3rd Floor CR, Sunday Afternoon

[bitten_notshy]

Playing with wee Tony the afternoon before had been enough to convince Jack he should watch the entire Space Battles trilogy. It seemed to be valuable cultural knowledge ... and apparently it had a princess tied up while wearing a gold bikini in it.

He ordered a few pizzas in case some of the lurking children needed to be fed, took a slice of pizza with extra cheese, and settled onto the couch in the common room as the DVD started to play.

[OOC: Open common room, of course!]

Comments

[chosehumanity]

"And I've never thrown a stone that landed in Dublin," John said, completely agreeing with that.

He took a bite off the slice, and gave it a good blink. "Well, that's brilliant."

[bitten_notshy]

"Glad you approve." There was a lilt in Jack's voice that threatened to become laughter at the matter-of-fact judgment. "There's plenty more, if you finish that. My name is Jack, by the way."

[chosehumanity]

"I'm John," he said.

At which point he swallowed.

He had better manners than that. Honest.

[bitten_notshy]

Eh, Jack's manners the first time he had pizza probably hadn't been all that much better. Besides, now he'd assembled the Irish thing, the boy's coloring, and the name... and realized this particular batch of island madness seemed to be getting teachers as well as students.

Strange. He gave himself time for that fleeting thought (and a wish Kate was about), then:

"It's nice to meet you. How do you reckon you got here, John?"

[chosehumanity]

"I've no idea," John admitted, "Woke up by the bridge, like."

He pointed... vaguely in that direction, with his fingers still coated in pizza grease. "Suppose I must've wandered about. How's that for a stone's throw?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Whoever threw a stone across the ocean would have to be strong," Jack said. "I don't know if I think you're that strong..."

[chosehumanity]

"I am plenty strong!" John argued, flexing his arm just to show it off. "I helped one of the neighbours with their ox just the last week."

[bitten_notshy]

"You live on a farm?"

... Jack, stop being such a snob about it. Though he did manage to keep it mostly out of his voice.

[chosehumanity]

"No, but the neighbours do," John said, shrugging a bit. "Da's with the industry."

It... was possible John's actual home living conditions would also arouse Jack's snobhood.

[bitten_notshy]

Well, yes, though even Jack would admit it was completely ridiculous given how much worse off Jack's birth family was. At least John's father had a job.

"Like a factory?" he asked, curious.

[chosehumanity]

"One of those," John said, with a little nod. "It's far away, though. Mum says I'm better off being clergy or a soldier."

Which were pretty much the three options available.

[bitten_notshy]

Which Jack knew perfectly well, though he'd throw in the fourth option of servant. (The fact he would have been none of the above was down to Sebastien's money, nothing more.)

"Don't soldiers have to go far away too?" he asked instead. He wouldn't dispute it was the better of the options.

[chosehumanity]

"Yeah, but sometimes they get to see places," John pointed out, with a little bit of excitement. "I mean. That's got to make you happy, right?"

[bitten_notshy]

"It depends where you go," Jack could not keep himself from pointing out. "It's probably not so happy when they go places where they get shot at ... but that's part of the job, isn't it?"

He couldn't totally squash the boy's enthusiasm, no matter where it would lead.

[chosehumanity]

"So what? At least if you get shot, you get a really big death," John said, with the conviction of a boy... roughly his age. "It'd be all glory and courage and suchlike."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack couldn't help but go a little pale. "I'm going to remind you that you said that come Monday."

Let him look utterly insane; it was really the only option.

[chosehumanity]

John blinked at him. "What? That's what they say."

Yes, he was thinking Jack utterly insane now, as a matter of fact.

[bitten_notshy]

"They say a lot of things that aren't always all the way true," Jack tried, but relented. "I'm sure you'll be a very good soldier."

[chosehumanity]

John shrugged his shoulder, and chewed leisurely.

He eyed the television for a moment, looking philosophical, and segued neatly into, "Did you see the pup the other day?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I didn't notice any particular dogs," Jack said, shaking his head. "What was that one like?"

[chosehumanity]

"She had red fur and she liked to play fetch," John recounted, fiddling with a bit of sausage on his pizza. "But she ran away in the end. We've got dogs at home, but they're older than that and we got them off the street."

Read: they were mangy and full of fleas.

[bitten_notshy]

"We've had a few cats at home we got that way," Jack said. "Though they aren't much use as pets. They usually wander off if they get tired of you."

"Maybe you'll see the dog again."