fandomhigh | The Art of Pacifism; Monday, Second Period [02/03].

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art of pacifism

The Art of Pacifism; Monday, Second Period [02/03].

"Good ~~afternoon~~ morning it always said morning *whistles*, ducklings ♥!" The classroom was in its usual state of desks pushed back to make room for a comfy circle in the middle with the requisite hot cocoa, but there were also several other boxes scattered around, and Shunsui had in front of him a pile of paper with something that looked like a list.

"So far in this class, we have had the opportunity to discuss a lot of the methods and ideas behind pacifism, and so today will be more activity-based ♥. It is, after all, one thing to be able to know a bunch of rambling thoughts and philosophy on a subject, and an entirely different thing to put some of these beliefs into action in our every day lives ♥. Now, we're starting very very simply today: one of the best ways to help live a life of nonviolence is to have a nice, nonviolent hobby ♥! Perhaps even something that one can channel any aggressive energy they may have and turn it into something beautiful in the end ♥. That way, one is actively adding to the beauty of the world rather than contributing to negativity and anger and hate ♥.

"Now," he continued with a faint chuckle, a small, serene smile on his face as he ducked his head slightly, "I'm sure you can all take a guess as to what my hobby is ♥!"

If you were thinking drinking or sleeping or womanizing, you were wrong.

Those were lifestyles, not mere hobbies.

"Writing ♥!" Shunsui announced proudly. "I am the author of two published books, you know, and I am working on a third ♥." The same third book he was working on last time he taught this class, no less! "To me, writing is like releasing the poetry of the soul onto paper so you can share it with others ♥. But that is just one example of a peaceful hobby, or a hobby in which one can engage as a sort of self-meditation, as a centering technique to remove oneself from the insanity of life and absorb themselves in the tranquility of creation ♥. One of the kindest and most peaceful women I know, for example, is an expert at Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement ♥. One of the less peaceful women I know turns to organization to calm her down ♥. One could maintain a zen garden, or knitting, I hear, is still quite popular! Make scarves, not war ♥! There are, of course, traditional forms of art, from painting and drawing to sculpture work and pottery. And, speaking of women I know," of which there were clearly many, "I can think of at least two who would insist wholeheartedly that shopping is a hobby, though having seen one of them engaged in such actions, I would argue that it is hardly a peaceful one ♥."

Here Shunsui chuckled, and started to pass around the papers.

"On these papers is a list of various hobbies to give you some inspiration ♥. Of course, you are not limited to these options, and you are to avoid any of the violent ones, such as hunting or lawn darts..." The latter of which eventually had to be outlawed at Shinigami picnics... "But these boxes in the classroom today have anything you might need to get you started on exploring a new hobby, and that is what today is for ♥! Try to find something that you think sounds relaxing, meditative, productive, and most importantly new to help keep you away from the ever present sway of negative influences ♥!"

"Go forth, my little ducklings, and discover something new ♥! And, of course, if you've got any questions, I'll be happy to help if I can ♥."

He wouldn't even fall asleep while they all worked today, either!

...probably not, anyway.

[[ ocd ~~incoming, natch!~~ is up! have at it! ]]

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With a hobby!

Astrid Magnussen

Mae Borowski

Grog Strongjaw

Shunsui's usually rumbling, placid voice is filled with a pleased, chuckling quality today, clearly looking forward to give the students something to do today other than just sitting and listening.

Or drifting off or napping, for that matter. Although he would accept those as valid hobbies. You do you, ducklings ♥.

Astrid sometimes felt like she had too many hobbies, collecting little things to distract her here and there like pieces of armor, and she'd always been that way, for as long as she could remember, because she needed something to fill the hours other than craving her mother's attention. That was how she started drawing in the first place, really, and so that was obviously her biggest one. But Kyōraku-san had said to find a new one, so she tried to think of something else, probably something ridiculous and random (finally learn to play the gamelan, for example), before having a chance to look over the list of suggestions with a mild lack of any real interest while she sipped her cocoa.

Wait. Hang on. They had to do stuff today?! And Mae couldn't just pass off her journal, because it was supposed to be new stuff?

Which meant falling asleep in class wouldn't count, either, because she already did that last week.

What the hell, nap class?! Doing stuff. Pfffft.

The materials in the boxes are completely moddable, of course! Have a look at what might be new and interesting to try. Get advice from your classmates! Avoid stabbing anyone in the eye with a knitting needle! Embrace your love of dressing up as a superhero and attending conventions! The sky's the limit, especially if you go with model airplanes or bottle rockets!

