good_for_six: (I: da -  help me find my fucks?)
[personal profile] good_for_six
"Welcome to your final!" Isabela announced. A final that was being held in a Danger Shop version of the auditorium, and which had had posters up all over the place over night inviting people to come and witness. "You're putting on a show!"

A show which they had given absolutely no indications would be happening prior to this. That's improvisation, baby!

"Don't worry," Aphra added, which was always a very good sign that you should start worrying. "So long as you've been paying attention you'll be fine!"

Paying attention to what, Aphra?
jedigrammarians: (Aphra: that's the plan)
[personal profile] jedigrammarians
Class was in the Danger Shop today, which never meant anything good.

"The most important thing about improvising as a skill is that it will prepare your for any situation by helping you understand that there are some situations you just can't prepare for."

And then the ninjas attacked. Almost like your teachers hadn't had any better ideas for class.
jedigrammarians: (Aphra: that's the plan)
[personal profile] jedigrammarians
Your teachers were here for the third class in a row, they deserved some kind of medal for this.

"So, kids, improvisation is a skill that has many applications throughout your daily life," Aphra explained. "For example-"

"Romance!" Isabela announced from where she was scrolling through her phone. "Flexibility, imagination, and willingness to stretch yourself are all vital. Especially if you want to connect with a wide variety of people."

"Exactly," Aphra added after a barely noticeable pause. "You have to be willing to seize your opportunities where you find them." Like during a firefight when you thought you and the object of your affections might both shortly die.

"And what better way to demonstrate that than speed-dating, where you have to make your choices on your feet."

Yes. Speed-dating. This had totally been their planned class all along.
good_for_six: (I: da -  help me find my fucks?)
[personal profile] good_for_six
"So we're at the halfway point, and we haven't really gotten into why improvisation is a valuable thing." I wonder why, Isabela, I wonder why.

"Which is why we've prepared this helpful learning video." No prizes for guessing what you were about to watch. No prizes at all.
jedigrammarians: (Aphra: love the hair!)
[personal profile] jedigrammarians
Your teachers were actually here today. It was a spring miracle.

"So, Kansas is terrible and nowhere near as interesting as people think." Hope no one in the class actually liked Kansas. "Especially when you get trapped in some horrific corn-field centred time-space anomaly."

No. They had not gotten lost and spent the better part of two weeks trying to get back out of Kansas again. That was just crazy talk. There'd been a horrific corn-field centred time-space anomaly.

"On the other hand being surrounded by nothing but corn as far as the eye can see does lead one to stretch their imagination as they try to remember there ever being anything but corn." It had been a very traumatising experience. Isabela was not made for the land-locked life.

"In any case, good luck figuring this out," Aphra told them, as, extremely predictably, the blank walls of the Danger Shop were replaced with a giant cornfield.

Albeit one that was full of many different and exciting colours of corn. Because monocultures were bad. Or something.
jedigrammarians: (Aphra: comms)
[personal profile] jedigrammarians
Class was in the Danger Shop today, but your teachers weren't. Because they'd randomly decided to take a road trip to Kansas. As you did.

But never fear, because Aphra was sometimes too clever for everyone's good, she was totally able to program the Danger Shop from her comm and set up a video link. From the car. That Isabela was currently driving, yes.

"Hey kids, welcome to Improvisation in Action," she called into her comm. "Where you learn to think on your feet in response to unexpected situations."

"Like this one," Isabela added, somewhat redundantly. "Oh, hey, waffles."

"Anyway, enjoy your first exercise!" Aphra hit a button, and yes, those objects that had just appeared with ominous countdown timers and mysterious ticking noises were bombs. "And introduce yourselves to each other too!"
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Right. So. Last week had happened, and then Jono had come in to the school to prepare for class this morning, only to have the office gremlin pull him aside and explain that he might want to avoid the Danger Shop today. The safeties were fine, he had nothing to worry about there! But yesterday there had been a... thing.

