fandomhigh | How to Make Friends and Influence People [Tuesday, March 11, 2014]

How to Make Friends and Influence People [Tuesday, March 11, 2014]

Anakin, who'd gotten a visual reminder of the time his son and Gavin Darklighter had thought they'd been Siegfried and Roy, not the most dignified island moment ever, might have let that influence the mood he was in when he'd programmed the Danger Shop.

"Welcome to Geonosis," he said with a wicked smile as each student found themselves handcuffed to a huge stone pillar in the middle of an arena. "Sometimes negotiations go poorly. In this case, they've gone straight to poodoo. You have thirty seconds before your captors will release an acklay--an image of a giant bug helpfully sprang to holographic life before them--"a nexu, and a reek."

More photos helpfully showed what was going to try to eat them.

"Working together, get out of the arena." Anakin smiled. "And girls, you have a hairpin inside your sleeves because when I was in this very same situation--" which said something about the poor choices Anakin had made in his life, "--my first wife was smart enough to have one in her sleeve and used it to pick the lock on her cuffs. I was too busy bickering with my teacher at the time to do something just as useful."

He smiled again. "Welcome to aggressive negotiations."

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Oh.

Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no. Elsa knew that this simulation couldn't hurt her by now, but she had no idea how to use a hairpin to pick a lock, and no inclination to let anybody get close enough to help her. She could struggle and strain at her bonds, but to no avail.

She was bound and determined to keep from panicking, but that was easier said than done. Regal poise. Hopefully nobody would notice if she was murmuring her 'Conceal, don't feel' mantra under her breath.

Mercy dashed over, hairpin at the ready and ever so grateful that her fiance, Samuel, had taught her how to pick locks.

"Elsa! I can get you out of there!"

"What if I'm perfectly comfortable right where I am?"

... She really, really wasn't. At all. But she was far less comfortable with the idea of anyone coming anywhere near her hands.

"Well..." Mercy looked toward where the creatures were supposed to come from. "You might not be too comfortable in a few more seconds. I promise I'm good at this, it'll only take me a few seconds, and it won't hurt or anything. I just have to get my hands on that cuff for a sec. But if you really want to stay... I can't make you leave."

Elsa really kind of wanted to just curl herself up in a ball and pretend the rest of this class period wasn't happening, actually.

"Please, just... just don't touch me," she murmured, not quite able to curl herself up the way she might have, were her hands free.

Mercy was puzzled and more than a bit concerned. But living in a place where damaged werewolves came, sometimes one might come through who'd been hurt in some way. Often they were funny about having people too close or being touched. She wouldn't presume that anything like that had happened to Elsa, but she certainly was able to be very calm and careful to try and make her feel more secure.

"I won't," Mercy said gently. "I promise."

She took careful hold of the cuff - just the cuff - and swiftly used the hairpin to spring the lock before stepping back. "You can pull out of that easily," she said "But now we'd better climb fast."

Elsa pulled her hands close to her breasts and just held them there for a moment, rubbing her wrists and nodding quietly.

"Thank you," she murmured, sounding small and more than a little shaken. And then...

Well, she really had no idea how she was going to climb that pillar. Especially not in the dress she was wearing today.

Mercy hesitated. "I can help you up," she offered, "But there's no way I can push you up without touching you."

"Then I'll take my chances down here," Elsa replied firmly. "You get to safety. If I get eaten... I get eaten."

It was a simulation. It wasn't real. It looked real. It looked like a nightmare. But it wasn't real.

"Oh geez," Mercy said, rubbing her face as she looked over her shoulder. There was no way in hell she was just leaving Elsa here to be attacked. "Run then. As fast as you can!"

"Run!"

She shifted, slithering her way out of her clothes and yipped at Elsa, urging her on. Looks like it was going to be a fight after all, dammit.

Elsa hesitated for only a moment as Mercy shifted from girl to canine, staring in shock before, a few seconds later, snapping out of it, giving her a firm nod, and turning to run.

Hiding, she could do, maybe.

Maybe?

She'd been hiding her entire life. Of course she could.

Mercy snarled as she prepared for the monsters, keeping a close eye on Elsa. Once she thought Elsa was safe enough she was going to flee to safety herself. Not much was faster than her!

"Looks like a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into!" Joker called to her. "Unfortunately, the crowd doesn't seem swayed by your beauty. Clearly, there's something wrong with them!"

"I think there's a lot wrong with this entire situation," Elsa shot back, sounding just the tiniest bit perturbed.

Okay, no, she was practically seething.

"This is not okay!"

As though there was any doubt.

"This is so far from okay that we can't even see 'okay' from here!" Joker agreed. "At least it's not real?"

"If it was real, most of us would be dead." Elsa wasn't even going to mince words, where that was concerned. It was the truth. "As it stands, is there any guarantee that people aren't going to end up hurt? This is... it's grossly irresponsible."

This was probably the most harsh her language was going to get until she worked her way up to a good rant.

"There are safeguards!" Joker told her. "You'll be fine. Probably." As for him? That really depended on the margin of error in the safeguards.

"It's not me I'm worried about," Elsa replied firmly, expression pulled into a frown. "People make stupid, dangerous mistakes when they're thrown into the middle of chaos unprepared."

Or when they were handcuffed to large pillars and couldn't talk people into just leaving them there to be devoured rather than setting them free, say.

"I... think the safeguards protect against that, too?" Joker offered.

"Stupid, dangerous mistakes that might hurt each other?"

Could the safeguards keep her from freezing somebody to death?

"I... think so?" Joker answered. "I mean, I know that logically that doesn't make any sense, but when has this place worked on logic? As I understand it, the rule is that you just can't get hurt in the Danger Shop." He looked a little nervous. "I'm just hoping that it knows how fragile I am, 'cause I doubt I'm getting out of this uneaten."

"You can't do that," Elsa replied. "You can't reassure me that nobody's going to get hurt, and then go on to say that you hope you don't get hurt."

It made her want to get eaten quickly, just so it wouldn't be a concern.

"I can try to put myself between you and the monsters, if you're worried. I want to see you get injured about as much as you do."

"Look, no, all I'm saying is that the monsters aren't going to hurt you, and other students aren't going to hurt you, but I can be broken by falling down, which might not be accounted for. That's all. You run, okay? It's not going to HURT, but I can't imagine getting eaten will be all that pleasant."

"More or less unpleasant than actually leaving here with an injury?" Elsa's tone was firm, now. She'd hit her 'taking crap from anybody' upper limit, and now she was hitting stubborn mode.

It ran in the family.

"Besides, of course I'm not going to aim to get myself eaten. But I want to think I can make a fair distraction, myself."

"Yes, yes you can," Joker told her. "And then once you're done being a distraction, you will be eaten. And you're too pretty to be eaten. And then I will be eaten, and then that will suck for both of us. You can run -- so run. Running will injure me. Look, I ~~don't want to Joss the other threads~~ can handle myself, 'kay?"

Re: Get out of your handcuffs!

iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com - 2014-03-12 00:56 (UTC) - Expand

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