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!]

It was a beautiful day in Fandom, which meant that it was perfect weather for the Magic Reserves to spend sometime outside and having fun--while practicing magic, of course. "Kiss kiss," Karla greeted, once it seemed like everyone had assembled. "We're going to shake off those winter blues with a game today. We're going to play Capture the Flag!"

Merlin nodded cheerfully at that. "Use of magic or powers is acceptable and encouraged as long as you don't, you know, try to actually harm people."

"Green cookies for the winners!" Tony said, waving at a box of J,GoB cookies on a nearby table. Which were, in fact, green, and decorated with lifelike-looking shamrocks. "Or, you know, for anyone who wants a cookie." He pulled the top off a bin of the familiar flag football belts. "If someone grabs one of your flags, you're out. And to make it a little tougher, you can't grab the flag with magic or TK." He grinned at Kennedy if she was there.

"But you can use magic in other ways," Karla reminded, glancing curiously at the green cookies. "So be creative, okay? People may want to think back to other games we've played for inspiration. Have fun!"

[Now in the right comm! OCD 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.]

It was hard to say what the members of the Magic Reserve were expecting when they received their handwavey messages telling them to meet in the Danger Shop today, but it probably wasn't the assorted grunts and curses (of the profane, unmagical variety) streaming out from behind the room's control panel.

Karla stuck her head up, looking for the display. "Stupid, bloody, confounded piece of Darkness-bedamned--oh, hi people!" Leaning down, she hissed, "Guys? Guys! They're here!"

And then looked back at everyone else, wearing a cheerful smile that suggested they couldn't possibly have heard her swearing a blue streak just a moment before. "Glad to see you all got our message. Umm, welcome to the Danger Shop. Sorry there's no food, but the rules are pretty strict."

Merlin poked his head from behind the control panel as well, after pushing a few more buttons as though that would help.

"We'll--er--have extra next week to make up for it," He promised. "From J,GoB."

It was an important distinction to make with them.

"So, we thought that, after the confusion with the gremlins, we should have a bit more hands on practice where it's not just play-fighting."

Karla glanced back down at Tony, the only one of them halfway competent at technology, and decided it might be best if she and Merlin stayed out of his hair kept up the explanation.

"Exactly. So we've programmed the Danger Shop--or we will have very soon--to simulate an invasion Fandom's faced in the past: zombies. We'll have to work together to strategize, coordinate, and fight out the zombie menace. There will also be civilians to protect and rescue. This is going to be a very realistic simulation," she continued solemnly, "because we can't afford to be picky about what battles we fight. We've faced some nasty monsters before, so we know we can do it." Glancing down, she realized she'd been resting her hand on a button and moved it, trying not to look too guilty.

Tony looked up from the console and added, "I know it could be stressful to go through this again for some of you, and you're welcome to sit it out if you choose." He went back to studying the manual and entering codes into the console keyboard. Weird, some of these characters didn't look like any language he'd heard of. Oh, that one was probably the yen symbol and that was one of those things teachers wrote in red pen on essays that you were supposed to understand.

[OCD up! Also, please note: their experiments with the Danger Shop will be slightly more successful than their experiments in the kitchen (ie no one will DIE), but what they're expecting is not what they'll get.]

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!]

Karla fled towards the dorms, running as if there were Hell-hounds flat on her heels. Just a little bit further, she thought. Just a little bit faster… She was flagging, and quickly, but she reached down deep in her reserves and dredged up enough energy for one last little burst of speed.

( Too bad it was impossible to outrun one’s own fragmenting mind. )

[ So starts the plot of Crazy! Open for reactions from anyone inside. Psychics, empaths, telepaths, people prone to odd dreams, random people up at stupid o’clock in the morning—anyone can react to the waves of emotion. Karla herself is not available for interaction. Further posts can be found here and then here. These posts are NFI, save for Plot-slaves Team Rescue! WARNING: MORE DARK THEMES AND CREEPINESS AHEAD. POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING. AFTERMATH OF VIOLENCE, PARTICULARLY SEXUAL AND AGAINST CHILDREN. I WARN BECAUSE I CARE.

Yes, my canon is MADE OF WRONG.]

There was no unusual food this time around if people worried about being attacked by pudding.

...even if pudding is delicious.

Merlin did have a few random saucers of milk spread out in case more scary little blue men arrived to steal undergarments. Or insult people in a completely un-understandable accent.

"Hello everyone! Today we'll be discussing something a bit more pertinent to the reason why this group was formed," Merlin said. "Experience in battle. Who has it and who--er--doesn't."

Very concise, right?

Karla was a little more somber today, as befitting their choice of topic, but she still had to shoot Merlin an amused look at that. "Not everyone here is a fighter. Some people's powers aren't particularly suited for combat and some people's temperaments aren't, either. Neither of those are bad things, and there will be plenty of non-fighting things to do invasion. We'll talk about those another week. But, for today, combat. How can your powers be used in a combat situation? Have you ever had to do so?"

"Even if you don't think you have any fighting powers, think if there's anything you can do that would work as a distraction long enough for someone else to attack or for you to get away," Tony said. "I mean, soap bubbles kinda suck as a weapon, but if you throw them down on a slick surface, you could make the enemy lose their footing."

Merlin nodded at that. "So please share--if you want to--any sort of experience or abilities you are willing to help others learn in case we're attacked."

[Written with bigdamndestiny and wantstodirect who are both quite wonderful. Please wait for OCD is up!]