Closed Clumsier Than Thou.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Well, the girl had some determination to start an argument, there was that much to be said. There was nothing left but to accept it.. she wasn't going to leave them alone until she had a fight. ".. Sorry about this, Narick." When he turned back to look at the lad, the confusion on his face was as obvious as the unruly hair on his head. Back and forth, over and over; it wasn't the relaxing evening he'd hoped. "If you want to go and find Cameron, I don't blame you. Mind letting me off here?" In moments, a hand was offered and guided him down to the floor swiftly afterwards, leaving just the squirrel by himself as Narick went off to try and find the other squire. Cameron was long-gone, thanks to the complete blank put on all his advances. Poor guy. Sure, they'd all hear about how it was just one of those bad days, but they'd spent enough time together to know that every day was one of those bad days.

That would be later. Something to look forward to, when he was done here. Oh boy, how could he possibly wait. "Alright. You think I'm afraid of you." The diminutive squirrel wheeled on one heel to stare at Vanessa, arms swinging at his sides. "Go ahead. You want a spar, you got one. Give me a reason to be scared of you." They'd barely started but the squirrel was already impatient to see what made this one think that she was any scarier than the other knights he'd seen.

Though, something that struck him rather suddenly was what was expected. "Wait." There was a long pause as the squirrel mulled over words, chewing them. "What are you doing? Sparring with a squirrel. Do you expect me to be a good fight? Do you expect to win, do you expect to lose.. what do you want here?" Goodness, he was an idiot not to ask such things sooner. A lazy clay fist struck his own chin, partially in anger at his own stupidity and partially to see if it would knock any more sense into his dense little nexus in the hopes of a sudden answer. None came. His non-existent brain wracked itself over and over, but still nothing. "Do you expect.. do you expect a fair fight, or an exciting one, from a squirrel? A clay squirrel? Do you think I even fight at all, what.. what in all of Sylir's good name made this even happen."

It was, to say the least, a random lapse in his normal smart-alec quotes and quips. Maybe trying to fight with bigger people was just becoming a little more tedious than he'd thought. Sure, they were all big and slow and they all did the same things that never even worked. Most of them were arrogant shykes and the rest just weren't even worth the effort put into avoiding their stomping. Still, it was better than trying to pick fights with the smaller creatures.. rats and mice and other squirrels ran away at the sight of him and couldn't hold up in conversation. If not spent fighting, honing himself.. what was the point in getting out of bed each day? Was he at a point that he just didn't see any reason to go on?

The more he thought, the more the thoughts slowly drained away. He swore he could feel them leaking out of his little ears, until.. "Oh. Right. Where were we. You going to hit me yet or what?" Poof. Gone.

[Vanessa Lawson]

Vanessa was grateful she had managed to get something out of the encounter. As much as she hated that she used insults to get her way, it was the only course of action she could take. Undoubtedly her Patron would be disappointed in her choice of judgement. Vanessa watched the clay squire carefully as he dismounted his ride. She was firstly going to assume the other was fast. His small body wouldn't get much resistance from gravity. Secondly, trying to stomp him would be out of the question. He was a squirrel and squirrels had claws. He could easily dodge and climb up her legs. No matter how she looked at it, this situation had an absurd number of possibilities that this spar would go wrong. The small squire began to question her motive soon after, making her rethink her decision as well. What did she have to gain from this experience? What did she want from the experience? These were extremely valid questions, but all she was thinking when she asked was to get their respect. What better way to do that than show them her skills? She didn't get a Chance to voice her thoughts as the clay squirrel taunted her to attack. Knowing her broadsword would be useless in this fight, she took a small step back to plan. How could she attack him? Coming to a solid conclusion, she began her first attempt. She ran forward, stopping abruptly and clumsily sweeping her leg at the small squire.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He could see the sword at her hip. It'd be difficult to avoid staring at it. He knew, likely just as much as she did, that the thing would be completely useless. The blade would be too narrow and the target far too small. Elaborate swordplay would be lost on a squirrel. To try and use her hands, she'd have to bend down. He had all the advantages of a big, slow target with plenty of spots he could land damage on if he wanted to. That didn't mean he was happy with her trying to avoid using it in a spar; if she wanted one, she was going to get one.. and she was going to use a damn sword. It wasn't like the squirrel wasn't willing to get out his own weapon and use it on her too.

