Mythbusting, Tuesday -- Period 2

[intraspective]

There were… worse things to come back to than what she and Anemone had planned, yes. And yet, Mr. Durden was likely to not kill them. Best of both worlds. Ino favoured the class sharp grin.

Yes, there was a kiddy pool filled with water in the middle of the classroom, desks and chairs pushed to the side, and a selection of popsicle sticks, glue, and massive amounts of very bright, very clingy glitter were piled on a table.Oh, and mirrors. Those were rather necessary.

"Okay! See, Mr. Durden, in his infinite wisdom, left your fate for the day in our hands." A beat. "Whether or not that's a good decision is left to be seen."

"Good decision." Ignore the glitter already in Anemone's hair. Really. Or all over poor Gulliver. "'Cause today, we're studying one of the most popular myths of all, favored by megalomaniacs, would-be conquerors, and men with compensation issues across time and space."

She wasn't biased at allllllllllllll. Clearly.

"Today, we're building a Death Ray. Or if you want to be scientific about it, an Archimedes Death Ray."

Glitter was a fashion statement, okay? Highly important! "Now," Ino continued, "don't make fun of his name, even though it's totally, uh kinda ridiculous, 'cause the Death Ray? Is fun. Pretty much it's, using mirrors, to attempt to set your popsicle stick boats on fire."

Best idea ever, clearly.

"While they float," she added. "And he didn't do it, purportedly, for popsicle sticks. He did it on with real boats." See? Totally responsible! Ish. Annnnd sort of incoherent. Ah well.

"If we set a real boat on fire, Principal Winchester might get annoyed, and I've made it this long in my academic career without a detention. I'm not starting now." And really, if you thought about it, that was a bloody miracle. Especially considering the exploding pies, prank fortune cookies, and glitter in the shower heads...

"So, first you get to build your very own boats -- glitter optional, of course, and I've got colored markers too -- and then we'll set them afloat! Some of you will hold mirrors, some will hold really bright flashlights to point at the mirrors -- nothing with cords around the water, okay -- and a few of you will blow on the boats to make them move. Sound good?"

She sighed, eyes sparkling. "At the very least," Ino conceded, "it's got fire in it."

Right. She had to be responsible. "Don't hurt each other, or you'll be hearing from us." Ino smiled. Angelically. "Alright, get to it! Boats, then burning!"

[Preplayed with the utterly awesome death_of_hope! Wait for the OCD, or face the glittery wrath of the TAs! OCD has been thoroughly glittered (so have the TAs) and is up!]

Comments

Activity: Make Your Boat!

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

There's glue, glitter, popsicle sticks, string, cloth for sails... if it's an art or a craft, it's there, and you can totes put it on your ship.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[eyebrowgoesup]

Spock built a small, plain-looking and perfectly functional sailboat. He used the glitter as ballast, as it seemed to be its only possible utilitarian function.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen looked over at him and said very quietly. "Do you understand the purpose of the glitter? I did not quite wish to ask."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[eyebrowgoesup]

"Traditionally," Spock said, with the slowness of one who was not sure they had their human cultural references quite right, "I believe it is to make items aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching." Especially to small children, as he understood it. "As you can see, I have put it to the only functional use I could find for it."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Your choice seems the most... reasonable. I had thought perhaps I had misunderstood. It seems odd to put time and effort into decorating something we are meant to try to destroy. Not that I think the math works, but still."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[eyebrowgoesup]

Spock looked at her like she'd become interesting and said, "It does not."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen hadn't spent eleven years having math, science, history, and languages pounded into her head 18 plus hours a day for nothing.

She looked at him curiously. "Do you think they know? At home this sort of thing would have been a test, to see if I could see the fallacy of the hypothesis."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[eyebrowgoesup]

Spock glanced at the glitter. "I would say I suspect they don't care whether it works or not, but they seem quite pleased by the prospect of destruction. It is most illogical."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

Chuck found himself covered in glitter about five minutes into boat making.

Well. At least he made it look good.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Claire giggled at the glitter-covered Chuck. "You're, like, the only guy I've ever met who can pull that look off," she said.

Her boat was shaping up to be pink.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"I can pull everything off. It's my special ability," Chuck said. Though he was kind of pissed that it was going to take days for this to come off. And it was pink glitter too.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Everything?" Claire asked, giving him a skeptical once-over. "I don't know. I don't think you could pull off an evening gown."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"I've had to wear an evening gown for class once and I looked lovely, thank you," he said. He knew how to walk in heels too. As a guy and a girl. Thank you, Deadpool.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Seriously? What class is that?"

Claire totally wanted to sign up.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone was totally making a ship of her very own, carefully gluing together popsicle sticks and actually building a pretty decent approximation of a Syracusan vessel.

She knew 'death rays.' She knew they didn't work; not the way they were supposed to, anyway. She knew where the math went wrong, and she knew that anyone who put glitter on their boat was just going reflect what little concentrated light there was right back at the mirrors.

That didn't mean she couldn't try.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[intraspective]

Ino's boat was, quite frankly, more glitter and glue and pretty purple cloth than popsicle sticks but that didn't really bother her.

Nor did she care that this exercise was, honestly, pretty non-viable.

It was fun and silly and glitter and fire were involved. Sense didn't need to rear its head.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine's boat... looked like an ashtray with a beach umbrella stuck in the middle of it, and was going to sink the second it touched water. This would go well.

But by God, it was a glittery ashtray.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[likethegun]

Sam rarely gave class assignments less attention than he was supposed to, so he was hard at work trying to make a boat that would actually float. He was going light on the glitter, that was for sure.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

Chuck had excess glitter of his own and he had to get it off somehow, which would be why he tried to sneak attack and ruffle Sam's hair with pink, glitter-covered hands.

He shouldn't be the only one that was going to have to spend the next few days washing glitter off.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[likethegun]

"Hey!" Sam said, scowling and swatting as he felt his hair being ruffled. "What's wrong with you?" When he went to straighten his hair out and found glitter on his hands, the scowl got upgraded straight to a bitchface.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"I had excess glitter," Chuck said, laughing. "And I decided to share."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[likethegun]

"With my hair?" Sam said, shaking his head hard to try to get the glitter out.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"I think you look pretty."

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

Alex didn't mind getting bits of glitter on her as she built her boat. She was going with a specific color scheme and the glitter helped it work.

Re: Activity: Make Your Boat!

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

By the time Robin had finished his boat he looked like some kind of glittery, popsicle stick robot or something, as he'd gotten a lot of glue, glitter and sticks on himself.