biteybaby | Closed: Vitally Forming Defense

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Closed: Vitally Forming Defense

You may have, at times, heard the phrase, "Practice makes perfect". This phrase is often said by misinformed teachers, dance instructors, community recreational league baseball coaches, and overly-talkative Uber drivers. In actuality, practice rarely makes perfect, for several reasons. To start with, perfection is a highly subjective concept. One person may find the addition of a Cheez-It® 16 Times The Size Of The Original Cheez-It® to the Taco Bell menu perfect, whereas their friend may find the addition of a Cheez-It® 16 Times The Size Of The Original Cheez-It® to the Taco Bell menu unnecessary, overly-salty, and a bit of a silly gimmick, to be quite honest.

Another reason practice rarely makes perfect is that practicing something will only make you as good as the methods you are repeatedly doing. If you are practicing something incorrectly, you will never become perfect, you will only get more specific in your incorrectness. If you have an instructor who is teaching you incorrect form, you may get very good at said incorrect form, but it will never be perfect.

Fortunately for Magnus, Lancelot is actually quite proficient at swords. "Proficient" is a word which here means, "perfect".

Today, Sunny is also going to Learn Swords. "Learn Swords" is a phrase which here means, "Sit on the ground and gnaw on a wooden toy sword while the grown ups practice". Magnus said she could come along, and so she has.

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In fact, Magnus is carrying her now, his secret practice sword tucked (as usual) in his backpack along with her juice box, milk bottle, snack (goldfish crackers and carrots), and a blanket to put on the ground to mark a safe zone. Usually he's extremely punctual to fighting practice; today he's running a minute or two late because he had to trick someone into changing her diaper for him before he brought her out here. Lancelot is already in the clearing

"Look," Magnus calls, coming through the treeline. "I told someone!" (Sunny is his trial run. She took it very well.)

Lancelot looks over, and although he's not at all sure who he expected to see, it wasn't Sunny.

"I see," he says, as they come closer.

Sunny did a very good job of holding on to her toy sword while Magnus carried her, even though it was quite a considerable distance from the house where they started. It certainly is not the longest distance she has ever been carried, but it was still very long, and her hands are quite small compared to the toy sword.

She smiles over at Lancelot and waves the toy sword, being careful not to hit Magnus in the face with it. She does not want to stab Magnus with a sword! Only a terrible person would do such a thing! "Erakolake!" She tells Lancelot excitedly, which is her way of telling him, "I am going to learn swords too!" excitedly.

"Yeah," Magnus tells Sunny, laughing. "Start 'em young, right? You're gonna be a wunderkind."

To Lancelot, he says, "I figured this was okay. She was really excited when I told her what we're doing."

"Provided we keep an eye on her, this is fine. Sunny, you only have to stay clear of us as we work."

"Okay!" She says, which here means, "okay!" Sunny looks around for a moment before pointing to a tree and asking Magnus if her spot can be over there.

She thinks if she gets bored enough she might try climbing it with her teeth, similar to how she used them to climb the 66 floors of 667 Dark Avenue's ersatz elevator shaft. The tree isn't nearly as tall, it would take her only a fraction of the time to climb it.

Magnus is onto her. "If you climb it, he might get distracted," he warns, as he spreads out her blanket and sits her down on it. Then he unpacks his backpack, giving her the snacks and drinks and toys he'd packed. The last thing he draws out is his practice sword. His shield, which he's been using off and on since the first practice but which is far too noticeable to secret back and forth all the time, is tucked away in a hard-to-spot, safe-from-the-elements location, and he goes to retrieve it next.

Lancelot shoots Magnus a look. "She can climb?"

Sunny points to her teeth.

"Yeah, she has a lot of stories about it," Magnus says. He starts stretching, limbering up.

Very sincerely, Lancelot says, "Sunny, I believe thou'rt capable, but please do not climb the tree whilst we work."

"...Okay," Sunny says, a little sullen. "Sullen", if you are unfamiliar, is a word which here means, "upset that she cannot climb the tree, even though everyone agrees she is fully capable of doing so".

