[Open] Qombat Qlass with Uncle Qrow

[blodsvorr]

Who: [OPEN] Qrow Branwen (blodsvorr) and anyone who wants to come to class
Where: Moon Base: the Academy, Dojo, & Arena
When: Throughout the month
What: Mingle post for combat class with Qrow! Tag teacher or form teams and pairs for lessons. Have fun!
Content Warning: References to someone trying to control their alcohol use/dependency to only partial success.

NETWORK POST

[On Saturday, a post is made to the network from username eight.span, Qrow Branwen. It reads as follows:]

So Schimmrigk isn’t coming back. Apparently, the guy enjoyed his sabbatical. That means I’m taking over combat classes. Show up or don’t, but for the love of whatever you buy into, make sure you’re ready for the next field mission. We’ve got shopkeepers and blacksmiths for weapons, and we’ve got the Academy and other Reclaimers for training. No one needs to go into the field unarmed this time.

If you're coming to my class, you should know I don’t do rubrics or homework. Don’t show up expecting any of that crud.

COURSE MATERIAL (i.e., mingle prompts)

So you want to get an education! Or maybe you just want to see how the hell Qrow got this job. Qrow’s educational practices can be described as "direct," at best. He follows the methods he knows from back home and is sticking to the philosophy of education that turned him into a Huntsman. That means all students are basically being trained the way he was trained at Beacon. Fun!

Some basic lessons:

WEAPON DESIGN: Design your weapon with Uncle Qrow! Weapons are, in the Remnant school of thought, a way of channeling your Aura, which is itself your soul. In other words, a weapon is an extension of who you are as a person. Thus, weapon design. Students are encouraged to come up with their own weapon, whether it be an axe that is also a blunderbuss, a scythe that is also a sniper rifle, or a revolver that is also a pistol. (Remnant likes guns.) You can also design a boring and normal weapon like a war hammer or a chainsaw. Whatever works! Qrow has experience with designing weapons, so he can help people figure their outs, but students are also free to discuss options with their peers.

Obviously, all weapons should be personalized. Paint it to match your colour scheme! Engrave some swirly lines on it! Come up with a symbol to represent your entire personality and slap that bad boy on your weapon! That’s what individuality means.

(Note that most normal weapons take 1 week for a blacksmith to craft, while weird combo weapons probably take longer, with a revolver-rapier set at 3 weeks. You may want to check with the mods to be sure of the time.)

WEAPON MAINTENANCE: The follow-up to weapon design. If you know how your weapon is structured, you can better maintain and even sometimes fix it. Whatever you made should, in theory, be able to last you your whole life if you take care of it properly. A person must always treat their weapon with respect. Qrow will not be letting any of his students fail to learn how to do everything they possibly can do to maintain a weapon in the field.

FIELD MEDICINE: How not to die when you're stabbed. These are all the basics of how to stop bleeding from a major artery or set a broken bone well enough that you can get back to base. Students get to practice on dummies, but more importantly, they get to practice on each other and themselves. Have fun pairing up and cutting off a friend's blood flow! (Not with actual broken bones or nicked arteries though, because Qrow doesn't believe in teaching methods as extreme as some people here.)

However, the majority of class time will be made up of the following two components:

COMBAT PRACTICE: The thing this course is supposed to be about. Sparring matches are mostly between students, although Qrow will also spar individually with every student to test their skills and abilities, so he can better help them going forward. There are also just drills and routines against dummies, targets, holographs, etc. There will be a lot of this. It's the point of being here. Well, sort of, because then there's the other thing Qrow wants to drill them on.

TEAM TRAINING: Making liberal use of simulators in the arena, this is a combination of terrain education (helping students learn how to handle different terrain, including how to use it to your advantage, avoid its dangers, and track a target through it), monster education, training in improvisational thinking, a crash course on field medicine, and, most importantly, general education in how to work things out and fight in teams. Groups are usually two or four people in size.

(Teams of four should follow the Remnant Team Naming Rule, which means an acronym from one initial of every team member that forms a word evocative of colour, with the team leader getting the first letter. Please make up stupid team names. I beg of you.)

Some training missions

• Escape rooms
• Obstacle Courses
• Huntsman Missions: Missions modelled after the kind of missions that Huntsmen and Huntresses are assigned on Remnant, adapted to tasks they may encounter as Reclaimers.
  
