Food Appreciation [Week 1, Period 4, Mon. 8/30]

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

The awesome thing about Fandom was the access to all things edible. When students arrived in the completely normal classroom, they'd see a whole pile of individually bagged snack items along with a variety of canned soft drinks. There was also a teacher at the front, leaning lazily against a table and faking a big smile.

"Welcome to Food Appreciation! I'm John Sheppard, ( and I talk a lot. )

Macro-Tactics, Monday, Period One

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Class was held in the Danger Shop -- not because Kerrigan was intending to render any large landscapes this time, but because it made it infinitely easier for her to project a few smaller things, maps, simulations, that kind of thing. As it stood, the room was large, metallic, in possession of a few screens, chairs, and a massive round table in the center of the room that, for the moment, was still a dullish black.

"I'm Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan," she announced, the rank she hadn't held in years rolling easily off her tongue. "Welcome to Macro-tactics. Some of you have taken classes by me before; to you, I'm saying you're in luck. We're going to be a little less hands-on for this one."

She tilted her head, eyes flicking over each and every one of the students present. Memorizing, perhaps. (Really, she was listening) "Macro-tactics. The art of war from a top-down perspective, if you will. Remember that when you engage in a war, if you're at the head, you're the one putting lives on the line, and people are going to die for you. If you can't deal with that, get the hell out of the War Room."

There. That might give their ethically-inclined brains a little shock to the system.

"What we're going to be talking about is resources. Troop placement. Extensive maneuvers. You have to be able to manage every detail of a strategy from the top without getting involved yourself. Most wars aren't about whose strategies are the most perfect, but about who makes the least mistakes, so here's lesson number one: don't make them." Her lips widened into a smile. "So learn to do the impossible, kids. It's always interesting."

She leaned back. "I'm your very first teacher of the semester," she said, "Which means none of you should be sick of introductions yet. Name, I don't care about your class, and give me one battle, personal, historical or fictional, that interests you. And why. Nobody cares if you can drop a name. Oh, and do tell me if you think you'd be capable of sending men into battle."

Then her eyes flicked to one last section of the room. "Frost," she said, "See me after class."

Library, Monday [8/30]

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Several days back in Fandom with nothing in particular to do already had Gabrielle a little (okay, a lot) antsy, so she was more than eager to get back to work at the library for her first shift. This did involve a quick walk around and good look at the stacks to make sure nothing had changed on her too much since she'd been gone (two months or six, whichever way you looked at it, was a long time) before she threw herself into the task of reshelving and straightening up with a slightly manic kind of energy.

In between rounds of that, she could be found at the collections desk, fresh parchment and a newly-cut quill from that last stop back in Athens spread out in front of her; she had a lot to write about.

Starting with the easier adventures -- she was hoping to work her way up to that big one. This was still a satisfying demand on her creative energies, though, so the aide at the desk this morning was a cheerful one. That was an auspicious start to the semester, right?

Introduction to Personal Weaponry [Monday, second period]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Welcome to the class," Max said without preamble. "This is introduction to personal weaponry. If you're not in the right place, stick around. You might learn something interesting."

Max reached down behind his desk and pulled out a box. It was pretty obviously fully of heavy things considering the thump it made when he set it down. He reached in and pulled out a brown paper tube. "This," he said, holding it out for everyone to see, "is a roll of United States quarters. The quarter is an extremely common coin, though, admittedly, carrying rolls of them isn't so common."

He started reaching in to the box and pulling out rolls which he tossed at various students until everyone had one. "You'll notice that a roll of the things is fairly heavy, but not so heavy as to be unwieldy." Max flashed a quick grin. "Which is why it makes a great personal weapon. It's innocuous, and it's effective."

"The roll of quarters does two things for you." Max held his own roll out flat, then wrapped his fingers around it. "First, it adds its weight to the force of any punch you might through while you're holding it. That's useful, especially if you have small, and thus lighter, hands. Second, as equally as important, the added, and unaccustomed, weight forces you to keep your wrist tight. One of the problems a lot of people run into when punching is that their wrists are too loose and that robs their strikes of power. Third, a roll of quarters keeps the flesh of your fist from absorbing much of the force of the blow because the quarters backstop your punch."

"You should also be aware, though, that these advantages come with a price. It's significantly easier to hurt yourself if you punch something with a roll of quarters in your fist. And breaking your own fingers is no fun."

"People being the creative sorts that they are, there is a fairly effective solution to that problem." Max tossed his quarters onto the desk and reached back into his box. "This," he said, holding up a piece of shaped metal, "is that solution. Often called 'brass knuckles', or sometimes 'knuckle dusters', this little weapon is far more effective than a roll of quarters. It's also, you might notice, far more obviously a weapon than a roll of quarters. Which can matter in certain situations. Still, let's talk about them."

Once again, Max started reaching into the box and tossing chunks of metal at various students until everyone had some brass knuckles.

"The arc of the finger holes should make it clear that the metal loop is meant to be gripped in your palm, much like a roll of quarters." Max smirked. "And for mostly the same reason: weight and assistance in proper punch form. This time, however, you'll notice that the metal rings around each finger are connected directly to that central weight. This means that when you hit someone your risk of breaking your fingers is vastly lowered because you're hitting them with the metal and the shock of that hit bypasses your fingers and goes directly into your palm. The fact that you're directly hitting someone with a series of metal rings also increases the amount of damage you do."

"Both rolls of quarters and brass knuckles fall into a category of personal weapons called 'fist-load weapons'. They're intended primarily to increase the damage and power of an attack that you can make without them rather than providing you with new options such as range, leverage, or a blade. If you're curious, you can check out a few of the others up here. The Japanese tekko, the Greek cestus, and modern weighted gloves all fall into this category."

"We're not going to do any demonstration or practice work this week, but next week we'll be meeting in the Danger Shop, so be prepared to do some real work then." He looked around the room. "Any questions, comments, or concerns?"

As class eventually drew to a close, Max looked up one last time. "Everyone return either your roll of quarters or your brass knuckles on the way out. You get to keep one of them. But I better not hear about anyone testing the things out on other students..."