The Academicians (closed for slut_in_white)

[LassardLost]

“And so, while some may think it hard to appreciate the intense allure of Aristotle’s worldview to the people of his time and those of the several centuries after, it really isn’t that far of a stretch if you… just go outside at night and experience the stars. Please, I encourage everyone to do this. The history of science need not be a bore, I guarantee you that. This subject is alive, and if you just take a moment to go outside at night, lie down with your backs on the grass, and look up at the stars… remove from your mind anything you know about what they are, and just experience what you’re feeling, seeing - just live by your senses. What you know about how the world works now, you’ve been taught. And it’s correct, but you still needed to be taught it. It wasn’t intuitively apparent to you that the stars are billions of light years away and that they are balls of gas and dust swirling about, creating nuclear reactions within them to be seen all the way from the other side of the galaxy. Just look - and feel - and you will begin to appreciate why Aristotle made so much sense to so many people. After all, he had rejected the arbitrary actions of the Greek Gods before him didn’t he? His approach was truly new - it was observational. It was rational. You could even say it was empirical. The only thing it wasn’t - was experimental. But that’s for next time.”

The bell rang - the noise of everyone’s shuffle: books going back into bags, people talking, moving to get out of the aisle - filled the air.

Professor Harrison Grant raised his voice above the din; “Your assignment is to go watch the stars tonight - and write a page on your experience!”

A few people laughed in the back as they got up to leave. Dr. Grant ignored it.

Harrison Grant was a thirty-nine year old Associate Professor of History at the Twist School of Social Sciences at the University of Edenberg. The University itself had just been ranked in the top ten, surprising the Ivy Leagues, and placing an enormous pressure on the faculty to “keep up the good work.” Of course that meant, “Publish! Publish! Publish!, bring in the grants, innovate, be controversial…” and a variety of other phrases the President of the University liked to bandy about at their meetings.

Harrison was well-regarded in his department. His focus of study was the History of Science, but with a special focus on rare manuscripts that shed new light on how science was understood today. Harrison’s real interest was in learning from the past to actually make an impact on how science was being done today. The days of the independent researcher - guided by little other than a drive to know and some unexplained data - were rapidly being replaced by Big Science: an industry built to produce reliable widgets for the purpose of economy. Economy was important, yes, but to Harrison, the free-wheeling spirit of the early scientists was what our civilization was built upon - and that spirit he rarely saw any more in the world’s leading institutions.

To bolster his argument, he had developed a strategy. Publish - and publish rare findings - build up a name and then start writing for think tanks and other institutions close to academia that could influence policy on how science might be done. Through teaching, inspire the students into that fresh state of mind, that mind that would be willing to turn their dorm room into a lab to figure out whatever problem they were working on at the time (and not just for meth or marijuana).

To become well-known in the Department of History, however, to really stand out, Grant had taken a somewhat unconventional approach. With his research funding, instead of paying a secretary and an undergrad to do the menial tasks for him, he would use the funds to fly to various libraries and other locations in Europe, scouring for long forgotten original manuscripts that he could bring to the limelight for the first time. That always secured a lot of attention for him in the department, in addition to the obvious increase in knowledge about the past, and how people were thinking about science in its formative stages.

Given his frequent travels, and his occasional stories of dimly lit, dank library basements with poorly treated manuscripts, he had acquired the nickname of “Indiana Jones”. Though he laughed at it, because nothing he did was anything like the fictional character. Still, the reason the name stuck, in part, was because Grant actually looked the part.

He was just above average height, at about 5 foot ten inches, and he was built well, if slender. He tended to wear loose fitting khakis and plain button down shirt with a sports coat on top. Sometimes he would wear a bow tie. His hair was darker brown, though he had streaks of white along the sides. He had deep brown eyes and a dashing smile, which he used frequently in his class to warm the crowd up to him. When he smiled, his eyes lit up, almost seem to sparkle - and it helped that usually when he was talking - he was talking about something he was passionate about. And so with his lectures came out his charisma. So when the students - undergraduate or graduate - sat before him, they saw a handsome man with a smile to die for, going on excitedly (apparently consumed in his own private world of history of science) about the latest manuscript he had stumbled across in the “catacombs" of an unknown library in Milan - bringing what most would consider a drab subject to vivacious life. And for many a bright young lady in the crowd - and even some of the young men - he was a delight to watch for other reasons.

It was no surprise, then, that usually at the end of each class, there would be a line of mostly young women, waiting to ask him some kind of question or the other about what he had just explained.

Harrison wasn’t stupid. He knew that some of them were simply there to spend a little extra time. But when it came to these kinds of things Harrison just wasn’t interested. He didn’t even care if the girl asking the question really cared to hear the answer - he was always just happy to answer. He figured even if someone three people back in the line heard - who perhaps really wanted to learn - it would be worth it.

 

[slut_in_white]

Being cute was, in Lily's not-entirely-humble opinion, more fun than being traditionally hot, because people seemed to think it made her innocent. Their mistake.

Lily Tompkins was a five-foot-nothing auburn-haired sweetheart. She was gorgeous, with a petite build, stunning green eyes, a spray of freckles over a small, button nose, and temptingly plump pink rosebud lips. She was not the standard tall, blonde, tanned beauty, but she was beautiful nonetheless, and it had the added benefit of people somehow finding her to be more trustworthy or innocent. Blonde bombshells were femme fatales. Girls like Lily looked a little more girl-next-door. Which really only worked in Lily's favor, because no one ever seemed to think she was capable of doing anything wrong. Again, their mistake.

