Photography; Thursday, Second Period [06/03].

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Okay, guys." Yesterday had been a little weird, sure, but Prompto was ready to just chalk most of it up to Fandom and just sort of focus on something a little more normal, sitting on the desk at the front of the classroom and giving everyone a faint grin. "So, by now, hopefully, you have a little more confidence in just taking pictures and things like that, so now we're going to start getting into some more technical stuff, and I thought this week would be a good week to really stop and look at something you've heard me mention more than a few times, and that is the rule of thirds.

"The rule of thirds refers to the composition of something, whether it's a drawing or painting or photograph or even a movie or video game frame. Basically," he hopped off the desk and moved around to the blackboard so he could start drawing as he explained, "it's breaking the shot down into three parts horizontal and three parts vertical, and voila! Now you have nine equal sections of your picture or painting or movie frame or whatever, see?

"Now, where those lines all intersect?" He started drawing circles on the spots where they crossed, the four in the middle. "Those are your points of interest. And the idea is that if you place the main subject of your picture within these points," he drew a circle around them as if to emphasize them, "then you've pretty much got a perfect shot!

"And when it comes to landscapes that might not have a particular focal point, then the idea is keep things lined up with the lines of the grid, so, like, your horizon might rest on one of these horizontal lines, or let's say you've got a few trees, try to get them to line up with the vertical ones! Same goes with portraits: how can you line up the subject and pose with various lines of the grid to make it seem more balanced?

"Of course," Prompto chuckled a little, "a lot of rules are also meant to be broken, but the rule of thirds is a good example of something you can do to immediately boost up the quality of your photos, at least from a technical stand-point. If anything, it just gives you a really solid idea of how things are being placed in your frame, and being more aware of what you're shooting is always a good thing."

Said the guy who frequently took as many shots of random bushes and the ground as he did actual things, but, hey! Those shots were taken in the middle of battle, usually, they couldn't all be perfect!

"So...any questions? If not, we can sort of use the class period to practice shots that take the rule of thirds into account, and then next week, I'd like everyone to come in with a few more shots of whatever they'd like that showcase it. Pretty easy, right? Not only that, but the cameras we got at the beginning of the class actually have this really neat feature where you can put a digital overlay of the grid right there on your viewfinder, so you can just boot that up and use it as a guide! I'll show you guys how, and then you can start playing around and seeing how following or not following the rule of thirds can change the way your pictures look and feel."

Cupcake Skirmishes, Period 3, Friday 6/4

[stykera]

Once again, Stark was waiting in the Home Ec room when any cupcake students arrived.

There was a box on the counter, as usual, and a small stack of printed recipes. Perhaps Stark should have looked at them more closely. Too late now!

“Good morning,” he said, once everyone was there. “I thought today we might have chocolate. Lots of chocolate. There’s different types of chocolate.” He reached into the box now, and pulled out...something that wasn’t chocolate at all.

“Oh. That’s…not what I thought it was. There was supposed to be chocolate in here. Lots of chocolates. There's no chocolate. None of this is chocolate.” What it was was maple because the island seemed to have a sense of humor at times and this was the next best thing to turning pancakes into cupcakes.

“No chocolate,” he said again. “But there’s maple syrup.” Multiple bottles! “And maple sugar. And maple candy. And maple...cotton candy?” He pulled everything out of the box, shaking his head, and definitely not making eye contact with anyone.

“I had chocolate recipes but…” He picked up the recipe stack and shook his head as he looked through it. “These are maple as well. That might be better. Hard to make chocolate cupcakes with no chocolate.”

Maple Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Maple Frosting
Brown Sugar Maple Cupcakes
Maple Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting
Gingered Maple Cupcakes

“I haven’t made any of these before,” he admitted, because the recipes had just appeared. “Still happy to help if anyone wants, or needs. I may try the ginger ones.”

Fandom Gladiators; Thursday, Fourth Period [06/03].

[died8yearsago]

Was there really any rhyme or reason as to which games Rosa was picking for which weeks at this point? Not really. Most of the time, she just sort of picked something from a hat. But it worked out, because she was rarely disappointed with what she ended up picking for any given week.

