[Karl Christopher]

Karl was sitting in one of the battle tactics classroom playing a game of Solitare on the side table where all his stuff was set. He had posted his guidelines to his class a while back but due to another teacher having started her first session of Battle Tactics class the previous week Karl decided to hold off until the following week to open his first session of Tactics 101 An introductary course to battle tactics with Pokemon.

For his first lesson he was going to focus on identification because at least a third of the battle is identifying the opponent and learning what thing they are capable of and while accessing a pokedex was fine for most cases sometimes it was better to instantly know what you were up against and it was a lot better to know what you had in your deck aka your pokemon. He recently obtained a pokemon that was perfect for class as he had yet to fully learn what the young Squirtle knew.

Karl hummed as he focused on the cards in front of him. He had to make a choice between one of two piles of cards to move.

All of a sudden the one pile moved as if it was magic. It wiggled like a signal that it was the move to do

Karl hummed "Casper, you're not peeking from under the cards now are you."

A Gengar's playful snicker was heard from under the table. He was peeking at the cards

"You know if I take your advice that would be considered cheating."

Casper made a noise then the pile of face down cards rearranged themselves.

Karl made a slight face "okay now that is cheating. Cut it out. I'm trying to play a fair game here."

Casper snickered tauntingly

"I hate to interrupt your game Karl," A female voice echoed in his mind. "but our class is starting within the next couple of minutes. Students shall be coming in to get your first lesson. It is best you prepare the table for the first round" Near the desk seemingly to meditate was Karl's Female Alakazam

"thank you Seer." Karl stated "Casper, deal out Session 1."

Casper shot out of the desk "Gengar" He cheered. He made a noise as he pointed to a bag.

~~~

The bag was unzipped and papers shot out. He made a wave of his hand and the papers flew around and were dealt to each desk like a poker dealer had set out cards. There were three papers

The first paper was a contact information sheet. This was particularly for the homework assignments that Karl would receive by e-mail. He would take paper copies but would express that electronic copies would be preferred as it saved paper and ink.

The second paper was a course guidelines sheet which in case the students didn't take a copy they would have one to take with them or they could return it to Karl

The third paper was lesson plan for the first session. It would be written out with the following information

Session 1: Identify
Lesson Plan

Introductions, Rules of the Class and Reward System.

Lecture on Identification Topics

• Pokemon by Elemental Types
• Weakness? Resistance? Immunity?
• Abilities and Moves

In class activities

In the Cards: Building Pokemon
In the Cards: Building the 'Perfect' Pokemon

Extra Credit Homework: What can your pokemon do?

Using a minimum of 150 words per pokemon, describe what your current pokemon team can do or is capable of doing.

~~~

Casper chuckled then made a reference to the setup "Gengar."

"Casper reports that session 1 has been dealt." Seer stated calmly.

Karl took his laptop and pushed out his rolling around chair. "Seer would you please guide me over to the dealer's side.

With methodical movement Karl was rolled over to the center desk where the teacher would be and he sat his laptop up on it and open it.

"Dealer is set." Seer stated "shall I let our players in."

