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

[summerdude]

"Oh, yeah, this is Jack, he's my sword," Magnus says. He knows better than to reach out and take Jack in hand to bring him closer -- they've been sparring long enough that the exertion will probably hit Magnus hard and fast, and he'll get very worn out very quickly. "Actually -- maybe you've heard his original name before. Sumarbrander?"

[timebethine]

"Summer fire?" Laertes grins, and makes a quick salute with his own sword. "A good name. Does he prefer Jack?"

[summerdude]

"I sure do," Jack says. "Sumarbrander is way too long for a sword like me! Plus," he adds, with a note of betrayal to his voice, "Frey gave me that first name."

Magnus gives Laertes a crooked smile. "What he said."

[timebethine]

Perhaps Laertes will be forgiven if he just stares at Jack for a long moment, slack-jawed. "Your pardon," he says, and salutes Jack, as well. "I knew not that I was in such august company."

[summerdude]

"Oh, I like this guy," Jack observes. He floats closer to Laertes. "Have you ever given up a sword?"

Say no, Magnus mouths at Laertes.

[timebethine]

Laertes shakes his head very seriously. "This was a gift from my father," he says, with a touch of wistfulness. "It has no name--but it's a goodly blade all the same."

[summerdude]

"Much better than that blond bastard," Jack says, with great satisfaction. "You should name your sword, though."

"It does look like a nice blade," Magnus agrees. "How's your boat coming along, by the way?"

[timebethine]

"Well! Thou canst see the ribs of it there," he says, pointing back to where a few skeletal supports wing up from the keel. "It's slow going, though, I fear. It takes so long to shape a single plank! The keel alone, I had steaming for hours before it would bend. It hath a mighty thickness."

[summerdude]

"Cool," Magnus says. He doesn't really know much about thou and hath, but he can follow along well enough. "You're having fun, though? Creating it by hand?"

[timebethine]

"I am," Laertes says. It feels like an admission--but he is; the heat and the labor and the burns and the soreness and the stupid fucking bent nails all make him feel triumphant and alive when he finally puts the task aside for the night. "There's nothing finer than learning a craft, and making things with mine own hands. Even eggs and toast," he says, with a private little smile at the memory of how he and Sagramore met. "Thou wilt push back Ragnarok with a sword; more often, now, I put aside my blade, and push back the darkness with more common tools."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins at him. "We do what it takes, right?" he says. He can't imagine fading away like some einherjar do after an indeterminate amount of time in Valhalla. There's still so much world out there. He can almost throw a pot without Alex laughing so hard he falls over, now. "I had a boat back home. I left it in my room the day that I arrived here. It was... bright yellow. Like garishly yellow. A real eyesore. Pissed off the vatnavaettir^* in Jorvik something awful."

*In Ship of the Dead, the vatnavaettir took the form of water horses. Violent water horses.

[timebethine]

Laughing, Laertes asks, "What monstrous color should my boat be? And Jack, since thou art sensible with names, what should she be named?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, señor picked mine," Jack says.

Magnus considers this. "I think a name will come to you when she's finished," he decides. "And as for color..." He's always been primarily a fan of beige and black, but that feels wrong for a handmade boat that is also, he suspects, a personal quest. He's thinking of Alex when he says, "Pink and green."

[timebethine]

"Perfect," says Laertes, immediately recognizing where those colors come from and grinning. "Wouldst like to cross blades with a man?" he asks. "My rapier won't suit, but an thou hast another blade, I've some practice in the German style."

[summerdude]

"Oh, I'd love to," Magnus says. "I need all the practice against different fighting styles I can get."

[timebethine]

"I'm afraid I have no other blades, though," says Laertes. "If Jack would consent ...?"

[summerdude]

"Jack?" Magnus asks. "Will Laertes suffer the usual consequences if he wields you now^*?"

Jack hums. "Probably not," he decides.

"And are you okay with him wielding you?" Quickly, Magnus adds, "I'm not giving you up, to be clear! This is just for a little bout."

"You better not be," Jack says, and floats up to Laertes. "Alright, big guy, let's see what you've got."

*Feeling the exertion of all of Jack's actions as if he were the one wielding him as those actions were taken, all at once.

[timebethine]

Laertes reaches out and grasps Jack by the hilt, feeling out the weight and balance of him, trying to decide whether he wants the power of a two-handed grip or the dexterity of a one-handed grip. At length, though, he brings his left hand up to balance the blade, and he makes a clean swordsman's salute. Assuming a thousand-year flood of violence doesn't immediately assail him, he flashes Magnus a grin and says, "Play, sir."

[summerdude]

It's a little weird to fight Jack when someone else is holding him, as it turns out! But Magnus has to get used to this, too. He won't have Jack come Ragnarok.

He grins back at Laertes and, training sword clutched firmly in just his left hand, makes an opening play.

[timebethine]

Although Magnus is a child, Laertes doesn't go easily on him--he's watched Magnus hold his own, and knows that he can take a real fight. (After all, Ragnarok won't pull its blows, either.) He answers with a flurry of heavy two-handed blows, pouring on strength to answer Magnus's speed.

[summerdude]

Oooh, Laertes is good. Magnus dances back, and then tries for another angle of attack, trying to knock him out of his stance.

[timebethine]

Unfurling easily into a one-handed stance, Laertes angles his body away from Magnus, leaving him to contend with only the blade. It's harder to wield this way--Laertes's wrist is used to the weight of a rapier, and Jack is a stouter blade--but his form remains impeccable. "Tricky," he says appreciatively, making a couple of noncommittal feints just to gauge how Magnus reacts.

[summerdude]

Magnus almost falls for the first feint, but he quickly catches onto how Laertes is holding himself beyond his judicious application of Jack. He tries for a move to draw Laertes in for an attack, instead -- Magnus has been practicing a disarming counterattack privately for weeks.

[timebethine]

And this much, Magnus will quickly learn--Laertes can be baited. He's an aggressive fencer, swift and punishing on the attack. (Magnus may also observe that, now that Laertes is fencing one-handed, he's mostly left off the sidelong hews and slashes of broadsword fencing, and his style tends to favor the thrusting movements needed to score with a rapier.) If Magnus should retreat, Laertes will advance.

[summerdude]

Magnus does retreat. This is an unfamiliar style of swordplay to him -- in Valhalla, the norm is less on swordplay and more on total defeat of enemies. It's a fun way to switch things up, though. Magnus has never been the one, on his floor, to go for the final kill -- usually he lets Jack take that on, while his own M.O. is more about disarming everyone with an accidental use of the Peace of Frey and trying not to die for as long as possible. So it's nice to be fighting with people who are also not going for a final kill -- they're just enjoying the... game, really.

He shifts his grip on his practice sword, and waits for Laertes to charge.