Pay It Forward: Making a Big Difference in Little Ways, Friday, Period 3

[uncertain_dume]

"Hi there." Class had been handwavily instructed to meet at Portalocity again, and when they got there the teachers were waiting, Hera with an armful of shirts like the one that she was wearing. "Thanks to Sabine's suggestions, we'll be wearing these instead of using those things again." The shirts said 'Fandom High Costume Society'. "Apparently they work just about as well."

"They're about three-hundred percent less weird," Kanan said, already wearing his. He'd made a half-assed effort to even look like he was wearing a costume with it, pulling on his long coat over the t-shirt and the wide-brimmed hat he'd stolen from the costume room at the Groovy Tunes, back when it was still the Boards. "It's still not ideal, pretending to be costumes, but Hera and I are both of the opinion that nobody in this room should have to hide, either."

"Right." Hera nodded decisively. She definitely preferred doing it this way. "Besides, today we're going to be helping out kids, and they'll probably love it."

"Kids get a kick out of a lot of kind of surprising things," Kanan agreed, and then shrugged. "In any case, today we're going to a library on the mainland. There's an event that lets kids pair off with an older student, say, you guys, so they can work on their reading. All you have to do is sit together, and read."

"If anybody's High Galactic - or English, I suppose - isn't that great, don't worry," Hera said. "Apparently you can also have them read to you, and that's okay too. Though, maybe find one of the older kids."

Unless you wanted a toddler reading you Green Eggs and Ham. You do you.

Honestly, Kanan was kind of tempted to see how that went anyway.

"So, through the portal," he said. "We'll get you paired off with a kid or two, and our next hour will be spent reading."

Japanese Blades, First Period [10/05]

[battlewithstyle]

"I hope everyone had a good time visiting with their families and guests last week," Mitsutada said by way of greeting. "This week we have our intended guest for last week with us, so I will let him introduce himself."

The hunky beefcake of a guest was dressed in a red and white tracksuit, his two-toned hair pulled back into a rough ponytail. He was perhaps a little under dressed for cooler weather, given he'd rolled up his pant legs and was wearing sandals, but he seemed perfectly comfortable.

"Hello there!" he greeted. "I hope you all had fun with Tsurumaru last week, he locked me in a bathroom so I couldn't make the trip!" He laughed, thinking that was all a good joke. "I'm Nagasone Kotetsu, or a counterfeit of it. The one who forged me wasn't the famed swordsmith Kotetsu. He was a swordsmith named Minamoto Kiyomaro, also known as Yotsuya Masamune. I was forged by a proper swordsmith, so I perform the best among the counterfeits. Although, my former master seemed to believe that I was the real deal until the very end."

"And your master?" Mitsutada asked, trying to steer his guest into the topic.

"Ah, right, my former master was Isami Kondo. Isami Kondo was the commander and chief of the Shinsengumi, whom you have heard about from the swords of his vice-commander, Hijikata. Kondo was not of the samurai caste, but instead the son of a farmer. This did not stop him from being an avid reader, and his renown as a scholar and in particular the tale of when he defeated a band of thieves who tried to break into his family home would lead to him being taken as a student by a famed sword master. He would eventually become friends with Toshizo Hijikata, and together they joined what would eventually become the Shinsengumi."

"Isami did not make it to the end of the Shinsengumi, however. During the Boshin War with the Imperial restorationists, he would be captured and falsely accused of having committed an assassination. He was executed in 1868, his head placed on a pike to mock him and the shogunate loyalists. His body was claimed by his nephew and taken for burial, while the government salted the head and took it to be placed on a different pike in a different city." Nagasone grimaced at that. "Eventually one of the only surviving Shinsengumi, Saito Hajime, would take the head down and give it to a priest for proper burial behind a temple. Thank goodness."

"...Sorry that all of these stories end in death," Mitsutada said. "But I suppose that is the nature of history."

"Yeah, let's not dwell too much of the sadness!" Nagasone said, smiling again. "Who wants to hear more stories? Got any questions?"

[ooc: OCD coming up! Have at it!]

Student Council, Lunchtime, Friday

[bigdamnprincipal]

It was officially October, so the usual spread of pizza and salads for the council students was accented with all things pumpkin - cookies, muffins, and a questionable jug of pumpkin juice. (It seemed vaguely healthy?)

"Parents Weekend went well, and I think everyone survived having their friends and relatives here, which is really all I hope for each year," Zoe said once everyone was settled. "Thank you all for making everything go smoothly. After our break next week, we'll have Homecoming, which is an opportunity for alumni to come back and visit the school and make sure the gremlins haven't accidentally taken over. We'll have a carnival on Friday, and on Saturday we'll have our first dance. Usually, we try to have a theme for the dance, but it's mostly an excuse to throw glitter on things and dress up. Does anyone have a suggestion for what we could do this year?"

Civics, 1st Period - Friday

[imafuturist]

"Hello," Steve said with a tiny smile, sipping from his coffee. "Monday is a federal holiday: either Columbus Day or Indigineous People's Day, depending where you are in the US."

"It's Discoverer's Day in Hawaii," Tony added brightly. "So today we'll discuss how such a holiday came to be federally mandated as a day off. There are a few of them coming up soon with Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas."

"It's not just because sometimes we need a day off," Steve said. "Congress has the power to designate a new federal holiday. It has authority to create holidays only for federal institutions (including federally owned properties) and employees, and for the District of Columbia. But as a general rule other institutions, including banks, post offices, and schools, may be closed on those days. Columbus Day has been falling out of favor as a national holiday, due to Columbus being kind of a huge jerk."

Tony nodded along with that explanation. "Originally it was just New Years Day, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. More have been added since then with the most recent being the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr in the 80s."

You know, when politicians patted themselves on the back for fixing racism with that move.

"There is an argument every year that Election Day should also be a federal holiday," Steve said. "What do you think the arguments for and against that might be? Bear in mind that Veterans Day is also in November, and so is Thanksgiving."

"And that private businesses aren't obligated to close on federal holidays," Tony said. "Which means that many people will still be working either way."