The grounds around the dorms, Friday afternoon

[unddann]

Lola hadn't gotten around to checking with Tony about smoking in the room, yet, and decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try finding out by lighting up in there.

So she was chilling outside, taking her time working through a cigarette, and staring off into space.

What? Fun didn't always have to mean active, right?

[ooc: Open]

Comments

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Don't most men?"

He didn't say it in an insulting sense. Just in the sense of someone who's seen enough soldiers and their papers to know a thing or two. They tried not to be too baudy around him when he was younger, but he was an observant little thing. Then when he'd been older in the Emerald City, they hadn't cared.

"Though I don't know much about psychologists."

[unddann]

"Yes, I think they do. But Freud was the first to say it, about most men. In books."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"That seems a bit pointless," he had to say.

[unddann]

"Ah, but when he'd written it, people had to admit it."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"That men are strange about sex? I would think at least 50% of the population already knew and the other 50% certainly had to have a good idea."

He quirked his head.

"But I suppose writing it down made a point. Words have a certain kind of power."

[unddann]

"Ja, exactly. And when Freud was writing, everyone was very . . . proper. No one wanted to admit to being strange."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"You mean it was like any other age?" he said with a raise of an eyebrow and a brief grin.

"No one wants to admit being strange, but most people are strange, which is funny since strangeness is supposed to be being different, only they're not."

Beat.

"Or something."

[unddann]

Lola nodded, a bit surprised that she followed all that. "That's very true."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He chuckled.

"If you say so. I usually just think for a bit until I consider it makes sense."

He considered her for a minute.

"I can leave you to your smoke undisturbed if you'd like."

[unddann]

Lola shrugged. "You don't disturb me. But if you want to go, you can go."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I just worry I'll bore you," he admitted as he considered sitting.

"The smoke smells nice, though."

[unddann]

"I'm not so easy to bore." Lola smiled. "It smells like home, I think."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"It smells like the barracks," he said in reply, "And the camp. Soldiers. I grew up around some, and they tended to smoke like chimneys."

[unddann]

"I don't know any soldiers. But my mutti smokes. And drinks, but I don't want to do that."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Is that your mother?"

He was guessing.

"I don't drink either," he told her, "as I've plenty of evidence of it being a terrible idea for me."

[unddann]

"Ja, my mother. She is always drunk, now. It's one of the reasons I wanted to leave."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He didn't know quite what to say to that.

"Makes sense to me," is what he came out with a moment later, mostly because it was the only true answer that wasn't offensive or depressing.

[unddann]

Lola shrugged, realizing that the conversation had turned towards the more depressing topics. "So, you know many soldiers?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I did. A group of them were camped near my home for a time when I was younger. They... left, eventually," through circumstances he didn't feel like covering that involved a burlap sack, "but I ended up among them again while I as in the Emerald City. They played with us children and gave us treats for doing well in games."

[unddann]

"The Emerald City?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"The capital of Oz and the largest city. There's Shiz, the University town just north of it, but I've never been there and it's not the same thing."

[unddann]

"Ah. Does Oz have many cities?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Not really," he had to admit. "Mostly we have larger towns or villages. There's what you could call cities up in Gilikin, from what I've heard, but I've never been there myself so I can't say for certain. The women I lived with, neither of them went up there much either so I didn't hear about it a great deal."

[unddann]

"These women were not your mothers?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I didn't know them to be," he admitted.

"One was, though she never admitted to birthing me. The other was her old Nanny. There were some others, back before the soldiers left, but then they were gone and it was just the three of us and the monkeys."

He gave her a wry smile.

"It's all rather odd."