The cafeteria's dining room looked much less institutional today than one might expect. White linens had been draped on the tables, and flowers and autumn leaves were arranged in centerpieces on the tables. It was probably best not to ask where they'd found enough silver and china -- yet, somehow, there it was.

The scene in the kitchen it was another story, and the controlled chaos there was -- while mostly manageable -- definitely loud, hot, and confusing.

In other words, it was a proper Thanksgiving.

[OOC: Open to Fandom High students and faculty. Wait for a wee bit of OCD is a go!]

As the class walked in, they might notice that the room was a little... different. It was, in fact, a large open space covered entirely in white and as they walked, the floor sort of... shifted a little.

"What is the fun of having a room like this if you can't do something a little different?" he asked, a wide smile on his face.

"Today, as I'm sure most of you are hoping to head out towards festivities soon enough, we're having something of a 'free' period. You can't leave and you do have to do something artistic, but I'm going to kick things off in our 'modern' art lessons by handing you all manner of moddable supplies and letting you do as you like in this room."

He pointed to either wall, and then to the floor.

"Some of it's canvas, some of it is butcher paper, some of it is even cardstock. I've got smocks and even jumpsuits back here if you'd like to go a little wild with the paint. But mostly, I'd just like to invite you to express yourselves as freely, and as outrageously, as you'd like. Just... don't dump paint on anyone, please. We are in high school, aren't we?"

[ocd up!][sorry for the late! work situation]

Much like the previous week, this week there was a large pile of assorted gear waiting when students arrived. "No, we're not doing the same thing we did last week, but you do have five minutes to figure out what you want to carry for today's run. You can pick up as little or as much as you want. And once that's done we'll get moving. Feel free to coordinate among yourselves so that you don't carry duplicates of stuff you only need one of. Or don't, whatever's easier."

Once the five minutes was up, Max simply began jogging off, not making any sort of announcement. After a minute or so, enough time for everyone to settle into the pace, he began. "In some ways the topic of today's class is a bit redundant. We'll be talking about something that all of you have been doing quite a bit of since we started this section in irregular forces. Still, despite your obvious familiarity, it's still worth covering the topic. So today we're going to be talking about improvisation."

"Of course, any military unit has to be capable of some level of improvisation if it is to be successful," Max pointed out as he cut off the main path and through some trees. "But regular forces tend to be assigned tasks which are relatively predictable which cuts down on the amount of improvisation they require. Irregulars, on the other hand, get assigned all sorts of crazy jobs, and that means that they have to be much more adaptable in order to carry out their assigned tasks. This is especially true because of equipment. Regular units are assigned a very specific set of equipment and are given orders based on that equipment. Irregulars, on the other hand, don't really have a standard set of equipment, and that means that they're much more likely to be assigned to do something off the wall, something that they just might have the gear for. Of course they probably don't, but that's how the military works."

"Basically, irregular forces receive all sorts of orders that completely disregard what they may or may not have with them, so improvisation is doubly important if you're to carry out your mission objectives. I realize that you're all independent and creative special snowflakes people, and that you're all rather good at this sort of thing already, but it's an important enough topic that I felt that it was worth covering in its own class."

Max smiled in dark amusement as he pushed through a final stand of tall trees and stopped the run at the edge of a canyon. "It's about twenty feet across," he told his students. "And you have to figure out some way to get everyone over there by the end of class." He glanced down over the edge, "It's only an eighty foot climb, so if you really want to, everyone can go down and back up, but I suspect that some of you can come up with an idea based on whatever you've got with you."

"And once everyone gets to the other side, we're done. But until that happens, you're all staying." Max's grin turned downright evil. "Oh, and I'm injured for this exercise. Broken leg. You have to figure out how to get me across, too."

