Creative Weaponry; First Period, Tuesday [03/13].

[special_rabbit]

The students would be meeting in the classroom again, though a space had been cleared out in the middle and most of the desks were off to the side, though put together to make worktables, most of them with the usual assortment of tools.

"Welcome back," Amaya greeted them once they got in and got settled. "I hope all of you who went on the trip last week had a good time and learned a lot; I know I did. But if you're anything like me," and she suspected quite a few of them were, in this regard as well as others, "you're eager to get back to work." She pounded her fist into her palm. "So let's get to it.

"I don't know about the rest of you," she continued, "but I learned a lot about China. We don't really have a place like it where I'm from, so it was all pretty new, but what I noticed most was that they're pretty good at buildin' stuff. There's that great big wall, all those terracota warriors...the first place we stayed at used to be a big ol' kiln for manufacturing beautiful ceramic tiles, and I even had the chance to check out a place where they worked with jade, some really fantastic," and expensive! "stuff. But I also found out that they're pretty great at makin' crap, too."

And here's where she pulled two large burlap sacks filled to the brim out from behind a desk, and upended them to spill out an avalanche of cheap plastic toys and trinkets, party favors and gift bag stuffers, right into the space in the middle of the room. Bright and colorful, it made a surprisingly satisfying clatters until it all settled in a few piles.

"We're gonna try to make something out of that crap. They make this stuff with alarming proficiency and then sell it off super cheap to the rest of the world. Gotta admire the productivity, but it's all almost entirely useless beyond maybe the first few minutes of entertainment. The materials are cheap and they break easy, so we've got a lot of different adhesives to try to get whatever you make to last at least as long as the class period. Try to really think of something different that you haven't really come up with before, assembling some of this junk into a passable sort of weapon. And, of course, I'm here if you need more for anything."

[[ocd on the way is up!]]

Earth Zoology, Wednesday

[livingartifact]

"Giant birds," Jenkins said, when the students had gathered. Apparently he was in one of his "no introduction" moods. "As we've seen in this class, animals on Earth come in all shapes and sizes, but large birds in particular have long held a certain fascination for mankind. Scientists have recently concluded that avians — to use the appropriate taxonomical name — are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs, an extinct variety of animal that many modern Earth humans experience an obsession with in their youth. The Pelagornis sandersi, the largest flighted bird known to science, is believed to have lived about 25 million years ago not far to the south of Fandom along the eastern coast of North America. The wingspan of the Pelagornis sandersi is believed to be as much as 24 feet, which would make it about the length of this room. And of course there's the elephant bird of Madagascar, who is believed to have gone extinct as recently as 1200 AD — about 800 years ago — though there are unsubstantiated reports of the birds living on the island as recently as 300 years ago. The elephant bird stood approximately 10 feet tall, so about. . . ." He pulled one of the stools provided for Peridot over to the table, stepped on top of it, and stretched his hand above his head. ". . . This tall." He stepped back down with a small smile. "Of course, both these creatures have been extinct for some time. If you'd like to know more about Earth's innumerable prehistoric creatures, I'm considering doing a course in paleozoology this summer. For the time being, well. The elephant bird and Pelagornis sandersi are the largest birds as known by science. Magic, on the other hand. . . ."

A blue light lit up behind the classroom door, and Jenkins led the students through the portal behind it, onto a dry and dusty mountain top. "Welcome to the Arabian desert, students," he said, holding down his ascot, which was attempting to blow away. "I'm afraid we cannot stay long, as this area of the world is quite dangerous in many ways. However, if my calculations are correct. . . ."

An enormous shadow blocked out the glaring sun, and Jenkins looked up and smiled. "There we are, students! This is a rare sight indeed! I would like you to meet what is truly one of the largest birds ever to exist on this planet, the majestic roc!" The shadow passed, and the jet plane sized eagle banked gracefully around the mountain peak, its feathers glinting golden in the sunlight, making it hard to look at directly. "That's without a 'k', I'm afraid, unrelated to mineral structures or creatures." He nodded to Peridot should she be there. "We are fortunate that the roc's preferred meals tend to be cattle and the occasional elephant, making us far too small to be worth a hunt. The roc's talons are easily as long as I am, and its legs alone are taller than the elephant bird in its entirety! It's thought in some circles to be a close cousin of the North American thunderbird, though I'm afraid that, other than being truly enormous flighted birds, that's a bit like comparing a wild dog to Coyote, trickster god of the American west. The roc, as far as we know, does not have a human-like intelligence, though it has done a remarkable job hiding itself from the various armed forces that have been patrolling land and sky in this region for the last several centuries. Speaking of: we must be heading back to the classroom shortly, students, before we can be spotted by any of the locals with human-like intelligence and accused of being members of some warring faction."