The rest of the students were silent, many even avoiding looking up as Mar waited. He spun the dagger absentmindedly in his hands. Even Tobin’s hand wasn’t even so much as twitching. Mar tried not to find it irritating; when they played team games, he was always the first picked, because they all knew he’d had far more experience than anyone else here. Now that they’d be pitted against him, they weren’t so excited by his prospects. His hand slackened around the dagger, ready to throw it back into the box.
A hand raised.
The girl was staring at her feet, her hand not even higher than her shoulder. The cropped black hair hung forwards, nearly hiding her face completely as she chewed on her lip. Mar’s grip tightened again. He smiled.
Nuru nodded. “Thank you, Miss…?”
“Varma,” Odell answered when the girl didn’t speak.
“Miss Varma. Up you come.”
The girl stood, shuffling her feet as she crossed over to the box and picked out one of the other daggers. She looked at it in her hand, shifting it as if getting used to the weight.
“Have you sparred before, Miss Varma?” Nuru asked, moving over to push the girl into place opposite Mar.
She looked up at the Knight, sucking in her lips for a moment before she spoke. “My older brother taught me how to punch?”
Someone snorted from the step. Mar glanced over. That Alastair boy was smirking.
“That’s as good a start as anything,” Nuru said. When she lifted her eyes to Mar, her eyebrows twitched upwards.
Go easy, they said.
Mar nodded, turning to face her. Nuru took a few steps back.
“Aim to disarm your opponent. I don’t want to see those daggers hitting anything too hard, and nothing above the shoulders.”
The girl was staring hard at the floor, her gaze sometimes flickering nervously to Mar’s hand where he held the dagger, but never once rising to look at him properly. She was about Mar’s size, with a small scattering of freckles over her brown skin. Her nose was squashed, short, and her eyebrows were thick, constantly furrowed together in worry. Though her clothes were perfectly well looked after, they were just a little too baggy on her shoulders – as if they’d be handed down from a larger relative. Mar felt strange facing off against her. She looked like she might keel over from nerves. But this was a spar, and she had volunteered, so he grounded himself.
“Go!”
Mar lunged.
The space between them grew bigger. The girl’s eyes were moving everywhere, like she was desperately searching for an escape route, her brows furrowed in what Mar could only assume was panic. If she was that nervous, why volunteer? For what seemed like forever, every time Mar moved closer, she moved back, or to the side, keeping well out of his way. The spectators were silent. He glanced over at Nuru, but she gave nothing away with her steady gaze.
Gritting his teeth, Mar lunged again. This time, the girl didn’t move so far away, but as he shifted to one side to knock the dagger from her hand, she was turning. He blinked and pulled his hand back to his side – she’d moved before he’d even had the chance to do anything more than twitch. He tried again, from the other side this time, and the same thing happened. Then he tried a feint. Another. He tried to kick with his leg. To duck down before he hit. No matter what he did, the girl moved away just before he made any decent movement. He felt slow, sluggish, like his body couldn’t speed up to meet her.
But she never looked up from the ground.
Frustrated, Mar tried everything. Every trick his mother had taught him. There was no going easy on the girl, she didn’t give him the chance to. She dodged far too easily, seemingly before he’d even started to move. It didn’t feel like any fight he’d ever experienced. He was panting before he knew it, sweat beading at his brow from the effort of overthinking every one of his actions and promptly being outmanoeuvred by her. Every time he tried to disarm her, he felt himself far too open to a counterattack that never came. She never even tried to swing for him.
“Speed up, Gavril!” Nuru shouted. But he couldn’t. There was no chance to.
“Varma, get an attack in! Don’t stay on the defensive.”
The girl blinked. Her head turned slightly – caught off guard by the order.
And Mar hit her.
It was sudden, a desperate attempt to get some sort of advantage whilst she was distracted. His free hand shoved at her shoulder, and it was enough to stagger her. She stumbled backwards; eyes wide in panic. He snapped his arm out towards her, knocking the hilt of the dagger against her wrist. She released her own dagger as she slipped backwards to the floor.
She sat below him, staring at her wooden weapon lying beside her – as if forgetting she’d had it in her hand at all. She wasn’t even winded. Mar stood gasping for air, his shirt damp against his skin, exhausted, and she looked no more put out than if she’d just been knocked over.
“Good work, both of you,” Nuru said, moving to help the girl up. “Tidy up, and sit down. Next volunteers?”
Mar flung his dagger into the box, his eyes never leaving the girl even as he returned to the step. She was rubbing at her wrist. The two girls she sat beside snickered at her loss.
But it hadn’t been her fault.
“You were going easy on her, weren’t you?” Tobin whispered as Mar took his seat. “You weren’t even finishing your movements. Giving her time to dodge. That was nice of you.”
No, it wasn’t. He’d not done it on purpose.
---
Project Campus Tag List: @multimousenette @kriss-the-writing-nerd @theouterdark
If you want to be added/removed please just let me know ^^
without meaning to, i’m writing in a new way than i usually do - somewhat out of order.
by which i mean, i’m writing each chapter, and the moment i feel myself loosing steam, i jump to the next chapter even if i’m not finished the previous.
and because of that? this is my progress after only 4 days...
@theouterdark always keeps me posting, so thank you XD
Bit more than a line, but here’s the last paragraph I wrote from Project Campus!
A light flickered in the corner of her eye, and Diya looked at the far end of the classroom. As the woman who’d let her in shut the door, it revealed the creature sitting behind it. Warmth glowed along its back, like the glowing embers of a dying fire. A piece of charred fur floated around its narrow head, causing the creature to sniff and sneeze again. The woman rubbed at its nose to soothe it, motioning with her hand, and the creature followed her over to a seat at the back of the room where it sat leaning against her legs.
