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]

Magnus blinks. "Exorcising evil?" he asks, suddenly a little wary. He's heard similar words from the mouths of people who try to proselytize at some of the more religious shelters in Boston. "Like what?"

[lightbearinglord]

Magnus' penchant for questions does nothing to dispel the memory of the Lan juniors. "Fierce corpses. Unsettled spirits. Yao." Again, among other things, but a lengthy list feels unnecessary.

[summerdude]

"Oh," Magnus says, relaxing a little. Of course it's mythological beasts. "Are fierce corpses like... draugr? Barrow-wights, some call them?" He's familiar enough with the idea of unsettled spirits, though exorcism feels a little strong for that kind of situation. "And what's a, um. A yao?"

[lightbearinglord]

"A yao is a living creature, not a human, that develops its own consciousness over time. Not all are evil. A fierce corpse results from a human who has died but suffers excessive resentful energy." This is delivered with the cadence of someone reciting lecture notes, but with perfect patience.

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs a little. "So your fierce corpses are basically just... einherjar," he jokes. "I know a lot of those guys."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji pauses. A tiny frown pinches at his brow. "Einherjar?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, sorry, you must not have encountered that pantheon," Magnus says, politely. The Vikings made it all the way to present-day Iraq, but he's pretty sure that's as far as they went. "The glorious dead heroes of Valhalla? If you die bravely with a weapon in your hand during a challenge or while saving other people, you end up there. Where you keep fighting -- training -- until the end of the world."

[lightbearinglord]

The frown, though subtle, remains in place. Lan Wangji looks Magnus over from head to toe, briskly. He recalls the boy calling himself a demigod on arrival, but dismissing the matter when Lan Wangji questioned it. "And you?"

[summerdude]

"Oh," Magnus says. He hopes Lan Wangji doesn't decide to exorcise him, too. He's not entirely sure how he'd respond to that. "Yeah. And me."

[lightbearinglord]

The frown disappears, to be replaced by an equally small sadness in Lan Wangji's eyes. A child this young should not have died, no matter how bravely. "You fight well," he says, just a little softer.

[summerdude]

"Thanks!" Magnus says, brightly. A perceptive person will realize that he's pretty sanguine about his lot -- the fact that he's died (hundreds of times) doesn't really bother him. "Jack trains me pretty well in between all that formal Battle Practice. I'm not as good as a lot of the others yet, but I have some other tricks up my sleeve."

[lightbearinglord]

Magnus' apparent cheer does hearten Lan Wangji. He restrains any further grief over the situation and glances back toward Jack as the sword's name is mentioned.

After a moment's thought, he draws Bichen with a flash of glacial sword glare.

[summerdude]

"Well hello, sexy," Jack says, flying near. "Lookin' sharp today, my good sword. Did you see my feint just then?! Do you want to go out sometime?"

"He really likes your sword," Magnus observes to Lan Wangji.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji returns his gaze to Magnus, his features bordering on amused for the barest moment. Bichen will not be going out with Jack, obviously. That much goes without saying. It stays by Lan Wangji's side.

They can, however, spar. Rather than saying anything aloud, Lan Wangji steps closer to Jack, flicking Bichen demonstratively through the air. The blade glows blue, as ever.

[summerdude]

"This is the best day," Jack says, and immediately flies into a showy block.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji could smile, nearly. He has missed this feeling, the effortlessness of the way Bichen becomes an extension of himself. No words are necessary, only crisp, efficient movement. He presses closer with a flurry of slicing slashes, restraining Bichen from releasing its qi in the service of infusing each swing of the glassy blade with perfect intent.

[summerdude]

Magnus watches as Lan Wangji fights Jack. It's like, a freaking masterclass in swordsmanship. On Lan Wangji's side, at least; Jack is still showing off with little flourishes that don't actually ad anything to a fight. Jack has also started singing Call Me Maybe, loudly and incorrectly.

