Blank Page Art Club, April 13 (Monday, After Classes)

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo looked like she wasn't hung over, but really, really wanted to be.

"'kay," she said over the racket that was Clocky screeching while Morgana roared and chased it, "today really isn't the day for stuff that involves, y'know, X-Acto knives and things and geez, Morgana, keep it down for a minute, will ya?"

She sighed and gestured at the tables. "Sculpey and Play-Doh over there, crayons and the cheesy kind of watercolors there, tempera paint if you really wanna get messy but I'm not cleaning it up for you, got it?"

That said, she got up and headed into the corner to try and wrangle Morgana, who'd gotten hold of an 18-inch ruler and was brandishing it at Clocky. "Stop! I COMMAND you to COME BACK HERE!" Morgana was yelling while Clocky hid behind a cabinet.

". . . yeah," Katchoo said. "Have fun, people."

Comments

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Do we pay you at home?" Claire asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She didn't want to ask too much about the future that had produced Paul -- it seemed like she might jinx it or something -- but, with two family businesses in play, it seemed entirely possible they might end up running one of them in whatever world Paul was born into. "And I didn't say I wouldn't pay you."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

Paul sucked in a little bit of a breath. "I get an allowance," he said. "And how much will you pay me?"

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Depends on how good a job you do," Claire decided.

Two family businesses, three older brothers. Of course they didn't get anything.

"So C-- Dad made you shelve books and stuff, huh?"

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." Paul emphasized this fact with a roll of his eyes. "And he made me go get sandwiches, too. The guy's a regular slave driver, I'm telling you."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire had to duck her head to hide her laughter. "Poor you, wow. I bet those sandwiches were heavy."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Oh, come on, Mom!" Paul groaned, knowing full well when he was being made fun of, because you picked up on that pretty when when both your parents were sarcastic assholes. "It's child labor! It's wrong. I can't believe you support this."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Please. When I was your age I had to help my dad cut dead people up," Claire exaggerated shamelessly. "Sandwiches don't rate. Sorry."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Cutting up dead people's at least cool," said Paul, pointedly.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire raised an eyebrow at him. "Is not. It's weird and gross," she claimed. "You never had to live in a funeral home."

She was guessing, anyhow.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but, then did you really have to cut them up?" Paul pointed out. "I mean, it's a funeral home, not a hospital. Unless you were selling the organs on the black market."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"How do you know we didn't?" Claire asked, with some relish. It had been a while since she got to creep anybody out with funeral home stuff, and if the somebody happened to be her own theoretical future kid, so be it.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Why would you?" asked Paul, with his own relish, one of challenge.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"You've been to the house where I grew up, right?" Claire asked, meeting his eyes. "Do you really think we make enough money to keep the whole thing and for your uncles and grandmother and Rico to live off of, just by putting people in the ground?"

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"People probably have to rent out the space for the wakes and stuff." Paul met his mother's gaze. "And embalming them and stuff. Sometimes burning them to ashes. Putting make-up on them so they don't look like corpses even though they are when there's an open casket thing. That all's got to cost moolah."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire was impressed by all of that. "You're a pretty smart kid," she said approvingly. "And, uh, your grandfather didn't really make me cut people up. That's like a billion kinds of health code violations, plus I hate the morgue."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"Ahahahahaha," Paul didn't so much laugh it as he did just say it, but he grinned. "Told you. I knew all that stuff."

There was a pause.

"Still would have been cool."

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Cool to talk about, not cool to actually do," Claire observed, but she was grinning.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"So you have done it?" Paul challenged. "If you know it's not cool to do?"

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Do you need to eat a maggot to know that's not cool to do?" Claire asked, hoping he wouldn't say he ate maggots for lunch every single day.

... this was her kid. He just might.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"...yes," said Paul, grinning unabashedly.

True, he could decide that he didn't want to know, but, he was also Cal's kid, too, and, if it got to that point....he'd so totally do it. Especially if it got a reaction out of a redhead.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"You," Claire decided, "are way too much like your father."

This was praise, actually.

Re: Talk to Claire [4/13]

[redhead-greek.livejournal.com]

"No," Paul said, "I don't put children into slave labor."