[Episode 0.75 v2] Class is in Session, Witches!

[Kai]

Katerina's attention was drawn first to the instructor, then to the back, then back to the instructor, then to Drysi, then finally Vrey, as the conversation bounced around the class like a table tennis ball that had been tossed into a confined space, before finally losing its momentum and dribbling to a halt. Her gaze hung on Vrey for a second as the hairless girl said something Cryptic- Kat wasn't exactly sure what she meant by it all, but her puzzled expression was quickly shook away quite literally as the girl gathered her thoughts kinetically as some people do to clear their heads.

"In essence, Ms. Jane, what you're telling us is that we need to look at the world a bit differently, get away from what we've come to accept as the norm, and find something that is truly, marvelously of interest to us?"

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Jane addressed the three students patiently and in turn. To Drysi: "Nope. Just intrestin. But Mizz Smith, that's subjective. Precisely. Moving on: grades? These facts ain't gon be graded, but the process is an essential part of yer persnal development in this practice. I highly recommend you give it a solid effort. I don't weigh grades."

To Vrey: "Because y'all children, Mizz Vrey, and can be fergivin fer breakin a rule on a nonce. But ye make a great point fer me. Y'all not gon progress evenly, so I recmend y'all get cozy workin 'gether. What may be instinctual fer one ain't always gon be fer the rest. Better y'all commiserate, better y'all gon learn."

And finally to Mizz Katerina: a smile and confirmation. "Precisely. Go out. Actually learn sumthin. Seekin knowledge should be secon' nature to a mage, so 'mbrace what y'all are."

To the entire class, she held her gloved hands out wide. "So? Any otha questions 'fore we start today's main lesson?"

[Kokuten]

The triclops seemed to resign herself with the answer she was given, learning to the accept the fact that this was going to be the class she was going to do all of her extra homework in to make up for time at home. She didn't like group activities, much less 'active' group activities, which sounded like what they were about to do. Still, she wasn't going to go around breaking the rules on the first day, she needed to make a good impression with teacher.

"No questions, Ms. Smith, I am ready."

[Straken]

The assignment did seem somewhat vague, as least from Willow's perspective. Everything she had experienced over the past few hours had been new and interesting, so trying to find something that could be classified as such would either be incredibly easy, or obnoxiously tricky. For this matter, at least, she was happy that Katerina seemed like she would be a good friend to have, so she could work together with her; then there was also her mentor Ruarc and Laoise, who between them had plenty of experience in the magical world. Given the last ten minutes though, the English girl was feeling competitive, and wanted to at least make sure her discovery was more interesting than Drysi's. When Miss Jane suggested moving on with the class, Willow gave an affirmative nod, sat up straight in her seat, and took her pencil in hand.

[Kai]

Katerina seemed to be pleased with the answers she was given, having a clear understand of exactly how vague the assignment was. It shouldn't be too difficult, considering they were mages and a lot of the training on how to use one's own powers was often incredibly vague, since each individual had unique powers and it was nigh on impossible to quantify anything having to do with it. Sure there were the mages that tried, inventing special methods and measuring devices in the hopes that they could put an exact description of something down to share with other scientifically-minded mages, but, alas, from what little of the magical world Katerina knew, she could tell it was nigh on impossible.

Still, this was the class they were given, and, considering the former, it made sense that the new students would need training on how to use and trust their intuition when it came to their magic. The Japanese-American straightened herself up in her desk, getting ready for whatever it was Ms. Jane had in store for them.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

"Excellent. Today's lesson, then. We're gon discuss known 'n unknown." Jane picked up the chalk again and bisected the chalkboard with a vertical line. At the top on the left she wrote, known, and on the right she wrote, unknown. "Les start w' my desk. What y'all know 'bout my desk?" She jotted down the answers as her students gave the easy ones first. Made of wood (mahogany), one drawer, in a classroom, sturdy. Drysi, ever the observant one, even gave its dimensions and Jane wrote them down. 36" height, 60" length, 24" width. "All good, students, but gimme more. Details. Minutiae. Somethin intrestin."

[Kokuten]

By the minute, Drysi was convinced that this teacher was grasping at straws for what to entertain the class with for the hour. Every time the teacher asked for something, she gave the correct answer, and every time she found out it was not the correct answer. To the Welshling, it seemed that Jane just didn't know how ask her questions, perhaps even didn't even know what she was looking for herself! No matter, thought Drysi, she'd play along and let Willow answer the dumber questions.

The triclops looked around the room again, regal in her chair. That third eye peeked over two closed ones at the others, and then at Vrey. The odd construct seemed to hold herself separate for the whole situation, which appeared to be the smartest move. She honestly would have preferred Katerina for company in brain-storming an answer, since she seemed to be the only one who could speak sense. Unfortunately, she seemed to make poor life decisions by associating with druids. So for now, she kept her respectable distance, but smiled unerringly at the weird thing. Perhaps the odd-girl would think they were friends.

Having played that, she turned forward and fired away an answer, after raising her hand of course, "Ms. Smith! The desk looks as though it were hand-made."

[Kai]

Katerina studied the desk as best she could, but stayed out of making another obvious statement about it as long as she could. There was something about it that was interesting, and a bit different. She had seen many a desk similar to this, as many CEO's and business owners seemed to be rather fond of hardwood desks, as they tended to portray a sense of power, but also of class and taste. However, there was just something off about it. There was no doubt that the wood was real, but it just seemed unnatural, the pattern in the grain was almost too perfect, too even, showing none of the signs of hardship and damage that normally caused the beautiful unique patterns found in wood.

"Miss Jane, this desk was made from a tree grown by magic, wasn't it?"

[Gwathdraug]

Vrey's face smushed as she turned her head so that her cheek was resting completely against the surface of her desk. Her oddly contorted position had her arms still flung forward with her hands hanging freely in the air on the other side of the small table she was splayed lazily across - but still allowed both her eyes to take a good look at the desk their teacher had questioned them about. Grey eyes shifted to a leery, gleaming green as the hairless teen's gaze slowly shifted from slow analysis to a smoldered glower.

The girl's body slumped and slithered as she seemed to melt from out of her odd positioning as she slid towards the floor. As her fingers almost cleared their way off the desk last the teen's grip curled and she grabbed the wooden edge and swung forward covering the ground between her and the teacher's desk with barely any time between. Now crouched in front of the object in question, Vrey's creased face itself even heavier as she began to reach out with a finger to poke towards the piece of furniture - but quickly pulled her hand back in a twitch that rocked her whole body on her heels.

The teen looked mildly confused before she gnashed her teeth loudly at the desk.

Craning her head up towards Jane, Vrey's green eyes fritzed and sputtered out little shocks of light before fading back to grey. "We are un-fond of the other's presence and creation." The teen's eyes dropped away from Jane and her arms folded across her chest with her elbows resting on her knees. A long stare - more DMZ than glare - was turned back upon the desk. "If the consideration is found appropriate I would return to my seating."

[Straken]

Willow sat in quiet contemplation as the other girls suggested various things as to the characteristics of the desk. Ranging from the reasonable to the somewhat absurd, the Brit was unsure of what she could add to the discussion. Thinking on it, the lesson was on the "known and the unknown"; which seemed an interesting tangent from throwing a ball, because unlike the throw which was very open ended, knowledge of the desk had definite answers. How did the characteristics of a desk tie in to intuition? The only things that were "known" were the specifics that were already told to them, and everything else was speculation. Resting her head in a braced arm, she tapped her cheek as she thought about the question.

"Didn't I see that desk in an IKEA catalog before? The malm, or the hemnes, I think?" Willow said, thinking out load.