fandomhigh | The Magic of Plants, Wednesday, Per 3

It felt good to be back on the island again and in front of a class. Even though it seemed like she only came to the island these days when everything was exploding, Karla still missed Fandom and all of its whimsical madness. Though since she did have a class to teach, she should probably get on that, rather than reminiscing about the times she'd had class in this very room and the state of her old locker.

"Hello, class, and welcome to the Magic of Plants," she said, giving her class an easy smile. "Which, depending on where you're from, might have a disappointing ratio of magic to plants. This isn't some introduction to witchcraft--that's not how my Craft works--we are going to learn to unlock a lot of the uses of some common plants you might come across in your day to day life. You likely already know that plants are integral to our survival as a species; they feed us, clothe us, shelter us, provide us the bases for a great many medications and remedies. Also, tea, coffee, and chocolate all come from plants and without those necessities, we'd have to have serious conversations about how much of life is actually worth living."

Because coffee. Life-giving, precious coffee.

"But since you've all been on the island for at least a semester, then you know what the first week is for. So, introductions! Name, class, why you took this course, and then an old favorite ice breaker of mine--two truths and a lie. Tell the class two truths about yourself and one lie and we'll all guess which one is a lie. And then once that's done, we're going to use plants to make papyrus sheets like your Ancient...Sumerians did? No, that doesn't sound right, hold on." Karla looked at her phone to double check. "Ah! Ancient Egyptians! Right, like the Ancient Egyptians did."

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"I like Gratuity," Karla said. "Is there a story behind it?"

People with words for names often did.

"English isn't Mom's first language." That seemed like enough of a story to Tip.

"Like a first generation Italian-American?" Karla guessed with a smile.

"You got me," Tip said with a smile. "Though, I mean, I don't KNOW that my dad isn't one. . . . Mom probably would've mentioned it by now though."

"You just live with your mom?" Karla asked, curious but wanting to ask a question that Gratuity could answer in as much or little detail as she wished.

"Mom and J.Lo and Pig the cat and Lincoln the dog and Bill the robot," Tip said. "J.Lo's an alien. But I grew up with just Mom and Pig."

"So it sounds like your Earth has seen a lot of alien activity," Karla said. "J.Lo is a roommate, then?"

La la la, just making sure Gratuity didn't live with an alien overseer or something, la la la.

"He's my best friend," Tip said. "He helped convince his people to move to Titan instead of sticking around and colonizing Earth."

You know. Sort of.

Eventually?

"That's a good trait for a best friend to have," Karla said with a small laugh. "Does he face any trouble? The aftermath of things like that usually end up with a lot of anti-whatever sentiment."

Anti-alien in this case, but it was pretty much anti-anything-different when it occurred.

"Oh yeah. It's really rough for him. He's an engineer, so he keeps trying to pitch in rebuilding the infrastructure, but he still hasn't really grasped human culture yet. So sometimes he does things like build the new community center out of corn starch."

Blink. Blinkblink.

"Okay, so there's not understanding human culture and then there's not understanding proper building materials."

Say what?

"The Boov make most of their stuff out of bubbles."

To illustrate, Bill helpfully floated up from where he'd been perched on Tip's shirt and drew a tiny replica of New Smek City. Out of bubbles.

"I--hello there little friend," Karla said. "I hadn't realized you could take part in the conversation, too, or I wouldn't have ignored you."

Bill looped around, cutting through the model and dispersing it, then spelled out THANK YOU.

"He says thanks," Tip said. "This is Bill, my robot. He mostly just likes to listen in, since most people here can't read Boov."

"Fair enough," Karla said. "But he's welcome to participate in the conversations if he has something to say and you're willing to translate it."

"Sure," Tip agreed. Bill spelled something complicated and she grimaced. "Pretty sure that's a commentary at how terrible I still am at reading Boov, myself. Brat."

"Still better than anybody else in class," Karla said with a laugh. "A pleasure to meet both of you. I hope you both enjoy the rest of the term."

The Magic of Plants, Wednesday, Per 3

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