fandomhigh | Competitive Team Building, Wednesday, Period 1

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teambuilding

Competitive Team Building, Wednesday, Period 1

The Danger Shop was set up like a massive kitchen today, with three main stations, shelves of ingredients, various appliances, and knives. Clearly, the safety protocols would be in use.

“Welcome back!” Parker looked around and grinned.

"This is Competitive Team Building," Eliot said. He had his arms folded over his chest -- as usual -- and was giving the set up a fair amount of side-eye. And no small amount of the facial expression version of grabby hands.

Dammit, Hardison.

Hardison knew what his partners liked, a'ight? That was why there were high ceilings and wide ducts for Parker to explore before and after ~~and possibly during~~ class. See? He'd told y'all that there were excellent reasons to using the Danger Shop, yes, even for something as basic as a cooking class. "We're guessin' y'all have figured out the point of the class from the name an' all."

“You’re building competitive teams,” Parker spelled it out for anyone who wound up here on accident. “Competitively. Against each other.” And no, this wasn’t just your teachers having fun torturing you with random games.

"You don't get to pick your teams," Eliot said, giving the class one of his wolfish smiles. "Because frankly, for most of your life, you're not gonna get to do that. You'll get hired for a job and have to make the best of whatever coworkers you get. Maybe they'll be a giant pain in the ass." He glanced towards Hardison and Parker. "And maybe you'll get lucky and they'll be damn near perfect."

Hardison grinned back at Eliot, then turned that smile onto Parker. "So, this is what's gonna happen, every week. Y'all show up, break into your groups, an' we'll give you that week's challenge. Whichever team finishes the challenge first wins. There'll be prizes every week." Mostly food, because Parker. And hopefully not diamonds also because Parker. "Today's a little different, of course. Because the first week of classes is always introductions. You know us, so now let's get to know you."

“Introduce each other! Not yourselves. And if you can think of a cool codename for the person you’re introducing on your team, that’s even better.” Parker pointed over to the stations. “Find your names, get together, pick a team name, then introduce each other with their name and what you think their best asset is.” She paused. “Keep it clean, though.”

"You've got fifteen minutes to get together -- as a team -- pick a team name, and get to know each other a little so you can figure out what your best assets are," Eliot said. "Then we'll get to your first challenge."

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Like you are the ME in TEAM.

Edward Kenway

Daphne Blake

Ringo Noyamano

Cosima Niehaus

Four

Tali'Zorah

Kaylin Neya

Ada Miller

Vider Bearskin

Kira Yukimura

You do you! It's your last chance before you have to do you-and-your-team.

Ringo was a bit torn. The whole point of the class sounded really interesting. Ringo loved team competitions!

But she mostly loved team competitions that involved things she was good at, and cooking was, well, not exactly her forte. Still, this was a class with Parker and Eliot, so she was sure that they'd soon be doing stuff that was more her speed.

Besides, there were plenty of people she knew already, and liked, so the class would probably be pretty good no matter what!

Team One: Kaylin Neya, Daphne Blake, and Four

Team Two: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Ada Miller, and Vider Bearskin

Team Three: Edward Kenway, Cosima Niehaus, Ringo Noyamano, and Kira Yukimura

"You may notice the teams aren't even," Eliot said as the students found their spots. "Don't think that's necessarily an advantage. The more people you have, the more likely you'll all disagree. So, sure, team three might have an extra person, but that might just mean they have extra problems."

Edward looked around his team and grinned a little. (It wasn't like he minded being surrounded by women, here.) "I'm Edward," he offered, "Is anyone here any good at cooking?"

It seemed like a relevant question.

"I can make salad. And toast. And cup-ramen." Ringo looked pretty doubtful. "I don't think any of those actually count as cooking, though."

"I'm about the same as Ringo," Cosima offered. "And I can make magic brownies, but maybe not on the first day of class."

"Oh. Are those different from normal brownies?"

Cosima really missed living around other stoners right about now.

"Pretty much," she said airily. "Just ... extra ingredients. Never mind."

Kira snickered softly. "I've taken a bunch of Dr. Lecter's cooking classes, but I'm not stellar at making anything in particular."

"'Not stellar in particular'," Edward mused. "Can't be a team name, can it?"

Daphne found her spot and looked around for the rest of her team.

Four gave her a laconic wave. "Daphne, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

"I'm Four," he said, then stopped talking, chatty guy that he was.

"Kaylin," Kaylin said, nearly as chatty as Four today.

What a fun crowd they were. "So...introductions or something."

Yes, yes, Tali was aware that just because the last team of people she'd ended up working with had turned out to be pretty good despite Shepard just picking them all up from random places around the galaxy and usually in the middle of a firefight, it didn't necessarily mean it would work that smoothly every time. But why pre-emptively doom anything by assuming it wouldn't?

"So," she said, leaning back against a counter. "What are we thinking of as far as a name goes?"