After a few minutes, Magnus slips himself -- and his practice sword -- between Lan Wangji and Jack, and blocks Bichen's next swing.

[lightbearinglord]

Instinctively, Lan Wangji restrains that particular swing the moment he sees Magnus. Once it's blocked, though, and he's certain that Magnus is sparring with intention rather than putting himself in harm's way, he flicks an acknowledging glance at him and nods.

To make it even, he releases his grip on Bichen's hilt and allows the sword to conduct itself and spar with Magnus. This is, however, still in answer to Lan Wangji's own spiritual power, so the techniques remain the same: crisp slices that cut cleanly through the air in an effort to evade and overpower Magnus' practice sword.

He is ignoring the abominable music coming from Jack.

[summerdude]

"Honestly," Magnus says, panting a little and ducking so he can do a twisting sort of move that would (maybe) disarm Lan Wangji if he were actually wielding Bichen. "We should just let our swords fight each other on their own someday."

He's happy enough to fight another flying sword now, though, and one that doesn't know all his moves intimately. He adjusts his grip on the hilt of his training sword and awaits Bichen's next move.

[lightbearinglord]

"Bichen moves under my spiritual power. You are still fighting me."

With that information coolly delivered, Bichen descends on Magnus, still with those quick, brisk sweeps through the air, inexorable. The glow of its blade is growing brighter, and frostier, as Lan Wangji continues to prevent any slicing qi or damaging sword glare from releasing itself. When Magnus blocks or parries, he will likely note the absolute firmness of Bichen in the air, the way crossing blades with it feels like crossing blades with a statue. That said, Lan Wangji is enjoying the dance of this enough to be focused more on the beauty of each swing than on specifically trying to disarm Magnus.

[summerdude]

"Fascinating," Magnus says, and adds this to his growing list of mental notes on Lan Wangji's mysterious godly powers. Is his sword getting colder? It's certainly lighting up like Jack does sometimes, except it's Bichen's entire blade, not just a bunch of runes.

His arm throbs as he catches another of Bichen's swings, so he switches hands long enough to shake the ache out. While he ducks another jab, he says, "Jack does his own thing but he still uses my, uh, my energy? To do it. So when I pick him up again it's as if I did everything myself, wielding him. This one time, he flew me around... I passed out for hours."

Arm successfully loosened, he goes on the offensive again, trying to knock Bichen back a few paces.

[lightbearinglord]

Almost obediently, Bichen allows itself to be battled backward -- but then, that may be by design, as Lan Wangji lifts a hand and catches its hilt in his own grip again.

"Do not deplete yourself for me," he advises Magnus. "Do we need to stop?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, don't worry about it, Jack is training me on endurance right now as much as anything," Magnus says. He doesn't want this god to think him weak -- not because Lan Wangji feels threatening, but because Magnus feels compelled to impress him in some way. "I'll put Jack back on my necklace at bedtime and have a good night's sleep. Hey, do you wanna see something really cool?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji lifts his eyebrows minutely. He nods, however, to tell Magnus to proceed with whatever this demonstration may be.

[summerdude]

"Jack, I'm going to do the thing," Magnus warns.

"Señor," Jack complains, but he floats farther away as Magnus closes his eyes and concentrates on trying to summon the feeling that all fighting must stop. He's been practicing this, since the Boarding of Naglfar -- calling it on command without losing teeth in the process. (They grow back, in Valhalla, but it's not fun.)

Pressure builds inside of him. His vision goes hot, then gold as light golden light explodes from him outward. Any weapon -- indeed, anything that could be used in battle -- will go flying with the shockwave that spreads in a thirty-foot radius from Magnus. His own training sword is one of them: it flies out and lands, lodging firmly in a small mound of dirt.

Magnus wipes away a tiny trickle of blood from his nose with the back of his hand, healing himself of the tiny injury in the process. Then he looks to Lan Wangji, grinning hopefully. This is usually a lot more impressive in the heat of battle, when there are a lot of weapons around, but hopefully Lan Wangji will still find it cool.