2020-07-31 - Sister Schools Joint Exercise: Dodgeball
| Sister Schools Joint Exercise: Dodgeball | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Professor Ursula leads the Sister Schools students in a rousing game of dodgeball, but when she's called away, trouble starts... and is finished by the glamorous newcomer Professor Croix. | |
| Who: Akko Kagari, Fuu Hououji, Fumiko Inoue, Sucy Manbavaran, Fate Testarossa, Setsuna Higashi, Niramo Umokeshi, Ye-jin Song, Kasagami Araki, Mikoto Minagi GM: Pink Moon Stick | |
| Where: Infinity Institute | |
| OOC - IC Date: 7/31/2020 - 09-17-15 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Infinity Institute +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
The inner wards of Tokyo boast most of its largest skyscrapers, but there is
an unusual exception. Located in Hachioji District, the Infinity Institute
is by far the largest building in Tama, and the second-largest skyscraper in
Tokyo. At 52 stories tall, its glass and stone the sort of primeval obsidian
that shimmers like oyster shell, Infinity is commonly supposed, by visitors,
to house some megacorporation, but there is only a scrap of truth to that.
Infinity is, in fact, a school, and what a school it is.
Offering a complete education from elementary to university, this daring new
charter school offers talented students a literal and figurative chance to
climb in the world: its vertical campus has students moving up a few floors
every year. Black metal monoliths with lighted white globes flank students
as they approach the entranceway, itself styled like an abstracted
grandfather clock, purplish glass panes forming an arch on the facade.
Within, a lushly austere atrium whispers water-sound from its great
fountain, beams of light slicing falling water elaborately. The atrium's
ceiling is five stories tall, and so many balconies and walkways are visible
as one stands on the violet carpeted black granite.
There is considerable variation between the fifty two floors, but the
unifying theme is one of sleek modernity. Heavy use of polished metal and
glass lend the building the feeling of an appliance freshly peeled of its
plastic coating. The walls are painted in cool tones of purple and deep
blue, and the accommodations are lavish, if stark. At times, the architects
even seem to have played artful little tricks, making a hallway appear too
long, or bend in a way that it does not. It is just a trick of the eye,
isn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Scenery of Luna Nova - Little Witch Academia OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwjaFI_rr0E&t=162
Infinity Institute's witch-hatted Professor Ursula Callistis isn't normally a P.E. teacher, so she must be covering for someone, and/or drew the short straw at the staff meeting. The latter's pretty likely either way; pale and wan, she exudes the aura of someone long since resigned to a life of chronic bad luck. With her bottle-thick glasses and nervous smile, she gives the impression of being one of the most dangerous kinds of teachers, at least in certain classrooms: easy prey.
"Soooooo... dodgeball," the Professor mumbles, clicking her heels together, then stretching up on one toe to let the other clean off a bit of grime she found back there. The cross-school group has assembled in one of Infinity's weirder gymnasiums; bucking the hypermodern aesthetic of most of the skyscraper, it is simultaneously startlingly normal-looking (polished wooden slat floor; simple, creamy walls) and a little... off (the lines painted on the floor match no known sport of the mortal world, which makes sense in context, since they're for various forms of magical dueling).
Trailing a big paintbrush whose handle looks suspiciously like a magic wand behind her, she paints a white line across the middle of the gym. Then she glances at a trio of girls who've arrived with a very big, very full net in tow.
"You found them?" she asks hopefully.
Amanda O'Neill -- tall, handsome, serving detention currently -- smirks. "Sure did," she promises, and helps her shorter, quieter buddy Constanze von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, and their plump and amicable roommate Jasminka Antonenko, dump the balls out onto the middle of the floor.
They're very cheerful red rubber, as expected. But this trio also being so cheerful as they helped a teacher out is somewhat less expected, and the Professor's lips... twitch to one side. There's no sense jumping at shadows that aren't there. Everything is fine. Everything is fine.
"Right, then, two teams," the Professor concludes, as though she's reciting it from memory of a recent Googling. She picks them herself, separating people with the grim efficiency of someone filleting a fish. "And six balls..."
There are WAY more than six balls on offer here, but she only places six along the center line (it's already dry somehow!).
"You're out if you throw a ball that is caught by the other team, if you get hit below the shoulders by a ball that is thrown by the other team, if you hit another player above the shoulders, or you cross the center line... if someone catches a ball, someone on their team can come back in... you can block a ball with a held ball but you can't hold it for more than ten seconds... I think that's it... good luck and... have fun?"
She inches backwards, out of the line of fire. There will be a few moments for gathering and planning before she blows a whistle, one presumes, since there is no whistle in sight and she must therefore fish it out.
THE TEAMS:
- Akko Kagari, Mikoto Minagi, Fuu Hououji, Ye-jin Song, Fumiko Inoue
- Sucy Manbavaran, Fate Testarossa, Setsuna Higashi, Kasagami Araki, Niramo Umokeshi
It seems that Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka are the Professor's ringers, not actual participants. Hands behind her head, Amanda lounges against one of the walls, on the opposite side of the gym from the Professor; Constanze watches the two groups gather eagerly; Jasminka offers them both some pocky.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Dodgeball!" Akko says, cheerfully.
Sure, Akko loves magic -- she loves magic more than anything -- but there are some things that she is good at. Dodgeball is one of them; dodgeball is an elemental thing, in which one hurls a ball, hits someone, and knocks them out. How can it get screwed up. She looks sideways at Sucy.
"Besides, with you on my team... how can we lose?" She grins like the Cheshire Cat. "Eheheheh, this is gonna be great! Things are looking up for Akko!"
KARMA MINUTES LATER
"THIS ISN'T FAIR," Akko wails loudly.
DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 3! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 4! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 1! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 2! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 2! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d5+0 and gets 4!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Glasses and dodgeball don't mix. Even if headshots are in direct violation of the rules, there's just something about the sport which seems inimical to the wearing of spectacles.
But Fuu is here anyway - whether cajoled, coerced, or merely dragooned, the blonde archer is in gym T-shirt and shorts and shoes, her glasses secured by an elastic stretchy, lenses failing to even begin hiding her nervous look as the game is laid out and the teams are assigned. "Let's just focus on doing our best, everyone," she says encouragingly to Akko and their other teammates - and to their opponents as well. The rules as described seem a little bit on the 'sudden death' side, maybe ...
Oh well. This should still be fairly straightforward, she just has to focus on not getting hammered down with the fury of a thousand (or a half-dozen) big red rubber balls. Or, preferably, by even one of them.
Fuu also has to persuade her stomach of that simple fact.
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Fumiko arrives in moderate style. Her hair is in a small ponytail, keeping it out of the way while still a bit stylish. Perfect for a game of dodgeball? Perhaps. But her white dress, while not overly fancy, is less perfect for dodgeball. Her white, slightly heeled shoes? Even less so. Why was she wearing somewhat fancy dress to such an intense game? Is she trying to be noticed? Is she looking to turn heads?
Well, yes. But there is another reason. Fumiko has a look of determination in her eyes. She spies her competition, waving to one person in particular.
"Hello Niramo... shame we're on opposite sides this time. We made a good team, last time." Fumiko then turns to look at the team mates to the left, then to the right. "...let's destroy them."
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
A MOMENT AGO
Sucy glances at Akko with a warm look on her face and in her one visible eye. It's almost gentle, charming, a blooming shoot of a shell fading apart, a girl growing into
NOW
a poisonous mushroom.
Sucy's lips pull back to reveal her oddly sharp-looking teeth. "You're gonna have to treat this as super double special training," she says, reaching over and taking a pocky from Jasminka and holding it in one hand for dramatic emphasis. "Protect your neck, Akko."
SUCY is in her gym uniform and is still slouching hard enough to give the general tulip-in-repose body outline she does, which looks a little weird with her arms just kind of... hanging there. Loose. Limp. She's relaxed, at least.
"Tactically speaking you're our weapon under these rules," Sucy then comment, towards -- FATE?? "It's a pretty big responsibility."
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
Fate Testarossa might seem somewhat out of place here amongst the middle and high schoolers on the field. An elementary schooler who definitely weighs in as the smallest on the field.
"Dodgeball." She says with a certain intensity. Ordinarily when she's playing in her class, she finds herself on duty protecting the less athletic members of her class. Now though? She feels no such compunction for anything other than going on the attack.
Looking from one teammate to the next, she lines up on the field, facing the other side.
"We'll definitely win this." She vows to Setsuna, and Kasagami. "I have no doubts whatsoever."
Then she slowly looks at Sucy, as if startled. "Your weapon?" At first it looks like she might object - though it's unclear whether she'd object primarily on grounds of being the shortest and smallest, or simply the idea of her being a weapon for anyone. Then she simply nods, determination within her eyes. "I see. I won't let you down."
And then as her eyes slide over to Mikoto on the other side, and she says with grim simplicity.
"Target acquired."
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna Higashi has many friends at Infinity, though for some mysterious reason she doesn't go around wandering the halls herself very much. Probably just normal reasons. Regardless she is here, and she is one of those terrible students who actually enjoys P.E., here to see the girls approaching and hearing the rules...
"Dodgeball," Setsuna agrees with Fate. "Yes," she answers, and with a completely serious tone, "I'll do my very best!"
She blinks at Sucy mentions the weapon, tilting her head.... and then considering. "That's true," Setsuna decides after a few moments. She's seen Fate at dodgeball. She sees her now.
