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xp_logs2012-05-03 04:00 pm
x-wallflower-.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2012-05-03 04:00 pm
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Laurie and Kyle log: Lasertag ahoy
Laurie tries to convince Kyle to join her in a game of laser tag.
Backdated to May 3rd at 4pm
Laurie dropped down beside Kyle, her laser gun strapped across her back as she used him as convenient cover. She grinned at his questioning look and pointed out the other mansion resident currently headed in the opposite direction to them before glancing at what he was doing.
"Why are you doing work rather then playing laser tag?" she asked.
"Because I want to graduate?" Kyle mumbled around the pen he held between his teeth. He was marking a paper with the purple one he tended to use for comments, the blue he had in his mouth was for noting the actual grade. His mentor teacher would confirm it in red before handing it back to the kids. "You know, graduation, that thing you do when you are finally fucking done college?"
Laurie wrinkled her nose at him, as she herself would not be done with schooling for quite some time yet. College, yes, actual schooling, no, becoming a doctor appeared to be all about the school work until you got to the points where it was all about the sleep deprivation and being constantly on call, or treated like the idiot cousin that nobody actually liked for several years.
"Less work, more laser tag," she commented finally, poking him in the side lightly. Let it not be said that she did not take her moments for payback when she found them, and the chance to bug Kyle of all people about play vs work was something that could not be passed up.
"Less laser tag, more grading." Kyle muttered, after tucking the pen in his mouth behind his ear. He didn't even have that many more to go before he could take a reasonable break. He waved the hand that wasn't awkwardly holding a pen. "Here, you can use me as a human shield and then I'll go shoot people with laser guns after I'm done another ..." A quick shuffle of papers gave him a count. "Five more essays."
"Deal," Laurie replied with a grin, knowing when she was being offered a good deal, Kyle, being much bigger then herself made an excellent human shield to hide behind and she leant to the side slightly, firing off a shot at somebody's back as they snuck around the corner of the house. "What exactly is it you're grading?"
"Essays." Kyle said, ambiguously. "Bunch of stuff all the kids are doing on comparing themes in the stuff they read in class to the stuff they really want to read." He grunted, and wrote a comment on the paper he was working on. "You know like, Lord of the Flies versus Hunger Games or something." Of course, now he'd admitted to knowing that those series existed, but eh, he had to be somewhat relevant.
She wrinkled her nose, her opinion of fiction writing well known to anyone who had known her for more then a week, and had the misfortune of trying to recommend anything of that sort to her. However, having grown beyond, if not completely left behind, her need to let everybody know in the loudest way possible her opinion on everything, she did not point out to Kyle that she thought the need to read either of those books was severely lacking on her list of '100 books I want to read before I turn 30'.
"That sounds interesting," she said instead, and then used the distraction of shooting another mansion resident to hide her complete inability to lie successfully.
"How come "that sounds interesting" sounds more like "Oh god shoot me now." when you say it?" Kyle said, chuckling. "Dude, fiction isn't gonna kill you. It's not like everything you read can be Jared Diamond or Malcolm Gladwell, seriously. I mean, dude, even if it's not real, it's a great commentary on society sometimes. Look at like, Sinclair. Totally changed the food industry with The Jungle."
"I'll have to take your word for it," Laurie replied, the look she turned toward Kyle about as skeptical as you could be and still be saying such things. "I just think real world accounts and information trump fantasy, why would I want to read about something that's completely made up; when I could be reading about actual heroes who did actual things. Like Nancy Wexler, she's a Neuropsychologist researching genetics, or Diane France, that bone detective that helps the police. I think you'll find that people read fantasy more because they can't deal with things that are right in front of them, rather then because it inspires them. If I wanted to be inspired enough to change things in the food industry, I'd think that Jamie Oliver would be more the person I'd be looking toward."
"Dude, you watch TV, right? I know you do because you watch it with me sometimes. Same thing with books. Not everything is about information, yo." Kyle waved a hand at his backpack. "Seriously, Upton Sinclair. If he'd been all "Guys, here's two-hundred fifteen pages on how many companies totally treat their workers like shit." people would've been "Yawn, bored." instead, we got gross gory meat packing antics and Stuff Changed." He explained. "Seriously, sometimes fiction's a better medium for change than non-fiction. There's totally a ton of times it's happened."
"TV and movies are different," Laurie replied, a stubborn set to her shoulders, even as she lay in Kyle's shadow on the ground. "It doesn't take any time to watch TV or movies, books get in your head and stick around, messing up the place. Why would I want anything that wasn't real sticking around?"
It wasn't said with much heat however, and she humphed softly at the end, irritated with herself and him. She did not want to read fiction, especially not that Harry Potter stuff everyone else seemed obsessed with.
