fandomhigh | 101 Ways To Survive In The Field, Tuesday

"Hey, class," Atton said.

He was sitting at the front of a perfectly ordinary classroom, though his butt was decidedly on his desk, and not his chair. "Welcome to the second day of Blow-Off Week, or as radio likes to call it, Introductions Season. I'm Atton Rand. I've served in two armies, been around for three wars, and nowadays I'm a Jedi knight, which is a fancy word for 'member of a group of monks with fancy powers who are also special operatives'." He shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really get it either, and I am one. I do know you never ask a Jedi about their teachings, though, unless you want to get a wall of cryptic mumbo-jumbo thrown at you."

Somewhere, Mical was getting a headache.

"So I've been around the block a few times," he said. "You don't make it through three wars purely by running on fumes and luck: there are things you can learn to keep yourself going while you're in a threatening situation - combat, infiltration, whatever - and it looks like things might go downhill. Now, there's no substitute for sheer, bull-headed stubbornness, and if you've already got that one, then you'll probably figure out half of what we're going to be talking about yourself if you haven't already. At the same time, having a hard head isn't going to stop your leg from bleeding out if you get hit. You need basic medic skills. You need to know how to keep your adrenaline pumping so you can keep functioning until you're out of there. You need to know how to get out of a locked room. And so on. I know all of that stuff because I've lived it."

He shrugged. "Now I know that at this school, the chances are high most of you know at least some of this already. Maybe even more than me, though I doubt it. So let's kick this off with name and year, and then you can tell me what 'in the field' means to you and what skills you already have that are useful in it."

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Surviving.

Or pass notes, or whatever.

It's that week, so hey. Give your name and year, what 'in the field' means to you and what skills you already have that are useful in it.

He's still sitting on that desk, observing the class until everyone's gone.

His left arm's still hurting, but he's not favoring his right side as obviously as he was a few days ago.

Laura Kinney

Three wars? Wow.

Suddenly Laura was listening a bit more eagerly. It didn't show, but she was.

"Laura Kinney. In the field applies to any situation you find yourself that qualifies as an operation, mission or assignment. It denotes a state of mind regarding the sort of affairs involved." It was partly what she had been taught partly what she had come to learn.

"I am highly proficient in both black and covert ops. Among other things." So you know, just your average teenager.

Hey, no judging from the guy who (stupidly) ran off to war when he was sixteen, here.

"So infiltration and combat techniques," Atton said. Remarkably lightly for someone talking to a teenager about this, yes. "Anything else? What's your specialty?"

"Basically, yes." If he was trying to make it not sound like he was talking with a child soldier of sorts, Laura was grateful.

She was about to answer his question, but ultimately just bit her lower lip and looked away. "I have been told not to speak lightly of it." And she was want sure admitting she was proficient in killing people would be the best way to settle in the island.

There might be people in the classroom who'd have problems with it, so Atton got that.

It wasn't like he was eager to talk about his body count, here. "So that kind of training," he surmised. "Right. Okay, let me rephrase that: is there anything specific you want to learn while you're in this class, or can I just sit back and let you do the talking from here on in?"

That was a joke.

And Laura really didn't want to talk about hers. "I- I do not think I am qualified to teach."

Laura Kinney, assassin extraordinaire, bad with simple humor." I am sure there are things I do not know yet." Just a few, but there were.

Like how to distract people away from the important stuff with humor, apparently. That one had always worked pretty well for Atton during his assassin career.

"Guess we'll just have to figure those out," he said, shrugging. "If you think of anything, let me know. I've got some idea of the kind of training you probably got, but hey, it's different in every universe."

If Laura wanted a distraction, she used flash bangs. Although her preferred method of action involved getting shot a lot and just power through it.

"Okay." That he was willing to deal with her meant a lot to Laura. She wasn't sure he actually knew what kind of training she had had, but she was getting the feeling his own training wasn't all that nice, to put it in a ridiculously nice way. "Thank you." She was probably going to thank all her teachers at this rate.

When you were more or less baseline, confronted with people with powers beyond your imagining, it was usually best to have a distraction arsenal.

Though sometimes flash bangs worked, too.

"Eh, don't mention it, kid," he said. "You'll do fine."

She seemed like she needed a 'you'll do fine'.

Kathy Li

Laura nodded in silence.

She sort of did.

Kathy did a lot of thinking before she answered, jotting down the occasional note to herself before raising her hand. Atton wasn't her favorite teacher--far from it--but he was a good one and she wanted to answer his questions well.

"Kathy Li, senior." SO much for the easy questions. "For me, it's anytime I'm acting as Banzai, not Kathy." She nodded at Laura. "Like she said, more a mindset than a physical descriptor. Whether I'm patrolling or keeping watch or actively engaged in fighting or pursuit, I've turned down the part of me that's an average high school student. The civilian part of me."

She'd been 'in the field' in the dorms more than once and had been decidedly not in the field while in extreme danger.

"I have enhanced speed and agility, training in first aid, hand-to-hand combat, knifework, stealth, chemistry, and a bit in improvised weaponry. I'm patient, focused, and disciplined." That was hardly a comprehensive list, but it made for a decent starting place.

"Necessity, huh?" Kathy asked quietly, once Atton moved on to another student.

Anders

Isabela

Laura looked down. "It is more complicated than that."

"You're one of those roof-climbers, aren't you?" Atton asked.

'Cause he remembered you, Kathy.

"Hey," Kathy said, voice soft not just in volume but in intent, trying to get Laura to look up again. "Is it? Sounds like they wanted a more efficient tool. I bet they didn't ask if you wanted that training, either."

Kathy shrugged. "It's an easy way to get around," she replied. "And people don't normally look up."

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