Setsuna looks over the assembled other team... and prepares mentally.
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
As far as physical education goes, playing dodgeball is a pretty good way to not make it feel like exercise! Niramo takes a sip from a bottle of water as Professor Callistis goes over a mental list of materials they would need. "Well, things are going to be interesting! I wonder what kind of sports they usually play in here though?" The gymnasium that Infinity was hosting the dodgeball game is a little different than Juuban's, but then again, the whole school is a little different.
Balls are brought in and placed on the central line, with plenty of extras to spare. They don't seem flimsy...so maybe the girls who brought in the bouncy spheres just didn't know how many to bring in?
Setting her bottle of water down on the floor and making sure her long ponytail is secure, Niramo takes her spot on the polished wooden field and gives her usual cheerful smile as she spots Fumiko right across from her. "We did, but I told you before, didn't I?"
Niramo leans down a little to get herself into a ready position. A corner of her lips raises, turning a grin between friends and twisting it into a menacing smirk. Dark green eyes seems to spark with intensity as she locks eyes with her frie--no, rival. "Competition brings out the best in me."
Seems like they're both of the same mind. Sure, Sucy and Fate might be leaving her out of this, but she can show them. Niramo turns twists her head and nods once towards the sole Ohtori student on her team. "Kasa-chan, leave Fumiko-san to me."
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ye-jin Song is a dodgeball expert. Meaning she's played at least once in the past year, by mistake. She wears Ohtori's athletic uniform and her hair in a tight ponytail, as well as a severe scowl. This could be because she's on the team of one Mikoto Minagi, who she takes ample time to glare at before taking her place on the court.
"I'm sure you'll all work very hard to make sure we win." She replies to Fuu, forcing a toothy smile to her lips.
Her eyes are already on one of the red balls on the center line, and after a few moments of stretching her arms and legs out she settles into a ready position, primed for dodgeballing.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Kasagami Araki is more than happy to end up in this inter-schools dodgeball game. What better place to show off the beauty, the superiority and athletic prowess of a Student Council member than in a sports competition!?
That's what she tells herself anyway, coat hung up but still in her usual StuCo uniform. Boots lightly tap-tap-tap on the very odd arena they find themselves in. Kassie can't help but occasionally peer at the lines, pondering what strange sport must be played here. She'll have to ask Setsu-chan later!
Cracking gloved knuckles and staring out at their opponents, she eventually yoinks a pocky from Jasminka with a tiny salute with the thing, before popping one end in her mouth. Chomp. Peer. Chomp. Then a hand runs through her hair, and causes her ponytail and bangs to flutter majestically, a big aggressive grin as well as competitive glint in her gaze.
Suddenly both arms open to indicate the other time, even as Kassie laughs aloud. "Agreed, Fate-chan, this shall be our day! For the pride of Oht..." The dark haired young woman doesn't even slow her grandstanding as she corrects herself, "Our martial spirit, let's put every skill that we've honed on display! We will face our opponents courageously, with guile and strength until they are driven before us in utter ruination as we conquer their side of the court, as the armies of monarchs of old would!" Enthuses the Duelist openly, and loudly.
Then she too is taking a sprinting position, eyeing one of the balls more directly near her, then the others. A swift nod to Niramo.
"Crush her utterly, see her driven before you, and the salty tears of her team-mates, Nira-chan!"
And who does she seem to be focusing on first? Well, Kasagami knows well the inherent chaos of certain people here. Maybe even seems to delight in it.
She is staring right at Akko and looking way too enthused about the potential of throwing rubber objects in her vague direction.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Dodging... ball...?"
Mikoto's head cants this way. Mikoto's head cants that way.
Professor Ursula helpfully explains, and her expression brightens. "... dodging balls!"
YEAH, MIKOTO GETS IT!
...
She feels a little nervous when she finds who she's ended up beside, though. Feet shuffling, she glances over, with a nervous hopeful little smile. "Um... Ye-jin..."
Her efforts are rewarded by a terrible glare, and with a little more nervousness, she instead turns her attention to her other teammates. "We can do it!" She says, enthusiasm restored, to Akko's dismay and Fuu's cautious optimism. "We'll, um..."
Destroy them...??? That's what Fumiko said... but, for Mikoto...
Instead Mikoto here is looking over to the other side of the court, and considers Fate's approach. "... let's win!" Mikoto chirps, instead.
That attention, of course, also means she sees the way Fate zeroes in on her - and with a gulp, Mikoto squares her shoulders and looks right back. "Okay..!"
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Jasminka is a generous soul and happily shares pocky with all comers. Once the box is empty, she tucks it away in her pocket, because littering is wrong.
Professor Callistis gives up on finding a whistle and conjures a briefly existant pure green energy one at the end of her wand instead.
INTRODUCTION TO DODGEBALL In the first round, before describing your action, please introduce your character like you would on a trading card. For example: NAME: Suzuka Tsukimura FAVORITE NUMBER: 2 DANGER RATING: ***** (ranges from one to five dodgeballs) FATED RIVAL: Fate Testarossa (Fated rivals don't have to be mutual) EDGE: Unbelievable Strength (or other special talent) FUN FACT: Suzuka's from a family of vampires. (Just kidding...?) Your DANGER RATING will be your dice roll modifier. You get an extra +2 against your FATED RIVAL whether you're attacking or defending. If everyone makes one person their Fated Rival I might ask some people to switch but one person being targeted by multiple Rivals is otherwise the price of popularity. Every other field on that trading card has no relevance to the rules... yet. Then pose your action like you would normally in a combat scene, which is to say, action but not outcome. At the bottom, type the following line: DODGEBALL: Suzuka Tsukimura has attacked Fate Testarossa! Then +roll 1d8+DANGER RATING Then Fate Testarossa will +roll 1d8+DANGER RATING Results Table: Attacker Wins By 2+: Defender Is Out Defender Wins By 2+: Caught the ball, Attacker Is Out Natural 1 for attacker: Accidentally hit above the shoulders, out Natural 1 for defender: Pratfalled into the ball, out Any Other Result: Successful dodge or block (if the defender has a ball, they can block instead of dodging), no one is out In the first few seconds, balls wind up in the hands of: Team 1: Akko, Fuu, Ye-jin Team 2: Setsuna, Fate, Kasagami So they should be posing before others do. **TWEET**
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
NAME: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
FAVORITE NUMBER: 1
DANGER RATING: ***
FATED RIVAL: Reinhardt von Lohengramm, a.k.a. Diana Cavendish (one-sided)
EDGE: Probably Has Done This Before
FUN FACT: Magic Is Real, Folks, Really!
Akko looks at Fumiko. She blinks once -- then she grins. "Yeah! No mercy! We'll show 'em what's up! We'll--"
Sucy tells her to protect her neck. Her eyebrow twitches. "I don't know what that means, Sucy, but I'm counting on you to betray your teammates, okay?" Some days, Atsuko Kagari gives Ursula Callistis a headache. Some days, unfortunately, are every day. She sizes her opponents up for a moment, before she produces a bandana. Because she grabbed it from somewhere, it has the kanji for 'RYOKAITEN SUSHI SHOP -- TRY THE TUESDAY SPECIAL' on it. She affixes it to her forehead, ties the knot behind her, and then it falls off.
But she manages to catch a ball. She comes up with it, shiny and red, reels back -- looks around for a moment -- and then spots Kasagami Araki. "SENPAI! I'm gonna throw things at you and yell because that's just kinda how I roll! WAAGH!"
She does, indeed, throw the ball.
DICE: Akko Kagari rolls 1d8+3 and gets 4! DICE: Kasagami Araki rolls 1d8+6 and gets 12!
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
NAME: Fate Testarossa
FAVORITE NUMBER: 6
DANGER RATING: *****
FATED RIVAL: Suzuka Tsukimura
EDGE: Competitive Drive
FUN FACT: Fate Testarossa is an actual A. Alien, B. Mage C. Clone (D.) All of the Above.
Fate squints at Kasagami, but then nods, staring across at Mikoto.
Fate suddenly comes into possession of the ball. And one can feel a certain tension in the air rising around her like heat. "Fate Testarossa is going now!" As if she were warning the other side, her target in particular.
OST Change: Hanebado - Over the Limit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKzKN92XOI
And suddenly she rushes up to the line, skidding with a squeak on the gym floor. Her arm moving up like she's going to pitch the ball. "Commencing bombardment..." Though at that moment, she twists around, into a pivoting hop.
The ball twists around in a circle with her - as she sidearm lobs it with devastating speed such that the ball contorts from the air friction in mid-air at...
... Mikoto Minagi.
"FIRE!"
DICE: Fate Testarossa rolls 1d8+5 and gets 6!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
NAME: Fuu Hououji
FAVORITE NUMBER: 16
DANGER RATING: **
FATED RIVAL: Kasagami Araki
EDGE: Tactical Wits
FUN FACT: Fuu's Ruby skills are sufficient to code sports minigames within RPG Maker.
She who hesitates is lost, and all that; overcoming her lack of enthusiasm, Fuu steps forward at the sound of the whistle, collecting a ball, and glancing among the members of the opposing team. She's still smiling, but just a little bit - not quite the warm, open friendly look she normally sports, but a more calculating expression. She's too courteous to team up on Kasagami, for better or for worse ...
Fate comes charging towards the line; Fuu reflexively falls back a half-step, ready to dodge (or block), but the ball doesn't come anywhere near her, instead flying at Mikoto from the peak of Fate's (fairly modest) jump.