Remus was looking far from his usual affable self today. Not only was he a bit peaky, but his demeanor was decidedly controlled -- though pleasant as always. "Hello, class. Today we're talking about dark creatures that have an ethical dilemma attached -- namely, that they are -- or were -- human, and still have human thoughts, emotions, and impulses. From what I understand, vampires are hardly unfamiliar territory to this school. Where we are from, vampires are created via a human's receipt of a bite from another vampire. Vampires are not born -- they're created. They might be your brothers, or sisters, or husbands or wives or mothers or fathers or friends. It makes the decision about what to do with them all the trickier."

And Sirius was lounging against his usual desk but his body language decidedly less bored today. He glanced over at Remus and gave him a quick smile. "The same is true for werewolves," he continued. "In our world, if a transformed werewolf bites a human, that person will also turn into a werewolf. If someone is bitten by a werewolf who is in his or her human form, the victim will just have some lupine tendencies--generally a strong urge for raw meat. Werewolves change form with the full moon, while vampires remain vampires all year long. A third group of beings--hags--are a savage sort of witch who eat children and raw liver." He barked a laugh. "Hags are the reason that centaurs and merpeople chose to be classified as beasts rather than be in the same category as their sort."

"However," Remus added, "our Ministry still categorizes them as dangerous, just because of the power of which they are capable -- though whether they'll use, much less abuse, that power is unlikely. The others -- werewolves in particular -- are able to control their mental faculties, and are human the vast majority of their time." And if Remus sounded a touch resentful there, well, he was having a moment of difficulty there. "There's a great deal of political controversy at home for us -- for these people who have been turned into humanoid dark creatures, and whether they should be afforded the same rights as regular human witches and wizards."

Sirius nodded vigorously, shifting a little toward Remus. "For most of them, it wasn't some sort of lifestyle choice. They didn't choose to be bitten. But logic seldom has a place in these sorts of arguments. And it's better not to be bit through ignorance, so today we're going to make sure you know how to tell the difference between vampires and humans, and wolves and werewolves, hags and just unattractive people."

"Please, like any of you want to be here," Drake greeted the class. "You're on the cusp of a long weekend, spent either at home with family lying to them about what goes on at this school and hoping grandpa's cranky comments about your cousin will start a food fight, or here staring at the mashed potatoes from the cafeteria and wondering if they're thinking about eating you. So, in short, King of the Bracelets: bracelet of power made by bad guy, good guys kill him, failure to punt human good guy into lava when the bracelet makes him power-hungry, centuries of war and badness, mini hero with the courage to destroy the bracelet, lots of cool fights, lots of falling down, lots of sexy elves, bracelet destroyed, yay! Only with a lot more words. Now for the rest of the class, we're going to watch some kick ass battle scenes and drool over the costumes. You can thank me with shiny Christmas presents next month."


[ooc: Sorry for the lack of actual classage. FLORAL EMERGENCY IN PROGRESS. KILL ME NOW.]

Class today was meeting at the Danger Shop. And was being taught by a short blonde TA.

( Enforcers )

Apparently, there was a holiday tomorrow. From what Jonas had gathered from the books he'd read, it revolved around a lot of food, togetherness and was descended from a shared meal by two very different groups long ago.

Needless to say, Jonas had never celebrated Thanksgiving in the Community. Besides ceremonies for Days of Birth, nothing had really been celebrated so Jonas found these specially singled out days as half a curiosity and half enjoyment.

And, while today wasn't the holiday, Jonas found himself in the cafeteria, idly picking at his food (mashed potatoes had a very strange texture) and paging through a book on various holidays. Christmas would, undoubtedly, be the next thing he looked up that. That holiday just seemed...complicated.

[open, sure!]

Look, this was the thing. Gabrielle was from long, long before the common era; frankly it was a miracle she'd figured out the vaguest basics of text messaging. Or it would be a miracle from the perspective of anyone who'd never been to her Greece.

All of which was debatable and vaguely interesting, but the point was this: she'd discovered Bejeweled on her phone.

And she'd learned how to play it.

