fandomhigh | Kicking Ass, Teamwork Style [Wednesday, Period 3, Week 6]

"So there's this whole trust fall thing that they make people do at, like, business retreats and stuff," Kennedy began with an emphatic eyeroll, once everyone seemed to be accounted for. There wasn't any kind of elaborate setup in the Danger Shop today, just a grassy park setting, very generic. Not like Kennedy was much good at programming the thing, anyway. "Some of you probably've heard of them. Hell, some of you've probably done them at camps or something. Blah blah, let yourself fall backward without looking, trust your partner to catch you before you hit the ground. Cheesy, right? Like someone took a motivational poster and a Hallmark card and turned them into a smoothie?"

She smirked and rolled her eyes, then crossed her arms and turned serious, pacing back and forth in front of the class.

"Thing is, though, when it really comes down to it? They've got the right idea. If something bad goes down, it's so much better if you know there's people who've got your back. I don't just mean knowing they'll throw down for you if they need to-- although that, also a big plus. There's things like..." She looked mildly abashed for a moment. "Knowing they actually, you know, can, and not trying to pull all the weight yourself like you think they can't, 'cause that only pisses 'em off and makes things worse. Or trusting someone not to hurt you with their powers... flip side, trusting someone to keep you in check if they have to."

Kennedy seemed to realize she was getting a little projecty there, and half grinned. "So that's what you're gonna do today. Pair up, and take turns being the catcher and catchee. Powers are cool if your partner's down with that, but if anyone thinks it's funny to just let their partner fall, I am so kicking your ass for it. If just falling over backwards is too boring for you, you can always try falling out of a tree or something. I mean, hey, Danger Shop, right?"

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It sounds a lot less badass when you put it that way...

Victor was heavier than he looked thanks to his artificial parts, and falling into someone else's arms worried him -- he wasn't exactly looking forward to knocking somebody over. But he was willing to try the catching part and maybe work his way up to the other half.

"This feels like a weird task to someone who can fly," Karolina noted with a small smile at Victor. (She figured they could benefit from a trust exercise, with their odd timeline issues.) "But I guess I see the point."

"No, it's pretty weird to the rest of us too," Victor said, with a matching small smile. "At least I don't have to worry about knocking you over."

Karolina had to smile a little wider at that, even if it was a little lopsided. "Not unless you knock me out first." Beat. "Please don't do that."

"I guess I can't, now that you said please," Victor joked back. "Did you want to fall first, or catch first?"

"I can fall first?" Karolina offered. She figured she'd take her bracelet off to catch him, and she was still managing to be just a little shy about doing that in front of people. "That should work."

"I'm good with that," Victor concurred, and went to move around behind her.

His Karolina might have gotten a vaguely suggestive joke at this point, but this one was spared.

And this one would have been glad to know she'd been spared. Otherwise she would have been really confused. And probably managed to come close to messing up the task afterwards.

But she was fine right now, glancing back over her shoulder. "Um, ready?"

And making Karolina mess up probably would have been bad karma. Victor stretched out his arms, judged where he was and took half a step forward. "Wait. Yes."

"Right." She drew in a deep breath. "Well. Here goes."

Wow, this felt awkward. She figured that was probably the point, though, because you were supposed to trust you'd get caught, despite feeling awkawrd.

A short moment passed, and then she was falling backwards.

And then Victor caught her, easily managing her weight. (Which was nice, because the worst thing in the world would have been dropping her in the middle of a trust exercise. It might have blown his entire claim of not being evil.)

He rested for just a beat before turning to the side and moving to deposit her on her feet. "Good?" he said, and it was almost funny how giddy the success made him.

Well, Karolina wasn't going to mock him for it. Not with how she clapped a bit after she was safely back on her feet. Kinda of exhilarating to not fall down, really.

"Excellent," she said, and even chuckled a bit. "So, do you want to fall now?"

Victor rolled his shoulders. "Sure. Time to get this over with."

If he sounded less than enthused, it was more about the falling backwards aspect than anything personal against Karolina. If anything,m he was more comfortable with her than he would have been with others.

Ace had never been to camp, but 'Trust Falls' did sound like something that belonged in that other class with 'therapy' in the name. Even if, shh, that other class was maybe not entirely all that awful.

'Pair up and fall over' was actually a lot more tolerable as a description. "All right, who wants to fall on me?"

She could have maybe phrased that better. Or at least not handed some smartarse an engraved invitation to reply with Tell me everything you want me to be. In her defense, though, Rob who? Matchbox what?

Back at her old school in New Jersey or Emma's School of Mean Mutants, Angelica would have been extremely hesitant to do something like this. But Fandom was different. "Um, sure," she said to Ace.

Fortunately, she was from the 80s and had never heard "Ever the Same."

~~In that special Marvel Slowplay Time where the 80's lasted approximately 17 years judging by how long it took anyone to age appreciably.~~

"You don't have secret gravity-doubling powers or anything, right?" Ace checked. "You don't look like you'd knock me over, but I'm learning not to assume, 'round here."

Edited 2012-06-14 00:49 (UTC)

~~She was in high school in the 80s, and college now. Slowplay was an understatement.~~

Angelica giggled a little and shook her head. "No, nothing like that," she said. "Kinda the opposite if you count being able to fly as making myself lighter." Not that that was how it worked.

If Ace wasn't a complete fangirl at heart, she might start getting a complex about all these powers around her. "...I reckon you don't actually have to trust me all that much, then, if you can fly."

Richie was fine catching someone. He wasn't enough a jerk to let anybody else fall on purpose. Maybe when he was younger, or maybe if Mac decided they needed to do something ridiculous like this he might drop him as a form of protest.

"I promise not to drop anyone," he announced to the room.

Kicking Ass, Teamwork Style [Wednesday, Period 3, Week 6]

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