It seemed likely that gym class was going to be a bit unusual.  For one thing, the gym floor was filled with some kind of wooden dummies holding mock swords and shields...

Alicia chuckled seeing the weird figures.

Most of the other students were gathering; no few of them were producing magical weapons and playing with them, eyeing the dummies.

Alicia took out her flower blade and began to toss it to herself.

Well, she was drawing some attention... like Jeanette, looking at her and smirking.

Or Harold, who was just staring.

Alicia smiled at the other girl and then created another copy of flower blade and began tossing it as well.

Rosa joined her.

"...so, showing off for your admirers?" she said.

Alicia shrugged.

"Everyone else was doing it."

"But staring at you," said Rosa.  "I think you're popular.  Or something..."

Luisa joined them, nervously looking around.

"I just noticed Harold and the mean queen," Alicia said.

"I think there were other people looking because, you know," said Luisa.  "You're really pretty, and the flower sword things really stand out."

Alicia blushed and stopped tossing her blades.

"Eh, I was enjoying the show," said Rosa.  "Maybe we-- oh, here's the teacher."

A tall man walked in, with long, grey hair; he wore a tracksuit, and carried a clipboard.

"Okay, kids," he said.  "Enough chit-chat.  Stand up and form a line."

Alicia did as she was told.

"I am Mr. Martin," he said, "and I'm here to test all of you on your basic combat abilities.  Yes, this is unusual for a school, but we know that you all have some extraordinary abilities, and I'd like to see how well you all do.  Each of you, line up with one of the dummies, and attack it.  I will be judging you on attack and defense, as well..."

Alicia put up her hand.

"How are you going to judge us on defense with wooden dummies?"

"Then why don't you demonstrate for the class?" said Mr. Martin, indicating one of the dummies.

Alicia went up to about ten feet from one of them and began to throw her flower blades.

(OOC: Alicia Green rolled 29 using 1d20+11. It has multi-attack)

The dummy had large chunks sliced off--  which suddenly launched themselves at Alicia!  Luckily, she had enough time to react to dodge them.

"What the heck was that?" Alicia asked.

"A reasonably effective defensive reaction on your part," said Mr. Martin, "aided by your attacking from a distance.  Let's see how you do up close; you won't always be able to keep the range that you want."

"In the middle of them?" Alicia asked.

"Yes, why not?" he said.  "Show us what you've got."

Alicia leapt into the middle of the dummies, spun around, throwing a flurry of blades at all the dummies within range. and waiting for the counter attack.

(OOC: Using Flower Storm)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Fri 09 July 2021.

"No, CLOSE combat," said the teacher.  "Get next to one."

Alicia sighed, took out one blade and stabbed a single figure.

(OOC: Attack roll - Alicia Green rolled 31 using 1d20+11. Crit. :P)

The dummy fell down but lashed at her; luckily, she was able to dodge the counterattacks.

"Very good!" said Mr. Martin.  "Observe, students, that she hasn't left herself open even when attacking outside of her preferred range.  Now, let's see how the rest of you do..."

The class began attacking the dummies.  More eyes were on Alicia now, of course.

Alicia was blushing way more as she continued practice.

Soon violence was happening all around her; Alicia had a chance to observe her classmates, if she wanted to.

She did, but decided to check out her friends and how they fought first.

Luisa was moving around a lot, taking shots with her bow and... fading into the background, somehow.

Rosa, in contrast, was incredibly aggressive, advancing on the dummy with her sword in the blink of an eye, slashing it to pieces, and somehow being gone when the counterattack happened.

Alicia was impressed and then decided to look at her first day rivals and enemies.

Harold appeared to be unarmed-- and his punches and kicks glowed with power, as he roared with rage and crushed the dummy in a berserk fury that made Alicia very uncomfortable.

Jeanette, for contrast, had a pair of daggers, and she seemed to be everywhere at once, flickering in and out of sight as she slashed at the dummy, even appearing in multiple places at once.  Yes, definitely the last, now-- four of her at once.

That was certainly worrying. Alicia got back to exercising until something came up or the end of class.

Class eventually ended, and everyone was tired and sweaty.

Alicia went to get a shower.

Soon classes were done, and they had some time before dinner.

"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Alicia asked.

"Well, we did talk about training," said Rosa.  "Are you up for that?"

"Sure, what do you want to do?" Alicia asked.

"We should do some conditioning, and maybe sparring," said Rosa.  "We need to be in good shape and ready to fight."

Alicia nodded.

"Okay, let's do it!"

"Okay, let's go take a good jog along those forest paths, over there!" said Rosa.  Luisa didn't look excited, but she complied.

Alicia started jogging.

There weren't a lot of people in gym right now; many appeared to be training on their own in various ways.

"So," said Luisa.  "Target practice?  Sparring?"

"Are you up for sparring?" Alicia asked.

"I guess so?" said Luisa, uncertainly.  "I'm more of a ranged fighter, most of the time..."

"Sure, but what happens when you're disarmed or in a tight area?" Alicia asked.

Luisa sighed.

"Yeah, that's fair," she said.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," Alicia said.

