Still has a lot more to work on

[rustyhonesty]

🧙 WHO: Jean Kirstein & You
⚔️️ WHAT: January Catch-All
🕒 WHEN: January
🗺️ WHERE: Mostly training grounds
⚠️ WARNINGS: Language a bit. Will add more if needed.


A: Training; animal magic

[Jean is often at the training grounds, practicing his magic. He wants to become good at it so he can help. So he can use his magic for good.

He has several pictures spread out on the ground, his familiar (Lynx) watching so that they don't fly off. There are pictures of a few rodents and some medium-sized animals and birds. Nothing larger than a German Shepherd right now since he hasn't worked out how to transform into anything bigger yet.]

Okay. Let's try the next one.

[Jean takes a deep breathe before focusing his magic and transforming into a small hawk. Then he flies around a few rounds in the sky and practices transforming mid-landing.

... and crashes into a pile of snow. Very (not) elegantly. He sighs.]

Fuck.



B: Outside; dog

[A ball flies in the air. A husky runs after it. Then she runs back to her owner excitedly wagging her tail.

Jean takes the ball and pets the dog affectionately.]

Good girl. Do you want me to throw it again?

[A bark before Jean throws the ball again and off she goes! Jean remains there, smiling after the puppy.]



C: Training; sword
later in the month

[Finally, Jean's hard work at the blacksmith has rewarded him sword that he forged himself. Now it was all a matter of learning how to wield it. Jean has used double blades before, but those were a lot different from a sword like this. Yet, he somehow felt this would serve him better now that he wasn't fighting titans, so he had wanted to make it.

Once again Jean has occupied a corner of the training grounds, where he swings the sword against training dummies a bit too much in the traditional Titan Hell style so it looks a bit awkward. He's holding the sword a little wrong.

Some advice might be needed, but he'll probably get the hang of it eventually. Somehow.]



D: Wildcard

Hit me up in PM's or sasageyo to plot something else or just assume you run into him around Camelot for walks or at the blacksmith he works at.

Comments

C.

[bakudan_bambino]

[Gokudera has no knowledge of swordsmanship. He's training on his own, setting off explosives in the distance and trying to create light barriers against them, trying to contain some, and blast his own barriers apart to test their strength and see if he can fire them off from the explosions. It's left him tired and surrounded by smoke. He maintains a safe distance.

But there is ringing in his ears, then the distant sound of a sword. He mentally shifts, not entirely aware of what he's doing, but he's rushing over to Jean, teeth bared and yelling at him. It sounds like a word repeated over and over, growing louder and more clear the closer he gets.]

BARK! BARK! BARK!BARK! BARK BARK! GRRRR WOOF! BARK BA-

[The second that sword is swung again, the noise flips the action off like a light shutting off and Gokudera's standing clueless and out of breath by the training dummy. He's panting and looking around, wondering how he got where he is.]

... uh?

[rustyhonesty]

[Well, if it makes Gokudera feel any better at least he didn't say anything offensive in animal talk. At least so that Jean would have recognized any words.

Either way, his behavior gets a confused look from Jean.]

You certainly don't look like a dog.

[bakudan_bambino]

Well, I'd fuckin' hope not!

[Gokudera straightens up with an annoyed grumble, trying to take stock of why he's over here when he'd just been by the tree line.]

Did you need something?!

[rustyhonesty]

No? You're the one who just ran over to me while barking.

[He's not impressed.]

[bakudan_bambino]

[Gokudera narrows his eyes, skeptical. Jean can be unimpressed. The bomber is full of doubts.]

Why would I do something like that?

[Sounds weird. Jean, have you considered that you're wrong?]

A

[whatsamada]

[Meanwhile, as Jean was attempting to turn into an animal, all the boy could do was stare. While he knew it was rude, he was impressed that the other knew how to transform into a creature that easily.

At the same time, his familiar couldn't help but laugh at Jean falling into the snow pile.]

That's not funny, Jack Frost, that's rude...! [He mumbled to him before making his way to the elder] Excuse me, are you okay?

[rustyhonesty]

[The Lynx familiar gives the Jack Frost an unapproving look as he continues to watch over the images.

Jean just raises his hand in a thumbs up before getting up.]

Yeah, I was aiming for the snow pile just in case I missed my landing. Glad I did.

[whatsamada]

That's good because I was wondering if you were okay!

[That being said, as he looked at Jean, he couldn't help but ask him this.]

That and uh...mind if I ask how you were able to do that? I don't know how you transformed into a hawk but that was pretty amazing! [Teach him how to do that, senpai!]

[rustyhonesty]

Oh... you're an animal magic user, too?

[It's not the first time he's heard someone not know how to transform. For him it was the first thing he (accidentally) did.]

It takes a bit of focusing, but basically you need to form an image of the animal and focus on imagining how it moves and acts. It also helps if you have an intention of doing something the animal can do. Like fly, like a hawk can or jump high like a hare would.

[Not that he's tried to jump off a roof and he wouldn't want to try it unless he was 100% sure he won't break his bones while doing it because he failed to transform.]

[whatsamada]

A form of an animal, huh? That should be easy enough.

[Although, that was a lot easier said than done. As he looked back at Jack Frost and back at Jean, he just had to ask this of him.]

Think you can help me turn into a rabbit? That sounds like it would be the easiest as all I have to do is jump like one.

