Combat Style and Combat... Fashion? (Full)

Haze was quite sick of it. Quite sick of it indeed. Such ugly, ugly movements... matched with such ugly colours. The Goddess, Eminence P. Haze, had grown quite tired of the aesthetics so many of the students clung to. In the case of some, most, it was simply that their clothes were... well frankly basic. Jackets with plain shirts beneath them, a set of jeans and some trainers. These infants had clearly never watched a Vytal festival, they clearly didn't understand the individuals they were competing with... if any of those teams had ever came to Syne they would likely style all over them. Perhaps not in terms of fighting prowess... but shear appearance, shear fashion sense. Not to mention the style with which they fought.

Haze slouched behind her podium in the lecture hall, rows of seats and desks before her. Todays class was supposed to be about trap setting and ambush tactics... but...

Haze, straightening her tiara and gently spinning her sceptre between her fingers, had decided this class would instead focus on combat fashion and style. After all; there was some strategy to such a thing, to dazzle the opponent and to catch them unawares. Preparation for a fight, picking the clothes you wear... it was almost like setting a trap. The style you chose in battle determines how your opponent sees you, thus garbing yourself well suggests proficiency one may sorely lack... though equally dressing poorly would make for a good underhanded tactic, making oneself look poorly or homeless. There is however no tactical advantage to dressing plainly.

Haze's eyes widened, a smirk formed at yet another realisation; makeup could be used to falsely impart ideas... false wounds were the simplest example but... but...

The Goddess simply could not wait for students to pour in. The time was nigh, the class was to begin at noon sharp.

"Madam Haze. I heard a lot of bad rumors about her." Cynthia thought quietly to herself as she entered the classroom. It was about 11:50 AM when she arrived in the classroom. This meant that Cynthia was ten minutes early. As she entered the classroom, Cynthia saw a woman standing by the podium. From her body language, Cynthia could tell that the woman had felt that she was superior to everyone. Cynthia also made a guess that the woman was Madam Haze.

"Great. The teacher is one of those type of people." Cynthia thought quietly to herself as she sat down in one of the desks in the front row. As she did so, she gently put down her duffle bag which held all of her high explosives and plastic explosives. Cynthia had been testing out and developing some new explosives in a rather secluded part of the campus. She was in pretty good spirits since her new explosives have proven to be very destructive on the test dummies. Cynthia couldn't wait to use her new explosives out in the field.

However, Cynthia didn't dwell on the matter for long as she began looking at Madam Haze out of the corner of her eye. She was trying to get any information on her fighting style. Cynthia could see that Madam Haze was armed with a scepter/mace looking weapon. In addition to this, Cynthia had heard rumors that she had semblance was poison-based. However, she has yet to confirm that rumor. After a few minutes, Cynthia finished her evaluation of Madam Haze and relaxed somewhat before waiting for the class to start.

Sprinting down the halls of the academy, his bat held in his hands and a rubber tiger mask on his face, Jack rushed towards his class in a panic. It had been a long time since he actually had to get someplace at a specific time, his hobby being what it was, and if he didn't hurry he would arrive late to his first class. He had only just become a student of the academy, and arriving late like this wouldn't make for very good first impressions. The reason he was late, however, was because he spent a lot of time out last night, and physical exhaustion and damage mixed with exhaustion from just staying up late meant that it was harder for him to wake up at the right time. He only had enough time to put on some jeans, a white shirt, his usual shoes, and his letterman jacket. Jack stopped in his tracks for just a moment, remembering that he didn't wash his jacket after last night.

After looking himself over for just a moment, he questioned whether or not he should show up to this class at all, since he looked like he just emerged from a large - scale brawl. He shook his head, deciding that making an excuse to not go to this class was a horrible way to start his year here. Jack ran to the class and stepped inside. Perfect, right at noon. Looking around, he noticed two women. A rather tall one with some sort of jewelry on her head, and another one that was kind of... appealing to look at. Having started his time at the academy officially today, Jack had no idea which of these people was the teacher, so he introduced himself to both.

