Wilderness Survival; Wednesday, Second Period [01/10].

[sword_chocobro]

There was a part of Gladio that did consider, even in this crappy winter weather, holding his class outside in the actual wilderness today, but that, he figured, was a bit much, at least for the first class, although it would be a good lesson and set an interesting standard for what to expect in this class. However, he figured he'd save the more miserable stuff for later in the semester, and everyone was asked to meet in the danger shop that week, where he'd set things up to be much more pleasant, on a nice wooded clearing with a great view on the mountainside, with nice clear skies overhead that you definitely shouldn't get used to.

"Hey, everyone," he said, greeting the class with a grin and a nod, "and welcome to Wilderness Survival, the class where I'm gonna teach you a lot of the basic skills and knowledge you should know to help you survive in the great outdoors in various situations, as well as maybe even how to enjoy it a little bit. For those of you who don't know me yet," a nod to the more unfamiliar faces, "my name's Gladio Amicitia, and I've been teaching the class a few times at this school, plus, I did survive a decade-long apocalypse in a world without sun, so I like to think that gives me a good basis of knowing what I'm talking about with this kinda stuff. I'm sure we've got a wide variety of skills and experience in the class already, so hopefully, those of you who are new to this can keep up, and those of you who know a thing or two already can still pick up something new or at least hone what you already have. Today, for our first class, we're keeping it simple, with one of the most basic and essential things to know about survival in the great outdoors: how to build a fire.

"But before we can build a fire," he said, "we're first gonna need some wood, and that's where we'll get started. I want everyone to take some time to head out into the woods and gather up some fire and kindling. You want to try and find hardwood if you can, and something dry, because softwoods and damp aren't going to burn as well. And when everyone's got some fuel for our fire, we'll gather back here at homebase, start putting it together, and once we've got that going, we'll do our introductions....campfire style.

"Any questions before we begin? And it's the danger shop, too, so you don't have to worry about going out of bounds into dangerous terrain or any wild animals..."

He paused, his grin growing wider. "Yet."

And, with that, he looked around to see if there were any questions before sending everyone off to go get some wood.

Comments

Sign In - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

Ready for some fire!

Re: Sign In - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell Ingram

Listen to the Lecture - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

It's a pretty basic rundown of what you can expect in the class, so if you didn't already know what you were getting into, you should know now! And, of course, if there's any questions before you get sent off to gather fuel for the fire, now's a good time to ask them.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden couldn't help but grin. She'd have to tell Steven that making fires had been their very first lesson.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Erm...I'm not sure how to tell hardwood from softwood," Jon said.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[professionalweirdo]

Gonzo raised his hand. "What if we want to encounter wild animals?"

Look. His encounter with the Giant Maneating Chicken in the Rockies had been fun, okay?

Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

Go out on your own, pair up wth a partner, or even make it a group effort, but your task is to go out into the woods and find at least something to contribute to building the campfire, be it a whole bundle of logs cut down with the axe you for some reason conveniently had with you (Rosa would be proud) or just a nice stick that you actually didn't even intend to bring back because it got stuck in your hair.

Re: Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[mylandmyrules]

This wasn't something Nell has any difficulty with, so she was glad to give anyone a hand who might need one.

Re: Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden was all too happy to just look around for awhile. It might not count as fresh air for Elemental purposes, but it was still beautiful and, more importantly, it smelled like the wilderness.

Eventually, she remembered what she was supposed to be doing and gathered an armful of sticks, dry leaves, and scraps of old bark, stuff she remembered from fantasy novels being useful as kindling.

Let's see if epic fantasy let her down!

Re: Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve didn't have an axe, but he did have the knife that was always strapped to his calf under his cargo pants like a paranoid weirdo, so getting the supplies he needed to build a fire was pretty easy.

It was the first thing he'd learned in survival school, too.

Re: Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[no_culdesac]

Nancy managed to find not only a decent amount of sticks she knew would actually burn, but she also gathered up a fair amount of bark and leaves for kindling and fire starting. Someone here had, at least, been a Girl Scout once upon a time.

Also yeah there was totally a twig in her hair. She might notice eventually.

Re: Class Activity: Gather Firewood - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[what_big_teeth]

Eleanor was just sort of picking around as she looked for branches and maybe bigger pieces of wood to bring back to the campfire. She knew this class was going to be good for her, but it was hard to be in the woods, sometimes, without it bringing up some bad memories, so she was just trying to focus and not think about it too much, about running around barefoot with her cousins, before everything went terrible and she had to be sent away.

Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

Once everyone's back with their contributions to the fire, Gladio will take some time to go over different kinds of campfires and how to build them, and once they got a good one going, he'll invite everyone to pull up a folding chair, log, or whatever else they want to sit on and enjoy it.

"And I figured," he said, "this'll be a good time to just go around, introduce ourselves, and maybe talk a little bit about our experiences with the wilderness and camping. Because moments like this around the campfire, getting to know your companions better, is one of the many things that makes all this worthwhile, if you ask me. Anyone wanna get us started with any good stories?"

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[mylandmyrules]

"M'Nell Ingram," she said, "and while camping isn't something I have a lot of experience with I've lived off the grid almost all my life, so I'm familiar with most of the basics."

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I'm Arden Finch," she said, pulling her eyes away from the fire. It was almost hypnotic. "I'm from the Triangle in North Carolina, which is pretty heavily settled, but I've done some minor camping here and there."

A little vague, but most of her 'camping' had been for Otherside purposes, so vague it would have to be.

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve grinned at Gladio. "Most of my good stories aren't fit for mixed company," he said. "I'm Commander Steve McGarrett and I work over at the Trooper Station here. In my other life, I run a special task force overseen by the governor of Hawai'i, and I'm in the Navy Reserves for the SEALS." Remembering this was Fandom, he added, "The SEALS are an elite military unit, not actual animals. It makes me kind of a professional camper: we did a lot of this stuff for our job."

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I'm Jonathan Sims." He nodded. "Jon is fine. Erm...I also...well, I walked through an apocalypse, though time didn't really exist, so I have no idea how long. And we didn't have to build fires or anything. I just thought this might be...well, useful."

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[no_culdesac]

"Nancy," she offered out with a little wave of one hand. "Kind of new to the wilderness thing. I'm from Hawkins, Indiana, and it turns out there's kind of like...a portal to a messed up alternate dimension under my town?"

Maybe multiple portals, in fact!

"So it's kind of gotten to be a situation where I never know when I'll have to rough it, either in the Upside-Down, or up in Hawkins now, too."

Normal reason to learn to camp.

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[what_big_teeth]

"My name's Eleanor," she offered quietly, once it came to her turn, giving a small smile and waving her hand a little bit. "I don't have a whole lot of wilderness or survival skills, but they feel like something that might be useful."

Or, rather, both seemed to be factors of her true nature that felt like good things to learn how to control, especially out in the woods, but she wasn't about to say that part of it.

Re: Class Activity: Building a Campfire and Introductions - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[professionalweirdo]

"I'm Gonzo," Gonzo said, waving a floppy, fuzzy felt arm. "And I used to go camping every year out west with my old friend John Denver." He sighed. "I miss him."

A beat.

"But if you want stories, I'm your guy! I've worked in entertainment for decades, I know tons!"

Talk to the Teacher - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

And, of course, Gladio's around should anyone need him outside the context of the class itself!

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[mylandmyrules]

And to no one's surprise, Nell lingered by the campfire after the other students had gone. It was nice and cozy after all.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Uh, excuse me, sir?" Arden was a little nervous, but talking about this in class with Ms. Ghanima made her feel like this was an important conversation to have.

OOC - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[sword_chocobro]

Re: OOC - Wilderness Survival, 01/10.

[deathsmajesty]

😍😍😍