The Elements of Friendship, Thursday, Period 1

[locointhecoco]

Today's Danger Shop set up was of a ragged, rocky mountainside cave, near the top of an almost sheer drop hundreds and hundreds of feet down.

Best hope that Pinkie's not planning on collapsing that cliff on you, again.

Odds were in the students' favor, though, since today, Pinkie was right by the edge herself, looking ready for action with her saddle bags strapped firmly to her flank, and a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose.

"Hi everypony! Welcome back! Today, I want you all to meet a very special friend of mine --"

A tremendous snore came from deep within the cave, the exhaled breath sending billows of black smoke tumbling out at them and into the sky.

"-- a dragon! I call him Snuffles." Pinkie beamed at the class as another snore sounded, followed by a second puff of noxious smoke. "Snuffles here has a bad habit of taking naps right by populated areas." She nodded over her withers, down the mountainside towards a quaint little village in the distance, currently deep in the shadow of the dragon's harsh smoke clouds. "Full grown dragons can nap for ages and ages and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages, which is no good for the poor ponies trying to make pretty weather down there in Ponyville. So your job today is to wake Snuffles up and convince him to go take his nap -- and his treasure -- somewhere else! You can try all sorts of things: reasoning with him, flattering him, telling him jokes, anything you like!" She looked meaningfully around the group of students. "And no, you're not allowed to try and kill him."

Squall.

Pinkie pranced her way up a little outcropping and settled in to keep an eye out.

"Oh! One more thing! Try not to let him eeeeeeat yooooooou!"

[ooc: OCD is on its way, assuming LJ behaves It worked! Hurray! Now, stay, LJ. Stay. . . .]

Sensitivity Training, Thursday, October 8th

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

This time it was Surreal at the front of the room, a large stack of paper in her arms.

"Gardner isn't here," she stated bluntly, shoving half the stack in Peter's direction. "So we are in charge. Read your handouts, and consider how stupid someone would have to be for something as incredibly patronizing as this is required for them to understand something so basic."

This thing made Surreal so angry, she rather wanted to burn it. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. The moment she was finished handing it out, she kicked back into her own chair, and started practicing control by letting her witchfire barely lick at the paper. Maybe she could burn designs on the pages...

Combined Reserves Meeting, Library, Thursday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Karla, Dolf and Wesley had sent out a handwavy notice to the student body that today's Reserves meeting would take place in the library. Wesley, for his part, looked very much in his element. Maybe something to do with spending a day in here once a week for about a year now. Also, it could've been that his position as a library aide gave him the authority to veto Karla bringing in any cookies. For the sake of the books, you know.

"In case you're not already familiar with it, this is the school library," he pointed out, perhaps a bit unnecessarily. "We have quite an extensive collection of books and other resources that really come in handy for research during invasions and other such problems, so today we'll be showing you where to find the different materials." Because he was lonely in here on Fridays. Don't judge.

"The history section is over there," Dolf added, because that was pretty much the only part of the library he ever got into. "Just in case everyone was wondering."

Thank you, Dolf. "There's some works there about Fandom as well, if anyone is interested."

"I know we keep records of previous invasions, for example," Karla said. "No two invasions are alike, at least, not that I've seen, but there's nothing wrong with learning about the different kind of invasions we've had in the past, just to get an idea of the different kinds of things we might be up against."

Alligators that spat piranhas, bitey vegetables, gremlin things that weren't their gremlins, weeping angels, vampires, non-Caritas zombies, goblins...The list was getting pretty long.

"Either way, time is usually of the essence when we're under attack. It's hard enough trying to find information about whatever we're fighting, but trying to do so in the wrong section entirely squanders what little time we may have. By learning how the library's laid out in advance, you'll know where to go whether you're looking up the weakness of the attacking jello-dragons, or the best way to bind a wound, or whether those plants you're holding are edible or deadly poisonous."

[Cowritten with the usual suspects. Please hold for OCD, which will probably take FOREVER to post It did, but it's up now! Yay!]

Tropes and Scope [Class 6, Period Three]

[bookworm-beauty.livejournal.com]

Today, when students walked into class, they'd find that the Danger Shop was programmed to look like an island with a small boat wrecked ashore.

"The deserted island," Belle greeted them, looking a little out of place in her blue gown, though she had a parasol to shield herself from the glaring sun. "So popular in fiction, so unrealistic in real life. Generally, we see four different versions of this trend -- the one-man island, which is a smaller island than this, usually with just one or two occupants and a single palm tree, often featured in cartoons and other visual media; the treasure island, where pirates seek their fortune and find out whether X marks the spot; the island of monsters, where characters are trapped with their foes against their will, with no means of escape.

"Thankfully, we're not on any of those. We're on a traditional castaway island. Most characters who end up on a deserted island -- there's no such thing as a desert island, by the way -- are shipwrecked, or otherwise abandoned. Characters must fight for survival, determine their leaders, face whatever might inhabit the wild, and ultimately, find a way off the island, whether by rescue or their own ingenuity."

She turned and faced the class with a smile. "And that's where you come in, today. I want you to figure out whether you'd try to get off the island, and implement your strategy, or whether you'd attempt to adapt to island life -- how and why? Play around, and give me your answer by the end of class. You can work in groups or pairs if you'd like, or go it solo."

[APPARENTLY I AM ALSO 'SOME USERS.' JFC I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO POST THIS SINCE LIKE 12:30.]