We're opera mad in Camelot

[morganknight]

🧙 WHO: Morgan and YOU, as per tradition! (plus closed prompts in comments)
⚔️️ WHAT: Morgan trains, quests, and plays
🕒 WHEN: March!
🗺️ WHERE: Camelot! And associated locations!
⚠️ WARNINGS: Dorkery?



Maybe There Is A Try

For once, Morgan had tossed his coat to the side because it was a nuisance, not to show off the impeccable torso tone he was very proud of. (That remained a side benefit, of course.) He was very used to its weight and pull as he moved, but if he really wanted to stretch his capabilities with magic, he wanted no distractions at all.

As much as he'd prefer to be lifting a bigass rock or a sunken starship, his focus rested on a weight. Ordinary old weight, a hundred pounds or thereabouts; something he could lift on his own, but not yet with the magic at his command. Or -- COULD he?

Hands out and palms turned up, Morgan tried to lift his arms. The weight trembled as the kinesis magic wrapped around it, as did his body against the invisible force, but neither moved. Nothing in the environment changed, but in those lingering moments, an oppressive feeling of weight seemed to settle in the air itself.

Then he dropped his hands with a breath, his entire body relaxing, and the weight made a whump as it settled back down on the ground.

"There goes my dignity and pride," he said, with a chuckle, as he lifted his head back up.


This is Just a Tribute

Guess who could afford a guitar now.

Okay, full disclosure: when Morgan had sought out an electric guitar, he had not expected to get a weird magic guitar that transmuted string vibration to distortion through some sort of lightning magic, all controlled by gestures better suited to a theremin. But hey, no amp needed. That was a benefit, right?

And maybe, maybe his enthusiasm had gotten the better of him.

So those passing through a park might very well hear electric guitar played fast and loud, by a guy standing on the seat and back of a park bench like he'd put Captain in front of his name, and whose hair made him look straight out of the glorious aeons past When Thrash Metal Bands Ruled the Earth.

Honestly, having no real sense of personal dignity was a great thing.

((I'll do brackets if you want, too!))

Comments

Closed to Ochako

[morganknight]

[Though he doesn't advise doing it with a weighted turtle shell on the back, Morgan believes simple hard work is absolutely excellent training. Martial arts is not solely about skill; one must develop one's body physically as well. In fact, he'd done stuff like this before, way back in the day growing up, if not on this scale.]

[So as the sun sink in the sky and the temperature slowly drops, Morgan stops at the end of one more long furrow he'd hoed into the earth, leaning on the handle with a sense of satisfaction. If not tired, he'd definitely made himself a bit lethargic now. But damned if he hadn't done good work.]

[Not that he's the only one. Morgan turns his head, still keeping himself propped up with the hoe.] 'Bout ready to call it a day?

[floatsaway]

[Man, this really is hard work, but there's something deeply satisfying about it. It was hard, and boy did Ochako have her own set of hijinks throughout the day, but now that the last of daylight is fading beyond the horizon, she feels somewhat at peace. Dirty, sweaty, and tired, but at peace nonetheless. Stretching her back, arms raised over her head with a long sigh, Ochako nods her head.]

Mm!! I could go for something hot...maybe okayu, or just rice with a cracked egg... [Because, woof, all that work sure as hell built up her appetite. Ochako loves food, and it's so sad she can't get some of her favorite comfort foods here in this world, but...rice shouldn't be a hard commodity to find, which make up the bulk of those two dishes.] Eehh...and a bath, yuck!

[She stinky. D:]

[morganknight]

A long soak in a hot spring, huh? That would sound tempting if you hadn't mentioned food first!

[Being a lot of muscle, Morgan has calorie requirements that teenage boys envy, and right now he's feeling it fiercely. He's also more than a bit of a mess, with streaks of dirt smudged across his face and arms from casual motions all through the day that he hadn't thought twice about.]

You did a great job today, by the way.

[floatsaway]

[Oooh...a hot soak in a hot spring sounds absolutely divine. Ochako sighs as she begins to daydream a bit, the image of a nice, peaceful (exclusively private) onsen and sitting amidst the steaming water. Man, that'd be so, so nice right about now...

But yes, food first!!]

Ehehe...thank you, Morgan-san. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it! [She's riding that high serotonin right now, man. Workouts are good for that, even if Ochako is a bit sore from bending over so much throughout the day to till the soil and prep the land for new crops.] Though I think, i-if they still need help tomorrow, I may take it a bit easy...

