fandomtownies | Atlas Gym, Fandom Fight Club [Sunday Evening]

There was a poster tacked up on the door to the main gym, with the following text written in alternating handwriting, as if the marker had been shared between two people:

Rules of Fandom Fight Club
1. What happens here, stays here. We can't keep the squirrels out, but if somebody tells you something on the mat, you don't repeat it off the mat.
2. No weapons or powers unless everyone knows in advance and is fighting within their weight class.
3. No shoes.
4. If someone says "stop" or goes limp, the fight is over.
5. Two people to a fight.
6. Fights go on as long as they have to.
7. No tourists. If you need to take a week to see what this is like, cool, but no coming back just to watch. You wanna watch, get a TV; here, everybody fights.
8. No fighting if you're sick or injured. You wanna screw up your body, you do it on your own time.
9. The organizers reserve the right to remove you from the club at any time for violation of these rules.

Underneath the sign was a table with a sign-in sheet, where people could print their name and if they'd fought before ~~which is handwavey since y'all already did it~~, which would be collected once the meeting started.

Inside, Tyler was pacing, barefoot and holding himself so erect he looked about three inches taller than he normally did. He clapped his hands in a way designed to silence anyone still talking.

"Welcome to Fight Club," he began. "In this room, you are not a teacher or a student or the guy who works behind the bar at Caritas. You are not what you own or what you wear. You are not a special, unique snowflake. You are a body. You hit, you bleed, you feel pain, you cause pain, you come back for more. You get better. You might even find redemption."

He glanced at the group as if daring anyone to argue with him on these points.

"The purpose of this group is catharsis and self-improvement through unarmed combat," Ghanima said briskly. For once, she was not wearing her usual ornate gowns, but a simple woven tunic and slacks and was barefoot like Tyler. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with therapeutic violence - no matter what the armchair shrink of the week says - and this place is here to provide you with that option."

"That said, should you wish to have a friendly spar with someone using practice weapons, you should feel free so long as both parties agree. Please refrain from using actual weapons until you've worked with someone more than once."

"And while we're being the buzzkill jerks with all the rules," Tyler said, "here's a quick gym tour. Padding's over here -- beginners, wear gloves, everyone else, it's at your discretion -- practice weapons are there, and these soft blue things? These are mats. We fight on the mats."

"Speak for yourself," Ghanima murmured, bemused. "I may occasionally be evil, but I am not a jerk or a buzzkill."

"Now, my favorite part. We're going to randomly pick some fights." It was possible Ghanima looked a bit too gleeful about this. "You and you. You two. You two too. You and you, and hrm, you, and ... you." There was practically a halo over her head as she pointed at Tyler. "There. Get to know your new friends, then get to know the mat. Anyone I didn't just pair up, find your own partner."

[Up early for massive SP! ~~Wait for the~~Massive OCD is massive and up.]

ETA:You people are breaking my browser! Mingle | RNG Fights | Open Sparring | Ghanima and Tyler | OOC | Next Week's RNG

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Stopping a tyrannical government. Protecting other people from getting hurt. Not just 'I had a bad day and wanna hit something'. You wanna do that, punch a bag or something. And hell yeah, I'd have to know the cause. Violence for the sake of violence just begets more violence."

A revolutionary of some kind? "You seek peace?" Leto asked. "For the sake of who?"

"Everyone. Who doesn't benefit from a free, peaceful society?"

"It seems to me that while most humans claim to seek peace and security, most of their actions speak differently," Leto replied. "Remove violence and chaos and people would get restless and bored. Direct it and you might achieve what you truly want."

"You have a very cynical view of the world. Who's to say that the majority of people won't find a way to channel that energy into something creative instead of destructive?"

"Who is to say the violence is not creative?" Leto countered cheerfully.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No. The creative and the destructive are linked. One rarely exists without the other."

Priestly frowned. "Okay, yeah, I can kinda see that. But that doesn't mean that meaningless violence is any less . . . meaningless."

"And how do you decide when the meaningless turn meaningful?" Leto asked.

"When there's a purpose other than selfishness or self-defense."

Leto approached him slowly, still smiling. "And do you find that distinction easy to make?" He paused. "I don't believe we have met. I'm Leto Atreides."

"Yeah, actually, seems pretty cut and dry to me. I'm Priestly."

Leto found that funny. "And do you have much practical experience of making those kinds of judgements, Priestly?" The name was familiar. Whas he Dinah's friend, the one Arthur called an idiot?

Yes. He was.

Though he'd contend that Arthur had apologized to him for that, and that they'd agreed not to make snap judgments about each other based on not-the-best-circumstances.

"Enough to know that putting together a club just for beating each other up is a really effed up idea."

Leto anyway preferred to make his own judgements about people.

"And I take it you haven't even tried?"

"There really are some things in this world that you don't have to try to know they're not good. Jumping off something taller than about two stories without any sort of extra equipment to break your fall is one of 'em. Asking someone to beat you up? Totally another."

"I would say there is a difference," Leto pointed out. "One is likely to kill you, the other will hurt you in order to make you stronger."

"How incredibly Nietzsheian. Too bad it's not nearly as universally true as people like to think. Some things that don't kill you just make you hurt a lot for a long time."

"Then you have failed to turn the event into experience," Leto replied. "I believe there is a difference when you have the choice. Have you learnt anything in your life without it causing you some kind of pain, physical, emotional or mental?"

"Yeah, actually. Pain isn't a requirement for growth, dude. Yeah, it gets involved a fair amount of the time, but so does, like, water. Or funny hats. Correlation doesn't equal causality."

"Perhaps not a requirement for all kinds of growth, but definitely for some." Leto smiled at Priestly. "Of course, since you are not prepared to try you will not learn that part."

"Right. Because that's the perfect way to win any argument. 'Well, if you don't know, I can't explain it to you.'"

"It's not an attempt to win an argument," Leto replied. "It is merely an observation."

"Fine. What higher moral or intellectual purpose do you think getting together to beat on people actually serves? That couldn't be served just as well or better by something less violent and destructive?"

Re: Mingle!

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