fandomhigh | The Art of Battle Tactics; Monday, First Period [0913].

"Hello, hello, my little ducklings ♥." Shunsui, once again, greeted the students with his always present sleepy smile and a gesture of his hand to encourage them to come join him in the circle of comfortable cushions and comforting beverages, as they were probably coming to expect from their Monday mornings. "Ohayō gozaimasu~~ ♥ ♥. I hope you all had a wonderful and exciting weekend, but now it is time, I'm afraid, to return to our theatre of the mind and our discussion of battle tactics.

"I'm sure you'll all recall," he continued, pouring himself some tea and then offering the pot toward whoever may have wound up on the cushion to his right side, "last week's discussion, wherein we considered how one might defend oneself against a hostile enemy seeking to get past you, was called Enemy at the Gates, Part One. And where there is a Part One, there is usually a Part Two ♥. So today! Enemy at the Gates, Part Two: A Role Reversal ♥. Wherein we are the enemy at the gates, attempting to find our way in past a wall defended by a guard with a sowrd ready and a taste for blood.

"So, first off, let us discuss ♥. How might you decided to approach this a particular scenario, now that you are the one trying to breech enemy lines? Do you leap straight into violence, assured you can take on but a single measly guard? Do you attempt to charm them in some way, use a sort of bargaining to gain your entrance? Perhaps stealth is more your style? Distraction? Perhaps you're exceptionally good at digging undetected tunnels ♥?

"Let us brainstorm a bit ♥," he said, "share ideas, get our creative minds going, maybe on tactics you may not have thought of otherwise had you not challenged yourself to think beyond a fight or the familiar ♥. And when we're finished with that? A bit of role-play. Find a partner and one of you be the guard, one of you be the enemy, and see what you can do working together to encorperate both today's lesson and last week's. ♥!

"So!" Shunsui lifted his cup as if in a toast. "Who has some thoughts to start us out, mmmm ♥?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Totally gatecrashing!

Astrid Magnussen

Juillenne Milone (and Camden)

Kiem Tegnar

Illyana Rasputin

Alara Kitan

It's short and simple, more instructions than lecture, but why would Shunsui want to go through the trouble of boring you all with long winded breakdowns of possibilities when he can simply turn the onus onto you all to discuss amongst yourselves?

So! How do you choose to approach the situation? Throw in some ideas, and have Shunsui dismantle them or complicate them with additional details, or feel free to bounce of each other's thoughts, but remember! In not too long, it may prove unwise to show off too many of your cards...

"I have yet to find a place I cannot get in to," Illyana said dryly. "Out? That's sometimes a problem." Especially if there were wards in place, or she was out of juice.

"But in? In is easy."

Grinning faintly in appreciation for the confidence, Shunsui tilted his head in intrigue. "Care to elaborate on your methods for the rest of the class, then, Illyana-chan ♥? Or do you intent to keep your closely held secrets in the off chance you'll need to get in somewhere that your classmates would have a mind to keep you from ♥?"

"I mean, it's not exactly a secret," Illyana said, amused, as a portal spun into existence next to her. "Is there anything you'd like from your office?"

"I do have a particularly comfortable pillow underneath the desk there that I'm quite fond of ♥," Shunsui mused, because, really, there was not much in that office at all except maybe some sake bottles he conveniently forgot about leaving there for a pleasant surprise come next Parents Weekend, "but if you were to fetch it, Illyana-chan, I'll have to ask you take it back, because I certainly wouldn't want to make the trek myself ♥."

Not that he would technically have to, either.

"But portals," his head tilted slightly. "Teleportation. Very useful. Assuming the place doesn't already have guards up in place for precisely that sort of thing, anyway. Rather lucky, I'd say, that you've yet to encounter somewhere that hasn't taken that into consideration ♥."

"Pretty much the only thing that can keep me out is an arch mage, setting wards that would particularly be attuned to intent, and that's assuming I have what those wards would understand as ill-intent. It's an inborn trait, not a magical spell of any type."

So of course 'Yana was going to get up, walk through the portal, and have it wink out behind her.

Only for another portal to suddenly appear above him, and the aforementioned pillow dropped out into his lap, while another one popped into existence, and Illyana dropped out of the air onto her cushions, looking rather smug.

“I think it would entirely depend on what planet I’m on,” Alara said thoughtfully, “if it was a planet with Earth like gravity, I would be able to go around the guard completely and break through a wall instead”

"Not exactly a subtle way to enter, though, is it ♥?" asked Shunsui, with a faintly amused sort of laugh, especially since, in his experience, this wasn't exactly uncommon.

Where there's a wall, there's...usually someone all to eager to just knock it down.

"I imagine that might garner at least a little bit of unwanted attention, neh ♥?"

Find yourself a partner (or several! Shunsui certainly would never discourage branching out to several different experiences!) and take turns building scenarios with one of you defending this supposed emphemeral gate of the mind and the other trying to get through it!

Whose most recent experiences with this tends to involve beating up teenagers and children and getting shot, so maybe he's not the best to be teaching about this particular scenario, actually...

Me, every morning when I have to get up and go to an early shift:

The Art of Battle Tactics; Monday, First Period [0913].

Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Sign In - AoBT, 09/13.

Listen to the Lecture - AoBT, 09/13.

Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Re: Discuss - AoBT, 09/13.

Enemy at the Gates, Parts Combined! - AoBT, 09/13.

Talk to Shunsui - AoBT, 09/13.

OOC - AoBT, 09/13.