Closed: Vitally Forming Defense

[biteybaby]

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.

Comments

[summerdude]

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

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

"...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".

[summerdude]

"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."

[lanselos_du_lac]

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."

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

"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.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"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."

[biteybaby]

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

[summerdude]

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.

[lanselos_du_lac]

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.

[biteybaby]

Sunny claps.

[summerdude]

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.

[lanselos_du_lac]

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.

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

"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?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"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."

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

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?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

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."

[biteybaby]

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".

[summerdude]

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

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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."

[summerdude]

"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!"