"by all means." Karl stated

The door to the classroom opened

"Tactics 101 is now in session." Seer projected

~~~

Alright Students, Tactics 101 is up. You have until (checks clock) Saturday to check in with me. You can either do that by posting your entrance into my class or sending me a PM that you are attending my class but will be late (and therefore ineligible for Perfect Attendance). Late Students have until Next Tuesday to get in for the lesson but once Tuesday is past. No rewards will be given for attendance but you may still be able to have the lesson and have a chance to earn other things via cardpoints. (But come on I'm giving you guys a week to get in here.) If you have any questions do not hesitate to send me a PM.

[Serena Miller]

Serena was glad that classes were finally starting.  They were pretty basic so far, mostly focused on introductions, but overall she was still pretty excited.  She was even more excited when she heard that there would be a second Battle Tactics class taught by another teacher.  She still intended to go to Ms. Iver's classes, even if she was a little scary, but having a second perspective could be really valuable.  She was glad that the school allowed them to attend more than one of the same type of class, and that the teachers didn't seem offended that the students did so.

As always, Serena quietly opened the door and entered the room, taking a set in the second row.  Once again, she was the first one here.  That seemed to be happening a lot, though it figured that the one time they actually got rewards for arriving first she arrived second.  And once again, an awkward silence filled the room.  Being early all the time was hard.

"Um...G-Good morning Mr." she checked her schedule real quick, "Um...Christopher.  It's um, nice to meet you."

With that, her first to arrive duties were complete and she could examine the sheets on her desk.  Two of the sheets were pretty easy to understand, they just went over what was going to happen in the classes, but the third one, the one on the top of the stack, confused her.  There was a spot for her name, and then an 'email address.'  Serena tilted her head.  What the heck was an 'email address'?  Technology wasn't commonly used back in her hometown, and the stuff that was were just things that pokemon tended to use.  Her own family had a washing machine and a microwave because her mother had a Rotom, but that was about it.  Part of her wanted to ask what this was, but the paper made it sound like it should be something obvious that everyone knows.  The last thing she wanted was to look stupid in front of the teacher, especially when this would be their first meeting, so rather than say anything, she just store at the paper blankly.  Hopefully he would say something that would make it clear or she might be in trouble.

[Karl Christopher]

(Forgoing the round system until the class really begins.)

Karl hummed as gave a slight bow of his head and a smile "It is my pleasure. Miss..." He paused as he seemed to work with his Laptop then hummed "Miss Serena." He stated as he matched up a picture with a name on his screen "I do hope others join us. Even though this is our first session, I like to at least get something taught even if it's almost considered just some base topics."

[Lithra Trease]

Lithra felt like a total fool. All morning had been spent on trying to find the rules and instructions to this class and now, thirty minutes later, she still couldn’t find the sheet. The young girl had torn her side of the dorm to shreds, throwing open drawers, tossing aside folders and notebooks, to find the two page syllabus that she vividly remembered owning. Now she doubted it existed at all. Her Cottonee had been so upset by the process that he just hid under Karin’s chair while the roommate was absent. He hadn’t witness his trainer this frantic before and it was starting to distress the small pokemon.

“Bell, I’m sorry,” Lithra sighed, falling to the floor as her dress spread out around her like a flower opening to the world. “I just wanted to make sure pokemon were allowed out in the class before we got there.” This would be the first male teacher she had ever had and Lithra felt a strange desire to be perfect for whoever this mystery person would be. She wanted to impress him. An outsider would have recognized the young girl’s actions as a desire to be recognized by any of the male gender, especially at her age, but Lithra never registered it. She wasn’t old enough to self-reflect on her own actions yet. She didn't understand her own loneliness.  

Having to abandon her quest, Lithra collected her schoolbooks and Bell, deciding that she would ask the teacher as soon as she reached class. Bell was stiff in her arms, but there was nothing she could do about that. She would spoil him after class and take him somewhere nice, Lithra decided, reaching for the doorknob.

The Nature girl was stunned that she was only the second student to arrive to class. Was it because of Ms. Ivers previous course or did they all know something about Mr. Christopher that she didn’t? A little wide-eyed, Lithra stared at the Lava girl, Serena, if she remembered from a previous class correctly, and the teacher. “Hi” she half murmured, half smiled. “I’m sorry, I lost the earlier rules on the class…” she trailed off, realizing her shyness was terribly unattractive. “Are pokemon allowed out? I, ah, I have his pokeball so he can go there if he needs to.” The Cottonee wiggled unhappily at the idea, a pathetic frown plastered on his face.

While she was waiting for Mr. Christopher’s reply, Lithra took a seat, scanning the information sheet. Her heart pounded nervously when she realized she needed an email address. She had never made one before. There was no use living where she did and her family had never owned a computer though Lithra had often used them at friends’. Strike two. 

[Karl Christopher]

