Folklore and Fact: Mystical Artifacts (Week 1: Thurs/1st Period)

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

Because it was a familiar and convenient setting, Sakura had set up her classroom as a replica of the the command room at SGS Japan headquarters. Several padded benches lined the walls of the main part of the room, and up in the loft, where a lounge chair stood in actual headquarters, several more benches were lined up. A large yellow table, vaguely trefoil-shaped, occupied the center of the room.

Up front with clipboard in hand to check off students' names as they arrived, Sakura stood in front of an array of three tall display screens.

"Good morning," she said once everyone was seated. "My name is Sakura Nishihori, and I will be your instructor for this course. Before we begin, I would like to stress one very important fact: the objective of this class is not to teach you how to find treasure for profit, or for the sake of your own glory. While you are here, you will be learning to identify artifacts that are potentially quite powerful -- in order to appreciate how dangerous such things can be."

She paused, reaching up to the pocket on the left sleeve of her jacket to touch what appeared to be a red, silver, and black cellular phone. "In case you were wondering what qualifies me to teach this class," Sakura continued, just to get that question out of the way before it came up, "let me explain briefly. I am, by profession, a treasure hunter. Most people think of treasure hunters as selfish, grasping and arrogant. Most treasure hunters, unfortunately, do little to prove them wrong. My job is to find artifacts -- not for profit, but to protect them from those who would use them for profit."

Sakura took a stack of papers off the table and handed them to the nearest student to pass around. "If you look through the syllabus, you'll see what kinds of artifacts we'll be studying. However, for the first three weeks we'll start on the basics. Everything listed on the syllabus might be considered what we in SGS call a 'Precious' artifact." Actually, everything on the syllabus did fall under that classification, but no need to tell them that. "I want you, first of all, to go over the list and see if you can determine what traits they have in common." That said, Sakura waited to see what the students had to say.

"So then," she continued once the discussion had subsided. "Why do we acquire such artifacts? The reasoning is very simple: they need to be safeguarded, as I mentioned earlier. Whether through accident or deliberate intention, the consequences of misuse could be catastrophic."

Sakura let everyone think about that for a moment. "For next week, be prepared to tell me a little bit about something from your world or culture that you think falls into this category. That will be all for today; you're dismissed. Except for Wyatt Halliwell and Dawn Summers. Could you two please see me after class?"

[OOC: Class Info Post. I'll do my best, but pings may be various degrees of slow from 7AM-6PM PST. OCD is up!]

Comments

Sign In/Introduction [FaF, Week 1]

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

Sign in and introduce yourself, because it's the first week thing to do.

[[No need to collapse the thread this week. NEXT WEEK HOWEVER.]]

Re: Sign In/Introduction [FaF, Week 1]

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Yakushi Kabuto

Re: Sign In/Introduction [FaF, Week 1]

[strahl-pirate.livejournal.com]

Balthier

Re: Sign In/Introduction [FaF, Week 1]

[bookwormwood.livejournal.com]

Matilda Wormwood

Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

What traits do you think the items on the syllabus share?

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[strahl-pirate.livejournal.com]

"Hmm, I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the fables and legends of this world. But where I come from Excalibur and Kusanagi are some of the best swords that one can purchase and Orichalcum makes the best armor." The pirate scratched his chin a moment more. "Nothing overly extrodinary, though if you were to get your hands on enough of it, it would fetch you a nice purse at the market."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

"...Well, all these items that I actually recognize on this list are all um... Legendary, I guess you would say? Like, they're featured or the subject of some story that people been telling for years and years and years."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Kabuto shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I've never heard of more than half of them." Coming from another world really did have its downsides.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine stared at the syllabus and shook his head, his lip curling back a little in confusion.
"I've never heard of any of those things... Swords, kids, a shoe that isn't structurally sound..." He looked up and shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest idea. Would 'confusing the foreign students' be one of the traits that you had in mind?"

A guy could hope, right?

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[wannabehunter]

Jo studied the syllabus intently. "They all seem to have stories about them."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe read over the list a couple of times. "All of the items on the list figure into one legend or another."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[neurotic-witch.livejournal.com]

Chris reviewed the list and agreed with a bunch of the people ahead of him. "There are legends about a lot of these items."

He also wondered if any of them were in the Book of Shadows. He knew what he'd be doing this weekend.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[blessed_twice]

"They're all legendary," Wyatt agreed. "They're all extraordinary items with stories and powers related them."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

"They all have tales or legends about them," Dean said, feeling immediately on known ground. So many of the things the Winchesters hunt had also been made into tales or local legends that he always found himself looking for the grain of truth in such stories.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[likethegun]

Sam gave Dean a little mock glare. "He stole my answer," he said. "Although I have to wonder if all of the stories surrounding these items are true."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[bookyeve.livejournal.com]

"Reportedly magical, or mystical, which isn't quite the same thing," Evie said, looking hesitant. "Magic, well, I've learned here, although there are different kinds. Mystical might mean they don't have powers, but they do have special significance in a religious sense to some people."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[multiplez]

Everybody before Z had totally stolen her answer, so she sat there trying to figure out a way to say 'they're all legendary' that was different from the way everybody else had said it. "They all have...I guess you could say 'supernatural' traits attributed to them. And they're all legendary," she added lamely.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[grenfelzer.livejournal.com]

"What... pretty much everyone else said, about the legends thing," Carmela nods.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

Everyone had said what Tori had been thinking, about the artifacts being legendary and all.

"Well, people have created an air of mystery around these artifacts. They've been discussed throughout history, passed down as legends; I guess they could be symbols of hope, maybe, for some people." Tori smiled, hoping she gave a good answer.

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[stykera]

"I haven't heard of most of these before," Stark admitted. "But according to almost everyone else, they all have legends about them. So I'll agree with that."

Re: Discussion [FaF, Week 1]

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"They're all objects of myth and legends," Dawn answered, "which means that finding them means sifting through all of the different variations to find out what the truth of its power and location really is."

One might think she'd done this kind of thing before.

Take Notes/Talk Amongst Yourselves [FaF, Week 1]

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

Look, if Sakura's given up on trying to get her teammates to cut the chatter, it's utterly inefficient to get high school kids to do it.

Re: Take Notes/Talk Amongst Yourselves [FaF, Week 1]

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi is trying to be good and take notes...

But there might be a few doodles on the edges of her notes.

Talk to Sakura [FaF, Week 1]

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

For anyone, but particularly Wyatt and Dawn.

Re: Talk to Sakura [FaF, Week 1]

[blessed_twice]

Wyatt wondered what he'd done to get into trouble when class hadn't even started yet. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Nishihori?" he said.

OOC

[blossomsofice.livejournal.com]

I was going to have linked screencaps of the interior of SGS headquarters, but I got distracted watching episode 38, and . . .

Re: OOC

[blessed_twice]

Slacker.