Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

[furnaceface]

"I realize," Jono said as he stepped into the classroom, "that last week's lesson was a touch... heavy, for at least a few of you."

He wasn't going to name names, or even single anybody in the room out by looking at them. They knew who they were, and that was enough.

"This week, we're going to lighten things up a little bit. I know I'm not the party person here on the island, but I did my best. For the rest of the class, it's music, refreshments, dancing, and, you know, being social. If you aren't up dancing, I want to at least see you making small talk with somebody else in the room. There is a shadowy corner right over there," he pointed at a corner of the room behind his speaker equipment, where light was somewhat scarce, "and if I see you in there for anything besides re-grouping and taking a breather if you're feeling overwhelmed, you'll have marks docked."

... He wasn't really marking you on partying during class hours, but there was nothing stopping Jono from making that threat all the same.

"Random social situation? Go."

[Open!]

Astro Sciences, Friday

[not_a_whiner]

"One of the big things about dealing with alien species is negotiation, communication," Kaidan began. "There's some unique challenges in negotiating with someone who comes from a completely different cultural background than you do, and you can imagine it gets, uh, amplified when you're dealing with another species."

"Now, negotiation's always about give and take," he continued, "But it's hard to know what to give and what you're allowed to take if you're not aware of the other party's, uh, cultural norms." He tried his best to keep his face straight (and not for humorous reasons) as he added, "The asari, for instance, don't really care about gender, and will react with confusion or anger if you try to hold them to human standards of decorum around women, let alone sexuality."

"So I want to do an exercise today," he said, sliding the photo-copied handbook over for Topher to distribute. "I want you to find someone from a different culture than your own. Might be another country. Might be another planet. Might just be a different background. First, I want you to negotiate. One of you gets two pieces of cake, the other person gets two cookies. You're going to want to trade off. Talk about that."

He leaned back. "Then I want you to talk about, uh, where you're from-- to find differences between your cultures. What's okay to say to another person? What isn't? Most importantly, what assumptions are you making?"

Look, Kaidan wasn't a diplomat. But he was going to try and inspire the kids to think that way. Might be less wars in the future.

Oppression, Resistance & Revolution: Friday

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

Magneto was sitting behind the desk at the front of the classroom this morning as the students walked in. In his hands was a form of archaic media known as a newspaper. It was a couple days old and had the election results plastered across the front page.

"Unless you've been living under a stone, this particular universe just had an election this past Tuesday. In this election key people were elected or re-elected based on the candidates' platforms. Based upon the definitions I provided to you last week, I want you to answer the following question."

Magneto rose and tossed the newspaper onto the desk.

"Is an election a true form of revolution? Why?"

He then pointed at a random student. "You. Answer."

Apathy Club, A Classroom, Friday After Classes

[stars_and_money]

One of these weeks, Jeremy was actually going to do something with this club. Really! They would have an excursion to be apathetic somewhere else, or something. Or possibly laser tag. Something.

But today was not that day.

Because Jeremy was slumped over his desk, asleep. This was, incidentally and handwavily, how he'd also spent his shift at Demon Marcus yesterday. He was the most productive person ever.