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 Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 5:19 pm
"That's laaame. They always pick boring stuff." They sighed, rolling their eyes as dramatically as possible. "Unless they finally pick interesting stuff when you get older... do they?" They sat upright, leaning over to see what he was doing... then promptly moved back into place with a look nearing offense. "What is that??" They paused, then shook their head, "never mind, I don't wanna know." With a shudder they leaned back against the tree again.
"Yeah well the way you're describing it, it sounds just like having caretakers. They're too busy to spend much time with anyone except the extreme babies. What's the point in having kids if they're not gonna spend time with 'em?" They eyed him closely, picking up on some emotional response in there but not quite aware what it was just yet. Discerning when to stop was something they were still learning how to do...
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:12 pm
 Vaden snapped out of his dejected state and sighed a bit. "I guess they do. Sometimes they have good reasons for picking the things they do though...just want you to learn the value of something like...family or friends, or how trusting people can be dangerous."
He moved his hands slightly as the Freshling investigated his work. In spite of himself he snorted and chuckled a bit. "Calculus." he watched Gany lean back against the tree and his expression softened a bit. Despite his previous reservations, maybe talking to kids wasn't that hard.
"Well for one thing you wouldn't have to share your parents with any other kids unless they were your siblings. They'd come in every night to make sure you were okay and if you needed anything...Dad would give me a short lecture if my grades were slipping or tell me he was proud of me if I'd done well on a test. Sometimes he'd clear his entire schedule just to spend the day with me...just me...and we'd do whatever I wanted. Mom would tuck me in...and kiss my forehead...and hum a song she'd made up for me when I was a baby. We'd go for walks sometimes in the park..." he twisted his pencil in his hands over and over again, maybe he'd been too hard on them all these years, they had taken time to spend time with him when their schedules had allowed. He swallowed and scrubbed his face with his sleeve, then took a deep breath and composed himself again. "Sorry..." he said quietly.
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:22 pm
"I already know about that last one!" Gany stuck their tongue out a little in response. "But the other stuff contra..... contradicts that lesson so what's the point?" Aha, they'd managed to sneak in another big word. They'd learned that one last week. Maybe some language lessons were worth while after all.
"Calculus looks like gibberish and I don't want anything to do with it. They don't make you take that, do they? I already don't like the math classes I got." Gany made a face again, all these requirements were so bothersome...
The change in his tone caught their attention from their momentary moping. A frown formed over their face as they watched him scrub at his face. Ah, they'd done it again. This time they hadn't even meant to! Thinking back on what they'd said they couldn't piece together what had caused the older boy to tear up... no insults, no touching, no nothing...
Ignoring everything he'd said, Gany shifted to his knees, staring with far more intensity than they'd displayed thus far. "Why are you crying." For once there was an inkling of tone in there, almost accusatory or hostile, rather than concern that might normally be shown to someone on the verge of tears.
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:50 pm
Vaden took a deep breath. He took it back, kids were complicated. "No, it doesn't." or did it? He wondered if the child was being argumentative just to see if they could annoy him. "Because sometimes people aren't what they seem and..." he gave up, he didn't even know what he was trying to argue at this point, and it didn't seem worth so he dropped it.
"I'll concede you that point." he said tapping his pencil against the binder. "And you'll get math as you get older based on your ability. If you're not very good at it they'll probably only make you take up to algebra of some sort. A good calculator is invaluable." He tapped the one that was perched on his knee.
"It's stupid. I know, I just...realized some things..." he swallowed and gently flexed his pencils between his thumb and forefingers. Not hard enough to break it, just enough to make it bend a bit. "They loved me...they...really really loved me...it didn't always seem like it, but they did. I miss them."
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 8:02 pm
"Most of the time they aren't." They corrected, rolling their eyes again. They weren't really arguing just for the sake of it at this point, the contradiction between the two lessons really had confused them in the past, so they'd just decided to stick with not trusting people right off the bat. Or ever.
