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AlwaysSnapesGirl · 10-04-2021, 12:24 AM

A blanket of snow covers the grounds, and the sky is still mostly overcast from the remaining clouds that brought the past few days' snowfall. Occasionally the afternoon sun manages to peek out from behind the clouds as you make your way to today's Muggle Studies lesson. The pathways are clear, and an additional makeshift one has also been cleared to lead you to the place on the grounds sectioned off for the lesson.

Dressed in layers to stay warm, Professor Rosalie Applewood stands at the place where the cleared-snow trail meets the "classroom": to her left, you may notice a tarp covering something - or many somethings? - sitting on top of a second tarp on the ground. To her right are four long log benches placed around a large fire pit - though it is currently lacking a fire, and wood for that matter. On the other side of the fire pit and benches are a cluster of trees. The area is otherwise quite open. And snowy. There has been no effort to clear the snow around here, only for the path that leads the way here.

Even so, come on over and take a seat on one of the benches. Class will begin shortly.

OOC: Hi, everyone! Welcome to Muggle Studies! Although this is our first lesson OOC, please bear in mind that there would have been several IC lessons prior to this point in the term. And don't forget to check out the class rules if you haven't already. ~~The lesson will begin approximately 24 hours from now.~~ The lesson has begun!

Class Progress:
- Greetings & Question 1
- Question 2
- Mini Activity
- Main Activity

Watson · 10-12-2021, 02:47 AM

Lisa wore a smug smile on her lips when Professor Applewood mentioned HER name. Okay okay. Such a power trip and the littles Nam was HERE FOR IT.

She wasn’t expecting them to actual do a camping activity but it intrigued her and she was always a fan of group work. She glanced around the classroom, noting who was already working together. Violet and Noah. SENSEI JEDI MASTER NOAH!!!!!! Her heart and stomach did really weird things which she ignored but she did wonder if he had always been that good looking last year. As Misa had told her, puberty was a weird thing. She blinked her eyes, glancing away from him, and then landing her eyes on Valentina and Evan.

Ohhohoho…. any opportunity to observe the two of them more closely and see if this was who EVAN LIKED?!? She had given up on the Mamie/Evan sail last year but … there were plenty of other ships to sail and she saw an opportunity in front of her.

Carpe diem.

She seized it and bounced over to those two. “Hiiii!” Enthusiastic with a BRIGHT smile. “Can I be the third? I’m good at things and can help.” Please? She then turned to her brother and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes that she could muster. “Let me help with the tent.

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 10-12-2021, 03:54 AM

Now that there was movement, Rosalie also began walking around the area to observe the students and stay nearby just in case any of them might need some assistance. It looked like they were taking it all in stride though, with the ones who had experiences with camping offering help to those who might not, which was wonderful to see. She noted Mister Mordaunt partnering with Miss Blackthorne, Mister Nam being joined by Miss Nichols and then the younger Miss Nam as well, and Miss Donovan also offering to help anyone before setting to work. And then there was Miss Blaze, Miss Fox, and Mister Jones also working very well together.

After taking a quick glance at her watch, she called out, "Excellent work so far, everyone! About five more minutes left, and then we'll move on the next part of the lesson."

OOC: Approximately another 20 hours until we move on to the final activity! Great work so far, everyone, I love reading all your posts!

Lady of Light · 10-12-2021, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chelliephone

He'd gotten a good portion of the patch stamped down when Evan could hear Val's voice behind him. He turned his head a bit, offering a small smile and a nod of his head. "Absolutely. Want to finish stamping down the snow and I'll work on getting the contents of the bag out?" Conquer and divide.

Without waiting for an answer, he moved over to pull the tent bag closer to him, pulling out the ground tarp first and unfurling it so once Val was done they could lay it out over the space together and move on to the body. In an effort to save time, he was also doing things a little out of order and went ahead and pulled out the poles as well to carefully begin the assembly so they'd be ready to go as well when they were ready to feed through.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

Lisa wore a smug smile on her lips when Professor Applewood mentioned HER name. Okay okay. Such a power trip and the littles Nam was HERE FOR IT.