For now, he had something else to deal with. A rather awkward few steps to get within reach of the small squirrel.. which gave him plenty of time to prepare.. before a lurching kick around the side. He stepped back a few times as it came, letting it slide past and off to the other side without any resistance. There wasn't enough time to make a run for the other leg and give it a good slap with his fist, so he stayed where he was.. but that didn't mean he wasn't going to make good use of the time.

He could store plenty of things inside his clay. The bigger and heavier, the heavier it made the squirrel in turn. There were some things that didn't weigh much though. One of them was a Py-String set into the clay around his hip - a small piece of string with a tiny little handle on either end for him to hold. It wasn't even very sharp.. just a piece of string, though much thinner than normal. Like the edge of a scrap of paper, it could cut skin if he made it taut enough and got a good slash.. though that wasn't really what he wanted to do with it. No, he wanted to wrap it around her neck. "Just because you're not going to use your weapon, doesn't mean I won't use mine."

The only question was.. how. That was the biggest question of all. It wasn't a sword in his hands, or a mace.. or any human weapon really. He'd never been formally introduced in how to use a piece of string offensively.

[Vanessa Lawson]

Vanessa groaned inwardly. Kicking wasn't the smartest move she'd ever done. The squirrel, or rather clay squirrel, was quick. Then again, to dodge a kick one didn't need speed to move back. There goes one idea, down the drain before it could flood. The raven haired squire watched the other as he withdrew a string, thin string to be exact, from it's.. body? Logic was getting her nowhere, and she was getting a headache trying to use logic to make sense.

She nodded at his statement, deciding to analyze the small weapon the squire held. It had handles on both ends, but a thin string that could most likely cut if used at the right angle. Then again, she was wearing a cloak, so how would the other squire use it? Either way she would have to be careful not to be used as a climbing post.

Vanessa decided to go with uncoordinated attacks. She ran at the squire and attempted to kick the clay squirrel again. She had a plan, but it would only work a couple of times before the other would catch on. Hopefully she could get the other against a tree. If not, she'd have to rethink a lot of things, especially her decision to fight.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He needed to wait for an opening. Look for spots of weakness and latch on wherever possible, as hard and as fast as possible. Only problem with this was trying and finding the weakness. His eyes scanned over and over every detail possible, all the while hopping back a few steps with the swipes that swung around from either side. Easy to avoid, as long as he knew that they were coming. She's balancing herself on one leg. If I can dart around her ankle on the next swipe, around and behind, loop the string around her ankle and pull hard.. I might be able to trip her up. Especially if I manage to get the other handle around the other ankle as well, pull tight.. The only question would be whether he'd be able to make it there in time. He wasn't big and he wasn't light.. if anything, he'd be better off just trying to take the force of the kick and throw it off.

Then, something unexpected. A cold, hard something against his back. The wall. They'd started out just outside the main gates.. and working their way backwards had pinned the small squirrel up against the wall and cornered him. No more jumping back any more to escape the swipes. The next one would surely hit him, hard. At least it would, if this didn't work for the squirrel's favour. "Ahh. Perfect."

The handles of the Py-String were pressed back into the side of his hip quickly, with the string hanging freely to the side as he turned his back on Vanessa and dug his feet into the edge of the stone. Now he had something to use to get up to a decent height. All he needed to do was watch out for anything else. Easier said than done.. unfortunately he was pretty useless in this state too. In fact, he left himself ripe for plucking off the wall, punching, kicking, squashing.. whatever she wanted, really. Funnily enough, he knew it all and he welcomed it happily. All part of his big plan. As long as it went to plan, of course.

