xi_mods | GAME UPDATE: Sunday November 29th 2009

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game update

GAME UPDATE: Sunday November 29th 2009

NEWS:
The attack at the conference is used as a springboard for an emergency bill, allowing a number of high-profile companies and government branches to make X-gene testing compulsory for employees. Stark Industries is amongst a small number of companies opposing the "knee-jerk reaction", as quoted in a recent interview with its CEO following the incident.

Negotiations have fallen through between the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Genoshan ambassador for the release of press agents detained whilst trying to illegally enter the port city of Hammer Bay. The family of one reporter appears on national television on Wednesday to repeat the appeal for their release.

Basil Dopes, the Vice President, is reported on Monday as having referred to Speaker of the House Havelock Vetinari as having a "stick up his ass". Vetinari declines to comment.

THE XAVIER INSTITUTE:
New arrivals and students coming back to the Institute following their Thanksgiving break will find it not an especially happy place following the Brotherhood's simultaneous attack on the conference and arrival at the school on Wednesday – Milla Vodello, the X-Man known as the Mental Minx and the Xavier Institute's Dance teacher, was killed in the attack. Emma Frost has offered some reassuring words (and pointed out which students might need an adult), while Lara Raith makes a point of offering counselling for those not taking it very well. Lara, however, may have ulterior motives ...

The weather is increasingly cold; it snows heavily on Tuesday evening.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS:
The underwater base is suddenly home to a bevy of new bros in the form of recruits picked up from the Xavier Institute by Rune, Red Helen and the Gambler (who hasn't returned with them, instead having been posted to some stealthy work in New York City). Red Helen has posted a welcome message for the new arrivals.

A meeting is held on Monday during which Magneto welcomes the neophytes into the Brotherhood's folds. (You had all better have codenames.) He says that human governments like America's are bringing only catastrophe on themselves with mutant-hating legislation like the registration bill, which he condemns as little more than a tool to attempt to control mutants; those who say it could be used to mutantkind's benefit are, he says, giving humanity a benefit of the doubt they have more than proved they do not deserve. He speaks with certainty of the mutant revolution he considers inevitable: he will be only too happy to help bring that revolution about.

This sort of meeting is probably the most that anyone besides senior members of the Brotherhood will see of Magneto, but he is around in his private fancy submarine chambers. (He probably will not notice if you steal one or two of his many spare capes to use as hammocks.)

WHAT WOLVERINE DID THIS WEEK:
Tackled a massive genetically engineered iceproof bat that was menacing an Arctic research station.

OOC NOTICES:
• So we've had a pretty significant change this past week in that now there's a secondary focal point of the game besides the Xavier Institute itself – the Brotherhood of Mutants' underwater base is now home to quite a few characters. The Brotherhood base has its own network – if your character is posting to it, please use the !!brotherhood tag on

xi_online and indicate in the post title that the post is being made to that network, because only Brotherhood members can view and respond to Brotherhood posts. (The Brotherhood can't view the Xavier Institute's network, either.)
If you've got a character who's now in the Brotherhood, remember to check out this post covering Brotherhood-y basics – and edit your character/s onto this list if you haven't already.

• If anyone has students who they want to join the Brotherhood of Mutants but were away for Thanksgiving or fighting at the conference when the Brotherhood arrived at the school, Lara Raith has made a deal with Rune to guide potentially interested students to the Brotherhood. More on that here. If anyone has students who they want to join the Brotherhood but it's just a case of the player having missed the event, feel free to handwave their having joined, but let us know so that we can update our lists accordingly.

• We'd like to remind everyone that we have a feedback post on which players can leave complaints, suggestions and feedback if they don't want to message a mod directly. Comments are screened and anonymous is enabled. We do our best to address problems with the game that are raised on this post, and, needless to say, we really really would rather hear your complaints there than on RP!S.
We mess up sometimes. We can't always please everyone. But we will damn well do what we can, especially if you actually tell us if you have a problem.

• As ever, this post is open for talking about what's going down for Xavier Institute classes and stuff, as well as Brotherhood training sessions and similar. We do encourage people to thread classes and mentor group activities where possible rather than just handwaving all of them, but if you don't want to do a thread or you want to plan something or wevs, this is the place!

