Culture Shock; Thursday, Period 2 [01/24].

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer kiiiiiind of hated that she was about to start class with what was going to come out of her mouth in a second, because, dammit, she was leaning way harder into this whole teacher thing than she had ever expected to, but there it was. It was happening anyway. Here we go.

"Soooooo," she said, "let's do a quick show of hands. Who all had the opportunity to be all shrunken down and tiny thanks to the weird whims of our fair and lovely island this weekend?"

Summer's own hand was definitely swinging up into the air.

And there went Kanan's, too.

"And I got to ride my dog around town, so I think I'm actually coming out somewhere on the winning side of that equation," he added, smirking. "Stance was thrilled about it, anyway."

Who didn't want a giant puppy to ride around on, right?

"And I got to use my cat as a big comfy pillow," Summer offered, not to be outdone, although, really, Kanan did kind of win on that one. "Which just goes to show, pets are awesome to have, and work just as good as anything else to segue into what we'll focus on today. Because this place? Turning you into things different from what you are? Ahhhh, yeah. Definitely Fandom Culture, one-hundo-percento. And probably one of the most common, widely spread, awkwardly random thing it likes to turn people into is animals."

"The only thing more awkwardly random than turning into animals is turning back again," Kanan sighed, rolling his eyes skyward. "But we'll get to that in a moment. First, just picture yourself, maybe a little overwhelmed with the island in general, or maybe you've slipped into a state of complacency. Whatever the case might be, you probably aren't expecting what happens next, when in the middle of a conversation or as you're picking up something you don't want to drop or just when you happen to be waking up in the morning, suddenly you've got a goddamn tail."

And stupid little bird feets.

"And just think," added Summer with a grin, "how crazy that might have sounded if it weren't for the weekend proving that stranger things can happen. But at least when you're a miniature version of yourself, the height difference is really the, er….biggest challenge to face. When you're an animal, the variables are a bit different: height could still be an issue. Do you have opposable thumbs? How well can you communicate with your roommate or your friends about what's happened to you? Today, you'll get a chance to work some of that out before it totally hits you IRL."

"Isn't the Danger Shop great?" Kanan smirked a little. And then, with a clap of his hands, he absolutely looked like a dumb little space cat with twiggy little bird legs. "The room is going to assign something to you at random. So, have fun with that."

And then the next thing out of his mouth was the tiniest, most kitteny mew.

A tiny, kitteny mew that would have nearly melted Summer if she, herself, hadn't already been turned into a little red squirrel with the fluffiest tail pretty much ever. She was chittering at them, probably something important, gesturing with her little tiny squirrel paws, but whatever it was would likely end up lost in translation before those little paws did their own clapping to set off the programming to make the class less like a class and more like a zoo.



[[ocd incoming is up!]]

Problem Solving and You! - Thursday

[magnusrushesin]

There must have been something in the water for classes this week because... there was another movie set up. Well, TV show, really.

Of course it was still in that tavern set up because Magnus and Cara.

"Sometimes, you don't wanna punch people and just wanna chill. And that's okay," Magnus said.

"But you can still watch shows about punching," Cara added. "Like this one, which also shows how a person can squander loyalty through misapplied conditioning techniques."

Thaaaaaat wasn't actually what that subplot was about, Cara.

"Yeah!" Magnus said. Then considered what he just agreed with. "Wait, what?"

"It should have been easy enough for her to secure their loyalty, she raised them, had no interference from her superior, access to mind altering magic." Spoilers, Cara. "Instead they either ran or turned against her at the first opportunity. That's just sloppy work."

"Nooo? No. No, Cara. We only think about those things when you get enthralled by a Dracula to be evil." That made sense, right?

Cara sighed. "Also it's bad to do that to children." Look it wasn't often that Cara had non-evil characters she could relate to in stories, and there were two right here.

"Let's watch the movie and think real hard about who we'd like to punch," Magnus added.