J, GOB [Sunday morning]

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Joan was still not entirely sure why the island seemed run over with children, and where, exactly, the adults had gone. She'd attempted to call Eric to ask him about the child who looked like him (and suspiciously bore his name but spoke...no English, huh) and had only gotten his voicemail.

So. Tempting though it was to hide away in her apartment, she'd ventured out for coffee this morning. And a muffin. And a cigarette. So she was sitting outside the Perk smoking and keeping an eye out for errant children. It wasn't the first time she'd had to watch someone else's kids while they were off being irresponsible.

Because clearly, that was the best explanation for this. Obviously.

[post open, mild SP for a couple hours, but it's Joan's first event so I had to. :)]

Comments

[hasadestiny]

Lex had caught sight of Joan out of the corner of one eye, and since usually when he saw a well-dressed redhead it was Mom or Pamela, he jumped to an understandable conclusion, and ran to greet her.

He skidded to a disappointed halt when he got a good look at her face. "Oh."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Is something wrong?" Joan asked, watching the little boy. "Are you looking for someone?"

Decent guesses based on his behavior, she thought, but kids were unpredictable.

[hasadestiny]

Lex tried not to wrinkle his nose at the smell of the cigarette, and to be subtle about checking the pocket his inhaler was in. "Sorry, I thought you might be my mom," he told her. "Or my nanny."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Do you know your mommy's name?" Joan asked helpfully. "I can see if I know her, if you're looking for her." She paused, tilting her head, and added, "Does she have red hair, like you and me?"

[hasadestiny]

"Lillian Luthor," Lex said, and nodded, running a hand through his own curls. "She's tall and pretty and dresses like you. So does Pamela. She's almost as pretty as Mom."

Luckily Lex was going to be significantly older when he found out his father shared that last opinion.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Then they both sound like women of very good taste, and I'm sad I don't know them," Joan said, shaking her head. "Is your dad around? Maybe we can find him."

Though it sounded like she might be his type, so....

[hasadestiny]

Considering she'd figured it out without even meeting the man? She very likely was.

"I think he's back home in Metropolis," Lex told her. By now he'd figured out he wasn't in Kansas any more. "Or out on business. He does that a lot."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"I know a lot of daddies who go on business all the time," she said sympathetically, thinking of the times Roger had admitted, in moments of drunken or post-coital clarity that he wished he'd been around for Margaret more. "My name's Miss Holloway. What's yours?"

[hasadestiny]

"Lex," he said, and stuck out his hand for her to shake. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Holloway."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Joan was, frankly, rather charmed as she took the little hand and shook it. "The pleasure's all mine. It's not very often I meet such a well-mannered young man. How old are you, Lex?"

[hasadestiny]

Even when tiny, Luthors were all about the charm. And the alliteration. "Nine, well, near enough. Mom says it's never to early to learn to act like a gentleman." Substitute 'a Luthor' or 'the face of the company' for Lionel's thoughts on the matter.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Your mother is correct," Joan said with a wise nod. "Lots of men never learn how to be a gentleman at all. It's good to start early - even if nine's pretty old. Fourth grade?"

[hasadestiny]

Lex nodded. "Just finished it," he said. "I start fifth in the fall."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Joan thought about pointing out that it was November, but who was she to argue with a nine year-old? "Wow. So what are you doing so far from home, Lex? Fifth grade old enough to travel alone, you think?"

[hasadestiny]

That November hadn't been a very good one for Lex, so he was going to be glad he missed it when he was big again.

"I don't know," Lex replied. "At first I thought I might have been kidnapped, but now I'm not so sure." He shrugged. If he had, they weren't doing a very good job of it.

[whenshewasnice]

Despite what Tara had said yesterday, Natalie had decided it best not to spend this morning practicing piano. Besides, there was a town to explore and even though she hadn't seen Todd yet, that didn't mean he couldn't still be out there somewhere, right?

She didn't find Todd, though. Instead, she found just about the prettiest lady she'd ever seen. And she was smoking.

Natalie was trying not to stare.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Hi there. Are you lost?" Joan asked. There was a bizarre preponderance of children staring at her today. She was trying to get used to it.

[whenshewasnice]

Hey, at least Natalie was trying her best not to do it! Mommy and Daddy had taught her it was rude to stare, no matter how pretty or interesting people were.

She shook her head, and pushed her lenseless glasses further up her nose, a little embarrassed about having been caught looking. "No. Sorry."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"It's okay," Joan told her, smiling and peering a little closer. "I...like your glasses."

Awww.

[whenshewasnice]

The answering smile was quick and shy, but pleased. "Thank you," Natalie said. "They're not real."

She felt like pointing that out. As if it'd be false advertising if she didn't.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"They still look very nice," Joan told her. "You look like a grown-up lady with those."

She wasn't awful with kids, no.

[whenshewasnice]

"Really?" That had kind of been the point. At this moment in time, she was still looking to become a businesswoman with an office in Disneyland. Looking like a grown-up lady went with that. "Thank you."

A hesitation, and she remembered her manners. Or what she'd been taught of them. "I'm Natalie."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"I'm Miss Holloway," because even if she was a cute kid, Joan had standards when it came to kids using her first name. "It's very nice to meet you, Natalie. Do you know what you want to be when you're older? Other than a very pretty lady in glasses, obviously."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie chewed on her lip a little before answering. "I want to be a businesswoman."

