Description: This course surveys the various strategies used by inhabitants of the animal kingdom to increase their chances of survival. Topics span tactics to avoid detection, strategies to discourage attacks, societal defenses, and, when confrontation is inevitable, methods to gain an advantage when facing off.
Expectations: By the course's end, students are expected to be able to observe creatures under stress and recognize which survival technique the animal is employing, to what intended end, and whether it is offensive or defensive in nature.
Grades: Will be comprised of two observation papers (from two field trips) and a final project. Homework assignments are optional and will count towards extra credit.
A relatively tall tree sits in the middle of a dirt field encircled by a rise of terraced seats. Despite it being the tail end of summer, the tree is draped in autumnal colors--crusted with brown and speckled with orange. A line dragged through the weathered soil forms a circle about the tree in a seven-foot radius, perhaps to act as some sort of indicator or deterrent?
Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:31 am
I've been waiting for a lifetime,
In the search for something real--
To turn up and save me,
From the empty and the loneliness inside...
August 29th, 1st Day of Class 🐾
>>>>Juggling course materials in one hand, and a coffee mug in the other, Leon made his way past the seating area, dropping off stacks of stapled papers at the tables near each of the entrances. A few packets continued on with him to the dirt center where the lectern and blackboard stood off to a side.
Exchanging paper for chalk, the professor turned to outline a message on the board; when his pocket watch told him there was plenty of time until the official start of class, he proceeded to shade in those lines for a gradient effect, embellishing the course title with blackletter, partly to enhance visibility but mostly for his own entertainment. Gothic lettering was a talent of his, so what better way to flaunt hone it than for a practical purpose?
Welcome to
𝔰𝔲𝔯𝔳𝔦𝔳𝔞𝔩 𝔗𝔢𝔠𝔥𝔫𝔦𝔮𝔲𝔢𝔰. Please take a handout.
The few early birds nearby were hand-delivered the document from Leon’s subset--he found it preposterous to punish the punctual, but not enough so to trek to the outer ring seats--before the professor returned to his podium perch.
When I dream at night,
I can see where I belong--
So I'll close my eyes, I'll follow my feet, In hopes that somehow they'll take me home...
Status:ready for class to start Setting:Training Grounds R3, at the podium
OOC>Apologies for the delay! Feel free to post your characters arriving, already there (as an early bird), and/or approaching Leon (e.g. to ask a question, to get a handout).
tl;dr> As Leon arrives, he drops off handouts at the tables near the entrances, saving a few for the early birds sitting up front. He adorns the blackboard with chalk lettering, and patiently waits for students to arrive.
Quoting with the characters signed up for this class, per Class Registration sheet, here for convenience.
The_Little_Rabbit
Allison Forest
Yuuta Kaoru
Break Corvx
Shiruke Ryu
Dougal (Doug) Torquil
KiyokoXXXInuzuka
Faith Mirandez
Exhale Fail
Hail Steele
Elum Tnuocca
Kara (Kerra) Parks
Kerissa Darkmoon
Kerissa Dragonbane
-I- silent_ame -I-
Noemi Ramirez
-Rove-You-Baby-
Penelope "Penny" Peabody
Kerissa Darkmoon
Saiya "Joker" Card
xX Woman of Science Xx
Tara LeMonte
Baily Levos, I couldn't find your user or profile, so... Send me a note if you're still around and I can get the spreadsheets updated. Thanks!
PaperLined Vice Captain
Offline
Kerissa Darkmoon
Offline
Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:05 pm
PaperLined
Kerissa Dragonbane
By the time she began her walk to the training grounds, Kerissa had already showered and dressed for the new day. With her back pack hanging over her left shoulder and her hair swaying against the gentle breeze. She continued on to her first class that was on her schedule.The weather was so nice that if she had time, Kerissa would love to spend it practicing her kendo with Masato. But she do want to make a good first impression with her teachers. That is why she woke up early than she usually do.
Maybe a little too early because by the time she had reached her class Red and Black, a friend of Jack class. she noticed that no one had even shown up yet Except for who looks like to be the teacher was the only one there. She walked slowly while tucking a strand of her crimson locks behind her ear. With a gentle tone in her voice, Keri spoke loud enough for him to hear her. "Um good morning?"
Before the crack of dawn, Saiya was already up and going for a jog. It was something she do every morning as exercise. She can't really say the reason because it was rather unclear to her too. But it's now became a habit of hers. One she doesn't mind seeing how it is a good thing to be healthy no matter your race. Her morning jog had soon came to its end as she head back to her dorm to take a quick shower and change from her work out clothes.
