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

[puppy_fair]

Zack was tired. He was still cheerful, don't get him wrong. But between the Halloween party last night and the late, late night run that had alternated between herding cats and gathering chickens, he hadn't slept a wink.

Ditto the night before. And dreams had messed with him the night before that. So he had a coffee today.

There was a lot of sugar in that coffee.

"Hey, guys," he said, stifling a yawn and gesturing to a big plastic tub with a bunch of good little buddies in it. "Today, we've got hedgehogs! They were domesticated by the Romans for their meat and quills and skins about a billion years ago," Fourth century BC. He didn't have the brains to math today. "But that was the Algerian hedgehog. These guys are African pygmy hedgehogs. They're small and cute and they eat bugs and things, and if they get scared they'll roll into a ball and present as all spikes. They still take some handling to get used to being around people, but these ones are pretty well socialized, so you're welcome to play with them so long as you're gentle."

They weren't exactly 'fetch' pets.

And with that, Zack sat himself down and drank some more coffee.

Eugh.

[OOC: Open!]

Team! Synergy! [Thursday, 1st Period)

[magnusrushesin]

Both of the teachers had sunglasses and coffee with them this morning. Part of that could have been Magnus' influence, but there they were. And there were several Halloween themed paper mache pinatas, ready for class.

"Oh I don't like jello shots anymore," Magnus whined, clutching his coffee to his chest.

It was a sign of how bad Cara's own hangover was that she just sipped her own coffee stoically instead of making fun of Magnus. "Our notes made even less sense than usual this week, so we decided fuck it."

The pinatas rustled threateningly, then started slowly inching towards the class.

"Fight the pinatas," Magnus said, flailing a hand in that direction of the menacing, candy filled abominations. "Save the cheerleader. Save the world."

"The school doesn't have cheerleaders any more." Because that was the thing to focus on now, Cara.

Magnus looked up from his coffee long enough to frown thoughtfully at that. "Or sports." Guys, seriously.

"It's a weird school." Said the woman who'd just programmed murderous pinatas into the Danger Shop.

Said murder pinatas leapt forward for the assault on you poor, poor students who hopefully weren't also hungover. And if you were... well. It was a lesson in fighting while not at your best.

Popular Science | Thursday, 3rd period

[what_the_shock]

“So today's Dia de Muertos," Miguel greeted them with. "Not the same as Halloween, but they kind of get smushed together in the US. In my time, the whole thing's one big riot of costumes and stuff in Mexico City, kind of like Mardi Gras here. So anyway, we're going with the whole costume...monster...thing theme of the week." He waved vaguely.

"Remember I said one of the first sensible rules of science was not to test things on yourself?” He hoped you did. That one was important. “Yeah, well, a lot of fictional scientists seem to forget that. And then think that things like ‘separating good and evil in one person’ are a good idea. We’re going to do self-experimentation this time, but go with a less extreme version of that, in a song. He played it for them.

“So, chemistry again - try to come up with something that makes you suave, confident, and able to deal with people.”

He paused.

“And you can’t just cheat and load it up with alcohol, either!”

He brought up a chemistry lab. “There are poison detectors on either end. Please run whatever you come up with through them first? Anyone that ends up in the clinic or dead, fails.”