Island Navigation #1 - Kaitlyn Brady

[Kaitlyn Brady]

Kaitlyn took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Her eyes were closed, but she was picturing a classroom full of students listening to her and trying to hang on to every word. Or not. That was the real danger, that she would bore people and they decide they didn't need to pay attention. She had her own means of dealing with that in the moment, but she knew that they wouldn't fix the root cause of it. She was an explorer, and she had been backpacking or at least camping for most of her life. She could find her way down off a mountain without a map. She could start a campfire with a single match, and keep it going adequately for as long as she needed it. She could provide for herself out in the wilderness for several days at a time, limited only by the weight she could carry and the capacity of her bag. But of course, she'd long since learned to pack light, and could handle quite a bit more than any backpacking newbie.

But could she effectively convey these skills to those newbies? That, she wouldn't know until she started getting into these classes. She just hoped that she wouldn't bore them. Or scare them off, for that matter.

She opened her eyes again. The classroom was still empty. But of course it was, she wasn't expecting anyone to show up for a few minutes. The only company she had yet was a couple of her Pokemon, her Blaziken and Marowak, making their way around the room and making sure everything was in order. Meanwhile her Darmanitan, Mr. Grin, sat in a camp chair in the front corner opposite the door, keeping watch for when students started entering. The room was set up just the way she liked it. Good for appearances, but nothing to get attached to. Even the topographical maps she'd set up all around it could be easily removed and taken with her. She stood at a plain podium, and though her first instinct was to lean on it, Kaitlyn managed to restrain herself. Pretty simple. Kaitlyn herself was much the same, just a little bit done up to make a good first impression, but ultimately simple. She wore a white button-up shirt and black slacks, and had her hair pulled back nicely. This had the side effect of exposing the burn scares her bangs normally hid, but that was an issue she'd address if it became necessary.

She hadn't set out any assignments, or any hand-outs at all. She kept the writing on the board to a minimum as well, having only her name, "Ms. Kaitlyn Brady," and the class (just in case), as well as the simple instruction to "find a seat, but don't get too attached to it". She turned back to read it for a second, then added under it "Pokemon may be out, so long as they behave themselves and can easily fit through the door." That was something she'd change if need be, but it had been fine in classes she attended as a student back in the day. And admittedly, she'd ended up using what she remembered of them as guidelines.

Kaitlyn looked up at the clock on the far wall. Almost fifteen minutes now. Each one of them stretched out far longer than they had any right to.

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Notes: Please refer to the guidelines here before posting.

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg stretched a bit as he made his way towards the last class he had never been to before. Island Navigation. To be brutally honest, he did not have that many plans to stay on the island after the years he would spend here studying, but it would be nice to know the island, and of course the skills you gain otherwise from the classes would be useful as well.

As he entered the classroom, he nodded to the teacher as he peered at the board. He then nodded again, plonking his fat arse down at the seat nearest to the exit. He then shuffled trough his pokeballs before releasing Waspinator the Yanma, who proceeded to buzz above his head, and Bonnie the Cubone, who sat down at the desk and looked around.

[Tanya Christianson]

Ever since the talk Seria, Astrid and her had in the forest, Tanya was interested to find out what type of person the Island Navigation teacher would be. It was for that reason that she made an effort to come to class, her curiosity pushing her into trying to reach class as early as possible. Practically running for the class, she threw herself inside the classroom, panting a little when she managed to get in the room.

It didn't look like anyone else was here. Well, anyone except the teacher. Looking at the board, Tanya decided to move towards the front, hoping to try to get a better look at her. Since the seats weren't compulsory, she didn't have any worries about trying to find a seat that was next to her friends or anything like that. Instead, she was aiming for the seat that could get her the best look at her new teacher.

As she walked forwards, Tanya noticed the pokemon that were patrolling the area. Noticing that the board allowed her to release some pokemon, she decided to let out Daniel. When Daniel appeared, he looked for a moment at the Blaziken before letting out a huff. When Tanya reached her seat, Daniel stood next to her, stretching his body and looking at all the other pokemon. While he was busy with that though, Tanya decided to get a better look at her teacher.

One of things that stuck out to her were the burns. Tanya made a note not to be like Cameron and bluntly ask her about that. Her clothing was simple, but judging from the burns, she probably was much tougher than she looked at the moment. She didn't really know what else to think and instead got out her notebook and pen, getting ready for the lesson.