It should be noted that she didn't really have the faintest idea about what that actually entailed. She'd just seen cool, important looking women at home and had been told that was what they were.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Oh, look, a miniature Peggy Olson. Joan smiled. "Do you know what kind of business yet?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shook her head. "Dunno," she said. "One where I can have an office in Disneyland?"

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"So you want to be a businesswoman for Disney," she said, tapping her chin in thought. "You know, I used to work somewhere where we worked with Disney stuff sometimes."

Very, very rarely. More often, accounts that would advertise alongside Disney or within Disneyland.

[whenshewasnice]

"Really?" Nevermind that Natalie didn't know is she wanted to actually work for Disney and that she kind of just wanted to live in Disneyland; her face lit up with interest, anyway. "What stuff?"

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"You know when you see a commercial, or an advertisement in a paper or magazine?" she asked. "We made those up. So sometimes we'd do advertisements for things they sell at Disneyland."

That was...simple, right?

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer had woken up on a comfy bed, in a quiet place, with a really soft and pretty cat purring next to him. It was probably the best morning ever!

And then he got hungry. So while Jono was busy setting up for auditions, he'd snuck away for food. It had been easy to find the Perk, and he still had his money from yesterday.

Now, he just need chocomilk and something to eat!

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, another small child. "Hi there," she called, waving at the little boy because...well, she'd just feel bad if he was lost. "Are you looking for your parents?"

Seriously, where were all the parents?

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

"Nope. I'm looking for chocomilk," Seifer told her, pointing at the Perk. "And then I'm going to the theater."

See, he could be big and brave, when he wasn't surrounded by lots of other kids.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"The theater?" she asked, watching him carefully. "Are you going to see a play?"

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

"No. Jono works there and he said I could play with the costumes!" Seifer seemed really excited about this. "And I get to watch other people 'dition."


[And let's totally ignore the fact that the player forgot there's an entire street of buildings between the view from J,GOB to Perk]

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"You're not going to audition?" she asked, tilting her head. "I bet you'd be a great actor."

[I saw nothing. :)]

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer puffed up as much as a six year old could. "No. I'm going to be a pirate knight and save the sorceress from the bad guys with my sword!"

He then cocked his head and smiled. "And then I'm going to be a teacher!"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan... hadn't quite noticed anything odd yet this weekend. The day before had been spent making tinctures, both for his own pantry for the winter and to give to friends, and he'd not yet listened to radio this morning.

He had, however, noticed that there seemed to be a few more kids around, yes. Likewise, he had noticed the woman sitting outside the Perk. After purchasing his own coffee, he sat down at the table beside her -- not so presumptuous as to sit at the same one -- and said, idly, as another kid passed by, "So it seems to be another of those weekends."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"A weekend where everyone drops their kids off on the island to go enjoy being adults without them?" Joan wondered, blowing her smoke out the corner of her mouth and slanting a look at him. The children were wearing her patience thin a bit, already, perhaps.

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan shook his head. "No, a weekend where the island decides that most of us are going to have a second childhood of our own," he explained, laughing a bit. "But I'll take that to understand that you're new to the island? Anyone explained that we're... a little different, here?"

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Just rolled in this last week, and I've already discovered I'm apparently forty-one years in the future," Joan replied dryly. "So...sort of."

[not_in_the_book]

"Time travel, space travel, wizards, mutants, and aliens... And a talking pink pony. That last one's a teacher," he added, "not a hallucination. And everyone now then, the island decides to keep us on our toes: making us children, changing our sex... After the school has its prom, we usually end up with potential children from different futures. One year I had four, each with a different parent."

Ronan was... not overly concerned with breaking people's brains, no.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

Joan just sort of stared at him for a moment, attempting to process that, and politely asked, "So, do you try to scare all the new girls off, or am I special?"

[not_in_the_book]

"I don't try to scare any of them off!" Ronan defended himself. A smile was still peeking out at the side of his mouth. "Truthfully, I suspect I've just lived on the island too long -- and, at that, I come from a world that is... almost as strange as Fandom, if in somewhat less random ways. Take it one step at a time, and eventually it'll all seem... Not normal, but comprehensible."

The fact that he had to qualify that with 'somewhat' really did say something about Ronan's particular universe.

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"I come from a very normal, normal place," Joan replied, raising a brow. "And I'm learning this place isn't...like that, but really. Is there some sort of committee assigned to make sure that as soon as someone new steps on the island, they're greeted with an onslaught of things to be wary of? Not a great way to make a girl feel welcome."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan shook his head. "No committee," he explained, "other than the island itself. It comes in fits and starts, so there's no predicting when anything is going to happen, really, other than the future kids thing. That's pretty much always after prom.

"It's... not a bad place, really, by any stretch. And the people you meet here pretty much make anything else worth it." He held out his hand. "Ronan Nolan, at your service. Irish wizard. I work at the clinic here on the island."

[unlimitedgoals.livejournal.com]

"Joan Holloway," she replied, shaking his hand delicately. "Do you...work there all the time?"

Did Joan perhaps think he was a patient at this clinic? Oh, yes, yes she did.

[not_in_the_book]

She'd learn eventually.

"Came back mid-summer," he explained. "I was a student at the school for a couple of years, and then I spent a while travelling -- interning at different clinics." Ronan elected to leave out the 'on other worlds' part of that for the moment; Joan seemed like she needed a little more time to adjust. "I missed the States, though, so I thought I'd come back to Fandom when I heard there was a position open at the clinic. Eventually I suppose I'll head on to university, but in the meantime... Fandom's as close to home as anywhere else."