The Perk - Wednesday Afternoon

[onlyajones]

Jo was very confused about the singing dolls that the Baristas had brought into the Perk that day, no one seemed to know what language was being said and then one of the Baristas decided to use her phone to translate and the result was not what anyone was expecting.

“Oh,” Jo went red when she saw what the translation was, “that’s rather rude, this is meant to be a children’s toy?”

Apparently even toys had progressed quite a bit since the 1950s, still even a rude singing toy wasn’t enough to stop Jo having her normal hot cocoa after classes so she took her usual window seat and tried not to think too much about the singing dolls.

[open!]

Comments

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon, unfortunately, understood every language. He'd barely noticed whatever language they were singing, only that the damn things had been in his flat and he'd seen some people with them outside, and now here.

He looked pained as he ordered his tea. "Do you really need those things in here?" he asked a little testily. "The songs they're singing are at best not exactly holiday-oriented."

That was one way of putting it.

The barista just shrugged, grinned, and gave him his tea. Jon sighed.

[onlyajones]

“Good afternoon Mr. Sims,” Jo said when she spotted him, she had heard him talking about the dolls, “the dolls are rather shocking aren’t they? I’ve never heard of a rude singing doll before,” she told him.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Good afternoon, Jo." Jon nodded to her and brought his tea over. "They're everywhere, and the profanity is...well, not exactly relaxing." He grimaced. "I hope your day is going well, though."

[onlyajones]

"It hasn't been too bad, aside from the math quiz I had to do this morning, I'm pretty sure I failed it," Jo admitted, considering she hadn't even been able to finish it, she was reasonably sure of it, "you can understand what the dolls are saying?" she looked impressed, "one of the baristas used google to translate and well I know for a fact my mother would be scandalised if she knew I'd seen that kind of language," she felt rather bad for throwing the barista under the bus there but Jo was lucky to understand English at times let alone another language.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, are they..." Jon sighed. "I understand everything. I hadn't even realized it wasn't English; I was trying not to pay too much attention to them."

He did his best to give her a sympathetic smile, and hoped it didn't come across as too awkward. "Math, however, hasn't ever been a strength of mine, either. Hopefully you'll have another chance."

[onlyajones]

“Oh wow,” Jo’s eyes were wide, “sometimes I can barely understand English,” she admitted, which considering a few weeks ago Jo hadn’t understood what satire was, well it wouldn’t really be news to Jon.

“It’s certainly been a different math class ,” she admitted, “we were having new teachers every week for a while, one class involved running,” sorry Gladio, Jo still hadn’t recovered from that class, “I hope I can make up for it, I’d like not to fail my classes for once, it would be a nice change,”

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I have no idea what running has to do with math," Jon admitted. He'd just skip over discussing his eldritch knowledge; class topic aside, he preferred not to scare his students.

"Well, you're certainly not failing Literature," he assured her. "I don't know what else you're taking, though."

[onlyajones]

“It was something about measuring miles and kilometres,” Jo tried to think back, “we had to run those distances, I’m not much of a runner,” she hadn’t been properly dressed for running either, well that was most days.

Jo beamed when she learned that she wasn’t failing literature, “oh that’s good,” she said, “I ..I have been enjoying your class this semester, I never realised how interesting reading could be before,” she told him, there was a pause , “I’ve also been taking Ethics, Fixin Stuff, Modern World and You and Introduction to Engineering this semester,” she paused, “and math of course,” she added.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon frowned. "I hope you weren't seriously worrying about that. You've never been close to failing my class. And you're taking quite a few; I hope they're all enjoyable."

[onlyajones]

“Oh it’s been rather fascinating to learn, even though my last school had full days of subjects Monday to Friday so two days of classes a week isn’t that bad,” Jo told him, “I’d …I’d like to do well in my classes but I …I’ve only ever been bottom of the form, so it’s still something I’ve been trying to improve,”

There was a pause and then, “I feel like ethics would have been something useful to know at my last school,” she revealed, “I may not have made such a huge mess of things,” she admitted, even though then there wouldn’t have been a need for her to apply to a new school so in a weird way it did work out.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Ethics is something a lot of adults could stand to learn," Jon noted dryly.

"Look, Jo." He fiddled with his cup. "I...I know what it's like to make a huge mess of things," he managed. "I won't ever judge you for it. It doesn't mean you're a bad person necessarily. I hope you can make a new start of things, and if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know." He smiled a little. "Even if it's just reassuring you you're not failing my course."