[Audio recording file]
[Location: meeting room in Golden Lore Private High School]
[Professor Alcide Waldropp: a man in his late thirties, plain brown hair, wire frame glasses, alert, blue eyes, long and lean, wearing a tie, a button down and black slacks.]
Thank you for allowing me to meet you here. I understand you don't have a lot of time on your hands, so thank you for taking time out of your day to answer a few questions.
It's sad, but true. I'm a professor at a private high school, which does not give me lots of free time, I'm afraid.
Well, I won't take up most of your time. I understand that you were a teacher of Arch Van Dyne?
Yes, that is correct. Of course, he's moved on now. He graduated... it must've been last year. Yes, that's right.
I just want to ask you a few questions about Arch. How well did you know him?
Very well, actually. I am not usually so involved with my students, but Arch is... special.
Could you elaborate for me?
Of course.
Arch has the disadvantage of a dramatic childhood. Because it was such a mysterious situation, it was a popular topic of conversation. And it didn't help that Arch had been home schooled with a private tutor through elementary school.
Of course, I was never in the lunch room or part of the student body, but I always heard other students asking him about it. In the beginning of his freshman year, he was more open to answering questions, but I believe he just got sick of answering the same questions and by the time he graduated, he barely talked about the incident. If anyone asked him about it he just shrugged or avoided answering until they left him alone.
I believe that this was part of the reason he was so out of touch with his peers- all they cared about was this horridly traumatic experience from his past.
And you said he was a little odd?
Right.
Arch was smart, brilliant really, but he showed it in peculiar ways. His step-mother informed me that he'd studied more advanced curriculum when he was home schooled, so perhaps that was it.
I remember math was his worst subject, though he was still far above grade level. However, he was top of his engineering class. Now, math is the foundation of engineering. It was very peculiar.
I remember that he wasn't particularly invested in his classes. He was smart enough to be valedictorian, but most of the time he didn't try. I believe he knew his future wasn't in the normal areas of career.
Are there any other instances you can remember?
Oh, yes. Arch was always by himself. And reading. [chuckle] He was always reading... or playing with his strange deck of cards. They had weird symbols on them, and art I had never seen. Most likely a gift from his wealthy archaeologist aunt.
Well, he would have these little outbursts. Arch was usually quiet during class, but sometimes- every once in a while -he would start talking, like he couldn't hold it in any longer.
He would go on about super novas translating into greenhouse gases that could be used for thermal dyanism. It was... astounding.
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