video; un: harbinger

[bolstafir]

[The scruffy, middle-aged man that appears on the screen looks a bit uncomfortable. Videochat is certainly not his preferred mode of communication on these devices, but he does figure it would be helpful to see his face for what he's posting on the network to say, so.]

Uh...hey. I'm Qrow. If you don't know me from Deerington, I'm a Huntsman. Which--mostly means I've fought a lot of monsters and sh--[hm. children.]...crap like that.

So anyway, it's halfway through October, and the streets aren't overflowing with blood and corpses, and far as I know nobody's gotten eaten by monsters or lost their mind and gone on a murdering rampage. But that probably just means the town's waiting for us to let our guard down.

[Or maybe that's just paranoia. But Qrow would rather err on the side of paranoia rather than complacence, considering his last October.]

Point is, now seems like as good a time as any to learn to defend yourself if you don't already know how to fight. I uh, I used to teach teenagers in a combat school, a few years ago? So I've got some experience.

...Don't expect a lot, I quit for a reason--[that reason being, honestly, Ruby getting admitted to Beacon a full two years early, but shhh]--but you can get the basics down.

So yeah. Let me know.

Comments

[video | un: inkmetal]

[inkedspell]

Oh, you're the uncle. I hear you know how to swing a scythe. I could some training on that. I know I'm rusty.

[She's not sure if it's been weeks or months since she got to use one and she definitely needs to practice with her new hand.]

Video; un: ilikemeat

[velvet_teen]

You fight with a scythe, right? Teach me how!

I only went to school for one day and it looked pretty boring but if you quit because of the boring stuff like books and lessons then that's perfect.

[ Xerxes Break is to blame for everything here. Alice's face is too close to the "screen" and she is being very loud. It is unclear whether she is unfamiliar with the technology and thinks she needs to shout to be heard or whether she is just like this. ]

[bolstafir]

[Man, that's another friend of Ruby's he's never met before. Is she from the dream, or someone new? He really has been slacking on keeping track of things, huh.]

Yeah, sure. ...You've got one, right?

[He was planning to at most have to hunt down a couple practice swords. Qrow has absolutely no idea where one could acquire a scythe in this city.]

[inkedspell]

[Sarona gives a little half-smirk.]

I got one if I need one. Can also help make any weapons you need for your little defense classes. Or a training golem.

[bolstafir]

[Meanwhile, Qrow is assuming this is yet another one of Ruby's friends. Break's shenanigans are not suspected this time, not least because he wasn't aware the man had realized the form of his weapon by sound alone.

This is, ah, definitely a particularly feral child, though. The paleblood headaches aren't so bad when he's at the Clockhouse with Ozpin, but he is feeling one coming on already. This is karma for how feral he was at seventeen, he's sure of it.]

Well, I'm sure as hell not gonna make you read any books. [Perish the thought. If he assigned reading he'd have to read that shit too.]

...You are basically signing up for lessons, though. Not the 'ramble a lot about boring crap in a classroom' kind, at least?

[bolstafir]

...Huh. That's convenient. [What a useful not-semblance.] Dunno what a training golem is, but the practice weapons'll be great.

[inkedspell]

Picture something like a robot mimics moves to give people a challenge to beat up that isn't a real person.

[Simple and flexible, not nothing as intricate as what she made back in Deerington. She's not ready to go that far again.]

video; un; spcschnee

[winter_bestowed]

Just make sure to watch your back Qrow. There's definitely something going on and things have been following certain people around.

But you're going to try to go back to teaching? Really?

[velvet_teen]

[ Books are fine as long as they have pictures but once they get out of that territory nothing good ever comes of it. ]

I’ll do lessons even if I hate them. It’s dangerous here and I’ll hate not having lessons even more!

[ This is some powerful foresight at extreme difficulty by Alice standards but she has two fools she is responsible for and two other fools who she is less responsible for but nevertheless exist and she is trying to make an effort. ]

video; un: tabris

[peripheries]

So, you're offering your services but we shouldn't expect much either? Seems like it defeats the purpose.

[The tone isn't as cutting as the words spoken. It seems more baffled as though it can't seem to quite figure out how those two parts could exist together,[

[bolstafir]

[So like one of the mechanical soldiers from Atlas. Qrow can't help but make a bit of a face. He never cared for those things.]

Eh, I can take care of the sparring part myself. I've got a decent idea of what a beginner can handle.

[bolstafir]

[Okay, he has to admit that's a little bit endearing. He breaks into a faint grin.]

Yeah, it's best to be prepared for anything around here.

[A beat.]

Do you uh, have a scythe? Or should I ask the other girl to make you one? Mine's all wrong for your height and build.

[bolstafir]

Yeah, I know. Pretty sure the second we let our guard down for a second around here, things will all go right to hell. But it's nice we aren't exactly at Peak October right now, either.

[...Is that judgment in your tone there, Winter Schnee. :V Qrow grunts in discontent. He is doing his rubesty here ok.]

