Nobody else was bothered either.  Soon enough a mosh began from swaying slamming bodies all dancing exactly like Ann with some pogoing mixed in and some good old fashioned body slamming.  Despite the view from outside, it's not violence, it's humans enjoying the exuberance of bodies in motion dragged along by a fast moving beat.  It takes energy but never too much and it will leave bruises but c'est la vie.

"Competing in the Olympics really wouldn't be fair. I could throw a shot put further than the most steroids-jacked East German could dream. And I'm not sure that the sprinters could keep up with me even if they were allowed to ride motorbikes. Besides, I'm used to not being good at sports, so it's no big loss. Now if only my Slayer powers helped me pass exams, then they'd really be useful."

As the dance floor filled up, she enjoyed letting go and being part of the crowd. Her slight frame was pushed around, but she didn't use her strength to push back. For one night, she was determined to be just a normal girl. She didn't doubt that she'd have had bruises all over her body if it wasn't for her Slayer healing. But she didn't care as long as she was enjoying herself.

"I think I see why you like it here," she shouted to Elissa when the press pushed them close together. "Is this as crowded as it gets?"

"You mean it's unfair because you are better?" Elissa said with a laugh "Each of them has a unique advantage. They got to the olympics right? Maybe it was that their mum was driven, or their country gave them steroids, or because they were born with the right genes. Each one of them... well it's unfair if they compete with anyone else. You being Slayer is as much a part of you as their genes are part of them. With the difference that you have to go out at night and do the Slaying. You earn your 'being better' girl"

Then they got swept up, and the excitement level shot through the roof. Elissa felt that adrenaline rush she got when she entered the ring, or in a fight behind the Apollo. With the difference that no one was trying to beat her. She could just get in, get physical, get the rushes, and no one really got hurt "Hell no, girl. If there's a live band on here there'd be 10 times as many. And we'd be having people stage diving... now that's for crazy people..." the last was said with the laugh in her eyes that implied she was one of the crazy people, and had been before she changed. "Just keep an eye out for newbies. And for 'Spike'"

This wasn't dancing anymore. Elissa didn't have to do her best. She just used her body weight and not her strength as she bumped into other people, using the flat of her body. She kept a particular eye out for 'Spike' the guy with the spiked hair... if he entered she might well ensure that he had a little accident and wouldn't be entering any more. Not until he'd had a hair cut. She spotted quite a few other people with the same idea, so she suspected there would be a queue

"I don't think that 'Spike' will be joining us," said Ann, pointing to the punk being helped from the club by a couple of his mates, clearly the worse for the drinks he'd had.

She'd been a little afraid of falling to the floor and being trampled, but she found that the advantage of being in such a tight cluster of people was that when she was pushed, there was always someone else to lean against.

Finding herself getting sweaty, she made her way to the edge of the dancefloor, only to find that someone had nicked her beer. She pushed her way back in.

"Elissa, do you want another drink? Unless you want to stay here."

"Sure" Elissa said. She was good with staying here for a while. She could loose herself here: forget everything but the music and the physicality of it. No worries about parental relationships, or would she find Mr or Mrs Right. None of her new worries about vampires of flying men on horses.

She headed to the edge with Ann and extricated herself with a practiced shove or two "It's not as good as starting a fight behind the Apollo for getting away from things, but it's second best" she said following Ann to the bar. "The difference between fighting a vampire, and fighting like that, is quite big by the way. In the first it's kill or be killed, in the second... well it's rather like in there. There are rules, even if no one can quite tell you what they are. But basically people get lumps and bumps and that's it. Sometimes people forget the rules, but that doesn't last long. Like in there"

"We should get you to a Roda. That's about ten steps back from even here. It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on. "

Ann bought a new round of drinks.

"Cheers. I don't think I'd ever want to get into a fight. Not by choice. I'd be very happy if the vampires and demons all disappeared and things went back to how they were. Or rather, how I thought things were. Not that it matters; I've got to keep fighting until I lose and Slayer number 627, or whatever her count is, gets called up. Lucky girl: she'll get a body that's more powerful than anybody else's, and a short life to enjoy it in."

She moved away from the bar to make room for others, watching the dance floor.