Threaded | Flat

Right you lot, I'm afraid these are pre' compulsory, and since I have a feeling you guys won't be excessively keen on roleplaying the rec room meeting to brainstorm for names, we could take a go here! Everyone's free to give suggestions, and I'd suggest commenting with your character's powers, as that's often what inspires the codenames, for example take The Airman, Rook swooshes around on Havemercy and can levitate, so it makes sense, right? :Db

WELL GUYS. We've lost two from the group (I think, correct me if I'm wrong aksdlfSfd), Declan and Hanabi, and also Pepper's kind of stuck in the infirmary for at least the following week, and won't be doing much besides hanging out and recovering for the week after that. However, since Pepper would rather becoming a performing clown than sit around and do nothing, she'll be around and teaching and chasing Tony out of her lessons so that she can take them. :'| IDK if we really want to get up to anything right now, since the losses and since we've been ... apparently horrendous at organising stuff, but I think that's mostly been my fault so derp. ANY IDEAS?

... idk there's like five business studies students or something, I think we're probably cool with continuing the handwaving for now? UNLESS ANYONE HAS AN IDEA. in which case I'd love to know what it is!

Edited 2010-03-06 20:13 (UTC)

Class starts on Monday, with Leela going over the basics of flying, different types of planes, etc. By the end of the week students will get to start flying older Cesna models in Flight Simulator X.

Mickey takes over probably midweek from the class's sub Mia, following a discussion with her about the students and the lesson plan prior to his arrival. (Rak, if you'd like to thread them I'd be more than up for it.) He'll introduce himself in the first class, field any questions about being a TALKING SPACE MOUSE, give a demonstration of his power, and then schedule students to demonstrate their own powers over the rest of the week. They'll be in the Danger Room for this in groups of five to seven students, and if you're not on the schedule for that particular day you can skip the class. Any student who doesn't want to demonstrate in front of others can request a private time outside of class to meet with Mickey, and he'll ask any student who refuses to demonstrate period to meet with him privately as well to discuss what they can do.

International Relations
Following the reappearance of the Brotherhood and Steve's departure, IR takes a turn towards domestic political theory. Citizens, you're going to get an education in Rousseau's Social Contract - starting with a discussion on Rousseau's claim that 'every evil-doer who attacks social rights becomes by his crimes a rebel and a traitor to his country; by violating its laws he ceases to be a member of it and even makes war on it'. HAVE FUN WITH THAT ONE GUYS.

Mentor Group
Firstly, God help any of you who have defected to the Brotherhood B|

Secondly, those who fought the good fight at the Conference (Karrin, Lelouch, anyone else?) get massive amounts of Enjolras Points. (edit: I'm actually STILL logging the conference brouhaha sooo.. yeahhh.. :/)

Thirdly, Enjolras would like to know how you guys feel about having inter-mentor group competitions against Courfeyrac's group?

Edited 2010-03-06 21:27 (UTC)

Biology

Arthur knows that it's been a tough week or two for the students, so while his class will be the typical >:| stuff, he will perhaps be a little more lenient about late assignments and poor quiz results. If I were one of his students, I'd probably take advantage of this while I could, is all I'm saying. That is especially true because it's not exactly an easy week content wise, since you're starting on the bottom of the biology-chain with single-cell organisms.

ON FRIDAY, since he wants students to be happy, he's returning to week one adorability tactics and bringing in a BABY OTTER.

As always, questions for the otter are encouraged, and while there will be talk of oil spills and pelt hunters, Arthur will be making an effort to keep this Q&A a little more light-hearted than usual.

Figured since it's a new subject and teacher, I should give this a try.

After getting acquainted with her students - especially chummy with the young girls - they'll see that her classes go two directions. The days they spend in doors, actually learning about histories of plants and dissecting them to learn about their anatomy (students giggling about pistils and such... will just get confused looks from the teacher.) and the days they spend out doors, creating a wide garden from the students selection, and everyone has their own patch to take care of. I'll go into more detail if asked and needed.

Aside from her overall friendliness, she's going to try and get out of the kids as man details about Kairi as possible without looking too suspicious.

Woodshop
Well, now that the class is being shared between two teachers, things are going to have to be negotiated out between the two of them. However, simple fact is, Franky is going to make it very clear that he's still the Head Honcho in this class, regardless of what Ikea-Bro says. Sorry dude. Should we have a log figuring out how they're gonna split it up?

Mentor Group
Franky's in a bad mood over this last week's events. Some, though, may have trouble distinguishing his bad mood from his regular mood, anyway. In the surprising event that any of you want someone to talk to, he's available... though how approachable you find him is all up to you.

