ArchivedLogs:Number Wrangling

Number Wrangling
some verbing too
Dramatis Personae Rasa, Sage, Sebastian, Shane, Daiki	2014-03-26 '
Location <XS> Classroom One
Desks arranged into neat rows make up this, a fairly typical classroom. Chalkboard in front, teacher's desk in front of that. Windows along one wall look out on the grounds, providing plenty of opportunity for distraction for daydreaming students. There's a class just letting out -- Trig/Pre-Calc -- and for once Shane is actually here in it. Aside from classes missed because of being /exploded/ and recovering from his burns, he's actually been in all his classes in the few days of the semester so far. How much attention he has paid is another question entirely; tucked into a desk over by the window, his elbow leans on its surface, chin propped in his hand and his black eyes focused out on the frosty-cold grounds outside. The other students are filtering out slowly; with break/study period up next most people aren't in any great rush to /get/ anywhere. Shane doesn't seem in any great rush even to stand up, staying slouch-slumped in against his desk with his math textbook and notebook still open in front of him, calculator, pencils. His clothing does not look quite /right/ on him, jeans and orange tee with a pair of Despicable Me minions on it, both somewhat too large and /decidedly/ not dapper enough; he's thrown on a standard-issue Xavier's sweatshirt on top. Daiki and Sebastian make kind of a pair as they come in, Quite Tall beside Excessively Short; Daiki is elegant-dressed as ever in long silver-bordered ice-blue tunic-shirt, darker slacks, his hair starting to grow out long again but neatly combed down straight around his ears. Sebastian just looks -- very similar to Shane; ill-fitting jeans, a Batman-logo tee. Both the arriving boys are on their phones, Daiki's small bluetooth headset barely visible in his ear and Sebastian's very /shiny/ new Stark phone tucked against his own; the parallel conversations they're having actually sound oddly similar in tone: brisk, professional, polite, very /firm/; Daiki is attempting to correct some sort of mix-up about what models some agency has sent and Sebastian is just ironing out details of some sort of meeting arrangement before /he/ shuts his phone off to drag a desk over and push it up against Shane's. He takes a laptop (also /shiny/-sleek-new, also Stark-make) out of his backpack to set it down and open it up. Daiki has meandered over towards the windows, still on the phone. Sebastian waves a hand in front of his brother's eyes. "How's Aly doing?" Rasa is steadily finishing up some notes on hir page and rechecking the last bits of hir math on the problem they were working on in class as everyone else leaves. Ze is a little distracted, but finally looks up when new people enter the room. Ze almost packs up and hightails it, allowing an incoming class the room, but ze settles back down again when ze realizes it is break time. Ze is wearing a blanket around hir shoulders and back, hunched over hir desk to give the new wings on hir back room to rest and not rest against the back of the chair. Underneath hir blanket, ze has modified a sweatshirt into a halter top with snap on sleeves, keeping hir warmer for the most part on the chilly day. Ze is wearing jeans below that. When voices start to filter into hir awareness, ze looks up and over at the trio, listening only so ze doesn't interrupt. Passing into the classroom, Sage is dressed rather warm, brown jacket, a beige shirt underneath, a pair of jeans, and pink tennis shoes. ATHENA is present on her face, red tint obscuring her eyes a bit, as she looks around for a brief second, before turning to Shane and Sebastian. "Hello. How are you two doing?". Sage is rather /broad/ in what she asks, but she is referring mostly to a specific thing. She turns to Rasa at the same time with a small nod, as she looks back towards the twins. Shane's distant window-staring continues until Sebastian's hand waves in front of his face. He blinks, slowly, nictating membranes shuttering first before his second pair of eyelids closes. Still looking a little distant-daydreamy, he turns his head, slowly refocusing on the others. "Huh? Oh --" He shakes his head, looking down at his books. "Um, shit. Getting out today, I should -- try to figure out where the fuck she's /going/. Hopefully Dusk'll check in on her I don't have a fucking -- /you/ have a phone." He says this almost accusatorily, staring at Sebastian's sleek new toys. He finally shakes off the sleepy look as Sage addresses them, huge eyes turning up towards the teacher. "Oh. Um. You know. Destitute." He says this /cheerfully/. "And how're your business classes going?" Sebastian asks next, opening up his laptop and plugging in his shinynew holo-projector into it. "Because you're kind of going to have a decision to make soon. -- Hey, Rasa." Daiki finishes his conversation, slipping over to perch on the windowsill by Shane's desk. He acknowledges Sage with a respectful-polite bow. He is quiet, long legs crossed at the ankles where they stretch down towards the floor and his palms braced against the sill. The general aura