"All right," said Luisa, stepping into a clear space.  "How are we gonna do this?"

"No weapons?" Alicia asked. "Go until someone says uncle?"

Luisa swallowed.

"...O-okay?" she said.

"I'll let you make the first move," Alicia said.

Luisa made a punch.  As punches went, there were worse, but it wasn't going to connect with Alicia unless she let it.

Alicia dodge it with a light dodge.

"You can do better."

Luisa went all-out this time in a much more dangerous blow, screaming a war-cry as she did so!

26, Damage 2.

(OOC: Toughness Save - Alicia Green rolled 14 using 1d20+5.)

Alicia took the hit.

"Wow, that was a good one," she said as she shook her head to gather herself. "My turn."

She throw a punch.

(OOC: Attack Roll - Alicia Green rolled 18 using 1d20+15)

Luisa somehow dodged, and counterattacked, but it was a wild miss.

"Maybe this shouldn't be sparring and Rosa and I help you practice?" Alice asked.

"That might be good," said Luisa.  "I don't really feel like I'm very good with unarmed combat."

"Okay, we'll do that," Alicia said.

"...um, okay," said Luisa.  "What should I do?"

Alicia looked around for some of thos wooden dummies.

Yep, there were a couple of them that were both still intact and not in use.

"We'll use these," Alicia said, beginning to practice with it. "Let's see how you do."

"...So what exactly...?"

Luisa started playing with it, but she was tentative, and uncertain of the moves.  (She was, however, fast and agile, which helped make up for that.)

"Like this," Alicia said, demonstrating.

"Um, okay," said Luisa.  She had some talent, but clearly was applying general principles, not specific training.

"...I might be better when I have a weapon," she mentioned, but she still was trying hard.

"A melee one?" Alicia asked and offered a flower blade.

"Yeah, but I kind of feel like I should get one of my own," said Luisa.  "It doesn't have to be anything fancy..."

"Is there an armoury or something here?" Alicia asked.

Perception or Investigation

(OOC: Perception check - Alicia Green rolled 14 using 1d20+8. Eh, reroll - Alicia Green rolled 27 using 1d20+8 )

There were a number of split-bamboo swords and the like in use by some students... but there was a room further back, open just a crack, that had something that gleamed inside.

"There's something over here," Alicia said.

The others came over.

The room appeared to contain something closer to an actual armory.  No edged weapons were there, yes, but the assorted swords, clubs, staves, axes and polearms were made of a strange blue-green stone of some kind, and shone oddly in the light.

"What is this stuff? Any ideas?" Alicia asked.

Rosa went and picked one up, a short (blunt) sword.

"It's fairly light," she said.  "Well-balanced.  I feel like I ought to recognize it, but it's just out of reach."

"It's good you've got something," Alicia said. "Maybe you can put up a fight now! Kidding..."

"Now, which one of us were you talking to?" asked Rosa, playing with the blade.  "Were you going to suggest more sparring...?"

"Maaaaybe," Alicia said with a grin.

"But," said Rosa, "are you ready to challenge yourself?  By sparring with me?"

"Yep," Alicia said. "Bring it on!"

Rosa led her back out to the gym and raised her weapon...

Init

(OOC: Initiative - Alicia Green rolled 22 using 1d20+8.)

20:40, Today: Rosa Nguyen rolled 16 using 1d20+12 ((4)).

Go!

Alicia decide to go simple to start and threw a blade or two at Rosa.

(OOC: Just some standard throwing blades with Multiattack - Bleh, 15.)

Rosa was suddenly on Alicia in a hail of blows!

Oh, dear.  A 32... a Crit... with Multiattack.  Luckily, she's not striking hard, so that's only damage 11...

(OOC: Toughness Save - Alicia Green rolled 24 using 1d20+5.)

"I can do that too!" Alicia said as she tried to kick Rosa.

(OOC: All-Uut Power Attack Unarmed - Alicia Green rolled 33 using 1d20+15. Woo! A whole 4 damage)

Rosa rolled with the hit, and retaliated again with shocking speed!  But this time, she hit harder-- she wasn't holding back.  It was lucky that Alicia had figured out how to cope with her attacks, so she wasn't hit nearly as often.

Base damage is 4 now.  A 25 isn't a good enough hit to trigger Multiattack, though, so that's all the damage.

(OOC: Toughness Save - Alicia Green rolled 8 using 1d20+5.)

Alicia, hurt, quickly climbed the wall nd stood on the ceiling to try and cover.

Rose jumped into the air, following her... and booped her on the nose.

"Boop!" she said, and fell back to the ground.

"Hey! No fair!" Alicia said as she dropped to the floor.

"What?" said Rosa.  "I thought it was getting a little intense there, and this is training."

"Yeah, I just thought I had got away," Alicia said.

"You'll need a higher ceiling," said Rosa.  "...but I can't hang out up there, so I can't fight nearly as well.  You'd have a real advantage."

"I'll get you next time," Alicia said.

"Well, maybe you will," said Rosa.  "But you'll need to be ready for my speed."

