rekindleme | Knights, Ninjas, and Beyond

Entry tags:

Knights, Ninjas, and Beyond

Who: Donatello, Diarmuid, and whoever else shows up. (You?)
Where: The park in District 4
When: September 13th, mid-morning
Summary:Donatello and Diarmuid run into each other at the park.
Warnings: Medieval fighting styles?

The novelty of being able to just walk around in broad daylight to get some fresh air never quite wears off, no matter how many places Donatello goes to that allow him the privilege. That's probably why he's training in the park rather than in his apartment. That and because the apartment still smells like sulfur from when he knocked over a test tube last time he tried to do his staff kata in there.

So here he is, by the pond, whirling a stick around him in complex forms and shouting.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"A nin-ja? Will you tell me about what a nin-ja does besides that? I've never heard of one before," Diarmuid giggles. "'Sir Diarmuid.' It sounds so important. I hope I am worthy of it!"

Diarmuid drops down and rolls underneath the staff strike, directing his roll so that he can bring one of his swords up toward Donatello's chest, "You have a natural shield on your back! I will remember!"

"Well, actually, ninjas tend to be spies and assassins. But Master Splinter taught my brothers and me ninjitsu to help us stay hidden from the outside world. Do they not call knights 'sir' where you come from? Or uh, when you come from?"

Donatello brings his staff around to block, pushing Diarmuid's blades aside and stepping around, a bit quicker this time. "On my front, too. Nice move."

"Knights are just knights! We don't really ask for titles..." Diarmuid tilts his head as he remember something his father told him, "Well the best knight out of the Fianna get the title 'First Knight of the Fianna.' Does that count?"

"Armor on your front and back, but not on your arms and legs!" Diarmuid giggles and drops into a roll that takes him to Donatello's side so that he can slash at the turtle's knees with his swords.

"That counts. Where I come from, knights get the title 'Sir' or 'Dame.'"

Donatello skips backwards, but not before Diarmuid makes contact with his swords. Either the kid is pretty good, or Don's going too easy on him. Or both. He spins around, trying to get behind the little knight-in-training and swat him with his staff from behind.

"You're doing well sticking to me and staying inside my guard, denying me the advantage of my greater reach. But as long as I can keep moving away . . ." a quick backflip and he's got Diarmuid a staff-length away again " . . . I can control the terms of engagement."

Diarmuid rolls forward to avoid the staff and then spins around so he is facing Donatello again. He is definitely good. Even though he has only been training for a year, he seems to have a natural talent for fighting and picks up on things very quickly.

"I have to stay close! I'm little and won't be able to do anything if you are able to keep your distance!' He giggles and then tries to get in close to Donatello again, "Letting your opponent control things is the first step to losing a fight!" As the boy gets closer again, he brings his swords up in an attempt, not to hit Donatello, but to hit the staff. He hopes to knock it away so that he can duck under it.

"Right! I've always seen combat as being like chess. Move and counter-move. If you can think farther ahead than your opponent, you can get them where you want them and go in for the checkmate."

Diarmuid does manage to hit the bo staff, pressing on one end of the lever and opening Donatello's guard, leaving him exposed for a strike. The other end of the staff, however, is using that momentum to come around and shove the little knight-to-be right past Don. If it connects.

"You're definitely more fun to spar with than my brother Leo. He uses a pair of swords too, and fighting with him is pretty much an exercise in seeing how many seconds I can last before getting knocked flat on my shell."

Oof! The bow certainly connects and Diarmuid dives forward into a roll to lessen the impact. When he hops up again, he turns to face Donatello with a smile, "You got me! I am not very used to fighting things with such a long reach yet. I'm still learning a lot so there is no way I will beat you! I am sure your brother would beat me pretty quickly too!"

It sounds like Leonardo must be the most skilled of all the brothers from what Donatello says.

