Fandom High School

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.//

//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.

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.]

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.

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!]

//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!]

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!]