#training instructor

[us-air-force-2]

[the-balloon-shed]

imma be honest I want to make a fic of this one day but for right now you just get me running wild with this headcanon

you know how there's those videos of surgeons being "inspirational" to their interns and then saying the meanest shit in the world? yeah, I think that's Iceman as an instructor at TOPGUN. 

Just the dry, rough sense of humor? The perfectly attenuated phrase in order to knock the arrogance out of some of these scrappy pilots? That's Iceman. The evidence is there in TG86! it's ICE who is saying the most bratty shit to Maverick. His criticisms are almost always valid or born of a real curiosity that's worth looking into, which I think is key, but he expresses it in the rudest and most inciting way possible. 

"Who was covering Cougar while you were showboating --"; (in response to Slider's calling Goose and Mav "famous") "I think you mean notorious"; "I don't like you 'cause you're dangerous" -- I mean Ice is right but he's also a bitch. (we don't have time to unpack ALL of what went into Ice goading Maverick seconds after meeting him with "need help figuring it out? who's the best pilot?" like my god man). 

So, some contenders for some of the commentary Ice might have for his students -- 

"Keep flying like that, I'm going to assume you're getting kickbacks from the military hospital." 

"I can only hope one day you fly for the enemy." 

"I was thrilled to hear the Navy's policy initiative for accommodating more disabilities went into action this year, however, I do think they should reconsider sending me blind pilots." 

"Are you on your wingman's life insurance or something?" 

"What did I say about making the same mistake twice?" "At least tell you I've learned something?" "No. What I said is don't." 

"Resist the urge to help me."

"I'm not looking for the best you can do. I'm looking for the best, period. So if you can't do any better, I suggest trying to emulate somebody else who can." 

"Well, you're no Artful Dodger, but artless dodging kept you alive well enough this time, I suppose." (I think it would be funny if he incidentally gave this poor pilot the callsign Dodger because of this, or A.D. for Artless Dodger)

"Did the Academy change its curriculum? Emphasize the element of surprise?" "Um... why do you ask, sir?" "Because you fly like you've never been inside a plane before." 

And I think he might say this to a colleague trying to pull rank over him that he neither respects nor cares about:

"I've neither the time, nor the crayons, to explain this to you." 

I think Mav would be so annoyed, too. "why do I have the reputation for being hard to work with when you're going around saying the meanest crap to these kids?" 

All Ice would do is laugh. "Sounds like a personal problem." 

Not to say that Ice is an asshole without restraint. Hell, the Iceman is all about restraint. He doesn't kick people when they're down. He doesn't say cutting stuff like this to people who are genuinely trying and not being a showoff. This is to knock overly arrogant kids down a few pegs, not send people into a shame self-doubting spiral, and Ice is usually pretty damn good at walking that line. 

Like, I imagine one of the students not understanding something to do with the physics portions of their classes and so he goes to Ice super nervous about getting reamed, and Ice is very patient with him. When Mav comes in and starts talking to Ice about instructor stuff, the student goes "oh, I can come back later, you know I think I'm getting it!" out of fear of wasting Ice's time and Ice would chuckle and be like "no, you clearly don't get it, and that's fine. Easier to teach you on dry land as opposed to up in the air, so let's keep working through it. Long as Mav's not about to talk to me about anything confidential --" which Mav shakes his head no "--alright, then how about you sit right there and keep working at it until you get it, and you will get it. If you've got the time, I've got the time, so let's get it done," and the kid stays in the office and keeps working at it for hours, occasionally checking his work with Mav and Ice until, voila, he does actually get it and also has a whole new understanding of Ice. 

Or if, god forbid, anyone had an accident, Ice would be all over trying to help with that (and help Mav work through it too) and protecting the students from any fallout from the brass because fuck them, they don't know what it's like to be in the air anymore. 

