ArchivedLogs:Worth Knowing

Worth Knowing
Dramatis Personae Aloke, Shane, Micah, Jackson
In Absentia	20 December 2013 Another parent-teacher conference.
Location <XS> Art Room – FL2
Smells of paints and chalks and turpentine mingle freely in this room, well-used, well-stocked. Natural light flows in, plentiful through the large windows. The long counter-like tables are speckled with spots of color, and half finished projects often stand on easels or propped in corners. The many cupboards lining the walls are crammed full of art supplies. Nobody's schedule worked out right on Monday, so Shane, Jax, Micah and Aloke weren't able to have that sit down meeting after all. Then with the protest on Tuesday leading to jail through Wednesday morning, the week went all to hell. Now it's Friday, the last day of school before break and the school definitely has that 'winding down' feel. Several families are here to load up kids for the trip home. In the art room, Aloke has been busy setting up for the meeting that can finally happen. He dragged the three-seater couch from under the window over to the middle of the room. Then he brought the raggedy old love seat from over by the door to sit opposite, to try and make something a little more comfy. He's also made sure to have a pot of hot water sitting out on a little drawing bench set aside for the purpose. Aloke looks dressed as normal, except for the addition of socks. He's wearing jeans, and a Sex Pistols t-shirt. His graying hair is pushed back, though growing out again. Also, his skin is shining with a rich yellow light, nearly as bright as a light bulb, making his body vaguely visible through his clothes, but it seems he is choosing heavier, darker garments to combat this effect lately. He's currently sitting on the love seat, looking at something on his phone. Shane is dressed as normal, too, which for him is neatly pressed dark slacks with a white dress shirt, his vests /layered/ today, black one unbuttoned but held in place with a chain worn over a grey buttoned-up houndstooth. Bowtie, polished shoes. He's been packing for his two weeks of break but he comes into the art room empty handed, his webbed hands folding behind his back. He moves to stand beside the couch though he doesn't sit on it, looking briefly at Aloke but then away. He doesn't actually wait for the meeting to officially /start/ to say, quietly: "I apologize for disrespecting you last week. I'll try to be more civil from now on." Micah is moving at that speed-walky pace that implies he is worried about being /late/ to the meeting. He is dressed in work clothes from his second job of the day, TARDIS blue polo shirt and khakis thrown on after a quick shower following a crazy-early shift at the shop. A consult at Mendel and several home visits executed along the way put Micah a little behind schedule. His olive canvas jacket is open and half tangled in the strap of his messenger bag (which is thudding against his hip as he walks), green-brown newsboy cap askew on his head with auburn hair jutting out from under it at all angles. He waves as he enters the room, just a shade red-faced and breathless for his hurrying. Jax has a way of seeming like he's in a hurry even when he's /not/, a restless perma-energy that tends to come off as exuberant on his good days and nervous or manic on his off ones. The last day of school before break tends to give /most/ of the school an exuberance, though, with end of classes and approaching holidays and the decorations sprinkled throughout the school lending a more festive air. The enormous batches of cupcakes that have found their way into the Rec Room and Teacher's Lounge probably don't hurt matters any; though there's desserts found in those rooms /often/ today the eggnog cupcakes have just that little extra holiday pep. Jackson is downing the last of one, licking crumbs off his fingertips as he enters, though a carrying case in his hand has many more packed up To Go. He /looks/ kind of festive, too, the black streaks in his bright green hair touched up with illusion rather than dye to render them bright red instead and a green and red embroidered sprig of holly decorating his black eyepatch. He's otherwise in green skinny jeans tucked down into faintly sparkly purple Doc Martens, a black t-shirt reading 'Let's switch gender roles!' worn over a long-sleeved purple one, his nails black with glittering silver stars frosted into their centers and his makeup glittery silver as well; the lingering dark-splotched bruising on his jaw and much fainter ones circling his wrists were definitely there when he /left/ the house this morning but have been smoothly illusioned away all day at school much as his scars tend to be. He bounces into the room behind Micah, reaching out to squeeze lightly at the older man's hand before he heads towards the couch. He doesn't interrupt Shane, though, just looks from teenager to teacher with a small thin press of his lips and a smaller nod. "Thanks for coming," Aloke says, standing and watching as everyone enters. He's about to say something else when Shane launches right into his apology. He takes a breath, and visibly changes what he was planning on saying, and then stops himself again. "I know everyone's so busy, but I really appreciate you all coming in." Aloke continues in sign language. His 'I'm sorry' looks well-practiced, though the 'for the inconvenience' looks pretty raw. He probably just learned