Wrong Roommate (Erik, eventually Sean)

[Joshua Bernstein]

((setting this on Tuesday, .Jan 21))

Fingers brushed over the name tag stuck against the pocket of his dress shirt. He was used to the check in process by now, but he never felt entirely comfortable wearing a sticker. It felt unprofessional somehow, as if he was back in college.

And anyway, the people he was visiting knew him.

He certainly hoped that Tomer would recognize him, after thirteen years.

But then, it wasn't as if the identification was for his nephew's sake; he knew that. It was for school security, and for some reassurance that he wasn't going to shapeshift into someone else.

But it still chafed.

He sighed and knocked lightly on the door to the dorms that Tomer shared with other boys. Josh hadn't met any of Tomer's roommates, not yet, although he hoped that they were kind, and that his nephew was able to find friends in them. Not that he'd heard anything of the sort, but then he also hadn't heard anything to the contrary, either; the boy was rather private, perplexing as that was to his uncle.

When there was no answer from the dorms, Josh pushed gently. The door opened, and so he poked his head around the corner. "Hello?"

[Erik Stewart]

Erik wasn’t in the habit of answering the door, but providence would have it that today he did. He cracked the door open, conspicuously un-smiling. His blue eyes grazed over Josh’s face, then alighted on the nametag standing on his chest. Opening it wider, he leaned one arm against the doorframe and the other on his waist.

“It’s sixty bucks. I don’t kiss and I don’t do any weird shit.”

Of course he wasn’t expecting to solicit Josh anything, but he always liked to screw with anyone who had enough audacity to come knocking at his door unannounced. Especially if they were Josh’s age. He was smacking on something, gum, probably. Josh would be able to see the little wet blue lump bounce around in his mouth. It was winter, but it was pretty warm within the dorms, and he had on a loose, white top (peppered with holes) and a hanging denim jacket over his freckled shoulders. He smelled a little bit of ash. There were smears on the top of his eyelids, which seemed suspiciously like the vestiges of eyeliner.

Erik tilted his head, as if he were expecting an answer.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Whatever Josh was expecting, it certainly was not this. No matter how many Stories he heard from Sean, names redacted to protect the not so innocent, or even his own experiences with students (such as his one-time intern) he still expected at least some semblance of politeness.

He vaguely recognized the youth who opened the door as someone who had attended the potluck at the Youth Center, but they hadn't interacted then. Instead everything about the boy who had opened the door screamed defiance, but of a different breed than the defiance he was used to from protests and political activity. That was a more active brand of defiance, one that wished to turn authority into something better and more trustworthy. This was the sort that eschewed authority no matter what moral code it might wear.

The greeting was enough to shock him into uncharacteristic silence. He certainly hoped that there was no truth underlying this statement; surely Hammel faculty would be aware if it was? But even if it wasn't, he felt some distress well up within him that Tomer would have to deal with someone with such an obvious bad attitude.

Well, maybe he had just come at a bad time, though. Everyone had their off moments, and he couldn't judge by this one meeting. And so after a moment of uncomfortably shifting his weight between one foot and the next he finally mustered up a response. "Ahh..I'm here to see my nephew, Tomer. This is the right dorm, isn't it?"

[Erik Stewart]

Erik waited with a straight face and a cocked eyebrow. He scanned him from head to toe like he was staring down a member of a rival sorority, watching him shuffle around in stunned silence. The guy had to be twice his age and he couldn’t even look him in the eye. Erik would’ve laughed, but he wanted to savor the unspoken thoughts of alarm on Joshua’s face – would’ve taken a picture of it if he could.

Tomer’s name invoked a wrinkle of his nose. Erik straightened up, his other hand leaving the doorframe. “He ain’t here right now,” he said.

Actually, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure he wasn’t, but Erik thought he heard Tomer roll himself on out the door a while back, and the kid always kept his door closed now on account of that rabbit. (Plus, Tomer was so quiet he was never sure if he was actually in there or not).

Erik put his hand on the door, ready to swing it shut. “Y’uh want t’leave Crutches a message?” he asked, with a distinct venomous sweetness to his tone. “I’ll make sure it gets t’im.”

Erik wasn’t flat-out drunk, but the little shot he had taken from his private stash was enough to make him more brazen and mean-spirited than usual. There was just the faint hint of a slur in his voice, though it was impossible to tell unless one was familiar with his manner of speech. Clearly those smudges on his eyelids were the failed attempts at eyeliner; they’d become quite impossible with a shaking hand and a slight tipsy shake. He’d rubbed them off with the back of his palms just before he’d opened the door.

[Joshua Bernstein]

The slur elicited a sharp frown from the attorney, his sense of morality pricked into indignation.

"I hope you don't normally use such dehumanizing language about other people."

He still wasn't entirely sure if he recognized Erik from the youth center, but even if he did, having one form of oppression was no excuse for oppressing other people. And although he couldn't be entirely sure whether or not Erik had privileges in regards to ability, he at least didn't have any obvious physical disability. And even if he had a disability it was unkind to refer to anyone else the way he had Tomer.

[Erik Stewart]

Erik didn’t remember seeing Josh at the center; he didn’t go there often, and when he did, it was for the food. He was sure he’d been too involved in his turkey and mashed potatoes to notice anything going on around him.

Josh’s change of tone and stance made him reciprocate. Erik was as contrary as a mule, and he was constantly ready to fight tooth and nail over any old thing. He straightened up and lifted his chin, defiant. “What th’ fuck’s it t’you if I do?” he said.

Then he narrowed his eyes. “Who’re you supposed t’be anyway? You his dad r’ somethin’?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Sure, Erik may have been a third his age (or possibly even more than that) but that wasn't going to earn him any slack now that he'd shown his bigotry.

