fandomhigh | Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

[Week #6 - The High-wire Job]

Another Tuesday, another portal - this one to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the Virginia Beach Adventure Park.

“I have been waiting all semester for this!” Parker was looking squeeful and other EE! words. “Ropes course! With ziplines and high wires and canopy walks!”

"The courses are rated on all different levels," Eliot said. "So those of us who aren't professionals when it comes to ropes and harnesses shouldn't have any trouble finding something fun to do, anyway." He didn't really anticipate any trouble with enthusiasm from this group. Honestly, he'd been feeling relatively extraneous all session. You know, when they weren't getting attacked by alots.

“You have to wear your protective gear. And listen to the safety presentation.” Parker snorted, then said under her breath, “My stuff is better.”

Eliot patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. "We know, darlin'. But your stuff ain't covered under the park's insurance."

“Just ask if you need help. Or ideas,” Parker added, grinning at them. “There aren’t any diamonds on this course, but you can’t have everything.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Actually, we're goin' to the CMAs." Eliot still couldn't entirely believe Hardison had got him tickets to an event he had zero interest in himself. "An honest to god vacation. Which . . . probably means we'll run into one down there or somethin'."

Let's be real, now.

If Eliot wasn't reading that as the declaration of love it was, there was literally no hope for him ~~because I sure as hell wouldn't go for anyone~~

"Wait, really?" Kathy asked, then whistled. "That's one heck of a vacation. Did you get to pick this one?"

Call it a hunch, but neither Mr. Hardison nor Parker seemed the type.

"...Does that mean I get to ask you for Miranda Lambert's autograph?"

Eliot smiled at Kathy's reaction. "I'll see what I can do," he promised her. "And I'll leave you some money for the dog-sitting, too." Far, far more than just about any other teenage dog-sitter had ever earned. Kathy would probably want to give it back to him. "And yeah, sorta. He was braggin' about going to the Oscars and I told him I wouldn't be impressed till he got us tickets to the CMAs and -- he did."

He'd even bought them. Eliot didn't miss the subtext of this one, no. He just wasn't entirely convinced he deserved it.

Or, rather, he was entirely convinced he didn't.

If pressed, Hardison would declare that his actions had stemmed entirely from the challenge of getting tickets to a sold-out event and to show Eliot up. But only because Eliot was stupid about things like emotions and that whole 'I'm not worth your love' nonsense.

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Kathy protested, because why wait to get the money before arguing it was too much? "I don't mind looking after Val while you guys have a nice weekend together."

Yeah, she shipped them. OT3, baby. This whole thing was adorable.

"Pretty sure payment's traditional," Eliot said. "'Sides, that way if somethin' comes up, you won't have to worry about spendin' your own."

He was deliberately very vague about what that 'something' might be. A new pair of boots, maybe. Or, since this was Kathy, an expensive text book.

WHY WERE THEY SO EXPENSIVE? WHY? IT WASN'T EVEN FAIR! DID THE INDUSTRY CARE NOTHING ABOUT STUDENTS AND THEIR LEARNING?!

Though, knowing Kathy, it would probably go right to improving her Banzai gear. Because priorities.

"Well, yes," she conceded, because he was raising good points, "but it's not necessary. I don't mind watching Val. It really is no trouble."

...Or maybe go to her Future Tattoo fund...

THEY CARED PLENTY! JUST ONLY ABOUT THE RICH STUDENTS' LEARNING.

"Your enthusiasm is noted," Eliot assured her. "You can consider it practice for when you grow up and start totally supportin' yourself. I think the etiquette is protest once and then graciously accept."

"I can be gracious," Kathy said, giving him a small smile. "Just--I don't need paid to do favors is all."

She'd nearly said 'friends don't need', but backed off at the last minute. He was an adult and her teacher, after all.

"...Unless that autograph opportunity comes up. Then all bets are off."

"I'll even rope Hardison into makin' it happen," Eliot said. "I think you're the first person I've talked to on the island who can even name a country singer. Especially without rollin' your eyes at the same time."

"I like all kinds of music," Kathy said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "It was--kinda a thing for me for awhile. I wanted to listen to all types of music because it was a way to...I don't know, appreciate all different walks of life, maybe? It started with my mom complaining about the reggaeton we could hear from our apartment, cause Koreatown has a huge Hispanic population. She complained about it--" in racist terms, not that Kathy was going to point that out "--but I really liked the beat. Then I realized that all that gangsta rap everyone was up in arms about got its start not twenty miles from where I was living, so I started listening to that, too."

Very, very quietly.

"And it kind of grew from there, you know? So while I'm not a huge country fan, there's at least a little I like. I guess I'm a music dabbler?"

Eliot smiled and shook his head. "You're just out to see and hear it all, huh?"

"Is there a better way to do it?" Kathy asked, eyes sparkling. "It's why I like learning languages, too. I want to be able to communicate with everyone, you know? Relate to them, even if it's only through some music we both know."

"Music's a better way of goin' about it than what I did." Fighting wars in as many countries as possible was not really the best way to "see the world."

"Who knows?" Kathy said, deliberately ignoring what little she remembered of the dark future Fandom had shown her. "Maybe after undergrad, I'll give my parents heart attacks and go backpacking around Europe and Asia for a little while. See more of the world besides LA and Samjicheon. That's the village my grandparents live in," she explained.

"That sounds like a damn fine plan to me," Eliot said. "And don't forget Africa and South America. I know the news makes 'em sound pretty scary a lot of times, but some of the most gorgeous places I've seen were well south of the equator."

"Those will have to wait until I finish at least the first half of grad school," Kathy said. "Well...maybe South America and Asia? I speak fluent Spanish, and read enough Chinese to maybe get by. I was thinking Europe, because I speak Spanish and Italian, but I can go to more places in South America on the languages I speak. And Portuguese is close enough, right?"

"Very close," Eliot said. "If you've got Spanish and Italian, you'll pick up Portuguese in no time."

"Well," Kathy amended, not wanting to claim ability she didn't have, "I'm still learning Italian, I can't really say I speak it all that well. I just started studying it last year. But knowing Spanish is giving me a boost. It's like how I can muddle my way through reading Chinese because I know hanja."

Eliot shrugged. "Close enough. That's how I picked up most of the languages I speak. Though mine tend towards Eastern Europe and the Middle East."

Kathy allowed herself a bit of a knowing grin. "I have a feeling we went about learning our languages a little differently," she allowed.

"You're thinkin' mine involves a lot less books?" Eliot guessed. "You'd be surprised. You can end up with a lot of time to read when you're, uh. Bein' detained. I still read Farsi better'n I speak it."

"Most of mine came from growing up with it," Kathy corrected. "English and Korean and Spanish, too. I mean, some of Spanish was taught in school, but most of it was just from what I could hear growing up and in the halls of my school. My regular school, anyway. After school, we had hagwon and that was purely Korean."

Eliot raised his hands. "Okay, you got me there. I definitely didn't grow up with Arabic or Russian or anything. Though I did pick up a few good Kiowa phrases."

Kathy grinned at him. "Yeah, sorry, but middle America isn't exactly known for its incredible diversity."

Eliot scoffed. "Please. That's 'cause you coastal types like to ignore it. Oklahoma City's got a pretty large Vietnamese population, for instance. I just grew up knowin' more of the native folk."

And, admittedly, mostly white people. But white people in most of America still mostly only knew other white people.

Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

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