With such an inviting target, how can Fuu leave Fate hanging? She straight-arms her ball at the twin-tailed blonde, trying to catch Fate before she can finish landing and recover full mobility. (Her timing is probably not going to be *nearly* that precise, though.)
DICE: Fuu Hououji rolls 1d8+2 and gets 4! DICE: Mikoto Minagi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 5!
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
NAME: Setsuna Higashi
FAVORITE NUMBER: 4
DANGER RATING: ****
FATED RIVAL: Today it's Ye-jin Song!!
EDGE: Mysterious Transfer Student Sparkles!
FUN FACT: Setsuna Higashi comes from another dimension!
But now, there is a ball, and Setsuna rushes it--she catches one quickly in both hands and immediately turns to regard the team. Ye-jin, who has been glaring at Mikoto... Who wants to win, naturally. Setsuna grins at her in passing. And for the glaring?
Setsuna would never be petty. Except or the fact that she totally would.
Setsuna rushes the line, swinging around to hurl it straight for Ye-jin!! The ball swings through the air, a red blur, as Setsuna's hair whips behind her as she leap-throws.
DICE: Setsuna Higashi rolls 1d8+6 and gets 7! DICE: Fate Testarossa rolls 1d8+5 and gets 6!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Over on the sidelines, Constanze pushes a button. Fate's ball, soaring towards Mikoto starts ROCKETING towards her instead -- it sprouts a little jet and the air briefly smells like burning fuel. But because it moves so unexpectedly fast, the trajectories are way off, and it winds up soaring way over her head. Before the nozzle retracts and a Definitely Totally Ordinary Dodgeball bounces innocently onto the gym floor.
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
NAME: Ohtori Vice-President Ye-jin Song
FAVORITE NUMBER: 9
DANGER RATING: ***
FATED RIVAL: Mikoto Minagi
EDGE: Dancer's Grace
FUN FACT: In the Golden Age dodgeball will be illegal.
Ye-jin, as a consequence of being a member of Dance Club, is actually quite nimble. She sprints forward with surprising grace, bending low to scoop up one of the red balls in the center and spin backward in one fluid motion.
She takes only a second to find a target, as none on the opposite end of the court have inspired a pre-mediated dodgeballing. The nearest shape is the one that gets the ball, and with a huff of effort she pitches the red sphere out of the cradle of her arm and straight toward Sucy.
DODGEBALL: Ye-jin Song has attacked Sucy Manbavaran!
DICE: Ye-jin Song rolls 1d8+3 and gets 4! DICE: Ye-jin Song rolls 1d8+3 and gets 5!
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
NAME: Kasagami Araki
FAVORITE NUMBER: 8
DANGER RATING: 4
FATED RIVAL: Akko 'Chaos???' Kagari
EDGE: Tall, Athletic, and full of ENTHUSIASM!
FUN FACT: Kasagami Araki's favorite card game is poker, which she cheats at constantly.
Kassie is quick to sprint up to that line of dodgeballs, claiming her own with a thump-thump of leather to rubber as hands clasp together on either side of the ball. She almost immediately whips herself onto her back heels though! After all, there's a certain Witch that she's decided to focus on challenging her! Oh, and what a challenge, as it has the Duelist's gaze wide and her body settling in to move. In other words, she is actually taking Akko seriously.
"Going with the brute force method, Akko-chan!? Hit me with everything you've got!" Encourages the young woman. In comes that flung ball! Rather than move out of the way? A little bit of Ohtori arrogance flits in. Using her ball like a shield...or more accurately, a blade...she holds her own rubber orb in front of her. At the last second, she parries rubber-on-rubber, sending the combined impact of Akko's toss and her own well-honed arms' force away from her.
"Close, Akko! You need to put your whole body into every throw! It's the only way to ensure vict..." In the middle of her words, Akko's deflected ball, returns its trip towards the Duelist right towards her jawline thanks to the angle Kassie boffed it unnecessarily off with.
It's a tribue to Kasagami's fleet-of-footness that she manages to bodily duck the returning ball with only a minor scrape along her chin. One could definitely hear her saying something akin to 'victoryeeee!' though at the last few seconds very loudly.
Boots stomp the ground, and she's holding her dodgeball harder. "Everything...in one throw!" Comes Kassie, mostly to herself, bouncing a little half-enthusiastically, half irritated as she almost eats her own arrogance.
This translates into her picking a new target. That being a certain bespectacle'd Fuu-chan! Surely an archer must be good at dodgeball. Plus, she's targeting her small-yet-powerful ally in this ball war, Fate!
"Fuu-chan! Suffer the wrath of royalty for attacking our twintail knight!"
Kasagami, being far more melee oriented, decides to get as close to the center line as possible. She then leaps up, and basically throws the ball with her body as much as her arms. Her face is tight and intense, she makes an exerting grunt of effort, and puts all of her body into hammering a toss towards Fuu!
Kassie lands, less on her feet, and more into a roll. Because she has to show off like that, even if this probably leads her vulnerable to more dodgeballs.
DODGEBALL: Kasagami Araki has attacked Fuu Hououji!
DICE: Kasagami Araki rolls 1d8+4 and gets 6! DICE: Fuu Hououji rolls 1d8+4 and gets 8!
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
NAME: Fumiko Inoue
FAVORITE NUMBER: 9
FATED RIVAL: Niramo Umokeshi
DANGER RATING: ***
EDGE: Dramatic Gymnast
FUN FACT: Fumiko is rumored to hold multiple middle entries on arcade highscore tables.
For a while, Fumiko just... kind of stands there. She is near-motionless as she glances around, looking everyone whom has a dodgeball. She would bide her time, letting everyone wear each other out. At least, that's the plan. She is sure to be targetted - the only girl wearing fancy attire in the middle of a dodgeball tourney kind of sticks out - but she is ready. She thinks. Maybe.
Before she can second-guess herself, Fumiko breathes slowly and focuses. "Okay Fumiko..." She softly, quietly, and soothingly talks to herself. You are in a light storm... be the eye of the storm, full of serene grace... calm but alert... relaxed but ready... focused but flexible and light..."
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
NAME: Niramo Umokeshi
FAVORITE NUMBER: 8
DANGER RATING: ****
FATED RIVAL: Fumiko Inoue
EDGE: Hidden Determination
FUN FACT: Has no tolerance for spicy food.
Kasagami only encourages that competitive spark that Niramo is showing, and the shorter ravenette nods her head once. "Salt water just makes you more thirsty, which is perfect in this case!" Niramo looks up towards Ye-jin once and gives a smaller nod, a sign of respect towards the Captain. She may be her mentor in the art of rythym, but a proper greeting will be given once they're off the field of battle.
...maybe Niramo is getting a little -too- into it.
With all her focus on Fumiko, it does take her a moment before she realizes that there's an issue with her rival. Namely, what she's wearing. "...w-wait, why are you dressed in a ball-...oh." Niramo recognizes that ballgown, as it was the same attire Fumiko wore when she won the Ball Gown! To others, it's rather bizarre and out of place for a game of dodgeball, but to Niramo? It might as well be a suit of armor for all intentions.
Niramo is distracted by Fumiko's choice of attire and is too late to grab a waiting ball, so she backs up a little to give herself some space and be on the lookout for any incoming volleys. There's quite a flurry of balls flying, (and she could have swore she heard a bottle rocket whistle for a second), but there's no time to focus on one small thing in the chaos.
Seeing a free dodgeball rolling on the ground, Niramo rushes forward to retrieve it, her long ponytail flying in her wake. Leaning down low and grabbing it with both hands, the Juuban student lets loose a wild throw towards where she saw Fumiko last. "Niramo's Dodgeball lets out a howl!"
DODGEBALL: Niramo Umokeshi has attacked Fumiko Inoue!
DICE: Niramo Umokeshi rolls 1d8+6 and gets 7! DICE: Fumiko Inoue rolls 1d8+5 and gets 6!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
NAME: Mikoto Minagi
FAVORITE NUMBER: 3 (The number of main meals in a day!)
DANGER RATING: ****
FATED RIVAL: Ye-jin Song..?!
EDGE: Catlike Acrobatics
FUN FACT: Mikoto Minagi never really bothered playing sports until recently...
'FIRE!'
Mikoto makes a noise in the back of her throat which is roughly analogous to 'squeep', and DIVES OUT OF THE WAY --
only to realise there's a weird smell in the air.
Sniff sniff, look up...
Mikoto's face scrunches up in quizzical bemusement, as she looks up at the ball which is literally rocketing overhead. "Fire..."
She looks over to Fate as if to say, 'is that normal for dodgeballs or'
Then the sound of the rocket abruptly cuts out and there's this shot of Mikoto springing to the side to avoid a ball suddenly falling down to the ground. Mikoto creeps over to the ball. Mikoto pokes the ball. Mikoto picks the ball up and turns it around.
"... huuuuh," Mikoto says. It's... a normal ball again...?
While Mikoto is being puzzled about balls, Ye-jin meets her eternal suffering with a dodgeball going too high. Mikoto did not do a thing to help because Mikoto was too busy being puzzled by this ball.
In fact, Mikoto is an island of stillness amongst the flurry of balls. She kind of steps to the side to avoid one at one point without thinking too hard about it. She's trying to figure out what's up with the ball???
Finally, Mikoto shrugs. "It's a ball," she concludes, and turns to the opposite side of the field.
