Celestia's Academy for Protectors

As the silence stretched out slowly, the hooded pony who stood near the centre of the madness that had unfolded let out a very, very quiet cough. In the next instant a voice seemingly as ancient as the stone that made the walls, and one that had not been used in as many, began to speak. It was as if someone had taken the quiet fury of a blizzard, the indomitable spirit of a glacier, and the frozen tempest of both, and given them a voice. "All of you. Cease this rudeness this instant, lest you bring yet more disgrace upon yourselves." Not once did the mare raise her voice, but her simple statement held yet more impact than the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"Miss Shimmer. To complain of screeching whilst screeching yourself is the height of hypocrisy. If you are unable to make your point without raising your voice, you're not worthy to make it at all," she stated. "If you are going to act with such unbecomingness, perhaps you should reevaluate your life choices."

"Miss Razor. Though, I did not wish to say it, since I am to speak, I may as well use my voice to its fullest. You are an uncouth, rude individual who does little to sway the notion of frankly backwards thestrals. If you want to change people's minds, I suggest you stop acting like a barbarian," the mare continued, her quiet, emotionless wrath seemingly unstopped.

"As for you two," she turned to face Nox and Shining, her eyes flashing beneath her hood. "You are a disgrace. Both of you. Miss Light, you lack any sense of poise, despite having all the necessary requirements for it. You overreact frequently, and often, produce tones that belittle your beauty. I suggest chamomile, it has wonderful calming properties. I also think that we shall conversations later, so we may resolve the issues you have with our leader."

"Miss Mood, was it? You were made our leader. However, you lack the very basics required to make you a barely competent one. You constantly complain that Shining overreacts, and yet you cast a silence spell that caused her significant distress, and were only willing to remove it when I prompted you to. Some would consider that a creative form of torture. I have no suggestions for you, for I can only see ill portents in our future. Perhaps you will grow, perhaps you will not. Who can say?" Her rant, though through its emotionlessness it was hard to call it that, done, she sat down and sipped her tea, nose crinkling in annoyance. "Look what you have done, all of you. My tea is cold."

Wild Card appeared completely oblivious to the obvious hostility and anger in Adagio's voice, choosing to keep up his cheerful smile instead. "I'm glad you're happy then, wouldn't want to have irritated you by not sitting with you lot to eat, given it would have been the first meal together as a team. Hm. Sorry about that if you are slightly saddened by that. I'll make it up to you lot somehow, I'm sure." Wild said sincerely, as if he had no clue as to what sarcasm was and couldn't notice the obvious emotions Adagio was displaying.

"Oh, the choker. It looks good, but I can relate to how you're feeling with it. I sometimes get my ties a bit too tight every now and then, not fun. But, mild discomfort isn't much to worry about when you look good." The pegasus said, once again sounding incredibly sincere. "You mentioned heat, that's going to be an interesting time for all parties involved. Wonder if the academy has something in place for that time. And as for the other teams... Between you bunch and me, I think we may have the upper hand in teamwork when it comes to it. They have some ways to go before-" Wild was cut off by Sunset yelling, which certainly took him by surprise as he turned around to face the table she was at. After the air of awkwardness had lessened slightly, and after Anja made her strangely important sounding comments to her team and a few others, Wild Card turned back to the sirens and shrugged. "Adagio, please, stop scratching at it. If it's an itch underneath just leave it be and it'll vanish, you'll just irritate it otherwise. I get it often with my collar. One of the downsides of wearing clothing, I guess." He commented with a lighthearted chuckle.

Viridian keeps her eyes to Wild as he excuses himself and goes over to talk to his team, so she's facing the wrong way when Anja begins to speak. She blinks at the voice and looks over her shoulder as she thinks I don't remember seeing any of the guards, glamour, or trappings of royalty when everyone was arriving. At first her eyes slip passed the elegant and extremely poised mute, searching for whomever was speaking, but then Anja began again, taking Shining and Nox to task with the tightly controlled frigidness of a mare of excellent breeding and exquisite manners moved to anger. At this, Viridian turns completely around to face the regal hooded mare and her attentive look and the cant of her ears indicates that she's listening very carefully to what Anja has to say. After she's done, and has commented that the commotion has led to her tea becoming cold, Viridian walks over to where Anja has sat and is sipping the lukewarm drink. "If you'll permit me, Your Highness," she says, using the title because that little display makes it seem appropriate to her, "I could reheat the tea for you; I know a minor cantrip that should suffice." She smiles and gives the seated pony a brief bow, holding it for a moment, before straightening. "And if you will also permit me to say, I believe that I wagered with warrant: you have a lovely voice. It's unfortunate that the circumstances led to you having to use it in a moment of conflict rather than peace."