it today. "Shane, I was just hoping we could talk. I didn't need any kind of apology. I actually owe you one." Aloke gestures to the couch and the tea asking, "Do you all have time to sit for a minute? Maybe have some tea?" Nodding at Jax, Aloke adds, "Jax, if you don't mind, is there any way you could dim me? I know I'm kind of hard to look at right now…" Shane's hands stay folded behind his back as Aloke speaks, enormous solid-black eyes lifting briefly to lock onto the older man and then shifting back down to the floor. He doesn't look at his fathers when they enter, though his nose twitches and a faint smile touches his lips at the familiar scents. "I don't want any tea." And then, at a delay: "Thank you." Micah takes a deep breath before moving further into the room. “Sittin' would be...really nice actually,” he answers as he presses a hand to Shane's shoulder, just briefly, in greeting. “S'an important thing t'air out, I think. So's everyone can figure out exactly what happened an' make sure we don't got no...negativity goin' forward. Or...repeats of the situation, if we can avoid it.” He claims a seat on the couch, slumping just a little against the arm of it. The request to /dim/ twitches his lips into a bit of a smile. “Tea would be lovely, if you're already makin' it.” There is the faintest tic of relaxation to Jax's expression when Aloke says he owes Shane an apology. /He/ at least does take a seat, setting his cupcakes aside beside the hot water heater, giving Shane a peck on the temple in passing, and settling down beside Micah on the couch. "Actually I think I might kinda start dimmin' you whether you want it or not," he says with a faint hint of sheepishness, "You're kinda the brightest thing in the room I tend to just eat you straight /up/. Um -- jus' -- tell me if it /hurts/ or nothin', 'kay?" His fingers scuff through his hair, and then drop back to his knee. The warm light inside Aloke /shifts/, actively /pulled/ out of the other man -- at first this is starkly visible, stretching like a shaft of sunlight from Aloke to Jax, but then this fades away. Aloke's glow dims to barely anything, and Jax sits just a little straighter. "An' yeah, tea sounds great, thank you. -- We've, mmm, talked with Shane 'bout what happened afore but it's good I think to sit down an' work it out 'tween everyone." Aloke nods again to Shane, pausing briefly as the boy remains standing, and then moves to pour tea for Micah and Jax. "'Fraid all I made was Assam, but it's fresh." He pours tea into three, mismatched ceramic mugs, leaving the fourth by the tea pot. He passes a mug each to Jax and Micah, and sits down again in the loveseat. "I agree, Micah. I feel like we've had misunderstanding after misunderstanding, and I just wanted to see what we could straighten out." Aloke sighs and tips his head slightly when the light 'drains' out of him, lifting his hand up to look at it for a moment. "Wow that… Thanks Jax." He sips his tea, and then addresses Shane directly. "Shane, I lost my temper with you by the lake, and I apologize. I wish I could take it back. I won't offer any kind of excuse, because I don't think there is one, but I think I figured out the reason at least." Aloke glances around at everyone, and just plows forward. "You caught me off guard. When you came out, and we talked about finding your clothes, I thought you were /kidding/ when you said people move your clothes sometimes. So your reaction when I didn't believe you…" Aloke sighs and shakes his head. "It caught me off guard because I thought we were joking around. And I lashed out. I just…" Aloke glances over his shoulder at the door, and shrugs. "I've been fucking up left and right, trying to connect with you Shane. The problem on my end, is that I don't see as 'just another student'. So I've tried both ways I know how to connect. I tried treating you the way I like to be treated. And I've tried treating you the way you treat me. Neither one is right, and I'm so- {I'm sorry}," Aloke tosses in the hurried sign language. "For ruining your day last week, and for whatever other harm I've caused. I have nothing but respect for you, for B - for your whole family. My respect for your dads is /why/ I wanted to get to know you and B. I just…" Aloke finally stops himself, not angry or upset, but just at a loss for what else to say. Shane looks back up when the light dims, actually looking at Aloke now that it does not hurt to do so. His hands stay folded behind his back, though he smiles slightly at Micah's shoulder-squeeze, Jax's little kiss. He's quiet as Aloke speaks, gills slowly opening and closing at the sides of his neck. "I don't lie." At first that's all he says, gills whispering faster against the collar of his dress shirt. "If you want to get to know me, that's probably the first thing you should know." His hands tighten against each other, thin shoulders tensing up as they do. "... but I don't know why respecting my dads means getting to know us. They're them. I'm me. B's -- B. They're," his head turns just slightly to cant his eyes sideways towards his dads on the couch, "way more worth knowing." One corner of Micah's mouth twitches upward at Jax's mention of /eating/ Aloke, but he manages to limit it to that. “S'no such thing as /just/ Assam. Assam's wonderful, thanks.” He listens quietly as Aloke tells his side of the story to go along with the one they heard from Shane before. Almost without thinking, he moves closer to Shane and reaches out to stroke the gills down firmly. “You're entirely worth knowin' Shane, don't say that,” he corrects softly. “I think Mr. Suresh is sayin' he didn't think you were /lyin'/, he thought you were joshin' 'im. S'different.” He looks up at Aloke then. “But he's right. I ain't never heard a knowin' falsehood from 'im. S'got that...what some people would call 'honest to a fault'.” The gill petting is interrupted briefly for another shoulder-squeeze. 