Family Relations (Part Five)
Friday, March 14th, 2014 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
challis_2070 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mindcracklovelink to part four- http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/596114.html
Baj walked towards the store, deep in thought.
He was uncertain what Paul’s singing meant. He sounded happy when he was singing, so maybe he just sang when he was glad? And the contents of the song he just kind of…chose at random? He really hoped that Paul had just chosen a song he’d heard or sung a lot, rather than specifically picking that one to sing because he was upset or unhappy.
“Okay! We met back here, on the other side of the registers, in two hours, or when you finish shopping, whichever comes first!”
Both Dinnerbone and Millbee answered, “Okay! See you later!” before running off, but Pyro stayed with the trolley with Baj.
“Ah, Paul, I’ll help you find your stuff, okay?”
“Okay, Uncle Baj.”
-----
Pyro looked around the aisle they were currently in. It was full of notebooks and binders and all sorts of paper products for school. He figured backpacks and stuff would be the next aisle, as well.
He sighed softly, before grabbing some of the plain white folders. He added them to the trolley which had some black binders in it.
“Are you sure you don’t want any of these ones?” Baj asked, pointing toward the section full of heavily designed folders.
Pyro contemplated the designed folders. There were certainly some nice ones there; at least two of them looked like the landscapes at home, and one with a bunch of dragons on it. Though that one seemed to be of St. George and the Dragon, actually.
“No, I think the plain ones are better, really.”
Definitely better, less likely to draw attention to himself. Even if he really did want one of those landscape ones.
“Are you sure? There are some really nice landscape ones here, they look like the pictures Tom’s sent me, actually.”
Pyro blinked softly. Yes. He knew that. That’s why…
“I know. That’s why that’s a bad idea, yeah? I mean, plain ones are better, less attention, less…Irish”, he said, whispering the last word quietly to Baj.
-----
Wait. What? Why…
“Wait. Why not have things from where you are? It’s part of who you are!”
Paul blinked at him, appearing confused at the question.
“Be…because that would draw attention to me. And, and, that’s not good. I don’t want attention on me; I want to…want to be as normal as I can be for here, until I can go home. If there is less attention on me, there is less likely to be tr…issues, yeah, you know?”
No, Baj didn’t really understand this.
“What. No, why? It’s not like anyone’s going to care what you have with you. Well, girls might giggle if you had, like, the sparkly ones, but that’s about it."
Paul looked at him with the same sort of vexed look on his face he had last night, when he was talking about curfews. Baj wondered what it was that he had misunderstood this time.
“It. I. I don’t know how things work here, but I do know how things work at home. And just…drawing attention to myself while in…england just. Not good. I…I don’t want to be in the same situation as my aunt and uncle, for god’s sake.”
Oh. Oh! His aunt and uncle…the ones in Ireland that Tom had mentioned he’d planned to send Paul to…they were interned, weren’t they? Why…oh god. If Paul thinks he can be interned for making a mistake…
“Hm. I think we should talk about that more when we get home, okay? It’s not bad or anything, just, a bit longer than I can explain right now, okay?”
Paul blinked at him slowly, before nodding.
“I…okay. Um, so. Where are these backpacks, then?”
-----
Millbee and Dinnerbone milled around the electronic games section. Dinnerbone had mentioned that he’d gotten more spending money from working on some mods, and wanted to see if there were any games he wanted.
“Oooo, these look nice.”
“Eh, a bit expensive for what you get, really.”
“Maybe so.”
Dinnerbone looked over at Millbee for a moment before continuing to speak.
“So, what aren’t you telling me? After what we talked about last night, you got that look in your eye, like you’ve got some plan. A bad plan!
“It’s not a bad plan at all! It’s a perfectly good plan!”
“Well, what is it, then, hmmm, hmmm?”
“He’s afraid of slipping up, right? Well, how is anyone going to remember or notice if I, you know, do my thing?”
“Your ability to rapidly cause large scenes and make everyone focus only on you, you mean?”
“Well, yeah! I mean, if everyone is paying attention to me, how could they possibly be paying any attention to the Irishman, right, right??”
“I…guess. Would that mean I’d need to like, get him out of said situation then, Millbee?”
“Oh! Probably so. But you’re good at telling when I go off, so it shouldn’t be that hard to tell, right?”
“I suppose so, yeah.”
Dinnerbone stared at Millbee for a moment before leaning over closer to him.
“But Millbee, remember, you haven’t really gone off at school for about two years now. Got to have a good reason to do so, or at least, a plausible one.”
“Dinnerbone, we just got a random cousin dropped on us, whose mother is sick. I can fairly easily claim its cause it reminds me of what happened when my mam died.”
