Self Defense, Thursday, Period One

[suitably_heroic]

The class had been told to meet up in the Danger Shop. There, they found a simulation that covered both a gun range and a bunch of punching bags. There was no one else there.

After a couple of minutes, their teacher came swaggering in - he wore a dark Jedi tunic with a brown-and-white jacket slung over it casually. The combination didn't quite work, but somehow it worked for him. "So, you've all had some time to poke around," Atton said. "Hope you took advantage of the opportunity, because it's all the lead-in you're getting."

Beat.

"Well, except for this. Hi, I'm Atton Rand. I'm teaching this class because this island can get pretty dangerous and I'd be marginally sad if some of you died. If you got put in here by mistake when you actually want to be in the advanced fighting class, let the office know, because I'm by and large going to assume you people barely know how to take the wings off a fly."

He clapped his hands. "That being said, I want to know where you people are at. Yell your name, hit that punching bag as hard as you can, then run over to the range, blast the target, and, I don't know, tell me something about how you feel about beating things up. Now go, I don't have all day."

Yes, he did, but he was trying to get them motivated.

"... and if anyone wants to be my TA, come see me after class."

Comments

Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

Pick up a blaster and hit those human silhouette-shaped targets at the back. Then tell Atton something about how you feel about beating things up.

Sparkle might get a target in a silhouetty robe because Atton cares, man.

Re: Shooting Range

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four picked up the blaster and missed center mass on the first try--he wasn't that used to how a blaster felt in his hands--but bullseyed the next few shots.

"I don't beat people up for fun or anything, but if you're going to need to do this, you better know how to do it so once they go down, they stay down."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

Wasn't that Sia's new boyfriend...?

"That's usually harder than it looks," Atton agreed. "Though hey, on the other hand, sometimes it's nothing a kick in the head can't cure."

Re: Shooting Range

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four's lips curled up. "If you yank 'em by the piercing, they tend to leave you alone afterwards, too."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"Lesson number two, don't get piercings," Atton said. He was gonna go and be an adult and ignore his instinctive desire to be a shit to Four. Call it maturity, call it being able to see how much of a kid the kid was, whatever. "Lesson number three, if you have piercings, get rid of them."

Re: Shooting Range

[gavegoodface]

He was hardly a sniper, but Face was a much better at shooting than punching, not that that was difficult. His shots clustered neatly around around the target's heart.

"I'm better at talking my way out of things than fighting my way out," he said after.

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"That's about 75% of surviving you've got down there," Atton said. "Not bad, and we'll fix the other 25% no problem."

Re: Shooting Range

[gavegoodface]

Face nodded. "So until then I've only got to worry about the times they lead with that 25%."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, we can kick off practicing 'running away really hard'," Atton said. "That should get you at least another 10%."

Re: Shooting Range

[myownface]

"Aww," Sparkle cackled. "You're the best, man."

Sorry, Skywalker. Sparkle was firing off a few shots at you in effigy, here. And he wasn't completely hopeless, thanks to Atton himself teaching him how to use a blaster back when sharks were raining from the sky. His first shot got the target in the shoulder, and then he adjusted his aim from there.

"I don't like these things," he noted, holding up the blaster for a moment before setting it down. "But knowing how to handle one seems important. And, I don't know. I don't really love fighting, either, but you can't run away from everything."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"You can try, but sometimes that just ends up with you dead," Atton agreed. Though really, he knew Sparkle's rationale for being here already. "You're going to have to learn to like those blasters, though, at least until you graduate."

Re: Shooting Range

[myownface]

"Yeah, I can handle that. Anyway, I might need to borrow one of these things just to survive through my grad, you know?"

Because he was a scrapper, but that was hardly the same thing as being a fighter, and he had no idea how the rest of his class would fare against whatever might try to kill the graduates this year.

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"I'll see if I can pick you up something next time I'm on Coruscant," Atton promised. "Maybe something small that's easy to hide."

Re: Shooting Range

[theheadkid.livejournal.com]

Oh swell, a gun. Travis picked it up and tried not to let his hands shake while he did. He...was horrible with the blaster, barely hitting the edges of the silhouette.

"I'm better at avoiding beating things up then I am at confronting something with my fists," he admitted. "My skills in fighting are probably best in video game worlds."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, video games help with your reaction time and reflexes," Atton said. "Now you just need to get rid of those noodle arms in the flesh."

Re: Shooting Range

[theheadkid.livejournal.com]

His noodle arms used to be even noodlier! So, that was a thing.

But, Travis didn't disagree. "Easier said than done. I haven't ever held a gun before. Squirt and Nerf guns excluded."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"We'll add some weight training onto the schedule while we're at it," Atton decided.

Re: Shooting Range

[not_a_moonie]

Alana grabbed the blaster, handled it a bit to test how its weight felt in her hands, and then shot at the target's head. She hit about where the nose would have been. It wasn't perfect aim, but it was good enough to do some serious damage. Her next few shots were more or less the same -- some a bit closer to the forehead, and one where her hand jerked at the last second and she would have hit an ear.

"I agree with Four," she said. "I'm not going to pick a fight just because I don't like somebody's hair or whatever, but if I have to do it, I want to come out on top."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, you need more experience with that thing," Atton said, nodding at her, "But that's not a bad place to start if 'coming up on top' is what you're interested in."

Re: Shooting Range

[not_a_moonie]

"Isn't it what everybody wants?" Alana asked, shrugging. "Maybe it's just that there are so many soldiers at home, but you don't see too many people getting into fights they want to lose."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

"Nah," Atton said. "Some people just want to kill, some people just really want to hurt someone, some people just want to release their anger. There's a lot of different reasons to fight."

He shrugged. "In this case, I'm taking 'coming out on top' as 'walking out alive'."

Re: Shooting Range

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

This? Minako could do this! She was ACES at shooting games at the arcade! Plus, the whole 'energy beams from her fingers' thing as Venus.

Her first shot went a little wild, to hit in the shoulder, due to the weight of the blaster and recoil she wasn't expecting, but the rest of Minako's shots were nicely clustered towards the center.

"I don't like fighting," she said bluntly. "But I'm not afraid to stand up for what I believe in, and sometimes that means fighting back physically."

"Also, I'm a girl from a big metropolitan city." Minako shrugged. "There's going to be creepers and perverts, and sometimes you just have to judo-flip a guy into a wall."

Re: Shooting Range

[suitably_heroic]

Atton thought about that one for a second.

"Good points," he said. "Now I need to write something up about judo-flipping for one of these weeks. I don't know what it is, but it sounds useful."

Re: Shooting Range

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

MINAKO STOP SMILING LIKE THAT AND BOUNCING YOU ARE GONNA SCARE SOMEONE. "If you've got some mats, I can demonstrate?" she offered, bouncing on her toes. "I'll just need a volunteer.

Re: Shooting Range

[bearmaidenfair]

Guns of any description were not so much a thing in Vider's world, but she was going late enough that she'd observed the others and had a pretty good idea of how this thing worked. That did not mean she made any of her shots, though. "It's my future career, so I'm pretty ragging okay with it."

Now she was vaguely wondering how someone who wasn't okay with beating things up would get by in New Asgardian society. Probably really badly.