fandomhigh | Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

Entry tags:

living on the outskirts

Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

Today when students entered the classroom, they might notice how the usual pastries were completely absent. The seating set-up was the same, if only because the teacher had walked in to see the seats all shoved aside and had decided, to hell with it, he wasn't going to make the attempt to rearrange them. Oh. And the room smelled like burning brimstone. A little.

//Sick bloody joke,// the leather-wrapped teen who had taken a seat on top of the teacher's desk was grumbling. Well, 'grumbling.' Talking directly into the students' heads was more like it. And he wasn't even particularly good at it yet, considering the way he had to pause every few words in order to round up his focus all over again. //'A guide to fitting in... for those not meant to?' Really?//

Today's class might be a touch counter-productive.

//If yer not meant to... yer not meant to. World's got a pecking order to it. We... can't all be superheroes or rock stars or... prom kings. And a person'll just get burned if they set their sights... too high. Whose idea was it, having th'likes of me teach this? 'Those not meant to.' Plonkers.// Was young, skinny, burning Jonothon a little grumpy? Yes. Yes he was. //Th'way to fit in... is to find somebody who... happens to be as big a freak as you are. Anyone else... is probably just trying t'make themselves... feel better.//

He cast a look around the room, chestnut-coloured eyes glowing fire-hot for a moment.

//Tell me I'm wrong. Go on. Try.//

... That was probably about as close to an assignment as the class was going to get from Jonothon today, yes. So, go on. Tell him he's wrong.

[Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was kind of more like a challenge, granted. But if you have any argument at all for why Jono is wrong when he says that freaks are always going to be just freaks, by all means, speak up.

"I cannot think of anything that would make a difference in how those who do not fit in are viewed by others without that trouble," Yeul said quietly. "There will always be those who are uncomfortable, to put it mildly, with people who are different."

Which was desperately sad.

Yeul kept her voice soft and her eyes on her desk. "But I think that, perhaps, though it may not make a difference those who are not 'freaks' and how they feel, that those who are different should know that they are more than just their differences. Reducing someone to just being a 'freak' even if, especially if, that is a belief held by another 'freak' takes away everything else that they are as well."

//So, you're saying it's dehumanizing... t'be considered a freak among freaks,// Jono paraphrased, perhaps poorly, as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. //And we should... what, keep in mind that we're all... people, even when we're sitting on th'outside, looking in?//

Edited 2012-11-30 16:25 (UTC)

Yeul looked up at him. “I would not use the word ‘dehumanizing’,” she said quietly. “But I think it a sorrowful thing if the only people who might even have a chance to even vaguely understand one another spend their time pointing out each other’s differences and crying ‘that person is more of a freak than I am’.” She paused to consider her words carefully. “I do not mean to say that everyone who is a… a freak, to use your word, must get along with one another. But it seems pointless and needlessly cruel to deliberately lash out with harsh words towards the people who are freaks, because of their freakishness, if you’re also a freak.”

//Never said I was going to... lash out at people who're as... as messed up as me,// Jono grumbled, apparently not thrilled with being lectured when he didn't even want to be here in the first place.

Because life was unfair, that was why.

//Not even looking to find someone... worse off. Just saying there's... no point trying to fit in among people who... can't begin to comprehend what it's like.//

That said, he was totally a freak among freaks. He just didn't know the full extent of how poorly he'd be treated even by other mutants, yet.

She lifted her shoulders in the slightest of shrugs.

“As you wish,” Yeul said agreeably. “I do not believe anything I could say would change your mind on that matter. The rest was less meant as a lecture and more as an opinion.”

But that he’d taken it as a lecture was interesting in and of itself.

//And everybody is certainly entitled to one of those.//

Didn't mean Jono had to like that opinion, but it was true enough. He gave his boot a scuff against the leg of the desk that he was sitting on, and then shrugged.

//People are people. It'd be... nice, if it were really so simple, out there in th'real world. Wouldn't it?//

“I think so,” Yeul said honestly. “But I am probably the wrong person to ask. A great deal of my time is spent far from other people. I do not have much first-hand experience at the sort of dislike we are talking about. Only supposition and thoughts.”