"I am glad you are having fun. I am too!" The boy giggles and then dashes back in at Donatello. This time, though, he zigzags back and forth making it hard to tell which side he is going to commit his attack to.

The turtle smiles back widely at the little knight-in-training. This is actually some of the most innocent fun he's had in a long while.

"Leo regularly makes me, Raph, and Mikey looks like amateurs taking all three of us on at once. He's really dedicated to his swordsmanship." Understatement of the century, right there.

Donatello circles warily, keeping his bo up in a ready position to counter Diarmuid's attack when it comes. "Leo's actually got some good moves for getting past a staff guard. I could show you a couple if you want."

"Wow...that is impressive! It's hard to fight more than one person at a time!" Diarmuid finally attacks, making one slash at Donatello's leg before diving under the turtle's arm and trying to get a second attack in at the back of his arm. No matter how that goes, he will back off after that and give Donatello an excited look.

"Will you teach me? I would really like to learn how to do that! Father hasn't taught me about that kind of thing yet!"

Don isn't used to fighting an opponent smaller than he is. (Mousers don't count.) The leg slash is easily turned aside with the butt of his staff, but the evasive second attack catches him off guard, forcing him to give ground in order to avoid it.

"Sure, here, hold my bo and let me borrow your swords," he says, holding the staff out to Diarmuid.

Even at such a young age, Diarmuid has been taught the benefit of chaining together attacks, and he is happy to see the chain of attacks prove successful. He is even happier, though, to learn something new.

"Okay!" Diarmuid carefully holds out his swords and takes Donatello's bow. It is really hard for him to get it balanced in his hands because of how long it is, but he manages to do it after a little bit. It's like his practice spear only a lot longer!

"I think I am ready whenever you are!"

"Alright, just hold it diagonally in front of you like this," Donatello says, holding the swords as though they were two halves of a staff to demonstrate.

"So Leonardo moves in with one sword like this . . ." and he thrusts forward with the blade in his left hand so that the flat of the blade presses against the section of the bo staff between Diarmuid's hands, applying pressure so the child has to either clutch the staff closer to his chest, step backward, fall down, or have the tip of the blade at his neck.

"I used to counter that by stepping back and making an overhead swing, but that leaves my guard open, and then Leo moves in with the other katana." Pause. "Which is what the kind of swords Leo uses are called. Of course, with Master Splinter's help, I eventually came up with an effective counter, and then Leonardo came up with a counter to that and so on."

"Hold it diagonally..." Diarmuid mutters the words to himself as he gets the bow into the requested position. Once it is there, he nods to let Donatello know he's ready. Almost as soon as his friend launches his attack, Diarmuid has an idea where it is going and steps back to avoid letting the blade get too close. While he can see why it would be tempting to swing the staff around in an overhead swing, almost as soon as Donatello mentions it, the boy knows it's the wrong answer. He's been training with two weapons long enough to realize how much moving the staff from where it is leaves the wielder open to attack from their opponent's other weapon.

"That's right! An overhead swing is what your opponent would want you to do because it leaves you open to an attack from their other weapon. Just like your brother did! It would be better to get more distance again or to use the staff in a way that would keep it close to you!" Instead of doing an overhead swing, Diarmuid tilts out the end of the staff at Donatello's legs while keeping the top near his body for protection. "Like that! Is it anything like what you learned for a counter?"

"That's almost exactly how Master Splinter taught me to counter that," Donatello confirms, smiling as he backs away again.

"Of course, then Leo learned to do this!" he exclaims, dropping into a crouch and sweeping a leg out to knock aside the staff and kick Diarmuid's legs out from under him. If's he's successful in putting the little knight on the ground, he'll follow up with a wide horizontal slash with the sword in an attempt to force him to stay there.

Diarmuid tries to jump over Donatello's leg, but he just isn't able to get up high enough because of his size. As a result, he ends up falling backward. Even so, he seems to know that the sword swing will be coming and rolls to the side as soon as he can to avoid it. He spins around as soon as he has a chance to get to his feet and swings the staff around in an attempt to pin the sword used in the slash down.

