savetheearth | 4th Howl [Private Network Messages]

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4th Howl [Private Network Messages]

[Lyall enters four numbers into the Word document he's been using as his compilation of network communications, one at a time. Banagher Links, Ryuo Bakura, Anthony Janvier, and Kenji Kobayashi, even though the latter of those hasn't actually communicated with Lyall over the network. Each of his high school students receives the same message:]

This is Mr. Lyall. We need to talk. Please come by my classroom today (Saturday) at sunset if you can. Reply to this to let me know if you can get here, need a ride, or have a prior commitment.

[He sends out anther one for former students, namely Kallie Raydan, Robb Stark, and Hajime Aikawa:]

Are you all right? Have you run into any trouble since last night? I'm having a meeting for current students today at the school, if you want to come and talk about safety tips and plans.

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...something more than the light and the smell?

Oh. Yes.

[Lyall looks a bit sheepish for not having mentioned it, but it is a bit personal. And Bakura is his student. Still, he's stuck now, so he goes ahead and shares.]

Some similar vision, only more prosaic. If speaking with an English queen from the eighteen hundreds counts as prosaic. It did feel like it.

[[blink blink]] Queens and Pharaohs... [[A weird connection, but a very definite one]] Not a fight, I hope?

Not that I recall. The discussion with the queen was rather confusing and involved things called drones and potentates.

[As far as he knows, drones are bees, and he hasn't any idea what a potentate could be. He shrugs helplessly.]

Things broke off as we headed for the river, to retrieve this drone.

[[blink blink. Blink.]]

.... steampunk?

Er. I don't know. I actually think it might've been a person, actually. Someone mentioned the name "Biffy".

[Which was a rather embarrassing name, at that, wasn't it? Whoever that belonged to, he felt sorry for them.]

...a drone named Biffy? You're sure it wasn't a robot? Or maybe a giant dog or something?

I don't know. It was never mentioned directly. And most of what I was thinking of was-- procedural stuff. Tactics of a situation, anticipating some potential danger, forms I would have to fill out upon return....

[Very strange, really. He does recall some worry about what he assumes is an acquaintance, in there, but nothing really beyond that.]

...So a foot soldier, then. [[shakes his head with a slight sigh.]] Disappointing...

[Lyall isn't sure whether to be offended or not. He settles for jokingly throwing a decor pillow at his student.]

Hey, at least I wasn't in the mind of a thief, apparently.

[[Bakura catches it one handed before returning it]]

Better a thief than a paper pusher.

Says you. I happen to push paper every day to get you your grades, mister.

[At least teasing each other, even if Bakura was half his age and then some, was easier than trying to parse inexplicable visions, right?]

Think how much less you'd have to do if you didn't assign homework~

[[Not... that Bakura did his, of course.]]

Not that much less, if all my students were like you. You really need to start doing your homework, Bakura. How else are you going to learn?

[He despairs of he boy, sometimes. And whether or not Bakura does well on tests, he still stands by the idea that the information stays more firmly if instilled in more than just tests.]

As if homework has anything to do with learning. [[scoffs]]

For some people, it does. Not everyone learns the same way, and practice helps everyone, even boys who think they can get by only on tests. You could have good grades, you know, if you actually tried.

I could. [[agrees easily]] But what good would that do me? As long as I pass, it doesn't really matter.

Your work habits in high school are going to affect your work habits in college, Bakura. What you do now isn't likely to change, because it's what you're used to-- and if you do manage to actually work, there, it will seem that much harder and less fun because you aren't used to it.

[He's made this argument before, and he doesn't really expect it to work, but he can't help himself.]

College is different. [[shrugs]]

[Lyall sighs.]

Yes it is. It's harder, and your teachers will be less sympathetic. At least I've warned you.

That isn't true. Not all of it. My parents taught at the college here, I know how it is.

[And Lyall has been preparing students for college for ten years. He knows how it is, too.]

Your parents aren't going to be your teachers, Bakura....

[He sighs.]

Nevermind. I'm never going to change your mind and you're going to keep getting Cs. Are you sure you don't want a snack? Because I wouldn't mind one.

I know that. [[There's a tired note to it this time.]]

...Maybe something small. Grandma makes big dinners.

[Queue another wince from Lyall. Yeah, that was tactless, and he really did need to work on that brain-to-mouth filter a little again. Usually he's better than this, but now two times in a week? Time for a snack, indeed. He pushes up from the chair, drifting towards the kitchen, and gives Bakura's shoulder a reassuring pat as he passes by.]

[[Bakura gives a faint smile at the pat, poking at the scar on his hand idly.]]

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4th Howl [Private Network Messages]

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