dear_mun | (no subject)

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Look, why don't we work this out nice and easy, huh? You don't want me and I don't want to be here. The simple solution would be to let me leave.

Yeah, but you're not going to do that, are you. Yep. Didn't think so. What exactly do you plan to do with me? I can tell you right now it's not going to be what you think. All of that running around, sticking me into embarrassing situations, making me learn life lessons. Your average afterschool special, right?

Maybe in an insane asylum.

I don't think so. I get enough of that from my day job. I don't need anyone co-opting my life, capisce?

You don't even think I have a personality. I have a personality! I'm not just--some look-alike to that pirate guy who's also in here. This is too weird for me, man. Why don't we just go our seperate ways?

And stop saying I look twelve. Jeez. Can't a guy look young for his age without taking a bunch of crap for it?

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[Is no one receptive to his complaints? He didn't expect hand-patting or anything, but at least he hoped to find someone sane.]

Looking for something, buddy? [Can he help you? Because you're just staring. But he's being mostly polite and sincere in the question. If you ignore the subtle petulant, defiant undertone.]

[James clears his throat, posture straightening marginally in the look of someone who's been caught out doing someone they shouldn't. But that's subtle too. He's just... surprised. And has absolutely no idea what to make of that accent.]

[He clears his throat.]

Ah, apologies. You merely-- as you said, look rather like... that pirate guy. [The last three words are pronounced delicately, in audible quote marks.] It took me rather by surprise.

[Oh--god, it's weird to discuss this. It's weird enough looking like someone else, let alone analysing it in detail.]

Yeah, uh. Yeah. [He brushes a hand through his hair.] There's some--similarties, I guess. On the surface. [Hands meet pockets, and he slouches a little.] You know him?

[The boy's awkwardness could not be more obvious. The accent and speech patterns are jarring, but physically, it's familiar. Strangely so. His lips quirk nearly invisibly at the question.]

We're-- acquainted, yes.

Acquainted? [Eyebrows go up. Care to share anymore about that?] So you guys are friends?

He's, uh. Very loud as a roommate. Pretty boisterous. [Which is the nicest way he can think to say aggravating. And as soon as he can find someone reponsible for it, he will hold them accountable to the fullest extent of his powers.]

[Loud? Boisterous? James isn't quite sure if he wants to laugh or feel sorry for the lad, to have the misfortune to pique Jack's interest just by having the same face. Because he must have piqued his interest, otherwise Jack wouldn't be bothering him.]

Making himself a nuisance, is he? [Dryly] My sincerest apologies, on his behalf.

Yeah, he seems pretty talented at that. [Looking around with a shrug. He's not bothered--not so long as he can find something to do about it and then do it.]

You know how to make him stop? [He looks at James, serious. He's not asking for help, not really, but if you have some idea who this guy is, then you might have some idea how to contain him. And you, at least, he can interrogate. A little bit of a smirk forms.] I would arrest him but--[Shrugs. His mun won't let him, for starters, and secondly, he can't quite figure out physically how to do it.] Seems to break some kind of...rule. Know anything about that?

Arrest him? [Eyebrows go up at that, mild.] I've tried that; it never worked. [And if you're law enforcement of some variety-- now he will look at you with your gravity-defying hair and your strange trousers and general... sloppiness, and judge, just a little.] You'll forgive me if I say you don't precisely look military.

[He does know a way to make Jack stop making an irritation of himself, but that doesn't quite seem the thing to recommend to anyone else. And certainly not this boy who looks just like Jack twenty years past.]

[Have a flat look.] Right back atcha. I'm a cop. [Smirking. Okay? Not military. Not that you look like you're in the military either.]

What is it you said you did?

[He is immune to flat looks. And he will give you an eyebrow in return. Mildly:]

I didn't. I'm a sailor.

[It's the simplest way of putting it. He doesn't particularly feel like going into his life story with this strange little not-Jack.]

[A sailor. Right.] That how you two met? Or did you arrest him for other reasons?

Formerly a senior officer in the Navy.

[Which is to say, that would be why he arrested him.]

But I met him before that, if you must know. Is all this news to you? Captain Sparrow hasn't been regaling you with tales?

[Not that he expects Jack's tales would stray into that particular arena, but one never knows. And he is curious, just a little, about what Jack's been doing to annoy his lookalike.]

Mm. [Nodding. Formerly an officer. Right. Well, you don't look it, but it could be that you changed your style since then. He doesn't wear his uniform when he's not on patrol, and he wouldn't wear it at all after retirement.]

You know, it hasn't come up yet. Haven't really found the time to sit down over a beer with him and gab. [And he doesn't want to, that tone implies. He doesn't like his headmates.]

[Dryly.]

You know, that might be why he seems so set on aggravating you.

[He knows, because that's what Jack did with him.]

What, because someone's not interest in him? Pull a girl's pigtails, sort of thing? [That's... kind of pitiful, really. And strange behaviour in a grown man.] This isn't elementary school, for crying out loud.

[Not... quite that, but James is no more up for explaining the inner workings of Jack's mind to this boy than he is giving him his life story.]

Well, you can hardly blame him for his curiosity.

There's curiousity and then there's-- [He doesn't even know what to call it. The elementary school analogy actually seems fitting.] Being adult. Professional about these things. There's common curtesy.

[The faintest glimmer of a smile threatens to break through. It is incredibly strange, hearing that criticism of Jack from someone who looks more or less just like him.]

I am entirely inclined to agree with you, Mr.-- ah?

But as I very much suspect Jack would say, pirate.

[Glowering. Yes, his roommate seems very fond of that word. It's incredibly irritating.]

Officer Tom Hanson. [WIth a nod, and a pause. And you are?]

Maybe the best thing to do would just be to ignore him. That's what my dad would say. He'll get the point eventually.

[He can't take the glower seriously, not on a face that young.]

Captain James Norrington.

[And he'll offer a hand to shake, because he's polite.]

I wish you the best of luck in that endeavour.

[Oh, right, handshake. Sure. They can do that, adult-like. But he's going to put space between them again as soon as possible and go back to slouching.] Nice to meet you.

And yeah. Uh, thanks. Worth a try. That's what you do with bullies and brats, right?

[James is an adult; he's not the one who looks like he's twelve.]

[And this eyebrow has a faintly chastening edge to it.]

I should hardly call him that.

[He likes to keep his personal space his unless he knows a person well. It's preference-related, not age.]

[And what? You just spent the last five minutes agreeing with him and now you're going to start defending the guy?] That's what he is, isn't he? Some combination of the two.

[He is his boyfriend. And though he can absolutely be an annoyance of the first degree, Jack's no bully. And perhaps a bit of a brat, when he wants to be, but that's not how James would first think to describe him.]

You haven't known him for very long yet.

[That's true, but you don't need to know someone very long to have an impression of them.] I've met enough people like that.

Oh, I very much doubt it.

[This kid, Officer Hanson, has doubtless met countless criminals, and doubtless he's mentally categorised Jack in along with all the rest of them. But first impressions with Jack tend only to be true up to a point.]

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