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"How was school, honey?"
She tries to make the kids' favorite meals on their first day of school, but when she asked Iomedae's favorite meal the girl first stared at her blankly and then after some extended clarifications proposed that they could roast a pig, and she can't actually roast a pig, so dinner is pork chops, and potatoes, and salad from the farmer's market. Iomedae is not a picky eater.
(The girl is in fact clinically obese. The doctor suggested they talk with her about cutting back on junk food, but the social worker said that was a bad idea, with a kid new to care - don't restrict her food access at all, just get her more exercise. So Jenny signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA and for track and field at school. Iomedae balked at the swimming lessons on the grounds that swimsuits were immodest, and they do actually make hijabi wetsuit things but apparently not in her size. Hopefully track and field she'll actually enjoy.)
"- I mean, not -" She turns around and takes a proper swing at murdering the fencepost. "That kill a man if he is not a strong man. But - can I grab you to show -"
"I -" Lucy has absolutely no idea whether this will turn out well and suspects it won't. But if Iomedae is operating under too much of a language barrier to justify herself... "Sure you can."
Then Iomedae will step behind Lucy and put her in an extremely light not actually alarming chokehold. "Martin do this. So I sword, but - no a good sword, there - and Martin grab the sword - I think he thinked it not real steel -"
Lucy's automatically running through all the options she thinks she'd have in this situation, starting with stamping on the guy's toe and progressing to aikido and then trying to just reverse grip the sword and slide it backwards and if that didn't work trying to reverse the sort of movement she'd do for a wrap... but if the sword got grabbed, that's a tight spot.
"Do you know how to fight without a sword?"
"Fight a person smaller than me with no sword, yes. Fight a grow man with no sword, that stupid, do it three time you are dead."
"I don't think-" Lucy starts, and then hesitates, because obviously she has beaten plenty of people bigger than her in fights but she was never attacked on the street when she was fifteen.
"I learned to fight without a sword partly because - I'm a warrior, right, and that means I have extra responsibility. Someone attacking me is being stupid and - the penalty for stupidity isn't death? Fighting a grown man with no sword is stupid if you die in three fights but.... I really don't know if I do? Maybe you do, maybe now. But if you train you'll be scary pretty soon."
" - when I sworded Martin I take him to a church. I think God fix him, and then maybe the law kill him, but him sworded not matter very much, because God fix it. Here, God does not fix hurt people. The hospital do it. Maybe the hospital do it no good as God. It no take God months fix broken arm.
A holy warrior extra responsibility. I think - a holy warrior extra responsibility to Martin, also extra responsibility to the other girls on that farm, scared of Martin. It is better if Martin not die of sword. Law maybe kill Martin, that is fine, but if the law do it he has time to be sorry.
Since it is better if Martin not die, some time it is better, take more chance to die so that Martin not die.
Is that all right?"
"I.... yes. I mean - honestly anything you said here would be all right because you're taking this way more seriously than I think most people would want to? And, uh, for me.... it would be one thing if I was not trained, and I panicked and couldn't really help stabbing someone five times, but... I'm good at fighting, enough that I can't blame panic, and I have to try and stop someone without killing them first. Maybe you're not that good yet but - I think you might be soon. And it's... really good you managed not to kill the guy but you got very lucky, I've never heard of a church healing anyone and I think sometimes the hospital can't fix it if you have enough stab wounds... and I'm sorry if it's really not my place to say that. I think you probably did - a really really good job - protecting the other girls from Martin."
"Panicked is, no thinking good, just doing stupid things? I did not do that. I thinked, and thinked sword Martin, and sworded Martin. I think Martin lucky that the hospital fix it, because if he die he go to Hell. Now he have time to think. I think....I thinked that the church heal him, and this was not true, but if I knowed the church not heal him, I think I do the same thing? I think it is bad if Martin die, but - it is much more bad no stop Martin. A really strong fighter no need a sword, but - I think you should a sword, if Martin try you."
"I... am almost definitely not going to have a sword on me in most situations where I might get assaulted in the street. You are also mostly going to not have a sword - I am kind of confused and surprised you were just, carrying a sword around a mundane street in your mundane clothes? And people... let you do that?"
"Right now I no sword because I am a foster child. But the police sayed a free person can a small sword, and a small sword is better for Martin situations. I gived my small sword to Maria because Martin scare her, so only have my big sword."
"Um. I'm not a foster child and I basically never take my sword anywhere mundane? I think you maybe can have one legally but literally none of us carry our swords to like... the supermarket. Like - zero of us are going to wear swords in Waffle House."
"You can't just bring a sword to a Waffle House in case you need to stab someone!"
"Um. So. Probably nobody is going to attack us at Waffle House. So having swords would just be... scaring people for no reason. And if someone did get into a confrontation with us, it would be way more likely to turn into a fight, if we all had our swords and it was... too easy to draw them. And we really do not want anyone to pull out a gun. And - even if we do get into an unarmed fight because someone's drunk and starts punching, we're already advantaged to win that, and other people would be more likely to be on our side if we did not have swords. We can probably sit on a guy until the cops show up but if we had our swords out than the cops are going to have so many more questions. And they'd be right to - it's not - it's not honourable to go around preparing for a fight when you don't have to?"
" - if people see a holy warrior with a sword, they are not scared, they are happy, unless they are evil. Holy warrior have sword mean everyone is safer. A holy warrior no start a fight, and try to end one with no one dying. ...Sir Gabriel is no a holy warrior. When Jenny no obedient to him I am scared he will kill her. It is like that?"
"I don't think anyone feels safer around.... holy warriors who stab people with swords in Waffle House! That's kind of just terrorism which sort of by definition makes people feel less safe? ...also wait why would you think Gabriel would kill anyone, he's a giant softy who wouldn't hurt a fly?"
"He wear steel! Most people who wear steel kill someone who not obey them! ....you think people not feel safer around holy warriors? I think that is wrong. The people I with before I was made a foster child, they was glad I holy warrior."
Was she living with some kind of cult, or jihadist organization, or horribly abusive Church or - what the actual heck
"I think people in armour are mostly much less likely to kill you because most SCAdians aren't murderers and also I think people have done a lot of horrible murders in the name of religion and I do not think anyone calling themselves a holy warrior - and not meaning, like, they reenact the Crusades - should have a sword in Waffle House or.... probably anywhere?"
