The Elements of Friendship, Thursday, Period 1

[locointhecoco]

The Danger Shop today was set up to look like a large town square, surrounded by strange looking houses shaped like cupcakes and carousels and giant joker hats. In the center of the time square was a bucket full of apples, next to which sat Pinkie, crouched on her hind legs, holding a trombone. As the door closed behind the last student, she played a classic sad trombone riff. Don't ask how she managed this with hooves. She had skills.

When the last note faded out, a tennis ball sized bug with giant, sparkling green eyes fluttered out of the bucket of apples. It blinked adorably at the students, its eyelids making audible *plink!* noises.

Pinkie tried not to shudder visibly.

"It's cute, isn't it?" she said. "The way it flutters and blinks and it always looks like its smiling. Maybe you think it might make a nice pet. This is your assignment, today. There's a stash of musical instruments behind the joke shop, and a forest down the road. Try not to destroy the town!"

And then she trotted off. Leaving the little bug sitting on top of the bucket of apples, blinking and looking guileless and innocent.

Then it opened its mouth four times wider than its body and ate the entire bucket of apples in a single *howmp!*ing gulp, and spit the empty bucket out with a *ptoo!* And coughed up a little brown hairball -- which unfolded into a second tennis ball sized bug with a tiny smile and giant eyeballs. The two bugs began eyeing anything remotely food-like hungrily.

[ooc: We are open for business]

Tropes and Scope [Class 4, Thursday]

[bookworm-beauty.livejournal.com]

Today, when students entered the classroom, they would find a large screen set up with a projector. Don't ask how Belle had set it up. She certainly had no idea how she'd done it.

"Today we're going to talk about morals within literature," Belle chirped in greeting. "Sometimes, you find a character who is entirely virtuous -- your standard knight in shining armor. He or she is good to a fault, honorable in all ways, and upholds the law. You'll find your entirely bad characters -- snakes in the grass who deceive, or those obsessed with personal gain. These villains are those we love to hate, because they make it so...typical."

She smilled as she flicked on her DVD player. "But what about those morally gray characters? That's a great motif in literature - those who compromise their morals and society's expectations for whatever reason. These hit a little more close to home for many, because most of us don't do the right thing all the time. Knights in shining honor don't really exist in real life."

As she turned off the light, she instructed, "Watch the film. Think about heroes and villains. And think about what those look like in real life, and what morally gray people and characters you may know."

Sensitivity Training, Thursday, September 22nd

[lockestheway]

It wasn't Guy at the front of the class, but Peter.

Everyone should probably be worried about that.

"Professor Gardner can't make it today," he said, looking like the picture of innocence. "So he left us with this video, and an assignment. The assignment is to watch the video and write down every part where anyone engages in insensitive behavior."

Guy had done nothing of the sort. Peter just wanted to flex his authority muscles while he had them.

He patted the television, then turned on the film, and sat down.