fandomtownies | Atlas Gym: Saturday

Kaidan was at the gym. He'd missed sword practice the day before because he'd wound up on the roof of the MCA doing some calibrations for EDI. ~~Not Dirty~~ She'd made some notes when he'd taken Sparkle flying and wanted the items taken care of before anyone else hit the void. Kaidan had lost track of time, finding an odd sort of comfort in the work and he'd dragged it out, checking seals, greasing what needed to be greased, fine-tuning things on the shuttle. By the time he'd rolled out and washed up it was too late. He'd stopped by anyway but the warehouse was empty. He'd borrowed his regular sword.

Which had him practicing Soresu at an hour of the morning most people weren't awake. Hours before he'd told Sparkle and Hernando to show up for the self defense class. It, too, was calming and right now, he could use all the calm he could muster.

That being said, he'd be ready when they showed up. They'd start off with situational awareness again, work on blocks for a bit, and then he'd take them through 'what to do if you're grabbed'. It seemed appropriate.

[Open! Minor OCD]

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Before anyone else shows up.

The time dedicated to teaching them how not to get grabbed - or, what to do when someone did manage to grab them.

Sparkle was totally here, ready to walk around on some mats playing tag.

He wouldn't even have to worry about having his tattoo tapped, this week. Score!

Hernando was running a little late. Dave had been on a tear with an awful case of the zoomies.

He'd jogged the whole way to the gym so he was a little sweaty and breathless when he arrived. He once again greeted Sparkle with a smile and a very long kiss.

It should be noted, he did not greet Kaidan this way.

Though if he had, Sparkle would have insisted Hernando give him a moment to pull out his camera.

For posterity.

He'd so get that photo framed.

"Hey, babe," he murmured in greeting. "Ready to kick my butt againt his week?"

Hernando's hands slid slowly down his back and firmly cupped the tight butt in question. "Kick? No," he teased. "Hello, baby. How are you tonight?"

Shameless boyfriend is shameless.

Kaidan eyerolled. "Ok, stop that," he called, "You two start going, we're never getting anywhere with this."

"Going? I would never go, Kaidan," Sparkle said with mock indignation.

... The fact that those words didn't even make sense were irrelevant.

Hernando.. smirked. Quite a lot of smirking before he leaned in to kiss Sparkle again for being a brat. He just waited to see if Kaidan would fall for it.

Kaidan was occasionally oblivious. Not when it was deliberately set up like that, though. "Uh huh," was all he said, "Go ahead and play tag for awhile and then this week, if you're up for it 'Nando, you be the pells while Sparkle blocks?"

"Work on that upper body strength," Sparkle added, grinning a little. "And then we can swap off when your arms are jelly."

"Alright," Hernando agreed. He stretched out a little and then began the strange game of tag. A little better this week than last. His footing was more sure on the mats.

Kaidan let them work at both the tagging and the blocks for awhile. Gave them a few minutes to shake some feelings back into their arms.

"Ok, so. There's three main ways people get grabbed. With a hand either from the inside or the outside," Kaidan demonstrated, borrowing Sparkle for it, moving slowly and carefully and telegraphing everything. "A bear hug from behind, usually pinning your arms." He demonstrated again. "Or a rear choke hold." Yet a third demonstration. He let Sparkle go.

"So here's what you do for them. Sparkle, you want to play attacker? We'll start with you grabbing my shoulder."

"Okay," Sparkle said, shrugging and coming up to grab Kaidan's shoulder, as he was directed to do. Paying close attention the whole time. His go-to method of just raising hell had worked for him the last time, muscle memory failing him in favour of taking the rabid honey badger approach, but so help him, he wasn't going to let that happen again.

Hernando watched, paying close attention to Kaidan's motions.

Kaidan explained all about inside and outside grabs, and then slowly - without making contact with Sparkle at all - demonstrated the various blows and where they should go.

"The crotch blow - you don't want to hit in the front. You want to get right up in the fork. Male, female, it doesn't matter. There's all sorts of nerves right close to the surface there. You hit or kick at the fork but you aim for the stars. Hit or kick as hard as you can - it'll bruise you some but it'll hurt them a helluva lot more. Elbow strikes are useful and most people don't realize what you're doing until it's over. If you can turn enough," Kaidan demonstrated, "you can go with palm strikes to the forehead and face. Don't bother with the nose, though if you hit it, squash it flat. Forehead's a bigger target and not one they usually think to protect. Hit it but aim for the other side of their head. You want to hit hard, make 'em see some stars. Most people's instinctive reaction is to let go to put their hands up and protect their face. It's a hard instinct to resist because the human brain's hardwired to protect itself."

He mimed more blows, "Thing is, you don't stop. You keep hitting, kicking, screaming - everything, until they let go. Then you hit or kick them to knock them back or knock them down, and then? You run. You run like hell."

"Can confirm the effectiveness of a good swift kick up the business side of things," he offered.

He'd used that one during the fight, after all. He really kind of hoped the asshole that he'd kicked needed to go fishing later to figure out where his testicles had retreated to.

His hands were moving slightly as he watched Kaidan's movements. Elbow, elbow...

Kaidan ~~skipped Hernando~~ smiled wryly, "And that's why I told you both to cup up every time. You'll be pulling your blows with each other, you'll be pulling them a little with me but I've got a whole suit of body armor, but even a light accidental tap will floor you."

He put his middle finger and thumb together and made a small flicking motion, "That's how much pressure it takes to a scrotum to drop a guy to his knees. With women, it takes a little more pressure but even that much is still no fun."

Tapping Sparkle's hand to get him to let go. "We'll practice the first one and then I'll move on and demonstrate the rest of them."

Sparkle nodded and let go, backing off and grinning at Hernando.

"See, all this part is pretty straightforward," he offered. "You've got this."

Spectate or heckle.

Don't want to interact with Kaidan or the other two? Go ahead and mod your gym experience.

World doens't get to end, though it's threatening to end in ice and snow tonight. Gonna be slow, gonna go shopping for blizzard supplies.

Atlas Gym: Saturday

Sword time

For Sparkle and Hernando

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Spectator gallery

Elsewhere in the gym

OOC