Teddy and Shen - Backdated
Oct. 4th, 2017 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainShen and Teddy discuss the activist club and the recent announcement.
The library had a quiet buzz to it today, but Teddy wasn't paying attention to the various clusters of students going over class notes or rummaging through the shelves. He stared at the word file open on his laptop, a stack of books at his elbow. He theoretically had another week to do the essay for US History, but given the rate at which he wasn't getting anything down, he was going to need all the time he could get.
The Acadians and the Wabenaki: America's Forgotten Alliance and the Causes of the French-Indian War
It was a stupid title but at least it was a topic that no-one else had taken, at least from the couple of books still on the shelves.
Colonizing regions of Nova Scotia and Maine in thesixteenth seventeenth century, the French settlers who would be known as Acadians made friends with- ... entered into an alliance with... negotiated use of marshlands...
Teddy sighed, sat back in his chair, and reached for Natives and Newcomers, the top book on his pile. Maybe he should have done something on the Redcoats instead.
"Hey," Shen greeted him as she grabbed the chair beside him. "Mind if I sit here?" She was not looking forward to writing her biology essay, but she figured she would be more likely to get some work here than in her room.
Teddy glanced up, a still slightly shy smile appearing on his face when he saw Shen. "Go right ahead. Here -- let me clear you some space." He shuffled his notebooks out of her way and dumped them on top of his book pile. "How're things going?"
"All right," she answered, because that was the default answer. She smiled at him as she took a seat, flipping the chair around so it would be more comfortable with her wings. And yes, she was sitting down instead of going to look for the books she needed. Procrastination, what? "Kinda wishing we were still on summer break. How about you?"
"To a certain extent," Teddy grinned. "Summer itself was pretty dull, but I could definitely have gone for being here without dealing with the homework."
"It doesn't feel like anything is ever dull around here," Shen confirmed, with a wry but happy smile. She paused, then asked, "Hey, have you heard about the activist club we're setting up?"
Teddy glanced at his screen, avoiding the sting of guilt for not getting involved. He'd been busy, mind you, and surely not everyone was expected to join everything, and... yeah. Excuses. He looked back at her, and nodded. "I heard Billy and Tommy talking about it, yeah. Um. After the first meeting was already over, though. How'd it go?"
"All right," Shen stated, then grimaced. "People weren't up for doing presentations, but I sort of expected that." Still, she didn't look happy about it. "Are you interested at all?"
"Presentations?" Teddy asked, a few things clicking into place. "Yeah, I can kind of see that being an issue for some people. I thought it was activism, like planning protests and things. I mean, if you need muscle for an angel wall or bodies for a sit-in I'm there, sure, but I'm not sure what else I can contribute."
"Education, first, we'll see about protests later," Shen replied. Especially since there was a lot of things to consider on that front, since the school was supposed to stay secret. "We never get a real education on oppression. I'd be surprised if 20% of the students knew what tone policing is, and why it's a problem." 10%, maybe. Maaaaybe. 20? No way.
Teddy pushed his computer further back on the desk and used the space for his folded arms, sinking his chin down onto them. "Yeah, no, you've got me there."
Shen grinned at him. "Thank you for proving my point. Tone policing is what happens when you tell a minority to, like, not sound so angry about being oppressed." Yeah, it sounded stupid when you put it like that, but to her, it was stupid. But she wasn't going to start lecturing him about it. This was just a conversation, and he hadn't asked for that.
"Like the ultimate de-evolution of every internet comment thread, ever," Teddy replied with a wry smile. "Got it. Is that the kind of thing you were asking people to do presentations on?"
"Not that exactly, but it should definitely be part of it," Shen stated with a nod. "I was thinking more - specific struggles against oppression. Looking at different ways to fight it, different ways it's been fought. Whatever - I'll just find movies and stuff for us to watch and spark conversation. Way easier." The hardest thing about that would be to manage to pick just the one episode of Dear White People.
"We may not need to be watching movies to get experience with fighting, if the Professor's plans take shape the way he seems to be going." He'd been turning the speech from the assembly over in his mind a lot, his immediate impulse -- I want to help -- nudging up against the uncertainty of what, precisely, he'd be getting himself into. Billy'd been so preoccupied that talking to him hadn't felt right, so there went that outlet for his fears.
"That's just one sort of fighting," Shen replied, "but we're gonna have to do more than that. If only really think about PR, if we want the X-Men not to be labeled as terrorists, too." Case in point, what had happened at the protest.