After all, how can anyone be disappointed in anything involving large metal ball cages?

"Today," she informed the class, "we do the Atlasphere, which is basically just an excuse to roll around in big metal cage balls. There are five slightly raised scoring pods on the field; your goal is to try and activate as many of them as possible in the allotted time by rolling your atlasphere onto it. You'll know you got it because it'll emit smoke into your atlasphere when done right, then move on to the next and try to prevent the others from scoring more points. You've got five minutes to gear up and get settled in your sphere, then then we're off. Coyote, since you won last week, you get an advantage this week: we've rigged your atlasphere so that when you run into someone else, theirs is frozen in place for about five seconds.

"So that should be fun. Any questions before we get started?"

If there were, you were just wasting precious time that could be spent rolling around in a big metal cage.

Adventures in Adventuring, Thursday - 5th Period

[ohvalleyofpenis]

So, the class was back in that one tavern that they always seemed to go back to. Might be more of Magnus' lingering influence there. But this time there was a stage. Because Jaskier.

"Hello, hello!" Jaskier said cheerfully. "Welcome back to Adventures in Adventuring. That... that is the class name, right?"

Look, he was still getting there at being a teacher.

"Yes." Cara thought it was a stupid name, but she also didn't care enough to come up with a new one. "Today we're covering an important topic."

"Payment," Jaskier said with a very serious nod. "You can't just go about adventuring without payment. You'd starve and die within a month."

"Some people might argue a good deed is its own reward." Richard. "Those people are wrong."

"Now, you could get the payment up front, or you could threaten people into paying you once the job is done, but I've found that a bit of viral marketing does wonders to guilt people into paying for services rendered." Oh no, he had his lute out.

Oh no, indeed. "I think that falls under threats."

Way harsh, Cara.

Jaskier gasped at that, hand to his chest in hurt. "I'll have you know that it's my most famous of songs," he said, already started in the intro cords.

Let this be a lesson that famous wasn't the same as good, everyone.

Physical Education, period 1

[nuclear_snide]

Class was back in the Danger Shop today. Bob looked at them and sighed. "I've been told I have a list of things you have to do. So, today is jumping jacks. Doesn't that sound fun?" It didn't to him, but what did he know?

"So, today will be an exercise in...exercise, I suppose, but also in effort and reaction, which is as true in magic as in physics. Wear one of these armbands." He pointed to the box Lydia had hopefully been able to bring in. "Whenever you jump, as long as you're thinking about 'up', you'll go a little higher. First one to make it to the ceiling wins. And we've got prizes today! Chocolate chip cookies. First finished, first picked, so don't take too long if you still want some."

Try Not to Die!, Thursday, June 3, 2021

[sith_happened]

"Right, so we're not talking about yesterday and I decided that all of you would probably prefer to be as far away from Fandom as possible today, so...Singapore," Anakin said, pointing to the map. "We're going to Singapore."

"I spent half my day shirtless," Ben complained. "I'm so sunburned."

"I had a Padawan braid," Anakin said, "and was briefly my own daughter. It's just best not to dwell. Everyone into the portal."

"Wine" Tasting and Drinking Games

[superjoanjett]

Anyone coming into Caritas would note bottles of wine set up on the table for everyone to partake. Those who are observant would note that Jessica shilled out $3.99 for each bottle so you know you're getting something good.

Or not.

"Today's wine is Boone's Farm Blue Hawaiian which tastes-"

Jessica didn't drink the wine so much as bring it up to her face, hesitate and then put the glass back down again.

"-blue."

Imbibe at your own risk. No doubt your tongue will turn blue so you've been warned.

"Tonight's game is called Roxanne," Jessica said connecting her phone to a blue speaker. "For those of you not familiar with the 80s, The Police were a band and they sang this song. These are the rules: Anyone who identifies as female will drink whenever you hear 'Roxanne'. If you identify as a male you drink whenever you hear 'put on the red light.' If you don't identify with either one, pick a phrase and go with it. Just don't pick both or you'll be dead by the end of the song."

And with that Jessica turned on the song and immediately drank a shot.