Read the Room: Practical Self-Defense (Thursday, 9/5, First Period)

[brat_inslayage]

The Danger Shop was set up to look like … the interior of a crypt. Complete with eerie, if conveniently bright, flickering torches set into sconces on the walls, and an ornately carved marble coffin in the center, its lid rotated at just enough of a noticeable angle to imply that its occupant was no longer there.

As for Kennedy, she was leaning back against the foot of the coffin with her arms crossed and an attentive expression on her face as she watched the students filter in. If this scenario was at all creepy, she seemed totally unbothered by it.

Then, as soon as it looked like everyone was present, she pushed herself away from the coffin and dropped the program in favor of a playground setting with a large (as in conveniently sized for teenagers, though it might be a bit cramped for, say, a goliath) jungle gym setup as its centerpiece. Monkey bars, swings, slides, seesaws, a rope bridge, various ladders and ramps and stairs, the works.

And a tomato about the size of a beach ball, with teeth, just rolling casually past in the background.

"Sorry if any of that wigged you out," she said lightly, flashing everyone a quick smile. "I'm Kennedy, and I was a student here oh god ten years ago, and welcome to Practical Self-Defense. And just to avoid any letdowns later, in case reading the class description isn't your thing, this isn't going to be the kind of self-defense class where you're a certified newbie badass by the end of it. There's other classes here covering that angle already."

She started to pace around the seesaws as she continued, "See, here's the get-to-the-point-ness of it. Maybe big bad stuff is going down back home in your world all the time. Maybe you're from somewhere totally mundane, and Fandom is as much with the wacky as you're ever going to get. Doesn't matter. One way or another, being able to save your own ass is a more useful skill than being really flashy about kicking someone else's, and that's what we're gonna be focusing on here. But, since this is the first week and it helps if I know what I'm working with here, we're starting with the traditional. Introductions, I mean."

She made a point of looking from one student to another as she went on, idly picking up an entire park bench for a second before putting it back down. "So like I said, I'm Kennedy, and I graduated from this place in 2011. I'm also a Vampire Slayer, which is pretty much about what it says on the package, and that's an eight year career for me so far, not counting how I started training for that when I was in kindergarten. I had a pretty memorable training experience where me and a few other girls got surprise locked into a crypt with a vampire, not that I'm going to spring that kind of deep-end thing on all of you. On the other end of the scale, my first week here in Fandom? We had a minor invasion of oversized aggressive vegetables." She smirked at the giant toothy tomato as it rolled away and eventually blinked out of the program. "Less dire, more messy. Anyway. I wanna know your names, maybe one or two interesting facts about you if you feel like sharing, and what kind of fighting or self-defense experience you might have. Then I want you to look around this playground, imagine someone's chasing you through here, and tell me two or three things you could do, using what's around you, to try and slow 'em down or shake 'em off."

[[OCD is up! Have at.]]

Comments

During the Lecture (Practical Self-Defense, 9/5)

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy doesn't go all drill-sergeant on people these days unless they really need it, but she will get a little bit frowny if you don't keep the talking amongst yourselves to a minimum while she's talking.

Re: During the Lecture (Practical Self-Defense, 9/5)

[always_someone]

Norman hummed a little as he stepped into the crypt. Hey... he could kind of appreciate the aesthetic as a kid who pretty much devoured horror movies and stuff for breakfast.

And then it was a playground, and... okay. That was okay, too.

Re: During the Lecture (Practical Self-Defense, 9/5)

[hashtag_chocobro]

This class, Prompto figured, was going to likely be his most important class, easily the most useful, easily the thing he needed most, so he was full of that bouncing, nervous energy that left him not being able to stand still very well, especially considering they were in a super creepy crypt, and you'd think by now things like that wouldn't totally make him all nervous, but you'd think wrong, because, while he felt he could handle any sort of monster that might come out of a place like this, you could pretty much guarantee that he wasn't going to enjoy fighting any kind of monster that might come out of a place like this.

So he was half-listening, half-giving himself a pep talk the whole time, finally coming around to a firm decision that, yeah, yeah!, he could totally do this! Right as the room changed.

....into a playground. With large sentient vegetables.

Yeah, okay, better. This was way more his speed. He might even have a good line saved up for later about how all those cooking classes were finally paying off!

Re: During the Lecture (Practical Self-Defense, 9/5)

[raisedbybooklice]

Elisabeth was standing there, with a clearly confused expression. What was a Vampire Slayer? Obviously, someone who slayed vampires, but what did that mean? Were they weird farm animals like bantha?

Master Kennedy clearly expected everyone to know what that was, but Elisabeth had no clue.

And then the whole area changed and Elisabeth was even more confused.

Re: During the Lecture (Practical Self-Defense, 9/5)

[unusual_sith]

Tombs. Lana pursed her lips. She'd had enough of tombs in her life.

Then it changed. This was...different.