(no subject)

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

Characters: Nyx, Percival, Titania
Date/Time: Saturday, August 10th
Location: SCA Meet-up, NY
Rating: maybe PG
Warnings: None
Summary:


Bouncing up onto her toes, Titania craned her neck in an attempt to see over the crowd. People of all ages scurried this way and that, intent on their tasks. Normally, she would have stopped each one that caught her eye and asked questions, complimented a dress or sought permission to feel the weight of a weapon. The swirl of activity and colors made her smile and then laugh. A passing man in a grey tabard grinned at her and she blew him a teasing kiss.

Ten minutes later, the dark-haired actress had given up on trying to find anyone or anything in the melee and had snagged a young man who had been intently studying a tattered notebook. A sweet smile and deftly fluttered eyelashes earned her some directions and she made her way towards the practicing grounds. She only hoped Nyx was having better luck in trying to find Percival.

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[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

Eventually she came upon a roped-off area with a few people, mostly in armor, milling about. Inside the area, two people were fighting, the sound of their rattan swords hitting each other's armor echoing in the warm summer air.

Percival, clad in his armor, watched the two go at it from the sidelines. It wasn't even a full-on battle; Duke Ranulf was training his squire in some advanced fighting techniques prior to the day's lists. The knight watched the two go at it, then during a lull in the action caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw Titania at almost the same moment she spotted him. "Hey!" he grinned in greeting, going over to her. "I'm so glad you could make it. You look fantastic!"

[darkmystery.insanejournal.com]

So, an old-time swordfighting convention. That was cool. Something Nyx had never done before, in any of her lives, so why not try and do a little slicing and dicing herself? However, she didn't show up looking like the hottest little medieval babe this side of the world and bless Titania, she was just epically gorgeous and....curvaceous. Nyx? She was more long and lean, like a black panther, dressed all in her namesake color - the dress was easy to move in, the sleeves out of her way, her cleavage (such as it was) encased in a bodice that she actually kind of liked.

Still didn't prevent her from giving off LADY OF THE NIGHT, STAY THE FUCK AWAY vibes. Alas. Maybe she should work on that.

She elbowed her way through the crowd to approach her companions. "That armor you've got on isn't so bad either," she greeted Percy (his nickname, thanks) first, then grinned over at Titania. "Now I feel ugly. Agh, damn you."

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

"You're both ridiculous," Titania laughed. Nonetheless, she smoothed her dark hair and adjusted her bodice to best effect, a little understated preening at their compliments. Then she turned to Percival, curtsied, and murmured, "Good sir."

Another giggle escaped her as she straightened and turned to Nyx next, holding out her hand. "You couldn't be ugly if you tried really, really tried," she argued. "You look regal and forbidding and elegant, my dear. I think we're going to make Chance here look like the ultimate stud today."

[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

Percival laughed and actually blushed a little. "You two will definitely make me look good," he grinned. "I wish now I'd asked you to bring a favor. That's these." He fluffed the lengths of colored and embroidered cloth that were hanging off his white SCA knight's belt. "So I could fight for you. Ladies used to give their lords scarves or lengths of sleeves or whatever to show they fought for their honor."

Taking Nyx and Titania's hands, he bowed. "I would still be honored to fight for you today, my ladies."

[darkmystery.insanejournal.com]

All of the swooning! Nyx had to fan herself off for a second there, with her free hand. "You're a smooth operator, P," she informed the Knight-in-shining armor. "I guess I'll allow you to fight for me. If I don't kick everyone else's asses first."

Because that was so something she would do. Nevermind that she didn't know a damn thing about swordfighting; shadow tendrils were her main forms of weapons, if it ever came down to that.

"I guess I can't throw my underwear at you, so you'll fight for my honor, right?"

He'd have to make do with the cloth he already had. "But Titania's right, you're in stud territory now. Best enjoy it."

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

"Enjoy it and take advantage of it." Titania's smile glowed with mischief and she lifted her hands to dip beneath her heavy hair, nimble fingers working at the knot of the scarf holding the dark mass back. It quickly unraveled and soon she had the length of pale blue silken material in her hands. "Actually, speaking of taking advantage..."

With another little curtsy, she presented it to Percival. "All yours, darling," she said. "Now you have to win, right? Two ladies are in your corner, after all."

[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

"I absolutely have to win now! I wouldn't want to embarrass you." Percival tied the scarf to his belt and smiled up at Nyx. "And yes, I will fight for your honor even without a favor." He was indeed enjoying this -- he was making his friends smile, and that was good enough for him, regardless of his stud status.

He turned to the fighters out on the list field, who has finished their bout and had taken their helmets off. "Duke Ranulf! Would you allow me to fight your squire, Your Grace?"

"Absolutely, Sir Alun! He could use the practice," the other man laughed.

Percival bent and picked up his helmet, his face alight. "I want to show you what it is we do. It's not like real sword fighting, but it's pretty close. Could you help me with my shield?"

[darkmystery.insanejournal.com]

"Close enough works for us," Nyx shrugged, and hey, she wasn't going to be picky. Usually she wasn't one for smiling (more like one for having a cig in one hand and a glass of wine in the other), but now she had a baby grin on her face that would one day grow up to be an actual expression of happiness. She was having fun. What was fun?