Razor Back simply folded her arms and raised her eyebrows to the observations directed at her, evidently taking it all in but choosing to ignore every word she was given regarding her attitude and how it did or did not represent her species well; as if anyone had asked her if she wanted to be a marker for thestral behavior, she wasn't Bronze.

"Maybe I'd bother to change if their opinions were worth changing." Razor snarled more to herself than anything, being almost entirely drowned out by Fantasy's shout which caused her to snap her ears shut against her head and glare at the white unicorn with murderous intent; Anja's words had annoyed her more than she cared to admit, quite possibly more than she consciously knew.

((Okay guys, Obsidian stepping in to take the reigns on the GM posts for now. We're still very much following Very's plotline and ideas here but I'll be taking over to basically try and keep the GM posts flowing. As such, please forgive if the first few posts aren't exactly a smooth transition since I'm not used to working with lore and story that isn't my own))

A gentle ringing tone came over the PA system as the students ate, interrupting conversations for a moment as Inkwell's voice came over the speakers to the new students, despite the fact it was quite late and clearly the academy had wrapped up it's usual operations for the night.

"Attention, new students, please pay attention; due to unforeseen circumstances, I am afraid I must announce an emergency lecture and lesson in Lecture Room 4 immediately following dinner. I apologise for this interruption of your first night here but I assure you that we have deemed it necessary for your training to begin sooner than we anticipated. Thank you."

The speakers clicked as the announcement ended. Razor Back immediately slumped her head on the table and swore under her breath about having to go to a lecture instead of being allowed to no doubt cause her own brand of trouble for the night.

Adagio rolled her eyes. Typical pony: stepford-smile their way through unpleasantness and pretend happiness and harmony is all they can feel. As for everything else Wild said, Adagio didn’t really find it worth responding to. It was all either small talk -- the social equivalent of cheap and easy junk food -- or just him being stupid. He wasn’t one of them: he wasn’t a siren, and he most certainly was not her sister.

And he didn’t know what she was doing, so there was no point in listening to that “advice”. She continued to fidget.

---

Anja’s speech created a swirling cocktail of emotions, ranging from fear to a vague sense of shame to defensive indignation to outright offense at how she dare act so high and mighty, and that was just from her tone.

What she got for her words... wasn’t actually that different, but it was from the targets of her verbal assault rather than the audience. Said audience was watching the entire scene with great interest, with some grinning, snickering, or whispering to one another.

Sunset growled at Anja, her ears flattening against her head. “And you shouldn’t speak if you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. Look up “screeching” in a dictionary sometime, maybe you’ll learn what it actually means. And don’t act so cultured when you have to make up words because you have an inadequate vocabulary.” Later, she smirked when Viridian called Anja “your Highness”, interpreting it as mockery rather than flattery.

Nox, face flushed, scowled at Anja. “Creative form of torture”? “Barely competent leader”?! Perhaps her muting her teammate had been uncalled for, but to call it torture was a hilarious overstatement. And… maybe… maybe she was an incompetent leader. She rarely worked with other ponies, and usually when she did they listened to her because they understood there was little time for debate and she was the more knowledgeable one… or she was the one learning from the other pony(s). But ponies like Shining Light, they were uncooperative and a danger to themselves and the ponies around them. How was Nox supposed to lead a pony who would not be lead when she didn’t feel like it?

Shining, by contrast, seemed utterly ashamed of herself, like a child being harshly scolded by her mother. Even if it was more because of Anja’s tone than her actual words, the princess got the desired effect. Shining merely nodded at the offer to “conversations” later. She should’ve asked to talk about it with her beforehand, instead of exploding like this. Hindsight’s 20/20…

---

The dining hall rumbled with irritation and uncertainty at the announcement. A lecture? Now? At this hour, after (for some) a whole day of travel? What was so urgent that required emergency lectures? What was going on?

