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Basic Strategy, Monday, Period 4

Class met in the Danger Shop today, which had been set up to look like a dimly lit dungeon, deserted save for a swarm of small, ugly beasts that looked a bit like purple wolves with lizard heads.

"Last week our subject was acknowledging things about ourselves we can't change or forget," Tyrion said without preamble. He was impressed with himself he'd gotten the Danger Shop to work, and it might have shown in his bearing. "This week, we begin a unit on making the best of what you have. You may be strong. You may be clever. You may be lovely to look upon. You may be rich. Unless the gods gave with both hands at your birth, it's unlikely you're all four. It's far more likely you're weak, stupid, ugly or poor -- relatively speaking, of course."

"Your choices are two. You can either concentrate on what you have a gift for and hope it's enough to get you through anything, or you can spend your life trying to master the things you're worst at in hopes of balancing yourself out. All things being equal, and assuming you're being honest with yourself about having tried to improve, I'd say you're usually better off focusing on your skills and making them as good as they can be. A swordsman does not prepare for battle by reading, nor should he, and it makes no more sense for a weakling to spend his days fiddling about with a sword. He might hurt himself."

But -- because this is my class, and I have the right to be perverse sometimes -- today we will start with a single kind of skill, and pretend we're all trying to improve our strength." He pointed to a beast. "Your job is to fight these lovely fellows. They've no ability to speak or reason -- all you can do is find a way to bash your way out of this one. After you've done that, we'll talk some more."

Before he released the class to fight the beasts, he added, "And by the way, Kate Daniels is my assistant now. Bother her if you can't find me."

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Once the beasts were all dead or disappeared or whatever happened to virtual foes, Tyrion spoke again. "My interest in making you do that was to see how it felt to each of you. Do you think of yourself as strong? If you don't, how do you think your experience was different from that of someone who does?"

He paced a few steps. "I set that up so you had no option but the fight. What would you have done if you could have chosen any reaction?"

Claudia's hand went up. "Run the hell away." Mostly to get her tesla, or something else she actually knew how to use.

What? She wasn't proud. Running away was totally a legit way to deal with things.

"It would keep you alive, but you wouldn't win a war that way," Tyrion observed.

"You don't win a war by winning one battle, anyway," Claudia said. "If you run away, you can come back armed with stuff you can actually use."

"I'm wiry. But not strong. And I think my experience was a lot more filled with fear," Kenzi said, rubbing one arm. "If I'd had an option, I'd have paid somebody else to do that fighting part. Or talked them into it. Find the toughest kid on the playground and make friends with them, my mom always said."

"Your mother had a point," Tyrion nodded. "If you can't do something yourself, there's no shame in getting someone willing to do it for you."

A bit more recovered now, Kenzi looked over at Bruce and grinned whimsically. "So how do you make friends with the strong rich smart tough guy, who knows you like his stuff?" ... wait, where did that innuendo come from?

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

halfman-lion.livejournal.com - 2011-09-05 18:42 (UTC) - Expand

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

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"I'm strong," Bruce said. "But the real key for me was timing and technique. Strength certainly helped, though."

"But if I had other options? I would have probably escaped if everyone else was able to as well. I'd rather not fight an animal like that unless I had to."

"I want to know how to do what you did," Tyrion admitted. "You just ... grabbed it by the neck?"

"I used my arm and leverage to squeeze its windpipe until it wasn't getting enough air to stay conscious. It went a little faster than normal since it was already exerting itself, running around with me weighing it down," Bruce explained.

"It comes in handy around here every now and then."

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

halfman-lion.livejournal.com - 2011-09-05 18:46 (UTC) - Expand

"Have a gun." Or a bodyguard. Either would have been more effective.

"I don't know those well enough to use them in here, but not a bad idea."

"Have more time to prepare," Tony replied, picking at the remains of his poor, poor phone.

"You looked like you managed the situation," Tyrion observed. "Did you improvise that weapon, just now, or is it something the ... device is meant to do?"

He hoped the Stark wouldn't expect a replacement device.

"Ah, no. It's actually just my normal phone." Which wasn't to say it was a normal phone. "I can fix it when I get back to my room, though. Gave me a few ideas about improvements."

"I would've run away," Simon said, as a few had before him. He still looked a bit shaken from the exercise, even if he'd been pretty efficient about it. "I... I would've run."

Tyrion tilted his head. "Even if someone you cared for was also in danger?"

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

forhisfriends.livejournal.com - 2011-09-05 19:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

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Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

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"It was actually kind of fun," Stephanie said honestly, "although I'd like to disclaim that I'd rather not hurt an animal for real, if I can avoid it. If it was just me and that thing, and I could've run, I'd have run."

"Is there something wrong with hunting here?" Tyrion wanted to know. "On the not hurting an animal side of things."

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

batwaffles.livejournal.com - 2011-09-05 20:03 (UTC) - Expand

"I am strong enough," Faramir replied, "but I do not love the fighting for fighting's sake. There is little point attacking creatures like this. If you let them be, like as not, they'll let you be as well. Unless, of course, you're in need of a meal."

"They don't look terribly tasty to me, though I might feel differently if I was hungry," Tyrion mused. "But you're right. Most of the time, a creature that hasn't been trained to attack will run from men."

"That was horrible," Lucrezia said, shaking visibly. She was not quite answering the question he had asked; she could not direct her mind to that point just yet. "It was cruel to set monsters upon us and hope we survived. Why would you do such a thing?"

Tyrion gave her an exceedingly puzzled look. Of course he wouldn't try to kill the children, why would she --

"It's an illusion!" he finally realized. "A trick. Like the computer-books. The monsters are just moving shadows, and there's no dungeon attached to the school. Good gods, what do you take me for?"

This was, of course, the man who just got glasses leading the blind.

Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

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Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

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Re: DISCUSSION [9/05]

holy-daughter.livejournal.com - 2011-09-06 02:05 (UTC) - Expand

"Quick rather than strong," he said, and his choice of weapon--thin blade rather than an axe or heftier broadsword--confirmed this. "Someone strong may have used different methods." He tilted his head towards Bruce and his technique.

As for the second? He bit back "Send in Martin"; the big hunter had quickly killed the rock serpent with a knife to the back of the skull in a matter of moments to James's agonizingly long battle--really, a few minutes--with the lizard. Thinking back on it, he had a grip like Bruce's on the beast, but not sufficient to subdue it... "Take another route," he finally voiced. "If it's trained, find the handler, bribe him. Feed them some poisoned meat or slip a sleeping drought into the water."

"Very good thinking. Odds are, if it's attacking you with no fear, there's a handler somewhere."

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