of /affection/ he carries with him is warm as ever, a radiant ambiance that tends to draw people just that much closer to him with a subtle-quiet personal magnetism. He doesn't, actually, greet Rasa, not out of any rudeness or ignoring hir but because /attention/ from him tends to amplify his mutation's effects that much moreso. Sebastian's posture grows a little more relaxed, his smile a little easier as Daiki comes closer. He shifts in his seat, a hair nearer the taller boy, eyes instinctively drawn to Daiki; it takes a moment to shift his focus again when he realizes he was being addressed. "Oh, hello, miss." He slides out of his seat, habitually standing when he notices an Authority Figure entering the room. "Still -- getting life back together, a little bit. Thank you." His gills ripple against his neck as he glances to his brother. "... which is actually what I wanted to talk about." "Hey, Bastian, good to see the old holo-interface." Rasa returns the greeting, standing up. Ze stuffs hir books into hir bag and closes it up. Ze slips the strap over hir right shoulder only, the sack hanging toward hir front instead of hir back. Then, ze pulls the blanket over the shoulder, half hiding the bag. "Hey Dai," ze offers, despite his protective nonchalance, "Hope you're recovering okay." No response necessary, Rasa tears hir attention back to the twins and the teacher, nodding to acknowledge her. "Business classes, Shane? Sounds interesting." "Good, glad you are alright at the least.". Sage tips her head, curiously listening to their conversation, as she tips her head with a small smile to Daiki, fading quick as she turns to Rasa. "And how are you? Destitute as well?" "Yeah for some fucked-up value of 'alright'." Shane doesn't bother trying to resist Daiki's quiet draw; he slips out from his seat, tucking himself against the taller boy's side at the window. "Oh -- yeah business classes. I've been taking them through community college online. Learning how to --" His brows rumple, sharp teeth flashing in a grin. "Business. Waitwhat are we talking about?" "Evolve." Daiki shifts a hand from the windowsill, quietly looping it around Shane's back. His eyes stay fixed more or less towards Sebastian's computer, though. Which, woken up from hibernation, is now sprouting its usual holographic interface; Sebastian manipulates it nimble-quick, tossing aside a few windows of work emails and work code to bring up instead a very neat and boring numbers-filled sheet of finances. "Pa," is /Bastian's/ answer to the question. "Is /business/ a verb can you do that?" "You can verb anything." Daiki's eyes lower, a small amused smile blossoming across his face and then fading away. "I am recovering well, thank you." He gives a response anyway, soft and warm as is the follow-up: "Are you?" "No. As soon as the school helps me replace my phone, I'll pretty much have everything I started the day with," Rasa replies politely, turning magenta irises upon Sage. "Are you checking in or starting conversation?" Ze studies the woman for a moment longer before a faint blush creeps into hir cheeks at the sound of Daiki's words to hir. Hir chin tilts downward as ze contemplates, then replies shyly. "I've kind of put all of the burns and new skin in one place for now. It's a little easier to get around that way. Still achy a lot, but better. Thank you." "Yeah, I'm going to have to agree," ze returns to more normal conversation by jumping on the verbing bandwagon. "English is a living language and verbing nouns seems to be common place enough these days to fall under the category of acceptable, even if dictionaries aren't recognizing the usage yet." Ze glances toward Sebastian, curious about the topic he is going to continue. "No, I was looking for someone, but I am afraid they have already left, so I decided to check in.". Sage says politely, before jumping into the verbing topic, solely because she loves to do stuff like this. "I must also agree with the others.". Really, really quick jump in, before she's eying the door, but she decides to stick around for another minute before looking for who she meant to talk to. "Yeah I verb all the things. Do I noun things?" Shane tips his head to the side (conveniently up against Daiki's ribs), considering this question. "I feel like a lot more verbs already /have/ regular noun-forms than nouns with regular verb-forms. So maybe I don't do it in reverse as often. Huh. Do you guys noun verbs?" His brows draw together at the mention of Evolve, and he looks at the chart of numbers suspiciously. "-- Pa?" "Well, gerunds are already just a standard part of the language," Daiki agrees softly. His fingers tap lightly against Shane's side. "So, yes, I think nouned-verbs just come standard in English." "Pa. {You know. Sparkly. Cheerful. Southern? Cooks a lot? Got himself blown the fuck up?