Basic Strategy, Monday, Period 4

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

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 bears with lizard heads.

"Last week our subject was acknowledging things about ourselves we can't change or forget," Tyrion said without preamble, and with some pride he'd gotten the wolves to show up in Danger Shop again. "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, because this got me into trouble last time, I must add these creatures are not real. They're a kind of film and can't hurt you. Don't ask me how it works."

Comments

SIGN IN [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

As if you are strong, clever, handsome and rich.

Re: SIGN IN [1/09]

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

Listen to Tyrion. Or just boggle at the purple lizard beasts. Whatever.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper wasn't boggling so much as grinning, well. Wolfishly. It had been far too long since she'd managed to find herself in a proper fight.

...Even if these were illusion-creatures.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra nodded approvingly at the lecture. The purple lizard things were whacked, but no more whacked than the giant feathered snakes on the island, so she wasn't that bothered about them.

As soon as she understood what was required of them, she was rummaging through her giant purse for a travel can of hairspray. Yes, hairspray. Don't leave home without it! "Hairspray, hairspray, where are you, hairspray?" she muttered to herself.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[abitlowkey]

Loki bitchfaced frowned at the assigned task, perfectly willing to just watch how everyone else handled themselves should it come in handy.

But having to fight? Ugh.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[glacial_queen]

Karla eyed the purple creatures and thought about maybe coopting this program for the Reserves.

Strength wasn't her main skill set, but she had enough training to take out a few of these without Craft.

...As long as they remained slow and fairly stupid, anyway.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[cant-be-helped.livejournal.com]

Dorothy didn't quite like this. Now, she knew that sometimes violence and fighting was necessary, but she'd always managed to avoid being the one to do it. Tin Man, the Lion, Tik-Tok, they'd usually done all the fighting when it was needed.

She wasn't so sure of her own abilities to properly defend herself in that way.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Dany...did not like this at all. She was without her bloodriders, without a knight, without her khal. Everyone who usually did her fighting for her was absent.

This was, somehow, not something she'd anticipated happening to her. She didn't even have a set of tiny, firebreathing dragons with her.

Seven Hells.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy didn't have her taser. She knew she didn't have it because she had checked her bag. Five times. And then dumped its contents out just to double-check.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned. He couldn't get eaten by a virtual monster, right?

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[wwiii]

Warren still thought of himself as a businessman and a healer before he'd ever consider himself a fighter, but that didn't change the training he'd received from Lucivar, or the field experience that he'd gotten whether he wanted it or not.

So, while he wasn't thrilled, really, that today's class meant he'd have to fight, he didn't really look very concerned, either.

Re: GENERAL CLASS STUFF [1/09]

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer just grinned and kicked back, fully prepared to light those little fakes on fire.

STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

There are moddable creatures to spar with, and an array of clubs, swords, shields, knives and bows and arrows to choose from. The fights aren't long, and they won't be especially difficult for anyone with fight training. You can't get hurt, but if the beast knocks you down, it counts as a loss for you and the exercise ends.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper and Blind Seer, as it turns out, had brought their own weapons to the fight. Between Firekeeper's Fang and Blind Seer's claws, soon a half-dozen of the strange creatures lay dead at their feet.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra had hairspray and a club. She was ready. When one of the purple lizard bear things came at her, she quickly sprayed it in the eyes, then, while it was making loud 'my eyes, they sting' noises and staggering around blind, shoved the can of hairspray into her jacket pocket, missing the bandolier she'd had on the island, and used both hands on the club to bludgeon it over the head until it fell down unconscious.

Then she took the hairspray back out of her pocket to blow on it like a gunslinger.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley tripped on his way to retrieve one of the swords.

But then promptly hoisted up the sword and beheaded several of the lizard beasts in a single swing, so. He was kind of a badass, despite the clumsiness.

Look, he'd had his fill of lizard monsters over the summer.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[abitlowkey]

After a moment's consideration, Loki finally selected a spear. One meant for great poking.

He eyed the 'battlefield' for a moment before picking his purple lizard-bear opponent. Then ran toward it, spear ready at his side. Once he was close enough, he stuck the poor, fake creature, using it's body to keep the spear in place as he pole vaulted over the rest.

Look, he simply was not suited to traditional battle.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[glacial_queen]

Karla called in her non-bladed sticks and waited for one of the creatures to attack her. It felt very odd to just wait like that, and she was glancing around the dungeon to count how many different tricks she could think of to defeat the lizard-bears that didn't involve meeting them head-on.

By the time she had three bodies at her feet, she'd also come up with thirteen different plans as well.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[cant-be-helped.livejournal.com]

Dorothy was not a fighter, at least not like this. She was small and her muscles were built for farm work, not fighting. She lifted a shield to protect herself, and found the knife in her hand to feel unwieldy and awkward.

She wasn't just going to lay down and let herself fail the exercise, of course, but a young girl in a plain, old-fashioned dress struggling with a shield was not exactly the most fear-inspiring image. When the purple bear-lizard came at her, it was all she could do to try and attack before it had completely laid her out on the ground. She'd screamed, of course, but was relieved when it wasn't worse than that for her.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Dany tried her best. She truly did.

She took a long time selecting a small, lightweight shield -- nothing like Ser Jorah's, but enough for her to hide under -- and a sword she could lift with a single hand. She steadied herself against the beast, mimicking the stance she'd seen performed. She thought of the Dothraki curved blade, and longed for how useful it seemed, because she felt entirely impotent.

And then she managed to cut the animal once before it threw her to the ground, and that was that. Her pride stung more than anything else.

Re: STRENGTH EXERCISE [1/09]

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy had wanted to grab a shield - it had seemed like a very good idea. But she realized that she wasn't going to be able to manage both a shield and a club at the same time.

It probably would have gone better if she wasn't flailing and screaming as she tried to hit the creature? But the result was the same - she ended up on the ground, a bit dazed. At least she had managed to land one hit on the nose. Completely accidentally though - she had been aiming for a leg.

DISCUSSION [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

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?"

Re: DISCUSSION [1/09]

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Fighting," Firekeeper said slowly, "is part of being in a wolf pack. You cannot escape it, except by dying." She shrugged. "Blind Seer and I do not wish to die." That explained things rather nicely, she thought.

"If there were any choice, we still choose fighting," a beat, "unless maybe this get us in trouble. I know there is rules against killing humans who is not bandits."

TEACHER + TAs [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

Once we've pinged in!

Re: TEACHER + TAs [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

Tyrion was grateful he didn't have to fight the monsters. Watching other people do it suited his skill set much better.

OOC [1/09]

[halfman-lion.livejournal.com]

And back to bed for meeee.