The Occult | Period 1 | Tuesday

[thepaledreamer.livejournal.com]

"Today, we're going to talk a little about necromancy," Paige began without preamble. "Some of you may know what it is, some of you don't. In the simplest of terms, it's the practice of talking with the dead either by summoning their spirit or raising them bodily from the grave. Early necromancy was related to – and most likely evolved from – shamanism, which calls upon spirits such as the ghosts of ancestors. Classical necromancers addressed the dead in "a mixture of high-pitch squeaking and low droning", comparable to the trance-state mutterings of shamans."

Paige paused for a moment and leaned against her desk. "In the present day, necromancy is more generally used as a term to describe the pretense of manipulation of death and the dead, often facilitated through the use of ritual magic or some other kind of occult ceremony. Contemporary séances, channeling and Spiritualism verge on necromancy when supposedly invoked spirits are asked to reveal future events or secret information."

With that, she finished up the lecture but considering they were in the Danger Shop, it seemed like there was an activity to be had. "Today, you're all gonna experience what it's like to be a necromancer. The simulation has been programmed for you to raise a random spirit, talk to them briefly and then send them back. See what it's like to talk to the dead and see how you handle it. Have fun."

Library, Tuesday

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

At first, William didn't notice anything strange about the library when he arrived for his shift. Until about five minutes in to said shift, when a slight rustling alerted him to something indeed being amiss.

And by 'something', of course, we mean 'a line of tiny turtles determinedly marching across the library floor'. They weren't actively disturbing anything, though, so there wasn't much for William to do but let them be.

How to Make Friends and Influence People [Tuesday, March 11, 2014]

[sith_happened]

Anakin, who'd gotten a visual reminder of the time his son and Gavin Darklighter had thought they'd been Siegfried and Roy, not the most dignified island moment ever, might have let that influence the mood he was in when he'd programmed the Danger Shop.

"Welcome to Geonosis," he said with a wicked smile as each student found themselves handcuffed to a huge stone pillar in the middle of an arena. "Sometimes negotiations go poorly. In this case, they've gone straight to poodoo. You have thirty seconds before your captors will release an acklay--an image of a giant bug helpfully sprang to holographic life before them--"a nexu, and a reek."

More photos helpfully showed what was going to try to eat them.

"Working together, get out of the arena." Anakin smiled. "And girls, you have a hairpin inside your sleeves because when I was in this very same situation--" which said something about the poor choices Anakin had made in his life, "--my first wife was smart enough to have one in her sleeve and used it to pick the lock on her cuffs. I was too busy bickering with my teacher at the time to do something just as useful."

He smiled again. "Welcome to aggressive negotiations."

Handling Your Powers, Tuesday

[not_a_whiner]

Did the Danger Shop look an awful lot like a classic gym hall? ...Yes, yes it did. Okay, Kaidan didn't look like your typical gym teacher in his Alliance blues, but he was holding a ball in one hand.

"We're playing powers dodgeball today," he said. "You're all allowed to use your powers on the ball - not on each other. Danger Shop safeties are at their maximum, so the ball's not going to injure anybody and the room should step in if it looks like you're going to hurt each other, but... be careful either way. Okay? Okay."

He told the kids to line up, then divided them into two teams.

"For anyone who doesn't know this one yet - if you get struck by this ball, you're out of the game. The first team to knock their opponents out of the game entirely wins. It's that easy. Using your powers to hit the ball is allowed. So is dodging the ball using your powers. Just no injuries, okay?"

He threw one of them the ball. "Get started."

And with that, he was going to back up and make sure the protocols that would throw up a shield on any student who might be in danger of getting hit by someone's power... still worked. (They did. Thankfully.)

Literature- Wednesday- 2nd period

[puppyinacup.livejournal.com]

Welcome back to class, kids! Today your teacher was blonde, which might clue you in to the fact that something was still not entirely right here.

"Good morning, everybody!" Jess greeted them. "I hope you got your oral presentations on the meta for The Scarlet Letter ready, because we're going to have to start right away to make sure we have time for everybody today. On the way out, pick up the reading for next week, which'll be the meta for Macbeth Scottish Play! All right, let's start. How about you go first?"

Sorry, random person she'd just pointed to. Hope you were prepared to do an oral presentation on the fly, because apparently Jess was from a universe where she gave you an entirely different homework assignment.