Blacksmithing!; Monday, Second Period [07/03].

[special_rabbit]

"Well, everyone," said Amaya, with a small, satisfied nod and a pleased grin on her face as she considered who she'd be working with for the class this time around, "welcome to another blacksmithing class, where we'll be moving on from the basics and just focusing on some more intermediate skills of a wide variety to expand your experience and your ability to just make really cool things. Since you've all taken a blacksmithing class with me before, we skip the introductions and the run-down of the basics, but I will take a moment to emphasize safety and caution while you're here, because we're not in the Danger Shop, so mistakes are gonna stick. I'd say we have a pretty good track record in here, though," was she just cursing herself every time she said that? Besides a few smashed hands here and there and a couple of fire hazards that were thankfully easily extinguished, though, she hadn't had any issues yet, and it was hardly her first rodeo!, "so let's keep it up and take a moment to review the safety guidelines while you're here working in my shop, and then we'll get to the lesson for the day."

Once she finished up with the brief safety reminder, it was time to move on.

"So! What will we be talking about today? Tempering! Now, if any of you have been in the shop during hte last month or got a good look at my booth at the Pride festival, you may have noticed an awful lot of blades and pieces that were done with a color gradient, and though it looks like it might have been complicated, that was done through a process known as tempering, which is essentially just a process of heating the metal. Usually, this is done to harden the steel as you work with it, but can also be used to reduce the hardness if you want a more flexible blade. Heat is, of course, the key to all blacksmithing, and tempering is key to giving your metal some stength. And sometimes, when applied in the right way, it can also be used to create some very appealing color variaitons in the metal as well, and that aspect of it is what we're focusing on today.

"Now," Amaya continued, with a wave of her hand to draw everyone over to one of the worktables, where she had several pieces of steel laid out in a veritable range of colors, all of them on a sheet of paper, with temperature ranges written underneath, "here you have the tempering spectrum, showing off the temperature and the results of tempering a piece of steel to that level of heat. "Tempering begins after quenching, and while I know how satisfying a good quench could be, I've pre-quenched our pieces today so we can save some time and get right to the tempering aspects. And precise control of time and temperature during the tempering process is crucial to achieve the desired balance of physical properties. Obviously, it's our first day back and you're none of you professionals, so I'm expecting quite a bit of trial and error, but that's often the best way to learn with these sorts of things, just by doing it."

And, apparently, by listening to her ramble on about the technical aspects of what's going on with regards to the nitty-gritty details of chemical composition, sacrificing some yield strength and tensile strength for an increase in elasticity and plasticity, so on and so forth and blah blah blah. You all knew what you were getting into when you signed up for a Blackstone class; she was going to make sure you got a little bit more than just the average 'certian heat brings out different colors!' approach!

"You're not always going to get different colors from just tempering, though," Amaya warned them. "The steel has to be freshly ground, sanded, or polished for it to work. This way, an oxide layer will form on its surface when heated, and that's where the various colors come out. So, to help us getting into the swing," haaaaah, "of things again, that's what we'll be working with today. I'd like us to work with both using the forge itself as an application of tempering colors, as well as the more frequently, easier method of just applying heat directly with using a blow torch. So let's get started!"

The Care & Appreciation of Animals!; Monday, Third Period [07/03].

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Hopefully, the students in the class would be gathering at the animals shelter, as instructed, and the animal shelter was clearly ready for them! And so was Sidon, waiting with a big grin and an eager excitement as they all gathered to get ready for the lesson to begin.

And, of course, the introductions!

"Hello! And welcome," he boomed, throwing open his arms and puffing out his chested excitedly, "to the Care and Appreciation of Animals! I am your faithful instructor, Sidon!" Here, he swept one of his fists in front of him in an enthusiastic pump, flashing them a grin that caught perfectly in the light, and he held it for a brief second before continuing. "The Zora Prince! And also the manager of this fine shelter! I have worked here ever since I myself was a student at the high school, many years ago, and many more in my timeline, but those are details that do not quite matter in this instance. What does matter is that Furnado Animal Shelter has been home to a wide variety of different animals and creatures that call this island home, and it is here that they will find love, attention, and the care they deserve, and where one might come in to find love, attention, and the care they deserve from them, as well!

