Office Hours, Friday, Oct. 24

[tyler_gone]

After class, Tyler left the experiments where they were in case anyone wanted to show off and went to his office.

He'd get to the welcome picnic and find Marla.

Sometime.

Eventually.

In the meantime, he was being a good worker bee, and was ready to talk to his students' loved ones about their progress.

[OOC: Open office is open.]

Comments

[the_merriest]

There was a loud argument going on in the hall outside Tyler's office.

"Course we ain't botherin' them! That's why they're here!"

The voice was male, gruff, and had an almost Southern accent to it.

"Pops," the other voice pleaded, and that one was Rikku's. "They're probably busy! And I should go back to work. Have you even eaten yet? There are places in town we can --"

A tall, bald man dressed in a large yellow-and-brown jumpsuit -- one that had large blue gloves and bright green straps -- stepped into the doorway, hands on his hips. "So which one're you?" he asked.

[tyler_gone]

"Tyler Durden, sir," Tyler said, biting back a grin. Times like this reminded him why he was grateful his dad wasn't in his life. "You're Rikku's father?"

He rose and held out a hand for the man to shake.

[vydran.livejournal.com]

"You bet," he said, taking Tyler's hand and giving it a vigorous pump. "M'girl forgot to invite me to this whole ... parents thing. Came anyway."

The grin he had for that said what he thought of daughter's ... memory lapse.

"So, now what is it you people teach around here?"

[tyler_gone]

"Pleasure to meet you." Tyler couldn't imagine why Rikku would want such a charming parent to stay at home. Really.

"You people," Tyler repeated idly, trying to gather his thoughts. "Well, we teach all kinds of things, but what I teach is practical chemistry." He eyeballed Rikku, trying to figure out if I'm helping your daughter blow thins up would be appreciated or not.

[the_merriest]

Cid shot Rikku a glance. "Chemistry?"

"Like my explosives," she volunteered. She appreciated the tact, but Cid's protective streak had its gaping holes. "The science of it?"

Cid frowned, weighing that over. "Didn't know there was science to it," he said. "Looked like you just mixed stuff up and hoped it blew up good."

"I did," she agreed with an easy shrug. "And now I'm figuring out how it all works, instead of guessing."

Cid gave Tyler a once-over, and then a nod. "Not bad," he announced.

[tyler_gone]

"It's a lot safer if you know something about the science," Tyler concurred. "People are less likely to lose limbs that way. But Rikku's good, she's one of my assistants this term."

[vydran.livejournal.com]

That got a grin, from Cid. "Is she, now," he said. "She blow up anything she wasn't s'posed to yet?"

[tyler_gone]

"Not in class," Tyler said. He liked Rikku's dad, even if she kind of looked like he made her want to melt into the floor. "She did viciously murder a gummy bear for her midterm today."

[the_merriest]

"The gummi bear had it coming," she said, as solemnly as she could.

"Atta girl," Cid nodded. "Didn't know you had classes for blowing stuff up. Must be somethin' else that got lost in the mail."

"I don't tell you things because you'd flip out," she said. Folding her arms. "And you tried to get my boss to sell you guns."

Cid shrugged. "He had some nice guns."

[tyler_gone]

"So the mayor's shop is still really a gun museum?" Tyler said, amused by the interplay. "And this is Rikku's second class on blowing things up, at least." He turned to the girl. "Did you take any with Aly?"

[the_merriest]

"Mayor, too?" Cid said. "S'nice work. I'm mostly the same, but I don't really got a title."

"That's because he's cooler," she said. "Yeah, last summer? It was awesome. We got to take a building down with C-4. That stuff rules."

"You didn't send me any of that stuff," Cid said.

"No, and I'm not going to."

[tyler_gone]

"It's not really something you want to mail, anyhow," Tyler said. "Unless you don't like your post office."

[vydran.livejournal.com]

"You betcha," Rikku nodded. "Safety first."

Which ... wasn't something she said all that often, no.

"Fine, fine," Cid grumbled. "Thank you for teaching my girl how to kill gummy bears. Do I wanna know what gummy bears are?"

"Candy," Rikku said. "You put 'em with a kind of salt and they blow up."

"Don't that ruin the candy?" he asked.

[tyler_gone]

"You can buy more," Tyler suggested. "It's in the name of science."

[the_merriest]

"Plus it looks cool," Rikku said. Well. It did.

"Can't argue with that," Cid nodded. "So you taught my Rikku to ruin candy, and blow stuff up. Good class."

"See?" Rikku bounced. "I'm learning important stuff, and you met one of my teachers, and I'm totally not getting into trouble. Honest." Which meant he could go home soon? Maybe?

Cid laughed. "Kid, I'm not the quickest out there, but I sure ain't that dumb."

[tyler_gone]

"Have a good weekend," Tyler told them, laughing a little.

[the_merriest]

"You, too!" Rikku bounced, waving cheerfully.

"Nice meetin' ya," Cid nodded, as he followed Rikku out into the hallway. "Good to see my girl's actually going to her classes and all that."

If Rikku rolled her eyes any harder, they would fall out of her head. She was going to find Tyler and apologize later, seriously. "We're going now."

[izumo-crew.livejournal.com]

There was a brisk rap at his door, and a young woman in uniform stood there at attention. "Mr. Durden?"

[tyler_gone]

"That would be me," Tyler said, a little cautiously. "Should I assume you're one of the family or friends?"

