a title

[latkje]

Date & Time: After this network post
Location: Training facilities
Characters: Nash (latkje) and Oz (velveteened)
Summary: Sword practice!!
Warnings: N/A

Nash was lying.

No, that wasn't right. Nash wasn't telling the whole truth. After all, the whole truth was an awful pricey thing to give away for free, when half-truths did just as well. Here are some true things about Nash Latkje: he usually woke up early, and he still practiced at swords. Here are some other true things: he didn't like to wake up early, and he had given up his blades, once upon a time. And— mysterious Initiative wizardry take note— he didn't want them back.

If he could get by without them, he would. Privately, Nash thought that he'd gotten pretty good with his creative alternatives to pretty blades, but fencing had always been the lesson that came easiest to him. And that was the truth of why he wanted to practice. He was happy Oz seemed interested. Even if the training turned out to be a disaster, meeting new people was always useful.

But hoped the training didn't turn out to be a disaster.

(ooc: I started w/paragraphs but feel free to tag in whatever form you like)

Comments

[velveteened]

Oz is, in truth, no paragon of honesty himself. In fact, more often than not, he'll find a lie significantly more palatable than the truth, and all the easier to deliver. Who really wants the truth?

- well, there are some people, and he learned that from Elliot.

But there's scarcely a pinprick of conscience when it comes to being dishonest with strangers. Out of practice isn't entirely true, not with how he'd redoubled his efforts to improve his swordsmanship since their eventful visit to Lutwidge Academy months ago. He's never been bad at it either, there's just been...precious few opportunities for the sheltered heir to one of the most esteemed duke houses to practice it in any real setting, especially with how set his family (father) had been to keep him out of the way. Afterwards, he's ended up relying on his Chain's abilities; but that's, of course, no way to get by. Besides, it's difficult to gauge one's ability against Break of all people; the finest swordsman in Pandora doesn't provide much of a meterstick for someone of his own skill level to compare against.

If nothing else, this is an opportunity.

When he gets to the training facilities, he looks around for the familiar face from the network, waving when he does see him.

[latkje]

Nash doesn't wave, exactly, but raises a hand like he's swearing something in court, and nods in Oz's direction. He has two swords leaning on the wall behind him, but no place to hook them to his belt. Carrying big, obvious weapons was such a hassle, anyway. There were few better ways to put the peasants here (he didn't have a better word for them, the people who weren't magicked into this world to fight) ill at ease.

When Oz gets close enough, Nash will offer a hand to shake.

[velveteened]

He smiles and takes the hand; or rather, he shakes Nash's hand and beams in a way that's been known to be particularly disarming, if to people inclined to rather not take him seriously in the first place.

"It's nice to meet you in person!"

[latkje]

Well, that was enthusiastic.

"I like this way better, don't you?" The machines still felt strange to him, probably because trained birds were the height of messenger technology where he came from. "It's one thing to read a name, it's another to shake a hand."

[velveteened]

"I agree!"

The only kind of instant communication over distances he'd ever seen before coming to Exsilium operated via supernatural means (shadow unicorns!), which makes the machines both odder and easier to understand, in basic theory.

"These tablets are pretty amazing, but it's really not the same."

[latkje]

"You can't even stab someone through them!"

He had two swords lined up against the wall, he picked them out beforehand. Both for him, though if Oz wants to take one, he won't object. He'd weighted the blades before when he picked them out, but when he took one he still made a show of holding it.

It was a bit of a transformation, after all, when you picked up a sword. If you could do it right, your whole arm became longer. You had to move differently.

[velveteened]

He laughs.

"It'd be scaaaary if you could!"

Oz assumes the second sword is for him, though he doesn't take it; the length and size are clearly not quite right for something of his size. So he darts away to find one that is about right for him, returning with it a moment later. There's some nostalgia associated with holding a sword, for him; and he's used one rarely enough for there to be this sort of feeling - it's a reminder of lessons with Uncle Oscar and others when he was young, of his first meeting with Elliot (more painful to remember now), lessons with Break after that.

It takes him a moment to double-check his grip, and then he's looking back at Nash.

[latkje]

He leaves the other sword, for now. If he needs to use two, he'll do it, but not right away. He still doesn't know how good Oz is, and he'd rather come up short than start with too much.

Nash adopts a fencing stance— sword tip up, hand high in back of him. He's ready to go when Oz is.

[velveteened]

He takes a few steps back, roughly approximating the appropriate starting distance between two fencers, and then mirrors Nash's pose, nodding when he's ready.

Wariness and stillness are what characterize his posture at the moment, since he doesn't particularly intend to be the first to move. He'd rather react, see what kind of strategy his opponent seems to be taking, and then plan from there.

[latkje]

Here is a list of things Nash would do, in A Real Fight™ before striking first with a sword:

— kick dust into somebody's eye
— attempt to sell them a selection of jujubees as a means of cunning distraction
— throw something, anything
— let's be honest, he keeps knives up his sleeves for a reason
— magic? (maybe not magic)
— run away tactical retreat

But this isn't A Real Fight™ and he is trying to play fair. That's the whole point of this exercise, says his frequently exasperated inner monologue. For all that they were his last resort, swords were also Nash's best weapon. Or they had been, before he'd mostly given them up.

