Of Greece, Rome, and Demigods

[Deleted]

After a mostly uneventful summer, Grace was actually quite happy to be back in the classroom. She had done some casual research over the last month and had come across a few intriguing ideas.There were ten desks - one for each student - arranged in a horseshoe shape, with the open end towards the wall that she used as a projection screen. She had moved the extra desks to a corner, stacking half of them on the other half to make more room.

 As the bell rang, Grace went to the door. She stood in such a way as to prop open the door with her body and greet each student with a smile, a word of welcome, and a sheet of paper with the day's assignment.

Once the late bell had sounded, Grace moved to the front of the room. "Good morning everyone. I see some new faces this year, so we'll begin with introductions. My name is Ms. Ackerman and I am a child of Apollo. He was the god of many things, including the sun, healing, and poetry. In both Greece and Rome he was known as Apollo, and his scared animal is the swan. As a demigod, I harbor an appreciation of poetry and the occasional inspiration to write poems of my own. I have the ability to heal minor inflictions and...I can look directly into the sun without harming my eyes." She finished with a smile and a wink. She spread her arms at the teenagers as if to say 'Your turn now'.

She held up an extra copy of the paper she had handed her students. "Here are the requirements for a little presentation of your own. Basically, all the points I included but in written from. Use your imagination. There are plenty of books here on Greek and Roman deities. You have thirty minutes until we start presenting. I'll be here to answer any questions." She concluded, stepping back to watch her students get to work.

OOC: I used info from HERE, but feel free to look elsewhere

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Calling:
@lukamason

Present:
Amelia DeFoe
@running9
Cortney Smit
Danielle Green
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
@ira
@running5
Othello Buskirk
@ronan

[Danielle Green]

Walking to her first class was a bit stressful, many students, new and old, trying to make their way to their classes. She knew that history would probably be boring as it always was and so she had no high expectations for the class. Moving quickly across the hallway and into the room she saw that she was indeed the first student to arrive. ”Good morning.” Danny greeted the teacher.

She took a seat a few desks over from the end. Danielle pulled her note book out and a pen and waited for the other students to come in. Once everyone who was supposed to be there was there the teacher began. Surprised by the introduction Ms. Ackerman gave she gave another thought to this class being boring, maybe not so much. Listening to the rest of the instruction, she got up after they were told they could and went to find a book. She knew what goddess she wanted to use, but she’d have to find more definite details on her.

Finding the one she had been looking for Danny wrote down some key things about her goddess. She got her words into sentences in her head and then waited for Ms. Ackerman to allow them to present.

[Deleted]

    Ronan was quite excited for his world history class, as he did appreciate the humanities, especially when they included a lot of culture, which he expected World History might. He'd decided not to throw himself into U.S. History as a freshman, and was instead going to enjoy this class, which had an international focus. Entering the room, Ronan greeted the teacher and sat at the end of the horseshoe of desks and took out his materials for the class: a notebook and pen.

    While waiting for the class to start, Ronan read over the paper, which explained the assignment, and got to work thinking. He had a basic understanding of Greek and Roman myth, and he had a few ideas, but he wasn't totally sure yet. Once class started, he listened to the introduction and explanation of the assignment, and then got right to work. He didn't like the idea of presenting very much, especially with this sort of thing, but he'd get through it.        

    Using the book resources they were given, Ronan narrowed down his choices to Poseidon (equine telepathy would be handy), Apollo, and Athena. After reading more about each of the mythical characters, Ronan decided on Apollo, like his new teacher. Since she had already taught them a little about the god, Ronan found some more material, so that he'd have something new to share.      

[Deleted]

Jackson darted into the academic building, knowing that rushing students were dangerous and he wanted to avoid as many as he could. Although he loved school and learning he hated the amount of people it brought out. He was glad to have school be back in session, but that meant people coming back from vacation and the academy being busier again.

He walked into the history room and took a seat quietly. He saw that there were already two other students in the room and then looked to the teacher. Once the bell rung the teacher began class and Jackson was surprised as many of the other looked to be when she introduced herself. When Ms. Ackerman finished explaining the project he got up and walked over to collect a book or two. Jackson had absolutely no idea what God or Goddess would be his godly parent.