"Before we really get into it, however," Sidon continued, "we must keep in mind that our furry, feathered, and scaled friends are all their own individuals, as well as living beings, and so extra care and precaution must be taken as we learn about them and ourselves through them! Absolutely no mishandling of the animals will be tolerated, nor will any straying from the instructions as given when dealing with particular kinds of animals. We are going to go over some very important safety tips before we get started, as well as some other things to keep in mind going forward.

"And, once we're finished with that, I will be giving you all ten minutes to familiarize yourself not only with the shelter, but with the animals as well. I'd like you to use this time to find an animal that you feel you may already have a special connection with: a new fast friend, or one of your favorite kinds of animals, or an animal you feel represents you! Depending on the animal, the vet here," he gestured with the utmost respect and admiration to the shelter's tireless and dedicated doctor, "will help you with handling them, or we will just leave them be and describe your animal when you get back, and we will take some time getting to know you through your new friends: let us know who you are, why you're excited to be learning about the Care and Appreciation of Animals, and why you picked this particular animal to befriend today! In the following weeks, we will be focusing on very specific animals or very specific types of care, but, for today, let's just get to know each other and the animals a little better as a whole, as well as how to keep everyone involved safe and comfortable!"

More Pizza!, Friday, First Period

[carbsliftthespirit]

Today, Raiden's workshop would be meeting outside. "Good morning, everybody, and welcome to: More Pizza! I'm Raiden, if we haven't met, and since it's summer and it's too hot to stand beside an 800 degree pizza oven unless that's your job, we're going to get innovative and grill our pizzas! There's dough and sauce an a handwavey variety of toppings for you all to choose from, so start thinking about what you'd like on your pizzas while I show you how it's done!"

After Raiden had demonstrated to the class how to grill a pizza, he encouraged them, "Now you try! And don't be afraid to ask for help, okay? If anyone gets burned, I can fix it, but it's better if you don't get hurt in the first place."

Learning Alien Cultures, Monday

[unusual_sith]

"Welcome everybody," Lana greeted. "Welcome back, for some of you. If any of you don't know me, I'm Lana Beniko. I come from another galaxy and currently reside on a planet called Odessen, which is where we'll be heading."

She waved them through the portal and onto the landing platform. It was warm and humid, and bustling with people of many different species, some of whom waved as they passed.

"Come on; we'll be meeting in one of the conference rooms," Lana explained as she led them inside. "We probably could have done this back at Fandom, but I thought meeting here would spare the guest lecturers the culture shock of Earth, plus you'll have time to wander a bit at the end, if you like." And they were unlikely to end up on Nar Shaddaa by keeping their destination to one planet.

She led them to a room with a large holo-table and reasonably comfortable chairs. Standing in front was a man in white armor with burn scars covering half of his face and one of his arms replaced by a cybernetic prosthetic.

"This is Arcann," Lana introduced him as she leaned up against the wall behind him. "He'll be speaking to you about his homeworld, Zakuul. It's fairly important to galactic politics, but we didn't go there last term for reasons that may become obvious."

"Good afternoon," Arcann greeted them in a deep and gravelly voice. "Zakuul is the main planet of what was formerly called the Eternal Empire, when it was ruled by my father, Valkorion." That last word was maybe a bit colder than the rest of the sentence. He paused to show images on the holotable of a world with multiple spires thrusting from the surface out into the edge of the atmosphere. "We never knew that his immortality and that of the Empire was a lie designed to bring the entire galaxy under his control so that he could exterminate all life." Yeah, that would be why.

"He sculpted and built Zakuul's culture up from isolated tribes into a powerful technological society, with science based off the Eternal Fleet from Iokath. The Fleet was only part of what Iokath gave us, with their superweapons being seen as gods and our religion developing around them, though we never knew that at the time, of course. The Spire and other starscrapers house the majority of citizens, while the forgotten and outcast live in the Old World sections. The Knights of Zakuul, Force-sensitives trained in battle, are both guardians and police, with the Skytroopers - an immense number of droids - to support them. When the Alliance finally defeated Zakuul and Valkorion," yeah, there was a bit of history skipped there, but this was about the culture, not him, "Zakuul could no longer rely on plundering resources from other planets, and these days life has become harsher, though by no means untenable."

He stood at parade rest. "Ask your questions."