ArchivedLogs:School 101

School 101
Dramatis Personae Aloke, Kelly, Lia
In Absentia	17 November 2013 Aloke gives the school breakdown to some of the newest students. (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> Rec Room – FL2
School this may be, but life for Xavier's students certainly isn't all studying. Outside classes, this is a popular spot to find students in their downtime. An enormous tribute to slacking off, this room is a wealth of fun and relaxation. Comfortable armchairs, couches, and beanbags offer plentiful seating scattered throughout the room, and the cushioned windowseats by the high windows offer a cozy nook to curl up and look out on the grounds. The room is often filled with the noises of gaming -- whether it comes from the big-screen television (tall racks of DVDs beside it, if nothing can be found on the multitude of cable channels), tricked out with consoles from retro to the latest releases, or the less electronic clatter and thump of the pool table, air hockey, or foosball. For those a little more subdued in their gaming, the cabinets hold stacks and stacks of board and card games, ranging as classic as chess and go to as esoteric as Dixit, Catan, and Gloom. Aloke is in the Rec Room. He's in tan chinos, a white linen button up, no shoes, and seems freshly washed. It looks like he's dozed off in a chair at the gaming table, though no games are set out. Otherwise it seems pretty quiet in here. It's nearly lights out for the school, but most people are pretty excited about school starting tomorrow, and probably won't be sleeping any time soon. It's easy for Kelly to be quiet when he wants to be, and with the nervousness of school beginning the next day, he's doing anything to be noticed. Heck, especially since the last time this was happening, well, one of the students tried to eat the rest of them! He's freshly washed up and in a pair of pajamas that are way too loose for the boy, the bottom cut short to fit his... unique bodyshape. "Is he asleep?" he whispers to... he doesn't know. Bare toes inching forward, one at a time. "He... doesn't look like a zombie..." Lia comes padding down the hall in her typical outfit since coming to school, consisting entirely of Xavier's logo clothing. She has a matching set of dark green sweats over a paler sage-green T-shirt. Her feet are in a pair of white tube socks, the kind that come in packages of half-a-dozen pairs. Her long, ash-brown hair hangs in loose waves past her shoulders. She creeps up to the doorway when Kelly's voice drifts to her ears. “I don't know that I've ever seen a sleeping zombie. The teacherpeople said that they aren't in the school anymore. The zombiepeople, that is. Oh, he is not a zombie. He is an Official Teacher. Maybe he is just sleepy?” She moves into the room for a closer look. Aloke snorts quietly and sits up in his chair when Kelly speaks. He blinks making the light in his eyes flash briefly, and then he smiles at the kids. "Oh, hey you two." He rubs at his eyes briefly and glances around the room from his seat. "C'mon over. Are you excited about classes tomorrow? It's the first day for both of you, right?" "It is." Kelly says, his shoulders slumping quickly in relief. No need to worry about the nice teacher going all zombie. And zombies don't snore. He should have known that. "Sorry to wake you up, Mr. Suresh." He said moving over quickly to take a seat in the floor cross legged across from Aloke, leaving room for Lia to sit. "I never thought I'd go to school again, to be honest. I mean, after heading off on my own. Thought that kinda stuff was behind me. You haven't had problems sleeping, too, Lia?" Aloke's awakening brings a smile to Lia's face. She twirls her way into the room, taking a seat at the table across from the teacher and immediately falling into a steady prattle. “It is the first day! I...used to go to school when I was a very small. I think? It was a long time ago. Mr. Fairyjax helped me to come up with classes. Mostly I will have tutoring. Because I am very bad at the math and science and social studies, and that is most of the things! But they said I will have /special/ attention for these. And I will take a real writing class, so that I can take more classes on books later. There is also a class for computers. Oh, and there are classes in both dancing /and/ hand-talking, did you know?” Her expression falls suddenly, turning almost sheepish. “I did not take an art class, because there was already dance-art. But Mr. Fairyjax says that I can still play with the clay, even if I am not in a class. And that maybe I can play a piano again without a class, too. There are so many things I want to do!” The excitement returns to her features, fingers drumming rhythmically across the tabletop. “No. No trouble sleeping. I have always been a very good sleeper. Sometimes, there are nightmares the whole time I sleep. Scarydreams. But I sleep well.” "Oh, that's ok Kelly," Aloke says, smiling. "This isn't really the place for sleeping." He peers over the table at Kelly on the floor but shrugs. The boy can sit on the floor if he