GAME UPDATE: September 13th, 2009 (Sunday)

[xi_mods]

AT THE XAVIER INSTITUTE:
On Monday, after lessons, a post goes up on the school intranet announcing the introduction of mentor groups; several teachers will be given charge of four to six students each. The information is also pinned up in the dormitories and staff room, and each staff member to be given a team is given a list of their assigned students including their powers.

Staff are told to take whatever approach they feel appropriate with their group but advised to make time for a group meeting some time over the next week. Goofy group names are encouraged but not, at this stage, necessary.

Bobby Drake: Draco Malfoy, Haku, Holly J Sinclair Miku Hatsune, Tom Bronson

Cloud Strife: Axel Pyres, Larsa Solidor, Neku Sakuraba, Temari Subaku

Dick Grayson: Aang, Edym Raffles, Ino Yamanaka, Naoto Shirogane, Simon Digsby

Emma Frost: Amadeus Cho, Cassandra Cain, Celeste Cuckoo, Ienzo Schaduw, James Matthew

Jessica Jones: Eli Bradley, Robin Walker, Sakura Haruno, Teddy Altman, Wally West

Kamina Jiha: Billy Kaplan, Hinata Hyuuga, Hisako Ichiki, Temeraire, Tina Bell

Karen Starr: Alfred Jones, Milly Mintaka, Naruto Uzumaki, Tommy Shepherd, Virgil Hawkins

Lisa Patrescu: Kisara, Kurt Wagner, Sally Sparrow, Zabuza Momochi

Logan: Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey, Laura Kinney, Nia Teppelin

Sanae Hanekoma: Allen Walker, Naminé, Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame

Tifa Lockhart: Alexander Aaron, Matthew Williams, Sofia Mantega, Terrance Ward

Tony Stark: Edward Elric, Hiei Janagashi, Jim Hawkins, Ty Lee

Toph Bei-Fong: Azula, Elenra Rigby, Julio Richter, Santo Vaccarro, Yui Hirasawa

Tsunade: Lili Zanotto, Jamie Madrox, Marcus Wright, Tatsuki Arisawa, Joshua Kiryu

Wade Wilson: Alphonse Elric, Giselle Vanderhall, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, Sasuke Uchiha

Yoko Ritona: Josh Newman, Kate Bishop, Minato Arisato, Wendy Darling

NEWS:
ON TUESDAY:
A group of youths in costume, mostly mutants, attempt to foil a bank robbery in Florida but wind up causing a fire. Nobody is seriously injured, but, although the youngest vigilante is 21 and none of them are involved with the Institute, the early days of the X-Men are recalled by a few news reporters and some point accusatory fingers at Xavier. Senator Thompson reiterates his desire to implement a mutant registration program if he is elected President in November.
ON FRIDAY:
A twelve-storey robot operated by a scientist with a grudge attacks Manhattan, but with the Fantastic Four battling Skrulls in space and the Avengers on a mission to the Antarctic, who will stop its rampage?
More information on this will go up in-game when the time comes.


WHAT WOLVERINE DID THIS WEEK:
Goes to New Zealand to fight a giant mutated Kakapo created by the Green Man, a deranged environmentalist aiming to restore endangered species through genetic engineering. Where putting laser guns onto massive ground parrots factors into the conservation aspect of his plans is unclear, but Wolverine wins anyway.


OOC NOTICES:
If, during the upcoming in-game week (two IRL weeks), you want a lesson one of your characters is teaching to go a certain way, or if your teacher character plans to be doing something specific and unusual with the lesson, but you don't want to actually log the thing out (which is reasonable), this is where you say so. Drop a comment on this post, other people can reply, fun for everyone. If you've got a new teacher character (ie. if this is their first game update), it's probably a good idea to leave a comment here to give everyone an idea of what their first classes will be like.

If anyone has any issues with the group assignments please let the mods know!

Comments

[bootjets.livejournal.com]

Tony's classes from Wednesday onwards are taught by video conference, as he has been called away on urgent business concerning Stark Industries. He can be reached by phone and will be checking online regularly, but he is not physically in the Institute this week.

On the bright side, they've all received marks on whatever they were working on in the first week, along with a list of improvements. There is a pile of textbooks and a list of websites on the board, which they may use to research ways of improving on their design or building something different.

