Not Quite Lining Up Characters: Kyle and Zach Setting: The Courtyard, morning
Kyle knew he was twitching. How could he not be? Adam was down in the court room getting who knew what punishment for hitting a guy who, by all rights, deserved far more than what he got. If you believed Adam - which Kyle did, without a shadow of a doubt.
Sure, the artist knew he could have turned up for the hearing, but he had concluded that would be a bad idea. He had barely been able to keep his temper in check last night. He doubted his presence there would do Adam any favours at all. So, he'd stayed away - and twitched. After he'd returned to his room, he had sorted all his works, tidied his room some. He had taken a shower and changed. He'd actually laid down to sleep at one point (sitting the best part of the night on the floor, leaning against bars, was not a great inducement for quality sleep...), but he hadn't been able to get his mind to settle. In the end, he'd left and gone for a walk. He hoped some air would clear his head and maybe he'd find something to distract himself with.
Zach was still growing accustomed to things, but being out in the open was a new thing he was learning to enjoy. He had his book, reading in the courtyard, intent on putting distance between himself and his room.
He'd heard the door open and close, watching the other man for a moment. When he got closer, probably not headed his way directly, he considered waving but held off, not wanting to assume that the artist was headed for him. Nonetheless, Zach did his best to appear less guarded. If only for Ru's suggestion.
"Oh, hey!" Kyle called across as he spotted the other man. He changed path, heading over. Zach would definitely do as a distraction. "How's it going?" he asked.
No, that wasn't what Zach was expecting. There was a moment where he debated what to do with the book in his hands. After the hesitation, he wound up marking his page and setting it aside. "Well," he answered with a nod. There was a pause before he added. "You?"
Kyle sat down across from the other man, without a by-your-leave, but with a big sigh. "Okay, I guess," he said, running his hand through his hair, messing up what little style had been there before.
Zach hadn't been in a situation like this in years. A decade at least. Probably more. When he was younger, he got this often, the friend that people confided in. So he just waited, hands in his lap, ready to listen to Kyle.
Kyle let the silence linger for a moment, and then exhaled. "Okay - so you were meant to not be interested at all, and I was going to talk about whatever you wanted to talk about and then it was going to be all... But no... Okay - so, basically, my best friend's downstairs possibly getting properly locked away for what I think is doing something that was probably right, but nobody else will see it that way. So, basically: it sucks."
Technically Zach wasn't all that interested, but he could read the cues. "You look like you needed to talk," he said, clearing the air on that. He doubted Kyle was in state to really take in anything he had to say in the first place. "Who is your friend and what did he do?"
"Adam - and he started a fight. Which he lost - badly," Kyle told the other man.
Zach winced internally though it only showed as a slight twitch of his features. He knew beat up too. "Why do you think he was right?"
"Because I trust him. I trust his opinion and I believe him when he tells me things. Something happened - and it's being investigated so I don't know if I can go into details or anything. But - I understand why he reacted the way he did. It wasn't what I would have done in his place, but not because I wouldn't have wanted to. That's why I'm not there right now. Because Ryan's going to try and make it sound like Adam just attacked him for no reason out of nowhere and all he did was fend the guy off, and that's so far from the truth it's practically on another planet," Kyle said, shaking his head.
Zach made a mental note of the name Ryan. He wouldn't forget it, that wasn't like him, but he did make a mental note that the man sounded like a bully. Which was something Zach had not patience for. "What would you have done in his place? And do you think Adam will tell the jury the truth?"
"I don't know if he'll be given a chance to get into the whys of what happened." Would Ryan allow that, or would he find a way to sidestep it all? Kyle wasn't sure. He hoped Wren would be three - he trusted her to make sure everyone's voice was heard. "I think he'd tell everyone the truth if he's allowed to." Kyle paused and pulled up a piece of grass, twisting it round his finger. "I... Would have gone straight to the people in charge of law enforcement with what I knew," he said. "Let them deal with it."