"After we're done you can show off, okay Sunny?" Magnus asks, pausing in his stretches to come over, open her juice box, and smack a kiss to her forehead. "We can trade showing off."

As he straightens, he raises his eyebrows at Lancelot. "So what are we doing today, di-- teach? I think I have the new blocking thing down."

Lancelot watches Magnus with Sunny, and then moves across the clearing to get into his own stance. He has his (or, rather, Arthur's) shield today, and he takes a moment to fasten the buckle. "I thought we might practice how to manage when your opponent is blocking."

Sunny sits down to watch, and begins gnawing on her toy sword. Not hard enough to break it, shred it, turn it into sawdust, chop it in to pieces, grate it like cheese, or cut it in half like a saw (something she is very familiar with the cutting power of, after all), but there will definitely be little bite marks in the wood now.

"Oooooh." Magnus's eyes, it must be said, light up. One of the most surprising things about these lessons with Lancelot is that, the more he starts to get about being deliberate in a fight instead of just trying not to die right away, the more fun he has with training. Sure, he's had a grim spell recently, what with all the stress of the Shen Yuan situation, but training has (extremely weirdly) become one of the things he looks forward to, instead of dreading and resigning himself to needing to get through it. Sunny being here makes it all seem kind of silly and fun, too.

It's not that he wants to be Fighting Guy again. He started this because he thought he should be able to take up the mantle once more, if push came to shove, but the more he trains, the more he realizes that other people here could totally have it handled without him. Not sneak attacks from mysterious murderesses, but more zombies or whatever. But... he likes knowing how things work. He likes learning, and being active, and spending time with people. Even if 'people' is just his best friend's biodad who he hated as recently as a few months ago. In short, now that it's become less about survival... he's enjoying himself.

Magnus checks Sunny once more to make sure that she's good, and then gets into his standard starting position.

"So then," he raises his shield, a defensive and prepared stance, "You know what it feels like to deflect a blow, or to block it. You have to watch for this in an opponent, as it can create openings for the both of you. Go ahead and come at me, however you like."

Sunny tries to copy what they are doing with their arms.

Magnus circles Lancelot for a moment, and then goes for a direct attack. He's better, now, about not telegraphing all of his moves as he makes them, but he's also gotten better about that under Lancelot's tutelage, so Lancelot does know most of his moves. Right now he's aiming for speed and strength carrying him along and giving him a shot.

Lancelot can read Magnus fairly well, that's true. Since they are not sparring but training, and part of the point is to allow Magnus to land a hit, he steps into the onslaught, leading with the shield. When Magnus' blade is just about to land, he raises the shield to meet it, with the aim of both deflecting Magnus' attack and putting him slightly off-balance when the blow lands and is diverted.

Sunny claps.

Magnus dances on his tiptoes for half a second, regaining his balance, and tries to sweep his practice sword back in a way that lets him get behind Lancelot's shield.

But Lancelot follows in the path of the shield, keeping his guard up on the side where Magnus' sword is, and then quickly turns to swing his own sword in and (carefully) thwap Magnus on the thigh with the flat of his blade.

Sunny crawls over to the tree, and uses it to help stand up, holding on to it and bouncing slightly as she watches them with excitement. She is very glad that there are no giant sawblades nearby while they are having this swordfight.

"Explain," Magnus says, running those steps back over in his mind. "How did you do that? And what kind of openings should I be looking for?"

"I don't think you expected me to move into your space, since I was deflecting. You left me an opening, and you were off-balance."

She starts carefully walking circles around the tree, holding on to it for balance as she goes, of course. Maybe if Magnu is going to practice getting better at swords she can practice getting better at legs. She tries letting go of the tree and falls down almost immediately.

Magnus glances over at Sunny and grins, jerking his chin so that Lancelot can look, too. "That makes sense," he says, preoccupied by the look on Sunny's face as her butt hits the ground. He forces himself to focus. "What should I be looking for?"

Lancelot looks over at Sunny and smiles, watching her for a moment as he answers Magnus' question. "You need to both look for the opening your opponent gives you, and feel where your own openings are -- while knowing where their blade is and where it's moving. You'll get staggered off balance; it can hurt, too, when you deflect the wrong way. But keeping your focus on where your opponent's blade is at is crucial."

