Want to meet at the Library?

[smartass_captain]

Jim hasn't braved an audience with Harrowheart's rune blades since his first visit to the death knight's humble abode. If he had the free time and the liver capacity he'd go and see Harrowheart every day just to shoot the shit and take a much needed load off of his shoulders. It's nice to be Just Jim to some people, but he hasn't been able to stop thinking about that insidious laughter when he was alone in the dark hall.

Has had to lie to Felix about what jars him awake at night before he settles back into bed and stares up at the ceiling.

So he puts it out of his mind. Best as he can. There's so many other things that need his attention. So many deadlines to be met and decisions to be made. Lessons to be crafted and taught. He's wearing himself thin enough that even Jim knows this isn't sustainable for much longer. Thankfully there's not much longer they'll have to wait. In either case his new ship's departure date is steadily approaching and with it Jim's plans will have to be put to the test. His sleep or lack thereof won't make that date come any slower.

But that is the how and why when the what is most important. Jim Kirk is dozing off at his seat with a stack of textbooks detailing the properties of electricity and its application in basic engineering when his arm slips and knocks the largest off the pile to the floor in a clatter that echoes through the near silence of this grandiose space. It jars Jim from his nap and probably spooks the heck out of anyone nearby.

Comments

[weathering_it]

Tams and Lawrence
Everything's fine until Jim says that one magical word. Everything's going so mediocre well until he does it! But the word is out and Lawrence wheezes just as Tamminy gasps.

"She's not my–"
"I'm not his–"
"GIRLFRIEND."

Tamminy and Lawrence look at each other, first in surprise and then with great determination. Right. Right! Not a girlfriend! They each cross their arms and nod in unison at Jim, Lawrence just once but Tamminy a few extra times just so that she doesn't appear to be, you know, synchronizing their bullshit.

"Lawrence is..." She begins, then looks his way. He's... A longlegs with a shitty personality, a sketchy hairline, a growing paunch, and an intense stare. Okay, what nice things can she say about him? Out loud, I mean? Her lips shift side to side and she keeps on looking at him, thinking her answer over even as he stares with lowered brows and wide eyes. Come the fuck on, Tams! Describe him!

"He's my thinking partner. You know? Every great gnome has a thinking partner. One of them has the technically sound ideas, and the other has the..."

"Shitty ones."

"The personality, I was about to say."

Lawrence pans over to Jim and wordlessly mouths 'the shitty ones.'
But Tamminy shakes her head until it starts to gyro into a nod. "More importantly, Captain, I'm happy to know that Harrowheart introduces me first and foremost as a woman of my craft. Electrical engineering is my trade! But lately..."

She idly flips through some of the pages on the books in front of her. Advanced stuff, judging only by the spreads of schematics.

Lawrence says quietly, "She's been having a hard time since we came to the Nexus. She's been exposed to so many other people's ideas that she's hung up on them. She thinks she can't do better than what someone on some other world already has."


Jim
"Like I said, I realized just now Harrow has more than one brother and he could have been talking about any of their girlfriends--"

Jim's holding both hands up in his own defense, leaning back in his seat ever so slightly when the chorus of denial kicks in, but then she goes and owns up to being the one who's an electrical engineer and his eyebrows creep back up in mild disbelief. They're so childishly obvious about things but Jim lied to everyone's face about he and Felix for far far too long. If he says anything now he'll be the multiverse's biggest hypocrite.

"Sorry, I was just repeating what he said. I didn't realize he was mistaken." Are they done biting his head off for the terminology yet? Probably not, where Lawrence is concerned but. They are thankfully moving on with the conversation. And oh, what a topic that is.

"When you figure out the answer to that conundrum, I'd greatly like to hear it. I think everyone with a degree in something or another runs into that wall sooner or later. Hell, I come from most worlds' far flung future and my world still has nothing compared to the things I see here. Living semi organic or entirely non organic life forms? We don't have anything like that. To say nothing of magic. My world may as well be the pre-stone age so far as that's concerned."


Tams and Lawrence
Tamminy perks up. "So it's not just me?" She huffs a laugh and crookedly smiles. "I can't decide if that's a comfort or a curse. It's good to be among company. It's bad to struggle. But it's great to be struggling with company. Hmm! Guess that's it, then. Comforted."

But there's so much in what Jim just said that she's blissfully distracted from it all, at least for a moment. "No inorganic life at all? Well, without magic, I figure that stands to reason. How could you form life without carbon? How could, oh, I don't know, a rock? have cell signaling? You'd need a liquid medium to transmit molecules. Unless we're talking a gaseous being, and even then, how would the thing stay together?"

Her lips press tightly together and she starts leafing through her book pages again, as if the diagrams are going to give her any insight. "How could you maintain an electrical gradient?" she mutters.

Lawrence shakes his head at Jim and says, "Don't bring up biology, she gets all thoughtful about it. Biology and electricity. Me, I'm a simple man. I get, y'know. Goats. Hay. Rifles. Yelling at children. The important shit in life."


Jim
The day Jim discovers the Horta is the day Tamminy Photovolt will die happy then. Silica based life is definitely a thing in the galaxy, although rare. Someday, Tamminy, your biological ship will come in. Someday....

Jim smiles eagerly at her interest in the subject and leans forward to settle his chin on a propped up hand while he listens. Biology isn't his area of expertise but he knows enough to follow along with the basics of what she's talking about. Besides, seeing a scientist in their element never ceases to be worth watching so far as Jim is concerned.
"I try to ask myself how we'd do it, you know? Or how I could apply other worlds' magic or tech in my world. Sometimes it helps with that feeling."
And sometimes it leads to more questions.

But rarely ones that aren't also intriguing to consider. If only Jim trusted the higher ups to know about and have access to the Nexus. But after the corruption he's seen with his own eyes it's just too dangerous. It's not a risk he can afford to take. He glances over at Lawrence after a moment and sits up again properly.

"Don't say that. What fucking good would a scholar have for all their thinking if they starved to death before they could apply it?"
"Agriculture is insanely important. Even in my time."


Tams and Lawrence
Jim tells Lawrence not to say what he said, and Lawrence immediately stiffens up with the urge to make an issue out of this. But before he gets a chance to open his big mouth and blow it Jim continues, and Lawrence is left in surprised silence. Was he just... Complimented? No, was his vocation just complimented?

Well... Now what?

Tamminy doesn't notice the way Lawrence looks pensively at his hand on the table, but lifts her eyes to Jim, who's making some sense about her own life now. "So... Take what someone else has already made and try to put a gnomish spin on it? Ohhhh, I wish I'd paid more attention in culture class... There's no many of my kind left to take our social and cultural cues from. So where does that leave me? Should I go researching what other gnomes would do and make these Nexus inventions more Gnomish, or should I take it in my own direction and make them more Tamminy?"


Jim
Jim can't exactly talk about his own family. Even though his father's side owned the farm on Iowa they haven't actually worked that land at all for as long as he can remember. Maybe generations ago the Kirks used to be actual farmers but if that's the case Jim's got no idea how far back that would be. What he does know is that water, food, and shelter are still the ultimate necessities no matter how far humanity advances and shunning any one of them is a good way to wind up in a very literal hell. He knows that Very Well.

His smile to Lawrence is sincere though he won't catch Lawrence looking back at him as Tamminy draws his attention once more.

"I've never been one to fit in with a crowd. For as great as cultures can be I've always found it easier to do things my way. Make them more Tamminy and see where it gets you."