"Do you really think it's already that warped?" That went with what Cal had said, about things already being quite a bit in a short span of time, but he had Ru's voice in the back of his head as well, pointing out that it wasn't all that unheard of. "I think what you're more worried about is them not believing him if he does tell the truth. He's a convicted criminal, and despite the fact that we all are, we are guilty of something." Himself and the man across from him included. "You trust the authorities in this place that much? I haven't really met them yet." And he was still wondering what that kind of power over others might do to people. "Why do you figure Adam didn't?"
"It's not so much that I think things are warped," Kyle said, shaking his head. "It's that I think that it would be better for Ryan if what came out was that Adam attacked him, entirely unprovoked, for no apparent reason and all Ryan did was defend himself, nothing more. And I've met Ryan's type before - they can be very persuasive and utterly charming. Adam, on the other hand, doesn't know how to play that game. If he's not careful, it'll go exactly the way Ryan wants it to. As for whether I trust the authorities - they've been put in place to do a job and so yeah, I trust them to do that job. And I know that, eventually, Adam did. It just wasn't his first thought." No, Kyle had actually had to extract a promise from his friend that he would do that.
Zach nodded sagely. "That is often the case." The charming person wins out in the end and the person whom might not have fully been to blame, wound up being to blame. "What sort of punishments have you seen thus far?" he asked. As per his understanding, the officers only just recently came into power, but perhaps there had been a precedent. "Eventually?"
“Punishments? Before they had the whole set up downstairs, they locked people in stocks. There were protests at that though - both because of the stocks themselves and also because the administration wouldn’t tell us what the people had done. They just expected us to put them into the stocks and leave them there for the given length of time. That’s how we ended up with the situation that we have now,” Kyle explained. “And yeah, eventually.”
Zach was nodding again. “It will be interesting to see what sort of punishments they determine then.” And he wondered how Kyle’s friend would fare. That would be something else to look into when it was decided. “How did you feel about the stocks?”
Kyle winced, remembering the decisions he had made, and the argument that had caused with Leandro afterwards. “I didn’t like it,” he said, after a moment. “I didn’t like the fact that we were never told what they had actually done. Nobody said anything about there being a crime committed against them, so whatever had been done to land people in the stocks, it had to have been either something really small that nobody had noticed, or.. I don’t know. That was the problem - the not knowing.”
"Or they didn't have the strength to report what happened," Zach concluded. Many crimes went unreported. That wasn't new. It was interesting, what bothered Kyle. It led Zach to conclude that Kyle agreed with punishment. "Do you think your friend is innocent?"
Kyle blinked. “Innocent?” he asked, sounding almost surprised at being asked a question with such an obvious answer. “Of what - fighting with Ryan? No - I don’t think he’s innocent at all. But I don’t think Ryan is either,” he added.
"So he should be punished as well," Zach concluded again. "Which I suppose is unfortunate." An assumption, but he decided a valid one.
“Why is it unfortunate?” Kyle asked, his brow wrinkling.
"It isn't unfortunate to watch your friend be punished?" Zach was out of his depth there. He hadn't had friends in ages and they'd died.
“Oh - I didn’t know whether you meant that it was unfortunate that Ryan would have to be punished,” Kyle clarified. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Yes, it’s going to suck watching Adam be punished. But I wouldn’t call it ‘unfortunate’. Yeah, I wish it never happened. I wish Adam had chosen another way of dealing with things. But he didn’t, and it did. So - what he did was wrong, even if his reasons for doing it were sound. So - I actually do think he should be punished for the wrongdoing. I know I’ll be satisfied with the result if Ryan gets punished as well. That’s where I think the unfairness lies.”
Zach found himself nodding again. "I understand." There was a pause, longer than normal, before he added. "I hope it turns out well."
Kyle quirked a small smile. “Yeah me too. But, at the end of the day, it’ll be what it is, I guess.” He chuckled a little, though there wasn’t much actual humour to it. “Sorry - I’m kinda going on about my issues, aren’t I? Interrupting you...”
Zach looked down at the book and shrugged. "Maybe. I've been told to be more social as well." Which he supposed was why Kyle was a welcome distraction or whatever it was.
