Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Well, I just can’t believe it.”

Unusually calm for what’s happened. The squire looked upon the form in front of him. A gorgeous set of fluted armour of Nuremberg that has walked up to him, though nobody was inside of it. The rerebrace of the arm harness creaked as the figure opened their visor. The squire chuckled.

“Well, yep, you’re definitely telling the truth. Not seeing any body in there.” The visor clapped back shut. The armoured knight Konrad, somehow, spoke.

“So, now what, Jobst? I’m happy you’re still willing to serve, but there's no chance I can enter back into any place where people live. I’m an outlaw now. Are you listening?” They turned around, the mail shirt underneath the armour justling with the motion, but stopped when realising Jobst was trying to see the back of them.

“Just what I thought. Straight through to the cuisses. There’s not much hiding that, for now anyway.” Konrad looked at the back of their legs. Sure enough, one could see the other side of their tassets, as well as the complete inside of the articulated leg harness. While their physical body was certainly gone, a large amount of it had been essentially preserved with form fitting steel, a cast that has outlived its owner. “Hey,” Jobst continued after a momentary pause. “We should check out how your armour moves now. I mean, the tip of your sabatons could nearly touch the front of your angle with how flexible it was. Fantastic craftsmanship. You think you can bend your… “body” like that now?”

Well, it was worth a test. Konrad began doing stretches to find out the limits of their new body. Bringing their left arm out across their breastplate to their right, one of the first noticings was the curvature of their breastplate. It extended out farther than Konrad’s visor, forcing them to bring their arm harness out further for the exercise. When bringing their arm back down to repeat on the other side, their arm harness hit into their lance rest. This was something fine for combat, though for general life it could be a general annoyance. Of course, their gorget was as flexible as ever, with a satisfying ‘cachunk’ to the gorgeously articulated lames as Konrad moved their helmet in a circular motion. Their arm and leg harnesses were completely identical to human levels of flexibility, including the lack of ability to go “backwards”. The steel form wasn’t made for that, after all. It was when opening and closing their mitten-style gauntlets that they noticed their sense of touch was completely gone; in the moment it was certainly more impactful than the fact they no longer have ‘fingers’ in a human sense, making tasks such as writing very difficult.

On the plus side, their sabatons were still as bendy as when they weren’t their body. A satisfying ‘chink’ could be heard as the front of the greave and the tip of the sabaton met.

Clearly enjoying this way too much, Jobst spoke with a smile on his face. “Heyy, that’s pretty cool! I’m sure we both noticed a few of the issues of the new body - that lance rest seems particularly annoying. It could still be useful if you’re planning on continuing fighting?” Konrad was barely listening to this, continuing to attempt to get used to their new form. Jumping in place a little, the front of their tassets bounced up and down with the motion, quietly tapping into the top of the cuisses. The sound of an armour harness moving without a human being was particularly melodious for anyone that enjoyed the sound of metal.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that now, anyway. The sun’s beginning to set, and unlike you I still need to rest.” Adjusting his sword belt, Jobst began walking over to some of the remaining tents from the battle that killed Konrad in the first place. “I bet you’re even more handy in a fight now, and there could be some brigands around. Come on, let’s go.” The knight, gleaming in the setting sun, took a second to respond, though they did begin to walk along. The two did still have a horse, though the logistics of riding or steering one with a steel body was something best left for tomorrow, Jobst thought.

There were no brigands in the remains of the camp, luckily. Moving into the life of an outlaw-associate unusually quickly, the squire began to search the area for any tents that seemed particularly comfortable. Konrad followed behind, quietly clanking, taking some time to find the words they wanted to say. “I… appreciate you helping me, Jobst. I’ll stand guard for the night while you sleep. I haven’t felt tired one bit.”

“It’s no problem! I’m your squire, after all. I do think you should stand guard for the night, I think the time to think would be good for you.” Jobst's eyes rose as he looked inside a tent with a bedroll of particularly nice linen, and, stepping inside, held the tent flap open to continue speaking. “I’m thinking tomorrow we should be polishing and oiling, well, your body. Nothing good would come from letting you rust up. It might feel pretty nice, too, look forward to it!”

With that, the tent flap closed, and Konrad was left alone outside. Not sure what else to do in that particular moment, they took a pose not too dissimilar to those they saw in armour stands of great armouring guilds. It felt comforting.

Chapter Text

Jobst wasn’t expecting nearly as calm of an awakening as they got. Instead of the sounds of brigands attacking the moving suit of armour in the night, or his master deciding he’s had enough sleep for one morning, he instead gently rose to the sunlight of the early morning filling the tent. With an eagerness to continue the new situation Jobst has found himself in, he made his way out of the tent to see… Konrad in the exact same position Jobst saw him in when going to bed. The lames of their helmet made a satisfying click as they turned around to see their squire.