"I am not Hermione Granger!" she finished, glaring at him.
"The fuck?" Kyle was genuinely confused. "Okay, I mean, not English, not Emma Watson and not doing magic but you are like Miss Knows Everything." He said. "Sides, way hotter than Hermione, and I mean, I dunno if Eamon would like it if you compared him to Ron." He poked Laurie in the shoulder and snorted a laugh. "Sides, if you're saying that, the Harry Potter movies stuck around in your head and made things messy and you saw the movies, so I win."
Laurie blinked for a second at the idea of comparing Eamon to Ron Weasley and then realised what Kyle had said and groaned, letting her head fall into her arms. "Hoist on my own petard," she murmured, but then chuckled, glancing up at him over her arms. "So, if I were, and I'm not saying I am!, but if I were to ask for a recommendation of say, something fictional, what would you suggest?"
"What did you not hate from high school?" Kyle asked. "And how thinky do you want it to be. I mean like, there's "I was fucking bored in the airport and bought some crap novel about a submarine in the middle of the desert and Lincoln's corpse" and there's ... Umberto Eco, which dude I don't even KNOW."
"I'm not sure?" Laurie admitted, placing her gun in front of her and leaning her chin against her hands. "I mean, I know I read biographies for fun, the one President Obama wrote was really nice, but I'm not sure if people consider that thinky or 'I'm bored' reading? It wasn't exactly the most intense intellectual exercise I've ever engaged in."
Kyle rolled over and put his face in the grass, making an unhappy noise. "You are impossible." He muttered, and then turned his head and spat out some grass. "I'll drop some crap off at your room. If you hate it in the first hundred pages, don't keep reading it. If you like it, keep reading it and let me know." He had a pretty decent variety. "I've got one about a chick who is awesome with archery. You might like it. It's pretty dark though."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Laurie admitted, not bothering to hide the amused smile at Kyle's obvious frustration. They'd been friends for a long time now, and tolerating or ignoring their various differences had become almost second nature most of the time. "I'll let you know what I think."
"And in exchange I'll totally let you talk to me for at least half an hour about my tomatosensory system and how cool my MRI's are." Kyle said. "And I'll give you, lesee... one whole hour on examining my weird ass feet to see how the bones are different." He was pretty sure there were nine or ten or fifty more things Laurie was like "But your anatomy is so cool, Kyle!" about, but most of the time he didn't pay attention. "For reading one entire fiction book."
Backdated to May 3rd at 4pm
Laurie dropped down beside Kyle, her laser gun strapped across her back as she used him as convenient cover. She grinned at his questioning look and pointed out the other mansion resident currently headed in the opposite direction to them before glancing at what he was doing.
"Why are you doing work rather then playing laser tag?" she asked.
"Because I want to graduate?" Kyle mumbled around the pen he held between his teeth. He was marking a paper with the purple one he tended to use for comments, the blue he had in his mouth was for noting the actual grade. His mentor teacher would confirm it in red before handing it back to the kids. "You know, graduation, that thing you do when you are finally fucking done college?"
Laurie wrinkled her nose at him, as she herself would not be done with schooling for quite some time yet. College, yes, actual schooling, no, becoming a doctor appeared to be all about the school work until you got to the points where it was all about the sleep deprivation and being constantly on call, or treated like the idiot cousin that nobody actually liked for several years.
"Less work, more laser tag," she commented finally, poking him in the side lightly. Let it not be said that she did not take her moments for payback when she found them, and the chance to bug Kyle of all people about play vs work was something that could not be passed up.
"Less laser tag, more grading." Kyle muttered, after tucking the pen in his mouth behind his ear. He didn't even have that many more to go before he could take a reasonable break. He waved the hand that wasn't awkwardly holding a pen. "Here, you can use me as a human shield and then I'll go shoot people with laser guns after I'm done another ..." A quick shuffle of papers gave him a count. "Five more essays."
"Deal," Laurie replied with a grin, knowing when she was being offered a good deal, Kyle, being much bigger then herself made an excellent human shield to hide behind and she leant to the side slightly, firing off a shot at somebody's back as they snuck around the corner of the house. "What exactly is it you're grading?"
"Essays." Kyle said, ambiguously. "Bunch of stuff all the kids are doing on comparing themes in the stuff they read in class to the stuff they really want to read." He grunted, and wrote a comment on the paper he was working on. "You know like, Lord of the Flies versus Hunger Games or something." Of course, now he'd admitted to knowing that those series existed, but eh, he had to be somewhat relevant.