Flipping through some names he finally decided on a goddess. None of the other Gods or Goddess seemed to fit him as well as Demeter did. He scribbled some things down on his notebook paper and sat back down in his seat. All that was left now was to wait for the teacher to recollect the class and start presentations.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy left her previous class, Wolf at her side. As someone pushed by her, she flinched away, ducking into an unused classroom for a moment to relax, before asking Wolf to move to her opposite side and heading back out, sticking to the walls as much as she possibly could.

Finally the nerve-wracking journey that was the first few days of school was over, and Amy had found the World History classroom. Slipping through the door, she looked at the horseshoe of desks, noting that the seat she would have picked had already been taken. Biting her lip, she looked at the rest of the tables, considering the other end, which, while it was closest to the door, would at least prevent Wolf from being stuck under her desk completely.

Sighing softly to herself, she took the proffered paper and walked the few steps to the desk, asking Wolf to sit next to her desk and making sure that his tail was tucked out of the way of anyone entering. Once the class had started, and people shouldn't be walking in anymore, she asked Wolf to lay down, no longer worried about anyone stepping on him, then listened to the teacher.

It was a rather theatrical introduction to the class, but it seemed to be interesting. As they were released to begin working on the project, Amy rose, leaving Wolf laying to go and grab one of the books, taking it back to her desk and flipping through it before she found a page that put a smile on her face. Looking down at the picture of Artemis with her hounds, protecting the prey they hunted, she knew that she would be doing her presentation on not her godly parent, but rather, the one that seemed like she would be perfect as Wolf's patroness.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney glided into the World History class room and looked around before she dropped into the chair next to the girl with the Shepherd. She had gained a lot of respect for service dogs since she had first joined the cheer squad and got to know Sara and her canine companion. "Hey." She greeted the girl, who she knew to be Amy. "Hey, pup." She added to the canine.

She turned her attention to the teacher as she addressed the class, her eyebrows rose. "Percy Jackson, much?" She muttered, though she continued listening and then turned her attention to the paper that she had been handed when she sat down.

Cort followed Any to grab a book for herself and returned to her table. She didn't know a lot about the Roman or Greek dieties, though she knew who the big three were and she was going to choose one of them, she just needed to work on which one.

She opened the book she had grabbed and began to flip through it. Hades, Poseidon or Zeus? She read up on each of the three and was having trouble settling on just one of them, so maybe she should try just opening the book and settling on whichever page it opened to? She opened the book at random and laughed when it opened to the page on Poseidon.

[Othello Buskirk]

Othello was pleased to be starting his final year of high-school, more so that he actually made it this long as opposed to be finishing school. He walked down the hall on his way to the world history classroom, always eager to get to Ms Ackerman's class.

Walking in, he took the proffered sheet of paper, glanced around the room and chose a seat near a dark haired boy (Ronan) he hadn't seen around before, and quickly pulled what he needed out of his bag. He flashed a friendly smile to the boy beside him before he pulled the maroon baseball cap off his head and ran his hand over his bald head before the hat was shoved into the bag. He wasn't exactly happy about having his head on display, but he knew about the no hats in class rule and he wasn't about to ask for an exception to be made just because he didn't want to have to answer questions that were always asked. At least he could use the season as an excuse.

His attention shifted to the front of the room as their teacher began speaking and he leaned forward as he listened, a smile curving his lips as the class was already shaping up to be fun.

He walked to the front of the room and grabbed a book on Greek Gods and returned to his desk. He leafed through the book, though it didn't take long until he settled on his God of choice; Ares seemed like the perfect choice for him. The God of war seemed invincible - which he knew he wasn't - and even just believing that he could have a little of that invincibility could make that next round of chemo so much more bearable.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby walked into the classroom where her World History class was held. She took the paper off the teacher at the door and gave the woman a charming smile that didn't even get close to reaching her eyes, so it probably came off as more of a smirk than a smile. She looked around the room, not even seeing one person she wanted to converse with during class time, and releasing frustrated hiss when her eyes landed on the cheer captain, yes it would figure that the girl lived in that pathetic scrap of material that she called a uniform. Weren't there rules about showing that much skin?