"Did you ever manage to disarm him when he did that?"

Donatello pulls the sword out of the way of the Diarmuid's swing, but then tries to flip it around to use a backhanded grip for his next attack. Which is unfortunate because in the process he loses his grip and ends up tossing the sword point-down to stick in the dirt.

"Eheh. Oops. No, I haven't managed to disarm Leonardo in recent memory."

Diarmuid nods and falls back into a more neutral stance, "It sounds like it would be really hard to disarm him! Don't give up, though! I am sure someday you will be able to do it. Do you want your staff back now?" He holds the staff out to Donatello, "Here, and I will take my swords back. We can try something else now! Maybe you can show me your favorite move and I can show you mine?"

"Heh. The problem is that even though I'm always training as a ninja, I do other things as well. Leonardo pretty much centers his life around ninjitsu." He frowns, thinking of all the ways Leo tries to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, then brightens up again.

"Sure, let's trade back," Donatello agrees, handing the little swords back to Diarmuid and accepting his staff. My favorite move, huh?" He thinks a moment, then backs off so he has room to work.

"I dunno about an overall favorite move, but my favorite way to enter combat is like this!" he exclaims, planting the butt of his staff on the ground and bending the wood, then using it to vault forward, both feet extended. "Always a good way to put someone on their backside."

"So his work and his play are the same thing! Kind of like me!" Though, to be honest, Diarmuid doesn't train here as much as he does back home. It's hard to when there are so many fun things to learn and do, "What do you like to do besides train?"

The boy takes back his swords and then watches Donatello closely, curious to see what the ninja will do. Diarmuid can't help but cheer when he sees the move, "You fly! I can't wait until I am big enough to do moves like that! I like being up high!" As he says 'high,' Diarmuid jumps up into the air, "I want to fly just like a bird!"

The turtle grimaces. "Eheh. Not really. Leo . . . doesn't really get enough play in his life somethimes, I think. Me? Well, I like to study, work with my hands making things, play videogames, hang out with my family, stuff like that."

It says a lot about Donatello that his first (rapidly quashed) instinct upon hearing Diarmuid's love of height is to surprise him with a jetpack at some future time. He smiles. "Fly as in jumping like I just did or fly as in literally flying?" he asks.

"Video games? What are video games?" Diarmuid gets the feeling Donatello might not have quite understood what he was saying before, but he is more interested in learning about the new phrase than that.

And even more interesting than talking about something new? Talking about being up high!

"Both! Anything that will get me in the air. I would love to get to fly for real sometime."

How to explain video games to someone who's just recently learned about electricity. "Well, you play them on a computer, like the machines you use to access the network here. Like, for example, maybe on the screen there's a character, and you use the controls to make him jump around and defeat his enemies and rescue the princess. Er . . . I'll show you later, this is one of those concepts I think it's going to be hard to explain in any way other than giving examples."

Donatello grins. "You should ask Blades to give you a ride sometime."

Even though Diarmuid has picked up some knowledge about computers thanks to using the Network, he does eventually get lost in Donatello's explanation. That is why he is glad when his new friend says that he will show him later, "Thank you! I really would like to see what you are talking about. It sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Who is Blades? I don't know anyone by that name. Can he fly?"

"It's a date, then. I'll have to see if they have an arcade or something around here." Because as interesting as it might be to just program his own game, Don doesn't have the time to do anything that isn't extremely rudimentary right now.

"He's one of the Cybertronians. He turns into a flying machine."

"Okay! Let me know when you find one!"

The boy claps his hands excitedly and somewhat unexpectedly when Donatello mentions 'Cybertronians.' Even though it is a big word, it is one Diarmuid knows well, "Oh! So he is like Krok! Do you know Krok? He is a Cyber-tron-ian too!"

Hey, what do you know? He almost got it all out at once this time...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject