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Who: Maglor & Seel, maybe Swift or other elves & associated CR, eventually XD
What: Maglor is beating some sense into UH I MEAN training Seel in swordsmanship
Where: Somewhere near the Guard House, nice and private
When: During March
Warnings: Violence, probably bad language

Seel will be asleep when Maglor comes. How he gets in is a mystery, but he'll shake him awake.

"On your feet."

He orders, and drags him from his bed. There's inhuman strength to his wiry frame, and a coldness to him, like an icy wind off the sea.

He pulls him to a quiet space on the training fields, and a blunted blade is cast at his feet.

"Pick it up." He orders, a blade in his own hands.

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Seel was most definitely asleep when Maglor woke him, up, dragged him out of bed and forced him out into the fields. Among the sleepy thoughts he'd had as Maglor stood over him were how the fuck did Maglor get into his apartment and why he was so damn angry.

Well, he could guess as to the anger part. He looked down at the blunted blade that Maglor tossed at his feet, not bending down to pick it up. Instead he crossed his arms.

"You break into my apartment, drag me out of bed and throw a sword at me. Now why should I pick it up?"

Quicker than thought, the blade in Maglor's own hands whips out to smack Seel smartly across the knuckles. It's a blow designed to sting, but not harm - Maglor's blade is blunted too, after all - but it's also designed to show how easily Maglor got within his guard.

"Because you are undisciplined, Seel." There's no anger in his voice, for all the inherent fury in his posture and actions. Indeed, it's quiet and calm. "Because you hurt those around you in your lack of self-control. Because you are so very angry, and are lashing out. Pick up the blade."

Edited 2018-03-14 01:06 (UTC)

"Ow!" Seel withdrew his hands protectively, rubbing the sting on his knuckles. "What the hell?" Maglor might not be angry, but Seel is. He's been dragged out of bed, and now Maglor was hitting him. Although when he heard why, well, he was not wrong.

"I have self control," Seel muttered, still angry but bent down to pick up the blade because he couldn't see a way out of this and Maglor was a lot stronger than he was. If he wanted to hurt him he could have. Besides, he really didn't want to piss off someone who might be as powerful as Thiede. He didn't want to find out.

"Do you?" Maglor waits with all the patience inherent in his people - he really could, after all, quite literally wait forever.

"Then explain to me why you treated Swift, who you love, as if he was no more than a possession to be owned? You, who told me you were better than the humans from whose loins you sprung. You, who acted exactly like the worst of them."

He wouldn't have to wait forever with Seel, he just had to be patient enough to let Seel sabotage himself. But Maglor's words did something. Maybe they were blunt enough to finally sink in. Nevertheless, Seel still fought against it.

"That's not what happened." Oh really, another part of Seel's brain went. Who are you going to blame now? Thiede isn't here.

"I just wanted to keep him safe and close. I didn't mean to hurt him. And I am better than humanity."

"Then explain it." Maglor says calmly, nodding when Seel picks up the blade.

"Because I tell you now, I had a woman come to me, fleeing her Easterling husband, who had beaten her for giving him an answer he did not like, and barred her in their house to prevent her seeking aid. So how are you better, Seel, when you have now acted exactly like a human."

The blade flicks out, and if Seel does not bring his up, it will rap him across the knuckles again.

Seel paled at those words. Had he really? Had he really? Shit. The one thing he didn't want to become. Human. He'd always tried to rise above it, but obviously he had failed. And then Maglor rapped him across the knuckles again and Seel lost it.

"Dammit Maglor, stop that! What is the point of all this? You drag me out here to do what? Tell me that I failed as a Wraeththu?"

"We are here because because you have failed as a person." Maglor corrects.

"Because you are angry, Seel. Because you think of yourself as greater than others and do not see how you are exactly the same as all the other angry young men that have gone before you, and who will come after you."

He is circling, now. Forcing Seel to turn with him as he paces slowly.

"I am here because you hurt someone you are supposed to protect, because of your lack of self control. I am here, Seel, because you told me you were better and I believe you could be. So pick up that blade and fight me, Seel."

