Small Landen Village in Glacia, Late Summer (Thursday Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

A little more than a week ago, Karla had sent the vast majority of her Court away from Haven. One could hardly have a proper processional through one's home Territory without people smoothing the way. There were perspective soldiers to assemble, food to purchase, lodgings to prepare, Province Queens to quietly contact...And so Karla had sent her Court to prepare her way, possibly cackling, "Fly, my pretties, fly!" to herself because a girl has to make her own fun sometimes.

A few days later, a 'gift' from Khary and Morghann had come in the shape of a dozen beautiful Scelt-bred horses, led by four kindred Warlord horses. Those four stopped before Karla, Warren, Raven, and Dinah and bowed, giving each a respectful greeting from Lord Khardeen--though from Warren's rueful burst of laughter, it was likely that Khary had included a special message just for him.

The next morning at long-enough-after-dawn-for-coffee-because-we're-not-barbarians-Mother-Night-though-it's-still-a-ridiculous-time-to-leave o'clock, they headed out of Haven and made for Glacia. Though mountain traveling was never comfortable or easy, they made good time; they were too late for shockingly-fast summer storms and too early for the ferocious autumn ones. Though it snowed several times during their crossing, the snow itself was light and did not impede them much. With kindred horses leading the way, they didn't even need to worry about the horses finding proper footing or running the risk of broken ankles.

For a trip through mountains heading to war, it was surprisingly good natured. There was singing and story-telling, conversation and contemplation, bickering and bonding. They made good time and Karla was almost sorry to leave the mountains behind. Because the easy part of the summer was over. Now it was time to get down to work.

The first village they rode into had a surprise for them. There was Julian greeting them on the outskirts of the village wearing an insouciant grin. "My lady," he said with an exaggerated bow. "May I have the honor of giving you a present to celebrate the formation of your Court?"

Karla raised an eyebrow. "I do like presents," she agreed, confused but willing to play along. "Is it my uncle's head on a platter?"

Smirking, Julian shook his head. "No, but possibly better." He led her horse through the village to the open green at the center of it. Though very little of the green could be seen through the mass of men and women standing at strict attention, lined up in orderly, if somewhat ragged lines. "Lady," Julian said, with a bow, "may I present the beginnings of your army."

[For the Glacian contingent! NFB]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded a little at that.

"We'll need some place to keep them all. Several places. And how are we going to find enough food for them? It's summer now, but give it a few months and we'll be gnawing on bloody tree bark in order to keep from starving, if we try to march out a crowd like this. No, we're definitely going to have to find jobs for them that go beyond 'soldier,' that much is a given."

[heromaniac]

Momoko floated in place a moment, pinching her lip as she considered this. She totally wasn't anywhere near Jono's level, but she had seen quite a lot of movies... "So what if we establish bases? Like, maybe ask some towns if instead of coming with us, they stay and work and some of what they produce will come to us in the field?"

[furnaceface]

"We're going to have to do something," Jono agreed, frowning faintly. "Still, I wouldn't want to rule out entire towns, when you never know what sort of talent you might find in each one. These people didn't come for glory, they came to liberate their home."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"We'll screen them all," he said, finally. "Obviously not alone, of course. We've only got a short while before we'll be stepping into Sidra, and there could be thousands of people willing to step up and fight with us by the time we're done our little parade there. But we break them off into groups, delegate leaders of each group that I'll train up personally if I have to... Those who aren't fit for war will still be involved, just... in capacities that are a little more their league."

[heromaniac]

Momoko floated close enough to give Jono a shoulder bump. "If you let me sit in on a few of your interviews and decisions, I can do some and you can get to the training faster?"

She looked out over the assembly. "Wait, are we going to have trouble with Blood expecting to get special treatment?"

[furnaceface]

"If the Blood are expecting me to bend over to kiss their asses because they were pretty rocks, they'll all get swift thumps to the backs of their heads. I can swat dozens of them at once and they'll never know what hit them," Jono replied, smirking faintly. "And my interview process is going to be more along the lines of... 'who here thinks they know how to fight? Good. Spar myself or Julian, and whoever gets trounced the least gets to command their own troops once they're trained more properly."

It was the best Jono could come up with on short notice, but it seemed like the simplest way to weed out the competent from the braggarts full of false bravado.