“Told by whom?” Kyle asked, tilting his head to one side and looking at the other man.
"Haruko. She seems concerned with me finding my way back into society. Meanwhile I'm not sure I won't wind up back in solitary without warning." And he'd find to terms with that but now Zach was faced with deciding what came next for himself.
Kyle wondered what it was with him and ending up talking to men who had spent time in solitary. Or maybe it just felt like that, since Adam was so much on his mind. "I don't think they have solitary here," he said, pulling his usual trick of not asking why the man had been in solitary before. Kyle was still rather cautious of actually finding out what people were imprisoned for. The realities had scared him too often to be comfortable with that. Maybe it was naive, but he would rather not know.
"I haven't seen as much yet, no," Zach agreed. Though he hadn't meant here. He'd meant in prison and himself winding back up there. Or waking up there. It did seem too good to be true to be a dream. "I suppose I should come to terms with the reality of having more options than before though."
"You should do," Kyle agreed. "This place sure is better than the alternative. if you spent time in solitary, I'm guessing that your mainstream prison experience wasn't the best?"
Zach shook his head. "No, I was put in solitary from the start. I believe they were questioning my sanity." He didn't seemed concerned by that though. He knew he'd paused their tests. His morality just didn't agree with theirs and that was what they'd been so concerned about.
Kyle was proud of the fact that he managed not to overreact too much to that casually conveyed piece of news. His eyes bugged a little, and his voice was slightly higher as he said, "Really. That must have been hard for you." His tone was steady though. Yup - he really should stick to just not asking about people's pasts.
Zach caught the reaction, but shrugged. "I suppose maybe. I was very aware of my sentence and aware of the severity of my crimes in the court's eyes. It made sense. I'd come to terms with it." A life of isolation. It could have been worse.
Kyle hesitated for a moment, knowing he should probably take the opening to ask what the guy had been in prison for, but he didn't want to know. Every time he'd actually taken that opening, he had found out something he really wished he didn't know about his friends. His inner child was now hiding under a pillow and rocking back and forth. "Right," he said, almost apologetically, feeling a little guilty for his next move - which was to blatantly change the subject. "Are you enjoying your book?" he asked.
The apologetic tone didn't make sense to Zach and while the conversation switched seemed jarring, he blamed that on himself rather than Kyle. Looking at the book he nodded. "I am. It's engaging. Dickens was a brilliant writer though often paid for the length of his work."
"Well, that explains some things - I never really got Dickens, myself. I can appreciate that some may like him, but I'm not one of them. Then again, I don't do a whole lot of reading," Kyle admitted. It wasn't that he couldn't, or he didn't enjoy a book, it was just that there were always other things to be doing, and getting the artist to sit quietly and read for any length of time could be difficult. If something was going to take his concentration for hours on end, then it would be his own creation, not that of someone else. And certainly not that of someone who had been dead for centuries.
"From what I gather, few people like him. Most have just read him to appear well read. I was working through the prison library and their copy was ruined. I was pleased to find it here to finish off the works." Zach managed something close to a smile. "Are you mostly creating?"
Kyle smiled a little at that, relaxing more. "Yes - I prefer to be working on my own projects, rather than reading the results of someone else's," he confessed, giving voice to his opinions.
"Really?" That was interesting. Arrogant maybe as well, but Zach wasn't sure if that was him not knowing any better.
"Really," Kyle confirmed, not realising that he had just been assessed as being arrogant, and taking the question at face value. "There's nothing better in life than creating something new. Something unique. Something that you can bring to life yourself," he added, enthusiasm coming through in both his look and his tone. It was clearly something he was passionate about.
While Zach didn't understand it, he could pick up on the part where Kyle was serious about it. "I think you'll have to continue to further my education on the matter. I'm afraid I'm only aware of creating computer programs and while interesting, hardly something you want to come to life." It was joke, deadpanned and paired with a slight glint of humor in Zach's eyes.
Kyle arched a brow. “You want art lessons?” he asked, wondering if that was in fact what Zach was after. He wouldn’t be the first to ask if he was.
