everyone knows how Law wars work. two lawizards present carefully arranged Law structures, materialized through logical arguments, that clash against one another in a back-and-forth combat of clause-counter-clause, usually presided over by a Judge, a law-construct that is born for that specific case

only lawizards can law-war, but anyone* can flyte

*not everyone can flyte

flyting is the Style equivalent. instead of being formalized, logical, carefully considered arguments based in law and precedent, flyting takes many forms based on the local culture, but always manifests as a conflict of Style, with each participant trying to defeat the other in some form of rhyming contest.

most people who just do this to fuck around aren't going to manifest any Style construct. it'll just be two people taking the shit out of one another. but for people who Really Mean It, who have their heart and soul into it, it becomes an actual combat, with conflicting auras of Style Element forcing against one another in sculpted pressure

popular in Flyhhnemonia's guilds is a brag/refute-counterbrag pattern, with the brag being met with a refute in matching meter and rhyme, following by a new meter and rhyme that the opponent has to match in their refute, and then provide their own counter

you might think Yhelm would be really good at flyting. she's an adversary, who are born from Style as Bad Boy's chosen species. she's well educated, which means she's probably studied poetic forms. she's an academage, which means she reshapes reality through carefully organized arguments and metaphors. she's a devotee of Bad Boy to the point she wears his traditional religious garb over any cultural clothing.

and she's not bad! the Guilds prefer to settle things nonviolently when necessary, and settling guild-to-guild conflicts with flyting is favorable to blood war in the streets. so, you know, enforcers do pick it up as a necessary combat style.

madrigal FUCKS, though. madrigal is also born from Style, descended from Encore, God of Art. as a very active devotee of Encore, maddie doesn't just have a cultural place for the god in their heart, they have actual, tangible powers derived from their internalization of art. as a phanteasel, they have a natural biological rhythm--phanteasels can flash the mineral-shine of their hoods in patterns that can alter other peoples' mental states, so keeping up with rhythm is as natural as walking a straight line. also? they've been at this way, way longer than yhelm ever has.

yhelm will win someday, maybe.