I also think that before the TOPGUN class starts, Ice would find Mav checking on all the canopies of all the jets and, once Ice realized that was what Mav was doing, would spend the next several hours with him helping out and making sure everything was operating properly, even though engineering had already looked at them. Can never be too sure, and if it provides Mav peace of mind, then Ice will do it, no questions asked. 

And so, despite saying some of the rudest crap most of these students have ever heard, they all love him. They all respect the ever-living-crap out of him, and learn to find him actually just kind of funny. It'd be a lot harder to like him if he were wrong, but he's so rarely wrong that in the end even the ones who do get pissed off at him manage to calm down. Students, as they graduate and leave TOPGUN, would probably talk to other graduating classes when they meet them on deployments like "oh my god, what did he say to your class?" "he once said --" "I didn't find it funny then but now I laugh every time I think about it -- " "he helped me figure out how to do..." so on so forth. 

There are a couple of the brass that aren't amused, but I think that's where Mav would come into play in his own way. Because Ice is good at what he does, and Mav sure as hell wants him around, and so should everyone else. Ice is just also not afraid to be an asshole about being good -- which the last person this is news to is Maverick. 

Maverick's just the only one Ice has encountered who can give as good as he gets, which is why as instructors, they do a pretty damn good job working together to whip their classes into shape. It's just funny that never in a million years did Mav think he'd be the "good cop" in their good cop/bad cop instructor situation, but he's resigned himself to his fate all the same. 

[klaradraws]

I would die for Gale train from barely skating

[lucyybradford]

Hangman: Looks like it's time to move on to Plan 2.

Student: Don't you mean Plan B, sir?

Rooster: Of course not. That would insinuate that we only have twenty-six plans.

[bigcatbulges]

Source - Daymoon_100

(Artist's FurAffinity Bluesky and Telegram Art Channel)

[strang3lov3]

Girlie, please ruffle some feathers and spill who your dilf awakening was, my interested is piqued, and I am far too nosey for that cliffhanger!

My dad’s best friend, who is legitimately so fucking handsome. Always was. He had a baby boy that unfortunately passed away about a month after his birth, and then I came along a few months after that. So he’d come by and hold me for hours because he needed a baby in his arms 🫂

I didn’t know this until a few years ago. My dad told me something about his best friend always having a sweet spot for me and said that was why. I loved him when I was a baby, I guess. I would spend hours napping on him.

I remember sitting at his kitchen counter when I was like 15 talking to him about a boy I had a crush on. And he fuckin hated this kid, lmao. He imparted his sage wisdom onto me and I remember having fucking hearts in my eyes for him at that moment.

[kittykatninja321]

ok I’m gonna be delusional for a second. Talia as Jason’s firearm instructor

[pierrotwrites-hc]

where have you been?!

working.

that’s the short answer. the long answer is that my employer, a despotic university that will go unnamed, has had its budget cut by $400m as punishment for not bending the knee bone-crackingly enough for the Trump administration, and in consequence my contract (for a position that was supposed to become permanent this year) was essentially cut in half. it’s a bit complicated, but the gist is that I’ve had to double my workload and take on a lot of new clients in order to make the same amount of money. as these clients are mostly medical school applicants, my work is tied to their deadlines, which means I have to make the most of the feast season (March through September) to support myself through the famine months that follow.

what this means is that I’ve been working every day for weeks and most days for months and have barely had time to pet my cat, never mind finish a chapter.

things will get better soon, but for now, please understand that I am far more frustrated with the lack of updates than you are.

[halfbaked00q]

i think after Bond retires he should become a househusband. but also a consultant for mi6. and not bc I think he loves his job - bc tbh, I think he dont! - but bc I think he's still gonna continue to need to feel Useful lmao :')

and also like, he's gotta retain security clearances & access. cuz you Know this bitch absolutely Needs to drop in unannounced and cheerfully inconvenience everyone. and also be able to come & go as he pleases from Q branch :3 It's like. you know and I know and we all know if you don't give him legitimate access he'll still find a way somehow anyway, and that'd just be bad for security and also create paperwork. might as well just give him a badge & clearances, for a tiny fragment of your own sanity if nothing else.

another consideration like is, idk abt a full-time job for him after retirement, you know? - bruh isn't even working a full-time job schedule right now as a 00 technically, can you imagine him having to have a regular work schedule, every day, Monday thru Friday. *I* already want to kermit half the time. imagine how much worse it'd be for James 007 Bond.

