Office hours/Anthropology

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel's busy writing a letter to accept the offer for the summer.

He's here for any students who need help with their final pieces of work.

Comments

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

Kiki taps on the door just as a warning before entering. She's holding a small sheef of paper.

"I have my report done, Professor," she says.

Titled, "The People and Pets of Fandom High," her paper includes several observations of students interacting with their often all-too-human non-human companions, with excerpts below [because omg tired mun needs shower and sleep so must do just snippits here].

"...regardless as to whether or not these companions are actually capable of responding to their human guardians in human speech, it seems that even the most unsophisticated of these animal friends - for example, Xander Harris' pet bullfrog Jeremiah, are treated with no less respect than the humans themselves. It might be natural to assume that such respect might only be seen in those unique cases where the animal is of above-average intelligence, is supernatural, or the student has taken a course specifically in animal conversation, but this is not the case on every occasion I witnessed...

"...nor are these companions treated as property. Between human and animal there is a distinct relationship, which seems to be in every case mutually beneficial to each the owner and the owned - and, as anyone who shares a residence with a cat can say, there is no such thing as 'owning' a cat, and very often it is the cat that owns you...

"...animal companions are not exclusive to those who might be considered the loneliest members of society, either. The shy or socially awkward are no more remarkable in their animal companions either in species, intelligence, or interaction, than those who have several human (or, as in this school, humanoid) friends...

"...this rather astonishing relationship between the humans and the animal companions at Fandom High seems to indicate a level of tolerance, acceptance, and companionship previously unseen in most other cultures, and may be the result of the level of acceptance necessary to live in so diverse and unusual a place as Fandom High."