Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jordan had placed himself in an empty corner of the cafeteria, picking a table with four chairs and putting his back to the wall. He wasn't feeling inclined to wonder who might be looking - or listening - over his shoulder. Anyone who decided to eavesdrop would have to do so in plain sight, and Al would have to pick between putting his back to the room or sitting next to Jordan while they talked rather than having the distance of the table between them.

He nursed a cup of coffee. It was the second one - he'd had one cup to soothe his nerves before leaving the room. The cafeteria coffee still sucked, he noted. He'd done that to himself, though, and this was a relatively neutral, safe place to have a conversation.

He intended to keep it civil, but he wasn't going to make this easy for Al. Melvin might be accusing him of sticking his nose in where he had no right, of unduly criticizing a third party, but Melvin wasn't aware of the full context, or if he was aware he was choosing to ignore it. This had a direct bearing on Rep's state of mind and attitude towards their relationship, and thus it directly affected Jordan, and he was tired of dealing with the problems it caused. Treat the source, not the symptoms.

"Hi," Jordan said, and gave Al a pleasant, friendly smile. "Nice to see you. Want to grab a cup of coffee?"

"Sure, whatever you'd rather have," Jordan said, and continued to watch Al. Making the kid nervous was a relatively minor revenge, but satisfying in an unpleasant way.

Jordan leaned his elbows on the table. "Okay," he shrugged. "Why do you think I wanted to talk to you?"

"Well, that's in there," Jordan admitted, "but more than that, because I want to find out where you're coming from on some of the things you do and say. And because you've been upsetting Rep, and I don't think you meant to do that."

This was going to take careful handling. Jordan took a sip of his coffee, thinking fast; he didn't want to give Al the idea that Rep was weak, nor give him too much of an idea that this might be a sore issue for Rep. Al looked up to and liked Rep, and Jordan wasn't about to mess with that, for multiple reasons.

"He's a very strong person, in a lot of ways," he said. "He's had a rough life, and a weaker man would probably have been unable to cope. That doesn't mean nothing ever bothers or upsets him. He doesn't like to make that obvious, though. He's probably not going to mention it to you directly." He gave Al a thoughtful, assessing look. "He likes you. He spends time and attention on you. I've got a personal interest in making sure that that doesn't mean he's snarly and tense from conflicting impulses at the end of the day."

"Not easy. He's had a pretty tough life," Jordan said, torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to sigh with exasperation, and compromising by twitching a flat smile. "He does like you, or he wouldn't spend time helping you out."

Jordan gave Al a moment to sparkle over that thought. Then he added, "But you should consider that if things you say about him bother him, he might not want to talk to you as much."

Jordan suppressed the urge to sigh again. Was I ever that young? he said to Ferros. I mean, I'm only six years older than he is, but he just. Augh.

Ferros chuffed a silent laugh. I'm sure you were, the dragon said.

Thanks. Thanks so much. Jordan turned his attention back to Al and raised an eyebrow at him. "You see what I'm getting at?" he asked. "You made him feel weird about talking on Twitter there. Probably not in your best interests."