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Where's the use in being a rabbi if you can't abuse your access to the place to organize a self-defense seminar prior to having to start the Pre-Neg for the erev Shabbat services? Aaron is present in work out clothes with a travel case for a suit and his guitar on his arm and shoulder respectively. He hangs up his suit and sets his guitar out of the way, then begins counting heads to see who all made it.
And then there's Ziv! They showed up dressed for actual physical activity as opposed to their usual Daisy Dukes cut-offs. Well. Really, what it means is that they just replaced the cut-offs with slightly longer cut-offs, and the oversized stolen tank top with one that actually fits. It says 'Litter In The Sea, Answer To Me' with a mermaid holding a knife and flashing huge jagged teeth, and they're wearing their neon pink bikini top underneath it. Padding in alongside Aaron, Ziv puts their backpack down next to his guitar, and hooks their thumbs into the pockets of their shorts.
Rosalyn arrived on Elio, engine roaring/the unicorn's hooves thundering on the pavement before he parked himself in the shade of a tree where a squirrels scampered around to the other side at his approach. "Go back home if you want a snack," she warned him. "You don't need to wait if you don't want to." Then she hopped off and pulled her bow and quiver from where it was strapped to the saddle, and left her equestrian helmet with Elio in its place. She headed in a bit hesitantly, following the directions to the find the basement.
If she considers it, Adela can't quite remember who told her about this particular class, but she's here now, and it makes no sense to just leave. Besides, she knows she needs to actually refine her ability to fight, rather than just relying on instinct and glamour. On the plus side, she has a whole closet full of clothes fitting for working out. Today she's in a pair of black leggings and a white tank top with "Dance is life" printed in neon pink letters across the front. Her hair is pulled back in an ponytail rather than her usual dance bun, and she's carrying a well-loved small duffle bag, which she drops just inside the door.
Aaron gets to the front of the room and claps his hands together, rubbing them briskly. "Okay. This is weird for me. Normally I get up in front of people and tell them why they shouldn't beat people up, but. Well. Our world isn't perfect yet, is it? Anyway. I don't know if you all know each other, but I know I haven't met you before." Aaron gestures to Adela with an easy smile. "I'm Aaron Cohen. My pronouns are he/him. May I have your introduction, please?"
Adela blinks in surprise. "Ah, Adela Fletcher. She/her pronouns I guess." She smiles, and shrugs slightly. "I run the Dreams of Dance studio, but I've been told that dance and fighting aren't that far apart."
"Ziv." Apparently the last name is just for the paperwork, and Ziv isn't about to start introducing themself with a last name of any sort. "My pronouns are they/them, though I don't mind she and will really accept any pronouns except he." They sidle over to Rosalyn and sneak their arms around her waist for a hug of greeting, paired with a cheek-kiss. Adela gets a broad, warm smile for her introduction.
"My name is Rosalyn, I'm pleased to meet you all." She smiled genially and returned Ziv's hug. "Ah, female pronouns for me if you please."
"Great! Thank you, everyone, for sharing your introductions. Miss Fletcher, welcome. May I call you Adela, please?" Aaron waits for an answer before continuing on, "So first things first, I'm a wizard. Not one of the Lost. But I'm very close to a lot of you, and I wanted to make my synagogue not just a safe space for you all to visit, but a safe resource for you to depend on here in West Philadelphia. I'll be looking to add resources moving forward with the help of Ziv, here, and other members of Philadelphia's Jewish Very Diaspora." Rabinnic joke. No one laugh. "One thing I'd like to do on that count before we get started is to ask you all to fill out these cards, here." Aaron turns to pluck up a stack of note cards with some printing on them. "I'll use your answers to tailor my training with you to your comfort level. There are things I can teach you without ever touching you, I want to stress that. So please be honest. I'll be the only person seeing these, and I will happily swear you my confidence." Aaron offers the cards forward, along with little stubby pencils.
"Adela's fine," Adela says, waving a dismissive hand. She falls silent to listen to Aaron's introduction speech, trying to listen carefully. When he offers the cards, she takes one and looks at it. Without realizing it, she starts gnawing on the end of the little pencil.
"I don't think touching should be a problem," Rosalyn said slowly and thoughtfully. "It's fighting, not dancing or flirting. It's different, the context and intention matter. Where will we be starting? I've never learned any sort of pugilism."
Ziv takes one of the cards, looks it over, and then gives Aaron a wry sort of smile. All the same, they take a pencil and start filling it out, the same as anyone else in the class. "Oh, am I not supposed to flirt with you?" the Siren teasingly asks Rosalyn.
