The Ink Spot, Friday, August 16, 2024

[fears_no_one]

There were small Indian and Pakistani flags on the counter today to celebrate their independence days this week, and Flint was paging through a new book today--Human, All Too Human by a man called Nietzsche--and enjoying the quiet.

He wouldn't hate an interruption: a month without a crisis for him to deal with had left him feeling itchy and unsettled.

Comments

[mustbeawitch]

What about a young lady so distracted by reading a letter that she didn't seem to notice she'd entered the bookshop until she'd closed the door behind her and looked up? Would that do in lieu of a crisis?

"Oh," Lydia said, somewhat startled. "Good morning, Captain Flint." A beat. "I would imagine my odds of purchasing stationery here are somewhat low..."

[fears_no_one]

Flint stood up to nod his greeting. "Good morning, Miss Bennet. There might be some stationery in the back, but I haven't looked for it."

[mustbeawitch]

"Oh, no, I shouldn't wish to trouble you," Lydia hastened to assure him. "I shall simply pop by Turtle & Canary next. I must write back to my sister right away, you see. She has sent me the happy news that I shall be an aunt once more in the new year."

She did not mention the part where Kitty had some concerns about how all of this was going to work out, on account of how she used to be a cat. What did burst out of her, however, was, "Only she wants to use our mother's name if it is a girl, and that was my daughter's name when she visited from the future." Because that was, obviously, something that mattered a great deal. To Lydia.

[fears_no_one]

"Can you not have two cousins named the same thing?" Flint asked.

[mustbeawitch]

There were probably going to be at least two Janes in the next generation, but, "That isn't the point!" She didn't know how to articulate what the point was, though, so she said, "Oh, I'm being ever so rude. How have you been, sir? Are you enjoying your book?"

[fears_no_one]

"It's very thought provoking," Flint said. Flint had only really ever read tomes. He smiled. "Every third person I know is a James or a John. Is that not still the case?"

[mustbeawitch]

'Thought provoking' meant 'dull as dishwater,' as far as Lydia could tell, and also she was very much beginning to suspect that Captain Flint didn't have any sisters. "Yes, but those are boys!" That was different, because of reasons.

[fears_no_one]

Flint blinked, clearly not getting this at all. (But then he hardly remembered the non-important crew members as much beyond 'you there'. They really all could be called John. It wasn't like he used their Christian names.) "I spend most of my times on ships," he said apologetically. "Without women."

[mustbeawitch]

Men. "I suppose I should not be so upset if Kitty had not already told me she dislikes the name 'Lydia,'" Lydia mused. It wasn't like any of her other sisters were likely to name a daughter after Lydia, after all. But it was fine. Lydia was fine.

"I don't suppose you have any books on, ah, why a lady's lying-in is apparently much less perilous in this day and age? Or perhaps I should ask the Google."

[fears_no_one]

Flint had definitely not ventured down that part of the store and his cheeks went a little pink at the request. "It's not my area of expertise," he warned, walking down the maze of books, "but I believe something over here may assist?"

Welcome to the health aisle and Flint staring blankly at We're Pregnant. "But you're not both..." he trailed off. "Are you?"

Lydia. Lydia, help.

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia gasped, perhaps laying the outrage on a bit thick. "Sir! I am not yet married!" Technically and/or as far as anyone on this island was aware.

[fears_no_one]

Flint knew enough to know that that wasn't always required. "Oh, I meant your sister and her husband," he said, pointing to the couple. "'We're' pregnant. But they're not."

He was pretty sure. Babies just kind of showed up?

[mustbeawitch]

"...oh. No, of course Denny isn't...expecting." Not unless there were several things about Denny that Lydia didn't know, which, honestly: who knew, her life was insane. "Just Kitty."

[fears_no_one]

"Let's put this one somewhere else since it's clearly ill-informed," Flint said, plucking the offending book off the shelf to rehome it on the "banished from Flint's favor" bookcase.

[amitragic]

Ulysses was feeling restless, but what else was new?

Okay, maybe the fact that he was turning to the book store for help with that. That was new. Genuinely.

Of course, then one of the first things he spotted were the flags (the Indian ones in particular), and it kind of gave him pause. "... What's with the flags?"

Always eloquent.

[fears_no_one]

"Independence days from England," Flint said with a little smile. "I enjoy celebrating them."

[amitragic]

"Riiight," Ulysses replied, and pursed his lips a little with a brief, thoughtful look into the middle distance. "So my dad would definitely expect a call this week."

Shame about being cut off from his own world entirely.

Right, he should shake that off. "Anyway, uh, good... Good to know."

Nice save, Uly.

[fears_no_one]

"Is your father from India?" Flint asked.

[amitragic]

"Yeah, or, well, his parents were, anyway," Ulysses replied, with a vague, circular gesture around his own face. Like maybe it was proof, or something. "Why I'm so pretty."

Under some other circumstances that would have come out sounding less distracted, but it seemed like something of a mindless reflex right now.

[fears_no_one]

Flint huffed out a semi-amused breath. "You're very self-assured."