Dinnerbone blinked before grabbing Millbee and hugging him quickly.
“Yeah, that will probably do, yes.”
-----
After some time, Baj and Pyro made their way to the front, with a trolley full of very plain items. Baj was counting as a win the clothing he’d gotten him to choose that was green. There was, of course, no really red clothing, but that might have been expected.
“Well, I think we’ve got everything.”
“I think so, yes. Course, you know how it works, there will always be something we’ve forgotten, heh!”
“Ha, that’s true. Now all we need to do is wait for Nathan and Max.”
-----
Not too long after that, Millbee and Dinnerbone came bouncing over to them.
“I’ve got some new sneakers, is that okay?”
“And I’ve gotten a new pair of headphones, but I’ll go pay for them.”
“Okay, Max, add your stuff to the pile, then.”
Millbee nodded before tossing the shoe box onto the register along with the rest of Pyro’s things.
“So, did you find everything okay?”
“Ah, yes. I think we’ve gotten plenty of stuff now”, Pyro said, looking mildly uneasy.
“Ah, good, good.”
The cashier rung up their items, looking as bored as ever.
“Did you find everything okay today?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Rewards card?”
“Yes, here” Baj said, handing over the card.
“Cash or Credit?”
“Credit”, as he gave her the card.
-----
Pyro watched as the total continued to increase. He didn’t really want to cause Uncle Baj to spend so much money, but he had kept insisting he needed the stuff.
They packed the stuff into the trolley before heading off.
“I think we did pretty well today, got a good amount of stuff for the price.”
“Thank you, Uncle Baj.”
“Of course! You need the stuff.”
-----
Of course he needed the stuff. Then again, it wasn’t all that generous of Baj, he thought. Tom had sent him money to cover Paul’s school supplies and clothes.
“Let’s stop at Pret a Manger1 for some lunch.”
-----
Translations/Notes!
1 A fast food place in England. I am pretending they are near one where they are, though I don’t actually know where all the chains are. See here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pret_a_Manger
link to part six- http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/597757.html#cutid1
Baj walked towards the store, deep in thought.
He was uncertain what Paul’s singing meant. He sounded happy when he was singing, so maybe he just sang when he was glad? And the contents of the song he just kind of…chose at random? He really hoped that Paul had just chosen a song he’d heard or sung a lot, rather than specifically picking that one to sing because he was upset or unhappy.
“Okay! We met back here, on the other side of the registers, in two hours, or when you finish shopping, whichever comes first!”
Both Dinnerbone and Millbee answered, “Okay! See you later!” before running off, but Pyro stayed with the trolley with Baj.
“Ah, Paul, I’ll help you find your stuff, okay?”
“Okay, Uncle Baj.”
-----
Pyro looked around the aisle they were currently in. It was full of notebooks and binders and all sorts of paper products for school. He figured backpacks and stuff would be the next aisle, as well.
He sighed softly, before grabbing some of the plain white folders. He added them to the trolley which had some black binders in it.
“Are you sure you don’t want any of these ones?” Baj asked, pointing toward the section full of heavily designed folders.
Pyro contemplated the designed folders. There were certainly some nice ones there; at least two of them looked like the landscapes at home, and one with a bunch of dragons on it. Though that one seemed to be of St. George and the Dragon, actually.
“No, I think the plain ones are better, really.”
Definitely better, less likely to draw attention to himself. Even if he really did want one of those landscape ones.
“Are you sure? There are some really nice landscape ones here, they look like the pictures Tom’s sent me, actually.”
Pyro blinked softly. Yes. He knew that. That’s why…
“I know. That’s why that’s a bad idea, yeah? I mean, plain ones are better, less attention, less…Irish”, he said, whispering the last word quietly to Baj.
-----
Wait. What? Why…
“Wait. Why not have things from where you are? It’s part of who you are!”
Paul blinked at him, appearing confused at the question.
“Be…because that would draw attention to me. And, and, that’s not good. I don’t want attention on me; I want to…want to be as normal as I can be for here, until I can go home. If there is less attention on me, there is less likely to be tr…issues, yeah, you know?”
No, Baj didn’t really understand this.
“What. No, why? It’s not like anyone’s going to care what you have with you. Well, girls might giggle if you had, like, the sparkly ones, but that’s about it."
Paul looked at him with the same sort of vexed look on his face he had last night, when he was talking about curfews. Baj wondered what it was that he had misunderstood this time.
“It. I. I don’t know how things work here, but I do know how things work at home. And just…drawing attention to myself while in…england just. Not good. I…I don’t want to be in the same situation as my aunt and uncle, for god’s sake.”
