TEST DRIVE MEME

[youngestone]

Test Drive Meme!

Scenarios:
> The Park. Man, what a nice day out. Why not enjoy it? I'm sure -- shit, yep, there's some echo monsters.
> The Mall. Exactly what it says on the tin! Dodge the hordes of teenage mallrats or take part, whichever suits your tastes.
> Rainy Day. Agh, it's fucking awful out. And is it raining those vermilion things?? Now you've got an Echo to contend with on top of everything else. Find some shelter, quick!
> PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. HOW FUN
> Arts and Crafts Fair. All the kitschy fun you can imagine.
> Wild Card! Make up your own.

Comments

[espigeonage]

This saddens Julien a little, though he understands and keeps it from his face. Better to be thought ill than not human, and there are precautions that need taking, in that case.

"Oh yeah? He's beautiful." He casts a glance back over towards the kids and the dog. "Those his siblings? I have a niece around that age. They've gotta be a handful."

[disdainfully]

"Oh, most of the time they are with their parents. We only help out when they are both busy." And they are busy a lot, but that was part of the set-up. Originally only until Inger and her fiance finished college, but then getting settled on the job took a lot of time too and the arrangement never ended. Not that the grandparents mind, their job is only downstairs from where they live and it's not like they already stopped being parents themselves, with two sons in the middle of puberty...

[espigeonage]

"I ended up like that with my niece when we were in the same town. She's not much for the running around, but it's a little scary how smart she is! I'm sure when I was that age I was still following after every stranger who made eye contact." Julien missed her. He'd been uncertain about being the perma-babysitter at first, but it had grown on him.

Now he grinned and shook his head. "...not that I don't still do that, in a way. Watch out, I'll start breaking out pictures next. Sorry."

[disdainfully]

There are parents and similar sorts that are worse at this - he's not quite sure if he'll stay sane once he comes into an age where most of those people that he'll interact with are grandparents, they seem to be especially bad from what he's seen and concluded. Sure, he has his own sets of pictures (heck, the living room is rather crowded with them, partly because of the sheer number of people portrayed on the photographs...) but he doesn't shove them into people's faces. Unless they ask.

...Point being that he isn't particularly bothered by the stories about Julien's niece. He'll even stay and talk for a bit, the girls are busy and Símon asleep and his main reason for being in the park is to be here - his wife is doing taxes and needs absolute quiet in the house.

"How old is she now?"

[espigeonage]

"Four, about two months ago. I had to spend a while talking to her on Skype - she and my sister moved out recently, and she hasn't made a lot of new friends yet. How about your two chasing the beast there? Twins?" He keeps glancing out that way so if the dog comes back suddenly he won't be surprised.

Then Julien fakes a laugh. "Oh, look at me, I up and forgot... I'm Julien, Julien Sakazaki." He presses his palm to his chest and nods once deeply, a little theatrical. "Can't believe I can talk for this long and not give my name..."

[disdainfully]

"Yes. We were pretty surprised when we learned that." Not that they would be the first twins in the family, but they had disregarded the thought because the doctor had said that it was a decision made in the father's side of the process, and Inger's then-boyfriend had no twins in his family.

"I guess it made it easier on them to be surrounded by only "old people"." The quotation marks are fairly audible - after all, while everyone in the family is older than them, Jón and Albin were only eleven when they became uncles.

"Good to meet you. I'm Thorir Thorsson." The last name at least might ring familiar, they run the largest hardware store "chain" in the city, with three stores of considerable size total, and they are known to provide good service and quality at reasonable prices - not the cheapest thing one can find, but they had to make a decision at some point and went for "middle class quality at a pricing that doesn't make us rip off our partners". On the local level the store also sometimes appears among the sponsors for social or other causes, and the family has on a more private level been the most steadfast supporter of offering handball in schools for decades now.

[espigeonage]

"Yeah, I can't imagine. They clearly have a lot of energy... Things getting easier now that they're older?"

Julien does recognize the name."Oh, yeah? Awesome! I have friends working in some of those stores - I'm sure you get this a lot, but is the name coincidence, or are you affiliated?"

[disdainfully]

He chuckles and nods - it's a type of conversation that he has gotten used to and since the setting is innocent, it doesn't bother him at all. "I indeed do. Me and my wife are the current owners - it's my grandfather who founded it." Though back then it was 'Thor & Son', they changed it when Thorir's grandfather left the business.

[espigeonage]

"Huh. Cool! How's business these days?" The explosions, the earthquake, and the surge in gang activity had taken a toll on the city, but a great many people couldn't just pack up and leave. And life went on. "...I mean, not that it's any of my business. My friends are still employed, though, so you've gotta be making out okay."

[disdainfully]

"Laying anyone off because of circumstances outside of their control would have been our very last resort. Luckily, we have taken little damage in the developments of the last year, so it has been far from necessary." There is a lot of work behind that 'took little damage economically', but that is really nothing that he would explain to a stranger. The business had supplied help in the earthquake, but also made sure that it would happen in a way that would carry over into being the supplier for many rebuilding efforts. They had of course used their refusal to lay anyone off for marketing. All kinds of other things. Staff got special training in self-defence and security measures. And of course they did suffer economically. But it wasn't nearly bad enough to look for such drastic measures at laying off staff - even though they seemed among the businesses who lost the least employees to "evacuating themselves to somewhere".

[espigeonage]

"Good! Good. I'm happy there are people outside of Thunderco. still doing all right." He wrinkles his nose as he says it. It's not unpopular these days to cast aspersions on that company, but Julien doesn't want anyone thinking he feels too strongly and making a note.

The dog and attendant children are starting to loop back this way. Still keeping a respectful distance from Thorir and his grandbaby Julien takes a step to one side so that the stroller is, at some distance, between him and the animal. "I guess I should get going. Pleasure meeting you, Mr. Thorsson!"

[disdainfully]

He shrugs that off; he is not one to talk badly about other businesses, no matter what he thinks about them. That's never wise when one is in relations with them, or partners of theirs... and somehow everyone is interconnected.

"Have a good day." He nods towards him and then strides towards the children and the dog to greet them, giving Julien the possibility to leave without the dog coming near him again.