She wrinkled her nose, her opinion of fiction writing well known to anyone who had known her for more then a week, and had the misfortune of trying to recommend anything of that sort to her. However, having grown beyond, if not completely left behind, her need to let everybody know in the loudest way possible her opinion on everything, she did not point out to Kyle that she thought the need to read either of those books was severely lacking on her list of '100 books I want to read before I turn 30'.
"That sounds interesting," she said instead, and then used the distraction of shooting another mansion resident to hide her complete inability to lie successfully.
"How come "that sounds interesting" sounds more like "Oh god shoot me now." when you say it?" Kyle said, chuckling. "Dude, fiction isn't gonna kill you. It's not like everything you read can be Jared Diamond or Malcolm Gladwell, seriously. I mean, dude, even if it's not real, it's a great commentary on society sometimes. Look at like, Sinclair. Totally changed the food industry with The Jungle."
"I'll have to take your word for it," Laurie replied, the look she turned toward Kyle about as skeptical as you could be and still be saying such things. "I just think real world accounts and information trump fantasy, why would I want to read about something that's completely made up; when I could be reading about actual heroes who did actual things. Like Nancy Wexler, she's a Neuropsychologist researching genetics, or Diane France, that bone detective that helps the police. I think you'll find that people read fantasy more because they can't deal with things that are right in front of them, rather then because it inspires them. If I wanted to be inspired enough to change things in the food industry, I'd think that Jamie Oliver would be more the person I'd be looking toward."
"Dude, you watch TV, right? I know you do because you watch it with me sometimes. Same thing with books. Not everything is about information, yo." Kyle waved a hand at his backpack. "Seriously, Upton Sinclair. If he'd been all "Guys, here's two-hundred fifteen pages on how many companies totally treat their workers like shit." people would've been "Yawn, bored." instead, we got gross gory meat packing antics and Stuff Changed." He explained. "Seriously, sometimes fiction's a better medium for change than non-fiction. There's totally a ton of times it's happened."
"TV and movies are different," Laurie replied, a stubborn set to her shoulders, even as she lay in Kyle's shadow on the ground. "It doesn't take any time to watch TV or movies, books get in your head and stick around, messing up the place. Why would I want anything that wasn't real sticking around?"
It wasn't said with much heat however, and she humphed softly at the end, irritated with herself and him. She did not want to read fiction, especially not that Harry Potter stuff everyone else seemed obsessed with.
"I am not Hermione Granger!" she finished, glaring at him.
"The fuck?" Kyle was genuinely confused. "Okay, I mean, not English, not Emma Watson and not doing magic but you are like Miss Knows Everything." He said. "Sides, way hotter than Hermione, and I mean, I dunno if Eamon would like it if you compared him to Ron." He poked Laurie in the shoulder and snorted a laugh. "Sides, if you're saying that, the Harry Potter movies stuck around in your head and made things messy and you saw the movies, so I win."
Laurie blinked for a second at the idea of comparing Eamon to Ron Weasley and then realised what Kyle had said and groaned, letting her head fall into her arms. "Hoist on my own petard," she murmured, but then chuckled, glancing up at him over her arms. "So, if I were, and I'm not saying I am!, but if I were to ask for a recommendation of say, something fictional, what would you suggest?"
"What did you not hate from high school?" Kyle asked. "And how thinky do you want it to be. I mean like, there's "I was fucking bored in the airport and bought some crap novel about a submarine in the middle of the desert and Lincoln's corpse" and there's ... Umberto Eco, which dude I don't even KNOW."
"I'm not sure?" Laurie admitted, placing her gun in front of her and leaning her chin against her hands. "I mean, I know I read biographies for fun, the one President Obama wrote was really nice, but I'm not sure if people consider that thinky or 'I'm bored' reading? It wasn't exactly the most intense intellectual exercise I've ever engaged in."
Kyle rolled over and put his face in the grass, making an unhappy noise. "You are impossible." He muttered, and then turned his head and spat out some grass. "I'll drop some crap off at your room. If you hate it in the first hundred pages, don't keep reading it. If you like it, keep reading it and let me know." He had a pretty decent variety. "I've got one about a chick who is awesome with archery. You might like it. It's pretty dark though."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Laurie admitted, not bothering to hide the amused smile at Kyle's obvious frustration. They'd been friends for a long time now, and tolerating or ignoring their various differences had become almost second nature most of the time. "I'll let you know what I think."
"And in exchange I'll totally let you talk to me for at least half an hour about my tomatosensory system and how cool my MRI's are." Kyle said. "And I'll give you, lesee... one whole hour on examining my weird ass feet to see how the bones are different." He was pretty sure there were nine or ten or fifty more things Laurie was like "But your anatomy is so cool, Kyle!" about, but most of the time he didn't pay attention. "For reading one entire fiction book."