closed // jump down on jump street

[justashotaway]

WHO: Kaz, Derrica, Laura, and Tavin
WHAT: Four bright-eyed, bushy-tailed youngsters go to Nevarra's preeminent university in search of knowledge. And state secrets.
WHEN: Mid-to-late Kingsway
WHERE: University of Markham, Nevarra
NOTES: OOC deets for 21 Jump Street are here.

PART ONE


Combination salon + rager, with room for arguing over Great Issues of the Day and also getting crunk.

This is not their best work.

PART TWO


This, on the other hand? They're pretty good at.

Derrica and Tavin distract admin while Kaz and Laura get in and out of the Dean's office with all the records they aren't supposed to have.

Comments

[taxonomy]

Somewhere (and it's in Miri's voice as some things often are) he has the idea that he's fucked up. Later. Later when they've gotten done with the charade. For now he doesn't quite jump but his back goes straight as it would have done in the student days; please, professor, look at him, look at how eager he is.

"It shouldn't take long at all," which is, of course, a blatant lie but this is how it goes as Tavin ploughs right on ahead, the anxious smile not at all an act. "It was about a small matter, embarrassing really and we know that strictly speaking these aren't your office hours but why put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today? That's not the Nevarran way at all, an Orlesian habit we can't have here in Markham."

(The Sokolov method: why say one word when you can say twenty without getting to the point at all.)

[tender]

The dean stalls. There's a moment where he reminds Derrica of a cornered deer, and she instinctively steps slightly to the side to keep him from brushing past them down the hallway while Tavin speaks.

"Ah, well, if it will only take a moment," the dean says after a beat of awkward silence. Derrica smiles encouragingly, and refuses to give in to the urge to glance down the hallway to be sure nothing untoward is obvious from this angle.

"Of course, it's just a small question," Derrica assures him smoothly. "But I don't think we can stand the curiosity any longer, so we're just so grateful to you for making the time."

It occurs to Derrica that maybe she should have checked with Tavin as to what their question actually was, but oh well. The show must go on now.

[taxonomy]

If they'd had more time, Tavin really should've suggested they bring his grandfather in as a ringer because no one is better at being just the right element with any stuffy academic than Constantin who Tavin can only aspire to one day.

But it's just them and they're more than up to the task because Tavin would've just let him go. Probably. Waited for another day. And Tavin did at least bring a smattering of papers and journals because this is who he is and he grabs one, flipping through the pages with soft apologies because there are so many options available to him.

"Given the rifts that have opened up far and wide across Thedas, we were both hoping that you'd be able to help with anything you might have heard as a man in your position of behaviours in livestock." He's banking on the university's actual reputation even if he's never bothered much beyond making jokes, plus a bit of flattery even if the nervous smile isn't fake at all. "It's important of course for everyone to be able to get by and they can't do it if, for instance, the milk dries up in the cows."

[tender]

The office is silent behind them. Derrica's taking that as encouragement. Their job is made ultimately easier by the lack of suspicious noise, though Derrica remains ready to fake either a coffee fit or a fainting spell.

"It's an expression," Derrica adds helpfully, staying planted in front of the dean and reaching down, over the top of the book, to point at the first diagram she sees. "See here, he has marked some of the more recent openings in relation to farmland."

There is an expectant pause while curiosity and confusion battle across the dean's face before his brow draws together and he bends closer to the book. One hand gropes at his lapel for his glasses.

"Livestock, you say," he begins. Derrica's face brightens. "I can't say as I have, but I also can't say anyone has asked the question. And that's where these things begin, isn't it?"

Derrica's finger retreats, but she darts a quick, encouraging look at Tavin.

god sorry life happened

[taxonomy]

Please let this man think the same of Tavin's handwriting as almost every other professor or tutor or anyone remotely involved in handling his first drafts ever has: the best teaching money can buy apparently can't stop a hand that wants to spiderwalk the ink over the page when thinking. Also in the way that students do - or Tavin did because he was not always sensible and had to see what he was doing for himself to make sure he was not, in fact, a complete idiot - the book is not entirely turned to the dean. It's that three-quarters profile.

Or something like that, mostly for Tavin and Derrica's benefit but enough to invite another onlooker.

Almost coy. Like oh look at my works, intriguing, no?

"I mean we can't all be the Anderfels can we? Incredible how they don't turn to leather in their summers, I've heard stories but that's neither here nor there. And yes, of course you're right but that's what years of wisdom begets you," he's rambling but this is par for the course, this is how he still gets money to go do things like look at bronto mating habits for instance. "Now, unfortunately most of the evidence is anecdotal which is, as my colleague can tell you...tricky. But rifts in a river? Spooky animals away from their body of water or, I mean, the long term impacts of those rifts when you have places like the Blackmarsh out by Amaranthine - there are claims to lands that stretch back generations, it gets downright hostile if those are challenged when driving your herds through them. What if a river were to change course? If the animals refuse to graze because a rage demon showed up and the predators became more vicious? This is just the beginning?"

By the way Derrica he has actually thought about this in complete detail this is partly why he came to Riftwatch let him catch you up later it'll be fun when he's not sweating anxiously.