  • search-and-retrieve (having to make your way through through monster-infested terrain, retrieve supplies or some random object, and come back)
  • escort (escorting another student through monster terrain. This student is given the choice to be helpful or to be ‘obliviously sabotaging’ with the rescue attempt. Qrow encourages the escorted student to have fun, because escort missions always suck, and so should the training for it.)
  • search-and-destroy (tracking down and destroying a monster’s nest)
  • perimeter defence/village security (holding an “inhabited” area against a monster attack or inclement weather)
  • bounty (tracking down and retrieving a wanted person alive. As with escort missions, the “wanted person” is a student, but this time, they get to actively and deliberately mess with the team sent in)

MISC. FACTS ABOUT CLASS

• NO HOMEWORK EVER because he doesn’t want to grade it
• Akechi, however, may assign some and grade it. Akechi is a weird kid. He isn't actually the TA, but he keeps acting like he is.
• Generally it’s a non-standardized approach. He does better at one-on-one teaching than anything, so he avoids lectures like the plague and sets people off to work in teams and pairs while he moves between students to teach them all personally.
• He ends up just keeping wrapped sandwiches and other foods in his desk to throw at children who have shown up without eating
• He is notably softer with children than adults. For example, adults who have not eaten do not get free food from Qrow; they get told to leave and come back when they’re ready for combat.
• He minces his curses in class even when it’s really obvious he wants to swear. There are too many children.
• He is trying to be good, so he can frequently be spotted drinking from a coffee mug. A mug which he openly spikes in front of the class. But still. He’s trying.
• He has literally never showed up for class on time, not even once. But at least he has never been more than fourteen minutes late?
• The times he has shown up hungover have shown that being hungover has had literally no effect on his teaching or combat ability; he just pinches the bridge of his nose more and complains about noise without actually stopping people from being loud.

Comments

[blodsvorr]

It's not like you're going to lose grades for not using them.

[Since there are no grades. But Qrow holds his hand out so he can look at it better. He already likes the look at this.]

This one actually cuts?

[oculusriffs]

[Dave plops the hilt right in Qrow's outstretched hand. look, you can actually hold on to this one!]

Yup. Jerry-variant almost didn't wanna give it over; said it was the weirdest and still functional thing he's ever made.

[blodsvorr]

[Wow! You can hold it. Qrow gives it an experimental swing, testing out the feel. Then he holds it back out to Dave.]

Wanna show me what you've got, kid?

[Qrow's supportive here, but also flexible. Dave has room to back out if he wants. Amazing, it's almost like training can be done in a positive and encouraging way. Insane.]

[oculusriffs]

[that ... oh boy that sure is a question. one that immediately sets his flight instincts alight, so much so that he tenses, though it's subtle. it's not Qrow. it's the idea of fighting against an adult as a means of training to begin with.]

[but he remembers what Ryuji said shortly after the, ehm. the spider incident. they've got to get better at fighting. just because Dave has his hesitations about training, about fighting, doesn't mean there won't ever come a time where he'll have to fight to defend them. and he can't do that if he's not in better shape.]

All right. [body language aside, that agreement is all business.]

[blodsvorr]

[He notices the shift. Qrow debates pushing it more, but decides to leave it alone for now. Instead he kicks off the wall and steps forward. Right arm forward, left hand on his waist. The right arm is the one with the wristband.]

Alright, kiddo. Show me what you've got.

[He is not drawing his sword, but he is also not drawing a puppet. Should Dave choose to move forward, he will find that Qrow is simply testing out Dave's attacking, which means using that wristband to block or deflect attacks while he judges speed, skill, form, etc. "Beatdown" notably does not start playing.]

[oculusriffs]

[Qrow does not draw a weapon, and he most certainly does not draw a puppet — it's the little things in battle training truly worth treasuring.]

[Dave hesitates for nearly a full minute, before he grasps the hilt of his easy-to-use SORD..... with both hands and draws himself into a battle stance. it's guarded, his body turned slightly, as if he expects a retaliation before he can even breathe a movement of offense to begin with.]

[tentatively, he swings.]

[but his form isn't overly sweeping; it'd be a quick and highly effective strike if he had actually put any gumption into it. and then, with a decade's worth of instincts wresting control of the steering wheel, he pulls back, blade held flat and straight up defensively, as if — yeah, he's definitely expecting to be hit back, and he isn't expecting it to be anything less injurious than what he'd be getting in an actual fight.]

[but, the hit doesn't come. this is ... really all that's happening; there's no trick here, Dave is just showing Qrow what he's got, just like he was told to do.]

[he takes another swing, slightly more confident. and then another — and another. they aren't full strength, not yet, and he'll stop when Qrow tells him to; but they are speedy and heavy all the same, and laced with sixteen years of the pent-up rottenness of being forced to learn to fight, without any of the care and attentiveness a father should have been giving him.]

[blodsvorr]

[Qrow realizes, as Dave attacks, that Dave has been trained poorly. It is not because Dave doesn't fight well. He's good, Qrow can tell that much just from seeing him in motion. He has been fighting for a very long time.

He can tell that Dave has been trained poorly because he is afraid. Good training, of course, teaches some fear. It's a necessary component for getting out of a battle alive. But this? this is a different kind of fear.

Qrow waits for him to build up that confidence, because he wants a better, truer sense of how Dave would fight, not one marred by whatever shitty teacher tortured him as a form of "training." Once he has that, though, he steps back, holding his hand up as a signal to stop.]