[amazonclimber]

“Okay, so, first thing’s first: You’re going to need to set your anchor on fire.”

[bright-hope-spot-19]

Kankuro and his relationship with rules and figures of authority

I've written a lot about why I like Kankuro's character and many of his little traits and idiosyncrasies that, in my opinion, make him unique. Another trait of his tho, that I think I've only superficially touched upon, and think deserves more attention, is his tendency to break rules. Or not respecting figures of authority would be more like it. As we all know, one of the main tenets of shinobi is that of complete and utter loyalty to the village, and all that it entails. That also comes with respect to figures of authority (the Kage and clan leaders) as well as their rules. That's what the Will of Fire is, really. A way to indoctrinate children into becoming obedient soldiers who don't question the system.

Now, the will of fire mainly applies to Konoha, so one question I've always had is: What about Suna? Do they share a similar philosophy? The simple answer is: yes, they, of course, do. It might not be called 'Will of fire' in Suna (some fans speculate in Suna it'd be Will of Wind. Even if it's never been named in Canon). But they still follow very similar principles. Heck, I'm pretty sure there's a scene somewhere in the anime, where it is stated the sand sibs stayed in Leaf for a while, to learn from them how they ran their academy system? To implement a similar one in Suna or smth. Especially after Gaara's rise to Kazekage, it's a given fact he's gonna embrace his beloved Naruto's will of fire. In fact, it's also very known that Suna's also way harsher than Konoha, supposedly.

That's where I started thinking of the 3 main sand shinobi we know: the sand siblings. I came to the realization that while it's true that Temari and especially Gaara are very obedient shinobi who abide by the rules. Kankuro really doesn't? At least, he doesn't respect them as much as his sibs. Boy does whatever he wants, not caring about the consequences.

His introduction was very explicitly of him breaking the rules, with Temari urging him to stop it.

One of his lines is him very explicitly saying he just wants to play until the 'boss' (Gaara) comes. He's very clearly going against standard shinobi protocol, picking up a fight with these kids just cause he felt like it. In this instance, he's breaking the rules. They were probably told to keep it low-key while in the Leaf, and he went and immediately did the complete opposite.

It happens again in Shippuden, after Gaara is kidnapped by Deidara and Kankuro is very explicitly told not to engage in combat:

And once again, he does the complete opposite. He not only tracked the two Akatsuki but also tried to fight them on his own. The funny thing is, it was thanks to his rash way of thinking that they managed to get Gaara back. As without him fighting Sasori, he would've never gotten a piece of his cape, and t7 would've never been able to locate their hideout in the desert. There's also the two instances of him picking up a fight with one of the council elders and Oonoki himself in the Kage meeting arc. Kankuro is deep down, very pragmatic. Whenever he approaches a situation, he does so in a practical way that will lead to positive results he can benefit from. Nowhere is that better shown than this scene here in the forest of death:

