Doug, Madin, and Shatterstar - Swords
Jun. 24th, 2023 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsDoug oversees Shatterstar trying to teach Madin about swordwork. Madin reacts badly. Backdated to June 24.
Madin stopped at the door to the gym - one of the gyms - and looked around uncertainly at Shatterstar and ... Doug? He looked like the photo on the journals. "Hey Shatterstar. This is uh, Doug, I think? Doug, Shatterstar thinks I can use my powers like a sword maybe and suggested we should train. Uh, I don't know how to use a sword." The speech came out all in one go, as a jumbled mess.
Shatterstar gave Madin an upturn of the lips. He glanced at Doug before steamrolling into the questions he had. "Is it one blade per arm or can you wield a blade with two hands? Can you do one arm at a time? Do you want to practice with real swords before transferring what you know into your power?" He had never been a teacher before, but he wanted to share what he knew.
His enthusiasm was catchy. A little weird but catchy. Madin grinned back before sobering. "I can do both hands at once, like um. knife fists, I guess?" knife fists? Fuck me, they're both gonna think I'm an idiot. "And I'm a hundred percent wanting to do this with normal swords first. Or practice ones that can't hurt people? I'd like to not stab you by mistake."
Shatterstar was almost buzzing with anticipatory excitement, even though he knew he should calm down. Madin didn't actually know anything out. Thankfully, he wasn't actually buzzing- he didn't feel his power coming on at all. "I brought my training swords," he assured Madin. "Wooden and blunt blade." He glanced again at Doug before speaking a little softer. "The metal ones bruise pretty decently though."
Hopefully this Doug character wouldn't nix them outright.
Doug had brought both his own Asgardian broadsword (strapped to his back) and a well-worn practice bokken held by the guard in his right hand. "If you want to start with knives, I can dig up some of the wooden practice ones," he told the pair, having agreed to act as a spotter. "Can you throw them, or do they have to stay in contact with you?" he asked Madin, thinking of Pete Wisdom and missing the man who had mentored him in many ways. "I'm all right with throwing knives, but if that's the case I should probably get Clint or Natasha to help out."
"I know how to knife fight already," Madin said. "But I'm out of practice. As far as the rest goes, I can throw them like a spear."
"Let's see them!" Shatterstar said, bouncing on his heels a little in excitement for a new partner. "Also if you already know how to throw a spear then you could learn to fight with one, depending on how your powers work."
"I'm not throwing them in here, bro. They fucking explode. I'll find something to blow up outside later."
"There's a rock quarry on the grounds that's a pretty solid spot for cutting loose with more destructive power stuff," Doug informed the teens. "I mean, the Danger Room is also pretty reinforced, but you've gotta have a spotter there, and there's a schedule and blah blah blah." Okay, maybe he was leaning on the 'how do you do fellow kids' a bit because supervising them was making him remember just how long it had been since he had been their age and first coming to the mansion.
"Sweet as. We'll hit the quarry later." Madin looked Shatterstar over, weighing him up. Taller, longer reach. Fast reflexes but he wasn't trained-trained, right? "Wanna just spar with the training swords and then you can figure out what I need to know?"
Shatterstar shrugged easily and tossed Madin a wooden training sword from the rack set up behind him. "Catch." He grabbed his own and shifted easily into a defensive stance, confidence oozing off of him. He had
no idea what Madin did or didn't know, sure, but he knew that this was what he knew how to do.
Madin caught it, heart pounding and swung at Shatterstar, going for a curving sweep like the sword was a baton.
Shatterstar started slow, just to get a baseline of where Madin was. He blocked the awkward sweep, and then watched as Madin blocked two hits that he had been telegraphing. Two Shatterstar, Madin didn't seem at all confident with a blade in their hands, even a fake one. The blocks were awkward, driven mostly by instinct, if Shatterstar had to guess. Good instincts, but instinct. Shatterstar went for a stab at Madin's stomach after another clumsy block, trying to show how you had to be careful that your blocks didn't send the other sword where you didn't want.
In retrospect he probably jabbed too hard with that stab.
Madin fell with the hit, rolling into the fall, the training sword falling from numb fingers. Adrenaline and training combined and Madin threw a plasma blade from their off hand as they scrambled back to their feet. It went wide but they were upright, doubled over and wheezing, second plasma knife held in front like a night stick and another one cracking around their fingers. "Fuck."
Shatterstar dodged the blade, surprised to feel the heat of the plasma streaking past his face. He kept his own defensive stance, even though he had the feeling that if Madin really wanted to, they could easily cut through his training blade. "Well. We know you know how to take a fall." Shatter said, looking to where the thrown blade landed. "I hit you too hard?"
The knives dissolved around Mason's hand. They were breathing heavily. Oh fuck fuck fuck. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Just happened. Are you okay?"
