Defending Yourself [Monday, Period 1]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Welcome back. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend." Max eyed his students. "And that you took the time to do your homework."

"Today's lesson is actually going to be short because I'm going to try leaving most of our time for some demonstrations, but there is something I'm hoping you all pick up on today: each of you has a set of instinctive reactions when threatened. Everyone has different ones, of course, but the lesson to learn is that most of them are useful. Maybe not all the time, or in all situations, and it's useful to be aware of when to fight your instincts, but it's also important to realize that no matter how new you all are to the concept, each and every one of you has some ideas about how to defend yourself. And not all of those ideas are bad ones."

"For instance," another look around, this time with a grin, "I gave you a homework assignment last week I gave you a homework assignment with very little guidance, and I'm willing to bet that you all managed to do it. And I also suspect that most of you came up with something the others didn't, if only because of the way you think about things."

"So let's see them. Everyone take a moment to show us what you've brought, and explain why you picked it. And feel free to talk ideas with each other."

And then Max's grin turned downright evil, and he nodded toward the door that wasn't part of the usual classroom setup (thank you, Danger Shop!). "While you're doing that, you'll find a list of your names in totally random order by the door. If you're at the top of the list, come on through for a personal evaluation." That totally wasn't going to be an ambush so that Max could evaluate your instinctive reactions to surprise attacks. Unless it was.

Hint: it totally was.

[Continuing my no-sign-in experiment! If it really is a problem for you, feel free to leave an OOC comment, or hit me up via email! Or AIM! Or LJ PM!]

Comments

Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Because there is no other door.

Students will find that the room is dark. Not completely so, as there's just enough light to make out the shapes of desks and other furniture things that made the room look pretty much exactly like the one they'd just left. Except with all the lights out.

Also, this room just happens to feel eerily silent. Like something's waiting in that darkness for you.

NOTE: For anyone who wants to not have their character suddenly jumped from the shadows, it is perfectly fine to handwave that Max left their name off of the list. Either intentionally or out of forgetfulness.

Re: Step through door number 1

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy put all her senses on alert, then stepped through the door. Since it was dark, she stepped carefully and quickly to the left side of the doorway, hugging the wall. She could see very well in the dark, so she looked - and smelled for whatever might be there.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

It smelled an awful lot like Max was standing (looming, really) behind where the door had swung open, just waiting for the perfect moment to ambush her. Probably by jumping out and yelling 'boo'!

Re: Step through door number 1

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy could smell him there and pretty much make out where he was, so she waited quietly to see what he'd do. There wasn't going to be much surprise on her part.

If it had been one of the werewolves back home, she'd have done her best to startle him instead, but she didn't know him that well.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max waited a couple of seconds, then shoved the door shut and... Okay, he actually jumped forward and yelled "Boo!"

Re: Step through door number 1

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy tilted her head calmly at him. "Hi, Professor."

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Max answered with a grin. He started to say something else, but instead leaped forward, arms extended to grab at Mercy's shoulders.

Re: Step through door number 1

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy looked startled, but her faster than human reflexes kicked in. You didn't survive a couple of attempts on your life without learning to pay attention.

She had ducked and slid and was out of the way with a couple of desks between them before she'd even realized she'd moved. She was still silent. Wolves don't make noise when they're hunting and smart coyotes stay silent when they're being hunted.


[ooc: He's more than welcome to notice that a normal human couldn't move that fast.]

Re: Step through door number 1

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

Angelica's first instinct was to concentrate on using her powers to create a soft glow around herself so she could see better.

Of course, that made her all the more visible to whatever might be lurking out there as she nervously peered around the room.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Glowing, huh. Lucky for Max he was on the other side of the door. (He'd totally seen that trick on some TV show somewhere.) He concentrated on staying silent and giving Angelica a second or two to see what else she might do.

Re: Step through door number 1

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

"Hello?" Angelica said nervously, stepping further into the room. It was hard to see what was beyond her circle of light.

She was so going to do badly on this test.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Once she'd stepped past the door, Max made his move. First he stepped forward, scuffing his foot slightly to give her a fraction of a second of warning or so. Then he yelled "Boo!".

Yeah. Really.

Re: Step through door number 1

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, Angelica had been expecting something, so she didn't entirely freak out and lose control of her powers. She did, however, shriek a little and spin around, her powers flaring brighter and hotter, but she struggled to hold it back so she didn't accidentally harm Max.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Then it probably didn't help that Max was also doing his best to look very threatening, and also continuing to come toward her with his arms extended. Because scaring her wasn't really the point. Max wanted to see how she'd defend herself.

Fortunately they were in the Danger Shop, so even if this wasn't his smartest idea he wouldn't get hurt too badly.

Re: Step through door number 1

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal winked at her classmates before wrapping a sight-shield tightly around herself, effectively vanishing from view. She reached over to open the door, waited until the count of three, and then walked in.

She would just leave the door open to give herself another escape route, and moved forward, almost completely silently.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Pretty good plan, really. It probably would have worked a lot better if Max hadn't spent enough time training Karla that he actually tended to think of sight shields as pretty common.

The waiting trick was nice, though.

Of course, Max could wait, too. And he did. Standing behind the open door to see what Surreal would do next.

Re: Step through door number 1

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

She would go up, of course, solidifying the air to run up two or three feet, and then turn to look around, slowly, getting the feel of the space and letting her eyes adjust the rest of the way.

He was clearly here somewhere, Surreal recognized his psychic scent in the room, but the question was where.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max waited for her to begin turning, and then kicked the door closed with a bang. In the same motion he moved forward, grabbing for Surreal's waist now that it was at a convenient grabbing height.

Re: Step through door number 1

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was gonna be fun. Kenzi wandered through the door, relaxed, looking everywhere. Including up. (You must always look up.)

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Good move. But Max wasn't up. Nope. He was behind the door.

Waiting.

Re: Step through door number 1

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi was now crouching a bit, below eye-level. Because dude, she just knew something was going to be thrown at her head.

Then she scurried for a desk, looking around wildly for Max.

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Oooh, scurrying. Good plan!

Max didn't so much scurry as charge out from behind the door like, well, a really big guy charging at Kenzi.

Re: Step through door number 1

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Screaming. Lots of it. Also, kicking out as hard as possible with those steel-toed boots, and then trying to hide under the desk!

Re: Step through door number 1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Oh, the kicking was pretty good. And Max could tell because one of those boots connected with his shin.

He hissed and bounced back, giving Kenzi some space.

Re: Step through door number 1

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

Freddie was more than a little worried as he stepped through the door.

He might have been expecting the worst, but that didn't mean he'd be prepared for the worst.