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

[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."