Hmph. Well, I figure it won't go worse than before. [Seeing as how he is, you know, no longer regularly drunk and/or hungover.] And I'm not doing classes, or anything. More of a one-on-one training sort of deal.

[bolstafir]

[Qrow shrugs a shoulder in vague discomfort. He's offering this largely as an offshoot of his own anxieties about October, something productive to do when there are in fact no mass invasion of monsters to kill or Sleepers that have gone unhinged to worry about. But it doesn't ease that part of him that gets nervous about bearing a large amount of responsibility for people who will necessarily be inexperienced at best at defending themselves should anything go wrong.]

I'm just saying I'm not exactly anyone's ideal teacher or anything, but I've got skills and experience and nobody else is offering, so it's better than nothing.

[inkedspell]

Fair enough. Offers on the table. But I'm definitely not a beginner. Been using one for years, but need a bit of retraining.

[She holds up her hand--the metal one--wiggling the fingers.]

[bolstafir]

Ah. My niece lost her arm too, a while back. [A beat.] My other niece. Yang. I don't know if you met her.

[He shakes his head.]

Anyway, I can probably help.

[He wasn't there to help retrain Yang because he was following Ruby's trail to Mistral, but he did help Ruby in Deerington, after she lost her eye. He's familiar enough with how a scythe should move to be able to spot any errors in her form, at least, even if he doesn't have the experience of dealing with the shift of weight and sensation of a prosthetic.]

Just let me know when you wanna get started.

[inkedspell]

Never met Yang, but Ruby told me about her. Losing arms is the worst fashion trend around here, but we make it work. I'm used to be ambidextrous with my weapons, and I want to get back to that.

I'm free after work tomorrow. Say around 3. You good with that?

[She's not someone who likes waiting around.]

[peripheries]

Of course. There's an importance in just sharing knowledge. It helps humans grow and change.

[So that's agreement? Apparently. Or at least, it's agreement in his mind!]

Tell me more about the combat knowledge you have.

[winter_bestowed]

It is nice being able to keep an outfit clean for more than a few moments without blood everywhere. And having actual days.

[Old habits die hard, plus there's the matter of personality.]

I guess the basics could be alright. Just try not to destroy the town in the process.

Video | UN: ClickClickBloom

[onekindsoul]

Kick their butts uncle Qrow!

[That is not the point, Ruby.]

[velvet_teen]

I can’t summon it here, I need a new one. I used to be taller, anyway.

[ The limits of Alice’s discretion, which she does in fact have, are that she’s not leading with ‘so the last time I used a scythe I was a rabbit monster the size of a small elephant’. Even if he says he’s prepared for anything - actually, he probably is, if he’s known Break for a month and hasn’t run away screaming. ]

What does yours look like, is it fancy?

[ Scythes aren’t common weapons, she wants to see what her potential life goal and role model has to show off. He’s old, he’s fought monsters, he still has all his limbs and eyeballs and stuff. She sits back, with the impatient sparkle similar to a normal child who is on the way to Disneyland and is eager to see a real genuine princess in the flesh. ]

[bolstafir]

[Qrow has walked through a door in a sinkhole made of flesh and given himself over to an ocean that turned him temporarily into a squid before washing up in Trench, okay. There is literally nothing that can faze him in terms of Weird Shit anymore.

In light of all that, "used to be taller" doesn't even make the list of particularly strange things Qrow has heard.]

Well, I think it's pretty cool, anyway.

[And because he is still an edgy goth and will happily take any opportunity to show off his weapon, the video shifts as Qrow props it up against a wall somewhere and pulls out the weapon from his back, the gears spinning and making sharp metallic clinks as it expands from its sword form to a proper scythe.

He grins at her, then, as he rests the weapon against his shoulder.]

This is Harbinger.

[Yeah, he's That edgy goth. Don't judge him.]

[velvet_teen]

So it folds up so you don’t bonk it going through doorways, and it’s got pretty swirls on the blade, and the handle part is red, and it makes that shunk shunk shunk noise to let everyone know you mean business... All right, that’s the best scythe I’ve ever seen!

[ Loyalty is one thing but the Blood Stained Black Rabbit isn’t its weapon or vice versa, that scythe doesn’t even have a name- ]

Say, why does it have a name? Is it because it’s important to you as your favorite stuffed toy?

[ That is a very deep level of importance to Alice, it makes sense to her and the comparison is in fact meant to be flattering. You don’t give just any old stuff a name unless you love it. ]

video | un: deku

[wannasmash]

I'm not letting my guard down either.

[ He couldn't even if he wanted to, with how many shifts he took on to watch over the city's festivities. It's his way of beating the homesickness, but it only worked while he was on the job.

Currently, he was on a roof taking a lunch break. Otherwise he wouldn't be reading posts on his Omni. ]

I've been looking for teachers. I'm--I was a student at UA High, in the Hero Course. That's combat and rescue training. And publicity stuff, but I'm not sure how important that is here.

text | un: hardcore.

[deathrespect]

Aye. Yeah, I used to fight with a kind of weapon I can't get access to, so learning hand to hand 'n shit would be good.