[heromaniac]

Momoko pouted slightly. "I probably wouldn't get anyone to fight me since I'm a girl." Stupid chivalry. "Can I fight Julian? Then you can take the recruits all on at once to at least give them a chance!"

[furnaceface]

"Might be the only way they'd get one," Jono chuckled, shaking his head. "You can fight Julian after we've divvied up responsibilities, luv. Beat him halfway to next month if you like, just leave him capable of training troops along with me, if at all possible. This is several times what I was expecting, here, and apparently there are more in the next village."

And the next. And the next.

[heromaniac]

"I am totally serious, Jono." Momoko floated around to make sure she was facing him. "I'm here to help. I can train too, you know. maybe not for actual war, but I can teach some fighting. I'll get Dinah to help, too. You're not alone. Anything you tell me to do, I'll do."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded a little, glancing back toward the troops that had gathered.

"I need to teach them how to be brutal, Momoko," he said, carefully. "I need to teach them how to strike hard and fast, because the Blood they're going up against isn't going to give an inch if they miss, the first time."

He took a deep breath, looking thoughtfully toward the sky.

"What have you got to offer, luv? Some fighting is good... anything else? Not all of them are going to be fighters."

[heromaniac]

"I can teach them some basics, though. Enough that when they come to you they can throw a punch and handle a sword or a bow or a sling. Most of them will be coming at you like it's a bar brawl, if even that. Peace for a thousand years, remember? If like you say, you need them to get to a high level really fast, then you should spend your time better than teaching the little things."

She shrugged and floated back to beside him, watching the people mill about. "But if you don't want that from me, then I've got other skills. Some judo and karate, Meditation. Search and rescue, first aid, teamwork building..."

[furnaceface]

"First aid," Jono cut in, pointing a finger at Momoko. "I don't know what these Blood are going to be like that Julian's mentioned, but I can guarantee there won't be enough Healers to go around, with a crowd this size. We'll need that. There... won't be time for meditation, I'm afraid. Karate and Judo..." He leaned his head to the side, thoughtfully. "You can teach those to large groups. We could make one or the other into a morning exercise..."

[heromaniac]

"Deal. I even have battlefield first aid training!" She gave him a V sign. "I can also help teach people to make and use slingshots, if they don't have them here already. They're awesome distance weapons and ones that they can use and then run and hide from any retaliation. And you totally don't need to be an awesome soldier type to use them."

[furnaceface]

"I will never say no to teaching people how to use a Kaeleer-friendly weapon that has a little bit of range to it," Jono replied, looking relieved. "As a matter of fact, the moment we have a little time in edgewise, I'd like you to teach me how to use one, too. It'll be one less thing I need to use my collar for, later."

The downside to having high-tech artificial powers was that he needed to carefully ration just how much energy he used. And, realistically, he didn't mind. He understood that it was stupid to just take off and fly all willy-nilly just because he missed doing so. But then there was the depowered mutant in him, headblind and ripped away from the immeasurable raw power he'd once possessed, desperately needing some means to compensate.

Asking Momoko to teach him how to use a slingshot to good effect was just as much practical training as it was another way to get his head around being cut off from his powers again.

[heromaniac]

Jono had better never let Momoko know any of that or she would probably cry on him.

"Do you have any actual weapons?" She tilted her head, curious. "I can also use a sword. Both long and short. And I know the totally basic of basics in archery?" She'd had to learn it at the Academy... She preferred Kendo.

[furnaceface]

"I have any weapon I want, right here," Jono replied, tapping his collar and giving a bit of a rueful smile. "I'm stuck taking it easy with this, though. I'm the only one here who has to physically leave the whole bloody reality behind in order to get this thing working again if I run out of power."

Damn it, Kaeleer. Invent electricity already.

"I... haven't really needed much in the way of actual weapons before, though. I've used a sword on occasion, mostly when it was put into my hand. And I can usually find something that'll cause a bit of blunt-force trauma in a bind. I've had training with several types of weapon, but not many of them have seen practical use in the field."

[heromaniac]

Momoko nodded, wobbling slightly as a breeze kicked up. "I'm totally going to be teaching you Kendo, then. It's a centuries old style of sword-fighting. We'll do it in the morning as exercise so no one will know. I'm totally going to be teaching Dinah, too."

Hmmm. "I'll try and pick up some good swords from home. If I make sure only Fandom people have them, it will be okay, do you think?"

