un: j.griffin

[onebetter]

Hey, newbie here with four (4) questions! I'll try to make this short and sweet.

1.) What's the top 5 books in the library that you absolutely have to have read?
2.) How much does the STAR Club actually work with Runes in practice?
3.) Best free time places in Soleil? I'm fresh from the USA, France is all new for me.
4.) Any recently enrolled undergraduates up for a study group kind of thing? Can totally be casual and involve nice cafés etc. I figure I'm not the only one who came here from half the world away and needs to meet new people.

Comments

[onebetter]

Heh.

[ James is certainly a little amused by it. ]

You could prove their expectations wrong, if you'd care to.

[marmoron]

Assuming Nightfall doesn't end the world before that.

[That's cheerful. But that aside, he drops some of the gloom and gives a more honest response.]

Don't exactly have anyone I want to see from our class either. Don't really have anything to say to them either. Not all of us were drowning in popularity.

[onebetter]

You really were not trying all that hard to change that.

[ James pushes open the door to the gym as he speaks and, after a quick moment of orientation, leads the way to the locker rooms. ]

You didn't like anyone either.

[marmoron]

[Keeping an even pace with James as they head towards the locker rooms, Keith simply shrugs.]

That's not true. It's not that I didn't like anyone.

[It's that he didn't... care?? Maybe that's just a semantic difference and less a functional one. Keith frowns slightly as they reach the men's locker room and pushes open the door. There isn't anyone else inside at present which is a small blessing if only for the fact that he doesn't really enjoy getting changed in crowds.]

....well, I didn't like you a whole lot.

[onebetter]

[ James has half a mind to question the past tense of that statement, but it's not like he doesn't already know the answer here. ]

Okay, name someone you did like then.

[marmoron]

[That's getting a raised eyebrow before Keith picks a locker and opens it up.]

I didn't know anyone well enough to know if I liked them.


[Stated matter of factly as he hangs up his bag on a hook, then pulls out his gym clothes.]

Why are you so interested in this anyway?

[onebetter]

I'm just curious.

[ James meanwhile places his bag on one of the benches for the time being and slips out of his school uniform shirt. He gives Keith a quick glance over his shoulder. ]

And saying that is the same as saying you didn't like anyone, you know that right?

[marmoron]

How is being indifferent about someone the same thing as disliking them?

[An earnest question. He pulls off his uniform shirt and changes into his gym shirt. There's no eye contact.]

[onebetter]

When it's a whole class you're conveniently indifferent about, it kind of sends the same message.

[ James turns back to mind his own business and change his pants as well now. ]

Especially if you've been going to school together for years. Like gee, if you're still perfectly indifferent about everyone after this much time, that might as well be the same as telling them they're beneath you.

[marmoron]

[That gets Keith to look over his shoulder just to throw out an incredulous look.]

You-- [He stops short mid-sentence when he realizes James in the middle of changing his pants and turns right back around because that's awkward as hell to be watching.] You're one to talk about treating people like they're beneath you.

[He finishes changing, then closes the locker again.]

[onebetter]

[ There's a pause at that, but only briefly. ]

You started that.

[ James tosses his own bag into a locker and shuts it with a little more force than necessary. ]

[marmoron]

I didn't start anything.

[Stated matter-of-factly rather than defensively as Keith turns to leave the locker room.]

[onebetter]

You came into our school acting too good for all of us and you spent the next half a decade continuing to never give anybody a second glance.

[ He follows out of the lockers as he speaks, sounding like what he's saying should be self-explanatory. ]

[marmoron]

[He doesn't reply right away, instead raising an eyebrow at James before heading towards the area reserved for practicing martial arts.]

Have you been waiting to litigate this with me for half a decade? I just told you I didn't have a problem with anyone, Why are you telling me that I did?

[onebetter]

Well, you seem genuinely confused about how anyone else was perceiving you. I'm updating you on it.

[ And also he's trying to get over his own bafflement at apparently having been wrong? He's not quite at the part where he believes that. ]

And I guess it doesn't really matter anymore because we're elsewhere now, but maybe it's a reference.

