How not to do it, part 2

I have to get something off my chest, but first, to set the scene and conform to the spirit of the blog, here's what Kata and I were up to tonight.


Getting to know the older students

 I'm a student at the Hard Alley Reform School, you see.  Kata's been there before, in the form of a newly arrived near-innocent who needed to be properly introduced to the ways of the school.  But this time she was the veteran older student, who had to take the newer student (that would be me) in hand.  She is very good in either role.

As it happened, some chick came across us right at the end, and decided to play it aggressive... blocking the exit, trying to forbid me from getting dressed.  Normally it's a great thing to see someone at the school at all, but her approach pissed me off.  On a meta level: we were done with our scene and it's presumptuous to simply assume we both want another one.  And on the RP level, you shouldn't assume-- even in Hard Alley-- that anyone you meet wants to be topped, or can't fight back.  (There are ways to find out; reading profiles is a good start.)

I dressed, pulled a knife and told her if she got closer she'd get cut.  And she got closer.

And this, I'm afraid, is a pet peeve.

Now, in real life I'm hardly a bad girl... I just play one in Hard Alley.  But I want a modicum of realism in RP.  And for future reference if you RP with me: if a knife comes out, that's serious business.  You can run your mouth off if you like, but you respect that blade or you're an idiot.  The girl came close... I'm sorry, but what would happen in that situation is: she gets knifed in the gut.  That's not actually an interesting direction to go (she was a stranger who'd jumped into our scene), so I told her so (out of character) and left. 

There's several possibilities here:

• She was godmodding... that is, RPing in such a way that she does anything she wants, emotes that it worked, and ignores any danger.  Smart RPers avoid these people like the plague.  (She was talking about "covering my knife arm" as if I'd let her wander up in range of my weapon.  Uh uh, nope.)
• Her mind was in a video game; she was used to other characters doing what she said.  It doesn't always work when they are real people with particular desires and RL bedtimes.)
• She's watched too many stupid movies where someone is suicidally careless about a knife or a gun.  Maybe James Bond can try for a quick disarm, but you're not James Bond.
• She was just wasn't thinking through what it means when someone has a weapon on you.  There's a reason they say "No funny business."  It's because funny business might be an attack or an attempted disarm, and it forces the weapon user to attack.  (Or step back, if they can judge they can do so safely.)  You're asking to be hurt bad.  If you're banking on the other person losing their nerve... well, that's not a smart move when you have no idea what their skill level and personality are.

I was probably a little hot-headed myself, but as I say, it was presumptuous, and dumb RP.  She was a little thing, and inviting a confrontation with two tough-looking girls... why would that end well?