And so she winds up, and lobs her ball right out at someone who looks like a prime target...
... one NIRAMO UMOKESHI, who might just be distracted by her own recent attack.
DODGEBALL: Mikoto Minagi has attacked Niramo Umokeshi!
DICE: Mikoto Minagi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 5!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Along the wall, Amanda yawns big behind one hand. But she's using said hand as a shield, and her wand's come up -- targetting the ball that Niramo has thrown at Fumiko, it suddenly makes a radically impossible loop-de-loop halfway between, then bounces harmlessly behind her.
DICE: Niramo Umokeshi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 6!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
STATE OF PLAY:
- TEAM 1: Akko, Fuu, Ye-jin, Fumiko in. Mikoto out (accidental head-ball)
- TEAM 2: Niramo Umokeshi and Kasagami in. Sucy, Fate, Setsuna out.
- BALLS TO DATE: One rocket ball, one aerial acrobatics ball, four normal balls
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
MEANWHILE:
The Professor was too preoccupied monitoring for head-shots to notice either of the two strange balls' mystery behavior. She's tweeted each of them and exhorted a weary "BE CAREFUL!" at any offenders, and a concerned "OKAY?" (as in, are you) at any victims.
Jasminka blinks silently at her two compatriots and their sneaky antics.
Constanze smiles without moving her lips. Amanda's lips move a great deal, as she leans across her to whisper a suggestion in Jasminka's ear.
"Mmmm," agrees Jasminka, and gets her wand out of her back pocket, holding it out of sight between her and the gym wall.
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The ball Niramo throws doesn't make a howl, or any sort of noise. In fact, Niramo wishes it made a noise as it breaks the laws of physics and somehow boomerangs in the air, completely missing Fumiko. "Uhh...anyone else see tha-"
- WHUMP*
Niramo stumbles back as a red ball slams into her forehead, letting out a cry of surprise and a little pain. They're just full of air but that still hurt! "Mikoto-san, that's against the rules!"
As she calls this out to Mikoto, the ravenette notices something about the current state of the battlefield. Niramo rapidly looks on her left and right several times to just make sure she wasn't seeing things, but the worst has come to pass. She's the only one left standing against Fumiko and her army! But if she remembers the rules right...
"Kasa-chan, back in, get back in! Help!"
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
Fate looks in surprise as her ball doesn't quite go where it was aimed - though she's too distracted by an incoming threat to actually see it and suspect foul play. She always knew though that stepping up to the line would make her a natural target. She expected it even. As Fuu lobs the ball at her, she hop steps onto the ground, and immediately leaps sideways to go up and over it.
The world slows down as the ball moves to intercept, and the girl moves to dodge overhead. The ball set on an arc to move underneath the blonde twin tailed dodgeball ace.
Except... mid-flight. It clips her forearm. The girl lands, and notes simply.
"I'm out. Nice shot."
And then immediately moves to the sideline without trying to contest it. It's only when Kasagami joins her on the sideline, she says, "I appreciate your attempt to avenge me." She gives her a nod of respect, "But on the battlefield..." Fate's eyes slide over to give Fuu a long look, as if she were reassessing her threat in getting both her and Kasagami out, "...defeat can come from unexpected places."
She still remembers the first time sweet Suzuka Tsukimura returned her ball so easily.
Fate bounces from foot to foot as Kasagami returns into play, as if warming up for what she feels will be her inevitable return. She may be sulking a bit internally, over having failed in her responsibility to the team.
"Hang in there and rally! We can still come back to win this!"
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Uuuuh," Akko says in reference to the ball taking off like a rocket. "Professor Ursula! Do physics do that?"
Then her head turns back to Kasagami Araki. And, in a moment, her ball is sent bouncing away. Akko's face screws up in shock and surprise. "Waah--how did you do that!? That was incredible! I'm--"
A lot happens. But she sees a ball flying, and she runs up. Akko bounds, grabs it out of the air, and in midair, she does a tight turn--
"Niramo-chan!" she yells. "SPECIAL DELIVERY!"
She hurls the ball in midair. And then, because souls cannot escape the Earth's gravity, she falls flat on her bottom with a THWUNK.
"...ow..."
DICE: Akko Kagari rolls 1d8+3 and gets 9! DICE: Niramo Umokeshi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 5!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto blinks as Niramo yelps, looking rather confused as to the TWEEEEET and the exchange. "That's not how..?" It's only a moment later that she thinks back to the rules the retreating professor recited to them, and realisation crosses over her face. "Oh," she says, sounding disappointed that she ended up hurting a friend during the friendly exercise. She remembers now that there are rules for how to hit people with the ball. She must just not have much practice with dodging balls!
"Out," she declares, cheerfully, and spins about on a heel, hands latched loosely behind her back. That's what Fate is doing, so it must be how it works.
(Mikoto, who is not privvy to Fate's internal dialogue, doesn't know about the sulking part. She looks pretty happy now she's determined that this is a normal part of the game and she hasn't broken the ancient peace-bonds of dodgeball.)
It means she has plenty of time to observe the natural state of everyone else dodging balls, like the way Akko can't quite manage turning with gravity. "It's okay!" She calls over to her, encouragingly. "Just get back up!" That's how to get better at anything..!
(Except naps. You get better at naps by not getting up. This is cat wisdom.)
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Kassie, still whistling from Fuu's catch that resulted in her own out-age, takes a brief look at the tactical situation as she walks back onto the field. They're barely surviving out here! Slaughtered by the power of truly formidable warriors of the rubber ball. She takes heart, however. Fate rallies them from the sidelines, as does Nira-chan! The Duelist leans directly into her kendo experience, starting to zig-zag and move back and forth even before the projectiles of thump-y doom start flying.
A swift nod to her team-mates. There's a lot riding on this!
"A member of the Student Council won't do anything less than amaze! Put your trust in me, as I too put my trust into your confidence of success! I'll just have to weaken their side..."
There's a thoughtful look on her face, then a devilish one. She openly glares at her opponents good naturedly, right past Ye-jin.
Surely a Student Council member wouldn't attack one of their own.
"Don't put yourself down, Akko-chan! Just watch your senpai, and be more like her!" This time Kassie rushes forward, pushes up into the air with both legs, and once again hauls back in that over-exaggerated way she does.
Her focus then shifts, mid-air, to Ye-jin. Whom then gets a ball launched her way, Kasagami throwing by way of the momentum of swinging boots back to the ground moreso than her arm.
"Hi Vice President, looking as beautiful as always!" This is a horrible, disasterous idea. Kasagami leans into it, hard on the battlefield of dodging as she grins at one of her least-hated fellow council members.
DODGEBALL: Kasagami Araki has attacked Ye-Jin Song!
DICE: Kasagami Araki rolls 1d8+4 and gets 5! DICE: Ye-jin Song rolls 1d8+3 and gets 11!
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ye-jin was too busy throwing her ball to realize that she was already a target-and lets out a shriek when Setsuna's ball thumps her in the side of the head.
"Yaa!" She shouts, shaking a fist at Setsuna. "Watch where you're throwing!" She doesn't have a ball to throw, or she'd be pitching it at the purple-haired girl now on the sidelines. So focused is she that she even misses the physics-defying spin of the ball that Niramo threw.
Kasagami is at least nice enough to yell something out to let Ye-jin know there's something else coming at her. She's a bit slow to turn, and her eyes go wide as the red circle of the ball suddenly looms large in her vision. Her hands snap upward, slamming into either side of the ball when it's less than an inch from her face. It pokes the tip of her nose.
"Kasagami..." Ye-jin's eye has a distinctive twitch that can be seen when her hands slowly lower the ball to reveal her face. "What are you aiming at?" Her fingers are like claws, sunk into the ball so hard she's threatening to pop it.
When she raises it over her head to throw she comes to an abrupt stop-there's nobody on the other side of the court left.
Slowly, the ball lowers. Grudgingly.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Dance Of The Brooms Project - Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL4XNx-N42s&t=312
"Ah," the Professor says, with a quickly summoned and tweeted whistle. "Congratulations to the... Akko Team!" Forgive her, she only knows the names of her own students. "I think we have time for a rema--"
The gym door slams open, and Professor Finnelan (tall, skinny, middle-aged, authoritarian, conservative) calls from the threshhold: "PROFESSOR CALLISTIS! YOU ARE NEEDED AT ONCE!"
"Um, hang tight, kids, play nice, okay?" calls Ursula, suddenly seeming like not that much more than a kid herself in comparison to the disciplinarian force of nature that has just swept her out of the room.
There is a moment of silence.
And then Amanda unlimbers herself from the wall.
With a langorous stretch that involves, midway through, a one-handed handstand, while spinning one of the spare dodgeballs on her fingertip the whole time -- she approaches the group. Wickedness dwells in her sparkling green eyes. "Betcha the three of us can take you all on," she declares. "Betcha... week's worth of dorm chores." This, at Akko and Sucy, the relevant Infinity cohabitant parties.
Constanze is silent but supportive at her side. Jasminka is eating a dodgeball.
Oh, no, that's just a giant ball of chocolate that LOOKS like a dodgeball, never mind. There are still six balls --
-- okay, there are still five balls on the field, one of them must have bounced out and joined the pile off to one side.
In short order they've arranged themselves on one side of the line, so all anyone else will have to do to take them up on their bet is clear out to the other side of the line and/or start chucking balls at the trio.