"That would be inappropriate in a training environment," Aaron notes like the good example of modelled behavior that he has to be at the moment. "So, I'm not sure where all of you are at in your skill levels. But I'm given to understand most of you are beginners when it comes to hand to hand basics. I'm not going to be teaching you anything complex tonight, and even if you do this training with me weekly for several months, you won't be learning a style per se. I'm going to focus on skills and methods you can employ to stay safe and defend yourself. Not win a mixed martial arts tournament. You know? If that suits your mutual comfort levels, I'd like to start with footwork. Those of you with dance history will groan now, but you also know that's the right place to start."
The Princess arched an eyebrow at the Siren, hiding a smile and then refocusing on Aaron as he spoke. She nodded a bit at the mention of footwork, and divested herself of her archery equipment and peeled off her pale leather jacket and set it atop her stuff.
Adela laughs rather than groans because he's right, at least as far as she can tell. No point in learning how to move if you don't know where to put your feet when you do. Or if you're not balanced in the first place. She shakes out her arms and shoulders a bit as she centers herself. "I've no problem with touching, as long as it's professional. I'm well versed in the difference between 'your hand is there because you're groping' and 'your hand is there so I don't fall'" Her smile is wry, though there's a distant look in her eyes.
Sheepishly, Ziv shrugs at Aaron. "Point taken, Rabbi," they reply, leaning on the professional title rather than his name, following the point. Their blunt teeth tug on their lower lip. "I know how to throw a punch without hurting myself." Even though they have the noodliest arms this side of spaghetti. And they snort in amusement at Adela's clarifications.
"All the same, tell me to stop if you get uncomfortable." Aaron then sets his stance up as a demonstration. "Ideally you want to be able to feel your balance on all points of your feet. The left and right of the ball of your foot and your heel. Each foot, you want to have that even distribution of weight. And you want to have it with your legs slightly parted and your knees unlocked. Forward foot pointing forward, rear foot pointing out like so. Think the worst example of third position you can imagine, Adela." Aaron bounces his weight on his legs, leaning a bit this way and that way to demonstrate his centered balance. "So try this out, see if you can make it comfortable for you. Like you can feel your center of balance right through your feet."
Rosalyn had strength and athleticism in her lithe Disneyesque frame, and fell into a stance mimicking Aaron- though she held it more like a runner or dancer than a fighter.
Adela shifts into the indicated position with the sort of unthinking grace of someone who's been doing this at least for a long time. After all, with both feet on the ground balance is way easier than when en point, and she does that practically without thinking sometimes. She's not trying to show off, but...
Ziv, in great contrast to Rosalyn, has some dexterity and athleticism, but pretty much no strength. They take the stance indicated, and chew on their lower lip as they absently bounce on the balls of their feet, testing out the stance, and looking at the other two curiously.
Aaron inspects their respective stances and bobs his head in an impression of Obama's 'not bad' face. "You're all... okay! You're all way better at this than I was. So congratulations, there! Now what I want you to do is to practice moving in this stance. Easier to keep your balance if you lead with your front foot, but try it with both, because both have their place later. Try advancing, try retreating. We'll work on lateral motion in a second. Those of you familiar with fencing will no doubt feel right at home at the moment. Once you're all accustomed to this, I'm going to come around and give you a shove to see if you keep your balance. If you're doing it right, you shouldn't have any problem at all recovering."
This is... actually harder. Because in a way it's basic, and her instincts and training make Adela want to turn it into something artistic. To push off one foot, rather than move more balanced. She tries, but she'll wobble when pushed.
She frowned, trying to go back and forth but really just felt more like she was waddling than dancing, much less fighting. "I don't think I'm doing this properly," she muttered. "Is there a book of footwork the way they publish new dance steps?"
"Do they even do that still?"
"I'm not much of a dancer, myself. But, yeah. They do offer footwork guides. But here. Let's make it a two step. Right?" Aaron falls into a stance beside Rosalyn and starts off on his forward foot. "Right one." Then his rear foot follows. "Left two." He repeats this three more times, then does the same in reverse. Only backwards. Left one, right two. "Try that, see if that helps." Aaron then steps on over to Adela to monitor what, precisely, she's getting wrong. He winces once he spots it, "Your dancer's instincts are getting the better of you. Try closing your eyes. Imagine it's dark and you have to feel your way through the dark in a room full of legos. You're going to want to keep in balance and lead with your front foot to clear the ground before you settle your weight, right? Do that a few times slowly. Then see if you can't speed it up. It'll break you out of trying to make these steps graceful over making them controlled."
