Competitive Teambuilding, Tuesday, period 1

[vdistinctive]

The class met up in the Danger Shop, in what looked like the front parlor of a swanky mansion. A swanky mansion that didn't like sunlight and hadn't been properly cleaned in a long time. There were portraits on the walls of glowering old-timey nobles -- who looked suspiciously like the teachers.

Eliot was glaring at the one that looked like him. The portrait was glaring back.

Hey, the teachers and friends. The portrait of Old Nate hung in a place of honor over the fireplace.

"Hey y'all," Hardison said, looking for more excited about class than his glowering co-teacher. "It's almost Halloween! So today you'll be putting some teamwork in to be appropriately spooooky." Yes, that was said with finger waggles to accompany the long drawn-out 'oooo.' Look, Hardison loved Halloween and didn't care what anyone else had to say about it.

Honestly, Eliot was just glad Hardison hadn't said "spoopy".

“You’re building the house! You each get a room,” Parker said, swinging a crowbar with a certain level of abandon. “It’s going to need a theme, and you’ll have to man it, or at least monitor it, so it needs to be something three to four people can manage. After that, it’s whatever scares the crap out of you. Just not literally.”

"You're gonna be judged the same way the dance challenge was, by . . . computer . . . people." Eliot wasn't really clear on how the Danger Shop worked. "Simulations. In this case, trick or treaters." He pointed towards the door, where a group of short witches and ghosts stood, comparing candy stashes. "Scariest haunted room wins."

"Remember, no throwin' the crowbar, it makes Eliot grumpy," Hardison whispered in an undertone. Then, more loudly, "Any questions? If not...let's get spoopy up in here!"

Just for you, Eliot.

Magical Bestiary | Tuesday, period 2

[nuclear_snide]

"Equines," Bob said. "For some reason, there seem to be a lot of them about in various magical forms." Illusions of each appeared as he mentioned them. "The Black Horse, Pegasus, Hippocampus, each-uisge, yale, hippogriff, kelpie, nuckelavee, and of course, the unicorn."

He put on a look of long-suffering. "And what seems to have been forgotten in modern children's culture is that most of them want to kill you." He went over the history and characteristics of each. "Now, a practical demonstration." With a wave of his hand, the Danger Shop's classroom display made way for a twilit forest, a river running along one side. "They're all here, roaming about. Catch them, ride them, ignore them - but try not to die, even if it's only simulated."

Deception for Fun and Profit, Monday, Period 2

[doubleohblonde]

Today, Bond had arranged the classroom's desks so pairs of students would be facing each other when they sat, a unopened deck of cards and several stacks of poker chips sat in the middle of each desk.

"Good morning, I trust you all enjoyed homecoming," he said. "Now that you've had some time to get to know how the rest of class are with lying, today's exercise is going to involve putting your observations into practice by playing cards against each other."

He nodded to the desks. "I don't particularly care what games you play so long as they have an element of bluffing to them. If it involves stakes play as normal, if not take a chip from the pot whenever you successfully catch the other in a lie or if you win the hand. So find a partner and get to it."

Sex Ed, Tuesday, 3rd Period

[so_hawkward]

Clint liked his students, he really did. But after last week, the thought of doing anything responsible - anything that didn't involve being in bed surrounded by dogs - was a little much. The good news was, he'd at least showered before coming over here today. So there, depression.

"Hey folks. I have a movie for you to watch today," he said. "Somehow, I don't think any of you will run into the trouble of being an older adult and not having 'done the deed' yet but--it's funny and--yeah, just watch it, you don't have to take notes or anything."

If anyone needed Clint, he'd be off to the side ignoring the romantic subplot he'd forgotten this movie had, oops.

Speech, Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 4th period

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"First of all, congratulations to Kathy for the high honor of winning a plastic crown at the dance on Saturday," Josh said with a wink. "I'll assume that you won because you practiced your speech in this class, and nothing like reality is going to change my mind on that."

Good to see that Josh was in a very rational mood today...

"Sure, there's canned speeches and the ability to make persuasive arguments in front of large groups, to recite talking points in a way that make them feel organic, but a lot of the speaking you do in life doesn't have notes. Thinking on your feet is essential, especially if you've dozed off in the middle of class or a staff meeting and have absolutely no idea what's going on. So today you three are going to do a bit of a team building exercise in making a coherent story. I'm going to start with you and demand to know why you weren't paying attention--" he pointed to a moddable student, "--and you're going to give me your best sob story. The next kid jumps in and adds details, and you guys just keep going until I know longer find your story plausible." He grinned. "It'll be fun!"

Josh had a weird idea of what was fun.

Surviving (and Thriving) on Fandom Island, Week 8 (Wed., Period 3)

[weetuskenraider]

This week it was Tahiri standing alone at the front of the room, hands behind her back.