He waved to the two of them. "Hey! So, I'm Jack. Who's teachin' this class? I haven't really been here long enough to meet either of you, so uh... kinda lost right now." Jack hesitated very slightly throughout his introduction, unsure of whether or not he looked suspicious to them or not. Not only was he wearing a rubber mask, but he was already holding his weapon and his jacket made him seem like he used it only moments ago. Unsure of how things were going to go, Jack waited anxiously for them to speak.

As the student's filtered in, a blonde first before a small mob, Madam Haze was paying an unusual amount of attention to them, normally she would have busied herself with far more important things but... for this class she would have to take a deeply analytical approach. When approached by... a man in a mask which most certainly clashed with the rest of his outfit, Haze couldn't help but look down at her podium then back up to him. "...Can you see in that mask? One of us is sitting at a desk, the other is standing behind the podium at the front of the room. Of course I am the Lecturer, all should be aware of the Goddess Madam Haze. My reputation proceeds me wherever I go, you are making a poor first impression. Take a seat."

And with that Haze would continue to scan the room, looking for a target... only to find one directly beneath the Goddess' nose. A particular blonde who, judging by her outfit, at the very least likely thought herself well dressed. This would do nicely. "Now then... this class was supposed to be about trap setting, however there has been a last minute change. This class will instead focus upon Combat Style and Combat Fashion, aspects of a Hunter deeper rooted in strategy than one might expect." She smirked; "I suppose you are all feeling rather self conscious right now, don't worry I will only pick on a select few... you best pray that I shall not call upon you. I shall start with myself however, give you all an idea of the golden standard."

With that Madam Haze would step out from behind the podium, mace still twirling in her right hand. "I will admit, there is a lot going on with this one, but I assure you each article has an intended purpose. The purples and golds denote worth and royalty, establish me as being of a higher class. The black, red and blue fade into and contrast one another; gifting vibrancy and drawing the eye. The yellow and the purple to top it, two colours that go well together and hint toward my venomous semblance; like a wasp or a snake's colouration. Intended to intimidate knowledgeable foes." The spinning of the mace would cease; "The design and cut of the dress may lead one to assume I am not a fighter, but simply some well of and incredibly beautiful individual... I am in fact all three of these things yet the latter two hide the former. Besides, when you reach a Goddess skill level clothing no longer encumbers you. With this outfit I can draw attention without being too intimidating, as I would be wearing exclusively yellow and purple in a more athletic cut, I draw attention and individuals such that I may smite them." Her smirk broadened; "And when it comes to grimm, who cannot be distracted by such means, my cape can provide some cover or distraction. Once I shed it the form fitting nature, with no hanging extremities to catch on a target's claws or the environment."

And now Haze would extend her left hand to the front row; to that blonde girl who likely thought herself well dressed; Cynthia. "Now you girl, stand and explain yourself, why have you dressed in this way. You have caught the Goddess attention for a multitude of reasons; not the least of which is that you have two different shades of yellow on your outfit, three counting your hair, but I see little reason for it. Frankly it seems like you ran out of a colour. And what of those belts... they seem much to loose to be anything besides aesthetic, and a hinderance at worst."

"You haven't been in the military ever in your life, Haven't you?" Cynthia asked in a rather blunt tone of voice and she stood up. Madam Haze had asked her to stand and explain herself and why she was dressed that way. Madam Haze's condescending introduction and the way she asked Cynthia to stand up had already started to grate on her nerves. Due to this, Cynthia decided not to give her a salute or call her by name.

"The yellow of my outfit is an occupational signal to those in the military. It signals that I have a unique specialty. To be specific, I specialize in artillery/explosive warfare." Cynthia explained in progressively more blunt fashion as she ran her right hand through her hair. After explaining that, Cynthia then proceeded to address Madam Haze's comments on her belts.

