'm ready for it. If I'm comfortable around my mum's other students, I will probably be comfortable with my own."

Heather nodded about him knowing Cantonese.

"It's a nice enough language," she said. "Maybe I should get used to using it again if you know it. I mean, if we ever need to have a private conversation or something, it might come in handy." Heather gave a slight chuckle at this.

Heather felt better when Aiden apologized over the misunderstanding. He really was a nice guy.

"It's okay," she said.

She then listened with interest as he spoke about swords. She never really thought of what it would be like to use a weapon outside of her wand. She kind of wanted to know would it was like to hold on.

"Could... could I see one?" she asked. "I just want to hold it. Never held a sword before."

AIDEN URQUART

A nod. Her mother was a good advantage in setting up a business since it sounds like she held her own studio down already. "I would imagine so. My mother runs a traveling dance company and my father runs a few bars. I don't think either of those really relate to what I am interested in. But the traveling after school will be really getting the experience I need to teach. Maybe I'll go back and make a tour of each of my teachers over the years getting advice and help with planning." One of them had already passed on, but the others would surely still be around.

"I would imagine that experience will help for sure, but I wonder more about outside class. Since for a business I assume you have to advertise and then meet with people to convince them training with you will get them where they wish to be." A pause before he spoke more, clearly thinking. "Another reason for me to travel first actually since I will need to raise money before I have enough to rent a space. Most of my students will be muggle of course, I doubt many wizards will be interested. Or witches." Shame as it helped increase one's life and comfort, but people were bad about not seeing what was good for them and he knew that for a fact!

A smile (though he was not meaning to brag it could be taken that way) and he said "I speak a few because of my mother's job and traveling as we grew up. I will say it makes it much easier to feel comfortable with traveling when you know you can express yourself to people there." Although being able to speak it with another at school would be good practice. Reaching down he pulled out a foil and turned it to offer her the handle. "This is a foil, it's far lighter then an actual sword and is sort of fun to use. Swing that around a moment while I get another..." and he stood and went to the wall rack and chose an actual sword. The foil weighted maybe a half a pound, but the tai chi sword he brought her easily weighed nearly five pounds. He took the foil from her for a moment to hand her the other.

"Obviously once I have used the sword for awhile, the next time I pick up the foil it's way easier on my mind," he chuckled, "It takes awhile to learn how to deal with the weight."

@heathersong