The Danger Shop- Friday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

A couple weeks ago, Rey had brought up maybe using the Danger Shop for training, and she had no idea how she'd never thought of it before. If she felt like she might be getting rusty/too used to the usual training methods, why not create a whole new challenge?

After classes had finished, Rey made her way there, scrolling on her phone as she waited for Anakin.


[For that guy mentioned!]

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[sith_happened]

Anakin wasn't to be found, but in the Danger Shop, the scene changed and rippled into a desolate, red-tinged landscape not unlike Dathomir (because Anakin was totally stealing from Dathomir).

In the distance came the roar of rancors.

[thatwaslucky]

It was immediately a little disconcerting to not have her danger sense pinging before the roars.

And yet she still said, "Oh, I can do this."

Could she? Let's see!

[sith_happened]

Here came three rancors, just in time for her to find out!

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh," she said. "Maybe not."

But she pocketed her phone and unclimbed her lightsaber, and looked to see which one she needed to worry about first.

[sith_happened]

The first rancor was big, even for a simulation. The other two, flanking him, were slightly more realistically sized.

Anakin: big fat cheater.

[thatwaslucky]

Size mattered not, etc.

Rey ignored her lightsaber and rushed towards the rancor to the left. Bigger also meant it'd probably have a harder time dealing with something as small as her, so the normal-sized ones were probably more of an immediate threat.

You know that "would you rather fight a hundred tiny ducks or one giant duck" question?

[sith_happened]

It was good Rey had thought this through previously! The rancor on the left increased its speed towards the tiny person and her glowing stick.

[thatwaslucky]

And Rey launched herself at it so that she could land on its shoulder.

She'd say she planned it but really she just worried about crashing directly into it.

[sith_happened]

The rancor roared its displeasure and surprise, causing the other two to start closing in.

[thatwaslucky]

She'd naively been hoping she could take on one at a time somehow, but it was Anakin, so she should really know better. And she probably couldn't use the Force to try and calm down a creature that wasn't real, so she'd have to skip that tactic.

But she could stretch her hand out and aim a Force push at the smaller one's legs.

[sith_happened]

That rancor's roar turned into a wounded cry as it accidentally careened into the giant rancor to its right, knocking them both to the ground, however briefly.

[thatwaslucky]

With them down, Rey twirled her lightsaber into position to stab this rancor in the neck. It wasn't a killing blow by far, but that was going to be hard to do anyway.

[sith_happened]

Hold on tight, Rey, this rancor's going down!

[thatwaslucky]

She'd figured that was coming!
Which was why she was already running, still on the vendor, in the direction it wasn't falling in. She'd prefer to stay on it instead of being crushed by it, see.

[sith_happened]

Well played, Rey, and a good thing you were moving because the other rancors had sorted themselves out and were heading your way again...

[thatwaslucky]

Good! Because she was now running safely down the fallen rancor and towards the others. She leaped towards the smaller one, slashing her lightsaber at its knee.

[sith_happened]

The smaller one listed away from the big one, who swiped at Rey with its enormous claws.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey jerked backwards to avoid the claws, which knocked her off balance, though she caught herself in a roll so that she could pop up again.

She meant to do that!

[sith_happened]

Of course she did! And Anakin definitely wasn't programming the rancor to follow up on that.

...there was no real reason for the fake rancor's breath to be that rank as he screamed a challenge.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey made a face, but she used to taunt a garbage monster so it wasn't as bad as it could be.

And if it was going to swipe at her, she'd have to stab it in the hand.

[sith_happened]

Now the rancor was going to try to squash her with his other arm as he pulled his first one back with a roar.

[thatwaslucky]

She could have gone for a stabbing again. Instead, she drew on the Force to keep its arm up before it could come down on her.

[sith_happened]

The rancor was not pleased with that. He couldn't move, and he was pissed.

[thatwaslucky]

And then she twisted her hand and threw her arm to the side, throwing the rancor at one of the others.

Apparently she was meeting chaos with chaos.

[sith_happened]

Well, what else would Anakin be teaching, really?

The rancors smashed into each other, then disappeared into pixels. Anakin stepped out from behind a tree. "Not bad."

[thatwaslucky]

"I tried," she said, trying for nonchalant even though she was pleased to hear it.

She disengaged her lightsaber and clipped it onto her belt. "Any notes?"

[sith_happened]

Anakin pursed his lips, thinking. "Obi-Wan would ask if there was a non-violent solution."

[thatwaslucky]

"If there weren't three I could calm it down," Rey said. "I don't know that I could do it with all of them attacking."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Something to consider in the future. Could you negotiate with two of them?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Probably not," she said slowly. "I suppose I could have while I was on the first rancor."

[sith_happened]

"Rancor negotiations are difficult to start," Anakin said, nodding again.

[thatwaslucky]

"And you have to be able to convince them to trust you. That's hard to do when you have two more to contend with," she said.

[sith_happened]

"And when you've stabbed one," Anakin added with a little grin.

[thatwaslucky]

"And when you've stabbed one," Rey allowed. "I also wasn't actually sure how much I could reach into a simulation's mind that."

[sith_happened]

"I'm pretty good at this thing," Anakin bragged.

[thatwaslucky]

"So you're saying try it next time," she said.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Try it next time."