They also have an essay to complete over the next week. They can work alone or in groups up to three, and it should be at least 1,500 words. The topics are:

Materials Selection and Testing
Modern Welding Processes
Integrated Circuits Technology
Applications of Robotic Technology In The Modern Home

[explosivehero.livejournal.com]

Will Tony leave the box of scraps club a way into the engineering classroom?

[x-l-o.livejournal.com]

Amadeus is going to sit in the very back of Tony's class going :D :D :D the whole time - all the while trying desperately to control his excitement so as not to short out any of the electronic devices in the room. He will (luckily) succeed. It's basically his best day ever.

He (working alone, naturally) also kind of wants to write all four essays, just because that would mean that Tony Stark omg would be reading and critiquing his thoughts on materials, welding, circuits, and robots. In the end, he contains himself and selects circuits.

[melodyofwater.livejournal.com]

I believe this is Mag's first full week, so. Ignore the account.

Her illusions class will be a pretty straightforward first class- introductions, a basic explanation of illusions, and a demonstration her own powers. She will ask individually about all students means using illusions, but won't press the subject if your character would rather not say. They'll start off with very basic, small illusions, but she will expect them to be detailed and realistic.

Music History will also have intros, and the main focus for the first several classes will be the ages of music/art and their characteristics, as well as the ten basic elements of music. If anyone wants to know what these are, just ask. She will also go through each of the ages with examples of what that era's music sounds like.

[teloschain.livejournal.com]

Minato is attending Mag's Music History class and learning a lot of things he didn't know before, being that he just plain studied the violin and some composers earlier.

[phoneskillnoise.livejournal.com]

Neku's in Mag's music history class. While he doesn't speak up or anything, you can tell he is interested in the material.

[quantumbird.livejournal.com]

Sally is going to fall in love with her Music History class and will likely pester Mag about getting copies of the recordings she used for example music.

[pagesofmemory.livejournal.com]

Zexion will be in her Illusions class and will play dumb about how exactly he does his illusions, definitely not saying anything about his lexicon if he can avoid it.

He'll be very curious about how the other students perform, probably too curious, but he'll claim its only because he wants to know in case their powers work similarly to his own. It's a lie, he's busy scheming away, but he'll play innocent in the matter.

[broken-tool.livejournal.com]

Haku's going to be all over that music history class. And probably pester her about all the little details.

Oh, and setting up private lessons? O:

[sundaysiesta.livejournal.com]

Music History's going to be one of Yui's favourite classes, probably the one she puts the most effort into. Of course, that's still only a teensy tiny amount of effort. If there are group discussions, she'll deffers be joining in, even if she just sounds like an idiot most of the time.

[digtengraves.livejournal.com]

COMBAT will begin in the same place it did last week, only this time Wolverine will actually be there. Once the entire class has arrived, he will lead them down to the sub-basement and the Danger Room. He will take them into the Danger Room and explain, briefly, what it is ("the Danger Room") and what it's for ("trainin' and givin' you squirts somethin' to do besides fallin' asleep when you oughta be payin' attention"). He will then initiate Training Program 1.0, which involves a number of human-sized DR-controlled "dummies" (one for each student present) continually respawning until the end of the lesson. The dummies are unarmed, but will attack until significantly damaged, at which point they will fade away and be replaced. Have fun, kids.

[teloschain.livejournal.com]

Minato's decent with his fists, but he'll also obviously have no idea what he's doing, being that he didn't make it a habit to fight at his old school. He'll be incredibly focused, however.

[mighty-molita.livejournal.com]

Earth Science- This week we're talking about the different layers of the earth, working from the core outwards. We focus heavily on the stuff below the crust. There is also a little talk about plates and volcanoes and earthquakes (but only briefly as those are future units). Again, classes will be held outside. Homework is reading.

Combat- Toph has now put you into groups based on your strengths and weaknesses. This week's class will meet outside again and will be working on the basic forms and technique. At the end of the week there will be a sparring session, no powers allowed. And yes, they will be required to wear special pads. (If anyone is interested in actually threading these, let me know).

[explosivehero.livejournal.com]

Combat: Shikamaru skipped, when Toph finally catches him and drags him to class, Shikamaru slept under a tree away from people. When they sparred he forfeit his fights.

