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 Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 2:49 pm
Kail tucked his hands up into the cuffs of his uniform as he traversed the streets from the Academy to the Museum. He'd been found there alot lately, because his father was working overtime, and Kail had no desire to sit in the house alone. They hadn't unpacked most stuff yet, so there was little to do, and he'd been banned from the robotics room after he'd been found there after falling asleep. So he'd got out his garishly-labelled guidebook and looked up things that were interesting to do. Most of it was boring - a shopping center, a sports ground...blech...but he'd then found a pamphlet tucked into the back for this place - a SCIENCE MUSEUM. Why, yes, in Kail's head it was in Capital Letters. So he'd come here for a few afternoons, wandering around and examining the exhibits with his glasses firmly on, determinedly ignoring the urge to touch them, and reading the pamphlets...over and over again. Well, they were interesting.
Today he'd decided he was going to look at the Rockets section of the space exhibit. There had been something about lectures that he wanted to look at, but he'd been asked to leave yesterday because it was closing time, and had done. Pushing the door open to the mueseum, Kail waved politely to the receptionist and continued walking, the layout of the mueseum already familiar to him after he'd walked round at least four times.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:25 pm
Iouri was dusting the Apollo capsule with the most delicate of delicate touches. There were few pieces in the museum he prized more - perhaps some of the fossils were of more scientific value, whereas the space pod was strictly historical and sentimental. Still, to Iouri it was the most valuable piece in the collection and worth the most delicate of touches.
Looking up from his careful swiffering, he spotted a lone visitor approaching from the other end of the exhibit. That uniform brought back memories from high school - surprisingly they hadn't changed it since he'd been enrolled at Azure Valley in the 1990s.
"Are you interested in space exploration?" Iouri asked, setting his swiffer aside and straightening his name badge. "Or just working on a school project?"
He was always happy to see students taking the imperative to come to the museum for reasons other than assignments.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:25 pm
By the time the pink-haired boy arrived at his desired section, he had, inevitably, been sidetracked and picked up a leaflet - this time detailing the history of space exploration. He knew some of the facts already, but there was always more to be discovered, and re-reading leaflets was always fun. Head almost buried within the leaflet, he was understandably startled when a voice addressed him. He lowered the leaflet and blinked, then seemed to catch himself and answered.
"I don't believe that I am due any projects that require knowledge about space currently, though there is always a chance that there may be some in planning that I am not privilege to, being a student and not a faculty member."
He tilted his head running through his recent lessons in his mind...no. Nothing that suggested space.
"I was visiting here upon my own volition the other day when I happened to glance upon an informational poster detailing some information about Rocketry Lectures, however, before I could examine the flyer in more detail it was closing time."
He fidgeted awkwardly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:12 pm
Iouri quirked his head to one side. Growing up in an immigrant community, and then spending several years in academia, he'd been privy to some pretty weird syntaxes... but this formal language coming out the mouth of a high schooler really took the cake. That the boy was wearing an Azure Valley uniform didn't surprise him, however. If any of the area schools was going to breed eccentricities, that would be the one.
"The Rocketry series is sort of a pet project of mine," he explained, his Russian accent creeping around the corners of his words. "I am having a guest speaker from NASA come in for the next one..." Sometimes it paid to make connections! Iouri was good at making connections, even if they couldn't get his eyesight ignored and earn him a job on the International Space Station. "And of course there are the classes, the launches..."
Iouri reached out and fidgeted with the swiffer. He supposed the Apollo was clean enough - probably overly clean, even. One could never be too careful with these old capsules, of course. "Are you interested in rockets?"
Well, that was obvious. Hastily tucking the swiffer behing his back, Iouri extended his free hand to the boy. "Doctor Iouri Spektor," he introduced himself. He had a Ph.D, god damn it, it was time to start acting like it! "Museum director. And you are?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:22 pm
Kail watched Iouri attentively as he talked, mouth silently, barely noticeable shaping the words after Iouri said them. It had used to be one of his bigger tics, but now it only really surfaced when he was particularly excited or interested in what somebody was saying - you know, like now. Rocketry! NASA! Space! Rockets! Doctorates! Oh gosh this was more interesting that even the leaflets-THE LEAFLET! Kail's eyes flicked downwards as he realised his hands were tight on the leaflet, crumpling the delicate information. A small, inarticulate cry came as he noticed, smoothing it out and biting his lip as he tried to neaten it. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, nibbling his lip and trying to neaten the crumpled leaflet.
He was startled slightly when the hand was extended (he had been listening, of course!...just, half-so, that's all), and he cautiously grasped it, feeling the strength in the other's grip. His tension practically fled like a scared beast, his face cracking into a smile as he shook the other's hand. He didn't let go, though, instead speaking with them still gripped.
"Kail Cubrin. I go to Azure Valley down in the city."
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:35 pm
"Don't worry about the pamphlet, they're here for people to take," Iouri assured the boy, noticing his distress. He gave the hand a reassuring squeeze and then backed off, nodding knowingly. "My Alma-matter," he smiled. "Class of Nineteen-Ninety-Eight."