Sunny keeps this in mind, in case she ever ends up in a swordfight again. "Tomtriss," Sunny calls over from where she's sitting. "Tomtriss" is a word which here means, "I'm listening too, and I will keep that in mind, in case I ever end up in a swordfight again", and "sitting" is a word which here means, "flopped on the ground after having fallen while trying to walk".

Magnus wheels to face Sunny more directly. "Again?????" he asks her.

Lancelot raises an eyebrow, "What's that?"

Sunny nods. "Esh. Rekil dojufengakol," she explains, which is her way of explaining, "Yes. When I worked at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, the eye doctor there was very mean. She pulled out a sword and we had a sword fight, except that instead of having a sword I was using my teeth. She eventually fell on the big lumber saw and got cut in half. I think that means I won the sword fight. It was gross."

She picks up the wooden toy sword she brought with her. This would have been quite helpful to have had. "Ansa eglak," she adds, which is a phrase which here means, "Could you let Lancelot know what I said? I don't think he can understand me, and I would hate to leave him out of the conversation. That seems rude."

"Holy sh--oot," Magnus breathes, and turns to Lancelot. He says, "Sunny just said that she got into a sword fight, except she was using her teeth. Against an adult doctor with a sword. Who fell into a saw. Sunny," he says. "First of all, yes, you definitely won, second of all, holy crap? I'm glad you're okay!"

For a moment, Lancelot is simply shocked. Then he says, "Once she is big enough, we will make sure she has proper training."

Sunny frowns. “Big!” she says, which is a word which here means, “I’ve already been in one sword fight, I think that qualifies me as big enough.” To demonstrate her point, she uses the tree to stand back up, holding her toy wooden sword with one hand.

"Do you want lessons too, Sunny?" Magnus asks, glancing uncertainly between her and Lancelot. "Like, now?" She's probably definitely way too young for that, even though she can do pretty much everything.

Edited 2024-07-16 20:37 (UTC)

Lancelot shoots Magnus a look, "You do know I'll not spar with a baby, yes?"

Sometimes in life, you may realize you are doing something only after you have done it. You might realize you are backing your car into a signpost only after you feel a jolt and hear the loud scrrrrchrnch of your bumper obtaining a new, fashionable dent. You might realize your foster cat is no longer a foster cat only after you find yourself unable to pull the covers over yourself at bedtime because the cat is curled up between your legs and looks far too cute to disturb. You might realize you are eating cold soup only after you have shoveled the first spoonful into your mouth, despite having microwaved it for the recommended number of seconds.

"No baby!" Sunny says, determined, as she takes precisely three steps away from the tree. She does not realize she is walking by herself for the first time until she tries to take a fourth step and falls down on her butt again.

"Oh my gods," Magnus says, dropping his sword and shield alike and rushing over. He feels so proud that he worries, for a second, he might explode with it. And Magnus Chase knows intimately what it feels like to explode. He's done it at least three times, literally. "Sunny!!!!!! Oh my gods, Sunny!!!!!"

He stops one step away from her and offers her a high five, which she will need to either walk or crawl to receive. As he does, he glances between her and Lancelot, turning a thought over in his mind. It's untenable for Sunny to not be able to talk to other people here. She should have a way to reliably communicate that people besides him and Crowley can understand, so that she can walk and lecture people like Lancelot simultaneously.

Lancelot begins to stifle a sigh, but immediately grins as Sunny walks. He sheathes his sword and crosses to stand near Magnus. "Show me, then," he says to Sunny.

Sunny wants to walk the remaining space over to Magnu, but as there is nothing for her to pull herself up with, she ends up sticking her butt up in the air for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to get the rest of her torso up as well, before giving up and crawling the remaining space over to Magnu. She gives him a high five, then uses Magnu to pull herself up.

"Alk!" she tells Lancelot, a word which here means, "I can walk!" as she takes a few more steps towards him before wobbling uncertain on her feet. She falls down again. This is common in people Sunny's size.

Magnus is watching Sunny, obviously, but he's also surveying Lancelot.

The thing is...

The thing is!

