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.

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[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!"

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

"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.

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

"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.

[lanselos_du_lac]

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.

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

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?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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."

[summerdude]

"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?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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’.

[summerdude]

"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."

[lanselos_du_lac]

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

[biteybaby]

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.

[summerdude]

"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."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Names," says Lancelot, right away.

[biteybaby]

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

[summerdude]

"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.