ArchivedLogs:Touchy-Feely

Touchy-Feely
Dramatis Personae Derek, Jax
In Absentia	2015-10-20 "I never knew the fairies had a king."
Location <XS> Gardens
From indoor gardens to outdoor, though without the protective greenhouse glass the back gardens do not last all year round. Still, the gardens out here are well-tended and well-worth spending time in, as well. The paths wending through the beds of flowers and herbs and vegetables spread out through the school's back grounds, tended by students as a credit class. Benches offer seating and a small pond is home to koi and turtles, as well as a few frogs. At the far back edges of the garden, a droning buzzing marks a few stacked white boxes as beehives. It's pleasant outside this afternoon -- sunny and mild, and though there's been a frost last night there are still plenty of hardier plants still thriving this time of year. In the Great Hall lunch is just beginning, though with today Jax has elected to take his out here in a quieter section of garden. The weather is nice enough that even the cold-averse Southerner is only in a light jacket, red with large black buttons and black lacing down its sleeves; it's paired with black skinny jeans tucked into tall stompy boots, metallic makeup, a huge pair of mirrored sunglasses on his eyes. Jax has taken up a seat on a bench by the koi pond, messenger bag dropped on the ground beside the bench and plate of food on his lap (with, unsurprisingly, a second smaller plate of cupcakes sitting next to the bench on his bag.) Beneath the bench, a small one-eyed beagle is lying, /huffily/, head on his paws, occasionally sliiightly whiny, /eying/ the cupcakes though being a Good Boy and not actually going near them. There's something about large groups of kids eatting together that Derek tries to avoid so he's opted to enjoy his lunch outside since the temperature is a lot better than it was the day before. He's dressed in his usual jean jacket and jeans, not having much of a sense of style beyond well worn plain t-shirts and jeans. After wandering the grounds with a sandwich and bag of chips in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, Derek's made his way to the gardens. He's about to keep on wandering when he notices Jax sitting there, someone who doesn't make him weary. "Hey, mind if I join you?" The beagle perks up before Jackson does, ears pricking hopefully and head tilting up at the sound of approaching footsteps. His tail thumps hopefully against one leg of the bench. "Oh! Oh, Derek, hi," Jax's smile is swift to follow, bright and warm. "Ignore Obie, he'll shameless-beg for your lunch but he's already /had/ his, he's jus' /pretendin'/ he's starved. At it all up in /three/ seconds an' now actin' like he ain't never seen food in his life." He does relent slightly, though, leaning down to shift the cupcakes to one side so that he can extract a bully stick from the flap of his bag, giving it to the beagle to chew. "Sure, c'mon, sit. I'm enjoyin' the last of the /warm/ while it's still here. An' the Hall gets a bit much for me, mealtimes, I gotta admit." "Obie? Ath in Obi Wan Kenobi?" Star Wars is a pop culture thing Derek is actually aware of. He can't resist giving the beagle a quick strach on the head before sitting down and starting in on his lunch. "Dogth can be like that. You thould have theen all the dogth back home, they'd beg anyone for food. Including the mailman." He smiles slightly at his own joke. "I underthand that. Even back home I didn't like eatting in the cafeteria. Too many people." He doesn't mention the weather, afraid to learn exactly how cold it can get in the Northeast. "My husba --" Jax pauses for only a brief second, catches himself, amends instead: "-- well, lots of my friends, really, get all kindsa shocked, but I ain't actually even never seen /Star Wars/. Um, it's short for Oberon, actually. Like the king'a the faeries." He spoons up a bit of rice and beans, nibbling for a moment as he adjusts his seat just slightly to angle a little bit towards Derek. "Sure the mailfolk appreciated /that/. Think the dogs around here get fair spoiled, there ain't too many, so people what miss their pups from home jus' lavish attention on 'em." He hitches up a shoulder in a shrug. "How's Daisy been doin'?" "I never knew the fairies had a king." Let along much about fairies in general. Derek then shrugs. "I haven't really theen anything rethent. I think it'th jutht how Mom raithed uth, on all the old thuff. Movieth and muthic. I've gotten thocked lookth when I have no clue what'th popular at the moment." He nods along with the rest of Jax's words, eatting his simple ham and cheese sandwich, making sure to swallow before talking. "Ithn't that the point of having a pet, to thpoil it? We never could have any petth back home, I jutht like theeing them around. Daith ith doing okay. I think thee's ajuthting better than I am to be honetht." "Shows up in a