fandomhigh | 15 Ways to Protect Yourself and Others: Week 4, Period 3

Aly was dressed is loose-fitting clothes as she watched her class file into the Danger Shop. It was set up to look like the salle she knew in the palace at Rajmuat which meant lots of white stone, copper fittings, and, incongruously, blue mats.

"What we're doing today," she said once everyone was assembled, "is some basic hand to hand. A lot of you already will know the basics, I'm aware, so what I'd like you to do today is pair up with others who may be less experienced and help them out."

She gestured to Zuko to come up to help her demonstrate. "First we're going to look at some pretty basic defences against someone grabbing you." Aly grinned at Zuko and, obviously using a good amount of care, demonstrated the techniques. "The other moves to cover today is a very simple hip and body throw." She demonstrated two varieties on Zuko and possibly looked awfully amused at doing it.

"Okay, obviously this type of thing isn't enough to teach you how to defend yourself in every possible situation," Aly said turning to the class. "And quite a few of you already know far more than that. What I want you to do whether you're new to the idea of hand to hand or if you've done it for years is to pay a lot of attention to your and your partner's center of balance and the leverage you're using to throw them off their balance. Pay attention to it, talk about why it works, and even more so, talk about how else you can use someone's sense of balance against them."

"Any questions?"

[OOC: Zuko was modded with permission and the links lead to automatically playing videos with sound so don't click if that's bad :D ~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up!]

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"Totally fine," Sokka said, with a cocky smile. "I'm a warrior, but I've never done this before, so that makes us even. So, do you wanna throw or be thrown?"

"If those are my only choices, I suppose I'll be thrown first."

"Well, we can just sit and talk all class period, but then we won't learn anything," Sokka commented. He shrugged. "You do know how to fall, right?" he asked, as he nervously tried to find a handhold on the breast of her shirt that wasn't... well, breast.

"Falling doesn't seem overly complicated..." she turned to watch everyone else. Luckily for Sokka, her shirt was relatively loose and she was used to casual physical contact.

"Yeah, but it HURTS if you do it wrong. Trust me."

He got a good grip on her shirt and wrist. "Ready?" he asked. "Tuck and roll. Land on your shoulder, not your head."

Blue mats were probably better for this sort of thing than snow, Sokka thought. Less chance of hidden rocks.

Inara nodded and tried to prepare to be airborne. However one did that. "You said you're a warrior?"

Shoulder, not head. Tuck and roll. Tuck and roll. Shoulder, not head. "Okay."

"Totally a warrior. But I don't usually fight without a weapon." Sokka nodded. "One. Two. Three!" And he... Well, he TRIED to throw her. He got the GENERAL gist of it right. ...But whether she was thrown gracefully onto her back, or shoved face-first into the mat, that was pretty much up to her.

Inara did most things with grace. Unfortunately, this wasn't really one of them, and she did a roll kind of thing without the tuck, so it was a little gangly. She was, however, lucky enough to land on her shoulder instead of her head or neck.

She looked up at Sokka from the mats, slightly out of breath, then glanced at herself. "I don't think that was right."

"SORRY!" Sokka flailed. "I said I'd never done this before, right? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, standing up and brushing herself off, "just new at this. Should we try again?"

She tried to plant her feet a little differently this time, hoping that would help.

"All right," Sokka said, nodding. He gave it another shot, trying to mimic Aly's moves better, and trying to somehow wish himself into using more leverage, less strength. This throw went somewhat smoother, anyway.

As did Inara's roll, which actually involved some semblance of a tuck first, this time. She landed on her shoulder and promptly sprawled all over the mat, grinning up at Sokka. "I think that went better. Don't you?"

15 Ways to Protect Yourself and Others: Week 4, Period 3

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