Dave walked into the breakroom, recently microwaved burrito in hand. Already sitting there, on the couch from the back, was Vince, an old friend from the Gamma production division. Sitting down next to him, Dave turned his head. “Hey, Vince.”
The wolf sitting next to Dave looked back at him, looking up from his tablet. “Oh, hey Dave.”
“How’s it been recently?”
“Oh, fine. I’ve just been reading up on the new Civil Commission case. I hear it’s gonna change some base contract terms.”
Dave raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you keep up on that stuff. What case now?”
Vince chortled. “Well, you know, before I got into EE, I was going to get into Thilian Law.”
“Never knew that.” Dave chuckled. “You know, I wasn’t always going to be in genetics. Funny story about that.”
Vince smiled and turned off his tablet. “We got time. Shoot.”

---

Well, back in my first year of college, I wasn’t into a science major at all. I was going for an MS degree. You, know, metafiction studies? Did you have that at your college? Nah, only a few places have it. Like Mespeth University, located smack dab in a multicultural hub. So there was a demand for such a degree. So many people want to learn about how all these places we hear about work and go together, you know? I was one of them, I guess.
So, there I was, coming into my first semester of college. Of course, I had to take the intro course to MS. “Introduction to Metafictional Studies”, it was called. Creative name, I know. And the college has assigned my professor for that class.
Little did I know that I had a class with Dvorak Draco. You know, only THE biggest MS professor we hear of? The one we think of when we say “MS historian”? Apparently, the college saddled him with an intro class, and I was in it.
So, little surprise, I started to struggle with that class. All my other classes were pretty easy… Except for this one. The lectures were so boring. That guy, looking all smug in his green suit, would just drone on forever… I’m almost falling asleep at the thought!
It just never clicked with me. I guess I had liked the idea of being the guy in MS, being able to see all the sights, do all sorts of stuff… But I don’t know if it was the professor or it was me. So I eventually decided I needed to go get some help.
And then there I was, knocking on his office door. Dvorak’s. I called him Dr. Draco, once, but he told me to just call him Dvorak. Apparently, he does that to everyone. Anyways, he told me to come in, and I did. I bought the textbook and a half-done essay of mine.
“Ah, hello there!” he said to me. “Are you a student of mine?”
He didn’t even know me from that class! “Umm, yeah.” I said.
“Ah, and which class might that be?”
“MS-101.”
“Oh… Yes, I do believe I recall you now...” He got up from his chair and took a step towards me. “How may I be of service to you?”
“I was writing up my midterm essay, and I had a few questions...”
“Well, my student, please ask away.”
And then I showed him what I had written so far. Almost immediately, he made a problem out of it. He said my introduction was too informal! My explanation of what intercontinuity was was inaccurate! He disputed the fine points of the definition of canon!
Well, I suppose he was right in some places. But he really did just light into me for an hour. I can see it clearly… There we were, standing over my book, him pointing at it and telling me how I was wrong.
Again, I learned some things from it, but man, being wrong hurts. Speaking of hurting, he didn’t even ask if I wanted to sit down! My legs were killing me, but he acted like he could do that forever. I guess immortals like him have that advantage, huh?
So, I came out of that whole ordeal with a pretty good essay, but let me tell you, it bruised my ego. I asked him for help some more times, and I continued to struggle through the class.
Did I pass? No. I froze up during the final and totally flunked the thing. That one class, with that Dvorak, just destroyed me. So I decided, my next semester, to switch majors. So yeah, I met him. What a guy. But I’d never have a class with him.

---

“Sounds like he was fun.” Vince laughed and pushed his friend on the shoulder.
“Oh yeah, tons.” Dave rolled his eyes.
“So, I guess we both coulda been doing different stuff today.”
“Yeah, pretty funny to think. What if I had become the next Dvorak?”
“That’s sure a torch to pass.” They laughed.

---

In his study, Dvorak was staring at the tiny screen of a very old machine. On his desk, the thing spat out some numbers. He looked at them with interest, reading the new results.
Alone in this room, Dvorak mumbled to himself. “And so it seems we have a new narrator for this world… David.”

---

This piece was done by dragonlovers, featuring two of my characters. Dvorak used to be my sona, you know. I do believe the torch has been nicely passed.