Fantasy had different things on her mind. “What did you mean?” she asked Razor. As frustrated as she was with her, she couldn’t argue against her because she couldn’t make heads or tails of her statement. Maybe she’d get an answer, it was worth a shot.

"Miss Shimmer, I recommend you pick up a dictionary yourself, as I can only assume you were referring to my use of the word unbecomingness." Anja took a sip of her tea, before smiling at Viridian. "Though I appreciate the offer Miss Rain, I'm afraid that reheating tea causes it to lose a great deal of its flavour. Thank you regardless. And I can assure you, I am no royalty. Just a circus performer."

The young-looking mare smiled at Shining, before gesturing for her to come over. When she did, the elven queen pulled her in for a hug. "I apologise Miss Light... that was perhaps a bit harsh, though it was necessary."

Anja paused as the announcement came over the speaker, before standing up and sighing. "How exactly do they expect me to get enough sleep if they force me to go to such late lectures. Ah well, no point complaining," she murmured, before extending a hand to Shining. "Miss Light, would you like me to escort you?"

Wild Card noticed the fact Adagio had rolled her eyes at him, and was expecting such a reaction from her anyway. He didn't let his face show that he knew what to expect, instead his smile remained as if he was oblivious to any kind of negative response. When he saw that Adagio was still fidgeting, the stallion shook his head and shrugged, "Well, don't blame me if the sensation worsens." He said matter-of-factly, just as the announcement went off.

"Huh, I wonder what kind of circumstances would cause something like that. Well, can't argue really, whatever it is must be important so we must be off as soon as." Wild said, sounding very curious as to the aforementioned circumstances. He hopped off his seat and gave a little stretch, "Well come on then, better to be early than late. Don't want terrible seats after all." Wild continued happily, waiting for the rest of his team before heading off to the lecture room.

Viridian smiles a little at Anja's profession of being just an ordinary pony, a mere performer instead of royalty, and bows her head slightly to the mare. "As you wish, milady, I shan't call you royalty if you prefer to merely be regal. And I'd happily refill your cup of tea, merely as kindness and courtesy, but I'm not sure that our meal will last long enough to properly steep it." Barely has she said these words when Inkwell's voice comes on the PA to announce an emergency lecture to start post haste, and Anja as well as anyone else paying attention to her notices that her hands unconsciously dart under her long and heavy-looking coat before she seems to remember something and she withdraws them, affecting innocent nonchalance about the entire thing. "Well, speaking of our evenings being cut unceremoniously short..." She gives Anja a smile of apology and another slight bow before she goes back to her team, taking her seat near Fantasy. "Looks like you're soon to get your first test at being boss, Boss."

Sunny couldn’t help but sigh. She really didn’t expect a team as dysfunctional as the one she got put on, but she would have to make do. It was only for a few years, right? She suppressed a groan. “Well, at least I still have someone I can count on.” She mumbled to herself as she followed the rest of her team to the lecture room, which was an odd name for a room. Especially if there were at least 4 of them. Is this what they call classrooms nowadays or is this school just that weird?

((Major apologies for the delay everyone))

The room for the lecture was a semi-circular room made up of a descending series of benches, the door led out onto the top level of the benches while a second door led off to the side behind the teacher's desk; on the wall above the desk, projected onto the pure white marble, was a large, ugly depiction of a large, wolf-like creature with glowing red eyes and an unnaturally dark coat that was less like black fur and seemed to be more akin to staring at the vast, empty void of space with all of the stars having long since burned out.

"Come in, come in!" A sing song, slightly theatrical voice welcomed them into the room; behind the desk, fiddling aggressively with the projector controlling the image on the wall, was a bright, almost neon green thestral with a slightly frazzled looking black mane, as if he had recently received an electric shock, which might've explained why he was looking at the projector as if he had no greater desire than to smash it. "Take a seat anywhere you like everyone, promise I'll try and keep this as short as possible!" He called to them louder than the size of the room really called for.

