Office Hours, Thursday, 4/29

[tyler_back]

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

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[new_to_liirness]

"Professor Durden?" came a voice that the man hadn't heard for, oh, a month or so. It was, to be fair, slightly different than it'd been before: the strange accent that had been only a trace before was now more pronounced, almost swarthy if words could be, and a little less careful.

[if you'd rather not, I can just nix this!]

[tyler_back]

"Yeah," Tyler said, face still in a box of books, before glancing up and blinking in not-unpleased surprise. "Liir. Welcome back."

[new_to_liirness]

His smile was more than it's usual twitch; it lingered, though the curl relaxed after the first moment.

"Thank you. I was going to ask you about what I might have missed and how it had utterly ruined my grade, but you seem to be busy. Should I come back at another time?"

[tyler_back]

"There aren't going to be a lot of other times," Tyler said ruefully. "I'm packing up to head out for the summer."

He considered Liir. "I put you in at the office as an incomplete, but we're allowed to change that if we have a reason. Is there a reason?"

[new_to_liirness]

"I suppose I could claimed to have explored a certain amount of philosophy during my travels," he said with the beginnings of a frown, "though nothing like what we did in class. Would it serve to say that I was being hunted across the country side, unable to return through my portal on possible pain of death?"

He was sad to see the professor go. He'd liked him.

[tyler_back]

Tyler was sad to go; he'd liked teaching, and Liir had been a good TA.

"I think being hunted on pain of death is a tiny bit more important than high school," he confirmed. "You had a decent grade before you left. Tell me one piece of philosophy that helped you in your travels and I'll average it out to a C."

[new_to_liirness]

"I watched Machiavelli's theories in action," he admitted with something that approached a smirk, "though I wouldn't say it helped."

But his hand rose and a finger lifted.

"Plato's forms. For I know the Oz in my mind, in the minds of many, and the Oz I traveled through, where so many friends and allies walk and breathe and live, are two very very different things, the latter a battered imitation of the former."

[tyler_back]

"Real things never live up to the ideals," Tyler confirmed, with a tiny nod. "That's philosophy, all right. Also life. As far as I'm concerned, you passed the class."

Grading at Fandom was a little haphazard anyhow.

[new_to_liirness]

"Thank you, sir," and he gave a quick nod.

"Can I... help you with anything? Or just leave you get on with business?"

[tyler_back]

"I'll take it from here," Tyler said. "You can take a book if you want any, though. They're just gonna rot in storage."

He had a decent collection; philosophy, sciences, history, mixed in with a few of the pulp spy novels he read when office hours got especially long.

[new_to_liirness]

He glanced around the room for a moment before pointing to a copy of The Prince.

"It might be useful, if you don't mind."

[tyler_back]

"All yours," Tyler decided. "That's ... not how I'd usually describe that book, so -- definitely yours."

[new_to_liirness]

"One of Professor Atreides's classes said that one of the most important things one can do is know your enemy," he explained as he took the book.

"Thank you for the gift."