It all seemed to come as a realization to them. I guess it's the whole death-is-on-the-line jolt of power and confidence.

they all agreed on afterward was the rush they got from personal combat.

Tisn't only Slayers who get that. Ask any SCA fighter. Except for the fact that I hate sweating that much, I'd be out there still.

Lots of people enjoy an adrenaline rush. doesn't matter where they get it.

Tisn't only Slayers who get that. Ask any SCA fighter. Except for the fact that I hate sweating that much, I'd be out there still.

Word. Well, three, actually. [Pennsic field battle] And the sweat is of the good, it carries all those pheromones and stuff.

Of course, when Hubby's reliably back on his feet, I'll be a member of his siege engine crew. Still, it's few wives these days who can say they've stood on the field of battle side by side with their husband, covering each other's backs.

How do you find the old SCA fighter? War stories at the drop of a hat. Heck, we won't even wait for you to find a hat.

I'd love to do SCA and partake in Pennsic. But I don't have the patience to squire or the moolah to make mine own armor.

Guess I'll have to be happy beating on my friends with bamboo and whalin' on a heavy bag with my fists.

Which does not, much to my disappointment, include wearing armor.

How do you find the old SCA fighter? War stories at the drop of a hat. Heck, we won't even wait for you to find a hat.

Hee. That hat hasn't a chance in hell of hitting the ground, in any case. No shit, there we were ...

Oh, speaking of which, did I tell the story of the time I went to the PBP 2002 instead of going to Estrella? Friends of mine found the website with the pictures of me with Buffy friends and Buffy celebs and photoshopped them. They put up an alternative site with a bunch of Estrella pics and me (from the PBP) inserted into them, as if I was in the desert instead of Hollywood. No, no, they weren't mad (or jealous) at all.

MM, did you see these pics when I linked earlier this year? Pennsic photos

You can see my purple shoulder, I'm the second from the left in that pic.

I help run a game that uses padded weapons. We have an SCA guy who comes out occasionally and pretty much mops the floor with all but the best of us. (Myself included. Though I'm getting better against him.) He invited me to come out to some SCA events, but I have neither the free time nor the money to get that involved. The mass battles would be a hell of a lot of fun, though. So for now I settle for whacking people with padded sticks every other Saturday night during the summer and fall.

Guess I'll have to be happy beating on my friends with bamboo and whalin' on a heavy bag with my fists.

We actually used to use shinai, but after an incident that involved two people on the ground bleeding we decided to reassess the equipment we used.:) Though I still remember sparring with one of my friends and my cousin in the snow in 20 degree weather for about 4 hours straight when we first got the shinai. 5 minutes after we came in from the cold we ached so much we could barely move. But it was a ton of fun.

We actually used to use shinai, but after an incident that involved two people on the ground bleeding we decided to reassess the equipment we used.:)

I can dig it. Better'n boken, though.

Though I still remember sparring with one of my friends and my cousin in the snow in 20 degree weather for about 4 hours straight when we first got the shinai. 5 minutes after we came in from the cold we ached so much we could barely move. But it was a ton of fun.

To show my twisted psyche, one of the best summers I ever had I was starving, unemployed and broke. All me and my roommates could do when we weren't looking for jobs was beat each other with shinai. Hours upon hours in the hottest summer to hit Michigan in years, hitting each other, eating blackberries off the bushes next to the vacant lot we practiced in and drinking water out of cleaned-out 2-liter bottles. Comin' home only when the light was gone bloodied, bruised and sore.

Neighbors thought we were maniacs, and I guess we were, but it was a blast.

Heh. I almost got my hand broken when a friend and I were sparring with (blunted) steel swords (trying very hard to keep contact light.) We decided after that to invest in the shinai.

It's funny, in a way, that the older I get, the less lethal the objects I attempt to hit my friends with.

Nothing really beats the ring of steel on steel, though. I'm surprised we never got the cops called on us, since you could hear it across the neighborhood. (Especially since we've had the cops called on us three times over the 5 years we've been using the padded sticks instead.)