"Also, about the belts. They aren't just for looks. However, I am very surprised that you haven't noticed these things." Cynthia added nonchalantly as she took a high explosive shell off her belt and walked up to the podium and placed it nonchalantly on the podium for Madam Haze to see. The red lights on the shell were blinking rapidly which meant it was armed. After placing the shell on the podium, Cynthia returned to her desk without saying anything further. The shell she just placed in front of Madam Haze was an Annihilator Shell which was the most powerful shell in her arsenal.

While he listened to his teacher speak, Jack couldn't help but wonder if showing up to this class at all was a mistake.  Honestly, he was starting to hate this teacher, and he arrived less than a couple minutes ago.   Then again, he was the only student wearing a mask, as far as he could tell, and it would make sense that the teacher was at the podium instead of just walking around.  Still, she didn't have to be so rude about correcting him.  Jack might seem like an idiot in some moments of his life, but he still preferred people that respected him.  Jack walked away from Haze muttering "You're fun," under his breath.

His negative opinion of this teacher seemed to increase even more as he watched her pester another student whilst calling herself a goddess.  Sometimes he forgot that people like her existed, thinking themselves to be superior than the fellow people around them.  Even though it pissed him off, he wasn't about to do anything about it.  She technically didn't do anything that would warrant an action from Jack, even if he did want an airship to land on her right about now.  The second the student that the teacher was berating placed some rather large ammunition on the podium, Jack's head perked up and eyed the student carefully.

Turning to a nearby student, he'd whisper, "Do you know if that's uh, safe?  I don't think it'd be fun for a few of us to be in pieces..."  Sure, he was concerned, but he always found that it was easier to deal with stressful situations when you made jokes about them.  Besides, it's not like she'd do this without knowing for sure if they were live or dangerous, right?  Right?  Jack cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the teacher's response, hoping she wouldn't be too harsh on the other students.

Haze rolled her eyes and tutted as the little girl came up, placing an explosive payload on her desk; "What use is a military uniform the public will not recognise? Were you dressed in traditional Atlas colours I might have recognised such a thing but as you are... what were you part of some island defence force or something? It's not easy enough to recognise, if I can't recognise it then it will prompt no response from me. Next, as for your bandoleer I was referring to it's looseness, if you wished to store such things you could do it on something tighter could you not? As you currently are, with two incredibly loose loops around your waist, your just asking for your opponents to grab it or even a Beowulf to latch onto that. Some form of tight leg holster, even those belts were they wound tighter, would work far more efficiently. It completely contradicts your choice of tight leggings and little baggy clothing. Were you hiding many explosives within baggy clothing, that would be something else entirely."

With that Haze pointed out another student of the class, immediately he rose... shaking. They were a student dressed entirely in armour, head to toe, all gleaming silver plates. "While armour may offer some tactical advantage you are clearly displaying yourself as a Hunter, the noise it will make and the appearance of it aren't exactly fooling anyone." She pointed down and he slumped back into his seat, pointed to a girl dressed in broad black garbs; "I hope you're hiding something under that cloak, or else it's useless."

She then pointed to the masked boy near the front; "And you... explain yourself."

Slynt walked through the hall rather unconcerned over the fact he was late to his first scheduled class. He’d had some business to take care of, in the form of an unruly client set to cheat him.  Slynt had taught the man the error of his ways, taking an additional fee as well for the trouble that it had caused.

He did hate to get his hands dirty, however there were times when it was required.  One didn’t run a successful criminal operation, even one as sophisticated as to deal with information, without needing to personally make some examples out of foolish upstarts.

The silver haired man walked into the lecture hall for the class notably late. Only catching the teacher telling a student to explain themselves upon his entry to the class. The fact that said student happened to be wearing a rather ridiculous mask was perplexing, but Slynt felt it was no concern of his, simply taking a seat without a word. He was only truly here out of obligation regardless.

