Life Hacks/Young/Suggest a game of "mercy"
“Alright, alright,” you say, casually breaking into the middle of the circle with a calming hand casually extended toward the space between the two as you begin to cut in, “if the two of you are going to fight, how about you settle it with a game of mercy?”
“Mercy?” Roni responds, a similar wave of confusion washing over most of the crowd.
“Here,” you choose a boy who looks like one of the physically stronger ones and call him forward. “It’s like this, you both put up your hands,” you raise up one hand, palm facing toward the boy you called forward, and he obediently follows suit. “Then, you interlace your fingers together,” you start pushing your fingers down the spaces between the other boy’s fingers. Again, he follows suit, and now your hands are held tightly together. “And then, you try to push each other’s wrists forward.”
Up until now, you had been casually facing toward Roni and Billy, the boy you are using for a demonstration assistant off to your side as you reach out with one hand. With these words, you keep your same posture with your face toward the two, but you turn your head toward the “strong” boy and give him a look, giving him a proper chance to start. Of course, with your strength maxed out, even after he DOES start he doesn’t even give you the slightest bit of discomfort. However, once he has started, you take that as your cue to begin. It is a good thing that “strength modulation” is a skill maxed out with all the others, otherwise you would likely have crushed all the bones in his hand and broken his wrist. Instead, the reaction is one of the boy’s eyes bulging out in surprise as you just put a little bit of pressure forward on him.
“Ahhh!” He groans in surprise and pain as his knees drop to the ground. You let go of his hand once he is down, your eyes gently facing toward Billy and Roni once again.
“The first person to beg for mercy or to have their knees hit the ground looses.” You announce the last of the rules that give this game its name. Those being the victory conditions makes the game sound kinda brutal, but really it’s a rather safe and tame contest of strength to keep them from REALLY messing each other up, so it works out.
“Alright!” Roni says enthusiastically. “I’m gonna definitely have you begging for mercy!” She begins holding her hands up eagerly, but then suddenly looks back to you a little confused.
“You can use one or both hands,” you answer her unspoken question, getting a nasty grin from her that she quickly directs at Billy.
“Wow Xander, you’re really strong!” The boy on the ground says, standing up, shaking his wrist out a little with a grin on his face. There are also some respectful glances from some of the other near-by boys in the crowd as well directed your way and you are accepted back into the throng more thoroughly as one of them as you watch your sister’s performance.
Billy seems to have lost a bit of confidence, but he gets himself fired back up quickly. “You’re not gonna beat me!” He barks back, but he seems a little timid as he brings up his hands to meet Roni’s. He’s even got his elbows down, where as Roni’s elbows are up. That WOULD give him an advantage if he knew any soft-fist martial arts techniques for wrist manipulation, but you are quite certain he doesn’t. Without such knowledge, having his elbows down is actually a rather huge disadvantage.
“Alright! Start!” You are the one who declared this game, so it’s your place to announce the starting command. A fire flares in Billy’s eyes for a second as he starts to push forward, but Roni pushes back and causes Billy’s elbows to collapse in on themselves, and then he is forced back several steps. Suddenly, he trips and falls flat on his back, causing everyone gathered around to laugh.
Well, that’s really not how the game is supposed to end, but you don’t even need to say anything. It seems to be mutually understood by everyone here that messing up and falling on your back is an absolutely humiliating loose condition. As soon as Roni’s victory is complete, she takes back her hands and stands triumphantly over her humiliated opponent to the sound of giggles from the crowd. “That means I win, right?” She says.
“NO!” Billy suddenly springs up to his feet, tears of humiliation starting to appear.
“Naaah! You lost Billy.” “Yeah!” “Give up!” The boys in the crowd jeer.
What will you do?