This is his main philosophy, which is completely detached from any shinobi teachings. Now, some might think that is exactly what shinobi are taught to do, and I'd say: no, not really. With the shinobi world's militaristic ideals, they live by the rule that violence is the solution to everything and to end all problems standing in the way. That diplomacy should only be the outcome after the violence is done to force the losing side into agreeing to the winners' rules. That's how the Uchiha massacre happened and how the shinoby system was enforced, as well as the idea of having jinchuriki as super powerful weapons. Since Konoha was the 1st to do it, and they were the strongest superpower, all other main village's had to follow the same system if they didn't wanna be crushed. If I'm not wrong, and correct me if I am, the chunin exams were also an invention of Konoha, and the other villages joined in. Kankuro twists that into 'violence should only be used in extreme circumstances when there's big profit to be gained from it'. He doesn't see violence as the first and only tool, or even as a solution. He only considers it if the outcome from it would be a preferable one to him and his loved ones (his sibs). It is very clear, too, because when they came across the rain guys in the forest, Kankuro didn't think it was a good idea to get into a fight with them. His plan in his head consisted of first tracking and obtaining an idea of what scroll they had. Only if it was the scroll they needed would they attack. And head to the tower after that, without getting into any other unnecessary fights that could potentially lead to unnecessary losses. It's in stark contrast to team 8, who immediately set up traps to wipe as many people as possible out of the competition, even if they only needed one scroll. Kiba and Co were willing to get into unnecessary fights to get rid of hypothetical problems that other contestants could pose in the long run (Konoha's teachings), whereas Kank evades that, as much as possible. Which is a very strategic way of thinking things when seen in retrospect. He also tells Gaara that while the exam may be no big deal to him, it's still dangerous to Kank and Tem. Once again, highlighting how much he cares about his sibs (Temari in this instance).

It's also worthy of note that the only authority we've ever seen Kankuro actively respect is that of his siblings

Which should tell us everything we need to know: Kankuro really doesn't care about shinobi rules or ideals, as long as his siblings are safe and out of danger. While yeah, in this image, he's shown fretting about their plan. Let's also keep in mind that once the attack started, they went against it by carrying Gaara away from the village so he wouldn't cause any real damage. Also, he's literally deferring to his sister here on what to do, a sister who not only is just 1 year older than him, but was also pretty much against this whole invasion instead of going to ask his adult jounin instructor for advice, which once again, shows how little he respects figures of authority. He does so once again when him and Temari are in the forest, on the run from Sasuke, and he asks her for instructions. I don't know how else to say that Kankuro doesn't follow shinobi rules strictly. He just takes the decisions that will ensure the safety of his siblings. He's following the rules of his heart.

Another instance of him following the rules of his heart is by comparing his speech to his squad to the one Gaara gave to the whole alliance

Kankurou doesn't give big talks about protecting the whole world and its authorities. He's highlighting the things that matter the most to him: family. That is his main motivator. Protect his family cause they're his loved ones. If we look at Gaara's speech on the other hand:

I don't wanna say it's bad, but he's practically saying that his main motivator is protecting Naruto. Through his speech, he brings Naruto as the golden standard of friendship and breaking village barriers that they should aspire to and protect. Also, he ends his speech by stating the fact that they're all shinobi, which feels pretty much like an admission of 'we were raised to fight and die against the bigger bad no matter our differences'. He's saying that instead of wasting time fighting each other, they should concentrate on becoming friends to defeat this common enemy who's looking to hurt Naruto and the whole world as a result. He, at no point, brings up their families or loved ones as motivators for these people to keep fighting. Naruto is the motivator that comes to Gaara's mind and how he made an intrinsic relation between Naruto's safety and the safety of the whole world. In Gaara's mind, the world is safe as long as Naruto is. If anything happens to Naruto, the whole world goes to heck. Which, when seen in retrospect, isn't that motivating. Knowing that the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of some 16 year old, and the role of every other person in the alliance is to die to protect and ensure the safety of said 16 year old cause he's the most important one. That's what Gaara was saying, basically. Also, looking at it: Naruto ends up becoming an authority, the most powerful in the world, in fact. So, Gaara's speech is all about protecting a future figure of authority to ensure the safety of the world as a result.

