fandomhigh | Hunting 101 Class 3 -- Wednesday Period 7

When the students entered, they saw John sitting at his desk and two tables set out at the front of the room. One holds the sign in sheet and a pile of handouts. The other holds a number of curious items.

John waited until all his students had filed in and taken their seats.

"So last week you faced your first senario with a ghost. Nobody managed to get themselves killed and everyone eventually managed to take out the ghost." He leaned back on his desk. "Unfortunately, a number of you also managed to take out the house. Two things it's good to remember: don't burn down a house while you're still in it. And ghosts can turn incorporeal at will. You can't set them on fire."

John pushed away from his desk and went over to a side table where a number of items were laid out. "There are however a few things that you can use when fighting a ghost that actually do more harm to them than to you. Iron temporarily disrupts a ghost's energy. Anything you can find that's iron -- some crowbars, fireplace pokers, cast iron frying pans -- " John had examples of each of these and held them up in turn, "can be used as a weapon against a spirit." He smiled wryly. "And it won't burn down the house."

He the frying pan down and moved down the table where he picked up a salt shaker. "Salt is probably one of the most versatile weapons a hunter can have. Salt circles can be used for protection against not only ghosts but demons and some other evil entities." He put the shaker down and picked up a small crystal. "Salt can also be used offensively and rock salt such as this is the easiest to handle. It disrupts a ghost's energy much the same way iron does. Rock salt pieces like this or some larger, can be thrown, either by hand or using a weapon such as a sling shot." He moved down the table a little bit more to where there was a pile of much smaller crystals. "Smaller crystals such as these can be useful as well, when packed into shotgun shells." He picked up such a cartridge also sitting on the table. "You've heard of buckshot?" John grinned. "Well this is ghostshot.

"And it's not something you can just buy from any sporting goods store. You have to make it yourself." John ~~handwavily~~ demonstrated how to load shotgun cartridges with rock salt, explaining how as he went. When he was done he headed back over to his desk. "All the information we've discussed is covered in the handout you took at the beginning of class, including a list of steps in how to reload shotgun shells. Feel free to come up and examine everything, and try your hand at making rocksalt cartridges. Also I'd like to know how much experience and how comfortable each of you is with firearms, so I can set up balanced groups for next week's practical."

[OOC: ~~wait for~~ OCD is up, have at it :)]

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Dawn was still a little skeptical about the salt, but Sam and Dean trusted it, and it certainly couldn't hurt. Even she could admit that she had very little experience with ghosts.

Given the choice, she'd much prefer using a slingshot and salt over a shotgun, and she tested the salt crystals in her hand. She also ignored the presence of the frying pan, hoping that Dean hadn't said anything about it to his dad.

"I'm surprised you're not playing with your weapon of choice," Sam said, smirking as he came up behind Dawn.

"Your dad didn't have any stakes," Dawn said, then realized what he'd meant. She pouted. "Hey!"

Sam laughed. "I'm sure you're good with a stake, but a frying pan can be just as bad for a ghost."

"What? But doesn't it go right through them?" Dawn asked, obviously having missed part of the lecture by daydreaming. "What's your favorite?"

"Well, yeah, it does go through them, but that's kind of the point. Even frying pans like this one have enough iron to essentially cut a ghost." He looked over what was on the table and thought about it. "As effective as guns are, I'm kind of fond of hand weapons," he said, picking up the fireplace poker.

"I like hand weapons better, too. There was initial squirrelliness when Dean taught me how to shoot," she admitted. "But you'd really choose a fireplace poker over a gun? Why?"

"I don't know if I'd choose this specific weapon over a gun, although it would be effective against a ghost. There's just a lot that can go wrong with guns. I mean, if it's an automatic, it could get stuck, or in the worst case scenario, you could hit something or someone you don't want to."

"Yeah," Dawn looked down, playing with the crystal of salt in her hands. "And the worst case scenario is pretty bad--it's almost impossible to take that back."

"Almost impossible?" Sam couldn't help but ask.

Dawn nodded. "Every one in a million times, there's a ~~really pissed-off uberwitch~~ miracle. You know, the bullet passing through nothing important on its way through."

"Yeah, that's true," Sam agreed. "But you don't need a one in a million chance if you've got a knife or something like that."

"No," she smiled at him. "You don't."

"And hey, frying pans don't even have sharp edges. So you've only got to worry about swinging the wrong way and whacking an ally in the head, or something," Sam said, managing to sound sensible.

"Oh my god, will you guys stop with the frying pan already?" Dawn groaned, covering her face with her hair. "I only hit Dean once."

"I'm sorry," he said seriously. "I'll stop teasing you now, I promise. It's just a fun mental image, and I enjoy picturing you kicking ass."

"It did make me feel better," she admitted, "and do I want to know why you like picturing that, or is this one of those guy things I really don't want to know the answer to?"

"It's nothing bad, I swear," he replied. "It's just, you know, the mental image of you being strong and fighting and...okay, maybe you don't want to know exactly why."

Dawn snickered. "God, boys are predictible. Not that I don't like knowing you know how to take care of yourself, too. And the mental image is very, very pretty--do you have a battle axe?"

"I don't know if we have anything like that in our arsenal. Should I get one?"

"They're fun," Dawn grinned, "and I'm shocked that there's anything you guys don't have in your arsenal."

"We tend to be pretty complete when it comes to our collection of guns. Sharp and pointy things get a little less attention. But I'll check, just for you."