"I'm his uncle." Josh replied tersely, fists unconsciously balling up in anger. "But even if I weren't, it's dehumanizing and wrong to use slurs toward oppressed people."

Oh, if only Erik knew; the older man absolutely would react the same way even if Tomer hadn't been related to him. This was his passion, and the meta teen had just stepped into a landmine.

"So I'm going to ask that you call him by name, not by othering nicknames."

[Erik Stewart]

Ever since they’d taken him away in a sleek black car, he had a bone to pick with any kind of Hammel faculty. Josh clearly wasn’t one of them – he was a visitor – but he sure looked like one to him, and he woke up feeling a knot of anger and frustration and he’d taken a pint of strong drink so he was good enough.

“You’re his uncle?” Something in him clicked. “You gave ‘im that fuckin’ bunny.”

”So I’m going to ask that you call him by name, not by othering nicknames.”

“I know his name,” he declared, cutting the older man off. “It don’t matter if he sits in a wheelchair all day ‘r not. I don’t like his type. All that turn th’ other cheek shit.” Erik had always been transparent with his feelings, and that spite on his face was genuine. “Did you teach ‘im that?” he asked. “Maybe if y’didn’t y’wouldn’t have t’be the one standin’ here, fightin’ his own battles.”

Erik gripped the door, as if to swing it shut. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I got t’do my hair.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Erik was certainly not endearing himself to Josh any with his continued hostility. The attorney inhaled through his nose, an unconscious imitation of his partner.

"I did give him a pet for his birthday." He acknowledged, jaw clenched. The tone that the teen said this in was remarkably unpleasant, as if perhaps he was the sort of person to ridicule other students for their pets. "And I'm not fighting his battles for him, I'm asking you to be a decent human being and not belittle other people."

It perhaps wasn't dignified or mature to stay and argue with someone half his age when he could have walked away and found Tomer himself, but indignation easily suppressed most of Josh's sensibility.

[Erik Stewart]

He was about to close the door, but something about Josh’s last statement made him swing it open again (though only just so). Erik looked into Josh’s eyes, as if he’d said the strangest, most absurd thing he’d ever heard, perhaps in another language to boot.

After a second or two of uncomfortable, prolonged eye contact he spoke. “I’m not a human being,” he said. He leaned closer. “I can turn into a fuckin’ snake and I’m gonna eat that gay ass bunny.”

This time he really did close the door, a convenient end to the conversation. To Josh, it certainly might have seemed that he was serious, but Erik really had no intention of harming that rabbit…as much as he expressed extreme dislike of it.

[Joshua Bernstein]

If Erik had been seeking to cause discomfort, he had succeeded. Although he certainly couldn't have known, his disavowal of his humanity was unsettlingly similar to thr reaction of two young women in the woods a few years ago, and although the teen had already left, Josh stood shaking in rage and worry and memory for several moments.

Eventually, however, he was able to fumble for his phone, trembling causing his typing to be somewhat clumsy.

od you know where Tomer is? He roomste is abominbk

[Dr. Sean Neville]

With Evan’s departure to begin his graduate school program, Sean was, one again, the only member of the Hammel Mental Health Services Department. The psychiatrist was used to this, and he coped well with stress, but the duties kept him busy. Even with that, he made his own schedule, which allowed him to have periods of downtime; he would not have been able to work with a non-stop onslaught, as he was only human.

As such, he had not been in the midst of a session, but had instead been reviewing paperwork, when his cell phone vibrated. That was the alert that he had either missed a call or that he had a new text message. Ryan was primarily the only one who texted him, and this was a little early for a text from his nephew, particularly since text messages were about something inconsequential.

Picking up the phone, he glanced at the screen and was immediately disappointed that the contents were only marginally more coherent than if a cat had walked across the keypad. More so that the message was from his partner.

Josh didn’t text often, but he was a grown man. The attorney was more careful than that.

The telepath pressed the button that allowed him to call the user who had texted him, and he waited for Josh to answer.

[Joshua Bernstein]

As Josh already had his phone out he picked it up almost as soon as it began to ring.

"Hello? Sean?"

His voice shook with outrage that had yet to abate. "Have you seen Tomer? His...his roommate...do you..." He inhaled deeply, trying to gather his thoughts as he did so. "His roommate threatened to eat Clover. And he uses ableist slurs about Tomer."

Another momentary pause as a new idea came to him. "He said he turns into a snake and was going to eat Clover. You don't think....he would...Tomer..."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Hello, Josh.” Confirmation of his identity first, before they would move on to the crux of the matter. Before Sean was able to inquire as to what, exactly had prompted the text, the younger man answered every question unbidden.

So Josh had had the dubious pleasure of meeting Erik. Without Tomer there as a buffer. Since the attorney had neglected to mention the presence of anyone else, this meant that Josh had been alone in the dormitory with an aggressive teenaged student. In the common area, he assumed, since his partner would know better than to be elsewhere.

“I’m sure he did.” That was in response to both the threat and the use of ableist language. Neither was surprising from Erik, and the psychiatrist didn’t intend to give off the impression of not caring; however, he was used to this.

“I haven’t seen Tomer recently, but I’m sure he’s on campus.” In fact, the telepathy confirmed this fact.

The question relied heavily on unspoken implications, although Sean got the gist of it. He suppressed a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking advantage of the fact that he was alone in his office. “No, he wouldn’t eat Tomer.”

That simply wouldn’t happen.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh allowed himself some relief at the reassurance; after all, Sean knew the students here, and he would know their predilections. However, the fact remained that Tomer's roommate was hostile and bigoted and was in an environment wherein he could do a great deal of harm to his nephew.

He couldn't abide this.

"We need to get his room changed. He shouldn't share a room with someone who calls him names and threatens his pet."