The Art of Honesty, Tuesday 4th Period

[jedigrammarians]

"Funny story. Amongst other things, I completely forgot to prepare class this weekend." This was a lie. She just hadn't bothered. "Which means it's a great time to practise your improv skills, because you won't always have time to figure out a good lie."

This was a more common problem than they might think. Or not, if they'd been in enough classes with Aphra.

"So, improv, you get to explain to the nice stormtroopers why you're in their secret base. Protip, they're not fond of 'I'm lost'."

Intro to Dance, Wednesday Period 1

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity wasn't alone in the classroom today; Liam was standing next to her in front of the wall of mirrors when the class walked in. "Hey class, come in. Since it's the day before Valentine's Day and there's a dance coming up at the end of the week, I thought we'd deviate from coursework a little and teach you how to slow dance. There's more to it than awkwardly swaying to the music. To help me demonstrate what to do, today we're joined by Liam, who's agreed to be my co-teacher today."

“A recent promotion,” Liam said with a grin. “Up until yesterday I was still just a student myself.”

"You'll be fine, babe," Verity assured him. "So let's stretch and warm up, huh?"

Since they'd be slow dancing for the rest of the class, Verity had picked out a bunch of fast-paced Latin dances to stretch to, just for contrast. When that was over, her slow dance playlist queued up. "Okay," she said, standing up and tugging Liam with her. "The first thing you need to do is stand up with your partner at a distance that's comfortable for you both. That may be almost a foot apart if you're nervous or don't know people well, or it might be much closer if you're comfortable." She pressed against Liam's chest, barely coming up to his chin, even in her heels. "In the end, you'll probably be most comfortable a few inches apart." She backed up, until there was maybe about a handspan of distance between them. "Whoever is leading, their left hand will go either on the follower's lower back, or right behind their shoulderblade. Followers, your right hand will rest on their shoulder." She and Liam demonstrated, with Liam taking the follower position.

Gender roles be damned, she was the professional dancer of this partnership. "Your other hands clasp to the sides. If we're being formal, they go up to your shoulders, if you're more casual, they stay low, around your hips." They found a comfortable location, going lower because they were demonstrating a casual dance. "Now, leaders, your hands are how you communicate what you want to do. If you want to move across the floor, you tug in that direction with your clasped hands. You want to move in a circle, you push with your clasped hand and lessen then pressure with your hand on their back. That tells the follower to move backwards. Followers, your job is to pay attention to what the leader is trying to tell you to do." Without speaking, Verity and Liam walked up and down in a row, then left towards the mirrors and back, Verity using her hands to gently signal which direction she wanted him to pivot in.

"The steps are actually really easy to slowdance," she explained, once they'd finished demonstrating how to communicate without words. "It's two steps - one out to the side, and then you bring your other foot next to it. Then you do it again in the opposite direction. Once you get this basic step down, we can move to the big finishers: dips and spins."

Shop Class; Wednesday, Third Period [02/13].

[special_rabbit]

"Welcome back, everyone," Amaya greeted the class with a nod, and a faint grin that should indicate that she rather liked the activity they'd be doing today, even if the reasons were a little mushy. "Now, I'm sure some of you know, tomorrow's a sort of holiday. Seems, around here, there's a holiday for just about nearly everything and about every other week. But this one in particular tends to involve a tradition of getting people flowers. And flowers are lovely and all; one thing I miss about my old place is getting to garden on the regular, but one things flowers aren't is permanent...unless maybe they're made of metal.

"So that's what we'll be doing today," she continued, proudly, holding up one of her own finished products and passing it around for them to see and start getting an idea of how they'd be making them. "Metal roses. And they look a little complex, but that's deceptive, they're actually pretty easy, but don't worry. I'm show you."

Amaya lead them through the steps, from tracing out the three base layers on a sheet of metal and cutting them out, cleaning them up with some sanding and hammering, drilling the holes and welding the stems, and then heating and shaping the petals into its final form. In a way, she'd almost wished she'd thought of this a little earlier, they'd make a great little sale item, because, she had to admit, as mushy and generally terrible as Valentine's Day might be, she couldn't deny that it could be profitable.

"I've got printed instructions to refer to if you need them," she said once she'd finished up the demonstration, "and feel free to ask questions if you've got them. Go ahead and get your supplies and your safety gears and let's get to work."

An Excuse for Field Trips, Wednesday, 4th Period

[furnaceface]

"We were looking into several possibilities for class this week," Hannibal said, "but the events of this weekend have rather preempted any other plans."

Yeah, Jonothon was grinning as Hannibal spoke. A big, dumb grin. Which probably said about all that needed to be said about the events of the weekend without going into too much detail.

The way he figured, it'd probably be gone again by next week anyway. He was going to grin, damn it.

Hannibal was smiling a bit, too, but shook his head at Jono, sending him an amused poke. You could speak with that mouth, too, Jono.

He could also stick his tongue out at his husband, but he was refraining from doing so, because he was a bloody adult.

"With the weekend in mind, we figured you lot," and Jonothon himself, "would like to do something a little more casual this week. So we rented out the V.I.P. room in a karaoke bar. In Tokyo."

"The best place to experience karaoke, after all, is in its birthplace," Hannibal said. "There will also be food and drinks. The primary language again will be Japanese, although the area we're going to will have a number of English speakers as well. Still, should you need help, please let me know."

He would be available for help, because he would not be singing. Nobody needed that.

Jono, meanwhile, fully intended to sing. You know. Occasionally. He wasn't going to steal the spotlight from any students who might want to. At all. He'd wait his turn.

Impatiently.

"I do requests," he couldn't help but say, anyway. Because shut up he was enjoying this while it lasted.

Anybody that objected would get sternly spoken to. Well, if they were a student. If anyone in Tokyo objected, there might be other issues. Jono was going to get his time to sing.

Ah, protective husbands.

[OOC: Open!]

The Future Is Swell! - Wednesday

[imafuturist]

Class was back in the same simulation of the workshop from before, but this time there weren't any cars.

"We're onto the building of food replicators this week," said the teacher without the bag of Chinese food in his hands.

"We brought crab rangoon with us," the teacher with the Chinese food said, "in case you didn't know what it was."

And also because Steve had developed an unhealthy fascination with crab rangoon. "You can have some to get inspired."

But only some. Not all.

Tony grinned and shook his head. "You can also try making chocolates for tomorrow if you want."

"But not alcohol," Steve said. "Making a still isn't the assignment."

He had suspicions about some of you, okay.

"It's also easier to build--" Tony cleared his throat once he noticed His fellow teacher's look at that. "So, even if we don't succeed, free lunch."