[Video]

[whatsatisfiesme]

[First rule of cutting classes: Don't post on the school network that you're cutting classes.

No one's told Gilbert that one apparently, however, because here he is well into the morning - it's around second or third period - still in bed and capturing video of himself on his school-provided laptop. With just a long night-shirt draping off him still, he's nestled himself against the headboard and pillows with a book on Renaissance art and a small bowl of sliced fruit he's nibbling from.

After the strain that the riots put on his empathic powers, he'd been given nearly a week of recovery time...and now that's more than come and gone, and he's decided simply not to go back.]

It must be so tedious - burning through all your time in classes here, studying the same things a human school would be making you learn. It's a marvelous sham, isn't it? Do this work for a diploma so you can attend university, find a career, "become a member of society..."

As if society is going to want us any more then than it does now! But you can guess what the real lesson is, can't you?

[The smile he's turning on the camera now can really only be described as "flirtatious."]

This entire school is just one long class in how to pretend. How to play along and make nice for the humans, like we're all cats they've de-clawed. I hope you all have a lovely afternoon, sitting and listening to that. [He kicks back on the bed then, looking so comfortable it's almost a sin.]

I'll be right here.

Comments

[fire_and_romance]

"No, I can't. Mama didn't know how to read American and my sister was always so busy. Father never bothered with me, of course. I can read a little Chinese, though..."

[Very, very little Chinese. But she tries hard and that's what's important.]

[whatsatisfiesme]

You speak it well enough, though. Do they not have you in classes yet, or...?

[Not that he would encourage going to them, but. He's interested past merely complaining, just now.]

[fire_and_romance]

[Jun raises her hands and shakes them.]

"No, no. I'm in classes, I just haven't...gone to them. You know...I'm not sure I want them. But I'm only good at speaking English because of my sister. She taught me to speak. Mama still only knows Chinese."

[whatsatisfiesme]

Oh. [He's frowning thoughtfully here. This hits closer to home than he'd have like, all of a sudden.]

I have some of the books I learned from at first, still, but they're all in French...

[English came later, before he'd come to Paris, and for that Auguste had hired a private, intensive tutor for him.]

[fire_and_romance]

[Jun nods thoughtfully. Something seemed to be bothering him about what she'd said. Probably a memory he wasn't fond of. She'd try to avoid that.]

"Yeah, I don't speak French, but I'm sure it's a lovely language..."

[whatsatisfiesme]

[Gilbert's nose wrinkles. He's still dwelling on something or other. Finally, he lifts his head and asks:]

What room are you in? In the dorms, I mean.

[fire_and_romance]

"Room six. Up on the third floor. Why?"

[Probably would have been better to ask why before hand but she wouldn't have thought of that.]

this reply went totally off the rails, I'm so sorry

[whatsatisfiesme]

I wanted to know, is all.

[Whatever he's gotten into his head, he's not ready to explain it just yet. He's worrying at his lip as, rather than try, he bends closer to the computer to cut off the video feed.]

Until next time -

[And that's all. He's not there anymore.

Towards the end of the day, though, Jun might open her door or come back to her room to find a small, black book-bag hanging off the door, empty save for a slim, hardback volume. The cover is plain and plainly old, its title in French.

Inside, the text is the same - a French prose adaptation of stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses, presumably for schoolchildren. But here and there are dog-earred pages, always with illustrations, and sheets of notebook paper slipped in with them, taped down. Each one has a short, simplified (and often imperfect) translation of the pictured story into English, handwritten in delicate script.

He doesn't know if they'll be any use, if Jun even has enough of a start to sound out the words and attempt to tackle them. But it was the only thing he could think of - and remembering how it felt trying to learn, not being able to escape into a story or piece things together, is too miserable for him to shrug it off.

He guesses, if she needs help past that, she could always ask? Not that there's any name or note included with the impromptu gift.]

Oh no it's quite fine!

[fire_and_romance]

[Well, Jun certainly didn't expect that one. She's not quite sure what to make of the book. The pictures are nice at least. The words...very confusing. She'll have to ask someone about them eventually. For now the book gets a place on her bureau where anything else important to Jun goes.]