John Murphy [The 100] (awarinyourhead) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-07-18 17:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, john murphy, leon orcot |
Who: Leon Orcot & Chris, John Murphy
What: An incident
Where: Restaurant
When: Saturday
Warnings: NPC!Stupidity and ignorance, or N/A
Status: Closed, Partner Thread, Complete
Sometimes, it seemed like Leon forgot that not everyone could hear Chris like he could. He’d only seemed to get more forgetful about it once Leon and Alex had broken up, and Chris went to live with D, who could “hear” Chris in the same way that Leon could.
Sometimes even Chris forgot that not everyone could understand him, which was probably why, when Leon dropped him off at the restaurant with instructions to order him a Coke and a double bacon cheeseburger while Leon found parking, Chris didn’t think the remind him about it until after Leon had already driven off.
“Two cheeseburgers?” the teenager behind the till asked.
Chris shook his head. Double bacon cheeseburger, he signed, and bit his lower lip when he could see the blank look on the teenagers face. He’d been trying to order for a couple minutes already, the sick feeling rising up in his stomach, wondering what was taking Leon so long. He held his hands horizontally, stacked on top of one another, and tried to mimic two patties on top of one another.
“Listen, kid, I know you’re not deaf. Just use your words like a normal person,” the teenager behind the till sighed, exasperated, and Chris dropped his head, focusing on his shoelaces, trying to blink back the stinging in his eyes.
John had his food already, and was sitting at a table with a clear view of the register. He wasn’t paying any attention, and couldn’t hear the kid behind the counter anyway. But he noticed the kid trying to order by signing, and his focus snapped to the employee. Lip reading wasn’t always a perfect thing, and it was especially difficult from a distance, and when the speaker wasn’t looking at him, but it didn’t take much effort to figure out the kid was being a dick to the customer.
It wasn’t his business, but John couldn’t just sit there and ignore the scene that was unfolding in front of him. He left his food, and moved toward the counter. If there was one thing he couldn’t just let roll off his back, it was store workers being rude to someone who was deaf. He didn’t expect everyone to know sign, it wasn’t required, but a little empathy could go a long way toward trying to understand, and help, a customer.
“Is there a problem?” he asked the kid, at the same time signing for the benefit of the one trying to order.
Chris looked up when he heard the man talking, the tears pooled in his eyes but not quite spilling over yet. He shook his head, and then signed back I’m just trying to order some food and he doesn’t understand me. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble…
“No problem,” the guy behind the till said, looking between them. “I can’t put in an order if I don’t know what he wants, now can I?”
It’s no trouble. You’re not the one causing trouble. John glanced at the kid behind the register. He was just a punk ass who probably didn’t give a care in the world about customer service. Why should he? He was working a minimum wage job, for a boss who probably treated him like crap. Trying to decipher sign language when he didn’t have any reason to know sign was probably too much effort for a single minded kid like him.
Tell me what you’re trying to order and I’ll take care of it. John didn’t realise Chris could hear, and that his use of sign was because he didn’t speak, not because he couldn’t hear. John just wanted to help the kid, because he didn’t like seeing anyone be rude to a child, no matter the reason.
Chris bit his lip and then looked toward the door, hoping Leon would make his appearance, but he didn’t. This guy seemed nice, but Chris was generally shy when it came to talking to anyone older than him, especially if Leon or D weren’t around. But Leon wasn’t here yet, so he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded, signing his order - a double bacon cheese burger, large fries and a coke, a cheeseburger, small fries and a chocolate milkshake.
John repeated the order to the employee, using his voice and sign combined. “Do you get off on upsetting people? Because there was no need for all that,” John sneered at the kid. He had half a mind to ask to speak to the manager, but he wasn’t sure that would help. It would, in all likelihood, make things worse. Contacting corporate was probably the better option.
He turned to Chris, and signed his name paired with a greeting. Don’t let one person’s ignorance get to you. Not everyone is going to be like that.
Chris was just about to respond with his own name when he heard the bell chime and looked over to see Leon walking in.
“Sorry that took so long bud,” Leon was muttering. “Parking here’s a bi-” but he was cut off when Chris came up running to him, wrapping his arms around Leon’s waist. Leon blinked down at his brother, and then took in the scene - the one kid standing around next to where Chris had been, and the other guy behind the till.
He focused on the guy who had been standing next to where Chris had run from. “What the hell did you do to my little brother?” he demanded, but before he could take a step toward him, Chris was pulling on his shirt and shaking his head.
