Elsinore, Denmark; Thursday afternoon
King Claudius"Bring the wine, steward," Claudius commanded as Hamlet and Laertes set up to fight.
He pulled a pearl the size of a marble out of his sleeve and held it up for the court to see. "If our son," he smiled at Gertrude, "scores the first or second point or manages to make up Laertes' lead by scoring in the third pass, I shall throw this pearl into this cup and demand the trumpets and heavens sound the news that the King drinks to Hamlet."
He gestured to Hamlet and Horatio. "Come then! Let's begin. Judges, keep your eyes on these two."
HamletHamlet did a basic salute to Laertes with his foil, and stared his opponent in the eyes.
"Are you ready?"
Laertes"Indeed, as I hope you are," Laertes said, his eyes narrowed. He performed a perfunctory salute as well and raised his foil.
It was time.
HamletHamlet paused for a moment, and sized up Laertes, before making a sudden thrust towards his chest with his foil. He hadn't been keeping up with his fencing practice enough at Fandom High; his movements were slower than they used to be, and he could already feel the muscle strain from the fighting.
LaertesLaertes parried quickly, glad that Hamlet had telegraphed the move; he may have been training for this, but he would admit privately that Hamlet was the better fencer, or had been before he had left for school two years prior.
Hopefully he himself had improved greatly of late, although he didn't need to win this duel to settle his honor. He jabbed out towards the side, losing himself in the rhythm of the fight and the clash of the foils.
HamletHamlet did have to admit that Laertes was better now than when they'd last play sparred two years ago. He was good, but he probably didn't have any experience practicing with blonde bandits with no mercy, or Narnian kings with style.
Hamlet met and deflected Laertes' attack, before dropping down low, and stabbing back up at his opponent.
LaertesLaertes hadn't expected the sudden upward jab, and blocked it late. Damn the stupid boy. He batted away the foil with his and struck out harder, beginning to lose his temper. He was focusing less on the fight now and more on his anger, which always made him a touch careless. Damn him.
HamletHamlet felt the foil hit something and bend, and retreated back a bit. He was starting to get into the duel, and smiled in the exhilaration. He was already starting to feel a little out of breath, but far too excited to give up.
"One," he called out, counting the hit.
Laertes"No," cried Laertes quickly. It hadn't hit. He'd blocked it. A late block still counted as a block.
He stepped back a moment himself, taking a breath and trying to regain his temper.
HamletHamlet rolled his eyes. That Laertes was so stubborn.
"Judges?" he called, looking over towards the audience.
Judge"A hit," the judge ruled. "A palpable hit."
LaertesLaertes nodded, taking another deep breath. His temper had cooled down a touch. One hit was nothing. Let the boy have it.
"Very well. Come, we start again." With that he lifted his foil into position.
King ClaudiusClaudius beckoned a servant to give him another glass of wine and dropped the pearl in. "The pearl is yours, Hamlet. To your health." He handed the cup to the servant. "Take this to him."
HamletHamlet waved off the cup, partially because he didn't trust his uncle as far as he could throw him, and partially because he was too wrapped up in the fight.
"I'll take that later. I want to finish this match first." He motioned Laertes forward with the fingers on his free hand. "Come."
Laertes"As you say," said Laertes, grinning a bit in spite of himself. It had been ages since he'd had a competent sparring partner, and he couldn't help but remember earlier matches against this same boy. He lifted his foil in a quick salute. "Shall we?"
And with that, he flashed out for a quick strike toward Hamlet's chest.
HamletHamlet saluted Laertes again, and barely had time for a parry with the speed of the other boy's thrust. He circled around Laertes and tried to get him off guard with a side thrust.
LaertesLaertes jumped, having not anticipated Hamlet's approach. He countered quickly, taking a step or two back to steady his balance before levelling his foil and striking out again.
HamletHamlet gave him a grin. Laertes was good indeed. He'd missed having a partner like this. He threw his weight backwards in a move to dodge the attack, before shifting again to lunge forward at Laertes.
LaertesAnd now it was Laertes falling back in time with Hamlet's thrust, parrying the other boy into a block, dancing a step forward and slashing out once more against Hamlet's blade.
HamletHamlet moved in to be almost nose to nose with the other boy in order to block Laertes' thurst. A smile of pure enjoyment spread over his face at the difficultly level of the fight. In a quick move he fell back to get more space, circled round again, and thrust his foil towards Laertes' lower chest.
His grin widened as he felt it press against something. "Another hit, wouldn't you say?" he asked with a smug smirk.
LaertesLaertes brought his arm up quickly but it was too late; the other boy's foil was clearly pressing him. He shook his head, mouth in a tight line. "A touch, I will admit."
He exhaled and stepped back, still holding his foil defensively, wishing suddenly that it was simpler times and they were only sparring, enjoying the movement of the fight for its own sake. Wishing that he could forget what was on his blade, and what it meant for his old friend.
King ClaudiusClaudius looked over at Gertrude with a proud smirk. "Our son shall win," he told her, a sheen of condescension in his voice.