wants, apparently. He seems more than pleased to sit through Lia's prattling though. He leans forward, elbows on the table, smiling as she describes her experience, and then frowns when she talks about nightmares. "Well of course you can still play with the clay, Lia. And dancing is a great art too. I'm sure you'll catch up just fine." He turns. "And Kelly, welcome /back/ to being in school. I'm sure you'll like it here." Aloke turns and remembers the deck of cards he'd set out earlier. He takes the cards out of the box and sets them on the table. "Would either of you like to help me build a card house?" "Gosh, Lia, you're going to be really busy!" Kelly remarks as his eyes grow wide as the long sentence keeps going on and on and on. "But I think Jax put us in dancing class together." He said happily with a wide grin... and then a very quick blush as if that wasn't something he was supposed to admit to right away. After all, he was a teenage boy... and supposed to be tough and army and gung-ho make it on his own HUR-AH! "B-b-but a card house sounds fun." “It does not look like a comfortable place for sleeping. There is no pillow. I like pillows. And blankets. Also bedforts. We built a bedfort out of two beds in the dorms today. It was very large. And we sat under the beds. Sometimes it is nicer to be under a bed than on it.” Lia giggles at Kelly's exclamation. “I hope so! I have had so much of...sit and wait. Many years of mostly sit and wait, whenever there were not tests. I want to do all the things! It is good you will be in a dance class. You wanted to dance in the elevator, but you were bleeding so I said you shouldn't. If you are in a dance class you can dance when you are not bleeding.” She drums at the table once more, then stops at the mention of building with cards. “I have seen someone build a house out of cards in the common room, at one of the Rooms where I was. I tried to do one, but when I try to stand up a card, it falls down. Doesn't even make it to being a house. Like the Big Bad Wolf is standing there all huff-puff before the straw even goes up.” Her nose scrunches thoughtfully. "Well here," Aloke says, taking a few cards in hand. He gives some to Kelly and Lia each, and sets up one 'wall' with his own card. "See, it's a lot easier if you have help. Kelly, you make a wall here..." Aloke coaches the wall into the right place and then nods at Lia. "Ok now Lia, if you put the roof on, very carefully, it should stand up." He smiles reassuringly. "Bleeding? Elevator?" Kelly asks, confused to Lia. He was ridiculously tipsy back when that happened and his memories of it were... not the best? His fingers were a little clumsy as they went to work, and he had to keep pulling his vines out of the way, but mutant did his best to mirror his teacher and even kept poking at a few of the angles to make sure they matched up /just/ right. "I don't think we'll need to sleep under any beds here, Lia. But any time you wanna build a pillow fort, just let me know." He offered the girl, in a kind voice as he waited for her to do her contribution to the house. "What's the school part like, here, Mr. Suresh? It doesn't look like I worried it would when we first talked, but it sure doesn't look like any school Ive ever been too, but then, all my old schools were military schools. I guess they were kinda different." “Oh, I wasn't Lia at the time. I was Felicity,” Lia explains...entirely the wrong part. “I like to be under the bed sometimes. It is nice to curl up in a tinytiny space, when you want to.” With a clearly skeptical look, she takes a single card and places it crosswise atop the two that Kelly is holding. “I think it will be very strange to have classes here, after so many days of no classes here. There will be no zombies in classes, right? And...we are allowed to talk? Or are all classes done in hand-talking?” "Well, school here is pretty straight forward," Aloke says. When everyone has their cards in place he carefully moves his hands back, revealing the standing cards. "Here, you two try the next one on your own," he says, setting the deck out for them. "School here is pretty straight forward though. You go to the right room at the right time, and wait to see what the teacher would like you to do." He smiles and shrugs. "You'll be allowed to talk, Lia, but you should raise your hand if you want to say something, and then the teacher will say when it's your turn to speak." He scoots around to see if Kelly and Lia are able to manage another little three-card hut. Kelly gets the cards in place for the next one with equal care. It's slightly wobbly this time, but should hold fine as far as his contribution goes. "I guess school is still school no matter what color your fur is." He says with a shrug, finally getting used to life here. Well as used to life here as you can get when your life is on the line on a daily basis. "And I don't think we'll have to hand talk every class, Lia. At least I hope not, I think you would be fine if we did, though." Looking up to Mr. Suresh, he asked a different question: "Will we be able to go outside and stuff when