Introductory Class

[Aravind Shiyal]

Aravind lounged against a tree at the trailhead (currently marked by a cairn, about three feet high, the rocks all various shapes, colours, and textures-- but all roughly the size of a softball) enjoying the morning (about 8:30 am) sunshine. He'd been up since an hour or so before dawn, running the trail and getting to know the territory around it fairly well; he'd already reviewed the trail, but had wanted to make sure he'd gotten accustomed to this area of the woods before he started classes. He'd also built the cairn, making sure to take as many different types of rocks as he could. He wasn't sure why he'd thought it was that important, but it... seemed important.

Absently, Aravind pulled the paper out of his pocket and glanced over the list of students, trying to remember if he knew any of their names-- of course, not all of them would attend. He entertained himself for a moment with the thought that no students would, and he'd wind up getting paid for a year to hang out and keep the trail usable. Grinning to himself for a spare moment, he glanced back down at the list. He didn't know any of their names, he found.

Sinking down, he sat with his back to the wide mulberry's trunk, waiting for the first of them to arrive, and trying to figure out how he would play this. He remembered the teachers he'd had-- the patronizing hacks who rewarded every cough out of their students' mouths, the "too-cool-for-school" teachers who let their students do whatever they wanted, and the screaming sirens who'd thrown out detentions for every toe placed out of line. He wasn't sure what kind of style he'd end up with, but he'd already resolved never to fall into any of those molds. Making a wry face at the unexpected confusion, he rolled his shoulders back and tried to relax, wondering what to expect.

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

"Maybe it's... no, it was definately saturday..."

Aurora wandered the trail, looking confused. Had she gone too far down? Made a wrong turn? Well that didn't make any sense - there were no forks in the trail. Or maybe she just hadn't seen one? Once again she looked at the digital screen she had sprout from her left hand, showing only a lack of wireless connection. She frowned, thinking this nature romp may not have been a very good idea afterall.

She was just about to turn around and head back to see if she could spot a side trail when she came upon Professor Shiyal.

"Oh."

[Aravind Shiyal]

((For those whom it may concern! "Trail-head" means "head of the trail," as in, "where the trail enters the woods and becomes a Trail Proper. *grin* 'S it alright if we say Aurora wandered in through another trail, maybe even a deer path?))

Aravind Professor Shiyal, that's SHIYAL. Do you /want/ these students to disrespect you? Professor Shiyal glanced up at the red-head and nodded, pushing off the knobbly base of the mulberry to stand. He quirked an eyebrow at the girl, not particularly unkindly.

"...That's interesting. How'd you get in there?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne stretched as she walked down the path from the school towards the forest. Looking around, she noticed the pile of rocks with two people near it. Changing direction towards them, she made a quick check of her clothes, an old T-shirt and jeans with an old pair of tennis shoes she found in her suitcase.

Noticing one shoe had come untied, Mellianne stopped and fixed that, then continued on her way to the pile of rocks. Upon arriving she held stretched again. "Hello!"

[Ada Turing]

Ada showed up a few minutes before class was scheduled to start, suppressing a powerful yawn. She was dressed somewhat reasonably for being outdoors - tan pants, sturdy shoes, and a t-shirt (admittedly, with a programming joke on it).

"This is the right place for Forestry and Survival class, right?" She asked.

((If someone wants to be early, feel free to pretend this hasn't happened yet.))

[Aravind Shiyal]

((Ah, I was kind of assuming this was all early.))

Aravind nodded to Mellianne Joss as she arrived, and to Ada as well, a minute later or so.

"This is, as you probably have deduced, Forestry (and Survival) Class." He smiled inwardly, having figured that most kids would just lump the two classes together. "It looks like you're the first students," and... maybe the only ones. A lesson in the woods with only three (probably) skittish young girls. What could -possibly- go wrong?