Zach shook his head. "I'm self aware enough to realize I'm not one for lessons, but the last time we spoke you spent significant time attempting to help me 'see' art, if you will. And now you're explaining it. It's a type of knowledge. Art theory maybe. Something I know little about."
Kyle nodded slowly. “Okay - and you’d want to continue with that?” he asked, though the question was mostly rhetorical. “Anything in particular you’d want to cover? Anything, any aspects you would be particularly interested in?”
"I'm under the impression that if we were going to continue speaking, hitting on it again would be inevitable," Zach said, almost quirking a smile. He thought of Ru, telling him people were special and figured it was probably best not to give Kyle the direction. "Whatever comes to you."
The artist laughed. “You want to just give me free reign to talk about art? Honey - trust me, you don’t want to do that,” he warned, teasing lightly.
What Kyle said was fine, but the teasing and the pet name, that threw Zach a little, leaving him staring at Kyle. Honey? Who was honey? Not sure how to respond to the implication, he missed responding to the words and settled on fixing glasses he wasn't wearing.
Kyle realised what he had said, and whilst he had actually meant nothing by it, he certainly hadn’t intended to make the other man uncomfortable. “Sorry,” he muttered, shifting himself a little further away, even if he hadn’t been anywhere near being in Zach’s personal space in any event. “It’s - I’ve always seen art as the purest form of personal expression,” he said, resolutely and determinedly carrying on the conversation and hoping to move past the awkward. “The level of skill is almost irrelevant at it’s basic level. Even stick figures and finger painting can be expression.”
In a rare show of emotion, Zach frowned in confusion. He wasn't sure what that was entirely, but was sure he hadn't handled it well. But Kyle was moving on and really, what else could he do? "I don't think many people would agree with you."
“No?” Kyle asked, leaving the question open for Zach to fully explain his comment, wanting to sound interested in what the other man would say.
Zach wasn't expecting a question back, but he managed to recover quickly enough. "I believe when most refer to art, they don't mean children's doodles. With that logic, far more is art. Not just graphical representations."'
Kyle smiled a little more, getting over his worry and discomfort. "That depends," he said. "Art is expression, even poor 'artists' can express themselves - what they're being poor at is communicating that expression in any understandable way. A good artist has the ability to allow others to understand their work. Like... Any person who can write can put their feelings down in words, and anyone who can read can read those words. But a truly talented writer can do so much more than that, they can express themselves in words that evoke emotions in other which wouldn't otherwise be there. Yet, that doesn't mean that people without a talent for poetry or prosecution can't try and make themselves understood on paper." It was a poor analogy, but an easier one to grasp, Kyle thought.
"But it's not the poor writers we keep reading. It's Dickens and Chaucer," Zach said with an almost smile. He wasn't one to engage this sort of conversation but he was enjoying it so far and that was starting to show. He wasn't so much defending his opinion, but curious what Kyle would say.
"Exactly," Kyle said, not seeing the comment as running contrary to what he was saying. "When you're looking at other people's creations, you want to see those that can make you see their vision. Who can take you with them. Creations that you can take in, and then expand on. Because no matter what the artist or writer originally intended, you will always bring your own interpretation to something."
“Doesn’t that change the original intent then?” Zach asked, again, more giving Kyle a direction. It was curious, to watch him talk like he did about things that Zach didn’t have any real insight into.
"And that's why art is creation. It's like making something living. You pour your heart and soul into it, then you release it into the world. And the world may change it, expand on it. It can keep growing. All you can do is prepare it so that it can withstand the world, and be loved," Kyle said, simply.
For a long moment Zach was quiet. "I don't believe I've experienced anything like that. Outside what I was arrested for."
Kyle felt that twitch again. As though he was being backed into a corner. Pushed to ask about what he so very much wanted to avoid: what people were convicted of. He took a breath and reminded himself that not everyone was actually guilty. Maybe this guy wasn't - with the way that he put that. 'Arrested for'. Not 'guilty of'. Kyle remembered his initial feelings about Adam, how wary he had been. How worried and sometimes borderline scared he had been. And now, how much that had changed. "...What were you arrested for?" he made himself ask, twisting the strand of grass more and more tightly around his finger.