If it didn't work out, there was always plan B. Go straight for the legs, slap at them a few times with his fists and hope that everything else would sort itself out. Though the Py-String was pretty easy to keep away inside his clay, nothing else could boast such a thing - all he had beside that was his bare fists to punch away at the sweet-spots on her knees and ankles until either she gave in or he got pummeled into the ground with a well-timed stomp. Days like these, he was happy that he was born a Pycon.. but why did Pycons have to be so damn small?

[Vanessa Lawson]

Vanessa nearly let outa sigh of relief. She had managed to get the other Squire against the wall, now she was a bit more confident. She immediately set to work, or well, she would have. If the other squire hadn't started to scale the wall. He stuffed the string back into his clay body and swiftly began to dig his claws into the stone wall known as the Main Gate. She took the time to unlatch her cloak while the squirrel had it's back turned.

She had a different plan in mind now. With the squirrel climbing the wall, it had no chance to defending itself if it was grabbed, unless that was the plan. The squirrel had made it quite clear that he would use his weapon even if she didn't use her own, so her new weapon was actually going to be her defense. She grabbed her cloak and threw it over her head, and aimed to catch the small clay squire inside of it.

If she caught the small squire, she would proceed to hold him within the cloak, hopefully limiting his movements. If not, well she had just given him a big opening. Catching the squirrel would probably result in her maintaining a tight grip to keep from loosing her hold. She wouldn't squeeze to hard though, after all, she meant him no harm.

However, all these plans were based on 'if' statements, so it was all up to luck.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The original plan was to wait for something to come his way and grapple it.. most likely an arm or a foot, since it was pretty blatantly obvious that Vanessa was entirely against using her weapon.. even if it was pretty silly. He was confident that he could wait out for just the right moment to launch himself onto her.. and if she didn't make a move, he'd just keep climbing until he reached her head. A quick leap off, wrap the string around her throat and pull until she submitted.. it wasn't much of a simple or straight-forward plan but it seemed like one of the best ones to go with.

He'd not accounted for her suddenly throwing something random out of a bag. For example, throwing a cloak over his body - the weight easily overpowered his grip on the stone wall and had him tumbling down into its soft embrace within moments. Worse still.. he didn't have anything to break it. The Py-String was pretty useless here because like Hai he was going to cut fabric with string, even if he knew how to use the damn stuff. Inside the bag of fabric, what little light filtered through the edges was hardly enough to really see where he was going and what he was doing when the heavy squirrel flailed about to the best of his ability in the bottom, struggling for some purchase, some control.

If he could get hold of some fold of fabric inside, perhaps he could lift himself out.. though the top was held fast, even if he managed to squeeze his way through in some bizarre miracle then he'd still have to face being caught up again. Did he really have any other plan, besides what he'd already tried? Simple answer: no. Just sitting there, he could tell that there'd be no way to keep himself out, unless he tried to outplay her and slide around her ankles.. though even then, things were looking pretty bad. Shyke. He really didn't want to admit defeat of any kind. He'd never be able to live with it, after all.

How would other knights react if they heard he lost? How would his reputation fare if they suddenly knew that he could be bested by little more than any old piece of fabric large enough to drape over his body and catch inside? The Pycon already knew the answer; they'd all want to try it. Even his patron, for all the times they'd faced off and lost because they weren't smart enough to use something a little bigger than their foot to squash him. The answer, then, was simple: don't give in. "If you want to keep this cloak in one piece by the end of this, I'd suggest you let me out. I'll rip through it otherwise and make sure you don't walk for a petching season."

An empty threat, but not entirely empty. There was one small hope.. though the Pycon himself didn't know whether it would work. He knew there were ways to make a clay body sharper.. he'd seen Ball try it in their fights before, making scorpion tails with needle-like tips to strike suddenly. He'd only tried once before to make claws out of his fingers, in the hopes of eventually using it to bring down a certain monk in Nyka. He'd try it again though.. this time, he'd make it even sharper. All he needed was time, concentration. In the dark and the warmth of the cloak, he had plenty of both. "You've got until the count of three. One... two..."