Would you look at that? [He smiles at Dave. He thinks Dave might need the smile.] It turns out you're a damned good fighter when you're not holding a piece of garbage.

[oculusriffs]

[this is a moment of so many firsts. Dave, standing there, uninjured, slightly out of breath from swinging a not piece of garbage. Dave, standing there, getting a smile and positive feedback from his mentor — because his mentor didn't immediately fuck off to who knows where after kicking his ass.]

[Dave, standing there, having exactly zero idea of what to do with said positive feedback.]

Yeah. [that is not really a good way to answer, bro!]

Had a lot of time to learn it, I guess.

[blodsvorr]

Yeah. Yeah, looks like you did.

[There's something darker in his tone—anger at whoever trained this kid, unhappiness that Dave has to carry the consequences of it even now that that person is surely dead. But then Qrow moves on.]

But you need to work on the opening you leave. There were a good few times in there that you gave me some major gaps to go for. I want you to focus on that when you're doing sparring, and try to keep it in mind during the teamwork assignments.

[oculusriffs]

Openings.

[without thinking, he looks down at himself, arms spread very slightly, as if he could physically see what openings he's leaving while just standing there not in any sort of regular battle stance.]

[it's the opening for stabbings, Dave. stop getting stabbed!!!]

Yeah, all right. [he pauses again, because this is another first for him: wanting advice from said mentor, and ... albeit tentatively, and a little bit weirdly, asking for it.]

How exactly do I shut this shit down, then? Like, I don't wanna be some old-ass kind of dingy and open 24 hours 7-11.

[blodsvorr]

It's about controlling how your opponent's weapon comes into your space. For example, you've got a bad habit of leaving your chest open to attack. [You know. The place where your HEART is?] Since you're working without a shield, you wanna make sure that you're able to bring your sword back in to deflect or that you can dodge away.

[Qrow draws Harbinger as a sword, shifting to a ready stance.]

Try taking a stab at mine, and I'll show you.

[oculusriffs]

[what are you talking about Qrow, there are no vital organs in your chest!]

[and there's a few seconds there, eyebrows slightly raised, that it dawns on him that the past two times he's died was most likely because of this opening Qrow just pointed out. it wouldn't have stopped him from dying in what eventually became a doomed timeline — that's simply the way doomed timelines work, and something would have snuffed him out eventually if it weren't two overpowered final boss puppies.]

[but, god, knowing there was yet another factor that could have played into him getting through the spider incident alive? Dave shoves that highly guilty thought aside for the time being.]

Sure.

[he'll go ahead and take a ... stab ... at stabbing Qrow. he obviously doesn't put any real weight or effort behind it though, what if Qrow's block somehow missed?]

blah blah how do you sword fuck if i know maybe this is a metaphor

[blodsvorr]

[It's a demonstration, so Qrow doesn't mind; in an instant he's moving with Dave's blade, using his sword to push Dave's away from his body and stepping into a position that would easily let him follow up with a swing at Dave's neck. Not that he goes for it.]

You wanna keep their weapon away from you and move to get yourself in position at the same time. The movement should also shift your vitals away from their range.

[oculusriffs]

Right, okay. What do I do if they've got more than one weapon?

[like legs. like eight spindly legs. like eight spindly legs and a set of fangs.]

[blodsvorr]

Most opponents can only juggle two weapons at once, and that you can balance alright if you use a block for one and mobility for the other, but if we're talking something like a monster, then you're in a different situation. Your prime asset in those cases is movement. Avoid head-on attacks, since that's easy for them to focus on. Try to find a point where they can only bring two or three at you and dodge in, making your hit and using the momentum to get you out the other side. And if you've gotta take a hit, make sure you're taking it on your arms. It's not pretty, but it's better than what happens if they get past those.

[oculusriffs]

Got it.

[it's simple, and logical enough advice. to survive in a situation like that, all you have to do is just ... be faster than the other guy. that's fine. Dave can do that. he's not the most compact kid, per se, but he can be speedy when he needs to be.]

[so, he can do that. he can keep that advice in mind, as long as he's not put square into an unwinnable situation. as long as they're not Olympic sprinters or something. as long as they can't flashstep.]




[he pauses, sighing slightly heavier than he intended.]

Hey, I'm gonna take a break. [that isn't really worded as a polite request to go to the bathroom or something, nor is it much of a thanks for the advice — and maybe later when he's running through this conversation in his head he's going to realize he probably should have thanked Qrow.]

[nope, he's probably just. going to go in one of those chill rooms over at the Dojo until he chills out a bit. or falls asleep, that's been kind of happening a lot lately.]

[blodsvorr]

[This is, confusing. Qrow looks at him a moment.]

Alright, kiddo. Here. [He digs in his desk for a sandwich and a water bottle and shoves these two things at Dave.] Go recover your strength.

[He doesn't realize Dave's just going to possibly pass out.]