"Trio of Terror?" Ada suggested cheerfully, looking around the room. "Pretty sure we could intimidate the rest of the room with sheer charm."

"I like it," Vider said. It was, at least as far as she was concerned, not inaccurate.

"'M Ada, if you haven't guessed," she said, flashing Vider a grin. "Jack of All Trades, Master of More than I'll Admit to in Mixed Company."

"Vider," Vider told them. "I'm guessing I'm the muscle. And...also the stuff we don't admit to in mixed company. This is going to be fun." When a (former) Lokiskin said that, sensible people should probably be afraid.

"It sounds good," Tali said, nodding. "How's that for a good start? Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and I'm pretty good at putting together machinery or electronics from scraps."

She considered for a moment. "Or some kind of device. It doesn't have to be too fancy."

"So we've got the tech, the muscle, and the charming liar," Ada mused. "Pretty balanced group in regards to skills, especially since it sounds like the muscle knows her way around my end of things, and I like playing with nuts and bolts."

You are not getting graded on this. But have fun with it anyway. You’re going to do it a lot this week. Team name, person you are introducing, and their asset to the team!

***

"So, we're Team Leverage," Hardison said. "This is Eliot Spencer, a good ol' boy from Oklahoma," he said, pointing at Eliot. "He grew up popular, was QB for his high school, joined the army right outta high school. He brings his ability to beat people up with a paper fan, identify anyone's identity from their haircut an' lipstick choices, an' he's got great hair." He grinned like the brat he was.

"She wore very distinctive lipstick," Eliot grumbled, then pulled his teacher persona back on and gestured to Parker. "This is Parker. No first name, no last name, just Parker. She's our mastermind. She may seem a little out there, but that's actually one of her greatest assets, too. She doesn't just think outside of the box, it doesn't occur to her that the box is there. That's how she comes up with such amazing plans."

“What box? Oh!” Her turn! “This is Hardison, Alec Hardison. Like James Bund only cooler. He’s such a good hacker that he saved us from the alien spaceship with his brain. He knows everything. All the characters on Galaxy Quest and King of the Bracelets, and also how to make someone feel better with a hug or just showing up.” She grinned at him. “And he has amazing abs, which you will not get to see.”

"She's got a point," Hardison said, his grin even bigger now. "I mean, umm..." He coughed and tried to pull a straight face. "Now, we've known each other for years, so don't worry 'bout bein' as in-depth, but we wanna hear what you got."

"So." Eliot pointed to a random student. "You: start us off."

Each workstation had several ingredients as well as cooking supplies: lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, onions, shredded cheese, and avocado. There were also some staples on hand, including butter, milk, flour, spices and seasonings, and olive oil. ~~Other staple ingredients could be modded as necessary, within reason.~~ "Today's challenge," Eliot said, because really, who else was going to introduce a cooking challenge? "Is to make yourselves a snack. You've got the rest of class, and the ingredients you see in front of you. You don't have to use everything you have on hand, but you should try to use as much of it as possible. While still ending up with something you'll want to actually eat. As you can see, these kitchens are extremely well stocked, but if you find yourselves needing a piece of equipment you can't find, ask Hardison and he'll add it into the program."

Eliot made as if to get the challenge started, then paused. "Oh, and thanks to Parker, you've got one more ingredient you have to use." Eliot pulled a silver cover off a platter on the front desk. "Chocolate."

Bags of chocolate chips, baking chocolate, chocolate bars, cocoa nibs, and other chocolate products of wide variety sat on the desk. Parker somehow already had some to nibble on as she cackled under her breath.

"This challenge isn't going to count for the rest of the semester. Consider it your chance to practice being a team. So get cooking."

Especially if you need help. Or just want to watch them bicker.

Parker was helping! Very definitely. Chopping up bits for their food. Also, cracking eggs. And stealing as many chocolate chips as she could fit into her mouth.

Eliot was working on making some fresh pasta. Because why the hell would he be standing in the middle of a giant kitchen without cooking anything?

And occasionally checking to make sure Parker hadn't eaten all the chocolate.

Hardison's experience with preparing food was mostly limited to lasers and microwaves, but he had been watching Eliot cook for years and he was a genius. So while Eliot cooked and Parker chopped, he was there handing off equipment before it was asked for, moving the chopped ingredients over to Eliot just when he needed them, and rescuing chips from the bottomless maw that was Parker's love for chocolate.

This is why Eliot takes point in the cooking classes!

Have you ever been to Kiev?

*points to journal title*

"The Cakemaker of Kiev would whoop all our asses. This is the Butcher."

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Competitive Team Building, Wednesday, Period 1

Sign in Week 1

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Listen to the Teachers/Examine the Space/Socialize

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Meet Your New Teams

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Introductions

Week One challenge: FOOD

Talk to Your Teachers

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OOC

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