balance_logs | [Open] Qombat Qlass with Uncle Qrow

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Even though Qrow knows it's a fake gun, there's a moment of genuine panic from the sound of the shot and Minato's movement but—

—oh, it's just a Persona. Huh.]

That's how you summon it!? Why can't you just put your hand to your face like everyone else!?

Edited 2019-01-11 05:14 (UTC)

[Akechi hears the gun go off and glances up, a little surprised to hear it in the classroom of all places since, well, that seems better to do outside? He half expects to see some idiot staring in confusion that the gun they were holding actually fired or something along those lines. Poor Qrow.

Instead he catches sight of blue light and the odd summon rising and he knows what that is. He knows instantly. Why a gun went off becomes completely irrelevant because he stares at it, fixated, and he pivots and walks across the classroom, mind running over what he can remember from Wakaba's research, from what Shido taught him, from watching the Phantom Thieves, condensing it all into a singular point somewhere on Minato's face.

There were no other users. They knew that. If there had been anyone else, his position with Shido would have been threatened. That was why. That was the real reason he didn't protest much when Shido had that falling out with her. Get rid of her, take the research, never let anyone be as special as him and those fucking Thieves, they were something else, something better, but he can accept them now. He can understand. They're his and this, this isn't— This doesn't fit and it's some unknown, someone else out there, someone who could be better—

He doesn't actually realise he's raised his sword, though he does realise at least that he's reached him, pointing that saw-like blade at him and looking at him, cold and distant and voice so low and deep.]

Who are you?

Edited 2019-01-11 05:32 (UTC)

[ Oh hey it's Goro Akechi. He remembers that kid from lunch the other day -- Why is Goro pointing his sword at him?

He instinctively readies his own sword, his body ready to parry and evade any blows. He doesn't think Goro actually forgot his name but maybe repeating it will bring him back to his senses. ]

Minato Arisato.

[Okay yeah this is a combat class but this is not happening. Qrow steps between the two of them, Aura fully active, hands spread out to signal that they both need to stop. After all, he doesn't plan on using his weapon if he needs to intervene.]

Goro, stand down.

[This is the one warning before Kaede is called to act.]

[It's so surreal that he doesn't even feel like he's actually living this. He can't be. This is just another whim of fate, that's all it is. Another stupid fucking test for him to prove himself against because he can already see it happening, already see Minato taking his place, losing the precious few things he's gained and then it's gone—

He starts to laugh, stepping back only once as he glares at them both. Never once does his sword waver.]

Who the hell do you think you are?! Loki!

[He raises his hand to his face, much like Qrow mentioned before, Loki appearing in the red wisps that curl around Akechi—not behind him like usual but around him.]

[Okay, now Qrow pivots, putting himself fully between Akechi—Loki—and Minato.]

Kaede, sing, now.

[Qrow is already moving forward, grabbing the sword by the blade in one hand—no blood, the Aura takes care of that, but he still feels the pressure of it—and he's drawing Harbinger as a scythe to catch Loki if he tries to move away from Akechi. It should be enough to stop Akechi until Kaede casts Sleep.]

Edited 2019-01-11 06:04 (UTC)

[Just before all this drama had been going down, Kaede was humming a quiet song to herself. She's usually humming something or other during class, and today, it's one of Chopin's Waltzes as a minor illusion of a music note hovers over her palm. She's just practicing actually maintaining an illusion when there's a gunshot, and no matter how many times she hears them in class, it still makes her flinch, steals the song from her lips for a few seconds.

Those few seconds are all Akechi needs to cross, and then there's a sword, and Kaede's gut clenches, seeing less Minato than Shuichi as she's still prone to see at a quick glance and then--

She wants to yell for Akechi calm down, too, then Qrow is commanding her to sing. All she wants is for him to calm down!

The song is still in her mind, and she starts humming again, just a note to focus her concentration and cast her hand straight out, finger pointing straight toward Akechi as if shooting sleep like a bullet.]

[Akechi collapses, and Loki vanishes with him—those not distracted might see Loki briefly looking at Akechi as if with a "Really?" expression before disappearing—and Qrow is there to catch Akechi before he hits the floor.

And now he is in a classroom where one kid shot himself in the head to summon a giant mecha with a harp which caused another kid to point a sword at the first kid and summon his weird zebra with shoulderpads. Goddammit.]

Class is cancelled today. Take an early lunch. Minato, we'll talk more later. For the record, you're not in trouble.

[Akechi, however, may be. Qrow hoists Akechi over shoulder like it's nothing and leaves the room. He doesn't want that spell wearing off.]

H-Hang on--!!

[He might be trying to leave, but Kaede's scrambling after him, almost tripping over her chair in her haste.]

I'm going with you.

[Qrow doesn't break pace, striding down the hall with a firm grip on the unconscious teenager over his shoulder. Kaede better go fast to keep up with Long Legs Goth Uncle.]

I've got it handled, Kaede. Take a break. I'll tell Goro to message you when he's calmed down.

[She has to jog to try to keep up with him, and even if she's been trying to jog around the Quad, that doesn't mean too much.]

Do you? You needed me to stop him before! What if-- Qrow-sensei, please, let me help him!!

I needed something fast that wouldn't give him a concussion. From here on out, it's not a problem.

[He still doesn't stop, but he turns his attention to Kaede. His expression softens a fraction.]

I know you're worried. Just let me take care of this. I promise to make sure you get to speak to him as soon as he's ready.

[Her breath is coming in harsh pants through her nose, because really, she isn't athletic, and she's been concentrating on spells all during class. She knows she can't keep up with him.

She trusts him, but she's terrified, even as she slowly comes to a stop and points at him. There's a moment where she almost considers casting sleep on him, too, but that would drop Akechi, possibly hurting him and definitely waking him up.]

I'm coming over this evening, got it? Unless he tells me no.

[Qrow spins on his heel—walking backwards, because he doesn't want the spell to run out—and he gives her a salute. And a brief, sympathetic smile.]

See you then, kiddo.

[And then he's back to walking forward to get this stupid child to his room. Where he's GROUNDED]

Edited 2019-01-11 10:26 (UTC)

[Open] Qombat Qlass with Uncle Qrow

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