things get back to normal? I mean in town. I know the rules say that there is a curfew, but... well, wouldn't a lot of us..." he says, point up to his flowers. "Well, draw too much attention?" “How did that /happen/?” Lia asks of the standing cards with a look of sheer perplexity, continuing to stare at them as she speaks on other topics. “That is a good thing to know, about the hand-raising. It helps me not to break rules.” The girl looks thoughtful again. “I will try to find my rooms tonight, so I am not as confused about where to go tomorrow. Mr. Fairyjax gave me a paper with all of my classes on it. There were rooms on it, too.” She pauses to select another card, deliberating for some time between a spade and a diamond before deciding that diamonds are harder and therefore more stable roofing materials. This she settles with equal care atop the vertical walls before gently withdrawing her hand. “There is a town? Outside of here? But here already has so much /lawn/. I never imagined so much grass. And beyond that is forest and I heard that there are playgrounds and lakes and stables with real horses and all /sorts/ of things to play on when the zombies are done playing there and it is our turn to use them.” Aloke nods at Kelly's assessment. "We take everyone who wants to learn here." Aloke raises his eyebrows at the idea of going in to town. "That's right... we did do field trips." Aloke muses, as if this idea seems like a long, long time ago. He reaches up to scratch at the gray hair at his temples and nods. "Well yeah, we usually go in small groups, and do our best to be discrete. Sometimes people can hide us, or make us look differently. And Professor Xavier works very hard at keeping our secret - that we're all mutants. We're very lucky to have him, and this school." He just pauses and enjoys Lia's sunshine and energy. "That's right, Lia. When it's our turn again, you'll get to see just how beautiful the grounds are here. I love painting out there. I look forward to doing it again soon." "You know, Lia..." Kelly says as he continues his role at cards. "You make it really hard to feel sad about anything around here. If you can see the silver lining in things, I guess the rest of us better follow suit." He holds his own hand when it comes to the next layer, "Why don't you try the next one, Lia, by yourself?" he encourages, happy eyes on her cheerfulness. "And most of all, Mr. Suresh... I'm glad to start thinking about things as /when/ they're going to get better, not /if./ And..." he looks up to the teacher with a slight bit of admiration. "If you guys can help us get through /this/, I think... helping us graduate is going to be easy." “Field trips,” Lia repeats, slowly, as if feeling or tasting the words with her tongue. “That sounds like an interesting thing.” Her head begins its typical curious tilting, finding that off-kilter 45 degree angle that seems to help her puzzle things through. “We are a secret? Who are we a secret from? Do...do people come and give us back to the Keepers? Duskwings said there were no more keepers out here. No more Rooms.” She looks frightened for a moment at the thought of them. “Why would you feel sad here? There are so many /things/ on the grounds. And interesting /places/ in this very, very big and fancy house. And the people here are nice, and not scary unless they are sick or zombies. And I get to use my magic and no one is angry. There are no bad tests, but there will be /classes/ for learning. No one hurts me. I have different foods and clothes every day! I can have books whenever I want.” The list of not-sad things is interrupted by the recommendation that she try her own card house. She selects two cards (a spade and a heart to make a good foundation), then looks at them quizzically once she has them standing upright. “I only have two hands.” She finally settles on holding the vertical cards in each hand and picking up the next diamond card (hard, for the roof) in her teeth to then rest it on top. "Well, here's the thing Kelly," Aloke says, leaning back in his chair so as to be careful about not bumping the table while Lia works. "High school /is/ rough. No matter the color of your fur," he winks at the boy, giving him credit for the phrase. "Or scales, or feathers, or vines." He smiles again. "That's why all of us teachers are here. We want to make sure you make it through this part of your life with some grownups who know... what its like to grow up this way. We want you to feel at home, and have fun, and do your homework and... well you know. /Be a kid/. We'll get there. I promise." Aloke gives Lia a sad smile. "Sometimes we have to be a secret, yes. When we leave school to visit Other Places." His capitalization of the phrase is practically audible. "There are people out there, who don't have magic-" He catches himself using Lia's words and winks. "Sometimes people are jealous, or scared about our mutant abilities. And we don't want to scare them, you know?" Aloke glances up at the clock on the wall and sighs. "Well kids, we are past lights-out. How about if I walk you back to your dorms?