Jack's head tilted up as his teacher addressed him, and he wasn't quite ready to explain his outfit. Wait, what was there to explain? He had plenty of reasons to back up each of his clothing choices, right? "Well, these are my jeans. I wear them to keep my legs warm. These are shoes. They're similar to the pants, but they let me run comfortably too. And just like those two, the jacket and shirt are to keep me warm too, but for some reason, my jacket's kind of... tough?" Jack then pointed to his 'face' and tilted his head to the left slightly in an attempt to add some amount of comedy to this otherwise stressful situation.

"And this is Tony. He keeps my face from bein' seen. Plus, I kinda like hitting people more when I wear him like this." With that, he began looking himself over for some reason. He himself wasn't sure, but it just felt like the appropriate thing to do at the time. Either because he wasn't sure if what he said was completely accurate, or because he was feeling self conscious. "So yeah. That's my outfit, and I'd say that I wear it pretty damn well." With that, Jack placed his hands on his hips, satisfied with himself and his answer.

Haze Grimaced at the boy; "You look awful and that mask automatically makes you appear suspicious, it doesn't matter if you're identifiable when you're hunting Grimm and if you were bounty hunting it'd just tip your target off that something strange was happening. Would you just sit calmly by as a man wearing a tiger mask stalked you from the shadows? If you went all the way, wearing a full tiger outfit, that would be something else; something perhaps intimidating but coupled with a dirty jacket and wretched jeans? How foolish, how could you even-

It was then that Haze noticed Slynt, not as he entered but as he sat in his chair. Immediately the fire aimed at Jack shifted to the white haired boy. "So, you think you can just wander into my class late without a word? Today the focus is combat style, how one dresses can greatly alter their effectiveness on the battlefield; you will explain yourself next. Frankly, from back here, you look quite the fool. Do you seriously plan on wearing white into combat? You'll be dirtied the instant you arrive, making the white stand out even more in the wild and being looked down upon in public, how foolish! Pure white offers no tactical advantage, it's not an imposing colour nor particularly useful for camouflage outside a winter environment. Despite this your clothes are not particularly thick, thus would not lend themselves to Atlas' snow. Not to mention your trousers don't match the white colouration. So go on, try to explain why you're wearing this outfit."

Slynt decided to forgo any snide remarks at the teacher noticing, it seemed he’d been noticed. Though that didn’t truly matter in the slightest to him. After all this class was truly nothing more than an obligation for him to fulfill to best aid his cover.

“My apologies, I merely did not want to cause an interruption.” He explained, before listening to the rest of the teacher’s rant. Combat fashion was an intriguing topic, especially given that he hadn’t expected such a thing in any hunter’s curriculum.

At first thought one would think such a thing pointless, but Slynt himself knew better. After all he himself was in the business of infiltration and information gathering. Two fields in which one’s choice of attire were rather important, as people tended to stereotype other based on their clothes.  A well-maintained business suit would not be as helpful in an area where one would see punks in street clothes for example.

The woman’s criticisms were likewise accurate to an extent, where his career as a hunter focused on activity in the wilderness. He waited until she was finished with her tirade before responding with his own logic.

“Perhaps my attire is not suited to wilderness, though that would be quite a simple fix.” A lazy smirk on his face as though he cared little at all for anything happening. “However, my specialty revolves around more urban environments, a setting in which one should worry more for blending in with people, rather than flora.” He appeared to think more on the subject before continuing, though this was primarily for show.  “As for other locations, well one would assume It a simple matter to alter one’s clothing for the circumstances, a simple change of my jacket for example, would alleviate such issues. Should the need arise.”

After Haze spoke, Jack began to laugh hard enough to make some tears show up in his eyes. She mentioned something along the lines of wearing a full tiger outfit, and all he could imagine was some guy wearing a big costume. "So you're tellin' me, with the most serious face I've ever seen, that you think a tiger mascot costume would be intimidating?" He placed a hand on his face and another on his knee, trying his best to not fall over at the hilarity of what he just heard. "You don't have a fear of tigers, do ya? Rough childhood? Y-you can talk to me if you need to!"

