Bad Ass Bitch Survival Guide; Friday, First Period [09/20].

[died8yearsago]

Students coming to class that morning would find a sign posted on the classroom door:

Gym Today
Last one there is the punching bag.

And when they got to the gym, they'd find Rosa there with a practice dummy, mats covering the floor, and her convenient for modding favorite partner in crime Amaya Blackstone there beside her. She checked her watch and when it was time for class to start, she launched right into.

"Okay, so, today, we're doing the hand-to-hand combat and defense stuff we were gonna do last week," she informed them. "But now, if you screw it up too bad, you should know how to fix it from what we did last week. Hope you're wearing clothes you can move in, but, hey, look. If not, I dug up these super cool and stylish gym uniforms you can put on if you need to. They might even be clean."

And then that would hopefully be an unspoken lesson on how a Bad Ass Bitch is always going to be wearings something she can move in.

"Any Bad Ass Bitch should be able to defend herself against anything, and weapons are great, but you're not always going to have them or they might not always be the best choice for a situation. There are three things that you can usually have on you at all times that'll make a hand-to-hand situation swing further in your favor, and that's a knife," to which she pulled a switchblade out from behind her, let it flash open, then twirled it back in a smooth, steady movement, and when her hand came back around she displayed the next item, "brass knuckles," hand into her pocket and she pulled out a small container, "Mace. They're small, easy to get to, and can help out a lot in a difficult situation, especially knives. Good knives can go just about anywhere; five bucks to whoever manages to guess exactly how many knives I've got on me just now.

"Okay. Now. Raise your hand if you're already familiar with hand-to-hand combat."

She was...not at all surprised by the response there, and she had to grin a bit faintly. "Good. Those of you who aren't, pay attention, you're going to get the most out of this. Those of you who are, same thing. Never hurts to brush up on your basics.

"Hands are just as much weapons as knives or axes or guns, only not as much fun or as cool because nearly everyone has them. To attack, best places to hit on the body are..." And as she lifted them, she delivered a deft and precisely blow to each spot on the dummy, and, if it looked a little like a dance when she did it, well...rest assured, her ballet training was clearly going to good use now. "Eyes, nose, groin, knees, solar plexus, knees, fingers, and...my personal favorite...throat!"

"Let's say you can't get that first attack in, though, they've got the upper hand. First, protect anything they can use against you, and that's usually things they can grab onto. Long hair, baggy clothes, hoop earrings, extra appendages or weird things on you because you're not quite human,"--unfortunately, no good expamples to use in class that someone could get unreasonably upset about her pointing out like people weren't going to notice two long easily grabbable things sprouting from your head or something-- "can all be used against you, so don't even let them close. And then go in for a defensive move to subdue the attacker, and that's what we're learning today.

"And that's why Blackstone's here," Rosa hitched a thumb toward the shop teacher, who waved like the loveable nerd that she was. "She's here to take the brunt of this so I don't have to pick on one of you guys." Although she was definitely tempted to, just because. "I'm going to teach you all a few simple moves for getting out of some of the most basic attacks. Blackstone here's going to come at me, and I'll demonstrate. Alright, first one, grab for my arm..."

In addition to the arm grab, she had Amaya also exhibit a grab from behind, a choke hold, and a hair grab, explaining what she was doing as she went through the motions, with some bonus body throws. Hey, she didn't drag those mats out here for nothing.

And if she might have finished some of those with a little twist and kneel like she was about to handcuff Amaya, well...that was just habit. As was sort of forgetting that she'd just cuffed Amaya, leaving the other teacher to just sort of try and figure out how to get out of them herself while Rosa continued on with class.