“Have you… moved at all?” Jobst spoke. “I was expecting a bit more of a noisy night with you moving around…”

“You told me to stand guard, did you not?”

“Yeah… Hey, are you feeling better? I was hoping you’d be a bit more like yourself again. I’m not meant to be the one giving orders, haha.”

Konrad shrugged their spaulders, the slinking of their mail shirt following after the movement. “A knightly armour harness isn’t anything without a knight in it.”

Well, gee, Jobst was hoping Konrad would’ve taken the change with a tad more of an open mind. Focused on serving, he tried to make them feel just a bit better. “Hey, today’s the day where your new life properly begins! We’ll get your body done up all nice, and see if we can make you look human-enough for a trip back into a town.” Eyeing the living armour up and down, he quickly spotted new rust on the harness. A squire’s worst enemy; rust is a constant battle for armour both in and out of use. The thought that it was required to keep his master’s body functioning was a bit daunting, but it’s not like he didn’t have the experience. “I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better with that rust off you. Come on, have a seat and I’ll get you cleaned up.”

Heading towards the middle of the camp, where much of the proper infrastructure was in place for them, the two began to prepare for their separate tasks. Jobst began to unload some of his armour maintenance equipment off their horse, as well as some breakfast for himself while they worked. Meanwhile, Konrad dealt with the logistics of sitting. Specifically, the lack of armour on the back of their upper thigh or their behind meant that they lacked the proper body parts to sit down. The result was the culet’s and their fauld being the support for the rest of their body while sitting down, the lames moving upwards with some metallic clicking until they fully folded. While this could’ve been an issue if Konrad was alive, with the weight being placed on such a flexible piece of the harness, the lack of a body meant they only weighed a bit more than 20kg (45lb). While no horse would be comfortable with Konrad riding them, this awkward way of sitting wouldn’t be any issue in the near future.

Crunching on a mildly stale apple, Jobst called out “Hey Konrad, mind seeing if you can take off your gauntlet quickly?” The living armour did as told, reaching their right arm harness over to their left gauntlet (after avoiding the lance rest in the way), and, with a bit of shuffling of it, came right off, in the same way a tight fitting hat would. They were immediately spooked by the loss of motion they felt in their left hand, and quickly fit it back onto the space onto where their hand should be, with some fiddling. It was clear there was some method to the madness occurring, though this wasn’t something they particularly felt like learning. “That’s great, that makes my job a LOT easier.” Jobst spoke. “Alright, from what I see you have some rust on the front of your left spaulder, as well as inside of your breastplate. It’s been a while since I’ve properly polished the rest of the harness, too, so I thought getting it out of the way now would be best.”

“Okay… I’m not too sure it’ll feel nice, I haven’t been able to feel anything in this body.” Waiting for a response from Jobst, and not receiving any feedback, they continued “You can get started now.” He began with the left spaulder, or the upper arm of the knight. This involved undoing the straps holding the arm harness into place. While not wanting to ask, he was incredibly curious about the functioning of the limbs taken off, and went about it in a methodical manner. It was clear that not as when the straps were undone, but when the pieces moved too far away from their ‘correct’ location, that Konrad lost control of them. At least, that's what he gathered from the flinch-like rattling that slightly occurred from the living armour as he disconnected the gauntlet, vambrace, couter and finally the spaulder. Konrad was quite terrified of this whole process, which, in turn, spooked Jobst quite a bit. The knight, in life, was a beacon of confidence as many knights were, ready to fight their way out of being surrounded by enemies at any moment. It was only through this confidence that Jobst found the courage to do much of the actions required for a squire, including being in battle himself. The true surreality of taking apart his master for repairs and putting him back together again was setting in. Quietly, he continued working.

Taking a rag wrapped dowel and adding some amount of pig fat and brick dust to it. Jobst looked towards Konrad and nodded. “Ready?”. Konrad nodded back as silently and timidly as they could, though their gorget still clicked with the movement. It made their loud “STOP!” and some rustling from the remaining animate body pieces much louder in comparison.

“That hurts?” Jobst spoke.
“Yes, YES! It burns, even. Like sandpaper on skin…”
“Jesus… I suppose it is getting rid of that layer of steel.” He paused. “Hey, are you able to handle it, now that you know what to expect?” Konrad had little physical reaction to the pain beyond the initial sting; they would’ve been rubbing their pain with their other arm, if it was still attached.
“Yeah…” they nodded. “Yes, this has to be done. Don’t stop.”

With a small pause, Jobst continued. While the living armour didn’t yelp, or anything else expected from a person, their pain was evident. Firstly stomping their leg harness on the ground their faulds bouncing with the motion, before rolling over on the table and soon after falling onto the ground with a sound most similar to a pile of cutlery hitting the ground. There they writhed for a few minutes until the derusting process was done.

