fandomhigh | Tracking: Urban v. Wilderness; Thursday, Period Three [ 09/16 ].

The class would be meeting in the Danger Shop today, where Angua stood waiting for them to gather at the divide between two different settings: to one side, a lush rocky forest. On the other, an old sprawling city, not too dissimilar from Anhk-Morpork.

"Welcome back," she started. "Sorry about last week. Yes, I'm fine. No, I don't want to talk about it. Today, we're going to start by talking about last week. Clearly, none of you had any problems finding the trail mix, which is a good sign. Those of you with more honed senses could tell it was under there, while those of you without had the good sense to observe your surroundings, learn from them, and act accordingly. That sort of attention to detail is invaluable; in fact, it puts you at an advantage over those who may depend on their senses for tracking. Sometimes, they get so caught up in what they sense that they can't notice what else might be going on, which could lead to missing obvious things or could even be deadly.

"So, to prove this point..."

Angua brought out from her pocket a little glass vial. "This," she said "is peppermint oil. While very good for things like headaches, indigestion, that sort of thing in small doses, it, in large doses can completely throw off a person's sense of smell and, if strong enough, taste and sight as well. I'm not one to fluff my own fur--eathers, but I was getting so good at tracking criminals back home in Ankh-Morpork that they were starting to use this liberally on the crime scene so that I couldn't even detect where to begin...outside of shipping records, because the peppermint merchants were probably experiencing quite the boom in business.

"So, what we have here today are two different scenes, clearly, and we will be splitting up into two groups and playing hide and seek. Each group will take a different setting for the first half of class and then, for the second half, we'll switch. Both scenes are liberally covered in peppermint oil. Each of you will also be liberally covered in peppermint oil. So you haven't got your senses to depend on as much, and have to use other cues to help you to find your classmates. The first person to be 'IT' will be our TAs; once they find someone, that person becomes it and must find someone else. Then that person becomes It and so on and so forth. If you become It, the person who found you is exempt from being caught while they go and hide. When we switch, there will be five minutes to hide, and the TAs become It again."

"Team A, headed by Jacob and starting in the woods, will consist of Andros, Ben, Blysse, Blind Seer, Effy, Dana, George, Jason, and Roy."

"Team B, headed by Maladicta and starting in the city, will be Zack, Alice, Ender, Bruce, Cara, Dru, Katniss, Makita, and Tahiri."

"Any questions? And, before you ask, yes, the peppermint oil will wash off without a problem. Most peppermint oil won't, but that's why we love this Danger Shop, right?"

[[ slow OCD is ~~on the way~~ ready for you to find it! ]]

[[ Previous Classes ]]

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Zack groaned a little and peered down from his rooftop perch at her.

"SOLDIERs aren't really made for stealth," he replied, smiling sheepishly.

And he wasn't coming down for anything.

"Some can be!" Yup, still not catching the caps there.

Someday, he'd explain the difference. Oh, someday...

"Well, not this kind," he replied, cracking a grin. "We leave the stealth to our special ops division."

Oh, sorry. The Department of Administrative Research. Totally the same thing.

"Do they survive longer?" She asked, frowning for a moment as she skirted along the shadows to find a way up to the roof. Easier said than done.

Zack casually propped himself up against the chimney, arms crossed over his chest, casually watching her do her thing down there.

"That depends on the situation," he decided. "Under normal circumstances, not really. But stuff back home has been anything but normal, lately."

Maladicta snorted, finally finding a niche that wasn't in the sunlight that she could... pull herself up to the roof with far too much ease for a human woman her size. "Is it ever normal?"

"Beats me," Zack admitted, holding his hands out to his sides. "I used to think I knew, but it's kind of becoming obvious that nothing is ever that simple."

And now she was on the mostly sunny roof.

"Bugger," she muttered under her breath. "It tends to be more interesting that way!"

All power to the mostly sunny roof! Zack peered around the chimney toward her, and once again shot her a little grin. This time, it was accompanied by a merry little wave.

"It would be more interesting if they had work for me lately."

"No more wars?"

...the waving was just cruel.

Zack was a mean, mean man.

"There's always something going on," Zack sighed. "I guess there just isn't anything that they need to send their elite after, lately."

"You seem too friendly to be elite," she pointed out.

Pulling off her jacket, she draped it carefully over her head before darting over to that damned chimney. This was just an accident waiting to happen. It really was.

Oop, and here she came!

"That just means I'm ambitious!"

And there Zack went, with one more grin for good measure before jumping backward off the edge of the roof.

At least he landed in the shadows, right?

"Right." She caught the edge of the roof, pushing back on it for more leverage to make it to the shade. "Do I actually have to say you're it?"

Zack grinned up at her from where he'd landed, and he gave his shoulders a shrug.

"If that's what it takes," he replied. "It's kinda more official that way, isn't it?"

"It might be unfair to do to my fellow leader," she pointed out, putting the jacket back on now that she was in the shade.

"Unfair would be me making a run back out into the sunshine," Zack replied, shrugging his shoulders a bit. Hey, he'd been a vampire a couple of times, now. He could appreciate the concern about sunburn. "Up to you, Maladicta. You wanna call it, or should we keep up the chase?"

Maladicta considered it for a moment. "No more playing?" she asked with a grin that was possibly evil, but most definitely amused.

"Well, I can't promise that," Zack laughed, putting his hands on his hips. "But if you're not going to call it, I'm going to be forced to run, you know."

He was really, really hoping for an excuse to run.

"I'm waiting."

And the chase was on.

Zack just barely refrained from crowing out a merry whoop before turning on his heel and taking off down the alleyway at a run. He wasn't generally the sort to run away from things, but in this one case? He'd make an exception!

Tracking: Urban v. Wilderness; Thursday, Period Three [ 09/16 ].

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