#fatima kaur

[tvtropespromptaday]

Beauty, Brains, and Brawn

“Are you going to be okay?” Fatima sat on the dorm room bed. Josephine had colourful post-it notes all over her bed, her books, and her desk.

“I’m fine! I’m fine really. It’s just that I’m never going to get this.” She flopped back on her bed and a flurry of tiny paper squares flew into the air, fluttering down like confetti.

“Okay, you two are being ridiculous.” Rochelle plucked the notes from the air as they fell. “Do you really need all these?”

“What if I forget the important parts, or where the important parts are?” Josephine sat up, straightening her skirt. She swept her blonde hair out of her face. “Oh! You dyed your hair!”

“Do you like it?” Rochelle pushed her tight curls behind shoulder. “Is fire engine red too much?”

“No, no it’s good. It looks good on you.” Josephine was trying to gather up what papers had made it to the bed.

“So do you two actually want to study?” Fatima pulled out two packets of notes. “I made these up for you both.”

“Oh wow! See, that’s why you’re here. You’re so smart.” Josephine tucked her feet under her on the bed.

“You did great.” Rochelle turned the small desk chair backwards and draped her arms over the back. She took the booklet Fatima handed her. “Thanks. Really.”

“Well, let’s get started.” Fatima flipped open the copy she’d made for herself. Professor Francis’ class wasn’t going to pass itself.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeautyBrainsandBrawn

[tvtropespromptaday]

Occam’s Razor

“Professor, can we talk?” Valentin didn’t recognize the young Indian woman at his office door from his classes, but he let motioned to the chair across from his desk.

“Of course. What seems to be the trouble Ms…?” Valentin took a drink of his tea.

“It’s about Professor Fredrickson.” She started, covered her mouth and blushed. “I’m Fatima Kaur. I’m going to be in your first year biology course next semester.”

“Good to meet you.” Valentin set the tea aside. “Now what about Professor Fredrickson?”

“I think he might be a demon.” She seemed to recede back into her seat. Valentin sighed.

“What makes you say that?” He folded his hands on the desk.

“His home has strange sounds coming from it all the time, he’s always with his servant, he does magic as naturally as a person breathes, he’s often out at night prowling around the campus, and he hasn’t changed a day since the first photo of him in the school’s archives.” She paused for breath. “Okay, that sounds crazy.”

“It does, but let’s organize this shall we?” Valentin pulled a piece of paper from his printer tray and fished a pen out of his desk drawer. “It’s possible he’s just incredibly old fashioned and therefore eccentric.”

Valentin wrote her points along one side of the paper with occasional corrections and minor clarifications from Fatima. He wrote his own along the other side. “Are you familiar with Occam’s Razor?”

“That’s the one where the easiest theory is right isn’t it?” She bit her lip seeing his expression. “I’m not a philosophy student.”

“It’s alright. You aren’t quite wrong, but that isn’t quite right either.” Valentin smiled, trying to put her at ease. “It’s the idea that the hypothesis with the fewest premises is likely most correct.”

“Okay…” She turned her head away.

“I’ll tell you right away that though he is not a demon his servant is. He’s just a necromancer and an alchemist. If you’re still interested I can show you how Occam’s Razor works.” Valentin waited. He hadn’t meant to seem condescending, but sometimes it happened whether he meant for it to or not.

“I’d like to see it in action and- Wait what? He’s a what?” Fatima stopped short. This she had to hear more of.

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