Mostly Jono was impressed that somebody at the school cared enough to tell him that he might want to spare students further traumas. And that the office gremlin was surprisingly well-spoken in spite of his tendency to occasionally interject 'chompy' and 'bitey' into the middle of his sentences.

So, Improv's final was being held in a regular, boring old classroom today. But Jono had brought an assistant.

//This is Joni,// he said, once the students had filed in. He held the little kitten, wide-eyed and ears perked forward, up in the air for everyone to see. //And today, she'll be interviewing you all for the very important position of head kitten cuddler at her company, KITT, Inc. Her interview methods are a little on the hands-on side, of course, but you'll need to explain to her in depth why you're the best person for the job, even while demonstrating your ability to do it and do it well. Here on the desk, we have the kitten brush, the stick with the feather at the end of it, and a dangly ribbon. I trust you all know what to do.//

He set Joni down on the desk, and then gestured to the seat across from her.

//One at a time, your job interview starts now.//
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Jono's headache from last week? Had nothing on his headache this week. The difference was apparently that the island was up to something unpleasant, because looking out the window of the house out beyond the backyard this morning, he could have sworn that some large, fiery... thing was staring back at him. He'd blinked and it was gone again, but the way it had held itself had him more than a bit unsettled.

//Island's up to something,// he said, sitting on the edge of the Danger Shop stage with one hand to the side of his head and his eyes glowing faintly white. //I could keep you all here today to strut around up here pretending to be different animals in a barnyard or whatever, or I could let you all leave to batten down th'hatches or arm yourselves or whatever you do on days like these. Going by th'bloke I spotted before I headed in today, though, it's gonna be a big one.//

He shuddered a little, and then shook it off.

//Personally, I'd rather you started with the hatches and the battening down of them. Find a safe place, find safe people, check to see if the Causeway's been shut off yet, spend today coordinating escape plans and emergency backups if you need them. Maybe the island is just feeling weird and showing us the ghosts of Christmas deadly or something, but t'is the season, and better safe than sorry. General rule is that th'dorms and Caritas are safe havens, but I've been grabbed from my bed before in my time as a student here, so better not to swear by that one.//

Happy December, students.

//We don't know what's coming, so I couldn't tell you what the best approach is here, but feel free to... you know. Improvise.//
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Jono only looked mildly peevish today, thanks to a headache he'd woken up with that morning that didn't seem at all inclined to leave him be, no matter how much he tried to just reason with it. He clearly wasn't a fan.

He also had a pair of newsboy hats with him, one in each hand. This presumably had something to do with today's activity. Presumably.

//Fairly straightforward one today,// he shared. //Pair off, play out any bloody scene you choose, and the aim of the game is to take the other player's hat off his head. You need to find a way to justify it within the scene you're playing, like perhaps there's a wasp in the room and you want to grab for it to swat the thing. The other player will have to justify why they can't give up their hat for the cause, as well. Basically, any move to take or keep your hat will need to make sense in the scene you're playing. Now, grab a hat, pair off, and go.//

Hats was a nice, straightforward game. Today was a good day for straightforward. If anyone needed Jono, he'd be sitting down in the theatre seating, more or less paying attention. With his eyes closed.
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
//Alright, new game this week,// Jono said, as though there wasn't a new game every week. //This week, we're playing 'What Are You Doing,' which is short and sweet and fairly straightforward. Person one steps in and starts doing something. Doing anything they like, really. Person two steps in and asks the question, "What are you doing?" Then it's the first person's turn to respond with any activity at all, just so long as it isn't actually the thing they're currently acting out. Person two begins to act out exactly that, and will come up with a new activity for person three to do when they come in and ask the same question. They'll do that activity, come up with the next, and so on, until we run out of time or get bored with the whole bloody thing and decide to play tag or something instead.//

... So, hopefully that was straightforward. Jono gave his shoulders a shrug. If it wasn't, well, then this would be a glorious disaster, and there was nothing wrong with that in improv, either.
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
//Alright,// Jono said, hands in his jacket pockets and a kitten slung over one shoulder like a tiny, curious ragdoll, //back to fun and games this week.//

Because he couldn't nope out of life and hide in bed forever. Hannibal almost certainly wouldn't let him get away with it. Bringing Joni along for the ride was going to have to do.

