Afternoon Swordsmanship Class 3-4pm

[Professor Mace Stewart]

Mace began to set up the afternoon lesson with a bit of fevor. She knew she was running out of time; which wasn't good, to say the least. The students dance lesson had been in here that morning. This meant, of course, that she had to set up the gym for those who wanted to use swords in an effective and timely manner.

Mace had little idea of what she wanted to teach. All she knew was that first of all, safety was her biggest concern. She wasn't going to issue the students with swords unless they had a good head on their shoulders. When she came to think about it, she didn't particularly like the idea of setting them up to violently attack one another. She could see it causing more problems than she could quickly dissolve.

So swords in the first lesson were out, but safety was in. She could issue them with practice weapons. Weapons that couldn't yet do anyone any harm. Plastic swords, Mace thought wryly. The students would love plastic swords. Like an initiation rite. Quietly and methodically, Mace began lining up the swords to fit the demand.

Soon, the students would walk in. Soon, they would believe they would be wielding real swords. They looked and felt real. Kind of the point. But they weren't. She could be so clever sometimes. Let's see them try to kill each other with these.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne walked into the gym for the second time that day, this time wearing jean pants. Walking up to the teacher she set her bag with a towel and her workout pants as well as a few bottles of water off towards the side.

Stopping in front of the teacher, Mellianne smiled. "Hello. I'm Mellianne Joss. This is the Swordsmanship class, right?"

[Professor Mace Stewart]

This wasn't the first time that Mace had realised that she would actually have to teach. The student's words were just confirmation of fact. The stage-fright that squirmed inside of her whenever she had to actually perform in front of thousands of watching eyes always bit her when she was the least expecting it. Mace swallowed and flashed the child a smile. Early, it seemed.

"Hello Miss Joss," Mace said. "Yes, this is the Swordsmanship Class." She eyed the teenager before carrying on. "Would you like to help me set up? There is a lot of equipment that I'm going to need."

Mace knew the probable answer to this question would be no. Most students her age wouldn't care less about helping their teacher prepare. But it would save that child from standing around doing nothing until the lesson started.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne looked around and noticed that no one else had shown up yet. "Yes, ma'am. What do you want me to do?" Her parents had taught her to always be polite. Plus it would be cool to see what kinds of equipment they would need for this class.

[Professor Mace Stewart]

Mace nearly had a heart attack. A student that wanted to help? It was unheard of; but then again, there was the possibility that the girl was just being polite. A slow smile crept across her face. Why not?

"As we don't have any condemned criminals to practice on, we'll have to make do with these cutting mats," Mace headed towards the mats. They were made from bamboo mostly; thick layers that were easy enough for students to practice on. "Help me lay a few out for everyone else."

Normally, they would be used for testing the swords themselves. It wasn't that Mace didn't trust her students not to kill each other, but they were all super-powerful as it was without having instructions to pair off. This way, nobody would feel left out. Mace exhaled. This sort of thinking was how she'd been taught to think up in heaven; she really should start thinking like a proper fallen angel. And one of these days, she would.

"The tameshigiri stands might be of use, too," Mace called to the girl. "They'll need erected..."

That's when Mace retreated into her own world, mentally calculating everything that might go wrong and how she could fix it if it did. There were so many ways that the students could do something she didn't appreciate. Ah, well, in the end it would all work itself out. Or so she hoped.

((OOC: The information I'm using is based on this website: www.swordsofmight.com/tameshigiricuttingmatsandstands.aspx so think of the tools I'm setting up as looking like each of these items.))

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne nodded with a "Yes Ma'am!" and walked over to the stands, figuring that they would be wise to put them up first.

She brought a few of the tameshigiri stands over to where Professor Stewart had the swords. Looking over them, she quickly figured out how to assemble them. Once she had finished with those, she went back for more stands, and did so until she had one for every sword.

Mellianne then helped bring the mats over and get them set up on the stands. When done, she looked at Professor Stewart. "Anything else Ma'am?"

[Scott Logan]

Scott walked into the gym dressed in a loose-fitting pair of shorts and a T-shirt and looked around - it was his first time in the SDA gym. He was actually a little bit early to class, for once - his eagerness to get started at Swordsmanship motivated him to hurry for once.

