fandomhigh | Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain & You, Monday, Period 1

As per usual, Ghanima's classroom had ditched the standard desk set-up for divans, cushions, oversized chairs and other non-school-standard seating. Ghanima herself was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students wander into the room. Once the last of them had arrived, her face lit up with a smile.

"Well now," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly. "Some of you look rather familiar!"

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: Terrain & You.' 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." Ghanima hopped off her desk to take a seat on the floor with everyone else. "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 terrian, 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."

"First, however, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves. Name, rank, how long you've been at Fandom, and type of terrain you are most familiar with. If anyone is interested in a TA position, see me after class."

"You. Start."

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And just when class was wrapping up, Liam stopped by, a tray with two hot chocolates and two cinnamon buns with pumpkin spice icing in hand.

“Hey,” he greeted, leaning against the doorway.

"Liam!" Ghanima's smile instantly went from 'professional teacher' to 'utterly delighted,' as she made grabby-hands at the treats. "I hope those are not all for you."

Sometimes, Ghani was very much a brat.

“They absolutely are,” Liam deadpanned. “I am hoarding all this sugar for myself.” Sometimes, he could be equally bratty.

It was their lack of childhoods. They had to get their brattiness in somehow, though Ghanima's step-mother would gladly attest that somehow being Pre-Born had not stopped Ghani from being an utter pain in the ass when she was in a Mood.

"Cruel and unusual punishment," she pouted. "I'm fairly sure that's against the law on this quaint little planet."

“Hmm. Maybe you should report me to the authorities,” Liam retorted, handing over a drink and a pastry. “Oh, wait...”

"I think I shall. I'd notify the squirrels immediately, but I hear that they're on strike," she teased, pointing her pastry at him.

Though a particular piece of jewelry caught her attention, and Ghanima raised an eyebrow at him, a smirk hovering along the corners of her smile. "And what have we been up to lately? Besides taunting poor, exhausted teachers with sugar."

“I’ll have you know that I am also one of those poor, exhausted teachers, these days,” Liam informed her. “And as for this,” he wiggled the fingers of his left hand. “Verity asked me to marry her.”

Had beaten him to getting to the point of asking, as a matter of fact.

Edited 2019-09-10 18:40 (UTC)

"I approve of a woman who knows what she wants," Ghanima laughed. "Congratulations, Liam!"

“Thanks,” he grinned back at her. “The mice had bets running on which of us was going to ask first.”

"Now I need to know what the winning mice got as their prize," she mused. "Oh! Does this mean we get to throw you a party?"

“Cheese and cake,” Liam replied. Because of course it was cheese and cake. “And- I don’t know, is a party what’s usually done?” there had been Miguel’s Drunk and Bored Club meeting on the beach that he and Verity had been dragged to, did that count?

Ghanima's eyes went slightly unfocused as she rifled through her Other Memory. "Different cultures of this era have different customs," she said absently, "--but it's our understanding that it's quite popular here."

She blinked, coming back to her Self, and offered him a grin. "Besides, there's gifts!"

"There is that," Liam mused. He'd yet to lose that certain childish joy that came with receiving presents, okay? "Guess I should check with Verity, see if that's something she'd want to do."

"You'd have to give me suggestions on what would be appropriate as a present. I tend to give my friends food or weapons or alcohol or tea," Ghanima admitted. "Would you believe that before coming to Fandom, I never actually picked out the gifts 'I' sent to people? It was all politics. It's left me with a gap in my understanding of personal gifts for people other than my brother."

"Before coming to Fandom, I'd never really gotten gifts for anyone," Liam admitted sheepishly. "I didn't exactly have what you'd call a social life." He shrugged. "As for what would be appropriate, since it's for both of us, food or weapons would be absolutely fine," he shared, "Verity feels the same way about tea that I do about alcohol."

"Weapons for everyone, then," she said cheerfully. "The surprise will be in what I pick."

"I look forward to it," Liam replied, grinning as he took a long sip of his hot chocolate.

"You say that now, but wait until you end up with ridiculous hats for some birthday, or obscure poisons that you never use," she laughed. "--and in my family, hats are actually classified as weapons."

“How ridiculous are we talking, here?” Liam wondered. Birthdays were still enough of a novelty that he might not even mind a ridiculous hat or two.

"They're full of pomp and circumstance, and are amazing," she laughed. "My step-mother once wore one covered in butterflies, that was at least as big as she was. To literally be a social butterfly."

"I'm trying to picture that, and I'm fairly certain my mental image isn't enough to do it justice," Liam admitted.

"Next time you stop by the suite, I'll show you a picture," she promised. "Have the two of you picked a date for the wedding, yet?"

Liam shook his head. “Sometime in the next year; that’s about as far as we’ve gotten,” he admitted.

"Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but Fandom weddings can be...." Ghanima made an apologetic face. "It took Jonothon and Hannibal multiple times before a wedding could happen without interruptions."

“Location’s another thing we haven’t really talked much about yet either,” Liam admitted. Really, right now thy were just taking the time to enjoy being engaged before wading into the planning stages. “I mean, nearly everyone I know is here, but her family’s all over the place on the mainland.”

Re: Talk to Ghanima

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