fandomhigh | Culture Shock; Thursday, Period 2 [01/24].

Summer kiiiiiind of hated that she was about to start class with what was going to come out of her mouth in a second, because, dammit, she was leaning way harder into this whole teacher thing than she had ever expected to, but there it was. It was happening anyway. Here we go.

"Soooooo," she said, "let's do a quick show of hands. Who all had the opportunity to be all shrunken down and tiny thanks to the weird whims of our fair and lovely island this weekend?"

Summer's own hand was definitely swinging up into the air.

And there went Kanan's, too.

"And I got to ride my dog around town, so I think I'm actually coming out somewhere on the winning side of that equation," he added, smirking. "Stance was thrilled about it, anyway."

Who didn't want a giant puppy to ride around on, right?

"And I got to use my cat as a big comfy pillow," Summer offered, not to be outdone, although, really, Kanan did kind of win on that one. "Which just goes to show, pets are awesome to have, and work just as good as anything else to segue into what we'll focus on today. Because this place? Turning you into things different from what you are? Ahhhh, yeah. Definitely Fandom Culture, one-hundo-percento. And probably one of the most common, widely spread, awkwardly random thing it likes to turn people into is animals."

"The only thing more awkwardly random than turning into animals is turning back again," Kanan sighed, rolling his eyes skyward. "But we'll get to that in a moment. First, just picture yourself, maybe a little overwhelmed with the island in general, or maybe you've slipped into a state of complacency. Whatever the case might be, you probably aren't expecting what happens next, when in the middle of a conversation or as you're picking up something you don't want to drop or just when you happen to be waking up in the morning, suddenly you've got a goddamn tail."

And stupid little bird feets.

"And just think," added Summer with a grin, "how crazy that might have sounded if it weren't for the weekend proving that stranger things can happen. But at least when you're a miniature version of yourself, the height difference is really the, er….biggest challenge to face. When you're an animal, the variables are a bit different: height could still be an issue. Do you have opposable thumbs? How well can you communicate with your roommate or your friends about what's happened to you? Today, you'll get a chance to work some of that out before it totally hits you IRL."

"Isn't the Danger Shop great?" Kanan smirked a little. And then, with a clap of his hands, he absolutely looked like a dumb little space cat with twiggy little bird legs. "The room is going to assign something to you at random. So, have fun with that."

And then the next thing out of his mouth was the tiniest, most kitteny mew.

A tiny, kitteny mew that would have nearly melted Summer if she, herself, hadn't already been turned into a little red squirrel with the fluffiest tail pretty much ever. She was chittering at them, probably something important, gesturing with her little tiny squirrel paws, but whatever it was would likely end up lost in translation before those little paws did their own clapping to set off the programming to make the class less like a class and more like a zoo.

[[ocd ~~incoming~~ is up!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A little different from normal.

Sabine Wren

Lana Beniko

Keyleth

Trevor Belmont

It's pretty short again; experiences speak louder than words! But there's plenty there to maybe start making you wish you could get to to the door to escape before they finished.

And there, from where Sabine was, came the scandalized, "But I've done this already!" like that would mean she could skip out on this one.

Noooope.

Keyleth looked mildly perplexed all throughout the lecture. Yes, she knew academically that most people couldn't wild shape or know how to cast polymorph, but she'd been doing it for so long that it was hard to look at this from the mindset of someone who couldn't.

Mostly it was just that the idea of having it happen unexpectedly and not of your own choice was weird, to be honest. Sounded about like this place, though.

And voila! Animals! Unless there's a glitch that manages to keep you human-shaped, you've got some time to feel out your new animal self, see how you like it (or how you don't), and hope you don't wind up as prey to someone else's predator.

Lana was a surprised and somewhat disgruntled akk dog with glowing eyes.

Okay, the lack of opposable thumbs was going to be really annoying. She was short and stumpy. But she still had the Force!

She had no idea what to do, so she sat down and thought about napping.