"They won't let us use calculators in class right now." On some level, they understood they should probably learn how to do all of this basic stuff on their own, but honestly they'd rather just take the easy way to it. "Did they give it to you or your parents?? Or did you buy it?" So many questions... did older students really get to have jobs?
The answer to their last question was rather anti-climactic as far as they were concerned... still, it was somewhat good to know they hadn't really done that. They shuddered to think what sort of disciplining they'd get if their caretakers found out they'd made a senior cry.
"Why not write home or something if that's all it is." Seeming bored of his answer, they flopped back against the tree again. "Do portals go that far?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:06 pm
He sat and tried to figure out where they were in this conversation. Kid logic was just...hard to follow. He hadn't been exposed to many young children over the years. "Sometimes you can be wrong though. The person you thought who was out to do you the most harm is actually the person who is trying their hardest to protect you. Sometimes people have to pretend to be other than they are because they have to protect themselves or someone they care about. People are complicated, but don't lose faith in them...don't shut people out because of one or two bad experiences. Everyone needs someone to catch them when they fall." he hoped that satisfied the kid. Maybe not...it might be a little over their head, but maybe it would give them something to think about.
He chuckled. "Most low level maths won't. It's good to learn how to do basic math, it's only when you'd need a whole separate book for all the numbers a symbol might mean you need a calculator." he looked over at the calculator. "This one is school issued. It's about the same as the one I had at home, it was slightly nicer though."
He opened his mouth and then slowly closed it. "I...suppose I could write them." he said slowly and then tried not to laugh. "Yes, Portals go lots of places. Small portal stations link to bigger ones in bigger cities and bigger cities link to lots of places big and small."
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:26 pm
They listened to his explanation, it seemed logical enough... Though they didn't quite buy into it that much. "I guess. But it's easier just to not put yourself in a place where someone can hurt you anyway so..." They shrugged, leaving it at that.
"Soooo at home you had a lot of money so you could get nicer things than they have here?" They tilted their head a little, one brow raised curiously. They knew on some level that most non-orphans had to come from well-off families, but that was about it.
"So then if you didn't wanna write them you could go see them in person." They nodded, as if it were that simple. "Thennnn you could stop being a sap and just tell them in person you realized even though it kinda sounds like they left you alone a lot that they love you and not cry about it."
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:20 am
"That's a very lonely way to live thought..." he said gently. "Just...think about it, okay?" he didn't expect any sort of agreement from the freshling. Gany didn't strike him as being someone who overly concerned themselves with the deeper more complex "why's" of behavior. Perhaps it was just the fact they were young? According to the books, weren't kids supposed to act out to test the limits of acceptable behavior so they could then learn what was socially acceptable and not? He sighed a bit, early child development was not his forte.
"Well...not a lot of money. I was just an only child, so it was just me and my parents. They could afford to sometimes get me nice things because it wasn't like here where it's more important for things to last with how many students are going to use the item over the course if it's lifetime. Despite the Academy and Universities having very rich patrons from around Below, functionality and durability, are more important than aesthetics." He then suddenly wondered if he should give the kid a dictionary with his word choices. He was trying to keep things simple, but words just kept slipping out.
Vaden rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "Yes, I suppose you're right. I'll think about it, okay Ganymede?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:39 am
They shrugged, "I'm not lonely." Sensing that Vaden was done with that particular topic, they let it drop for now. They stretched out their arms a little, fingers threaded together... Aesthetic... they knew that word. They grinned, pleased with themself. "I know that word. They use it a lot in fashion magazines. I didn't know you use it for other stuff too."
To the rest of it, they simply nodded. Nothing more to say there, after all.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:23 am
Vaden refused to be drawn into another debate with the child about the nature of loneliness, and Ganymede seemed to have sensed that the subject was closed so was happy to move on.
As the child stretched Vaden, took a moment to look back at his math homework and manged to get closer to finishing another problem. Gods why did every problem need almost a full page, and why wouldn't they let him use the shortcuts that made everything 20 times simpler!? He didn't really see the value of making students do it the "long way" when advanced mathematics were often far easier to understand when you showed people easy ways to solve the problem.
