fandomhigh | Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [01/09].

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Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [01/09].

"Hello, everyone," said Amaya, at the front of the shop classroom with a grin, clearly eager to get back to work in what was, outside of the weapons class training field in the danger shop, clearly her best teaching element, "and welcome to Shop Class! Now, I know most of you are already familiar with both me as a teacher and this class in general, but for those of you who don't, my name is Amaya Blackstone, and I'm the blacksmith here in this town. If you ever need any metal work done, be it weapons, cutlery, decor for your home or decor for you head, hair, body and face, then I'm your gal! But we're not here to talk about blacksmithing in this class! Not yet, anyway, we may eventually get around to it, but we'll be talking about building and making stuff and exploring how things work in a much broader scope here. And it's the first week, so we're going to keep it pretty simple today, before we start really digging into some of the more dedicated stuff, but that doesn't mean we don't have a lot of ground to cover!

"Today," she continued, "I'd like to hit three main points: introductions, so we all know who we'll be working with; safety rules and procedures, because safety first, especially since we're not working in the danger shop ~~and only two of you were Muppets~~; and, finally, our first foray into getting our hands dirty, which will be a simple project that involves putting together not a birdhouse like one might expect, but rather, because this is Fandom, a squirrel house. The main difference is that there's a special little water bottle attachment you put in on the side where you can pour your rum, so when you really need to privacy, you can guarantee it with the squirrel going inside to drink it!"

With that, she clapped her hands together, and looked over the class. "Alright, then! Lots to cover, so let's get started with those introductions. Let's make it short and snappy so we have plenty of time to work, so let's hear your name, experience with building things or shop classes in general, and what you're looking forward to getting out of this class. Let's start with you."

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Fresh and ready to go for a new semester!

Eleanor Zarrin

Lydia Bennet

Beaker

Stark

Gonzo the Great

It's only Tuesday, so hopefully you're not sick of them by now, but Amaya doesn't want to waste too much precious building time on building small talk instead! So let's hear your name, your experience, and if there's anything in particular you're especially hoping to learn about this semester!

"Um," said Eleanor, with a little bit of a nervous smile and an awkwardness that came with clearly being out of one's element (although, really, anywhere outside of a book of poetry felt, to Eleanor, to be outside of her element). But she gave a little wave and figured she could at least handle this point without issue. "My name's Eleanor, I don't really have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but I seems like it could be useful! So I guess that's what I hope to get out of it....something useful that I didn't know already."

Whether or not she could actually be useful with that knowledge, however, was a different matter entirely...

"It's nice to meet you, Eleanor," said Amaya, with a nod and what she hoped was an encouraging smile, since this was one of the rare newer faces wandering into her class. "And if you walk out of this classroom without having picked up anything new, well, don't you worry, that's much more on me than it is you. But if you're coming here with an intention to learn and a focus to try, you should be all set."

"Miss Lydia Bennet," Lydia said a little faintly, because she had definitely thought this was a shopping class. This was fine. Everything was fine. "I haven't any experience with any of this." And hadn't planned to gain any, but here we were.

Yeah, no, if you were expecting shopping, Amaya couldn't help you much there, although she could think of someone who would probably be a pretty deft hand at the topic.

But Amaya nodded, her smile hopefully encouraging. "Well, welcome to the class, then, Lydia, and don't worry, I'll definitely keep that in mind as we proceed. If you've got questions about anything, don't hesitate to stop me and ask. Questions are just opportunities for more learning! And usually helps avoid unfortunate mistakes."

"Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep," Beaker said. "Meep mee! Meep meep meep meep."

Couldn't be clearer than that!

Beaker would have to forgive Lydia for just. Staring. A lot.

She was new here, okay? No one had told her about the felt people.

"Meep meep meep," Beaker said, waving.

"I'm terribly sorry," Lydia said, "but I don't speak..." whatever language that was.

She was talking to felt. Perhaps she had gone mad? Oh! Perhaps he was magic and some other witch had made him. But she could hardly ask about that in public, especially when she didn't speak meep.

"Meep meep meep mee," Beaker said sympathetically. He gestured at her dress. "Meep meep meep!"

Surely outfit compliments were universal?

"Oh, thank you!" Lydia said, smoothing one hand over the wool of her dress. "It's new." Made from the newest fashion plates from Paris, not that anyone here would be able to tell. Hmph.

"Oh wow, really? I never knew that!"

Gonzo had no trouble understanding Beaker. He didn't know what your problem was.

...you know, just when Amaya was really feeling like she was starting to understand Beaker better, she was proven horribly, horribly wrong, and she just sort of looked at him for a moment.

"Er," she said, "yes! Exactly!"

Zards, she hoped that was right.

"But either way, welcome back, Beaker. Please observed the safety rules. I know it doesn't really matter in the long run, but I feel like if we at least make the effort, the damages can be...minimal."