A Grim and its Guardian...
Gonna go ahead and tagggg.... @jaywrites101 @elliswriting @bookish-actor and @nyxnevin if you guys want to! ^^
Humans are not made to touch magic, only defend it. To defend it, you must defend the source: Grims.
Mar wanted freedom from his family name. Diya wanted to heal those who needed it. Both wanted to study at the Academy, but neither wanted to find themselves taking on the role of Guardians: their lives bound to that of a Grim in need. Now magic is at their fingertips. A life depends on theirs. And they’ve only got a year left of school to learn how to keep their human nature and their new Grim counterpart in a balance that won’t consume them.
Project Campus Posts
Figured I’d post an intro to this properly before I start throwing up snippets and character intros!
If you’d like to join the tag list, please let me know! ^^
Tagged by @silver-wields-a-pen thank you! ^^ Gonna do this for Project Campus, which is my newest WIP!
Give us the elevator pitch for your wip!
Markos and Diya fight their way into places at a prestigious Academy with brooms and bothering their summer school teacher. They spend their whole Junior year being told they’ll never get a chance to use magic, only to become two of the four Guardians come their senior year - people who are bound to the wolf-like spirits who feed magic into the world. Thus... using magic is part of the deal.
There proceeds a year of them, and fellow Guardians Mabel and Ryo, struggling to get used to these newly born spirits who rely on their protection, the magic that now constantly leaks into their minds, whilst also trying to keep their grades up at the Academy and prove they were the right choices. It would be a lot easier if there weren’t sorcerers targeting their spirits, in an attempt to kill them for their magic.
Do you have any favourite antagonistic characters?
Everything’s still building at the moment, but Odell, Mar and Diya’s summer school teacher, is a wonderfully grumpy and shouty character. Though not sure if he counts as antagonistic - he just really can’t stand his ‘favourite’ students.
What do your characters do on a night off/night out?
In Junior year, most of the students tend to relax in the common rooms since they aren’t allowed to leave campus. Mar and Diya in particular tend to like just lazing around and chatting with their friends, and sometimes breaking into Odell’s office to leave him ‘presents’.
In Senior year, the four Guardians tend to no longer have nights off, and unlike the other Seniors aren’t allowed to leave campus still. They sit in their private common room, or during hotter days in the quad, and talk or mess around with their spirits.
Does your mc have any irrational fears or phobias?
Mar’s afraid of cats - he feels like they hate him. Diya’s doesn’t have any stand out phobias, but she’s not a big fan of worms and snails - the slimy kind of bugs. Mabel’s afraid of doing anything that vaguely sounds like work, and Ryo’s has claustrophobia.
Are there any books/authors you drew inspiration from for this story?
The spirits’ forms are very loosely inspired by Shaoran’s Kudan from Tsubasa Chronicles.
Who was the first character you made for this wip and how did they come to you?
Mar and Diya came as a package deal. I had a very vivid picture of these two kids fighting each other with brooms whenever they saw each other over the years, and they built from there.
Do you usually have a title in mind when you start the story or does it comes to you later?
Tiles are the hardest part of writing in my opinion, and I struggle to think of them even when the story is done...
For you, what’s the hardest part of writing?
I can’t say titles again? Um... in that case, probably ‘the middle’ of the story, and holding myself back from rushing through it all.
What’s the best part of writing?
World building! Maps! Yay!
How would your characters feel about you if they met you in person?
Mabel would appreciate my ability to avoid doing any heavy lifting. Not sure if the others would feel all that bothered!
What helps you recharge your writing batteries when you’re running low?
Talking over plot ideas with someone - even just to myself, or thinking up conversations that might arise between characters at really important parts of the story.
Tagging a handful of people who liked my tag request thing, if you want to try this one! Same questions ^^
Character questionnaire : What is the most important question to answer about your characters?
I don’t know what the most important is, but typically the first thing I work out about a character is what I want them to overcome/learn by the end of the story. Basically what’s the main point of them being there - where are they going?
Song bird : If you could pick three songs to capture the feel of your WIP, what would they be and why?
This was damn hard! I have full playlists for all my WIPs, but Campus is so new that I’ve not thought about it yet! For Project Campus right now, I’d say..
Better With You - Jesse McCartney (both for Mar and Diya’s relationship, and like all the Guardians and their Grims)Face My Fears - Utada Hikaru & Skrillex (kinda gives the feel for all four main charries)And like all of the Pandora Hearts and TRC soundtracks, as that’s what I listen to when I’m writing it, but in particular probably Preparation (the original isnt’ on youtube anymore sorry, but guys check out those OSTs)
Latest from Project Campus! Bit more than a line, but I needed to capture the whole moment that Odell snapped!
A small huff of air left Mar, a laugh that he struggled to keep in check.
Odell’s chest rose as his eyes widened, his eyebrows practically melding into the lines on his forehead. “Well. Since the pair of you find sweeping so educational, you’ll be on clean-up duty for the rest of summer,” he said, voice quiet, dripping in a barely contained anger. “And if you’re both cocky enough to return next summer, you’ll be on it again.”
Diya winced.
“And, if the admissions are somehow brainless enough to let the two of you in here as, god forbid, actual students, you will be on clean-up duty for the rest of your sorry careers!”
Tagging some more peeps from the tag post if you fancy it! @marewriteblr @writer-jessicac @bookish-actor
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