Queen Gertrude"Of course he shall," Gertrude said smoothly, standing up and walking over to where her son stood waiting for the fight to start again.
"But my dearest, you are covered in sweat. Come, take my handkerchief." She held it out to him, and then her eyes fell on the glass of wine sitting nearby. Gertrude smiled, a touch mischeviously. "And if the Prince will not drink to his own health, then the Queen shall do it for him. It would be a shame to waste good wine, would it not?"
HamletHamlet groaned and rolled his eyes. Did she have to do this to him in public, in the middle of a fight?
"Mo~~~ther..." he whined quietly to her.
King Claudius"Gertrude, do not drink," Claudius said quietly. "The boys have more passes."
Queen GertrudeQueen Gertrude raised an eyebrow at her husband, and answered a touch coolly. "We shall pour more wine for those passes, and perhaps then I shall drink again. If it offends you, my lord, then you shall simply have to forgive me."
She took a drink from the cup and then held it out to her son again. "It is rather excellent wine. I can't tempt you to a sip?"
HamletHe shook his head.
"I don't want to drink until I finish up with this match. Once it is over, I will."
Getting drunk would make him tipsy, and he would start to lose his focus and concentration. If we was going to take on Laertes properly, he needed to be all there.
Queen Gertrude"All right," she sighed. "There shall be plenty of wine for your victory. But do let me wipe some of that sweat from your eyes. It's a wonder that you can see at all."
LaertesLaertes edged closer to Claudius. "I could do it now," he said in a low tone. "Get this overwith."
He tried to ignore the growing feeling in the pit of his stomach that he shouldn't do this at all.
King ClaudiusClaudius had been watching the interplay between Gertrude and Hamlet with foreboding and a growing amount of horror. "She drank the cup," he murmured. "It's too late."
He eyed Laertes as he approached. "I've not seen a sign you can do it yet," Claudius snapped at the younger man.
HamletAfter letting his Mother wipe the sweat from off his brow (and really, he wasn't six anymore, he could do that himself), Hamlet noticed that Laertes was over talking with Claudius. He wondered what the two were talking about, but didn't want them to get too far into their conversation.
"Are you returning for a third go at it, or just wasting time? You need to actually try to win this. I wouldn't want to think that you were only playing with me," he taunted.
In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done that.
LaertesThe pit of his stomach could go to hell, and him merrily along with it.
Laertes jumped forward without waiting for a signal, sweeping his foil across madly to hit somewhere, anywhere on Hamlet. Damned precocious headstrong idiot boy.
HamletHamlet wasn't expecting Laertes to jump in so soon, and was unprepared to the sudden attack. He fell back, and he let out a loud cry of pain as Laertes' foil ripped into his flesh.
The foils were supposed to be baited and dull. He'd cheated? He'd cheated and brought an actually deadly rapier to a 'friendly' duel?!
Hamlet looked down to see a nasty large cut spread open and bloody across his arm, a little above the elbow. For some reason, this one hurt much more than any cut he'd ever had before in his life.
LaertesLaertes looked at the bloody wound on Hamlet's arm, eyes growing wide. He'd done it. He'd done it. Family avenged, honor restored, he'd ... what had he done?
His mouth ran dry as he lifted the foil again, a half-hearted swipe towards Hamlet's chest, oh what had he done!?!
HamletThe flesh immediately around the cut was starting to go numb, which would have struck Hamlet as being very odd, if he hadn't felt a surge of anger at Laertes. When the other boy attacked again, Hamlet used his own foil to smack the weapon out of Laertes' hand.
Dropping his own original foil, Hamlet picked up the sharp blade and assumed an attack position. Two could play that game.
LaertesLaertes panicked. Hamlet's blade was on the ground, which meant stepping closer, but without it he had no defense against a sharp thrust, and there had been plenty of poison on that foil for two.
He dove quickly, hoping to scoop up Hamlet's dropped weapon and bring it up to block before Hamlet moved in.
His life depended on it.
HamletHamlet let Laertes pick up the weapon. He had too much pride and honour to allow himself to attack an unarmed opponent.
Once Laertes had the weapon in hand, Hamlet went in for a hard thrust, straight at his heart.
Odd, it was getting hard to feel most his other arm at all now.
LaertesHe had it! He had it, and he took just a moment to draw a relieved breath before jumping up and into position and --
Laertes took just a split second too long to see that Hamlet was moving in for the strike.
As the edge of the foil tore into his skin, he realized that he had flubbed the most important block of his life. And very probably, the last.
King ClaudiusClaudius stood at the sight and waved to the judges. "Break them up!" he called. "This is over."
HamletHamlet shook his head.
"No, I can keep going," he said with a fierce determination. "Come at me again," he said to Laertes.
He tried to raise his other hand to beckon Laertes forward. It didn't respond.
[OOC: Continues later today. Not for broadcast due to distance, but OOC comments are always welcome. Major thanks to the party posse once_a_king and the_merriest for all their help with the preplay and the coding.]