Cooking for Camp and Field; Friday, First Period [05/14].

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis had to admit, it was rather nice to get to teach something that got them all out of the classroom and into the great outdoors instead, although there was a part of him that was wondering if he was taking a great risk by actually holding this particular class outside instead of in the safety of something like the danger shop.

Well. The local fire department had been noting a lack of anything to do around here, hadn't he?

That thought aside, though, Ignis (still dressed to the nines despite being in the wilderness) did actually have confidence that they should be able to avoid any such disasters, and his next concern would merely be his students finding the spot in the preserve he'd scoped out for his purposes, with the exception of Prompto, who he naturally enlisted to help him carry out the equipment and cooler of ingredients for today's assignment.

"Good to see you've all found the place," he began, once it looked like everyone had arrived, and honestly, he would have been worried if they hadn't, he had left very detailed instructions. "Let us begin. This is Cooking for Camp and Field, a survey in various techniques and equipment to allow one to still manage to make excellent and fulfilling meals even when resources are scarce. For those of you who I've not had the pleasure to meet yet," which appeared to be just the one, "my name is Ignis Scientia, I have sort of taken on the mantle as the chef of my team back home, and sometimes that requires one to cook in unexpected and inconvenient places. Even if one does not plan to spend a lot of time out-of-doors, these are all still skills that can be used in every day cooking as well. And with that, let us waste no more time, and we'll get right into it.

"Today will be a simple lesson, familiarizing ourselves with your two main sources of heat for cooking when out on the road: the classic campfire," he gestured toward the empty space where there were divots in the ground for said campfires, "and a portable camp stove," he gestured toward Prompto, who lifted up the equipment with a grin. "For our purposes, we have two very nice Coleman Powerhouse Dual Fuel 2-Burner Stoves that we'll be working with because shameless product placement I have always found them to as incredibly dependable as they are superior in quality.

"We'll start with the campfires, and how to both safely and efficiently start one in the wild, and then we'll move onto the stove, which is much easier, but will be a little different to work with than your traditional kitchen stove. But, since this is a class about working in the field overall, we must first seek out some wood for our campfires. We will set the time at, let's say, five minutes, and when you hear the bell," at this point, he reached for a bell and rang it for demonstration, "you'll return to camp and we'll get started in earnest. Please do not get lost, although if we need to reroute this class to be one that focuses a bit more on search and rescue, then so be it."

That was...mostly...a joke.

"Alright, then. Let's begin."

Blacksmithing Basics; Friday, Third Period [05/14].

[special_rabbit]

"'Morning, everyone," Amaya said, nodding to the students as they gathered in the Forge, with a bit of a wry grin, because if the roster was anything to go by, this was going to be one interesting class!

She was just glad her stint at Turtle & Canary taught her a thing or two about solid insurance policies!

"Glad you found the place. If you haven't been here already, welcome to Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Fandom Island's very own traditional blacksmith shop. And I'm the blacksmith, Amaya Blackstone, which you all already knew. And some of you are already familiar with this whole set-up here, but, for the sake of those who are a little newer and for having all our ducks in a row, let me give you a little overview."

'Little.'

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

She then held out the bit of metal with the fanned-out end for them to see and set down the hammer, grinning a little at them. "There's many, many more techniques ahead to learn, but those are the basic ones that'll give you a good start. And I know that was a lot of talking, and, if any of you are like me, talking's not nearly as good for learning as actually doing is. So today, we're going to go ahead and have you get a little bit familiar with the basic elements, the forge, the hammer, and the anvil. To save time, I've got extra rods in the forge right now, so we'll take turns, and I want you each to spend a little time striking the rod and trying to get one of the techniques we discussed: give a try at drawing, tapering, bending, upsetting, or spreading. Your choice. And then we'll see how you did. Who'd like to go first?"

Cupcake Skirmishes, Period 3, Friday 5/14

[stykera]

As was usual for a cupcake-themed class, today Cupcake Skirmishes was meeting in the Home Ec classroom. That was where the ovens were, after all.

Stark was at the front of the room, looking somewhere between anxious and eager to begin. Not that he had anything to be anxious about. He’d done this before and it wasn’t like much about a cupcake class would have changed. Nothing except for the ingredients provided.

“So. Welcome to Cupcake Skirmishes, which is like Cupcake Wars that used to be on TV but with fewer horrifying ingredients. At least I hope so. This island does strange things at times. If anything too awful appears we just won't use it. But no secret ingredients this week. Normal ones. In plain sight. No surprises.”

“We’ll be making cupcakes.” In case that wasn’t clear from the class name and description and the fact this room had several ovens. “Decorating cupcakes. Eating cupcakes. It’s meant to be fun...and tasty. I hope. Introductions first. That’s what you do the first week. Introductions and then cupcakes. Nothing complicated this week.”

“I’m Stark," he said, offering a hesitant smile at the group. "Sometimes I teach. Sometimes I bake. Sometimes, like now, I do both.”

Paintball!, Friday, May 14, 2021 [6th period]

[heroic_jawline]

Did Steve have to show up in his Captain America gear? He did not, but it was something he knew he could wash paint off of and he was, at heart, pretty practical (even if he was wearing something semi-spangly). He was bouncing a water balloon full of paint casually in one hand and grinning. "Today we'll start off a bit easy, just to see what kind of level of combat skills we'll working with," he said.

"Also fewer bruises this way," Tony added. "Paintball guns hit pretty hard."

But you will be colorful by the end.

Steve gestured around at the course he and Tony had set up by the old, abandoned campsite in the woods. "There's plenty of moddable stuff to hide behind and climb over," he said. "Feel free to use powers if you have them today--we'll make things tougher as the session goes on."

"And have fun with it," Tony said like half the class wasn't insanely competitive or something like that. "We can get introductions once it's over with."

Or people could storm off because of the competitive nature thing.

So You Want to Be a Hero. [Friday, Period 5]

[misshapen_spark]

Everyone enrolled in the class would have been notified to meet at the Danger Shop, and when they arrived, they'd find an empty space and Yang.

Yang very visibly not wearing her arm, in a tank-top so everyone could see the cap of metal just below her shoulder, and the scars peeking out from it.

"Fandom encourages heroics," she said, once the last person had arrived. "That doesn't mean you're actually equipped to be a hero, or adventurer, or assassin or bounty hunter, or anything along those lines when you graduate."

"I know, some of you are probably rolling your eyes thinking 'I have a superpower, she doesn't know what she's talking about. That's what I did, when I was a student here. But guess what?" Yang waved the stub of her missing arm at them. "My superpower? Is essentially invincibility. And I still lost, and lost bad."

"I can't tell you not to go and be stupid." Yang, you probably weren't supposed to tell the kids their dreams are stupid. "What I can do, is teach you not to rely on whatever precious power you think makes you special. Because there's always someone out there who can counter it, and take you down."

"This class will use power inhibitors going forward. No excuses of 'but my power doesn't turn off,' because neither does mine, and it didn't save me. Except for Sidon," she said, looking at him if he was there, "-- because I can't somehow make him shorter."

Great. Another friend who now was seeing her broken. This idea was going fantastic so far.

"But today, we're just gonna do introductions, and get you fitted for your inhibitors. Then you'll be free to go."

Practical Philosophy, Friday

[endsthegame]

The weather was okay. Overcast, but it wasn't raining, so as per his tradition, Ender had asked all the students - adult and teenager alike - 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 - if you're wondering, Dean Skywalker is my grandfather-in-law. 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? What kind of experience has the island been for 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."