Amanda has seen The Matrix, and gestures accordingly.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Akko considers, for a moment, the offer: that she could get a week of dorm chores handled by Amanda. She may not, ordinarily be good at math, but she knows that if Amanda has to do a week of dorm chores for her, that is like an entire month of dorm chores.
Maybe even two months!
"You're on!"
Nevermind that those balls acted weird earlier. Maybe that is how physics works? She reaches for a ball -- grabs one -- and then she steps back. Her eyes drift to the side; to her former and current teammates, to Sucy, to Kasagami, and then back at Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka. She tilts her head to each side -- then pops her neck.
"Let's go!" she calls out. She looks side to side -- and then settles on Amanda. With a loud yell, Akko charges, hurls back a ball, and slings it right for the American student.
"HYAAAAH!"
DICE: Akko Kagari rolls 1d8+3 and gets 10!
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
"Oh, sorry!" Setsuna, while she can perhaps be a little petty, did not actually mean to hit Ye-jin in the head with it. Luckily nobody seems to be all that hurt so she doesn't have to worry about it beyond that; she walks off the court with a little sigh and waits.
...Waits as her team loses!! Awww. Setsuna looks to Fate and the rest of her team and shrugs like 'oh well'. But in short order the gym door has slammed open and Setsuna tilts her head watching.
Wickednss.... and... chocolate.
But Akko's going for it so Setsuna nods firmly! "All right!" she says, and heads up to the front and grabs a ball while she can, too. Since Akko has Amanda targetted already, Setsuna throws the bouncy ball towards Constanze! This time she stays on the ground instead of jumping up like her perhaps overenthusiasm the first time.
DICE: Setsuna Higashi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 12!
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Niramo's is so frantic on calling out for aid she forgets that the dodgeball game hasn't paused just because she's calling a teammate back into the game. Akko is quite kind enough to remind her of this fact with a battlecry of...a postal service? "Special deli-ack!"
Niramo tries to jump back from the surprise missile but is too slow to evade it in time, getting a direct hit in her arm! At least this time it's not applied directly to her forehead. "Ah, nicely thrown, Akko-chan! I'm out!" Letting out a sigh, Niramo walks over to join the other defeated warriors, hoping that the recently revived Kasagami can steal victory despite the odds.
"It's fine, Mikoto-san! Try to hit below the head, but that was a good throw too. Nice aim!" Sure, the rubber ball against her head had smarted, but it's nothing major. Dodgeball is meant to be fun, after all.
"Sorry I couldn't rally, Fate-san. They're pretty good...but...didn't some of the balls seem weird to you?" She didn't see what caused the whistling, but she saw the crazy loop-de-loop her thrown ball did. Maybe Fate saw something she didn't?
Kasagami delivers an elegant throw towards Ye-jin, praise disguising an assault upon the Dance Captain. Yet...Ye-jin's reflexes are just too swift for the brazen attack, with the sphere being stopped cold just before it would hit Ye-jin in the head. "Awww...well, better luck next time?"
Before she could raise a hand to support the idea of a rematch, Niramo jumps from the sudden storm that is Professor Finnelan. It wasn't a request towards their coach, it was a demand that she had to fulfill.
The silence that follows is quickly taken up by the three Infinity students delivering a friendly(?) challenge to both teams. It's a challenge she's almost a little hesistant to take up, even if she doesn't have to do the chores since she's not from Infinity. Not because of their devestating defeat her team just suffered, but the bizarre actions some of the dodgeballs took.
But Akko isn't one to let herself be bothered by wondering if she's going right into a trap and siezes a chance to strike first! And if she's willing to try...
Niramo runs back out onto the field of battle and takes up a waiting sphere. "I'll be a poor Juuban student if I didn't take up your challenge!" It might be a little rude to throw a ball right at Jasminka, but if she is going to eat during a dodgeball game... "Firing at will!"
DODGEBALL: Niramo Umokeshi has attacked Jasminka!
DICE: Niramo Umokeshi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 9!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There's a little flinch at Mikoto's shoulders when Ye-jin issues her trademark 'YAA,' but this time it's directed at Setsuna so... okay that's still not fine but at least it's not her.
"The fight's over, Ye-jin!" Mikoto encourages her to put down the ball, only to pause a moment later and clarify: "I mean, the dodging!" Because it's not a fight. It's dodging balls. That's totally different.
Luckily, peace reigns.
...
For all of a minute, maybe two, tops.
Because there's Amanda, and Mikoto, who is not a cat but who has an astounding number of cat friends, knows someone else with a background in feline acrobatics when she sees one. She peers at her, with a grunt of assessment from the back of her throat, head canting to the side; a braid tumbles over her cheek in the motion.
FURTHER CAT FACTS: Cats, in fact, are territorial, and if you introduce two strange cats together...
"'Kay," Mikoto decides, picking up a ball, even though Infinity chores don't really mean anything to Mikoto Minagi. (Maybe she can get Amanda to do Yumi's chores. Mikoto definitely isn't thinking that far ahead, though.) With no further preamble, she tries to display the good aim Niramo praised her for, by throwing that ball --
-- directly at Amanda O'Neill.
DICE: Mikoto Minagi rolls 1d8+4 and gets 9!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Fuu's smile is a little sheepish as she actually tags Fate - and then *catches* Kasagami's projectile, though the impact makes her hands sting and her arms tingle. "Nicely thrown, Kasagami-san!" she calls out as the Ohtori student council member withdraws from the field ... temporarily.
A few frantically frenetic exchanges later, and the match has concluded. Fuu looks relieved more than victorious - but also pleased that her team won, of course. They don't have a great deal of time to celebrate, though ...
Because the *next match* is beginning, and it's going to be three against ten. Something about this seems deeply unfair ... and possibly not in the direction it would look like, given the trio's show of confidence.
Well, no reason to wait if they're *that* certain. Fuu shrugs gamely, scoops up a ball, and launches it at Constanze. "Don't take it personally if you wind up with extra chores, sempai!"
DICE: Fuu Hououji rolls 1d8+2 and gets 4!
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
In the midst of chaos, Fumiko does her best to retain her composure. There seems to be some weirdness happening, but as long as she is not targetted and does not have the ball, anything and everything else is unimportant. "Just... focus... it is okay... just look for anyone aiming at-"
There. Of course. Of course it would be Niramo. She doesn't have a ball yet, but that look is obvious. Fumiko locks on, and for a split second tenses up. She then slightly relaxes and smirks. "We're at a dodgeball game," she teases. "What if a dance breaks out? After all, the opposite happened last time."
Fumiko's snarky demeanor is shaken at her rival's quick retrieval of the dodgeball followed by a crazy throw and shout. She dives out of the way - and the crazy throw gets crazier. How did the ball do that? Is Niramo some kind of Magical Girl? Or worse, a youma? Fumiko's going to have to keep a(n even) close(er) eye on her.
For now, however, the games have begun! Fumiko dashes to a ball, ready to take out her rival - when Niramo is hit. Wait, no, that's an illegal hit. Kasami is back in, but Niramo is still the tar- no, NOW Niramo is hit! "Ugh... I better go after Kasaga-" Nope. She's out too. "When I said 'destroy them', I wasn't expecting it so thoroughly."
Fumiko's team wins... but Fumiko doesn't feel like a winner. After all, not only did she not throw a single ball, but worse... her best friend is not who she thought she was. Something was off with Niramo. No mere human can throw the ball the way she did. Then again... Fumiko herself is a Magical Girl. Perhaps... Fumiko perks up slightly. Perhaps they could be allies if Niramo isn't a youma. If only there was an opportunity to-
Another round... against only three? Seems unfair. However... if Niramo is in... Fumiko grins widely. Rushing up to her friend, she waves at her wildly. "Hey Niramo! Let's team up like last time!" When she gets close, however, she whispers... "I'll find out your true identity."
Immediately after, she runs over to the nearest ball and prepares to toss it at.... "hmm... Um.... you'll do!" With those athletic handstand dodgeball spin moves, Amanda is probably a rival gymnast. Time to make her a rival dodgeballer. Fumiko leaps into the air, doing a backflip. She tosses the ball at Amanda while upside down, and lands... slightly rough. She barely sticks the landing in these shoes.
Fumiko Inoue attacks Amanda!
DICE: Fumiko Inoue rolls 1d8+3 and gets 11!
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ye-jin lowers the ball! Kasagami keeps smiling even though she's lost. Is she smiling more!? At least she doesn't say anything. Occasionally Kassie rejects a neatly tossed shovel her way.
But there's a challenge in the air! One brow raised at the sound of far-off authoritarianism, and Ursula's resulting rush out. Kassie rubs the back of her head.
Kassie for some reason feels a glimmer of pity for the professor, though can't quite put a finger on why.
There's a challenge in the air. And really, the professor did tell them to play! Kasagami steps right up, arms wide, head slightly tilted. "All of us? Really!? I admire your bravery! Let's do this, and may the most talented win!" Comes the young woman with more than good cheer. She didn't quite notice any ball oddities, what with her being more focused on people at the time.
She has yet to suspect witch treachery.
She loves a challenge, though, and the spirit of all three. Amanda has certainly earned the ire of others, so instead she focuses in the rather quiet Constanze. Aim with things at range isn't her strong point, and so...well, Kassie again is ever the swordswoman. She'll wait until it seems like Constanze is beginning to move, and then she's hand-balling the rubber object towards the ground!
