[closed]

[gallant_guardian]

Characters: Ramza Beoulve and Agrias Oaks
Location: Training Area
Rating: PG
Time: June 9th, early morning
Description: A knight gets used to the tools of war


Agrias was used to early-morning training days. Back in Ivalice she would be the first on the grounds every morning to limber up her body for what was to come. She did this for her own sake and for the morale of the people she would be leading into battle. As a leader of the company, Agrias knew that seeing a commander practicing so early would help her team work harder and show her respect. The fact that she was in a new city made no difference. Though were somebody to see her right now, they would notice a distinct lack of weapon in her hand. In fact, she was resting her back against a tree, her eyes closed and meditating on the task she was about to do.

By the rules of this world, she was a meister, which meant she was a wielder of weapons. Yet not just any weapons... human weapons. The thought was beyond absurd. Yet even her own trusted Ramza Beoulve was among their number. As much as that thought disturbed her, it also bolstered the authenticity of the claim. And now she was about to witness it firsthand. To witness and use.

Agrias turned her attention to a sound to her side, hoping that it was the one she was waiting for.

She honestly wasn't sure she was ready.

Comments

[heretic_hamlet]

With his new life in Death City and in present times, Ramza would happily take morning training over a deadly battlefield. Of course, that hard-earned knowledge bore little weight on his present role in the war as a weapon, and his training became less about refinement and more about relearning the lot of it.

Agrias, at least, would find the use of a weapon familiar enough. Even if she would soon be swinging her commanding officer.

And that still sounded odd no matter how he phrased it to himself.

Nonetheless Ramza would soon approach Agrias dressed in but a simple summer shirt and slacks- a far cry from the armor he often wore in battle and training both. He took a moment to hail her, but was otherwise to-the-point... he'd worked with Agrias often enough to know she put little value in idle chatter, and they'd had the past two days to catch up in pleasantries.

"I know you're more the sort for a blade, Agrias..." come to think of it, had he ever seen her use anything else? "but you're versed with polearms, are you not?"

[gallant_guardian]

Agrias glanced over Ramza's attire, a disapproving sneer betraying her welcoming wave. Even though she herself had not brought most of her armor, she still made sure to wear some protective gear. This was training, after all. People get hurt.

She mentally chided herself, though, as she was still unaware what a weapon was. Well, she understood the theory, anyway, but a person becoming a weapon was nothing she had ever heard of -- even from a world where people became frogs, chickens, or dragons.

She took a few steps to approach Ramza, her hand rising to her chin as she thought. "Some basic training, perhaps. We were expected to know how to fortify the front line were it to fall. And how to defend ourselves should we find ourselves disarmed."

[heretic_hamlet]

Ramza offered a nod in reply. After all, there was far less expense in outfitting a dozen men with polearms than there was in crafting a dozen swords; small wonder it was a part of her training. Then again, their connection as meister and weapon would bridge what gap of inexperience yet remained.

"Versed enough, then. Soft your doubts, Agrias; I'm told you'll find a weapon's use a second nature the moment you take hold."

For him, it was almost routine at this point; he was only momentarily aglow, his shape twisting, thinning, lengthning- and stranger still, entirely painlessly- before settling into the ground as what could have been mistaken for a simple battle standard, bearing the crest of house Beoulve on a banner.

And, even moreso, it spoke to her mind through an unseen mouth.

"As you would, Agrias."

[gallant_guardian]

Second nature or not, the transformation was enough to give her pause. She had seen a demonstration of this sort before, but the impact of the change still lingered. her discontent was made worse by the fact that her leader and friend took the shape of the spear and banner before her.

She flinched as his voice echoed in her thoughts. It's tone still unmistakable. Yet her disbelief still held.

"Ramza...? Is that..." She knew the answer, of course. Perhaps she felt by hearing the words some sort of understanding would be reached. But what understanding would bring closure to this?

[heretic_hamlet]

Poor Agrias; if the look on her face was any indication, she was not taking well to this. Then again, was it any easier getting accustomed to having a completely different body- or lack thereof- his first few times in practice? His banner eased and hung loosely in a fabric motion reminiscent of a short sigh at the memory of it.

"It is I, Agrias. I know how strange it is to behold; yet, I am as you see me." As an afterthought, he added a bit of comfort: "And fear not; when we finish our practice, I will be as I was before."

"Go on, then," he 'spoke' to break the uncomfortable, pensive quiet, his form leaning closer in what little encouragement he could offer in his current shape. Maybe his presence in the soul link between them would bring her to a calm. "Take hold, and mayhap you'll feel at ease."

