Office Hours, Thursday, 4/29

[tyler_gone]

Right, so the chatter online about Project Mayhem 2.0 had intensified instead of dying down. Wednesday night, Tyler had gotten into a three-hour IM war with one of the ringleaders that ended with the numskull proclaiming "We are all Tyler Durden," as if that settled things. But what Tyler had gotten out of the guy before he retreated behind a wall of cliché was not reassuring. They'd finally found somebody who could make paraffin bombs work. The list of targets was a couple screens long.

It was time for Tyler to have a little chat with them. The kind of chat that took place in person.

They sounded disorganized enough that he figured he had a few days -- long enough to make sure Tony was someplace relatively safe and stick around to see the last few people who had started at Fandom with him graduate. For now, though, he sent out an .

From: tyler.durden@fandomhigh.edu
To: [All staff]; ino.yamanaka@fandomhigh.edu; lindsay.boxer@stark.com
Subject:Office Clean-Out Time

Hi.

I'm leaving the island for a while to take care of some personal stuff. Probably I'll be back come July or September, but for now, anything in my office is up for grabs. Stop by today if you want to pick through the goods.

Sorry to be leaving the insanity. See you when I see you.

- Tyler

In Tyler-speak, that meant "I'll miss you all." He settled in to box things up, leaving the office door open.

[OOC: This is probably one of his last posts, at least for the time being. *clings* If you want to stop by and see him and weren't on the email, feel free to handwave other notification.]

Comments

[atreideslioness]

"Do you even have anything in here worth taking?" Which was Ghanima speak for 'I can't believe you're leaving me with the hellions' as she breezed into his office, coming in to sit on his desk and steal a nice pen. "Or is this some madcap scheme in the vain hopes that your office will be clean, tidy, and freshly painted when the fall semester arrives?"

[tyler_gone]

"I'm not sure I've ever had anything worth taking," Tyler admitted. "But if it gets me a nice clean office come fall, I'm sure as hell not going to complain."

[atreideslioness]

"Lazy," she chided. "Isn't this why we have teaching assistants? To organize things for us?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler sat back on his heels and blinked up at her. "How is making my TAs clean up after me the non-lazy version?"

[atreideslioness]

"It's their job to assist their absent-minded professors," Ghanima laughed. "Whereas you're trying to pawn off the work on your coworkers. For shame, Tyler."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler quirked a grin. "Think I could have convinced Joan doing this was part of her duties as TA?"

[atreideslioness]

"Well, would she derive pleasure from a detail oriented task?" Ghanima asked. "I'm sure if I asked my TAs or other students to attempt to organize my bookshelves, they'd get too absorbed in reading things to finish the task, but they wouldn't complain."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler shrugged diffidently, not directly responding.

"What are you going to do with Fight Club while I'm gone?"

[atreideslioness]

"What are we going to do, considering your sabbatical," Ghanima corrected, eyes flickering over to him shrewdly. "I do not tend to make unilateral choices for people, Tyler, unless the universe is at stake."

[tyler_gone]

"But I'm not going to be doing anything," Tyler protested, knowing that wasn't what Ghanima meant.

He relented. "I'd love it if you kept it up," he answered quietly. "But it is a lot for one person. Wouldn't dump it on you."

[atreideslioness]

"I might just take on people wanting private lessons, for the first part of the summer since it's so short, take a break from organizing the chaos," she mused, thinking about it, "but it's too valuable to let slip completely. I can pick it up once the second crop of students arrives, or in the fall when you return."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler gave a small nod, then, in an equally small voice, asked: "And if I don't come back?"

[atreideslioness]

"Then I come find you, box your ears, and demand an explanation for why you left me in the lurch with the incoming class," she replied smoothly. "Which would probably not be very pleasant for you."

[tyler_gone]

"You play hardball, Atreides," Tyler said, with a low whistle. "Not sure I knew that."

[atreideslioness]

"Why would you think I didn't?" Ghanima asked placidly. "I tend to want answers if my friends simply vanish into thin air."

[tyler_gone]

"I'm from Delaware," Tyler answered, equally placid. "Trust me, there won't be any 'vanishing into thin air.' If I stay away on purpose I'll call."

[atreideslioness]

"Della-where?" The look Ghanima gave him was completely blank.

Wrong planet, wrong millennium, and Ghanima still hadn't managed all the states after three years. She hadn't actually bothered. She knew countries and continents and languages of civilizations long dead. American geography, however, was dull.

[tyler_gone]

"Look at a map, Ghanima," Tyler suggested, reasonably kindly. "I'll be on this continent, more or less in this dimension. Probably you can drive to get me in three hours unless things go really bad."

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima just started laughing. "Tyler, ask my stepmother about my driving, and watch Irulan turn five shades of pale. I'll take a taxi, it's safer for the sanity of the other people on the road."

[tyler_gone]

"See, that's why I have to came back," Tyler told her. "I'll teach you to drive."

He did not scare easily.

[atreideslioness]

"I am a very good driver," she replied indignantly. "Irulan is simply, how you say, 'chicken?' Although if you can teach me how to drive a motorcycle, I will teach you how to pilot a thoppter."