All this did was make him feel ancient, because being more than ten years out of high school was enough to make anyone feel ancient. "Do you have...?" and then stopped himself, because the likelihood of any of his old teachers still working at the school twelve years on was unlikely. Except perhaps his old physics professor, who probably would continue teaching even after his death, Harry Potter-style.
"It's a good place to be if you're interested in the sciences," he added, perhaps unnecessarily. The school was known primarily for being a science and tech magnet: why would an alum need to back up the claim. "Which I assume you are? I think I can help you out, Comrade."
(It was an ironic, cheeky sort of Comrade.)
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:16 pm
1998 was....a really long time ago, wow. Imagine all the change he must have seen! How much things had improved, maybe how some things fell! Oh man, Kail would love to have first hand knowledge of some of the iconic discoveries that had been made. Though of course, then he'd be older, and would die quicker, and then he might miss something even more exciting. Though of course that opened up the debate of was invention a static curve? Were there less and less exciting things to discover? Kail didn't think so. You just, as always, had to look outside the box.
"You must have seen a variety of things first-hand that I have not." Kail commented, though it was more polite then anything. Small talk wasn't really his thing. Okay...people in general weren't his thing. As he did when nervous, Kail backtracked to formal vocabulary. Okay, usually he ran for it, but whilst people weren't his thing...
Science was, and this museum was full of them and everything he was saying sounded amazing.
"I love sciences. If a non-logical event were to spontaneously occur and we were degenerated into non-organic beings, I would express a desire to become a mechanical being."
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:46 pm
Iouri chuckled at the boy's statement. He'd never been so inclined - having been more known as a boy who kept pictures of astronauts taped to the inside of his locker - but it was definitely an Azure Valley thing to say. "If I could be instantly teleported to anywhere and anywhen in the past hundred years," answered Iouri, "I would want to be at Baikonur Cosmodrome on April twelfth, nineteen sixty-one."
As it was customary to disclose when greeting a fellow Valley Boy, wasn't it? "But really," added Iouri, "I think that the twenty-first century is one of the most exciting times to be alive! Just think - Voyager left the solar system, there's an international space station, they sequenced the Neanderthal genome last year-" (One of these things was not like the others.) "It's a great time to be a scientist."
Or a science historian. Or a science fanboy. Or a model rocketry enthusiast. Any of the above, really. "Are you interested in a career in the sciences?" Iouri asked eagerly, accent dancing around his consonants. "Academia," he waxed poetic. "One of my great loves. Academia is a great place to be. I spent far too long there - am still there, I suppose."
He gestured to a random display case. "We're at least partially a research institute," Iouri informed the boy. (Although this was mild puffery. The museum wasn't nearly as sophisticated as he made it out to be.)
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:55 pm
Puffery or not, Kail's usually large eyes were getting even rounder, and if even if doing impressions of dinner plates with eyeballs was quite impossible, he was having a damn good go. Words stumbled and pushed themselves out of his mouth, his brain running now far faster than his mouth could keep up with. The leaflet had been pushed carefully but hastily into his bag, and his hands were twitching as if to begin gestures, then swapping halfway through to another one as he continued what could probably definitely could be called rambling.
"The international space station is really exciting, my dad took me to NASA and I read all about it I still have the m-m-model on my desk it-its really cool, and genetics is r-r-really interesting at the best of times, and now it's s-sequenced they have a stepping stone to properly understanding evolution which is also really exciting and the advanced in c-computing and robotics are the most exciting for mm-me but t-that-thats what I really like, it's what I want to d-do, o-once I graduate, and d-dad's a robotics engineer so one d-day I WILL BE JUST LIKE HIM."
Kail rather abruptly ran out of breath and stopped, smiling almost so hard his cheeks hurt.
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:48 pm
Iouri smiled at the boy, thoroughly charmed with his enthusiasm (and also his stutter). Having fought constantly with his accent after his family's move to the United States, Iouri was always sympathetic to those struggling with what seemed to be their own speech impediments. "Well," he replied happily, "You're at a great place to start!"
In fact, Iouri couldn't imagine a better school to attend than Azure Valley if one planned to pursue the sciences and technologies. The school consistently made "best of" lists, and you couldn't argue with those when they were put out by College Board. (Well, actually, you could. But it wouldn't get you anywhere.)
Struggling to think of what to show the boy, given his unique interests, Iouri's attention was drawn to the far end of the space exhibit. Maybe Kail would would be interested in an Apollo capsule and some displays about rovers? Or perhaps he'd even have some suggestions of what to add to make the exhibit even better! Iouri was always thrilled to get visitor feedback.
Clicking his heels together before starting to take long strides through the exhibit, Iouri gestured for Kail to follow him. "Come look at this! I think it will interest you," he called, pointing grandly towards the spaceship on its podium. "It's Apollo 16! It's been to the moon and back!"
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