A couple more seconds would go by with Jack still laughing before he took a deep breath, sighed, and calmed himself down. Looking around, he noticed that very few other students found the situation to be as funny as he thought it was. He mumbled to himself, "No imagination or sense of humor here, huh?" Jack cleared his throat, trying his best to move on past the fun moment he received from Haze, even if she probably wasn't laughing with him. He was content, however, knowing that even if she punished him for causing some sort of disruption, today seemed like a good day.

"Besides, this isn't dirt on my clothes. Well, some of it might be, but most of it is something else. Also, why are you going after that guy about his clothes getting dirty right away? You aren't exactly wearing clothes for the outdoors either." At this moment, he wasn't really calling her out to prove her wrong, but because he was starting to realize how much he really hated her. Now, Jack's mission was to make this class impossible for her to enjoy.

Haze was going to bear down on the white dressed boy, in fact she had begun by stating; "That may be the case, but what you wear to this place speaks volumes. This is a huntsman academy in the centre of the woods, additionally your comments on it's use in urban environments are greatly diminished by the potential for blood stains are they not? To avoid such a dark colouration would afford you that second glance to check, by which time you could be around the corner and free. You'd be roaming the city looking like some sort of mad ma-

But then the tiger headed fellow burst into laughter. Her eyes burning their red colour she too up her mace and smashed a chunk out of the podium she stood before. "You were present, I have already explained in explicit detail the purpose of each and every article of my clothing. Were you not listening? Have you got headphones on beneath that stupid mask? You think it right to laugh before Eminence P. Haze?! I'd make your head spin clean off even back when I was a student. You are quite possibly the least professional hunter in training I have ever encountered; were you to actually invest in a good outfit yes. Additionally it would afford you the naturally camouflage of a tiger, unlike your current dress, even simply committing to that striped orange colouration would help you more. But as things stand with the nature of that mask and the state of your clothes you look like a fifteen year old in a halloween costume, they're not even trying but they want to get free things and hang around with their gang."

"I wear gloves, I have no extremities to catch on the environment. Someone can grip you by the back of your mask can't they? Would your semblance prevent such a thing, as mine would prevent one gripping my hair any longer than a moment?" She dropped her mace before herself once-more; "Have you done enough research into this topic that you see fit to question me of all people?"

“A fair point.” Slynt conceded. Though he considered such things before it was surprising the instructor had thought about such things. “One that could be compensated for I would argue, but worthy of consideration regardless.” He’d had similar issues, though at the same time such a situation could at least prove useful in allowing any serious injuries to be visible. Still that potential benefit was not quite worth the risk. Slynt was more surprised he himself hadn’t considered this, even if it was mostly a minor problem. “I’ll have to take it into consideration.”

Another student appeared to be attempting to egg on the instructor at this point, and while Slynt could certainly see the reason for such a thing, he saw no real benefit to putting himself into the role of main antagonist. There was one point he had to comment on however, as it seemed quite a crucial point to make. As well as the simple desire to play devil’s advocate in this event.

“Is it not true however, Ms. Haze that a moment could easily be the difference between life and death? Surely an instructor such as yourself has considered such a fact.”

"Oh goodness me! You've got me in a real pickle here, Haze! Oh whatever am I supposed to do in such a horrible turn of events such as this? Surely it wasn't my plan to insult and irritate you in exchange for your annoying personality!" Jack could hardly keep himself from laughing in the middle of saying this, the whole situation being too funny for him to handle. He definitely wasn't an expert on combat attire, but a lot of Haze's points didn't really apply to him anyway. He didn't care about camouflage, grabbing his mask wouldn't be a huge problem, since it's not attached to him, and his mask did it's job. The whole point was to hide is identity, and that's really it.

