fandomhigh | Coping With Change - Tuesday, Period One

"Hello, everybody!" Cecil beamed and waved at the students.

//Ah, hello class,// Jono echoed, looking a little less enthusiastic but no less comfortable at the front of the room, fire and all. He didn't wave, just sort of gave a nod of his head. //Welcome to Coping With Change. I'm Jonothon, please, just call me Jon or Jono. 'Professor' is somebody else.//

"And I'm Cecil. You can call me Cecil, I suppose," Cecil said. "We're here to teach you all sorts of things about coping with change, and hopefully it'll be really useful." He had pulled the obvious straw for this class.

Jono gave Cecil an amused side-eye before deciding to pull the other straw and kick into a proper lecture.

//If you're in our class, it's probably likely that you've been through some manner of extreme change, or you're expecting one in the future. Maybe you're taking this class as a precaution, just in case something happens down the road. Or,// he sounded a touch wry, //you're here because of an office mix-up. Those happen. You're welcome to swap out if you feel as though you're in the wrong class, though it might be worth sticking around all the same. You never know; you might learn something.//

"And really, who doesn't have some sort of weird changes in their life, right?" Cecil asked. "I mean, there's puberty, and extra limbs, and city-wide calamities, and all sorts of things every year. It couldn't hurt to learn how to deal with them."

... The hell of it was, Jono could only just nod his agreement to that one. The other school he taught at had basically all of those things on a regular basis.

//For the duration of this class, you can expect not only theory, but also candid discussion as to how that theory can be applied to your own personal situations. Cecil and I won't require you to share anything sensitive with the room at large, though of course you're welcome to contribute to the conversations with personal experience if you feel comfortable doing so. And if you don't but you'd still like somebody to talk to who might be outside of your situations, Cecil and I are both willing to make the time. I even keep rum on hand to bribe the squirrels for privacy, if you'd rather things not end up in the morning gossip.//

Whereas Cecil was likely to broadcast everything. Not that he was on radio at the moment. It was habit.

"So let's start by finding out who we all are!" Cecil said. "Well, who everybody else is. Unless you don't know who you are, either, in which case, just give us a name to call you by until you figure it out."

//If you'd like to share with us your reasons for taking this class, or any changes that you've been through or are expecting to go through that you'd like to be able to apply this to, please, feel free, but don't feel as though you have to, either. And before anybody asks, no, the telepathic speech doesn't mean I'm reading anybody's minds.//

Look, he got that question at least once or twice a year. Better to cut it off at the pass now.

"Or me," Cecil added. "That would just be rude." Also impossible. But still worth stating.

[OOC: Open!]

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"Hello, I'm Merrill," she spoke up, slightly more like a jumpy, wide-eyed halla than usual today. "And what sort of change are we talking about, exactly? Because there's moving around a lot, and I'm used to that. Oh, but going home again eventually, that might -- take some getting used to, I think."

She trailed off, fiddled with her sleeve, and looked down at her hands, muttering softly, "Should I have said that? Maybe I shouldn't have said that."

//You can say whatever you want,// Jono said gently. //Change is change, and some are more difficult than others. And home... home has a way of being complicated.//

He hiked his shoulders up slightly.

//Hopefully you'll be able to apply whatever you learn here to a wide variety of chances you might face, Merrill. And if you want to talk more about any of them, please, feel free, here in class or after it, one-on-one. I'm always available to listen.//

Well, not right here. He had to go home from time to time. Feed the cats. That sort of thing.

"But not really all the time, right?" asked Merrill, who had not read the narrative; it was just the way her mind worked. "You have to . . ."

She'd been about to say 'eat,' but that didn't actually seem very likely.

". . . do other things sometimes, don't you?"

Because yes, home was perhaps a bit more complicated than she'd realized before she left, and that was a bit uncomfortable to think about.

//Well, I do occasionally sleep,// Jono replied, faintly amused. //And I have a home life and all. But I'm not difficult to reach, either. I stick around here for a while after class in case people want to talk, and it's not difficult to catch me at the Groovy Tunes on Saturdays, if all else fails.//

Easier than catching him in his office, at that. Sigh.

//If there's ever anything pressing, I'll generally make time.//

"I might do that, then," Merrill said, nodding. "If I think of something, that is. And if I don't get lost along the way."

//Well, if you get too lost, just think my name really loudly, and I'll probably hear,// Jono replied with a shrug. //I don't listen in to anything that's not my business, but that's basically the telepathic equivalent of yelling. That, I'll hear.//

Hard to lose your way if you were staying put and screaming, right?

You'd think, but . . . well, might be better not to tempt fate there, Jono.

"That must get awfully noisy," Merrill said with a slight frown. "I won't add to it if I don't have to, but all right."

//Here isn't so bad,// Jono noted, shrugging. //You learn how not to listen to every little thing. Cities are worse. But yes, the screaming thing is probably better left to a last resort if you can't find your way, unless it's something dire.//

"Hi, Merrill!" Cecil gave her a sympathetic smile. "Home can be tough if you've been gone for a while. Is home a good thing?"

"That depends on where it is when I get back," Merrill admitted, frowning. "Oh, that might be a problem. I hope I know where to find my clan."

"Can you call them or something?" Cecil asked. "That might help."

"We don't exactly have those phone things at home," said Merrill, and welcome to part of the reason she felt like going home might be a mixed blessing. "I could stand out in the middle of the woods and yell, but that probably wouldn't go very well for me."

"Oh. Um." Cecil thought about it. "Can you e-mail them?"

Computers didn't work the same in Night Vale. Also Cecil wasn't exactly sure how they did work.

"Or maybe put out a call on the radio station?"

Coping With Change - Tuesday, Period One

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