Creative Thinking, Monday, Period Three

[jedigrammarians]

For a change, class today was in the computer lab.

"So, emotions, they're pretty terrible," Aphra started. "I mean, even the ones that feel great can be terrible on the old judgement skills, but since you can't really just turn them off, you might as well learn to make them work for you. Sometimes this means taking advantage of other people's emotions, but since that's pretty advanced stuff, we're just going to focus on dealing with your own. Empathy, mainly." That was one of the main causes of many of Aphra's problems, after all.

"Which is why today you're going to be playing a little archaeologist sim and just work on keeping your little archaeologist alive."

It was harder than it looked.

The Multiverse is F'ed, Y'all - Tuesday, Second Period [02/11].

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well!" Summer greeted the class maybe just a biiiit too cheerfully. "I guess it's a good thing we did the sex robot planet last week, huh?"

Oh, she was just so stoked right now to be teaching a class this week of people who were still very much technically in an appropriate age range (more appropriate than a few of her past relationships, even), some of which had actually been classmates at one point. So. Stoked.

"Anyway, I know this semester I've sort of been really promoting the whole 'let's think of alternative options before we start just shooting up the place' thing, but sometimes? You gotta just sort of shoot up the place. And I have a few lesson plans that involve, like, big elaborate situations and plots and everything, but we're just going to skip all that this time because I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure none of you are going to care. So here we go."

She gestured around the Danger Shop, which had been set to look like some sort of hall on a clearly-not-Earth planet, with tables filled with aliens set all around a large open space in the middle.

"We're on the planet Squanch right now, at a wedding reception."

Why a wedding reception? Because making a throw-away class based around one of your most traumatic and formative experiences was healthy, right? Look, Summer wasn't going to break down the psychology of it all right now, she was all worked up on stupid sex pollen in addition to mildly freaking out about some monitoring chip that her grandfather may or may not have put inside of her. She had some things going on right now.

And then, all of a sudden, the roof exploded and in flew a bunch of bug-like aliens weilding laser guns. And oh, look! Suddenly there was a wide array of other weapons on the tables now, as the wedding guests screamed and started scrambling.

"Which has now officially be crashed by Gromflomites, and I really, really, really hate these guys, they're Galactic Federation scum, so let's all just grab weapons, try not to get any innocent civilians caught in the crosshairs, and just blow up some aliens, yeah?"

Summer wasn't going to wait for them to agree, she already had out a gun and started shooting.

[[ ocd is up! go shoot Federation scum! ]]

Leadership and Teamwork, Tuesday, February 11, 2020

[heroic_jawline]

Steve beamed at the class as they arrived in the Danger Shop. He'd worked hard on the obstacle course (full of chairs, traffic cones, and buckets full of...well, not water) they'd just stepped into. "One of the most important aspects to leadership is learning to let someone else lead when they have expertise you lack," he said. "For example, Tony takes point on missions that involve retrieving advanced technology. I concentrate on the strategy and tactics to get us in and out, but not the tech itself."

"Ego can get in the way of these things sometimes, but good teamwork involves overcoming that," Tony added. "So, to help you along..."

He held up a blindfold. You know. Helpfully.

"You'll work in pairs," Steve said. "One will give directions and the other will go through the course blind. Then you'll switch places."

"Safety protocols are on," Tony said quickly.

"And don't be jerks," Steve added. "Don't purposefully walk someone into a bucket of slime."

"They can and should pay you back," Tony said with a laugh. "So, keep that in mind."