"What I want you guys to do now is pair up and practice with each other. Those of you with experience, try to help those without. If any of you feel more comfortable having me going over it in a little more detail first, come see me, otherwise I'll be walking around and correcting all your terrible forms. Also, there's an uneven number of you, so if either of you want to work with me or Blackstone, that's an option to. Or work with several people; different body types, heights, and strength can make for solid pratice and experience. Please be careful, take your time, be aware, and try not to actually injure anyone. I really don't want to deal witht hat kind of paperwork. Got it? Any questions before we begin?"

[[ ocd on the way, of course! is up! Have at it! ]]

Cooking Through History, Period 2

[sharp_man]

When the students arrived today, they would find themselves in a large, fairly open cave. To one side, the stone had been excavated into an alcove and a fire built there. Hannibal stood, tending it with a poker that was distinctly not appropriate to any time prior to the last few centuries. There were limits to his willingness to embrace history.

"Welcome," he said to them, waving them toward logs to sit on that were surprisingly comfortable. "Once humans had mastered fire and learned to use it, they also began taming it. One of the first ways they did that was by using hearths. Broadly, a hearth is any area dedicated to having a fire in it, but more specifically, we're discussing the type that was bound by stone - or later, brick - and that allowed for other methods of cooking than simply putting the food directly on or in the fire."

He picked up a pair of anachronistic tongs and dug in the coals, pulling out a good-sized rock. "Once pottery was also invented, stones could be put in them to warm liquid food, making soups and stews easier, and making it possible to eat foods that took longer, slower processing. Agriculture was made more palatable, literally, particularly in some areas where limestone was used.

"Today, we will be cooking two things: zamzaganu, which comes to us from a Babylonian recipe, and beer, which is possibly more ancient in provenance." Don't get excited, kids. "There are plenty of stones for you to use to heat your water, and you will all have modern tongs to retrieve them with." Again, please try not to set yourselves on fire.

He waved them toward it. "Please ask if you have any questions."

Practical Civics, Friday, September 20, 2019 [3rd period]

[heroic_jawline]

"The upside of having such a trainwreck of a government right now," Steve began, making a face, "is that it provides wonderful opportunities for you to expand your civics-related vocabulary. This week, for instance, we've been hearing about whistleblowers, which is a much nicer term than 'informant' or 'snitch', but basically means the same thing. It's someone who sees something that is unethical, against policy, or hugely, blatantly illegal, and tells someone in authority about it."

"In many cases, the people who are in authority can be the very ones committing the crimes or offenses," Tony said. "In those instances, people may go to the media in order to get the story out there. The Watergate scandal,for example."

Steve nodded. "There have been a couple of famous whistleblowers recently who went to the press instead of to their departments' inspection offices and got a lot of finger wagging about 'doing things the right way' as though their information was less true because of it. In this latest scandal--which is still unfolding--the whistleblower went to their internal department with what they feel is a huge national security risk. Their inspector general agreed--and then their boss sat on it, which isn't supposed to happen. Whistleblowers have enormous protections under the law, and in this case, because the inspector general agreed that it was a national security risk, the complaint was supposed to be sent to the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives. There's a lot of screaming about this on television right now, because the complaint seems to be revolving around the President of the United States threatening the nation of Ukraine's development funding money unless they interfered with our upcoming election in his favor. And the argument the acting head of the intelligence agency made for sitting on completely illegal and horrifying thing is that the President is outside the intelligence community and therefore doesn't fall under the same rules. Which is, and pardon my language, some horse pucky."

Excuse Tony for having to pause and hide a smile behind his hands at the 'language' being used.

"So, today we'll be discussing the importance of these individuals," he said once he got himself under control. "Or, on the other end of things, why you think they are a detriment to a functioning government or business."

Since there were Some Opinions in this class.

"We're very interested in what you think," Steve agreed.

Fandom Library, Friday

[crack_that_whip]

Everything had been shockingly normal.

Well. Normal for this place at the least. Which was why Trevor was slightly on edge at the faint sounds of rustling pages that filtered through the library.

"I'll bring that kit back," he warned.

The rustling stopped at that. At least when his back wasn't turned.