Classical Genre [Tuesday, 1st Period]

[cuff-me-once.livejournal.com]

Rick did not look the least bit chagrined that in the midst of his Bund-fanboying he'd forgotten to hand out reading lists for this fortnight. Because that would be silly.

He was, however, hauling a large stack of books, around with him.

"Did you guys know that romance novels are the single most popular genre in modern fiction?" he asked, holding a book with a particularly lurid cover aloft. "And it's really not that hard to see why. Between the affordability, guarantee of a happy ending, and hopefully a saucy love scene or three, they're like candy. Delicious, heart-warming, non-fattening brain-candy."

There was no way he was going to be able to get away with claiming those novels weren't part of his personal collection. Especially not with the way he was cradling that book.

"However, being so large a field means that Sturgeon's Law is in full effect," Rick continued. "For every La Nora, there's an Angelica Desmenes. Or worse, since those are at least entertaining in their ridiculousness. Even when there's a good author at the helm, things can still go horribly wrong in the art department."

Rick tapped the cover of the book he was holding with one finger. "What I'd like you to do today is to take one of these books, and come up with what you think the story's about based solely on the cover. No peeking at the blurbs. Have fun."

"Also, for next week's class I want you guys to all go see a romantic movie. Doesn't have to be a chick flick, just something romantic. However, I don't want you to see any films involving creepy, stalker-riffic sparkly monsters and the co-dependent death-seekers who fixate on them," Rick said. "Unless they're unicorns. Unicorns are allowed to sparkle."

[OOC: OCD up.]

[Class Roster|Syllabus|Class Rules|Previous Classes]

Library, November 25 [Wednesday]

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Look, this was the thing. Gabrielle was from long, long before the common era; frankly it was a miracle she'd figured out the vaguest basics of text messaging. Or it would be a miracle from the perspective of anyone who'd never been to her Greece.

All of which was debatable and vaguely interesting, but the point was this: she'd discovered Bejeweled on her phone.

And she'd learned how to play it.

What might be an undebatable miracle would be if she tore herself away from the tiny sparkly must-match-three-in-a-row-at-least gems long enough to realize she had to go to her class third period.

Other than that, well . . .

[OOC: The OCD has gone the way of my mother's phone battery when she does this.]

cafeteria | mid afternoon | wednesday | 25 november

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Apparently, there was a holiday tomorrow. From what Jonas had gathered from the books he'd read, it revolved around a lot of food, togetherness and was descended from a shared meal by two very different groups long ago.

Needless to say, Jonas had never celebrated Thanksgiving in the Community. Besides ceremonies for Days of Birth, nothing had really been celebrated so Jonas found these specially singled out days as half a curiosity and half enjoyment.

And, while today wasn't the holiday, Jonas found himself in the cafeteria, idly picking at his food (mashed potatoes had a very strange texture) and paging through a book on various holidays. Christmas would, undoubtedly, be the next thing he looked up that. That holiday just seemed...complicated.

[open, sure!]

Punching People for Fun and Profit, Period 1 [Class Twelve | 11/25/2009]

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Class today was meeting at the Danger Shop. And was being taught by a short blonde TA.

( Enforcers )

Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Thirteen]

[carpe_demon]

"Please, like any of you want to be here," Drake greeted the class. "You're on the cusp of a long weekend, spent either at home with family lying to them about what goes on at this school and hoping grandpa's cranky comments about your cousin will start a food fight, or here staring at the mashed potatoes from the cafeteria and wondering if they're thinking about eating you. So, in short, King of the Bracelets: bracelet of power made by bad guy, good guys kill him, failure to punt human good guy into lava when the bracelet makes him power-hungry, centuries of war and badness, mini hero with the courage to destroy the bracelet, lots of cool fights, lots of falling down, lots of sexy elves, bracelet destroyed, yay! Only with a lot more words. Now for the rest of the class, we're going to watch some kick ass battle scenes and drool over the costumes. You can thank me with shiny Christmas presents next month."


[ooc: Sorry for the lack of actual classage. FLORAL EMERGENCY IN PROGRESS. KILL ME NOW.]

DADA for Muggles [Wednesday, November 25, 5th period]

[siriuslyscarred.livejournal.com]

Remus was looking far from his usual affable self today. Not only was he a bit peaky, but his demeanor was decidedly controlled -- though pleasant as always. "Hello, class. Today we're talking about dark creatures that have an ethical dilemma attached -- namely, that they are -- or were -- human, and still have human thoughts, emotions, and impulses. From what I understand, vampires are hardly unfamiliar territory to this school. Where we are from, vampires are created via a human's receipt of a bite from another vampire. Vampires are not born -- they're created. They might be your brothers, or sisters, or husbands or wives or mothers or fathers or friends. It makes the decision about what to do with them all the trickier."