Mae looked over the giant list with something like horror, then gave up, closed her eyes, and pointed at one of the items on it at random.

Models.

She heaved a deep sigh. Then tried again.

Tea tasting.

Okay, third time was the charm!

Falconry! That she could get behind!

. . . It didn't count as violent, did it?

Feeling a bit like she'd reached the end of what the boxes had to offer, Astrid couldn't help glancing at Mae for a moment and wondering what she might come up with in all of this. She hadn't really bothered her so far in this class...granted, the class so far didn't really leave that possibility open unless they passed notes or something...but hitting thing with sticks hadn't been a disaster the other day, so maybe...

It sort of ruined her plans of being completely a ghost, but so had going to Prompto's party yesterday. So she smiled faintly and cautiously ventured, "So what are you thinking?"

"That randomly picking a hobby from a list is either a terrible idea, or maybe genius," Mae said. "Do you think falconry counts as pacifistic? Falcon's gonna falcon anyway, right?"

That felt both surprising and exactly the sort of thing Astrid would have expected from Mae, and there was a weird kind of comfort in that.

"If anything," Astrid reasoned, "a trained falcon is more likely to commit fewer acts of random violence than a wild one, so yeah. I'd say so."

Even if she had to admit (to herself, anyway) that Mae trying her hand at falconing seemed more likely to be disastrous than successful. She appreciated the spirit of it, though.

"I don't think I spotted any falcons in the boxes, though."

She would get totally mauled by that falcon. And think it was the best day ever.

She sighed and shook her head. "That's just rude. Getting our hopes up like that. How about. . . ." She did her eyes-closed-and-pointing thing again. "'Crafts'. That's specific."

"Something with Popsicle sticks, maybe?" Astrid asked, shrugging a shoulder. "Or is that too 'summer camp'-y? I'm thinking something musical, myself." Her head tilted, considering her own mostly-ignored list. "I don't really have any musical hobbies."

“I bet I play bass bad enough to pretend I never have before,” Mae mused. “What instrument did you want to try?”

"Right now," said Astrid, "it's a toss up between the bongos or...you know that thing where people put different amounts of water into glasses and run a finger around the rim to make different tones? That."

They both seemed to contain just the right amount of absurd for her mood that morning, really.

"I didn't know you played bass."

But then again, despite what her imagination seemed convince of this last half year, she really didn't know Mae that much at all.

Mae shrugged. "I haven't played that much around here," she admitted. "My friends Gregg and Casey back home and I tried to form a band for awhile, though, and sometimes I like to put on, like, a concert program at the Holoscene and just rock out."

It was mostly a lot of discordant noise. Which was what made it fun.

"You should, like, play bongos and water glasses. Be all, like . . . .'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE donk donk bomp EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TING!'"Mae's musical imitation was accompanied by appropriate gestures, yes.

Well, of course there were gestures. Astrid might have even been disappointed if there weren't.

"I have been working with a lot of mixed media lately," she noted, her grin broadening almost to a laugh there, but it wasn't quite ready to go that far. "Maybe if I get good enough, we can add your bass and have a jam session or something."

She could only imagine it being a horrible, discordant mess, but, having grown up in among artist in L.A. in the '80s, she also knew it would probably be a pretty big hit in certain circles.

"I feel like you are maybe overestimating my bass playing abilities," Mae said. "'Cause I'm pretty sure 'good enough' would be you, like, acquiring water glasses and bongos. And maybe touching them once."

She was slightly better at playing bass than that. She knew four whole notes!

"...maybe," said Astrid, after a moment of trying to anchor herself against a suddenly shifting tide from within, trying not to get caught in the undertow.

Maybe she should just stop suggesting doing things with Mae. She just seemed to dismiss them right away, or just make excuses.

Unless it was hitting things with sticks, apparently.

And Astrid just felt clingy all of a sudden. Needy. Nothing new, of course, but much too solid and material to be a ghost. Ghosts should be mist, should be air, should be ephemeral.

This school is haunted.

"We're already half-way there, then," she added, lamely, since she was too focused on just keeping that faint smile to be too clever. "I've already got the bongos."

"Bet we could find loads of glasses in the common rooms," Mae said, smiling. "You should come back by the Holoscene again. We could program an audience to tell us how awesome we are!"

And Mae could play a holographic bass, since she didn't' actually have a bass of her own.

"That sounds good," said Astrid, who hoped she was able to sell that a little better, especially since it was mostly true, even though she sort of felt like Mae was just being nice now. Thinking about how much easier it was to just disappear in a school with hundreds of other students, or how much easier when people didn't try to be nice and just jumped you in the quad if they didn't really like you.

