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 Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:10 pm
 Vaden took an extra moment to check his appearance in the mirror in his dorm, and straightened his shirt. Good, he looked presentable, not too eager, just casual. Today was a big day after all. The boy had finally made it through several weeks without a huge incident between him and a teacher, classmate, or his roommates. Time to reward all that hard work.
He picked up his bag, made sure his wallet was in the pocket and then headed out and to the Arkham dorm to collect Ganymede. He nodded to the caretaker on duty and signed himself in before heading up to Gany's room. He listened at the door for a moment. Yes, movement so the kids were in, and no bickering always a good sign. He tapped on the door and then waited for someone to answer it.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:20 pm
Ganymede had been extra sure to keep his incidents to a minimum. Vaden had said that if he was good for a decent amount of time, he'd be able to do something really special. The only downside was he hadn't been told exactly how long he had to be good. It was three weeks since his last "incident" and he was already starting to get antsy. Conforming to everyone else's idea of polite and proper behavior was beginning to make him feel suffocated. He just didn't understand it! Try as hard as he may, he just couldn't grasp why everyone was so hell bent on round about manners and sugarcoating their words. Ugh.
Today was no different, and his irritation levels were reaching an all-time high. If Ella squealed one more time he swore he was going to throw something at her. Did she ever shut up? A knock at the door pulled him out of his thoughts... Ella was busy, Foras wasn't around... He sighed internally and went to answer the door, and was immediately relieved to see Vaden.
"Hi." Short, to the point, monotone with a slight tinge of annoyance. Not even Vaden could get a particularly cheery response at this point, even if he was relieved.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:34 pm
Vaden raised an eyebrow at Gany's tone and body language as he opened the door. Even if the child was trying to hide it, he'd picked up enough of his cues to know he was nearly at his wits end. Definitely time for a reward before he had to start over. Besides maybe showing that being good had it's upside was just what was needed right now.
"Get whatever you need to go into town, I'm signing you out for the rest of the day. Dinner included, I'm sick of cafeteria food." granted they wouldn't be able to go anywhere really nice considering what they were doing first, but that was fine, even fast food was a step up from the cafeteria sometimes. "I thought we might go window shop down on the boutique street you like so much." letting a little boredom creep into his voice, had to mislead the kid after all, and honestly Gany's idea of a good time and his were not always the same thing.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:59 pm
Ganymede blinked, staring up at him for a moment before he realized what he was saying. They were going into town! Away from campus! Away from ELLA. He didn't even bother replying, he just turned around to scurry back to his part of the room. There, he pulled on some shoes and then dug around for the small bit of allowance he'd saved up and hidden within his things. Not that he thought Foras or Ella could pull of stealing something from him, but you never know...
A moment later he trotted on back, then squeezed himself past Vaden and out into the hall, quickly shutting the door before Ella could take notice of what was going on. The last thing he wanted was to get stuck humoring her in a conversation.
"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go before Ella comes out please." He actually reached out to take one of Vaden's hands, antsy to be on the way already. Honestly he was probably pushing his "no incidents" streak but he reaaaaally did not want to be there anymore. "We're going to the boutique street?? Really?" He perked, marking flashing in a pattern that for Gany, displayed happiness. "I didn't think you liked going there."
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:13 pm
Vaden stepped aside as Gany wormed his way out into the hall and jumped slightly as the door slammed a bit. He debated chastising him, but you could only ask so much of the child. He did have a hard time relating to others and Vaden sometimes wondered if Gany needed counselling. Maybe some sort of empathy training?
Although that was partially the purpose of the last few weeks, making Gany think about how others felt and that they had feelings and wants and needs that were just as important as his own. He'd been forced to think about others for the last three weeks, so now he needed to be responsible for something else's wants and needs. This was only the next logical step to Vaden. This was both a reward and a test.
"Just because I don't like it, doesn't mean you don't and a reward is supposed to reward you right?" he said taking Gany's hand and going down the stairs to the caretaker's desk at the front. "You've been well behaved the last few weeks, so about time I kept my promise and I did something nice for you right?" he had to let go of Gany's hand to quickly fill out and sign the slip that would release the freshling into his custody until curfew.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:22 pm
Gany nodded a little, he supposed that made sense. Rewards were supposed to be good, yes, but he also supposed Vaden could have chosen to take him somewhere they both like and avoided the boutiques altogether. Though, he was happy they were going there. The boutiques had all sorts of fancy clothes and interesting books on fashion design to read... Just thinking about it was making him even more anxious to get off campus, if it were even possible.
