Fandom High School

The Danger Shop that day was set up to look as though they were standing on the plateau of a mountain, one which dropped down dramatically on one side, and sloped up sharply on the other, so it should be of no surprise to the students when Ignis started his lesson, what the topic would be.

"Terrain," he said, pausing importantly, before continuing, "is often the most difficult barrier when it comes to combat without the sense of sight to rely on. Not only does a lack of awareness of one's terrain put you at a significant disadvantage, but it can also trip you up, quite literally, or cause almost as much harm as your enemies themselves. Which is why today, we're going to be working a bit with terrain, very specifically navigating a steep and rocky surface and figuring out how to feel and sense your way around...hopefully without getting stabbed or shot at."

Rock climbing, essentially. You were all doing rock climbing, but in the dark.

"There are two courses here, one descending and one ascending," he continued. "Feel free to practice with your preference or even try to get in both of them. We'll have you run them first in the light, to get a good idea of what you're working with, an advantage that you will very rarely have, and then we'll run the courses in the dark, as I'm sure, by now, you've come to expect. If there's time for a third run, we will add an element of attack: while you work your way either up or down the mountain, arrows and bolts will be shot at you, and you'll have to do your best to avoid them. Three hits, and you'll have to start over.

"Any questions before we begin?"

Oh, look! Another class inspired vaguely by the events of this weekend! But, hey, sometimes, some people had to make a lot of these things every week, if an easy opportunity for class material presents itself, you take it, and you run with it.

Ignis was running with it with a little extra help from Gladio again this week, since he'd be the first to admit that his experience with some of the things he wanted to do this week was a little restricted these days. But the class would find themselves in a bit of a volcanic terrain, very inspired by the Rock of Ravatogh back in Eos, just with a lot more lava flows and pits, as well as a variety of metallic and wooden structures to make it a bit more interesting to travel across and, naturally, your roaming enemy targets.

"Well, I have to say," Ignis started, "what happened this weekend was unfortunate, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't at least inspire a solution for how I could effectively work the deprivation of touch into a lesson. In fact, it opened up a few ideas for me for the next few weeks, but this week, I figured, since it's a topic very fresh in our minds, we'll do a little work with heat sensory. Now, sometimes, the danger of a fire or an extremely hot area such as a volcano or the like, isn't the fire or the lava itself...though make no mistake, those are definitely quite the danger...but rather what's around as well. Wooden structures that may collapse. Metal fixtures that are far hotter than they appear. And, typically, one could use their sense of touch to determine whether something is unsafe. Here in the danger shop, though, we can run a course where the sensation of heat is not there to guide you, and so you'll have to depend on your other senses to determine a safe path. We'll go over a few ways to use your sight, your hearing, even smell, to help you seek out factors other than the heat itself to know which way to go and what to avoid, and then, of course, you'll put that into practice. And since sight will be helpful in this case, we have Gladio here to help with that aspect, though if anyone's interested in running a version of the course that goes in the opposite direction, where we'll focus on the usefulness of feel without the aid of vision, let me know, I do have that prepared as well."

"As with last week," said Ignis, as he adjusted a glove slightly while getting class started, "we'll be doing a little more work with the sense of smell this week, although there really isn't a whole lot to work with in regards to this particular sense. It's one of those things that can become incredibly helpful in the absence of other senses," he made a not even remotely sheepish gesture toward his own milky-white, sightless eyes, "but does not restrict one terribly in combat if one does not have it. With some enemies, it could even be a boon to not have to smell them. I know I have used a keen sense of smell to help locate where certain beasts or monsters might be located, and what kinds I might be dealing with.

"So what I'd like to do today," he decided, "is go back to practicing without visuals, and to use that to help you hone in on some olfactory awareness. Again, a course has been designed for you to work through; you are to find the enemies in the dark and dispatch of them, trying to use their scent as a way to track and determine what kind of enemy they are and any other details you may discern from them. And after you've had a few goes at it, if there is time, we can discuss what you felt you could determine about the enemies by scent alone.

"Take some time to warm up, and then we'll begin."

Once again, the Danger Shop was brightly lit...but exceptionally quiet, although it wouldn't be until after the instructors were finished introducing today's lesson that it would drop entirely into the unnerving silence from last week.

"Last week," Ignis began, with the alarm for the start of class, "we gave you a small taste of trying to work through a situation without the benefit of hearing your enemies. This week, we will, of course, be expanding and working on that a little further, although in a little bit of a reversal. Because while being able to hear your enemies can be very useful in either locating them or avoiding them, it can also be something that aids you in doing the same with your allies. And also, strategizing without the use of words or sounds can be a challenge in its own right. So, today, we're going to see how you can work together to conceive of a plan to siege an enemy base, but without being able to hear each other."

