[Deaths] well pre campaign
Title: play
'Verse/characters: Deaths; Edmund, Eduard and a small Julian De'Ath
Prompt: 72C "optimism"
Word Count: 356
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"You realise she's going to pick up all of your bad habits from doing this," his brother remarked conversationally, and Edmund laughed, took his left hand off the hilt of his sword and raised it fisted to tell his daughter to hold.
She flicked up her own sword in a one-handed Crusader's salute--he heard Eduard snort into a glass--then dropped sword and arm to let the tip rest on the courtyard's beaten-down dirt, narrow chest heaving with the need for breath.
"That's what I love about you," he told his brother, grinning. "Your optimism."
Eduard bit his thumb delicately, then thumbed his nose at Edmund's daughter.
"Show me, then," she challenged, and Edmund, trying to crush his grin and failing badly, looked up at Eduard's profile.
There was a brief pause as his brother and his daughter held a stare, then his brother set his glass down on the ground, shrugged out of his sleeves. "Hand that over, you," he commanded, and she flipped the sword up, presented it pommel-first as was proper.
Eduard spun it briefly, gauging weight and balance, and all the warning Edmund had was the faint curling shadow of a grin as the edge of a wooden sword came at his head with all the dizzying speed of a long since trained and active swordsman.
He caught it with his own, barely, grinned over the crossed blades, and shoved his brother back with every measure of his own training--a scytheman's shoulders were a different thing than a swordsman's.
They fought for a good ten minutes, laughing and shouting taunts when they had breath for them, and Edmund knew either of them would probably be able to hold their own against any ordinary fighter, even if the other held steel and they only had the wooden swords they used now.
"Hold!" his daughter roared credibly, and sheer surprise made them obey.
She trotted up to his brother, poked his elbow with stiff fingers. "Show me that sequence again, where you go for his thigh?"
Eduard raised an eyebrow over her head at Edmund, who grinned.
"Told you," he murmured, as Eduard spun himself backwards three paces, began the feint again.
'Verse/characters: Deaths; Edmund, Eduard and a small Julian De'Ath
Prompt: 72C "optimism"
Word Count: 356
---------
"You realise she's going to pick up all of your bad habits from doing this," his brother remarked conversationally, and Edmund laughed, took his left hand off the hilt of his sword and raised it fisted to tell his daughter to hold.
She flicked up her own sword in a one-handed Crusader's salute--he heard Eduard snort into a glass--then dropped sword and arm to let the tip rest on the courtyard's beaten-down dirt, narrow chest heaving with the need for breath.
"That's what I love about you," he told his brother, grinning. "Your optimism."
Eduard bit his thumb delicately, then thumbed his nose at Edmund's daughter.
"Show me, then," she challenged, and Edmund, trying to crush his grin and failing badly, looked up at Eduard's profile.
There was a brief pause as his brother and his daughter held a stare, then his brother set his glass down on the ground, shrugged out of his sleeves. "Hand that over, you," he commanded, and she flipped the sword up, presented it pommel-first as was proper.
Eduard spun it briefly, gauging weight and balance, and all the warning Edmund had was the faint curling shadow of a grin as the edge of a wooden sword came at his head with all the dizzying speed of a long since trained and active swordsman.
He caught it with his own, barely, grinned over the crossed blades, and shoved his brother back with every measure of his own training--a scytheman's shoulders were a different thing than a swordsman's.
They fought for a good ten minutes, laughing and shouting taunts when they had breath for them, and Edmund knew either of them would probably be able to hold their own against any ordinary fighter, even if the other held steel and they only had the wooden swords they used now.
"Hold!" his daughter roared credibly, and sheer surprise made them obey.
She trotted up to his brother, poked his elbow with stiff fingers. "Show me that sequence again, where you go for his thigh?"
Eduard raised an eyebrow over her head at Edmund, who grinned.
"Told you," he murmured, as Eduard spun himself backwards three paces, began the feint again.