When P said he needed help with his shield, she sprang right to attention, adjusting her modest cleavage in her modest dress. "Sure thing, Sir Knight. What do you require? I have impressive guns, though I know it doesn't look that way." Nyx was a bit tiny, somewhat willow-like, but she packed a punch when she wanted to!

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

Titania watched Nyx bustle into action to help the good knight and smiled, pleased that she hadn't even had to try to wiggle out of lifting something that appeared a wee bit heavy. Everyone had their own strengths and skills, she always said; hers just tended to lay more in the decorative realm than the manual labor one. Once Nyx had Percival sorted out, she stepped forward again and looped her arm through the other woman's. With her free hand, she pointed towards a prime opening near the fence surrounding the battle field. "And I think I see our front row seats," she announced. "Chance, sweetie, is it okay if we go over there?"

[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

Percival grinned at Nyx. Her enthusiasm was awesome! "I need you to hold the shield so I can get my arm into it. Just like that," he nodded as the black-clad woman complied. She held it really well, too, as he pushed his arm through the straps and grasped the handle so that the shield was firmly on. Impressive guns indeed! "Thank you for playing squire for me!"

Now that he was sorted, he turned his attention to Titania, following her finger to where she was pointing. "That looks like a perfect spot to me. Wish me luck, my ladies," he said with a bow. Tugging on his other gauntlet, he jammed his helmet on his head, picked up his sword and took to the field.

"Salute the crowd!" came the call from the marshall. "Salute the one whose favor you bear," and Percival bowed with a flourish in the direction of Titania and Nyx. "Salute your opponent!" The squire slapped his sword against his shield; Percival was more courteous and merely raised his sword to the front of his helm. "Lay on!" And the fight began! The two fighters circled each other; the squire had a decided height advantage over Percival and took the first shot, but the knight blocked it easily and retaliated with a sharp blow to the squire's leg. It was shaping up to be a really good fight.

[darkmystery.insanejournal.com]

These seats were perfect. Nyx took hers next to Titania, tucking one knee over the other, and she settled in to watch the old-timey duel. Lay on indeed, right? She had never seen anything like it before, and watched with a wide-eyed enthusiasm which glittered like onyx - it was suddenly decided that she one day wanted to learn the art of how to kick ass with a sword.

"YEEEEEAAAAAAH, P!" she called to the dashing Knight in a rather unladylike fashion; Poor Tania was probably going to be so embarrassed by the time the fight was over. "Kick his...uh!" Okay, maybe she should put the kibosh on the swears. "Thou art the greatest swordfighter in all of the land!" Where was the rest of the ale??

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

Laughing at Nyx's enthusiasm, Titania applauded. "Go to, good sir!" she called out in that unerringly perfect English accent she had used earlier. "Your ladies await your success!"

[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

It was no wonder the Duke was keen on getting his squire some practice: the guy had a definite issue acknowledging blows. That hit to his leg should have dropped him to one knee. Percival's jaw tightened. If there was one thing that got him angry (and there were precious few things in the world that could achieve that), it was lack of chivalry. And he knew Duke Ranulf would have taught the squire better than that.

The knight delivered another equally sharp blow to the exact same spot, again with no result. He hit just as hard as Duke Ranulf; it looked like he'd have to hit harder. Circling the squire, he blocked a few other attempts at a shot, then with lightning speed Percival dealt a clobbering blow to the squire's head that nearly knocked his helmet off.

That did the trick. The squire toppled like a tree, his bell well and truly rung. Quickly Percival removed his helmet and checked to make sure the squire wasn't unconscious, even as the marshall acknowledged him as the victor and the crowd started applauding. "I didn't mean to break him, Your Grace," he grinned wryly at Duke Ranulf.

"Nonsense!" the Duke grinned back. "He needed a little breaking."

With that reassurance, Percival made his way to where Titania and Nyx were seated. "What did you think?" he beamed.

[darkmystery.insanejournal.com]

"You totally kicked his ass!" was Nyx's declaration, which wasn't very ladylike or chivalrous (were ladies supposed to be chivalrous? Whatever - she was actually neither, so it was a moot point) but it got the truth across. Then she grabbed Percy's face and gave him a playful smack of a victory kiss, too bad the other guy hadn't been so lucky!

But it was still cool to see. Percival was obviously in his element, which was nothing short of impressive. "Can you teach us to be as cool as you with a sword someday?"

[ill-met.insanejournal.com]

"I'm more a dagger and poison kind of girl," Titania admitted blithely. "The two of you can bash skulls. I'll be inspiration... And back-up. They had ninjas back in the olden days, right? Or is that just bad B-movies where you get knights and ninjas?" Her mischievous grin grew and, deeming Nyx's action adequate permission, she reached out to tangle her fingers in Percival's hair. It was a firm hold but not painful and, with a gentle tug, she pulled him forward and down so that she could capture his mouth in a sweetly chaste kiss.

Then she released him and laughed merrily. "Whatever. The important thing is you're our champion!"

[piercethevale.insanejournal.com]

Percival accepted the victory kisses from the goddess and the Fae Queen the same way he accepted kisses from mortal women: he blushed. "Thank you, my ladies," he grinned at them. "You were both awesome inspiration."

"Two ladies, eh, Sir Alun?" Duke Ranulf teased, pounding him on the back. "You stud."

Blushing again, Percival shrugged and focused on Nyx and Titania. "Um, I can't teach daggers or poison, but I can teach you how to use a sword, if you really want to learn. It's kinda what I'm supposed to do as a knight, teach."