Razor Back meanwhile shrugged off Fantasy's question and stood up. "Well, we might as well make a move, I'd rather not have people having a go at me on the first day." She said, stretching a little as she stood and nodded to Viridian. "Sit next to me? If that room's as big as a lecture room they see in films I don't wanna have to sit on my own." She asked, surprisingly friendly for a change with none of the snappy, bitter tone she had otherwise exhibited.

“I’ll escort myself.” Shining somewhat huffed, somewhat murmured. She seemed to be in an odd spot between offended and ashamed. She left by herself, avoiding Nox, and pretty much everypony else.

Fantasy blinked at Viridian. “How so?” She stood up and started to leave with the rest of the students, assuming her team would follow her. Although, of course, Sunset was walking ahead of her. What did she think she was proving this way? They weren’t wolves: the hierarchy wasn’t established by dominance displays. It was established by crazy old kooks who don’t know the first thing about leader-type personalities.

“You go.” Adagio told Wild. “She said after dinner, and we’re not done eating.” She looked to her sisters, waiting for them to agree. Aria shrugged and pushed her food around on her plate. Sonata just nodded in between gulps, seeming dangerously close to choking on her barely-chewed food. Adagio smiled and resumed her own meal.

---

Sunset chose a seat in the front rows. After careful consideration, Fantasy chose a seat directly behind Sunset. Nox, constantly checking on her teammates for approval, chose a seat near the middle. Shining tried to sit next to Sunset, but left almost immediately after a very brief conversation (“Hello! Are you a Pony of Light-” “No.”) and spent several minutes hovering between seats, apparently searching for somepony or several someponies; several didn’t suit her and several decided she didn’t suit them. Eventually, though, she did find a group of ponies she liked and finally sat down at the end of the rows.

The sirens would come in just before the lecture started and choose seats in the middle of the back row.

Viridian is visibly surprised by the rough-and-tough thestral suddenly asking something of her. And not merely asking, but asking in a friendly manner, without the expected implicit threat of a cracked nose, or simply going ahead and sitting next to her anyway without asking first. After a moment, she smiles. "Seems like an ideal plan to me. I have some fondness for our boss, mostly because of how unsure she is of being boss, but I suspect that I shall work far more closely with you in the field, Miss Back." She gestures to the wide range of seats being filled by a wide range of students. "Do you have a preference?"

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see that you weren't finished." Wild Card apologised, looking down at the three merponies and their meals. Aria didn't even seem to be bothered by the food, but Wild just thought that maybe she's just a picky eater and school meals weren't up to her standard. Sonata was on the other end of the spectrum, but given her haste in getting to the hall for food in the first place, it would be reasonable to assume she was just very hungry. "Well, see you there then. Enjoy your meals." The pegasus said cheerfully, waving to the merponies as he left the hall and made his way to the lecture room.

Once there, Wild looked around to see if there were any spaces large enough for four ponies to sit together and, upon finding one a little ways in from the edge of the row, he shuffled his way past a few students and sat down happily. Once there he idly drummed his fingers against his knees as he waited, every now and then looking up at the professor and wondering if his loudness was a result of being electrocuted by the projector he seemed to be giving a death glare at. Then as the rest of his team came in, he gave them a slight wave to hopefully signal that he found a good place to sit... before watching them sit on the back row. With a slight huff, the stallion stood up, shuffled back out of his row with a few apologies to the students he passed and wandered up to where the merponies were sat.

"Thank you, Miss Rain... I suppose I shall see you around?" She asked, before waving her off. Anja nodded at Shining, letting the young pony go on her way before glancing at the pony whom she loosely considered the leader of her team, if only because she had to.

Anja smiled briefly as she entered the hall, before following Nox all the way to her seat, and sitting down directly next to her. She didn't say anything, instead petting the tiny wolf cub that had once again appeared from thin air. She stared at the thestral who was standing at the front of the hall, gently stroking the pup as she waited for him to get on with it.

"Alright everyone, settle down, settle down, now let me just set, ah someone catch that please!" The thestral called to the room as, in a fuss to get his slides in order he knocked an hourglass off the table, which contained purple sand; rather than simply falling and shattering the hourglass glowed and began floating around the room, eventually bumping Sunshine on the head as it floated up over the benches and desks after Razor Back made a swipe at it, missed and settled into the seat next to Viridian closer to the back of the classroom, putting her feet up on the desk immediately.

