fandomhigh | Life's a Circus, Friday, Second Period

The Danger Shop today looked like the inside of the familiar big top circus tent. It had a lot more columns, tightropes, trapezes, and - crucially - safety nets. Dick was on one of those tightropes, ready to address his students.

"Hey everyone," Dick said once everyone was there. "A lot of people seemed to think they could adapt their skills into being an acrobat, so this week should be a treat for you because we're going to see what you've got."

"Theoretically, most of this stuff is pretty simple. The tightrope is just a test of balance and being able to walk in a very straight line. The trapeze is just a big swing that you hold onto with your hands. But that's just in theory," Dick said. "In reality, maintaining your balance on a rope is pretty tough. And while your grip on the trapeze might be solid thanks to the terror of swinging through the air, you're eventually going to have to let go, whether it's for a trick or because you're back at the platform where you started."

"And that's why safety is absolutely key. It's just like driving a car, or firing a gun at the shooting range, or doing something that I'm not going to discuss with teenagers. You can be safe or you can risk some pretty dire consequences. And here, that consequence could be death," Dick said, getting somber for just a moment.

But then he perked right back up, "But that's why we have safety nets to catch you if you do fall. If you want, we can also get you into a safety harness so that you'll only fall a couple of feet if you lose your balance. And, of course, the Danger Shop is programmed to not let you hit the ground if you do fall. Think of it as the ultimate safety measure, but one you don't get in the real world. But I wouldn't suggest testing it out."

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Safely!

Jocelyn Fairchild

Butters Stotch

Cara

Stephanie Brown

Jack McCallister

Freddie Benson

Mercy Thompson

Sam Puckett

Damian Wayne

Richie Ryan

Juliet Darling

Annie Edison

Yes, you can hear him even though you're on the ground and he's on a tightrope. The magic of the Danger Shop....

Oh, wow. Butters looked up, nervously tapping his fingers together as he imagined himself up there doing one of those things way up there.

Most of his imaginings didn't turn out very well for him, really.

He was giving them a lecture while walking a tightrope.

Yeah, Stephanie could definitely see why he'd made such a good Robin. How was she ever going to live up to that?

Sam spaced out a little on the lecture. She was too busy having a war in her head between the side of her that went "WOOOO DANGER!" and the side that all too clearly remembered dangling from a window washer platform fourteen stories up.

This was going to be an interesting class.

Climb up to a platform and choose the trapeze or tightrope. Feel free to mod Dick giving you a quick demonstration of how to do it. Use a safety harness to catch you if you feel ssafer with that than the net below.

The tightrope was remarkably close to some of the training exercises they did at home so Jocelyn went with the trapeze, and it was totally awesome,

Cara went with the trapeze. She had experience with being suspended n mid-air and ~~didn't care about~~ had no fear of falling, so it was easy enough.

Worried that his nickname might transfer over to describing his fingers, Butters decided to try the tightrope. Even with the harness, he approached the task with extreme caution.

And a lot of course.

"Oh, geez," he said, taking a step. "Oh, man," he added after another. "Aw, hamburgers..."

So on and so forth.

Logically speaking, Stephanie should have gone for the tightrope; it was a less obvious choice than the trapeze for someone who put on a costume at night and went swinging from buildings, but wanted to keep that part a secret.

It was just that tightrope-walking was even trickier than rooftop-crawling, and that had been a terrifying enough thing to teach herself to do when she'd first started the Spoiler gig. There was no way ever she was going to be able to concentrate on walking a tightrope when she couldn't stop being aware if she tried that Dick freaking Grayson could probably spot every single thing she did wrong. It wasn't that he scared her -- personality-wise he was nothing like Bruce -- but his reputation sort of . . . loomed. At least, if you were her.

So the trapeze it was, and her lingering nervousness at least helped keep her from looking too much like she'd learned how to do this sort of thing without a safety net (and enjoyed it).

Oh yes, this was fun! Mercy started off on the trapeze, but hoped she'd have time to try the tightrope later, too!

Sam got to the top of the platform and peered over, eying the net below. She looked at the tightrope, then the trapeze, then her fellow students, then back at the net.

Then she got as much of a running start as she could on the small platform and threw herself off, aimed at absolutely nothing but the net below, screaming wildly all the way.

What? This way she'd totally feel more secure about falling later when she actually tried one of the acrobat-y things.

"Honestly?" Dick said after Sam ended up in the net. "I was wondering who would be the first person to do that."

Sam peered up at him. "It was kind of fun. You know, after the stark terror part."

Richie, after a lot of deliberation, finally went with the trapeze. Swinging, for some reason, seemed like the better option. Still mildly terrifying, but better.

Juliet picked the trapeze. Getting on it was terrifying, but once she was swinging through the air, Juliet quickly felt confident enough to try to hang from her knees.

... and to try again when she fell into the netting.

Who is on the ground after class, so you don't have to climb up anywhere to talk to him.

It's the time of year where I must take allergy meds and weigh whether passing out hard at night and being groggy in the morning is worth my eyes not burning as badly. As of right now, the answer is yes.

The Danger Shop is programmed to never let you hit the ground?

Oh my god, the people I wish I could do that to.

Ha! Of course I mean it'll suspend you in midair a couple feet above the ground so you won't die.

BUT THIS IS EVEN BETTER.

Life's a Circus, Friday, Second Period

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