Fandom High Dormitories

The plastic-covered snacks were once again under umbrellas today as the Magic Reserves met outside. Next to the table was a very large tub, covered with a bright blue plastic tarp from T&C's.

"Kiss kiss!" Karla greeted everyone as they assembled around the table. "Today, we're going back to different ways magic can be used to dodge or shield against attacks. Hopefully most of us will never need to know ways to avoid missiles flying at our heads and other various body parts, but as long as the island keeps getting attacked, we need to devote time and energy to keeping our skills sharp." She grinned. "Though no one said we can't have fun doing it."

"And what better time to break out a bit of fun than now?" Merlin asked, blinding people with his Irish-ness smiling far too much for someone only wearing a pair of swim-trunks. "Tony? Would you do the honors of starting us off?"

"Absolutely," Tony said. He flipped the tarp off the tub and called a balloon to his hand. Which he promptly threw at Merlin.

"Hey!" Merlin, so very kindly, responded the same way. Though his balloon was aimed at Karla.

Karla squealed. "I thought we'd agreed to gang up on Tony!" she protested, snagging the balloon with Craft and tossing it back at Merlin. Another flew out of the tub and raced towards Tony. "Have at!" she called to the rest of them. "Try to keep as many balloons as possible from hitting you!"

[OOC on its way! up!]

Third time was hopefully a charm as the Magic Reserves met at the Danger Shop again. And, to be clear, they were meeting here because it was a convenience and a help, and not out of any desire to show the stupid room who was boss.

So there.

"Uh, hi everyone," Karla said, trying to sound utterly confident in their Danger Shop prowess. "We're going to try something different this week. Like the Fighting Reserves mentioned yesterday, sometimes we're taken by surprise by an attack. And even though we have powers, that doesn't always mean that we're in any position to use them--or, at least, use them effectively. Knowing how to use the environment to our advantage in a fight is just as important for us as it is for anyone else."

"We especially need to learn this in case there are other people around so we don't accidentally hit any allies." Because that was a problem when flinging things about, okay?

Not that Merlin had any experience with it. Really.

"You simply need to take in your surroundings and figure out what will work best to defend yourself."

Like a chandelier!

"We're sorta going for subtle here, today," Tony said. "Like maybe you don't want to advertise you've got magic. Maybe you don't want the enemy to know what they're up against yet."

Merlin nodded enthusiastically at that, fiddling with a button or two in order to make a run-of-the-mill-evil medieval henchman appear.

"There are small things you can do in order to throw them off in a fight. Alter their weapon, pull the rug from beneath their feet, trip them with whatever happens to be near... just to name a few. The limits really only come in the form of your imagination!"

Karla glanced at her co-leaders, took a deep breath, and pressed the buttons to make the simulations start. She preemptively winced as the images appeared--and then relaxed when there was no signs of dinosaurs, porn stars or carnivorous bunnies. "Have at!" she said, cheering.

[Wait for the OCD or the Canadians will lose! You don't want to be responsible for that, do you? OCD up! The Canadians are safe.]

Somehow, the idea that the Magic Reserve ought to be more friendly came about. There were many ways possible to accomplish this goal, but they picked one near and dear to the hearts of Fandomites.

Cookies.

Well, this might have been a good idea had they asked Francine to make them, but that was not the case. Instead, the student body got to deal with the... concoctions that Merlin and Karla made for them. And since they were set up right in the entryway of the dorms, it made it that much easier for them to be seen.

Thankfully, there was a tray of J,GoB cookies there, provided by Tony so not everyone would lose the ability to taste.

Hopefully.

Merlin was still trying his best to not be seen, even as he was there to help lead the reserve. It was a very complicated maneuver. "Hello everyone," He said, looking at a nice tree that he hadn't made a fool of himself in front of.

"We thought, in light of the---weekend---we ought to come up with a plan of what to do in case you remain normal as that happens again."

This was Karla, eyes on her feet, steadily repressing any memories she might have of leather catsuits and her 'darke Master'. "So, we're definitely going to ask anyone who did remain normal to share what they experienced," she continued, fighting off a blush. "Especially if they have tips to share."

"How did you realize that people weren't normal?" Tony asked. "I mean, sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes it's just something small that makes you notice things aren't quite right."

Merlin managed one tiny glance over at Karla and Tony and--Karla again. He couldn't seem to look away now.

"I--yes. Small things." He cleared his throat and moved not so vaguely straight for her. He hadn't never truly realized how he felt until this very moment.

