fandomhigh | Getting Out of Scrapes

Getting Out of Scrapes - Fast, Friday

"Normally, this is the part where I drop you in the deep end to see what we're working with," Atton said. He leaned casually against the back wall of the classroom; who needed a seat, anyway? "But I've had nightmares all week, and I know what that means, so I'm going to save my energy today."

Nightmares were a complicated term, really. But it was close enough.

He shrugged, pulling away from the wall. "Instead, I want you all to share one scrape you've been in," he said. "Tell us what happened, what went wrong, and how you eventually got out. Then, everyone else in the class volunteers how they would've handled the situation."

He clapped his hands.

"Clear? Good. Get talking."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Give us one scrape, what went wrong, and how you get out of it.

Then respond to other people's scrapes with your own take on how you would've handled it. Maybe we'll all learn something.

Eleanor sort of shrank back a little, with a little twist of worry in her stomach. All of her 'scrapes' were...things that she really wasn't comfortable talking about, to anyone, and they loomed so large in her memory that it was really hard to think of something that could be considered a good example instead. So she was going to be spending a lot of time with a worried frown settled in the furrow of her brow, trying to listen to what other people had to say and maybe jumping in on those to avoid having to say anything about her own...or at least try to hold out until she could think of something that wasn't going to be admitting to the entire class all the horrible things things she'd done.

Or maybe just a way to frame it, that wasn't a lie, but wasn't the whole truth, either.

"You there," Atton said, lifting his chin. "If you don't have anything, just make something up."

"Got myself lost when I was first Walking the Wood on my own," Charlie said, and you could definitely hear those capital letters when she spoke. This wasn't your ordinary wood. "Thought I'd be lost in there forever, not gonna lie - wouldn't have been the first Gale Girl lost there either."

This was about the only thing that made an otherwise irrepressibly cheerful Charlie look somber. "Finally managed to hear my cousin Allie's song and followed it out. Threw up everything I'd eaten for a week."

"You're going to have to expand on some key terms there," Atton said, eyeing her. "Like what Walking a Wood is, if it isn't a euphemism."

"The Wood is... sort of a liminal space," Charlie said. "It exists between and around the things of this world and the different realms. Gale Girls can Walk the Wood - go in at one place, say here in Fandom, and walk out another. But, it's a big place and easy to lose your way especially when you're learning. And if you're lost there, odds are good you're not going to be found "

"I found out the government official I was working for was actually conspiring with one of our enemies with the intent of killing half the galaxy, so I got a group together to kill him, but his allies framed me for...well, an assortment of things that warranted death." Lana shrugged.

"So I went into hiding until it was safe, then sent a message to an ally by way of drafting him into a nonexistent pirate gang."

As you did.

Atton tilted his head. "As far as plans go, not half bad," he said. "No way to handle the guy more quietly?"

"He was on the Dark Council," Lana explained. "Head of the Sphere of Military Offence. He didn't exactly do 'quiet'."

"No, but you could have," Atton pointed out. "Why choose not to?"

Lana pondered it. "I suppose I didn't see a quiet alternative at the time. How would you have done it quietly?"

Atton shrugged. "You poison him."

Lana thought about that. "Hm. I'd have had to do it before he ran off."

She tapped her fingers against her arm, then eventually shook her head. "I think it would've ended up being worse; we never would have discovered his endgame, and there were others that would have taken his place. But I didn't specify that, did I? In other circumstances, it might've worked. And even if not, he'd have probably written it off, or we could've used it to sow dissent among the Council."

She rolled her eyes. "More dissent." Look, the Council were a bunch of argumentative busybodies, okay?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Getting Out of Scrapes - Fast, Friday

Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape

Re: Introductions - Tell Us About Your Scrape