[And yet, his actions don't make with how confident his words sound. In fact, he was eying his familiar as if he was planning on how he would laugh at him.]

B

[unhappy]

[ The next time Jean throws the ball, a strange-looking armored, black elephant comes charging after it. It doesn't want to catch the ball, it just wants to flatten it.

Emerald is worried it's after the dog though, and thus a long chain comes shooting out to wrap Thief's Respite around the shrunken Goliath before she pulls it back. She doesn't try to hurt it beyond that but she's.. definitely not acting friendly toward it either. ]

Sorry.

[rustyhonesty]

[Snow is alert when the elephant approaches, but ends up picking up the ball anyway before returning to Jean, curiously looking at the girl and her strange animal friend.

Jean looks at them as well, a little concerned and confused, but mostly neutral.]

It's fine... thanks for looking out for her.

[He gives the husky a few pets.]

Your weapon seems convenient for handling him.

[unhappy]

My weapon is normally specifically for killing things like it.

[ She unchains the elephant before stomping at it and telling it to get out of there. It's obvious she does not like her familiar. ]

Your dog's okay?

[rustyhonesty]

Huh. [Jean eyes the creature for a moment. Well, it surely wasn't the friendliest looking familiar before looking back at Emerald.] Are there other uses for the chain?

[Snow is still getting plenty of pets.]

Yeah. I think she was just confused at most.

[unhappy]

What do you mean? They're chains. They can wrap around things and pull, or tie things up. Like I can pull myself up if what they catch is immovable like a tree or something, but it's pretty straight forward.

[ A pause, then she lets some of it slack out, checking the heft. ]

I guess if I curled it up like a lasso I could smack someone upside the head with it.

A.

[milkmycattle]

[Crow just happens to walk by as Jean is practicing. He's not paying too much attention until he watches the teen transform himself into a hawk. Stunned, Crow stands there with his mouth open as Jean flies around. Even if he eventually crashes into the snow, Crow is impressed!]

Not bad! I never saw it work like that up close! Let me see what else you can do!

[rustyhonesty]

[Jean gets up from the snow, using his hands to brush some off his pants and looks at Crow.]

Sure? I need to practice anyway.

[He glances at the pictures his familiar has before focusing and changing into a pygmy goat. Then he makes a few jumps to test it out.]

[milkmycattle]

[ It's probably rude of Crow to put Jean on spot, but practicing doesn't mean anything if you can't do it on call. He knows that well as a performer himself.

He watches as Jean changes himself into a little goat. Crow grins as he watches Jean jump around.]

Not bad! Not bad! Now change into a dragon!

[He never said he'd be taking requests, Crow!]

[rustyhonesty]

[He definitely didn't, besides, that's kind of a big order. Jean changes back after a few jumps and looks at him.]

I can't. There's a limit to the size of things I can turn into. Besides, I'm not sure if a dragon counts for this magic.

[amonsterbyanyothername]

[Kei is certainly not against fine-tuning his own skills and learning how to function with his own Simurgh Familiar. But he pauses in his own training to watch someone else, Jean, work on their magic abilities.

Seeing the man turn into a hawk, and Kei claps with a smile.

...And then Jean crashes as he tries to transform back, and Kei blinks with a wide eye before heading over to Jean with a smile.]

Hey, you were doing a great job. I'm sure with a little more practice, you'll get it in no time.

[He holds his hand out to Jean to help him back up.]

[rustyhonesty]

[At least there was a lot of snow. Snow was helpful when you were practicing. Jean accepts the help and gets up.]

Thanks. Yeah, it's mostly the whole landing while you transform back into yourself that gives me trouble.

C:

[liveandforgive]

Not a bad lookin' sword.

[ It's been a little while since he last ran into Jean. But on the training grounds comes a familiar spiky-headed blond. Resting over his shoulder (because it's harder to just casually carry it one-handed right now) is a unique longsword with a jigsaw-like backend. The style in which he's using his sword though...

It's not really leaving a lot of clean cuts in the dummies. Granted, it's cutting... Just- ]

Not the kind you're used to?

[rustyhonesty]

[Oh, hey.]

Thanks. I finally was allowed to make my own weapon. It turned out pretty well.

[It's not perfect, but it's far from bad at least.

Jean looks at the training dummies and then back at Cloud, kind of awkward.]

Yeah, no... I've never used an actual sword.

[liveandforgive]

You made that?

[ That lifts Cloud's brows some, surprised by the end result. It seems pretty decent, and not at all crude for a weapon Jean constructed for himself. Especially if he wasn't used to weaponry like this. It's funny because he'd been thinking of what kind of weapon he'd want for himself someday. Something he can use with his ability to channel the elements... ]

I see. [ While there's strain placed on his arm when he does so, Cloud decides to bring his own sword down from his shoulder, holding it with a firm grip as he glances back at Jean. ] Feel free to follow along.

[ If Jean's looking for posture. Emulate the way Cloud holds his sword to start. Hopefully it'll be easier, given that the weapon the blond carries is still larger and difficult to use for now. ]

[rustyhonesty]

I was mostly copying what the blacksmith master was doing.

[It's partially the reason why it was a sword like this and not something he's more used to. But the bigger reason was that he was no longer fighting titans. He didn't need weapons he was used to.

Jean observes Cloud and then changes his posture to match what the blond does. It feels easy, at least. And less awkward than how he was trying earlier...]