Lancelot has grown on him, or whatever. Magnus has, like, vetted him, and he's passed the test(s. There have been many.) He trusts that he won't, like, hurt Galahad or whatever. He even kind of wants Lancelot to have a way to definitely talk to Galahad, if the situation arises.

He sits down, mostly so that he can hug Sunny, and says, "Okay. So, like. I think we're done with actual sword practice for the day? I'm gonna teach you guys a way to talk to each other. Okay?"

Lancelot kneels down to encourage Sunny, but says to Magnus, "I can already speak to her. She understands perfectly well."

Sunny shares a quick look with Magnu. "Esobrev," she says, crossing her arms and frowning at Lancelot. "Esobrev" is a word which here means, "I can understand you, however you can barely understand anything I say. Frankly, I find it a little frustrating that you would discredit my contributions to our lovely conversations like this. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed."

"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to translate that one for me," Magnus tells Lancelot, with a wink and a sneaky thumbs up at Sunny. Of course she can understand him, Sunny's a genius! He settles down cross-legged and, giving Lancelot a moment to chew on that, turns to Sunny. "Sunny, do you know about sign language?"

Edited 2024-07-21 01:53 (UTC)

As he sits, Lancelot frowns a little, clearly chastened.

Sunny sits down in Lancelot’s lap, so she can better face Magnu for whatever he is about to explain, and shakes her head ‘no’.

"It's a language that uses your hands," Magnus explains, directing his words to Sunny but flicking regular glances up to Lancelot, too. "A lot of people here know it. So, for example--" He holds his hands flat in front of his face, palms down, fingers angled toward his chin, and then pulls his hands up and back like he's tossing something over his head. "That means 'overwhelmed.' That something is too much. It lets people know you need a break. Can I see you try? Both of you."

Lancelot first makes sure that Sunny is well-settled in his lap, then copies Magnus' motion, carefully.

Sunny also copies Magnu's motion, carefully. She is excited to learn that this is a motion which here means, "overwhelmed, and that something is too much, and that she needs a break". It will no doubt come in handy whenever she is overwhelmed, something is too much, and she needs a break. Up until now, her main go to for situations like that has been crying, but sometimes people can't understand why specifically she is crying. If someone recognizes this motion it would be better, she thinks.

"Very good," says Magnus. He proceeds to walk them through a couple of other fundamentals -- the alphabet, some emotion words, help, a few of Sunny's favorite foods -- and then pauses. "What do you want to learn next?" he asks. "We could do names, or we could go through things either of you specifically want to be able to talk about."

"Names," says Lancelot, right away.

Sunny nods, agreeing with Lancelot. It seems polite to be able to know people's names.

"Okay, so a bunch of people here have names already," Magnus says. "This is mine--" he shows them M-sunlight. "And Waetee -- um, Laertes," he clarifies for Lancelot, and shows them L-make. He shows them Hanguang-jun, which, of course, is the sign for dad-headband he's been unconsciously using all along, and Galahad, which is G-flower-choice, and Claudius's snake sign, and on and on and on, waiting for them to catch up after each one.

"Lancelot," he says then, "your name is this." He moves his his finger and his thumb into the shape of an L on his forehead.

Lancelot squints a little, thinking this through. "Just one element?"

“Smart?” Sunny offers as a possible explanation for why the L is at your forehead in his name.

She’s wrong, of course, but sometimes it’s the thought that counts.

"Yeah, it's best to use succinct, identifiable signs."

Lancelot shrugs affably, "Very well."

Sunny also thinks this makes sense. She then asks, "Sunny?"

"Well," says Magnus, focusing on her. "You know how when you introduce yourself to people, you do this?" He puts a hand on his chest. "This is the sign for 'sunny,' like a sunny place." He starts with his hands mid-chest, fingers tapered together, and then splays his fingers and hands out to the sides. "So I was thinking..." He does the sign for sunny again, and then presses his hands to his chest.

Lancelot duplicates Magnus' suggested sign, and smiles. "I like that."

Sunny also tries to duplicate the sign. She likes it. "Good!"

"Okay," Magnus says, sitting back. "Now what?"

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Closed: Vitally Forming Defense

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