[pewpewpewpower.livejournal.com]

→ ENGLISH [for you freshmen and sophomores]

...Yoko's English class is... pretty much your standard English class. There are no special, super exciting things to go over; seriously, all they'll be doing is discussing what each class wants to read--because Yoko is a nice teacher who gives her students choices--reading a few short stories, and reviewing basic grammar rules. Expect a book report to be assigned next week!

→ FIREARMS [for all you badasses out there]

ARE YOU KIDS READY FOR THIS. While Yoko is pretty laid-back in her English class, she's certainly not the same out on the firing range. This stuff is serious business, okay? There won't be any shooting or anything for quite some time, though; first you kids are going to learn the basic mechanics of the things you'll be shooting, how to take care of them, and the various rules that go along with everything. FUN STUFF.

GOD I am so tired. If something sounds... really weird, just ask me and I'll clarify/go into detail/do whatever you want me to do, bbs.

[melodyofwater.livejournal.com]

Joshua is in both her classes. He'll be helpful book suggestions, and they vary from Shakespeare to Dante to god knows what else. Most of the things he suggests are 'classics.'

In firearms, he will be paying very close attention and absorbing the information.

[stepsonflowers.livejournal.com]

CHEMISTRY, RENO AND YOU

SINCE THIS IS RENO'S FIRST PROPER WEEK. He's going to spend the first half of the class going over safety procedures when handling lab materials. (Goggles, tying your hair back, no hanging/lose articles like ties, jewellery etc. etc.) Sassing him about and/or not listening may result in things such as mild burns, singed hair, lost eyebrows, damaged clothes and getting weird smells stuck to your person.

After that, he'll be showing and explaining all about alkali metals, (so basically it'll be this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft4E1eCUItI) interspersed with explanations and such.) How they work, what they're used for, blah blah blah.

He'll be fairly light on the workload (I think so, anyway e___e) Every student will be given an alkali metal at random and will be expected to bring back an essay on its discovery, uses, how it's formed. etc. etc. (This is mostly to gauge how good you are at doing research, so he wants to see a variety of sources. Anyone who lists wikipedia as a source loses marks. But he's not going to tell you any of this, just that he wants the work in at the start of the next class.)

He also wants class this group memorised by name and number, and any other info you can learn is totally awesome. Basically he wants everyone to have the whole periodic table memorised ASAP, so.

Ditchers will be dealt with on an individual basis, but you can bet your punishment will be leaning towards the cruel and unusual without leaving any longterm trauma/damage. Also he'll want an essay on... whatever it was he did and how/why it worked ALONGSIDE the classwork. Have fun with that.

[huogongzhu.livejournal.com]

Azula is the best student ever. In other words, she knows how to bullshit her way through an essay and will hand in very dense and may even list a book source.

She also excels at memorization and will have the periodic table down in no time.

Also she never ditches class.

Also she may be kind of impatient to burn stuff.

[paintedfeathers]

ART
Mr H will have graded the projects everyone turned in last week. As long as he saw you putting effort into it and not slacking off every class (and not blowing up his poor classroom more) you'll have a decent grade. He'll also have a talk with various students throughout the week about how they can improve. If your character turned in total crap, he'll sit down with them and ask if they actually are serious about this class or not.

For this week, he'll start with teaching Monday about One Point Perspective. The rest of Monday will be planning for the week's project: a simple One Point Perspective landscape, sketched in pencil, then inked once everything is finished.

"1. Draw a Horizontal Line (near middle of the paper)
2. Place Vanishing Point (near center of the line/paper)
3. Draw Ceiling and Floor lines (like an 'X' through the VP)
4. Begin placing other architectural elements (doors, arches, etc)"

It's a fairly simple project, he's hoping nothing will blow up this time.

If everyone is good he might try for a few classes outside (with clipboards but no chairs or tables) so students can look at the Institute's own architecture for inspiration.

He'll also have a few small kangaroos bouncing around during class time, offering pencils, erasers, and paper.


PSYCHOLOGY
Mr H will be going over ways of understand personality before he jumps into schools/perspectives of Psychology. Sometime throughout the week, he'll ask them to do a simplified Myers-Briggs test as a fun way to show how Trait/Behaviorist psychologists view personality types.

ooc note: You do not actually have to do the test for your characters, but it's sort of amusing, so I figured I'll throw it out if you wanted to give it a look.

He won't have any of his art creatures running about in this class, but the words on the whiteboard still might try to escape if he gets distracted enough.

