Dollar Store Arts and Crafts, Thursday, Period 1

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison could barely wait for the class to come in before he started his explanation of what they were doing today. He'd been waiting for this class for awhile. "So, I dunno about y'all, but I'm a big fan of fantasy," he said. "An' one of the coolest elements of fantasy? Dragons. So today, we're makin' two kinds of dragon egg crafts: a dragon egg candle an' a dragon egg candle holder."

As per usual, the craft table was full of weird and discordant elements, from balloons to concrete to large plastic Easter egg molds to plastic dragon toys. And lots and lots of non-flammable paint.

"Now, both these projects require a little bit of waitin'," Hardison said. "The concrete is for the dragon egg candle holders, an' those take twenty-four hours to dry. I actually started one for each of you, but we're goin' over the process now, so you know how to do it in the future. The dragon egg candles incolve waitin' for the wax to dry, so my suggestion is to pour the candle base, paint the inside of your candle holder, pour the rest of the candle, finish the outside of the holder, an' then decorate the rest of the candle. That should give each element plenty of time to dry before you start the next step."

He pointed to each station, the bunson burners from the last class were still there. Next to the burners were now buckets, each one with a small sphere of concrete resting on the mouth of it. "Makin' dragon candles is easy," he explained. "You melt your crayons an' paraffin together like we did last week an' grab an Easter egg base. Put in a wick, pour your wax into the base, an' then let it harden. Once it's set, you can add a plastic dragon toy - it's an egg, right? gotta hatch somethin' - then put on the top of the Easter egg mold an' fill up the remainin' part of the mold." He poured the wax through a hole put into the tip of the plastic egg. "Feel free to use whatever colors you want on this egg - different crayons, try to swirl 'em, do whatever you like. Once the wax is set, you can carve it, paint it, or do whatever you want to make it look like the dragon egg of your dreams."

He set the candle aside and picked up a balloon, blowing it up until it was a little smaller than a volleyball. He set it into an empty bucket, leaving more than half of it protruding. "Now, for the dragon egg candle holder, I went with some cheap, quick-dry cement," he said, "with no aggregate, cause you want it to be as smooth as possible. You mix it up, put on some latex gloves, an' then just start to pour it over the balloon. You're gonna make a mess, so put somethin' down on the work surface, like butcher paper or somethin'." He smeared the concrete over the visible part of the balloon, trying to get it as even and smooth as possible, until it was entirely covered. "Make sure it's a nice, thick layer or it'll crack an' fall apart. Then you let it set for at least twenty-four hours," he explained, setting that aside and pulling out a dry one.

Yes, he'd spent a ridiculous amount of time yesterday, covering balloons in cement for you all. "Once it's dry, you can pick it up, turn it over, and give a tiny cut to the balloon so it deflates. Once you can pull the balloon free, go around the edges an' just make sure that any chunks that seem thin or fragile are worked free so they don't break off later. Once you do that..." He held up a semi-circle of gray concrete, you got yourself an egg. All you gotta do is paint it to see. You can paint it however you like, but I suggest a shiny an' metallic inside color, to reflect the candle light back to y'all. Once you've painted it and it's dried, you can place a small tealight candle inside. Or, if you use a really small plastic egg for a mold, you can put your dragon egg candle inside your dragon egg holder for egg-ception."

Culture Shock, Thursday, Period 2

[uncertain_dume]

Were your teachers not talking about the weekend? Damn right, your teachers were not talking about the weekend. As a matter of fact, today's class was entirely a testimony to just how 'not talking about the weekend' they really were!

"So," Kanan said, arms crossed over his chest as he tried not to look entirely like he wanted to crawl right out of his skin today, "no matter who you are or where you go, sometimes, things get stressful. And, whatever sort of upbringing you come from, odds are good that you were taught some way to unwind, when that's the case."

For Kanan, 'relax' was more or less synonymous with 'spend hours kneeling on hard concrete,' so they were going to be deferring to Summer's idea of relaxation today. You're welcome, class.

"And," Summer added, "not everyone's going to need the same things to unwind, but I think you'll be pretty hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy a nice, relaxing day at the spa. Oh, they might tell you they don't, but, believe me, there's always a little part of them deep inside that is so totally stoked for hot rock massage or a nice pedicure.

"There's a spa here in town, obviously," she continued, "but what fun is that, when I've been to about a dozen different spas throughout my universe and can totally just whip up one of my absolute favorites in the blink of an eye! This place is, like, nestled in the remote jungle of a place whose name I can't even pronounce nestled on the top of some trees so tall that they reach all the way down into the planet's core so you know the view is spectacular. Also, the water naturally smells like whatever your favorite smell is."

There was a slight pause.

"I actually couldn't figure out how to do that with the Danger Shop, though, so you're all just getting strawberries."

"I can live with strawberries," Kanan volunteered. Because he was trying to look on the bright side of this whole 'treat yourself' experience and strawberries were great, dammit. "And... whatever else."

Hot rock massages or something something. He didn't know. He just worked here. And had possibly just spent three days as a scruffy wizard hobo, so Force knew he needed this anyway.

And that scruffy wizard hobo was about thirty percent of why Summer had suggested this. The other seventy had to do with how having a big, giant galactic goddess stick up your ass was a nightmare on your lower back.

[OOC: Open!]

Problem Solving and You! - Thursday

[magnusrushesin]

The same tavern that students may have grown to love was there once again. The same NPCs (all voiced by the DM), the same not real ale, the same giant d20 die just looming in the corner, looking for a fight.

"I've totally had this exact nightmare before a live show," Magnus said, staring at it in horror.

There was a time Cara, who was holding an extremely large and expensive looking book, might have questioned such a statement, but now she knew better. "Today's class is about class." Don't look at her, she was too busy trying to make sense of this book. It had a lot of number tables in it.

"And probabilities!" Magnus added. "God, I hope that thing doesn't crit on you kids..."

He just damned you all.

In her efforts to read the book, Cara had managed to turn it completely around. Several times. "So class is a fancy way of saying your job."

"Like me," Magnus said. "I'm a fighter. And a little rogue. But i mostly forget about those skills because I can just punch something to death. And Cara is... I wanna say also a fighter?"

"I don't see Mord'Sith in here, so probably." That's because it was a home-brew prestige class. A really, really fucked up one.

"Huh. It should be, though." Thanks, Magnus. "So, everyone tell us what your job is. And maybe how it works!"

Then slowly, so very slowly, the d20 tilted and rolled over. You couldn't actually see the top, but if you could, you would've seen a twenty.

Thanks, Magnus!

In his defense... Here came the punching part.