[gallant_guardian]

Taking hold of the spear was the only thing that Agrias could do. That made sense. With the expert hands only training and war could teach, the knight clasped a hand firmly around the shaft of the pole. Her eyes gazed across it's width. Ivalician, she thought. Familiar, though she would not have used it for battle. In the Fifty Years war and the War of the Lions, this standard would be used to mark the company, and establish maneuvers. To use it as a weapon would have been foolishness or the act of horrible desperation.

Holding tight, Agrias looked up to the tip of the spear -- for in her mind this was where the face ought to be, were she to believe it to have a face. "How are you able to speak to me?" She asked. "I see no mouth for which you would be able to do so, yet I hear you plain as the wind."

[heretic_hamlet]

"I know not the answer, Agrias... I merely think to speak the words as always, yet no-one has ever failed to hear them." And he had no more answers for how he could hear, or see, or touch... yet he felt full well the touch of her hand, and without so much as a thought Ramza felt the span of his soul reach across to meet her hand. Of course it wasn't the first time he'd been wielded, but... certainly the first time done so by someone he knew so well or had come to trust so deeply; and the feel had never been so familiar or natural.

"An odd feel, I know... to hear even moreso to hold," he 'spoke' once more to Agrias. "But remember that you hold not an ordinary weapon but an comrade-in-arms. It will never be so lifeless as your old steel, but it nonetheless is yours to temper."

"And," he added with a mysteriously-audible laugh as he spoke to bring a humored bit of ease to her heart, "Try not to let yourself fret over your wielding your commander."

[gallant_guardian]

At that quip, Agrias found herself letting go of the spear in her hand. The realization of what was going on finally dawned on her.

[heretic_hamlet]

Perhaps he'd underestimated the shock, or perhaps he had long since become so numb to it that it seemed almost commonplace; but poor Agrias wasn't so lucky. Ramza's weapon form dropped clattering to the ground, but not a moment later glimmered and rose in human shape.

"Agrias...?"

This must have truly been distressing to her; Agrias was not one to easily lose her composure or concentration.

"...Forgive me, Agrias; mayhap I'm pressing the lesson overmuch..."

[gallant_guardian]

Agrias flustered and turn away, which was unusual for her. She would have gotten used to the thought of clasping her commanding officer, but seeing him return to his original shape only secure the thought that the spear was Ramza and that she WAS handling him.

Feeling her cheeks turn red only made her more aware of how unprofessional this all looked. She forced through her embarrassment -- for her duty and pride, if nothing else.

"Think not of it, Ramza." Her eyes returning to his, coerced by her will. "'tis a thought I had not been prepared for. Allow me but a moment and I shall recompose my form." She closed her eyes, convincing herself that this was normal and that this was how fighting was supposed to be. She found her mind resisting, but her training and self-temperance won over her doubt and worry. "Come then. I will not become more competent swinging your arm as you are." She joked without smiling.

[heretic_hamlet]

"And you think naught of it as well; I dare not chide you for your hesitation when I had fought the same battle so long ago."

Ramza would have to set Agrias' flustered halt aside for now. After all, if she endeavored to press on in spite of her nerves, who was he to tell her she hadn't the strength or character? Instead, he opted to allow himself a sigh of relief.

He even allowed himself a quiet laugh at her joke. "Not unless you endeavored to lead in a dance." And with the serious stillness of the mood thankfully broken, he once again let himself turn aglow and change shape, standing once more beside Agrias in his weapon form.

"Once more, then, Agrias; as you would, and when you are ready."

[gallant_guardian]

She would have wanted to snatch up Ramza to show him her resolve. Yet her mind and her training prevented her from doing so. She approached normally enough, but her hand recoiled momentarily before picking up what was once her leader.

"Do you feel this?" She thought to ask, turning the spear with her wrist so that both hands could clasp the weapon.

[heretic_hamlet]

"No more or less than any pat on the shoulder," Agrias' still-leader once more 'spoke' to her. And it was a faint spiritual pulse of relief that passed pole to hand to heart, as Ramza saw her more at ease with wielding... well, him. "There, you see? Not so different from any other weapon in the wielding."

"I know you seldom took up weapons such as this, but as I'd said you will soon wield it as though it were second nature." He wished he could have told her more of resonance, to embrace that link between their souls and embrace her weapon as a thinking ally... but Agrias had worried on such things enough.

He would start with the basics. "Take a swing, Agrias. Fear not, I will not break."

[gallant_guardian]

That thought posed a different set of questions. "No? Were I to use you to destructive ends you would not feel it?"

[heretic_hamlet]

"Feel it? Perhaps, but I would not injure nor break. And I've yet to feel a swing or strike that pained me."


"And it bears mention," he added as an afterthought, "That I will be nonetheless aiding you from within your hands. Man or weapon, I can yet tend to my allies."