Well, it was kind of hard not to acknowledge at Merlin when he was right there. Karla glanced over, experienced yet another moment of slight dizziness where it felt like the world was shifting beneath her feet, and then dazedly blinked up into his wonderful, handsome, incredibly beloved face.

"Precisely," she breathed, swaying closer to him. "The problem is, the people involved don't seem to have any idea that they're behaving in any way unnaturally. It seems perfectly sensible and logical for them to engage in whatever bizarre activities they've adopted and they have no memory of being in any way different."

Would he be willing to kiss her? Would he mind if she kissed him? Did it matter? All Karla knew was that she loved him more than anyone else in the world. Hell's fire, he was her world.

Tony gave them a funny look, then quietly slid his camera phone from his pocket. "It never hurts to get pictures or video of what's happening," he said. "For documentation purposes."

[OCD up!]

There was an army waiting to greet the members of the Magic Reserves today: an army of practice dummies from the salle, standing at perfect attention behind the refreshment table. Crepe paper had been tied around each dummy's waist, with a long streamer left hanging down their sides. More rolls of crepe paper were resting on the refreshment table.

"Hey," Tony said. "We've got a cool activity today, but before we do that, Dinah's going to tell us about her abilities." He smiled at Dinah. "And if anyone wants to volunteer for next week, let us know."

He turned to Karla. "Wanna explain the activity?"

She nodded, before turning towards thr group. "Today, we're going to focus on the possibility that one day, we'll have to rescue prisoners and hostages from an invading enemy force," Karla said, giving everyone a cheerful smile. "While every step of an operation like that is difficult and fraught with danger, one of the most common mistakes people make is that assuming once they've freed their comrades, the hard part is over. Not only is that wrong, but it's the kind of thinking that can get people recaptured or even killed."

It was hard thinking like this in the face of enemies like carnivorous vegetables, but they had to be prepared.

Merlin shot her a slightly nervous smile as he stepped forward to add, "To keep that sort of thing from happening, we'll be running a practice at escaping with the dummies." The lovely, lovely dummies. "Whomever you are rescuing may be able to move on their own should this actually happen, but for this case we will assume the worst and they will be unable to walk for whatever reason. Which should make it--um--interesting to accomplish without being caught again."

"This is how it's going to work," Karla said, picking up the thread again. "Your dummy is your friend. Get him from one side of the Preserve to the other without him 'dying.'" She tugged on one of the crepe streamers attached to a dummy. "This is his 'life.' If this gets ripped off, your dummy is dead. Everyone who participates will also tie a streamer around their waist and the same rules apply. If your streamer is torn, you die and are 'out' for the rest of the round."

"Either singly or in pairs, people are going to try to rescue the dummies. Everyone who is not rescuing the dummy is a bad guy and will do their level best to stop the rescuers from getting back to their base. Rescuers can use whatever magic in their arsenal to keep their ward safe and to fight off attackers. Bad guys, you can't use magic--you've got numbers on your side. Feel free to use physical attacks all you want--but let's all be careful, okay? No clinic visits if we can avoid them."

"If you want to be a rescuer, but aren't comfortable using your power on other people, just let us know. We'll be happy to animate a few of these extra dummies to act as your antagonists. However, in that case, we'd be able to use magic on the bad guys' behalf, since there's no way they'd actually be able to actually fight you."

"If you have any questions before we begin, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

[OCD up!]

When people began arriving at the meeting today, they would see that things were a bit different than usual today. For one thing, the snack table has it's usual assortment of warm beverages, but was missing the normal variety of snacks and there were a handwavey number of wooden chests piled off to the side, each one sporting a heavy iron padlock on the front.

"Greetings," Karla said, looking a bit more composed than she had at the last meeting. "We've got a fair bit to do today, so we should probably get started quickly. First, we have a talk from Tara, who was kind enough to volunteer this week," she paused to give Tara a grateful smile, "and then, we have an activity."

Merlin nodded and stepped forward. "Inside these chests is... pie." Oh, it was so spooky and magical sounding. "But, as you see, they're rather firmly locked up. So, the exercise today will be to get the contents of the box--unharmed--using whatever skills you have at your
disposal."

Mmm, pie. "Fresh-baked," Tony added. "And if you get one out, it's all yours."

Karla was really regretting that the three of them hadn't had enough time to bake the pies themselves, but hopefully J,GoB pies would be an acceptable substitute. "So, let's give Tara our attention--and a pie of her own for volunteering--and then we'll see how well your pie-retrieving skills are."