//We're going to play Opposite Characters this week. Another scene in a shop, with one of you playing a shopkeeper and one of you playing a customer of some sort. But instead of the goal being trying to get what item you're buying across, this week it's all about personality. Opposite personalities, to be exact.// He shrugged the shoulder that didn't currently have Joni using it as a perch. //It's fairly straightforward. Whatever personality the first one of you presents, the other one attempts to be as different from it as possible. If one of you walks into the shop yelling and overbearing, the other one plays quiet and meek. If one of you is happy and laughing, the other is serious and dour. And so on.//

He gave his hands a clap, and Joni's ears pricked forward, her eyes going wide at the sound.

//Pair off and get to it. I'll be here if anybody has any questions.//
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Today, instead of a class, there was an e-mail sent out to Jono's students, and a note posted on the door.

Class is cancelled today. Homework for the week is simple; do something to make somebody's day more pleasant. That's all. I'll see you next week.

Jono tried not to nope out on classes too often, but some days were nope days whether he liked it or not.


[OOC: Yeah, I got nothin'. Take care, folks.]
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
//Alright,// Jono said, once again starting class by sitting on the edge of the Danger Shop stage, //this week, we're going to be playing a game called Little Voice. It's another one of those fairly straightforward things... one of you is interacting with your surroundings, and then something within those surroundings begins to speak to you. That something is, of course, the person you've paired off with, speaking at you from offstage. It should be made clear by one of you what the object is that's doing the talking, be it a toothbrush or a duck with a machete, and the content of that conversation is up to you.//

He pulled himself to his feet.

//For example, I walk into the scene and start to act out getting ready for my day. Shave my face, comb my hair, reach for my toothbrush and... whoever is playing the toothbrush leads in with a line like, 'I'm very disappointed in you, Carl. You and I both know the bubblegum-flavoured toothpaste is for children. And do you ever floss?' And while it would be a valid reaction to shriek and run offstage because my toothbrush is talking to me, I'm going to carry on a conversation with my toothbrush, anyway.//

Apparently as a guy named Carl. Who had things like teeth. Lucky Carl.

//So, pair up, pick a setting between you, and choose who gets to be onstage and who gets to be a tiny voice, and then get going.//
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Jono looked a little bit like he'd been hit by a bus - in a figurative sense, though he hadn't so much as combed his hair before coming to class today either - when he dragged his ass into the Danger Shop today, sat on the stage, and gestured for the students to take seats in the audience.

//I got roughly zero sleep last night, and this week has been hectic,// because they were stupidly planning yet another wedding (which he wasn't expecting would happen) and a Halloween party thinly disguised as a reception (which he was really hoping would), //so I don't have a game for you today. I do, however, have a video for you.//

The stage behind him changed, then, to become a cinema screen.

//This week, we're just watching episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? From back when it was still filmed in the UK, because I will never understand the American need to take all things good, particularly the ones that are already in bloody English, and then re-make them. And because I couldn't find new episodes of the Drew Carey version on YouTube in the whole thirty seconds I spent searching on my phone while tripping over cats this morning. Enjoy.//

And then he shuffled down off the stage and took a seat in the audience before the theatre went dark and Improv's movie day began.
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Once again, the class was meeting in the danger shop, and once again, the place was decked out to look like a stage. This... was probably not liable to change any time soon.

//Welcome back,// Jono said, giving a nod to the group. //I trust you've all had a relaxing vacation? Or, at least, a vacation in general. There was a day in there that didn't quite feel right. So, this week, that's what we're going to focus on. The not-quite-right. We'll be playing a game called 'World's Worst,' which is fairly straightforward. You're all assigned a profession. Now, in an interaction where you're trying to meet a common goal, pair off and be absolutely the worst at what you do. What makes you the worst? Who knows. Maybe you're a dentist who thinks that bananas are perfectly acceptable dental instruments, or a veterinarian with a terrible fear of dogs and a deathly allergy to cats. Get creative, and get terrible.//

Go on, guys. Get up there and suck!
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Jono was in a surprisingly good mood for a man who had nearly been murdered by frogs yesterday. Probably because it took him some time to figure out why the hell they were trying to dangle cheeseburgers at him.