Hey look, Anzy's actually tagging this when it goes up and not utterly failing -_-;;;

Shapeshifting: This weeks lesson focuses on the mental aspect of shapechanging, namely the risks present when you change your body into a form the human mind was never meant to assume. Topics include how to deal with unwanted instincts, how to adjust when you don't have instincts telling you how to do such things as flying, and becoming aware of the limits of your mind in handling all the aspects of new forms. There will be a lot of self reflection.

He'll also throw in a seminar on ways to use your power to make the world a better place. Leon's surprisingly inspirational and points out that the choice to make the world brighter and better starts with each individual, and that everyone has to make a choice on what they want their impact to be on the world.

Mentor Group: Sorry for failing guys, I'll throw up a log for them if you want. I still would like to do a camping trip, and if you don't mind Leon might invite Kairi and Aerith along. Feel free to make jokes behind his back about getting married and having a kid over break.

The Operative:

Brotherhood: Expect the Operative to stop by briefly to everyone and make sure their needs are being met/they aren't having second thoughts/aren't causing trouble. He's polite to everyone, and congratulates their bravery and resolve in making such a difficult choice.

Mentor group, some of you guys are probably getting hugged, she is so glad you are unharmed

... physically 8(

do any of you need some talking to one on one

Flight Class I'm going to remove Peej on a lengthy hiatus later this game week, you guys want a shenanigans thread before she leaves? If so, any suggestions?

Class has a non-depressing substitute! The substitute has been asked not to give any reason whatsoever for Itachi's absence; the real reason, of course, is soul-crushing black despair. He'll be back next week and maybe then I can stop failing and do a log. :'|

Classwork: Discuss fear and how it relates to creating successful illusions - both with powers and with misleading rhetoric and belief systems. Class is required to discuss this for at least a solid fifteen minutes and then you can leave. He doesn't care.

Homework: None. If you try to visit him in his office, you will get no answer, unless he for some reason likes you. (if somehow, crazily, someone wants to log this, I am down :|b but I can't imagine why, he's not so endearing to students XD)

Okay so last week was really bad for you guys, wasn't it? )8

Aerith's taking that into consideration, so her classes are going to be pretty mellow this week. First, she'll just be trying to test the scope of your abilities. You get a free period once she's done with that, but later on this week she'll be starting up some games for you to play with your powers.

If anybody wants counseling, let me know and I'll throw up another office hours thread.

Lara apologizes to her mentor group for their dinner out being crashed by the Bro'hood. Any suggestions for what to do this week?

If anyone feels like betraying their friends, the underground bro'hood railroad is open for business.

If anyone wants coffee at Starbucks ~~and shameless flirting~~ or a hairstyling appointment ~~also with shameless flirting~~, Let me know and Thomas will throw up more opportunities for both!

Class is rather mellow this week. Not only because of all the madness that went down but also because of a cold last week and having close to no voice after overusing his powers during the invasion. He's conducting the whole class nearly voiceless unless some of his siblings come over and help out.

This week mainly consists of practicing songs they've learned over the months and refining them till it sounds amazing.

Mentor Group: HEY GUYS. WE SHOULD DO STUFF, Y?
So Kaito's a bit useless with the whole having little to no voice thing so if any of you guys have something in mind to do... I'd love to hear it :D;;

GEOGRAPHY
Pietro won't be showing up. Feel free to do whatever it is you little spawnlings do. Jolly and Wanda will receive top marks for whatever this week's assignment is. The others will be assessed rather harshly.

If anyone from his class has joined the Brotherhood, give me a shout. He will be wanting to hunt them down.

MENTOR GROUP
Mandatory danger room training. If none of you knew how to fence, here's your chance to learn. Hope you like fighting people at superspeed.

Pietro won't be homicidal towards your kids, just really harsh for no good reason. Also, would you look at that sugar cookie habit he's got going. Clearly the man is stressed out.

Sebastian starts teaching, yay~ The first week of classes will be, as many other classes will be, more mellow in order to take into account the recent events concerning the Brotherhood. It's also a chance for him to get to feel out the classes' personalities and the direction in which he'll have to take to properly mentor them.

Holy crap this is going to be teal deer, I am so sorry, I fail at conciseness forever.

English 9
• Go over the general coursework, reading list, and expectations he'll have for the class. The standard introduction stuff.
• Ask them to check out Lord of the Flies from the library by the next class so they can start reading it for homework.
• Read the first two chapters of The Lord of the Flies in class, to introduce it.
• Explain the homework for the section that they are reading over the weekend. They can choose: A) answering a pre-made set of discussion questions about the reading, B) creating a mini project (drawing, poem, poster, blog entry, etc.) about the themes in the reading, C) keep a journal of annotations, or D) something else that needs to be approved by him. This system will continue for the duration of the time that they'll be reading the book.