She stalked across the room and sat down behind a table in the middle of the room, not caring who was sitting around her as she pulled the things she needed out of her bag, scrunching up the piece of paper she was holding. With everything she needed on her desk, she flattened the sheet of paper out as best she could, but before she could start reading, their teacher took the front centre of the room and started talking. "You've got to be freaking kidding me!" She mumbled as she tried to sink lower into her chair, wanting to transfer out of the class if this is what the rest of the year was going to be like.

When the woman had finished talking, Libby walked to the front of the room, grabbed a book and returned to her table. Flopping down in her chair again, she began to leaf through the book, looking at pages here and there, yawning rather loudly at times and finally flipped back to the front of the book and decided that Aphrodite would be it. She narrowed her eyes toward the cheer captain, silently challenging her if she dared to choose the same Goddess.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn walked into the classroom for World History and gave the woman at the door a charming smile and a; "Thank you, Ma'am." As he took the proffered paper and then glanced around the room. He was slightly disheartened when he only recognised one student - a fellow gymnast - in the room, and she had made it very clear that he was way beneath her social radar.

Things picked up though once the class started at the woman began to speak. He'd seen Percy Jackson and was keen to see where this was going. It was only when the woman told them what they were doing that he remembered the piece of paper he had been handed. He walked to the front of the room to collect a book to look through, though he already had one God in mind. He'd always like the idea of Hermes and his winged slippers.

It was only when he was back at his table, had looked the name up in the index and then started reading about the Greek messenger God, and found that Hermes was also the patron God of gymnastics did that settle the boy's mind and he began to jot down notes of things that Hermes would pass down to his half-mortal children.

[Deleted]

Chase vaguely remembered the hallways of the academic building. It had been a year and a half since he had been here. He was glad to be back, because it meant he could take his mind off of his family once again. He walked towards his history class along with the other students that were trying to make their way to their classes. He didn’t mind school at all and so he was glad to start it. He turned into his class to see what he figured was most of the class already there.

He took an available seat and looked around to all the other students to see if he could pick out a familiar face or two, but his memory escaped him for the time being. When the teacher began Chase leaned back into his seat and listened. Taking the paper he read it over once and got up to get a book. He had a God in mind but it could have changed while he was looking.

He thought about using Athena but was he was done reading about Zeus he decided on the King of Olympus. He jotted some notes down about the God and sat back into his seat and waited for the class to start their presentations.

[Deleted]

Irina grabbed her book bag of the floor of her room. Checking her outfit once more in mirror she made sure not a strand of hair was out of place and that her makeup was perfect. She locked the room behind her and made her way to her first class. She was nervous and kept twisting the ring Alexei had given her. Walking to her first class which was World History. 

Entering the classroom she sat down in the middle of the room. She didn't care who she was sitting by. They were here to learn. Not to talk. Learning came first and unless they were given permission to talk to other peers she would stay quiet. No socializing for Irina. School was school. They were all there to learn. She wasn't there to talk. She grabbed the notebook that was labeled 'World History' and opened it to a clean page and grabbed a pen as well though she didn't write anything on the page. 

She listened as the teacher introduced herself and then handed out papers to them. Reading over the paper quickly she set it down on the desk and listened to the assignment the teacher, Mrs. Ackerman, had given them. Irina grabbed a book from the table and went back to her seat to read over the gods and goddesses. Finally she decided on the goddess Athena. Writing down information about Athena she returned her attention to the book to find out more about the Greek goddess of wisdom. She also had other titles but being the goddess of wisdom was what most people knew when they thought about the Greek goddess. 

[Deleted]

The teenager left her room dressed in silver flats, black pants, a nice blouse, and a silver cropped jacket to go with the silver shoes that went nicely with her black pants and dark purple blouse. Her hair was in a braid and she had on silver post earrings to go with her outfit. She grabbed her Dakine backpack that her parents had gotten her for Blue Ridge. It was a grey back pack with pink outlining the zippers. 

