fandomhigh | School Assembly, Wednesday, September 29, 2020

Entry tags:

!event: assembly

School Assembly, Wednesday, September 29, 2020

The auditorium was ready again today: folding chairs, check. Rostrum, check. Bored students, check.

Anakin walked up onto the stage. "Hello again, students. Today we have a special guest that is not going to pretend to kill teddy bears!"

He hoped.

"He's--" he pulled his notecard out, "--Nick Miller, and he's here to talk about Creativity and You, or Writing the Great American Novel."

So that should be nice and non-explosive!

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Oh boy! Another assembly! Aren't you thrilled, kids?

Tooooootally normal.

Yay!

Nick Miller was not supposed to be here.

Well. He was, in that he'd gotten signed up for this against his will and ended up flying across the country for an assembly at a high school he'd never heard of in a state he couldn't point to on a map to talk about, of all things, his craft.

So. When Nick got to the microphone, he looked not quite unlike a grumpy, panicked deer in the headlights who sort of wanted to fight the headlights.

"Right! So!" he began.

And then drew a blank.

"As he said, I'm Nick Miller-" Had he said that? He'd been in a fugue state, and not quite listening. "-and I'm here to talk to you about creativity. Book writing... things. Maybe you want to write a book. Maybe you've read some books. Maybe you want to... write a book. Well, the first thing you're going to need is characters. They should all have names. Are they based on someone you know? Who's to say? Not me."

He paused again, and raised a hand in a goodbye. "Anyway, that's my time, good night!"

He promptly tried to Moonwalk away off the stage.

Edited 2020-09-30 02:41 (UTC)

Anakin snagged him neatly by his collar and tugged him back to the microphone. "Try again," he gritted out.

All right, so that wasn't going to work! Plan B!

"That was a trick!" Nick said, smiling daggers at Anakin. "So you have your characters, and then you have a story. What's your story? Write what you know. So you should all probably write about high school, right?"

He paused to see if anyone reacted. If he Moonwalked a second time, would it work? No. Of course not.

"Anyway, another thing that you need to think about is yourself. Like, where does inspiration come from? And what do you do if you get stuck?" Like now! "Sometimes, you just have to say to hell with it, and do something else for a while. Like now! Stand up, kids! That's right, everybody stand up, we're going to do an exercise."

Did he know what it was? No! But the guy with the hair scared him so he was going to have to fake it.

"We're going to do... an obstacle course! Yeah, right here in the auditorium! You all get to participate! So, everyone stand up, and then stand on your chairs. You're going to walk on the seats to get to the aisles! Come on, everybody! Just don't go too fast." He didn't know the next step yet. "Safety first and all."

And while the students were climbing over seats to get to the aisle, Nick was starting to frantically look around for stuff he could use.

That's right! If you're here, you're expected to participate!

Please participate.

Save Nick.

Nick knocked over the microphone stand, letting it hit the ground with a thud in the speakers. "That's right! You make that jump!"

Nick had taken four folding chairs and set them on the ground for the students to walk through the floor through the holes.

"All right, walk through these! Don't trip! And if you trip, don't sue!"

"Uhhh, pick this up, run across the stage and back with it. Don't trip over the folding chairs!"

"Cardio!" Nick said, doing two jumping jacks, total.

He was beat.

"Put this on somehow and do a little shimmy!"

Who knew how long it'd been here! If you don't want to put it on, you could always like, hold it up and shimmy?

"For some reason there are ropes! Why knot tie a knot in it help me."

"Now walk back to your seats! On the chairs, on the chairs! And sit down!"

"You all did very well!" Nick said. "And I bet you're all feeling much more creative now!"

He sure as hell was!

This looked like one of the exercises Wei Wuxian would have made the shidis do back in Lotus Pier, but Wei Wuxian had progressed a little further and he didn't want to get bored.

Wei Wuxian unwound a strip of fabric from his wrist and with a dramatic flourish (and a side glance to make sure people were watching), he tied the black fabric over his eyes. He touched his flute to make sure it was secure in its spot in his belt, then hopped up on the chairs to start the course.

The sound of the microphone stand hitting the ground - even with the noise from the speakers - made it easier to gauge that jump. That, and the spiritual energy he was using to feel the shapes of things around him. He leapt up, his arms out wide, and hung in the air just below the ceiling. Then he glided down and landed gracefully on the other side of the microphone stand.

Wei Wuxian ran through the chairs easily. His blindfold didn't even slip.

I'm having Wei Wuxian do this blindfolded because he's Like That, but if anyone wants to mess with him, let me know. He'll also provide an extra blindfold if someone else wants to try it blind.

Eleanor actually was thrilled. Because given the last few assemblies it was sheer entertainment or a complete train wreck. Which was also entertaining.

This post assembly is a thing of beauty and captures Nick Miller perfectly.

Edited 2020-09-30 12:23 (UTC)

Strangely Eleanor was into this.

“You heard the man!” Eleanor shouted. “The floor is lava people! Get on the chairs!”

Eleanor just stepped over the microphone stand and thrust her arms up in the air like a champ.

Edited 2020-09-30 18:45 (UTC)

“Okay! The floor is not lava anymore people!” Eleanor declared as she successfully stepped through the chairs and again raised her hands up in victory. “USA!”

“Yeeeeeah. Running isn’t my thing but whatever,” Eleanor said and just walked the music stand halfway across the stage and just abandoned it there because this was turning out to be a lot of work.

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School Assembly, Wednesday, September 29, 2020

Arrive and Mingle

Take it away, Nick!

OOC

Speech

Re: Speech

Re: Speech

Walk on chairs

Jump over the microphone stand

Walk through fallen down folding chairs

Pick up a music stand and run across the stage with it and back

Do a jumping jack

Do a shimmy in a Christmas tree costume

Tie a knot in a rope

Walk back to your seats on chairs

End!

Re: Walk on chairs

Re: Jump over the microphone stand

Re: Walk through fallen down folding chairs

Re: OOC

Re: Arrive and Mingle

Re: OOC

Re: Walk on chairs

Re: Jump over the microphone stand

Re: Walk through fallen down folding chairs

Re: Pick up a music stand and run across the stage with it and back