And Sirius was lounging against his usual desk but his body language decidedly less bored today. He glanced over at Remus and gave him a quick smile. "The same is true for werewolves," he continued. "In our world, if a transformed werewolf bites a human, that person will also turn into a werewolf. If someone is bitten by a werewolf who is in his or her human form, the victim will just have some lupine tendencies--generally a strong urge for raw meat. Werewolves change form with the full moon, while vampires remain vampires all year long. A third group of beings--hags--are a savage sort of witch who eat children and raw liver." He barked a laugh. "Hags are the reason that centaurs and merpeople chose to be classified as beasts rather than be in the same category as their sort."

"However," Remus added, "our Ministry still categorizes them as dangerous, just because of the power of which they are capable -- though whether they'll use, much less abuse, that power is unlikely. The others -- werewolves in particular -- are able to control their mental faculties, and are human the vast majority of their time." And if Remus sounded a touch resentful there, well, he was having a moment of difficulty there. "There's a great deal of political controversy at home for us -- for these people who have been turned into humanoid dark creatures, and whether they should be afforded the same rights as regular human witches and wizards."

Sirius nodded vigorously, shifting a little toward Remus. "For most of them, it wasn't some sort of lifestyle choice. They didn't choose to be bitten. But logic seldom has a place in these sorts of arguments. And it's better not to be bit through ignorance, so today we're going to make sure you know how to tell the difference between vampires and humans, and wolves and werewolves, hags and just unattractive people."

Infantry Tactics [Wednesday Second Period]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Much like the previous week, this week there was a large pile of assorted gear waiting when students arrived. "No, we're not doing the same thing we did last week, but you do have five minutes to figure out what you want to carry for today's run. You can pick up as little or as much as you want. And once that's done we'll get moving. Feel free to coordinate among yourselves so that you don't carry duplicates of stuff you only need one of. Or don't, whatever's easier."

Once the five minutes was up, Max simply began jogging off, not making any sort of announcement. After a minute or so, enough time for everyone to settle into the pace, he began. "In some ways the topic of today's class is a bit redundant. We'll be talking about something that all of you have been doing quite a bit of since we started this section in irregular forces. Still, despite your obvious familiarity, it's still worth covering the topic. So today we're going to be talking about improvisation."

"Of course, any military unit has to be capable of some level of improvisation if it is to be successful," Max pointed out as he cut off the main path and through some trees. "But regular forces tend to be assigned tasks which are relatively predictable which cuts down on the amount of improvisation they require. Irregulars, on the other hand, get assigned all sorts of crazy jobs, and that means that they have to be much more adaptable in order to carry out their assigned tasks. This is especially true because of equipment. Regular units are assigned a very specific set of equipment and are given orders based on that equipment. Irregulars, on the other hand, don't really have a standard set of equipment, and that means that they're much more likely to be assigned to do something off the wall, something that they just might have the gear for. Of course they probably don't, but that's how the military works."

"Basically, irregular forces receive all sorts of orders that completely disregard what they may or may not have with them, so improvisation is doubly important if you're to carry out your mission objectives. I realize that you're all independent and creative special snowflakes people, and that you're all rather good at this sort of thing already, but it's an important enough topic that I felt that it was worth covering in its own class."

Max smiled in dark amusement as he pushed through a final stand of tall trees and stopped the run at the edge of a canyon. "It's about twenty feet across," he told his students. "And you have to figure out some way to get everyone over there by the end of class." He glanced down over the edge, "It's only an eighty foot climb, so if you really want to, everyone can go down and back up, but I suspect that some of you can come up with an idea based on whatever you've got with you."

"And once everyone gets to the other side, we're done. But until that happens, you're all staying." Max's grin turned downright evil. "Oh, and I'm injured for this exercise. Broken leg. You have to figure out how to get me across, too."

Art 101 - Wednesday, Period Four - 11/25

[notsobadatall.livejournal.com]

As the class walked in, they might notice that the room was a little... different. It was, in fact, a large open space covered entirely in white and as they walked, the floor sort of... shifted a little.

"What is the fun of having a room like this if you can't do something a little different?" he asked, a wide smile on his face.

"Today, as I'm sure most of you are hoping to head out towards festivities soon enough, we're having something of a 'free' period. You can't leave and you do have to do something artistic, but I'm going to kick things off in our 'modern' art lessons by handing you all manner of moddable supplies and letting you do as you like in this room."

He pointed to either wall, and then to the floor.

"Some of it's canvas, some of it is butcher paper, some of it is even cardstock. I've got smocks and even jumpsuits back here if you'd like to go a little wild with the paint. But mostly, I'd just like to invite you to express yourselves as freely, and as outrageously, as you'd like. Just... don't dump paint on anyone, please. We are in high school, aren't we?"

[ocd up!][sorry for the late! work situation]

Thanksgiving Meal, Cafeteria, Thursday

[thetoughestcook]

The cafeteria's dining room looked much less institutional today than one might expect. White linens had been draped on the tables, and flowers and autumn leaves were arranged in centerpieces on the tables. It was probably best not to ask where they'd found enough silver and china -- yet, somehow, there it was.

The scene in the kitchen it was another story, and the controlled chaos there was -- while mostly manageable -- definitely loud, hot, and confusing.

In other words, it was a proper Thanksgiving.

[OOC: Open to Fandom High students and faculty. Wait for a wee bit of OCD is a go!]