Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

[furnaceface]

If or why anybody was actually insane enough to come to class today was really anyone's best guess. The island was pretty much bending over backwards now in its attempt to kill everybody living on it. There were zombies falling into lava pits and half-monkey-half-pony monsters galloping majestically through ancient ruins with mummies riding on their backs and really, Jonothon had pretty much made up his mind that anyone who showed up for class today was going to just automatically fail the course.

He could be here because he was a walking shell of a corpse with a gout of psifire where his head was meant to be, thank you. And he was making sure students had a safe escort back to the dorms if they were in class today, and therefore stupid.

Ignore the hypocrisy. Just ignore it.

Cecil was here, too. Honestly, if he stayed home every time existence turned deadly or frightening, he'd never leave the house! So here he was, more or less unharmed, if slightly harried. "Do you think anyone will show?"

//If they do, I'm failing the lot of them.//

No, he wasn't.

"But if they're coping well enough to show up, that shows they're learning!" Cecil pointed out.

//… Cecil, remind me to give you a failing grade when things are back to normal.//

He wouldn't.

"You can't give me a grade," Cecil told him, rolling his eyes. "I'm a teacher."

Jonothon sighed.

//Here, if any students show up, ply them with some arts and crafts or cookies or something until I can offer them a proper escort back to the dorms.//

"I can do that!" Cecil agreed. "Art is a wonderful way of coping."

//And if you get any glitter on me,// Jono grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame, //I'll be very put-out.//

"Um. Angry, right?" Cecil asked carefully. "Not extinguished?"

//… Just get the bloody glitter, Cecil.//

"Just checking!" Cecil protested. "It's good to be prepared for emergencies."

Jonothon suspected that he and Cecil had wildly different definitions for the word 'emergency.'

[Open!]

Comments

Lecture?

[furnaceface]

Or, well, more of a quasi-argument between Jono and Cecil. You're welcome to wander in on it at any time.

Re: Lecture?

[pulseof_life]

Well, of course, Yeul was here. Except for the drying blood on her torn clothing, she even looked just like she usually did: unruffled and serene. (If you ignored the blood. That, yes, was hers. Her injuries had been healed, though!)

She listened to the argument with a slight smile on her face.

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

Once the argument was through and Jono had sent Cecil off to collect cart supplies, Jono turned toward Yeul.

...

//Yeul, you're aware that it's fairly dangerous out there, aren't you?//

Be patient with this one, Yeul. He was a slightly different Jonothon.

Re: Lecture?

[pulseof_life]

She smiled up at him.

"I noticed there are more creatures than usual," Yeul said lightly. "Dangerous, though? I did not notice that."

Yeul wouldn't notice that even if it literally killed her, however.

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

//Most of them seem at least somewhat inclined to try to eat people,// Jono noted, sounding just a bit taken aback. //That's... generally indicative of 'dangerous.'//

Re: Lecture?

[pulseof_life]

She tilted her head slightly.

"If you say so," Yeul said agreeably. "I did not think it anything to be concerned about. They are acting according to their natures."

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

//Well... yes, I suppose they are.// Jono really couldn't argue that. //Though I imagine it would cause your classmates a fair amount of distress if they were to find that you'd been eaten by a bear or something.//

Since she didn't seem to be terribly concerned about herself, it seemed worth a try.

Re: Lecture?

[wildandbrave]

Cosette arrived for class -- late, and a little out of breath, thanks to having run into a monkeypony. Literally, while running away from one of the angel statues. It was a good thing she'd had a lot of practice in running, from the police and frequently to try and keep up with Éponine and Azelma in the process of running from the police so they couldn't use her as a decoy.

She'd given it a good sharp kick in the shin and apologized to it as she got away.

Anyway, after all that she managed to make it to class, poked her head in the doorway, and got an earful of the conversation. Maybe it wasn't quite an argument, but it was argumentative enough that she didn't feel like sticking around for it, so off to the library she went again.

Re: Lecture?

