ArchivedLogs:Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers
Terrible, terrible answers.
Dramatis Personae Ivan, Kai, Shelby
In Absentia	5013-05-15 Kai has some questions. Unfortunately, he gets some answers.
Location <XS> Back Porch
The back patio is a restful place to sit and relax, in most weather. Ample seating comes in the form of umbrella'd deck chairs and a cushioned porch swing, and the neighboring gardens attract butterflies and hummingbirds to make the viewing pleasant. The hot tub is usually open for use, though in snowy weather the transition in and out is a shivery one! It's lunchtime, which means that the Great Hall is serving as cafeteria, filled with the boisterous noise of students talking about the morning's classes, and passing along the latest gossip regarding the three missing students as well as some speculation on some display at lunch a couple of days ago and other teenage stuff. It's a steady hum of activity, and it's a bit overmuch for one student, at least today. Kai has escaped to the back porch, along with his lunch tray and a stack of books that seem to be mostly romance novels and one sex ed book. (There is also Our Bodies, Our Selves, but judging by the way it is pushed to one side, it probably proved insufficient to the study.) The Korean boy sits tailor-fashion on the bench, dressed in jeans and a green hoodie with a book in his lap. Which he's reading with a furrowed brow of confusion. Occasionally, his hand reaches out to snag a piece of food from his plate and bring it to his mouth to chew slowly. Each page is read twice, slender fingers marking his progress. Busy halls are not everyone's thing. And certainly Ivan is not always fond of the noise, especially when some of that gossip may be aimed at /him/. He prefers much more... direct communication, and perhaps that is what drives him to seek out Kai, this afternoon. A butterfly finds Kai first, though. One of them, bright yellow and white, lands on the corner of the page Kai is currently reading, slowly but rhythmically closing and opening its wings where it sits. Ivan steps up to the bench in practised, quiet steps, dressed in jeans and-- a similarly yellow and white-striped shirt, if purely by coincidence. No bee box this time, though there is a suspicious handful of differently-coloured butterflies fluttering behind him. He stands, and offers a timid smile. As though permission to sit is required. Hello Kai. The butterfly landing on the page gets Kai's immediate attention, and he pauses in his reading to slide his marking finger over to it gently, attempting to coax it to perch there. He looks up as Ivan joins him, and the smile he offers is warm and happy, particularly when he sees the butterflies dancing behind the other boy. "Ivan." He tilts his head, regarding the other boy carefully. "You look..." he furrows his brow as he struggles for the right words to illustrate. "..less sad," seems safe enough. Then he is shifting, to make room, even picking up his tray and moving to his other side. "Would you like to sit with me?" Ivan's mood or state of being remains unremarked upon, either through agreement or its decided lack of importance. The butterflies behind him move slightly forward as he does, sitting down next to Kai. It's only then that he notices the books, and his smile fades. Expression now neutral, he cocks his head to the side. Trying to... make sense of it all? /Huh/. The butterfly on the book /holds on/ when Kai moves, but takes off into the air only to land back, after a few seemingly clumsy strokes of its wings, on Kai's hand. The quiet from the other boy isn't unusual, but Kai's brow furrows as he watches Ivan take a seat, and he frowns slightly. "You /are/ less sad, yes?" He looks at the butterflies, watching them flutter about for a long moment. When the yellow and white butterfly lights on his hand, he lifts it, examining it carefully and watching its iridescent compound eyes looking back at him. Ivan's curiosity about the books seems lost on Kai, and he looks back at the other boy with a small smile. "These books are not very helpful," he states. "But I did not know which ones to ask for." Ivan watches Kai, though his eyes so easily are trailed back to the butterfly on the boy's hand. Watching as it calmly lowers its wings. Then, he nods. Yes, less sad. If only a little. When he finally speaks, his voice hoarse, but easily relays his curiosity. "... What did you want to know?" Kai actually relaxes at that small nod, odd in that his body wasn't being held with any kind of actual tension. Maybe it translates to the butterfly, who flutters its wings once. The question gets a small downward tug of the smaller boy's mouth, and he looks at his lap. When he speaks, his tone is low and softer than usual. "I wish to know why people must be more than friends," he admits, and color creeps into his ears. "But these books do not say it." Some things are just precious. And some things are /so/ precious that even often-socially-inept /Ivan/ understands that they are. The butterflies around are released from his mental leash on them, continuing their fluttering about unbothered but no longer tied to doing it /around him/. His attention, now, lies solely on Kai. "'Must'." Ivan replies, in a confident and judge-free echo of Kai, his eyebrows pushing showly closer to one another. "I do not know if it is 'must'. Maybe... 