[Vanessa Lawson]

Vanessa manged to catch the squirrel off guard, wrapping the cloak around him was simple after he'd fallen into it. There was no way for the squirrel to escape as long as she kept the sleeves wrapped. Now the only thing left was to force him to admit defeat. But how? She didn't like using his size against him, but it was the only way to restrict the clay squire. She was about to force his forfeit but then the squirrel pipped up.

Wait, could he really rip through her cloak?

Sure he had claws, but they were made of clay. Plus she'd seen him pull things out of it which meant it was soft, right? Was he bluffing, or did he really have something to cut her cloak with? Well, she needed the cloak, so she decided to release the squirrel, but not lose her advantage. "Wait!" She shouted, trying her best to unravel the material. The only problem was she didn't let him go completely. Instead she tied the cloak sleeves around his his neck and lower, only letting his head free.

"Better?" With his arms tied down there was nothing he could do, and grabbing things he could possibly hiding in the clay would be impossible now. Well, at least she hoped so. She smirked and looked to the squirrel in her hands. All this to get some respect. Was it worth it? "Do you give in yet?"

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He'd live to fight another day. Bluff or shot in the dark, it'd worked. He could feel the fabric slowly shifting, hands easing underneath his body and lifting it up until his head pushed into fresh air and clear sky. There it stopped, just passing over his shoulders. For a normal human, a marginal victory if that - for Arch, assured freedom. He didn't take advantage of it yet, though. He'd come so very close to losing his victory, his dignity.. everything. Even the thought of losing everything he'd built for himself shook him to the nexus. "... Better." It wasn't difficult to keep up his distressed look, because he really was. The Pycon struggled with deep breaths around the narrow gap, trying to calm himself as he hung from that narrow little gap.

"Give in.. I would if I could." He really would. There was new-found admiration for Vanessa.. but fear, too. At least the others were gone so that nobody would see him in this state. He could hope that if Vanessa bragged for it, they wouldn't believe it. Moreso that they wouldn't try it for themselves. Still something that he couldn't risk.

The clay of his arms and torso stretched out, becoming thinner to squeeze through the narrow opening and out to the ground again with a hard thump. His body soon snapped back to its regular shape and he scrambled to his feet, preparing himself in case she tried to blanket him a second time with that damn cloak of hers. Need to get close. Everything hinged on getting close enough to attack at the ankles before Vanessa moved away. Hopefully he'd be able to strike while she wasn't expecting.. because really, surprise was all he had. Vanessa had a sure-fire weakness.

[Vanessa Lawson]

The raven haired woman nodded at the Squirrels will. Rather than getting him to respect her, she was starting to respect the clay squire instead. She was sure she had won, but soon after the small squire thinned the clay and slipped from the cloak. Petch! One thing after another! She tried to grasp him before he had completely slipped, but he had already hit the ground. Firstly she registered shock. How was it possible for something to thin it's body? Second she registered interest. It was amazing all the things the other could do.

Finally she registered pain against her ankle. Her immediate thought was to raise her foot to check the damage, but now that she was in a spar that was the last thing she wanted. She shook her leg and made a swift kicking motion to rid of the pain, hopefully taking the attacker with it. It was obviously the squirrel doing her damage, so she looked down to locate him. She looked around quickly and landed her eyes on the squirrel.

She immediately went to grab the squirrel but stopped when she realized that would require her to level with his height. And that would give him the advantage, she thought, standing to full height. Trying her cloak again would be useless as the squirrel might actually have a means of ripping through it. Having it her hand was no good, so she quickly cloaked herself. She was actually enjoying the spar more than she thought she would.

This match required her to think, which she was going top do to the fullest.