fandomhigh | The Weird, Wonderful, and WTF World

The Weird, Wonderful, and WTF World - Friday, First Period [09/06].

Lotta classes meeting in front of the portalocity office this semester! You loved to see it! And that was absolutely where Summer's class would be gathering this week and probably most weeks, and she grinned easily at everyone as they gathered.

"So, hey," she said. "Welcome to the class where I'm going to show you some really weird, some really wonderful, and some really what-the-fuck things about this planet for a whole semester. That's a pretty broad range of topics, I know, but I hope you won't be disappointed. Today, though, we're going to be leaning into the wonderful to get started, so I don't scare too many of you off right out the gate. Well, wonderful, unless you're allergic to cats, in which case, enjoy the what-the-fuck, I guess. Because we're going to be hopping on over to Aoshima in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, which is best known as one of that country's most premiere cat islands."

You're welcome, Jon.

"It's a tiny little fishing island with right around 200 hundred cats and significantly fewer people. The cats were brought in to help with the mice, and clearly stayed for the island's abundance of delicious food. There's really not a whole lot to do on Aoshima, it's a pretty quiet place, but that's fine, because we're just going to go and do our introductions surrounded by cats! So let's just get going and we'll continue from there!

"I mean," she added, "unless you are allergic to cats and want to just sit this one out. That, like, would be totally valid."

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Feline fine!

Stark

Gray

Yelena Belova

Stewart

Charlie Gale

Jonathan Sims

Hannibal Lecter

Arden Finch

Beckett Mariner

If there's any significant allergies, speak now or hope someone packed an EpiPen or at least some tissues.

Jon was absolutely thrilled, yes. He'd been half afraid there would be spiders involved. Cats were much better!

It's a small fishing village on an island covered in cats! Summer is definitely going to give everyone a chance to sort of be swarmed by the curious and friendly feline residents of Aoshima for a little while before gathering everyone to grab a cat and grab a seat on the wharf as they get into actual class business.

"Now," she said, "for a class like this, it's hard to really gauge what everyone might think is weird or wonderful or sort of what-the-fuck if I don't know where everyone's coming from, so I just want to make sure we spend a little time today to go over the basics: what's your name, where you're from, and, just for a sort of idea of where the bar is, what was one of the weirdest or most wonderful things to have happened to you...that can also be considered appropriate for a classroom setting."

Not looking at you, there, Stewart.

Summer snuggled a little with the calico that she had claimed and then asked, "Who's first?"

"Uh, I'm Yelena and... well, I guess the most wonderful thing I've done was leaving my previous job which was very restrictive. I got a dog."

Okay, it sounded lame even to her.

"Hey, man," said Summer, her smile faintly sympathetic and encouraging as she shook her head, "way to break out of bullshit employment tying you down and demanding too much of you and embracing...." She trailed off, remembering what Yelena had told her about the whole, you know, being stuck here and being stuck with a job still and all that good stuff, "...somewhat more autonomy in your career?"

Okay, so maybe that didn't sound convincing even to her.

"But I mean, a dog! That is pretty great. Do you think she's going to mind you hanging out with cats all day while we're here?"

Oh, there was some much more autonomy now. That's what happens when you're no longer chemically subjugated to do things against your will.

"Franny is pretty chill," Yelena said with a small smile. "She'll sniff me for a good twenty minutes and then demand food or a walk."

She picked up a kitten that was sitting on her feet to cuddle. "If I brought one home then there would be trouble."

Yeah, that was definitely a big upgrade in the career trajectory, for sure!

"Saaaaame," Summer agreed. "Thankfully for my cat, I have no interest in eer getting another one."

She hadn't even had an interest in the first one! But she had to admit, the stupid cat had grown on her.

"I'm Gray," Gray said. "I'm from California, and I've done a lot of things that probably count as weird or wonderful, but the thing that springs to mind is I used to live on a pirate ship, with pirates? That was pretty cool." And then he added, "And I know you already know about my condition, so please try not to leave me behind anywhere? I'll never live it down." Seriously, Castor still brought up the time they lost him in a department store in the eighties and finally found him sleeping inside one of those circular clothes racks.

"Don't worry, Gray," Summer assured him with a nod. "We won't leave you behind, I'll be sure to do a Gray-headcount before we hop the portal back to Fandom. But were these, like, modern pirates? Or old timey pirates during their heyday and stuff?"