Karl chuckled lightly "it's quite alright Miss..." He paused as he looked at his computer and match a name to a face "Lithra," He stated "as long as he doesn't become to disruptive he can stay out and don't worry about the rules, I'll go over them in full detail as soon as class starts." He hummed as he noted only two had shown up so far. "huh I was expecting more students to be coming in." He looked at Seer "Seer is there any class conflicts we didn't calculate."

Seer hummed "not to my knowledge. There was the class with Ms. Ivers that took the time slot we wanted but we've adjusted our timing for that.

Karl hummed "what about the other topics, Breeding, Gym, Navigation did we calculate for that."

Seer hummed "there was a breeding class and a navigation class in this past week but that shouldn't have an effect on our class."

Karl hummed "I'll have to do some investigation later..." He hummed at he looked at the two girls "well you two, I'm Karl Christopher, you can call me Mr. Christopher, Professor Christopher, Mr. C, Professor C, any of those names are just fine with me. I tend to take things causally in formality but serious in learning as I like to focus on more on what I can teach you about pokemon battles not how to behave in class. Before we really get started is there any questions you two have on the papers I've dealt out. I think it's straight forward but I have had other students who have questioned certain things on those sheets. So please don't be shy."

[Cole Anderson]

Cole sprinted down the hallway, his backpack bouncing wildly against his back. Rex floated quickly behind, keeping up with its trainer as he made his mad dash towards the classroom. "Crap crap crap crap crap," the young trainer muttered as he ran. He had mixed up the numbers to the classroom on his schedule and ended up on the wrong side of campus right as class was about to begin. He cursed his short legs as they moved him closer and closer to the correct classroom. Cole glanced at a clock on the wall as he ran by. The seconds were ticking away as the tardy bell neared its time to ring. He willed himself to run faster and with an extra burst of speed, he managed to reach the door.

Then the bell rang.

Cole sighed in frustration and opened the door to the classroom. A quick look around told him that he wasn't the only one who was late to class. Or maybe he was and there were only three students. It didn't matter much as he was still late to class without a reasonable excuse. Cole started to take a step into the classroom when a heavy weight of his Beldum suddenly knock into his back, sending him sprawling onto the ground face first a few feet into the classroom. What a wonderful way to start the day.

The young trainer sighed again and stood up, dusting himself off before looking to the professor at the front of the room. He smiled brightly, trying to play off both his lateness and his meeting with the floor with a cheery wave. "Morning, teach!" Cole said. "Sorry about being late. Took a wrong turn earlier." He moved to sit down at a desk next to the girl from the Nature dorm, shooting a quick glance at the Cottonee beside her. It seemed like it was alright for Pokemon to be outside of their Pokeballs in this class, so he let Rex stay out of his Pokeball. The Beldum had since moved from the doorway after their grand entrance and now hovered next to its trainer's head.

Cole quickly scanned over the papers on his desk, sucking on his teeth slightly as he read over the guidelines. Day one and he had already ruined any chance he had for a perfect attendance record. Now all those lectures on punctuality from his mother were starting to make sense. Live and learn, he supposed.

[Lithra Trease]

“He won’t, I promise,” Lithra replied, a giddy grin on her face as she gave Bell a thankful squeeze. She wanted to tell her Cottonee that everything was okay, but he still seemed put-off by this morning’s attitude. At least Mr. Christopher seemed friendly enough. Lithra felt a little bad for the man that only two people had shown up to his class, but given that other classes didn’t require as much work as this one perhaps it weeded out the hard workers from those just wanting an easy grade. She certainly wasn’t going to back down because of a few more assignments here and there. Though that extra credit homework? Lithra could tell why people would avoid the class because of that. The girl only had 7 active pokemon on her team which meant she would have to write a 1,050 word paper on her team. That was excluding the three trading pokemon Lithra owned. Imagine people with more pokemon on their team? No way would they want to do that work. Sad, but the truth.

Lithra didn’t openly voice this to the teacher, however, as that would be rude. His class, his assignments, his rules. As for questions for Mr. Christopher, Lithra didn’t have any, and even if she did it would’ve been interrupted by the incoming student. Lithra had never seen the Bolt boy before, but he was brimming with life. It was infectious! But the girl’s smile faded as soon the new student fell. On his face. “Oh! Are you okay?” she found herself asking even though she should’ve stayed quiet.

When he sat down next to her Lithra went red, though she was not sure if she was embarrassed for the boy or embarrassed because she had spoken out. Lithra smiled politely back at the Bolt student and his Beldum as they noticed her Cottonee. At least the class had one more student.

[Adio Senta]

WC: XXX Notes: Do not disturb? Music: N/A Tagged:@class Never early, and rarely late the man walks into the classroom taking a seat by the window. He doesn't care much to learn any tactics in this kind of setting. He's been battling for years, he doesn't need some hack to teach him the basics, that being said it's part of the requirement for coming to the academy in the first place, and so he finds himself here a typical frown plastered across his face as he stares at the window waiting for class to start. The students of this class were also given certain items for participating or at least that was the rumor. He casually looks around glancing at the three other students one of which was a little too talkative much to his dismay. Beside him a shiny eevee relaxes leaning against the leg of his desk. Perhaps Adio would follow the small normal pokemon's lead and catch of a couple of Z's himself.