English 10
• Standard intro stuff.
• Ask them to check out The Catcher in the Rye from the library by the next class.
• Start reading The Catcher in the Rye in class to introduce it.
• Organize the class into reading groups, of which he'll have them work on discussion questions and reading exercises in the future.
• Hand out a list of basic themes that can be found in The Catcher in the Rye.
• Explain the homework for the weekend, which is to just read and start annotating and noting where evidence of the basic themes in the book may be.

Weaponry Skills
• Have a brief one-on-one conference with the students, where they'll be filling out a questionnaire concerning what they would like to get from the class, what sorts of weapons they would like to study, what types of weapons they typically view as "weapons", etc.
• Demo the basic skills of weapon handling.
• Demo the basic throwing skills of certain weaponry.
• Have the students start working in the creative uses of normal, every day items as weapons.

Roy is demanding all Pyrokinetic students to come forth and be assessed in this thread here (http://community.livejournal.com/xi_rpg/237925.html).

Classwork: There will be a basic introduction to Pyrokinetics done Roy Mustang style. If you're squeamish, you are not excused. Lesson #1 is absolutely mandatory.

Homework: None for this week aside from monitored practice.

Just letting you guys know that I fail so hard, and since I fail hard, Buffy is stepping down from mentor group-ship.

BUT INSTEAD YOU GET A SHINY NEW CLASS.

WEAPONS - Do you guys want to log this? This week will kick off with a very stern THE WEAPON IS NOT THE POWER speech. She'll demonstrate the importance of improvising. They'll move on to staffs first with practice rounds to demonstrate skill so she can make student pairs.

COUNSELING - And if anyone needs some extra guidance, feel free to comment here and we'll have a log.

EMMA

Speaks powerfully against the emergency bill, outlines the need for privacy as well as anti-discrimination laws, urges any mutants in the financial sector who feel uncomfortable in their current jobs to seek refuge in Frost Enterprises. She is the majority shareholder and there is nothing you can do about it, Adrienne :)

also she sends Vetinari a note of congratulations

ENGLISH: OH BOY A TEACHING MOMENT! both SENIORS and JUNIORS will be talking about how their various books (1984 and Their Eyes Were Watching God, respectively) relate to the current goings-on. There will be a brief (one to two page) paper on the topic due after break.

ESL: learn political terms like "due process" and "constitutional rights"

ADVANCED TELEPATHY: Start learning how to control/stay in contact with multiple people at the same time.

DANCE: There were no classes Thursday and Friday so you guys didn't get to experience the magic but rest assured THERE WILL BE BALLET!!

MENTOR GROUP: looks like Iskierka's the only Hellion left at the moment so HEY GUYS MEAT PARTY!! Emma's gonna take Isky to this fancy butcher shop in Chelsea Market and then spend the rest of the time wandering around and shoppin'

ROGUE

is freakin out about the Brohood attack and is not convinced none of the new people are not secretly Mystique. She'll be lying low until A) her ego recovers from failing to stop the Brotherhood in time B) hears from Mystique or C) finds Magnus. THAT SAID we really need to find a DOC for WEST SIDE STORY, and if any of your characters had parts but left to join the Brotherhood, let me know so we can find replacements

NULL CLASS: sneak-based combat techniques and how to maneuver in areas with lots n lots of civilians. There is no class Friday, sorry kids

MENTOR GROUP: ROLL CALL! So I don't think any of you joined the Brotherhood, but let me know just in case. ANYWAY Rogue will have found some Cut-N-Bakes and so everyone's gonna sit around eatin' cookies at her place and talk about what happened and then watch a movie. Everybody gets hugs.

STORM:

SO HEY GAARA AND YACHIRU

oh god

okay first of all Storm is going to be pretty depressed so she's probably going to rain on everyone from Wednesday onwards. HOWEVER before then she will start in on the Ancient Ethiopian Empire! Also you guys are finishing up Bud Not Buddy. There will be a very short math quiz on Tuesday also.

WAKANDA expresses its displeasure at the new emergency bill and threatens to cease all trading etc. with the United States. As Wakanda wasn't really trading etc. with the United States in the first place, the International Community is mostly baffled.

