fandomhigh | Office Hours - Abnormal Psychology

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psychology

Office Hours - Abnormal Psychology

Jenny is sitting in a bare office, and is typing happily away on her laptop, updating herself on all the new computer technology she's been missing out on.

ETA: The post is closed to new interaction. If you've already commented, then by all means, let's continue the conversation. But it's closed to anyone new. That's because I'm going to be sending out another email soon.

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Broots knocked hestintly on the door, his laptop on his hip.

Jenny closed up her laptop and looked up. "Good morning," she said, waving. "You a student, or just coming to check out the new psych teacher?"

Broots let out a long breath. "I'm Broots. Did you get my email?"

((Did I get email notifs? Noooo))

"Nice to meet you, Broots," says Jenny. "You know, I'm not sure. Let me check." She opens up her laptop and downloads new messages quickly. "Okay, looks like I did get your e-mail. So, how're you doing today? Talk to your partner about your project yet?"

((Me either. How annoying!))

"Nice to meet you as well." Broots shifted uncomftorably. "Um, I'm working with Jessica and I think she's supposed to turn in our preposition ~~in the comment below mine~~. And um, I'm fine. You won't make me go crazy, right?"

"Yeah, got your proposal," says Jenny. "It looks good so far. We'll go over things in a bit more detail next week." She tilts her head and looks curiously at Broots. "I'm not big on the 'making you nuts' thing. That's more Drusilla's schtick. Y'all just did not have fun with her, did you?"

"That's good!" Broots sounded way too releaved. "And no, I had no fun. Especially since I think she had a bit of a grudge against me and everytime she looked at me I was wondering if she was thinking if I would taste good with lemon or orange sauce." He blinked for a second. "Lunch, have I eaten yet?" He shifted his laptop a bit.

"Don't worry about it," said Jenny. "I don't make literal meals out of students. What the heck would Drusilla have a grudge against you for? You seem like a nice kid. On the other hand, maybe that's what she'd have a grudge against you for."

Jenny's gaze shifted to the laptop. "You good with computers?" she asked curiously.

Broots mustered a small smile. "Thanks. And um, well, not eating students is always a bonus." He looked at his laptop. "Oh, yeah, a bit. That's what got me into this school in the first place, actually. Except, I think most teachers here were alive before the invention of the car, so I don't get to use it much for school work."

((Sigh. Delete that for me?))

"Yeah, but I'm definitely a modern kind of gal," said Jenny, leaning forward and grinning. She pushed her laptop off to the side. "At my last job, I taught computer science. So, you want to show that bad boy off?"

Broots grinned. "Computer science? Awesome. Our computer teacher vanished in the first week of school, so I've been lacking that kind of fun." He pulled the laptop out of its case and started it up. "It nearly got the hard drive destroyed a few days ago by a um, friend with a bad sense of humor, but it's almost back to normal."

"There's no computer science teacher at the school?" asked Jenny. "Now that? I find truly weird. So what'd your friend do? Send you a virus, install some kind of funky game that screwed up all your settings, or did you let him borrow the laptop and he decided to see what would happen if he tried to reformat your hard drive?"

"He might have gotten eaten by Locker 327." Broots tapped in a few keys. "Um, the first one. He thought it would be amusing. And saddly, he's a good hacker."

"You have a locker that eats people?" asked Jenny. "I'll remember to steer clear of it. So your friend the hacker, what virus did he send you? He doesn't write his own, does he?"

Jenny was going to have to double-check the protections on her computer tonight--and make sure she's got a mystical firewall installed.

"He did." Broots replied glumly. ~~And suddenly can't remember whether he ran into him yet or not.~~ "I'm sure he won't bug anyone but me and Miss P. And I was stupid not to check more carefully, but I was kind of expecting something, so yeah. Anything in specific you'd like to see?"

"He a student?" asked Jenny. Someone who wrote their own viruses? Interesting, and with connotations that were not of the good. "Doesn't sound to me like you were stupid, just that you didn't expect a friend to send you a virus."

Jenny cracked her fingers and looked over at the screen. "Whatever you've got that you want to show off," she said. "I'm pretty much an equal-opportunity fan."

"No, he's not a student." Broots opened up the part of his computer that was okay to show a teacher, not the part that got him in trouble with the Fed's in the first place. "And from this friend? I should've."

"Um, well, I'm the TA for the math classes here, so I've been working on some programs for that. And um, random program to get into the network for another dimension which because of my absolute lack of any kind of magic skills worked only to a very small point. Mixing magic and coding is like, cheating." He might have even pouted.

"I think I'm relieved to hear that," said Jenny, though she was getting the feeling that Broots was a kid who could give Willow a run for her money. "Guess you'll know better next time."

"Ooh, lemme see the program to get into the network for another dimension." Jenny's eyes lit up. "And it is so not cheating. Mixing magic and coding means you take full advantage of what you've got, and who expects a computer geek pack a mystical punch too?"

"Not me, that's for sure." He opened up a program that had been getting a lot of use lately. "It's um, well, it uses what the school already has, and just lets me kind of, use it. I came from a normal place, before this school."

"Ooh, very nice," says Jenny, leaning forward excitedly. "Looks like a great interface. What language did you write it in?"

"Normal's a pretty subjective term. You know what I mean?"

"Yup. I didn't realize just how boring I was until I got here." Broots added. "And, I like Java, so yeah, that's what I typically use. How 'bout you?"

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Jessica walks in after Broots.

"Professor Calendar? I'm Jessica Atreides. I decided to drop by instead of replying to the e-mail. Broots is my partner for the experiment."

Jessica hands Jenny two sheets of paper. The first one is her proposal for the experiment:
Broots and I had considered doing a test where two groups of people would have to solve a puzzle. Both groups are timed, but the first group is not informed that they are being timed, whereas the experimental group would be. The idea is to see whether humans generally perform better under pressure or with no set deadline. We may also classify the results by gender, to see if there is a difference in the way that men and women react to pressure. We will, of course, only do humans, as a vampire, for example, might have a different reaction.

The other sheet is a schedule, which reads:
Journalism 301: MTWThF 11am-3pm
Essential Quantum Theory for Beginners: MW Chronofluid
((Jessica seems to have the worst luck in teachers, half her classes have gone up in smoke.))

Jessica adds, "As you can see, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 pm might be a little difficult to make."

Jenny frowns at the copy of the class schedule. "Darn. We'll be able to work something out, don't get me wrong. You'll just have to do more of your discussion online instead of in class." She grins at Jessica. "Participation is graded."

"I like the proposal that you and Broots came up with, Jessica." Jenny puts the paper on her desk. She'll scan it in later so she can keep all the course materials electronically. "Are you thinking of only using humans with no extrasensory abilities whatsoever, or including any humans with unusual abilities?"

{{Just wondering where in the Dune timeline that Jessica's from--given that her last name here is Atreides, is she married/betrothed to Leto? I honestly can't remember her unmarried name, just that she's Harkonen's daughter and he never knew about it.}}

((Honestly, I simply forgot the name myself and decided to make it easy on myself. This is quite some time before the original series starts, though.))

"I think it'd be best if we kept it simple and stayed with humans with little to no extra abilities. Special talents could be a little difficult to keep up with."

"Sounds like you guys have a really promising start," says Jenny. "I'll send out an email on Monday or Tuesday about participation grades for those of you who have scheduling conflicts."

{{Heck, you never know, Jessica could have been registered at the school as Jessica Atreides due to a bit of foresight on the part of one of the Bene Gesserit. So it all works. To be honest, I've only ever read the first book anyway, so that's all I know.}}

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