"Right, yes, sorry about that, umm if you could pass that back to me that would be lovely. Well, hello everyone, my name is Docile Storm, I'll be your instructor on the Grimm." He smiled, giving the projector a whack to display a large, biological blueprint of a basic beowolf. "Now, can anyone give me an accurate description of a Grimm, and better yet can anyone here answer me if you've had any encounters with the Grimm yourself, would be good to know where we all stand on experience since we are being rather rushed along here." He did indeed seem quite harassed, his mane was windswept as though he was running his hands through it a lot. "Anyone care to volunteer, or do I have to get out a dartboard?" He asked absent-mindedly as he looked around at the class, his eyes zipping around even faster than his head could turn.

Before anyone could answer Professor storm, Nox bolted up, a little overeager to start proving herself. "Grimm are creatures of several species that can all be identified by dark coloration, white bony protrusions, and bright red magical energy that can be seen running in veins along their exposed skulls and bones and shining brightly in their eyes. Grimm feed off of negative energies, such as hatred, fear, or despair, as well as some forbidden magics which are also charged by negatively-powered magic. They are aggressive and lack the ability to fear, although they can feel pain and do have survival instincts. They are also soulless and cannot have magic of their own. Grimm are only known to attack equines unprovoked, and in fact will search endlessly for equines to attack, although if they're desperate for... er, sustenance, they will attack and distress non-equine species if they're available. Grimm are extremely vulnerable to attacks of Love Magic- although "attack" is a bit of a misnomer as Love Magic can't actually be used offensively as the intention to harm is inherently unloving-" Nox gasped for breath... then continued. "Grimm also disintegrate upon death, making it impossible to get more than a glimpse at their insides, which appear to just be... uh... dust, I guess. Dust, dirt... stuff. It's all red, too, it all glows red until the beast dies, when the energy evaporates into the air and the Grimm's body turns to a dark pile of fine dust. Um... hm..." Nox put her hand up to her muzzle, wondering what else to add.

"Grimm," Sunset chimed in, and turned to look at Nox, and speaking with an obnoxious and condescending tone that implied Nox was forgetting something obvious. "also primarily inhabit Equestria. Most other countries don't have to deal with them because none of them can swim and only two species can fly." She turned back to the front of the room and looked at Professor Storm. "I can give detailed descriptions of all the Grimm species myself if you want to save some time."

Fantasy arched her eyebrow as high as it could go. Which was pretty high. "I wonder if it's possible to explode from an over-inflated ego." she muttered to Sunset. A few students behind the pair snickered. Sunset merely glanced at her and growled.

Behind everypony, Adagio grinned wolfishly. She quickly suppressed it before Professor Storm could catch her. "See girls?" she whispered to Aria and Sonata. "I told you the Canterlot Academy-" (That was everything Wild Card heard, for Sonata covered his ears just then, with the explanation of 'Private conversation. No stranger-danger ears!') "-was the perfect place to start."

"It's an ideal start." Aria admitted, shrugging. "But I can think of a million ways this could backfire."

"Well, we don't know much about Equestria anymore, now do we? We have to work with what we know." Adagio responded, almost growling.

"And what we don't know can kill us." Aria retorted.

"Do you have a better idea?" Silence. "That's what I thought."

Sonata let go of Wild's head.

Wild Card watched the hourglass inexplicably floated around the room, finding the object very curious and yet amusing, especially when he mused the idea that the hourglass was attempting to escape the room. But it was just magic, most likely, as was the explanation for pretty much anything odd happening, in Wild's experiences. He listened quite happily as the mare in the cloak stood up and... gave a very in depth and informative description of the Grimm, which honestly surprised him as he was generally expecting the answer of 'big, bad monster which eats ponies'.

