The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

“It’s 6pm,” said Raph, “We could be back to my house by 5am, then you guys could drive home from there.”
“I would like to see Sweetums.”
“Well, let’s drive, swapping off driver duties, until we get there or need to stop for a hotel.”
“Works for me.  Backsies!” and I climbed into the back seat and fell asleep promptly, because I can.

Three hours later I woke up as we pulled into the parking lot of Logan’s Steakhouse in Tuscaloosa (where, apparently, ALL OF ATLANTIA SPENT THE NIGHT).  Had a full rack of ribs, an imperial pint of Sam Adams, and a warm glow when we rolled out at 10.  Raph called backsies, Letia grabbed the driver’s seat, and so I tried to keep her entertained with rambling discussions.

Round about 2am I had what I continue to believe is a brilliant fricking idea, despite whatever consequences it will have in the future:
Put a bit of flourescent dye on the tip of the sword, then illuminate it so it glows really bright and, with a long shutter time and not very sensitive film, capture the movement of the tip through a lunge (as a bright streak, in some semblance of a straight and level-ish line).  Or video tape it (with blacked-out fencers and background so it’s just a dancing point in space).  Either way, you can track the little glowing point.  Training tool!
You could also capture its motion during various actions (parries, cavazione, etc) and even encounters.  So far, so good, yeah?

“OR YOU COULD USE FLAMING POI FUEL AND HAVE A FLAMING SWORD FIGHT!!!” says the Hippie*.
“That’s a horrible idea!” I said.
“No, you could use epees and have a wick in the V of the epee and a fuel reservoir behind the guard and you could fence with flaming swords!  It would make awesome video!”
This game will be called “Letiqua Thistelbutt** Needs a Skin Graft”.

Eventually that discussion petered out, so I said, “How do we make fighters suck less?”
Raph, who’d been snoring for the last four hours, sits bolt upright and says, “Teach them measure!”
What ensued was a lengthy discussion between Letia, Raph, and me, as to whether measure, line, or tempo was more important to fighting (Letia arguing for line, Raph for measure, me for tempo, which says a lot about our styles).  At the back end of it all we had a plan for a three class sequence of Raph teaching measure (the nuances of it, tricks, and whatnot), Letia teaching on line and guard, and me teaching on measure (in that order, ‘cause I argued that I couldn’t teach tempo till they had some grasp of the other two).  Then Dante scooped us by sending in a Rapier 201 proposal the first day Summer U class proposals were open.  Bah!

That got us most of the way home.  Letia drove five hours, then went “SLEEP NOW!” and I took over driving the last hour, halfway through which my brain went “SLEEP NOW, TOO!” and I had a debate with it about whether or not that was going to happen.  Then we were at Raph’s.  I slept for two or three hours, then drove the two hours home and crawled into bed beside my still-sleeping Sweetums.  Totally worth driving through the night.

Now, Letia, Staffan: Your turns.  How was your war?

*If you haven’t heard, she now has another nickname: Porn Star.  Because during the first night’s game of Michael Wymarck is a Pirate she declared that, while guys could just go fight any time, she needed a fluffer.  Ella obliged her.
**Her other new nickname.