"Meep meep," Beaker said, giving a double thumbs up.

"I'm Stark. I haven't worked much with wood before ~~quiet, all of you~~ but I have some experience building things and working with my hands ~~shhhh~~."

He paused for a moment. "And I suppose... what I want from this class is just... learning something new. I like that. Especially things that might be useful."

Amaya gave him a nod. "Well, welcome back to one of my classes, Stark," she said. "Is this your first time taking my shop class proper? I can'r keep it all straight anymore, if I'm honest. But there will be plenty of new things ahead,don't you worry there. Good to have you here."

"I've taken blacksmithing classes before," Stark said. "But not a shop class. New skills, I hope."

Edited 2024-01-09 23:01 (UTC)

"Hi! I'm Gonzo," Gonzo said. "And I've always built all my own props and obstacles for my stage show! So if you need any catapults or flaming loop-de-loops, I'm your -- whatever!"

He wasn't a man, let's be real.

"I'm also a master plumber, so I'm available if your toilet needs work, too."

What? There was so much crossover between death-defying stunts and plumbing.

"And I guess I'm just excited to learn about new things to build. Like this squirrel house! I bet the squirrels will love them! If we get really good, we can open up our own branch of Habitat for Squirrelmanity. . . ."

"You know," Amaya realized, "I don't think I've ever done a lesson on indoor plumbing before, I think maybe that's something to consider!"

In her defense, they didn't really have it, where she was from.

"But I love the enthusiasm already, Gonzo! I have a feeling you'll find some of the stuff in this class familiar, so I hope I can find a few new things to lob at you for a good challenge, or at least keep it interesting."

But then she just had to ask,"Are there currently other branches of Habitat for Squirrelmanity?"

Did the squirrels of Avalon know about it, maybe?

"I don't know," Gonzo admitted. "But -- well. Poor squirrels need to get their housing from somewhere, right? Not every squirrel out there gets to work in radio."

While Amaya knows that some of these guidelines and practices won't really apply to...everyone, she makes it very clear that she still expects everyone to follow them. Rules are rules for a reason, and she's going to go through and explain that gloves and eye protection will almost always be required for nearly all projects, and she'll go over some of the other safety equipment you might be using, as well as general things to keep in mind to keep you and your fellow classmates safe, protected, and making fewer trips to the clinic, hopefully!

And now that all that was out of the way, it was time to get to the good stuff! To save time and because how to use the woodsaws was a lesson all on its own that deserved a lot of care and attention, there are plenty of pre-cut wood pieces for you to pick from, all you have to do is put it together! And Amaya will go over the various ways of putting your pieces together, from wood glue to nails and screws, and how you go about it is up to you! And if you have time, you can also work on decorating your squirrelhouses, and she's even got a few bottles of rum on hand if you wanted to see how it works right out the gate!

Eleanor definitely had more experience in destroying houses than building them.

Sure, it was just the one house, but that was still more than she'd built.

Until now, apparently, and she didn't want to mess it up, so she was being incredibly meticulous and careful about putting her bird...sorry, squirrelhouse together, but even with all that care and attention, she could see it going a bit slanted and crooked and she wondered if she could just pass that off as intentional and aesthetic.

As long as it held together, right?

How did Beaker manage to get his head stuck inside of the squirrel house he'd built? The world may never know.

Lydia wished she could just skip to the decorating part of this--she was good at decorating! She could trim a lovely bonnet!--but she was just going to get on with trying to put this thing together.

That was...definitely not how she was supposed to hold the hammer.

"You have that upside down," Gonzo offered. "Unless you're trying to nail that piece to your forehead? In which case, you're doing great!"

Oh. Oh, there were two felt people. Lydia had never swooned in her life but she found herself feeling a bit faint.

Well, at least this one spoke English? "I...thank you," she said as she adjusted the hammer (her grip on it was still extremely unfortunate), and then admitted, "I don't know what I'm doing." But that had been her general state of affairs since Saturday, so what else was new?

Edited 2024-01-09 19:09 (UTC)

"That just means you're in the right place," Gonzo pointed out. "Everyone starts out not knowing what they're doing. You should have seen me the first time I held a pipe wrench. Or the first time I recited Shakespeare while hanging from my nose!"

He hadn't gotten a lot better at that second one, let's be real.

Gonzo's squirrel house was . . . epic. It had multiple floors. Lockable doors. A three car garage. Indoor plumbing.

"Do you think the squirrels would prefer Arctic Tundra or Sunlit Sands for the entertainment room ceiling?" he asked. More to himself than to anyone else. "I mean under the gilt molding, of course."

Stark was working carefully on his little house.

And then a tiny sign stating "NOT FOR LEROY."

If anyone has any questions outside the context of the class or just would rather speak to Amaya more directly, she's certainly there!

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Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [01/09].

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