'choose to'." Kai watches the butterflies flutter with a thoughtful expression. He absorbs Ivan's words, and blinks once. "But why do they choose to?" he wonders, and there's genuine confusion in his voice for that concept. "If you are good friends with someone, is that not enough?" His brow twitches, and he wrinkles his nose. "What is the benefit in being more?" ... Hm. Cue a time when Ivan is not quiet because he is /quiet/, but because he's actually stumped. Even frankness and transparency of opinions isn't saving him now. After quite a few seconds of thought, aimed apparently in a stare at his own legs, he looks back up to Kai. "It is a trade." Then, possibly even more puzzlingly, "Have you petted cats, or dogs?" "No." Kai's response to the question is immediate. "My family was too poor for animals, and it was a long way to the next farm. I have never touched any animals, except your bugs." He pauses, thinking. "And dead rats." He tilts his head, and his brows furrow as he tries to comprehend the explanation. "What is traded?" Ivan shoots Kai a /look/. It is similar to a look he may give /particularly/ tricky homework - yes, problematic, but not wholly so. It is a challenge, as well. Though that might not translate to his expression as easily as the former sentiment. "Trust. Is traded. It is some times difficult." A pause, then, "Like exposing your stomach to a predator." ... He may be having /trouble/ Englishing. Kai considers that. Deeply. He even leans forward to place his chin on his hand as he STARES at the gardens beyond the lawn. His brow knits, and he opens his mouth a couple of times as if to speak, and then closes it again. There's a small flicker of yellow around the edges of his irises, and he tilts his head to listen for a moment. "It seems dangerous," he says. "If a person showed their belly to Foom, he would tear it open." This is just a fact that he's stating; there's no emotion connected to it. Then he falls silent again, still pondering. "I trust /you/," he says to Ivan, then. "More than anyone here that is not a teacher. And I hope that you trust me. But I do not know if this means that we should be..." he scrunches up his nose. "I do not understand it yet, I think." Ivan just smiles, through the frustration that still shows. "Some times people /do/ tear it open." He says this like it is no big deal! "But that is why you /choose/. It is dangerous. But some times it can be a good thing to know that a person thinks you will /not/ tear their belly." He bunches up a little bit, shoulders drawing forward as he thinks. After a moment, he adds, "I trust you. But it is different. Not worse. Different." He shoots Kai a look once more, this time of doubt, as if he's afraid to have said something wrong. "I do not know... why. I will /think/ about this." Kai frowns, and tries to wrap his head around /that/, and clearly comes up empty. He pushes back to lean into the bench, and looks at the book in his lap. "Yes, I think you like me in a different way than Rasa," he agrees. "Although I do not understand it. A good friend is a good friend. I do not understand why there is kissing and holding hands and --" he looks at the book in his lap, and reads. "-- 'heaving bosom, swollen with ar-ardent passion.'" Which is English that even his dictionary can't help with. "Why does this happen?" he asks, either ignoring Ivan's promise to think it over, or forgetting it in his confusion. "It sounds as if the woman has a chest cold." Ivan-- has ceased to think, the moment the quoted words processed in his mind. Just coming to a twitchy, unyielding /stop/. It takes him /visible effort/ to kick his brain into motion again, and even then it's-- in a hesitant motion to reach for the book. To nudge the front cover upwards, specifically, to figure out-- What in the world the school has provided him with. The book, sadly, is not a school-issued book, when Kai lifts it for Ivan's inspection. Clearly. The edges are worn and dirty-looking, and the cover depicts a woman in a silk dress with a /very/ low neckline hanging in the arms of a similarly nearly-undressed man with large muscles. Across the top, the title reads TRUE ROMANCE STORIES in flowing script. Kai wrinkles his nose as he watches Ivan, and frowns. "It does not say much about /why/ the people feel the way they do. Only that it is a very intense feeling. And it sometimes makes them make very poor decisions." Cue Ivan's face going eeeever so slightly red. scratch that, that redness is virtually /escaping/ off of his face. "Kai, that is. More of a." He sits back on the bench, clamping his hands down on it in front of him. "Maybe not the best thing to learn. The /beginner/ things." He looks down at his own hands, breathing in. Breathing out. THINKING. Silently. Eyebrows plummeting downward as he does