Her long raven black hair she had blow dried and put into a large single braid.She fixed her blouse to look nice and neat and slipped on her boots. Her little bag that held her school supplies she picked up off the bed and head out with her keys in hand. Her class now is Read and Black a friend of Jack. A survival class it seems. Maybe she'll like this class. Saiya quickened her pace out of the Chestnut Dorms and went straight to where the class is being held. She has always been the type to arrive on time for something and this is one of them.
After seeing it was only another classmate and the teacher present, The joker softly smiled and spoke in greetings. "Hello."
>>>>Coffee mug in hand, silver eyes idly surveying the stapled packet before him that each student was to, presumably, get, Leon appeared relatively preoccupied. What held his attention, however, were not the words he had mulled over the previous week--writing and rewriting until they were all but memorized--and printed out, but the approaching silhouette blurred by his peripheral vision.
The figure was fairly vertical, smelled of something very much like herbal essences, and moved with the relatively unsteady gait of a two-legged mammalian. Nothing threatening but, still, he preferred to let others think they had the advantage of surprise; it seemed to bolster the timid, and quiet the boisterous. In the wild, savage world, it was the difference between a predator's well-executed ambush and the prey's successful evasion. ...but that's no longer the world we inhabit, is it?
Taking a sip from his tumbler, letting the warm tide of foam-crested coffee rouse his senses with earthy aromas, unnatural fervor, and a bittersweet residue, Leon could almost grasp again the elation mornings once brought him--for one brief moment, he could glimpse the chromatic orange of sunrise glinting off a field of glittering dew drops, could taste the fresh air, still chilled, from the receding night. Oh, the joy of daybreak and living to see it--! ...but the emotive embers died almost as quickly as they had ignited, leaving an even colder reality in their wake. Joy cannot exist without sorrow, his rational side supposed.
When the nearing footfalls faded away into silence, with only words to follow, Leon's gaze drifted over to place a face to the voice. "Good morrow..." A flurry of stills whirled past his mind's eye, not so unlike a tempest of images, before settling on a likeness that most matched the figure afore him. The name underneath it was... "...Kerissa." He took pride in knowing his dorm residents, if only by physical appearance. >>>>"How fares thee this morn?" An acute eye traversed the student before coming to rest on her garnet gaze. The look in her eyes, the sheen of her hair, the way she carried herself--could it be? She was...another of his kind? Not impossible but rather improbable, especially after the medieval world's blind crusade to purge its realms of "beasts" they feared but knew nothing about.
Voice low, Leon casually added, steel gaze keen for any signs of recognition, "Jenn'la, si charis?"("Brilliant**, I hope?") His native tongue--not to mention its idioms--was a rather difficult one that not many could grasp, even with decades of study; to those unfamiliar, it likely sounded like a cacophony of growls and guttural rumblings--some distorted dialect of German, perhaps. Human speech did the language little justice, at least to his ears, but it was impossible to get the sounds exact without mangling his vocal chords, and speaking was vital to teaching class.
When another blot approached from the corner of his vision, Leon, compelled by ingrained predatory instincts, reflexively turned his attention toward the newcomer to assess whether friend or foe. Another student.... At the very least, it gave him plenty of time to recall her name beforehand. >>>>"Saiya. Good morning." Catching a glimpse of what looked like unoccupied hands, the professor inquired, "Did you two pick up a handout on the way in?" If not, he'd offer each a packet from his cache with, "Here, to save you a walk back."
It wasn't that Leon purposefully forgot to introduce himself--he forgot that, sometimes, he did more homework on his students than they did on him. After all, his name was emblazoned on the syllabus and, almost certainly, immortalized in stories from upperclassmen.
When I dream at night,
I can see where I belong--
So I'll close my eyes, I'll follow my feet, In hopes that somehow they'll take me home...
Status:conversing with students before class Setting:Training Grounds R3, near the podium with Kerissa and Saiya
OOC>Hope you don't mind the length. **Here, I'm using "brilliant" as a positive Draconic idiom for "doing well/great/awesome" because dragons regard treasure (which shines/gleams with brilliance) and intellect (e.g being brilliant-minded) highly.
tl;dr> Although Leon appears distracted when Kerissa approaches, he is well aware of her presence and simply chooses not to let on; it's something of a habit of his, to potentially to lull the visitor into a fancied sense of security. He returns her greeting with one of his own, leveraging his knowledge as the Chestnut dorm supervisor, before inquiring how her morning's going. A visual assessment has Leon wondering about Kerissa's lineage, so, to test this hunch, he poses her a question in Draconic to see if she recognizes the language at all. When Saiya enters, Leon instinctively glances her way. After greetings are exchanged, he offers the two a handout if they forgot to pick one up on the way.
Kerissa Darkmoon
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:18 pm
PaperLined
Saiya "The Joker" Card
Saiya's eyes blinked in confusion. The language he had spoke of course she did not recognize. But neither had she dwell on it either. With a smile,the vampire took the packet and bowed. Thank you sir." With that she had sat down after she had removed her bag from back and glanced down at what was given to her.