Swing and a miss there, frogs. Swing and a miss there.

//Good morning, class. I hope none of you were hurt, yesterday? And that you all made it through the weekend fairly unscathed?// Nobody seemed to be dead, anyway. Jono shrugged and continued on. //Today, we're going to be playing a game called 'Word at a time.' Or, rather, sentence at a time, mostly for the sake of simplicity.// And because it would be damn difficult to tell a story a word at a time in LJ's format, but it wasn't like Jono knew that. //Basically, we'll all be participating in this one. I'll kick off a story with a sentence. The next person to step in will build on that story with a sentence of their own, and the next will reply to them, and so on. The story will no doubt spiral out of control and become an incoherent mess, but really, that's half the fun of it.//

[Open!]
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
//Okay,// Jono said, once more sitting on the edge of the Danger Shop stage, once more ready to teach the bright young minds of today how to... dick around for five minutes at a time within a loosely-defined set of rules, which he sort of hoped they had experience with when they were little and playing make-believe games, but with this crowd he wasn't going to make any assumptions. //Today's game isn't so much about what comes in the middle, though it is important that it makes sense all the same, as the parts of the skit that bookend it. Today, we're playing First Line, Last Line.//

Which he hoped was fairly straightforward based on the name alone, but again, he'd learned better than to make assumptions with this group. And he wasn't confining himself to just using questions this time around, so he could actually explain it. Joy of joys!

//Each of you will be given a sentence, at random. You'll pair off, and you can pick who gets to start the scene first. Congratulations- your sentence will be the first line of your game. Everything you play out from there will steer you toward the second sentence, the one your partner has been given, which will need to somehow be the last line said. It needs to make sense in context, and the scene leading up to it will also have to incorporate the first line.//

He held up a hat filled with little bits of paper.

//Come get a sentence and pair off. You can compare notes for a minute if you like before you start so that you can both figure out how one line relates to the other, or you might leap in blind, though if you do that then obviously it's the job of the person with the second line to try to steer the game toward its conclusion, and you might want to consider playing through twice, with new lines and the roles reversed. Whichever you prefer is perfectly fine.//

He gave the hat a little shake.

//Now, let's get going.//
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
//Is it another week already? Then should I give you another improv game to keep you occupied today?// Jono gave the class a little nod once they had assembled in the Danger Shop. //What should I dredge up for you this week...?//

He paced back and forth thoughtfully.

//Should I get you all to play that game where you can only communicate in questions? Is the goal of that one straightforward enough?//

He certainly hoped so, because at the rate he was going, he was going to have a hell of a time explaining how Only Questions was played if he was only asking questions himself.

//Would playing out a scene using questions instead of any statements at all be difficult, do you suppose?// He shrugged his shoulders a little. //Would you be more comfortable playing this game in groups of two, or more? And would you like to choose your own topic to ask questions about? Once you've grouped off and chosen what topic to have an inquisitive conversation about, who wants to go first?//

... For the love of the improv gods and all that was theatrical, Jono really hoped he wasn't going to have to try to pull that lecture off again. It wasn't even all that difficult. He just really missed statements.

[OOC: Open!]
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Jono was in an impressively good mood this week, having made it through the weekend more or less unscathed. He could live with being a slightly more obnoxious version of himself with significantly less trauma than he carried around with him these days. He'd been there and done that, after all. Fed some ducks. Fed some cats.

It was basically a normal weekend, but with more wrapping his face and less actually opening the Groovy Tunes.

