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fandomhigh2010-09-13 12:31 pm
furious-maximus.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2010-09-13 12:31 pm
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Introduction to Personal Weaponry [Monday, second period]
Rather than a general pile of weapons strewn about, this week there was a very neatly arrayed set of them laid out on Max's desk as his students arrived.
"If you'll recall the first week of this class, we talked about fist-load weapons. The advantage of those, as we discussed, is that they are simple. It's easy to improvise one," Max pulled a roll of quarters out of his pocket and tossed it on the desk as a reminder. "And they can be an excellent tool for surprise if someone things you're unarmed."
"But while there are advantages to them, fist-load weapons aren't incredibly powerful. You still have to punch people, after all, and if they're wearing any sort of armor you can be in trouble. And I don't mean massive pieces of plate-mail, though if you run into someone wearing something like that, punching them with a roll of quarters in your fist won't be much fun. But a leather jacket, or a heavy winter coat can serve as equally effective armor against a punch or a kick, and that's worth remembering."
"Another thing to remember about fist-loads is that even with the extra power, you're still just punching people. Which can hurt, but if someone's big, tough, or just plain angry enough, that won't stop them."
Max grinned slightly and picked up a weapon from the desk. "Enter the punch dagger. The punch dagger continues a long tradition of weapons designed for one purpose: to be sharp, pointy, and hard. This lets you concentrate the force of any strike onto a tiny little point. Whereas punching someone distributes the force across the entire surface of where your fist lands, and hitting someone with a stick does the same, stabbing someone with a blade concentrates all the energy of that blow onto a tiny enough area that, rather than leaving a nasty bruise, your attack goes right through their skin and muscle and hits something underneath."
"One of the classic examples of this type of weapon is the stiletto. In fact, early stilettos didn't even have sharpened edges, all they were designed to do was stab things. The Chinese Emei dagger is designed around similar principles." Max picked up an example of each of those as he spoke.
"In a lot of ways, small stabbing blades are like fist-load weapons, only more powerful. They're too compact to be used to block anything, and they're not really strong enough to do that anyway, so they're generally considered tactically offensive. Contrast that with the sticks we looked at last week, which you could use to block an incoming attack. That isn't to say that they don't make good weapons for defending yourself, but that's only in the sense that if someone attacks you, and you hit them with one of these, they're highly likely to stop. Perhaps permanently."
"And finally, it's worth mentioning that some weapons of this type are designed to concentrate the force of a blow without concentrating it enough to penetrate the body." Max held up a metal rod about the size of his (admittedly large) index finger. "This is a kubotan. It's a metal rod with a point, but not an especially sharp point. It would be extremely difficult to break skin with one of these, but concentrating the force of a blow with it will still leave an extremely nasty bruise."
"Which brings us to the hands-on part of today's lesson." Max waved toward the back of the room where all sorts of things were stacked against the wall. Styrofoam blocks, boards of various sorts, squares of carpet and cloth, a few thin metal plates,and all sorts of other moddable things. "Everyone come up to the desk here and pick up a few things that strike your fancy, then find someone to hold some stuff up while you try hitting it. Give it a shot unarmed first, but be careful not to hurt yourself punching a piece of wood or something. After you've got a feel for what you can do to something unarmed, try hitting it with one of the weapons we've discussed today to see what kind of difference it makes. Then trade places with your partner so that they can get the same experience."
Max's eyes narrowed slightly. "And at the end of class I want all my weapons back. I'll be counting." He clapped his hands once. "Now get to it."
"If you'll recall the first week of this class, we talked about fist-load weapons. The advantage of those, as we discussed, is that they are simple. It's easy to improvise one," Max pulled a roll of quarters out of his pocket and tossed it on the desk as a reminder. "And they can be an excellent tool for surprise if someone things you're unarmed."
"But while there are advantages to them, fist-load weapons aren't incredibly powerful. You still have to punch people, after all, and if they're wearing any sort of armor you can be in trouble. And I don't mean massive pieces of plate-mail, though if you run into someone wearing something like that, punching them with a roll of quarters in your fist won't be much fun. But a leather jacket, or a heavy winter coat can serve as equally effective armor against a punch or a kick, and that's worth remembering."
"Another thing to remember about fist-loads is that even with the extra power, you're still just punching people. Which can hurt, but if someone's big, tough, or just plain angry enough, that won't stop them."
Max grinned slightly and picked up a weapon from the desk. "Enter the punch dagger. The punch dagger continues a long tradition of weapons designed for one purpose: to be sharp, pointy, and hard. This lets you concentrate the force of any strike onto a tiny little point. Whereas punching someone distributes the force across the entire surface of where your fist lands, and hitting someone with a stick does the same, stabbing someone with a blade concentrates all the energy of that blow onto a tiny enough area that, rather than leaving a nasty bruise, your attack goes right through their skin and muscle and hits something underneath."
"One of the classic examples of this type of weapon is the stiletto. In fact, early stilettos didn't even have sharpened edges, all they were designed to do was stab things. The Chinese Emei dagger is designed around similar principles." Max picked up an example of each of those as he spoke.
"In a lot of ways, small stabbing blades are like fist-load weapons, only more powerful. They're too compact to be used to block anything, and they're not really strong enough to do that anyway, so they're generally considered tactically offensive. Contrast that with the sticks we looked at last week, which you could use to block an incoming attack. That isn't to say that they don't make good weapons for defending yourself, but that's only in the sense that if someone attacks you, and you hit them with one of these, they're highly likely to stop. Perhaps permanently."
"And finally, it's worth mentioning that some weapons of this type are designed to concentrate the force of a blow without concentrating it enough to penetrate the body." Max held up a metal rod about the size of his (admittedly large) index finger. "This is a kubotan. It's a metal rod with a point, but not an especially sharp point. It would be extremely difficult to break skin with one of these, but concentrating the force of a blow with it will still leave an extremely nasty bruise."
"Which brings us to the hands-on part of today's lesson." Max waved toward the back of the room where all sorts of things were stacked against the wall. Styrofoam blocks, boards of various sorts, squares of carpet and cloth, a few thin metal plates,
Max's eyes narrowed slightly. "And at the end of class I want all my weapons back. I'll be counting." He clapped his hands once. "Now get to it."
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The lecture
Re: The lecture
Re: The lecture
Re: The lecture
Re: The lecture
...She wished she was wearing her boots.
The activity
Re: The activity
He'd probably end up punching the metal sheet or something, to keep from sending splinters of wood flying at his classmates, but he was really looking forward to the activity today, no matter what he ended up smacking around.
Re: The activity
dorkserious fellow that it was mostly the chance to get practice with all the different, intriguing items that thrilled him the most. He planned to spend a little time with each one, trying out the various ways to hit something with them, and observing the results and studying them with a critical eye.It helped him, really, avoid the actualization of his fear that he would just go at something mercilessly, driven by the imagining that whatever he was hitting bore a strong resemblance to a certain evil magician.
Re: The activity
Then he picked up a punch dagger in each hand and pretended he was Logan for the rest of the class. It was pretty fun.
Talk to Max
OOC