Festival of Maidens

Having read the weather reports for Saturday, Lee and I got up earlier
than we might have otherwise and drove off into the snow and ice.
Well, the ice was gone once we got out of Chillicothe, and we were
down to snow. Honestly, the roads themselves were fine, it was the
snow blowing across them that was making it impossible to see.

But we arrived safely at the site, the most harrowing part of the
drive being getting into the hotel parking lot and parked. Having
pre-registered made getting through Troll a bit faster, but most
importantly, involved less paperwork that day.

I was all jittery from the drive, and after unpacking our car, found
various other errands I could do to not get on peoples' nerves as
badly.

I greeted everyone I even vaguely knew, and finally ended up talking
to Jason and Angie. I was checking to see what Jason needed from me
before authorizing and was quite pleased to see that Rob had it all
under control. Vicki greeted me with a hug "for my favorite" something
garbled. "Your favorite sweaty fighter? No, that's him..."
"Barbarian." "Oh! Thank you!" Rob sure has a sweet lady.

Carlo asked me if I was willing to be an authorization partner for
sword and shield. I said I was willing but I had not sword or shield
with me. Auth partner was not something I had prepared for. Now I
know. I quickly donned my armor and went to warm up Jason and
realized that he's never fought against pole arm. Since he didn't
actually need to learn before authorizing, I let it go but tried to
not overwhelm him with how to kill me.

After resting a bit, Jason was up for his authorization bout. He had
quite a crowd of supporters, I am pleased to report. Of course, the
marshals banished him to the corner away from us, then looked around,
"Can anybody give this man some advice?" Which mostly boiled down to
"relax, breathe, just fight how you know to fight."

Before his off-hand section, Rocky and I went in search of his
left-handed demi-gauntlet. While looking through his bag, we weren't
sure if there was a full gauntlet for his right hand over by the
field, so we rounded up Rocky's. Returning, we noticed that Rob had
his gauntlets on. Oh well, overkill is better than underprepared.

Even though he was nervous, Jason aquitted himself very well, as any
of us at practice could have predicted. He even took well the marshal
coming over an announcing "I have bad news... You made it."

Jason and I were the only Illitonites in the novice tourney. At the
first round, I made sure we weren't against each other. Although I had
very little to do with his training, I was proud as anything when his
first opponent fell. He took my head-butt gracefully. Although my
first opponent tried to stay at his range, not mine, I managed to
defeat him. I told Jason that that was the proper way to kill a pole
arm. This might have been better saved for later :-) We both lost our
second bouts, and my third bout was against Jason. Who learns quickly
and defeated me. "Only because you were being nice to me," he later
said. "I am not nice in tournaments. You earned that." I don't know
that he believed me, but it's true.

One gentle almost shield-punched me, "watch the shield, please," I
called out. He apologized and was nicely agressive without worrying me
until he killed me. He came up later to apologize,  apparently he had
incorrectly read my mind. I assured him no harm was done, it was just
a "please watch out." He double checked me. I love SCA fighting.

My second bout was against a lady I later learned was called Raven, a
squire of Palymar's. She stepped into my front pocket, rained blows on
me, then grabbed my pole in her shield hand and didn't let go until
she's beaten me. It was beautiful. She was defeated by Rosien in the
final bout.

I grabbed a couple quick pick-ups before the pool tourney. One gentle
was trying to teach me (in the middle of sparring) to change my
grappling technique.The way things were goin, I was having trouble
keeping my elbows and knees out of the action, so I called hold and
quit the field.

The pool tourney started shortly after. I was in pool 1, and there was
an impressive list of names before mine. I asked Rob to return my body
to my lady. He said only if he got my armor and some amber. Looking at
the other lists, mine was no more "scary" than the others, but I had
to work to not be intimidated walking onto the field. "You can pick
your partner or hold the field for a set number of fights, whatever,
as long as it's fast," said the marshals. Great, just what I disliked
most about high school.

I double killed once and won two bouts, which is the best I've ever
done in the pool tourney. Raven was in my pool. "You're not gonna do
that again." "I'll try not to." "Nonononono, if you can get it, I
deserve it. And you're not gonna get it again." She grinned. I fought
a large man, Ivar's squire, in red. He threw a blow just as I stepped
in, and my brain exploded in stars. I don't know taht hold was
actually called, and I stayed on my feet. He was apologizing before I
realized what had happened. Carlo threatened me with a chirurgeon. My
opponent said he would re-fight me later if I was OK, not now. I
walked off the field and took my helm off. "Water, Virithos?" It was
the lady I met in Ravenslake. "Thank you." After a bit, I put my helm
on. No pain. Shook my head. OK. Stood up. Still good. Gently hit my
helm. Alright. I searched out the squire in red. He dispached me a bit
gently, but I didn't make him hit me any harder.

