Earth Zoology, Wednesday

[livingartifact]

"Hello, class!" Jenkins greeted as the students gathered. He was somewhat out of uniform this week, his usual three piece suit missing its vest and jacket, its pants tucked into tall rubber boots. He wore thick leather gloves on both hands that extended up past his elbows. "Do come in and find your seats quickly this week, please. I'm afraid this week's specimen may not stay secured for long."

There were teeth marks on the boots and gloves. Jenkins seemed entirely too cheerful for a man who had apparently recently been chewed upon by something with small, extremely pointy teeth.

( Yeah, it's a gremlin )

Don't Do the Thing: Decision Making For Dummies [Tues, 3rd Period]

[jedigrammarians]

There was a continuing lack of big red buttons in the Danger Shop this week. There was however, a holoprojector.

Four weeks. Four weeks Aphra'd lasted until breaking out the holos. Anyone who actually known her as a student would've been shocked, given how she'd used to spend boring lectures.

"If there's one thing I want to get across, it's that in the end you can only rely on you, and I don't mean that in a cynical people are terrible and will let you down way. Though that is also often true." She had such faith in people, really. "I mean that in a people are dumb, and you can't control their dumbness, so if you going to have a bright idea that you can't do on your own, you better make sure anyone you bring in isn't gonna kriff it up for you."

For the record, it should be noted that Aphra was usually the one doing said kriffing things up. She fired up the holoprojector. "Exhibit Aurek."

The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Wednesday, Per 1

[arboreal_priestess]

Monday's battle with the lindworm was still on Verity's brain, which was why she'd chosen today's lesson.

"A great deal of cryptozoology is about conservatism," Verity explained once the class had all arrived. "This, unfortunately means trying to preserve the lives of a lot of cryptids that don't have the same reservations about you. For example, we have the lindworm, which we're pretty sure Mother Nature invented while hung over, projecting all of her hatred and aggression at the world into one eighteen-foot-long, armor-plated, cold-blooded, reptilian, obligate carnivore."

With a wave of her hand, a lindworm appeared, frozen in place. It looked like a skink, only its length was measured in yards instead of inches and a series of sharp spines that started right between the eyes and followed the spine all the way down to the tip of its tail. Its belly and tail were bright, electric blue because lindworm were the apex predator in their habitats.

"This is a male lindworm. Females are usually a few feet bigger and their hind legs are a little more formed, because they use them to dig out a den that the mated pair will hibernate in during the winter. That means that female lindworm may also use their hind legs to kick, which is one more thing to worry about, in case the claws, teeth, and size. Lindworm eat their prey whole, including bones, hide, offal, and hair, as well as clothing, camping gear, firearms, and mining equipment. They also have exceptionally good eyesight, an excellent sense of smell, and a nasty disposition: they're aggressive, territorial, and mean.. And, just because no suck-sundae is ever complete without the cherry, lindworm hunt very close to their pair-bonded mate. You may only see one lindworm, but if it starts to make noises of pain or distress, its mate will come quickly to investigate, giving you not one but two lindworm to fight."

Which very rarely turned out well for the person fighting the lindworm.

"Their habitats range all over the world, from the desert to the sub-arctic, though many regions haven't had a lindworm sighting in centuries. Any time a lindworm comes in contact with sapient species, there is almost immediately some kind of conflict, because more sapients take it poorly when their dogs, livestock, and small children start to go missing. This becomes more difficult when taking the lindworm's natural defenses and hardiness into account. Their armor is highly resistant to bullets and bladed weapons. Even prying some of the armor off, the lindworm's muscles and tissue are dense, requiring several bullet into vital points to take effect. The only guaranteed methods of death are decapitation or total destruction of the body, and there are reports of some lindworm surviving several days without a head, which is comforting to no one at all."

Library, Wednesday

[era_two_triangle]

Today's library shift involved... well... several gremlins.

Several. Two or three.

Or ten.

All petitioning her to invent something to make being captured and held in boxes a little more difficult. At least, that's what she figured they were doing, given the topic of today's Zoology class, but Peridot's Gremlish wasn't as sharp as it could be. Still, she relented before too long, always enjoying a challenge, and when she made the mistake of asking what they had in mind, they all scurried off into the stacks to find books for inspiration.

This was probably going to end in Peridot building some kind of giant gremlin attack-bot, wasn't it?

It probably was.

[OOC: Open!]

Practical Diplomacy

[sith_happened]

Today the class was back in the Danger Shop, but instead of a press conference, it was set up to look like an extremely stuffy reception. Waitstaff of various species wove through the crowd offering appetizers and drinks as people made smalltalk and tried to look and be as interesting as possible.

Anakin hated these events. "Right," he said to the class. "A huge part of your job as a diplomat will be making and maintaining contacts, and excruciatingly dull receptions is an excellent time to do so. Your job today is to find and remember three separate beings' names and what they do while holding a glass of something and eating a plate of appetizers. It's not nearly as easy as it sounds. You must also give them a false name and backstory. Silly accents are entirely optional."