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

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."

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"That sounds like it could be fun," Jalian agreed, thinking about it. She snorted. "Also very foolish if you can't stop well."

"We tend to use a human shield of live bodies to stop everything," Four said.

Jalian blinked. "That sounds very...bruising? What do the live bodies think of it?"

"Oh, they don't mind," Four said. "They're Dauntless--adrenaline junkies, all."

Jalian hadn't heard that term before, but it was easy enough to parse. She laughed. "They sound strange and fun. It would still make more sense to stop yourself before you hit, though."

She might be a bit of an adrenaline junkie herself, but she did have some common sense.

"Well, they jump off a 99 story building. It's a little hard to stop yourself," Four said.

"If you had something to supply enough friction..." Jalian was thinking about it now. "Although that might generate too much heat."

"Dauntless is bad enough without adding potentially catching fire to their tricks," Four laughed. "They'll all be standing in line for that chance."

"They have more bravery than sense?" Jalian asked, grinning. She'd known huntresses like that.

"They're Dauntless. They're unafraid, even when they should be," Four said, looking ruefully amused.

"Is that a clan designation, or a descriptor?" Jalian asked.

"We're divided into factions," Four said. "Dauntless, Candor, Erudite, Amity and Abnegation. So...sort of both."

"What are the factions for?" Jalian asked curiously.

"They keep us from falling into old patterns that led to war," Four said. "We take a personality test, basically, when we are 16 and are sorted from the factions where we grew up into the factions where we belong. The jobs you have as adults are aligned with the factions you join. Dauntless takes care of border security and the police force."

"So your war was caused by people not belonging in the right place?" Jalian guessed. She snorted. "Ours was only people being stupid."

"I'm sure there was a fair bit of stupidity in the mix for us too," Four said with a little snort.

Jalian laughed. "Smart people don't explode the world," she agreed.

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

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