[Ochako went a bit hard - it's just in her nature to do her best, and give it her all. But man, she's going to be feeling it tomorrow. The lack of her quirk to do the more heavy lifting probably didn't help, either. Ochako still doesn't really...know her limits now that she can't effortlessly carry several hundred pounds with one hand.]

[morganknight]

[Hard work does feel good. This is remarkably plebian -- Morgan really does like those training exercises like hanging from a bar by your knees and transferring water from a low bucket to a high one through countless crunches -- but it satisfies nonetheless. Tomorrow he'll be going just as strong, because his endurance is his strongest point, but right now a hot soak and a good meal sound as wonderful to him as they do to her.]

[Maybe moreso. He's got a lot higher calorie requirement than she does.]

So what did you learn?

[Of course there's a lesson here. Everything is a lesson because everything is martial arts.]

1/2

[floatsaway]

[L...Learn??]

2/2

[floatsaway]

[Awww...heckie deckie.

Ochako freezes up a moment, like she's just been caught without her homework or something, and her eyes instantly flick back and forth before she simply blurts out the first thing on her mind--]

...Patience.

[SURE. THAT SEEMS LIKE A REASONABLE ANSWER. HAHAHAAA....please don't ask her to elaborate, she hasn't thought that far yet.]

[morganknight]

So, uh, you know when you start glancing side to side it does a heck of a lot to discredit your next statement, right? [Grinning broadly, Morgan falls into step so he can nudge her gently with an elbow. Seriously, did she really think that was gonna work?]

Let's try this. Did turning the earth become easier as the day went on? Did it become more familiar? Did you figure out ways to do more work with less effort?

[floatsaway]

[DON'T CALL HER OUT...WEEP.

Ochako hangs her head a little bit, looking up sheepishly because...yeah, she knows. She gets it, but she sort of wasn't expecting this to really be like, training-training! Maybe some exercise, because it definitely is a workout on her body, and a good way to build up her strength and endurance in a completely different way, but not any lessons to be learned.

That is, until Morgan spins it a different sort of way, and she blinks. Ah, now IOchako understands.]

Oh!! Y-Yeah! At first it was really hard, but when I kept doing the same thing over and over, it got easier! [Repetition and muscle memory.] Even lifting things is easier now, I think, without my quirk! Not everything, but things I'd never realize were pretty heavy for most people!

[Ochako can actually lift and carry some haybales all over her own. Not the big, massive ones, but pretty large ones. And big ol' bags of feed and wheelbarrows of soil and, erm...w-well...manure. Listen, farm life is not always glamorous.]

Closed to Kate

[morganknight]

Dateline: the Red Spring Inn. We join our heroes as they lurk in stealth, watching and waiting for the notorious thief Snagglefoot Mifflin, perp and suspect of too many crimes to count.

[That's right. Morgan is peering around the corner of the inn and narrating, both for his own amusement and because Kate really needs to lighten up. ]

Little did Mifflin know that to rescue the gems he stole, we have one jewel of a plan.

[Now he's grinning at Kate. Eh? Get it? Get it?]

[morns]

( oh, why wasn't she carrying her headphones when she went to that meeting back home? she might have been able to listen to some music while waiting.

but she didn't. so instead, she's here with the buzzing narration of Morgan to... liven things up. )

Y'know people can hear you?

( her, mostly, but voices carry! not well enough, though, as the person (who is decidedly not Snagglefoot — still a shit name, by the by) who exits the inn wanders off without so much as a blink at the hissing going on around the corner. )

[morganknight]

Yup, you and me. The most people of people. [He leans back to nudge her, all grins. No reason they should be bored and cranky while they're staking the place out!]

[morns]

Least you can talk him into giving up.

( it's a habit to needle people like Morgan, more than anything. in Kate's experience, they'll always respond to it. which means free entertainment, free distraction.

it's only after she says it, as someone hurries towards, and then, past the inn, that she realises she probably shouldn't be distracted right now. )

Was that...?

( he's heading towards the stables, it has to be, right? )

[morganknight]

[Plenty of other people go to the stables, Kate -- but yeah, it could be. Immediately switching from playful to serious, or as serious as he ever got when lives or martial arts weren't at stake, Morgan turns to stalk after the person. He can be surprisingly quiet despite his thick coat and general tallness, as it happens.]

