something something grace is a "retired" (emphasis on retired) joust knight who got banned from competing because he yelled at an opponent in front of like. the king lmao. so anyways he moves to Nothingville and teaches math to kids UNTIL stratt - my lovely stratt- my lovely herald calls him back to help her plan an interplanetary joust (my liege i care not. my liege this is a sci-fi x middle ages au)
grace trains the other knights and as canon wants one of them dies so stratt enrolls grace even if he doesn't want to. he's done with tourneys and he's done risking his life yada yada yada you're swinging that lance lad! and rocky is his squire and tactitian/master of arms
on the other hand simon is an exhiled and dishonored knight who's wandering the lands. initially he doesn't know how to walk the path of exhile and although he's good at hunting he's very.... bad... at foraging. to the point that he eats something he shouldn't and starts Suffering
luckily he's found by none other than adrian who is DRUM ROLL a herbalist! so they haul simon over their carapace and get whatever he ingested out of him and simon wakes up and looks at adrian and they look at him and simon goes hey can you teach me. and they become inseparable i tell you there's not a day they don't walk the lands together after simon's fully recovered. i'm saying adrian packs their stuff and becomes a wanderer they don't even hesitate
sometime before the interplanetary joust grace manages to escape because he chickens out and makes stratt lose his tracks (she actually knows where he is) (but she's confident he'll come back) (which he of course does) and whomp there it is! the knights meet. one is fleeing while the other's arriving and they'd gladly move on with their lives if it weren't for rocky and adrian imprinting on each other and Falling In Love and wanting to never ever part
compromise: making camp halfway. pro: close to everything. con: close to everything. they get to roam the woods in peace but they're also very aware that the city is always somehow watching and ready to flush them out
the knights are absolutely not cooperative at first but they warm up to each other quite quickly and weird things happen but they don't talk about them and rocky and adrian are an item now so there's no point in pretending that all their lives will need adapting soon enough
one night they're by a river as rocky and adrian wash and tend to each other and grace and simon are sitting by the bank and grace comes clean about why and from what he's running and simon tells him about why he's in exhile (he's partially guilty of letting fire eat at an entire town). by the end of the conversation grace looks at simon and goes i need to go back, don't i and simon replies i think you do
grace proves stratt right and he's got a Big Man following him around now and stratt tries to pry and ask why that is and grace tells her that he needs a peculiar doctor for my..... peculiar..... things. problems. rashes you know those guys and she stares. deadpans no i don't but she's cool with it as long as grace does his job
he gets back to training and he's sharing a room with simon at the castle and simon is actually pretty good at sword fighting and he's very good with the court's children and the citadel likes him and rocky likes him and adrian is wonderful and they get to live comfortably for a bit
so grace enters the lists and wins a few tourneys on the first round of the joust but something Happens and on the night between the first tourney and second dun dun duuun another knight dies which is terrible because 1) grace is a man with HUGE feelings 2) stratt is a woman with a task and she almost loses it because earth's short of a champion
simon is quiet for a moment. pondering. he really thinks it through. he rises from his chair and asks stratt to let him swing the lance on earth's side. before she can answer grace blurts out absolutely not you've got no vows on you and simon really really looks at him and takes the whole of him in and goes make me swear them again, then and stratt could knight him, she really could and it'd be so swift but no, we're asking ryland grace. so she watches as grace almost faints. leaves them alone. and grace tells simon he's signed up to risk his life, not simon's, this is not how things should go and simon just smiles. and grace knights him. fade to black wink wink
so simon enters the lists. and grace has an inkling but he's never dared to ask about it because there are certain things simon won't talk about but yeah. he's troubled by an Entity. and although the first tilt goes well, the second is ruinous and simon's mind shatters. in order to stop him from doing something irreversible, his opponent wields his sword and bye bye simon's arm you'll be missed
and that's it folks, this is what i got! i'll be back #trust
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