Zach watched Kyle's fingers, knowing nerves when he saw them. He was used to having that affect. Inducing fear, as Ru had explained. And yet, similar to Kyle's words, he thought of himself as creating awareness. "Murder," he said plainly, knowing how people took that.
Kyle took another breath, not meeting Zach's eyes. "Same here," he said. It was easier to bring the conversation back to himself rather than pressing for more information on Zach right now.
Zach quirked one eyebrow up slightly. "Really?" To him it sounded surprised, but really there was just a slight change in his voice.
Kyle looked up. "Really," he confirmed. Well, that was how it was in his head - though in actual fact, it wasn't strictly accurate. Lots of things were different in Kyle's head than they were in reality, however. The artist figured that what was in his head was what he needed to listen to. He'd then make reality react accordingly.
"You seem less likely than I do." It was a simple observation, just plainly stated. "In the name of art?"
Kyle rolled his eyes. "That'd just be entirely pretentious. God, I hope that's not how I come across. No - in the name of being a stupid, naive, coddled kid who never stopped to think of the consequences of his actions until his college roommate was lying in the morgue," Kyle said.
The pretentious part might have sat better with Zach. What Kyle said after left him concerned, wondering what kind often sat in front of him and if he was similar to the men he'd killed. "What did you do?"
Something flickered across Kyle's face as he tried to decide how to answer that. It was surprisingly rare for him to be faced with a question that direct. One that meant he really had to think of where the line of truth versus reality would lie this time. "Drugs," he said, after a moment, figuring maybe the less said the better.
Zach frowned, more than usual. That didn't quite line up. His understanding of the justice system didn't line up without the context. "How could that be your fault?" He finally asked rather than making assumptions.
"It's my fault," Kyle said, decisively, though he didn't make any attempt to explain himself. He knew it was his fault. Regardless of what anyone said, he would spend his entire life knowing that he was responsible for Jeff's death.
Zach was confused, not sure how it lined up, but he didn't push. For a long moment he was quiet, not sure where the social norm would take the conversation, but after a while he settled on something. "I finished what my friends started."
Guilty then, Kyle thought to himself, dropping his eyes again, the last of his hoped protections stripped away by the comment. He knew he didn't want details. He didn't want to know another person who had dangerous friends. "Oh," he said, noncommittally, because he knew he had to say something.
Zach wasn't sure what to say again. "But it's done," he offered after a moment, not entirely sure why he went with that but guessing some sense of natural instinct took over.
"What's past is past and all we can do is live with it," Kyle said. For him, it was agreement, save that he didn't know if Zach meant it that way.
Zach made a small face. "I suppose. Yes. That's accurate enough." But it didn't fit with how he saw things.
Kyle was quiet for a moment, then glanced towards the cafeteria. "I... I think I'm gonna go see if they've finished down there," he said. He knew that his motivations for that were twofold. He needed to get away from here, away from finding out things he wasn't emotionally ready to deal with. And he was getting increasingly twitchy, waiting to hear what was happening with Adam. Surely it couldn't be too much longer now?
Part of Zach wondered if he should protest, but he didn't, picking up his book instead. "They are likely close," he agreed instead, giving him space to leave if he wanted to.
Kyle nodded, then got to his feet. "See you around?" he suggested. Maybe redundantly, considering the size of the place. It was somewhat inevitable.
"You will," Zach confirmed with a nod. It was both inevitable and something Zach assumed would be sought out. They were getting along in his eyes, despite Kyle's obvious discomfort in the moment.
"Great, then... See you around," Kyle said, with a small chuckle. He shrugged, and then headed off, looking back a couple of times as he walked towards the elevator. He felt a little bad, bailing on the conversation, but he thought it was best. For now. Sooner or later he knew he would have to actually deal with the issues he had with people's backgrounds, but he couldn't right now. Not right now.