[SE] [Training] the one you don't see comin'

JACK

Unable not to laugh at Nova's abrupt surprise to see that he's stepped out of the way of her punch - or her thoughts that something like a sidestep or a riposte is branded as a special move - Jack tuts and nods towards the hands that have dropped to her sides. "Don't leave yourself open - who knows who might take advantage." Everyone is the appropriate answer to that question, something he has a feeling even Nova will understand with her limited firsthand experience of fistfights.

"Mm, it ain't the most thrillin'," he agrees - but then for someone who uses thought and action as his strategy, who moves people like chess pieces, of course Jack is likely to agree. "Guess we'll just have to have you watch more fights to get used to watchin' the way things happen," he adds, unconsciously echoing her own considerations.

But then she's darting in again, Jack's eyebrow raising at the unexpected one-two jab, so quick his telepathy almost doesn't catch it. Instinctively more than anything, he tries to dip away from her first punch, then reaches out to catch the other, calloused fingers closing around her fist. "This," he says, "is probably where you'd use magic to your advantage."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky