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keeping your advantage

Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You [Weds, 3rd Period]

When students arrived in the Danger Shop today, they'd see an obstacle course, modeled after rooftops and walls, about six-to-ten feet off the ground, foam mats all over the floor.

"Good afternoon," Ghanima said cheerily. "Today we're looking at remaining mobile in an unfamiliar urban environment. To this end, we are studying parkour, or l'art du déplacement."

"When lost or being pursued in an unfamiliar city, sticking to the streets is the equivalent of painting a target on your back," she continued. "A stranger will stick out like nothing else, and sometimes an alternative view of your surroundings can be unbelievably helpful."

"Parkour is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as smoothly, efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment—from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls—and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are referred to as traceurs, or traceuses for females."

"Now, parkour is a physical activity that is often categorized as a sport or an extreme sport; however, parkour has no set of rules. Most experienced traceurs think of parkour as a discipline closer to martial arts. It is often said that 'the physical aspect of parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, as to help you gain the most ground on someone or something, whether escaping from it or chasing toward it.'"

"The primary characteristic of parkour is efficiency. Practitioners move not only as rapidly as they can, but also in the most direct and efficient way possible. This characteristic distinguishes it from the similar practice of freerunning, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity. Efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, both short and long term, part of why parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer - to be and to last. Those who are skilled at this activity normally have an extremely keen spatial awareness."

"So, today, you'll be trying it out on a smaller scale," she said, going over some of the basic moments with the students. "For those of you that manage this course, I'll switch the Danger Shop over to an actual urban environment, and you can feel free to take a run at a slightly more realistic scenario."

[OOC: On your mark, get set... OCD IS A GO!]

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On the run!

Edited 2014-10-01 14:24 (UTC)

Elsa of Arendelle

Anders

Edited 2014-10-01 15:54 (UTC)

Garik Loran

Kira Yukimura

Four

Marasiah Fel

Jalian d'Arsennette y ken Selvren

Andros

Isabelle Lightwood

Listen to Ghanima, look at the obstacle course, chat with your friends.

Edited 2014-10-01 14:25 (UTC)

Elsa had certainly picked the right day to wear a pair of jeans to class for the first time ever. She was looking a little wide-eyed at the course, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about her dress flying up.

The past classes had been interesting, but this one - Jalian had done some of these moves before once or twice by necessity, but never as a taught discipline. This was new! She couldn't wait to try it.

The practice course is only 6-10 feet off the ground, with LOTS of squishy mats padding the floor. Play tag, do a solo run, bounce off the foam mats, have some fun with it!

[ooc: warning, video link!]

Edited 2014-10-01 14:27 (UTC)

Oh, goodness. Elsa had no idea what she was doing, and she was pretty sure she wasn't going to make half of those jumps. But if she started small...

Before even trying the course, she stood on one of the ledges and peered down at the mats below. Taking a deep breath, she jumped over, just to check and see what it would be like if she missed a jump.

Not bad! Not at all! Okay. Now she was feeling better about this.

Jalian grinned and held out a hand to help her up. "Pants are much better for this! You have nice legs, too."

Edited 2014-10-01 22:00 (UTC)

"I do?" Elsa hesitated for a moment before smiling and reaching for the offered hand. "Thank you? I've never really thought about it before..."

But now that Jalian had mentioned it...

"You do!" Jalian shrugged. "I'm fast, but I'd bet you could be strong with much less work.

"Strong?" Elsa blinked at her legs one more time before looking almost sheepishly back up at Jalian again. "How do you mean, strong?"

Strong was never really a consideration, as a princess. But it did sound... Kind of appealing, actually.

Jalian frowned a little. "Strong? You could lift more, maybe last longer while running?" She pointed at one of the higher walls. "You could probably get up there more easily, if you were trained." She laughed. "Though I could try twice in the same time, so fast isn't bad, either."

Elsa looked at the high wall that Jalian was pointing at, and then laughed a little, herself.

"You think I could really do that?"

It was so... so unladylike.

But it sounded like fun...

"I don't suppose you would be willing to teach me?"

"Sure!" Jalian grinned, then looked a little rueful. "I don't know if I'm a very good teacher," she confessed.

"Well, then I'll have to make up for it by being an excellent student," Elsa decided, laughing softly. "I'm not certain when I'll ever need to be able to do this, though around here it certainly couldn't hurt."

At all. Here was the perfect place to be if you needed plenty of reasons to be able to escape from something quickly.

Jalian grinned. "Come on, then." She ran for the wall.

Edited 2014-10-02 01:22 (UTC)

Elsa might have done a happy little bounce in place before taking off after Jalian, right then. A small one, with her hands up in fists and a silly smile on her face. This was a terrible idea, it was absurd, and the future Queen of Arendelle had no business throwing herself around like this.

But she was laughing as she broke into a run, following Jalian's lead.

She didn't have to be the Queen of Arendelle yet. Right now, she was going to be Elsa, instead.

This was the thing Kathy had been telling Anders about! He was excited to finally give it a try.

And ... somewhat less excited when he realized he was spending almost as much time climbing back up from the mats as he was parkouring. But on his fifth attempt, he made it without falling or needing to stop. He was calling that a win.

Edited 2014-10-01 16:44 (UTC)

Four grinned--this was pretty much how Dauntless got around. He hated the heights (of course), but he rocked through his first solo run without a hitch.

He just needed to catch a moving train at the end of it and he'd be home.

The first time Kira went through the course, she made herself fall, just to see what it would be like to bounce on the mats. She was still giggling when she got back up to try again.

A few of the jumps were a little long, but Jalian managed. A few times she had to stop and check what was best, which slowed her down a bit, but it was fun enough she didn't mind doing it again once she had it down!

Ghanima changed the Danger Shop to the rooftops of the nation's capital city. Try to make it from one end of the city to the other in a half hour!

Edited 2014-10-01 14:28 (UTC)

This would be fun! Jalian might not be too used to cities (she'd been getting better since she came here, but they were still rather foreign to her), but she could run and jump very well, and she was looking forward to this.

She's around, when she's not using the Way to turn physics on its ear as she moves from building to building.

Edited 2014-10-01 14:29 (UTC)

Today's class brought to you by the fact that

iceolatedqueen is wearing pants.

AND DAMMIT LJ GIVE ME MY ICONS.

Edited 2014-10-01 14:31 (UTC)

Gonna share the same workaround I shared in Atton's class over here, for it is wondrous and made of temporary fixy-la:

Llwy found a workaround for LJ eating icons! You don't have to go back and edit if you click 'more options' instead of 'post comment,' and then select your icon. It's an extra step, but it's been working for me so far!

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Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You [Weds, 3rd Period]

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