Hunting 101 - Class 1 (Wed period 7)
When the students come in, they find a sign in sheet and a pile of handouts just inside the door with a sign that said "Sign in and take one."
Once everyone had done so and was settled, John leaned against the desk at the front of the room and regarded his students.
"Welcome to Hunting 101. Hopefully by the end of this course, you should not only be able to spot supernatural threats, but know how to identify them and deal with them as safely as possible. You students here at Fandom already have an advantage in that you deal with the weird and the supernatural on a fairly regular basis and so are much more likely to recognise it when you see it." He smiled faintly. "You're not going to be the ones dismissing things as a trick of the light or a freak but completely mundane accident. You won't be able to -- once you see through the veneer of normal to the real world underneath, you're never going to be able to not see it.
"And that's a good thing. You can't deal with a threat until you acknowledge its existence." He let his gaze rove over the class. "And before anyone brings it up, yes there are harmless and even helpful paranormal things and entities too, but they're not the focus of this class. This class is about hunting and eliminating threats, and the supernatural equivalent of fluffy happy bunnies and puppies aren't usually a threat so we won't be dealing with them here.
"The syllabus you picked up when you signed in explains how this class is structured and lays out the topics we will be studying. Please come see me if you have any questions or concerns.
"Before we get started on today's lesson, I'd like to get an idea of what kind of knowledge base you already have so I'd like to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and give a brief summary of their experience with the supernatural.
"I'll go first." John took a deep breath and said, "My name is John Winchester. My first brush with the supernatural was fourteen years ago when a demon killed my wife. Since then I've hunted some version of pretty much everything we're covering in this class and more besides." He looked around. "Next?"
When everyone had gone, John nodded. "Thank you. For those with little to no real experience, I will see if maybe I can arrage a field trip to help with that." His mouth quirked up into a smile. "Always assuming the experience doesn't come to you here, which from what I understand is very possible.
"So," he said, moving away from his desk, "today's subject is ghosts. Of all supernatural entities and phenomena out there, ghosts are probably the most plentiful and so are the thing you're most likely to encounter.
"Ghosts are people who died with some kind of unfinished business. Most if not all ghosts are born out of a violent death -- be it murder, accident or suicide." He smiled slightly. "You'd be hard pressed to find a ghost who died peacefully in bed.
"Every ghost has some kind of purpose, something they're still hanging around to do. Because of the whole violent death thing, there's a damn good chance that that purpose is going to be vegeance -- either against a specific person or family line or something more broad -- for example, the ghost of a woman who committed suicide because her lover was unfaithful may go after and kill unfaithful men. Or they could be protecting a particular place or item or person, or they're trying to finish some task they didn't in life, or some other reason that will only make sense when you know who they were. That's why research is important -- not only of the ghost but of the person it was. There's always a certain logic to a ghost's action; if you find out who they were when they were alive and what happened to them, you generally can predict how a ghost is going to act.
"So how do you find a ghost?" John walked back over to his desk where there were several devices laid out. "There are some instruments that can help you track and confirm that you're really dealing with a ghost and not, say, a teenage prank. The most useful would probably be an EMF Meter." He picked the item in question up and handed it to a nearby student to be passed around. "It can be used to detect not only ghosts, but demons and a number of other supernatural creatures and activities. Just be aware of nearby powerlines; sometimes they can give you a false positive."
"There's also the Infrared Thermal Scanner." He picked up a slightly larger device and turned it on before handing it off to a student as well. "This can measure any temperature fluctiuations -- cold spots can mean ghosts."
John leaned back on his desk again as he continued. "But you don't need fancy gadgets to find a ghost -- they just make it a little easier. If you're psychic, or know one, you have a ready made inbuilt ghost detector. Animals too," he smiled at Alanna, "are usually extremely sensitive to any kind of paranormal energies. If you only have your five senses to rely on, there's still clues and signs. Cold spots, as mentioned before; when a ghost is about to manifest the drop in temperature will be noticable even without a scanner. Strange noises and flickering lights and power are also signs. These can vary depending on the strength of the spirit in question but are always more noticiable when the ghost is active.
"Now, once you've found your ghost, how do you get rid of it?" John slid his hands into his pockets. "There are any number of ways that may work on an individual ghost, and we'll go over some of those next class, but the single, surest way is to find the body and salt and burn it. And yes," he shot the class a smile, "that is often as disgusting as it sounds. But a ghost needs something to hold it to this plane and most times that is its body. No body, the ghost no longer has a link to this reality and its energy dissapates. Considering the damage some ghosts can do, enduring the unpleasantness of burning a dead body is a good bargain."
At the end of the class, John collected the devices he'd shown the class and said, "Next week will be our first practical class and we will be meeting in the Danger Room. You'll get your first chance to track and dispose of a ghost. Everything you will need to know to do so was covered in this class," he grinned wolfishly, "so I hope you were paying attention."
