"Looking forward to it. What's your name?"

"I'm Helena, now I want to know yours."

"Pretty name, Helena. Lovely to meet you. I'm Sable."

"I have a very, very good feeling about making your acquaintance, Sable! It's gonna be so much fun to have someone new to introduce to the world of diving."

"It's gonna be pretty delightful to get introduced. I'm excited about all of this."

She grinning pretty wide.

"Anyway, I wanted to head home right about now. Watch a few shows, order something for dinner. Let me just quickly give you my info." She says a few numbers and letters, letting Sable know how to contact her, before walking off with her bags in a public bathroom. She emerges wearing a scarily short skirt and a sheer, white top that works to show off her black bra, before finding a subway and riding off to her own apartment somewhere in the city.

Well. Today was one hell of a win.

Fuck yes.

She sits down on a nearby bench, grinning wide after a moment, and looks around.

There are a lot of people on the beach, still; there's about a 50/50 split between wearing a wetsuit and wearing a bikini or trunks, and lots of people swimming or reading. The beach stretches on for quite a while; Sable can see a duo wearing some kind of training armor and sparring with swords a fair distance away. It's quite amateurish, but they're still swinging at each other ferociously.

Well, off she strolls to go see. She'll admire the various beachgoers along the way, but soon enough she reaches the sword-fighters. They certainly have spirit. She won't interrupt.

They're wearing padded bodysuits that covers their entire bodies, together with helmets made of some kind of mesh that flawlessly protects their heads and faces. And all this lets them swing their wooden-looking swords at each other with total abandon. It's a disorganized melee, with them constantly overextending and swinging at each other, but their enjoyment and excitement is obvious. They don't notice Sable.

Gosh that's cool. She'll just watch until they pause on their own. They're clearly having a lot of fun.

Eventually, they do get exhausted, and the turn towards Sable. "Hi! I'm glad you enjoyed our dueling." It's a male voice, and the man keeps his anonymizing helmet on for the moment. "Have you ever tried sparring like this?"

"I haven't! I was planning to check out one of the clubs, maybe the saber one in about a week, but haven't tried anything yet. Sure looks exciting."

"Well, yeah. You don't need to join any club to get some protective gear and wail on someone with toy weapons. We like not thinking about our defense, it's actually quite fun to just swing wildly and try to overpower the other guy."

She grins and giggles. "Yes, there's something to be said for just going wild on it. Y'all certainly looked like you were having fun."

"We sure did, miss! I bet you're gonna have some amazing fun if you ever get some protective gear and toy swords like us, and get to just swing it as hard and fast as you want without a care in the world!"

"Anyway, my other friend over there is off to play some board games in a smoking room. So I'll probably head off; I can't really wail on myself."

She tilts her head. "Probably isn't anywhere to get that kind of gear still open, is there? When're you likely to try again?"

"I don't follow a schedule? I can call you if I'm going out to have with another one of these battles where I'm just wailing on people, though. And can let you know if any of my friends wants someone else to spar with, too."

"Sounds great." She'll happily exchange numbers with New Friend. "I'm Sable."

"And I'm Henry! Nice to meet you, Sable."

"Likewise, Henry. I should probably go find myself supper, but it's been lovely, and I hope to hear from you soon about a chance to beat each other up with practice swords."

"Same here! It's a really great, satisfying workout, as well. I can really feel the improvement in my cardio!"

"Looking forward to it, Henry."

She pauses just a moment. Tilts her head.

"Wanna go find a meal together? I'd love to hear more about how you got into this, if you don't mind sharing."

"Well, I was just about to head home! I'd be happy to meet up another time, if you wish. But I'm not quite in the mood for sharing a meal today, really."