Shatterstar shrugged. Honestly, he was more impressed with Madin's ability to throw knives than anything else. "I think you're worse off than I am," he admitted. "I am fine."
"I still shouldn't have... I'll uh. Fuck." Madin was shaking slightly with adrenaline. For a moment there, they'd moved without thinking and just reacted with reflexes drilled in over years of training. They could have killed him.
Doug's own wooden sword had been out to clear the teens' blades from each other, but seeing that they had both consciously backed off, he nodded and slowly lowered his. "Let's take a moment and talk through this before getting back to it," he told them. "Grab some water if you want a sip." He glanced at Madin. "So, clearly something hit a gut instinctive reaction there." The question was whether it was trauma related or what. He made sure to keep his voice level and not judgmental, figuring that talking through it would help Madin come the rest of the way down from their adrenaline surge.
Madin nodded. "Sorry. I just." Madin stopped and shook their hands out for a moment, stalling. They looked off to the side of the room, rather than toward Shatterstar or Doug. "When we were learning to -- when we were doing self defense training -- " That wasn't. It had never been self defense. "They taught us that if you're down, go hard, you know?" Go for a kill if you thought there was a chance they'd go first. "Um."
Shatterstar nodded, even though he knew Madin wasn't looking at him. That was his first instinct as well, and he wouldn't fault Madin for following it. There were threats on the world and it was hard to know what was and wasn't an attempt on your life- or at least it was for Shatterstar. "I get it," he said.
No you don't. Madin nodded slightly. "Mmm. I need to remember that this is training, though."
Doug caught the disconnect between the nod and the real feeling behind it, but he figured it wasn't really his place to call Madin out on it. It wasn't like he could walk around trying to fix the things that people weren't talking about - he'd tried that when he was about their age, and it had just resulted in a lot of headaches and more problems. "Finding that line between training properly so that you're not phoning it in, but not going so hard you risk an accident...that can be hard," he reassured them both. "I train a lot for my job, and even I have the occasional slip-up. What's most important to recognize it as it happens, and do your best to mitigate it, like you just did."
Madin gave an unsteady smile. "Sure." They turned to face Shatterstar, not freezing Doug out but... giving him less. He seemed too perceptive. "Can we try again another day, bro? I want to learn swords properly and not just go stab when I get caught out."
Shatterstar nodded. He knew what Doug was saying. He'd often gotten trouble for taking things "too seriously" during training. He could hardly fault Madin for the same thing. "That's fine by me. Whenever works for you. I'll make time." After all, this was his absolute favorite thing to do.
Madin stopped at the door to the gym - one of the gyms - and looked around uncertainly at Shatterstar and ... Doug? He looked like the photo on the journals. "Hey Shatterstar. This is uh, Doug, I think? Doug, Shatterstar thinks I can use my powers like a sword maybe and suggested we should train. Uh, I don't know how to use a sword." The speech came out all in one go, as a jumbled mess.
Shatterstar gave Madin an upturn of the lips. He glanced at Doug before steamrolling into the questions he had. "Is it one blade per arm or can you wield a blade with two hands? Can you do one arm at a time? Do you want to practice with real swords before transferring what you know into your power?" He had never been a teacher before, but he wanted to share what he knew.
His enthusiasm was catchy. A little weird but catchy. Madin grinned back before sobering. "I can do both hands at once, like um. knife fists, I guess?" knife fists? Fuck me, they're both gonna think I'm an idiot. "And I'm a hundred percent wanting to do this with normal swords first. Or practice ones that can't hurt people? I'd like to not stab you by mistake."
Shatterstar was almost buzzing with anticipatory excitement, even though he knew he should calm down. Madin didn't actually know anything out. Thankfully, he wasn't actually buzzing- he didn't feel his power coming on at all. "I brought my training swords," he assured Madin. "Wooden and blunt blade." He glanced again at Doug before speaking a little softer. "The metal ones bruise pretty decently though."
Hopefully this Doug character wouldn't nix them outright.
Doug had brought both his own Asgardian broadsword (strapped to his back) and a well-worn practice bokken held by the guard in his right hand. "If you want to start with knives, I can dig up some of the wooden practice ones," he told the pair, having agreed to act as a spotter. "Can you throw them, or do they have to stay in contact with you?" he asked Madin, thinking of Pete Wisdom and missing the man who had mentored him in many ways. "I'm all right with throwing knives, but if that's the case I should probably get Clint or Natasha to help out."
"I know how to knife fight already," Madin said. "But I'm out of practice. As far as the rest goes, I can throw them like a spear."
"Let's see them!" Shatterstar said, bouncing on his heels a little in excitement for a new partner. "Also if you already know how to throw a spear then you could learn to fight with one, depending on how your powers work."
"I'm not throwing them in here, bro. They fucking explode. I'll find something to blow up outside later."