[ooc: wait for the OCD is up! Go at it!]
Once everyone had done so and was settled, John leaned against the desk at the front of the room and regarded his students.
"Welcome to Hunting 101. Hopefully by the end of this course, you should not only be able to spot supernatural threats, but know how to identify them and deal with them as safely as possible. You students here at Fandom already have an advantage in that you deal with the weird and the supernatural on a fairly regular basis and so are much more likely to recognise it when you see it." He smiled faintly. "You're not going to be the ones dismissing things as a trick of the light or a freak but completely mundane accident. You won't be able to -- once you see through the veneer of normal to the real world underneath, you're never going to be able to not see it.
"And that's a good thing. You can't deal with a threat until you acknowledge its existence." He let his gaze rove over the class. "And before anyone brings it up, yes there are harmless and even helpful paranormal things and entities too, but they're not the focus of this class. This class is about hunting and eliminating threats, and the supernatural equivalent of fluffy happy bunnies and puppies aren't usually a threat so we won't be dealing with them here.
"The syllabus you picked up when you signed in explains how this class is structured and lays out the topics we will be studying. Please come see me if you have any questions or concerns.
"Before we get started on today's lesson, I'd like to get an idea of what kind of knowledge base you already have so I'd like to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and give a brief summary of their experience with the supernatural.
"I'll go first." John took a deep breath and said, "My name is John Winchester. My first brush with the supernatural was fourteen years ago when a demon killed my wife. Since then I've hunted some version of pretty much everything we're covering in this class and more besides." He looked around. "Next?"
When everyone had gone, John nodded. "Thank you. For those with little to no real experience, I will see if maybe I can arrage a field trip to help with that." His mouth quirked up into a smile. "Always assuming the experience doesn't come to you here, which from what I understand is very possible.
"So," he said, moving away from his desk, "today's subject is ghosts. Of all supernatural entities and phenomena out there, ghosts are probably the most plentiful and so are the thing you're most likely to encounter.
"Ghosts are people who died with some kind of unfinished business. Most if not all ghosts are born out of a violent death -- be it murder, accident or suicide." He smiled slightly. "You'd be hard pressed to find a ghost who died peacefully in bed.
"Every ghost has some kind of purpose, something they're still hanging around to do. Because of the whole violent death thing, there's a damn good chance that that purpose is going to be vegeance -- either against a specific person or family line or something more broad -- for example, the ghost of a woman who committed suicide because her lover was unfaithful may go after and kill unfaithful men. Or they could be protecting a particular place or item or person, or they're trying to finish some task they didn't in life, or some other reason that will only make sense when you know who they were. That's why research is important -- not only of the ghost but of the person it was. There's always a certain logic to a ghost's action; if you find out who they were when they were alive and what happened to them, you generally can predict how a ghost is going to act.
"So how do you find a ghost?" John walked back over to his desk where there were several devices laid out. "There are some instruments that can help you track and confirm that you're really dealing with a ghost and not, say, a teenage prank. The most useful would probably be an EMF Meter." He picked the item in question up and handed it to a nearby student to be passed around. "It can be used to detect not only ghosts, but demons and a number of other supernatural creatures and activities. Just be aware of nearby powerlines; sometimes they can give you a false positive."
"There's also the Infrared Thermal Scanner." He picked up a slightly larger device and turned it on before handing it off to a student as well. "This can measure any temperature fluctiuations -- cold spots can mean ghosts."
John leaned back on his desk again as he continued. "But you don't need fancy gadgets to find a ghost -- they just make it a little easier. If you're psychic, or know one, you have a ready made inbuilt ghost detector. Animals too," he smiled at Alanna, "are usually extremely sensitive to any kind of paranormal energies. If you only have your five senses to rely on, there's still clues and signs. Cold spots, as mentioned before; when a ghost is about to manifest the drop in temperature will be noticable even without a scanner. Strange noises and flickering lights and power are also signs. These can vary depending on the strength of the spirit in question but are always more noticiable when the ghost is active.
"Now, once you've found your ghost, how do you get rid of it?" John slid his hands into his pockets. "There are any number of ways that may work on an individual ghost, and we'll go over some of those next class, but the single, surest way is to find the body and salt and burn it. And yes," he shot the class a smile, "that is often as disgusting as it sounds. But a ghost needs something to hold it to this plane and most times that is its body. No body, the ghost no longer has a link to this reality and its energy dissapates. Considering the damage some ghosts can do, enduring the unpleasantness of burning a dead body is a good bargain."
At the end of the class, John collected the devices he'd shown the class and said, "Next week will be our first practical class and we will be meeting in the Danger Room. You'll get your first chance to track and dispose of a ghost. Everything you will need to know to do so was covered in this class," he grinned wolfishly, "so I hope you were paying attention."
[ooc: wait for the OCD is up! Go at it!]