[izumo-crew.livejournal.com]

"I'm afraid I inflicted my ward on you this summer," she apologized, stepping into the office with a smile. "About so tall, pink hair, and in desperate need of an attitude adjustment?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler took the woman in with skeptical eyes. Anemone hadn't exactly had glowing things to say about her keepers. "Anemone?" he asked, just in case he'd forgotten a second girl with pink hair. "Yeah, she took one of my classes summer term. She did really well with parts of it."

[izumo-crew.livejournal.com]

"Anemone," she confirmed. She didn't miss the evaluation. "I'm Maria Schneider, the Executive Officer for the Izumo. Dare I ask which parts she had problems with?"

[tyler_gone]

"She was really, really good at the cooking and arts segments," Tyler explained. Possibly a little too good at the cooking, if you asked him. "She seemed to have a little trouble with the units on independent living. It seemed like it wasn't something she had thought about."

[izumo-crew.livejournal.com]

"Not surprising," Maria sighed, nodding as she mentally filed that away. "Anemone's been raised military, Mr. Durden. She has always had a handler to take care of her, and orders to follow. The closest she's ever come to independent living is being here in the dorms."

"How about socially? No picking on her class mates? Any refusal to participate?" There was a pause, and a small smile tugged at her mouth. "Unfortunate pranks that involved glitter, and possibly small animals?"

[tyler_gone]

"She mentioned the military part," Tyler nodded. "Socially, I didn't notice much out of the ordinary." A beat. "She did help explode a pie at me."

[izumo-crew.livejournal.com]

She paused for a moment and blinked in surprise.

"A pie?" The smile became a full out grin, and Maria shook her head. "Congratulations. If she's willing to sacrifice a pie, she meant it in good fun and not maliciously. She won't share food with people she doesn't like."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler just stared for a minute.

And then he started to laugh.

"Great."

All the crazy girls liked him.

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

The cigarette smoke could be smelled before Marla was in the doorway. "You have an office. I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler froze and took a moment to remember how to breathe before answering. I am Jack's open sore. He really hadn't believed she would show until she was there.

"I have an office," he finally said, sweeping an arm around to convey the grandeur of a couple dozen feet of industrial carpet, some mostly bare bookshelves, and a filing cabinet. "They're still letting me teach, too."

"Hello, Marla."

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"Tyler," she replied and took another drag of her cigarette. "An invitation came in the mail. I thought about burning it. I didn't."

[tyler_gone]

"I noticed," Tyler said, finally rising from his chair. Hug? Handshake? What was the least weird thing?

He just stood there awkwardly.

"So what do you think of Fandom so far?"

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

Marla rounded the desk and went for a hug, largely to make Tyler more uncomfortable than he already was rather than for any pressing need for physical contact. "I think it's the perfect place for you to screw up. That's what you do, isn't it?"

[tyler_gone]

She wanted a hug, she'd fucking get one.

And why did this still sort of feel right?

"Screw up and blow things up," Tyler deadpanned. "Make soap once in a while."

"Are you still going to support groups?"

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

Marla settled comfortably into the hug, making it last longer than it really needed to be. She gave a shrug against Tyler. "At night. During the day I've started causing scenes in coffee places. I consider it a success if they ban me."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler drew back slightly, just to look down at her. "Seriously? What kind of scenes?"

This sounded entertaining.

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"Depends on how lucid I am at the time. You'd be surprised...well, no you wouldn't, but people get so worked up when you don't do what they want. Like I care about smoking laws."

[tyler_gone]

"I've never seen you bother with them too much," Tyler agreed with a snicker. "They also get really uptight if you take too much of the cream and sugar."

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"Or bring a bag to take their whole stash."

[tyler_gone]

"Like they don't have huge crates of the stuff in the back," Tyler sighed, and went a little misty. "Can you imagine the chaos if you cleaned out every coffee shop in a mall at once? People who can't deal with black coffee would have meltdowns. The country runs on our caffeine addictions."

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

Marla returned to the other side of the desk, her cigarette now burning close to the butt. "Always looking at the bigger picture," she commented, not terribly impressed.

[tyler_gone]

"Not my best work?" Tyler said diffidently. "Probably not. Hey, what do you want to do while you're in town?"

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"Let's start with food and alcohol and we can go from there." It was always a good place to start.

[tyler_gone]

"I'll make plans to have dinner with some friends tonight or tomorrow," Tyler said. Apparently this was his day for masochism, because he knew neither Marla nor Tony would have anything good to say about the other, yet he was compelled to see exactly how bad it would get.

"I did get you a hotel room." Read, no way was she staying with him.

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"I'm emptying the mini bar," she replied as a thank you. "Tell me when and where for dinner. I'll be there." She had to get some entertainment out of the trip.

[tyler_gone]

"I wouldn't let you miss it," Tyler promised.

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"I'll let you get back to telling parents how precious their kids are while I go find this hotel room."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler made a face. "If I have to tell people that Junior is A-plus and peachy keen, I'll join you at that mini-bar," he remarked. "See you, Marla."

[sincegradeskool.livejournal.com]

"If I have to share, we'll have to call room service for a refill." She dropped her cigarette on the floor and put it out with her heel, then gave her usual smile - the one that had deviousness and come hitherness (which was totally a word) in it - and headed out the door. Maybe she could swipe some office supplies while she was here.