What might be an undebatable miracle would be if she tore herself away from the tiny sparkly must-match-three-in-a-row-at-least gems long enough to realize she had to go to her class third period.

Other than that, well . . .

[OOC: The OCD has gone the way of my mother's phone battery when she does this.]

It was time for the holiday with the food, and Anemone was torn. On one hand, she could have a long weekend at home with Dominic and the Izumo crew. On the other.... food.

Today the library aide was curled up behind her desk, reading books on various Thanksgiving traditions. She totally needed to find some way to convince Those In Power at Home that Thanksgiving ought to be added back into the calendar.

[The OCD left for the short week.]

Rick did not look the least bit chagrined that in the midst of his Bund-fanboying he'd forgotten to hand out reading lists for this fortnight. Because that would be silly.

He was, however, hauling a large stack of books, around with him.

"Did you guys know that romance novels are the single most popular genre in modern fiction?" he asked, holding a book with a particularly lurid cover aloft. "And it's really not that hard to see why. Between the affordability, guarantee of a happy ending, and hopefully a saucy love scene or three, they're like candy. Delicious, heart-warming, non-fattening brain-candy."

There was no way he was going to be able to get away with claiming those novels weren't part of his personal collection. Especially not with the way he was cradling that book.

"However, being so large a field means that Sturgeon's Law is in full effect," Rick continued. "For every La Nora, there's an Angelica Desmenes. Or worse, since those are at least entertaining in their ridiculousness. Even when there's a good author at the helm, things can still go horribly wrong in the art department."

Rick tapped the cover of the book he was holding with one finger. "What I'd like you to do today is to take one of these books, and come up with what you think the story's about based solely on the cover. No peeking at the blurbs. Have fun."

"Also, for next week's class I want you guys to all go see a romantic movie. Doesn't have to be a chick flick, just something romantic. However, I don't want you to see any films involving creepy, stalker-riffic sparkly monsters and the co-dependent death-seekers who fixate on them," Rick said. "Unless they're unicorns. Unicorns are allowed to sparkle."

[OOC: OCD up.]

[Class Roster|Syllabus|Class Rules|Previous Classes]

"You will be cooking Thursday, so today, an easy class," Colette announced. "We are watching what I am told is a classic American children's cartoon about Thanksgiving with a boy and his dog and popcorn for dinner. And after the cartoon you may work with your group to make final plans for Thanksgiving. I'll expect you all in the school's kitchen by 8 a.m."

A pause. "Do not take this show as a source of menu suggestions."

"I am, of course, around if you have questions."

"Before any of you gets it into your heads that today's class is going to be an easy one," Algren said, arms over his chest as the students filed into the room, "think again. Just because we're leading up to a holiday doesn't mean that we'll be any less academic than we are in other lessons."

Stop laughing. He's trying, here.

"And so I want you all to think long and hard about how Columbus probably brought syphilis back with him to Europe from the New World while you watch this movie. It puts this ridiculous holiday into perspective."

Right, Nathan. You keep telling yourself that.

"Even though Thanksgiving is celebrating the first successful colony in America," Jim added, shooting Nathan an amused look as he pushed in the movie into the tape player--how quaint was that? "But nevermind that now."

"It's a holiday week," Algren sighed. "Try not to think too hard about how in the world a beagle setting a ping-pong table for dinner is supposed to relate to the history of sex, and I'll let you all get away with just one handout about the idiot who thought he was in India. If you're interested."

Look, he didn't care what the holiday was about. He was still well steeped in denial about his priorities in this particular classroom.

At the back of the room today, there were mats set up, and the desks had all been rearranged in order to make room for them, but Aeryn wasn't addressing them just yet. "This week I had planned to give some tips on the larger scale invasions," she began when class had settled. "Frankly I know that there's one more day of classes this week and there is nothing I can do within the boundaries of the law that will make you all pay attention to something this important." Yeah, military background. The fact that she had to play nicer than that did drive her crazy sometimes. "Instead we'll talk more about this next week, and I'll take a moment to explain to you Thanksgiving.