[teloschain.livejournal.com]

Minato has been hand-waved out of Mr. H's class because the mun fails and forgot how many classes he was taking. He will be taking the class next year or when he gets the chance.

He also gets an ESFJ (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes3.asp") personality.

[hammster.livejournal.com]

wade's group will be meeting in the crack comm later this week.

[teloschain.livejournal.com]

\o/

... Minato will totally wonder why the hell he's signed up for this class.

[monarchs-voice.livejournal.com]

Havoc's class starts off with the basics. Learning to concentrate, namely. The first class will consist of a single exercise, the one she used to gain control over her own abilities: Mentally blocking out the rest of the world entirely. No thinking about anything, not emotions, not your surroundings, just your ability and your teacher's instructions. Simple as that. Over the course of the week, of course, she's going to make concentration more and more difficult. Sometimes, she'll clear her throat, sometimes she'll turn a rusty valve, and sometimes she'll just flick spitballs at you. That's as extreme as it'll get for this week, but she'll escalate it at a steady pace over the course of the year, so that by the time she's done with you, you will have a full level of focus while in the balmy heat of a sub-tropical jungle, through the sounds of machine gun fire and the threat of killer bees, even if you don't think you need to.

Naturally, this method, though it should work for most (she'd have blown herself up years ago if it didn't), won't work for everyone, and she'll be able to tell who it works for and who it doesn't. If you fall into the latter category, say so, and you'll have a new IEP ready for next week, likely involving a one-on-one tutoring setup.

Anyone who didn't arrive in time for the ACE exam last week, you'll take it this week, as will be the case with any future arrivals.

[queenwitha-j.livejournal.com]

Shikamaru takes that as an invite to sleep through class.

[noctivigant.livejournal.com]

CRIMINAL LAW
Okay kids, this week you'll actually have some reading to do. HOWEVER once you have done your reading, you'll be given a case. Not just any case, these are old cases Dick has actually worked on and thus STUFF THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. So yes, after changing the names in the cases Dick will be giving these cases to his students to solve. You're welcome to pair or even team up - in fact it's encouraged - or do it alone.

SELF-DEFENSE
This week he'll be teaching you punks how to analyze a threatening situation, recognize the warning signs of someone who's about to go violent on you and how to diffuse and avoid such a situation. So basically you'll be learning how to read body language and use it to your advantage. Lots of theatrics will be involved, fun stuff.

[hatsunemix.livejournal.com]

Criminal Law-
Alfred thinks this is SO COOL. Uh oh his obfuscating stupidity is slipping. He's willing to pair up or team up if anyone wants to. :o

Self-Defense-
Miku is paying close attention, enjoying the theatrics, and asking lots of questions. c:

[truepsychictale]

Sasha will be spending this week feeling lucky due to the fact he didn't get a team. Also, he will be trying to pull aside any students who has shown remarkable (or extremely unremarkable) progress to see what is going on for his own notes.

In his classes:

[ENERGY PROJECTION]
This will be done in a classroom setting in the danger room. Because this week he will be teaching safety. Thats right, this week will be teaching basic 'Don't do this, you dumb little children that I know you will attempt doing this.' This will include videos, powerpoints, pictures of 'This is what happens when you shoot an energy blast into a mirror' like things. He is going to be putting the fear of God into whomever thinks this class is going to be fun 'pew pew pew head lasers' times.

It will take nothing less than a death certificate to get out of this. The grades for the week will be based off of notes, a test, and a safety contract he will make everyone who is participating in this class sign.

[GERMAN]
For the low-level German students, he will be teaching basic commands. Sit, stand, jump, ect and basic descriptions. Also, he will be giving his language students a rude awakening by speaking zero English in the class. YAY SUBMERSION.

The higher-levels will be getting a quick and ugly refresher and a test at the end of the week.

For homework due on Friday, he wants introduction papers done. For the Beginners it will be a fill in the blank like paper (Hallo, ich bin ________ und ich bin _______ Jahre alt.) The advanced students have to write it out fully.

[melodyofwater.livejournal.com]

Joshua is in your class because it's what best fits at the moment, and will ignore your fear of Godness. He will remain relatively well behaved though, and not sic his own beams on people unless they really piss him off. And then he'll wait until he's outside of class.

I'm not sure if Demyx belongs in the energy projection class, because his power is over water manipulation which is *technically* blasts and stuff but not really energy. Y/N?

