He turns back to the girls. "And that gives us a whole fifteen minutes to try you out on some basics. Warmup to start. Shoes off, for the mats. Twenty laps around the room, now, and I want you touching the pads in each corner." To Evelyn, "- you leaving and coming back? There's not really space to sit and watch. The man who runs the Chinese restaurant will let you hang out there for two hours, though." 

Evelyn had ABSOLUTELY been planning to hover and watch but she can tell when she's being shooed; it's not even 'taking a hint', that was an explicit instruction to shoo. "- Okay. I should leave my cell number for them, and I'll be back over at nine? - Where should I put the water bottles I brought them?" 

"Pass them here." The instructor takes them, and then heads over to give the older lady some critical feedback on her form during her final minute of kicks on the punching bag. 

- her present monthly income is $140. She is not categorically unwilling to spend more than a third of that on fighting classes but it will be a difficult decision.

In the meantime she will take off her shoes and run in circles around the mat touching the corners because that is what she has been ordered to do.

Running is not fighting. Alfirin knows how to run, it's something she's done before even if she's not as strong as Iomedae. The ground is soft and squishy and not covered in sharp rocks so there are no problems with running barefoot.

And once they've run around the mat twenty times, the instructor stops them and beckons them over to one side of the room, in front of one of the hanging punching bags. 

"Let's cover some basics, so I know what parts of tonight's class you can keep up with no problem." He gestures at the punching bag. "Hit it. Like you'd hit a man trying to hurt you." This particular punching bag in fact sort of has a man's figure drawn on it in Sharpie, or at least a circle and smiley-face for a head and the shape of shoulders and arms. "As hard as you like, the bag can take it." 

Iomedae does not actually have extensive training in punching things that want to hurt her. Swords are usually more effective. She can try, though.

It's pretty clear that she has not been trained in how to hit things, but her stance is pretty good and she clearly has solid instincts. And is hecking strong. The bag creaks. "Good work," the instructor says, with gruff pride.  

Alfirin's turn? 

Alfirin does not have any training in punching things and is much less strong. She aims for the bag's eyes, even though they're a little high up for her and that means she's swinging at a worse angle.

Well, if she'd punched a real person in that location she might've broken her hand, but she's not hopeless and - as long as they're hitting bags and pads and not skulls - she's not going to seriously injure herself attempting it. They'll go over striking technique in class later. 

"Not bad. Next up, is whether you know how to fall without hurting yourselves. We do work on that in class, but it's not on the curriculum for tonight, and some of the exercises aren't safe if you don't know how to fall. We've got the mats in here, of course, it's safer than it'd be in a real street fight, but I still want to see it. Iomedae, you go first. Just fall on purpose. I'll test it by giving you a hard shove after but we're not starting with that." 

Iomedae is puzzled. She knows how to take a hit and get back up but not in a way where she has specifically practiced falling. If you can, you avoid falling.

She will try all the same.

Alfirin can also...fall over??? On purpose????

Again, it sure looks like Iomedae has had no specific training for taking a fall - and she isn't doing any of the things the class teaches, like slapping the ground with her forearm to absorb the force - but she nonetheless has great instincts. And probably a very high pain tolerance, he suspects she would often fall in ways that left bruises and would just in no way consider this a problem. 

Alfirin does not have instincts nearly as good, and will definitely benefit from that lesson, but she at least didn't do the thing some dumbass kids - or adults, if anything it's more likely in adults - do where they fall like a plank. She's probably not going to injure herself in class if someone knocks her over. 

"- Yep, you're fine. Okay. Up again and - close your eyes, Iomedae. I'm gonna push you over and I don't want you bracing for it." 

He does not particularly hold back in how hard he shoves her. 

She still falls pretty well. Her instinct is to try to not fall, because falling seems like something you probably die of, if you're not just training, and when she does fall to try to get back on her feet as fast as possible. She would probably take some bruises if she did that not on the mat and, yeah, she does not seem to care. 

Well, she's not wrong! She'll in fact do better in sparring exercises - and definitely better in a real fight - if she falls less, that's not a bad instinct to have at all. He is reassured that she won't fall badly and break her wrist or fuck up her neck if she participates fully in tonight's exercises. 

