[prp] curriculum vitae (leila + ezra)

[shibrogane]

Ezra sniffed. "You would have had a better reason than I want you to. Or if I'd refused to do it for that reason, you wouldn't have tried to call Eve in to make me obey."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila huffed. "If I were calling Eve in, it wouldn't be to persuade you." She could imagine the outcome. It was not pretty.

Her upper body swayed a little bit, while her fingers tapped rhythmically at the rim of her can. "I... I'm kind of serious, though. I'm not even old enough-- I was born in 1973." She smirked sardonically at the table. "I didn't have a Ph. D in 1988. I was fifteen!" She had a living example of a seventeen year old in her own house. It was close enough to make her mental image appropriately ridiculous.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I hadn't thought of that," said Ezra, leaning over to look at the CV. "I'm evidently twenty-four. Which is odd, because when I was made... as you saw me first... I was almost thirty." He paused. "I begin to think that you didn't actually create a new universe. You simply... stepped sideways."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Before she could rein in her impulse to send it, Ezra was privy to a string of thoughts along the lines of <dear christ in heaven above me how much more complicated is this going to get??? > and there were clear undertones of encroaching panic about it.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra reached over to put a hand over Leila's, though he kind of was closer to her clothed wrist than her actual skin, in deference to her touch psychic thing. "To borrow one of Melany's sayings, there's always further to fall. But this changes nothing, in practice."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

The contact was unexpected, but welcome. Leila took a deep breath, and slowly shook her head, squinting. "So... what, it's an interesting side note?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"For now," said Ezra. "If you start noticing yourself aging quicker than normal, then we need to begin to be concerned. Until then, it's just a fun Snapple Fact."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila snorted.

It was a good joke. It cheered her up, albeit to a minuscule degree. "I'm not sure how I'd notice, honestly," she said.

Then she turned her CV to the next page. A sincere and ambitious teaching statement topped this one, and further down there was a list of grants and awards she'd been given. The page after that was when her list of publications began. It was full of arcane biological terminology, and some of the titles were witty jokes and references for those who understood enough of said terminology. She was getting engrossed by it again even though she'd looked over it dozens of times since printing it out a few days ago.

"Pretty good summary of my adult life," Leila mused, quietly. She pointed down at the list for Ezra, guiding him to look at the dates. "Still started my academic career in California. And when I got here I was doing population surveys for the parks service for a while... then I slowed down, probably because I wanted to focus on you." She gave Ezra a sad smile before looking back down. "That's what I would do."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Seems about right," said Ezra. He smiled back at Leila. "If current circumstances are any indication, I was probably a problem child on my own."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Runs in your mom's side of the family," answered Leila. "We'd have been prepared."

She took another long drink from her pellegrino before moving on. "I'm always surprised how little it seems to bother you, how much younger we are. In both senses." As Ezra was ancient, and at the same time, his mothers were too young to have been his parents. "Are you still academic enough to have a sense of how fast things can move? How much can happen in ten years?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I'm aware of time passing," said Ezra. "But... I'm old enough that I am capable of taking a longer view of things. Even now, time like this seems to slip by, like sand through my fingers..." He trailed off for a moment, fussing with the tab on his pellegrino, awkwardly. "Ten years seems like a very small amount of time, to me," he said. "It didn't bother me to keep tithes for forty or even fifty years if I thought it necessary. July and September were tithes for nearly a century..."

He circled back to her question. "So I suppose I don't. Not the way you do. I step back and let the young take the lead in this now."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila hummed and slowly nodded. "In ecology and evolutionary biology you're trained to think about the world at varying scales of space and time. It's no substitute for experience, but I sort of get it."

She was tracing her fingers around the rim of her own drink can. "When I was in college I ended up fascinated by microecosystems, ephemeral resources, things like that. Small things." Shaking her head slowly, she continued. "But when it comes to doing research, and being in a scientific community, ten years can change everything." Her gaze was fixed on the list of publications again, and as she spoke she took on the safe demeanor of professional detachment.

"I won't run you through all the differences, but my literature history is completely different. And that means different skills, different colleagues... I've been dodging e-mails for weeks, because I can't give the opinions I'm being asked for. I wouldn't have been qualified to do the police work I remember doing, and I'm not qualified to be the woman I'm supposed to be now."

Leila sighed, almost resigned to it but not quite.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"That must be difficult," said Ezra quietly. "I'm sorry."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"You think it would be," Leila answered. "It... you know me, it should matter." Her face and posture both crumpled up a little. "My life's work-- the, the credentials I didn't earn-- but..."

She was getting all reluctant to speak again.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra didn't really have anything else to say to that, so he said nothing.

cibarium