ALL WEATHER/LIGHTNING KIDS GET DANGER ROOM TIME

WARREN

Worthington Pharmaceuticals will not be enforcing mandatory x-gene testing do you hear me dad

AERIAL COMBAT: works on dodging! Warren will be shooting in your general direction with nerf guns :')

Class has a seat or three empty and one of the Institute's instructors is now dead for real, but not only is that no excuse to falter, it's the best possible reason to keep going. The only blatant concession to the recent stress is that there is no new assignment this week. Instead at the start of each class period Brook will be taking a vote on which previous piece they'll be going back to for the day, and as an added merciful bonus he won't be springing any surprise Play Badly Time on you all this week. Enjoy the latter while you can.

A bit more subtly, in between the usual bouts of wacky you might catch him having a few more serious moments than usual, or paying particularly close attention to anyone that seems to be coping less well than the rest. Expect deeply entertaining levels of Magnificent Bastardry when it comes to cheering up as many people as possible in the time allotted. (He can do that in serious mode too, and may if he has to, but it's hardly a surprise which one he prefers.)

This week's average daily puns-per-class: 152

***

Mentor group gets even more of the above and is permitted to do pretty much whatever they want, not that the latter is at all unusual. If it's going to be the traditional movie night, this will be the only time Brook actually casts a vote for what they watch: the fluffiest and least dramatic choice available, whichever that may be.

Earth Science- Well we've talked about oceans, we've talked about deserts and rocks...now we're moving up to the atmosphere for this unit. This week consists mostly of talking about the different layers of atmosphere and what it's made up of.

Combat- We're back in the Danger Room. After the convention center hijinks, Toph figures it's time to get students ready for attacks. She'll give a speech on Monday about how this isn't a class about teaching you to use your powers against people or how to go out and be a super-soldier...this is about learning how to handle intense situations and how to get out of it safely. She tells the students some of her own experience with Magneto, the Brotherhood, and other groups like them and how they aren't afraid to hurt you.

After the speeches, we get started on different Danger Room scenarios...both team work and solo trials. If anyone is interested in threading these, let me know.

Mentor Group- It's cold. Toph doesn't like the cold. However, she does like hot chocolate/coffee. So she's taking you guys out to Starbucks (or something). This'll be a day on the town so if you guys want to do anything else let me know here.

Martial Arts Club- Toph decides they should sponsor a fighting tournament at the school before Christmas break. Anyone interested in helping her out sign up now. This is just to help set it up...Toph will have sign-ups for the actual tournament later.

ON THE TOPIC OF COUNSELING. Would anyone be interested if I put up an open counseling log. OR. idk if you character needs INTENSE THERAPY or you don't have the time or whatever, we can handwave it if you'd so prefer. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO KNOW FOR MY RECORDS. I'll put up a post/log during the week if that's coo' for everyone.

Also I FEEL REALLY AWFUL GUYS but for some unexplainable reason Terry is going to be stepping down as a mentor. I've kind of been letting you guys down constantly imho and I have no idea what to do ever. Hopefully you guys'll get someone awesome in his stead.

Edited 2010-03-07 05:34 (UTC)

So, if any of you defected to the Brotherhood, Courfeyrac is going to be so hurt. He will probably be taking the group out for ice cream or pastries and if you need one-on-one time or hugs or something, Courfeyrac would be more than glad to oblige.

Also, there may be some sort of inter-mentor group competition with Enjolras's group. How would you guys feel about that?

ART

They'll be working on drawing landscapes. Because it's simple and relaxing, and gods know they could use SOMETHING relaxing during this time.

There will be the usual array of art-creatures roaming around, willing to assist students with simple tasks like cutting or fetching things.

PSYCHOLOGY

Mr H will be talking about Psychological Development and such things. Basically how the brain is thought to develop during different stages and what ages people are when these generally finish.

MENTOR GROUP

....COME HAVE COFFEE WITH MR H. because fjdksj we never do anything. /sob.

Threaded | Flat

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BROTHERHOOD: CODENAME BRAINSTORM

PEPPER POTTS' MENTOR GROUP & BUSINESS STUDIES

AVIATION

CONTROL

IR and MENTOR GROUP

BIOLOGY

Gardening

Woodshop and Mentor Group

Shapeshifting, Mentor Group, and Brohood

FLIGHT/MENTOR GROUP

ILLUSIONS

Reality Warping

COUNSELING, MENTOR GROUP, BETRAYAL

OFF CAMPUS SHENANIGANS

Vocal + Mentor Group

GEOGRAPHY and MENTOR GROUP