"Hi," she said with an apologetic half-smile. "Sorry for missing out last week, but there were some things I had to take care of back home that couldn't wait . . . and now Professor Atreides couldn't make it today, it seems."

She shrugged as if to say 'so you're stuck with just me, sorry.'

"So there's a holiday coming up this weekend, in case all the pumpkins and spooky decorations you might've seen around town weren't enough of an indication. Halloween. It isn't celebrated everywhere on Earth, and not always the same way in different countries," Tahiri continued. "I won't get into the details of its history, since I'm nowhere near an expert, but the costumes and carved pumpkins and people going around asking for candy that you're likely to see at least here on the island: the holiday's roots are in a festival to remember the dead, so these things evolved from those traditions. Of course, a lot of people are in it mainly for the candy and the fun of dressing up."

She waved a hand toward the back of the room, where there were several racks of moddable costumes. "I'm afraid you won't be able to keep these, but if you decide you want to join in on the costume fun on Saturday, I thought trying some of these on might give you ideas."

Not like th-- oh, who are we kidding, for some of you it's always like that.

"There's candy, too," she added, indicating a couple of bowls filled with also moddable mixed candies, "except that's real. Help yourself, but please don't make me have to scrape you off the walls or ceiling if you give yourself too much of a sugar high, okay?"

Pony Express: Friendship is Cultural Exchange! Wednesday, period 1

[locointhecoco]

Pinkie wasn't waiting for the class as usual outside Portalocity today, which probably wasn't too surprising considering that she'd managed to miss the portal home last week and hadn't been spotted on the island at all since. Still, the portal opened right on time, showing a towering crystal gate and a path to a bright, shining city in the distance.

Then Pinkie burst halfway through the portal, eyes wide and bright, and let out a gleeful *squee* when she spotted everypony. "It worked! Omigosh you guys, I just had the most amazing time! When we were in Las Pegasus I guess last week for you guys I got hit with a spell that my bestest friend Twilight was doing that reversed my cutie mark and made me think I was destined to be an apple farmer and then Twilight had to figure out how to reverse the spell again and then REWRITE THE WHOLE SPELL FROM SCRATCH which is amazing and something nopony has ever done before and that's why she's an alicorn pony princess now! ISN'T THAT EXCITING?! After her coronation we had to sacrifice our elements of harmony which we've only used to save Equestria like a bajillion times to save Equestria all over again from evil chaos trees and now there's a mysterious chest we don't know how to open and Rarity totally made it to fashion week like we thought and it turns out I'm part of Applejack's giant extended family maybe possibly and I met a guy named Cheese Sandwich who tried to steal my party planning thunder but then it turns out he figured out his own party planning destiny watching me and he gave me his very bestest rubber chicken!" Pinkie whipped said rubber chicken out of nowhere and swung it around gleefully by the neck a few times, then blinked. "OH AND. Twilight had to chase a pony through a magic mirror into a human world to get her princess crown back and now she's learned about some human magic and portals and things, which is how we figured out that even though it's been practically forever over here, it might only be a week in Fandom time and I should rush super-duper quick up here to the Crystal Empire to see if I could catch the portal and find you guys AND IT WORKED! So now you're just in time to come and see the Crystal Faire and ISN'T THAT SO EXCITING?!"

Did anypony follow that? No? Yeah, Pinkie probably didn't, either.

Pinkie beckoned everypony through the portal and started leading the way towards the big crystal city. "The Crystal Empire is a very special magic pony community made up of actual crystal ponies! They're see through and everything! They actually disappeared about a thousand years ago for years and years and years because they had to protect . . . love and understanding or something . . . from an evil warlock pony out to take over and destroy it all. I think. Maybe. It was awhile ago? I forget the details. Anywho, they were all gone in stasis or asleep or just vanished for so long that lots of ponies forgot they ever existed, but then one day a couple years ago in pony-time they just -- reappeared! Nopony even knows why! But my friends and I had to come up here and throw the very first Crystal Faire in a thousand years to get the ponies back to their normal magical crystal pony selves and help Princess Cadence and Shining armor defeat the evil king Sombra, so it seemed just perfect to have you all come by and see the very second Crystal Faire! The crystal ponies hold the Crystal Faire to boost their spirits so they can focus all their love and joy at the crystal heart and spread love to all of Equestria!" Pinkie popped up on her hind legs to spread her hooves in the air, creating a temporary rainbow between them to accompany her lecture. "Of course, there was plenty of love in Equestria even without the Crystal Empire around? But I try not to tell them that."

Someday, somepony would point out to Pinkie that that was not actually a whisper.

"So go on and check it out, everyhuman! There's crystal berry punch and crystal corn and flugelhorns!" Nopony let Pinkie have a flugelhorn. "And traditional crafts and even jousting! Fun for everypony! And human! And human-shaped other-type-beings!"