[marmoron]

[Aaaaand now he's scowling.]

I asked why people assumed I was into street fights. You told me it had to do with the way I look. I can't do anything about that. Then you started accusing me of shit I don't even think. Kinda starting to sound like maybe the problem was you for assuming in the first place,

[onebetter]

The way you acted didn't exactly do anything to lesson the rumor level, sorry.

[ James has never been one to take accusation well, even if it's deserved accusation. Thus he ends up snapping back before he even knows it. ]

[marmoron]

[There's absolutely no point to this conversation. Not a single point. They've graduated and they've left behind everyone from their high school and Keith is never going to see them again. But the way James keeps at this is starting to become genuinely irritating and he pushes the door open with enough force that the handle slams against the inside wall.]

I kept to myself and didn't bother anyone. You're the one who started harassing me, so if you want to start talking about shitty behavior, why don't you start with yours.

[onebetter]

[ James flinches just the smallest bit at the slam of the door and he's mad at himself for it the second after. ]

I tried to make friends with you when you came!

[ He says it with a bit too much force and then takes a deep breath. He doesn't need to be yelling. He doesn't need to act like that was important to him. ]

And you just immediately brushed me off, like I was dirt.

[marmoron]

[There's just the tiniest pause as Keith shoots him yet another incredulous look over his shoulder like this is the stupidest thing he's heard all day. He has no idea why James has apparently been grudgewanking about their first encounter (an encounter so unmemorable to him that it's taking a couple of seconds to even recall this particular day in middle school), or why he feels the need to yell about it.]

Seriously?

[Incredulity fading fast, his brow furrows even further in obvious disgust.]

I just transferred to a new school district and wasn't feeling great about it and you got mad because I wasn't immediately kissing the ground you walk on? Fucking hell, James. You really have some nerve to be telling me I'm the one with a shitty personality.

[onebetter]

[ James hates that look Keith is giving him. He hates it with an intensity that he can't quite describe. It gets right under his skin and poisons his whole bloodstream. Whatever Keith sees in him right now, it's something only Keith can see. Nobody else would ever give James these eyes. And he loathes it, loathes that when Keith looks at him like that, he can't brush it off. It stuns him into silence for a moment. ]

I-- I at least make an effort.

[ Unlike you. ]

[marmoron]

An effort to what? Pretend you're nice when you're just am asshole in disguise?

[Perhaps he's going too far with this here, but Keith honestly does not care at this point. But he does continue to walk into the far end of the room.]

You really had those idiots fooled.

[onebetter]

[ You really had those idiots fooled.

It rings in his head, for reasons entirely different than what Keith intended. It rings in his head because he remembers every time he's forced himself to laugh along with things against better knowledge and judgement and how bitter it had tasted in his mouth. He remembers every time waving goodbye from school muttering a word or another about 'family time' and then spent hours and hours learning about a world he'd never be able to tell anyone about.

This isn't what Keith is saying and even in his irritated state of mind James knows it isn't, but it's so easy to scratch at his mind and lay those memories bare. ]

I wasn't lying about my friendships.

[ Not about that. If nothing else.

James takes a moment before he picks up walking and following Keith again. ]

[marmoron]

[Keith comes to a stop at the area lined with floor mats for hand-to-hand combat training. In the corner there are some targets for practicing kicks and punches, but they're not here for that, so those get ignored entirely. He stretches his arms one after another to loosen up a little.]

Yeah, right. Not like you ever showed them your nastier side. You think your friends would've liked you if you told them everything they were ever good at was just a fluke?

[onebetter]

[ James has caught up with Keith just in time for that comment and it has him looking at Keith, gaping. ]

What? It's-- it's not, they're nice people, they try really hard, what the fuck??

[ James is stuck on thoughts of himself and others now, thinking of himself as special and then trying not to, hovering in his bedroom. It doesn't click for him why Keith is bringing up this example. Not yet. ]