Kasagami tries to strike the ground to where Constanze will be, trying to predict her movements like a proper sword-using martial artist, hoping she can vaguely aim the bounce into the tiny engiwitch!
DODGEBALL: Kasagami Araki attacks Constanze!
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ye-jin is satisfied enough with her victory that she allows her dodgeball disarmament to take place, dropping the red ball on the court and letting it bounce away.
It's not long before a new threat arises, however.
"Good luck!" Ye-jin says to her former teammates (and enemies), immediately vacating the field to find a seat to watch.
She claps politely from the sidelines. Very unhelpfully.
DICE: Kasagami Araki rolls 1d8+4 and gets 10! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 13! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 15! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 11! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 13! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 14! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 13! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 13!
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
"It's fine. We'll get them next time." Fate says to Niramo at first, before considering her words, "It did seem like something unusual was going on." She's not going to say she might have sensed some magic at play, because Niramo is as far as she knows, a normal girl.
Back on the field, Fate Testarossa seems ready to redeem herself. Ready and raring to go, when...
The professor is called away. And then, the challenge.
Fate gives them all a serious look.
"Challenge accepted. If we lose - I'll help out with the chores as well."
As a ball rebounds against her team's side of the wall, before flying high and aerial, Fate suddenly bends at the knees, then launches herself high into the air. Before...
... spiking it like a volleyball right at Amanda as well.
"SHOOOOOOOTTTTT!"
DICE: Fate Testarossa rolls 1d8+5 and gets 10! DICE: Pink Moon Stick rolls 1d8+10 and gets 16!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Dead Heat - Little Witch Academia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwjaFI_rr0E&t=2004
NAME: Amanda O'Neill
FAVORITE NUMBER: 7
DANGER RATING: UNKNOWN
FATED RIVAL: UNKNOWN
EDGE: Phenomenal Aerial Acrobatics
FUN FACT: Amanda is cheating right now!
If this were Amanda by herself against the ten, she would have lost immediately. Not because she had to, but to sell the con. 'Double or nothing?' she would have hedged, after, once her marks had tasted their first victory. Everything's a shell game if you're sufficiently motivated.
But she isn't, and her fellow delinquents lack some of her finesse.
That's okay.
Akko's ball flies at her face and, halfway there, drops like a stone -- hard enough to leave a splintering hole in the gym floor. "WHOA," yells Amanda, "You guys using weighted balls? That was dangerous!" She sounds more appreciative than angry about said danger; it wasn't a complaint.
NAME: Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger
FAVORITE NUMBER: Pi
DANGER RATING: UNKNOWN
FATED RIVAL: UNKNOWN
EDGE: Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto
FUN FACT: Constanze is cheating right now!
Constanze picks up the stone-ball effortlessly and uses it to block Setsuna's shot. On the rebound, when the ball hits the floor, it splits into two balls, but it happens quick and isn't wildly obvious, especially in comparison to whatever just happened with the rock.
Maybe it was jet fuel weighing it down, because it rock-ets back out of Constanze's hands at Setsuna -- too lightly than its mass would allow, which suggests that it is no longer impossibly, dangerously heavy.
She makes a fingergun behind it and blows smoke off it, in a friendly way.
NAME: Jasminka Antonenko
FAVORITE NUMBER: 31
DANGER RATING: UNKNOWN
FATED RIVAL: UNKNOWN
EDGE: Easily Underestimated
FUN FACT: Jasminka is (ch)eating right now!
Jasminka grunts softly as Niramo's ball impacts her arm. She tries to catch it, but doesn't really, it slips out of her grasp and she has to catch it out of midair, which means she's out.
...then she lowers her head and takes a bite out of it. Then another. After chewing and swallowing, bared white flesh is visibly glistening beneath the red skin of the giant apple. She's out, but she tosses it back at Niramo anyway -- harmlessly, as she's departing the field -- with a cheerful, sharing-is-caring: "Thanks!"
The rest of the balls head towards her counterparts, which leaves her free to enchant them. She does so, entirely on Constanze's behalf, causing Fuu's to become light as a bubble and drift towards the ceiling, then Kasagami's to bend in midair and go looping backwards towards Fuu; Amanda can fend for herself. Constanze uses her relative freedom of movement to return fire. Most of her dodgeballs are just dodgeballs, but a few of them apply a little engine-based course correction if they're too far off the mark.
Amanda starts with a breakdance routine, spinning past Mikoto's attack -- it too splits into two more balls as it bounces behind her. Catching Fumiko's with an appreciative eyeful of backflip, she smirks, before leaping into a midair split above Fate's ball with a great deal of motivation, because that was some scary shit.
But something else has her attention now. She spins her stolen dodgeball on a fingernail for a long moment.
"Huh," she remarks.
Jasminka, on the sidelines, follows her gaze, behind their opponents. Then Constanze does too... dropping the ball she was about to launch at her next victim. Her eyes are natively big in her head, but now they're REALLY big.
That's because, back there, dodgeballs are breeding like rabbits. Once in motion, they're staying in motion, and every time they bounce into a surface, or one another, there's another dodgeball...
...there's a lot of dodgeballs.
"Um," Jasminka says -- no, she asks, it was a question for the other two.
Constanze shake-shake-shakes her head, emphatically.
"No idea!" Amanda leaps over the line, interposing herself between the group of ten and the impending avalanche of rubbery doom, hands splayed forward in a readied position, determined to intercept. "But... nobody messes with my friends except for me!"
The balls are starting to bounce in unison, ominously, like an army beating sword against shield as one.
SPROING. SPROING. SPROING. SPROING.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Wh--"
Akko's eyebrow twitches. "H-Hey! Amanda! You know I didn't! You're--"
Akko's not the smartest, but she puts it together. The three witches were, in fact, using magic to make their shots all the better. Her eyebrow twitches; she glances back at the others. And then, she looks back at the dodgeballs, which are multiplying. She takes a nervous step backward. "U-uuuh," she says. "Amanda, Constanze, Jazminka, I think you guys had something go wrong with your spell?"
She looks side to side. Akko considers, for a second, and then she holds a hand out to the side. She focuses for a moment -- and there is a terrific flash of light, and the Shiny Rod appears. The polished wooden rod is held aloft, and light gleams from a sharpened point. Light flashes up, around it.
"Shiny Rod! I need... a big, shiny net!"
And then a big net of light forms. The edges are crackling -- fuzzy, almost -- and she chops it down, before sending the net flying. For the ever-replicating balls.
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna is pretty sure dodgeballs don't work that way. Definitely not Earth dodgeballs. But she's spent enough time at Infinity that this kind of thing happens sometimes... Setsuna doesn 't catch the splitting though--she's too busy diving out of the way of the rocketing ball, not really even thinking about its weight so much as hoping not to be hit. This means she misses a little of what comes next, but not... the worst part.
Huhhhh.
"Um," Setsuna agrees as she turns to look over at the many, many bouncing balls. She looks up at them, red eyes tracing up the lines of an imposing wall of balls. It occurs to her why, exactly, dodgeballs are working that way. "Ah," she comments, and looks around. She considers... the big net.
...She backs away from the problem as it stands, and one can almost imagine the sweatdrop at her forehead.
But as she sees a net, "Oh! Go!"
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Fumiko is quick to join her on the gym floor and Niramo smiles at the thought of working alongside Fumiko again. Sure, she wasn't wearing a ball gown herself, but it's the teamwork that matters. "Sure. Working together, i'm pretty sure we can do a repeat of last time!" Together, they'll be unstoppable during this game of dodgeball, just you wait!
Then Fumiko says something that has her turning a noticeable shade of white, her blood draining from her face. "H-huh? W-what are you...?" Did Fumiko somehow know she was a Miraculous User?! Niramo doesn't any other sort of identity to hide, so it had to be that. Just...how?!
Her shock is enough that she almost misses the giant apple now rolling towards her feet, but maybe she can use it as a defense? She didn't realize it was an apple when she threw it! "I'm really not the cheating type, Fumiko-san. I mean, she knew it was an apple when it hit her..." Niramo crouches down and pokes the apple with a finger before taking a moment to look at the chaotic game around her. "...yeah, they're the cheaters, not me!"
Niramo just really, really hopes that Fumiko buys the innocent act and believes that she thought she was being accused of cheating. But does this mean that Fumiko somehow knew about magic...?
Even with Jasminka taken off the field, Amanda and Constanze are absolutely devestating on the battlefield. They're far better at dodging and returning fire than she thought possible, but the balls are acting even more strangly around the remaining duo.
Speaking of which...Niramo glances behind her after a hesitating moment, seeing if she was falling for a trick. It would be a fine trick if the quivering, growing mountain was just a distraction. "You ladies don't have a machine pushing in more balls, do you?" It could be possible, considering Infinity's funding. There was an entire town on one floor, after all.
Akko pulls out a massive net from nowhere which would normally be worrisome, but considering what she knows of the little witch's talents, it's very welcome at the moment. Believing she's seeing what Akko's plan is, Niramo runs towards the reproducing dodgeballs to aid Amanda. If they can contain as many of these balls as possible, then maybe they can stop whatever is happening! "Try not to let too many get past!"
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Fumiko's shot is is caught. Well, that's what she gets for trying to be fancy. She shrugs... then sees all the other tomfoolery and shenanigans going around. Maybe even some malarky. Either these girls were ALSO using magic, or the balls are enchanted, or enhanced...enhanted? Either way, those three girls were clearly responsible. Perhaps she owed Niramo an apology. Perhaps not. "Apple. What. No, I... forget it. We'll come back to that later."
