The Art of Battle Tactics; Monday, First Period [09/27].

[sake_shinigami]

"Fittingly enough," Shunsui said, smiling at his students once they'd all settled into the circle and helped themselves to their beverages if so desired, "I actually had quite a different topic in mind for today, but conversations had this weekend," his smile grew just a slight bit, "inspired me to move in a new direction, which is exactly the direction in which I have moved ♥: changing one's tactics willingly and cleverly based on new information that may present itself. There are many who believe in stubbornly staying a course once a strategy is planned, but you will find that most effective tacticians are far more flexible in their pursuits. As Confucius said, 'the grass must bend, when the wind grows across it,' and also 'the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks.' And from Lao Tzu: 'An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.' ♥.

"So, that shall be our topic today: flexibility. Adaptability. The ability...and importance...of being able to bend with the wind, to know when to yield, or...perhaps...to simply come up with a new plan ♥.

"And so I would like for us to have two discussions today. First, I'm sure it won't take much for us each to conjure up an image of a strong oak that refuses to bend in the wind, and the more perspectives one has, the more flexible they may be ♥. So what are your strategies when dealing with someone, a commander, a parent, a friend...who is determined to stay the course despite the fact that things have changedand a new tactic may be needed?

"And second: a bit of role-play. Put yourselves in the shoes of the person in charge. Your fellow classmates are your soldiers, ready at your command ♥. Imagine a scenario of your choice and decide on a plan of actions. And soldiers, I would like you to come up with new information about that scenerio to throw your commander's plan through a loop. Commander, what do you now do with this information? How will you change your plan? Will you change your plan? Why or why not? Let us see if we can challenge ourselves to see in just which ways we're willing...or unwilling....to bend ♥."

Badass Bitch Survival Guide: OG Revival; Monday, Second Period [09/06].

[died8yearsago]

The students would have received instructions to meet in a classroom that morning...no, not the danger shop classroom that might have been funny if it was anyone else doing it, but an actual classroom, and they would be waiting in there at least five minutes past the official start of class before the door burst open, and Rosa walked in, lugging with her a large sack of something that clattered like metal, and stopped to look over the class, her eyes narrowed with judgement and consideration.

"Good news," she announced. "This class just got rebooted. We're going back to its roots, to where it should be, and we've already lost a lot of time. So there's no point in hedging around it, we've got a lot of work to do, and we've got actual skills to learn that will actually be useful, not just getting thrown into random, outlandish situations that even around this messed-up school are not very likely to happen to most people. Starting with...."

It was at this point that Rosa, standing behind desk at the front of the classroom, overturned the large sack and rained a variety of different locks, door locks, car locks, pad locks, digital locks, puzzle locks you name it, onto the desk and onto the floor, and then she also whipped out a few lock picking kits, a sleeve of bobby pins, a few wire hangers, and some pocket knives, and set them down more gently on top of the pile.

"Lockpicking.

"So unless the state of badassery in the student body has gone down significantly under Smith's tutelage, my guess is that some of you probably already know this skill, or you could possibly have some sort of weird magic abilities that allow you to do it with a wave of your hand or a little abracadabra or whatever, but it's always good to practice and it never hurts to know how to do it in a pinch where you might not be able to do all your fancy little shortcuts for whatever reason.

"You never know when you'll accidentally forget your keys or whatever and be locked out of your house, your apartment, your car, you safety deposit box....or when you'll be locked in somewhere and need to get out." Guess which happened more often, go on, guess! "And those are pretty much the only two situations where this very useful skill would ever come in handy. Obviously, nothing else, but if you do get it in your little brains to practice around the island...just remember how bored the cops around here are. Trust me, I should know." Her nose wrinkled with distaste. "I used to be one.

"Now," she continued, "there are a few different techniques and methods, and each lock is slightly different, so it's good to try a lot of different ways...Pay attention, because I'm only going to show you these once." Which was not true, she would go over them again, but if she said that, then she was guaranteed to have to go over it more than once. But, as it were, she went through some demonstrations with the different locks, different tools, and ended with a rousing and surely inspiring moment of, "And when in doubt....just smash it," which involved showing just how well the butt of a pistol can smash a lock if you hit it just right.

"There," she concluded, "now you'll never have to worry about being locked out of your house or apartment or car again, which is the only situations in which this skill will ever be used."

That emphasis was the closest thing to a wink Rosa was ever going to get. Hopefully, they were smart enough to figure it out. Hopefully, they hadn't already been ruined by a month of Smith's influence so far.

"Any questions? If not, we'll spend the rest of the hour just trying different locks or tools, or sharing if you've got any other methods that I haven't already covered that doesn't involve things like magic that might be specific to you and not very useful to everyone else involved."

Cupcake Skirmishes- Monday

[throughaphase]

The ingredients table had just so much candy on it. You know why? Because there was no way people wouldn't be snacking while they were baking. Kitty was here to help.

"Today we're going to be making cupcakes with candy in or on them," Kitty announced. "Because frankly when they have Halloween candy out already and you knkw it's not gonna last a month you might as well. I've got a few different kinds to try, have fun choosing."

Piñata Cupcakes
Twix Stuffed Cupcakes
Snickers Cupcakes
Starburst Cupcakes

Advanced Cultural Studies, Monday, Fourth Period

[jedigrammarians]

"So a real popular theme in this planet's fiction is the love triangle," Aphra said. "Two or more people fighting over the affection of another, without even a single person ever bringing up the idea of a threesome, even when the the two people fighting are clearly more into each other than the supposed actual love interest.

"So today we're going to be following a hot lady spy as she tries to figure out if she wants the safe, boring girl next door type, or the hot, dangerous enemy lady spy." That wasn't actually the plot, Aphra.