"What's a Roda? Is it crazier than this?"

"Fatalism will get you killed, girl" Elissa said buntly "Snap out of it. I'm in this with you, and I want to live for a long long time. That's why we are here remember? It's to recharge our mental batteries."

"Look.... we put the boot in the bad guys we can fight, and if they are too tough, we do it another way. There's always another way. The Watchers can feed you that 'conservative faction misogynistic it's the slayer on her own' crap all they like, but we don't need to live that life. We make our own life." Elissa looked as though she wanted to answer the question on the Roda... but this was more important.

"I know, I know. I'll do all that I can to postpone my death, but let's not pretend it's not hanging over my head every day and especially every night."

She took a sip of her drink.

"I intend to keep winning, don't worry about that. I'll collect my Old Age Pension from the Post Office in the morning, then go out and show the vamps that I've still got it in the evenings. But in between, we'll have to take each day as it comes. It's not that different to normal people's lives; one of my school friends was hit and killed by a car when she was eight. You have to get your living in while you can."

She gave Elissa a sideways glance.

"So is a Roda a big secret? Is that why you avoided the question? Do you need to kill me now that I've found out that it exists?"

"Let me tell you a story. When I was 11 years old, my dad took my to a beautiful country called Angola" Elissa said "I don't really know why: I was only 11 right? I think he was worried about some people, and wanted me out of England. Mum was hysterical when I returned... "

"Anyway... It was a country ripped by civil war. He was part of a military unit. They fought battles, they killed people. Sometimes they were killed. It's the first time I saw people die. The first time I heard the sound of a bullet fired in anger, people screaming as they died... The biggest thing I learnt there... apart from some cool Capoeria moves, was that it's your mind set that keeps you alive."

"My dad was the boss, and he made sure that every single one of them knew... knew in his heart... that he was going to get through this. Because the moment you start thinking 'I am going to die...' well you will. You get what you plan for, you get what you think about. In my heart I know I am going to get through this. Dad was at war for twenty five years before he vanished... and I don't know if that was war or something else. Some of his friends have been going longer. They are alive because of that mind set. They still go to war. They get shot at, bombed, snipped at. But their mindset keeps them alive."

"You need to be the same, girl. You are a soldier. Without the training you need to keep you alive, so you have to self learn. From what I've seen the Watchers aren't any good at basic military training, so maybe we have to sort that out ourselves."

"The Watchers, well, Miss Casey, have been training me. She's pushed me hard, and trained me to fight both unarmed and with all sorts of weapons. Take away my super-strength and reflexes, and I'd still be a pretty competent fighter. Maybe not Bruce Lee, but I could still give him a run for his money."

"But I'm not a soldier. If his officer tells a soldier to go fight somewhere, he has to do that or become a deserter. I'm my own person. I decide who to fight and when. The Watchers don't own me, or pay me a soldier's wage for that matter, and so it all comes down to what I choose to do. Not that I'll always have a choice; if the world is literally going to end and only the Slayer can put things to right, there's not much point in me sitting it out to stay safe."

She took a long gulp of her lager.

"I know that I'm in a war, and not one of my choosing. I don't intend to shuffle off this mortal coil any sooner than I have to. But I'm also an eighteen-year-old girl who really just wants to go to pubs and discos. So I think I should be allowed a little gallows humour."

She stood up.

"And tonight was supposed to be my night off. So no more talk of war. Tonight my views on war are one hundred percent in alignment with Edwin Starr's." She held out her hand. "Come on, we're here to dance and have fun."

"Ah your view of the military is from World War two movies" Elissa said "It's not been like that for decades, but Hollywood loves to portray it badly. But no I wasn't talking about fighting. Soldiers don't spend a lot of time practicing that kind of fighting. Hardly any actually. Let's talk about it when it's not our night off. If you want I'll introduce you to Dad's friends."

She gave a happy laugh at the offer of the hand and took it "Sure, girl. Let's give this a go. The mosh pit is the highlight though. Can't do ballet here"

Ann led Elissa by the hand towards the mosh pit. On being told that it was impossible to do ballet at the club, she turned and performed an arabesque. She hadn't done any ballet since she gave up the classes when she was seven, but being the Slayer gave her a grace and flexibility that made up for her lack of experience.

