Office hours, Wednesday

[vdistinctive]

So the whole "teaching" thing was definitely shaping up not to be a one-off sort of venture, so Eliot figured he should probably start making an effort to do it properly.

Which apparently meant sitting around an office once a week and waiting to see if anyone needed to talk to him.

It went pretty well at first, with Val napping in one of the spare chairs while Eliot enjoyed his coffee and read a bit. By the time lunch rolled around, though, he had a picture of Sterling printed out and hung on the wall as a darts target.

[ooc: OH HEY OFFICE HOURS. Open!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Aim actual physical things in the real world. Gettin' an approximate 'okay' from a bunch of sensors ain't the same thing."

Nice try, Hardison. Eliot would make you play catch with him, yet.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Suuuuuuuure he would. Suuuuuure.

"But it's a good first step, ain't it?" Hardison insisted. "Otherwise, I'm just throwin' things around randomly while you bitch in the background."

[vdistinctive]

"I ain't dignifyin' that with a response." Eliot knows you're smarter than that, Hardison.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

You'd like to think that, wouldn't you.

"I'm sorry, I'm mean grunt out insults when I'm tryna concentrate."

[vdistinctive]

"You gonna keep harassin' me in my own office, I might have to start using you for target practice." Eliot crumbled a sheet of paper and tossed it unerringly at Hardison's head.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

You were evil, Eliot. Because Hardison yelped and tried to dodge, which meant he successfully managed to duck the paper, only to drop the box on his foot.

"Dammit, Eliot!" he said, hopping around and holding his foot. "I better not have broke nothin from this! In the box or in my foot!"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot closed his eyes and sighed. "Yeah, 'cause that piece of paper would have done a lot of damage if it hit ya."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

You knew what you were doing, Eliot, or at least you should have by now.

"Don't throw thing at my head, man! Or, what? You want me to unlearn my 'duck away from projectiles flyin' at my face' reflex? That reflex is important an' has kept me alive, man!"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot just shook his head. "You're hopeless, aren't you."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"That's just hurtful. I ain't never gonna be Uberman, but I ain't hopeless."

[vdistinctive]

"Right, sorry, I musta meant 'helpless'."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You know, I came in here to talk to you an' keep you company," Hardison sniffed, nose in the air. "But if you're just gonna be mean, I can go to my own office an' get some stuff done."

You know. All the way over in the next room. Which shared a wall with Eliot's.

[vdistinctive]

"Then you shouldn'ta made fun of my dart board," Eliot said, and tossed off a dart that made a bull'seye on the end of Sterling's nose.

Without looking.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I did not!" Hardison protested. "I just asked if that was what I was supposed to have, too. Since you're all about havin' me run around throwin' rocks at stuff."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot came around his desk and offered Hardison a dart. "Here, give it a try."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Naw way, man," Hardison said, backing up like Eliot was approaching him with a lit firecracker. "We know how this is gonna end. There'll be, like, tears an' yellin' an' property damage an' I don't need all that nonsense before my second class even happens."

[vdistinctive]

"Come on, man, me and Val'll stand right by you. Even you can't hit us, there. And I don't care about any of the rest of the crap in here."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Fine." Never let it be said that Hardison could deny Eliot anything. But also don't let it be said that he gave in with anything approaching grace, either. "But you make even one snide remark an' I'll..." It took him a moment to come up with a decent threat. "...bring Parker to the candy shop in town an' then send her to your house when we're done."

[vdistinctive]

"What?" Eliot gave Hardison a wide-eyed innocent look. That a toddler could see through. "I would never."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Man, get outta here with all that. Sophie'd be more believable right now."

[vdistinctive]

"You gonna throw that dart, or what?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison huffed. "You laugh an' I'm eatin' crackers in your bed," he threatened.

Scowling, he held the dart up and flung it. On the plus side, it definitely hit the wall he was aiming for. Nowhere near Sterling's picture, and it just kind of bounced off and hit the floor, but he definitely made contact with the correct wall!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't crack a smile. "Okay," he said. He held up another dart for Hardison while Val went to go fetch the one that was on the floor, tail wagging. "Now try it again, and we'll see what we can do about that grip."

Yeah, like he wasn't going to take this as a moment to teach Hardison something.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Would Eliot "Teachable Moment" Spencer ever pass up the opportunity? No. No, he would not.

"We are so doin' somethin' actually fun after this," Hardison grumbled, but paid attention to the way Eliot was holding the dart.

[vdistinctive]

"This is fun." Just you wait, Hardison. Eliot'll have you bouncing and cheering yet.

"You wanna find the balance of the dart." He explained, shifting his hand to balance his dart sideways on his finger. "And then grip it just behind that balance." He forced himself not to just twirl the thing into place and let it roll slowly instead. "You wanna hold it with at least three of your fingers to keep it steady, and let the other ones relax outta the way." He demonstrated, then shifted his stance. "Once you got a firm hold on it, line up your body with the line of your throw, like this. The only thing movin' once you're ready to aim is your arm. When you take aim, focus on your target, not the dart, and get it all in a nice straight line: eyes, dart, and target. You want to point the dart upwards just a little." Eliot took aim, his elbow just a little below his shoulder, his wrist bent back a fraction, the dart pointed somewhere a foot or two over the picture. "You're not throwin' a straight line, gravity doesn't work that way. You're throwin' in a nice gentle arc. Once you're aimed, you're gonna pull your arm back just a little, to get more force behind your throw, and then --"

He whipped his arm out and held it, hand open and empty, once it was straight. The dart seemed to spring fully formed from the center of Sterling's forehead. He smiled.

"Now give it another try."