be discreet

[msmage]

It's not much later, in Isabella's room, that she asks:

"So... is Alex really a dom?"

Comments

[eclipsi]

"I'm all right. Have to do a group project though. Sometimes Selene pretends to be college hard enough to fool me and then, nope, technically junior high to high school range."

[mrmage]

"Pretends to be a college?"

[eclipsi]

"We get to pick all our own classes with few exceptions, the scheduling's open, we have a campus with dorms and a bus to town and very light adult supervision, and not all of the teachers have doctorates but some of them do."

[mrmage]

"Would college not have group projects, then?"

[eclipsi]

"Well, I think of it as being a high school thing, but maybe colleges do it. Shame on them."

[mrmage]

He laughs. "What's the project about anyway?"

[eclipsi]

"Asian history. We have to agree on a topic, and I don't want to fight over it and neither does another person in the group but the other two are at each other's throats between Chinese pirates and Genghis Khan."

[mrmage]

"Can't they toss a coin? Or maybe talk about how one has influenced the other or something?"

[eclipsi]

"I suggested the coin toss. I'm not sure if they heard me."

[mrmage]

"I don't know enough Asian history to know if there's a way to reconcile the two things."

[eclipsi]

"My suspicion is that it would be a stretch to even compare-and-contrast the founding of the Mongolian Empire in land-based conquest versus grand theft on the high seas."

[mrmage]

"The Mongolian Empire sounds way cooler, though."

[eclipsi]

"If I wind up in a position to break the impasse I'm likelier to go for Chinese pirates. Less done to death than the Khan."

[mrmage]

"Fair enough. Was it the pirates that found America a ways back?"

[eclipsi]

"...I don't know, was it?"

[mrmage]

"I think I read something about that, Asian ships having discovered America way before Columbus did."

[eclipsi]

"Huh. I don't know if it was pirates but that seems sort of unlikely."

[mrmage]

"Might've been some conspiracy theory, then."

[eclipsi]

"Or something. Maybe we'll do the project on pirates and I can find out."

[mrmage]

"See, you have a new argument to present to the Khan one."

[eclipsi]

Giggle.

[mrmage]

"When's the due date?"

[eclipsi]

"Six weeks."

[mrmage]

"Is it complex enough that you need those weeks?"

[eclipsi]

"To do the project, no, to come to any sort of consensus on it, probably."