"I'll have to find out which common room has the best ones," she added. "Or if it'll be a few good ones from each floor, or something."

Mae didn't actually really do 'just being nice'. She didn't jump people, but she was very good at staring at you in awkward silence or being deeply sarcastic about everything you said if she didn't like you. Of course, she mostly didn't like people who didn't like her first, and people in Fandom tended to be very nice even about aggressively weird, short, feral girls, so Astrid didn't have much of a reason to know that, yet. . . .

"Plus, you need the ones that'll go best with your bongos."

At that moment, the awkward staring would have at least made sense to Astrid. Awkward staring (and even deeply sarcastic comments) seemed a more appropriate response to a girl who disappeared for half a year and turned back up suddenly thinking you were friends, after spending a good portion of that half year turning your face (which wasn't even your face, not as you saw it, anyway) into various studies in shadow and light, perspective and style...

...not that Mae had any reason to know that, yet.

She glanced sidelong at the bongos she'd set aside, before reaching over to grab them and pulled them close, settling them in her lap.

Guess that much was settled for her with this assignment, at least.

She drummed her fingers a little on the surface. "Definitely wouldn't want the wrong glasses," she agreed. "It might take some serious research. You think they've got a book at the library? 50 Best Glassware to For Bongo Accompaniment?"

"If they don't, I bet we can at least find a listicle online," Mae said, smiling. As far as she could tell, they'd made it through a whole conversation so far without Mae wondering if she'd said something wrong! Progress! "Plus, what makes better research than experimenting?"

"And if it doesn't already exist," even though Astrid had just told herself to stop suggesting things, the idea fell out of her mouth before she could even stop it, "maybe we were just destined to write it."

They'd written a comic together, after all, hadn't they? Once upon a time, in that cloudy misty possible-reality that was her time here before? That time when she wrote comics with friends, tattooed ghosts on wrists, learned how to use swords, and read tarot for people from space.

Her other hand joined the first in the light, soft, barely-audible drumming.

"Illustrated and everything."

"Hell yeah!" Mae was being far too enthusiastic. She was just really excited to have a new project with her friend. "We'll start a whole new music genre. Bonglassbass."

There was a wince in Astrid's smile back, but she liked to think she hide it well. That kind of enthusiasm really did feel like it was all for show, and Astrid wished she could almost resent Mae for it, but she knew, since she was doing absolutely nothing to stop it, that what she felt was even worse.

She was starting to just enjoy it. Appreciate it. Crave it.

Pretty lies we told ourselves to feel better.

"Bassongoglass?" she tried, and then breathed out in a way that could have been a laugh. "No. I like yours better."

Mae was (thankfully) oblivious enough to other people’s social signals to miss that wince. Or they’d end up in another awkward-off.

Would seeing that Mae was just as excitable over, say, random wildlife help?

“Maybe we can start an internet war over what our new genre should be named!”

Astrid thought maybe she'd turn to the boxes for inspiration rather than the list, curious about what sort of miscellany she'd find inside. She was leaning a bit toward the knitting, though, until she came across a small set of bongos, extracting them from the box and looking them over.

Probably about as close to a gamelan as she'd get. Though it seemed like the kind of hobby that could be relaxing and medativive for the person engaging in it, but the exact opposite for everyone around them.

Did ghosts play bongos?

She'd set them aside for now, figuring she'd look maybe a bit longer before making a choice.

The list wasn't really helpful for Grog, so he just went poking through the boxes and found coloring supplies and a coloring book. To Shunsui's credit, he actually didn't feel like fighting anyone while coloring in the weird shapes!

It was honestly just coincidence and not at all on purpose that any of his attempts at Ikebana just wind up looking vaguely suggestive, so it's a good thing Shunsui sticks with just bonsai.

The most challenging thing about this post today was trying to find icons to use that might suggest that Shunsui actually does things that aren't, ironically, fighting.

(Or sleeping or drinking, but that goes without saying)

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The Art of Pacifism; Monday, Second Period [02/03].

Sign In - AoP, 02/03.

Re: Sign In - AoP, 02/03.

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Listen to the Lecture - AoP, 02/03.

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Explore Some New Hobbies! - AoP, 02/03.

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Re: Explore Some New Hobbies! - AoP, 02/03.

Re: Explore Some New Hobbies! - AoP, 02/03.

Talk to Shunsui - AoP, 02/03.

OOC - AoP, 02/03.