So Nash lunges: a simple move, easy to defend, but difficult to turn to an opponent's advantage. "Alright then," he says. "Ladies first."

He's not sure what he means by that.

[velveteened]

Oz has a look about him that's likely familiar to those who have studied - or taught, especially - swordplay before; a focused, maybe somewhat too obvious narrow-eyed look born of still learning how to simultaneously observe, move himself, and recall upon what he's learned before. He's had practice, of course, and years of it even, but until not long ago of a very casual sort - from instructors teaching him because of certain skill sets being expected among nobility, though without any real expectation of needing to use them in the real world.

In A Real Fight^TM there's a very high likelihood he wouldn't have a sword in the first place; the only time he had that option was when it went disastrously at Lutwidge Academy. There's certainly some merit to Elliot's tendency to carry one about everywhere, awkward as that must get at moments. But in all truth, in the course of A Real Fight^TM what he would really resort to using would be the power of his Chain, which is especially problematic now that each usage hastens the time when he'll have to - well. Pay up.

Right now though, he simply retreats backwards a few steps, moving out of range.

"Ahaha! I'm not sure that applies to this situation."

[latkje]

"Me neither." He shrugs, as best he can with his swordhand outstretched. "There's a guy where I'm from, famous mercenary, named his sword after his lady love." Nash shuddered inwardly at the thought— his missus was already sharp enough. "I never did."

Having taken the lead in the fight, Nash lunged again, quicker this time. It wasn't a particularly difficult move to dodge or to parry, but his goal was to provoke some sort of counter attack. (You couldn't back away forever, after all.) His fencing is likewise the sort the idle rich practices for sport. That's where his own training began, too, though he was long separated from that world, by time and by scandal.

[velveteened]

"How romantic!" Or at least, rather like something a knight in a novel might do. "Though I wonder how she liked that."

He could see how Alice would enjoy a notion like that, he supposes, all ha! That's right, defeat worthless losers in my name! Sharon's sensibilities tend to be more refined, but she may find such a gesture beautifully touching in some romantic way.

There was a clang as the attack got parried, then Oz lunged in turn, aiming to strike at Nash's side. There was some, but not a lot of power behind it, certainly possible to be turned aside.

[latkje]

"She died," he said, the last letters of the word getting cut off with the lunge.

Nash parried the blow, his face twitching with effort. He made the riposte, quicker this time, better aimed— enough that he can't talk and make the thrust at the same time.

[velveteened]

Oh. That wasn't an answer he was expecting, and it tripped him up - made him pause a moment too long as his thoughts wound around that, reassessed what he'd been told in light of that, made him slow to react to Nash's riposte. There's the suggestion of a parry in how Oz's blade started to move, but it struck nothing but air, while Nash's strike landed.

This would be where a third party would call the touch (and if it were valid or not), but Oz paused in acknowledgment anyway, huffing out a laugh after a bare beat.

"Your point! It seems I'm even rustier than I thought."

Or more easily distracted, anyway, which was a more chronic failing.

[latkje]

He could tell it was the distraction that got him the hit, not the riposte. That wasn't what he was trying to practice, but it was his usual tactic. Nash filed that away, almost unconsciously.

"It's like something from a storybook, huh? The knight with a trusted blade, named for a lost lady-love." He allowed himself this minute of reflection before resuming his fencer's stance.

[velveteened]

"You could say that," he agreed, not without an admission: "though it sounds very sad."

It reminded him, for some reason, of a sunny garden in someone else's memory, Jack asking him if he wanted to become Alice's knight. He'd refused on the basis of being too weak and unable, which is no less true, really; Break had to have been much of able of one, judging by his skill now, but even for him...

Oz took up the pose too, though only for a moment; taking a new strategy now, he lunged after scarcely a beat, feinting a blow to one side before switching the line of his attack.

[latkje]

The lunge caught him off guard— he managed to parry, but weakly. He tried to maintain an air of ease with his conversation, though the first syllables were rough with breath.

"Knight stories are usually sad. You can keep the lady or the sword, not both."

[velveteened]

"That seems kind of unfair, don't you think?"

He drew back a little after the parry, opening up space between them.

[latkje]

"Maybe. But fair's not very romantic." All this talk of knights— he wondered what the Lady Lightfellow was up to right now. He hadn't wanted to vanish, like that, but disappearing was one thing he was good at. She never actually got to see his swordsmanship, just hear his occasional boasts.

After a beat he feinted forward, trying to set up a trickier move.

[velveteened]

"Do you think so?"

A waste of breath of a question, really. Presumably - though there's no guarantee - Nash said it precisely because he did think so.

Oz instinctively moved to parry the (seemingly) coming blow.

[latkje]

Nash isn't the type to say all of what he thinks or to think all of what he says. So he laughs, but the ease of the sound gets cut off by a vicious, risky thrust. It's a powerful strike, harder to parry, but it will leave him vulnerable if he doesn't hit.

"People like their stories full of impossible odds, not quiet strolls in the park. But — ugh — if you ask me, the latter are just as charming."