No, he was only trying to help, Chris thought, face buried in Leon’s shirt. I tried to order but the man didn’t understand me and then John came and helped.
Leon frowned, deflating a little, realizing this whole thing was probably his own fault for making Chris come here alone. Chris was nearly nine and probably too big to keep getting carried around like he was still five, but old habits died hard and it wasn’t like Leon couldn’t still carry his weight around.
“Thanks,” he muttered to John instead, feeling a little sheepish about jumping to conclusions.
John wasn’t at all bothered by the whole thing. Well, he was. He was bothered by the employee belittling a kid. But he wasn’t bothered by helping Chris, or by Leon assuming he had been complicit in the boy’s distress. He knew that wasn’t the case, now.
“I’m glad I was here to help him,” John said. His vowels tended to be irregular, and it was easy enough to tell he was deaf, but he could carry on a conversation without the benefit of sign as long as he could clearly see the mouth of someone talking to him. “That guy, though. He’s a jerk.” John gestured toward the kid behind the counter.
Leon had spent plenty of time around deaf people at the sign language classed he’d signed him and Chris up for, and so he picked up on the deaf accent quickly. He adjusted Chris in his arms so that one of his hands was free.
“Me too,” Leon said aloud, for Chris’s benefit, signing as he did so. His sign language wasn’t great - since Chris could hear he’d never actually needed to use it himself, just understand it, and he hadn’t even had to do that since he’d started being able to hear his brother telepathically - but ‘me too’ was pretty simple all things considered.
The guy behind the till frowned. “Listen, I was just doing my job. It’s not my fault this kid couldn’t just use his words.”
Leon’s practically growled, and the only thing that stopped him from going of on the teen was the fact that Chris’ was in his arms. Even still, he stomped up to the counter. “Yeah? Get me your manager, and we’ll see how much you like us using our words,” he snarled.
He turned back to the other guy - John, according to Chris. He furrowed his brow, and managed to sign something that looked something like This bother also guy you? while saying aloud “This guy bother you too?”
John shook his head. “Only in that he was a jerk to him,” he said. He didn’t know Chris’ name, or Leon’s for that matter. So he had to go with the generic pronoun. “I don’t like seeing any kind of rudeness, but especially when there’s a child involved. But I have the advantage of being witness to the whole thing.”
Regardless of the outcome of speaking to the manager now, John was probably still going to lodge a complaint with corporate. He highly doubted the local manager would pass the complaint on to the higher ups, and they needed to know. Rude employees needed to be held accountable.
Leon touched his fingertips to his chin as a silent thank you. “Too bad I can’t arrest this toad,” Leon said, shooting a pointed look at the teenager, who then gulped. He couldn’t actually legally justify arresting some teenager just because he was rude at his part-time job, but Leon kind of wished he could. No one made his little brother cry and got away with it.
He turned back to John, attempting some sort of mangled form of sign language as he spoke before quickly abandoning it - go figure that there’d come a day when he actually had to use it. “Listen, after I’m done talking to this kids manager, me and Chris are gonna find somewhere else to eat. I’m guessing you’ve already ordered or something, but if I can get buy you a Coke or a burger or something as thanks, let me know.”
John’s food was probably long cold. And had been left unattended at the table. He was just going to throw it away, now. But he’d eaten most of it anyway, so he wasn’t concerned. He’d just get a snack later.
He shook his head. “No need. I’m glad I was here to help.” He meant that sincerely. He wished he had realised there was a problem sooner, so he could have helped earlier in the process. But it was taken care of now, that was what mattered, he supposed.
"Alright. Well, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to look me up. I'm Detective Leon Orcot," he said, signing his name, including his title. He spelled it first, and then gave his sign name, which was the sign for "lion." He wasn't sure if that had been some sort of joke or not when his ASL teacher had given it to him, especially given that it was like running his hand through his longish, blond hair, he kind of liked it. "This is my brother, Chris," he said, spelling Chris' name before giving his sign name - the sign for cat, though the sign started off with the finger position for "c" before closing on the cat's whiskers.
At the sound of his name, Chris turned, red eyed, and gave John a bit of a wave.
John responded with a little wave for Chris. His own name sign was a wave of both little fingers in an upwards motion, much like the sign for excited or jubilant, as he’d been given for his generally hyper disposition when he was younger. He’d out grown that, but the name sign had stuck.
“It was nice meeting you both, though I wish it had been under better circumstances.”