metacademicals | DODGE!ball

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DODGE!ball

Who: Hernan Guerra and You!
What: Gym Class! Superhero Style.
When: Fourth Period, just before lunch. So you're probably good and hangry...
Where: Summers Training Center, Central Gym
Notes & Warnings: DODGE! Otherwise, no.

There was a time, back before certain safety regulations had been put into effect, when the dodgeballs had been equipped with explosives and retractable blades and a few other interesting surprises for those who didn't manage to either dodge or catch them. Nowadays, sadly, they've been reduced to merely using weighted balls for various strength-types with an organo-chemical coating that made sure students couldn't merely phase through their opponent's throw. Thankfully, they're color-coded, blue to red, to make sure that everyone picks up an appropriate ball. Or so, hopefully, they will when the heat of the game comes over them.

"All right everyone," he started, floating thoughtfully past the line of balls along one side of the classroom, "as the computer generated training machines are currently being put through some software upgrades, we will be falling back to the old classics, hmm?"

That smile was... well, it was just a little too pleased.

"I'm sure you know how this works. Powers can be used defensively but not offensively other than to throw the balls. I want to see a clean game. And have no doubt that I will be watching."

It softened just a touch.

"And you know I am here if you are in need of assistance. Now... let us get to stretching, yes?"

Roll Call | Teams | Stretch | Play | Talk to Coach Guerra

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On a day like today, it's especially important to find out who's here. Tag in if you'd like to play!

First two to tag this post get to pick teams from those in the roll call! Feel free to chat, mutter, complain, or angst about how and when you're chosen as you like.

Chat, screw around, try and get sent to the nurse here. It's your only chance to socialize before DODGEageddon starts.

Dodge, catch, and throw those balls! Just remember that you're not allowed to use your powers AGAINST other students in this game; just to help yourself and your team!

If you're looking to talk to the teacher himself after, before, or during class, here's the place to go. He doesn't bite. Well, not usually.

"Sooo... Coach! Am I still banned?"

Ah. This one. The kind of student he secretly finds deeply amusing but unfortunately, finds publicly irritating. The burden of being a teacher, right there.

"I don't know, De Asgard," he says with an expansive gesture to the set up in the gym, "will you attempt to obey the rules this time? If you can't, don't waste my time."

"Well, I always try," Loki says, in all earnestness. "I'm just not terribly good at it. Besides, it's not like portals and teleportation are against the rules."

"No, they are not. When you are the one going through the portals and being teleported. But you keep doing it to those who are throwing at you."

"Throwing up a portal to intercept a missile is a perfectly valid defensive use of portals."

"Only when you don't open the other end next to someone's head."

"I didn't intentionally open it next to his head."

He holds up a finger.

"Play your games. But do not lie to me. Or-" his smile peeks out from behind a stern expression, "Lie to me as you need to. But not about such things as this."

"Please, as if I would be so unsubtle?" Loki asks. "Besides, this school is too full of the intellectually uninspiring for me to risk creating more of them. Fear not," he continues. "I shan't intentionally open any portals in the vicinity of any heads, though I make no promises of anyone not putting their heads in the way of a portal."

"You are as subtle or unsubtle as suits your mood," he points out with a raised eyebrow. "And I will be fine with that, as long as I do not see you herding people with your portals."

Loki just shrugs, not denying it.

"Fine, fine; I shan't herd anyone with my portals. By the way," he adds, producing a sheaf of paper from... somewhere... and holding it out. "I circulated a petition among the, ah, more durable members of the student body to reinstate the fun balls, if only for that particular cohort. The upperclassmen in particular are dissatisfied with the state of things."

"So how many students did you maim today, Hernan?"

Kirk waits until after the class is over before making his appearance. He leans against the doorway with his arms crossed and his over-sized lab coat brushing up against the floor.

"Me?"

Look at that face, Kirk. Really. He's completely innocent of maiming students. Why would he do that, after all? Completely besides the point.

"A couple of them may have come close to maiming each other but I would never do such a thing to a student, of course."

He glances back.

"How many of yours still have eyebrows?"

Yes, it's because he sees that face that he's asking. He knows you, Hernan.

"I refuse to believe you didn't sneak one of those exploding dodgeballs in with the completely normal ones you were forced to replace them with."

At the accusation he just smirks.

"I teach the accelerated chemistry classes. Anyone who can't keep up by the time they reach me deserves to lose them."

And for the record, the only student who claimed to lose their eyebrows was a shapeshifting class clown who thought it would be funny.

"And I am teaching gym class to those who want to fill our shoes someday. If they can't handle a simple explosive dodgeball, well..."

Kirk can see what his face says about that. They've dealt with much worse, and any of those kids would have to as well if they wanted to done a cape or a coat or even just go flying out into the fray. At least with dodgeball, they only had to dodge the projectiles. There were rules to dodgeball. Villains didn't play by rules, as they both very well knew.

"Only one. He needed to be cut down a little. His big head would get him killed otherwise. It was a favor to him, if he knows it or not."

Because Hernan can spot an ego. Anything big enough to even dent his own was considerable.

Kirk can't help but snort at that.

"Hernan before I got my powers I couldn't dodge a ball, and everything turned out for me just fine."

Except for the whole vampiric powers thing, but his point still stands, damn it.

"What's the real reason you're going so hard after these kids? And don't even start the whole 'villains don't play by the rules' bullshit all the other teachers have. You and I both know we were far closer to the villains we're teaching the kids to fight than the side of the angels when we first started out in the Justice League."

You'll have to excuse the intensely skeptical look, Kirk. He won't say that Kirk would hardly ever use the word 'fine' to describe himself except to win this argument, but it's there. And of course, Kirk had never intended to do what they did. The situation here was different.

But--

"I should think that would be obvious," he points out as he heads towards his little office tucked up in the corner of the gym. Kirk will follow him and then he can pour out something for both of them to drink: him from the drawer in his desk, Kirk from the 'fridge he keeps.

"It is because we were so close that I feel so strongly about that very motto."

Once there, he leans against his desk and reaches over to start doing just that.

"I watch them and I think to myself of a hundred ways I could rip them apart. But what I do with that information is very different than what someone just a little worse than us might."

Jeez Hernan he meant in terms of being a superhero. He's well aware he's a hot mess in pretty much every other aspect of his life. Taking the drink, he leans against a wall and before takings a sip.

"But we had to make the mistakes we made to get to where we are." Kirk takes another sip. "I'm just... I try to imagine the two of us in these kids' shoes. You'd rebel against your instructors in a heartbeat if they pushed you like that. As I recall you weren't exactly fond of other people telling you what to do, regardless of whether or not they had the best of intentions."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

DODGE!ball

Roll Call

Teams

Stretch

PLAY!

Talk to Coach Guerra

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