Biting down on the morbid sarcasm, Aravind glanced back at the students. "So you all know who I am," he said dryly. "Mind introducing yourselves? I'd rather not have to call you Students One, Two, and Three for the entire lesson."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne did a small grin at what she presumed was a joke. "I'm Mellianne Joss."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

"Aurora Lumina Robinson," she announced with a small curtsy. Compared to everyone else, her shimmering silver dress, arms and legs stood out like a sore thumb - but she didn't notice. Her slight flush was actually due to her having apparently gotten lost in the woods. Looking around, she was at the start of the trail. She couldn't even recall where she had entered the woods. She was actually glad the other students had shown up so maybe she didn't have to try to explain.

"Are we going to find any unicorns?" she asked, her excitement temporarily overwhelming her embarrassment.

[Ada Turing]

"I'm Ada," Ada said. "Or student number two, if you'd prefer."

[Aravind Shiyal]

Aravind nodded, leaning back against the tree. "Alright, I can probably remember that. Melliane, Aurora, Ada-slash-Student-Number-Two. Or Student One-Zero," he added, deadpan, "If you'd prefer your native tongue."

He raised a single eyebrow at Aurora. "Unicorns," he pointed out, "Have absolutely nothing to do with Forestry. When we move on to Survival, we might deal with Unicorns later in the semester. At the moment, they are out of the question-- especially the question of finding them, since we seem to be having trouble finding the trail itself, this morning."

He looked over towards the school, wondering if anyone else would show up. "Well, I'm not sure who'll show up," he said. "But they've only got ten minutes. In the meantime, we may as well get started with the basics." He wondered what kind of a survival class you taught three fairly young girls, two of them apparently machine-oriented.

"I know this is the first day, so don't worry too much about it, but in the future, dresses are... Well." He shrugged towards the woods. "I don't have any kind of dress code, but this is a performance-based class. I strongly advise dressing as comfortably as you can-- bear in mind that thornbushes don't particularly care how expensive your dress is, nor the mud for your shoes.

"Anyway, today we'll be starting with the most basic part of Forestry." He patted the tree behind him, almost affectionately. "This, as you may or may not know, is a tree." He paused for a moment.

"What can you tell me about it-- this particular tree?"

[Miriam O'Neal]

Miriam had been wandering aimlessly, as was her wont, but the gathering of girls and teacher attracted her attention, and her circuitous path straightened and led her toward the trail-head. The teacher was asking them about the tree, she noted absently, at the edges of her attention. She ignored him in favor of the tree. It was quite a lovely tree, after all. And she wasn't confident in the possibility of intelligent conversation.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne bit her lip. Trees weren't really her thing. Ask her anything (with in reason) about animals or any water sports, and she would know the answer (though she knew more about water sports than animals, especially animals that weren't on the ranch as she didn't know much about them at all). But trees, well, she didn't pay much attention to the types of trees or anything like that. She noticed a new girl joining them, but she quickly turned her attention back to Professor Shiyal.

[Autumpne Ravenshade]

To get Autumpne out of bed on a Saturday before noon took a great deal of effort, normally. But for today, there had been not a problem with managing it, and Autumpne had managed to only hit the snooze button once on her alarm clock before she got out of bed and prepared herself for the day.

So, it was to part of her surprise, and possibly those who had interacted with her this last week, that she was now outside in the sunlight. She walked dantily- and how she had practiced looking fragile and delicate and mournful despite wearing steel toed boots with chunky heels that went up to her knees before she arrived at this school!- down the path, looking for the other students and the professor.

"Is this the Forestry class?" she asked, sincerely and mournfully when she saw another girl.

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora's smile dissolves at Aravind's announcement that there would be no unicorns in this class, and it morphs into a pout with his comment about getting lost. Finally, his last comment set her looking at her company.

For the first time, Aurora looked at what everyone else was wearing and then what she was wearing. She never jumped or ran around, so she'd never had a problem with freedom of motion, but she could see that her dress might be a bit of a problem should she need to.

She makes a concentrated glance at Ada. The silver strands of Aurora's dress liquify and alter, taking on the shape of a t-shirt and some loose-fitting shorts. They were still a gaudy silver, but they were less form-fitting. She looks down at them, moving her arms and legs to see how the clothing hung. They weren't quite as pretty looking as her dress, so she brightened it up by adding a light-up flower deco to the t-shirt front.

