fandomhigh | 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

"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.

"That's just because we coastal types know that everything worthwhile from the Flyover States eventually comes to us," Kathy teased. "I notice Fandom's an island off the East Coast. And I know you mentioned living in LA for awhile. And Portland."

"I've also lived in Uzbekistan," Eliot pointed out.

It wasn't his fault that Nate was apparently allergic to the middle of the country.

If the middle of the country wasn't so terrible, fewer people would be allergic to it!

"Yeah, but how much of that was by choice?" Kathy asked. "Cause where you are now--that is."

"Nah, that was Parker."

And clearly Eliot didn't have a choice in leaving her behind.

"...I thought you were on the island first?" Kathy said.

"I moved to this island 'cause Parker decided to move us from Portland to Baltimore and I was tired of living in cities."

"But you couldn't go far away," Kathy said, wearing a small, happy grin.

"No," Eliot agreed. "I couldn't."

Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

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