Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You [Weds, 3rd Period]

[atreideslioness]

Each of Ghanima's students had handwavily received a hand-written letter telling them to meet at the main campfire today - with a map, for the new students - and as people arrived, they'd find their teacher tranquilly sitting on a log, playing with a praying mantis that was climbing all over her fingers.

"Well now," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly as she set down her little friend. "Many new faces! How very exciting! And for those of you that I've seen before... welcome back."

Ghanima was not sure if it was a mark of approval in her choice in subject matter, or if her students were simply masochists. She was not ruling out either option.

"For those of you that are new, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is Keeping Your Advantage. If you have not had one of my classes before, you may call me Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or Miss Atreides, whichever you are more comfortable with. The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention," Ghanima announced, smiling. "Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I will not answer to it."

"This is a class intended to give you a basic grounding in the varying types of terrain you may encounter, and how to survive it. The simple fact that you are at this school is testimony to the fact that you never know where you may find yourself."

"From cityscapes to icebergs, each week we will look at a different type of terrain, and one thing you can do to make your life easier. Please be aware that there is no syllabus to this class, because I don't want you to have time to prepare for each scenario. Many times you will have to work with only the things you have on you during an emergency, and learning to keep your wits about you is important."

"Today, we are going to start with the most basic skill you can have: making a fire, and some basic cooking skills. I'd like you to work as a group to get this fire started, and then we'll make some hot dogs, s'mores, baked potatoes, and grilled cheese."

Comments

Sign-In #1

[atreideslioness]

We didn't start the fire!

Re: Sign-In #1

[not_every_mage]

Anders

During the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Grab a seat! Take notes, pass notes, wonder why your teacher is wearing formal wear to sit around a campfire...

Re: During the Lecture

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

Jalian was rather wondering about that last bit, actually. Still, it was her choice. Those clothes didn't look very easy to fight in, though. She was also very curious about the teacher's eyes, though she seemed to see well enough.

Re: During the Lecture

[poison-princess.livejournal.com]

You know, before today (or maybe just before this school), Evie would have been thrilled to discover that her teacher was a member of aristocracy. Now, however, she was trying to figure out of Miss Atreides really was a lady like she claimed, or if it was just one more bit of evidence to Evie being one of the least crazy people on the island.

Also, she was trying to figure out what it was about Miss Atreides' eyes that was creeping her out so much. But, yeah, wow. Creeperiffic.

Start the Fire!

[atreideslioness]

Get together, gather wood, and get the fire going. Feel free to chat with your classmates.

Re: Start the Fire!

[not_every_mage]

Anders hadn't worn his staff to class, so he could only help the conventional way. Which meant he scavenged around the edges of the campfire, looking for dry tinder.

This might not be a bad class.

Re: Start the Fire!

[gavegoodface]

"Does anyone have any kind of fire-starter...or a blaster?"

Face, no.

Re: Start the Fire!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa... mostly just stared at the firepit.

What. She was aware that if she was in this class, she was going to have to participate. But what.

Re: Start the Fire!

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four reached into his pockets for a packet of matches--Abnegation habits ran deep and he always had the bare necessities of being helpful around his person.

"Unless someone else has a flashier way?" he offered a little dryly, holding them out.

Re: Start the Fire!

[poison-princess.livejournal.com]

Evie had never even been a girl scout. She didn't know anything about lighting fires that didn't involve lighter fluid and a box of matches. She'd been to plenty of bonfires, sure, but there had always been a bunch of guys around to take care of the fire.

She was going to try to find some branches or something. Branches were necessary for fires, right?

Cooking!

[atreideslioness]

Once students got the fire going, Ghanima brought out a large box of foodstuffs. Potatoes, apples, hot dogs, a tin of coffee, bread, cheese, and ingredients for bannock and s'mores.

"Help yourselves," Ghanima said, putting the box down. "But there's no tinfoil, cups, or other cutlery. You'll need to find sticks or get creative. If you want coffee, you need to find something to use as a cup."

