fandomhigh | Game of Chance, Monday

"Next week, I'm going to put you all in a situation where the deck is obviously stacked against you," Atton said. "House odds will be high, but you won't be playing card games."

He walked around his desk - and then sank down on his chair. "Which means that this week, we're going to talk," he said. "I've said before that this class is as much about knowing how to play the odds to get out of a scrape as it is about winning a hand at pazaak or doing the math right. Now, all of you are going to wind up in situations where the odds aren't in your favor. For some of you, that might be college applications. For others, life and death situations. I'm going to throw you guys a random bunch of scenarios next week, which could be any of those."

He leaned back. "The first thing you want to do in a situation with bad odds is to change those odds," he said. "You all have weaknesses - some shared between most humanoids, some individual to each of you - that can be exploited. But you also all have strengths you can use to balance things out. Bad odds happen when the situation is tailored better towards your weaknesses than towards your strengths. Changing them means changing how you utilize your strengths."

He looked at each student. "I want each of you to identify one weakness of yours that can be used against you," he said. "If you're not comfortable giving me a big one, give me a small one, or one universal to your species that's common knowledge. I'm not here to do oppo research." ... Someone had been reading a lot of American election coverage lately. "Then, give me a strength of yours. Figure out how it can balance out your weakness. Or even better, tell me how your weakness could be turned into a strength - that's the real holy grail."

Then Atton nodded at a student. "Go."

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Peridot grimaced a little. To look at her right now in her new, somewhat travel-sized situation, one might think her weakness was fairly obvious, but that wasn't a direction she was going to veer in this conversation, so help her.

"I still don't entirely understand Earth, and the people that live on it," she said, instead. "Which I'm going to need to do if I'm going to be here for some time."

The rest of her life. Which, as a Gem, could be quite some time, in fact.

"But I'm tenacious and always trying to understand things, so that won't be a issue forever if I can at all help it."

"But what if it's still an issue when you're confronted with an Earth-oriented problem you have to fix right away?" Atton asked. "Like, say, you've just accidentally offended an important Earth human who can make things difficult for you. How do you approach that?"

Peridot kind of hesitated at that. Squinted. Worked on processing what situation she might find herself in, for that.

"How could any Earth human make things difficult for me?"

... Not understanding them meant that she had some difficulty picturing it.

"By having something you want, whether it be an item or access to something," Atton said, shrugging. "Say you have a shitty class you want out of, but the office doesn't want to do what you want it to because you accidentally insulted the manager."

Oh, this was going to go interesting places.

"... But what kind of class would I actively choose to try to opt out of? Wouldn't taking a wider variety of lessons here help me understand humans better?"

Peridot was nothing if not eager to learn.

There was a long pause. Atton racked his brain for an answer that wouldn't get another curveball out of Peridot.

"...Say it's a class on eating," he said. "Not the history or the science of it. Just people sitting around every week, eating different food, and you wound up in it because you thought they were actually going to explain it."

Peridot considered that suggestion for a moment, then wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Ew."

That summed that up neatly, didn't it?

"Though I suppose I could still find a way to benefit in such a class. I've found that giving my unwanted food to other students has generally been well-received by them."

Ada had given her a bow! It was sparkly.

Atton sighed.

"You're missing the point," he said, "Which is that this could be a problem if you tried to get someone you'd just blown off to do you a favor."

See? Further proof that Peridot was just bad at humanity. Or, heck, at people in general.

"Ooooh." She blinked. "So what you're saying is that a misstep I make when dealing with some human is going to make them disinclined to help me in the future."

... That was basically exactly what he'd said, yes, Peri.

"Yes," Atton said, sounding irritated. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, thanks for helping."

Head. Desk.

Peridot was so helpful!

"... Can they be bribed with my unwanted food from the eating class?"

Important questions.

Game of Chance, Monday

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Re: Discuss: Strengths and Weaknesses