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Jeff was in the building anyway, so he could spend time in the library, so coming to class wasn't a problem for him. All the danger had been already faced in the morning. "Hey, now, you can't fault people for their work ethic and sense of responsibility!" he insisted.

Re: Lecture?

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil gave Jono a significant look and beamed at Joker. "Of course we can! It doesn't mean we should, though."

He was a bit curious that Joker's legs seemed to be working, but it seemed pretty rude to comment on.

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

//I hate you all,// Jono informed them both. //Why is the school building, library aside, even open right now? What is wrong with this bloody island?//

Re: Lecture?

[voiceoverdue]

...did you want a list, Jono? Class was probably too short.

"Why shouldn't it be?" Cecil shrugged. "We have to have classes somewhere, right?"

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

//... There are some moments when I think it's actually not a bad idea to just cancel classes entirely,// Jono noted. //I want to think 'zombie apocalypse with dinosaurs' is just such an occasion.//

Re: Lecture?

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Jeff raised an eyebrow at Cecil and shrugged. "I was just making a joke," he explained to them both. To Jono, he added "You can't fault Cecil just for being himself, now, can you? Especially with... well, you know." How much not himself Cecil was right now.

Re: Lecture?

[selfhelphero]

Billy came by a little late, right around the time he heard Cecil arguing that they shouldn't be failed and hey, that sounded like a conversation to not be around for, so he turned tail and went right back to the library. It would be better to ask for forgiveness later if that wasn't the right move.

Re: Lecture?

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor leaned back in her seat and raised an eyebrow.

"You should have told us in advance you were canceling class," she said. "Rather than penalizing those of us who can actually handle ourselves and decided to drop by."

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

Jono was actually fairly certain that students existed entirely to make him wish he had hair to pull out of his head.

//I'm not going to actually... bloody hell,// he grumbled, drumming his fingers against the doorframe. //I would've been happy to send out an e-mail or a text, but I have something of a technical difficulty with that sort of thing. It'd be nice seeing students exercising a bit of common sense, however.//

Said the guy who was also actually here.

Re: Lecture?

[voiceoverdue]

"You could have asked me to," Cecil pointed out.

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

Jono would have given Cecil a look for that. Mostly he found himself biting down on the urge to kick him in the shin.

//Right. Could have asked you to.//

He couldn't even argue with that. Damn it, Cecil. You and your occasionally sensible logic.

Re: Lecture?

[voiceoverdue]

Hey, now - Cecil's logic was always sensible! For Night Vale, anyway.

That was a pretty big caveat, granted.

Re: Lecture?

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I've plenty of sense," Eleanor replied. "I was out killing things all morning, and I stopped just long enough to see what we were doing for class. I don't need an escort to go anywhere. These things hardly put up enough of a fight for that."

So ... she wasn't the Messiah any more. At least that was fairly obvious.

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

//Well. That's... good to know.//

Actually, no, it wasn't. And there was something about Eleanor that was making his psifire twist. She wasn't that horrifying... thing... that she'd been before.

She wasn't much better, either.

//Class itself is going to be a bit of a waste of time, I'm afraid. I'd rather be out taking down monsters in the streets myself, when it comes right down to it.//

Re: Lecture?

[dressedinblood]

Anna was a ghost. She couldn't think of any reason not to come to class, and she felt obligated to point out, "Maybe some of us could really use some help coping with changes right about now."

Re: Lecture?

[furnaceface]

Jono... couldn't argue with that. He was hoping that people would stay in the dorms and stay safe, but that was something of a moot point, if your student was already dead.

//Oh, Anna...// He taught fighting tactics in the reality he remembered living in. This 'coping with change' thing was apparently the speciality of some other him. But... he was still a teacher. Even if this wasn't the class he'd signed up for, he owed it to his students to try. //I'm sorry. I'm... worried.// A touch. //If you have anything that you need to talk about, anything that you need help with, though, I'll try.//

Who in the world had let any Jono teach, anyway?

Re: Lecture?

[voiceoverdue]

"Wonderful!" Cecil smiled at her. "Well, you have after all come to the right place."