ohgoodgrief: (Default)
Yang Wen-li ([personal profile] ohgoodgrief) wrote in [community profile] daybreakacademy2019-03-24 09:50 am

letting kids fire artillery and calling it work

Who: Yang, OTA!
What: An artillery exercise -- with a looooot of supervision, sorry kids -- for the student body!
Where: A big field outside of the Academy and the town.
When: Shortly before finals!
Warnings: Big cannons.

[Wen-li Yang was "convinced" (some might say manipulated) into a practical operation for the students: letting them fire huge cannons.

Originally, he was going to let them build their own. Then he did the research and realized one cannot simply construct artillery pieces with no experience. So he instead made a few phone calls back to the Navy, and got a set of lighter artillery pieces sent out. They're still bigger than most civilians have ever seen, which Yang thinks will pass muster.

Besides, they don't need to destroy fortifications at Verdun, they're blowing up wooden Potemkin village houses today.

Students are divided into teams of three. Each is given an artillery piece -- fixed on a turret, which can only cover the area away from the school and the town -- and has to hit targets that pop up. The wooden targets include wooden cut-outs of huge daemons, of demonic castles, and other scary, Nightfall-themed things. They also include buildings made to look like normal village houses and shops, which should not be fired on.

Yang, for his part, is standing back and watching. He's easy to approach in the command tent, where he has binoculars -- and a radio. And, of course, staff are on hand to help show people how to load the cannons, aim them, and fire them... but they have to do it themselves.]
transfusionem: (pic#12570521)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yang, you are aware you're asking your students this, right? They might not be the best judges.]

Are you saying that having a bunch of kids fire cannons is a bad idea?

[Because, you know, it might be.]
thedevilwearsgucci: (Lollipop)

[personal profile] thedevilwearsgucci 2019-03-24 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Personally, I try to keep my mistakes either so small that no one notices, or so catastrophically large that everyone thinks I'm playing the long game.

[ It's hard to ignore the sounds of artillery fire, and she had sashayed out to figure out what was going on. ]

I'm not entirely sure where giving students large-caliber weaponry falls on this spectrum, but at least they're aiming for uninhabited forest.

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-03-24 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
All the time~! But that's not the important question here, Professor~! I came to ask if participation in this exercise can take the place of the final exam~! If that's not possible, will it count for some semblance of extra credit!?
transfusionem: (pic#12951315)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's not that bad! Just a little...irresponsible, perhaps.]

Weeeeeell, I don't think it's the best idea, but, you know.

Blowing stuff up is pretty fun?

[She hasn't fired a single cannon yet.]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-03-24 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
So it doesn't matter if we hit the fake civilian buildings then, because nothing's riding on a good job!? No incentives makes for chaos~! This is a really bad set-up here! What's to stop students from meddling with things to make it more fun!? There's a rumor about a beehive in the greenhouse and jars of bees and you don't want to some student replacing the cannonballs with bees, do you!?

[This is a logical track, and a good reason for making the exercise worth something academically.]
transfusionem: (pic#12951284)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[Huff. She smiles, shaking her head.]

Have you fired one at all?

[Hmmm!]

[personal profile] yokeye 2019-03-24 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for considering my request, Professor Yang~! Do not worry~! The bees aren't mine and I would never do something like that~!

[He waves and leaves the tent. The mock battlefield is safe from bees for now.]
bejustorbedead: (His default state)

[personal profile] bejustorbedead 2019-03-24 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
There are probably worse ideas.

[The man watches the results of destruction, flinching slightly at the first few shots before he seems to ease himself into recognizing them]

But what the worst ideas are, I can't tell you right off the top of my head.
transfusionem: (pic#12570523)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
So it's been a really long time since you've fired one.
bejustorbedead: (undercover)

[personal profile] bejustorbedead 2019-03-24 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
And that Greek Fire has been lost to history.

[He sits down, eyes half-lidded, seeming to be in thought]

They really are like kids.
transfusionem: (pic#12570512)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
...How long has it been since the academy?
heartofasamurai: (008)

[personal profile] heartofasamurai 2019-03-24 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[Seiji has been standing slightly back to avoid the sound.]

I am certain that people ask this question of themselves many times in their lives.
transfusionem: (pic#12570511)

[personal profile] transfusionem 2019-03-24 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I think once you get over a year it's not recent anymore... [Geez.] But, I mean, I haven't done it recently, either.

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