Hunting 101 - Class 9 (Wednesday period 7)

[demons-death.livejournal.com]

John was leaning against his desk as the class filed in, listening with a faintly amused expression to Blair who was going on at length about something that seemed to require a lot of gesturing and a fair amount of bouncing. The sign up sheet was in its usual place and beside it were several handouts.

The more observant of the students may notice that there was also someone who looked remarkably like Seely Booth only wearing more black lurking in the shadows at the front of the room. Those that are observant and also know him would recognise this person as Angel.



"Good afternoon," John said when everyone was settled. "I trust you all enjoyed your week off. Today we're going to be discussing the undead. The simplest definition of undead is something that is dead, but still act in some ways as if they're alive. You've been given a handout that lists a number of the more common undead entities you may happen to encounter. The biggest group, ghosts and spirits, we've already covered earlier so today we're going to focus more on things with an actual physical body still." He smiled slightly. "The walking corpses.

"The one thing in common that undead entities seem to have is that they're all missing something that living beings have. Ghosts are missing bodies, the corporeal undead tend to be missing heartbeats and breath at the least. And a great many of them are missing consciences and souls. Or whatever you want to call the essence that makes us human.

"That doesn't mean all of them are going to be amoral or evil, but it does certainly raise the odds considerably that they will be. Add in the fact that probably the majority of the undead can or do feed off of living humans and the chances are that any you run into are going to attempting to hurt you or innocents around you. And those are the ones we're discussing here today.

"With ghosts I was able to give you a list of things that are going to work, if not all the time, damn near it. That unfortunately isn't something I can do with the undead. There are so many variations and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Even the same type of creature can vary depending on origin and home dimension -- the vampires that exist where I come from -- which are described in the other handout I gave you -- vary significantly from the vampires in, for example, Miss Summers dimension." He nodded in Dawn's directioin.

"As for zombies, I have a list as long as my arm of various methods of dealing with them, none of which is guaranteed to work on every zombie. There are some basic things though that you can try that are more likely to work than not: holy water, silver, iron, wood inserted in various interesting and specific ways, and," he smiled, eyes seeking out various students who had shown pyromanic tendencies, "always a favourite, fire. Generally one or more of those will work in some way, though there are no guarantees. You'll have to experiment and do your research to determine what will work against any specific threat you face.

"Basically, the thing you most need to remember when dealing with the undead is to not take anything for granted. An example of that would be our guest speaker today," John turned to the figure lurking in the shadows, "Angel. He's a vampire so he can give you a sort of insider's view into what being undead is like. Feel free to ask him any questions you have." John's smile may have turned just a little wolfish.

When Angel had finished his part of the class, John said, "We're going to try something a little new -- a homework assignment. I want each of you to pick something that would be categorised as undead and then find out all you can about it -- how they're created, what they're said to do, what is said is to be effective defenses against them and why. Next week is of course the practical class so you've two weeks to get it done. If you have any questions about this, you can see me after class or during my office hours."

[ooc: wait for ocds are up. Have at it!]

Comments

Angel's lecture

[demons-death.livejournal.com]

Let the vampire ping in first please. :)

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel stood and listened to John's lecture. When his turn came up, he stepped to the front of the class.

"Some of you already know me," he said. "Those who don't - name's Angel. I'm a vampire. With a soul. Which I got way before it became cool I'm also a friend of Blair's. I came here today as a favor to him. I wanted to show that not all demons are evil. Some are harmless. Some exist in the same grey that most humans do.

"What I can tell you about," Angel continued, "is being undead, being a vampire like the ones from my dimension, and about being pure evil, because when I don't have a soul that is exactly what I am. I can also tell you a little something about fighting evil vampires and demons, because that's my day job now."

Angel looked around the room, then shrugged. "Questions?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Hi Angel!" Blair grinned and bounced and waved. "Can you tell us about some of the non-evil demons that you've encountered?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Yarbnie," Angel said. "As for example. They're balancing entities. Wouldn't hurt a fly."

Re: Angel's lecture

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Do people try and kill them?" Blair asked.

Re: Angel's lecture

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe may have even been a bit distracted during Ange's lecture... and she was happy to see him around again.

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel gave Phoebe a nod and a small smile of greeting.

Re: Angel's lecture

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Do you mean literal day job? Because I would imagine that would be difficult for you."

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I've got people who help me," Angel said. Mostly to himself he muttered "When they're not trying to kill each other."

Re: Angel's lecture

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec was vaguely fascinated by the lack of breathing - and heartbeat, when he took a moment to listen hard enough. Finally, he raised his hand to ask a question.

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John smiled and, after waiting his turn, asked, "What kinds of things do you do to prepare for a fight with a bad guy? To make sure you don't get hurt...too badly."

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Bring plenty of weapons," Angel said, giving John a grin of hello. "I can take a hit and heal. So I like to make sure it's the other guy who takes all the hitting."

Re: Angel's lecture

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Alanna was about to say something but instead wound up sneazing a lot. Faithful waved.

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Faithful," Angel said. "She treating you okay?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Following the rather feverish Alanna, Parker stopped at the back of the class. And grinned wickedly, waiting for an opening. Pyramid speaker!

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm allowed to give detention, right?" Angel asked, theoretically for Mr. Winchester but mostly for the benefit of seeing the look on Parker's face.

Re: Angel's lecture

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn raised her hand. "How do you get your hair to do that? And how do you shave?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Gel and practice," Angel said. "Uh, in that order."

Re: Angel's lecture

[likethegun]

Sam raised his hand. "Are there other not-evil vampires and similar types where you come from? And is there a good way to...I guess to tell? So that you're not accidentally fighting something that's not evil?"

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm it where I'm from," Angel said. "With vamps it's more a scale of big evil to not worth bothering with right now. In terms of telling - big evil's trying to take over the world. Not worth bothering with right now is more interested in watching TV."

Re: Angel's lecture

[socksofcool.livejournal.com]

Seely smirked. "Is the bad hair characteristic of vampires or are you just special?"

What? He had priorities.

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"You still don't look like me," Angel replied.

What? So did he.

Re: Angel's lecture

[smartestone]

Hermione raises her hand, and keeps it there until it's her turn. "Do you find yourself discriminated against at all, living among humans?" she asks, kind of thinking of Lupin.

Re: Angel's lecture

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I live in LA, so mostly I'm discriminated against for not being famous," Angel said. "But otherwise... yeah. Sometimes. It's good for people to not totally trust me, but it can be frustrating to come across the types who are too blinded by hate to listen. Some vamp killed somebody they know so because of that they hate me. That kind of thing."