Seel turned as Maglor turned, growing more and more frustrated and angry with every breath. He didn't want Maglor to be right, but he was. Maybe this was why the Gelaming didn't believe in love. No, that was an easy excuse. Seel had been angry long before Swift. It was what drove him to create Saltrock, to build a better place for the future. That the world needn't fall to the Uigenna ways. It was just too bad they had a Uigenna trying to lead them.

"Like this?"

Seel picked up the stupid sword, pissed off and ran at Maglor in a profoundly stupid move that he should have known better than to attempt. He did know better. Too bad he wasn't thinking.

Maglor sidesteps his rush, blade flicking out in another smart rap, catching Seel neatly in the ribs.

"If this was a true battle, you'd be dead." He reprimands, voice still even and calm. "Control, Seel. That is what you are here to learn. Anger is a tool. It should not be your master. Again."

The annoyed and angry part of Seel that was still an angry kid actually rolled his eyes at Maglor. And dammit that rap was getting annoying. He should just be counting his luck that Maglor wasn't Thiede, and had decidedly different teaching methods. He took a deep breath, trying to center himself and not let his anger get the best of him. It was, however, and he was annoyed.

So, the har backed up and tried again.

"Better." Maglor sidesteps the rush again, and again his blade flicks out, tapping him.

"But you're rushing without paying attention. You leave yourself wide open."

Seel was still pissed off, but slowly, Maglor was helping him to channel that. To pay attention and use it. It was still really annoying.

"Dammit Maglor do you really think teaching me how to use a sword is going to teach me self control?"

"I had a younger brother with a temper, once. It certainly helped him."

A wry smile quirks his lip.

"Well. So did knitting, but I don't think you are the sort to crochet."

Seel positively twitched.

"I was already made to be Consort, I do not need a further reminder of my forced femininity."

Not that Swift would have pushed the issue. It hadn't exactly been his idea either. But they both had roles to play and at least Seel hadn't been made to play dress up like Swift's hostling. Somedays he had wondered if the har remembered he had other parts to him.

Maglor looks a bit blank.

"In what way is knitting feminine? Caranthir had our grandmother's skill with needle and thread - he used to do tapestries, too, when he was particularly furious. Apparently the concentration needed for the fine detail was what helped. But when we went to Middle-earth, we couldn't bring the looms, and... well. When one is at war, there's less time for things like that. He used to go out to the training fields and fight until he dropped of exhaustion, instead."

Seel arched an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?" Perhaps it was his human bias getting into things. He doubted Swift would have seen it the same way, having never been human.

"Perhaps your right. And I'm letting previous experience bias me. Tell anyone else I said that and I'll deny it."

Maglor shrugs.

"To be sure, more elleth than ellon prefer that sort of study, but one learns what one enjoys - and if you can make a living out of it, so much the better!"

He laughs softly. "You let it cloud much, Seel. And although it is wise not to forget the past, one should always bear in mind that one is to learn from it, not to dwell. Now. Again."

Terms that Seel didn't know but he got the meaning. It wasn't that hard. " I enjoy creating but I don't think that type of creating is my style." It sounded like something Flick might enjoy. Or maybe that was Seel and his bias again.

Trying not to roll his eyes like a spoiled harling, Seel relented and did as he was told. He did not have a choice in this and at least this was something he could use. Maglor had chosen a method of teaching rather than Thiede's method of control by letting somehar else subjugate him. Not that he minded Swift. He just minded the difference in status and power. And that he'd been ordered to spread his legs for him. He loved Swift, but being traded like chattle stung. And pissed him off.

"You might want to look into what works for you." Maglor suggests. "But for Caranthir, he always found doing something was helpful. Many of my brothers were the same, although Caranthir's temper was by far the worst. Curufin would lock himself into the forges, Celegorm vanish into the wilds for weeks. It really depends."

Maglor makes him repeat the charges again, and again, pointing out flaws with a sharp rap of the blade - he's aiming to exhaust Seel, to work out the anger that way, but not to hurt him too badly. This is training, after all.

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