"I'm Stark," said Stark. "I'm from space, generally, but not the same part as anyone else on this island. And... my life has been weird many many times, and wonderful sometimes. The weirdest thing that happened was, maybe, the time I was executed but got better?"

"Yeah," Summer said with a thoughtful nod, "that is pretty up there, and, like, getting executed is pretty much the worst kind of weird, but getting better is probably the best." She gave him a faint smirk. "I might be a little biased on that, though."

She had a feeling he'd agree with her, too! And not even because it was her saying it!

"I'm very glad I got better," Stark said, grinning back. "Or I never would have ended up here."

He patted his legs then, encouraging a nearby orange cat to hop into his lap.

Edited 2024-09-06 19:49 (UTC)

Stewart had found a black cat. Obviously. He was currently scritching his chin and contemplating sneaking him home in his overalls. He wouldn't, because he knew he wasn't even remotely responsible enough for a pet (unless you counted Roald, which he...would), but still...

"Stewart," he offered, somewhat distractedly, although then he turned his attention to the class with a smirk on his face, a smirk that shifted between his collected students but absolutely lingered when it landed on their instructor. "And I don't think any of my weird or wonderful stories would be appropriate for the classroom."

That, or he didn't feel anyone would appreciate just how weird some of them were. Would this group understand the absurdity of sharing a beer and hockey stats with a Hick on Valentine's Day? Or appreciate the true genius behind Fartbook? Doubtful! Let him just keep his mystique instead.

"You know what?" Summer admitted, after taking a moment to debate with herself about professionalism. "I almost want to give you crap about that being a non-answer, but at the same time, I think I'm actually okay with not having an actual answer to this one."

"I'm Charlie Gale and maybe the weirdest thing was being at aspace hotel thing that was hit by a weird traveling carnival thing." Could have been other things, but that one came to mind.

"Yeah," Summer allowed, snorting and shaking her head a little bit as she remembered, "that's definitely a fair one, and coming from me, that's saying an awful lot. And you have to admit one thing, that definitely was memorable. I just really hope that doesn't make the school hesitant to try and do a space school trip again sometime soon, because, really, there's so much potential out there!"

"Jonathan Sims." He was covered in cats and loving it.

He frowned, trying to think of the weirdest thing that had happened to him. "Er...most of the weird things I've been through aren't pleasant," he hedged.

"Doctor Hannibal Lecter." He smiled and nodded to Summer. He was feeding the cats some treats he'd had in his pocket for Beethoven and Joni.

"I came from an incredibly boring world until I arrived in Fandom. Now I have been different versions of myself and other people, been to space and other planets, and met aliens and those who do magic. It has all been rather wonderful."

"I'm Arden Finch, I'm from Durham, North Carolina--" she'd learned by now that nobody knew what she meant by 'the Triangle' "--and the most wonderful thing to happen to me was coming here."

Her own cat was going to be so pissed at her when she got home, but whatever. She was going to take plenty of pictures so that she could just tell Pancakes that if she didn't behave, she was going to send her to live here in Aoshima. Mwa ha ha.

"Thinking of bringing home hundreds of friends for Pancakes?"

Summer snorted. "God no," she said. "You think I want all those cats in my apartment? I didn't even want the one! But I am thinking of threatening to send her here if she acts up, because if there's one thing Miss Diva won't be able to stand is being sent out to the boonies and having to share an island with other cats."

So at least good on Stark for recognizing that she was at least scheming something.

"There wouldn't be room for all of them anyway. And she'd never forgive you for bringing interloper." Stark shook his head. "The threat might work."

"She hated the idea of even being kenneled at the shelter for a weekend," Summer pointed out. "The idea of this place would be pretty much like threatening to send her to her own personal cat hell. It's totally going to work."

"You wouldn't like being sent away somewhere either," Stark said, "would you? Unless it's more like a vacation. I know you like those. Maybe she'd like a vacation? But probably not to here."

Stark, you were overthinking it.

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The Weird, Wonderful, and WTF World - Friday, First Period [09/06].

Sign In - WWWTF, 09/06.

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Listen to the Lecture - WWWTF, 09/06.

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Class Activity: Introductions among the Cats - WWWTF, 09/06.

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Talk to the Teacher - WWWTF, 09/06.

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OOC - WWWTF, 09/06.