milliways_bar | (no subject)

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ace (pyro)

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Billy is curled in his usual spot by the fire -- he's been here long enough to have a usual spot -- and brooding over physics. Well, looking frustrated over physics and brooding between problems. He's a good multitasker.

Except apparently not, because sometime around problem thirty he chunks the book down with a clatter and makes a loud, frustrated noise. "I'm never going to use this anyway!"

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"Not if you don't ever want to continue with your education past high school, perhaps." Mutters the hooded Zexion as he reaches down to pick up the thrown book and page through it.

Edited 2008-10-12 08:21 (UTC)

"If I ever get to graduate," Billy mutters right back. "And I meant in the real world."

"Your world doesn't run on physics? Why then would they teach it?" Zexion asks. He doesn't sound distracted as he reads, he's used to dividing his attention.

"Well, yeah, it runs on physics, but I don't need to stop and work out vectors before I walk in a straight line." Billy waves his hand in the air. "And even in college, I hope the math doesn't get too advanced."

"What, you would rather remain an ignorant window-dressing on civilization like most of humanity?" Zexion asks, voice quiet but none the less cutting. "With what you are capable of, knowledge of physics would do you well. You must know the rules that you are breaking if you wish to do so in the most efficient way possible. Also you got question ten wrong."

"No, I would rather get a law degree and do something useful to society." Billy scowls and looks down at the problem in question. Grudgingly: "--Oh, you're right. Thank you."

"Law," Zexion states with disdain, "much like sociology, is only useful if there is a society for it to pertain to. Law fluctuates and changes and is at its core based on perspective. Physics on the other hand is closer to mathematics and is a pure science. It is the study of the nature of the universe and how we relate to it, and is always relevant."

This would be where anyone else would give a double-snap.

Billy rolls his eyes again. Crazy Nobodies, with their math! "Yeah, it changes from society to society but it helps people, unlike sitting around and tweaking with numbers! I'm not saying it's a science, I'm saying it's more important for me to master."

Beat.

"Plus I suck at math."

"Without physics-" Zexion states, voice raising, "human society would still be in the dark ages, huddling around campfires for warmth and light never being able to see into deep space or into the oceans and still thinking that there might be sea monsters lurking over that next wave, or that supernatural forces caused the sun to come up every morning!"

Deep breaths.

Zexion smoothed down his hair. Then reached into a folder stuffed into his book and produced a duplicate copy of the math exercises he gave Penny.

This is actually the most -- not blank Billy has ever seen Zexion. And he sort of sounds like a weird mix between Teddy and that one crazy math teacher. "--okay, okay. Fine. Physics is very important, provided I ever need to circumnavigate the globe."

He gives the exercises a curious look.

"You fly and have been observed to create force barriers and lightning, you imbecile. Magic is just science that no one has bothered to properly study yet."

The exercises are rather advanced mathematics, but phrased and worded in such a way to easily allow one to work through them step by step as should be done properly.

It says, in precise handwriting, PLEASE SHOW YOUR WORK.

"I'm not an imbecile, I'm just not a mathematician!" He raises an eyebrow at the sheet. "--you're giving me homework?"

"I'm helping you. And as such, would you mind explaining to me why you have not continued helping III?"

Billy did not, actually, know it was possible to choke on air. Let's watch him find out!

"--What?" He sputters. "Who said I wasn't helping Xaldin anymore?"

"His reports implied as much." Zexion states, bland but with a bit of an edge to it. "If you were still, he would not be in the situation he is in now."

"Explain."

This is not a request.

So that's what a heart attack feels like!

"I said I wasn't going to -- you know -- things went too far. I have a boyfriend. What do you mean, the situation he's in now?"

"Has your boyfriend expressed displeasure in regards to the situation?" Zexion asks, growing perturbed.

"III is fading. He appears to have balanced out for now, but he is none the less no longer as stable as he once was and no longer on the schedule he has kept for ten years. Such contact was a stabilizer for him to keep him in place within existence, and he has now come to need it even more frequently than before."

"Well, no, because Teddy's not --" Billy begins, but then falls silent, processing. He has to do something. He has no idea what he can do. More than once, he's told Teddy that he would tear the universe apart for them. But Xaldin is his friend, and Teddy --

He's not going to cry in front of this weird Nobody in the middle of the bar. He's not.

"Is he simply not aware of the situation? If your culture is one based on monogamy, actions with III cannot be considered 'cheating' on any level. We are incapable of either physical or emotional consummation of a relationship.

"III is one of the founding members of the Organization. We require him for optimal efficiency in furthering our goals. If you have decided to end contact with him I require a good reason as to why."

"I havne't ended contact with him. I'm just -- yes, my culture is based on monogamy, and it's really hard to see it that way even if it's true. And I'm not willing to hurt Teddy. At all, period."

Still, he's already freaking out and developing plans.

Zexion repeats, voice terse as he tries to not go into another ranting fit -

"Have. You. Asked. Him?"

"No." Billy's trying hard not to yell himself. And he has hormones to deal with. "Because he'll say yes, it's fine because he's that type of person--"

"Then what is the problem?"

"Because it's not fine, and he will care, but he'll say he doesn't!" Billy's voice keeps rising. He doesn't mean to cause a scene.

"If your relationship is not one based on honesty perhaps it should be reevaluated. I was under the impression that partners should be able to trust each other to tell them the truth, both of their actions and especially of their feelings." Says the cultural anthropologist who got the PhD in order to understand people, and decided that he understood enough to not want any part in such matters.

"Mind-reading was not listed under the known abilities of you or your significant other."