Photography Through the Ages; Thursday, Third Period [01/18].

[hashtag_chocobro]

When it was decided that this lesson was going to be held in the danger shop, you'd better believe that Prompto spent way too much time setting things up to look all old-timey to fit the period of time they were going to be working from, and he might have even dressed accordingly, too, but he didn't have the time or resources for something like that. He did have a fancy old-timey jacket on, though, so that was something!

"Hey, guys," he said, greeting them all with a grin and a tip of his invisible top-hat that he was absolutely pretending to be wearing. "You may be wondering what about photographic history might be dangerous enough to require the danger shop, and if you're thinking of some kind of battle or monsters or anything like that, you're going to be disappointed. But the next step on the development of modern photography as we know it today was pretty dangerous, in that it involved a lot of chemicals to process images that are now known to be super harmful, especially mercury, which, fun fact, was sometimes called quicksilver, in the way that it was shiny and how it moved, and, well, if you know your Latin...."

He chuckled a little proudly, preening, because it was just really cool how the weird Latin thing with their names seemed to reveal itself to be accurate on so many levels!

"But, anyway! Today, we're talking about daguerreotypes, which is sort of our next step in camera evolution after the camera obscura. Basically, people were really trying to figure out a way to make the images projected by the camera obscura actually permanent, and, though a lot of trial and error, and a lot of different prototypes, a guy named Louis Daguerre finally landed on something that got enough traction to be commercialized and spread into popularity...until the next big thing came around. The development process is a bit involved, and, like I said, involved some harmful chemicals, so we're here in the danger shop so that we can try to recreate our own daguerreotypes without, you know, exposing ourselves to some really gnarly stuff. And you'll see some of this again once we get into developing film, too, and, honestly, considering the technology at the time, the crispness and detail you could pull from a daguerreotype is pretty impressive! But don't just take my word for it! Let me show you guys how it works, and then you can see for yourself! Any questions about the daguerreotype itself before we start to get into it?"

Battle Tactics and Strategy; Thursday, Fourth Period [01/18].

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis wasted very little time getting right into the lesson for the day, because he had a lot of information to cover and only so much time to cover it in, so he certainly hoped his students were ready to dive straight into learning, although, if they were not, well, then, they would soon find out that they might not be a good fit for his class after all.

"One of the major difficulties one faces in teaching a class on battle tactics and strategies here, in particular," he began, "is that so many of us are coming from a vastly different place of experience, perhaps even in technology and military advancements, which makes a general catch-all overview quite the challenge. However, for the most part, one can find in the majority of situations, that a certain order of battle can be reflected in most campaigns, skirmishes, wars, and encounters, and that is, for the most part, what we will be discussing today.

"I will admit," he continued, "though I come from a background heavily entrenched in a war that had seen a good deal of technological advances that somewhat altered the traditional orders of war, as such things often do, and we will discuss that as well, I have little experience on a actual battlefield. Most of my battles were fought on a much smaller scale, reconnaissance and small strike forces and mitigating small patrol units, rather than a full-on clashing of factions. You'll see, as we go over the development of military technology, that such encounters tend to be fewer and far between, as weapons move from more up-close-and-personal, general on horseback directing soldiers on foot, to more distant, removed, with the development of firearms and all the way into drones and missiles and air strikes that remove the individual from the combat, be it for better or for worse.

"But we're not here today, not yet, anyway," there was, perhaps, a tight smile there, "to discuss the morality of battle. Today, we are focusing entirely on the various moving pieces of them, their placement, and how to effectively strategize based on the circumstances of the battle. In its most simple form, Order of Battle is simply the order in which troops were positioned relative to the position of the army commander. Today, we'll talk about the typical units at play here, relative to their situations, their technology, and their goals, how various advancements might alter the order of battle and have change it through various steps along history, and, ultimately, I hope we come out of it with a discussion on how you, as a commander, might choose your order of battle effectively in various situations.

"Now," he cleared his throat a little, taking a moment to sip some water, because he had only just begun in his breakdown of the lesson, "let us get started with the most basic units, and build our way through rank and time, and, please, if you have any questions, remember that simply raising your hand will be most ineffective, so do not hesitate to interrupt more vocally. And with that, traditionally...."

Settle in, folks, there was a lot of ground to cover with this one!

Library, Thursday 1/18

[noonedecidesmyfate]

Belle did not know why the library seemed to be spontaneously generating rotten fruit. Belle was fairly certain she did not want to know.

She was just hopeful it would stop. So far she'd found a moldy orange stuck to a shelf, an apple core stuck between shelves, and shriveled up grapes on top of books.