"I have speed! Some, anyway," Alicia said.

"Well, you do, but I'm faster," said Rosa.  "So, figure out what to do about that."

"I'm going to be training extra hard now," Alicia said.

"Well, sure, but think about tactics, too," said Rosa.  "For example, you could consider... grappling..."

Alicia laughed.

"I'm not all that strong to do that."

"It's something you could work on," said Rosa.  "Or think of some other way to slow me down.  We might have fast enemies someday."

"That's true," Alicia said. "I'll have to think about what to do."

"...and that gives me another idea for training," said Rosa.  "Hey, Luisa! Want to shoot at both of us?"

"Pardon me?" Alicia said.

"It's good training," said Rosa.  "We get to practice our evasion; she gets to practice her marksmanship."

"...that makes it a good idea how?" Luisa asked.

"I suppose we can try it," Alicia said.

"Uh, okay," said Luisa.  "If you're sure.  Let's go over there, where there's some room.  If you can't move around, there won't be much point..."

"Should we like, taunt you, or something to help you shoot?" Alicia asked.

"...No," said Luisa, readying her bow.  "You might make me mad, and that would be bad."

"Eh heh heh. That is a good point," Alicia said nervously.

"Okay, let's do this!" said Rosa, running to a large empty area.  "Fire when ready!"

What was Alicia's strategy...?

Alicia made sure to watch where she was aiming and move the second she let go.

(OOC: Alicia Green rolled 30 using 1d20+11)

It was lucky that Alicia was moving fast, for the arrows would probably have hit her if she hadn't been working to evade them.  Luisa was still firing, though.

Alicia kept moving.

(OOC: Active Defense roll - Alicia Green rolled 24 using 1d20+11)

This time, Luisa didn't even come close... but she was still shooting.

"How long are we gonna keep doing this?" Alicia asked as she kept dodging.

(OOC: Active Defenses - Alicia Green rolled 25 using 1d20+11)

21:09, Today: Luisa Morales rolled 29 using 1d20+15 ((14)).

There was a pause-- and then an arrow struck Alicia right in the midriff!

"...maybe that long?" Luisa said.

(OOC: Toughness Save - Alicia Green rolled 6 using 1d20+5. Reroll - Alicia Green rolled 20 using 1d20+5.)

"M-maybe that's a good idea," Alicia said.

Luisa hurried over.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, suddenly worried.  "Are you all right?"

"it's not as bad as it looks," Alicia said, wincing.

"Oooh, that looks like it hurt," said Rosa, limping over.  "She found time to tag me, too..."

"How about a time out for some first aid?" Alicia offered.

"Of course!" said Luisa.  "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry..."

"It's still good training," said Rosa.  "Gives us incentive to dodge better."

"It's okay. It was our idea," Alicia said.

"Besides, we heal fast," said Rosa.  "Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, it's okay," Alicia said.

"All right," said Luisa.  "So... now what?"

"Is class over?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, looks like we're wrapping up," said Rosa.

"I think I'm going to need some new gym clothes. Are there any stores around here?" Alicia asked.

"I think there's a strip mall nearby with at least some stuff," said Rosa.  "What kind of thing were you thinking of?"

"Well, I mean, besides the gym clothes, I could probably use a new outfit or two. What about you guys?" Alicia asked.

"I hadn't really thought about that," said Luisa.  "I brought what I thought was an okay set..."

"Are you guys up for some clothes shopping?" Alicia asked.

"Absolutely," said Rosa.  "Come on, Luisa.  It'll be fun."

"Well... okay," said Luisa, uncertainly.  "I guess so?"

"I'll pay for everything," Alicia said.

"Oh, but--" said Luisa.

"It's okay, 'isa," said Rosa.  "She's got money.  She's allowed to spend it, as long as she knows that she doesn't have to and we don't expect her to.  Right?"

"Oh, was I making you guys uncomfortable? I'm sorry," Alicia said. "And I get it."

"...it's okay," said Luisa after a moment.  "I'm fine with that, honestly.  It's just... something to get used to."

"Sorry, this is normal to me," Alicia said.

"I noticed," said Rosa, with a chuckle.  "And that's fine.  What we have... it doesn't come from your money, you know."

"I didn't mean to imply that," Alicia said.

"Oh, I know," said Rosa, putting her arms around Alicia.  "If you were worried about it, though, I wanted to reassure you."

"Oh good, I was worried for a second," Alicia said.

"Well, I guess I'll graciously accept your help, then," said Luisa.  "What kind of clothes are you looking for?"

"I need the gym clothes and maybe a nice dress for dates," Alicia said.

"Sure," said Luisa.  "The nice dress might be tricky if you're used to, um, fancy tailored stuff, though."

"Is there a place that sells nice clothes nearby?" Alicia asked. "I suppose it doesn't need to be tailored."

"Well, fairly nice," said Rosa.  "I don't know if it's going to be up to what you're used to, though."

"I'm sure it's fine," Alicia said.

"I guess we're going shopping, then," said Rosa.  "Let's do this!"

"Sounds good to me!" Alicia said.