Chapter Text
11:43 PM 9/12/2039
To: Connor Arkay
Subject: Autodesk Fusion Error
Connor,
Sorry for emailing you on a Saturday night. I’m trying to do the homework for Monday and for some reason my model can’t be rendered out of sculpt mode. It says something about planes intersecting but I don’t know how to solve it. I’ve attached a screenshot for you to look at, can you tell me how to fix this?
Hank Anderson
12:05 AM 9/13/2039
From: Connor Arkay
Subject: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error
Someone just asked the same issue on Slack, so you might also want to check the forum as well. The shape you’re making is kind of complicated, but since it’s relatively geometric, I think you can do it outside of sculpt mode with the extrude and revolve function. Don’t forget that you can cut into objects with the extrude function as well. I personally don’t like using the sculpt environment because it can be fussy with shapes, so I would suggest you do as much of your modelling outside of the sculpt environment.
I hope you find this useful. If you still have questions, I will hold office hours tomorrow from 2-3 PM.
Connor Arkay
M.S in Computer Science, May 2040
University of Michigan
12:10 PM 9/13/2039
To: Connor Arkay
Subject: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error
Connor,
I appreciate your quick response. I’ll try that tonight and if I can’t work it out, I’ll ask during your office hours. I’m going to meet a friend so I might come around 2:30 PM. Why are you home on a Saturday night? Go party, you look like you need it.
Hank Anderson
12:12 AM 9/13/2039
From: Connor Arkay
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error
I’m still working on grading your quizzes from Thursday. The grades will be posted on Blackboard by Monday. I already went out with my brother for dinner earlier, but thank you for your concern.
Connor Arkay
M.S in Computer Science, May 2040
University of Michigan
12:18 PM 9/13/2039
To: Connor Arkay
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Autodesk Fusion Error
Damn, Dr. Stern is really making you work, huh. Don’t forget to get some sleep.
Hank Anderson
Someone’s already in the office by the time Hank arrives, so he waits by the door outside.
This is the first time he’s been to office hours – it’s about halfway through the semester, so it was probably about time anyway. It’s nice of Connor to hold his office hours on Sunday when homeworks are due on Monday, but then again, it’s Sunday. Nobody wants to get out of their homes, so they’d rather ask on Piazza.
He takes a peek into the office. Connor’s wearing a navy windbreaker with a yellow M embroidered on the left side over a black shirt, and black ripped jeans – his yellow lanyard is hanging out of his pocket. He’s sitting on his desk, holding a big glass of cold brew in his hand as he listens to the student.
Oh, that voice is so annoyingly familiar – fucking Gavin.
The other TA, Elijah, is a lot more upfront about it. There must have been a couple times when he straight up yelled at Gavin to shut the fuck up during lab, but Connor would never. Hank’s pretty sure Connor’s tired of him, too – hell, everyone in the class is tired of Gavin, always asking unnecessary questions during class; to make himself look smarter or to get attention from Dr. Stern? Who knows. If he’s getting any attention, it definitely isn’t the good kind.
“Yeah, so I was wondering if it’s possible to make sure the inside of the pipe is hollow–”
See? Absolutely useless questions. He doesn’t even hear Connor say anything.
He takes out his phone – it’s two thirty on the dot. Who knows how long Gavin’s been in there, but he can wait for five minutes, maybe.
Two thirty eight.
Hank finally walks into the room, and Connor instantly perks up, turns his attention to Hank.
“Oh, Hank! You emailed me last night.”
“Yeah, couldn’t quite figure it out.”
Gavin turns to Hank, smiling, but the disappointment on his face is pretty apparent. Was he really hoping to hog Connor’s attention for the rest of office hours?
“Anyway, if you don’t mind, I’ll help Hank real quick with his model,” Connor tells Gavin – “We should be done in about ten minutes.”
Hank doesn’t want to make assumptions, but is that a hint of relief in Connor’s voice? Still polite as ever, though.
“Nah, I’ll just send you an email later,” Gavin replied as he turns to leave, “Thanks, Connor.”
“Yeah, thank you for coming!”
They watch as Gavin leaves the room, and walks down the hallway.
Connor sighs loudly before he takes a sip of his coffee, shaking his head.
“How long was he here for?”
“Probably about half an hour,” Connor replied, “I don’t know, I kind of tuned him out halfway through.”
“So you wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t come here?”
“Well, he’s a student, he deserves my time and attention, too.”
He stands up and gestures at Hank to sit down on his desk.
“Do you have your laptop with you or do you want to pull it up on mine?”
“I got it.”
Hank sits down and takes out his laptop from his backpack. He opens it and enters his password–
The first thing that pops up on the screen is his browser – he suddenly remembers the Youtube video he was watching last night. It’s nothing weird, just a video of a guy cooking for his cats–
He quickly closes the tab, though, and quietly hopes Connor didn’t see that. He clicks on the Autodesk Fusion shortcut on his screen and waits for it to load.
He scans the desk as they’re waiting – there’s the big glass of cold brew that Connor was drinking, Connor’s phone, his fancy iPad and pen–
He remembers how Connor likes to balance the pen on his nose in the lab. Hank’s attempted it himself a few times, but the pen always inevitably falls off his face after three whole seconds – who knows how Connor does it.
“And this is the model?”
“Oh.” The model’s finished loading on his computer, “Yeah, it’s kind of a mess.”
“Do you mind if I plug my mouse in?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Connor pulls out the connector from his laptop and plugs it into Hank’s USB port – the light on his mouse turns green, and Connor moves it slightly to see if it’s working correctly – apparently it is, since he’s now rotating the object.
“So yeah, this little part right here,” Hank points at a part that’s highlighted red on the model, “It keeps saying the planes are intersecting, but I just can’t fucking find the problem.”
