Fighting With Powers [Monday, Fourth Period]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max intended for today to be the only day they met in an actual classroom rather than the Danger Shop, so he figured he'd make the most of it. He showed up to class early and pushed all the desks and chairs up against one wall. Now everyone could stand for the duration of the class. Wasn't that great?

Then he went to go sit at his own desk, which he'd left untouched, to wait for the students to arrive. This class promised to be interesting, after all.

Once his students arrived, Max gave them a few minutes to chat and orient themselves before he stood up and looked around at them critically. He smiled slightly, then took a deep breath and began speaking in a voice far too loud for such a small classroom.

"Good afternoon," he boomed. "I am Centurion Antillar Maximus. Welcome to Fighting With Powers. For those of you who didn't read or don't remember the course description, this semester you will learn to utilize any special powers or abilities you have in combat situations. You will also learn to see combat in a more nuanced fashion as a result of considering how best to integrate said powers and abilities. After today, all class meetings will take place in the Danger Shop, but for today we're going to get to know one another. Especially one another's abilities."

He paused, eyes narrowing. "It is possible that some of you are uncomfortable sharing some, or even all, of your abilities here. That is acceptable, but if it is the case you should be aware that you will get far less out of this course than the others. If you feel the need for private tutoring, that can also be arranged."

Now, back to the task at hand! "Again, I am Centurion Antillar Maximus. My abilities are perhaps best understood as elemental-based magic. The details are not particularly important for our purposes, only the effects. I am a powerful healer; I have access to superhuman levels of strength, speed, endurance, and pain tolerance; I can sense emotions within a short range; I can create small areas of silence and invisibility; and I can directly manipulate earth, air, and water." He could do some other stuff, too, but it didn't really matter too much if he held back a few things. He, after all, wasn't a student.

"I am an officer of the First Aleran Legion in my world," which wouldn't mean anything to anyone, "which means that I have extensive experience with the use of these abilities in combat." His eyes swept across his students. "Now each of you will introduce themselves and talk about their abilities, or if you have none of your own discuss what you hope to get out of this class. You will all be working together during this course, so if anyone has questions or needs clarification about something, you're free to ask one another."

He nodded to whichever hapless student was standing closest to the door. "You begin."

Just before class ended, Max spoke up again. "Oh, and if any of you are interested in a position as a TA, come see me after class and we'll discuss your qualifications."

Comments

Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's an old first-day standby, but Max still wants you to do it.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"I'm Zatanna Zatara. Yes, that's my real name." Clarification was always nice. "I'm a magician, so, uh, I can do magic. I'm not too sure of my limits, but apparently...I don't really have those, although I need to speak to make magic easier, so that's the only one I can think of." Was giving away her ridiculous weakness a bad idea?

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Is your magic quick to manifest, or do you need time to draw on it?" Max suspected they'd go into that in more detail next week, but it would help to get some idea now.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Okay, geesh. Her ears were ringing slightly after all of that yelling, so maybe Steph was speaking up a little more loudly than she needed to. She waited until a couple of other people (wait, that Zatanna?) had spoken up first before she made her introduction, glad she'd actually had the forethought to work out her cover story for this.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie, and I think I'm in this class by mistake; I don't have any powers or anything like that. There's people in my world who do have powers, but mostly, I try to stay out of their way. I guess . . ." She chewed her lip in thought. "I could come away with a little more understanding about how they work."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"You guess?" Max asked, aiming an inscrutable look at Stephanie. Mostly that was because he wasn't sure he believed her. Not that he'd push, of course. People were entitled to their secrets.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

"I'm Alex Russo and I'm a wizard," she explained, leaving off the 'in training' part. "I can cast some spells just by thinking of them, others require words. I'm still in the process of learning, so I guess a limited knowledge of magic is one of my limits."

Yep, that pretty much covered it.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max nodded, considering Alex for a moment. "Do you have any combat training or experience?"

Re: Introduce yourselves

[glacial_queen]

Karla really didn't like trying to explain her powers. Part of it was still an instinctive drive to hide what she could do, and part of it was that there was just so much to Craft, it was hard to figure out what all to include.

"I'm Karla, and I'm a witch. Because of my castes, I can Heal minds, bodies, and the land, but all members of the Blood--my people--have basic Craft, which means we can shield, create fire, create lights, call and vanish items...it's kind of a grab bag of abilities."

