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

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You know if it were rocket science, I'd understand it better, right?" Seriously! Rocket science made sense. But he was grabbing the dart and trying again, mumbling, "You just lucky physics is easy enough to understand to even make this sorta worth while."

It took him several tries, but he managed to balance the dart on his finger--and no, that wasn't a brief flash of a smile before he was glowering again. It was a trick of the light, maybe a weather balloon or marsh gas.

[vdistinctive]

Sure. Uh huh. Eliot definitely bought that.

"Alright, now remember where that is, so you don't have to find it again." How did it take that long to balance a damn dart? Really. It was like Hardison had no muscle control at all. "Get a nice firm grip on it, but don't clutch."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Just remember this feeling of impatience when Hardison made you solve differential equations or do actual rocket science.

"That's what he said," Hardison mumbled, just loud enough for Eliot to hear.

[vdistinctive]

"Hilarious," Eliot said, extra dry. "Now check your stance, man. Your body should be at a, whatsit, a perpendicular angle to the board."

He would use all the math terms he knew if that helped Hardison.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You mean I should be facin' it?" Hardison asked. He was grinning, but he also really appreciated Eliot's attempts to make this accessible to him. "That much, I figured out."

Still, he shifted his posture a bit so he was facing it directly with his entire body, rather than just looking at the target, his body angled elsewhere. Shockingly, when he wasn't paying attention, he was wont to orient himself towards Eliot. He did the same to Parker, too.

[vdistinctive]

"No," Eliot said. "I mean you should be sideways." He demonstrated. "Perpendicular, man, not parallel."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Aaaaaaaaaand this activity was back to being stupid. "That doesn't make a damn bit of sense!" Hardison protested. "Why'm I gonna be facin' away from the target?"

[vdistinctive]

"You're not facing away, man, you're aiming with your whole body. You're still looking at the board, but your shoulders and hips are on your aiming line." Eliot reached out to physically shift Hardison into place. "Like this."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"This sounds like some kinda new age hippie mantra," Hardison grumbled, letting himself be rearranged. "I don't aim with my hand, I aim with my entire body. He who throws with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. This good? Or should I start recitin' how fear is the mindkiller?"

He was standing straight, his shoulder almost exactly lined up with the bullseye.

[vdistinctive]

"You're talkin' entirely too much," Eliot said. "It ain't about zen, it's about -- well, it's about leverage. Everything in your body affects everything else. So you line up right through your torso and your arm'll stay straight and won't send the dart sideways."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison refrained from pointing out that he always talked too much. See? He was trying here! "So insteada rotatin' my shoulder an' sending it who knows where, I'm lettin' my elbow do all the work?" he asked.

[vdistinctive]

"Elbow and wrist. Whole arm, really, with your shoulder as the anchor."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"So, I got the dart, my arm's all lined up, an' I just...throw?" Hardison still sounded dubious about the whole enterprise.

[vdistinctive]

"In an arc. A -- whatsit -- a parabola. You're going to pull back a little," Eliot demonstrated, "to get some power behind it, and then -- yeah. Just throw."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison pulled his arm tight to his shoulder, lined up the shot, and tossed the dart high, so gravity could pull it back down to where he wanted it to go.

It didn't hit Sterling in the forehead. Or even in the face. But it did hit the picture and, more importantly, stayed.

[vdistinctive]

His form was still pretty atrocious, but Eliot was willing to take it as a win. "See? And now you know the basics, the rest just takes practice, till your muscles know what to do without you havin' to think about it."