so. Conversations. How. Kai frowns, both at Ivan's redness and the cover of the book. "There are not many books about it," he says. "I tried to find the ones that seemed like they would be good to learn from." He frowns, then, lost in this perplexing issue that's been only recently called into focus. He looks as if he might say more, but instead chews on his lower lip as he stares out over the back lawn. Conversations are /hard/. The silence that follows, follows for quite a /bit/. Until seemingly out of nowhere, Ivan promptly reaches for a pocket, and pulls out his phone! With renewed motivation to crack this problem. "I will /ask/." He states, matter-of-factly, "Someone who knows." As he focuses on the screen, two more butterflies fly nearer, one landing on the ground, one on Ivan's knee. He is writing /very important texts/, from the look of his slow but furious typing. Kai seems interested in the texting, watching Ivan's fingers with a small lift to his eyebrows. "They must be very learned on the subject," he says earnestly. "If you turn to them for help. What are you going to ask them?" The phone boops. Ivan's barely sent his first message and there is already a reply back. "I will ask /all of the things/." He looks to the side, at Kai, just before the phone boops again and his attentions snaps down to it again. "... What should I ask." Despite not having an answer yet, he types more /anyway/. The phone booping back so quickly makes Kai's eyebrows lift higher, and leans forward just enough to peer. The screen is still out of his immediate line of sight, and he frowns at the question. "Ask them why a person would decide they wanted to be more than just friends with someone," he suggests. "If this is a thing they would know." Boop. Boop boop boop. Whoever Ivan is texting is /speedy/. He is struggling to keep up, his expression gowing... a little concerned with what he is reading. "Rubers?" He mutters, cluelessly. A little while later, "I have asked. She does not understand. I will try again." He is extra focused now, while he types. How can you tell? Tongue poking out. Kai has nothing to offer as he watches, tilting his head every now and again as if listening and/or watching the phone interchange. His book is closed, and slid off to one side as he scooches closer. "Is that easier than phoning her?" he asks, noting the extra concentration on Ivan's face. There's something about what's currently displayed on the phone that makes Ivan /very/ uncomfortable. He's-- maybe leaning his phone away from poor Kai a little. Reddening creeping further across his cheeks as he mutters-- something that is definitely not English, and /probably/ not aimed at Kai, considering it sounds an awful lot like cursing. "I do not. I do not know. Probably not." He sounds like he regrets this decision, maybe. "Um." He swipes a finger across the screen, presses a button, then /shoves/ the phone towards Kai's face. Hot potato! Or-- a hot-- Shelby? The phone? Has a dial tone. Calling it is. Kai looks at the phone like it's about to bite him with venomous fangs, and shrinks back. "I do not know this person," he says, eyes wide. "I cannot ask someone I do not know such things." Oh, the embarrassment must be contagious, as the smaller boy's face goes deeply red. And then there is uncomfortable silence for a moment. "You should do it." "But I do not. Have the questions. You do." Ivan /pleads/, giving the still ringing (!) phone a shake-a-shake next to Kai's head. "It is Shelby. She /knows/ things." A pause, then. "/You/ should do it." The phone stops ringing. There is a Shelby on the line! It sounds like she might be in a subway station somewhere. There are crowd noises, and announcements over an intercom system, and she is TALKING LOUDLY. "WHAT THE FUCK, IVAN." Kai looks like he might cry as the phone is shaken near his head, and he draws back further, reaching up to push the phone back. "I have never used a telephone before," he confides in a half-whisper. "I will do it wrong." And then the world stands still as the phone suddenly makes connection, and /now/ Korean boy looks like he might faint. "She sounds mad," he notes. "You should be the one to do it." NNNH. Ivan looks a little panicked himself, but takes a DEEP, deep breath, and-- finally, withdraws the phone from Kai's head. Okay. Okay. He places it down on a knee, and pushes another button. The noises of the supposed subway station flow out from the device. Speaker phone. It gets a very serious stare. "Hello. I had questions." It's like he's starting the conversation /all over again/. "Hello? Helloooooo! God damn it, next time I see you, I'm gonna..." Oh no, wait, there he is! Shelby huffs on the other end. "Didn't we already do this? Fine, what questions? Make it quick though, I gotta pee." Kai's eyes don't lessen in their widening when Shelby speaks, and he looks at Ivan helplessly. Slowly, he licks his lips, and makes one swallow that's actually audible. "I will ask," he decides, offering a smile to Ivan. Then he leans forward, putting his face near Ivan's knee. "HELLO, SHELBY THIS IS KAI," he says, raising his voice