milliways_bar | (no subject)

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So, exams are almost over. Jack has just one more to go. His mun still has six more, but that's not the point of this narration.

However, the one remaining exam is near certain to be exceedingly hard. Professor Armstrong has a reputation for writing impossible exams.

So, Jack West in a corner, notes spread over the table, taking advantage of the timeslip to get in some extra revision.

[tiny!tag: Jack West Jr.]

[ooc: Will tag back when I can, but vulnerable to Revision!slowtime. Open all week.]

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Charles has been busy with his own editing and slips into Milliways for a break.

When he sees Jack, he nods and tries to get a look at what he's working on.

Jack is revising basically everything he's been taught over the past three years. This means his brain is exceptionally noisy, buzzing with connections between Roman and Greek culture, and the cross-references with the Egyptians, for good measure.

Also, his notes are sprawled all over the table, easily readable, as long as you don't mind reading upside down, he might take offence and actually notice you, if you moved them.

He's currently reading the notes he took from a lecture by Professor Armstrong, on the cross-pollination of Greek and Egyptian culture in the time of Alexander the Great.

Some of the topics are ones Charles has been studying due to Iris and they're an interesting change from his own work.

After getting a mug of tea from a wait rat he says, "I always admired Alexander, he tried to become a bridge between many cultures."

"He was rather impressive." says Jack, without looking up. "Some would argue, that he succeeded in becoming such a bridge."

The lecture in question is one arguing against that concept, but still. "It's just a shame the keystone fell out when he died."

He pauses for a moment to finish reading the paragraph, before looking to see who he is addressing. "Oh, hello. Charles, isn't it?"

"True but he laid strong foundations. The Ptolemies found ways to be both Greek and Egyptian and created a legacy. Yes, and its Jack?"

Charles looks over the notes, Alexander tried to change the world through ideas and war, which isn't too different from what Charles hopes to do.

"That's true, and that legacy lasted into what a lot of people consider to be Roman times." All the way up to Cleopatra and Caesar.

"Yeah, that's me."

The notes, as have already been mentioned, cover a vast swathe of history, from circa 3000 BC Egypt, to about 400 AD Rome.

"Though it looks like your professor isn't a supporter of Alexander's."

"He won't, can't deny that Alexander had an effect on the world, he just disagrees rather vocally with anyone who thinks he had a lasting impact."

"Personally, I think he formed the view from limited evidence, and hasn't got the balls to admit he's wrong."

Not that I'm going to put that in an answer to a paper marked by him.

"Ah, that sounds tricky. So you have to please him and then later can say what you think,"

Charles knows how that goes, academics is full of politics.

"You try not to piss the guy who's giving you your final grade off. Even with the external examiners around for moderation."
There's no guarantee they'll see any particular script.

"Not that he'd ever really hear what I have to say." Jack's going to be too far away, and so out of the field his voice would be no more than a whisper.

"No, of course not. You have to do what you can within the system before you consider anything else,"

Charles' telepathy has been of assistance with that but there are times he wouldn't mind saying what he thinks.

"And I'm about to step out of the system for a completely different one, but that's neither here nor there."

It certainly doesn't make any difference to the exam, anyway, or the level of work he intends to put in for it.

"Where are you headed next? I don't know for certain where I'm going after I finish my thesis,"

He has ideas but there are many possibilities.

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Teja passes, guitar in hand; he peers at the papers, wishing to see what they are about.

They cover the range of circa 3000 BC Egypt, to 400 AD Rome. Featuring the Greeks and a bit on the various Mesopotamian societies that rose and fell over that era.

Jack, meanwhile, is busy reading the notes he took from a lecture on Greek cultural influence, and it's effect on Roman society, although Teja probably can't see that, given Jack's back is to the wall.

"All that needs to go inside your mind in how much time?" Teja asks, somewhat amused.

Jack looks up, half startled, half pleased by the interruption. "The exam is in two days time, on the other side of the door."

"Most of it's already there, I just need to refresh it."

"And you mean to stay on this side of the door until you are sure you know it all?" Teja asks.

"Nah, I do that, I'll lose too much time."

"Just stealing a couple of extra hours without it hurting my sleep cycle back home." By which, he really means four or five hours, but then sleeping for a couple more than he would otherwise, so it all balances out.

"What part of history are you learning about?" Teja asks.

"This," Jack says, spreading his arms to indicate the stacks of notes on the table, "is everything that has been taught to me and my course-mates over the past three years."

He considers for a moment. "As an estimate, the time frame runs from the foundation of Egypt as a single kingdom, to the fading of the Roman empire.
Featuring the Greeks and various miscellaneous Mesopotamian civilisations, along with the Egyptians and Romans."

It is a Large breadth of study.

"All that your time would call 'ancient history', then," Teja says, "from the first written records until the start of the 'middle ages'?"

"It's what we study under that banner, yeah."

"Technically, I think Ancient History is considered to be all of written history, up until the start of the 'Dark ages' of Western Europe, which begin approximately with the fall of Rome. The middle ages begin as we recover written records at about 1000 AD or slightly later."

"And everything before that is pre-history," Teja says. "Do you study that as well?"

"I don't. Others do." replies Jack. "Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I'm right when I say this. The literal translation of the appellation prehistory, or prehistoric, means 'the time before written history'."