Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

[furnaceface]

When the students made their way to the classroom for Jonothon's first ever class on the island (and really, what the hell had he been thinking when he had decided he could do this?!) they'd see that the setup for the room was a little on the informal side. Jono had given up on desks, having decided that they were anathema in a class that was supposed to be about making antisocial teens just get over themselves and socialize, already. In their place, sofas. Loveseats. A few bean-bag chairs if people so desired.

And a requisite shadowy corner. Big enough for one. Because he was a brat and wanted to see if any of his students would give one another dirty looks over it. He liked to think he knew their type, for some reason or other.

( It's a lecture! )

[Open!]

Astro Sciences, Friday

[not_a_whiner]

Class was held in a regular classroom, no fancy stuff: just the holographic whiteboard Kaidan had set up, Kaidan's desk, a bunch of desks for the students and some maps of the galaxy at the back of the class.

"Hey," Kaidan began, sliding his eyes over the students present. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Kaidan Alenko. Welcome to, uh, Astro Sciences class. I know the title's a little clunky, but we're going to be covering a lot of different disciplines during this class."

Teaching. He still didn't quite have the hang of it; it didn't feel natural.

"We're going to kick off with astronomy, which is the study of celestial objects. That means... everything you can see when you look up at the sky at night, and a whole lot you can't. Planets, stars, comets, solar systems... even galaxies. It's the first field of science to be dedicated to the study of the universe-- we've been doing it for thousands of years."

He cleared his throat. "So that's going to be one thing we'll be doing," he said. "We'll also be covering xenobiology, the physics of space, and a whole range of other topics. It's gonna be mostly the basics for each of those topics - we can maybe go into depth in another class." He rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, and... at the end of October, I'm arranging a field trip for this class and anyone else is interested-- we're going to the Citadel, the hub of galactic society-- in my universe. Get you all a lesson on actual aliens."

Kaidan sat back in his seat. Right. Go on from there. "But right now we're just doing introductions," he said. "Name and class, and... tell me something about your experience with-- well, space." He realized as he said it that that was kind of... vague.

Thought about it. Took a breath.

"When I was a kid," he said, "Humanity... hadn't really gone very far beyond the Sol system. I remember looking up at the sky at night and wondering what was out there-- what we could find if we could just go a little further, you know? Would there be aliens? How would they live? Space... it seemed like it could be this amazing playground, this place full of wonder. I mean, imagine going... not just to an entirely different planet, but to a different system, meeting people who are nothing like you...

"And then we did," he continued, "We found the mass relay system and we explored the hell out of everything we could reach. And then the aliens came to us, the grand adventure... except as it turned out the aliens made laws and built cities and argued and traded... not quite like we did, but close enough. Not only that, but none of them ever looked out the window and went, 'Wow. We live in this giant, exciting, terrifying universe'... here I'd spent all my life wondering about what it would be like out there, only to find out that the people who already had 'out there'-- didn't even care about the view."

That had been something. He'd told Shepard once. Now he was using it here. Helping me again?

"But I still care about the view," Kaidan finished. "And about the dangers. And I think anyone who gets the chance should go off-planet, just once, to appreciate it."

Library, Friday [08/31]

[selfhelphero]

It had been a weird day for Billy, so he was spending his library shift sitting in the poetry section, looking through some books and burying himself in words. It wasn't brooding - he was in a surprisingly good mood, to be honest - but he was still enjoying the quiet.

[OCD-free because I forgot to actually hit "post" on this this morning!]

Art of the Heist, Friday, 3rd Period

[thefearwasreal]

When Oz's class arrived at the Danger Shop, they would have found themselves in a small holding cell reminiscent of the ones at the town station.

"Greetings and salutations," Oz, who was on the other side of the bars, cheerily told them. "And welcome to Art of the Heist, a class to keep you from ending up here by teaching you all the ways you can get caught, and thus discouraging from embarking on a life of crime to begin with."

It was almost like Oz doubted the motives of anyone who was taking his class. And had very odd ideas about how negative reinforcement worked.

"Now, since it's a small enough class I can guess who's who without much trouble, we won't do the traditional kind of introductions, instead we're going to pretend you're all actually previously unknown to each other cellmates, because you'd be surprised how many crimes are hatched in holding cells just like this one, so I want you to sell yourself to your potential partners-in-crime before you all make bail at the end of the class."