Room 216, Tuesday evening

[voiceoverdue]

So class today had been a bit dull, what with it just being unknowable cryptography; I mean, Tuesday, right? Not terribly unexpected. Cecil had livened it up a bit by making his message to the future all about the wonders of Carlos.

Which meant that now he was pretty darn homesick. So he'd just be lying about, polishing his bloodstone circle and trying not to sigh too loudly.



[open door and post!]

Comments

[pulseof_life]

"No," she said quietly. "I will go back to my world eventually and so saw no point in missing it while I was away."

[voiceoverdue]

"That sounds very sensible." Cecil shrugged and smiled at her. "I'm generally pretty good at being sensible, but I don't seem to be able to quite manage it right now."

[pulseof_life]

"I have much practice at being sensible," she said, smiling back. "You will surely get better as you age."

[voiceoverdue]

"A little," he acknowledged after he thought about it for a moment. "But I'm actually already thirty-six. Or forty-two. Or fourteen; it all depends on how you count."

He knew he was older than a lot of the other students, but he hadn't read Yeul's info.

[pulseof_life]

And her info went back far enough that reading it would take some time!

"Is there really such a difference to those ages?" she wondered, completely unfazed by his revelation. "Do you stop learning once you hit a certain age? If you are thirty-six or forty-two or fourteen, there's still time to learn, isn't there?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Oh, of course!" Cecil beamed. "There's always time to learn. But I already have aged a bit. Why; how old are you?"

That was probably rude to ask, wasn't it? Cecil didn't have much concept of things you didn't ask, unless there were municipal rules handed down.

[pulseof_life]

And Yeul did not mind answering questions, no matter how rude some people might find them, so it worked out well enough.

"I am about fifteen in this life," she said thoughtfully. "But in total years, I am afraid I do not know exactly. It is hard to keep track."

[voiceoverdue]

"You've had more than one life?" Cecil asked curiously.

[pulseof_life]

"I have," she said agreeably. "I am afraid that is a peculiarity of mine."

[voiceoverdue]

"You must have seen a lot of stuff." Cecil thought about everything he'd seen on the subway, eons of good and bad things that it took years just to process. "Are you okay?"

[pulseof_life]

Yeul tilted her head curiously. "How would you define 'okay'?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Able to adequately function and mostly more happy than sad?" Cecil clarified.

[pulseof_life]

"I believe so, in that case," she said, nodding. "I am generally content and function well enough."

Unless it came to mortal peril or fear of any sort. Yeul didn't really have a sense of self-preservation any longer."

[voiceoverdue]

"That's good." Cecil smiled at her. "You seem nice, so I'd hate for you not to be okay."

[pulseof_life]

"Thank you," she said simply. "Though I wonder, would it be alright for someone who was not-nice to be less okay?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Well, of course!" Cecil shrugged. "If they're not being nice, it serves them right if they're not okay. Besides, them being not okay probably means more nice people are okay."

[pulseof_life]

"That is a curious line of thought," she said, smiling slightly. "Has it been true, in your experience?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Usually." Cecil nodded. "Well, unless the not-nice person is in a position of authority. Then unless you can get them out of it, they tend to just make everyone else miserable, too."

[pulseof_life]

"Do you ever think that some of them may be not-nice because of their lives?" she asked curiously. "Or are they just not-nice for no reason?"

[voiceoverdue]

"A little of both," Cecil answered. "But a hard life's no excuse to not be nice. Not that nice people can't do mean things sometimes - I mean, don't we all? - but just as a life philosophy."