Dorothée went to her first class which was World History. She had gotten to choose her academic classes but her parents choose her equine class, extra curricular classes, and electives.  Hence the reason why her parents had made her take German instead of French. God forbid she get an easy class that she would ace in her sleep. She sat down in an desk that was in the middle of the classroom not paying attention to who she was sitting next to. She took out her supplies for this class and was shocked when the teacher introduced herself. She muttered something under her breath in French. Of course they'd have to introduce themselves as a child of a Roman or Greek god. This was freaking fantastic. This was going to be so much fun. Not. 

Once the teacher finished her introduction she got up from her desk and walked towards the table that held books. She snatched a book up not even pausing to stop at the desk and turned to go back to her desk. She wasn't sure what book she had grabbed and frankly she didn't care. She flipped through the pages and stopped on a random page. It was on a page about Poseidon. The god of the sea and other oh so important titles. Oh well. At least it hadn't landed on a page about Ares or something like that. She jotted down notes not even caring what she wrote down. 

[Deleted]

It was intriguing to see the various way that her students reacted to their first assignment. Grace was glad to see that, for the most part, they were interested in the task. She made note of those who were less than enthused and watched them discretely. She hoped to be able to discern some of their likes and dislikes, and thus be able tailor the next lesson towards their learning styles.

During the half hour that she had allotted them, Grace walked around behind the desks, on the outside of the horseshoe formation. She took brief glances at each student's work but did not provide any input aside from a noncommittal 'hmm' if the student seemed to be expecting some sort of response. She glanced at the clock and made her way to the front of the classroom once more.

"Alright." She called, raising her voice a notch to be clear that she was speaking to the whole lot of them. "Your thirty minutes is up, so let's hear some introductions. You may stand at your desk or come up here, whatever is more comfortable for you. However, you must stand. Do we have any volunteers?" She asked. If there were none, she would begin selecting students herself. As each teenager drew breath to begin, she began making little notes that would give her a brief profile of each student (including their name, of course) and the class in general.

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OOC: If your student is one to volunteer but is later in the posting order, you can have them stand up before Grace calls the next person up.

[Danielle Green]

Danny was ready with her information. Though it said in some places where she looked it said that her goddess wasn’t actually one she decided to go with her anyways. Reading over her information once again she knew she had all of it. When Ms. Ackerman spoke about volunteering Danny raised her hand and then stood.

Before beginning she took a breath and then read. ”Hi everyone I’m Danielle daughter of Iris. She is the goddess of rainbows and messenger of the Gods. As the messenger she can go into any realm, including the Underworld. She can summon pegasi, rainbows, and blasts of multicolored energy.” She took another breath. ”She can move extremely fast so she can deliver messages. As the goddess of the rainbow Iris has absolute control over light; this includes blinding enemies, creating multicolored flames and burns to ward away enemies, reflecting rainbows off objects to cause great damage to buildings.”

Continuing with her presentation, ”Iris’s Roman counterpart is Arcus. Her symbol is the rainbow of course and her sacred plant is the Iris which is named after her. As a demigod I have control over light just as Iris does. I am also a very skilled equestrian.” Looking up at Ms. Ackerman Danny took a seat and then took a breath. That was long winded.

[Deleted]

After the thirty minutes was up Jackson listened to Ms. Ackerman ask about volunteers. The boy wasn’t the type to stand up and be the first student to do his presentation or even the second, maybe the third or fourth, which he was. His hand rose and so did he after the second and third person went.

His ears got a little red but he focused on his paper. ”I’m Jackson son of Demeter, goddess of agriculture and fertility; she is also the goddess of sacred law, harvest, and seasons. In Rome she is known as Ceres. Her powers include being able to grow as tall as one hundred feet, she has complete control over plants, she is able to grant fertility to the earth, she can also transform things into plants.”

Jackson took a second and looked around before continuing. ”Demeter can change the seasons and with that she can control the weather within the seasons such as making it rain, snow, or have the temperature increase. She can induce hunger and thirst and she is capable of skillful swordsmanship. Her sacred animals are the serpent, the pig, and the gecko.”

He was done describing her “mother” and went onto himself, ”As a child of Demeter I also have the ability to control plants and I am a natural cook.” With a smile Jackson sat.