'Thank you.' Jackson signs this rather than say it out loud, taking the tea and lowering it to his lap. "Assam's lovely." He wraps his fingers around the mug, lifting his gaze to track between the others. "There has been -- a good bit more harassment than there should be from the other kids, not just -- with Shane but." He grimaces. "We had a pretty good talk with the administration this week, though, so --" He frowns, deeper, shaking his head at Shane. "Shane, you're more than worth knowin', don't talk like that." His mouth twitches upwards at one corner. "Even if y'do make it a little difficult to /get/ to know you sometimes. An' yeah, there was a problem in not takin' that seriously when the other kids messin' with you /is/ a serious problem. But s'been a problem on both ends -- we had a long talk with Shane already about /giving/ respect an' -- giving people a chance. Cuz that's fair important, too." "Oh Shane…" Aloke says when the boy talks about not being worth knowing. He's at a loss until Micah speaks up, and Aloke smiles brightly. "That's exactly it, thank you Micah. Shane, I've never thought of you as a liar. Or even as a 'kid', really. That's what I was trying to say. And you are so, /so/ worth getting to know. I barely know you and I can see that much." Aloke sets his cup down when Jax explains further. "You're absolutely right. I should have taken it seriously. It was just the first I'd ever heard about it, so I thought- well. Yeah, either way." He turns to face Shane again. "My apologies Shane. And I understand if you're just not interested in getting to know me. That's fine. I wouldn't blame you, especially after all this. But /I'm/ still interested if you are." Shane's eyes squeeze shut slowly, his gills settling back down at Micah's touch, which makes his breathing come a good deal easier. He focuses on this for a moment. Deep breath in, deep breath out. "It's just -- whatever, you know? I don't exactly go around /complaining/ about that shit all the time becuase -- some people are assholes that's just how the world is. Tattling on the other kids isn't going to change that." After this he quiets. More slow breaths, his stance leeeeaning up into Micah's touch slowly. "Okay," he finally says, low and a little uncertain. "But I don't really know. How. I mean /I'm/ kind of a dick to everyone. Like even the people I like. I don't always mean to be I just say whatever I'm thinking. I don't always know where the -- line. Is. The people I do get to know are the people who never gave a f--" He grits his teeth noticeably. "... who didn't care how I talked." “Honey, we want t'know when these kindsa things are goin' on so we can try t'find somethin' t'help. It ain't tattlin' t'let people know when you're bein' harassed an' havin' your things stolen. Did you or B look into the peer mediation for the clothes thing t'start, at least?” At Shane's lean, Micah steps up to him, offering that physical support in addition to the emotional. “Honey, we're /workin'/ on helpin' y'learn all those...social cues an' such. It's gonna take time. An' maybe we /will/ get those classes goin' that we were talkin' about t'help, too. But people like Mr. Suresh /do/ want t'get t'know you. So it's worth makin' the effort, don't y'think?” "You ain't had the normal time to learn all that stuff, but that don't mean you /can't/ learn it. And it's worth learnin'. Y'may well decide some social rules y'don't care about and some y'do but --" Jackson shakes his head. "You can't make those decisions till you learn an' -- then understand /why/ people react the way they do to you sometimes. Cuz if you're hurting people's feelings by /accident/ I know that's something you'll want to stop, you /ain't/ a hurtful person." His lips quirk into a warm smile. "An' people are worth it. Some people are worth it. Aloke's /definitely/ worth the effort." "I get what you're saying Shane, but how can we change anything if no one's told about what's going on?" Aloke just means the question rhetorically though, because he keeps going. "And I never cared about the /cussing/. Cussing, and disrespect, are not the same thing. Not to me at least." Aloke shrugs again, and picks up his tea for another sip. He smiles warmly when Micah and Jax endorse him. "I don't know if it makes a difference to you Shane, but I'd also be fine with you calling me 'Aloke'. Either way, I just want you to know when you leave today that I'm on your side. I might not know you well yet, but I /trust/ you. And I'd like to know you better." Shane is just quiet again -- quiet isn't the most /common/ state for the loudmouthed sharkboy but from the deep-creased frown in his expression he's giving all of this a lot of thought. When he does finally answer again it isn't in words, at first. He moves to pour the last cup of tea, stepping carefully around his dads to take the last seat on the couch. He offers a very tentative smile, and takes a sip of the tea. "Okay. Okay. Then let's talk."