She looks up at Professor Shiyal, eager for an approving look.

[Scott Logan]

Scott arrived late for class just in time to hear Professor Shiyal's question. He wasn't sure how strenuous this class would be, so he'd settled for a T-shirt and shorts with some running shoes, just in case.

"Um... that tree has leaves?" Scott ventured in response to Shiyal's question. It sounded lame, even to him.

[William Jason Fredericks]

Fredericks stepped out from behind a tree about 5 yards from the trailhead, a machete in hand. The blade of the machate dripped something, possibly just a thick sap.

"Ha! Leaves...._{bloody brilliant}."

He turned to Professor Shiyal. "Ain't seen nary a unicorn" his voice dripped with scorn "but mind the bears." He turned to leave.

[Aravind Shiyal]

Aravind waited in the short pause that followed, giving Aurora a nod when he saw her clothes shift. Now that, he thought, would be a handy talent. Shame she couldn't seem to change the color, though.

He also nodded to Scott, Miriam, and Autumpne as they arrived, very nearly wincing at Scott's comment. He gave the as-yet-unknown boy an arch look.

"Terribly sorry, I only accept ludicrously useless answers from students who arrive on time. Anyone else?" Anyone at ALL? Please? After a moment's pause, he added, "And your names would be useful, as well, actually."

Aravind rubbed a hand across his face, wondering if the whole class would be like this. He nodded to the suddenly-appearing groundskeeper. "That's good to know. I'd sooner deal with a full-grown grizzly mother than a unicorn, any day of the week."

((OOC: I guess I should clarify that last. Aravind is, like myself (this is a SueRP, right?), part Blackfoot. Unicorns are not native to North America, and to the best of my knowledge, they appear nowhere in American mythology. The most reliable source I've found on unicorns, pre-romanticism (and also pre-sugar-coating), has them as terrifying creatures, to be categorized with lions and rampaging bulls. This makes sense to me, and it also makes sense to a Ranger in a surreallistic world, who can deal with creatures fairly well, but knows better than to romanticize them.))

[Ada Turing]

Ada looked at the tree, and then at the ground under it.

"Judging by the leaves, it's deciduous... Personally, I'd have to say that the round brown nuts on the ground are a bit of a tell-tale as well. Is it a chestnut?"

[Scott Logan]

"Hey, I come from halfway across the world. The trees are completely different, there... Oh, and I'm Scott Logan."

[Aravind Shiyal]

"Ah, you're from that far part of the world where trees grow fireballs, instead of leaves? My deepest apologies, Scott Logan. This must be such a difficult change."

Refraining from rolling his eyes, Aravind nodded to Ada, reaching for a branch about as thick as his arm, about shoulder-height.

"Yes, and no. This is a deciduous tree, but not a chestnut. It's an easy mistake to make, though; the nuts are from that tree, a little ways in. This one doesn't fruit until late summer." He gestured them over to the branch with a motion of his head, and held up one of the leaves. "It's a red mulberry-- the leaves tell you that, if the berries aren't in season; they're this darker shade of green, and you can see the toothed, lobed shape-- if you wanted to guess from a distance, the trunk is a hint, too; mulberries almost always have two or three of them. There's another way to tell-- more dangerous, less reliable, but that's more in the 'Uses' category, which we'll cover in Survival, next period.

For now," he finished, "I'd like you to start looking around at these trees. Forests are a lot more than just trees-- infinitely more, actually-- but trees are the basis of it all. So we're going to head down the trail now, taking our time (don't get used to that, by the way) for today. Start taking notes on the different kinds of trees you're noticing. As Ada said, this mulberry is deciduous: it has leaves. The other major phylum of tree is coniferous, which you can tell by the needles and cones."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne grabbed a notebook from her backpack as well as a pencil and began talking notes. She was definitely going to need them in order to pass this class. Hopefully by the end of the semester, she would be able to tell some of the trees apart.