"We have some schematics," added Gladio, with a nod, "we have weapons, and we'll give you guys a few moments to ask questions that might be helpful before we cut the sound. The goal is to get inside the fortress to a control panel charging a super-weapon. There are guards scattered throughout the base, and a few other potential dangers and pitfalls. If you get caught, the scenario will start over again. Pretty straightforward, right? So let's see what you've got."

By now, the students shouldn't be in the least bit surprised to find themselves in the Danger Shop, with the lights turned down incredibly low, and only a few bits of glowing panel lights to guide their way toward anything. Nor should they be surprised that their instructor planned to get right into the matter at hand.

"Today," he said, "will be our last day for a while focusing on a lack of sight before we move on to another sense. As such, consider today a sort of...culmination of everything we've been working on thus far. Ahead of you in the darkness is a bit of an obstacle course, not only with things to clamor over or get in your way, but also a variety of different enclosures or open spaces, pit falls and caverns, to navigate your way around. And since this isn't just finding one's way about without the use of a certain sense and is supposed to, indeed, involve combat, there will be areas where you are likely to be attacked. However, there are signs, subtle as they may be, through audible or physical cues, to let you know when such an attack may be ahead. Because of the complex nature of the course, you will have the low lights available to guide you. You have your choice of weapon preferences and defensive armor as well. Consider this a bit of a unit exam on what you've learned with regards to the sense of sight. You may go about the course individually, or you may assist one another, if you so desire. Taking inspiration from video games, you have a sort of...health bar, as it were, to withstand a few blows and falls in necessary, as well as some health potions and the like throughout the course if you can locate them, and, obviously, the goal is to make it to the end.

"If there are any questions," he added, "I advise you to please ask them. Knowledge is often as good a tool as any weapon. But if you feel you're ready to take on the course, I'll not keep you any longer, and good luck. Remember to employ the senses available to you still to the best of your advantage. I've ensured that you will not be left wanting if you do."

The class would be held in the Danger Shop, but the room itself awaited them in its most basic form: just a plain room, an empty canvas, a blank slate. The one exception was a rack with a variety of different and moddable practice weapons, and your instructor, who stood waiting, arms folded, sans shades, his blank eyes just staring out into nothingness as he instead was listening for and counting footsteps, perhaps even the small murmurs of conversation, until his attention shifted to the watch on his wrist as it gave a little chirping beep.

"And that," said Ignis, turning off the alarm, "is time. I'm assuming you're all here, and anyone who may be running late will simply have to catch up. Welcome to Sensory Deprivation Combat Training. I hope you call can gather a guess as to what we will be doing in this class based on the title alone, but, for clarity sake, this is a course that will focus on honing your skills as a fighter without the use of the sensory cues that many of us come to take for granted. Sight. Sound. Even touch and scent, although, admittedly, I am still working out how we might better incorporate taste. I assume not many of you have fallen into bad habits based around your tendency to lick your opponents," here, a brief smile, for what Ignis considered quite the joke, "but do correct me if I'm wrong.

"My name," he then offered, "is Ignis Scientia, former Crownsguard and Daemon Hunter of Insomnia, trained in combat since a very young age. And just to get the obvious out of the way," he gestured toward his face, those blank white eyes and the sunburst-like scarring on the left side of his face, "yes, I am blind. I was not born this way, however. I lost my sight around ten years ago. The details of how are...unimportant, for the purpose of this class. What is important is that it forced me to adapt. I had to relearn many of the things I had been taught, and I learned just how much we rely on our senses when we fight...and how not to take them for granted, but also how to use ones we might not consider as much better to our advantage.

"These are lessons I hope to impart to you so that you may hopefully reap their benefit without the impediment of obligation.

"As such," he continued, for just a bit longer, but it was important, "this course will be quite a bit different from other combat lessons in more ways than just the specific subject nature. Obviously, I cannot critique your progress on sight alone, and I will put my trust in you all to hold yourselves and each other accountable when it comes to things like form, but I will also be training with you all directly to see how you're doing in my own way. This is the Danger Shop; there's no need to worry about causing any harm, so I hope you will give it your all in your battles.

"That said," he gave another faint smile, "I think I've done enough talking for now. It's our very first class, so in the grand tradition of such things, I should like to get to know who I'm working with, and then, with that knowledge, next week, we can continue accordingly. There will be two parts in this: first, your typical introduction. Tell me who you are, your experience with combat and training as might be relevant to the class, if you have any preferred styles or weapon choices, and whatever else you might like to share. Then, after we've all introduced ourselves, I'm going to ask that you each humor me in a little bit of a spar, so that I may also know a little bit more about your style firsthand.

"Are there any questions before we begin? If not, I'll happily take a volunteer to get us started."