}" Sebastian slips back into Vietnamese for this quick /helpful/ reminder -- it comes with descriptively fluttery fingers to indicate the /sparkles/. "But the thing is a good chunk of his current project got blown up too and he'll have to redo the semester /and/ lose his gallery spot if he doesn't finish on time. But that would mean taking a /lot/ of time off work. Like. Most all time off work between now and summer. -- Infinitive phrases just get to be nouns anyway, too. Huh." "Yeah, I fairly frequently noun verbs. Just saying that is kind of amusing." Rasa settles to perch one leg and buttock on a desk near the twins and Daiki, arms folding over hir bag, but hir back arched to keep hir weight away from it still. "Words are just community accepted signifiers for concepts or objects, anyway. The rules are more for outsiders to a group than those on the inside. And when you put it that way, kind of makes those rules dickish." Ze glances at Sage and quickly brings a fist to hir chest to apologize. "Oh shit, he lost all that work. I hadn't thought about that." This expletive does not seem to require an apology, though. Sage nods at Rasa, before speaking to the twins (and Rasa and Daiki). "Well. I hope you are all alright, and that you have a good day.". Sage tips her head briefly, before walking through the door to..hunt down whoever she was hunting down. "Verb doesn't actually sound like a word to me anymore," Shane complains, albeit with a grin and a small laugh. "And I don't think it makes those /rules/ dickish. It makes /breaking/ them dickish. Can you imagine trying to learn a language if there /wasn't/ rules? Like here we're just making up shit but there's no possible way you could know how to follow along unless you're already on the inside. The rules help people be /able/ to incorporate, whether they're insiders or not. Shit like verbing nouns is what's an asshole move. It makes a language /less/ accessible to people who don't already speak it. I mean, it's gonna happen anyway. But the rules help learn. The fluidity hurts. As a barrier to outsiders." His grin fades at the mention of Jax's artwork, a more serious expression as he peels himself away from Daiki's side to lean against Bastian's desk, one hand on the desk and one hand on his twin's shoulder. "Oh -- fuck. I mean -- we can replace his supplies but we can't replace the paintings. And we can't -- /buy/ him more /time/." "Here," Daiki suggests this with a soft chuckle, "have a book of Russian. We won't tell you how it works. That is, essentially, how I /did/ feel learning English. English-speakers seem determined to provide as many barriers to outsiders as possible. We made up these rules, but we're breaking them all." His hand drops back to the windowsill as Shane moves off. "No. But replacing all our /own/ clothes and things /and/ shifting a large chunk of money into what he and Ba owe the Commons should free up enough financial wiggle-room that he can actually /afford/ time off work," Sebastian explains. "I mean, given how many people involved with the Commons just got exploded, Hive's already started fretting that construction's going to be delayed if people fall behind on paying. Because almost all of us have this huge amount of -- our own lives to put back in order on /top/ of the construction and mortgage costs now. But if we can cover enough of our dads' portion /and/ our own, he can take time off work to actually finish school and put his show on on time. For -- once." "Good bye, Ms. Sage." Rasa nods to Sage when she leaves, then turns hir attention back to the conversation. "Well, okay. The rules are dickish and being without is impossible. Everything about English tends to be dickish. And now I'm getting into adjectizing all the nouns because it just seems fitting." Ze rolls hir shoulders, slipping the strap of hir back off hir shoulder and into hir lap as ze relaxes a little more. "Oh, B. I don't know if you want to, but I've got clothes you can borrow. I'm sure you have no trouble paying for your own, but I also wouldn't mind sharing. I'd offer the same to Shane, but he doesn't usually dress colorfully, nor does he coincidentally share the same room." Ze stays out of the conversation of paying actual money, having only an allowance hirself. "I don't even know where the fuck to buy clothes in our size," Shane grumbles unhappily. "At least not men's clothes. At least not the /kind/ I -- I mean. I could stick with jeans and t-shirts." Though he looks fairly miserable about this idea. His head shifts to look towards Rasa briefly at hir offer, then back to B. "-- You decided what you're going to replace your wardrobe /with/ yet?" It's -- /almost/ casual. But his fingers squeeze down harder against Sebastian's shoulder with the question. The talk of Jax's school sets his gills to rippling again. "He's -- already a /few/ semesters behind." This is disgruntled, unhappy. "And you know he's going to be another one now if he doesn't -- khhh. He never fucking takes the time for /himself/. And if there's goddamn raids coming up /too/ he's fucking /hosed/." "Small enough for me?" Sebastian sounds a little bit skeptical at this offer, his, "-- Thank you," slightly cautious. "I -- haven't. Done shopping yet. I don't -- quite know where I'm going to --" He hesitates, just looking back to the balance sheet to skim his gaze over the numbers. "Between B and I," Daiki puts in softly to Shane, "we will be able to cover /our/ house's costs still. But all the extra expenses and