Delicious In Dungeon, Tuesday, Period 6

[sailor_meshi]

Class was meeting outside today, in no small part because Senshi had gotten lost trying to find his room and when he arrived, he realized that everything was scaled for Tall-Men and elves, neither of which he was. And if he was having trouble, he could only imagine how the half-foots and gnomes were struggling. Not just anywhere outside, they were meeting right outside the external doors that led to the cafeteria, where a number of fire-retardant mats had been spread out. Senshi was not going to ask why the school had so many fire-retardant mats, just be grateful they were there.

When the class arrived, they would be greeted by a short, stocky man, about 4'7, with a long, and magnificent black beard and head of hair that poured over his chest and back, from below his helmet, and a glorious black mustache that poked out above it. He was also carrying a huge bag of supplies on his back, that clanked with his every movement. His muscular build was reflected in the ease with which he carried it.

"Greetings," he said gruffly, hoping that the sign (complete with crude map) he put on the door of the classroom had caught everybody and sent them out here. "I'm Senshi of Izganda, your instructor for Delicious in Dungeon. I still don't really know how I got here or how everything was all set up for me, but I do know my stuff, and part of that stuff is survivin' and thrivin' in a dungeon, where the only things to eat are the flora and fauna that you can forage for - and that means monsters, for the fauna, and even some of the flora, too. I know that this class billed itself as goin' down into the dungeons to hunt monsters and cookin' 'em up, but I don't know if that's the safest thing to do with a buncha youngin's, and that's assuming I can even find my dungeon again."

Sorry, oh, everybody in the class. Senshi had no idea how to tell Tall-Men ages and, considering this was a school, was just operating under the assumption that everyone was a child until told otherwise.

"But while I'm figurin' that out, we still got a class. I've been told that the first week of class is usually introductions, so we're gonna do that, but I can't imagine that's gonna take the whole time, so I've got some other things to focus on that'll also help us for our time goin' forward.

"First of all, when you're in a dungeon, you're rarely gonna have a fancy kitchen to cook in. Sometimes you do, and that's great, but usually it's just you and the fire that you can build. There are ways to get creative with cookin' over a fire - for example, I always have a metal grill I carry with me, so if I find something enclosed that I can set a fire in, I've got a grill handy to cook over - but the first thing you've got to know is how to build a fire." At that, his hands went onto his hips. "Now, I do have one rule in my class - no magic. You're here to learn how to do things by hand. I can't stop you if you run around lighting fires with magic the whole rest of the time, but I've seen too many casters end up at the resurrectionists because they ran out of magic and froze to death because they didn't know how to build a proper fire by hand."

And he wasn't going to let these youngin's learn bad habits in his class.

"Once we finish buildin' fires and a coupla different types of useful cookin' setups, we're all gonna prepare a little meal over 'em, and once we've finished cookin', we'll do the introductions."

This Sh*t is Bananas, Part Duex: Tuesday, Third Period [05/14].

[somethingwithturquoise]

As if to make a statement, Summer was flanked by bowls brimming with bananas at the front of the cooking classroom, beaming with a sort of serene happiness to be back in her element of horrible power in dredging up the culinary sins of the past and exposing the world to them. And directly in front of her were two cloches covering the terrible mysteries they would be exploring today.

"Welcome, everyone," Summer said, "to This Shit is Bananas, Part Duex, a class where I return to the topic of horrible old recipes that should never see the light of day again, but with a specific focus on bananas. Now, bananas are a very interesting fruit. It's one of the most popular ones in America today, and some scientist believe it's actually the first fruit, like, ever. So it's been around for a while, which means there's been plenty of time for us to really fuck it up. We've also improved it in a lot of ways through genetic breeding and things that, which means its definitely didn't come out in nature as the perfect fruit like some Creationist may suggest. In fact, the banana was all know and love today is known as the Cavendish banana, named after some super-Britishly-named duke back in the 1820s. And now, it's a staple for lunch boxes and track meets, full of potassium, and bound to clutter freezers everywhere in wilted browned form because you're definitely going to make that banana bread out of it some day, really!"

