Library, Wednesday [1/12]

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle, luckily, expected this sort of thing by now, so when she came into the library to find several volumes by Mark Twain jammed halfway into a cabinet at the collections desk, like they'd been caught in the act of trying to sneak in and hide, she just crouched down in front of the cabinet and tried to coax them out.

It didn't work; she thought she'd calmed them down somewhat, and went to reshelve them, but the next thing she knew they were back on the collections desk just as she was sitting down to try and read a little more of the Tao Te Ching. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you wanted me to keep you safe from something," Gabrielle told the books. Indulgently.

Extreme Physical Education | Wednesday | Period 1

[just-add-starch.livejournal.com]

Today, the class was meeting in the Danger Shop. Most of Fraser's classes would be taking place there so as to give a realistic and fun experience for his lessons. He waited for the students to make their way in before he started speaking.

"Good morning," he greeted, grinning widely. "Today, we're getting right into our lessons. A kayak is a small human-powered boat that traditionally has a covered deck, and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler who strokes a double-bladed paddle."

Fraser gestured to the kayak that was sitting nearby.

"That probably tells you that today we're going kayaking. Both one and two people kayaks are available so if you'd like to work with a partner, you're welcome to. Specifically, we're going to be whitewater kayaking. We're going to be taking our kayaks down some moderate rapids. They won't be too slow or too fast so all skill levels can get a chance to adjust, acclimate and learn about their kayaks."

Before letting them do anything, Fraser went through a boring but necessary demonstration of how to operate a kayak and how to be safe while doing so. He demonstrated both how to sit in a kayak, how to paddle, and what to do in case you were thrown from your kayak during the rafting trip. Safety gear was provided and was mandatory to get into a kayak.

"We're going to be taking our trip on Oregon's Rogue River so please, while you're kayaking, enjoy the sights and sounds around you. I hope you all have fun."

With that, Fraser got the simulation going and set everyone loose to kayak.

What NOT To Do In A Fight / Period III / Week 2 (Atreides/Deadpool)

[mouthy-merc.livejournal.com]

( Cut for minor gun violence! )

Home Ec 2, Fourth Period 1/12

[screwyoumarvel]

There were more than just brooms today, so hopefully the students wouldn't be as bored. ( It was still cleaning time, though. )

The Science of Psionics, Wednesday

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Today, we're getting the less flashy topic out of the way first," Kerrigan began, as soon as everyone was seated. "Back on the first rungs of the psi scale, though we're obviously not adhering to that slavishly. Last week, a lot of you brought up powers that didn't classify easily on the scale: you all have a dash of this, a dash of that, a variation of this..."

She almost smiled. But not quite. "We're going to be talking about the up-to-fives. Wranglers, clairvoyants, precogs. People who have enough power to get a little bit of a feel for something, but who usually aren't powerful enough to start rooting around in brains, or throwing stuff around." Beat. "Those are technical terms. You can quote me on that."

(She was joking around, this time. This wasn't Tactics class.) "Or, as we call them back home, 'sense psionics'. Now, for most of you, like it is for me, having psionics is a case of genetic inclination. You all have a gene or two that has been 'toggled' - barring those of you who have no powers - to let you use your senses in a different way. Sense psionics are kind of the halfway point in that. Everyone's best guess back home is that using psionics produces what we call 'alpha waves'. Anyone with a psionic ability can pick up on those, as long as they're sensitive enough. The best Ghosts can identify a fellow telepath with a glance."

"At the very lowest rungs, at least back home, they manifest as simple headaches. The part of their brain that has a sensitivity to power notes its kin, but doesn't manage to do more than agitate some pain receptors higher up in your skull. This is a by-effect that sometimes even carries on to more powerful psionics, who can get massive headaches if they use their power."

She glanced around the room. "Which gets us to clairvoyance," she said, "Sensing things that are contemporary to us, but not available to the human senses, so to speak. It's another type of sensitivity to the psionics around us, to the alpha waves. A clairvoyant can briefly sense 'imprints' on the world. Ghosts, for example. Most people who exhibit clairvoyant behaviour tend to have powers so limited they can't access them until they go into trance - their mind can't handle the info when they are awake."

"Finally, precogs are a little trickier, and if you ask me, at the most powerful end of the spectrum. Maybe even spiking above our under-five designation. To see the future, you have to be pretty damn receptive to it, if it is even really possible. Many events of the future are still unwritten, after all. It's probably something to do with space-time, the idea that space and time are wrapped up into each other: powerful psionic imprints from further over in the timeline get 'folded' across ours, leaving those capable of catching the vision with both a headache and a brief feel for the way things are. I can't say a lot of research has gone into this, though, because visions are unpredictable, and easily mixed-up in dreams."

A beat. Then she added, wryly, "Plus, they have limited military application."

Which kind of explained everything, back home, though Kerrigan was... interested in it, herself. She had been bothered by omens and visions herself for quite a while, now; her zerg devouring the galaxy, then standing idle, screaming in their own minds as the Dark Voice's whisper became over-powering and the zerg-protoss hybrids destroyed them all, and then darkness, vacuum-- thinking maybe even uncomfortably of Zeratul's words, 'Yours is not the hand, but your very existence provides necessary instruction.'

But that was her own cross to bear - although she hoped this class might stumble upon something she could use. "That's what I know," she said. "Since this class is not about the flashy stuff, I suggest we go for a non-flashy, boring activity. You guys all pull up a chair in a circle, and inform the group of what experience you might have had with sense psionics, or what you might have read about it. Talk to each other. See if you can't figure out what scientists haven't just yet."