"Once you get cooking, I'd like you to take turns introducing yourselves, since we have so many new faces. Tell us your name, and what you are most interested in learning about. What is it that drew you to this class? Feel free to start up conversations with each other."

Re: Cooking!

[not_every_mage]

Anders put together a sandwich of bread and cheese; he wasn't feeling either hungry or ambitious enough to cook.

"I'm Anders," he said, once the sandwich was half-done. "I can't say there's any one thing I want to get out of class. I just want to be well-prepared for whatever the world throws at me, that's all."

Re: Cooking!

[gavegoodface]

Face was eyeing a hot dog warily and trying to figure out if it actually had dog in it when his turn came.

"My name's Garik, but I prefer Face since that's what most people call me anyway," Face said. "I don't really have a lot of wilderness skills, so that."

Re: Cooking!

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa... took an apple. Because her cooking skills were utterly nonexistent, and she didn't particularly trust herself not to accidentally kill the fire somehow.

"I'm Elsa," she said, once her turn came around. "I..." Didn't actually sign up for this class. At all. But now that she was here, best to make the best of it, right? "I could use the chance to get out and about some. I lived a pretty sheltered childhood, and if I'm going to be going to school here for any amount of time, being prepared for different environments will probably come in handy."

Re: Cooking!

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four had spent enough nights eating stuff roasted over lit-up trash bins (Dauntless made its own fun) to not even blink twice before toasting up a couple of hot dogs on a stick.

"I'm Four," he said. "I just want to be prepared. I'm used to urban setting survival stuff, but I don't want to be caught unaware on other things."

Re: Cooking!

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

"Jalian d'Arsennette y ken Selvren," Jalian answered as she speared an apple on her longest knife and held it to the fire. She took a bit of cheese, too, but she was ignoring the rest of the food, since she didn't recognize most of it.

"I want to be ready for anything I can," she continued with a shrug. "Any advantage is useful."

Re: Cooking!

[justwantedfriends]

Kira had never made grilled cheese over a fire before, but it didn't seem like a difficult task with enough sticks, so she was using two sticks to keep her sandwich steady by the fire when it was her turn. "My name is Kira Yukimura, and I didn't pick my classes, but this one seems like it'll be a better fit for me than some of the others," she said. "I'm used to cityscapes, so anything that's not that would be awesome to learn about."

Re: Cooking!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor considered roasting a hot dog, but chose to grab an apple and some cheese instead.

"My name is Eleanor Lamb," she said. "I've seen ... in the past, I've been in situations where one needs to adapt rather quickly to one's surroundings. I'd like to be better at it."

Re: Cooking!

[nolizardhere]

"I'm Andros," Andros said, looking up from studying a marshmallow as if he was trying to discern its true purpose. "No relation to him," he added, gesturing toward Anders with the marshmallow. "I...don't know what the future holds for me, and I'd like to be prepared for as many possibilities as possible."

Re: Cooking!

[notconflicted]

"I'm Marasiah, or Sia if you'd rather, and my galaxy's at war, so I'd rather be prepared in case I end up in an unfortunate situations," she said. She was totally going for s'mores, by the way.

Re: Cooking!

[poison-princess.livejournal.com]

Uhhh... Yeah, the South did backyard barbeques like no one else, but there were always kitchens and grills involved. The last time she'd roasted marshmallows was years ago.

She was just going to eat an apple. Those didn't need to be cooked.

"I'm Evangeline--Evie--Greene," she said, trying to cover up how awkward she felt with a smile and good old Southern charm. "I hate to say it, but I didn't choose my classes, so I'm not quite sure why I'm in this class. But a little bit of learning how to survive is a good thing. I like real close to a bayou and it can be dangerous. Sometimes people just up and vanish into it and are never seen again."

Like, oh, her dad.

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

She's around, before and after class.

OOC

[atreideslioness]

WELCOME BACK GHANI!

Re: OOC

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

Can we assume Ghani has Fremen eyes? :) Jalian will be very curious!