"Good enough." Scipio shrugged. "If your attacker is taller than you, try to punch them in the chest or, if you can reach, their face or jaw. Punching them about here-" He held his fist up to a point on Bridge's jaw. "-hard enough should knock them backwards and break their nose."
“Really?” Bridge asked, golden doe eyes looking up at Scipio, who was now very close to him.
Scipio nodded. "If your attacker is shorter, you could knee them in the stomach. Obviously, there are lots of options either way, but this is just basics. Depending on your strength, there are more options as well. You'll also want to know how to dodge. If I try to punch you in the face, what do you do?" Scipio held his fist in front of Bridge's face as though he were about to punch him.
Bridge blinked, flinching before he realized Scipio wasn’t going to hit him. “Umm…I would…I would step to the side.”
"Good. Quickly." Scipio let his hand fall to his side. "Do you remember anything I did when I fought the guards?"
“You…I remember you bit one. And kicked. A lot.”
"Yeah. That's what you do when you're restrained." Scipio stepped behind Bridge and held his arms behind his back with one hand, holding him still by wrapping one arm around his neck with the other (not too tightly, of course). "Alright, you're restrained. How do you break free?"
“Well…I don’t want to hurt you,” Bridge admitted, taken by surprise from the contact, although he didn’t mind it.
"I seriously doubt you would be able to hurt me badly, but either way, this is simply a demonstration." Scipio tightened his hold slightly. "If you hurt the person restraining you anywhere, they'll likely loosen their hold. People are stupid like that. I wouldn't, of course, but that information would help you with most people."
Bridge nodded, reaching back with his leg to kick him in the shin.
It didn't hurt, but Scipio let go to carry on with the demonstration. "There you go. Now, if you were really in a situation like that, you'd want to kick a lot harder. If all else fails, always go for the neck."
He nodded. “I didn’t…didn’t want to kick you that hard, though.”
"Yeah, I'm aware. But again, go for the neck if all else fails. Punch them in the neck, bite them, kick them if you're in an ideal position… people are quite useless and rendered incapable of fighting if you break their neck."
Bridge hummed a little in agreement, pressing his lips together.
"Have you ever even punched somebody before?" Scipio asked, looking down at Bridge.
He looked down again. “I tried to punch my dad once. It didn’t work.”
"What did he do?" Scipio sat down on the metal bench again. God, pretending to care about people's lives is exhausting…
“He punched me harder. And tried to choke me.”
Nice. "That sucks." Scipio said, trying to feign sympathy. It wasn't something he'd attempted in a while. "I didn't really know my parents."
“Oh. Why…why not?” Bridge asked, not meaning to pry, but merely curious.
"Well, we lived in the same house until I left at sixteen of course, but we never interacted. It was rather like living with two strangers who you always avoid. We hardly spoke, if at all, honestly, and they didn't give a shit about anything I did."
“Oh.” He nodded. “That’s how my dad acted around - me. He wanted to pretend we weren’t related at all. Which…was understandable. But…when he couldn’t ignore me, he would yell - - at me, and when that didn’t work he hit me.”
Scipio nodded. "If you were going to ask if that's why I'm a psychopath, the answer is no. People are born psychopaths, not made. Opposite of villains. I don't remember much of my childhood, but I believe my father would sometimes hit me as well."
“I didn’t like him.” Bridge muttered to himself quietly.
"Go figures. Typically people aren't very fond of abusive people."