Heroism, Humanism & Hijinks: Literature in Action - Week 15, Period 5 (Final)

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

The class was in the Danger Shop today for their final piece of assessment.

"Good afternoon. Inside you'll find Dickensian London. Namely, the London of A Christmas Carol. Something, however, had gone wrong. Despite being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, Ebenezer Scrooge has not discovered the true meaning of Christmas and thus has not gone to Christmas dinner with the Cratchett family. Fix it."

[OOC: Thank you all for a wonderful semester and for hanging on with me while I tested the waters with Lit. You've been a great class. Hope to see you back next semester for a more organised Lit class!]

Comments

Sign In

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

For the last time.

Re: Sign In

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana Lang

Before the Test

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

Talk amongst yourselves or freak out (yes Hermione I'm looking at you).

Re: Before the Test

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack rubbed at his forehead while he waited for the test to start.

Stupid ballpoints.

Re: Before the Test

[smartestone]

Hermione looks more than a little panicked at the writing all up and down her arms, and says, "These aren't the answers to any tests, the pen just did this by itself!"

She had a battle this morning.

Fix It!

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

You're in a mock-up of the book. You can talk to characters and find out what they know about Scrooge going off track, tweak the environment and even smack some sense into good ol' Ebenezer. Feel free to ping me in the OOC thread for character interaction (available after 4pm PST), play out your own interactions with the characters or sum up your solution in a paragraph or two. Completely up to you.

Re: Fix It!

[connernotconnor.livejournal.com]

Conner would have actually played it out more thoroughly if he had a copy of the book on hand for reference took a long time to figure out what was going on, given that tact and constructive verbal exchanges were not exactly his strong point. It took a lengthy session of commiserating with Scrooge's nephew Fred over the pain of getting constantly stood up, and an unusually adept application of the "ol' McKnight charm" in a conversation with Scrooge's former fiancée Belle.

Which was a lot of talking for Conner.

So after stopping off at a pub to, ahem, refresh his dry throat, he somehow tracked Scrooge down at Big Ben of all places, and wheedled him into going to dinner with the Cratchits.

. . . Conner, who appreciated food in all its forms, was not in any way above describing Christmas dinner in all its glorious detail. That seemed to work well enough as far as softening Scrooge up enough to subject him to a slightly hokey (okay, very hokey) speech about the meaning of Christmas, and hustle him off to the Cratchits' place.

Re: Fix It!

[notajar]

[...it was too long for the comment box. *facepalm*]

Re: Fix It!

[proudsidekick.livejournal.com]

Layla headed for the Cratchett's house first, to check up on the family, to see exactly how tiny Tiny Tim was, and to assure them all that they would indeed have a very Merry Christmas as long as she had something to say about it. Then she went to talk to Belle, who thankfully let herself be won over by Layla's sweet-and-innocent act, and gave some good advice for how to try to win over Scrooge.

In the end, Layla figured that another emotional scare tactic might be best, since it had technically worked in the book. She tracked Scrooge down and declared herself to be the Ghost of Christmas Subjunctive, and between her description of how wonderful and delicious the dinner would be, her gentle threats of bodily harm if he didn't suck it up and start acting like a human being, and a few tears, she managed to convince him of the true meaning of Christmas after all, and gleefully sent him on his way to dinner.

[Now with actual English-speaking skills! *facepalm*]

Re: Fix It!

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Despite knowing that if three ghosts couldn't convince a guy to spend his christmas with his family, Cameron stilled decided to try and talk Scrooge into going. The conversation covered all the joys Cameron could think of from great food, presents, the smell of christmas trees and even singing carols. Scrooge sadly enough didn't agree.

Which lead to phase 2 of Cameron's action plan; badgering. He was pretty good at it as he followed Scrooge around and kept asking him why he wasn't going. Which strangely enough seemed to annoy Scrooge even more.

Phase 3 actually resembled phase 2 a lot as Cameron decided to tell every Christmas story he could think of in the hopes that Scrooge would get it.

In the end Scrooge caved. Whether he actually got the true meaning or he just wanted to shut Cameron up remained a mystery, though.

Re: Fix It!

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn spent a good chunk of the class talking to Scrooge's family and friends, getting information about Scrooge.