"Oh. I guess so. And I have been good, I didn't even make Ella cry once last week." He nodded, and then immediately regretted what he'd said. What if Vaden took back the reward? He hadn't meant to make Ella cry. She cried if he even looked at her! He still couldn't figure out what exactly about his face made her cry so much. "Uh... Not that I meant to make her cry the other two weeks she just cries really easily, I didn't even say anything!"
He'd signed the forms though, so maybe it was a done deal? No take-backs? Nine he hoped so. He might actually trash something if he had to go back to that room again and start all over.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 10:56 pm
Vaden paused for just a second before signing his name, but then did it anyway. "That's starting to sound like a poor excuse, Gany. There has to be a reason she cries. Find out okay?" although to him it sounded like the girl might be overly sensitive and maybe needed some counselling of her own...or a thicker skin. That reminded him that Ella was Miss Lyra's daughter and how a woman like her could produce such a crybaby like Ella was beyond him. Maybe she got it from her other parent?
Was there a huge contrast between him and his parents behavior? He wasn't entirely sure and he'd never asked. He passed the clipboard back to the caretaker who waved them out but gave Gany a look that screamed "behave or else." Vaden thought it was unnecessary though, Gany despite everything was generally well behaved on his trips off campus and Vaden couldn't actually think of a time he'd stepped out of line. Getting to leave was such a big deal that it was too precious to get taken away.
He took Gany's hand again and lead him towards the bus stop since all the boutiques were on the far side of town, too far to walk, and the shop he was aiming for was half way between them. They'd have to walk a few blocks from the stop, but that wasn't too bad considering the trick he was trying to pull on his little brother.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:09 pm
Oh, that pause. He could have screamed. But thankfully Vaden finished the signature anyway. The look from the caretaker was expected, but still earned a slight narrowing of his eyes. He kept his mouth shut, though, which was eons better than what he would have done before Vaden started his little behavior training attempt. Before he might have snapped back something snarky and then attempted to drag Vaden away. But, the risk was too high, he wasn't about to have this trip canceled on him. Oh no.
He held onto Vaden's hand as he followed him out towards the bus stop, but shrugged at his suggestion that Ella had a reason for all her crying. "If she does I dunno what it is. And I dunno if I want to know. If I ask she'll think I'm her friend, Vaden. I'm not her friend." He shook his head. Ganymede had very strict standards for who his friends here, and he was not about to give someone the impression that they were friends when they really weren't. As much of a little s**t as he was, he wasn't that sort of person.
"I didn't make Foras upset at all! That's a good thing!" He nodded, pleased at that small accomplishment. Foras didn't cry as easily as Ella, but he was still "sensitive" by Ganymede's standards. Gany had just taken to ignoring Foras's existence as his method for not "hurting" him the last three weeks.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:31 pm
"That's not what she says, and you know that, Gany." he shook his head. There wasn't much sense in arguing over it and it was a conversation he'd had too many times with the Freshling and it really got nowhere. Vaden was still confused on what Gany's "standards" where when it came to friends, and considering they found him acceptable was even more baffling. He was probably the most boring person he knew and honestly when it came down to it, he did know a lot of people at least loosely and they all seemed to have far more interesting lives than he did.
He idly wondered how exactly Gany had avoided fighting with the hybrid but then decided he didn't want to know. It probably involved something that would have more than likely nixed the entire trip, or was so borderline it would lead to another discussion on appropriate behavior, something Vaden didn't really want to get into, again, right now. He also had to wonder if all kids were like this. Was this what his future children were going to be like? Had he ever been this difficult? No, probably not, his parents wouldn't have really stood for it. Well, at this rate you couldn't call him ill prepared for dealing with drama when it came to kids.
The bus turned up a few minutes later and Vaden ushered Gany on and managed to find a seat for them as it pulled away from the curb and continued on it's route. Four stops and the could get off. "So what sort of thing are you going to look for once we get there?" he asked.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:50 pm
Gany stared up at him for a moment, partly wishing he could just record Ella for him to hear, because certainly he'd believe him then! "No really, she's determined to be friends and if I show even a liiiittle bit of uh... concern, she'll think I'm accepting her friendship and I'm not." He nodded, then climbed up into his seat after Vaden. Absently he peered out the window, starting to feel the realexcitement. Not that it was apparent in anything other than the occasional flash of his markings.