Just as that ended, Adagio started to whisper to the other members of his team but, before anything major could be overheard by Wild, Sonata covered his ears with her hands. This made the stallion pout a little and mumble to Sonata, "I thought I wasn't that much of a stranger to be a danger." However, when her surprisingly smooth hands left his head and let him hear properly again, he looked quizzically at his team, shrugged, then raised a hand. "Um... Well I mean I can't give more of a description than her, but I have encountered Grimm before. I live in Cloudshire, so we get the occasional mutant Nevermore from those that stray far enough away from the Griffish Isles. I... haven't exactly fought them though, the Protectors stationed there do that... Fought a few Beobeasts and Beowolves, but that's about it." Wild said out loud, looking a little sheepish afterwards with the thought that he may have lost a bit of respect from his peers given his inexperience with fighting Grimm.

Anja watched the hourglass as it floated by, content to let someone else catch the obviously dust-influenced object. She was quiet as Nox spoke, still quietly petting the dire wolf that was nestled in the folds of her dress. She hummed a calming tune as it yawned, tiny fangs shining in the light before it went back to sleep. Once the room fell quiet, she spoke to the group, her voice echoing from her hood. "I cannot speak for the rest of you, but I have experienced no such aggression from Grimm when I travel alone. In fact, they seem to make a point of leaving me alone. Perhaps if you did not reek of fear..." she trailed off and shrugged, smiling gently in the shadows of her hood as the wolf cub awoke at the sound of his surrogate mother's voice.

"He's real, by the by, Miss Loon," she murmured to the mare sitting next to her as the wolf began to pace in her lap. "That is to say, he is no illusion."

"A dartboard would be a great test of skill," Viridian said to Docile Storm. "There are grimm that cast projectiles of various sorts so dodging sharp objects thrown by a professor would be good practice." By her expression and tone, it's evident that she sincerely means what she says. She looks like she plans to answer the main question, concerning grimm, but Nox gets to it first, followed immediately by a quietly authoritative comment from Anja. She takes a breath and before the professor can response, or anyone else jump in to add their two cents, Viridian launches in. "I'm afraid, Your Grace, that chance abnormality isn't a reliable strategy for self defense," she says to the cloaked pony, her expression and tone the very image of deferential earnestness. "If you simply keep your fear so tightly controlled it's imperceptible, that is the result of abnormal training. If you simply cannot experience fear at all, that is abnormal as well. But in both instances, you can easily deceive the animal intelligence of the grimm to avoid confrontation entirely; most cannot fall back on gifts exclusive to others."

She turns her eyes to the front of the room, her expression and tone becoming prim and placid. "To the observations of the young lady in front, I would add that the nature and composition of the grimm precludes dissection due to the fact that they vaporize upon death. This lack of experimental knowledge of how they even function also precludes vivisection, as we have no capacity to know hot to cut a living grimm apart without slaying it. That said, they appear to be animate scarecrows of a sort, a distinct shell filled with substance and directed by various animal intelligences. Some of these intelligences act in sophisticated ways, some enough so that low-level sapience is conceivable. Delving into pure speculation, the grimm bear more than a passing resemblance to golems, animate constructs bound to normally inanimate material and 'programmed' if you will by many layers of dust runescription. Exactly what the inanimate material is, however, has always eluded us no matter how quick and cunning we are in trying to obtain some of it. That said, I'm of the opinion that grimm are composed  of highly refined dust that can accommodate enough runic circuity to make them animalistic and exclusive predators." She pauses. "An interesting thing to consider is the question of, if they were made, who made them? And how do they perpetuate themselves?"

Sunny made a face after getting bapped by the hourglass. Reaching up and snatching it out of the air, she inspected it for a bit. “Huh, neat.” She stood up and tossed it right back over the students to Docile Storm. “There ya go, sir.” She sat back down before continuing. “I’ve never faced a Grimm before. At least, not outside of a controlled environment. Though I expect to make up for that lost time eventually.”

Docile reached a hand up and caught the hourglass. "Thank you Sunshine; Gravity Dust. A fairly new type of Dust for me, always best to experiment before you put it in something that can explode I find." He said, setting the hourglass back on the desk where it continued to glow but sat in place. "And yes, as Viridian and Nox have told us here the Grimm can be described as, not to intimidate you anymore than usual, living nightmares; they are born from negativity, they thrive in the darkness and are drawn towards our dread, our fear, our anger... whatever might divide us, unites the Grimm."