I fought Roland, who was half-swording. I hadn't fought that before,
so he explained the rules. "You can say no, and I'll have to just use
it like a regular greatsword." "Oh, that sounds like great fun. Just
watch out if I start to get too rough." "Ah." Nothing exciting
happened, but it was cool to know what could have. (in half-swording,
some grappling of the blade is allowed, with certain restrictions)

Since I had sat out for a bit, there were like four people waiting
around just to fight me. Alright, I'll take 'em all in a row. This
included most of the knights in my pool. I did my best fighting of the
day then, though I had no victories to show for it. Man I had fun.

I had some food, did some shopping, bought soapstone for Signy.
"Somebody's gong to be making molds!" "No, spindle whorls." The man I
bought scent from was Horde, and, of course, knew AElf, so we talked a
bit.

The tourney was still going on. My head was starting to pound where
I'd taken the punch. My sweat was cold. I took my armor off,
convincing myself that a potential head injuryshould be coddled. Ix
caught me, "You'll never make knight that way!" "I know," I hung my
head. But when Signy found me, she convinced me I had done right.

I took a shower. Blessed, blessed hot water. Signy and AElf were
watching Jens nap in the adjoining room, and I had to discourage him
from showering with me (I know he didn't really want to, he just
wanted in the toilet to see what treasures might be there). The shower
smelled of smoking, and the shower head was at my chest, but it was
wonderful. I came out of the shower to find myself closed in a room
with a toddler. "Virithos, please let me in," I hear Signy's voice
from the hall. Jens had gotten both his baby-sitters in one room, then
closed the adjoining door, locking them out. We put the deadbolts out,
and had no more of that problem!

I got dressed in all my finery and went down to schmooze. I had
brought my weasel-fur hat, and I was excited to show it off, even to
people who had already seen it a few times (that day, even). As the
evening grew later, I started showing it to complete stranges,
spreading the joy of that soft fur. And getting no few strange looks
to my utterly normal offer of "Touch my weasle," or "put your hand in
here." All the responses I got ended favorably excpt for Cerian's
"So?" He will not get to pet my hat again.

I was torn away from my noble persuit to get dinner in order. It was
decided to order food, rather than going out, which was fine with me.
I went in with the pizza crowd, even though it meant I got fed half an
hour after the Cineese food people. (Good thing for me, though, I hear
that the Chineese was spicy, even the not-normally-spicy stuff.)

I watched Jens run around for a while. The boys and adult male playing
catch fascinated him. Even the kids were very good about letting him
play as best as he could. When I went upstairs to change him, I
noticed how nicely quiet it was. So after returning him to his parents
(And letting Rosien, who was crashing on our other bed, into the
room), I went and laid in the room in the quiet, reading The Onion,
America's finest news source (a parody newspaper). Some people drifted
through and were social, but it was pretty quiet.

Although it was a lot less crowded than usual, due to the weather, I
liked the breathing room. I still don't care for that site.

In the morning, Rosien awoke before Signy and I, but didn't make any
noise. We got out of bed to happy baby noises, and, on realizing that
the adults in the other room weren't talking, and might still be
asleep, we convinced Rowan and Jens to play in our room. We were later
accused of kidnapping, see if I help them sleep in again!

Most of our stuff was already in the car, so we packed quickly, and I
put my coat on to take a load to the car, and Jens started crying.
Definately because I was leaving. It's nice to feel loved like that,
but come on, kid!

We got directions to Katy's for breakfast, and the grocery store to
get stuff for our share. Unfortunately, the final directions were
"You'll know it's her house, and it'll have a Inchingvan in front of
it." We drove and drove and drove, not knowing what the Inchingvan
looks like, and finally called and demanded a house number. When we
got thre, two vehicles we did recognize were there. But food was not
finished yet, so it was OK.

The kids were called to breakfast first, but quickly Roisen and I were
the only ones in the living room. "You guys can come in here!" "I
didn't think there was room!" And there wasn't. Then Maire made the
mistake of wandering into the living room with a piece of bacon in her
hand. Roisen and I looked at each other. "I bet we could take her."
"Me too." "Let's." And Maire was attacked from both sides! Her first
instinct was to put it above her head. But I'm not short. With two of
us, she was hopelessly outdone. I had a grand old time. And I got a
sliver of bacon out of it!

Finally, some people finished eating, and there was room for us to
sit. I ate like a starving monster. It was much fun. We did a full car
shuffle so taht Signy and I could finally return Katy's borrowed
pavallion to her. Then, since we were parked in, we had to wait until
everyone else left before we could say our goodbyes! But we got home
around noon.

All in all, I think this is the best Maidens I've been to.

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