She wasn’t expecting them to actual do a camping activity but it intrigued her and she was always a fan of group work. She glanced around the classroom, noting who was already working together. Violet and Noah. SENSEI JEDI MASTER NOAH!!!!!! Her heart and stomach did really weird things which she ignored but she did wonder if he had always been that good looking last year. As Misa had told her, puberty was a weird thing. She blinked her eyes, glancing away from him, and then landing her eyes on Valentina and Evan.

Ohhohoho…. any opportunity to observe the two of them more closely and see if this was who EVAN LIKED?!? She had given up on the Mamie/Evan sail last year but … there were plenty of other ships to sail and she saw an opportunity in front of her.

Carpe diem.

She seized it and bounced over to those two. “Hiiii!” Enthusiastic with a BRIGHT smile. “Can I be the third? I’m good at things and can help.” Please? She then turned to her brother and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes that she could muster. “Let me help with the tent.

Valentina nodded. She started to walk up and down, stomping down on the snow a bit to make sure it was completely flat for them to set up the tent. She bounced as she walked too, to make the activity more fun and such. Hey, this was actually fun. "Evan?? Is this fine?" She asked after a few minutes - before turning to look at Lisa, returning her smile with one of her own. She liked the younger girl and her enthusiasm. It was super cute.

"Of course!! Hi, Lisa." More, the merrier.

astrocat · 10-12-2021, 12:16 PM

Camping was awful and Ash was never ever interested in doing it. But she supposed setting up a campsite was alright if Heath and Claudine were there. She liked them a lot. Claudine was like her big sister and Heath was like her sister’s boyfriend which sort-of maybe made him like her brother. Or something like that.

“Look, Heath, our snowshoes are matching.” She helped Claudine pack down the snow. Heath was right. She had definitely picked a great spot.

Ash took one corner of the tarp and let Heath take the last one. She made sure they were putting it shiny side up. Then, she grabbed the tent stuff and unpacked it.

...

That was a lot of complicated pieces. Ash remembered everything that the professor had said perfectly. But she didn’t really know which pieces were which. Um. “I guess this is like a puzzle.” Puzzles... she was good at puzzles. She hoped that counted for something.

Stefan · 10-12-2021, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadAlice

Mademoiselle? Really? Did Noah talk to everyone like this, or what? But Violet was so relieved to have someone to help her that she refrained from making any of her usual snarky comments.

Violet paused a moment as she struggled to figure out how to get the strange shoes on her feet, and then to stand up in them. When she had righted herself, she replied, "No, and I know absolutely nothing about camping. I never even saw shoes like this before."

Noah busied himself with the snow, while he kept his ears attentive to what Violet had to say. The Gryffindor paused, and turned to rummage for their tarp as he hid a subtle look of disbelief. Come to think of it, he fell right into Violet's trap. She need not lift a single finger to get this activity done, just by saying that she knows nothing of camping.

"So...what do you do for fun? Do you prefer indoor activities?" With a twin who'd rather keep to herself, people would assume that Noah understood introverts and their preference to stay inside unbothered. Oh, how wrong they'd be.

Noah rolled out the tarp underneath the packed snow as the Professor gave them an extension to finish their first activity, and went to gather the rest of their tent. "Snow is packed underneath, and the tarp's ready. Next, we unpack the tent and lay it flat, so we can start assembling it. Come on, we don't have much time. I'll guide you as we go along..." he said, inviting Violet to give him a hand as he began to unfurl the rolled tent.

Chelliephone · 10-12-2021, 07:35 PM

He was still piecing the poles together when he heard Lisa flounce over and ask to join them as well, a small amused smile and a raised eyebrow at her words. "You know I usually go camping with you right? So I know for a fact this is usually when Appa would get distracted and start a light saber duel with you," again, "with the tent poles." meaning he doubted her tent skills, but he was still never one to say no to his younger sister's so really the comment was just in jest. "Of course you can join, Liss."

In case she thought his tease was a decline.

