How to Make Friends & Influence People | 4th Period | Monday

[merciful_parable]

Carter bustled around the room, doing a fair impression of someone trying not to wring their hands (he was totally trying not to wring his hands) as he straightened the cushions that he and Fjord had settled on for the first class, rather than the usual desks and chairs, and tripled checked that his cookies were all neatly set out and that there was paper plates and napkins enough for everyone.

At least the sugar cookies with edible glitter on them, as per Summer’s suggestion, had turned out quite nicely. He was indebted to Summer, really....

He paused as he realized that, somewhere in all his quiet fussing, the class had filled up. And… And Fjord wasn’t here.

Oh. Well. That meant…

Carter straightened, looking a bit flustered as he did so. “Hello, everyone,” he said, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the very idea of teaching. “I am Pastor Carter, one of your teachers for, er, ‘How to Make Friends and Influence People’.”

Goddess, but that sounded terrible. It really did.

"I’ve baked everyone cookies today, so please, help yourselves. There’s also sheet of paper on the table, so if you have any food allergies, I would ask that you note them there." He smiled a bit anxiously. "I shouldn’t want to make something one or more of you couldn’t enjoy!"

That was right about the moment a short, wiry red-haired elf man bustled into the room, hair mussed, glasses perched akimbo on his nose. In his arms he was clutching a stack of books and papers, dropping them every which way as he went, only to fumble the whole lot of it onto the teacher's desk, muttering apologies under his breath in a thick German Zemnian accent the entire way.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to be late, I hope I didn't miss anything, excuse me, pardon me..." He looked up all of a sudden, noticed the students on the cushions, then looked at Carter and seemed to startle for a moment. "Oh, oh dear. Am I in the correct room? This is the lesson about first impressions, is it not?"

Carter was… absolutely, and completely, out of his depth here. And totally flabbergasted by the appearance of someone who seemed to be lost. “I’m afraid not,” he ventured, after a moment. “This is about making friends, and today is introductions.”

"Ah, well..." The elf man straightened up a little, reached to straighten his glasses on his nose, and then said in a deep, strong, confident drawl that was totally counterpoint to the voice he'd been using just a moment before, "I do believe the two are rather thoroughly intertwined, Pastor. The right first impression and a strong introduction can both make a great deal of difference down the road."

Carter paused. Then kept on pausing.

"... Fjord?" he asked, rather doubtfully.

"It's the hair, isn't it? The messy hair is probably a bit too much." The elf raised a hand, and then everything around him seemed to shift for just a moment, leaving in his place a much larger, much greener individual, wearing leather armor and a comparatively easy smile. "Apologies, Pastor. I thought I might do a little something to make a point about first impressions for the students, is all."

Disguise Self was a perfectly valid teaching tool.

The apology helped to mollify him, though Carter was not particularly comfortable with either the lack of forewarning nor the fact that his co-teacher had thought to lie to the students on the first day.

"You did make a point," Carter agreed, rather mildly.

Fjord cast him a bit of a curious look at that, but turned to look at the students before speaking again. If he'd overstepped a boundary, he'd make a point to ask the man after class, rather than in the middle of the lecture.

"With any luck, I made the right one," he noted, crouching down to pick a few sheets of paper from the floor. "As the good Pastor has already said, I'm Fjord, your other instructor for this class. Today we'll be covering introductions, and keeping mindful about how we approach those introductions as we do them." He glanced at Carter, smiling wryly. "I imagine we both made very different first impressions. Taking a moment to compare what did and didn't work about either would make for a good exercise, after you've given us your names and a little something about you, perhaps."

Carter glanced at Fjord for a moment, then smiled at the class, as he said, "and, please, feel free to converse with your fellow students as the introductions go on. After all, you should all get to know one another during the course of this class."

Comments

Sign In!

[merciful_parable]

All friendly-like!

Re: Sign In!

[hourtohour_notetonote]

Simon Spier

Listen to the lecture!

[merciful_parable]

And eye the cookies!

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Things were already starting on a positive note for Sidon when the teachers had decided to eschew those terrible and small and uncomfortable desks for a seating arrangement that was much more hospitable to Sidon's continually increasing size, so he settled in easily, intent to give the nervous new teacher his full attention.

And that loud burst of a delighted laugh when the little Hylian-like fellow revealed himself to actually be a large, green man? Yeah. That would have been Sidon. Truly, though, how could he not have been expected to be completely surprised and absolutely tickled at such a show?

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[hourtohour_notetonote]

Simon knew - mostly knew - that things were... Weirder, on the island, and had even almost come to accept it.

Seeing one of his teachers turn from an elf thing into ...that? Took him a little more by surprise.

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[onefootoutthedoor]

... yeah, Peebee stood up and applauded when Fjord dropped the disguise. "That was SO COOL."

Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[merciful_parable]

For Carter's peace of mind, should you have any!

Re: Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[unusual_sith]

Paper? That they were supposed to write on?

Lana may have spent a good amount of time just examining the paper and pen before she finally wrote down (in High Galactic) "None".

Re: Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Despite knowing his stomach would probably regret it later, Sidon did grab one of the cookies because they looked simply too delectable to pass up, and he did rather enjoy the taste of sweet things even if most human food didn't quite agree with him. A bit of nibbling and a smaller one wouldn't kill him, though.

He did contemplate scribbling down 'no allergies, just maybe more fish, please, preferably raw' on the offered sheet, but he knew that it was a very specific and probably not well shared preference, so he just kept it to himself.

Re: Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[hourtohour_notetonote]

All things considered, cookies made everything better. And Simon had no allergies to note, so that was easy.

... Although he may have jotted down that he really liked Oreos.

Re: Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[misshapen_spark]

Yeah, Yang had loaded-up on cookies, thanks. And for allergies?

Vegetables

WHAT? She was a growing girl, she needed junk food to fuel her systems!

Re: Grab Cookies and Write Down Your Allergies

[refused2berescued]

Uma was helping herself to more cookies than one might consider her fair share. Look, she wasn't here for the making friends bit, okay?

Introduce Yourselves!

[merciful_parable]

And talk to your classmates!

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[unusual_sith]

"Lana Beniko." Lana nodded to the instructors. "I'm from Dromund Kaas, though recently of Korriban. How does that illusion work?"

That was fascinating.

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[in_sidon_we_trust]

A good show, scrumptious cookies, and now Sidon's favorite part of a new semester: Introductions! Honestly, he did not think he could possibly have asked for a better start to his week.

"Salutations!" he boomed eagerly when it got to be his turn. Of course, he did try to be mindful, as Pastor Carter had suggested, on how he said it, but he always did it the same way, and that was bright and cheerful and welcoming, which was precisely what he wanted to convey about himself. "And well met, everyone! I am Sidon!" And there it was, the patented pump of his fist in the air across his chest, followed by his brightest, shiniest, perfectly timed glint of light smile. "The Zora Prince! And I'm very excited to meet all of you...and re-meet those of you I already know!"

...those people might have gotten a wink just then, too.

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[hourtohour_notetonote]

Simon gave everyone a shy little wave and cleared his throat before saying, "Uh, hi, I'm Simon. Uh, Spier. I'm from Shady Creek, outside Atlanta, and I'm from... Earth, and now, which is a thing I am really not used to having to explain yet."

He looked around and smiled at the class, even if it was a little bit strained.

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[misshapen_spark]

"Yo! I'm Yang," Yang said, giving everyone a wave. "I'm from Patch, which is an island that's technically part of the Kingdom of Vale, but we kinda ignore them, and they ignore us, and it's fine. My world's called Remnant, and I'm not sure if we're another planet or universe or what the relation is to Earth."

"Oh, and don't worry." Yang flipped some of her hair over her shoulder, and all of it became cascading light and flames for a moment before returning to its normal state. "I know I'm hot, but I only burn if I want to."

Yes, she did that just for the pun. Wouldn't you?

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[onefootoutthedoor]

"Hey. Peebee," she said carelessly, waving a hand. "Not from this galaxy, blah blah, lather, rinse, repeat."

Yeah, she knew the point of this exercise, she was just bored with it by now.

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[wiredweird]

"Jughead Jones. From Riverdale."

Look, this whole... being social thing was very much not his thing. So that was all he was volunteering for now.

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[thegreatmanfredo]

Manfred had thought about this while other people were introducing themselves. Most people seemed to be leading with where they were from, which was still awkward for a nomadic kid, even in Fandom. But that wasn't technically what they'd been asked, so he went with, "I'm Manfred Bernardo, and I see dead people." A beat. "I mean, not right now, just in general."

Re: Introduce Yourselves!

[refused2berescued]

"Uma," Uma said around a mouthful of cookie. "I didn't sign up for this class."

Stupid moose.

Discuss the first impressions Carter and Fjord made!

[merciful_parable]

They were quite different, weren't they?

Talk to your teachers!

[merciful_parable]

Who don't know each other any better than they know any of you!

Re: Talk to your teachers!

[merciful_parable]

Carter... wasn't the sort to get angry, not unless something far worse was happening than whatever Fjord had thought he was doing, but all the same, he was a little disappointed in Fjord right now.

But keeping most of his attention on his students made it easy to not dwell overly so on that matter.

OOC

[merciful_parable]

Okay, I'm curious now. What's everyone's fav. type of cookie?

(Mine's basic chocolate chip, yo.)

Re: OOC

[built_fjord_tough]

White chocolate macadamia forever, yo.

... But now I wanna make it with dark chocolate instead.

I need that cookie to be a cookie I have.