Emancipated and Quite Capable

Jack had every reason to be happy as he made it back to his room after a quick trip into town to buy coffee and pick up his mail. It was a lovely spring day, and there were no children -- his own, or shrunken versions of his classmates and teachers -- about. He was profoundly grateful for this; children were fine, but he'd gotten his fill of babysitting.

He was mildly curious as to why the change had passed him by, but mostly he was simply thankful for that. No one needed to see the silent, wounded boy he had been. Besides, he hadn't spoken English as a small child, and he doubted he would have been able to find anyone to explain things to him in Czech or Yiddish.

But that was not at the top of his head as he returned to his room, not when the mail had brought good news for him. Sebastien had already telegraphed that he'd be at graduation on Saturday; now he had a letter from Rivka as well, confirming she'd asked for and received the time off to visit him. (And, she wrote, no, Jan, don't send money for a coach.) He'd have to talk to both of them about his final plans to stay in this time -- he'd been dancing around the subject -- but he was optimistic enough to believe that wouldn't go too badly. (He'd badger Sebastien into coming with him. He had to.)

He was grinning as he flopped onto his bed with a novel, door open so he could watch the traffic in the hall.

[OOC: Open room post!]

It was a rather dreadful day. A gray mist fell from the sky as the last remnants of overnight rain, and a chill wind whipped through the air.

As these were the only circumstances under which Sebastien de Ulloa saw daylight, he was determined to be grateful for it. The unhappy work that brought him and his temporary companion out would not wait for the sun to set.

He stood back for a moment, assessing the scene. The badly abused corpse of a young man laid just outside the door, and blood and a thick white substance both spattered the marble stairs. A city patrolman still paced about self-importantly. If Sebastien's sense of the case was correct, he was waiting for some superior.

( Tony spotted the body and instinctively averted his eyes. 'It's not a real vacation if you don't see the local corpses,' he muttered. )


[OOC: Continues from here. Threeway-preplay tango directed by bitten_notshy, brandyforapples, and wantstodirect. Basic situation and some dialogue stolen from "Wax" by Elizabeth Bear. Sixth verse, same as the first, but a whole lot louder and a whole lot worse. NFI, NFB. OOC = AOK. And you people should not let Ahdari code unsupervised.]

Emma rushed off with Sebastien and Tony, and Jack's relief was like a dissipating cloud filling the room. He loved all three of them, of course, but dealing with them and his sister was beyond what he could manage with mere manners as a weapon.

( He owed Emma. But he usually did. )

[OOC: Continued from here. Once again starring guardianborn and bitten_notshy. NFI, NFB, OOC = Looooooooooooove.]

After supper, Sebastien had spirited Tony away on some vaguely described "wizard business." Jack pouted a bit about being left behind, but it was mostly out of habit. On a deeper level, he was happy for the luxurious occasion of having a home to himself. He cooked some eggs for supper, took a slice of cake, and settled in the rug before the fire with a deck of cards. He was trying to teach himself to always win at solitaire; it was going irritatingly slowly.

( Luckily, he would not be bored for long... )

[OOC: I love the smell of plot spam in the afternoon. Continued from HERE. Preplayed by bitten_notshy & the historical guardianborn. Coded by dojima_hime. NFI, NFB, OOC Love = Win.]