When class was about to get started, in the Danger Shop again, set up to look like a small open-air auditorium, with the teachers waiting on the stage, Summer thought about offering an apology for last week's chaos, but you know what? No. It had totally been a learning experience and a pretty good culture shock (well, a shock of some sort, anyway), so she was not even going to feel a little bit bad about it. Just like she wasn't going to feel even a little bit bad about today.



Or one particular part of it, especially.

"So last week was an ~experience~," she started, "and I'm sure this week will be, too, but hopefully a slightly less stressful one. Because today, we're going to be talking about something that can vary widely even in the same cultures, but is still something that's pretty much entirely multiuniversal, and that's music."

"I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't at least have an awareness of music," Kanan noted, arms crossed over his chest and a little grin on his face. "But what one person thinks of as music might qualify simply as noise to somebody else. Or you'll have someone ask what kind of music you like and your answer will have them giggling like a twelve-year-old and you'll never live it down."

Not that he was speaking from experience oh wait.

Because there was that someone giggling like a twelve-year-old and he hadn't even said it yet. "So tell them, Kanan," said Summer, between the giggles. "For example, my favorite kinds of music are trip hop, electropop, and post-punk new wave. And Kanan's favorite kind of music is caaallleed…."

Kanan crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes.

"Core drive. Heavy-isotope. Jatz." He didn't want to say it. Really didn't want to say it. But there was Summer, doing that giggling thing, and here was Kanan, heaving a sigh and adding, in the tone of a man who would really rather do dental work on a nexu, "And jizz."

Happy, Summer?

Summer was very happy, yes, and managed to control her giggles enough to say, "You're going to have to google that one on your own time, guys, but I assure you, that last one means something completely different in this culture and it is not classroom appropriate. But I don't just bring it up to torment Kanan, I promise. I bring it up because one person's music just might be….someone else's not-classroom-appropriate slang. Music has a wide reach and a wide variety, and some of it can be shocking, some of it…."

Here she paused for dramatic effect.

"....can save your life."

Danger Shop Cool Stuff Time! Summer smacked a button and several giant heads appeared in the sky over their little auditorium. "Let me introduce you to the Cromulons," she said, gesturing to them. "I don't know if any of you have been around long enough to discover the wonder that is this planet's obsession with singing competition programs, but they're big. American Idol, Eurovision, the Voice, that weird new one with people in costumes...they're kind of a big deal, but these guys take it to a whole new level. They go around, kidnapping a bunch of planets," yes, she said planets, like, whole planets, "and then force them to," prepare for air quotes, "'show them what you've got'--"

"SHOW US WHAT YOU GOT!" intoned the largest gold head in the sky, as if to prove her point.

"And what you got," she continued, "is music. And if the Cromulons like what you got, you survive. If they don't….PEW." Summer burst her hands in the air in front of her. "They blow up your planet. Which they will not be doing in this simulation, but this is a real thing that actually happened in my life. Needless to say, Earth won that competition, or else, you know, I kind of wouldn't be here, but I also need to add that these guys have no taste, like, at all. This is what won."

Another button push projected a video on the screen behind them on the stage, of a teenage boy and an old man who Summer just might actually deny being related to performing a song (content warning: youtube link is incredibly stupid and has a bad word), which Summer was only going to subject the class too very, very briefly.

"Yeah," she said, "that's enough of that."

"... I feel largely better about jizz," Kanan noted.

And Summer discovered that trying not to snort only made the snorting worse. "But it proves the point! Everyone likes different music, some music can seem really weird or strange, and other music is called…" Snort "jizz. Today, you're going to show what music is like where you're from to the Cromulons, 'show them what you got,' as it were, and see what they have to say. And I promise, they're not going to blow up the Earth if they don't like it. These ones'll just be really super judgey about it."



[[ocd is up, yo.]]