What was more? She was brilliant. She'd graduated early, top of her class, and finished her bachelor's in 3 years instead of 4. Then, she'd spent a year traveling the world, immersing herself in various cultures, before returning home to go back to school to get her master's degree. Which, incidentally, was how she'd ended up in Professor Grant's classroom. They'd never spoken live or in person before - only over email - but he'd seemed eager to take a position as her supervisor during her master's degree studies. She had arrived at the school to sit in on his class and then introduce herself afterwards.

But she hadn't expected him to be so very... tempting. He looked younger than he probably was, had an infectious passion for his field, and a smile that could light up a room. And there was something about the way he held himself, the way he seemed to lose himself in what he was talking about that suggested he brought a particular kind of intensity to everything he did.

The thought made her pleased at her particular choice of clothing for the day. She was always dressed in something flattering, but since the air on campus was still warm from the waning summer, she'd chosen a forest green strapless dress with a flirty hem length. She'd already caught a few of the other students glancing her way during class, and found herself hoping to catch Professor Grant's attention as well.

And so, like half the other young women in the room, at the end of the class, she gathered up her things and headed down to the front to speak to him. She hung back, however, standing near the front row of seats and trying not to roll her eyes to visibly at the various young girls' painfully transparent attempts at flirting.

As the last of the undergrads finally filed out of the room, Lily approached with her a carefully practiced smile that was the perfect combination of friendly and shy. "Professor Grant?" She held out her hand for him to shake, a fetching pink blush rising on her cheeks. "I'm Lily Thompkins. I thought I'd drop by to introduce myself before we started working together. It's an honor to have an opportunity to work with a man so distinguished in the field."

 

[LassardLost]

After the undergrads had finished filing out of the room, several of the girls having "accidentally" left little notes on his desk, Harrison Grant began packing up his brief case.

"Professor Grant?"

Dr. Grant turned to see a petite, attractive female - certainly older than his undergrad students, but noticeable by how she carried herself more than anything else - extend her hand towards him.

"I'm Lily Thompkins. I thought I'd drop by to introduce myself before we started working together. It's an honor to have an opportunity to work with a man so distinguished in the field."

Lily Thompkins.

This was his grad student. The University of Edenberg was famed for the nature of its PhD program. While all PhD programs had a Professor mentoring a Masters' student, at this University, that relationship took on a unique dimension. The entire department would deliberate not only over the acceptance of any particular student to the Masters' program, but whether this student would further the repute of the Mentor they would be paired with. It was such a selective vetting process, with multiple interviews, essays and other intensive methods of selection, that by the time the student showed up to the campus it was essentially known that there was no possible way for the student to bring anything but more fame and renown for their Mentor, and, by extension, the department which they were a part of.

The Masters' student's success was the Mentor's success. Their failure, the Mentor's failure. This was why they were chosen so carefully.

This was also why Professor Harrison Grant was happy to have been too busy with his manuscript work to every take on a student.

But this past year had been a quiet one on the publications front for him, and so the department had insisted that he now had the time to take on a student - his first in all the years he had been at the University.

Of course it wasn't a quiet time for Grant - he was busy as ever researching, writing - but nevertheless he had conceded that it had been too long, and that it was ultimately appropriate to have a student. He wasn't opposed to the idea in principle - in fact he rather liked the idea of being a Mentor to another superbly bright mind. It was just that in the past he had barely been around, going off on his manuscript hunts every few months.

"Lily Thompkins," he said warmly as a smile of recognition grew on his face. He shook her hand. "So nice to meet you. We spent a lot of time reviewing your file, and I was happy when the department assigned me to be your Mentor. I think you'll have a fantastic career here at the University."

Somewhere in the back of Dr Grant's mind, registered the fact that his student was not only incredibly bright, but incredibly attractive. It wasn't more than a fleeting thought, however, as it had no bearing on the greater purpose at hand.

"If you have time we can walk over to my office? It'd be good for us to spent at least a few moments together physically before most of our communication transitions to email." Dr Grant chuckled, picking up his brief case and brushing off the notes left on his desk into the trash can under the desk, "I have so much to do that I think we'll have to schedule our in-person meetings at least a couple week in advance. Welcome to life in Academia, Lily." Harrison Grant smiled broadly, a twinkle in his eye appearing as if just the word 'academia' ignited him.

 

[slut_in_white]

Lily followed along, a bright smile on her face. The building was lovely, but she had to admit, she wasn't paying that much attention to the campus. Instead, she was watching Harrison as he walked ahead of her. She'd recognized, of course, that he was an attractive man. But oh, there was something about him, something about his intelligence, his passion, his... everything.

She wanted him. She had to have him. And Lily always, always got what she wanted.

They stepped into his office and Lily found herself amidst a baffling number of ancient books and manuscripts, piled up around the office. She was, momentarily, distracted from her secret ogling of her professor to take a look around the office. Whatever her ego, whatever her talent for manipulation and politics, she really did have a deep, abiding love of both history and science.

And so, for a few moments, her mask fell and there was genuine love and joy on her face. Her fingertips grazed over the spines of a few of the books, her lips parted, her eyes wide as she took in the collection of historical objects and manuscripts in front of her. "These..." she breathed, "these are beautiful."

She turned her attention back to Harrison, her gaze lit up. Now... now she just wanted him more.