fandomhigh | Self Defense, Thursday, Period One

Class was meeting at the gym this week, and as the students would be able to tell as they entered the room, that wasn't the only change. Atton was there, looking exasperated, and he wasn't alone; next to him stood a tall woman with white hair wearing white robes and a white hood and... okay, she was just very white, okay? Let's go with that.

"Hey, class," Atton said. "So apparently somebody back home--" Mical, "let Brianna here know that I was teaching self defense, and she graciously offered her help in teaching you the basics of hand-to-hand combat."

"You were planning to teach Echani techniques," Brianna said. "I'm Echani. These are mine to share, not yours."

Atton rolled his eyes. "You might want to take that up with, oh, all of the Republic's special forces," he said. "Anyway, as some of you already know, there's this martial arts called Echani which was invented by - you guessed it - the Echani. The Echani..."

"...believe that to master one's self, to learn another, one must master hand-to-hand combat," she said. "Body language can betray many things. Emotions. Thoughts. This is why you must perfect these skills."

"Also, because it's nice to be able to kick someone in the head when they come at you with a knife," Atton offered.

She rolled her eyes. "Be serious," she said. "If someone comes at you with a knife, you take their arm, wrench it out of the socket, and then you deliver a quick nerve strike to the back of the neck. Not only will your attacker be unable to act, they'll also be in a lot of pain."

Atton thought about that one for a second. "...Okay, fair," he said.

"Today, I will teach you three defensive moves," Brianna said. "You'll practice them." There wasn't much room for argument, there. "But first, you will see what a real fight looks like. Some people watch too many holovids." She tugged off her robes and her tunic and dropped them to the floor, leaving her standing there in her underwear. "You," she said to Atton, "You claim to know more than the first tier. Show me."

Wait, what?

"Um," Atton said, looking maybe a little longer than he'd be willing to admit to before turning to the class. "...So, have I mentioned that the Echani believe that the most honest way to spar is in your underwear?"

Brianna shot him an irritated look. "What are you waiting for?" she said.

"I'm teaching a class, not prepping for an Echani org--"

"No one actually believes you have any modesty, Atton," she said flatly.

Atton facepalmed. So this was Mical's payback. "Fine, fine," he said, trying to salvage some of his pride as he tugged off his tunic to reveal a mess of muscle and blaster, lightsaber and shrapnel scars. "You should always respect other people's cultural traditions, yada yada yada. Schutta."

She scowled at him. "Pants," she said flatly.

He didn't fling them in her face. But not by much.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... Well, apparently all it took for Sparkle's 'pants stay on' resolve to crack was a hot guy asking if they should come off. Good to know.

"I'm game if you are," he laughed. "Maybe we can start something here. A whole self-defense class punching each other in their underwear."

It would be pretty!

Well, they were a very pretty class.

"It wouldn't be the most embarrassing thing I've ever been a part of," Face said with a grin, reaching to pull off his shirt.

"Or me," Sparkle declared, taking a moment to watch - niiice - before he started tugging his own shirt off. "It's not like I'm wearing pink bunny underwear or anything today anyway."

And, let's be honest here, it wasn't as though Sparkle would feel terribly self-conscious about it even if he was.

"I'd have worn my shorts with the snubfighter print rather then the plain if I'd known." Face's general lack of shame was well developed, so they made a good pair right now.

"Mine has little trains all over it," Sparkle shared, tossing his shirt to the floor and reaching for his fly. "It's okay, the coolness of my underwear will make up for the shortcomings of yours, man."

He had your back, Face. He was giving that way.

"Hey, put your clothes back o--"

Brianna whacked Atton hard in the stomach. "Let them learn," she said.

You were a true friend, Sparkle, a true friend.

"Trains are the ones on rails, right?" Earth transportation was one of the many thing Face had been reading up on during his library shifts. He pushed his trousers down to reveal a pair of bright red trunks.

"The ones on rails," Sparkle agreed, and down went the jeans, revealing a pair of bright blue boxer shorts with little red trains all over. He wasn't laughing at Atton, why?

Okay, maybe a little. Look, it was all totally a solidarity thing, and about respecting other people's cultures. See?

And those jeans were getting kicked to the side, now.

"So, I guess we start with, what, making fists?"

Face folded his pants and put them off to the side with his shirt, because it would be embarrassing to trip over them and land on his rear.

He definitely wasn't laughing at Atton, but if his body language was signalling great amusement in kinetic communication, then that was just his way of sharing a bit of his culture with the class.

"Seems like it," Face agreed, carefully folding his hands into the form Brianna had demonstrated. "This look right to you?"

"Looks like a fist to me," Sparkle reported, entirely too cheerfully, as he held up a pair of fists of his own. That part, at least, he'd already learned a long time ago. "You ever get a chance to throw a lot of these?"

Face watched how Brianna moved then did his best to mimic her posture, loosening up his stance.

"Not really," he said, his attention focused back on Sparkle. "At least, not without it being blocked so didn't actually connect with the other guy, and I wasn't really encouraged to otherwise rough house as a kid, too much risk to my best asset."

"Well," Sparkle mused, willing to guess just what that best asset was at a glance (scar or no, he was pretty, okay?), "around here, not being able to throw a punch is a way bigger risk."

He took a quick glance at Brianna too, and then slipped into the same stance as best as he could.

"You want to try first? I've already punched plenty of people, I don't need as much practice with this one."

He was the prettiest. There had been a holonet poll and everything.

"Sure," Face said, giving Sparkle a few moments more to prepare himself before taking a very slow swing at him, focusing more on getting the form right than trying to put any power behind it.

And Sparkle was just fine with being punched at by pretty people. Even more when it was a slow punch that paid more attention to form than force. It meant that he could take a second to get his own form right, to move his arm the way Atton had in order to deflect the swing.

He had plenty of experience with punching, but not so much with blocking.

"There, was that good? Like, did that swing feel comfortable to throw?"

Face nodded, moving back to his starting position. "Going slow's giving me a better idea of how my whole body's moving," he said. "You want to a try?"

"Sure," Sparkle replied, falling back into his stance. "It'll give you a chance to try blocking, too. Which, you know... good to know."

Almost as good as the 'just don't be where that fist is going' approach, but that one was slightly more intuitive anyway.

Sparkle took a moment to judge his target, and then he was throwing a punch, too. Not quite as slow as Face's, but still fairly easily blockable.

Self Defense, Thursday, Period One

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Re: Hand-to-Hand - Students - Punch

Re: Hand-to-Hand - Students - Punch