Hearing Val's question, Evan looked over and nodded his head in approval. "That looks perfect. Let's place the tarp over that patch. Lisa, want roll out the tent body?" Grabbing the corners of the tarp and lifting so snow wouldn't pile on top of it during transfer, Evan dragged the tarp over and laid it over the freshly pressed patch of snow.

FearlessLeader19 · 10-12-2021, 10:27 PM

Claudine smirked at Heath. “I suppose us girls could use some muscles,’’ she remarked innocently and threw a wink at Ash. The tarp wasn’t that heavy but the more help they had, the faster they would get things done. Fun fact: she thought that Heath and Ash looked cute with their matching shoes. Anyway. Shiny side up Claudine double checked. Yes. Once that part was done, she turned her attention to all the other pieces they were supposed to put together.

“It’s exactly like a puzzle,’’ the girl remarked. “Good thing we have these instructions.” Of which she began to study and read carefully. “Okay, so what we need to do first is to assemble the tent poles together and slide them into those metal rings. There. Those at the top of the tent. They need to be bent apparently? That way the tent matches up with the rings at the base of the tent.”

Phew.

This was hard work. “So… I think it’s something like this?” Claudine grabbed a pole. “Assembling tent poles. Here we go.” Was she slightly confused? Yes.

MadAlice · 10-12-2021, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

Noah busied himself with the snow, while he kept his ears attentive to what Violet had to say. The Gryffindor paused, and turned to rummage for their tarp as he hid a subtle look of disbelief. Come to think of it, he fell right into Violet's trap. She need not lift a single finger to get this activity done, just by saying that she knows nothing of camping.

"So...what do you do for fun? Do you prefer indoor activities?" With a twin who'd rather keep to herself, people would assume that Noah understood introverts and their preference to stay inside unbothered. Oh, how wrong they'd be.

Noah rolled out the tarp underneath the packed snow as the Professor gave them an extension to finish their first activity, and went to gather the rest of their tent. "Snow is packed underneath, and the tarp's ready. Next, we unpack the tent and lay it flat, so we can start assembling it. Come on, we don't have much time. I'll guide you as we go along..." he said, inviting Violet to give him a hand as he began to unfurl the rolled tent.

If Noah thought she was pretending not to know about camping just to get out of work, he would be very wrong. In fact, Violet like to do things on her own, but she also hated looking stupid, and she'd found that trying to do things she knew nothing about were likely to make her look just that. So she'd done her fair share of tamping down the snow, once she got her snowshoes on by looking at how Noah had done his.

Concentrating on what she was doing, she nearly missed the small talk. Fun? What did she do for fun? Whatever she could get away with under her grandfather's strict eye (which was actually quite a lot lately, now that her governess had gone to work for the Ministry). "Well, I write a lot, walk in the garden, mess around in the potions laboratory. Sometimes I watch one of my uncles work on whatever new thing they've taken a fancy to. But we live in the city, and no one in the family goes in for outdoors activities much." Violet didn't mention wandering around the house and grounds watching what other people were doing, because that just sounded sad.

To take her mind off all that, she knelt down beside Noah and tried to help him lay out the tent, trying not to mess things up. She'd tried to watch the teacher's demonstration, but everything had gone by so fast and it seemed confusing to her.

Watson · 10-13-2021, 01:48 AM

Lisa beamed at Valentina and then turned her gaze to Evan. She frowned- pouted when she heard his teasing. “Mhmm but I feel like our roles are opposite. You’ll be distracted this time and I’ll be the one making sure things happen,” she said with an all-knowing smirk (that was far from all knowing cause she wasn’t). Evan would be distracted by just HOW PRETTY Valentina was. She giggled. She knew it was a tease. Lisa turned to Val and puffed her chest out a little bit before sassily flipping her hair. Toss, toss, Galinda would have said. She sighed dramatically.

“I’m used to being the entertainment and the motivator. Without the epic fighting between father and daughter, the slower the progress of camping would be.” She paired her statement with an angelic smile before she heard her brother’s comment welcoming her. “You got it.”