[eyes-are-uphere.livejournal.com]

For those in Tsunade's little group, she'll be contacting you later in the week for when to set up some lessons and the like. It won't be pretty.

Anyone in her classes will probably notice the fact that almost half the time she doesn't show up.

Anatomy
For days that she's there, she'll be going over basic parts of the human body and various functions thereof. It won't be anything too in detail yet.

As for homework for them, it's due whenever she gets a due date set in stone. But it'll basically be a paper over any part of the human body they want to pick and its function. Genital regions are off-limits. :|

First aid
I hope you guys like definitions, because Tsunade likes definitions. That and asking questions are pretty much it.

Homework... uh, just study and memorize terms.

[hatsunemix.livejournal.com]

ANATOMY
Alfred takes the notes but mostly zones out. He also will be writing the paper on the muscular system, if that counts.

FIRST AID
Alfred is SO BORED. So bored. Sooooooooooooooo. Boooooooooored. He might fall asleep at some point.

Miku is doing her best but it's going to take her a while to memorize everything.

[7thheavensmile.livejournal.com]

Anyone in Tifa's group, she'll be contacting you soon to set up some sort of meeting and/or lesson to get to know you guys. Don't worry, it won't be anything difficult or too horrible. :]b

Telepathy and Empathy
Since this class is geared toward students understanding and accepting their powers and themselves, Tifa wants her students to really get to know each other this week.

Basically, they can work in pairs they can ask each other about their abilities, their feelings about their powers, and basically get them to know that they're really not alone in their abilities. They don't have to write down more personal things, but she would like small paragraphs about some of the things the students learn about their partner. That's basically their only homework for this week.

Just lemme know if the student actually turned in their paragraph or not, you don't have to tell me who they wrote about or anything. :3

[sunny-singer.livejournal.com]

Giselle would have handed in her assignment, though she might have talked about her partner's interests and other things like that more than their powers.

She'd have to be in Tifa's class given that her powers are mass hypnosis/mind control.

[a-whiter-shade.livejournal.com]

Emma will be teaching Jean-Paul's book! Students will have been asked to turn in a reading response journal with every three chapters.

ESL students will be allowed to set up telepathic tutoring sessions. Rictor is DEFINITELY NOT INTERESTED. If you want to thread this/find out why Ric hates telepathy so much, I'd be delighted.

Advanced Telepathy students will be studying various forms of mind control for the duration of the semester. If your character has mind controlling powers, they should be in this class.

[mercurialectric.livejournal.com]

Larxene's journals are detailed and insightful. English, it is easy for her. She's probably also read the book a couple of times at least.

Miku's journals are satisfactory, but nothing exemplary.

[notxinterested.livejournal.com]

Phys. Ed.
It's basketball and basketball related games this week. And it'll probably go pretty well...

Unless someone wants some catastrophe to happen

[fifty]

Expect Alfred to break some of the basketballs/the basketball hoop/etc because his super strength is uncontrolled right now. Also he's probably really bad at covering people because he doesn't want to touch them or get in a situation where he is going to hurt them. Other than that, though. :|b

Miku is not amazing at this but she is having fun.

[garpower.livejournal.com]

LATE. OH SO LATE FML

Uuuh crap crap crap /wonders if this would actually be IC rotflmao. Uh THE MENTOR GROUPS. JUST GONNA MAKE AN IC NOTICE. He...wouldn't say what the hell you're doing anything except "TRAINING!" But it would mostly be physical training and WORKING THAT SPIRIT!

As for his normal claaass:

How to be a Man 101 Chi Control
Basic introduction, see what the kids can do and all that good stuff. And he'll probably try and demonstrate via using one of the students. They won't get hurt. Much.

And then probably getting them to kinna. You know. Feel the chi. All that good stuff.

...Yeah I am so awesome /still headdesking for her great fail

[queenwitha-j.livejournal.com]

Holly J will probably roll her eyes at everything Kamina says in How to be a Man 101. So by all means he can prove her wrong. However she'll struggle with accessing a force she doesn't entirely believe in.

[a-whiter-shade.livejournal.com]

Unrelated: do the Democrats have a majority in congress in this universe? Am I correct in assuming they're relatively pro-mutant, as well?

[xi-mods.livejournal.com]

BELATEDLY: YES AND YES