couple bits'a medieval legend, an' then again as a character in /A Midsummer Night's Dream/. S'a Shakespeare comedy. Though honestly if I'd known when he was a pup that he was gonna be dumb as rocks I might'a named him after the donkey." Jax's tone is fond, anyway, amused as he leans down to scruff between Obie's ears as the dog worries at his chew. "Havin' other people's companion animals around's kinda the best of both worlds anyway, though. Get all the snuggles an' none of havin' to clean up the poop or buy the food. Win-win." He reaches to tug a glass water bottle out of his bag, uncapping it to take a swig. "Glad she's settlin' in, that's good to hear." There's a pause, here, his fingers tapping briefly against the side of his water bottle. "Not sure if they told you or not, might be lost in your email somewhere but I been assigned as your advisor? I don't really want t'just bombard you with a hundred questions about how you're doin', but if there /are/ any problems you been havin' with settlin' in or anythin', just know you can reach out t'me. I had, like, zero clue 'bout how any'a this worked when I first got here so I get it can be -- a lot. T'adjust to." With the talk about Shakespeare, Derek gets a bit of a blank look on his face. "I did read that. I'm not thure what meanth exactly but, I guethth I'm doing okay. No real problemth yet. The people here are..." He makes a face not really sure how to word how he feels. "Weirdly nithe? It'th kind of untrutht worthy." He knows it sounds silly, complaining about how nice people are but to him, it's suspicous. "You can athk any quethtion you like, but it doethn't mean I'm going to anthwer it. No offenth. But right now, thingth are... okay." He nods once, almost assuring himself that things are okay. "Tho.. you have a huthband? I've never met a guy whothe married to another guy." Jax grins, quick and crooked. "I could introduce you to a few of the jerks, if it helps," he offers brightly. "Even things out, make it feel more like -- well, high school." A sudden flush of red creeps into his cheeks, his head shaking quickly, spilling brightly dyed hair down over his forehead. "Oh, yeah, I -- I did. I'm -- still gettin' used t', uh, we just got divorced so --" His head shakes again. His tone is light, his smile -- not really fading, though just a little thinner. "Ain't all that common back in my town in Georgia neither," he admits a little wryly. "An' you don't gotta answer nothin' you ain't comfortable with. I jus' want to know if there's anywhere in particular s'been givin' you more trouble -- anything in particular you could use more help with. Figurin' out classes or ironin' out your schedule or findin' time t'get off campus or --" Jax shrugs, hand tipping upwards as his nose crinkles up. "Teachers pesterin' you while you're tryin' t'eat your lunch. Whatever." Derek laughs and shrugs a shoulder. "It might, make it feel more like thith plathe ith real and not jutht thome long and crathy dream. And I'm thorry, to bring that up. Jutht the Old Man uthed to thay thome thuff tho I figured if he didn't like it, then it'th probably not a bad thing." He shifts uneasily and quietly eats the rest of his small lunch. "Hey, I came over here and athked to join you. I might bother you about clatheth, I wath, I didn't do well at my latht thchool and I don't want to flunk outta here and be theperated from Daithy. It'th jutht I'm thtu... not good at thchool." "You meet /my/ kid on a bad day, he ain't what most people'll call nice. I imagine with so many new folks people's tryin' hard not t'step on toes as they feel their way around, too. Which -- that' maybe bad to say. Like -- 'you'll all be jerks once you settle in' but -- I don't mean that in a /bad/ way, I jus' mean, may feel less surreal once folks start actin' more like /themselves/ an' less like they're jus' learnin' who each other are." The red hasn't faded from Jax's cheeks, but he admits now, a little quieter: "An' s'alright, you didn't know. T'be honest, I'm kinda glad you did. Was real recent so -- most'a my friends are real cautious about ever bringing it up? Feels weird an' awkward like pretendin' it never /happened/." Another shrug. "I like t'think it ain't such a bad thing --" Here there's a quick lopsided smile, "Bein' gay, I mean, not, uh, break-ups, but, everyone's got their bigotries t'get over, I suppose." Jax takes another sip from his water, shifting again to tuck one leg up beneath himself on the bench. "That's fine. It's kinda a double whammy'a havin' to adjust to a whole new place /an'/ a whole new curriculum, too. There ain't nothin' wrong with needin' some extra help in classes -- if that's extra tutorin' on the side or if that's workin' with your teachers to see if there can be extra accomodations. If there's some classes that've been harder than others, you let me know an' we'll see if we can work out a plan, yeah? For /sure/ you ain't gonna