Players:
Summary: Hosea takes Sophie to the lake, and Heather asks questions.
Log Title: Tell Me About Romance
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Spuyten Duyvil Cove
This little cove leads off to Breakstone Lake. Students can go fishing, boating, and swimming in the fresh water. There is a small beach off to the side of the dock where students can also go sunbathing.
Scene
The great part about spring is the longer days. 6:30pm, and the sun is still up, plenty of time left before sundown. "Sophie, da school has a lake, did you know?" he asks as he guides the blindfolded girl along the path. "It is right ahead of us. It is funny, dere is a beach, like at da ocean, but it is vedy small. I think dere is a boat place here, too, but it must be somewhere else." He's never had occasion to go boating at Xavier's.
Sophie follows along with Hosea, letting the Nigerian guide her with her arm on his bicep. "I did not know," she admits. "But now that you mention it, I can smell the water." She smiles pleasantly, as she tilts her head to face up towards her guide. "I used to live on the ocean; it was beautiful. I used to go swimming with the other girls at the orphanage. I haven't been for years though."
Heather stirs from her position in the bushes. She looks a little bit tired as she rises to her feet, and the extremely quick pitter pat of her feet move towards the two. "Is this a romantic date that I'm ruining?" plays Heather on the tape recorder, tapping it a couple of times when the message finishes playing. "I'm thinking of abandoning an evolutionary test scheme for napping."
Hosea turns a bit red at the comment from Heather. "Ah…" he really isn't sure how to respond to that. "I was showing Sophie da lake," he says, trying to avoid the topic of romantic dates. "I nevah went swimming at da beach," he confesses. "Though I have seen da ocean in Africa," he tells her. It wasn't so relaxing an experience, but he doesn't bring that up. "What is an evolutionary test scheme?" he asks Heather.
Sophie's face flushes fiercely as well, and the effect is likely more noticeable on her than on Hosea. "I…" She struggles for words for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders. "Si, what is an evolutionary test scheme? You are planning on doing some breeding, Heather?" The blind girl's lips quirk upwards. "Are we near the beach? It does not yet feel like sand beneath our feet, but I am sure we are close."
"No, breeding is a pretty hard game to win," says Heather, shaking her head quickly, "And until I know the proper strategy, I want nothing to do with it." She scratches her head lightly and scratches her head, "No, an evolutionary process is one involving replication with random mutation… Living objects, for example, are replicated via DNA, and mutation occurs, so harmful mutations die and useful ones survive, right? With an artificial approach, because they are not self-replicators, someone has to be the arbitor. That would be me, so I have to subjectively judge the fitness of individual items, and the ones that have high fitness move on to the next round, while the ones that have low fitness are abandoned. However, I have included a number of starting points to optimize possibilities, the mutations being a change in distance of an amount determined by a bell curve. This is the same way that I cook."
Hosea gives a look to Heather that would suggest he's sorry that he asked. "Uh…" he responds. He clearly has no idea what she's talking about. "It is just ovah heah," he tells Sophie instead. He doesn't know what to say to Heather, and takes the few feet necessary to step onto the beach. "See, it is heah."
Sophie mirrors Hosea's reaction to Heather's explanation, and ends up just shaking her head. "I… don't think I understand, Heather, but that is alright," she replies. "It is probably beyond me." She shrus her shoulders lightly, as Hosea guides her the last few steps and she feels sand beneath her feet. "Si, and so we are." She grins broadly, and twists her toes down into the sand. "I can hear the water. Is it a good beach?"
"It's a straightforward process, really, and a good optimization strategy…" says Heather, frowning at the underwhelming reaction to her explanation. "And self-replication and mutation is important to life." She takes a few steps forward, but stops short of the sand, eyeing it for a moment.
Hosea watches Sophie dig her toes in the sand. "I do not know if it is a good beach, it is small," he tells her. "But it is still a beach, yes? His own hiking boots are on, but he slides them off to mimic Sophie's response to the sand, one foot pulling the boot off on another. "I have nevah felt sand with my feet," he comments as he puts his foot on the sand. "It is a strange feeling. Like water dat does not make you wet." And yes, his feet are a little smelly.
"Si," comes Sophie's reply. She's wearing sandals, but still manages to dig her toes in of course. "The last time I went to the beach was two days before I was rushed out of Spain," she admits. "It still feels strange to me, to be in America… but it is a good place here." She smiles softly, and clasps both hands around the top of her cane — a new cane, evident by the fact that it is collapsible and her old one was not. "I am sure it is a fascinating thing, Heather… it is only, it is… a bit beyond my understanding."
"For your safety, I will not cross the threshold into the sand. I cannot control the speed of my feet," plays Heather, nodding as her duty to the others is done. "This looks like a nice romantic thing, though, that you guys have occupied yourselves with. Tell me. Tell me about romance." She shifts slightly before sitting down on the ground.
Hosea turns a bit red again. "I…" He looks toward Sophie, and then to Heather, and then Sophie, and then Heather again. "I do not know much about romance," he confesses. "Hah, especially in America. In Africa, things are vedy different. Dere is not as much dating, yes? Da man say dat he like da woman, and da parents of da two discuss whethah it would be good for da families to join. Not like dat heah." His tone is notably nervous, however.
Sophie's jaw drops, until she realizes that her mouth is hanging open and she shuts it. "I… Heather, I have not dated before. I… I am not so sure I could tell you very much about… romance." She shrugs her shoulders, as she sweeps her cane around her feet. "I don't think it's really something you… need to understand, or can analyze, though. It is just something that you… you just do."
"If you can't analyze it, there's no way to know you're making the right decisions," states Heather, crossing her arms and looking off with furrowed brows. "And it seems to me that romance is very important. Though probably less so if it were more disentangled from breeding."
"Well," Hosea says quickly as Heather finishes, trying to drag the conversation away from the current topic. How to do it tactfully. "It was good talking to you," he tells her, his more comfortable option to end the conversation. He has many things he would respond to Heather regarding her comment, but he doesn't want to pursue them now, or here.
Sophie just shakes her head slowly. "The most important things in life cannot be analyzed, Heather," she murmurs. "If they could be, it would only cheapen them, si?" She allows her lips to quirk upwards at the corners. "Do not worry; I am sure Hosea and I will both make good choices. Though… right now, I think we ought to choose to go back? I think they are still serving food at the Cafeteria, if we hurry?"
"I don't think you understand how very lavish analysis can be! It cheapens nothing to understand a thing," says Heather, seeming not too fond of what Sophie has said. She shakes her head and says, "Well, I should go back and run track if you're going to the cafeteria. I need to keep in good physical condition." She nods once and says, "Goodbye." And with that last word, she zips off.
~ Fin ~