Oh. Oh! His aunt and uncle…the ones in Ireland that Tom had mentioned he’d planned to send Paul to…they were interned, weren’t they? Why…oh god. If Paul thinks he can be interned for making a mistake…
“Hm. I think we should talk about that more when we get home, okay? It’s not bad or anything, just, a bit longer than I can explain right now, okay?”
Paul blinked at him slowly, before nodding.
“I…okay. Um, so. Where are these backpacks, then?”
-----
Millbee and Dinnerbone milled around the electronic games section. Dinnerbone had mentioned that he’d gotten more spending money from working on some mods, and wanted to see if there were any games he wanted.
“Oooo, these look nice.”
“Eh, a bit expensive for what you get, really.”
“Maybe so.”
Dinnerbone looked over at Millbee for a moment before continuing to speak.
“So, what aren’t you telling me? After what we talked about last night, you got that look in your eye, like you’ve got some plan. A bad plan!
“It’s not a bad plan at all! It’s a perfectly good plan!”
“Well, what is it, then, hmmm, hmmm?”
“He’s afraid of slipping up, right? Well, how is anyone going to remember or notice if I, you know, do my thing?”
“Your ability to rapidly cause large scenes and make everyone focus only on you, you mean?”
“Well, yeah! I mean, if everyone is paying attention to me, how could they possibly be paying any attention to the Irishman, right, right??”
“I…guess. Would that mean I’d need to like, get him out of said situation then, Millbee?”
“Oh! Probably so. But you’re good at telling when I go off, so it shouldn’t be that hard to tell, right?”
“I suppose so, yeah.”
Dinnerbone stared at Millbee for a moment before leaning over closer to him.
“But Millbee, remember, you haven’t really gone off at school for about two years now. Got to have a good reason to do so, or at least, a plausible one.”
“Dinnerbone, we just got a random cousin dropped on us, whose mother is sick. I can fairly easily claim its cause it reminds me of what happened when my mam died.”
Dinnerbone blinked before grabbing Millbee and hugging him quickly.
“Yeah, that will probably do, yes.”
-----
After some time, Baj and Pyro made their way to the front, with a trolley full of very plain items. Baj was counting as a win the clothing he’d gotten him to choose that was green. There was, of course, no really red clothing, but that might have been expected.
“Well, I think we’ve got everything.”
“I think so, yes. Course, you know how it works, there will always be something we’ve forgotten, heh!”
“Ha, that’s true. Now all we need to do is wait for Nathan and Max.”
-----
Not too long after that, Millbee and Dinnerbone came bouncing over to them.
“I’ve got some new sneakers, is that okay?”
“And I’ve gotten a new pair of headphones, but I’ll go pay for them.”
“Okay, Max, add your stuff to the pile, then.”
Millbee nodded before tossing the shoe box onto the register along with the rest of Pyro’s things.
“So, did you find everything okay?”
“Ah, yes. I think we’ve gotten plenty of stuff now”, Pyro said, looking mildly uneasy.
“Ah, good, good.”
The cashier rung up their items, looking as bored as ever.
“Did you find everything okay today?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Rewards card?”
“Yes, here” Baj said, handing over the card.
“Cash or Credit?”
“Credit”, as he gave her the card.
-----
Pyro watched as the total continued to increase. He didn’t really want to cause Uncle Baj to spend so much money, but he had kept insisting he needed the stuff.
They packed the stuff into the trolley before heading off.
“I think we did pretty well today, got a good amount of stuff for the price.”
“Thank you, Uncle Baj.”
“Of course! You need the stuff.”
-----
Of course he needed the stuff. Then again, it wasn’t all that generous of Baj, he thought. Tom had sent him money to cover Paul’s school supplies and clothes.
“Let’s stop at Pret a Manger1 for some lunch.”
-----
Translations/Notes!
1 A fast food place in England. I am pretending they are near one where they are, though I don’t actually know where all the chains are. See here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pret_a_Manger
link to part six- http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/597757.html#cutid1
no subject
Date: Friday, March 14th, 2014 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, March 14th, 2014 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, March 15th, 2014 02:17 am (UTC)Once again, good job!
no subject
Date: Saturday, March 15th, 2014 02:37 am (UTC)I do intend that they call each other by the Minecraft names when they are being more...friendly/close rather than just being polite. If you notice, Millbee and Dinnerbone more often refer to each other with the Minecraft names rather than proper names, unless Baj is around. Baj uses the proper names since they're...proper. Like, he knows their nicknames are Millbee and Dinnerbone, but he normally won't call them that. And he doesn't know that Pyro's name is, well, Pyro. Or at least, not currently.
no subject
Date: Saturday, March 15th, 2014 09:18 am (UTC)