Teddy nodded, digesting her words. "Is it PR, though, or the real ethics that matter?" he asked, his conversation with their friendly local cyberpath fresh again in his mind. "Tessa was saying that the only way we're going to win people over is by earning good will and trust, over time. But that doesn't help anyone who's actually facing down hate in the moment it's happening."
Hell, Teddy had done enough at his old school that he should have earned a whole lot of good will and trust, but it had taken all of one evening and one person's word for everyone he'd ever considered a friend to turn on him.
"I think it's probably a bit of both," Shen answered honestly. Nothing was ever that simple or binary, after all, no matter how hard people tried to make it be.
"Have you thought about what you're going to do? About the offer to join the X-Men, I mean." He'd pulled the conversation off-track from the club, but it was all about doing something, in a sense. Maybe even not that different sorts of somethings.
Shen nodded, and answered, "I'm gonna do it. Not, you know, blindly, hopefully. But I want to do it. What about you?"
"I think so." Teddy frowned, thoughtful. "I'm not at all thrilled with how he presented it, once we're pretty much a captive audience. If people have serious objections it's not like it's easy to just walk away, especially for some." Teddy would be all right; he'd always be able to go home. But what about someone like Tamara? "But I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if there was something real I could be doing to help and I didn't at least try." If the missions involved things like finding runaway mutants and taking down bad guy secret labs, he could get behind that, yeah.
"Yeah, exactly," Shen nodded. "He should've been upfront about it from the start, but... I still have to do it." Put all of her training to good use. Make a change for the world.
"It'll be interesting to see who signs up." Would Billy? Would Tommy? Teddy hadn't expected him to care much about anyone, but then he'd gone to the club meeting, so who knew? "The conversations in Ethics this week are going to be fascinating. Probably in a train-wreck kind of way."
Shen made a face. "And let's be honest, I'll probably be conducting that train." She wasn't very good at shutting up when she was passionate about something.
Teddy shrugged gently, his head bobbing with the movement of his shoulders. "I wasn't going to say it if you didn't," he teased, testing the edges of their newish camaraderie. "There's nothing wrong with caring."
"I hope not, or I'm screwed," Shen confirmed with a small smile. She had zero problem with what he'd said, or the teasing tone employed. It was all true!
The library had a quiet buzz to it today, but Teddy wasn't paying attention to the various clusters of students going over class notes or rummaging through the shelves. He stared at the word file open on his laptop, a stack of books at his elbow. He theoretically had another week to do the essay for US History, but given the rate at which he wasn't getting anything down, he was going to need all the time he could get.
The Acadians and the Wabenaki: America's Forgotten Alliance and the Causes of the French-Indian War
It was a stupid title but at least it was a topic that no-one else had taken, at least from the couple of books still on the shelves.
Colonizing regions of Nova Scotia and Maine in the
Teddy sighed, sat back in his chair, and reached for Natives and Newcomers, the top book on his pile. Maybe he should have done something on the Redcoats instead.
"Hey," Shen greeted him as she grabbed the chair beside him. "Mind if I sit here?" She was not looking forward to writing her biology essay, but she figured she would be more likely to get some work here than in her room.
Teddy glanced up, a still slightly shy smile appearing on his face when he saw Shen. "Go right ahead. Here -- let me clear you some space." He shuffled his notebooks out of her way and dumped them on top of his book pile. "How're things going?"
"All right," she answered, because that was the default answer. She smiled at him as she took a seat, flipping the chair around so it would be more comfortable with her wings. And yes, she was sitting down instead of going to look for the books she needed. Procrastination, what? "Kinda wishing we were still on summer break. How about you?"
"To a certain extent," Teddy grinned. "Summer itself was pretty dull, but I could definitely have gone for being here without dealing with the homework."
"It doesn't feel like anything is ever dull around here," Shen confirmed, with a wry but happy smile. She paused, then asked, "Hey, have you heard about the activist club we're setting up?"
Teddy glanced at his screen, avoiding the sting of guilt for not getting involved. He'd been busy, mind you, and surely not everyone was expected to join everything, and... yeah. Excuses. He looked back at her, and nodded. "I heard Billy and Tommy talking about it, yeah. Um. After the first meeting was already over, though. How'd it go?"