[Karl Christopher]

Karl chuckled lightly “I’m just glad you made it,” He looked at his computer “Mr. Cole” He stated identifying the young man then noticed Adio slipping in without so much as a peep choosing to sit himself towards the window away from the other students “and you as well Mr. Adio.” He stated as he gained the identity of the black uniformed student “as I already stated to the two girls, my name is Karl Christopher and I’ll be your teacher for Tactics 101. You can call me, Professor C, Mr. C, Professor Christopher or Mr. Christopher, any one of those four names I will respond to. I was really hoping for more students but I guess a lot of people think they don’t need to learn the basics as they’ve think they got them down or they’ve heard rumors that I’m a tough teacher and actually have the nerve to suggest students actually do some written homework to reinforce my lessons.” He chuckled then sighed “well I hope you four will come to understand that my lessons and homework are meant to give you something that took me about a year to even grasp and to this day I still haven’t fully mastered even after traveling six years through six different regions playing through those regions leagues and seeing how the skills of my team and I compare to others teams but enough about me and what I want. I’ve learned that students tend to doze off when the teacher starts running his mouth too long and while it is a personal peeve of mine to have students doze off. I do have methods to keep your attention both positive and negative. The positive being is that I actually have activities planned for each session with rewards for participation and the negative well…” He looked towards his Gengar “if you students haven’t noticed my Gengar, Casper and Alakazam, Seer are both out and Casper in particular is known to be a prankster so if you do fall asleep or insist that your attention be elsewhere be warned there’s a ghost nearby who just loves to prank people.”

Casper chuckled and took several deep inhales as if he was charging himself up and went to make a noise but then his mouth was suddenly shut tightly causing his cheeks and mouth to puff out like a large balloon.

“Not now Casper…” Seer stated calmly having been the one to stop the Gengar from demonstrating his wake up horn

Casper gave Seer an annoyed look then blew out the air with barely any sound quickly deflating himself

Karl chuckled “Anyway, if you really are that tired or think this is a waste of ‘your’ time,” He pointed to the door “the door is over there, you are free to leave at any time but I’ll be keeping your rare candy and anything else you could have obtained in my class and if you really want what I can give you I merely ask for some attention during the lecture and participation from you during the activity. Now as for other rules, I allow electronics in my class but I don’t want phone calls or excessive use like sending text messages or other things done especially during my lecture. I really don’t want to have my Magnezone be summoned and generate a frequency that shut down all electronic communication. Also excessive talking during my lecture is not allowed but I plan to keep my lecture short and sweet having most of the lesson be in the form of activities or quizzes. Now during those activities or quizzes, there will be rewards given out in the form of card points.” He pulled out a deck of cards and with Seer’s help caused the cards to shuffle out into the air and flip to reveal numbers on them most of them being one, two, or three points while the others had larger numbers like five, ten, even fifteen and those high numbers were highlighted with gold outlines like they were special. ”These card points can be redeemed at the end of the class for additional things like more rare candies, ability capsules, held items, anything that you can get regularly from the school I can also get access to so I can give you extra ones of those, or you can choose to hang onto those points and gather them for bigger rewards. I’ll have my list of items and the cost in card points they are by the end of the session but just to give you a heads up the first tier for like rare candies and abilities capsules cost three cards points which through today’s activities can be obtained. In fact I like to give a bit of a reward to a pair of students who actually made it on time to my first class.” Two one point cards spun then flew over to Serena and Lithra and slid onto their desks. “Miss Serena, Miss Lithra, I reward you one point apiece for arriving on time to the first class.” He looked at Cole and Adio “Mr. Cole, Mr. Adio, unfortunately you both arrived late. However because this is the first class, I will not automatically disqualify you from the perfect attendance reward which can net you one of the gold colored cards worth a number of points but I do suggest that you do not make it a habit.” He waved his hand and the cards went back into a deck. Also one additional way you can earn card points is by doing the homework assignment I’ve listed on the sheet. Complete the assignment and turn it in by the next session and I can guarantee at least two points, even turning in an incomplete assignment is worth one point. Honestly I want you guys to learn something about your Pokemon because in the end the more you know about what they can do and can possibility do, the stronger you become because applied knowledge is power. So with that said. Do you all have any questions, concerns or other things that might inhibit you from participating fully in my class because honestly I just want to share my knowledge and give you guys something I never had someone to teach me the official ropes in Pokemon. So Questions, comments, Concerns before we begin?”