to a near shout. "IVAN IS HELPING ME TO LEARN A THING, AND HE SAYS THAT YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT." Ivan-- stiffens. At least Kai's loudness helps snap him out of some of the dread he was feeling for this phone call, and he actually cracks a tiny little grin when the other boy continues to speak so very loudly. "-- You know all the things." He adds on in a /normal/ voice, with a quirk of one brow at Kai. As if to hint, kindly, that /that/ is really the highest your voice needs to go. "Son of a /bitch/." Fortunately for them, the profanity is released /after/ Shelby has yanked the phone away from her ear. When she comes back, she somehow manages to sound both annoyed and confused. "Yeah, sure, okay, I know all the shit. Kai wants to fuck Rasa too?" Kai watches Ivan when he speaks, noting that /he/ is not shouting, and nods when Ivan looks at him. Got it. Shelby's response, though, hits a roadblock. The roadblock of colloquial English versus a fifth grade education (so far). His eyes go wide, and then his eyebrows drop into a deep furrow. "I do not know what that word means," he says to the phone. "But I do not wish to do anything to Rasa. I wish to know why people decide they want to be more than just friends, and how do they know when to make that decision?" He purses his lips. "And why must there be kissing, and the holding of hands? And heaving bosoms with ardent passion?" Once the questions start coming, apparently they are hard to shut off. "And why is it so important?" He falls quiet, a moment, and glances at Ivan. "Oh! And what /is/ ardent passion?" (fix) Aaand poof. Grin gone. Ivan does not-- does not compute. He looks like he /fully/ intends to just blankly stare at the phone and ignore Shelby's question, but just BRIEFLY throws a questioning, narrow-eyed glance up at Kai. /Does he/? And then he remembers who he is looking at. And calms the hell down again. And nods, when the questions stop. Good Kai. For a long, long moment there is only silence on the other end. Then Shelby's well-trained voice vents some of her annoyance: "What the fuck, dude. Jesus. Okay...okay, give me a second, huh?" The crowd noise has /not/ improved but she's traveling now, little whuffles and crackles corrupting the line as she goes...apparently into the washrooms. The women's washrooms. There are female voices echoing in the background and the sound of water but it's somewhat quieter. "Okay, look. People do that shit 'cause they feel like it, and when you feel like doin' it, you know. It's important 'cause if you /don't/ use your shit, it falls off." "But /why/ do they feel like it?" Kai is genuinely confused, now, and focuses on the parts that he can actually comprehend. His hands, without a book to clutch, find his knees as he leans forward again. "What is the benefit of such an arrangement?" There's a small flicker of yellow around his irises as he tilts his head, suddenly stymied. "What will fall off?" Ivan just swallows. He's... slowly starting to look a little interested in Shelby's words, all of a sudden. Maybe he is proving to be /just as clueless/. Or near it. He /fidgets/ with the hem of his shirt, but waits patiently for more Words of Wisdom. "Your dick," Shelby says succinctly. Getting a little of her own back for being pestered by virgins? /Maybe/. "It's different for everyone, I guess. Sometimes you see someone and you're like /damn/ I gotta get me some of that and sometimes you just get to /know/ them and then it hits you. It's like, built in, y'know? You know it when it happens." She pauses. "'Cause your dick gets hard." Oh. OH. /That/ word Kai knows. He takes gym class like everyone else, and hears the locker room talk even if he doesn't participate. He goes bright red, and dips his head as his hands come to fold up in his lap. "Oh." He frowns, and /stares/ at Ivan questioningly. The look at Ivan is not likely to garner any useful information. His expression in itself is not specifically pointing at anything in particular, but the fact his jaw muscles have seemingly permently launched into /tensed up/ mode and his fists are now holding on to the bottom of his shirt? He has-- nothing to add to that 'oh' but a fearful look back. /Oh/, indeed. "So yeah, like I said. You guys need any rubbers, they're in the bottom drawer of my desk. Just don't use 'em all, 'kay? Can I pee now?" Shelby inquires. Kai's expression is mildly horrified as he looks at Ivan, and he /blinks/ at Shelby's sudden input. "Oh. Yes. Thank you, Shelby," he says, and he nods as if the girl can see him. "You can go to pee, now." He leans back, then, and blinks as he tries to process this new information. Which is really more than he was looking for. He stares at the gardens, his brow twitching now and then. Ivan... slowly just... grabs his phone. Forgets to hang up. Slides off of the bench. Half in shame, half /petrified/, eyebrows shoved together. "Is. I." Sorry? it is not said. He DOES shoot Kai an apologetic look, then simply starts to walk off the way he came. Nearly bumping into another student when he turns, coincidentally. /Awaaay/.