So You Want to Be a Pirate!, Wednesday, period two

[betterthanaplan]

Class was back! Duke was perched by the ships wheel when the students came in, and gestured to the deck in front of them to have a seat.

"Pirate ethics!" he said. "Sounds like an oxymoron. But the fact is, you can't run a ship like this by yourself — at least, most regular, non magic people can't. And if you want to get a bunch of rough and tumble, antiauthoritarian criminals to work together functionally on basically anything, you're going to need a set of rules. Or, you know, guidelines at the very least. So, how do you do it? You're setting off to sea, a very dangerous place, with nothing but your boat, your wits, a couple months maybe worth of frankly terrible food, and a whole bunch of sailors, most of whom have killed people, all of whom are looking to make sure everyone else thinks they're willing to kill again to get their way. How do you convince them to follow your orders? How do you make them a crew?"

Duke looked over the students, giving them time to think about their answers.

"There's no one right answer to this question. Despite what stories would have you believe, there was never a centralized pirate government or 'code' everyone followed. Following a king kind of defeats the point of being a pirate. Pirates with kings were called 'privateers', and were kind of like those trust-fund kids who play at being homeless while always calling home to ask for more money when they run out. And don't get me started on the nonsense of 'honor amongst thieves'. These people lie and cheat like breathing. You're going to need something more than 'we're both criminals' to be able to trust them." He frowned, eyes going a little distant. "And even then, you still have to watch your back."

He shook the darker moment off and looked at the students again. "So how about it? How do you get loyalty out of your crew? Do you use fear? Money? Superior knowledge? Or do you even lead at all? Who says a boat has to have a captain? Surely there are other ways to organize, right? Let's hear it."

Ethics, Wednesday, December 4, 2019

[sith_happened]

"Good mor--" Anakin began before a flock? herd? troupe? committee? of penguins burst through the door juggling fish and doing a quick tumbling routine before bowing to their audicene and racing off.

"--ning," Anakin said, blinking. "Welcome to December in Fandom, all you newcomers. It doesn't get less strange and at least once this month you'll have to shower in spiced wine or hot chocolate. Which brings us to our discussion question today: cultural differences and how to draw the line for what you will accept in a way that won't alienate the other being. Do you accept hugs from bears? Just not shower for the day? What if it's a cultural tradition not to eat meat one day a week? Or not eat at all for an entire month as long as the sun is shining? What if the tradition is arranged marriage? Or child brides? Or slavery?"

He smiled. "I did escalate quite a bit at the end there. But the question is: where do you draw the line for yourself, not how wrong this other culture is. As an outsider, the chances of you changing their opinions on anything are basically non-existent."

Phys Ed, Thursday, Period Two

[firstofitskind]

There was a ropes course set up in the Danger Shop. A real, live, not-at-all illusory ropes ropes course. Verity and Liam had once again fruitlessly searched for a gymnasium in the high school and found nothing, leaving the Danger Shop the only area open enough to build one.

So they had just built one. Screw you, weird Danger Shop glitch. Screw you.

"Hello," Verity said as the kids came in. "Hopefully you've all finished recovering from your Thanksgiving meal and/or visit and are ready to get back to working out."

Or whatever passed for 'working out' when it came to this class, anyway. Which your teachers were hoping would actually happen this time around! (And yes, they'd inquired about using the gym in town, but there had been something about a gremlin infestation and… look, nobody wants a gym class with surprise gremlins, okay?)

"You've had a week for that recovery, so we're not taking it easy," Liam said, not at all apologetic. "Today is- mostly- about upper-body strength, as we've put together a ropes course for you." With a variety of obstacles set at different heights, of course.

Read the Room: Practical Self-Defense (Thursday, 12/5, First Period)

[brat_inslayage]

The Danger Shop was set up as a redux of that funky post-industrial gym setup from a couple of weeks ago, with Kennedy leaning back against some of the scaffolding that lined one wall.

"So, hope all of you who did the Thanksgiving thing had a good time," she said once it looked like everyone was there. "And if for some reason you're worried about working some of that food off, still, you're in luck today."

She kicked something up off the floor, into the air and into her hand: it turned out to be a length of chain about four feet long, and she twirled one end of it idly a few times, nodded, and went into a set of flashy-looking maneuvers for half a minute or so before snapping the chain taut between her hands and dropping it back onto the floor.

"We're gonna revisit that stick-fighting thing this week, but with a couple of new added wrinkles," she said, indicating the weapon racks against the walls with their various lengths of practice sticks, and then the lengths of chain and heavy rope, as well as a few brooms and pieces of scrap piping that were laid out in the center of the mats. "Namely, a few tricks for disarming an opponent who might be coming at you with a stick-like weapon or, on the flip side, not letting yourself get disarmed."

She raised an eyebrow expectantly, and a loud, dramatically irritated sigh came from behind the scaffolding. "Why do I keep agreeing to help you?" grumbled Beau. You know. As she slouched out from where she'd been lurking and dropped into a ready position with her staff in her hands.

"Because nobody who spends that much time training can resist the chance to show off a little bit," Kennedy replied smoothly, picking up that length of chain again. "Hey, not throwing stones here. Takes one to know one, am I right?"

Before Beau could come up with an appropriately snappy retort, Kennedy was already going into a quarter-speed demonstration of the techniques she wanted the class to work on. So of course Beau had to give as good as she got, because what was she going to do, concede here? Please.

"Okay, so team up and give some of this stuff a try, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it." Kennedy paused. "From me, that is."