fandomhigh | Care for Magical Creatures; Friday, Period 2 [ 03/20 ].

"Good morning, class!" Minsc greeted his student in a manner not perhaps his usual brusqueness in cheer, but certainly in tone, and settled down in front of them all with a big box. "We are jumping around in the syllabus, but since some of you are happily already taking on the challenge of your transformations, I figured today would be a good time to talk about defense when you're transformed into an animal or creature of some sort."

"Clearly, with some exceptions, of course, we are generally trained to fight at humans, and to take advantage of not only our hands and upright positions but our ability to make tools and weapons. But some creatures don't have to use weapons; they already have them."

From the box, he pulled out what looked like a few talons and claws.

"Don't worry," he assured his students, "I'm pretty sure these are just models and not actual pieces of animals."

"Anyway! I will pass these around and ask you to have a look at them! For our feathered friends today ~~assuming they were there~~ if someone could be so kind as to either show them or simply have them inspect their own attributes. Take a good look at these. Think about how the sharpness of the claw or the talon could be used in defending yourself. What fleshy parts of other bodies could they sink into? Where might they be useless? What about the relative size of what you would be if you had these?"

"Next, I will pass around a few examples of beaks and teeth. If clawing and scraping doesn't work, perhaps biting and pecking might. These are not just parts of animals, my friends. When you are an animal, these are your weapons. Or, maybe you'll be lucky, and turn into a dragon that can spit fire, but I would not count on it!"

"There are other things to consider that I cannot just pull out of a box. Body mass, weight, where the most strength is located in your transformed body. Can you, for example, be effective by leaping onto an opponents back? Is there a soft spot you can go to? Boo may be giant, but is also miniature, so he finds it useful to go for the eyes!"

"So, are there any questions? Points you would like to make? Feel free, also," said Minsc, nodding, "to play around with them a little. Give the talons a good swipe, ponder where those teeth might sink in best, ruffle a few fellow feathers if you're currently in that state. Just be careful and no hurting each other!"

He would have added too much, but decided it was best left unspoken and assumed.

[[ OCD ~~on the way~~ is up! ]] [[ Class Syllabus and Roster ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Defensively!

Merlin

Reno

Arthur Pendragon (who has always felt that offense was a good defense)

John Sheppard

Dōjima Yurika

Alex Russo

Leto Atreides

Yup, Minsc is still pretty sure they're mostly just models.

Bonus points to everyone if they can start a bird brawl!

Firekeeper didn't give the models a very thorough examination- mostly because she had first-hand experience with just how things like claws, fangs, and beaks are used.

Blind Seer was totally willing to show off his (very real thank you) claws and fangs if anyone asked.

Reno was always up for a bird brawl. And if anyone called him a chicken, he was bound and determined to make sure people would become well aware of exactly the sort of damage that a seven-foot chicken could do.

Merlin just made an offended noise over how someone else got to at least be a large bird.

Lucky.

Reno's reply to that was a somewhat grumpy kweh that said clearly enough that he might be the large bird, but someone else got to be the freakin' carnivore. Who could fly. And didn't have to sleep in the stables at night.

Lucky.

Edited 2009-03-20 18:35 (UTC)

John was kind of jealous of people who turned into birds or things with big talons. At least they could fly around. He wasn't looking forward to the inevitable, self-inflicted bunnydom this class was requiring.

When they are present and accounted for!

Present and accounted for, yes. Blind Seer too, even. And looking somewhat more relaxed than usual since while she's familiar with today's topic (and had the scars to prove it), it's not one that made her uneasy.

Oh, Arthur was present.

He was sharing his attention between wary glances at Merlin, and deadly glares at Minsc.

Glares? What glares?

Ohhh, you mean those petulant little juvenile broodings. Minsc was impervious to such things, didn't even notice them.

Now, should Sir Arthur's feathered manservant suddenly burst into flames as a result of being transformed into something, then...then Minsc might start considering Sir Arthur's glares to be something beyond being a stubborn little prat.

Arthur ranked accidentally turning people into birds because you can't bother to make sure your dangerous magic even approaches safe high up on the list of reasons to glare at someone. However, he was also a stubborn little prat about honour and decorum, which meant that he didn't actually spend the entire class contemplating ways to break Minsc (and not necessarily the physical way, either) despite really bloody well wanting to.

Instead, he just intensified the glaring while he made absolutely sure Merlin didn't, in fact, burst into flames.

Edited 2009-03-20 16:29 (UTC)

Minsc was pretty sure that all that glaring that he was ignoring that Sir Arthur was doing was going to cause Sir Arthur's head to burst into flames from sheer effort and hotheadedness.

He is always available!

You could probably talk to Boo, too, if you wanted. He does have an awful lot of experience with this whole 'being an animal' business.

Mmm, nice and streamlined OCD today.

Care for Magical Creatures; Friday, Period 2 [ 03/20 ].

Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Re: Sign In -- 03/20.

Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Re: Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Re: Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Re: Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Re: Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Re: Listen to the Lecture/Ask Questions/Play Around with Animal Parts -- 03/20.

Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Re: Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Re: Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Re: Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Re: Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Re: Talk to the TAs -- 03/20.

Talk to Minsc -- 03/20.

OOC -- 03/20.