~~~

Round System Initiated,

Players you have until Wednesday at Midnight Pacific Standard Time to post any reaction, questions or anything else to Karl's class, rules, regulations, and reward system. If all four of ya post before Wednesday I may continue things on before then

However I did notice a few new students coming in with apps so if they want in they got until Wednesday to slip in at the last last second. (and if you're a student that just lurking trying to figure out whether or not to join the class, hey you had your chances they didn't) once Wednesday occurs sorry new players I can't help ya, this class has been open even before the new year and I like to get things going.

[Serena Miller]

Serena nodded at the teacher and looked around the room.  She really hoped it wouldn't stay this empty.  The teacher seemed like a nice enough person, but she didn't want the class to be canceled, or worse have it go on with her as the only student and have the teacher's undivided attention on her.  Fortunately, her fears were unfounded and a few more students walked in.  It was still a significantly smaller class than she was expecting though.  She always preferred larger classes since it meant she could probably get through the class with minimal attention on her, so a class this size made her feel a bit uncomfortable.  She wondered why so few students came though.  Did they just not want to take two sessions of the same class or something?

Soon, the class started proper, to a long rambly introduction.  Serena blinked a few times.  He switched between topics pretty quickly and has some odd pauses in his speech, but she was pretty sure she got it all.  If his standard was just not falling asleep in class then she should have no problem.  It was always nice when teachers had easy expectations to fill.  The explanation of the rewards system was simple enough to understand, though she was sure she'd never be able to make use of it.  Not because of anything wrong from the teacher, but because there would never be any reason to reward her.  She blinked again when he tossed a card at her desk.  At first, she wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but it quickly became clear that he was.  She tucked the card away and continued listening.  She didn't see any point in interrupting the class to thank him, and she didn't have any questions of her own, so it was best to just stay quiet.

[Lithra Trease]

There was a lot to process with Mr. Christopher’s speech, but at least it wasn’t complicated material. It seemed that the man had more activities and involvement in his course than the other classes Lithra had attended so far which was exciting news. She perked up a bit as the instructor doled out his rules, nodding at each preference the man had. It seemed all Mr. Christopher wanted was common respect and for a student to actually try in class—that was fair. Though, Lithra was a little uncertain about having a Gengar play tricks on her. Not that she was ever planning to fall asleep in the class, of course, not, but the Ghost pokemon was a little intimidating from what she had read about the species. Yet, when Casper’s silly nature appeared with his balloon-like performance, Lithra smiled. Even Bell flapped his ears at the Gengar, enjoying the buffoonery.

Mr. Christopher gave more information after that Lithra wrote down on her syllabus, jotting a few notes here and there. She only looked up when the teacher called her name and she saw something glide onto the top of her desk. Picking up the card, Lithra studied it, wondering how many of these she would need to earn before cashing them in for something else. It was a question she was tempted to ask but wouldn’t in fear of it making her look materialistic. Simply being acknowledge for her good behavior was treat enough for the teenager. “Thank you,” she said barely above a whisper as not to interrupt him.

When he asked if she had any questions, Lithra shook her head no as did her Cottonee for some reason.

[Cole Anderson]

Cole smiled at the Nature Dorm girl and waved his hand dismissively. "I'm fine. There's no reason to worry about me. I've had much worse happen to me," he reassured her. He jabbed a thumb back at the Beldum behind him, who was looking down at the girl's Cottonee curiously. "My name's Cole and that's Rex. It's nice to meet you." He followed up with a wave and smile towards the girl from the Lava Dorm, then looked over at the boy who had entered after him. He didn't seem too keen on interacting with the rest of them, so Cole left him be. In time, he may warm up to them.

