Philosophy 102- Monday- 1st period- Class #13

[fates_jaye]

"Oh, look, we're here because we all survived the holiday," Jaye greeted the students when class started. "Congratulations to us. And today we're going to start off with a little gem about genetically engineered snakehead fish. You ever hear of those? They're the fish that look like piranhas but they can walk on land. Yeah, you take that thought to sleep with you tonight.

"Anyway, have some Frankenfish. No, seriously, it's really called that."

How to Start a Business, Monday, Period 3

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"Welcome back. I hope everyone enjoyed the time off last week," Zayne said. "Because you're not going to enjoy this. Today we're going to talk about taxes, your responsibility charging them, paying them, and watching employees pay them."

The discussion was intensive, much more intensive than would be possible or understandable for a regular non-businessperson to write up at the last minute for an RPG, for example. "And that's pretty much everything you could possibly need to know about taxes. I hope most of it made sense."

A Tale of Two Lions, Monday, Period 2

[atreideslioness]

Lady Ghanima was at the front of the class today, serene and composed as if she'd never been gone.

"I hope you'll forgive my absence," she began once everyone had been seated. "An unfortunate side-effect of controlling a throne is that sometimes you are required to do other than you would when left to your own devices. For instance, I much prefer teaching to politics."

She especially preferred teaching to the amorous advances of Farad'n, but you couldn't be Empress and not have to deal with a few drawbacks.

"I control no throne at all, and I also prefer teaching to politics," Tyrion said, clearly pleased to have his co-teacher back. "No one gets killed for teaching poorly, for one. Well -- almost no one."

He continued, "We are into our last several weeks of classes, and this week our topic is charm."

"Humans on this world have a saying," Ghanima said, picking up from Tyrion and giving him a bright smile. "I believe that it is all little girls are made of 'sugar and spice and everything nice.' Which, if you have passed basic biology, you know to be a lie. I have also heard that 'you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.'"

"I would be lying if I said I had never used my charm and smile when dealing with the other Great Houses to get my way, before resorting to more blunt-force measures, like embargos and taxes and legalities."

"There's a saying in my world," Tyrion added, "That courtesy is a lady's armor. Courtesy is not the same thing as charm, of course, but it's all a piece of the same cloth. Smiling, saying polite things, complementing people's clothing and possessions … they're all what you do when you know you can't win a physical fight. I myself can be very charming when I choose to."

The class was welcome to doubt this.

"I don't doubt it," Ghanima replied wryly. "Charm is the feint of the intelligent, before the knives come out."

"Although you should never mistake a battle of charms are easier or less-deadly than one with swords. The edges simply cut differently."

[OOC: OCD is up, go forth.]

SCIENCE! Club, Monday After Classes

[fewer_explosions]

The first thing that might occur to anyone who walked into the Danger Shop this here Science Club was... well, sand. Lots of sand. Also rocks. Or rather, bricks. Or rather, a few gigantic pyramid-shaped structures that would, upon closer inspection, look quite a bit like it was completely identical to the Giza Pyramids.

Because it was. It really was.

"Today, we visit a piece of human archaeological history," Liara enthused.

Was she bouncing?

… Yes, she was bouncing.

Evan wasn't bouncing for once, but he was looking weirdly like he was in his element, hands on his hips and kind of surveying the lay of the land as though he'd done this sort of thing thousands of times before.

So far as he was aware, he hadn't.

"We're going to explore the Great Pyramid of Giza," he shared, nodding back over his shoulder at the great structure in question. "To take a look back in time at part of what made humanity what it is today. Inside, we'll probably find treasure, yeah, but we'll also get to look at artefacts that will let us know what life was like for the ancient Egyptians, thousands of years ago."

"Of course, this is only a simulation, so the secrets found inside are those your people have already discovered," Liara cautioned. "However, let this not be an incentive for any of you to be careless. These are ancient human treasures - they could teach you a great deal about your species. So do not forget to--"

If you managed to follow the long-winded rant on proper excavation procedure that followed all the way down to its twentieth minute, you were probably either a really big archaeology nerd, or... well, no, that was about it.

"Right," Evan agreed, about as enthusiastically as a kid who had just sat through a twenty minute lecture on this sort of thing possibly could be, "what she said. So... Everyone grab your equipment, and we'll head inside."

A beat.

"Please no poking at any mummies, if you find any."

"Not even with gloves," Topher chimed in, because yeah, safety last and all, but he knew what could happen if you poked a mummy. He'd seen Wendy the Werewolf Stalker. Then he adjusted his goggles and skipped off toward the nearest monolith, almost tripping over a clump of rock in the process. "...Don't do that either," he added. "That was a demonstration of what not to do."

Sure it was.