Errr, what else? "I wear the Sapphire as my Birthright Jewel, which is the fifth darkest Jewel in our hierarchy," she added, not bothering to add that the Jewels were the main source of the Blood's power because she wasn't stupid.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max smiled almost fondly, and nodded. He was relatively familiar with what Karla could do, and they'd continued handwavily training with a sword, but he had some interesting new things to try with her this semester.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[life_inshadow]

"Hey, I'm Tara Maclay," Tara began. "I'm a junior. I'm one of the leaders in the Magic Reserves. I'm a Wiccan, which means I can do spells and a little telekinesis. I'm getting to be a stronger witch, but I've never used it much in a fight. Not in a planned way, anyhow. I ... kind of want to get better at it."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Are these the sorts of spells that you can handle quickly, or do you need time to prepare?" Time, after all, was one of the most important resources in a fight.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[heromaniac]

Momoko raised her hand eagerly. Not the wrapped one. "Hi, Centurion!"

"I'm Momoko Akatsutsumi, I'm a senior, and I don't have any magic. When I'm me I'm just stronger than normal, with really good aim and can jump high." She also had pretty good endurance and is a quick study when it comes to vehicles, not that she realized it. "I also heal pretty quickly. But when I transform, I can also fly, I have superstrength, and I don't get injured much at all."

"Uhm, I also use a weapon, is that going to be allowed in this class?"

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max snorted in amusement. "Weapons are allowed," he told her. "Though we'll also be looking at weaponless techniques."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[nothornlessrose.livejournal.com]

Cassidy had been listening to everyone and trying to figure out how to explain who she was and what that meant she could do. She still wasn't sure how to explain her powers and what she could do -- even after being in this place for six months.

"My name is Cassidy, and I'm a witch. Because of my Craft, I can do various things like vanish things and call things in and create shields. I've only recently started trying to use my powers in a more offensive way." Thanks for that, Jareth. "However, I haven't really used them to fight before, and I really don't know much about fighting. I'm learning more here than I had expected to, and would like to be able to defend myself and those that look to me."

She thought a moment. Since Karla had already mentioned Jewels...

"I'm from the same world as Karla, but I wear the Tiger Eye, which is a lighter jewel."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max gave Cassidy a long considering look. He was quite familiar with Karla's abilities by now. He wondered how similar Cassidy's would be.

"Does wearing a lighter jewel change what you can do, or only how powerful it is?" And apparently he was going to have to figure out what counted as 'basic craft'.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

"My name is Lion-o," he began when it was his turn. "I'm not from this planet and I'm not human, obviously. I'm much stronger than most of the humans I've met and I'm incredibly agile. Also, I inherited a powerful sword that seems to have some magical abilities, though I haven't figured them all out yet."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max looked Lion-o up and down appraisingly. "Have you figured any of them out yet?" he asked. Not that a 'no' would be bad, he was just curious.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[heromaniac]

Momoko leaned over to Lion-o. "You're not going to mention that weird eye changing shape part?" she whispered, totally not going to say anything if her friend wasn't, but curious.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[angelo_wings]

"My name is Rinoa Heartilly," she said, folding her arms over herself uncertainly. "I'm a junior. I'm a Sorceress. I'm learning shields, so I can keep those powers from manifesting. I have offensive and defensive magic capabilities, and if I absolutely need them, I have wings."

Or if she was manifesting those powers she just mentioned, but she tried not to do that.

"I also have a wrist-mounted ranged projectile, for fighting, and a trained attack dog."

Never underestimate Angelo.

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like you've got quite a bit of experience already, then."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"I'm Leda, and as an Elf I've got magic. As far as I've been taught, an Elf's magical limits are basically the limits of their imagination. So far I've been able to, in a combat situation, do kind of telekinetic stuff, summoning weapons, and uh, I made a practice dummy fall over by making it's head really big. Oh and I'm learning to air walk. If that counts."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Everything counts," Max assured her. "And does that mean that you can simply kill an opponent by concentrating on their being dead?"

Re: Introduce yourselves

[imcalledandros.livejournal.com]

"I'm called Andros," Andros said when it was his turn, "I'm a telekinetic and I've been trained in my abilities since I was young, which was customary for all children on my planet to learn,"

Re: Introduce yourselves

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

"I'm Dru Anderson," Dru said when it was finally her turn. "I don't really have any special powers. Yet. But at some point, when I 'bloom' or mature for want of a better word, then I'm going to have enhanced speed and strength as well as a few other useful skills." She was still trying to figure out just what those were, given the lack of information she'd been able to find about svetochas. "So far they've only come out in situations were I've been under stress and the adrenaline's been flowing."

Re: Introduce yourselves

[tasenburn.livejournal.com]

"I'm Elle Bishop, and my powers are electricity-based." She wasn't sure what else to say.