Docile's voice dropped and an odd grin played about his face for a moment as he spoke about the Grimm in an almost awed voice, as though he couldn't help but admire the abominations. "But, yes, as Viridian also tells us, precious little is known about them- Miss Dusk please do not play around in my class or I'll set you lines- because of their tendency to dissipate upon their demise." Docile continued, pausing to admonish Sonata's clapping her hands over Wild Card's ears.

"Now then, as you should now know, we can't bring a Grimm in here for you to practice on. Even aside from the practical problems of capturing one alive, bringing one into the sanctum where we teach you to hunt them seems counter productive; therefore, I have prepared a few simulants for you that should mimick, at least in basics, the behavior patterns of your standard Beowolf."

Docile Storm flicked a switch under the desk and a platform raised up; on the platform several dummies in the shape of Beowolves, made from sacks and stuffing by all appearances and each with a glimmering, enchanted gemstone set between it's eyes, emerged.

"I would ask all of you to step up and choose a Beowolf to demonstrate on. Melee weapons ONLY, please; I don't want to have the heads after me for bullet holes in the lecture hall." He said, snapping his fingers; several of the front desks that were unoccupied stood up and lined themselves against the wall, clearing a semi-circle of space at the front of the room.

"Now these simulants are basic, declawed if you will; no need to fret about them for now, show me how you would deal with a Beowolf.

((Feel free to script your own encounter with the Beowolf if you wish to give a detailed show of strength)).

Whether Nox reacted to the fact there was an actual living dire wolf pupper sitting on the lap of the girl next to her, Anja sighed at Docile's statement, before daintily raising a gloved hand. "And once that is done, may we go?" She asked, before standing up, the tiny wolf bounding off to find somewhere to sleep whilst his mother fought.

There was a flash as a nimbus of golden energy flowed around the girl, her movement speeding up as she approached one of the many Grimm dummies that had risen up from the floor. Her body rippled as she walked, her fur darkening. Before another word was spoken, a dire wolf as tall as a stallion was padding towards the beowolf doll.

There was a flash of claws and dark fur, and the gargantuan wolf had its jaws wrapped around the doll's neck. It was over quickly, a ripping noise filling the hall as the wolf that had been Anja tore its head from its shoulders. A growl rippled up through her throat, before she lifted her head and let out a hauntingly beautiful howl that filled the hall, mirrored by the tiny wolf cub that had taken up residence on Docile's lap or desk, whichever was free.

Viridian began to rise from her seat when Anja gets up and goes to the front of the class room. Viridian immediately bows slightly in the direction of the other mare and seats herself, watching with intense interest as Anja demonstrated her technique. The method took Viridian completely aback, and her eyes widened and remained as wide as saucers as she took in the transformation and the simple brutal approach to destroying the animate. The howl caused Viridian to blink and evoked a very slight tilt of her head, finding the gesture odd somehow. It didn't seem to be celebratory, and it would seem wildly out of character for her if it was, the peridot-green mare thought to herself as the hall became silent in the wake of Anja's display. Viridian let the silence sit for several moments, looking around the room to see if anyone was going to shake it off and make the next demonstration. At the lack of response, and the apparently stunned state of the room, Viridian shrugged her shoulders and rose to her feet. "If I may make the next demonstration of technique, Professor Storm?"

At the thestral's assent, Viridian scooted down the row and to the aisle leading down to where the remaining animates were lined up. As she went, she undid a couple of the buttons of her long coat and reached inside, emerging with a shining kukhri that gleamed with newness, or at least meticulous care. With her free hand, she undid several more buttons, leaving only the top two, and drawing an old-fashioned straight razor from the other side of her coat, flicking it casually to unsheathe the lethal-looking blade that also showed all the hallmarks of meticulous and intense attention to maintenance. Viridian pauses as she reaches the bottom of the slight steps, turning to give the transformed Anja another respectful bow, before she proceeds to the nearest intact animate. She sinks into a stalking crouch as she approaches, her eyes fixed on the "eyes" of the construct, unblinking and intense, starting to roll her gait and her steps as she gets closer and then she stops. She rolls from ball of feet to heel and back again, bobbing her body and head as she stares her opponent down, the construct mimicking her movements before coming off its dais and starting towards her. The simulant wasn't the same as a real beowulf, but its "programming" was good and it made a spirited attempt to approach with the same stalking gait that Viridian employed, except on four legs instead of two.

