Creative Writing; Thursday, Second Period [03/16].

[sake_shinigami]

"You know what I'm in the mood for this morning, ducklings ♥?" Shunsui asked the class with a smile, because that was always a great, solid lesson plan method, wasn't it? Just teaching whatever he was in the mood for? (Which, to be fair, had been working for him for years apparently). "A little poetry ♥. And I do mean little poetry, because, today, I'd like to talk about haiku ♥.

"Haiku is actually very near and dear to my heart ♥," he continued, "I've even taught a whole class on the topic before, but, obviously, today's lesson on it will be quite condensed. Modern haiku has been a bit reduced to its basic structure, and that is what most people are likely familiar with: three lines, broken up by syllables, five for the first, seven for the second, and then back to five to bring us home ♥. Already, though, we are diverging from its original form. Breaking it down this way is common in English translations, but in the original Japanese, the haiku is usually written as just a single line. We are hardly going to flail our hands about technicalities in this class, of course. Our main concern will merely be creating beautiful words to embody beautiful ideas ♥.

"And, generally speaking, a true haiku will also involve two very important elements: a kireji, or 'cutting word,' and a kigo, which is a relation to a season, or at least some aspect of nature. Let us take an example from Bashō, one of Japan's best-known haikuists, to highlight what I mean:"

He cleared his throat lightly and recited, first in Japanese, then in English:

"furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

Ah, the ancient pond
As a frog takes the plunge
Sound of the water"

He paused, tilting his head, as if expecting nature to respond in kind with exactly the sound described in the poem. Nature did not oblige, but that was just fine.

"Simple, neh ♥? But also vivid in its emotion, in capturing a specific moment that inspires a specific feeling. We do not need the frog plunging into the water to feel the full effect of the poem. Its simple words are enough; it encapsulates a whole scene, and does so in very little.

"Today, I would like us all to take some time and work on some haiku. Poems broken up into a 5-7-5 rhythm, with a reference to nature. Simple, simple, simple, neh ♥? Let's have one more example, this one from Yosa Buson:

In pale moonlight~
the wisteria’s scent
comes from far away."

He let that one linger for a moment, too, before nodding softly and saying, "Let's begin ♥."

The Hylian Bestiary; Thursday, Third Period [03/16].

[in_sidon_we_trust]

When they came into the classroom that day, the students would find not only Sidon's heartfelt but misguided attempts at drawing a few skeletal figures on the board, but also, on the desk at the front of the room, several bones, inexpertly arranged in an attempt to recreate the hopefully now familiar shape of a lizalfos. Totally normal thing for a class! And Sidon was clearly very proud of this find, as indicated by the brightness of his toothy grin.

"Today," he started, with clear excitement, "we are going to be talking about something a little spooky, a little frightening. Today, we are going to talk about stals!

( Skele-bros. )

With that, Sidon's bright and cheerful demeanor at the start of class had faded rather significantly, but he finished with his best attempt to shake off the darkness of the topic with another smile.

"And that," he said, "is a brief overview of stals, what they are, and how they came to be, and also while we can be quite comfortable in knowing we need not worry about this one," he gestured toward the desk, "here today."

Well, at least not until he gave it to Liliana, which was definitely a great idea, right?

"Are there any questions? If you'd like to come see the stal up close, I would encourage it, as it's also likely to give you a good idea some of the skeletal structure of lizalfos in general. And, of course, as always, if there are creatures like stals that you are familiar with that you would like to share your stories of, I would love to hear them."

Great Fandom Bake-Off, Thursday, First Period

[tellmehowstuffworks]

The tent was set up as usual, among the spring greenery of the forest, and Yennefer began today's session by telling the students, "Apparently tomorrow is a sort of national holiday for one of the other countries on this planet, which in this country is celebrated mainly by dyeing things green and getting drunk."

"Half of which seems to be all holidays," Jaskier added brightly. Because he fully supported it. "and we considered baking with alcohol, but that was nixed."

The moose was a real buzz killer.

There had been so many thematic options, too. Yennefer was particularly fond of Irish cream...not the point, right. "Luckily for us, 'Ireland,'" and yes, you could hear the quotes, "has a signature baked good: Irish soda bread. Not sure what a soda is." Baking soda hadn't been invented on the Continent, okay?

"So, uh... best of luck?" Jaskier remained dubious.

"It's got raisins in it!" Possibly also not helpful. "Get to work. And remember: we have no idea what this one is supposed to taste like anyway." Possibly more reassuring than anything else they'd said thus far.

Library, Thursday 3/16

[noonedecidesmyfate]

There were books on Ireland on display today and books on snakes.

Belle wasn't paying those much attention. Instead she was focused on the very puzzling half-eaten page of scrambled eggs sitting on top of a shelf.

She had no idea where it had come from. She had opened the library, she hadn't seen anyone in there, and she hadn't seen the eggs when she arrived. They had simply appeared.

Espionage, Thursday, March 16, 2023

[sith_happened]

"Today we will be working on your persuasion techniques," Anakin said, gesturing around at the very generic cafe he'd programmed into the Danger Shop. "I am a mid-ranking government official from a country or planet your government is interested in spying on. I have damaging information about my boss. Your job is to get me to tell it to you."

He smiled. "All options you can think of are on the table today, but remember that I'm a trained Jedi and mind tricks have no effect upon me."

He sat down in one of the metal cafe chairs. "Perhaps can start by buying me a cup of coffee."