"Good morro to you too Mr.Vyuxurios."She gave him a nice and warm smile as she reached to accept the packet. When he had spoke, she was slightly caught off guard. The language of dragons is something she never had expected to hear again. In fact she really didn't know she would meet one of her kind after so long. From an expression of shock to a gentle smile, Kerissa had responded "si mi tirir brilliantly vinxa vur wux svanoa re wux?"
The last time she had spoke in her foreign tongue was when she had called Klein a pompous pig. That was mostly because to her, he was acting like one with such terrible manners. Kerissa soon sat down in an empty to see and placed the thick packet for the class syllables on top of her desk. She reached into her back pa ck to pull out a note book and a pen as preparation for the lesson.
Translation:"I am doing brilliantly thank you and you how are you?]"[/spoiler}
OOC: It's quite alright. Haha I'm really starting to like the two dragons interaction so far. But if you wish I can until more of the students arrive before doing another response.
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 7:06 pm
I've been waiting for a lifetime,
In the search for something real--
To turn up and save me,
From the empty and the loneliness inside...
August 29th, 1st Day of Class 🐾
>>>>A subtle brow went up at the pale one--a vampire, if her wan complexion was indicative of anything--and her terseness. Vampires, he'd come to the realization decades ago, either loved hearing their own voices, or brooding in self-destructive silence; she didn't really seem either type, but perhaps the forever of immortality hadn't corrupt her yet. >>>>The thought called to mind an old friend Leon hadn't seen in a few ages. This one fell into both camps--gregarious when some thought or inspiration stoked his fancy, but forlornly morose otherwise. Where is the ol' bat nowadays? Nostalgia--maybe a pang of loneliness--urged Leon to renew efforts to track the other down, see if his dismal outlook has brightened any with the passage of time. >>>>...most likely not, his rational side hypothesized, but the other's worldly perspective tended to be refreshing nonetheless. If nothing else, they at least saw eye-to-eye on the triviality of time.
Sounds, familiar since his broodmother first coo'd them to him through the shell, tugged Leon's attention back to the tangible reality with a vague longing. Guarded curiosity gleamed in his eyes as he watched the first student--Kerissa--navigate his language; her vernacular seemed strange, perhaps a bit forced, despite having the usual formality expected with unfamiliars. Surely she had not been born into it, but rather learned it from her guardians or some scholarly tutor? >>>>"Si mi filki iba, vinxa."("I'm just fiery, thanks.") The different geographic regions each had their colloquialisms, but it wasn't terribly difficult to extrapolate what each meant based on their elements. Besides, if his hunch was right and she, too, was a firekite, then the expression would resonate all too well.
With the students more or less settled in their seats, a quick glance at his pocket watch dictating it was time, Leon requested the class' attention with a resolute clap. "Welcome! This is Survival Techniques, where we will be studying the various methods by which animals evade or deter almost inevitable destruction, and I'm Leon Vyuxiros, your guide for the course." A grin on his lips at the thought of being some sort of sherpa, Leon proceeded to gesture toward the large tree in the middle of the field. Although summer had not yet taken its leave, the tree was already cloaked in autumnal colors--brown-crusted with specks of muted orange and gray. "Tell me, class, what do you see here?"
When I dream at night,
I can see where I belong--
So I'll close my eyes, I'll follow my feet, In hopes that somehow they'll take me home...
Status:starting class with a question Setting:Training Grounds R3
OOC>Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.
tl;dr> Leon reminisces about an old friend whose memory is sparked by Saiya's terseness. He's called back to the present, however, by sounds of his birth language spoken by Kerissa. Although he doesn't think her rendition terribly eloquent, he appreciates the moment of nostalgia nonetheless. When it's time, Leon opens class with a quick introduction followed by a question.
Kerissa Darkmoon
PaperLined Vice Captain
Offline
Kerissa Darkmoon
Offline
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 3:52 pm
PaperLined
Kerissa Dragonbane
"wux kiri zklaen qe de wer relgim di ixen."Kerissa was speaking in response to his fiery comment.She did not wait for a response though since he was starting class. Her own crimson hues glanced over at the quiet vampire who too was focusing on the tree he was pointing to. The young dragonness herself was pondering upon what the tree is. She had only seen it once during her childhood. But the name escapes her. "For me, I see a tree of autumn. A tree that always remain in the state of the fall season." Her words are of her opinion and honesty.
But even she knows that not everything is as it seems. "However I do have this sense of deception from it."[Kerissa continued on with her thoughts as she can feel Saiya's gaze on her. But she only shrugged her shoulders and continued on with her observation
Translation: A fellow dragon of the element of fire"