She then ignored most of it and spent the afternoon camped out on Scrooge's couch, swinging her feet, singing The Song That Never Ends at the top of her lungs, and explaining about the demons that would come attack his house and steal his money if he didn't get over to the Cratchetts with some food and presents sometime before Christmas morning.

He called a priest and tried to exorcise her right about the time the sun came up. When she didn't disappear, he took off running for the shops like his feet were on fire.

Re: Fix It!

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

Billy was a bit confused, having read the book recently, and listened to a recording of Patrick Stewart reading said book. Maybe it was a trick question? In any case, he knew where to find Scrooge. He went strait to Fred's house, asking directions of course. He looked quite ragged compared to everyone else, and the eye patch certainly gave the maid a start. He didn't bother trying to argue his way in, he simply said, in his best fake cockney accent (which wasn't that great but yay for holographic charectors not noticing such things), that he came on behalf of the Cratchitts, and that Bob, had extended his best wishes and invitation to dinner to Fred, and Scrooge, whom he'd spotted entering.
She looked at him dubiously but she did pass the message on. Fred of course could not abandon his guests, but Scrooge made his own goodbyes, and hurried to Camden Town.

And they all lived happily ever after. Except Billy who stepped in horse cookies.

The End

Re: Fix It!

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly's first thought was that something had gone wrong during the visitations. So, she decided to speak with the ghosts to see what they had said to Scrooge and see if it was correct.

She wasn't sure exactly where to go to find the ghosts, so she went to Scrooge's bedroom since that was where they had all appeared. "Hey, ghosts!" she called out. "We need a status report here!"

Re: Fix It!

[ihatedenmark.livejournal.com]

The first thing that Hamlet did upon entering the novel was make his way to Fred's Christmas party. After talking to Scrooge's nephew (and having a slice or two of the delicious roast goose, and maybe a round of 20 Questions), he got detailed directions on how to find Ebeneezer's place. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to talk the old man into finding the Christmas spirit, but he did, however bring a secret weapon with him from the outside world: a detailed TV guide of the animated Christmas specials that were going to be airing on the weekend.

And if network TV had taught him anything, it was that the best way to save a story gone bad was to bring in a special guest star.

He made his way to Scrooge's house, and used doorknocker to sound loudly on the door.

Re: Fix It!

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec had read the book, but he kind of felt out of his element. Still, he could adapt, and he figured the best way to do this was get to the heart of the problem as soon as possible.

He headed for Scrooge's house and used the heavy doorknocker when he arrived, then waited for someone to answer.

Handwave

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

Or if you need to handwave your guts out, here's the place to do it.

Re: Handwave

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana did a marvelous handwavey job!

(Just in case the Mun gets slammed and can't get back here today.]

Re: Handwave

[dude-its-jude.livejournal.com]

If there was one thing Jude was good at, it was being mellow. Clearly Scrooge was just totally harshed and needed to find his holiday mellow. Jude only wished that he wasn't hobbling almost as badly as Tiny Tim at the moment.

Jude limped away from a garland-stringing Scrooge with a mellow smile. "Dude, I totally rock."

[[Just as little of an idea as to if I'll get back today.]]

Re: Handwave

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack's solution involved creative use of lung fungus.

Don't ask.

Re: Handwave

[multiplez]

After Z told Scrooge a heartbreaking tale about how miserable Christmas could be without a rich benefactor (which she sounded rather knowledgable about) he cracked and headed for the Cratchetts'. "Don't forget the goose!" she called after him.

Re: Handwave

[smartestone]

Hermione hates practical exams like this, but hey, sometimes you can use your frustration to your benefit. Like when she sees Scrooge and launches into a tirade about selfishness and idiocy and finally threatens him with a body-binding spell and the idea of being dragged to the dinner table by a sixteen-year-old girl if it means passing her bloody final.

Re: Handwave

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

The twins tackle the exam together, using their own, unique methods to creep Scrooge into submission.

Re: Handwave

[ktarian-wildman.livejournal.com]

Naomi was able to effectively pass the exam. For someone who had never celebrated Christmas before she did a pretty amazing job in being able to convince another person who had previously hated Christmas into celebrating.

Talk to Thursday

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

She's lurking and watching.

OOC

[no-toast-thanks.livejournal.com]

Ping me here with a link to the thread if you want character interaction to play scenes out.

Still in need of an OOC icon. Hmm.

Re: OOC

[notajar]

Not a ping, just a for-reference if anyone else wants it: The text online. :-D