She reached for the tent body and then began to unroll it flat on the ground like a yoga mat that had been rolled up. Then Lisa bent to smooth it out neatly before patting it twice. “All rolled out with less wrinkles!”

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 10-13-2021, 03:42 AM

Still walking around, observing the students at work, and noting a few beams of sunlight peeking through the clouds...and before she knew it, the next time she glanced at her watch, it was time to move on!

"Alright, great work, everyone! We'll be moving on to the next part of the lesson now if can have your attention please." And once she had it, she continued.

"One of the most important things to take into account when camping, especially during the winter, is meal planning. We need food to survive and keep our energy up, and this is especially important in the winter, when our bodies also use energy to keep us warm. So it is also vitally important that we plan out what food we need and also how to store it properly, because there are others who would also like to help themselves to some of that food, namely, the wild animals that live out there.

"Mister Nam mentioned earlier one of the ways to protect yourself and your food supply, by storing it away from your tent area. It's also a good idea to also prepare and eat your meals away from your tent as well. But today we will be focusing on one of the other ways to keep wild creatures away from your campsite - a campfire." She gestured at the wood-less, sad-looking fire pit.

"So here's how this'll work. You'll each randomly be assigned to one of two teams - Campers or Wildlife. If you're a Camper, your goal is to gather firewood for the fire pit from the little 'forest' over there," She gestured to the patch of trees past the log benches, where many different sizes of fallen branches could be seen sticking up through the snow, "in order to protect your food here at the campsite." And here she lifted the lid on the cooler, inside which was a large assortment of packaged foods like nuts, trail mix, dried fruits, and granola bars. "If you're on the Wildlife team, your goal is to steal the food and then bring it back to your 'nest' in the woods." She gestured in the direction of the trees again, where further back there was a bright orange bucket to act as the nest.

"You may attempt to hinder the opposing team by tagging a member. For instance, if a Wildlife member taps the arm or shoulder of a Camper in the woods area, the Camper must drop any wood they're holding and return to the campsite before going out again to retrieve more wood. And vice versa. If a Camper tags a Wildlife member when they're in the campsite, the Wildlife must drop any food they're holding and return to the woods before trying again.

"Whichever team reaches their goal first is the winner."

Hopefully all of that was clear. "Once I assign you a team, please go to your team's base location for the start of the game - Wildlife at the nest in the woods, Campers here by the cooler." And perhaps suggest some quick strategies with teammates, but that would be up to the students to figure out which actions they might want to focus on, hindering the opposing team or actively going for their team's goal. "And of course, I'll be around if you have any questions."

Once she went through and assigned each student to a team, she waited until they were in place. "Okay, teams, ready in three...

"Two...

"One...

"Go!"

OOC: Time for the final part of the lesson! Hopefully everything makes sense, but essentially:

- Campers want to gather tree branches on the ground in the "woods" to bring back to the firepit
- Wildlife want to steal food from the cooler and bring it to the nest/bucket in the "woods"

A few guidelines:

- You may choose which team your character was assigned too, but please try to keep the teams somewhat even.
- Please title your posts with the team your character is on (Camper or Wildlife).
- Please don't have your character retrieving wood/food and bringing it back to the firepit/nest all in one post.
- If your character is trying to tag someone on the opposite team, please don't RP the outcome. Your character may reach out and attempt, but it's up to the other RPer to decide if their character was caught/if they dodged/etc.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. And of course, please have fun! You have at least 72 hours before the end of the lesson.

FearlessLeader19 · 10-13-2021, 03:21 PM

Well… they hadn’t gotten far. That was no big deal. Claudine was even sort of relieved. The whole tent thing was phasing her out so her attention went back to Applewood. At least the vampire aspect was going to be better ~~she hoped~~. To her, the entire activity was understandable enough and sounded like fun.

The Snakette happened to be assigned to the Camper team and she went off to stand by the cooler, and was soon joined by a few others. Looking around at the others, Claudien decided that it wasn’t a bad team at all.