He looked over at Ganymede in shock. "You...know what 'aesthetic' means?" of course at this point the child's vocabulary had been all over the range of what he thought might be "normal" words for a child to understand. Fashion? He supposed that word could be used for fashion. He'd never paid much attention to clothing. "Well, of course. 'Aesthetic' just means anything to do with concepts of beauty and of course ugly. Even if something is not...exactly pretty, like a calculator, it can still be pleasing because it satisfactorily fulfills a function."
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:02 am
They blinked... was that not a word they should know yet? Ah well. Since they weren't exactly on good terms with most other children in their quad, they did spend a lot of time reading. "Well yeah. I like things that are pretty so I read a lot of pretty stuff and it comes up sometimes, so I asked my caretaker what it means." They nodded, though his shock on the matter made them feel a sense of blooming pride. Or perhaps just an ego inflate. Not exactly what someone like Ganymede needed, but oh well.
"How many of those things do you have to do?" They pointed at the page, frowning. "That seems really long and boring. Umm..." Gany paused as they attempted to come up with another big word for that... nope. "What's a big word for 'long and boring'?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:40 am
Well that made sense more or less. It was kind of sad though that Gany didn't have any friends. He hadn't had very many friends growing up either, since flitterats probably didn't count, and he to had resorted to reading as a way to fill the void. "I see. That makes sense."
He looked down at his homework and frowned. How many more did he have to do? "Three more...? I think?" he nodded in agreement. "Tedious. Very very tedious." at this rate he was probably just going to do all the rest of his problems the quick way and showing all his work be damned, it shouldn't matter How you got the answer as long as it was the Right answer.
He glanced at his watch, it was starting to get a little late and the dent he'd hoped to put in his homework was no where near the level he'd hoped, but despite that he had enjoyed his conversation with Gany. He should really go put his things in his room and maybe think about dinner. Was there any reason Gany couldn't go with him? And the could talk for a bit longer? "Do you like animals?" he asked in what seemed a random change of topic.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:01 pm
"Three more? They're so big, though! That's... unreasonable." They grinned, only somewhat stumbling over the long word. "Teeedious... I think I'll remember that one. It's fun to use words the others don't know yet." They nodded, and once more to the next question.
"Yeah, animals are nice. I don't have any though. I think the caretakers think I'll be mean to it but I'm only mean to stupid people." That was a little more than they'd usually outright admit to, most times they'd deny outright malice if asked about it. "But animals aren't stupid."
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:00 pm
Vaden actually laughed. It was a genuine sound and it wasn't at Gany but just at the tone the Freshling had used with utter seriousness. "Well I only had to do 10 problems to start with." he said smiling back at the Gany. "And I know some short cuts that will make them easier. So it'll be a little less 'unreasonable.'" he assured them.
Vaden debated arguing with them over the legitimacy of their "stupid" claims, but decided to skip it for now. "Would you like to meet my flitterat? Her name is Charoite. I should go put all this stuff in my dorm and then go to dinner, if you want you can go with me, and play with Charo for a few minutes and then I'll drop you back with your group?" he didn't think either of them would get in trouble, he was pretty sure he'd seen older students with younger ones from time to time, so it was probably fine for him to take Gany on a little adventure and then drop him back off with his freshling group in the cafeteria.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:34 pm
"Ten??" Their expression was one of scandal at that point. Ten big problems like that seemed like torture or something. It had to be. "There are short cuts? How come you weren't using them before??" Gany pushed themself up, immediately interested in the prospect of not only going to see what a senior's dorm looked like, but also playing with a flitterat.
"Yes, I'd like that. What's a Charoite?" They tilted their head to one side. What an odd name. "I don't think my caretakers will mind if I go. I'm not s'posed to go back in 'til dinner time anyways." That... wasn't entirely true, but they'd interpreted their 'time out' session that way.
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