[morns]

( that's true enough, but not all of them are glancing around like they're afraid someone's about to jump them. which seems a pretty good indicator that this guy's up to something.

he moves off and Kate glances around at alternate paths — there's no need to give the guy an exit if they don't have to, after all — before her eyes settle on a wall that would give her just enough height to scramble onto the roof.

alright. that works. she'll see you on the other side, Morgan. )

[morganknight]

[He is totally, TOTALLY not above watching her climb. It's a good view! Don't judge him!]

[Then, back to casual, quiet strolling. Soon enough, he has a position at the front of the stables. No real way to block it since it's large enough to admit horses, but from here he can intercept anyone coming out. For now, he'll strain to hear Kate's actions -- kinda figuring she's the sort who'll go in and start to Handle It, and thus inclined to give her first shot.]

[morns]

( oh, it's a very good view. she's under no illusions that she doesn't offer that. you don't spend your life focused on working out and not look good when you move, right?

but there's no time to waste on flirting yet. for now, her mind is set on scarpering over the building until she comes around the other side and drops down just behind the stables, giving her a perfect chance to slide in and see their target trying to coax a horse out to help him escape. )

Hey.

( welp. that got him running for it. better catch him, Morgan. )

maybe...

[arcsplainist]

Though he comes from a world where magic reigns, Alphinaud has yet to see any that allows its user to lift heavy objects. Clearly, there is lots of work ahead of this stranger, but when he passes by and sees what is being attempted, Alphinaud cannot help but briefly pause to watch. It's simply curiosity, of course.

The moment doesn't last long; it's over almost as soon as it began. Nonetheless, Alphinaud slips out an impressed hum.

"Nobody masters a newfound skill overnight, you realize," he says. "Is it your first time having a go at it?"

[morganknight]

Morgan turned thataway, then paused as his brain very visibly slipped two gears or so. Probably easy to guess why, and after a moment of thought, Morgan decided that this guy was probably going to get approximately one bazillion comments along the lines of 'hey, I didn't know Alisaie had a twin' and he himself did not need to add to the pile.

"Oh, I've got the basics down fine, because I could do something like that back at home. So not really a new skill... I'm just trying to build up strength with it." Weight-lifting, basically, and painfully literally at that.

[arcsplainist]

If Alphinaud could tell what he's thinking, he would be eternally grateful. As it is, he takes the stranger's reaction as mild surprise upon being interrupted; he likely wasn't expecting an audience.

"Building up strength?" Alphinaud echoes, a hint of puzzlement in his tone. "Though you have no hold on it... in the traditional matter, that is. 'Tis possible to do so with such an ability?"

[morganknight]

Morgan's sister looked much less like him, what with being a foot shorter and all, but still, twin troubles resonated.

"Eh," he said, wobbling a hand in midair. "Three things are possible. You can train this the same way you can the body or the mind, getting results from putting in effort. Or there's a flat limit, but I haven't reached it yet. Or there's a flat limit, and I have reached it. Without evidence, only one of those claims is either lazy or arrogant!"

[arcsplainist]

Well then! Alphinaud can't help but slip out a short, small pfft, a hint of amusement showing at the corners of his mouth.

"Mayhap so, though I see no downsides to exercising one's ability, especially if it is to the benefit of both yourself and this world."

[morganknight]

"Man, it's good to hear someone say that instead of something like, 'get me out of here now, screw y'all'." Not that too many people had expressed that exact sentiment (though some had), but he'd sensed it more often than that.

[arcsplainist]

The response is first met with a raised eyebrow, primarily because he hadn't expected it. Not that Alphinaud doesn't understand the sentiment; he too can still recall first being unwittingly drawn to the First, and their initial attempts to find a way back home... up until more dire circumstances fell upon their laps. Not everyone was going to take it gracefully, and if it weren't for prior experience, he does not doubt he would be of the same mind.

His brow settles back down, and Alphinaud clears his throat.

"Well, we are met with a rather... unique situation," he says, with a vague gesture. "I imagine there are few who are content with it."

[morganknight]

"It's true enough, and I suppose the people who are most inclined to look out for themselves first, for whatever reason good or bad, are the ones most vocal about it." Though that was bad in and of itself, since the loudest voices often biased a discussion the most... "But that's just a few people, fortunately."