Defending Yourself [Monday, Period 1]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"We've talked about fight or flight responses, and I mentioned that one of the things we'll want to do is begin to adjust your instinctive reactions so that those automatic responses don't get you into trouble if you need to defend yourself. Today we'll be taking the first step with that."

Max grinned and looked around the room at his students. "Today's lesson is that sometimes the 'fight or flight' response is actually the wrong approach. In fact, in a lot of cases, you actually want some combination of the two. Stomp someone's foot, and then run; or running until you find a better position to fight from. After all, there are plenty of situations where just running, or just fighting, are not optimal. I mean, chances are you couldn't outrun a tiger chasing you, and you certainly don't want to fight one in the open."

"Today's exercise is pretty simple. Everyone's going to get some distance from each other, and then the Danger Shop is going to begin cycling through localized scenarios. They'll all be still scenes, so you have as much time to think about your responses as you need. You can even get a bit of practice in with your proposed solution, though since everything will be frozen it won't be all that realistic. Still, I'm hoping it'll help you think about some of this stuff in advance."

"Well, that's it. Let's get to it." He paused. "Oh, and Surreal, I'd like to speak to you after class, if you have a moment."

Comments

The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The scenarios are moddable. You can set one up yourself if you want, or you can just ping in and I'll come up with something. Whichever you prefer.

Re: The activity

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy waited to see what would happen, reflexes ready to do whatever was necessary.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

And suddenly, Mercy was in the middle of a forest. Well, in a clearing in a forest. With a tiger in front of her.

What? Sometimes Max liked to actually give his students a heads-up. If they were clever enough to notice that's what it was.

Re: The activity

[walkswithcoyote]

Oh lovely.

Mercy stayed very still, watching the tiger intently, but with downcast eyes, so she didn't look challenging.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

That would probably work pretty well against an actual tiger. But this tiger was programmed by Max, who was nothing even approaching a tiger expert, so it just growled and stalked slowly forward.

Re: The activity

[walkswithcoyote]

Well, this was a problem.

She could get to a tree and well off the ground before it could get to her, but since tigers could climb trees, that wouldn't stop a determined one.

She wasn't armed and couldn't see anything on the ground that she could throw at it or use as a weapon.

Probably her best bet was to get up a tree and kick at it or something. Well, honestly, in real life, she'd shift and run. She could outrun it easily that way. But since she wasn't ready to out herself just yet...

She was across the clearing and up a tree pretty damn fast.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The tiger followed, but she did get to the tree with enough of a lead to get off the ground. And rather than follow immediately, the tiger paced around the tree looking displeased.

Re: The activity

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy carefully took off a sneaker, tying the laces together in such a way that she'd be able to swing it around and use it as a kind of projectile she could hold onto. Then she hung it over one shoulder and worked on doing the same thing to the other sneaker.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The tiger didn't seem inclined to let her finish with the second of her shoes. It finally stopped prowling around the tree and planted its claws in the trunk, scrambling toward the lowest branch.

Re: The activity

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi waited to see what the Danger Shop would come up with, then belatedly whispered, "Don't be rats, don't be rats, c'mon, don't be rats..."

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

And it was rats!

Not really.

But it was suddenly a darkened city alleyway that was comletely empty. Except for that big guy who basically looked like every stereotype of "big, stupid thug" every rolled into one who was standing a few feet away and looking big, stupid, and menacing.

Re: The activity

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi beamed at him. And started babbling Russian.

"//Hello, friend! Please don't stab or shoot me! I have no money!//"

Some things are spinal reflex.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The thug did not seem to care. Or, perhaps, speak Russian.

But he she did have his attention, now. So... yay?

Re: The activity

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Not yay. No, no. Too big to fight. Possibly too strong to run away from.

Kenzi started looking right, left above, around for a place to hide, still smiling.

"Dude, how's it going? Have you seen my unicorn?"

When in doubt, go with crazy.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

There were fire escapes on both sides of the alley, and assorted trash cans and dumpsters, but no other little side paths or anything like that. The goon was between Kenzi and the only obvious exit from the alleyway.

"I like unicorns," the big guy rumbled. Somehow he managed to make the words sound menacing as he took a heavy step forward.

Re: The activity

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Great!" Kenzi burbled.

Then she shoved a dumpster at him and sprinted for the fire escape.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The big guy was apparently as dumb as he looked because he just stared stupidly as the dumpster crashed into him, sending him stumbling backwards. Which gave Kenzi a nice head start.

But the big guy was already pushing himself to his feet.

Re: The activity

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

Freddie had no idea what he was in for. In fact, he was pretty much preparing to cower in fear.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Cower in fear? But there were suddenly puppies in front of him. Three of them!

Why would anyone cower from puppies (if they weren't in Max's class)?

Re: The activity

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

Freddie flinched, then just let out a big "Awwwwwwww," and crouched down to pet the puppies. He may have been completely suckered in, if this was a trap...

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

IT WAS A TRAP!

Because these puppies had giant, giant pointy teeth! And now they were grinning hungrily at Freddie.

Re: The activity

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

"Oh sweet chiz," Freddie said, trying to stand up quickly and just falling on his butt. "Uhhh, nice puppies. Good boys. Girls? Good dogs."

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Whether they were girls or boys they had very large teeth. And hungry growls. And Freddie apparently looked rather tasty!

Re: The activity

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

"Awww man, where's Sam with her emergency ribs when I need her?" Freddie said. "Look over there!"

He wondered if dogs would actually fall for that, as he pointed the opposite direction while trying to get to his feet.

Re: The activity

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

The dogs did, actually, beyond all reason, look in the direction Freddie pointed.