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

Clearly this wasn't a statement based on biology, so Leto assumed her people identified with wolves in some way. Still, it made him curious. "Have you always been?" he asked.

"No," Firekeeper shook her head. "I was borned human, but my mother ask wolves to be taking care of me, just before she die. So my shape is human, my heart a wolf's."

"I see," Leto replied, then smiled at the wolf. "And is Blind Seer your teacher, friend or family? Or all of it?"

"These last two," Firekeeper confirmed, giving the wolf a punch in the shoulder. "He is my packmate, but younger by many seasons."

Of course, unless these were wolves that lived longer than humans. "And how does a wolf perceive human society here?" he asked.

They weren't, and indeed, Firekeeper had memories of the ones she now thought of as "parents" as nothing more than fat-bellied puppies, but it hurt her head to think about it too much. "Strange," she admitted honestly. "Things is much different from the humans I am knowing in my world, even."

"Things are different here from what I am used to as well," Leto replied with equal honesty.

"Then this is not your world? Like Tahiri, or Ben?" she asked, curious as ever.

"No," he replied. "I'm from Arrakis, or Dune." Leto smiled. "It's a desert planet, with very little water at all, but it's the only place where the most treasured commodity in the universe can be found."

A desert planet. Like Tatooine. Less than a year ago, she had no idea a whole world made of desert could even exist, and now she knew of two. "What is?" she questioned.

"Spice. Melange. But it might not exist in your world." He looked at Blind Seer. "I have never seen a wolf before." In his Other Memories, long ago, yes, but that was not the same.

[bedtime soon!]

"I not think it does," she shook her head. "Blind Seer is a fine example of such, if not average," Firekeeper said proudly. "Most humans only ever see Cousins, not Royal Wolves. And all other wolves is having eyes colored amber, not blue."

Leto had to smile at the meaning of blue eyes. "I see. Well, then it's an honour to meet you, Blind Seer."

"He say is also good to be meeting you," Firekeeper translated.

"It's good to have family around you," Leto said, looking from wolf to girl.

Atlas Gym, Fandom Fight Club [Sunday Evening]

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