[Training] I close my eyes to see

Ianto

"Thanks for doing this."

Ianto doesn't exactly sound grateful, and his accent hugs the words more than usual. It's the first time he's been out of shift in a long while, and it shows; his clothes are wrinkled, his coppery hair more of a bird's nest than anything else, and there's dirt under his fingernails and smeared across a cheek lined with stubble.

And of all places the Drop isn't somewhere he'd particularly like to be, so... in for a penny and all that. He'd asked Remi to join him out here to actually learn the basics of defending himself, if only because being a coward only got one so far in the survival of the fittest world. What's going to happen is beyond him, and he rubs at the back of his neck as he glances around.

"So where do we start?"

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

"Not a problem." It's fine that Ianto doesn't sound grateful because Remi doesn't exactly sound that altruistic.

Its been a kindness that Ianto has stayed shifted as often as he has, but it hasn't solved the problem completely. Remi can still feel him through their attuned tether, and of course his manticore senses are constantly riled at the prospect of crunching the fox's small bones in his jaws. So to see Ianto as a man now, dishevelled and unshowered as he is, simply replaces one sort of desire for another.

Remi is dressed as he usually is, in his magic shirt and trousers. Wingless, he doesn't cut quite as intimidating a figure as he might otherwise, but of course Ianto knows better than to underestimate him. 'Well, what sort of things are you looking to defend against? Just...a regular attacker coming at you, or something a bit more...predatory?" Remi rubs his palm over one of his arms, looking pointedly at the ground rather than at the fox.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

Remi isn't looking at Ianto, and Ianto is looking at the Drop below them, scuffing the toe of his boot against a moss covered rock. His fox's tail swishes to and fro, betraying his nerves, and he shrugs his shoulders and finally lifts his gaze to the other man. "The sorts of things that will be coming for us in the Greatwood, honestly," he says, huffing out a soft sigh.

"But then Ascended can use Attuned abilities, and Abandoned magic, so... maybe I ought to just get the basics down." It's a lame suggestion and he knows it, the fox giving a small smile to his friend. "Perhaps we should start by teaching me not to bolt as soon as I think something dangerous is on its way?" he offers, rolling his shoulders and already feeling the urge to shift again.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

"And gods help you if one bites you." Remi adds with a chuckle that turns dry in the back of his throat. Though he's only sparred with a few ascended, he wouldn't put it past one of them to use such a tactic during a real fight. And gods but it would be disorienting.

'Ah, well. I'm not so sure how to help with that." Remi replies, now inspecting the clouds through narrowed lashes. "You could...always use some sort of item? Something to keep between you and whatever is coming at you? It might make you feel a little less...cowardly that way? Then again," Forgetting himself, Remi's eyes lower to the fox's hands upon which many rings sparkle in the light. "Your hands are probably fairly deadly as they are." But of course Remi doesn't see the grime beneath Ianto's fingernails, but instead remembers the way those hands felt pressed against him, touching places long since abandoned by any other than his own hand.

Clearing his throat and looking up again, directly into the sun this time because why not, Remi shrugs. "Or whatever you think would work." He concludes lamely, praying the sun could burn away his memories as easily as it was his retinas.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

"I'd rather not let one get close enough to need the help of the gods," Ianto remarks with a lopsided smile, though the tension in the air between them is such that one might cut it with a knife. He snorts at the remarks about his hands, clenching and unclenching them into fists that, whilst not exactly the clumsy beginner's sort, have not seen much action by way of fighting. "I think having something between myself and them might be a good place to start."

Risking a glance at Remi's face, he raises coppery brows as if to ask whether the other man wants to fight with weapons or not. But, assuming the alchemist doesn't see it, Ianto goes rooting around in the undergrowth and eventually emerges with a sturdy looking stick that might, with enough time and care, make a half decent quarterstaff. "There," he announces proudly. "Come at me. I've always said I'd have to beat you off with a stick."

There's a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth now, Ianto clearing his throat and looking away again. "Sorry," he murmurs.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

Once upon a time the words beat you off coming from Ianto would have sent Remi running for the hills. In those days the alchemist had fled from the merchant when tensions got too high and he thought he couldn't keep himself on the right side of things. Now in a similar situation, this one brought on not by overbearing monarchs but by equally as uncaring gods, the alchemist felt for the first time in a long, long while, the inability to endure Ianto's presence.

Fuck sake. Miserably thought, Remi internally gives himself a shake and shoots a smirk back toward Ianto. It wasn't like the fox didn't know what Remi was dealing with, even if he didn't understand the extent of it.

"Right then. You've got your stick. Step one complete. Now, what level of...threat would you like me to pose? Shall we start with...say...Oliver levels of threat?"

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

Part of Ianto wants to rib Remi for not joining in with the obvious ridiculousness of the tension between them, but the other man is so much stronger than he is, he's not sure where to toe the line with jokes these days. So he concentrates on his stick, stripping smaller branches away until he has something functional. It's beechwood, as far as he can tell, so it should withstand more than a couple of cracks across the knuckles.

"Who?" he wants to know, at the talk of Oliver levels of threat, an eyebrow raising as he glances to Remi. "I mean... Let's just pretend I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm best able to catch chickens and rabbits when it comes to dealing with any sort of prey," he suggests, shrugging his shoulders and glancing over the makeshift staff, nodding as if to say he's happy with it.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

Tension only lasted so long. Eventually something would come along to snap it—a word, a touch, a knife—and all would be forced away and apart. Only this was not the tension known to the merchant and alchemist from before. This was wholly one-sided now, with Ronin on one end and Remi on the other, pulled taut by the gods farther and farther away until he threatened to break. And Ianto? Well he was right in Remi's path, now wasn't he.