There was a pause, as she looked over the class to see whose eyes might be glazing over at the 'educational' part of the class, and then grinned.

"We are definitely not going to be making banana bread in this class. We are going to be making stuff like this."

She opened the first cloche to reveal ham and bananas in hollandaise sauce.

"And this."

The next cloche revealed what might look, at first blush, like something wholly inappropriate for a classroom setting but was, in actually, just Christmas Candle Salad.

"Now," Summer said, "these two recipes were what inspired me to focus on the horrible things we did to bananas in the past, and so that felt like a great place to start for this week: the classics, and on two sides of the spectrum: one for its absolutely baffling combination of flavors and the other for its rather...unique presentation that's sure to catch the eye and make you wonder if people back then were seeing the same thing we see now. So we're just going to dive right in, we'll go over how to make the recipes, and, as we make them and maybe try them for ourselves if you're bold enough, discuss how and why these things might have come to be or just your thoughts and opinions in general.

"And if your thoughts and opinions generally revolve around regret? That is totally valid."

Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

[endsthegame]

It had always been Ender's wont to have this class meet on the school's lawn, in the sunlight. There were pillows and picnic blankets, simple sandwiches and thermoses of coffee, tea and water. He was already there when class arrived, looking content to sit and enjoy the feeling of the wind in his hair.

"Sit down in a circle, please," he said when class arrived. "I like to keep things equal, when I can at all help it."

There were quite a few familiar faces here. "Most of you know who I am," he observed. "For the rest of you, my name is Andrew Skywalker. Dean Skywalker," he nodded at Anakin, "is my grandfather-in-law, and Ben here," another nod, and a smile, "is my husband and father to our three children. I'm sorry, sometimes it's hard to escape making something on this island a family affair. Especially when you are an alumnus."

He looked at the students he didn't know. "I am a Speaker for the Dead," he said. "When someone dies, and I am summoned, it's my job to poke and pry into the life of the deceased, to learn about the decisions they made and why they made them, so we can form a true picture of a person without claims to higher judgment. I'm not here to teach you how to be a Speaker, obviously, but this is the lens through which I try to conduct this class: we ask questions. Sometimes we pose hypotheses. But I won't tolerate harsh judgments, because they close the blinders on us, and make it harder for us to understand both ourselves and the world."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. Here, we make some attempt to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. Above all, philosophy is about asking questions about everything in the world around us - and about everything we feel about it. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

He smiled wryly. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. I'll try to raise a theme each week, but don't feel beholden to it. If there's something on your mind you'd like to discuss, please do throw it into the group."

He picked up a bottle of water. "So let's talk," he said, twisting off the cap. "How do you feel about where you are now? What kind of experience has the island been for you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?" He glanced at Ghanima and Anakin with a wry curl to his mouth. "Perhaps I should say 'in the past five years', just to give ourselves some kind of a limitation."

Make Your Own Pizza!, Monday, Period 2

[carbsliftthespirit]

Once the class had assembled in the home ec room, Raiden greeted them all with, "Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Make Your Own Pizza!, the class where we, uh, make our own pizza." Obviously. "I'm Raiden, and if you're wondering about my qualifications, I run the pizza parlor in town and have been a big fan of pizza since it was invented." Possibly its biggest fan, lbr. "For those of you who aren't familiar with pizza, first off, I'm sorry about your lives thus far, and second: pizza is a kind of flatbread, invented in the country of Italy. It's usually round, and these days most commonly topped with a tomato-based sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a variety of optional toppings like meats and vegetables--but there are loads of other options out there, and I encourage creativity, so please, don't feel trapped by those rules. There are no rules in my kitchen other than 'try not to hurt yourself or someone else' and 'don't steal the measuring spoons.'" Maybe that one was just for Castor.

