fandomhigh | Basic Training, Tuesday

Basic Training, Tuesday

They were back in the Danger ~~Room~~ Shop once again, though this time instead of a blank canvas, it was set up to resemble a block of a city street. Just a generic street, vaguely New York-esque, but not actually any recognizable part of New York. The buildings along either side were tall, up to ten stories, but not towering, and the street itself was crowded with cars, but only because they were sitting at a red light. In a moment it would turn green, and the cars would be in motion again. There were facsimiles of people walking by, and a few dark alleyways here and there where nefarious dealings -- or the stoppage of those dealings -- might occur.

"Last week, you gave me -- and each other -- a taste of what you can do. Today? I will let you go ahead and do it. If you need supplies, you can find various weapons and other odds and ends in the shops. You have five minutes to prepare before the attack."

Attack of what? . . . You'll just have to wait and see.

[open!]

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Ready for action!

Luma Zarrin

Sairis

Henry

There was no big countdown clock in the air -- but if you paid attention, any digital clocks in the shops or cars were counting down five minutes.

Supplies and shops are moddable. The shopkeepers (also moddable) will not be blase about you blatantly stealing stuff before the attack begins, though.

Sairis had his hands in his pockets, feeling for his charms, but otherwise he was a bit too distracted by the sheer size of this city and whatever those metal...carriages?...were, and what all the things in the shop windows were, and it was all a bit overwhelming.

There was a slightly withering expression on Luma's face about this week's location, but it was mostly just covering up some genuine concern and nervousness. She really didn't have any experience with cities at all, and already, it was raising her hackles...as a human. So she took a deep breath before transforming, recoiling almost instantly thanks to her heightened sense, and then using her five minutes to get used to that and to start getting a good lay of the land.

Sairis eyed her warily when she transformed, but when she didn't immediately attack him, he reminded himself that different worlds had different people.

He briefly wondered if even what he knew of werewolves in his own world was true, but put that aside for later and just nodded to Luma.

Maybe some day, Sairis could tell Luma what he 'knew' about werewolves in his own world and laugh, but, right now? Feeling tense and uncertain about the city, she was just letting out a low rumble of warning, not quite a growl, but a clear sign of distaste and irritation, before grunting faintly and decidedly stalking off in the other direction, in pursuit of somewhere with maybe slightly fewer people.

That was fair. And probably safer, given that Sairis wasn't used to fighting in a group.

When the digital clocks finished their countdown, it began. Perhaps not from the direction anyone was expecting, though. There were no aliens or demons, no monsters at all. Instead, a crowd of people came marching around the corner, carrying signs with slogans like "Humans first!", along with tiki torches and baseball bats. They shouted at the passersby and wove between cars, blocking traffic.

They were the Friends of Humanity. And Gambit was starting you off easy.

Have fun beating up on bigots!

Sairis frowned at the group. He wasn't sure why "Humans first!" was bad or even a thing, unless maybe this plane had other groups like Magus Liliana had mentioned? But he recognized the look of a bigoted mob regardless, and he clenched one fist, watching them.

"What are you looking at, fairy?!"

Fun with bigots, they tended to be bigoted about so many things!

(Gambit, on his perch, made sure to keep an eye on this group. He'd seen the look on Sairis's face before the attack, and he wasn't about to let his students get too far underwater this early in the semester.)

Sairis raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "I'm not a fairy, I'm a human," he clarified. "What are you doing?"

"We're protesting the mutant scourge," the man said, because these guys were also not exactly subtle. "Those freaks they can run everything, just because they've got 'powers'. Humans will not be replaced!"

A young woman with a faint blue tinge to her skin pulled her hood up over her head and ducked into an alleyway to avoid them as several others across the simulation took up the chant along with him. "We will not be replaced! We will not be replaced!"

(Gambit rolled his eyes, flipping a card between his fingers as he kept watching.)

"What's the 'mutant scourge'?" Sairis asked. It didn't sound good, but he didn't like the look of these people, either. And he did, after all, have powers himself.

Also, he suspected whatever that one woman was afraid of, it had to do with it, so he was inclined to distract them. Not that he wasn't afraid himself, but he wasn't a powerless five-year-old anymore.

"You been living under a rock?!" the man said. (Gambit had not really bothered to program in an exposition function for his simulated goons.) He noticed the girl ducking away and his face darkened. "You're helping them. You're a mutie-lover!"

He wasn't any taller than Sairis, in fact he was an inch or so shorter. But he did his best to loom anyway.

Sairis loomed back. He was rather better at it. His glare had been known to chase off worse threats. His voice was even, though.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I suggest you don't try anything."