( which sadly, does not usually involve slapping )

"So today we'll be seeing about Britain during the Second World War," Mitchell announced, rubbing his hands together. "This is the second to last one before we give Hitler a kick in the backside, so pay attention." Hey, that almost made him sound teacherly. "They started with a mostly naval battle - I won't go into the tactical points, since this isn't Tactics 101 - but the Germans managed to get one over on them several times in a row, culminating in the Battle of Britain."

"And no, this class has nothing to do with my nationality. I'm Irish. During World War 2, we stuck our fingers in our ears and danced along the foggy dew while asking directions towards the nearest pub. Government-mandated, even-- barring those who went and joined the English." Like Mitchell, but that was Personal History 101. He clapped his hands together. "Well, and D Day weather. Really, they owe us. Anyway, the Germans thought they could push the advantage by taking control of the British skies. Some of you may have heard of the Blitz: the Germans bombed the shit out of half the big cities on the island for several weeks, quite possibly the closest the country had gotten to losing its territory to anyone in centuries. Of course, the Germans didn't really get anywhere, so Hitler decided to play it psychological."

A completely inappropriate, amused smile tugged on Mitchell's mouth, and he said, "Obviously, he didn't take into the account that the English are already out of their minds. They don't really need any help. The RAF drove back all of their attacks, and in the end, Hitler had to give in and admit to his first loss during the war. In the process, even the Americans had to concede that maybe the Brits weren't completely pants."

He leaned back. "One of you asked me about Churchill a few weeks ago," he said, "For those of you not in the know, Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the UK during the Second World War. He was known for being a cynical bastard who knew how to talk. Well, not really talk literally, since he had this stutter, but he knew how to make the hair rise on the back of some necks. Oh, and he smoked cigars the size of houses." Amused, yeah. "World War 2 was a war started on the wings of good orators. We heard some of them over the past few weeks; now it's time to give Churchill a try."

He took a deep breath. "And afterwards, you can try and take a stab at part of the point of this course. 'Rhetorical power is neither wholly bestowed, nor wholly acquired, but cultivated', as Churchill once said. Tell me what you think makes for a good speechmaker."

"Good afternoon, class," Bond began without preamble. "Today we're going to be looking at pornography and erotica. Quite literally as you can see from some of the images in your handouts."

"The line between what's considered to be pornographic or erotic is fine, blurry, and depending on the time and place, non-existent," he continued, examining his fingernails. "Both have to do with the depiction of sexually arousing images, whether they're actual visual images as in the case of films or artworks, or written literature. In very broad and general terms erotica is often considered to possess artistic value, or pretensions of being high-brow, whereas pornography tends to be focused on graphic renditions of the act or acts in question, and many people view it as being somewhat tawdry."

"Despite all this, just as often the difference between the two is a subjective 'I know it when I see it' judgement," Bond said, pausing ominously before continuing. "Which is why you'll be discussing with your classmates what you personally consider to be the dividing line between the two."

In case anyone was wondering, he did in fact derive great joy from your suffering.

[ooc: wait for ocd up. Links are VERY MUCH NWS]

[Class Roster|Class Rules|Previous Classes]

"Last week you watched the movie," Ghanima said briskly. "Today we talk about the religion, so I do hope you're ready to take some notes."

( Hinduism is not just a faith. It is the union of reason and intuition that can not be defined but is only to be experienced. Evil and error are not ultimate. There is no Hell, for that means there is a place where God is not, and there are sins which exceed his love. )

"Most interesting, to me, at least, is that contrary to some of the other major Earth religions, concepts of conversion, evangelization, and proselytization are absent from Hindu texts and in practice have never played a significant role, though acceptance of willing converts is becoming more common."

[OCD Up!]