[furnaceface]

Jonothon smiled a little at that. He had to appreciate the care she was taking to respect the boundaries that Karla had set.

"I'm pretty sure blades aren't unheard of here," he replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "If you've ever seen Warren or Lucivar waving around those Eyrien sticks of his, I don't imagine a handful of katana could be much different. Less reach on one of those, in fact."

Jono was confident that swords would be pretty okay. Unless they somehow fired bullets or something.

[heromaniac]

Well, if Momoko ordered from the right people, they totally could shoot bullets...

"Then I'm adding a stop to my Reno trip," she nodded. "And of course I've seen the sticks. Ugh. I sparred a little with Mr Lucivar once. ONCE. I totally need to learn those, but they're not really my style."

[furnaceface]

She could have asked Reno to stock her up with gunblades, true...

"I'd be interested in learning them, too, if I had time," Jono mused. "Might have to ask Worthington if he can make a few minutes edgewise now and again to let me try to follow."

Because that would go well, sure.

"If not, of course I'll make do. Learning kendo sounds fantastic, Momoko. One more thing I didn't have before. Is there anything I can do, in turn?"

[heromaniac]

Help her move a big heavy aquarium across town in the hot El Paso sun in a few months?

"I don't know? Teach me stuff? Sometime, let me spar with you with powers? My goal is to be the best hero I can, you know." Momoko stretched, smiling up at him. "It's why I learned all this stuff. So I can be at least a little prepared in any situation I get into. Including times like this, when my friends need me."

"Thank you for not setting me off to the side. For not thinking I'm weak."

[furnaceface]

He could do that single-handed, provided he had enough power packs to keep his collar charged! ... How big?

"I've been set off to the side before," Jono replied, a little more softly than the conversation to that point. "It's a horrible feeling, especially when you know there are things you can do to help. I try to avoid doing it to other people when I can."

He shrugged. "I'll spar you with powers the moment I have power to spare. Might have to run it by Karla as training. Neither of us can afford to get rusty, whether I'm on rations or no. Having the power right there and not being any good with it is just as dangerous as running out of it in the middle of a fight. I can improvise my way out of a dead battery situation. I have no easy fix for accidentally deafening everyone on my team, though."

It had taken him a lot of work to get past that point in his training.

[heromaniac]

Big enough for two horseshoe crabs to swim and burrow freely...

She couldn't imagine setting him off to the side. Powers aside, he looked powerful and scary! But, it was awesome to have someone who understood. "Mmm. That's something Dinah worries about too. Although you both sort of do have an easy fix, while we're here? With the healers here, I mean. And we can always do limited fights here and then real sparring somewhere else, like Fandom or something."

"Especially since we'll also need to spar with Karla and the other Blood. Magic is totally different from weapons or powers. We'll each of us need to know what we can and shouldn't use."

[furnaceface]

... Yup. Jono would definitely be using powers for that one.

"I wouldn't want to wear the Healers down for the sake of an accident that could've been prevented," Jono replied, nodding a little. "But I do feel better knowing that there are Healers here, who can handle a much broader scope than basic field first-aid might be able to manage. And you are right about sparring the Blood here, too... I know I, for one, don't want to go up against a Blood opponent without knowing what sort of chance I stand against someone with a darker Jewel. Or how much is overkill when fighting someone with a lighter one."

[heromaniac]

"AH!" She slammed a fist into her palm. "That reminds me! I totally need to ask Karla for a cheat sheet of what colours are what."

She sighed. "At least it's not the kind of magic that, like, shoots lightening at you or can change you into a frog or something. That's not really something you can fight or prepare against."

[furnaceface]

"No lightning," Jono agreed. "But they can fire raw power, and there's fire."

He frowned a little as he tried to think of other things they could do.

"It's my understanding that the Blood can reduce a landen's brain to ash by invading their minds psychically. That'll be... problematic." To say the least. "Black Widows are outlawed here, but I wouldn't put it past Hobart to try to use the handful that he bullied into servitude to try to control people that would otherwise be on our side, as well."

He frowned a little more deeply, looking a little like he regretted ever thinking that thought at all. He'd had... unpleasant experiences with mind control, after all.

"Though I'll be the first to admit that I don't actually know how a Black Widow's powers work. I'll have to ask Karla just what I'll have to keep an eye out for, if Hobart does resort to something so low."