[Benji Aldaine]

For once Benji wasn't yawning, or tired, and even his muffled swearing was kept to a minimum. He wasn't a morning person usually, but today he felt great and had a clear head. Today was the first class of Island Navigation and he was very excited. this had been one class he looked forward to the most. Always loving to explore and hike, he knew this would be a fun time for him. He was interested in learning all he could about this island, and itched to get on with it. When he entered the classroom only two students were there, he had seen them around school but didn't know them personally. The teacher, Kaitlyn Brady was at the head of the class, and he smiled at her slightly before reading the board behind her. It stated to find a seat and that they could have Pokemon out if they wished. He thought for a moment and released Kai, his Absol. It was one of his newer Pokemon and he thought it would be nice to interact with him more. The Absol seemed happy to be out of his Pokeball, stretching happily and following Benji inside the classroom. 

He decided to take a seat near the back, sliding into the desk and leaning back a bit. He knew since this was and exploration class they wouldn't be in here much so he didn't mind where he sat. Kai glanced around at the other Pokemon curiously before laying down at Benji's feet. The Mana student tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the other students to arrive and for the class to start.

[Annie Prince]

Navigation. Must be useful. Annie had never really gotten the chance to explore much of anything anywhere, so she was excited for the opportunity to try it out. She had no doubt that she, sheltered little girl that she was, would benefit from studying such things. There was so much she didn't know how to do, and now here she had a chance to study some of it.

She had seriously considered bringing Senka with her. The Sneasel was the sort of Pokémon who, it seemed, would really enjoy this class, but she decided to delay that until later. Instead, she carried Zlatan. He was napping, of course; she could have sworn that Swinub could nap anywhere, whether it made sense or not. Also in her arms was the egg she was working on hatching for her Breeding class.

The instructions on the board in the classroom said to "find a seat, but don't get too attached to it." That suited Annie just fine. She waved a relatively subtle greeting to her roommate as she passed, then sat in an out-of-the-way spot and placed the egg between her feet along with her bag. Zlatan went on her lap, where he continued to snore. She wondered if she should pull out note-taking supplies as she normally would, but the indication that they would be leaving seats suggested that perhaps she should wait until she found out what they would be doing that day.

[Akihito Kamakura]

Aki lothed most phsycial activities. But he promised himself he wwould try and work on that. He would have to get more active if he want to travel like his sister after his studies were done here. Walking down the hall with Drago the Axew setting on his shoulder. Akihito finally reached the classroom, he stood at the door and looked around. There was one kid and several Pokémon in the room. And there was a woman standingg behind a podium. Watching the Blaziken and Marowak setting the room up. Glancing further he saw a Darmanitan sitting in a chair with it usual smile on his fface So tthat'swhat Clementine is going to evolve into." He thought walking over to a desk around the middle of the room. He was several desks away from the boy with the Yanma and Cubone.

Drago hoped down onto the desk and leaned against Akis chest looking around the room. "You excited buddy. Drago nodded that he was. "At least one of us is" Aki said scratching his head.

(Egg post 1/10)

[James Wharton]

His schedule for this period read "Island Navigation, Kaitlyn Brady."  Well, it seemed like he was going to have a fun first class in Island Navigation, that is if everything didn't go horribly wrong.  But hey, knowing his luck everything would go alright, probably, hopefully.  Walking through the door now James noticed a handful or so students had already arrived, and that his teacher was a girl.  It wasn't very surprising from the name he'd read on his schedule, however it would be nice to have more than one male teacher.  Especially since the one he had was slightly, bonkers.  Pushing aside his personal opinions about teachers James smiled at Kaitlyn for a moment, before sitting in the middle row near the door.

[Amanda Dupomme]

Amanda pushed into the room, her Shiny Hariyama at her heels a smile on her face. For once she wasn't one of the last to enter the class, and that was something she could feel proud of. It was fortunate she had been able to find the class without any problems at that, the idea of losing ones course to the lecture about navigation would have been awkward, at least.


Entering the class, she smiled and waved at Tanya and Annie, nodding to Oleg as she passed him, taking a seat near the more glacial of her fellow Wave Dormers. Although Amanda had originally intended on passing this course in favor of a more studiously favored education. She was near certain that Seria would be taking part in this, and the notion of being able to do something with her girlfriend that they could both enjoy: now that was simply lovely.