“Are you alright?” The movement slowed from the now much dirtier armour on the hoof-damaged ground, indicating the active pain was at least gone. But no response. Jobst had an idea; taking the derusting rag off the dowel and adding a new one, this time with sand for polishing, and began gently rubbing the derusted areas of the spaulder. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any pain involved in this. He asked again, “Are you alright?” After a brief pause, a voice came from the harness.
“Not really… but the polishing, it makes it feel better. Like cold water on a burn… Keep going, please.”
So Jobst continued, for the extended period of time the polishing process took. He felt quite relieved watching Konrad stand up from agonized sprawl on the ground, before sitting for a bit, and finally, in quite an unknightly action, grabbing a rag and cleaning the dirt off themselves. Connecting the pieces of the arm harness all back together, Jobst spoke.

“That should do it. I’m glad you’re okay, I would’ve had no clue what to do if that seriously injured you.” Attaching the arm harness back into place, Konrad looked down at their gauntlet in a sigh of relief as they opened and closed it shut.
“It still hurts quite a bit. But I’m fine.” A small chuckle could be heard from the armour. “Getting killed was way worse. It wasn’t that bad, really.” Now sitting next to them, Jobst nodded and replied “That’s… good, I suppose. We have to do that a lot, I hope it feels better for you over time. Are you ready to start with your breastplate?
“That would mean entirely taking me apart, right?”
“Yep. Hold on, hand me your gauntlet, we should check something.”
Doing as the squire told, Konrad took off their left gauntlet and handed it to Jobst. Putting it on their own hand, he continued.
“Alright, can you shut your hand now?”
The gauntlet completely shut around Jobst’s hand. Without saying, he attempted to open his hand back up, though he was completely overpowered by the forces keeping it shut. The fact Konrad wasn’t opening it back up indicated they weren’t even aware Jobst was pushing back against their overwhelming strength. He couldn’t have been more eager to hand the gauntlet back to Konrad.
“Okay, I’ll wear your gauntlet while derusting your breastplate and polishing the rest of you. If you need to be put back together, open up my hand. I’ll have to drop whatever I’m doing and do so. Does that work with you?”

All too eager to do so, or perhaps to get this over with, Konrad agreed and fully let Jobst disassemble them. The full suit of armour laid infront of him with no motion. If he really wanted to, he could leave the suit here to be looted by whatever group came by. Eventually, the parts that were deemed ‘cursed’ would be destroyed, and the breastplate, which wasn’t able to move on its own, would be the only piece remaining. They would be a living defence for whatever soldier bought them, though with no way to indicate their sentience. Then the breastplate would be destroyed or rust away. Ready to finish the process, Jobst put the right gauntlet on and, with a quick clack of the hand and thumb together in response, knows that Konrad can control his hand now.

“Alright, you know what to do. Open my hand up if you need to.”
Starting with the breastplate, Jobst undid the straps holding the breastplate and backplate together and began to scrape away at the rust inside with the appropriate rag. The gauntlet on his hand tensed quite a bit with the action, though he was still able to continue working. The polishing process started afterwards, taking quite a few hours; Jobst wanted to make sure he didn’t have to repeat this for quite a while. There was no resistance from the sentient gauntlet with this. He carefully rubbed over every part of the knight’s disassembled body, getting into little niche spots such as between the lames of the faulds or inside the greaves. His favourite part of the process was always the gorgeously fluted breastplate, where he would run his fingers in between the gorgeous fluting of the curved armour in a process far more tactile than the rest of the harness. Doing this now, he could almost feel Konrad guiding his hand in between the nooks.

…

“And that should be it!” Jobst spoke as he finished closing up the left greave, fully reassembling the living armour. “How are you doing? The sun’s nearly setting, that took a while…”
Without saying a word, Konrad stood up from their assembly point and hugged Jobst. It felt quite nice; The cold steel’s embrace after a long hot day felt fantastic. Hugging back, it was utterly surreal to think that the figure was just an inanimate pile of armour in front of him a moment ago.
“Alright, buddy. I’ll assume you’re good, then. I’m glad.” The two stepped away from each other.
“I think I’m getting a bit more used to this.” Konrad replied, “I really thought I was just dreaming yesterday, or maybe in heaven. I think the pain has helped me come back to my senses.” Jobst laughed a bit.
“Well, that makes me feel a bit less bad about today. It wasn’t fun putting you through that much pain.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad you’re the one doing it, Jobst.”