Soon enough, Applewood gave the green light to get the activity started. Keeping a watchful eye about her, the girl started for the fallen branches.

astrocat · 10-14-2021, 12:17 PM

Despite their lack of knowledge, the three of them had made good progress on setting up the tent and Ash was pretty proud. So she had a smile on her face as she started the next activity, which managed to stay on her face despite being assigned to a different team than Claudine. She headed towards the woods to the base, fully intending on going back out to steal food. After all, she was a pretty fast runner. But first... “Professor? Do we get to eat the food after this activity?”

Chelliephone · 10-14-2021, 10:41 PM

He shot his sister a quizzical look, wondering exactly why she thought he'd be distracted when he was so far very on task but uh.. that was fine. Confusion at his sister's words and not understanding the full implication of things she was talking about, that was entirely common for him so he wouldn't worry too too much about it. "You are definitely the entertainment. Though I don't quite agree that things would have gone slower." Probably faster with more hands, but he would give it that there would have been less memories made. And those WERE important.

Seemed like no time at all and with their tent only almost up, it was time to move on to the next event. Campers vs wildlife, huh? this certainly sounded like a fun event. Heading towards his assigned team, Campers, he gathered by the coolers with the others. Strategies? "Maybe one of us should always be in close proximity to the cooler to protect the food?" Yes, in camping they would want to give the food up to save themselves but in this game.... keeping close to it was a good idea, right? Watching Claudine go off in search of wood, he hovered by the cooler before getting a little bored on watch and inching towards some wood that was close ish by.

Someone else might be back there still, right? Or maybe it was vulnerable. He didn't really check.

FearlessLeader19 · 10-15-2021, 12:39 AM

Claudine thought that Ash had a very logical question. She was also sure that Applewood would allow them to at least take some of the food. But there was someone on her team strategising, and that was a good thing because all the seventh year wanted to do was get in on the action of actually gathering wood. “Just remember. No magic,’’ Claudine told Evan with a quick wink.

Did her team see? She was closing in on the pile of wood, and successfully too. No one had tagged her, but she was there looking for someone to tag. Claudine could multitask indeed. Arriving at the pile, she grabbed the first one in her hand found. Excellent. Back she started, retracing her steps. On her way back to the cooler, Claudine spied someone from the Wildlife team. And though she strongly disliked physical contact from most, she reached out to prod the person on their shoulder before darting away.

Hopefully she herself could make her way to her starting point safely.

Lady of Light · 10-16-2021, 03:17 AM

Valentina did wonder WHY Evan would be distracted this time - she considered asking Lisa but maybe later, when he wasn't around. She raised her eyebrows, looking at the younger girl with amusement, smiling brightly. "Really? I can imagine! I definitely find you entertaining, Lisa."

.. and then the professor went on to talk about their next activity, which sounded like a LOT of fun!! Camper v/s wildlife...huh. "Well, Lisa and I can stay here if you'd like? To protect the food. Maybe you can go get the wood, Evan?" Val was actually feeling kind of hungry.. maybe she could grab something to eat?? Hmm. Since they were just going to be standing around anyway..

MadMadamMalfoy · 10-16-2021, 04:00 AM

Heath’s eyes darted from Ash to the ground. Oh, looked like she was right about their snowshoes matching. He hadn’t noticed until just now. “So they are!” he replied, smiling. That smile turned into a soft laugh at Claudine’s words. “Glad I could be of service,” he teased with an exaggerated bow. Taking one corner of the tarp, he helped Claudine and Ash spread it out shiny side up.

While Claudine worked on the tent poles, he grabbed the rain fly to go on top of the tent when she had the poles bent and aligned… or not. Before they got that far, Professor Applewood was moving on. Heath blinked, slightly confused by the direction this lesson had taken. Until then he thought they would actually be camping on the grounds, but now they were… basically playing tag? Never mind, he’d learned a long time ago that he didn’t have to understand the logic behind the professors’ instructions, just follow them. Well, unless they were obviously dangerous.