"Gene traitor," the man hissed, backing up a few paces. He was a coward when he had to take someone on by himself. Which would be why he raised his voice. "We've got a gene traitor over here!"

Several other thugs started over, waving signs and baseball bats and shouting more obscure insults as they came.

(Gambit watched, card paused in his hand but not yet glowing. He was curious to see what Sairis would do now.)

Sairis had no idea what any of this was about, and was rather miffed about it. If they were going to attack him, shouldn't it at least be for something he'd done?

He scowled at the mob. Then he reached out - he could feel the dead nearby; not much, here in this odd city, but it was there.

There was shrieking from several nearby restaurants for a few seconds, and then three chickens, featherless and obviously dead but fierce, flew at the men challenging Sairis, pecking and clawing at their faces.

From the nearby alleyway, two rats and a pigeon, similarly life-challenged, raced to join them.

"Shit!" It was hard to tell who, amongst the mob, said it. It was clearly an opinion shared by many. They danced back, kicking and beating at the strange, undead creatures.

So that part worked well. The part that didn't, so much. . . .

"He is a mutie! Get him!"

Gambit charged his card, preparing to throw, then remembered the safeties were on. So he held it, waiting, and wondered what other tricks this kid might have up his sleeves.

Sairis scowled more fiercely. Right, then. They'd had their warning.

He whispered a spell that would look like smoke coming from his mouth to anyone who didn't understand it, and called up a ball of green magefire in one hand. Then he threw it at the mob, where it exploded, taking several of them at once and spreading quickly to any who got near.

The animals he'd called also burst into green fire. It didn't slow them down any.

Gambit whistled softly. That green fire trick was a nice one.

The mob scattered rather than help their members who were affected. The members who did catch fire, rather than a protracted, horrifying death, winked out of existence.

(Look. Just because you could add that level of realism to a simulation didn't mean you had to.)

Gambit dropped down lightly next to Sairis, idly dodging a flaming rat.

"Alas, some folks, they cannot be reasoned with."

Sairis huffed. "I'm aware. I'm probably always going to try anyway, unless they're already violent."

He had no qualms about killing people who were attacking him, but he wasn't going to go there unless they were.

He dismissed the fire with a wave. The animals milled around a bit until he was sure the attack was over.

Gambit indicated one of the creatures with his chin.

"Dead things?" he asked. No judgement, just curiosity.

Sairis eyed him closely for a moment, then nodded. "They'll only stay till I dismiss them."

Gambit nodded.

"You do that with people's corpses, too?"

This question had a faintest edge to it.

Sairis raised his head defiantly. "I can. I don't unless I need to, but I will if I have to."

Gambit raised an eyebrow, watching him for a moment, then simply nodded.

Plenty of folks he knew had abilities they were loathe to use unless they had to, after all.

Sairis relaxed a tiny bit.

He wasn't at all loath to use his necromancy, but even if Liliana hadn't warned him, he knew people were likely to react badly to someone they knew being raised.

Oh. Oh. Luma couldn't read the signs in her current form, but she really didn't need to. She knew what this was. It had been the thing she'd been warned about her whole life, and she'd even witnessed it first hand a few years ago when Eleanor's awful, stupid party had gone awfully, terribly wrong.

She had already been on edge; she was sure there wasn't a single hair on her still laying flat against her body.

Luma's grandmother had forbidden them from ever eating anyone. Mailing was also very frowned upon.

But Persephone Zarrin was dead. And none of this right now was really, anyway.

(None of it is real, anyway, her own voice reminded her cautiously in her head.)

She was going to target it on the biggest, meatiest one of the bunch and see how he handled having a wolf with all her claws and teeth launched at him. But she was nice enough to give them all a few warning barks first.

With the crowd and the torched and the bats, she was probably not likely to come out of this is great shape, but so help her, neither were they.

Henry? Still very much not a fighter. So there would not be any beating up happening, at least on her part.

She did, however, have pretty good aim, so she'd grabbed a carton of eggs and a few tomatoes from a nearby bodega and was tossing them at the marching crowd.

He hopped up to perch on a handy windowsill to keep an eye on you all. The FoH didn't seem to notice him.

If you wait until after class, he'll -- still probably be perched on something. It was just kinda a thing he did.

Why are Tuesdays?

Anyway, bigots are moddable, or hit me up here if you want me to play one for ya.

Edited 2026-01-13 16:12 (UTC)

Sure, play a bigot for me!

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Basic Training, Tuesday

Sign in

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Prepare!

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The attack!

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Talk to the teacher!

OOC

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