Fumiko's attention is on the three... witches? Crazy inventors? Either way... "Well... this seems completely fair. Glad to see this is a game of pure athletic skill- why... why do you look surprised?" She prepares her magical parasol to protect her from the oncoming onslaught of rubber doom - and remembers she's in civilian form. No magical protection here. Except for that net. Wait, what?
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
Fate seems astounded by Amanda's mid-air dodge, considering perhaps whether she's found another worthy rival out there. However, as she lands, everything starts to go awry.
"The dodgeballs!"
The girl says with a gasp. And as Akko confirms her instincts that it's a spell gone awry...
The girl suddenly takes off into a run to one of the racks by the gym supply closet. And runs back out brandishing...
A field javelin!? The kind used by track and field events. It's longer than she is tall.
"This is probably against the rules - but..."
The girl suddenly steps to the fore, up alongside the witch trio wielding it like a spear. Jabbing it at balls that escape - or move around Akko's net.
"... exceptions can be made during a crisis - HA!"
POKE POKE POKE POKE!
She does so more with great enthusiasm rather than actual martial skill with using a spear.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"If the balls were weighted," Fuu attempts to point out to Amanda, "would *we* be throwing them so easily?" Maybe some of the girls could, admittedly, but Fuu herself, not so much.
But there's little opportunity to pursue the topic, as Constanze launches the supposedly-weighted ball back at Setsuna ... and then there are a lot more balls. And a lot MORE balls. And a LOT more balls, bouncing all around.
Fuu dives away from the redirected ball that was originally thrown by Kasagami )that was definitely not Kasagami's fault, the Duelist can't do that kind of thing ... probably). "Who did you say is messing with whom, Amanda-san?!" Fuu finally has opportunity to exclaim - even if she's not yet back on her feet.
Fortunately, Akko has a contingency. (Calling it a contingency *plan* might be overly generous, but at least sh ehas a contingency.) Fuu gets back to her feet, looking out for any dodgeballs that are either not within the net, or are threatening to bounce out from under the net's range; as far as the archer can tell, it might only take one of these for the hijinks to continue at a renewed intensity. Fate's brief dash to retrieve a javelin seems like a worthwhile idea, on that note. "Be right back!!" she calls out, and sprints for the door. She may not be on the track team, but Fuu is quite capable of moving in a hurry.
She returns soon after - maybe not quite as fast as Fate did - and she does, indeed, have a quiver of arrows as well as a bow. She strings the latter once she's back in the gym, and readies an arrow in case any balls are loose - especially if they're too fast for Fate to jab.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Amanda does some truly remarkable acrobatics to get around those balls, and Mikoto remarks in turn: "... you're good." Territorial or not, one parkour practitioner must acknowledge another.
Of course, the reason why Amanda is quite that good...
... it might just involve magic, because this is Infinity. (Mikoto is familiar with Infinity's magic classes. She helped Yumi with her alchemy homework once. Don't ask how that went.)
At least when the spell goes wrong - which Akko helpfully explains as the thing which happened, because Mikoto for a brief moment suspected MUCH FOULER PLAY - the three Infinity delinquents helpfully indicate which side of the playing field they're on.
A growl at the back of her throat as she watches the balls bounce-bounce-bounce, but a glance to Setsuna shows she isn't fighting, and a glance to Fate shows...
"Oh! Now it's net balls!" Mikoto confidently identifies the way they have changed the game, considering AKKO'S NET. Without pausing to check whether netball even works like that, Mikoto enthusiastically bounds out to start herding balls into that net.
Now, those are lessons learned from dogs rather than cats, but did you know that Mikoto has learned a couple of lessons from dogs, too? A dog once taught her how to play frisbee. This is a real thing which really happened.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
As Kassie's ball veers off and towards Fuu...well, between weighted throwing implements and that one ball that decides to float upwards like a bubble is the one that clinches it. The Duelist' brows go up in unison briefly, before she's awash in Constanze-based return fire! Two of them she has to duck-and-weave to get away from. Another she has to leap up, knees nearly to her chest to dodge. Her boots' soles protest from the near-beatings both jet-fueled, and arm-fueled balls threaten her with!
Kasagami peers at Constanze, one sleeve ripped from the contest of rubber-chucking-cheatery, with a renewed sense of danger and yet pride! Adrenaline pumps through her veins, and rather than despair at this con of a dodgeball game?
No, she's laughing, even with the threat of chores vaguely in the background. "Now THIS is a competition!" Almost growls the Duelist, as she throws herself to the ground with a tuck to avoid another ball. Both knees are slashed, on the cloth at least, and her eyes shine brightly.
BOING BOING BOING! The curiously in-time bouncing are the first sign of true danger. Kasagami, former Disciplinary Executive, instantly hones in on Amanda as a potential source of this current problem. Delinquent senses, of course. But finding her as perplexed as others rather than smug, and more importantly defending them all bodily? Well this is either one long con, or honest desire to protect them all.
Either way Kassie finds herself admiring the American for her dedication.
Akko is quick with a net. Kasagami regrets leaving any kind of bokken, overlong or not, back at her dorm. And so she eyes some of her friends here today, particularly those younger than her. The Duelist feels a sense of worry in her heart!
Shouldn't a King defend those she would call her subjects!? Bereft of blade, Kassie intently walks aside the brave defense of Amanda and the Witches, just slightly. Enough to be noticable. Her arms go above her head, and hands run through her hair. She pauses, looks away, and turns to the bouncing balls. She flicks her radiantly-beautiful dark locks of hair, sparkles of beauty flying from her as she strikes a runway-like pose, leaning back such that she's barely able to stand with only well-dug-in boots keeping her aloft.
"Oh you bouncing spheres of rubber, look upon your glorious She-Who-Would-Be-King and weep at her beauty! Join me! Join me in glorious triumph over the evils of the world, and bask in our graceful repeated leaps towards the sky, our show of skill! Or are you so deflated that you can't bounce this way!?" Kasagami points right at any of the balls that look like they might fly at her friends. With Akko's net deployed? One hand behind her back stylishly indicates any loose rubbery spheres, even as she tries to taunt the magical dodgeballs into attacking her!
In her mind, being the center of attack might make them easier to catch and be-net!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
"Wasn't me!" Amanda clarifies, the other two nodding agreement. "No idea what this is!"
Battle is joined.
At first it's fun; Akko gathers most of them in her magical net, and the rest can be herded in by Amanda and Niramo and Kasagami's powerful, side-by-side deflections, or by Mikoto's enthusiastic bounding along the flanks. Stragglers can be picked off with puncturing, at the hands -- and javelins and arrows -- of Fate and Fuu.
Anyone who hesitated has ample opportunity to get in on the action of anti-dodgeball self-defense, though, because... it gets tiring after awhile. They're still multiplying, and they aren't letting up, and every impact stings a little, then the next a little more. Still, the intensity is rising in a gradual way, in the same way that water warms around a frog in a pot. It's manageable.
But things shift from fun to exhausting to abruptly very scary in an instant: the instant when the Shiny Net burst.
It wasn't a moment of weakness -- it was, ironically, a moment of physics. The balls contained within were just continuing to multiply against one another with every tap. The more of them there were, the faster it happened...
...until an exponential cascade of rubber explodes out in all directions with immense force.
It's a little bit of a life-flashing-before-the-eyes moment... unusual, though, insofar as no one is transformed; they are unusually vulnerable, the danger is more meaningful. Perhaps it's helpful as a reminder of perspective; ordinary people have to be afraid of ordinary things all the time, after all.
But the final blow, fatal or otherwise, never lands.
<SoundTracker> S.S.S. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-zhMek-adM&t=1324
With astonishing speed, an army of roombas -- or something?? -- interposes itself, creating an interlocking bunker around the students. The gaps are wide enough to see out of but not wide enough for a ball to penetrate, which is perfect, because it's quite the show.
The floating devices ABSORB incoming dodgeballs one after the next; they simply sink into their matte gray surfaces and are gone. Every so often they switch out with reinforcements coming from, presumably, the doorway across the gym -- perhaps they're "filling up," whatever that means this far removed from ordinary spatial rules. It is an elegant and beautiful dance, and almost dizzying in its mathematical precision.
Until, at last, the very last ball is soaring through the air, about to bounce and split...
...only to be caught by two very capable hands.
"Sorry to end your game," says someone unfamiliar to most, because she's Infinity Instructor's newest instructor and hasn't been met yet. Her voice is low with maturity, but doesn't lack warmth, either. It's THAT kind of cool, and it suits her; her bright red, popped-collar cloak, strappy holster, and short lavender haircut are cool also. "But it looked like you guys stopped having fun a while ago. And the S.S.S. was built to be able to absorb any kind of energy, even kinetic."
Glancing down at the ball, she shakes her head and chucks it gently at one of the roombas. It disappears inside, and then they retreat, floating out of the gym in an orderly fashion. "This place sure hasn't changed much," she reflects, good-naturedly. "Not so much seven mysteries as seventy. Glad I happened by... I'm Croix Meridies."
She winks as the last roomba zooms out of sight.
"Modern Magic instructor. Come by my class some time, if you're interested!"
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Aaaah, I can't hold it anymore--"
Akko cries that out, and she tries her best with the Shiny Net, but it breaks apart. So many slivers and sparkles of light shine in the air, as the balls begin to multiply and rush towards them. Their savior isn't, exactly, what Akko expected.
