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

[thisvorlunatic]

...He considers this.

She was surprisingly tolerable about all this last class. And it would save him having to pair up with a Betan.

"Sure," he says.

[poll_the_stars]

Good, she wanted to not be paired up with a Betan, too. Not that Betans aren't nice, but - Betans. She would like to talk to someone who is not from Beta Colony or her sister, even if that person is kind of terrifying in a child of the Regent (well, now Prime Minister) and plays board games with the Emperor kind of way.

She nods, and borrows a seat from an unused computer terminal nearby.

"I don't really have a play in mind, I sort of vaguely want to read The Tempest but I'm not set on it and not picky," she says. "You?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Take a guess."

[poll_the_stars]

She starts laughing.

"Ah," she manages, once she's gotten a hold of herself. "That - okay, sure."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Our teacher seems determined to make me suffer, so I am determined to make him regret it," says Miles. "I am going to write such an essay."

[poll_the_stars]

"Of course you are. Of course."

[thisvorlunatic]

He laughs.

[poll_the_stars]

She snickers, then asks, "When do you want to meet up to finish reading the play?"

[thisvorlunatic]

He shrugs. "When's convenient for you? I'm not exactly overbooked."

[poll_the_stars]

She considers. "Sometime tomorrow, after lunch?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sure. Where?"

[poll_the_stars]

"One of the study rooms in the library, if they're not all full?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sure, sounds good."

[poll_the_stars]

"All right."

Class ends, and assorted students depart.

(Yvette is silently thankful that she did not blabber on like a lunatic today. Good job, Yvette.)



And then, the next day: the study rooms are not all full! He seems to have gotten there before Yvette, but there is a room that Miles can claim.

[thisvorlunatic]

He checks the registry, inputs his student number, and goes into the newly claimed study room to sit and read the play and regret his choices. Brilliant idea, Miles. Shut yourself away in a small room with a Vor girl to explore your feelings about being an unlovable demi-mutant. This is bound to end well.

[poll_the_stars]

Well, here is the Vor girl.

"Hey," she says.

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Hi," he says, awkwardly.

[poll_the_stars]

...

Gosh this is a small room they're going to be alone together in for a while, isn't it.

RIGHT, MOVING ON.

"So um, I don't - actually have a plan for how we'll tackle this. Have you finished reading the play?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, have you?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Yep," she says. "Good, then we're even there."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Admittedly I might've gone over it a little fast. I was mostly looking for whatever would produce the most upsetting possible essay."

[poll_the_stars]

She laughs.

"What upsetting essay material did you find, then?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"...The whole play, honestly?" He laughs a little.

[poll_the_stars]

She smiles.

"Fair. Honestly I thought the first few acts were the most interesting, the last were - I was actually kind of disappointed in Richard for just switching to rampant murder."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I... okay, so in the opening monologue he's almost straight-out telling the audience 'hello, my name is Richard the Evil Cripple and this is my eerily straight-out-of-a-Barrayaran-folktale Villain Motivation', but if I look past that... I really feel for him? I mean obviously I don't approve of his actions but," he gestures inarticulately, "God, I've been there. ...And my main concern at this point is getting this reaction written down in a way that will make Frank cry but not cause him to say anything about Barrayaran cultural attitudes that will end with me in therapy for leaping onto his desk and punching him in his stupid Betan face."