Laughing, and still holding Elissa's hand, she brought her leg back down and pulled her friend into the mosh pit. They were soon being knocked around my sweaty teenagers. As they were being squeezed together, she asked, "So are you going to tell me what a Roda is?"

"It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on, girl. Really" Elissa said "There's a club in Manchester. Haven't seen one around here, but there's a club in London."

"It's ... I think I have to show you. It's like martial arts mixed with dance mixed with a game mixed with showing off. The Roda's the game." she shoved a couple of over enthusiastic moshers a little distance away then continued. "Part 'cooperate', part fight, all fun. Done to music. If you go deep there's religion. Like Kung Fu / Karate either goes to Buddism or Taoism, Capoeria goes to Candomble. And Candomble..." another little shove "is basically what our girl Inoue does. Which makes you think right? How much of the the things we think are just religious junk, are actually real"

"My Dad taught me. Then I went to Angola... and I tell you there's some really lovely stuff in it. I'd like to go back and learn more if it wasn't a war zone."

"That sounds crazy."

She paused to push a boy twice her size and weight effortlessly away.

"But I guess we could get the train down to London one day to try it out. If the world isn't literally about to end that day. It sounds interesting, though we'd need to pull our punches."

"I didn't believe in anything supernatural until recently. Ghosts, ghouls, gods, they all seemed so unlikely. But now I know better, and Miss Casey says there are hell gods. So maybe there are some divine powers out there, and there may be some basis to some religions."

She laughed when Elissa mentioned avoiding Angola because it was a war zone.

"What do you think this is? I don't mean the club," she added as she pushed away a couple of punks, "I mean this city. Cambridge may seem safe to most people, but we know better. You'd probably be less likely to get hurt out there."

As she said that, she was sent staggering by someone slamming into her back.

"How do normal girls learn to take the mosh pit? Two months ago and I'd have been limping home covered in bruises."

"It's mostly non contact, girl" Elissa said "You never have to hit someone to win the game. The rules are sweet: you can only hit another person if they are at your skill level or preferably above, and you totally suckered them. Like totally. It's called Malifica. I'm an actress, and I learnt more about acting in the Roda than I did at school. If you try and hit when they see it coming, or are weaker than you... you pretty much auto loose. I say rules... that's a bit strong... but except for rank beginners I've only seen people get hit hard a handful of times"

"Sometimes we play it at '1 mile an hour' sometimes at 'Duracell Bunny' speeds. It's the most fun at 1 mile an hour, but the Duracell Bunny is hot and sweaty and that's good in a different way. The goal is to control space... in time with the music of course. What's cool about it, is it teaches how to stay alive in a fight, how to run away from a fight safely, how to 'win' and 'survive' without fighting or hurting someone. Karate's response to a problem is to crush it. Capoeira's is to 'not get hurt', 'work out what is going on', 'run away or hit them really hard where they didn't see it coming'"

"As for here" she laughed "I've been fighting and getting hit since I was... well as long as I can remember. Bruises are just lack of body conditioning. And this is a great way to get it. You start at the edge for a bit. And after a few sessions, your body adapts and copes. Lots of martial arts... not the ones I like mind you, but I've tried them... start with a ten minute warm up where you hit each other. Just to get used to getting hit. I prefer coming here. Same effect, same body conditioning and not the pain"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:53, Sat 07 May 2022.

"I don't think I need conditioning. Not any more. I barely get hurt with most blows, and I recover so quickly from them. Which is useful, because if I went to school with a split lip and black eye most weeks, I think they'd send the police around to check on my old man."

"A slow dance-fight sounds fun, and funny. I'd like to try that out." A sweaty teenager bumped into Ann at that point, her face squashed into her chest. She wiped her face and turned back to Elissa.

"A little more refined than here too." She pushed back her hair from her face. "But it is nice to let go, to not worry about everything else. But I don't get it. Why do you like to fight? I fight when I need to, and I practice a lot when I don't, but it's just something that needs doing. What makes you go out looking for fights?"