For some reason, the Danger Shop didn’t turn Keyleth into an animal — maybe it was because that was a completely instinctive process to her — but after an awkward couple of seconds, when she realized it, she made a tiny meep noise and promptly turned herself into her white tiger form just so she wouldn’t look out of place.

Look.

Look.

There were parts of being a bird that were pretty great. Fkying was the best, for instance. The rest? Ehhhh. And really, she was just annoyed on principle, because she was fifteen and good at being annoyed.

And there was an akk dog standing on her hind legs and following that bird with her eyes, maybe being a little bit jealous.

And grinning and occasionally batting at her, but not actually making contact, because claws were a thing.

Okay, the part of this that was unfair was that Sabine wantedto be something with claws, and she was jealous right back.!

But the only way she could really get that across was by flapping her wings.

So she flapped her wings.

Since it wasn't exactly easy to hold a discussion among a variety of animals, and it was sort of a cheap excuse of a class to just spend the whole time running around as animals in the first place, at some point, probably when it would be the most amusing and unexpected, everyone changed back.

Just like it usually did with these things.

"Please note," said Summer, "we made sure everyone would change back with what they were wearing when they changed. This is usually not the case."

Plus that would be super awkward.

"So you might want to come up with contingency plans," Kanan added, "for just such an occasion. Don't be stuck running through the park nude." Like he had been, that one time. "We could chat about how you felt about your time as a simulated animal here, but... you know, I kind of like the contingency plan thing. What problems do you figure you might encounter from a sudden bout of animal? And the, uh, technical difficulties when it comes to turning back? Have you got any ideas for circumventing some of those problems?"

"How long do these usually last?" Lana asked. "I'm considering 'staying in my room' as a viable option."

"Few days," Kanan replied. And then shrugged. "Few weeks. It varies. Unless you can get a pretty reliable supply of food in your room, or someone willing to deliver it to you, there's no guarantee you won't just starve."

He paused and then added, "Besides, Fandom likes waiting until the worst possible moment before turning people back."

He didn't feel even a little bit stupid about blaming the island's sense of humor, here.

Lana thinned her lips. "That does it. I'm learning Force camouflage."

Keyleth very slowly, very hesitantly raised a hand.

“I, er . . . I’m pretty used to turning into animals, but that’s sort of a natural talent of mine and — and that’s when I do it consciously. And it doesn’t come with nudity afterward.” Because you could Wild Shape with your entire inventory on you and somehow it’d all disappear until you reverted back to yourself but it would all be just fine and right where you’d left it. Yay handwavey magical convenience! “And I . . . don’t know about contingency plans, because I’ve never thought about it, but if anyone is all weirded out by getting turned into an animal, I know it can be kind of a big adjustment suddenly being a shape you’re not used to, and I’m . . . willing to try and talk you through the experience afterward, I guess?”

She laughed self-conciously and kind of shrank in on herself a bit. “Just wanted to put that out there.”

"Staying in your room is the safest option, but can still be traumatizing." Sorry forever, Astrid! "Maybe find someone who doesn't mind watching you while you're like that, who will keep clothes on hand."

You can talk to them when they ping in!

Kanan was here, and while he wouldn't be terribly talkative while the Danger Shop was liberally applying a veneer of Loth-cat, he was there to chat to after the fact, and would be keeping an eye on everyone in the meantime all the same.

Summer, as a squirrel, had the advantage of incredibly expressive paws and a weird ability for some people on the island to start picking up squirrel chitters via radio exposure, but she was still probably easier to talk to in her usual form rather than her squirrely one.

Even if maybe her squirrerly one was pretty cute.

Do animals get the plague? If animals don't get the plague, I'd like to be an animal, pls.

Culture Shock; Thursday, Period 2 [01/24].

Sign In - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Sign In - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Sign In - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Sign In - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Sign In - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Lecture! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Lecture! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Lecture! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Animals! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Discussion! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

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Re: Discussion! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Teachers! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Teachers! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

Re: Teachers! - Culture Shock, 01/24.

OOC! - Culture Shock, 01/24.