“Yeah, that’s alright,” Connor replied, clicking around – “So you made this with a cylinder and modified it?”
“I know you said there’s another way to do it, but I just can’t figure it out.”
Connor clicks the ‘Finish’ button – a window pops up, saying the same exact error that Hank has seen at least five hundred times now, and Connor casually dismisses it. Hank feels a shift in his weight as Connor rests his free hand on the back of the chair that Hank is sitting in.
“So you know you can make a sketch in all three planes, x y and z, right?”
“Yeah.”
He suddenly realizes that Connor’s, like, really close to him. Hank knows he should pay attention to whatever Connor’s talking about, because he’s only got ten minutes with Connor and he’ll have to do the rest of his homework at home tonight and he’ll be fucked if he doesn’t know how to do it–
He still finds himself staring at Connor’s profile instead of the screen, though. He’s never been this close to Connor before, and it’s making him feel… weird… things. Butterflies in his stomach or some shit.
...Connor’s really pretty, Hank suddenly realizes. He’s overheard other students talking about him and speculating whether he’s got something going on with Elijah, since they seem pretty close. Hank knows it’s none of his business, but listening to gossip is fun – and maybe a part of him wishes that rumor isn’t true, cause Connor deserves better.
“I’m gonna draw a circle right here in the y plane,” Connor continues to explain as he draws it on the screen, “And you see this revolve function, right here?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Hank’s not really listening anymore, too busy staring at Connor. He makes a note to himself to ask more questions in lab, because damn, is it nice having Connor’s full attention.
Connor smells kind of nice, too. Is it his shampoo? His soap? His laundry soap, maybe? Hank’s gotta get on that.
They’re really close, Hank swears he can feel the sleeve of Connor’s jacket brushing against his arm. If he gets up from this seat right now he’s probably going to bump into Connor’s face. It’s… not a bad idea, but he shouldn’t do it. This is a strictly professional setting, Hank, calm down.
“And there we go, that’s done.”
“Oh?”
It really is done, though – Hank tried to make this donut shape for hours last night, and Connor comes in, magic hands or something, and it only took him ten seconds?
“Wait,” Hank sighs, slowly coming back to reality, “Wait, you just did… what?”
“I’ll show you one more time,” Connor replied patiently, “So you make a circle sketch on the y plane, and then use revolve.”
Hank leans closer and watches as Connor drags the circle along, and a donut shape magically appears on the screen.
“And if you want to control the size of the object, you can use Press Pull, right here,” Connor explains as he clicks another button – an arrow appears, and the donut shrinks and expands as he pulls it.
“Wow, I can’t believe I fucking spent two hours trying to…” Hank sighs again, “Now I feel dumb.”
“No, no, it’s okay,” Connor reassures him, “There’s a lot of buttons on here, I know. It took me some time to learn what they do, and you’re only a month into the semester.”
Hank turns to look at Connor, who’s smiling at him.
He’s fucking certain Connor thinks he’s dumb, he just can’t say it to Hank’s face – but Connor’s smile is so sweet and sincere Hank is beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe he actually believes Hank will learn as the semester goes.
“Is there anything else you want to ask?”
“No, that’s it for now,” Hank replied as he closes his laptop, “I think.”
Either way, if being dumb means earning more face time with Connor, maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.
“I can’t wait to see your final model tomorrow!” Connor said, “If you have more problems, just send me an email or ask it on Piazza. Elijah and I will be watching the forum tonight.”
“Damn, Connor, you were grading quizzes yesterday, and you’re gonna work tonight, too?” he asks as he puts his laptop back into its sleeve, “You ever do anything fun on the weekends?”
“Well, last night I got to hang out with my brother.”
“What did you guys do?”
Hank suddenly remembers that though Connor is younger than him, he’s still his TA – this is a strictly professional setting, he probably shouldn’t be asking this kind of questions–
“Just went to see a movie and got dinner afterwards,” Connor replied, “Have you seen the new Kingsman movie?”
Hank shakes his head, “I don’t like that series to start with.”
“Well, I think it’s still a really fun movie,” he said, “But I mean, I haven’t hung out with Niles in a while. I don’t have a lot of time nowadays, you know, between being a TA, doing my final thesis, helping with Elijah’s startup…”
“Is your brother younger or older than you?”
“He’s four years younger than me,” Connor replied, “He’s an undergrad in art history. I don’t think you’ll see him much around here…”
Connor grabs a picture frame from his shelf and shows it to Hank. It’s a picture of him and another young man who looks almost exactly like him, except he’s wearing a black gown and holding a bunch of flowers.
“This was his high school graduation.”
“Shit, you two look exactly the same.”
“Yeah, we get that a lot.”
Hank zips up his bag and gets up from the chair.
“Thank you for your help.”
He almost feels… sad to leave. He knows he’s going to see Connor again tomorrow in class, but that’s a completely different setting – there will be like, sixty other people in the room, and Connor’s attention will probably be spread out on everyone.
“Yeah, anytime.”
“If you’re not busy next weekend, uh, can we hang out?”
He notices Connor’s eyes widen at the proposal, and he feels his heart rate pick up.
Fuck, Hank, this is a strictly professional relationship. You wanna get hit with a Title IX violation? Just because he’s cute and nice to you doesn’t mean you can just ask him out, he’s your TA.
Connor’s lips form a smile, and he looks away, eyes averting Hank’s gaze, almost as if he’s… embarrassed or something.
Hank can hear the alarms going off in his head – that was a bad, horrible idea, Hank.
“Sorry, I… I didn’t mean for it to come across–”
“No, that’s fine,” Connor replied, “If nothing comes up, I should be free this Friday night.”