Office Hours, Tuesday, All Day

[halfman_lion]

Tyrion started his day in his office with a visit from Columbus, who helped set up that ... noisy box-thing that he called a computer.

Books still seemed far simpler. Quieter, lighter to travel with, and you didn't need to anchor them to the wall with a cord.

Still, once Tyrion had the gist of it, the computer wasn't hard. You just pressed

Comments

[withasword]

Kate was over in the school building anyway today so she took a detour by Tyrion's office after. She was terrible at authority, not especially good at taking orders... But she would do well to find some source of income, and customer service (which was the popular alternative around here) seemed like a bad idea.

She rapped out a couple of knocks on his door frame. "Professor Lannister?"

[halfman_lion]

Tyrion glanced away from the Wikipedia entry on winter (he still couldn't wrap his head around one of those every year) to see --

"Kate, with the glowing sword," he smiled. "Come in."

[OOC: am on my way AFK, woe. SP?]

[withasword]

Kate nodded as she stepped through the doorway. "Good memory." Maybe that was a part of why he'd asked for facts, now she thought about it. It was one of the approaches Voron had tried to drill into her years ago.

"You said you were looking for an assistant." Right to the point of her little detour here. "I think I could help."

[[ofc, totally down with SP.]]

[halfman_lion]

"I didn't ask just because I needed to fill the hour, no," Tyrion said dryly, sliding out of his seat and stepping towards her. "Of course I remember."

He'd been taking notes, too, but it was hardly to his advantage to point that out.

"And could you?" He looked up at her, thinking about the idea. "Someone who likes hurting things would be of some use if there really are monsters here. I'd prefer an assistant who might be able to keep me alive."

[withasword]

"I didn't say I liked hurting things," Kate clarified, feeling that was an important point to make. "I said I could."

"But I can do it very well." She didn't much like bodyguard detail, you had to have a cooperative 'body' to guard for it to be successful. She could do it, though, if that was what he needed.

"And there are occasionally monsters."

[halfman_lion]

"Which is why I may want a bodyguard," Tyrion nodded, though he understood the distinction she was making. Well, like it or not, if she could do it well she was one up on him. "Whether you like hurting things or not, I like staying alive. You might be able to help."

"The rest of the time, when there aren't monsters, most of it would be mundane. Going to the store, for example. Some light housework. Helping in class. Is there anything you absolutely won't do?"

[withasword]

"My father was of the school of thought where horrible chores were 'character building'," Kate told him, and shrugged. "If anything comes up I don't like or I think goes way beyond 'assistant' territory, believe me you'll know about it."

"You wont find I'm shy when I have a problem."

[halfman_lion]

"My father would like your father," Tyrion observed. "All right. You're hired. Your first job is to go to the bookstore and get me the titles on this list."

He passed over a sheet of paper. The list was a mixed bag: The Dusk Epic series, a child's volume about seasons, War & Peace, a history of the Roman Catholic church. He could have gone to the bookstore himself, of course, but that would have destroyed the point of having an assistant.

"I'm not sure what your hours will be outside class. We'll figure that out as we go."

[withasword]

"You know there's a library if you want to read them for free," Kate said as she glanced over the list. Where Tyrion was used to throwing money at a problem, she was far more accustomed to avoiding spending anything at all.

[halfman_lion]

"A fine point." If one Tyrion was a little too used to throwing money at things to have thought of himself. "Of the books on the list, which do you think I'll want to keep, and which should I borrow and return?"

[withasword]

"War and Peace is a classic," she said, tapping it lightly. "Worth a keep. The rest you might as well borrow."

"Non-fiction books you can always make notes of the important things if you have to, and Dusk... If you can get through without wanting to slap the main character I'd admire your restraint." They had that one in her world, although it was an old one, and viewed as especially ridiculous since the shift.

[halfman_lion]

"It's fiction," Tyrion said lightly. "Most fiction seems to want to make me slap someone or other."

This wasn't the knock on the book it might seem. Many days, breathing made Tyrion want to slap someone or other.

"I'll trust your judgement with one exception. I think besides War & Peace, I need some kind of portable almanac or encyclopedia to keep so I'm not always asking people to explain words. It irritates me."

Or he could just get a phone with a data plan, but that wasn't yet an idea that made sense in his world.

[withasword]

That idea rarely made sense in Kate's world, so that wasn't an option she would recommend either. Books were far more reliable in the long term.

She nodded, agreeing with that sentiment. It would irritate her too. "When do you want them by?"

[halfman_lion]

"Soon, but I'll settle for class on Monday," Tyrion said. "I'll be busy trying to figure out this ... box until then."