[Miriam O'Neal]

"Which one is more common hereabouts?" Miriam asked absently, investigating the mulberry closer, taking note of what the teacher had said. She meant coniferous or deciduous, though she'd neglected to include all the relevant information in her question. This was fairly common. Toothed leaves, multiple trunks, why did she think she was forgetting something? "...oh," she said, a moment later. "Miriam O'Neal."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora didn't have any supplies with her - she rarely thought very much ahead, nor did she usually need to. She had seen a variety of pda's and other electronic gismos that could record data that she might be able to make, but she hadn't made one before.

Instead, she made a metal tablet and pen, and began 'writing' on it by arranging lights on it in the shape of her handwriting. 'Desidus, fruit, chestnuts.'

[Scott Logan]

"What I meant is that none of those types of trees grow where I'm from, so I don't see how I'm supposed to be able to tell the difference yet. I wouldn't know a chestnut from an oak from a beech if they started dancing a conga line in front of me."

Scott replied to Professor Shiyal's remark without thinking. Even as the words came out he wondered whether that was going too far in talking back to a teacher? He didn't want a detention first thing, especially as he'd actually been looking forward to this class. He liked being outdoors and out and about in nature, and now it looked like he'd be messing things up with the professor in the very first lesson.

[Aelita Selena Auberon]

Aelita flew aimlessly across the grounds, until she saw the gathering of students around Professor Shiyal. Not having quite worked out that Professor Shiyal was not particularly out to protect her, she decided to join the group.

She flew over and landed on a tree branch, just low enough that she should be able to hear what was being said. The branch creaked a tiny bit, and a couple of leaves fell toward the group as she landed.

(ooc: She is wearing another fluffy, amazingly pink dress that is enchanted to not allow anyone to see up it.)

[Aravind Shiyal]

Aravind wondered inwardly as he led the class slowly down the trail how many students it would take to figure out that "take note" was not the same as "take notes," and, for one thing, did not require paper.

"It depends on where you are," he told Miriam. "Higher elevations support coniferous trees better, but in this forest, the trees are mostly deciduous."

He glanced at Scott. "I know what you meant. Using hyperbole to ask a question that reveals the lack of depth behind someone's thought is known, in this part of the world, as 'sarcasm.' If I had asked you to identify the tree, your excuse would have been valid; as it is, simple powers of observation, or, in fact, the effort of a glance in any direction, would've given you an answer better than the one you supplied."

Ye gods, he thought, I'd better get used to talking to these kids like a person, and not an irritated dictionary. When did I get out of the habit of contractions? Ah, well.

He turned and called out, loud enough for the class stretching back (about ten, fifteen feet, I guess) to the cairn. "Alright! We're not going too far in, today, so you can just spread out along the trail, start getting used to this. I'll be checking up on each of you; what I want you to be doing is trying to come up with ways to tell each tree apart; we'll get more into what they're called later."

With a spare glance up for Aelita, he lowered his voice, just a little bit. "If you're here for the class, you're late. What's your name?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne just took notes about what see needed and then put her notebook under her arm, with her pencil in her pocket. She looked up into the tree when Professor Shiyal said something to Aelita. She blinked at the girl's fluffy pink dress. That definitely wouldn't be practical for a walk in the woods.

((Well my character isn't a memory note taker. She learns better if she takes notes and can look back over them, not that it helps her get stellar grades, though they do keep her from failing, and I misunderstood the 'take note'))

[Aravind Shiyal]

((OOC: No worries! There's nothing as says you -can't- take notes, Aravind just forgets not everyone has a good memory for forest-related stuff, and I wanted to make sure it was clear that students didn't -have- to bring notebooks into the woods.))

[Ada Turing]

Ada walked along the path slowly, looking at the trees. She took notes on her phone rather than with a notepad, and some of them looked more like math than anything else. Soon, she was lost in her own thoughts, barely paying enough attention to the world to keep on the path and avoid running into everyone.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne followed the path and looked at the trees, describing them as much as possible while taking pictures with her phone and labling them that way she could research them later and make any add-ons to her notes she might need. With luck, she might actually get a good grade in this class.