end up separated from Daisy, but, I'll see about makin' the work load more manageable, too." "My old thchool, well... I wath one of the trailer park kidth tho we weren't exactly well liked, ya know? I know it'th not the thame ath being gay but, it'th thtill kinda thuckth, the whole trailer trath thing." Derek keeps expecting the shit to hit the fan in regards to the other students at Xavier's when they learn he's trailer trash. "Daith ith really the only family I have that matterth, the'th all I have tho I'm happy to hear that." He reaches down and gives Obie a few pats on the head before looking back over at Jax. "Thankth. Normally if thomeone tried to get all touchy feely with me I'd tell 'em to fuck off." "Don't gotta be the same for it to still suck. Think folks /always/ gonna look for some kinda difference to put other people down over, make 'em feel better about themselves. Used to bother me more'n I got words t'say an' these days it jus' makes me want t'be ten times as /awesome/ t'spite them." Obie leaves off his chewing for just a moment, slurping at the hand that Derek reaches to pet him. Jax smiles at this, reaching down to pick up his plate of cupcakes -- they look fairly chocolatey -- and offer one to Derek. "You're more'n welcome to tell me to piss off any time you want, I won't be offended none. An' family -- whether it's blood or who you chose, family's the most important thing we got. I don't think nobody here'd want you to have'ta lose that over something stupid like /grades/. 'specially not if we can help." Derek tries not to be too eager for a cupcake but after taking one he quickly strips it of the wrapper. "Thankth." After the first bite he cant help but smile. They just taste so darn good. "How did you learn how to bake tho good? I've alwayth uthed a box to make cake, uthually for Daith'th birthday. Thpecially after Mom... wathn't around." The ground starts a shake a bit and Derek closes his eyes, takes a few deep breaths and quietly counts to ten under his breath and the shaking stops. "Thorry, I'm not really good at controlling my powerth. But family... yeah." "Actually, there's a trick t'that too, anyway. Y'get a good box mix an' if you use butter 'stead'a oil, toss an extra egg in, an' use milk 'stead'a water, your cakes'll turn out good enough nobody'll tell the difference 'tween them an' ones from scratch. Kinda sneaky shortcut if you don't got time for doin' somethin' fancy. Anyway /I/ got this /crazy/ sweet tooth an' after I went vegan the shortcuts I used t'take didn't work for me so good /an'/ it was impossible t'find good dessert. /Had/ t'learn t'bake for myself or I'd never have a good cake again. Took a fair few years'a experimenting with terrible dry cookies an' gummy cupcakes, though." Jax glances down at the ground, leaning down to rest his hand on Obie's head, quieting the dog's whining when the ground rumbles. "Mmm. You met Professor Richter yet?" he wonders, curious. "Don't think there's a person on earth comes straight off the bat knowin'how t'control their abilities good. But he -- I should introduce you, if y'ain't met." "And thothe replathements are fairly cheap too. I've gotten good at making a dethent meal outta cheap thuff you find at Wal-Mart. When you don't have a lotta money, you learn how to manage. Boxth of mixht and frothting only a few dollarth. Can't beat that. I jutht like food I gueth. No weird diet but after having jutht rithe for a dayth in a row, hamburger helper theemth like a luxury. Thepthially if you add a few frothen veggieth." Derek is well aware of his lack of elegant cuisine but when you grow up poor, you learn to make the best of things. "I've met him only in clatheth. It wath recommended I take his Environmental Ethith clath. I haven't really talked with him outthide of clath though." Jax nods along at the commentary on learning how to manage; he doesn't add his own comment to this but something in the quirk of his lips suggests he can relate. "He's got experience with powers real similar t'yours. I think I might talk t'him about if he's got time t'see if he can work with you on control? If that's alright with you." He downs the last of his rice and beans, tongue swiping at one of his lip rings after. "Can be real useful sometimes havin' a chance t'work with someone whose had practice with a similar ability if y'get the chance." "That'd be good. Thankth. I pretty much jutht know how to thop the thaking from becoming too notithable." Derek finishes up his cupcake and his phone chimes, letting him know lunch is over and he's got a few minutes before his next class. "Thankth, for letting me bother you at lunch and the cupcake but I gotta head to my next clath." He's really making an effort not to skip classes even if he's already missed two or three in his few weeks here. "I'll thee you later Jax." Derek gives Obie one last head scratch and Jax a wave before hurrying off to his next class.