Blacksmithing Basics - Thursday, First Period [05/09].

[special_rabbit]

"'Morning, everyone," Amaya said, nodding to the students as they gathered in the shop, feeling a swell of pride over the whole fact that she was holding a blacksmithing class, of all things! It was a little surreal, really, thinking of this small handful of people here to learn the trade from her, but, zounds, did it feel great, too. "Glad you found the place. Welcome to Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Fandom Island's very own traditional blacksmith shop. And I'm the blacksmith, Amaya Blackstone. The fellow back there," she hitched a thumb toward the half-orc, "is my apprentice, Fjord. He's still learning, too, but if there's any questions and I'm already tied up helping someone else, he'll likely be able to offer his two-cents, and that there," she nodded to tall blonde, "is Yang, she's my TA, she's here to help, too.

( Amaya Blackstone talks about Blacksmithing, aka Please to Enjoy this Novel about Blacksmithing. )

[[ocd is incoming up! have at it!]]

Practical Philosophy, Thursday

[endsthegame]

The weather was okay. Overcast, but it wasn't raining, so as per his tradition, Ender had asked all the students to gather on the dorm lawn. There were pillows, blankets, bottles of water and sandwiches.

He greeted the arriving students with a, "Sit down in a circle, please. If we're going to talk, we should ensure we're all facing each other equally."

He shoved the sandwiches to the center of the circle, so everyone could access it.

"Welcome," he said. "My name is Andrew Skywalker. I'm an alumnus of this school; I graduated several years ago." That was all they needed to know, as far as he was concerned. "And you might be wondering what you signed on for. I'll give you the spiel I give my students every year I'm here - but this is the only class that is prepared or rehearsed to any capacity. That, after all, is the point of it."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. In this class, we try to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. Above all, philosophy is about asking questions about everything in the world around us - and about everything we feel about it. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

He smiled wryly. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. Ask questions."

"You can even ask questions of me, if you feel the need. And maybe together we can get to the core of our joint and individual experiences. Or maybe not. Maybe this is just going to be the hour this term where you get to sit around and gab." His mouth quirked a bit more. "That doesn't mean we're always going to be lingering on the existential questions - or staring at our belly buttons. It just means we're going to try and dig and come to some understanding about each other, ourselves, and the world."

He picked up a bottle of water. "So let's talk," he said. "How do you feel about where you are now? You've been on this island for close to a week; is it speaking to you, in a metaphorical sense? What kind of experience has it been for you? As for the rest of you, how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?"

"We can talk about that. Or you can bring up something else you feel is worth questioning. I consider most topics fair game, as long as they're brought up with regard for your fellow students. I can't claim knowledge on most, but I can claim an ability to annoy you with questions about just about anything."

He grabbed a sandwich from the bag. "Every week, we'll reflect on something that happened since we last met, but I'm always open to speaking about anything that comes to mind." He nodded at one of the students. "I've talked for long enough. It's your turn."

Sparkly Destruction - Arts & Crafts That You Can Use, Thursday

[magnusrushesin]

Class was outside, because Cara was already dubious enough about this whole thing without having to clean up inside after. "So, all of you are interested in sparkly destruction."

Oh, like they'd clean anything. They'd just put a sheet over the glitter and hope for the best.

"Heck yeah you do!" Magnus cheered. He already had glitter in his beard. How did it get there? That was a mystery for the Reddit.

That pretty much described Magnus in general, really. "Since you've brought this on yourselves, we're going to start you off in the deep end with 'the most dangerous weapon'." Finger quotes were beneath what remained of Cara's dignity, but you could hear them.

"It's very scary," Magnus added, totally failibg that intimidation check. Like hard. "The scariest thing you can face."

He pulled back a tiny, tiny cover to reveal dice.

"It's luck!"

Cara's face was the face of someone who'd recently spent a non-zero amount of time trying to figure out how to murder people with dice. "They're deadly," she deadpanned.

"You can whip them at someone really hard," Magnus suggested. "Or punch someone with them. Or..."

Yeah. Magnus was there with her.

"If you want to be lazy we have some dice you can just stick glitter too," Cara said. "Or you can try making your own." If you could figure out how.