Necromancers Guide to the Undead, Thursday, Period 1

[deathsmajesty]

Class met in the Danger Shop today, Liliana giving the class a bright smile. "Today, rather than continuing to visit Innistrad, although it's a truly lovely place for zombies, we are instead going to visit Ravnica, an ecumenopolis or a planet-wide city." Like Coruscant, if Liliana had known to make that comparison. "On Innistrad, ghouls remain, for the most part, outside of the social structure. They are the works of necromancers, Stitchers and ghoulcallers alike, and most necromancers tend to keep to themselves more often than not." There was a reason Vess Manor was all by itself and not in a bustling town somewhere.

...And that reason was because angels were obnoxious, but that was another story.

"In Ravnica, things are different. Ravnica was - and is again - ruled over by ten Guilds who wield immense power and claim dominion over different parts of Ravnican city life. With a plane-wide city, two of the most important aspects of keeping a population healthy and viable are sanitation and sustenance. Meat is at a premium and so is fresh produce, the latter often supplied by the Selesnya Conclave, which is just as much a cult as their fellow guild, the Cult of Rakdos, but don't have the manners to be open about it."

Tell us how you really felt, Liliana.

"But for those who cannot afford the astronomical price of meat or magic-grown produce - and, shocking no one, that's most of the world - the Golgari Swarm is the guild that provides it. They are also the city's main source of sanitation. Today, we're going to shadow a group of Golgari Street Swarm, the Golgari labor class that includes corpse scavengers, low-ranking street shamans, rot farmers, tunnel trolls, various elementals, and fungal horrors - and, of course zombies, as the Golgari welcome both the intelligent and mindless variety as members. The Golgari aren't the only guild that welcomes undead, of course. The Orzhov Syndicate is run by a council of ghosts; the leader of House Dimir was a vampire before he got imprisoned and killed, I believe; the Cult of Rakdos count plenty of types of undead amongst their ranks...but of all of them, the Golgari are by and far the largest and most welcoming of the undead, likely because the guild was founded by the necromancer Svogthir, humbly referred to as the god-zombie." Whoops! Tangent again! "Anyway, each neighborhood of Ravnica tends to have its chapter of the Street Swarm, and each chapter is led by a local swarm boss. Each Street Swarm is divided into two sections. Spore Druids specialize in fungi, moss, molds, and other decomposers, to help rid the streets of filth and garbage, and Reclaimers are scavengers who patrol different areas of the city and gather the dead to be recycled."

Yeah. She said recycled. Don't worry about it.

"It's all a simulation, of course, but I've still programmed in waders and tall boots for you," she said with a grin. "Suit up, this is going to get a little messy."

Photography Through the Ages; Thursday, Third Period [03/14].

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Alright, so!" Prompto greeted the class with an eager grin to get to today's topic, so much so that he already had one of the cameras they were focusing on for the lesson in his hands, juggling it almost idly between them as he sat on the desk at the front, kicking his feet a little. "We've been going over some of the different...developments," AH! PHOTOGRAPHER HUMOR!, "in cameras through the years, as one might expect for a class named like this," he chuckled a little at that, "and most of the cameras we've gone over use a film or other process that you need to go through in order to get your pictures to show up, right down to developing our own pictures in the darkroom. Today's going to be all about a camera that turned that concept on its head a little bit by giving your photos instantly, but also physically, and that, if you haven't guessed it yet...." He lifted the camera in his hand, "are instant cameras, or, as most people know them by the most popular brand name here on Earth, Polaroid.

"Back on Eos," he added with a little bit of a grin, "I actually had a LOKTON brand one of these for a little while, they're pretty fun. It all started with this dude named Rott Andor," and didn't that sound like a name that would have been right at home in Eos?, "who created something called DTR, or Diffusion Transfer Reversal, that allowed for the film to develop immediately inside the camera itself! So all you'd do is just...." He lifted the camera, snapping a shot of the class, "...take the picture, and..." A few seconds later, the photo was sliding out of the camera and he held it up to show them as the image began to surface, "voila! Instant Pic! Pretty neat, right?

"So I'm going to break down how the process works and some of the different types of instant cameras that are out there, and then you can probably guess what happens after that, you guys get free range to borrow them for the week and sort of play around with them as much as you like, and I'll even throw in some extra film rolls for you, because it can definitely get addicting."

With that, he hopped off the desk and the lesson could begin!

Battle Tactics and Strategy; Thursday, Fourth Period [03/14].

[chef_chocobro]

The danger shop was once against set up with a very heavily Niflheim-inspired fortress, only, this time, there were Magitek soldiers and cybersuits milling around outside. The class itself was stationed a good distance away, where Ignis stood looking thoughtful and reflective, while Prompto bounced around him, organizing and sorting through a variety of firearms, interesting looking machinery, assault weapons, missle launchers....and, yes, of course, at least one catapult and trebuchet and ballista each.

So if you hadn't figured out what today's topic was going to be, well, you were going to find out indefinitely.

"Last week," Ignis began, while Prompto, whistling softly, continued setting things up, and perhaps getting a little distracted by the weapons of his own design for the sim because, look, he liked what he liked, okay?, "we discussed combat in very close proximity, and, this week, we're leaning into the complete opposite of the spectrum." There was a faint touch of a smile there, having nothing to do with the fact that he had a feeling certain students might find this approach to combat much more...applicable to their preferred battle methods, really. "Long-range weapons, assault weapons, missile launchers, your basic bows and arrows and your siege weapons. Good for when you want to make a hopefully strategic attack without getting too close. Now, of course, there is a certain safety in attacking from a distance, but one can only assume that your enemies are also equally well equipped and may just volley an attack back, but we're not necessarily speaking on defenses against long-range attacks today, so much as the offense of them, though we can certain start delving into that if the conversation leads us there. And while I can do well enough with the application of a weapon as a long range one, such as throwing a dagger or an axe or a lance, the long range expert on our team was, of course," he cocked his head toward Prompto, who lifted a hand from a pistol he was holding to wave and grin, "Mr. Argentum here. So he will be giving the rundown on the application of the various long-range weapons he's prepared for us today. I'll turn it over to him, then, and then we will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of these weapons and hopefully give you the chance to try a few of them out on the field to get used to the idea of using them and thinking of them strategically..."

There seemed to be something pointed in the way he said that, directly specifically at the blonde with the beard and the guns behind him, who rolled his eyes.

"Prompto?"

"Right!" said Prompto. "So! Let's talk guns! Big guns, little guns, massive guns, laser guns...there's a lot more to it than just point and shoot, and different situations are going to call for a different weapon, so let's get into it...."

Library, Thursday 3/14

[noonedecidesmyfate]

There were a number of cookbooks out today all of which dealt with pies of some kind. They all contained beautiful pictures of food and Belle was quite happily flipping through the pages during her shift.

She was less happy about the purple smoothie on the carpet but she wasn't going to deal with that herself. She just put some chairs around it, glared at a nearby gremlin (who may have been innocent), and went back to reading about pies.