//Morning, class,// he greeted, once it looked like everyone had filed into the Danger Shop. //This week, we're going to play a game called Ding. You'll pair off, start playing a scene, and whenever I ring this bell,// he picked up a cowbell and gave it a clang by way of demonstration, //whatever you just did in that scene? Do something different. Say you walk into the scene and say that it's a lovely day. I ring the bell. Say something else. Announce that you're looking forward to a party, or point into the distance and shout about a tornado. Carry on the scene with your edit, ignoring whatever was discarded when the bell rang. Every ring of the bell means you'll have to come up with something new off the top of your head. Please, try not to get too frustrated if you find that you have to backtrack often.//

He didn't want to have things get thrown at him, after all.

//Just to give you all a starting point, pick a nursery rhyme or a fairy tale that you're fond of, and play off that. Red Riding Hood going through the woods to bring her gran some treats-// he rang the bell, //that is, to set up the football game for her on pay per view. If you're telling even remotely the same story when you're done than you were when you started, I clearly didn't ring the bell enough.//

Clearly.
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Back into the Danger Shop it was, mostly because Jono still hadn't gotten around to cleaning the broken glass off of the stage of the Boards.

It was entirely possible that since the mess was Hannibal's fault, he was going to make him do it when he was all healed up, as one last final hurrah to him being grounded.

//Welcome back, class,// he greeted, because it was a wonder anybody ever returned to his rambling classes, really. //This week we're going to leap right into the theatre sports. That's gonna be the format of this class; show up, play for an hour, and call it well enough. Grades are going to be based on participation, since I can hardly put a mark on creativity. It's too bloody subjective. Willingness to play along, though? That's half the battle, really.//

He clapped his hands. Once. Then kind of rubbed them together, expression amused.

//So, what to subject you all to this week? I have a bloody list, and we're not going to hit all of them by any stretch of the imagination before this semester is through. Repair shop, perhaps. Pair off. One of you will be a repairman in a repair shop, and the other will be a customer bringing something in for repairs. The catch is, only the repairman knows what that something is, and what's wrong with it. The person bringing it in will have to guess based on clues the repairman provides. And it doesn't have to be anything obvious. It might not even be something that makes sense to bring into a repair shop. Perhaps the repairman has just been handed an apple that tastes rather like a turnip. They'd have to give clues about what the object is while giving the diagnosis and effecting repairs. 'Well, it's still bright red, let's see if it's got any worms in it. Sometimes that'll do funny things with how it performs.' 'Sorry, there isn't much I can do with it. My best advice is to boil it up and mash it, I don't think it'll be very good for your pie, after all.'//

He snapped his fingers and then gestured to the stage.

//Pair off. If there are any of you without a partner, you can jump into a group of three, or I'll play a scene with you, if you like. Figure out which is going to be dropping hints, and which is going to be the customer who doesn't know what it is that needs repairing, and then repairmen, come check the list for items and issues that you need to fix.// He paused, and then added, //And congratulations, Shiemi. You get to be my TA for the semester. Mostly that just means helping me carry things to class so I don't need to make multiple trips, if there are actual props.//

[Open!]
furnaceface: (Default)
[personal profile] furnaceface
Thinking better of carting a classful of students over to the Boards to have their first class on a stage that was now scorched and covered in broken glass and such, Jono had claimed the Danger Shop instead.

And then he'd programmed it to look like the Boards' stage, pre-failed-wedding-three. It had been easier to do than the cleaning would have been, at any rate. He was sitting on the edge of the stage when the students filed in, and gestured for them to make themselves comfortable in the theatre seating as they arrived.

Alright. Looks like I'm here teaching you lot after all. )

[OOC: Open!]

Fandom High RPG



About the Game

---       Master Game Index
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---       Thinking of Joining?
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---       Fandom High School
---       Staff Lounge
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Once Upon a Time...
---       FH Wishverse AU


Out-of-Character Comms

---       Main OOC Comm
---       Plot Development
---       OOC-but-IC Fun





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Fandom High is a not-for-profit text-based game/group writing exercise, featuring fictional characters and settings from a variety of creators, used without permission but for entertainment purposes only.

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