"All right," Shen stated, then grimaced. "People weren't up for doing presentations, but I sort of expected that." Still, she didn't look happy about it. "Are you interested at all?"
"Presentations?" Teddy asked, a few things clicking into place. "Yeah, I can kind of see that being an issue for some people. I thought it was activism, like planning protests and things. I mean, if you need muscle for an angel wall or bodies for a sit-in I'm there, sure, but I'm not sure what else I can contribute."
"Education, first, we'll see about protests later," Shen replied. Especially since there was a lot of things to consider on that front, since the school was supposed to stay secret. "We never get a real education on oppression. I'd be surprised if 20% of the students knew what tone policing is, and why it's a problem." 10%, maybe. Maaaaybe. 20? No way.
Teddy pushed his computer further back on the desk and used the space for his folded arms, sinking his chin down onto them. "Yeah, no, you've got me there."
Shen grinned at him. "Thank you for proving my point. Tone policing is what happens when you tell a minority to, like, not sound so angry about being oppressed." Yeah, it sounded stupid when you put it like that, but to her, it was stupid. But she wasn't going to start lecturing him about it. This was just a conversation, and he hadn't asked for that.
"Like the ultimate de-evolution of every internet comment thread, ever," Teddy replied with a wry smile. "Got it. Is that the kind of thing you were asking people to do presentations on?"
"Not that exactly, but it should definitely be part of it," Shen stated with a nod. "I was thinking more - specific struggles against oppression. Looking at different ways to fight it, different ways it's been fought. Whatever - I'll just find movies and stuff for us to watch and spark conversation. Way easier." The hardest thing about that would be to manage to pick just the one episode of Dear White People.
"We may not need to be watching movies to get experience with fighting, if the Professor's plans take shape the way he seems to be going." He'd been turning the speech from the assembly over in his mind a lot, his immediate impulse -- I want to help -- nudging up against the uncertainty of what, precisely, he'd be getting himself into. Billy'd been so preoccupied that talking to him hadn't felt right, so there went that outlet for his fears.
"That's just one sort of fighting," Shen replied, "but we're gonna have to do more than that. If only really think about PR, if we want the X-Men not to be labeled as terrorists, too." Case in point, what had happened at the protest.
Teddy nodded, digesting her words. "Is it PR, though, or the real ethics that matter?" he asked, his conversation with their friendly local cyberpath fresh again in his mind. "Tessa was saying that the only way we're going to win people over is by earning good will and trust, over time. But that doesn't help anyone who's actually facing down hate in the moment it's happening."
Hell, Teddy had done enough at his old school that he should have earned a whole lot of good will and trust, but it had taken all of one evening and one person's word for everyone he'd ever considered a friend to turn on him.
"I think it's probably a bit of both," Shen answered honestly. Nothing was ever that simple or binary, after all, no matter how hard people tried to make it be.
"Have you thought about what you're going to do? About the offer to join the X-Men, I mean." He'd pulled the conversation off-track from the club, but it was all about doing something, in a sense. Maybe even not that different sorts of somethings.
Shen nodded, and answered, "I'm gonna do it. Not, you know, blindly, hopefully. But I want to do it. What about you?"
"I think so." Teddy frowned, thoughtful. "I'm not at all thrilled with how he presented it, once we're pretty much a captive audience. If people have serious objections it's not like it's easy to just walk away, especially for some." Teddy would be all right; he'd always be able to go home. But what about someone like Tamara? "But I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if there was something real I could be doing to help and I didn't at least try." If the missions involved things like finding runaway mutants and taking down bad guy secret labs, he could get behind that, yeah.
"Yeah, exactly," Shen nodded. "He should've been upfront about it from the start, but... I still have to do it." Put all of her training to good use. Make a change for the world.
"It'll be interesting to see who signs up." Would Billy? Would Tommy? Teddy hadn't expected him to care much about anyone, but then he'd gone to the club meeting, so who knew? "The conversations in Ethics this week are going to be fascinating. Probably in a train-wreck kind of way."
Shen made a face. "And let's be honest, I'll probably be conducting that train." She wasn't very good at shutting up when she was passionate about something.
Teddy shrugged gently, his head bobbing with the movement of his shoulders. "I wasn't going to say it if you didn't," he teased, testing the edges of their newish camaraderie. "There's nothing wrong with caring."
"I hope not, or I'm screwed," Shen confirmed with a small smile. She had zero problem with what he'd said, or the teasing tone employed. It was all true!