Not lost in her own thoughts for a change: Amanda observed the teacher standing by the board, her name: Ms. Kaitlyn Brady spelled behind her. Much like everyone else at this island, the woman seemed to be rather interesting indeed, and as Amandas experiences had lead her to observe, not entirely unattractive.


Her Pokemon, meanwhile: copied the attitude of his trainer, somewhat lax in his usual hamhanded approach to guarding the Kalosian. While he eyed the many powerful Pokemon in the room with caution, particularly the Blaziken: he didn't make any motion to threaten, as much as his instincts as a Fighting-Type would have wished to battle the flaming karate bird right then and there.

[Seria Floria]

Seria nodded off as she let Zenith sit on her shoulders again; he was a very active Pokemon it seemed, wanting to always be in the outdoors. The Island Navigation class was going to be very interesting for Seria, who already had a good deal of experience in the outdoors. As she entered the classroom, the first thing she was greeted with was the sight of a decent amount of attendance, accompanied by the teacher who was dressed quite well, and it seemed she had burn scars on her. Seria figured she wouldn't ask, and she discovered the teacher was named "Kaitlyn Brady." Seria decided to be cautious, not wanting to invoke the ire of Kaitlyn's Pokemon who were out and on watch. Seria smiled upon the sight of Amanda and decided to sit next to her, smiling and nodding politely towards her in acknowledgement.

Seria was looking very forward to this class in the hopes that she could improve her mountaineering and ruins exploration abilities, though she secretly wondered who else in this room aside from her and obviously Ms. Brady also had prior experience.

[Lilith Sinclaire]

Lilith didn't waste anytime making her way into the teaching center. She was more than determined not to be late for class. In fact, she made sure that she wouldn't over sleep this time by double checking her alarm before falling asleep last night. The teaching center appeared to have been quite busy at the moment, seeing that various students were coming from many different directions aiming to make it to their destination on time. Luckily, Lilith managed to make her way through the hallways without getting shoved into a wall or even trample over.

After a minute or two of wandering around in the hallway, Lilith had finally managed to find the classroom where her Island Navigation Class would start within a few minutes. Running her fingers through her raven hair, she would slowly made her way inside of the classroom without causing too much attention. She would find an empty seat toward the middle of the classroom and place her notebook on top of her desk and her bag on the floor. She would flash her classmates a warm smile before turning her attention toward the board. She would then wait patiently for the class to begin.

[Meili Jie]

Meili walked on in the class room. She adjusted her hat and started to sit down on a nearby desk. Normally, Meili would keep the hat on but there is a chance that she is going to go out. This is called Island Navigation class after all. She scanned the board. Ms. Kaitlyn Brady? She also seems to allow Pokemon. Meili looked at the Academyballs attached to her belt.

With how unsafe the island is now... Meili reached for her Pokeball and opened it up. Out came Du, though as usual, the Croagunk laughed...then it took her hat much to her irritation. However, Meili could only sigh since it would take too much annoyance and effort to take it back. At least it's teasing lessened...to a degree.

[Alice Geissler]

Another day at the academy, but also there seemed to be new things just waiting around the corner. And there was a new class which had the subject of island navigation. While island navigation required one to use maps to navigate the island safely, there seemed to be something else that she had to learn. Arriving at a classroom full of maps and some Pokemon that the teacher had with her as well as the other classmates' Pokemon themselves, she had taken note of one thing that was written on the board. Namely that students will be able to release their Pokemon as long as their Pokemon behave around the classroom. That was easy enough and her Pokemon would probably be well-behaved at this point. She released Missy the Misdreavus where the ghost liked being outside of her Pokeball and floated next to her trainer. She did tell her Misdreavus the other day that she had to be well-behaved and not pull pranks on anybody, otherwise there were going to be serious consequences.

Larvesta Egg +1

[Astrid Sherinian]

Astrid walked into the classroom, looking bright and cheerful as usual. It was time for a brand new class, and she was curious what this one would be like. She wasn't the most outdoorsy-person, and firmly believed that the best way to go exploring was in a hover chair. Since those didn't exactly exist, though, she usually just rode Quadraxis lately. But, actually knowing what she was doing would be good. Especially since only the more open areas of the island even had room for riding a Metagross.

She dropped into a seat next to Tanya, and looked up at the teacher. To only a small amount of surprise, she was an attractive young(ish) woman who looked just a little bit uncomfortable with being in a classroom. "Not exactly an old hermit," she whispered. "Although I may have been on the mark with backpacker." She noticed burn marks on the woman's forehead, but wasn't about to ask where they came from. Not like a certain person in their first Battle Tactics class.

