Jack Puts Me Through My Paces [open post]

[summerdude]

"Señor, you really should practice more," Jack says, as Magnus rearranges his mental notes and sighs.

(Anyone else might think Magnus is just lying back on a bench on the grounds, staring at the sky, lost in thought. And technically, he is. But he's working hard!!! He's trying to sort out everyone he's encountered so far!!!)

"You're right," Magnus groans. Being in a weird Mansion with no way out, no established Battle Practice, and no pressing quests to go on is not an excuse to let his limited fighting skills fall by the wayside. He hauls himself upright and shoves his (still largely blank) notebook into his backpack.

Twenty minutes later, he's secured a practice sword from some random closet or another in the Mansion. It's dull steel, not sentient, and heavy in his hands.

"Perfect," Jack decides, so Magnus tramps back out to the spacious lawn, one sword in each hand. Checking to make sure no one is directly in harm's way, he releases Jack and brings the dull training sword up, ready to parry whatever attack Jack decides to throw at him.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"I have to have a sword. I don't know any hand to hand combat. I think I could try it with a practice sword." He is very incurious about this topic, very matter-of-fact.

[summerdude]

"Could you do it even if I wasn't holding a sword?" Magnus asks. "Like, could you do it to Jack so I can see how it goes? Um, unless you don't want to, of course. That's fine too."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I can try. You mean holding your sword?"

[summerdude]

"I mean, you holding your sword and attacking Jack," Magnus says. "Or holding this training sword. Either way. Jack, you're cool with that, right?"

"As long as you don't Peace of Frey me again today," Jack says, grumpily.

"I promise," Magnus laughs. He doesn't think he could pull another one so quickly even if he wanted to.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Oh. Yes. I can do that." He gets up and goes to find his sword, which is embedded in the grass a little ways away.

[summerdude]

Jack floats into position, and Magnus takes a few steps backward, trying to settle on the best angle to watch Galahad in action. He picks a spot, and waits.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad takes his stance, and starts them off. Since Magnus can watch now, it's perhaps more apparent that Galahad is doing actually very little: it's almost as if the sword leads and he follows, throwing his body behind it to give his strikes force but not making the actual choices that lead to things happening. He's swift and purposeful enough that it's not obvious but it's definitely happening.

[summerdude]

"I can see what you mean about having an enchanted sword," Magnus decides, after carefully observing Galahad's moves. He knows he's going to be practicing them for a while. Not that he really ever expects to be able to replicate that easy fluidity. That's okay though; he has other strengths.

"I think you mean enchanting," Jack says, hovering around Galahad's sword. "Baby, how about a date? I can show you a great time. Better than any other blade here."

Magnus closes his eyes for a long moment. He loves Jack, he really does. Jack is great. Jack has bailed him out of so many situations.

"Anyway," Magnus says, "Thanks for showing me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has been observing Jack with his usual stone-faced curiosity, and he says to Jack, "How would you do that? Take my sword somewhere? Would I have to hold it?" (Jack is not a person, and thus it is easier to ask him questions.)

[summerdude]

"Oh, I'd pick her up and treat her right" Jack says. "No einherjar -- or holy knights -- required."

"He's dated a few spears in Valhalla," Magnus tells Galahad. "I... don't know how. I haven't asked."

"I could tell you," Jack says.

"That's okay," Magnus says. "As long as you're having fun and, uh, not killing anyone."

[onthewillowsthere]

"But how? Can you take it now?" presenting the Sword to Jack.

[summerdude]

"I sure can," Jack says. He floats below the Sword with the Red Hilt, then raises up until he can prop up the entire weight of the sword with his own prodigious blade. "Let go, bro, I got her."

Magnus blinks at this in disbelief. "Sure," he murmurs to himself. "Why not?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad lets go, even as he continues to watch with a fascination that might actually be apparent, even on him.

[summerdude]

"So this is happening," Magnus observes to Galahad, as Jack bears the Sword over to a nearby bench and then settles them both down. He immediately starts flirting with her in earnest. "I'm so sorry. I have no idea how long this is going to go on."

[onthewillowsthere]

He lets out a short laugh. He doesn't laugh particularly often, and it sounds like the laugh of someone who's out of practice, but it's sincere. "I didn't expect it."

[summerdude]

"I'll make sure to turn him back into a pendant at night so he doesn't wake you up trying to romance your sword," Magnus promises. "Jack is a huge flirt though. He, um. Dates a lot of weapons, apparently? At least according to him, he does. He seems to like enchanted weapons the best, but frankly they all look inanimate to me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad glances over at him. "How does he know?"

[summerdude]

"That they're dating?" Magnus shrugs. "It's a Sumarbrander thing, I guess. He can cut holes between worlds and kill a giant without really any effort at all and even fly me up the World Tree in a pinch. Honestly, the dating other weapons in a way I super don't understand is less surprising to me than his music preferences. Maybe there's a secret blade-language or something."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I never thought of swords so much before," he tells Magnus. "And what they would think or desire."

[summerdude]

"Me neither," Magnus admits. "Before I met Jack, that is. I didn't even know swords had genders."

[onthewillowsthere]

"No," he agrees. His mouth quirks for a split-second.

[summerdude]

Magnus grins back at him. "My girlfriend laughed at me when I told her that," he says, tone fond. "I guess she's right. At a certain point, when enough weird shi -- uh, weird stuff keeps happening all the time, why would that be the thing that throws me off?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"That's true. Everything is always strange. This is just strange in a different way." He is finding it isn't as hard to talk to Magnus as most people -- Magnus is unperturbed in face of Galahad's awkwardness and the things that people generally find off-putting, and that makes it easier to say the things he'd usually just think.

[summerdude]

"Yeah! You get it," Magnus says. It's so nice to have a buddy he can just vibe with who also seems to get it? He misses his friends back home a lot, and this helps.

He laughs a little, suddenly. "I guess it's good that I had all that strangeness start before I ended up here. Imagine how confusing that could have been."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad laughs. It doesn't feel dangerous; it feels like laughing in front of Percival (Percival is, unfortunately, his only touchstone for friendship, so it's he only comparison he can make, but we promise he doesn't want to kiss Magnus). "Very," he agrees quietly.