The trainer sucked on his teeth again when Mr. Christopher handed the other two students the point cards, though said nothing. He knew he made a mistake and he would have to own up to it, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be a little bit mad at himself about not getting a head start on points. Even though the homework assigned was a little daunting, Cole would tackle it and catch back up and would be sure to take his chance to keep up perfect attendance. He wouldn't let that silver lining go to waste.

"Nothing from me, teach," Cole said, his smile returning with a confident gleam in his eyes.

[Karl Christopher]

Karl hummed as he looked at each student. Each either gave silence or no to the answer of any questions so Karl decided to start his lesson

“very well everyone, then let us begin the first lecture session. Now I’ve designed Tactics 101 to be a base level Battle Tactics Class, There are going to be five sessions in which I show you some basic techniques to aid you in your battles. There are four key steps to battle, Identification, Preparation, The Fight, and Aftermath. " He explained

"Today Session we’re going to focus on identification namely of various Pokemon, their types, what they are weak to, resistant to, immune to, the different abilities and the different moves they could wield. Now granted you could just easily pull out a pokedex or another computer device with the pokedex app and lock onto that Pokemon and find out what it is but what if you forget your pokedex or other electronic device or better yet what if the pokedex doesn’t know what that Pokemon is or can do. Even to this day new Pokemon are being discovered and many that are discovered just considered myths seen only by a few or have legends to them because of their rarity that cannot be fully confirmed by research. So it is handy to have some knowledge and techniques on being able to identify a Pokemon. So let’s begin by identifying one of my Pokemon.”

Karl pulled out a ball and opened it. A large almost child sized white bird like Pokemon with small feet, various red and blue triangle marking on her chest and a large wing span came out. She twittered like a bird as she flew around. She then landed on Karl’s deck and twittered again. What was notable is that she had three spike like protrusions on her head, one red on the left, one blue on the right and one white in the middle. She also had a flat face with beady black eyes.

“Now everyone who’s that Pokemon? Give me as many details as you can from your heads without consulting your pokedexes about what it is, what it can do and what it is capable of doing. You may converse with each other and come up with a group answer or someone may start and people can add onto the answer or disagree with said answer and come up with their own."

~~~

Okay students, you heard the question, you got 48 to 72 hours to post responses. The next round starts on Sunday at Midnight PST

[Cole Anderson]

Cole listened attentively to the professor, nodding every now and again as he listened. The outline of what he was going to teach wasn't unexpected. He certainly hoped it wouldn't be all lectures. He would go insane otherwise. The first lesson sounded interesting, at least. He had studied Pokemon as much as he could when he was back home, though he had had difficulty in actually applying what he learned. Cole grinned confidently, ready to redeem himself for his lateness and ungraceful entrance into the class.

Cole studied the Pokemon that Mr. C had released, his brow furrowed in concentration. He recognized it from his studies. It was pretty distinct given the way it looked. His classmates were staying fairly quiet towards what it was, so he figured he take a stab at what it was. "I think..." the young trianer started, scratching his chin, "it's a...Togekiss, right? A Flying-Fairy dual type Pokemon and I believe it's said to bring blessings and stuff to peaceful regions."

[Lithra Trease]

So much for a syllabus day, Lithra thought to herself as Mr. Christopher readied the class for the next half of his lesson. The girl seemed to deflate when he finally presented what today’s topic would be about. If she was mediocre at battling then she was even worse at trying to identify pokemon. Besides those that were plentiful in Sinnoh’s safari area and the ones she’d personally experienced so far at the Academy, Lithra couldn’t give a name to most pokemon. What the teacher warned against is exactly what Lithra did when she ran into a pokemon she didn’t know. Half of the time she even forgot about the PokeDex, opting to ask others first before hunting down the information on her own. The nomenclature of pokemon was lost on her.

So even as Mr. Christopher released his next pokemon and said pokemon gave the class a good look at its body and form, Lithra still had no idea what it was. She was prepared to sit in shameful silence, thinking herself unworthy of the bonus card just presented to her, when the Bolt boy from earlier spoke up. Lithra glanced over at him, an impressed look on her face as she smiled.

She hoped he was right.