Once it looked like the students who were going to show up today had settled in, Sparkle grinned a little and launched right into his lecture.

"Hey, guys. So, before we get into any of the 'how to survive alone in a city' stuff, first we have to figure out what you have to worry about in that situation. Or like, any situation. There are certain things that people need in order to survive, whether they have a steady housing situation or not."

"I've got a handout for you today, with a list of basic human needs. It should apply to most sentient species. At the very least, it should apply to most of the people in my class. If I'm wrong, let me know, and I'll adjust how I approach these lessons going forward. I'm from one of the boring Earths." He shrugged a little as he gestured to a stack of handouts. "This one is a table, most of what I've found are pyramids, which, while pretty, don't, like, actually go into depth about stuff like what 'physiological' is supposed to mean. This one has columns. You know it's being thorough when it has columns."

They were easier to follow, shut up.

"What we're mostly going to focus on this semester are the things in the 'subsistence' and 'protection' rows. Which isn't to say that the other stuff isn't important at all - I mean, freedom? Hugely freaking important too, and we'll probably touch on it down the road anyway. But a lot of the stuff below the top two rows kind of starts settling into 'suggestion' territory instead of 'requirement.' Things like your health, your ability to eat, clothing and a shelter are priorities that should be near the top of your to-do list. And I know 'equal rights' isn't exactly something we all have the luxury of saying we have. It's also not something you can necessarily focus on doing something about while you're struggling to survive. That one's a tough one we're going to touch on later, too. For today I just want you to look at the table. Get to know what your priorities on it are. Then I want you to go through the table from Affection on down and tell me a few things you think are most important, and a few things you figure you could probably get by without, at least for a while. A lot of that stuff is stuff we aren't going to cover in class, but if, like, half of you think I should be, I'm going to want to know."

Because seeing where people's priorities sat was fun and educational, okay?