Photography Through the Ages; Thursday, Third Period [03/07].

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Alright, everyone," said Prompto, grinning from the front of the classroom, as usual. "Now, for the moment of truth! If you remember, I sent you all off with some disposable cameras to take with you on the school trip, to snap some pictures and thoughts to capture the memories of the vacation, and today, obviously, we're going to pop into the dark room, get those photos developed, and then see what you managed to come up with! Digital cameras have definitely spoiled us photographers with having a good idea of how the picture turned out immediately after we take it; with these older film cameras without a digital element, it's all just a matter of surprise once you develop the film!

"I'll do just a quick refresher on photo developing, because it's been a few weeks, and then I'll leave you to it, and after that, we'll share the results! And," here, he couldn't help chuckling at least a little, shaking his head, "from what I heard about how the trip went, I have a feeling you guys are going to have some pretty interesting stuff! And I'm sure if I'm dying to see what you shot, I'm sure you guys are pretty excited, too, so let's get started."

Battle Tactics and Strategy; Thursday, Fourth Period [03/07].

[chef_chocobro]

"Now that we've had a little bit of a break," said Ignis, as he got the class started for the day; he was not alone at the front of the class, either, with Gladio towering next to him, arms folded across his broad chest, with a faint smirk on his face as he let Ignis do most of the talking for the moment, "and have not only gone over some of the broader aspects of battles, especially when it comes to strategy and tactics, and even had the opportunity to enact a little bit of them ourselves in either simulation or via comparable games, we will now turn our attention toward something more specific, immediate, and perhaps even personal. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at different styles of fighting, practicing them, learning more about them, and hopefully therefor expanding our understanding not only of the broader picture, but the finer details of the inner working of battle, as well.

"Of course," he continued, with a vague wave of his hand, "the type of combat required for a battle will depend heavily on what kind of battle it is, the classic 'you don't bring a knife to a gun fight,' although, as a knife fighter myself, I find a good deal of error with a thought like that, and what sort of skills you may already possess. We have had the opportunity to put a few of your less martial-focused talents into good use with our reconnaissance missions, but I'd like to turn our attention toward the combat itself a little more specifically, and, with that, I feel our experiences may be significantly more varied. However, this is not a class about fighting itself, but rather fighting efficiently, so while Mr. Amicitia will be instructing us on a few basic hand-to-hand combat skills, our focus will actually be on then applying them strategically.

"For example," he continued, "how might one approach a hand-to-hand fight with someone such as myself, compared to someone like Mr. Amicitia? For me, you would do well to take into to account speed and swiftness. If you've done your research, you'd know that I likely depend very heavily on my hearing in a fight, so an attack that complicates that perception would be beneficial. Meanwhile, one might try to find ways to make Mr. Amicitia's size count against him, especially if you yourself are smaller. You might not be able to match him in strength, but where else might you use that disparity to your advantage?

"These are the things I'd like you to think about in today's exercise. Not so much the technical prowess of the combat itself, but rather ways to make it work to your tactical advantage, based on your opponent or situation. There's more to a brawl than simply who can swing their fist the hardest."

He gave a tight smile.

"Or at least there should be. And, with that? Gladio?"

With that, Gladio grinned and stepped forward, pounding a fist into his palm and grinning as he went to crack his knuckles as he stepped forward. "Alright, everyone. Now we get to the good stuff..."

Necromancers Guide to the Undead, Thursday, Period 1

[deathsmajesty]

"So the week before we left for vacation--" which they absolutely would not be discussing, thank you "--we began discussing zombies. Today, we are continuing that discussion with a look at intelligent zombies. As I'm sure you can all guess, an intelligent zombie is one that has its mind - and usually its personality - intact. They are generally rare, requiring a great deal of mana and skill to create. While it's possible for an intelligent zombie to spontaneously emerge on its own, the odds are infinitesimal, as it requires a specific confluence of events. As far as necromancy can tell, a spontaneous intelligent zombie is what happens when a spirit that would have become a ghost somehow gets trapped within its body and there is enough ambient mana to raise the corpse as a zombie. It's certainly possible and individual cases have been documented, but we still do not yet understand the phenomena that allows it to happen, nor has any necromancer that I've heard of been able to produce a spontaneously-arising intelligent zombie."

( And maybe don't think too hard about how they'd go about trying to 'produce' one, okay? )

Dice and Danger! [Thurs, 2nd Period]

[needsacatchphrase]

The tavern simulation was on fire (oh, noes), as was NPCakin's hair.

"Sometimes fights go poorly," Cara said dryly.

"And sometimes people go down in the middle of them," Jane added, tugging her cape away from a flare of fire. "But that's okay! It doesn't mean your character is dead. Yet."

Very important distinction. They were only mostly dead.

"Sometimes you can only be temporarily dead," Cara said. "And in this case the permanence of your death is determined by rolling dice."

Because how else would it be?

"Let's all see what the dice say for us," Jane suggested. It wasn't morbid at all! It was your characters! Toootally different.

The most different, even.

Library, Thursday 3/7

[noonedecidesmyfate]

There were a number of odd objects around the library today.

The Cup Noodle cups on top of the shelves were surprising. Who could have left them?

The sewing needles on the shelves were also extremely odd and random.

And then there was the cutlery.

None of it made sense. And yet here it all was.