"Behold the wonder of science." The wonder of science, that day, looked a lot like a full plate of food -- a (microwaved) Thanksgiving dinner with an ear of corn, sliced turkey, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes with gravy. "Four hundred years ago -- or even eight years ago -- none of this food looked or tasted much like this. Turkeys were smaller and gamier. Corn was smaller and less sweet. Potatoes were smaller and less starchy. And it all took longer to grow."

"But modern farming methods and genetic engineering have sugared everything up, made animals reach full size almost twice as fast, and altered food in a couple other ways." Tyler continued with his lecture, passing around a handout detailing the changes he was talking about.

"It's a little early for Thanksgiving dinner, but I have pumpkin pie," he finished. "It's an easy class this week. Take a slice and then we'll talk about other ways science has changed food or other fundamental things we don't think about. I'm curious if you think it's good or not."

It was getting easier and easier for Loki to wake the fuck up and get himself down to the school after a few weeks. This still wasn't his class of choice but he thought he'd been coming up with some halfway decent topics considering he'd been thrust into this position. He hoped he was getting some fucking hazard pay.

"Welcome back," Loki said, nodding at the class. "We're going to have an easy class today since we're hitting the holiday week and I don't think anyone, let alone me, has much motivation to learn a bunch of new shit today. Consider it my early gift to you. You can stay and watch, stay and sleep, or stay and do something else but you do have to stay."

With that, he put the movie in and hit play. Just because he'd started getting more comfortable teaching this class didn't mean the class didn't deserve an easy day.

This week, there was no gymnasium in the Danger Shop after students suited up for the day; just an alien pier overlooking blue water and a clear sky over San Francisco. It was how things looked now, deal. On the floor of the pier were large rectangular spans of green, each with a single tee and a full bucket of golf balls. Off to the side were golf bags filled with all the clubs students could possibly need.

"Today, we're watching a film about a guy who dreams big and fails pretty hard at doing much. But there's a guy with a fake hand that was eaten by a 'gator, so it's pretty badass if you pay attention. Anyway, Happy Gilmore is a favorite back home and while you watch, you'll be golfing," Ronon announced when most had assembled for class. More accurately, they would be driving golf balls. He picked up a club and stepped up to a green patch where a ball was teed and ready to go. "Just swing and hit the ball. The goal's to send your ball farther than everybody else's." Ronon proceeded to demonstrate, swinging the club with one hand and sending the ball flying out into the ocean. Like with bowling, he achieved results and made it look easy while using very improper form. "Find a partner and make it a competition. Go."

Edmund was prepared for the group to arrive and everything was set out ready for practice. "We'll do the same as last week," he told them. "Again, try to pair up with someone outside of your skill range, at least for the first half of the session. You'll learn more from each other. If you need me, get my attention, and if you're hurt tell Captain Algren or myself immediately."

To apply, read the following information, click the link to the application form, fill it out for the character you want to play, and send it off!

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE

As usual, we're going to have a period marked for early applications. If a player's application falls into one of the following categories:

a) Student applications where the player does not have a current student
b) Teacher applications where the player has not previously played a teacher
c) Applications from new players to the game

and the application is submitted by December 2nd, we will consider it and, if there are any issues with it, will go back to the player by December 6th to give them a chance to make changes. Players in this situation will then have five days to make any changes and re-submit their application.

( The basics you need to know. )

( What's needed to apply. )



( Notes for Current Players. )

( Notes for New Players. )

Application Form
You only need to fill out the parts that are relevant to the type of character you are applying for (ie: if you're a student applicant, don't fill in the stuff marked 'Townies Only').

If you don't get a confirmation email from us within 24 hours, please email us.

Here at Fandom High we have a soft character cap of 10 characters per fandom. (Characters who have graduated or otherwise moved away from the island are not counted towards this.) There are currently no fandoms at full capacity, so feel free to apply for characters from whatever fandom you choose. You can check on your prospective fandom's character count by checking out the character roster on fandomhigh.net (linked above).