Alfirin's turn! ...He does not tell her to close her eyes, though if she wants to anyway he won't, like, say anything against it. 

Well he told Iomedae to close her eyes so probably she's supposed to do that. She stumbles backwards and falls over, somewhat worse than before.

"You've got some stuff to learn," he tells her. "I think it's safe to participate in everything we've got planned for tonight," and he'll make sure to partner her with students who know what they're doing and will be appropriately careful with a newbie, "but it's very important that you know your limits, and don't feel like you have to do something that you're worried will hurt you just 'cause it's what everyone else is doing. Okay?" 

"Okay."

It's now 7:25. A couple of other students are finally starting to trickle in. The private-lesson older woman seems to be taking a break with her water bottle, though she's not leaving so maybe she's planning to stay for the group class as well. 

The instructors takes a step back. Glances at the clock. "...Okay, you two take a quick break. Over there. Class starts in five minutes. - If you need a piss, you'd better go before we start. The washroom's not in here, you gotta go back out into the hall." 

He points at the corner where he left their water bottles. He'll give them the standard krav maga speech once class has officially started and most of the students are here. It's a great excuse to reinforce it to everyone. 

Iomedae does not feel like she needs a break, they haven't really done anything yet, but she will go over to the break location as ordered and wait for five minutes.

Alfirin needs a bit of a break, mostly because of the running. She has a sip of water and catches her breath.

Well, mostly he needs to get a drink of water and re-check the lesson plan for tonight and pull out some bins of equipment so they'll be easily within reach. 

Other members of the class trickle in.

(Marian is not going to be on time for class.

She's tested this multiple times, and - if she's really fast at charting, so she has nothing to catch up on after her shift report, and if she gives a really efficient organized report, and then bikes as fast as she possibly can, she can leave the hospital by 7:10 pm and make it to the krav maga studio by 7:35...

...That is not usually the way it goes, to be clear. But she knows that Seamus - the instructor and owner of the studio - pretty well, at this point, and he doesn't hold it against her, that she's a nurse with mandatory hours and cannot always leave the hospital as soon as she would prefer.

Anyway, she's running unusually behind schedule today, and also unusually miserable, because today sucked particularly much. She'll be there by 7:40.)

Half a dozen other students have trickled in by the time the clock hits 7:30, at which point the instructor's phone alarm goes off and he heads out to address the class. 

"- We've got some new students tonight, guys," vague gesture toward Iomedae and Alfirin, "so you're all getting the speech again." 

Seamus takes a deep breath. 

"In the lessons you'll have at this school - and we cover different ones every class - we do teach various self-defense techniques. But the spirit I'm trying to teach all of you is so much bigger than that. As any good instructor will tell you - or should tell you, at least - the principles behind the techniques are far more important than the techniques themselves. 

"As always, our first line of defense is avoidance. We train you to defend yourself only when all other options are exhausted. But when all other options are exhausted, your first and only response is going to be a brutal and vicious counterattack, in order to successfully defend yourself.

"More importantly than anything else, you need the 'will' - the courage, the power - to do whatever is necessary, to fight as hard as you must, in order to be victorious in battle. If you aren’t willing to use the techniques we teach you in order to defend yourself, it won’t matter what you learn here. You must be able to fight with ferocious intensity and purpose, without hesitation, when the situation warrants it.

"Krav maga is based on scientific principles, and uses instinctive actions that do not rely on strength or size, but on technique. We will teach you to exploit the weaknesses of the human body in order to gain the upper hand rapidly so that the confrontation can be resolved efficiently and effectively. 

"Krav Maga is not about winning fights. It's not a sport. It’s a brutally effective means of defending oneself from a violent attacker - or multiple attackers - either armed or unarmed. And most importantly, I will help you learn to recognize a problem before it escalates, and find solutions to fix it that don't involve violence.

"You will also learn what to do after being involved in violence with an attacker. For example: reporting the incident to the appropriate authorities, checking yourself and your friends for injuries, and dealing with the stress associated with violent encounters." 

Iomedae is happy. This is the kind of thing she would know, by now, if she'd found a holy order.