'Oh I thought you'd met him. The blacksmith from the Grounds." Remi didn't add the part about Oliver potentially moving to the Woods with them. Now wasn't really the time. "Oh sure. We'll pretend you don't know what you're doing." Remi repeated with a sly smile, forcing himself to look at Ianto who was blissfully covered in black sunspots.

"Well, If this was...a low-level threat, someone would probably try and take that staff from you, so that's what I'll do. Your job is not to let me."

Always wanting to grab my wood, eh Remi, Come and grab it if you can. Only a bit of wood between us. The number of innuendos was limitless, but the self-restraint the alchemist had was not, and so he didn't make any of them lest he open the door for even more madness.

Waiting for Ianto to look at least somewhat ready, Remi simply...went to grab the staff. On his worst day he was 4x as strong as Ianto and twice as fast. "Gimme that!" He grunted, approximating the gruff voice he assumed an assailant would have.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

Ianto raises his eyebrows as if to dare Remi to say what's really on his mind, but it's as good natured as it's going to get right now. The fox holds the staff aloft and nods at Remi's logic, preparing himself to have to defend against... he doesn't even know what, honestly. Even with the Lullaby pulling his punches, he isn't sure how exactly this is going to go; only that it's probably going to hurt, no matter how 'gentle' the other man is.

Still, when the alchemist does lunge forward, it's enough to startle him into swinging the stick, and if Remi isn't careful it'll bonk him on the head. Still, he's already scoffing with laughter; not at what's happening, but at the 'assailant-voice' being presented to him. "Have you been a thug for long?" he wonders, skittering back with the staff, trying to prevent it from being taken.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

It isn't a lack of care that allows the staff to hit Remi in the head. Ianto has never been known for his strength after all, and who knows? Maybe a good whap to the head will do Remi some good. (Just which head though, eh?). Really though the alchemist's decision to let himself be hit is precisely so that the fox can't skitter away. If the staff is against Remi's skull, at least he knows precisely where it is, allowing him to try and wrench it from the merchant's hands.

"In some ways all my life." Remi grunts back, this strange accent making him smile despite himself as he tries to tug the staff away from the fox. Should Ianto try and hang on the Lullaby will try and drag him close only to thrust him (via the staff) away. Hopefully onto his ass.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

"Right, ri-- oh, sorry!" Ianto cuts off his own drawl as the staff connects with his friend's head, and it's the concern that causes his grip on it to loosen up. So when Remi drags him closer, Ianto barely has the sense to hold on - but he does manage it. And wouldn't you know it? He's dragged and flung away with the sort of grace and expertise that would suggest he was the weapon, rather than the staff.

Trust Ianto to doggedly keep hold of his wood, though. (Eyooo). Remi does manage to shove him back onto his ass, but he does his best to drag the alchemist with him, a soft growl rising up in his throat that's entirely the fox and not the merchant. "Get your own stick!" he tells the Lullaby petulantly.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

And so down they both tumble, Ianto hitting the ground first and Remi not far behind. Both holding the same wood. "Thought it was a staff." The Lullaby sasses back, though once he realizes that the success of his maneuver has put him astride the fox, does he instantly release his grip and awkwardly stand, backing away. With cheeks aflame and a runaway heartbeat, Remi clears his throat, eyes once again on anything save for the golden-smile merchant.

"Good. Uhm, that was.." There's a bright flourish of heat that ascends marvellously from his groin into the back of his throat, and Remi has to sip in a breath of air awkwardly around it. But it was clear that what Ianto had done wasn't good. Being flat on his back with an assailant on top of him was a fairly dangerous position to be in. Unless..

"..good job using your opponents' weaknesses against them." Because Ianto was that to Remi, especially now.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing

Ianto

Remi isn't the only one blushing, and Ianto is left holding his stick staff and sitting up a little as the other man backs away. Rubbing at the back of his neck, the sass he was about to bat back at Remi sticking in his throat, he instead gets to his feet and brushes himself off. "I'm not sure you can say that about something that wasn't intentional," he says, giving the staff an experimental couple of swings.

"Obviously if that happens and it's not..." You, he wants to say, but doesn't. "...How do you suggest I not get into that position? Is it easier just to let the thing go? Or...?" He gazes down at the weapon in his hands, frowning at it like it's the most important thing in the world right now.

Coding base by Sky!

maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane

'Well, if that's the case, then it was a really stupid thing to do." Remi says through a hesitant laugh. "I am faster, stronger, and more than a little more powerful than you. The last thing you want to be is on your back with only a stick between you and I." He did his best to make that sound as politically correct as he could—supplementing staff instead of wood, for example—but gods if it didn't still send some strange sensation ringing from the base of his neck down his spine.

"Well, what you might have done instead, was instead of just pulling straight backward, lean more to one side. I might have pitched straight over you that way." Rolling his shoulders as if that's where the tension that needed to be relieved was (it wasn't, and clearly so), Remi clears his throat. "Okay. Let's try again. Same thing."

Assuming Ianto raised the bar in a defensive stance again, Remi would proceed as he had before. Striding forward and reaching out for the staff, not minding if Ianto held it still or tried to hit it with him again, this time the alchemist would reach out with a foot and try and kick the merchant's legs out from under him.

THE LULLABY

maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing