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

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.

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

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

On the contrary, Gladio was very surprised. Shocked, even!

You could tell by the way he easily plopped down next to Nell once he was sure everyone was cleared put, leaned in to nudge his shoulder against hers, and grinned.

"Hey." His chin quirked toward the fire. "Pretty good fire, huh?"

"Mmmmm..." Nell murmured back, giving him a nudge of her own. "I love a good campfire, though I'm awfully partial to a fire in an actual fireplace too."

She sighed happily and shifted to rest her head on his shoulder. "Better with you, even."

"Well, that's good to know," said Gladio, turning his head a little to grin at her resting on his shoulder, "since we can't exactly sit around enjoying this one for too long if the next class needs to use the danger shop for their class, too. You know anyone with a good fireplace?"

"Hmmm..." Nell said, pretending to think. "There's a gas fireplace at my house. It's not as nice as a real fire, but it's still very nice. We could go there."

"You know," Gladio said, his tone musing and thoughtful, "as much as I do love a good campfire, I gotta admit, I think that gas fireplace is probably my favorite spot for a fire."

He snorted.

"Especially since I'm pretty sure it's not the smartest idea to just put one up on the roof."

That got a laugh. "No, probably not," Nell agreed. "And it's one of my favorite places too."

She thought for a moment. "And much as I enjoy a real fire. I don't mind not having to do the wood carrying and chopping and the cleaning up after."

"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.

With that nervousness there, Gladio gave a nod of acknowledgement and a soft smile in response. "Hey," he said, "Arden, right? What's up?"

Having dealt with some students with some sensitive concerns in his classes before, he felt he recognized what that kind of hesitation was and was prepared to handle it delicately if he needed to, really, and he usually started that off with hopefully a more casual and comfortable vibe.

Unclear if it helped Arden relax any, but she didn't tense up and that was a kind of victory in and of itself. "So, umm, with all the, like, pretend camping we're gonna do, I was wondering if maybe you had plans for us to roast marshmallows and, if you did, if I could, um. Ask you not to?" Wait, maybe that was too much. "Or, uh, just give me a heads up if that's what you've got planned and I'll just bounce early if that's okay with you! I could also do that, no reason to make you change your plans or anything!"

There was a snort, at the beginning, but other than that, Gladio listened and then nodded a little with a faint grin. "This might be the only pretend camping we do in this class, actually," he told her, which was encouraging, right? "Only reason we're in here today is because I felt throwing you into this weather on your first day was a little much. But you know what? That's good to know, Arden, there's definitely going to be a unit on camp cooking, and s'mores are kind of a staple that I throw in as kind of a treat, since we're not really focusing on the fun aspects of camping in this class so much as the necessary ones, so it's easy enough to skip it. People can definitely make s'mores on their own time."

She wasn't sure if camping for an hour, even out in the wilderness counted as real camping, but she was also not the expert in camping here.

"Sorry," she said again, maybe to him for the request, maybe to all her absent classmates who were going to miss out on marshmallows because of her, maybe just out of conversational reflex. "And, uh, thank you. I appreciate it."

Kinda fervently, it sounded.

But Gladio gave Arden a small smile and a shake of his head, even giving his hand a dismissive way. "No need to apologize," he said. "It's all good. Besides...."

The grin went a little crooked.

"I plan on you guys being plenty uncomfortable enough in this class without having at add anything else to it. This way, at least you know I'm not completely heartless."

"Good to know we get one thing, sir," Arden said with a small grin.

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

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