Heath waited to be assigned a team, hoping against hope that he’d be on the same team as Claudine, but it was not to be. Inwardly cursing, he trudged to the base, taking one last look back at the girlfriend. At least Ash was on his team - and she had a good question about the food. While he waited to hear what the answer was, he glanced toward the coolers, mentally formulating a plan. “How about we split up and approach from different angles?” he whispered to his teammates. “Then while they’re distracted by one person, another can sneak up and steal the food.”

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 10-16-2021, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Despite their lack of knowledge, the three of them had made good progress on setting up the tent and Ash was pretty proud. So she had a smile on her face as she started the next activity, which managed to stay on her face despite being assigned to a different team than Claudine. She headed towards the woods to the base, fully intending on going back out to steal food. After all, she was a pretty fast runner. But first... “Professor? Do we get to eat the food after this activity?”

"Yes, you make take some with you once the lesson's over," Rosalie answered with a smile.

She watched as the students split into their assigned teams and jumped into the activity. Miss Fox heading for the Wildlife Team base, Mister Nam, Miss Nichols, and Mister Jones offering strategy ideas to their respective teams, and Miss Blaze quickly working to collect some firewood. It was going well thus far, but with a quick glance at her watch, it also felt like time was going quickly. "About ten minutes left, everyone!"

OOC: Approximately 12 hours until we end the lesson!

astrocat · 10-16-2021, 12:02 PM

Ash was a lot more excited about this activity knowing that they could eat the food at the end! She met up with the rest of the wildlife team. She nodded at Heath. “Don’t forget we need some people to defend the wood!” And with that, Ash headed out to go get some food! Only... she didn’t get any, cause Claudine tagged her first. Hmph. And she was carrying wood too... somebody on the defense was not doing their job properly. But it was okay, because she liked Claudine and admired her skill.

She returned to her base, intending on trying again and then maybe doing defense too. When you try your best and you don’t succeed... when you get what you want, but not what you need... Wait. That wasn’t the right saying! When you try your best and you don’t succeed, try again and also find a plan B for if you’re always gonna fail! That sounded like a much more relevant saying.

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 10-16-2021, 07:07 PM

And then before she knew it, time was up.

"Alright, everyone, that's it for today!" Rosalie called out, so they could gather around again. "Excellent work! I understand the location for this lesson may not have been ideal, but I hope you still enjoyed the topic. The skills and knowledge it takes to survive in these conditions, especially without magical means, is something we can all benefit in learning from.

"Please help yourself to the snacks over here if you like. There's more than enough for everyone. Homework will be posted on the bulletin board later today. Class dismissed."

OOC: Thanks for attending, everyone!

This thread will remain open for another 20 hours if you want to RP your characters grabbing a few snacks and leaving the lesson area.

Chelliephone · 10-17-2021, 04:32 AM

Evan smiled back at Claudine; this was something that was quite easy for him to remember to do. He preferred the muggle way, besides this was more fun. Val got a smile as well when she offered to also stay and protect the food and he could go get wood - which was good considering he was halfway there. He could see Claudine tag Ash out and he was just nearing grabbing a piece of wood when...

Professor Applewood called it was already time. A shame class went by so quickly when it ended up being something so fun. Abandoning his efforts, he made his way back to the cooler and to his bag. Considering the invitation was open for them to snag some food on their way, he went ahead and did so - grabbing a granola bar - before slinging his bag over his shoulder and looking at his previous partners. "Thanks for the help with the tent guys. It was a fun class." Nice reminder of home with Lisa, too. "See you guys later." He headed back towards the castle, putting back his snowshoes and the girls' as well as he did so. "Thank you, Professor Applewood. See you next class."

astrocat · 10-17-2021, 11:24 AM

Aw man! Ash was disappointed that she didn’t get to steal any food. But it was okay... they got to eat the food regardless. She grabbed a couple granola bars and a bag of dried fruit on her way out. She was pretty hungry, so she unwrapped one of the granola bars immediately. “That was a fun class, Professor.” Even though she hated camping, she got the opportunity to work with her friends and eat food. That was a good way to make Ash enjoy an activity.

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