"No, but for real, I'm just trying to piss you off. I mean, can you blame me? I expected to join a class that would educate me a bit, not one that would berate me." Jack crossed his arms, leaned a bit to the side, and tilted his head up a bit so he'd be looking downwards toward Haze. He hated her, and he wanted her to get angry enough to do something she'd regret. She seemed like the kind of person to let her anger get the best of her anyway, so this might just happen. If it did, Jack had no plan for what to do next, so that might be... troublesome.

The Goddess would begin by ignoring the man as he continued to cluck like a chicken, he'd be dealt with promptly. She placed both hands on the platform before her and was slowly amassing a miasma cloak, condensing the smog and allowing it to fill the space in her gloves. "Perhaps for one as weak as you? But as for myself, no; I can't say anyone is powerful enough to make such an attempt in a moment. Not to mention; my awareness of this location's potential to be targeted to adjust for it. One of the few reasons to have a hanging extremity is as a lure, make your opponent assume they are being intelligent and best them with it. My semblance is highly applicable to such a stratagem, just as others may be and thus their users should hone both their outfit and practice such techniques."

"Such techniques are harder to explain than they are to show, and so you will stand stupid boy and attempt to grab my hair. What happens to you will happen to you." She raised her mace, pointing to the masked boy, kicking the podium out the way (as it was on wheels it rolled to the other side of the classroom). This was going to feel quite incredible, "If you truly want to learn something so badly this is the prime opportunity to do so. I'm certain you'll learn a great number of things from this experience." Haze would press a button on her mace, the dust silo changing and it's head beginning to glow like light reflecting off a swimming pool, and turn side on to give the class a better view. She was prepared to crush this rookie's spirit.

Slynt thought about the instructor’s response to his question, ignoring the sheer hubris of the woman’s assumptions of her own skills. One thing he’d learned was to never assume such, as such an attitude could easily lead to failure, better to plan for as many possibilities as one could in his opinion and be ready to improvise should such things fail. The mention of her stratagem immediately clued him into the fact she likely had some form of semblance not easily avoided, though what this semblance could be was not clear. There were quite a few semblances that relied on contact or proximity to be effective, but such a thing could easily catch an opponent off-guard. ‘Interesting…” The silver-haired man responded neutrally, considering this information.

When the instructor proceeded to challenge the masked boy, Slynt was more than willing to allow the man take whatever attack the instructor had planned, it could prove useful at some point for him. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to challenge an instructor himself unless necessary, as such a thing would have no true gain for him, and whether he won or lost would attract far too much attention. He raised an eyebrow at the lightshow, pegging the display as an immediate indicator of dust use. That could prove interesting, he himself had little talent regarding the substance, though he recognized it's potential and the difficulty in finding an effective counter to it. He just wondered if the instructor had the skill to backup her ego, it was no matter.

If the masked boy accepted the challenge, he'd see soon enough.

The masked man felt a wave of excitement as he was given such an amazing opportunity from a teacher he hated oh so much. He took hold of his bat with his right hand, getting ready to grab Haze's hair with the other. Jack chuckled for just a second before saying, "Well, since you asked so nicely..." And with that, he grabbed her hair. This wasn't just some calm, "let me hold this for you" type of grab either. He held on with all his might, expecting her to try something to get him to let go. As soon as he knew he had a decent hold on her, he would twist his hand and start pulling her towards him.

Jack took note of her mace already, and he knew that she'd try to do something to hurt him, but in this situation, he couldn't strike first. It would be seen as unprovoked, despite the obvious hostile intentions of his teacher. While he had a hold of her, Jack began to think about exactly where this could go. She'd either A : Try to do some sort of sumo slam, but he was confident he could hold on through that, B : She'd try and knock his lights out with the mace, but then he'd be allowed to take her down, or C : She's gonna pull some dust tricks on him. That last one might suck.