Swords clashing, bards singing, what better way to spend a day? Max grinned enthusiastically as he took in the sights. He was wearing light armor over a plain t-shirt and jeans. He had made it himself using some old lacrosse pads he had picked up at a thrift store and some modeling clay and silver paint. A blunted sword hung in a sheathe at his hip and he had carved out a shield from some old plywood lying around in an alley. He had painted it and it bore the sigil of a hawk on the front in bright green paint.

The Renaissance Festival had come to NYC for the weekend, taking over one of the farms just outside the city limits. Hundreds of people had shown up to play amongst the stalls and booths in the fantasy land. Max had decided that maybe a little escapism would do it well.

He passed a blacksmith tent and took a moment to watch ad the worker hammered out a sword. The tent had a number of old weapons hanging on the wall with price tags on them. A little down the way was a makeshift tavern consisting of a number of table by a wooden stand with a grill behind it. Max passed a number of more interesting things including a "wizards school", "a fortune teller" and "a bestiary".

Overall the atmosphere was fantastic. Max made his way to a large circle that had probably been used for horses before the festival. At the moment however it had been divided into numerous rings where men in armor fought one another. He saw sitting on a wooden throne under a canopy a woman sitting watching. Max looked over at the sign ups and put his name down. A little battle for honor and glory would be fun.

He stood around waiting for his turn and watched the crowd.

Most people who knew Jayden would have been surprised to see her at a Renaissance festival.  Leather clad punk that she was, nothing about her spoke to a love of such a bygone era.  An appreciation of swords, knives and other things generally pointy likely wouldn't shock anyone, but the rest of it?  Some things were best appreciated in privacy, especially when most of the people in her past likely would have mocked her for her interest.  Living on the streets made for a hard life with hard people and while she no longer lived that life, it never really left completely.

Paying her entrance fee (it was so good to even have the money for a luxury like this), she began her slow meander around the festival grounds.  Not so much of a fan as to dedicate her entire weekend, today would be a nice, casual day trip and screw anyone who dared to suggest she wasn't a real fan if she didn't immerse herself completely.  Casual fan she may be, but that didn't mean she had any less a right to be there.  So maybe she was just a little defensive of perceived judgement, but who could blame her?  Judgmental asses were everywhere.  If encountered today, she'd be trying really really hard not to make any of them bleed.  That kind of behavior was usually frowned upon in and she didn't want to get kicked out.

The atmosphere of the place as fantastic and, despite her brain deciding that there were all sorts of people out there just looking for an excuse to tell her just how much she didn't belong, she didn't actually encounter anything but smiles and welcome.  The sword booth she spent an especially long time at, vowing to come back before the day was done to actually purchase something.  Now that she had money, perhaps it was well past time to make a start on an actual collection.  

The first time Jayden passed the sign-ups for the mock battles of honor she passed it by.  She got into enough real fights with real blood and real injury, so why did she need to enter a mock fight?  This wasn't like those fights, however, now was it?  There were no mutant powers, no mutants defending pilfered goods, no anger and no one looking for anyone else's death.  Maybe it would be a fun change and, on a whim, she wrote her name down on the list.