The question brought his attention back to Vaden again. He blinked, mulling it over. "Probably some magazines... There's a new one in the series I like out but I haven't gotten it yet." He nodded, actually smiling a little for once. "Or maybe a sewing book... I think I want to learn how." He nodded again with a slight hum. If he wanted to continue down the path to fashion, he'd need to know how! It wasn't like he could practice illusions, he was still too young to have any ability with magic. It was frustrating, but his interest in that particular subject would have to wait.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:18 am
"You do know that the child of a teacher, could be a powerful ally. Just saying." and with that he let the subject drop. He wasn't entirely sure why he was trying to even put the idea into Gany's head that "friendship" could be used as a weapon. He sighed quietly, old habits, they never really die. "Ignore that." he said after a few moments of being lost his own thoughts. "I'm out of line." he then focused on watching the scenery shift outside the window.
"A good skill to have." he said in regards to sewing. He couldn't do it of course, but there were probably quite a few individuals in Arkham who could teach him. "Just if you get stuck, don't ask me, and be nice to whoever you do corner to answer your question okay?" he teased just a bit and then made sighed loudly and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Gods! I completely forgot! We need to get off at the next stop, I just remembered something I need to do in a shop near here. I'm sorry to drag you on personal business of mine on our outing, but it's really important and I promise right after we'll go down to the boutiques, okay?" he said hoping he hadn't overacted as he reached up to tug the cord to indicate they wanted to get off at the next stop.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:33 am
He blinked... He hadn't really thought of that. Miss Lyra seemed too serious to show favoritism, though. But, he was going to be stuck here for a few more years, he might as well not make enemies of his teachers... That he at least understood. "No, that's a good point." He nodded, thinking a bit more on it. Could he put up with Ella if it meant getting on Miss Lyra's good side? Probably. Probably more likely if they weren't roommates though... He'd make easier friends with Foras than Ella... ugh. He'd have to consider it. Too late, Vaden.
"I wouldn't. I didn't think for a second that you could sew." He nodded, then realized that could be taken for an insult. Not wanting to actually hurt Vaden's feelings, he quickly followed it up, "I mean. You just don't seem like you'd be interested in it.." There. That would do it.
He jumped slightly at the sudden reaction out of Vaden. He hadn't thought him to be the type to make such dramatic displays. He nodded, still confused and in no place to object. "That's okay. You're the one taking me out anyway so..." He shrugged, but admittedly was a little intrigued... Vaden was secretive.. This was a chance to potentially find out some more things about him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:00 pm
As Gany agreed with him, Vaden had a sinking feeling that he'd unintentionally added yet another trick to the child's bag of tricks. He really had to stop doing that...
"Just making sure you didn't think I had any secret talents." he said.
He then gathered his bag and Gany and ushered him to the front of the bus as it came to a stop. "Thank you." Vaden said nodding to the driver as they disembarked. He took Gany's hand once they were off and pointed down the street. "It's just a couple blocks that way. I promise this little errand won't take long at all and then we can get back to your reward day." he said and started walking, making sure to keep his stride shorter than normal so he wouldn't be dragging Gany along behind him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:26 pm
"Nope. But you are kinda secretive sooooo... maybe you do." He followed Vaden off of the bus, not thanking the bus-driver. He didn't quite understand why Vaden did that. Was he supposed to? Why? The rules of social engagement were just too confusing.
"It's okay. We're gonna be out all day anyway right?" He grinned, pleased to be outside of the campus walls. He trotted along next to Vaden, easily keeping up with the pace he'd set. "What are we doing?" Admittedly, even if he didn't care that they were going on a Vaden-specific errand, he did want to know what was up and why it was so important.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:07 pm
Vaden frowned as Gany didn't thank the driver and sighed a bit. "Should thank people like drivers and clerks, you know. They have a hard job dealing with people all day, a little polite gesture might make their day a little better and maybe it'll make them feel better about their job, and when they go home maybe they won't be as snappy to their loved ones because someone was nice to them that day." he looked down at Gany. "Just imagine you were the driver, wouldn't it make you a little less grumpy if someone said thank you once in awhile, and that it seemed like they appreciated the job you were doing?" There maybe that would make up for his previous slip. He doubted it and it would probably lead to another round of "why, that's stupid," with Gany.
Vaden nodded. "We are, at least until bed time." he said and paused to look across the street before crossing it with Gany. "Oh, nothing big. Just a little errand, you'll see when we get there."
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