Aaron can't see it, but the lights under Adela's skin flare as he suggests imagining darkness. What he will be able to see is her stiffen, a moment of whole body tightness. "Not... that," she manages to say, as her arms wrap around herself for a moment. She does close her eyes for a moment, and takes a deep, only slightly shuddering breath. Then she visibly, consciously relaxes her muscles and shakes out her arms, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "I think I get what you mean though."
With the tip of what count and general idea of what she was supposed to be doing she concentrated on a beat of music held in her mind and didn't need to look at her feet. Unfortunately, it also made her move like she was social dancing instead of preparing to fight. But she was light on her feet.
The temptation to activate Fae Cunning is high, and Aaron might see that temptation flicker across Ziv's face. He knows how dependent upon -- or fond of, depending on one's perspective -- the Siren is of that particular effect. They start trying to move, and then laugh softly at the example that Aaron gives, and shuffle a little forward, a little back.
And then they clue in on Adela's reaction -- a little delayed as the player was still on the phone -- and blink, offering a small, supportive smile aside.
And that's when Aaron wanders by Rosalyn and gives her a bit of a shove on her upper arm to see how in balance she truly is. Shouldn't be hard to recover from at all if she's genuinely in balance. He makes the rounds past Ziv, giving them a gentle shove as well, and returning to Adela to do the same to see if she's sorted out the problem from before. "Sorry about that," he asides to her, but not dwelling on stepping on one of her triggers. It's filed away, though.
She wobbles a little bit, but it's less this time. The smile she gives Aaron is slightly forced, but it's there. "You didn't know. I... try to forget." The light playing under her skin is still flickering in a quick, syncopated bursts, but its getting calmer as she moves. "This is just different enough to be difficult"
Rosalyn turned her two-step foxtrot into a quickstep turn away at the unexpected shove. "You can dance with me," she offered. "It's ballroom though, not ballet."
Having a hard time keeping their balance when Aaron shoves, Ziv takes a sort of half-step to one side, and screws up their face in frustration, but they come back to center pretty quickly. They don't fall over, at the least. "I've never done ballroom," they comment aside to Rosalyn. "Or ballet, but... "
"I'm afraid most of the clubs I go to only require the pelvic thrust to be a point of mastery," Aaron admits with a chuckle, "though I've been told I have potential in the dance department. Maybe you two could offer a class like this one for dance? I'd be interested in it. Now that I have free time. I bet Ziv and Lux would get a hoot out of me cutting the rug and tripping the light fantastic." Aaron makes another pass around, observing everyone's progress and giving gentle pointers here and there, trying to tailor his advice to the individual's clear competencies. Cos mansplaining is a bad look. One final time around with the gentle shoves to make sure they're getting it, "When this is done we're going to work on some basic blocks, and that should give you all plenty to practice with one another and until our next session."
This time, when shoved Adela barely wobbles at all. Whatever else one can say about her, she's a quick learner. "I'd love to do something like that," she admits. "I mean, I've already got the studio with the sprung floor and everything."
"I don't know if I could teach," she said a bit uneasily. "I loved dancing before but in a larger group now, and being expected to follow is... different. I prefer to lead now." She shook her head, and wobbled a bit more at the second shove.
Happily, Ziv claps their webbed hands together at the concept. "Heck yes. I'm only so good at dancing -- not as good as I am at singing, to be sure -- and I'd love to learn ballroom." They give a little glance out of the corner of their eyes at Rosalyn which -- ironically -- only Aaron can see, because everyone else sees Ziv's eyes as solid black. "I'm pretty sure there are any number of people who will be glad to let you lead, Ros." Their tone is dry, and they're barely even flirting. It's just a statement of fact!
The second shoulder shove doesn't catch them off guard or make them stumble quite so much, which causes them to light up -- quite literally, for the Lost in the room.
"Ziv is right, Rosalyn. It's 2020 now. You can lead and never follow if that's what you want. And you certainly don't have to teach if you don't want to. I'm just making an offer of our facilities to you, if you had things you wanted to help teach to your community and others like me and lacked the facilities." Aaron seems pleased with everyone's progress and even more pleased at Adela's answer, giving her a grateful thumbs up. "Thank you so much. I'll make sure you have my number so we can arrange things."
"So. Blocking." Anyone expecting the Monty Python fruit violence sketch are going to be disappointed.
