thespherelogs | Education, messes and cookies.

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Education, messes and cookies.

Who: Alex, Tommy and Richard.
When: October 13th.
Where: Alex and Richard’s dome.
What: Feeding Tommy nanaimo bars and talking about his education.
Warnings: Probably talking about the last few months.

It’s not that Alex hates October all that much. Autumn has always been her favorite season, and she loves Candian Thanksgiving where there’s less of a capitalist sort of press on the whole thing because it doesn’t jumpstart Christmas. Also, her birthday is only ten days away, which helps with that too. But this year, there’s a pallor on the entire thing, considering what had happened with everyone over the past two months, and how they’d spent over a month cold and hungry and just miserable. Then she’d discovered that people weren’t people and people who she cares about are still missing. So, Alex definitely feels the need to at least be thankful for something this year.

One thing Alex is sure that Richard isn’t Thankful for, however is the fact that Alex Reagan never does things in half-measures, including making the one thing that she’s actually good at making. Of course being good at making something means that she’s also making a complete mess that she will clean up when she’s done. Wearing some custard powder like a swatch of white ornament on her cheek, some melted chocolate on her neck, and her apron is covered in various other splotches of other ingredients, there are several bowls dotted along the counters. But true to her word, Alex has started the hot water for both coffee and tea, and luckily for Tommy, Alex does have a few batches ready for him to have.

With the knock, Alex just calls over her shoulder. “Come in, Tommy!”

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Invite a boy in and he is in. In the blink of an eye Tommy's leaning against the counter near her, a bar in hand, munching on it.

"Damn, this is tasty," he mumbles around a mouthful.

Richard has been focused on getting the school back in order. It's a good distraction to the fact that Max is currently missing. He hasn't said a word about it or the fact that so many people disappeared. He also hasn't talked about what happened to him in the Sphere. They're not things he's one to share - if one could even call him a sharing person.

When he walks into the kitchen he diesn't pay Tommy any mind. The boy is Alex's friend, and he's already rejected the idea of schooling. It's too bad, he seemed to have some promise, but it's not Richard's place to decide. "Have you finished making a mess of my kitchen?"

"Thanks. The one thing that I can actually cook, even if it means that I make the place look like it'd been hit by some sort of natural disaster." Which may or may not have been an understatement, honestly given the state of these things around her.

When Richard walks in and chides her, Alex just gives him a shrug. "I've got a batch in the oven right now, and then one in the bowl and I'll be done afterwards." There's a pause before Alex looks to Tommy. "Well, that is if Tommy doesn't need more than a batch himself, I guess." Her tone and smile is fond before she looks back to Richard.

"Actually Tommy told me that he had something that he wanted to talk to you about, Richard."

“Oh def calling dibs on a batch,” Tommy answers, the bar missing in a blur. “Don’t worry, I can handle clean up. Once she’s done this will be handled in about four or five seconds from your perspective.”

From him it would feel just as long as it would take Alex to clean it up. Maybe a minute or two less because speed just added a touch more force to scrubbing.

“As for the other thing...”

Tommy looks a little nervous. What he’s asking was something that required a bit of vulnerability and he was always shit at that. Even with years more practice.

“Richard, You know much about physics?”

Richard's brow rose at the tantalizing tidbit that the pair were giving him in regard to this request. Richard isn't sure what he can give Tommy.

"It's not my area of expertise, but I know a bit."

"Yeah, I'd already planned on it, Tommy." Because Alex knows how much he needs to eat in order to keep himself on an even keel, and right now he definitely deserves to have as much good things as he possibly can. They all do, considering what a cluster the last two months had been. So, Alex just nods at the tray that he'd taken one from, giving him free reign of it with a smile.

A smile that only grows when he mentions physics and schooling because Alex has always known that Tommy was smart, especially considering that she'd been trying to attend school for months now. Tommy is somehow who definitely is too bright for him not to be able to study, and he's going to be good at what he does, Alex knows it.

The worst part of the last month hadn't been the way he'd exited it. No, the worst part had been the fact that he was starving in ways that other people hadn't understood. If he hadn't gone off and been a hero, he probably would have faded off another way.

Another bar ends up in his hand and is demolished with inhuman speed. It's okay, he's just happy.

"Good, because I'd hate to leave this place a mess when you're being good to me, Alex."

He chews his lip briefly before looking to Richard again. Still nervous? Yep.

"Say you were, uh, theoretically, trying to teach someone with special needs about physics. How would you, um, go about that?"

Yeah, Richard, he's coming to you with metaphorical hat in hand. He'd been wrong. He wants to learn. And he's going to be a problem student because traditional classroom settings just won't work at all for him.

"That depends on the need." It isn't as if knowledge is gained in only one way, and it isn't as if all people seeking it learn in the same way.

