（ his brows crawl for his hairline. twenty-first... not to say that they're from the same timelines, or that things progress in the same ways, but that's a hell of a jump and it takes him a moment. jim is — as much as he's tried to hide it — a man of history, tracing lines of conflict throughout human antiquity. can't know who you are as a species unless you know where you've been.

(and maybe there was some soul-searching in there, too. an attempt to rationalize —)

nods, once. ）

Please understand you've just graciously bestowed upon me a carte blanche on dramatic college party stories. （ little bit of levity in an otherwise dull day. ） But that works. Engineering — I'll try not to show off. （ a flash of a smile. ） Too much.

（ old habits die hard. he will not, in point of fact, be showing off at all. but the old temptation to buck the rules is still there. ）