Afternoon at the Museum

[ohgoodgrief]

Who: Yang... and you!
What: It's time for a field trip to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, France. The afternoon is in the museum. But Yang took everyone at like 10 AM as an excuse to get out and see Paris.
Where: Paris! And at the Army Museum.
When: February 25
Notes: The following prompts are if you want to interact with Yang directly! Otherwise, please feel free to use this as an excuse to do threads in Paris! Yang's taking basically anyone -- heck, even other teachers, TA's, and RA's -- because he really just wanted an easy field trip after grading all the papers and despairing over the fact he might have made his courses too hard.

A. WE'RE ABOUT TO HAVE PARIS RIGHT NOW

[The helicopters have landed at Charles de Gaulle airport, everyone has bused into the city center, and it's now about 11:00 in the morning. They aren't supposed to be at the museum until two. Thus, standing in front of the crowd, Wen-li Yang...

...is due to give a speech.]

So, Paris! It's a pretty big deal.

[Hm, what else is important...]

Meet at the Army Museum at 2! And try to not get in too much trouble. Have fun!

[He'll hang around for a second in case anyone has questions.]

B. AND NOW: OLD STUFF!

[At about 1:57 PM, Yang comes running up with a sandwich still in his mouth and a paper cup with tea in it in hand. He skids to a stop in front of the museum's steps, looks around, and... peers at the people waiting for him.

Then, sheepishly, he waves.

The museum is much too big to do a guided tour. However, unlike the free roam period in Paris, Yang is actually a good source of information here. He roams between the different groups of students, answering questions, providing historical detail, and showing that he isn't actually terrible at his job all of the time.

He'd be easy to approach during any of this.]

Comments

[prisoneroffate]

You have unrealistic expectations?

[gaiarage]

My expectations are fine. It's just--

[He shakes his head.]

Whatever. Let's keep moving.

[prisoneroffate]

Sounds good to me.

[A beat]

Moving where?

[gaiarage]

You ask a lot of stupid questions

[Stupid because they're hard to answer and that makes him frustrated. He starts up his circuit around the tower again, this time keeping an eye out for any other touristy things to do.]

Somewhere else. We're not going to be here all day, I don't want to miss anything.

[prisoneroffate]

[Uh huh.]

Lead on then, since there's so much you're eager to see.

[gaiarage]

[He pauses a second before fishing a crumpled tourist map out of his pocket and giving it a quick scan.]

The Arc de Triumph, across the river. Looks close enough. [Please ignore his absolutely heinous French thank you.]

[prisoneroffate]

It looks like it's pretty close if we take the train. Walking might take some time.

[gaiarage]

I was going to take the train.

[God, Ren, do you think he's stupid? He swings around and starts marching towards the metro station, expecting them to follow.]

[prisoneroffate]

I never suggested otherwise! There are always options.

[He will follow without complaint]

[gaiarage]

Well if it's the fastest way, then why bother with anything else?

[prisoneroffate]

More exercise, more interesting route, plenty of reasons.

[gaiarage]

We walk everywhere back in Soliel. That's plenty of exercise.

[prisoneroffate]

I don't assume one way or another. Do you know the line to take?

[gaiarage]

Yeah. I have a map, don't I?

[He actually has no idea but he's not gonna admit it to anyone, least of all Ren.]

[prisoneroffate]

Do you? Where is it, I didn't see one.

[Were they handing out maps? Ren must have missed that]

[gaiarage]

I grabbed [Read: stole] one from a kiosk earlier.

[He stops a moment to wrangle it out of his pocket again and comes back with a crumpled-up wad of paper about the size of his fist. Whoops.]

[prisoneroffate]

Can you read it?

[Naoki plz]

[gaiarage]

Yeah, I can read it. [He can't.]

Like I said: stupid questions.

[prisoneroffate]

OK. Lead on.

[gaiarage]

[And he does, bravely marching ahead in what he's pretty sure is the right direction.]

Have you been here before? [Not that he's asking for any reason. Just making conversation is all.]

[prisoneroffate]

[Ren will follow obediently, although he is keeping an eye out around the city]

Not yet. I haven't been at the school long, and I was in Japan before that.

[gaiarage]

Me neither. [Like that wasn't immediately super obvious.]

It's nice, though. Pretty.

[prisoneroffate]

You hear a lot of stories, but the real thing is something else.

[Ren watches as some cafe patrons flick their cigarettes into the gutter of the street, which has already filled to the brim with discarded cigarettes on both sides]

And then there's the things they don't talk about in the stories.

[gaiarage]

[His eyes follow Ren's, down to the gutter, and disgust flashes briefly across his face. He's been covered head-to-toe in blood but that still strikes him as gross.]

People are like that everywhere. Paris, Tokyo, Soleil. Doesn't matter.

[prisoneroffate]

Yeah, just. Not in the same quantities in Tokyo, that's for sure. Apparently they just turn on water and wash them all down every day.