Adela returns the thumbs up with a nod. "Obviously it'll have to work around my paying classes, but still. It might be fun." She tries the whole moving forward and backwards a few more times, trying to stick the trick of it in her head before they move on.
"I'd rather teach mounted archery, but it'd be hard to fit everyone in here for that," she said lightly. "So how do we not get hit when Elio isn't here to bite them?"
"I just thought it would be fun. But if it isn't fun, we can do something else," agrees Ziv contentedly, rather proud of themself when they don't fall over the second time, and they toss a smile at Adela. "I do want to learn, in any case." They straighten up stand up more naturally when he indicates a chance in instruction.
"Well. I know Ziv can suggest... contracts?" Aaron gives them a confirming glance before returning his attention to Petra. "That you can learn if you don't know them already which makes them into an Aikido master. Heh. And I'm sure your folk have other tricks to help with keeping yourself safe from harm, too. But really there's two principles to understand when blocking, and they both have to do with force and leverage. Even against someone stronger than you, you can disrupt a strike by getting inside of the attack and blocking forcefully outwards. Ziv? Why don't you step forward and throw a slow punch at my mug, here. So I can demonstrate."
"I don't know how to ride. Or shoot a bow," Adela says lightly. "Probably should learn those before I try mounted archery. I think I'll stick to learning to block for now." She finds herself nodding along with Aaron's explanation. Leverage was something she understood. And force, though usually more in the form of velocity. Still, the basic idea made sense. Which probably meant it was one of those things that would be just close enough to be difficult again.
"Contracts are a powerful aid," she agreed. "But at the same time, they're often more effective if you have mundane skills to support them. There's power and advantage in knowing how to do things mundanely as well as magically."
"Fae Cunning," Ziv explains, adding, "It does really make it easier not to get hurt, but it means you have to focus on dodging. It's a good idea if your main job is to stay upright and make sure people don't bleed out." They pad over toward Aaron, taking a deep breath in, and brings one very weak fist toward Aaron's face. They don't have terrible form, actually? Someone did teach them to throw a punch once.
"So. Obviously little miss fishnoodle isn't going to coldcock me, here. But the principle is the same if I'm doing it or they're doing it." Aaron demonstrates forming a proper fist, tensing his forearm, and striking into the attack. Obviously not at full force, and obviously not hard enough to even so much as hurt. But the force is implied in the speed of his block and the rigidity with which he arrests the block short of actually striking. "Most of the people you'll need to worry about here in this reality aren't going to expect you to fight back. And certainly not to defend yourself with defensive violence. Later on we'll show you what you can do with a block as a transition to a strike. But for now I want to get you used to ... just this, really. Blocking blows to your head with your left and right arms. Adela, if you and Rosalyn want to pair up, I can run Ziv through their paces, and then come around to check on you both. Don't worry about looking silly or feeling silly right now."
Rosalyn smiled wryling to Adela. "Would you care to go first? I'll go slowly," she offered, and moved to pair off. Rosalyn's had clearly never actually punched anyone, her technique appallingly telegraphed and too hesitant to do any real damage even if Adela missed the block.
Sometimes... Aaron says things that are perfect setups, and he says them in situations where Ziv can't say the usual smart-assed double-entendres that they normally would. They press their lips into a line, clear their throat, and nod briskly rather than make any comments whatsoever about being put through their paces. It's against their very nature to pass up on such a thing, but they square their shoulders, expression wry at the truth of being called 'little miss fishnoodle,' and squares up for it.
"Be good," Aaron chides Ziv playfully before starting to throw some quarter speed punches towards (but not actually at) Ziv's noggin. It comes with the assurance, "Really let me have it with these blocks, I can more than take it." Well Ziv knows. "You really want to strike into these blocks. Force requires counterforce. Think about rolling two bolling balls together. They'll recoil from each other, but the forward momentum of both is arrested. Roll a ball at a stationary ball and the force transfers. The struck ball carries on in the place of the striker. You need that counterforce to properly arrest a strike." Aaron keeps tossing hooks until Ziv seems to be getting the idea.
Adela manages the block, or at least the whole 'intercept fist obviously coming at you' thing. It's about as telegraphed and obvious as Ros's punch was - blocking isn't exactly a motion she's familiar with. But at the same time, she does sort of see the outline of what's supposed to happen. Her eyes narrow a bit, focus sharpened to a razor's edge. She was a quick learner even before Arcadia honed quick learning into a survival instinct. She's still not good, but she's getting the basics at least.
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