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TeeVee for Beginners, Friday Period Two

"Today, we're going to be talking about people," Mitchell said, once they'd all filled into the classroom. Anyone paying attention may have noticed the large table full of bags upon bags of crisps off to the side of the room. "People watching television, to be precise." You know, in case they'd thought he was going to talk about something a little less savoury. "Academics call television the 'electronic hearth', because where families used to gather before the fireplace, they started to gather in front of the television instead. It grew very very quickly from being a novelty to being in every household, in every family."

He gestured at the television. "Others call it being couch potatoes," he said, wryly. "People who spend too much time in front of the television. They have a little food, have a little drink, and let the programmes flow on past. Wasting their lives away, never looking for some meaning in life, never bothering to find out who they really are, what the world's really like." He smiled once. "The truth, as it generally is, lies somewhere in the middle. Television nowadays is a unifier, it brings people together, but it also sets them apart."

He wandered over to the table, patting it with his hands. "Now for the fun part," he said, "Snacks are a vital part of the modern television experience. Sometimes, it's entire meals, pizza and Chinese food." Mitchell was a great appreciator of the art. "But at this hour, that may be pushing it. Crisps," he picked up a bag and waved it around, "Are excellent television chow. I want you all to pick what looks like it may taste good, and if you're not sure, ask your fellow classmates about it." He set the bag down. "Today is all about people. About audiences, which we all are when we're watching the television. So go on, make yourself comfortable. Be an audience, meet people, see what the social contexts are all about."

He took a seat on his own couch. "Have fun. That's what television's all about."

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"Hi George." Dinah flopped down on the end of his couch near the end of class. "How are you settling in?"

"Not too badly!" George admitted, smiling and a little surprised. "I mean, things are weird, but... it's almost a good kind of weird." Unlike turning into a slathering beast every month.

"The moose were a bit odd, though, yesterday."

"Adorable odd, though," Dinah protested, taking a bite out of a sour-cream-and-onion chip. "I mean, they lifted their little hats to you! And they ran with me and Priestly on our morning jog. I liked them tons better than the glitter." She grinned. "But you're getting to like it? Nothing traumatizing yet?"

Edited 2009-05-22 22:48 (UTC)

"... There are traumatising things?" George asked. "Should I be scared?"

"I told you about that, the day we met? Disappearing clothes?" Dinah reminded him. "Well, and there was one day when we all had to tell the total truth. That was horrible. But it hasn't happened since." She grinned, and offered him her bag of potato chips. "Chip?"

George's eyes widened. "I think I blocked that," he admitted. "Um. I definitely think I blocked that. And I'll have a crisp, yeah, thanks."

Dinah grinned, and handed the bag over. "I didn't tell you about the truth thing, so don't worry. The clothes, yeah. Anyway! I'm glad the last two weeks have been good, though." She grinned and nodded toward Mitchell. "He's really awesome."

"Yeah," George agreed. "He's... Kinda my guardian." Don't look at the paperwork too closely there, please. "I mean, he is my guardian."

"You mentioned that," Dinah said, thinking George really *had* been out of it, jetlagged to heck and gone that first day. "No other family?" she asked, keeping her tone light.

"Oh, I did?" he asked. It wasn't so much the jetlag as it was the flailing he'd gone through that day; he'd blocked half the experience. "What about you? What's your family like?"

Notice how deftly he'd dodged the question?

"I'm adopted," Dinah said carefully, noticing that dodging, yup. Since she did so much of it herself. "Just last year. I have two sisters in New Gotham, that's it." She tilted her head. "And a sort-of grandfather, and a sort-of uncle. Friends who are family, you know?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean," George said, nodding.

He didn't yet. Give him time; he had canon to catch up on for that.

"Wait," George added. "If you're adopted, wouldn't you have parents, too? Why d'you only have sisters?"

"Ummm..." Yeah, that would be Dinah's I-am-attempting-to-skate-fast face. "Well. I call them my sisters, but really, Barbara's my guardian. Adoptive mom, really, but she's too young to say, 'hi, this is my mom.' It's just, she was Helena's guardian, when Helena was my age. So that kind of makes Helena my sister. See?"

Possibly not.

Actually, George followed that perfectly well. "Technically your guardian, relationship is more like sister. Gotcha." He shrugged. "I guess we've both got pretty atypical families, then, yeah?"

"Yeah," Dinah said, glad she didn't have to explain more than that. She gave him a beaming smile. "Sometimes better than the other sort, anyway. A lot of people here have situations like that, actually."

George didn't know about better; his missed his family back home more than he cared to admit. He didn't comment about that, though. He didn't really even want to think about it.

"Really?" he asked, instead. "I guess I never thought about it much. A school like this, though, I can see that."

"Yup. Some of them, their homes are war zones, and their parents are gone. Others, it gets weirder." She gave the bag of crisps a speculative look, and held out her hand. "More, please? My last roomie didn't have any family left, except his boyfriend. He's in New York now, studying to be a musician. And a supermodel."

"Weirder?" George couldn't help but ask. "Weirder how?"

"Crisp please."

She'd tell him if he fed her.

George obligingly held out the bag.

Dinah happily took a handful, then looked thoughtful as she munched. "Umm, Viki. Who graduated and left a few weeks ago. She could teleport, herself and other people. But she got lost, I guess." Her voice quieted a bit. "She'd been drifting from world to world for a long time. She didn't even really know how old she was any more, it'd been so long. She said she'd been in at least five armies, and she didn't know how to get home." She sighed. "She teleported out after graduation without saying good-bye. She didn't have any control over it. Hope she's still got the MP3 player we got her."

"No control? That... must be horrible." Because George had no idea what that was like.

"Yeah. She seemed pretty accepting about it, but even that was kinda sad." Dinah noshed some more, then looked thoughtful. "Weirder, but not as upsetting-- one of the professors, Professor Skywalker? Has grandchildren here. But he's only in his late twenties. Time travel." She offered him the bag again, smiling.

"... Right. Time travel." A beat. "... I think my roommate is from the past."

"Jennifer?" Dinah's eyebrows went up, and being thirsty, she held out her hand and TK'd a bottle of water to herself. "How far in the past? Ancient Greece? Medieval France?"

TeeVee for Beginners, Friday Period Two

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