Last one here, but this characterization, is kept consistent even in fillers. In the 2nd rendition of the chunin exams, there's a part that took place in the Suna desert, and a big sandstorm happened, putting the contestants' lives at stake. When it's decided that Kankuro and Temari would have to go rescue them, this was his reaction:

He's complaining about having to rescue the contestants but ends up agreeing with it only because the command came from Gaara. You can bet if the order came from anyone else but Gaara (or even Temari), Kankuro would've tried to argue and come up with ideas to ensure the safety of the participants without having to endanger his or Temari's lives. Even when he agreed to it tho, and they go rescue these people, Kankuro is still pouting, and he doesn't even let them ride on Salamander for safety. Once again, showing how he doesn't abide by the rules, he does whatever th he wants, as long as his sibs aren't in danger.

In conclusion: I just find it interesting how much of a rebel Kankuro is. Now, yeah. You can say that, at the end of the day, Kankuro is just serving Gaara, who abides by Konoha's will of fire. So, Kankuro ends up abiding to it as a result. While that might be true, I think we shouldn't miss the main point of his character: his main purpose is protecting Gaara. That is the role he plays in the large scheme of things. Whether he has to follow any shinobi rules to do it is an entirely different matter. He's the type to follow rules, only if said rules ensure the safety of his family. Also, he doesn't view Gaara as an authority figure. He views him as a little brother. So, when he wants to protect Gaara, he's just doing his elder brother role, not looking after his political leader. It's very obvious, too, in how when Suna was destroyed by Deidara, Kank didn't give two shits about his village, and instead went running after the criminals who kidnapped his brother. I just think it's such a phenomenal character trait that makes him stand out, and more people should take it into account.

[us-air-force-2]

[lizardsexposed]

garrus' theme from ME2 opening like a fucking western movie then the synth bass coming in like jack wall served pure cunt

[wyrddogs]

twogundogonesighthound: I don’t but I’d be aware that training a final response actually can put a cap on drive and hamper his motivation a little bit since you’re adding MORE criteria to nose work.

trubluebecca: As someone that had a position based TFR and had to basically untrain it/loosen criteria, I’m hesitant to suggest training one. My favorite TFR at this time is a freeze with nose on source. As dogs age, positions can become difficult for dogs to perform. Mud also became extreme frustrated when he couldn’t hold his nose on source and perform a down, so he was plucking hides to lay down on them. I feel nose on source was more important of a criteria than the down.

trubluebecca: Mud has done a lot of work in electrical boxes. Proofing duration with movement, distractions, etc. I’ve also done just the basic “it’s yer choice” type work with him in my hands, too. Not sure what all you have done with him so far as “odor pays”/nose on source. (I recall you were pairing, but not sure if there’s been more beyond that.)

—

Thank you both for weighing in! I’m interested in learning more about training nose to source. I’m having a hard time motivating Zaku to stay there. Kermit and Luci both were like “oh, good happens when I find the tin” and both have given me lovely natural indications.

I’ve done SO MUCH paired hides with Zaku, and while he’s improved he’ll still often walk straight past it, glance over like “there it is”, and continue exploring. It’s only after he has fully explored the environment and I’ve restricted where he can go that he’s like “okay fine it’s here”. And even then if I don’t mark and reward instantly he walks off again. He will not hold or wait for his reward.

My thought was training a sit/down would at least force him to hold still long enough to mark and reward but if you think that’s a bad plan that’s good to know.

I’m just having a hard time finding the reward that makes nosework worth his time. And I’m having a hard time getting An Indication from him.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

You think Hiccup has experience riding horses? What with the whole standing in the saddle as Toothless speeds by thing.

[theadventurek9]

A business I work part-time for runs a subscription based drop in training classes. I managed to get a spot for Ryker in the Nosework class.

He was fantastic, we did searches pairing food with the scent as well as building up to searching for scents in switch boxes.

He was confident and searched the room without hesitation or stress. He didn't even jump on the instructor and kept searching past her. (After shoving his nose in her crotch and wiggling around her)

By the last search he was dragging me to the search area and running once released to search. The instructor says he actually is doing well already. He just needs to learn to work past some frustration. He did offer a few downs in front of me when he wasn't sure, yet he didn't need prompting to get moving again.

😭 maybe I am doing some things right with him.