helping to pay for your fathers' portion as well --" Sebastian is swiping down to highlight a few rows on his sheet in particular. "Pa /isn't/ going to finish school this term if he doesn't find some extra time. He tries not to fret but -- this hive thing." He shakes his head slightly, biting down on his lip before he tips his head back to look up at Shane. His fingers flick towards the highlighted rows. "I /have/ the cash. He could cancel his appointments at the studio, cut back at the clinic or take off entirely until summer and just have his classes here and all the rest of his time for school. But I'd have to --" His gills flutter, very quickly, and there's a heavy note of apology in his breathy-hitched voice when he asks Shane quietly: "... How attached are you to the Evolve plan?" "Oh shit," Rasa replies, scooting back quickly, glancing quickly between the three. "Are you ... with Hive again?" Ze clears hir throat, settling in comfortably a few more inches away. "I have clothes of all sizes for various reasons. I have stuff from kids all the way to giant, overweight adult - though fewer of that. Some of the wraps would fit you pretty easily, so there's that, but yeah. I'll have some stuff you can wear." Ze considers then adds, "We can also petition the sewing class teacher if we can borrow the class for alterations. We'd bring all the supplies and they could help fit clothes as part of their lessons - but to you guys's bodies." Rasa trails off as the conversation turns a little more serious, in reference to Jax. "Maybe he should... you know... retire. Go on sabbatical. Just take some time to focus on his projects and then look to training others to do what he does." Ze gnaws on hir lip, keeping every bit of skin surface under hir blanket as much as possible. In unison, three pairs of eyes turn to focus in on Rasa at the mention of Hive's name. Shane is the first to break his gaze away, looking back to the numbers in front of him with a rapid unsteady flutter of gills. "I mean -- we could --" He falls silent again, focused perhaps on something inward. Or maybe on the numbers written up in front of him. His hand clenches down harder against Sebastian's shoulder, claws prickling through t-shirt to dig hard against his twin's skin. "Right, okay." His voice is rougher. "I mean no. I mean, he gives up so much for --" His words cut off, voice breathless-fluttery with the quick motion of his gills. "No, yeah. We should put the money towards their. House. He needs the time." "During the explosion Hive -- reached out to many of us," Daiki answers Rasa. "While searching the building for -- still-living minds." He pulls away from the window as Shane's hand tightens on Sebastian, saying nothing but quietly circling his arms around Shane from behind. Holding tight. Sebastian exhales, heavy and sudden. "Right." There's not a lot of joy in it, but it's decisive. The mention of Jax retiring just earns a sharper breath. "Right." This time it's just deflated-tired. "Pa. Retire. That'll happen --" "Never," Daiki says this simple and quiet, but blunt. "He will die doing what he does. There /is/ nobody to replace him, Rasa. There are not enough people doing what he does already. If more step in to fill the gaps there will /still/ be more gaps. There will always be more gaps." Sebastian's gills flutter faster. He closes his computer a little too hard. "Well, he'll at least finish school first. We can help /that/ anyway." Rasa blinks, uncomfortable, at the trio as they all stare at hir simultaneously, the nervousness not dissipating. "Ah. Well. Thanks for the warning. Not that I don't think it's a good thing that you guys and he... did ... you know, but after last time, I'm just... Well, you know." Ze then clams up and listens, hir skin slowly turning silver white as hir eyes drift out of focus. Shane doesn't say anything in response to this. He leans back into Daiki's hold, the rest of him a little bit shaky, too. His gills are still fluttering rapidly as he pulls away, leaning down to press a /firm/ kiss to Sebastian's temple and then pull away, going to sweep his things into his bag in a messy jumble and flee the room in a hurry, sweatshirt sleeve wiping against his eyes as he goes. Neither Sebastian nor Daiki tries to stop him. Daiki pulls back, arms crossing slowly against his chest. "Understandable," he murmurs to Rasa, dark eyes following Shane's departure. Sebastian buries his face in his hands. It takes a moment before he reaches to tuck his laptop back into his bag. "Next class will be soon." He stands, hitching his bag onto his shoulder. Rasa sets down hir bag as ze rises as well, turning the blanket until it drapes across hir entire front, tips onf hir fingers bending the fabric over on itself to protect them as well. Ze bumps into Sebastian and hugs him, if he doesn't duck away or counter attack. Ze doesn't try to maintain the embrace for long, pulling away with a sad little whisper. "Everything is stupid." Rasa then grabs up hir bag and rewraps the blanket around hir wings and heads out with a nod to Daiki. Sebastian, possibly, seems to agree. At least if his answering /slump/ across the desk is any indication.