(Author here: Let me know what you'd like to see in the next chapter! :3)

Chapter Text

The fruits of yesterday's work gleamed in the morning sun as the squire and knight walked a distance away from the camp. The living armour, polished to a sheen, followed along with Jobst, poleaxe in hand and an audible ‘clank’ from their poleyns as they traversed the uneven terrain. On the outskirts of the battleground, the ground starts to become just a bit less beaten by the marching of men. Good for sparring.
“Alright, this seems like a good spot.” Jobst spoke, surveying the terrain, poleaxe in hand. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”
“I’m sure. I’ve been wanting to get back into fighting. My new form might even be suited to it, hah.”
“Alright, let’s not go too fast, though. I’m not in full harness and we wouldn’t want to dent your body.”

Nodding, Konrad and Jobst begin to step away from each other. Jobst, as a squire, had equipment more in line with an infantry in half-plate, though still quite nice with who he was working for. The armour was blackened, except around the edges of the individual pieces, creating a nice contrast between the black and silver colouring. The two, taking a knightly bow with their weapons, prepared their guards for the fight. Not wanting to strike each other with the axe head, both adopted guards that could score hits while sparring without being too mortally threatening. Konrad kept the axehead of their weapon near their head while leading with the buttspike of the polearm. It pleased them greatly that Jobst adopted the counterstance they taught, holding his weapon over his head while leading with the spearhead. There’s a few seconds of the two attempting to find an opening, hitting each other's weapons aside though not having a clear shot. And in a moment - Konrad hits Jobst in the breastplate, the buttspike of their poleaxe moving decisively and swiftly. The blow skids off the breastplate and to the side harmlessly.

“Hey! You still got it!” Jobst takes a step back, raising their visor to show the smile on their face. Konrad takes a step back as well, disengaging. They want to smile, too.
“Thanks. I’m really glad. Fighting sure feels a lot different like this, though.”
“Well, I’m sure that wasn’t beginner's luck. You already spent a ton of time fighting in that armour, maybe now’s not so different?”
Konrad thought about the idea for a moment. It wasn’t too crazy; All of the limitations of their new body were largely only an issue with day to day life, but not combat. Their gauntlet’s mitten form isn't nearly as annoying when holding a poleaxe. The lance rest on their breastplate was annoying in day to day life, but in combat it was instinct to move their weapon around it, something they learnt early over their hundreds of hours of training. Konrad’s “knightly” days were over, despite their appearance, but perhaps they could continue fighting until they can’t anymore; joining the side of whoever accepts them, Jobst by their side. Maybe it’s what they’re meant to do.
“Ready to keep going?” Jobst continued, not too sure how to reply to Konrad’s silence.
“Glad to.”

The two continued sparring for a while, Jobst taking breaks as needed. It would be a long time to practise if it wasn’t for the low intensity of it; they were both incredibly wary of the fact that Konrad was ironically quite vulnerable for being made of steel. Any blow will need to be repolished later, and any dent will need to be hammered back into place in no doubt a painful process. Jobst strongly favoured ‘murder strikes’ with his axehead in sparring and fighting, and it was what usually gave him a chance against the proficient fighter that was Konrad. Already knowing that vulnerability of the living armour, he wondered about something else.
“Hey Konrad, is it all good if we introduce grappling?” Konrad was a bit scared at the thought, though they were determined to get used to combat in their new form.
“Sure! Let’s give it a go.”

The dynamic of the fighting changed quite a bit with the new addition. Getting into grappling range wasn’t easy, of course, but when Jobst saw the chance to get past the guard of Konrad, he took it. Beating the buttspike of Konrad’s poleaxe away before grabbing it with two hands, Jobst could not have imagined a more explosive result as he rotated it in an attempt to disarm them. With the poleaxe effectively acting as a lever for the living armour’s rather lightweight body, the movement sent the whole harness crashing to the ground quickly, the culets loudly clanking as they took the brunt of the fall. It was a strange sight to Jobst to send someone they treated as an equal to the ground with ease.

“Are you alright?” Jobst asked. It was hard to tell how Konrad felt a lot of the time; their movements were sometimes the only way to tell, though it didn’t seem like they were in any pain now.

“Yeah…” Konrad leaned upwards. “I’m not liking that… That wouldn’t have happened if I still had my normal body, right?”
“No, definitely not. You still have your fighting strength, but you’re awfully light, Konrad. That’s going to be an issue in fighting.” He lent him a hand to get up, which they accepted.
“Of course… Alright, I’ll need to keep that in mind. Let’s continue”
“Sorry Konrad, I think that’s it for today…” Jobst looked at the back of the living armour’s body. Covered in dirt. “We’re going to need to polish and clean you off again. I can even see the dirt in the inside of your cuisses.”
Konrad felt terrible at the thought. They probably would’ve felt a pit in their stomach, if they still had a human body, though their shock manifested as a wave of dread throughout their harness. They hated getting taken apart, but the thought of the pain of the derusting process was much more terrifying.
“Okay. Alright, let’s go.” Konrad hastily replied.
“Sure thing… Are you alright, Konrad?”
“Let’s just get this over with.”