[Kaitlyn Brady]

Finally, students started making their way in. Most of them entered with no incident, just walking in, looking at the board, and finding a seat. Good. No obvious troublemakers yet, although Kaitlyn wished they could be a bit more lively until class actually started. They were still kids, after all. Their expressions ranged from the interested and the excited to the thoroughly bored. Which didn't surprise Kaitlyn, but it didn't exactly fill her with confidence either. One of those apathetic people was going to end up doing something profoundly stupid due to only halfway paying attention. She just knew it. Still, she'd deal with that when the time came.

Five minutes now. A few more people trickled in. One girl released a Croagunk, which proceeded to take the girl's hat and laugh about it. "Here we go," Kaitlyn said under her breath, sighing. "Skullcandy, keep an eye on that Croagunk for me, will ya?" The Marowak making its way around the room nodded, then fixed its gaze on the girl's Croagunk. Another girl released a Misdreavus, which would have set off a similar red flag if not for the fact that it was just tamely floating for the moment. Finally, one more girl came in, took a seat, and started whispering to the girl next to her. Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes suspiciously in their direction, but just for a second. Two minutes.

One minute.

Way too fucking long later, it was time to start. Kaitlyn took one more glance around the class to get a feel for the size. Thirteen people. A bit small, but that meant it was nice and manageable for a first class. And more stragglers would probably walk in late, because students were like that. Also fine. If they made too much of a scene doing that, she'd just yell at them or something. She cleared her throat. "Well, I guess it's time to start. Welcome to Island Navigation. As you can see on the board, my name is Kaitlyn Brady. You can call me by my first or last name, with a 'Ms.' in front of it if you have to use titles. Personally, I don't give a flaming crap about formalities. Don't call me 'Professor', because I'm not one. And don't call me 'Teach' either." She paused here, just for a second to let that settle in. "Now, before we get into the meat of this class, I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions before they can come up. First, the class is called 'Island Navigation', but actually learning to navigate Harmonia Island will just serve as a basis for learning to navigate any other region. You'll be learning things like how to read maps and orient yourself, what to do if you get lost, how to handle yourself out in the wilderness for a few days at a time, and of course how to navigate different types of terrain. All things you'd need to know if you plan on making a journey around any of the major regions. If you like," she grinned, "You can think of this more as an outdoor survival course.

"Second, you may notice that I said on the board not to get too attached to your seats. That's because with the exception of a test or two, maybe, this will be the only class that takes place here. The rest will be held around the island, depending on what the lesson of the day is. I will send out an e-mail and post the location of the next class here and on my office door two days beforehand, so 'I didn't know' is not excuse." All of that, of course, was on the syllabus, but Kaitlyn had learned the hard way as a student that some people just didn't read them. Best to be clear about it. And that, she hoped, would be all for introductions. Anything else would probably come up when it came time for questions. But first, she had a couple of her own, to gauge where all of her students were in terms of outdoor skills. "So now that that's out of the way, let's start with a question for all of you. Let's say you were trapped out in the woods, separated from your Pokemon, with no idea where you are. What's the single most important item you would want to have with you to ensure that you made it back to civilization in one piece? That's to all of you, not just the first person to raise their hand. Don't feel self-conscious about your own answer because you think someone gave a better one first. Although..." she chuckled, closing her eyes for a second. "As awsome of an idea as bringing a private jet or what have you is, try to keep it practical."

[James Wharton]

Well hell, it appeared as if this teacher wasn't very teacher like for the most part.  Heck, so far most of the staff here weren't very staff like.  He couldn't expect everyone to be the same, however he didn't expect, this.  The teachers blatantly got rid of the formalities that most people would have.  Heck, so far the best teacher he'd had was Miss Eisenberg.  However Miss Brady wasn't the worst staff member when it came to throwing formalities out the window.  The worst so far would have to be that Gym teacher, he was simply something to be reckoned with.

Pushing aside his thoughts about the School's staff James listened to what Miss Brady had to say.  It was rather simple, we wouldn't be here very long, we'll be around the island.  Email this note on this so on and so on.  After a while of talking she finally asked a question about what item you would want to have to help you find your way back to civilization.  Well, that was by far a simple question.  Raising his hand for a moment James began to speak.  "You would want a GPS for directions as to find your way back to civilization."  He said, believing that his answer was quite a logical one.