fandomhigh | Creative Inspirations: Monday, Period One

For today's class, they had booked not only a portal, but a vehicle. Hannibal had made all the plans in person, to avoid any potential Portalocity...creativity. They were meeting at the docks, and the students (as well as alumni and anyone else who wanted to join them) had been asked to meet them there promptly.

"You can fly this?" Hannibal asked, just to be sure.

//I've flown more complicated aircraft than this,// Jono replied, shrugging his shoulders. //This thing is nothing, trust me.//

Between Weapon X and the X-Men, Jono had been relegated to 'pilot' duty at least a few times in his life. They'd be fine.

Hannibal nodded. If Jono said he could...well, he very much doubted Jono would take the tiniest risk with his students' lives.

He turned to face the people who'd gathered in the...he wasn't sure if he ought to call it a plane or a ship. It was large, reasonably comfortable, slightly shabby, and glass - or at least clear-material - walled. "Hello and welcome to class, whether you're here as a student or tagging along."

//For those who are tagging along, this class is intended to be a bit of inspiration for our students. Each week we go somewhere new, in the hopes that what we show our students gives them the urge to create art. Music. Poetry. Dance. Whatever suits them. This week, we thought we'd take in something a little bit historic, provided to us by nature itself.//

"Our journeys have been a mixture of beautiful and disturbing," Hannibal said. "This week's is likely to be both."

Their portal appeared, and he waited for Jono to steer them through and join them again before he continued. They now hovered a few hundred feet over a mid-morning ocean, slowly approaching an island with a cloud hanging over it.

"It is August 27th, 1883, just before ten a.m. local time," Hannibal continued. "We are in Indonesia, between Java and Sumatra. And that island there," he nodded toward the one they were approaching, "is called Krakatau."

Oh, Hannibal. Jono wasn't going to outright call him such, but really, he had quite the flair for playing drama queen when the muse so hit him, didn't he?

//Please keep your arms and legs inside the aircraft at all times,// he said, because Hannibal seemed to have the tour guide routine all handled. //Once that thing gets going, I imagine this flight is going to get somewhat more turbulent.//

[OOC: Open! Not just for students today- Visitors are welcome to come on this field trip, too. Giant natural disasters! Whee!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Who will answer questions about what's going on as much as they can. When they're not staring at it themselves.

[When they tag in!]

It was entirely possible that Jono was actually the tiniest bit nervous about the hardiness of the aircraft once the explosions really got going, but after a few bouts of minor turbulence were the worst they seemed to experience, he relaxed somewhat.

... And wondered if it was possible to get himself one of these things.

Back in the classroom, instead of creating anything, he was going to need to take a bit of time to just sort of slouch into a chair and stare at the ceiling, though. Bloody hell.

When he wasn't doling out comfort food (and drinks) (though not alcoholic), Hannibal came and sat very near Jono. "That was quite the sight, wasn't it?" he murmured.

//It was definitely something,// Jono agreed, leaning a little closer and keeping his voice just between the two of them. //I've seen a lot of destruction in my time, but it's almost always man-made. That was one hell of a reminder that the planet under our feet can throw us all for a loop whenever it gets a mind to, as well.//

Fandom didn't count. It had a mind of its own as a general rule anyway.

"And after all of that, life began again. Seeds and animals returned and repopulated the islands that were left and that rose anew. It began erupting in earnest again a few years ago. Nothing stops life or destruction, it seems."

Hannibal thought both were beautiful, personally.

//One hell of a cycle,// Jono mused. //Hell of a reminder that the planet doesn't give a shite about what we do while we're here, it'll keep going with or without us.//

Now, as for whether it would be able to sustain a species like the human race for long was a completely different story.

Earth hardly cared.

"What we are and what we do only makes a difference to each other," Hannibal said. Not that he would ever give up putting his mark in the world; it was part of the fun of the challenge.

//In the grand scheme of things and with enough time, I suppose it does,// Jono agreed. //But don't say that to the climate change deniers. It'll just encourage them.//

... Had to be said.

Hannibal smirked. Not even just to lead them on?

Hannibal Lecter: Internet troll. Though he generally stayed with the APA forums, honestly.

//... Depends where you're leading them, I suppose. Is there a lot of walking and a very short pier involved, by any chance?//

Legitimate question.

Hannibal thought about it. I'll have to consider my options.

Parker was not creating. But she was hanging from the ceiling.

"So. Cool. Mother Nature wins everything!"

//She does indeed,// Jono agreed, blinking up at her. //You enjoyed that, did you?//

It had been one hell of a sight, even while the after-effects of that eruption had been catastrophic.

//Earth... really is something else, sometimes.//

Parker flipped off her perch, hands-free, and landed on her feet. "I kinda like that there's stuff you can't control. It means it's nobody's fault, and you get a do-over. Although I don't want to know how many people died."

There were far away and long ago, anyway.

//I won't give you a number, then,// Jono promised. He really didn't much want to dwell on it for too long, anyway. //But the sight of it really does give a new appreciation for the power of the world around us. Nature doesn't mess around, does she?//

"Nooooope," Parker said, popping the 'p' very definitely. "That's why people shouldn't mess with her. She has way more firepower. No playing with plagues, no starting wars, no making famines, no weather machines of death."

... yes, Leverage Inc. had dealt with at least two out of the four of those.

//... There are machines for that?//

Said the guy who was on a team with at least a few people who has direct controls over the elements. Yep.

"Probably?" Parker tilted her head. "There's Science for the famine and the plague, anyway." Which meant, according to James Bund movies, that a weather machine was just around the corner. "People are crazier than me."

//People in general? Most certainly are,// Jono replied, vaguely amused. //I suppose in the end, the only limit to human creativity is their imagination, and lord, some of the things people think up...//

Trust him on this one, he was a telepath.

"So weird."

Says the woman who recruited some of the gnomes for her class tomorrow.

"'Save the world by ending it' and 'make a billion dollars by killing a billion people' just strike me as way nuts." Parker shook her head. "Thanks for letting me come along this time. I know you probably figured I was there even if you didn't see me right away."

//Well, we did have a request for a volcano,// Jono replied, smiling a little. //And you're welcome to tag along any time you like. I figured you were around. And if there's anything else you'd like to see, we'd be more than happy to have you along.//

Hell, they might even take more requests.

After seeing some of the still-dazed looks as they left the aircraft, Hannibal detoured home before coming to the classroom.

He might not have been traumatized himself, but if anybody could appreciate the effect of good comfort food...

So he'd be less creating, and more setting out various sorts of chocolate, cheeses, breads, and meats.

Buffy spotted the food and blanched. Oh god no. ...unless there were some excellent hang over foods among the selection, of course. Then she might reconsider.

Creative Inspirations: Monday, Period One

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