"There's a rock quarry on the grounds that's a pretty solid spot for cutting loose with more destructive power stuff," Doug informed the teens. "I mean, the Danger Room is also pretty reinforced, but you've gotta have a spotter there, and there's a schedule and blah blah blah." Okay, maybe he was leaning on the 'how do you do fellow kids' a bit because supervising them was making him remember just how long it had been since he had been their age and first coming to the mansion.
"Sweet as. We'll hit the quarry later." Madin looked Shatterstar over, weighing him up. Taller, longer reach. Fast reflexes but he wasn't trained-trained, right? "Wanna just spar with the training swords and then you can figure out what I need to know?"
Shatterstar shrugged easily and tossed Madin a wooden training sword from the rack set up behind him. "Catch." He grabbed his own and shifted easily into a defensive stance, confidence oozing off of him. He had
no idea what Madin did or didn't know, sure, but he knew that this was what he knew how to do.
Madin caught it, heart pounding and swung at Shatterstar, going for a curving sweep like the sword was a baton.
Shatterstar started slow, just to get a baseline of where Madin was. He blocked the awkward sweep, and then watched as Madin blocked two hits that he had been telegraphing. Two Shatterstar, Madin didn't seem at all confident with a blade in their hands, even a fake one. The blocks were awkward, driven mostly by instinct, if Shatterstar had to guess. Good instincts, but instinct. Shatterstar went for a stab at Madin's stomach after another clumsy block, trying to show how you had to be careful that your blocks didn't send the other sword where you didn't want.
In retrospect he probably jabbed too hard with that stab.
Madin fell with the hit, rolling into the fall, the training sword falling from numb fingers. Adrenaline and training combined and Madin threw a plasma blade from their off hand as they scrambled back to their feet. It went wide but they were upright, doubled over and wheezing, second plasma knife held in front like a night stick and another one cracking around their fingers. "Fuck."
Shatterstar dodged the blade, surprised to feel the heat of the plasma streaking past his face. He kept his own defensive stance, even though he had the feeling that if Madin really wanted to, they could easily cut through his training blade. "Well. We know you know how to take a fall." Shatter said, looking to where the thrown blade landed. "I hit you too hard?"
The knives dissolved around Mason's hand. They were breathing heavily. Oh fuck fuck fuck. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Just happened. Are you okay?"
Shatterstar shrugged. Honestly, he was more impressed with Madin's ability to throw knives than anything else. "I think you're worse off than I am," he admitted. "I am fine."
"I still shouldn't have... I'll uh. Fuck." Madin was shaking slightly with adrenaline. For a moment there, they'd moved without thinking and just reacted with reflexes drilled in over years of training. They could have killed him.
Doug's own wooden sword had been out to clear the teens' blades from each other, but seeing that they had both consciously backed off, he nodded and slowly lowered his. "Let's take a moment and talk through this before getting back to it," he told them. "Grab some water if you want a sip." He glanced at Madin. "So, clearly something hit a gut instinctive reaction there." The question was whether it was trauma related or what. He made sure to keep his voice level and not judgmental, figuring that talking through it would help Madin come the rest of the way down from their adrenaline surge.
Madin nodded. "Sorry. I just." Madin stopped and shook their hands out for a moment, stalling. They looked off to the side of the room, rather than toward Shatterstar or Doug. "When we were learning to -- when we were doing self defense training -- " That wasn't. It had never been self defense. "They taught us that if you're down, go hard, you know?" Go for a kill if you thought there was a chance they'd go first. "Um."
Shatterstar nodded, even though he knew Madin wasn't looking at him. That was his first instinct as well, and he wouldn't fault Madin for following it. There were threats on the world and it was hard to know what was and wasn't an attempt on your life- or at least it was for Shatterstar. "I get it," he said.
No you don't. Madin nodded slightly. "Mmm. I need to remember that this is training, though."
Doug caught the disconnect between the nod and the real feeling behind it, but he figured it wasn't really his place to call Madin out on it. It wasn't like he could walk around trying to fix the things that people weren't talking about - he'd tried that when he was about their age, and it had just resulted in a lot of headaches and more problems. "Finding that line between training properly so that you're not phoning it in, but not going so hard you risk an accident...that can be hard," he reassured them both. "I train a lot for my job, and even I have the occasional slip-up. What's most important to recognize it as it happens, and do your best to mitigate it, like you just did."
Madin gave an unsteady smile. "Sure." They turned to face Shatterstar, not freezing Doug out but... giving him less. He seemed too perceptive. "Can we try again another day, bro? I want to learn swords properly and not just go stab when I get caught out."
Shatterstar nodded. He knew what Doug was saying. He'd often gotten trouble for taking things "too seriously" during training. He could hardly fault Madin for the same thing. "That's fine by me. Whenever works for you. I'll make time." After all, this was his absolute favorite thing to do.