"Before we get started, why doesn't everybody introduce themselves, tell me where you're from, and what your favorite kind of pizza is if you have one, and what your cooking experience level is like if you don't."

"This week we're going to get started with making the dough for our crust. The recipe I've selected is really good for beginners because it's really flexible: it'll work with bread flour or all purpose flour, and it has a couple of options for mix-ins for additional flavor right in the dough. Neat, right?" Raiden thought it was, anyway. "Also, depending on what works best for you, you can make the dough by hand or in a stand mixer. Sometimes I like to knead by hand--it's kinda relaxing--but sometimes I use the mixer so I can do other stuff while the dough works. There's no wrong answer."

Raiden proceeded to demonstrate how to get the dough started in the mixer before he walked everyone through how to make it by hand, wrapping up by telling them, "Now it's your turn! Your dough will need to rise before it can be used, and we don't have time during today's class, so I'm going to wrap it up and freeze it for you--and yes, you can freeze pizza dough! Those little yeasty friends will just come right on back to life when it thaws out--and we'll pull it out and use it when we actually make pizzas. For now, I've got a handwavey assortment of your more typical pizzas from the shop for you guys to try out, in case you aren't familiar with it yet."

Earth Tourism, Tuesday 5th period

[unusual_sith]

"Hello, everybody," Lana greeted them with a smile when they met at Portalocity. "I hope you all got the information I handwavily sent on modern Earth clothing styles. As I said in the email, you're not required to dress like that, but if you want to blend in, it's a good start." She herself was wearing jeans, a green t-shirt, and boots.

"We'll plan to meet here each time, unless there's other things going on, in which case I'll let you know as far ahead of class as I can. Today we're not going far, just across the causeway, but a portal's still easier than driving on Earth. It's all surface vehicles and there are a lot of rules about it." Also she doubted Anakin would have trusted her with the bus.

"Fandom is located just outside Baltimore, which is a mid-sized Earth city in the state of Maryland, which is part of the United States, one of the major countries on Earth. They speak predominantly Basic - English - which should make this fairly easy. One thing you may notice as we travel, is that so far as humans are aware, they are the only sentient beings on Earth. It's debatable, honestly, even in those versions that don't have other bipedal species, but it's what they believe. Everyone we see is likely to look human. There are a lot of different languages and cultures, though, so don't let the surface similarities fool you."

She mentally reviewed her list of things to cover. "Weapons are generally not carried in public here, so if you have one, I suggest you hide it. Also any abilities outside of the human norm. Otherwise, if you're used to how people in Fandom act, they'll be similar here, although perhaps a bit ruder." Just a little; it was a big city, but it wasn't Chicago.

"We'll be visiting a military historical site that was apparently the inspiration for the country's national anthem, Fort McHenry. After that, I was given a request that we eat while we're out, so today we'll be heading to a place called Locust Point Steamers, which serves the local staples of crabs, an edible crustacean, and something called Old Bay, which I believe is a spice."

She looked around. "Any questions?"

Self-Defense for Shinies, Tuesday, May 14, 2024

[sith_happened]

Two changes about Anakin and Ahsoka from their last class to this one were pretty obvious. The first one one was that they were outside, at least today, instead of inside a classroom. The other was they seemed to be genuinely enjoying each other's company.

"Welcome to Self-Defense," Anakin began with a quick smile. "As I hope you knew when you signed up, this will be an interactive workshop."

"We won't be able to teach you everything in just a few weeks,” Ahsoka added, much more relaxed than the start of last semester. "But you should leave us with a solid foundation to build on."

"While hopefully not boring those of you who already have some skills," Anakin added. "We'll start with warmups, then check on your punching and kicking techniques."

You should probably get their names, too, Anakin.

"We'll be getting your names too," Ahsoka said. "We may also give a demonstration to ease you into things."

Lies, not one person in their entire lineage was capable of being anything other than extra.

"Just a small one," Anakin agreed.