He looked at the arrays of strange-looking coiled mats set up in the gym.

"Those are targets of some sort?" he asked Professor Stewart. "What fighting styles will you be teaching us? My brother and I have fenced, but haven't tried any other styles. Do we get to use real swords straight away?"

Wow, that was a lot of questions... He felt a little bit sheepish from having blurted out so many questions first thing.

[Ada Turing]

Ada arrived not long after Scott, still a few minutes early for the class. Noting the tameshigiri, she stopped.

"Am I expected to remove my shoes?" she asked.

[Professor Mace Stewart]

Students were beginning to arrive for her lesson. Mace frowned in thought as they eyed the stands with suspicions. Smiling, she made her way across to greet them.

"Welcome!" Her gentle voice carried across the gymnasium. Carefully, she pocketed her glasses -- glasses she'd worn since the beginning of term. Though she wouldn't be able to see two feet ahead, it meant that there would be one less target for the swords -- even fake swords, to hit. "All right. We'll wait ten minutes for everyone else to arrive to lessons. When we begin, I'll tell you exactly what these things are for."

There was, unfortunately, one thing Mace had conveniently forgotten. One of these days she'd eventually like to do a demonstration. But with a student? Impossible. She'd have to organize that little thing with a fellow teacher. Violence was all well and good, as long as it wasn't directed at those she was supposed to teach.

((OOC Give it a wee while, I'll not be posting again until tomorrow night my time))

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora wandered in, bored. Earlier classes had been on boring subjects, or were nothing but theory. She still didn't know many people, so she just decided there would be no harm in going to all the classes, even the ones that sounded a bit scary.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne started stretching a bit. She really didn't want to get stiff; specially after all the exercising she had done so far, and how much more she was planning on doing today. She was definitely going to have to figure out a schedule that wouldn't leave her all worn out. Hmm. Maybe I'll only go swimming on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. I have the least amount of classes on Tuesday and Thursday, only one I want to take and feel qualified for, and we don't have classes on Sunday. That will have to do for now. Will have to start making schedules if I don't want to wear myself out.

With that in mind, Mellianne patiently waited the 10 minutes until they were planning on starting.

[Professor Mace Stewart]

Mace stood there for a few minutes before deciding that anyone who was going to come, had come. If they wanted to come in late, she'd figure out what to do then. With an easy smile, she beamed out at her students.

"Okay, choose a tameshigiri stand. All of you." Mace waited as the students scrambled for their stands. "Right. So we're going to practice some cutting motions. Now, I'm going to tell you right away. Those swords aren't real. You can't kill each other with them. So don't even try. If you do, it will be an automatic detention and you won't be welcome back in my class." She paused, waiting for the words to sink in.

"On a brighter note, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves so I know what to call you!"

[Ada Turing]

Ada bowed slightly, still slightly thrown off by the tameshigiri.

"My name is Adrianne, but please call me Ada," Ada said.

Ada walked to a tameshigiri stand as well, looking at it closely but not touching it.

((OOC: What kind of swords are they? If we're practicing on tameshigiri, katana?))

[Scott Logan]

Scott walked over to one of the stands, and picked up the practice sword, testing its weight and balance by flourishing it in a salute, bringing the hilt up in front of his face, blade vertical.
"I'm Scott Logan," he said, finishing the salute and bowing.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne choose a stand and re-introduced herself, just in case Professor Stewart meant her too. "Mellianne Joss, Ma'am."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora curtsied in her silver dress. "Aurora Lumina Robinson." She looked around, seeing several familiar faces. She should probably try to meet some of them.

[Professor Mace Stewart]

This was going better than she had expected. They weren't disobeying; they were following orders, almost as if they actually wanted to learn. Teaching a small group of students might be more of an advantage than she realised.

"To begin with we're going to start off with learning the basics. Instead of the traditional Medieval style swordsmanship, we're going to have a brief look into the Asian swords, how they were used and worked, and their code of honour." Mace's smiled. This was actually fun. It was why she had decided to become a teacher in the first place. "Swordsmanship is not something you can learn overnight. It takes years of training to master, with precise actions. Even the smallest mistake can lead to your opponents death, or your ultimate demise. So pay attention, and be careful."