Predator and prey, prey and predator, began to circle each other, watching each other intently, looking for a weakness or some opening to attack with impunity. The construct makes the first move, darting its head in one direction, testing Viridian. Viridian responds immediately, holding the catch of the straight razor so that when she whips it in the direction of the darting head, the blade moves on its hinge with a slight flexibility, causing it to snap out like a tiny whipcord and stop just short of the face of the scarecrow-like object, causing it to flinch backwards. Viridian doesn't dart into the opening, but instead returns to her patient prowling, letting the construct recover and begin circling with her again. Someone watching closely would notice that the distance between the two seems to be dissolving slowly, almost imperceptibly, the distance between the construct and the reach of the kukhri shrinking gradually as the dance of the predators continues. After a minute of this, the construct seems to notice that the prey was now just an abrupt and lightning-fast lunge away and as the pair circle such that the back of the simulant is towards Anja, it makes to do just that, its toothless stuffed mouth agape to chomp down on the easy meal.

Instead of dodging, or moving her wrist to punish her foe with the razor sharpness of the blade, Viridian moves forward into the strike, bending her body and lifting her arm such that the simulant slips right passed her, yanking open part of her coat as it goes by. Before it can even land, Viridian has lit her horn and a cloud of shining sharpness leaps from the opened coat, blades both large and small, ordinary and exotic, weapon and tool. She gestures with her kukhri and the storm of cutting implements sails towards the unfortunate target, parting around it briefly and then collapsing inwards, the various blades embedding themselves in the simulant. Both Viridian and her victim turn and look at each other for a moment, the construct unable to really feel what has happened, Viridian looking at it with the cold remoteness of a scientist puzzling over a paramecium, before Viridian raises the straight razor to the air and lets gravity swing the blade shut. At the precise moment the blade klunks into its resting place, every single blade embedded in the construct pulls straight back towards it rear and what used to be an animated series of sacks imitating a beowulf became a pile of shredded cloth with a frantically glowing enchanted gem sitting atop the pile. Viridian tucks her kukhri and straight razor into their appointed places in her coat, appointed places only visible to Anja and perhaps Docile Storm. Both would see that the inside of her coat is covered in sheathes from top to bottom, each meticulously constructed to hold a very particular blade or tool, and with the two blades in her hands put away, Viridian extends both pointer fingers and starts making gestures like a choirmaster conducting music. Each twitch causes the blades to work back and forth, moving gradually out of the shredded mass until they're free of it, and then with a grand sweeping gesture, the cloud reforms and flows back towards the coat. With almost no sound, the blades slip fluidly back into their appointed places in the coat and then there is the crackling sound of dozens of snaps closing over their contents.

Viridian closes her coat and begins to button it. "Naturally, I'd hardly be theatrical with an actual grimm," she said conversationally to Anja and Docile. "Although against a real grimm, I'd be fully armed and made ready to undertake earnest combat against a hoard of the beasts. But I thank you, Professor, for the chance for me to show off a little and step outside of my reseved exterior for a moment." She smiles broadly and bows once again to Anja. "Your own display was beautifully ruthless and brutal, milady, bravo." And then she turns sharply on her heel and climbs back to her seat, immediately slouching down in a precise mirror of Razor's posture as she seats herself, watching with interest as the other students strutted their stuff as well.

Sunny looked thoroughly unimpressed by the dummies. “Seriously? I’ve had pillows harder to beat than these things.” She approached one of the dummies, a glowing yellow sword forming in her hand. Without waiting for the dummy to attack, she swung her sword and cleanly split the dummy in half. Anyone who looked at the dummy would see that where Sunny’s blade cleaved through was blackened and burnt. “There, simple. I'm sure actual combat won't be as easy, but you got a taste of what I can do.” With that, she straightened her combat skirt and moved back to her seat to watch the others kill their dummies. A smile fell upon her face. “For once, I don’t feel so out of place anymore.” She said quietly to herself.