Yeul had made most of the points already, so when Natalie chimed in, her contribution stayed on the simple side.

"You're wrong," she said. "And in a few days you'll be happy we told you so."

//Is that so?// Jono... really didn't seem entirely convinced. She was right, but it wasn't like he'd believe it until he turned back. //And why d'you say that?//

"Because I know how these things work." And she was very fickle when it came to playing along with people hit with Fandom weirdness. "This isn't who you are, usually."

//And you aren't even... th'first to tell me that,// Jono replied, rubbing at his forehead and furrowing his eyebrows. //But so far as I know... this is exactly who I am. Or... was... or...//

He shook his head. He didn't quite understand it. He still didn't entirely believe it. But then, considering the state of his body at the moment, he was willing to concede that almost anything was possible.

//Maybe I'll thank you when this wears off. Maybe this is... some big joke th'universe is playing on me. Hell if I know.//

Edited 2012-12-01 01:19 (UTC)

"The island, not the universe," Natalie noted dryly. She gave him a brief once-over, matching up this Jono with the one who she actually knew. "This does explain a fair bit about this class, though."

Jono followed that once-over with a glance downward at himself, and then looked away, finding the wall suddenly very interesting.

//Explains it? How d'you mean?//

Natalie shrugged a shoulder. "You have to have been like this to become the kind of guy who'd choose this class topic," she said, in that utterly neutral tone of hers. She noticed the wall had suddenly become interesting to him, yes. "To have a hope in hell of being convincing."

//And is it at all convincing?//

Because maybe, if someday he was at a point where he really could believe in the sort of drivel taught in a class like this, he could... attempt to lighten up. A little. It wasn't like he ever would fit in, not as he was, but people here didn't seem to be running and screaming or anything.

So... that was something.

"It's convincing enough," she said. "I'm still not sure why I'm in this class and I think the outskirts are fine when they're your own choice, but you believe what you teach, and it's easy to see."

Jono nodded a little, fidgeted a little more, and then finally looked her way.

//What d'you suppose would have made th'class worthwhile... for you?// He was still pretty new to the outskirts himself. He'd always been something of a womanizer, a party animal, crawling out of pubs he still wasn't old enough to drink in, bringing a girl home on either arm whenever he could get away with it without Gayle noticing. Maybe knowing what people who chose to be there wanted to know... would help him figure out what it was that he needed in order to survive being there by necessity.

Natalie shrugged a shoulder, just a little. "I don't know," she said, honestly, even if it wasn't particularly helpful. "I'm fine with who and where I am. Doesn't mean I dislike the class, or don't find it interesting. It's just that... what do you teach someone who honestly doesn't care about fitting in?"

//Maybe nothing,// Jonothon replied, //if they're doing just fine where they're at.//

He gave his boot another good scuff against the leg of the desk that he was sitting on, and then shrugged his shoulders.

//And... especially if they're comfortable... in their own skin.//

He definitely wasn't that.

"You'll get there, at some point." That was said with the same kind of neutrality that she used to convey most things. "I do believe they like to tell us that's a part of growing up."

//They usually still have all their skin t'be comfortable in.//

Grumbling for the sake of grumbling, that. But Jono was fidgeting a little less, at least.

//There're worse places to be right now, at least. Even if... maybe I'm not qualified t'teach this class... just yet.//

"Probably not." Definitely not. "And the skin is only metaphorical."

That was her slightly nicer way of saying grumbling wouldn't help him.

//I know.//

It was hard to not feel hollowed out in far more metaphorical ways than literal, when you were Jono Starsmore.

... He'd... kind of grow out of that, at least.

//Maybe you're right. Maybe I'll... even thank you for this talk. Someday.//

"Mmhmm. I'll probably see you once you're back to usual, you can tell me your verdict then."

And she'd try not to poke at his teen trauma.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Living on the Outskirts, Friday, Period 2

... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?

Re: ... Discuss?