Mace stepped up to one of the earlier erected stands. "I find the best way to learn is often a demonstration; you can't know what you're doing unless you see it for yourself, then do it with your own two hands. Years of theory isn't going to be much help in the ring, no matter how hard you study the movements in a book."

The first thing Mace had to remember was this wasn't Westernized; in fact, this was the opposite. One couldn't just launch themselves into a fight simply because they wanted to. Strict rituals were involved before every duel. Just because she wasn't facing a proper opponent it didn't mean these rules could be ignored. So Mace did as she had been taught, long ago. She got down on her knees and laid her sword down in front of her. Placing both hands underneath the very centre of her sword, she bowed low, almost close enough for her lips to touch the blade. Then swiftly, she rose into a sitting position just as she'd been before.

Then, the next of many formalized rituals. The Japanese were always fond of them; it extended beyond mere swordsmanship. Mace hesitated only a moment before stretching her left hand towards the blade and tilting it up into a horizontal angle. Once she had the blade pointing to her right side, she stood and bowed again. A smile crept across her face.

"Does anyone know why I just did that?" A question these students should or would eventually know the answer to. It was also one she'd expect them to mimic, once she had the correct answer. She couldn't teach a toddler to run before he could walk. So why should they learn to use their sword in anger before they could use it in calm?

[Destiny Valencia Everett]

Destiny was glad the swords weren't real. That was important; knives were dangerous things, and swords were really just big knives, weren't they?

She watched in puzzled interest as the professor went through the ritual. Thinking that probably the professor would have a real sword, not a fake one like she had, Desi hazarded a guess as to the ritual's meaning.

"Is it 'cause it's a magic sword and you have to be nice to it so it won't hurt you?"

[Professor Mace Stewart]

Mace stared at the girl. She searched for a nice way to say what she thought and failed; if she thought being nice to the sword would help, she was wrong. No, these rituals were much more important than being nice to a magical sword. Hells, Mace was trying her hardest not to be offended. She stiffened.

"That's not quite how I would have put it," Mace smiled, trying to make the girl feel better. "No, no, what we're doing here is showing your opponent that you aren't here in anger. It teaches you humility and to help avoid behaviour which could be threatening or dangerous. That's what I like about Japanese swordsmanship. It should be an art, not a way to throw yourself at your enemy like in most Western duels."

Next, Mace moved through the stands, her eyes lowered as she gave her next order. "You'll be practicing this ritual first; at first you might not see it as important, but until you can master the ritual and not use the sword in anger, you might want to reconsider being here. I want to see you try the ritual first, before we move onto the three basic cutting moves. Don't you worry; we'll get there."

[Ada Turing]

Ada had payed attention to the ritual when Professor Stewart had performed it, and thus managed to repeat it at least somewhat accurately, if not smoothly. She took a deep breath to calm herself and tried again, improving the fluidity of her movements.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne tried to follow the ritual; however, she felt very awkward doing so. That caused her movements to be stiff and a bit slower than the ritual was supposed to be while she tried to remember the movements.

[Destiny Valencia Everett]

Embarrassed at having got the question wrong, Desi tried to repeat the ritual. Midway through, she found herself randomly waving the sword around in the air, but eventually managed to copy what the others were doing well enough to at least end in the same position.

This was turning out to be even harder than she had thought.

[Professor Mace Stewart]

this had been going rather well, but Mace HAD noticed she was running out of time. Time was of the essence, and her next lesson would be starting shortly. She had to clear away all of this, for a start. She took a deep breath.

"Well done everyone." She paced between the students, deciding that perfection clearly wasn't going to happen today. "Homework -- practice this ritual and make sure you get it right. I might see some of you in my next lesson, a basic introduction to martial arts."

She swept from the gymnasium, and ducked outside to get a breather. Goodness, how an hour length lesson spread!

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Aurora sat next to the sword lying on the floor, puzzled. She couldn't recall ever being particularly mad at someone - perhaps a bit irritated, but not so mad that she'd wanted to direct violence against them. Also she thought bowing to a sword was at least a bit silly. She was glad when the class was ended, as she could stop pretending to go along with it, as she'd been merely loitering around except when the professor looked her way.