fandomhigh | What NOT To Do In A Fight / Wednesday, Period III / Week 2

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What NOT To Do In A Fight / Wednesday, Period III / Week 2

Today class met in the Danger Shop, which was set up like a church with high vaulted ceilings and crossbeams, shadows in the eves.

"Greetings, class," Ghanima said. "Today, we're going to discuss how over-reliance on a particular type of weapon can be hazardous to your health. Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say, and if you become too biased towards a particular form of combat, you open yourself for for more weaknesses than is sensible."

"For instance..." Ghanima moved in a blur of motion, appearing to teleport to the other side of the room, a curved knife in her hand. "In a fight, my natural tendency is to use my knives and the Weirding Way. If my opponent knows this, they can prepare accordingly. Better body armor, perhaps, or some method of warping probability to throw off my ability to use the Way. I also do not use firearms, as they are useless in my universe, and so they know not to be concerned about that method of long-range attack."

That didn't mean they could rest easy, but it was one less thing to be worried about.

"So should I be sparring with, for instance, my brother, it would be prudent to change up my tactics. Spears, perhaps, instead of knives. Swords. Poison darts." Ghanima dimpled in amusement. "Leto does so enjoy surprises, you see, and so I try to indulge him."

"Now, I'd like us to talk about your strengths and weaknesses in this regard. What is your default weapon, if you have one. What could you stand to work on?"

[OOC: OCD ready.]

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Armed & dangerous

Take notes, react to your teacher being able to move faster than sight, contemplate your weapon of choice...

"Now, I'd like us to talk about your strengths and weaknesses in this regard. What is your default weapon, if you have one," Ghanima asked. "How could that work against you? What type of combat could you work on to compensate?"

She's around!

Let's use a historic icon, in honor of FH's birthday.

Ahsoka Tano

Rhys

"I have a stun baton that works pretty well," Rhys offered, looking like he was questioning why he'd been placed in this class. This class comprised of badasses. "And Dumpy, I guess."

Ahsoka would have been curious about how Ghanima did that, but she was currently trying to figure out how to answer the question since she might as well stick a flashing 'Jedi' sign on her montrals if she was completely honest about it.

Gratuity Tucci

Tip blinked at the teleportation, but more at the fact that it appeared spontaneous and didn't need a machine.

It was a neat trick, but could Ghanima clone herself, too?

"Um," said Tip, who tended to have fights thrust upon her and thus didn't have a standard go-to weapon. "I have a gun? But I don't use it much. It can actually literally erase things, so it's kind of really dangerous." She shrugged. "I'm more of a distract-and-attack kind of girl. Or -- distract-and-run-away. I'm a great shot with a bottle of windex. . . ."

Ahsoka picked her words carefully. "There are challenges to the weapons I was trained with." And not just the ones you figured out while fighting a war, but also ones like talking around what that weapon was because you didn't want one of your classmates to know you could use it.

Mara Jade

"The only weapons I can use are ones I learned about here, and I don't think I'm nearly expert enough to use them," Mara said breezily. "I'd prefer to run away."

Hyacinthe

Add Hyacinthe to the queue of people who were impressed with the trick and wanted to know more about that. Raising his hand, he asked, "The Weirding Way?"

"I have my knives," Hyacinthe said. "But they're a close-quarters weapon and I am hardly a warrior. I can be overpowered by someone stronger than I and if someone has, say, a sword or a spear and I should be in very grave trouble."

"It is both a physical discipline and a school of thought," Ghanima said. "My mind creates my reality, and thus, if I decide I am There and not Here, I Am. It requires training your mind and body to think of space and time in a different manner, one divorced from the laws of physics, as well as understanding the ramifications of cause and effect."

Ghanima had once had another student who favored a baton, and that hadn't made him any less dangerous. Even if Rhys seemed a bit... awkward.

"And what is a...Dumpy?" she asked curiously.

"Improvised weaponry is excellent, because no one can prepare for everything," Ghanima said approvingly. "Any liquid to the face can be startling enough for you to get a head-start on either running or attacking."

Awkward was the nicest way she could have thought of him, to be honest.

Rhys perked up a little at that. "He's an old Atlas security bot that I've reprogrammed."

And sounded like the voices of the damned. RHYS, FIX THAT.

"The laws of physics?" Hyacinthe asked. "Is that a country in this world? I apologize, I am from another and we call places by different names."

Look, Hyacinthe hadn't had much formal education before coming to Fandom. Theories of the natural world espoused by Hellenic philosophers hadn't made it to the curriculum of 'reading, writing, and 'rithmatic.'

"Plus it really stings if you get it in your eyes."

She still felt a little bad about that one BOOB member.

Ringo Noyamano

"Before I came to Fandom, I really only knew one way to fight. And even now, I tend to rely on AirTrek if I think I might need to." Sure, she'd been ~~handwavily~~ training with Lady Ghanima for a while now, but Ringo still spent way more time AirTrekking than anything else, so it was super-easy to fall back on.

"There are challenges to all weapons," Ghanima pointed out. "But if someone knew your favored method of self-defense, and had taken steps to compensate and place the odds in their favor, as it were, what would be the last thing they would expect you to do or use? What preconceived weakness could you exploit?"

Merrill

Oh Mara, you were adorable, and it was only thanks to Ghanima's Bene Gesserit training that she didn't break down laughing right there and then.

"And if they're expecting you to run?" she asked instead. "It would be quite easy to leave you only one avenue of escape as a trap. What could you do instead that they wouldn't be expecting?"

"Knives don't have to be close-quarters," Ghanima pointed out. "There are types that can be thrown as well, and if someone is expecting you to need to close in, they can be an unfortunate surprise."

"So, for instance, you might to teach yourself some close-quarters tricks with your AirTrek, to make getting boxed in a bit less dire," Ghanima pointed out. "Even basic Judo, perhaps, because someone who has been flipped on their back won't be getting up again immediately."

Ringo nodded. "And maybe some things like that in case I need to defend myself if I'm just wearing shoes or whatever."

"I'm a mage," Merrill said, shifting awkwardly, "so all I've got is my staff. I'm not any good at hitting things, well, except with magic, but if someone manages to tire me out enough that I can't cast any more, then I'm in real trouble."

~~Also she was at level 1 and had terrible stats.~~

"Well, if they're expecting magic, have you considered the benefits of blunt force trauma and hitting them with the staff?" Ghanima asked. "If you're already using it to aim your spells, you probably have a better idea of how to swing it than you think you do."

"Ah. An artificial intelligence, then," she said, managing not to make a face of distaste. "He must be quite efficient."

"'Physics' is a branch of science, a linguistic corruption of the Greek term phusikḗ," she answered. "You could say it is the study of matter and its motion through space and time, and how it interacts with energy and force."

"Well, people tend to assume that we could only use that weapon, so I guess that being able to improvise with what's available would help there," Ahsoka said, like she hadn't once killed a guy with a tent pole.

Shiemi Moriyama

Shiemi stopped taking notes to stare in awe.

But... how did one change their way of fighting when they didn't actually do the fighting?

"I use Nee-chan," Shiemi tapped her pen against her cheek when her turn came. "If someone how demon familiars work, then that could be a problem. Like by disturbing my summoning circle."

It's happened before, see.

FN-2187

"Truth," Hyacinthe conceded, "though the ones I used are not balanced for such. Still, then you are limited to the number of knives you can carry and I would hardly suggest throwing your last weapon at an enemy without another close to hand."

Unless you were very, very sure you could hit to disable. And Hyacinthe was not.

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What NOT To Do In A Fight / Wednesday, Period III / Week 2

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