Alex just watches for a moment before the timer goes off, and she pulls on a potholder and then grabs a tray of the bars out of the oven and sets them on the cooling rack. Then she grabs the next one to go in before she sits up on the counter and picks up a bar of her own.

"Because everyone doesn't learn the same way, right?"

Dammit they gotta make him spell it out? Tommy looks annoyed at that.

"Attention span. It's not that I can't pay attention, it's that..."

He take another bar and drops it. It's possible to follow it's descent. He catches it an inch above the floor.

"That was at the most, seconds for you. For me? HOURS. Five minutes can feel like weeks. And so sometimes it's hard to learn because everything goes so SLOWLY. I have trouble sitting still because to keep in other people's reference of time, their perception of it, I've gotta be constantly stimming in one method or another. And I'm sorta bad at school as it's traditionally taught."

You can have all the patience in the world, but when five minutes is weeks, a fifty minute lecture is torture.

"I would think self-study with detailed notes written for you in advance would probably help." He'd been thinking about it for a bit now. Even if Tommy hadn't wanted to learn, there were others who would.

Oh, well... That makes Tommy sigh.

"I'm not sure how good I am with just being left to my own devices. I mean, David said I had potential. Because I've got all the time in the world to think. But I don't know."

"You wouldn't be left to yourself." Richard supposed that the term 'self-study' made it sound that way to someone who hadn't done it before. "We'd be available to you for whatever questions or clarifications you have."

"I would get through a lot of material in what seems like little time. Who would ever want to deal with all of those questions?"

BUt he really wants to learn.

"My powers, they're all about physics and the like, right? So if I learn it maybe I know me better."

"I prefer curious students who question." And he does. It's important to question everything around you in order to better understand it.

As they're talking, 'Simon's cat' jumps onto the counter and starts walking, knocking things over.

There's more than a little bit of a grin that Alex tries to hide when Richard said that he prefers people who questions because well, that was how the two of them had gotten into this in the first place. Honestly, she's unable to hide the entire thing, instead it just sparkles in her eyes before things start to get knocked over.

"Damn it, Simon's cat!" Alex just yelps a bit and moves over to pick up the gray cat in her arms, holding onto her loosely as she pets her. "You know better than that, silly girl."

Simon's Cat? What?

Tommy's eyes are on the feline, clearly confused. "Um... few questions, if the cat belongs to someone else, how did it get in here? Also what the fuck is it's name? And finally, I haven't even begun to question."

"It doesn't have a name." Which, he realizes, is probably horrible to anyone else. It wasn't that they didn't pay the cat any mind, it was simply that it preferred Simon to anyone else. Hence the name 'Simon's cat'. "And she doesn't belong to anyone else."

“It was Simon’s. He was a friend from home who was here before. Now she’s ours. But nothing else seems to fit her but Simon’s Cat. I’ve been trying for months to figure something else out honestly but nothing sticks. It’s the only thing she comes too. His name.”

"Sophie," Tommy suggests, even if he knows it's not a good choice. He considers them both and sighs.

"Listen, you are both nice to me, and I think you're both right. I want to learn. But I don't know that I can do it on my own. I don't know that I can keep myself focused. Will you guys help?"

"I'm sure I can come up with a regiment." And he is. He won't admit it, but he's been working on Tommy's problem for a while now. It was a challenge when the boy didn't want teaching, but now it was a proper plan.

"He's already been working on it," Alex supplies, because honestly Richard you expect her to be able to keep a secret like that? That's definitely something that's a silly thing to expect from Alex Reagan.

"And if it doesn't work, we'll work on changing it. Because we definitely want you to be able to learn. I've been saying so for ages."

Wait, he had been working on it? What? Tommy looks shocked, first from Alex to Richard. Richard did that for him? When he had every reason to think Tommy would never accept it.

"You were?" he asks, unable to keep the touch of hope out of his voice. Someone had believed in him. No. They both had. Fuck. Tommy can't help the way his hand comes up to rub at his eyes, trying to wipe away tears before they could see it.

It's lightning quick, but his eyes are a bit red. Don't call it out.

"Thanks. Both of you."

Asking Richard not to call you out on emotions? Consider it done. Instead, he focuses on the thank you that Tommy gives. It's not needed. "Everyone deserves a proper education." He believes that.

“Of course we were, Tommy.” Alex’s voice and her smile are soft and tender. “We adore you. And we hoped that you would come to decision on your own and we’re really really glad you did.” Even if Richard won’t say it, it’s what he has an Alex for.

Tommy's a strong guy that hides all of his emotions. Or he was. Because he had been too afraid of showing it in the past. But now, with David having helped him, with his brother...

This time Tommy doesn't hide how he tears up.

"Sorry. I'm not used to the whole people believing in me shit. Not even my family."

Richard chooses this time to excuse himself from the conversation. He doesn't do emotional, at least not where others can see it.

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Education, messes and cookies.

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