fandomhigh | The Care and Feeding Of (Human) Sidekicks, Friday, 3rd Period

What with this being the second week of classes, Batman chose not to make a dramatic entrance today. He just arrived in the Danger Shop, which looked a hell of a lot like a convention hall today.

"My apologies for not being available for class last week," he said. "That leaves us with less time to get to the heart of leadership, so I won't waste time explaining my absence. Don't bother asking."

"And that's the very first thing you need to understand about leadership. There's room for nuance. You can be open with your sidekick. You can take input and suggestions. But the unique relationship with a sidekick requires one unyielding rule: what you say is final. If you can make that clear early, you might make it work for quite a while."

"But nobody said it was going to be easy to make that clear," Batman said as he pulled the shop remote out of his belt. After pressing a button, two ten year old boys with dark hair and plain matching outfits - with capes - appeared. One was dressed in red, the other in blue. "Meet Dane," he said, pointing to the red one, "and Jay. They're your sidekicks for this session. Pick one and lead him from the lobby here to the exit over there."

Batman pointed alllllllll the way across the convention hall. And then he pressed another button. Suddenly the hall was filled with people in costumes, booths, people who looked like they were probably famous for something or other, and all sorts of visual and audio stimulus that a ten year old boy might find rather distracting.

"No powers. No violence. Use whatever in-born leadership skills you have to lead your sidekick," Batman said. "Good luck."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In cosplay!

Korra

If you don't know Batman, maybe wonder WTF. If you do, then wonder how he knows what a convention is like.

Korra was going WTF, though at least these kids looked calmer than Meelo or Ikki.

You have Dane, the ten year old boy with black hair who dresses in a generic red costume and cape, then you have Jay, who is the same thing in blue. They are both well meaning if slightly excitable and prone to wandering off to do something fun.

It's your job to get them to follow you throughout the session. Be warned: if these NPC sidekicks start to drift out of your influence, they will slowly grow mullets. If they break it off, they will have full mullets and you'll have to start with a fresh kid.

It's up to you, of course, how they react to you.

First person in gets to pick their kid, of course.

"I guess I'll take Jay," Korra said, since you know at least then they'd match colourwise.

Not literally. You have your kid. Now you just have to get from point A to point B, when nothing but crowds of nerds and stuff are in your way. Have fun! Go ahead and mod stuff along the path.

Korra looked at Jay. "Look, you got three choices," she said. "You can walk beside me like an adult and ask if there's anything cool you want to stop and look at, I can hold your hand like a kid, or I can pick you up and carry you like a little kid."

Jay looked right back at her. "You wouldn't."

Korra crossed her arms. "Try me."

Who knows a thing or two about costumes.

Sure she did! Just, you know, in a totally theoretical, not-actually-applicable-to-the-superheroing-world way, because she knew how to sew.

Yeah, that was it. Right.

Who knows everything about costumes.

FYI, this class may end up getting very weird this semester.

Also, HUGE thanks to Shanie for covering for me last week as I finished off Deadline Hell. I wasn't actually home from work this time last week, so, yeah, that was necessary.

The Care and Feeding Of (Human) Sidekicks, Friday, 3rd Period

Sign In

Re: Sign In

Listen to the Lecture

Re: Listen to the Lecture

Pick Your Sidekick

Re: Pick Your Sidekick

Fight through the Con

Re: Fight through the Con

Talk to Stephanie

Re: Talk to Stephanie

Talk to Batman

OOC