"Room...ba?"
She says the word in confusion -- but they come, buying time and holding them back. She falls onto her backside, nearly dropping the Shiny Rod -- but she collects it, hugs it against herself, and then she looks up. She blinks a couple of times...
...but recognition sets in. Akko knows about this teacher. She heard about her; about how amazing her classes are. Even if some teachers seem wary...
"S-so cool!" she says. "Aaah, that was amazing, Professor Croix!"
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna joins in once it's clear she needs to--once it's clear the net alone doesn't do the trick. She catches balls and bounces them into the net, runs around, and... keepgs getting hit. Sure, for a while it's fine, but she's pretty sore after a while.
Almost worse, maybe--because all of those are about to get out at once and--
And suddenly Setsuna is watching the somethings draw in, and indeed, she can see how precise they are, appreciate their synchronized movements instinctively in a different way from how she'd appreciate something more varied. And then--
Setsuna blinks, and turns to the newest teacher, blinking a few times as she looks to her. Modern Magic instructor...
"Ah, thank you!" she says. "You're right! That wasn't very much fun at all by the time you got here," Setsuna explains in total earnest. "Modern Magic..."
She smiles. Maybe she will drop by sometime.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
There was also the issue that Fuu was, at the rate things were going, about to run out of arrows. She'd recovered a few as the struggle continued, but not enough to keep up with the reproducing balls ... so the sudden bunker of flying Roombas was, besides a profound surprise, an equally profound relief.
"Haaaaah ..." Fuu lets out a deep sigh, even in the middle of trying to catch her breath. "We're saved ... I think?" She glances around at the other girls, "Are you all okay? Anything worse than bruises?"
Soon enough, the last ball comes to a halt - in the hands of a very competent teacher, from all appearances. Fuu is racking her brains to try and remember their rescuer's name before Croix Meridies introduces herself. "Thank you very much for the rescue, Croix-sensei," Fuu says with a smile and a deep, *very* polite bow. "I'll try to make time to visit your class at some point; I'm sure there's a great deal I could learn from you."
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
No amount of powerful deflections, taunting fabulousness or athleticism-based, can deal with the massive blow-up of very angrily-Newtonian dodgeballs bursting that sorcerous net. The Duelist knows a losing fight when she sees one. She has, after all, been through enough of them.
Her eyes go wide, and not in happiness or enthusiasm. This is pure danger, and already she's readying herself defensively. What a death this would be, to be taken out by a mass of rubber school yard objects! One hand clenches hard, as if upon an invisible crown. For a mere second, the Castle in the Sky flashes upon her vision.
And when those roomba-like devices have finally sucked away the many balls, one hand goes to Kassie's chest. She sharply gazes upon the professor.
Unable to help it, her breath is caught slightly by just how mature and cool, not to mention that strange 'modern magic' she employs. The Duelist laughs, letting go of her worries. A drop of sweat drips down her brow, arms go behind her head, and she just collapses backwards onto the ground. One short nail plays along a serrated line on the play field.
"Professor Croix, huh? How can she be so...?" Cool!?
Praising a teacher feels wrong. But she can't help but complete the thought in her mind, even if she bites her own lip in annoyance. One part envy, one part competitive as she shakes her head rapidly.
"Infinity is a strange place!" Ends Kassie, catching her breath and smiling at the same time.
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Niramo doesn't have any weapons to reach for to help corral the balls, so she's resorting to deflecting everything with her arms and legs. Even as she tries to use just enough force to stop the dodgeballs without setting off the strange multiplying effect, it just keeps getting worse and worse.
Mikoto's accidental headshot feels like a tap compared to the sphere currently hitting her in the forearms, Niramo barely stopping herself from falling from that last blow. One eye closed in pain, Niramo tries to stand her ground against the plastic swarm even as she feels it's becoming useless to resist. "Someone should get a teacher!"
Thankfully for everyone in the gym, one of Infinity Institute's staff comes in to save the day! Disc-shaped robots 'suck' in each dodgeball that goes after anyone, and Niramo lets herself collapse gracelessly to the floor in relief. Panting as she catches her breath, she waves a hand from the floor. "Thank you Meridies-sensei! And...I might just do that."
"Just going to be sore tonight, Fuu-san! I think a hot bath is needed." Sure, it's a little rude to catch her breath from the floor as the accomplished professor greets everyone, but after how crazy the last few minutes were, Niramo think she deserves the excuse.
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.
Fate jabs, and pokes, though it's clear she's getting tired before too long. "Keep at it! Mikoto! Watch our flank!" Yet all the same, she doesn't even consider transforming to deal with this.
At least not until they all EXPLODE outwards in an eruption that covers every inch of the gym.
And then there are Roombas in the air.
The child watches them, shocked. "I had no idea those were so powerful." Her tone abstracted, "... We still use a normal vacuum at home."
Though something isn't quite right, and she figures out the incongruence with how quickly and efficiently they contained a magical crisis. There's not enough storage space for such things in such itty bitty devices - which means.
Magic.
"Oh- I see."
Fate finds herself watching the woman make her entrance, thoroughly impressed. She's obviously a powerful and practical mage.
"Thank you for the assistance. Things got a little out of hand."
Modern magic. Fate has looked into Western and Eastern magic in her studies at Infinity, though they're based on tradition, with storied histories. The girl finds upon evaluation that she knows very little about the idea of modern magic.
And part of her wonders if there are similarities at all to Midchildan magic, given the seeming mechanical amalgamation of technology and magic on display.
"I'd like that." She notes, somewhat shyly. Confident adult figures tend to put her on the back foot.
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Dodgeball net explosions? Roombas? Modern Magic Instructor!? What is even going on anymore? "Th-thank you, Professor Meridies." Fumiko sighs, resigned to the confusion and insanity of Infinite Institute, and relief that such a cool teacher came to the rescue. "Modern Magic, huh...? Don't have that class at Juuban. No idea how such a class even works but... cool." Things seem to have worked out. Well, most things. But that's a conversation that can wait. She nods at Niramo before taking her leave.
Dodgeball was exhausting.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto catches a ball at the edges, and lobs it back in towards the net!
Mikoto catches another ball, and tosses it over Setsuna's head to the net! (This is more impressive, because Setsuna is pretty tall, and Mikoto is rather short.)
Mikoto gets hit in the face with a ball and promptly bites it, in the model of Jasminka Antonenko. This ball does not turn into food. It does wilt in her hands, but she throws it into the net anyway.
Mikoto bravely guards Fate's flank, catching the balls which would threaten her.
And, you know, that's all pretty fun. She makes sure a ball can't split to get away from Fuu's puncturing. She gets bowled over by a ball hitting her in the chest, rolls with the impact, and springs to her feet without missing a beat. It's all deeply impressive.
Except the balls just... keep coming?
They just... keep coming.
"Mnnnaaaaaaaauuuuhhhhhhh," Mikoto whines, which is half 'disgruntled teenager' and half 'disgruntled cat', lest anyone get too confused by her sudden herding tactics and start thinking she hasn't taken most of her cues from the feline side of life. "I don't wanna!"
AND YET: there are more balls.
In the back of her mind Mikoto is thinking - she and Setsuna and Fate and Kasagami will be fine, but Ye-jin is a normal girl, and all these balls would be too much for her to deal with. (Which must be why Ye-jin is staying back, obviously.) And there are other normal girls here, too, like Niramo, and - look, Amanda and her friends might be witches, but they're not Witches...
So Mikoto keeps catching the balls. It is no longer very fun.
Unfortunately, Mikoto's perspective on helping the less-magically-inclined in the room has a significant blind spot.
She left Miroku in the locker room. (It is still grouching with a terrible aura of 'don't touch'.)
And that means that when the net suddenly forgets how to be a net...
Her eyes go very wide and not quite right in the shock of it, all the blood emptying from her face. All a sudden everything in her body is danger and reaction and THREAT and the mora on her lips is "MI -" and it's not something her throat can catch up to fast enough and they will crash like a wave --
But the sound chokes in her throat, because suddenly she's the one herded in with everyone else, surrounded by something else. The breath pulsing past her lips suddenly stops, shuttered by the awe of the power...
... of the vacuum cleaner.
"That's..."
It's magic, comes the explanation after her stunned silence. She sits herself down on the floor, looks up at the new Professor.
"'Kay," she says. "But I'm done with sports today." That was scary and now Mikoto needs a snack. ... maybe Jasminka will share.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka are also suitably impressed. They take the very earliest opportunity to ditch, though, because any second they can regain from detention is a victory, and there are several available.
"Please, call me Croix, Meridies-san is my mother," the Professor says with a left-side quirk of a grin at those who offered her the dignity of a surname. She does have dignity on her own terms, though, enduring Akko's admiration with a casual, amiable shrug, and the others' gratitude with palms out. "You're all very welcome, but I was just doing my job as a teacher," she says simply. "I'm glad I was able to help. And I hope very much that you take me up on my offer... I know," her eyes move across the shining faces of the next generation, and perhaps across a shining rod also, "That we all have a lot to learn from one another..."
---
<SoundTracker> Bad Blood - Taylor Swift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iHIoG2h4U4
Professor Callistis stops halfway down the hallway, returning in a flat-out sprint towards the gym, and skids to a stop. Unseen by all, she spots Croix in a cluster of admirers. Her face stills into shock. Her eyes darken a little.
The bell rings. Class is over.
She isn't seen again today.