"I don't think you do either, girl" Elissa agreed "Slayer perqs right? I do though. Or at least I think I do." she gave a laugh and a little shove in the Mosh "Who knows. We are into fantasy land now right?"

"Anyway the Roda is a ton better with other people cheering along who know what is happening, so how about we just have a quick go learning the moves before we go to the Roda. They are not like you see on boxing, or Green Hornet or Wonder Woman, but being the Slayer I think it will take you ten minutes to get them. And... it might be something the vampires haven't seen before... the whole point of Capoeria is to trick the attacker and hit from a direction they aren't expecting. That sounds great to me if we have to fight some big bad"

"Come on girl, let's find a place we won't hurt other people and we can try. This isn't Capoeria music, but at least it has a beat."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:35, Sun 08 May 2022.

"OK, let's try it now."

As they moved away from the centre of the mosh, Ann looked about her. She always felt uncomfortable being out of place, and doing a slow fight rather than joining in the pushing and jumping with the others would do that. At least she didn't know any of the others at the club.

"I guess you'd best lead. So we just sort of slow fight, right? To the music?"

Elissa dragged up a couple of chairs "Let's pretend these are the musicians" she said "We start here. Remember every rule can be broken, but only if it's cool. So the rule is 'start crouched down, touch each other's hands and then we cartwheel away'. We're doing 'Angola Capoeria' so we do a really low, really slow cartwheel. We keep our legs tucked up so that at any time we could kick the other person, or parry a kick. As we do this just 'mirror' me. Don't worry about 'attacking' or 'defending' just learn the moves."

"Big things: we only touch the ground with five things: hands, feet and head. So no elbows or knees or anything. Other big things: we're not fighting we are learning skills that help in a fight... oh and have fun. If it's not fun, it's not working"

"Normally the people are singing and clapping around us, and that gives energy. But there's no shortage of energy here" Elissa gave a wave at the mosh pit and then moved to the base of the chairs

"After the cartwheel can you do a really slow spinning kick? Put you hands on the ground as you do so to give power like this...." she showed. "I'll go under it, then I'll do it to you and you repeat what I do..."

Here are some videos of Angola style capoeria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBfHb1RmS8g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gPi78MfVG4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...channel=EdgarBombril

It's not long before you've attracted an audience, which somewhat pisses off the Snivelling Shits^* on stage.  After a while, punks are asking to join in hoping Elissa will teach them Capoeira as well.

^*  Yes that's really the name of a punk band who were around in 1978.

A cartwheel followed by a spinning kick was easy enough for Ann to pull off. If anything, she had to hold back a little; no acts of superhuman strength or dexterity in front of witnesses.

Soon she was following Elissa's lead, feeling the beat of the dance.

"I get it now. It's like fighting and dancing, but all in slow motion."

She noticed the crowd watching them.

"It looks like you've picked up a fan club. Why don't you try teaching one of them. I'll get another round in."

Elissa nodded to Ann. She'd join her in a moment. But first she had some repairing to do...

"Hey guys. Girlz. There's a band here. Let's go dance there" Elissa said cheerfully "But if you want I'll set up a club. I'll stick up a sign on the wall tomorrow and you can sign up. If there's enough signatures I'll start. Takes about six months to a year to get so you look super cool"

She threw a 'sorry' gesture to the Snivelling Shits, and tried to lead the group back to the mosh pit.

Ann made her way through the crowd to the bar and finally got the barman's attention to buy another drink for Elissa and herself. She looked over her shoulder while she waited. Hopefully, the Snivelling Shits wouldn't be too annoyed about having their crowd taken away for a bit, though Ann wasn't too sure how likely they were to resort to violence if they were offended. Not that Elissa couldn't handle herself even without Ann as backup.

Ann make her way back through the crowd to a table, sipping her drink while watching Elissa dance with her admirers.

Giovanni Dadomo, lead singer of the Snivelling Shits makes a thumbs up gesture to Elissa and grins.  They continue paying as the pied Elissa leads her punks in the dance.

Elissa could see Ann was 'on edge' and had gone into 'protector mode'. She gave the other girl a grateful 'thank you' smile. It looked though as though the disruption in the evenings entertainment was resolved.