Fur, Feathers, and Scales: The Biology of Domestication, Thursday, Period 2

[puppy_fair]

Class this week had been told to meet in one of the classrooms, which, like several other classes this year, had been stripped of desks and chairs in order to haul in a large assortment of cushions. And a couch. You better believe Zack moved that couch in all on his own, too.

It also had a playpen in the middle of the room, occupied with about a dozen wrestling, wriggling, happy little puppies.

The much larger puppy at the front of the room wasn't wrestling or doing much wriggling, but he certainly seemed pretty happy about the situation. Even if he had been told to leave his sword at home today.

"Hey, guys!" Zack grinned at the students as they made their way into the room. "I'm Zack Fair, and this is Biology!"

It was so not biology.

"This semester I'm going to pick a new animal every week that people have brought into their lives on the regular, either as companion animals, working animals, or food animals, and we're going to spend some time getting to know them! This week I figured I'd start with the pretty straightforward one. Probably the first thing anyone thinks of when someone says the word 'domestication' is dogs, right?" He moved his hand to the side, his palm resting lightly on the head of a sheltie-type breed who was sitting very politely beside him. "At some point in time, people took a look at an apex predator and said, 'hey, I want to have that wolf as part of the family.' And so... dogs!"

There you go, kids. That was your history lesson. Zack gestured with his free hand toward the playpen.

"We're going to take things pretty easy today," and every other day, "so let's do introductions. Your name, any animal allergies if you have them, why you took this class. And if you aren't allergic to dogs, you can totally introduce yourself while playing with them. They don't get nearly enough love or affection, really."

They got so, so much.

[OOC: Open!]

Library, Thursday

[studyingfear]

Rufus had gotten notice that his library shifts had been moved to Thursdays. Once he'd gotten over his bemusement at not having a choice in this, since he didn't have anything he did on Thursdays that couldn't be done on Sunday just as easily…

So he'd shown up.

And the book seemed to be behaving themselves today, which left him with a sulky Dark Nation curled up under the desk as he worked.

Ah well.

[Open!]

Popular Science | Thursday, 3rd period

[what_the_shock]

Miguel looked out over the class and wondered yet again how he hadn't managed to get out of this thing. He managed not to growl, and sighed instead.. “Okay, so this is science class. Popular science. By which I mean we apparently get to go through pop culture for science experiments and try to replicate them. Most everything I've seen has been utter crap, but you never know. Hopefully you’ll all at least get a better idea of what is and isn’t possible with the current state of physics.”

He wasn’t promising anything if it was a weird week.

“First of all, apparently we’re doing introductions. So, name, where you’re from, and what sort of science you’re used to. Also the best possible scientific prank you could think to play on a person."

Because he wasn't above using them for his revenge, no.

"Go.”

Team! Synergy! [Thursday, 1st Period)

[wrongkindofsith]

Synergy! Cooperation! Monetize! Big Data!

Those were some of the words that were written on the board when the class arrived because they were all literally in the little booklet that the teachers were pulling this class from. So.

"I'm not even on YouTube anymore now that the guys don't work for Polygon," Magnus muttered under his breath, squinting at the board. "Maybe I can monetize the merchandising rights?"

Cara had no idea what Magnus was talking about, but that was going to be par for the course this semester. "So this class is about teamwork...synergy." She refused to pronounce the exclamation marks. "No so much punching."

Which was just as big a tragedy for her as you, guys.

"We can probably figure out punching too," Magnus added, shaking himself free of the lure of business buzz words. "Maybe a cool business fight club to promote teamwork!"

"...or something," Cara said dubiously. "Now according to the booklet, we're starting with 'introductory exercises for maximum trust.'"

"Trust falls!" Magnus translated for the rest of them. "Uh, we brought pillows in case people suck."

Or want to nap maybe.

Napping would probably be a better use of their time. "So tell us your name, throw yourself at the floor and trust the rest of the class to catch you," Cara said, refusing to demonstrate.

"I'll go first!" Of course he would. "I'm your teacher, Magnus Burnsides."

And then he sort of flung himself in Cara's direction. Because YOLO.

Only the fact they had to set a good example for the students stopped Cara from side-stepping and letting Magnus land on the pillows. "I'm Cara," she said, holding Magnus awkwardly at arms length.

Japanese Blades, Friday (8/31)

[battlewithstyle]

Mitsutada was sadly not there to teach the class, today. Instead there was an apologetic message on the board, promising a grand second class, and after a minute the lights dimmed and a movie began to play.

[OOC: so sorry! Dragon Con messed this all up for me. Class begins in earnest next week!]