fandomhigh | Physics, Monday, Class #5, Period 4

Anyone who was paying attention might notice that Sam looked considerably more rested and relaxed this week. They'd probably also notice a few mini pool tables set up on the desks. "Good afternoon, and welcome to what I hope will be an informative class. Today we'll be discussing Isaac Newton's laws of motion, getting ever closer to our goal of exploring relativity after midterms, which I'm sure you're all waiting for with baited breath."

She was kidding, mostly.

"There are three basic laws of motion, according to Newton, who used them to describe the acceleration of massive particles. The first is that of inertia, which is basically that an object, once in motion, will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. Or, if you throw a baseball in a zero gravity and no friction situation, like in outer space, it will just keep going until the end of time, or until it hit something, whichever comes first. The second law gets more into computations of dynamics." She wrote several equations on the board. "They all boil down, basically, to F=ma, where F, or the force exerted upon an object, is equal to the product of the mass of the object, or M times the acceleration of the object, or A. Time can also be a factor, but we'll get into that later in the semester. The third law is also something you've probably heard before--for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

"Basically, if you transfer energy to an object at rest by hitting it, it will then move in another direction at a certain rate of speed, based upon such variables as your aim, point of contact, and the power used to hit it."

"We'll get into laws of planetary motion next week, so please read those handouts. For the rest of class, I'd like you to pair up with another student, and play a few games of pool. What works, what doesn't? Why doesn't it work? I'd like a one-page write-up of your experiences for next week. Does anyone have any questions?"

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"You have to call solids or stripes to keep score," Romeo informed her, then gave her a careful look. "But we can start with just striking balls into the pocket."

He demonstrated easily, sinking two solids. "You try. Mind that you keep the cue between your fingers, it always hopped out for me when I was learning."

Rikku nodded again, watching his form and trying to follow along. "Okay. Keep the cue between the fingers."

She pulled back, tentatively, edging the cue forward slightly, and then shoved.

The cue hit the cue ball low, near the felt, and the cue ball bounced a few inches before landing again.

"I'm ... gonna say that was wrong?"

"I was worse at first," Romeo confided.

Which was true.

Of course, he'd been ten.

He frowned a little, lining up behind her with his arms hovering near hers. "Would you mind if I touched you?" Normally he wouldn't ask, but this wasn't exactly a normal day.

"Go ahead," she said. "It's cool."

She held as still as she could, waiting for him to actually move her arms somewhere useful.

"You, uh." Pause of Rikku chewing her lip. "Are you okay?"

Not like any of them really were.

He positioned her arms lower on the cue then she'd been holding them, then guided them up to the table to line up a shot. It gave him time to think about his answer.

"We all came home," he said, which wasn't exactly yes. "Are you?"

"I don't think I know yet," she said, softly. "I think I'm gonna need a few days just to feel like a real person again, and then maybe I'll have an idea."

She moved the cue back and forth, testing out the different angle.

"Are you a spirit now?" Romeo joked, taking her wrist and guiding her to the best angle. "There. Shoot."

"I do know what you mean," he admitted. "It was too much to process."

"Too many explosions, not enough sleep," she said, turning her wrist and sliding it along. "Oooh, this is much better. Should I try it?"

A slight pause, before she added, "I get so tired of it all sometimes, you know?"

Romeo pulled his hands back. "Do, and good luck."

Watching her, he added, not helpfully, "... Tired of what?"

Rikku pulled the cue back, still mulling it over. "He's okay. Now. It wasn't ... this time. But his job ... there'll be a next time. And the one after that. He said, you know, Turks don't retire, and they have this ... high mortality rate. Next time, maybe I won't even know. I can't ..."

She didn't know where that was going, or what she couldn't. Better idea: she slid the cue forward and thumped it into the cue ball. The cue ball rolled along lazily until it smacked into a clump of balls halfway down the table, none of which moved very far.

"Better," Romeo said absently, focusing on what she had told him. He neatly lined up a shot and took it while he spoke.

"That's hard," he frowned. "Does it help to remember he could be saving the world, again, every time? That's bigger than anything he could do here."

But he wasn't in love with Reno, and that had to make a lot of difference.

"He wouldn't be," she said, swallowing past a lump. "This time was the exception. Next time, they'll be blowing up an overpass because his boss wants to blame someone else for it. Next time, they'll be hurting innocent people and get caught. His job isn't ... he doesn't usually save the world."

Dead was still dead. It bothered her either way. But it still mattered.

Romeo hit a ball almost viciously. "He did this time," he repeated, stubborn, as he looked up under his hair. "Will his job still be the same, after that?"

"I don't know," she said. "All I know is that ... he was gone, and that was it. And now it isn't, but ... it could be again. I think. He said last night he had orders and he was so ..."

Vulnerable. Exposed. Laid bare.

"Then this morning it was just, never mind, let's go home. I don't know what happened. I don't know if I want to know, yet."

Romeo hit some balls in a tricky ricochet into the corner pocket and allowed himself a brief moment of triumph before turning to Rikku again. "How could you not want to know?" he asked, incredulous and a little irritated. "It sounds as though what you've decided in the absence of talking to him may be worse than what is true. Perhaps his orders were to go home and live a happy life."

He stepped back; her shot.

Rikku shook her head. "You know who he works for," she said. "They aren't nice people that are gonna decide he gets to retire, now. He's said from the beginning, Turks don't ... last very long. So either he's theirs, still, and we get to do this all again the next time his world gets crazy, or he quit. And the last person that quit, the rest of them were ordered to hunt down and kill."

She waved a hand in frustration. "There is no good answer. I don't have anything to root for. If he quit, they'll come after him; if he didn't, they'll get him killed sooner or later. It's ... hopeless."

Romeo shook his bangs out of his eyes and shot another ball. "It's good to know you're so certain you're both doomed," he said crisply. "And I sound like my cousin Benvolio, now: 'Be cheerful, cos, all will be well someday.' And for that I apologize."

He added, "I understand what you say, but ... he saved the world. The least you owe him is to talk."

"I know," she nodded. "I'm not ... I don't mean I'm not gonna talk to him. I mean. We're still ..."

Still something, even if she wasn't sure what footing they were on, right now.

"We need to talk. Just that ... I need to sleep, and eat something, and feel like myself again, first, or it's just gonna be a mess."

Romeo nodded slowly. "Eat, sleep, whatever you need to do to be human," he said, and offered her the cue. "Play pool. Worry about the rest of it when you're ready to."

Though he was going to go check on Reno himself, all the same.

Edited 2008-10-07 19:13 (UTC)

She took the cue, smiling a little weakly. "I tried ... we kinda talked, last night, a little? It just didn't go anywhere. Maybe we both need a little time."

She leaned over, trying to hold the position he'd shown her. "Are you guys all right? That was kinda ... a lot, and I'm used to weekends like that."

Not that you ever got used to it.

Physics, Monday, Class #5, Period 4

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