Pre-Jump Earth Literature

[aestrix]

It's a new term, and the end of the break between terms most students have been enjoying. But time marches ever on, and so at 1:00 PM, just after lunch, twenty-six students all around the age of fifteen are finding seats in an obnoxiously decorated classroom. It's one of those classrooms that tries very hard to be peppy and inspirational, and only succeeds at being very out of touch, and kind of creepy.

Soon it will be time to read about things long-dead people wrote.

Comments

[poll_the_stars]

"They can be very Betan," she agrees seriously, sounding relieved upon spying this Point Of Comparison. She's going to seize it. "My very favorite part's the one where I hear insinuations that I should never go home."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I get that one too. With varying ratios of superiority to concern depending how much the person in question actually knows about Barrayar."

...If he's going to drive her away, might as well do it fast. As he collects his things and stands up, he adds, "Maybe I should keep the opening monologue of Richard III memorized for the earnestly worried crowd. It sure did a number on poor Frank."

There. It's not a trick of perspective: he really is this short. And he has a slight limp, too, obvious when he begins to move away from his desk. Now's your chance to run, Yvette Vorlaine.

[poll_the_stars]

She doesn't run. She expected this, with the speech. She does take a brief moment to look him over, but there's no flinch or fleeing. Not even the subtle facial flinch or looking away immediately.

A laugh escapes her at his words; it seems to surprise her a bit. "I, I think it won't have, quite the effect as it did here. Frank seemed more mortified that he put you in the situation than the words themselves." Pause. "Though you did deliver it beautifully."

(OH GOD YVETTE WHAT ARE YOU DOING! WHY ARE YOU SAYING THINGS! HE IS NOT VOR! HE IS A MUTANT! IF YOU WERE A PROPER LADY YOU WOULD RUN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

... If she were a proper lady she would not be on Beta Colony, fuck you flinch reaction, take a jump to hell.)

She pauses, and reviews her words. Oh shit. Mother is going to be so disappointed in her for her lax manners. Shit. Maybe she has been here too long.

[thisvorlunatic]

He grins. It could be a very nice smile, under other circumstances, without so much pain in it. "What can I say. The character just speaks to me."

[poll_the_stars]

... She has no idea how to reply to this, actually!

"I hope not with the megalomania and the murder and the lies and the betrayal," she says, dry. "That sounds like it would end poorly."

Well. She said that. She's not sure if she's okay with that.

[thisvorlunatic]

He laughs.

And, this being the best he's felt in weeks, and with her Barrayaran accent making him feel at home, he answers without thinking. "Come on, I can't kill Gregor, then I'll have no one left to play Tacti-Go with."

...oops. Well, if there's a Vor girl in his class someone's bound to have a security report on her already, and it's not like going by Miles Naismith on Beta Colony is that much more than a convenience/formality. It's probably fine.

[poll_the_stars]

She takes a few seconds to piece this together, at first thinking that 'Gregor' is his - brother, maybe. And then context of the play connects with his first name and her admittedly slightly sketchy political knowledge and oh shit is he the Regent's son?

A tiny sound escapes her lips, before she clamps them shut and forces herself to look calm.

"I wasn't aware the Emperor played Tacti-Go," she says carefully, because that is the only sentence in her head that makes sense. "Or that playing it was his most endearing trait."

... Okay that last part just. Slipped out. Whoops.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I, uh." Awkward. "...I have a very inappropriate sense of humour sometimes?"

[poll_the_stars]

Oh that did seem rather judgmental, didn't it.

"I am not offended." And she isn't. But she is slightly out of her depth and rethinking that whole 'not running' thing. She subtly looks for escape routes. Aaaaaaa what does she do this was not in her etiquette lessons aaaaa.

"You should hear my sister, yesterday she joked about getting a sex change."

...

Whatever she was supposed to do it was probably not that.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, she came to the right planet for it."

[poll_the_stars]

"She did, it's true. She'd probably be serious about it if it meant she could enlist, but - Barrayar."

Why is she saying these words, where is her filter, she just keeps saying things! HELP! SOMEONE SHUT HER UP!

[thisvorlunatic]

"Barrayar," Miles agrees with a sigh and a half-smile. "And, uh, if she was planning to lie extensively and never get found out, her chances of pulling it off have just taken a sharp dive, I'm sorry to say."

[poll_the_stars]

Of course. ImpSec.

"Got talked out of something like that by Mother years ago," says Yvette serenely. "Too suicidal, and if she were found out there'd be no way for us to help her. She's training to be a jump pilot, according to her that is almost as good. I think her current plan involves finding her in through Komarr, though I've lost track of the specifics."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, best of luck to her."

[poll_the_stars]

"Thank you," she says. "I'll pass that along."

...

Is. Is that it? Is she done? Can she stop blabbering on like a lunatic with no regards towards propriety? Yes? Good.

[thisvorlunatic]

Smile? Smile.

[poll_the_stars]

... Yeah, okay. Smile.

[thisvorlunatic]

Aaaaaa no wait why are they smiling at each other this is terrifying.

"I have to go, but - I'll see you next class?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Ah, yes. I won't keep you. Next class." And she curtsies, because one does not talk while curtsying, she is safe.

Now, at long last, it is completely appropriate for her to flee in a non-obvious fashion. Excellent. She doesn't actually have to be anywhere immediately, but she would like to go back to the room she's staying in and collapse face first into her pillow to bemoan whatever the fuck is wrong with her.

She can only hope that she will not blabber on like a lunatic next time she talks to him.

Whyyyyyyy.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles, meanwhile, meets Sergeant Bothari in the corridor outside the school complex and goes home to his grandmother's apartment, where he shuts himself in his room to avoid his grandmother's sympathy and then has to put up with the Sergeant poking his head in suspiciously anytime there is a noise that could remotely be construed as alarming.

The next day he has a completely different set of classes, but the day after that it's back to Pre-Jump English Literature. Can he leverage Frank's guilt to avoid ever having to speak in class again? Let's find out.

[aestrix]

Well. Maybe. Frank leaves him alone for this class, anyway.

But Miles has a message sent to his terminal from Frank, asking if he would like to take the class with another teacher, or perhaps see a therapist about possible trauma from 'Unfortunate circumstance related misfortune,' and that either way Frank would hate to see Miles's education suffer.

[thisvorlunatic]

Really. Really.

Miles replies: Don't flatter yourself by assuming I need to talk to my therapist about your ill-considered choice of reading material.

[aestrix]

Frank flinches when he reads this, in a subtle fashion.

Well, when you feel up to participating again in class, let me know.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles doesn't deign to reply to that one at all.

[aestrix]

Well, that's okay.

Class continues. Classmates read. Shakespeare is discussed. Then, near the end of class:

"Now, I think that you've all got a good grasp of Shakespeare. But, I think a lot of you have felt kind of shy about talking about your thoughts while in a classroom environment." He does not look at Miles. (To be fair, Miles is not the only student that is trying to avoid attention and not talk.) "So! I'd like you all to group up into small groups of two or three - even four, if no one's being left out - to pick one of Shakespeare's plays that we've either read over in class, or another one of your choice. Over the weekend, I'd like for you to meet and discuss the play, and then write me a short essay on what you discussed. Doesn't have to be long or eloquent, I just want to hear what you think!"