Applications close Sunday, December 20th, 2009. The next application session for students and teachers after this will be in April.

Got a question? We're here to answer it!

George was - well, he wasn't really doing much.

He'd finished the library chores fast enough but then there weren't much else to catch his interest. So he was tossin' a ball around and rather wishin' Beka were still a dog so she'd go chasin' after it and bring it back t'him.

( Detention! With Sam and Max! )

Welcome to Detention, Sam and Max style.

(OOC: the post for getting arrested (if you choose to do so) is here. Detention, ahoy!)

Okay, so, Farmville was still a glorious game, and it was all well and good for shiny distractions, but then Jono had noticed the banner. The banner for Superhero City. And, though he barely knew his way around the internet, he did know enough to click on it.

And so now, Jonothon Starsmore AKA Chamber was a level twenty-something cape, waiting for his energy points to refill so that he could battle the Titans. Take that, Titan of Water.

It was going to be such a busy day in the library, wasn't it?

[Once again, the OCD is so, so shunned.]

Hoshi brought a box of assorted pastries from JGOB and a lot of coffee from the Perk. She was already on her second cup while waiting for the meeting to start.

"Since next week is a holiday, I think we should skip straight ahead for planning the next edition for the week after," said Hoshi. "Now, I'm still not used to all these commercialism around the holidays because it's not really like that in my century. Do we have any volunteers to write something about shopping? I'm open to any other suggestions, too."

[Please wait for the OCD ready. The world will not end today.]

Today's class was held in the Danger Shop, set up to mimic the usual classroom enviroment - desks, seating, the reamins of an exhausted building site and one slightly ruffled scientist standing at the front of the room.

"The three principles of architecture," said Mohinder. "Are that it should last, it should be functional and it should be beautiful. The last being a criteria much harder to be sure of fulfilling." He started to pass notes out to the students.

"When it comes to bridges, there are four basic types - beam, arch, cantilever and suspension bridges. Not all of which work equally well," he said, going on to on to discuss the design flaws and merits of each types. "And there's just a short practical exercise before you're free to go."

Once they'd built their way over the stretch of water that had just appeared, blocking the exit.

[OCD is up!]

Lunchtime with Jak was always roughly the same affair.

Large quantities of food were being scoffed down at a leisurely pace, his feet drifted towards the seat in front of him periodically, and the meat loaf they had on special? Man, he was making a hole in that.

He was in a pretty good mood this week, and it wasn't all the fault of the Beaver Buzz he'd specifically dragged with him into the cafetaria. Nope.

[[ open! ]]

On this day the class met as handwavily instructed in the computer lab. Barney was dressed in a tan suit with pink shirt and tie, ever on the prowl should one of the hot teachers be lurking around the building, hoping for a piece of Dean Awesome.

"There are certain points in the year when Fandomites may notice a decided lack of hotties out and about in the bars of this town. Research has led me to conclude that the chicks have simply switched venues, preferring to cast their cleavage at millions of strangers on the internet than at you and your cohorts."

( Diversifying your dating portfolio )

( Profiling )

( The Picture )

( Witty Blurb )

( The Assignment )

"Next Thursday," Steve said to his students, "is Thanksgiving. We will not be having class due to the holiday. This week, I'd appreciate it if you would paint something you're thankful for. You're welcome to use the media and style of your choice. If you'd like to share your piece with the class when you're finished, and explain why you chose that, you're welcome to do so." Steve swept a hand toward the supplies closets. "Have fun."

"Abraham Lincoln is usually considered one of our best Presidents. He won the Civil War, ended slavery, was honest, and had a really classy look with his beard and hat," Jim said as the class started. "And before that he was known as a great debater. His debates with Stephen Douglas during a campaign for a seat in the US Senate are pretty much legendary."

"And all of that is great. But before that, he challenged a guy to a sword fight in a pit."

( Abe + Sword + Pit = Kinda long post, yes. )