Mad Science & You: Week 1 (Tuesday, Period 3)

[daimonhost.livejournal.com]

When students arrived at the Danger Shop for the first week of classes, they would notice that everything inside looked suspiciously ... normal. The inside had been set up to look like a typical classroom, with desks in neat rows and posters of inspirational sayings on the wall. The only unusual things about the room were the large selection of lab coats hanging on the back wall, and the man sitting on the teacher's desk at the front of the room with his face cloaked in shadow. He waited until everyone had taken a seat before standing up and starting to speak.

"Welcome to Mad Science & You!" he said. "The very fact that you have chosen to enroll in this course already proves your superiority over the rest of your feeble-minded fellow students. I am your instructor, Professor Souichi Tomoe, and my personal areas of scientific expertise are genetic engineering and astrophysics. Over the coming weeks we'll be exploring the interesting world of so-called mad science, dealing with areas of research that the scientific establishment tend to consider too 'outlandish', or 'in gross violation of ethical standards'. I hope to give you a sampling of some of the things my mad scientist colleagues get up to." Prof Tomoe grinned, with an oddly glowing red smile.

He clapped his hands together excitedly. "And before we start barreling head-first into reanimating the dead and creating hideous mutant hybrids, I should probably find out a little about you. So, pick a lab coat to use this semester, and then tell me your name, year, why you choose this course, and anything about your previous experiences with science, regular or not."

He started to reach for the coffee cup on the desk, and then paused as though remembering something. "Oh yes. And I will also be in need of a TA this semester. If any of you are interested in the position, you may speak with me after class."

Ethics [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

[sith_happened]

When Ethics began, the desks, instead of being set up in the usual rows typical of a classroom, had been shoved to the sides, and a long line of white tape had been stuck down the middle of the room. The instructor was also nowhere to be seen.

This served a purpose: breaking the students' preconceived idea about what a class devoted to ethics might be about, and setting them up for nervous chatting before Anakin arrived.

He did, precisely two mintues late, clicking the door shut behind him. "Welcome to Ethics," he said. "I'm Master Anakin Skywalker. Please set yourselves up along that white line."

He waited until all of the students were lined up before explaining. "There's a philosopher from this world named John Rawls, who believes that most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position. In Fandom especially, we are coming from a variety of cultures and traditions to examine ethical dilemmas, and so the idea of a 'fair position' is a bit of a moving target. The choice that might be right for you might be completely contrary to my own life experiences, but that will not make your point of view less valid."

Anakin began pacing, his cloak swirling around his ankles as he did so. "Rawls believed that to come to this fair position, a magical 'veil of ignorance' must be put into place in order to erase everyone's knowledge of their places in society." He smiled a little wryly. "I'm not saying that at some point, Fandom might not do that sort of work for us and erase your memories of who and what you are, but today we're going to conduct an exercise that's slightly less drastic--one that will make you examine the parts of your life you might take for granted, and how that affects your view on the world."

He glanced down at a piece of paper. "Let's begin."

Personal Improvement Through Science: Aperture Laboratories Presents Physical Education (Wed/Per. 2)

[gladigotburned.livejournal.com]

Upon entering the classroom through the circular sliding doors, students would find themselves in a short corridor with a plain white wall at the far end and two much more boring rectangular doors on either side, each one labeled ENRICHMENT CENTER PRE-TEST EQUIPMENT REQUISITION CHAMBER. At least the little figures on each sign matched the kind you might find on any public restroom door if you needed to know which one to use.

Behind each of those doors was a locker room: much fancier and cleaner -- you could even say sterile -- than an ordinary locker room. (You know, like the locker rooms in the school gym, which begged the question of why exactly physical education was meeting here, didn't it? Well, that question was irrelevant to the task at hand: namely changing into . . . not exactly typical gym wear.) Each student would find a locker with their name on a placard that read "The enclosed Vital Testing Apparatus is mandatory. Thank you for helping us help you help us all!" Each locker contained a bright orange jumpsuit and white tank top, as well as a pair of high-tech-looking white boots. Look, kids, just be glad you got actual locker rooms with walls. Most test subjects just got to wake up from suspended animation in a clear glass cubicle. The locker rooms did have one thing in common with Relaxation Vaults, though: if you flushed any of the toilets, they would cheerfully inform you that your business was appreciated.

After ten minutes or so, a chime rang out over the PA system -- yes, in the locker rooms -- and a prerecorded voice, pleasant and apparently male, announced, "Once preparations are complete, please proceed to the testing area entrance."

On cue, but without explanation, a blue oval hole suddenly materialized in the middle of the wall at the far end of the corridor. Through the door-sized hole, another, larger room was clearly visible.

Well then.

"Welcome to the Enrichment Computer-Aided Satellite Learning Center," said a second voice, this one slightly electronic, monotonous, and female, coming from well-concealed speakers once students had entered the main chamber. You did walk through the glowing blue portal, right, kids? Because if you did, you'd realize that you were standing on a platform about twenty feet above the floor, where you could look down and across the room at the blue portal you just stepped through. As a matter of fact, you could see the locker room corridor through it, and any classmates who might have been behind you standing there . . . until they emerged through the orange portal behind you. Mounted high on the wall near the orange portal was a white surveillance camera with a blinking red LED, because that wasn't creepy at all. "As a preliminary exercise, please state your name and class year. This activity will serve to confirm our testing roster."

There was a brief pause. "In addition, any conversation that may occur as a result of this preliminary exercise will be a valuable bonding experience." A chirping sort of beep. "Sarcasm self-test complete."

"I'm kidding about the bonding experience," the voice went on, sounding much less digital now, closer to human, and even conversational -- if condescending. "I really don't care about that. Do that on your own time, somewhere far away from me. Oh. What I said just now wasn't sarcasm, by the way, unlike the last thing. Just clarifying that in case you're incapable of telling the difference. I wasn't kidding about the testing roster, though, so get on with the names, if you have them. After that, we can start."

[OOC: OCD is up. Have at.]