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 Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:58 pm
Takes place directly after In an instant. Quote: Prompt 2: You're singing in the rain ♪♫♪ Just singing in the rain!♪♫
Once they were home, Jack sent Quinn to the couch with Roxy, who never had to be convinced to accept pets and snuggles. Jack made tea for them both and encouraged Quinn to munch on some fruit while he waited. Quinn looked a bit like his blood sugar was low. Could magic do that? Or was that just part of Quinn being Quinn? With how often he had to travel, Jack had very little experience with Quinn post battle. He wouldn’t be surprised if this was typical, though Quinn definitely seemed to be the type to push himself past his limits.
Jack carried their tea into the living area, passing one mug to Quinn and keeping the second for himself. He sat on the other side of Roxy, who liked to hog both of their attention for herself.
“Where were we on your pop culture knowledge?” he asked, turning on the television to begin scrolling through apps.
He didn’t expect Quinn to answer with more than a grunt. Jack wasn’t even sure if Quinn paid attention when he tried to introduce him to Earth’s various pop culture milestones in an attempt to familiarize Quinn with the local culture, but — and Jack was very aware it could be his ego talking — he suspected Quinn just didn’t want to admit that he enjoyed the down time together, even when the things Jack showed him were silly and probably nonsensical to him.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:01 pm
Quinn did grunt in response, and eyed the way Jack put himself on the other side of Roxy. Which was fine because she was his dog and would want to give her the most room and probably didn’t want to seem like he was crowding Quinn, that was fine.
But he did at least thank Jack for the tea and held the hot cup in both hands as he pulled his feet up onto the couch. He had a borrowed hoodie on and a blanket around him, and Roxy against him, so he was warm enough… but he still felt a bit chilled.
Then again, he had just used all of his energy throwing around magic with varying degrees of success. He was still angry that he couldn’t just drown that wimpy Captain.
Jack could be… a lot to deal with sometimes. He liked saying crazy things, and Quinn was pretty sure he enjoyed the sound of his own voice more than what he was actually saying. It was frustrating when Jack seemed like he thought Quinn needed to have his hand held for things (figuratively, because Jack didn’t seem to want to touch him otherwise), but Quinn was also grateful for being given a place to stay and food to eat and clothes to wear.
He couldn’t complain. Even if he was realizing just how alone he was. Sure, he could reach out to Devyn again, but he had his own family and life. He didn’t need some random guy he knew from a thousand years ago to butt in on his life.
“We reviewed the talking mouse and his kingdom,” he huffed after a moment, because despite seeming like he wasn’t paying attention, he didn’t want Jack to decide to stop.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:01 pm
“Right. The House of Mouse.” Jack grinned. He was right. Quinn did pay attention, even if he acted like he found all this to be dull and boring. “We could get into the current political s**t with all that, but that would probably be boring for you. And to be honest, politics have been pretty garbage for… I don’t know, probably forever.”
He didn’t want Quinn to think Earth was without its flaws or tragedies, but he also didn’t want to drag him down with frustrating and depressing s**t when they were both already tired. With the way Quinn looked, Jack doubted they’d be able to dive into too much anyway. Once he’d eaten and finished his tea, Quinn was liable to fall asleep. Maybe even before then.
So Jack decided they should watch something short and fun. He pulled up Youtube and typed in a search. T - O - M - H -
“We’re gonna watch Tom Holland and Zendaya’s lip sync battle. Lip syncing is when you mouth along to the words of a song without actually singing it. There’s this show that had celebrities battle it out in song and dance. Famous people, you know?”
Were there celebrities on Enceladus?
A question for another day.
“Anyway, we can get into who exactly Tom Holland and Zendaya are another time. Basically all you need to know is they weren’t dating back when this was filmed, but they have been for a few years now, and if they ever break up it’ll be a sign the world is coming to an end. They’re cute, trust me.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:02 pm
Quinn frowned. He didn’t understand it already. They battled with their lips? Only they weren’t singing, they were just pretending to sing. It sounded ridiculous, and he didn’t know who these people were, but Jack seemed to think that they were important enough to share with him.
He glanced wearily over the top of Roxy again, but settled against her so he could take a sip of his tea. He was tired, but he wanted to take advantage of whatever time Jack was willing to share with him. For all of Jack’s flaws, he was a good guy. Quinn could see that, and he couldn’t help but notice that he was cute too.
Oh, but he didn’t think he should get into all of that. Jack barely knew him, and he barely knew Jack. He should just accept being roommates, as Jack called it to his brother.
“Is this like a courting ritual?” he asked, trying to understand it, and why he needed to understand that these two individuals weren’t dating. Which he assumed was also part of courting.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:03 pm
Jack laughed. He couldn’t help it. Sometimes Quinn’s confusion amused him, especially when it came to harmless subjects that probably wouldn’t cause him too much trouble if he happened to get it wrong around other people.
“Sorry, no,” he said, hoping Quinn wouldn’t take offense to the reaction. Jack offered him a grin in an attempt to take the sting out of it. “Not a courting ritual. It’s a competition. Winner gets bragging rights. They started dating after they were in some movies together. We’ll watch those some other time. For now, this is just a four minute video.”
He chose the correct one and settled in to watch, sipping his tea and draping the opposite arm over Roxy, giving her some loving pets for being the most perfect girl in the world.
“Mmmkay, so Zendaya goes first. She’s great. Super talented. I’m pretty sure she can do no wrong. She actually got her start with the House of Mouse, and the movies these two are in together fall under their rule, too, so this definitely ties into what we were seeing last time and isn’t at all the most random departure from our Earth 101 lesson plan.”
A plan they’d only scratched the surface off in the scant few months since Quinn’s arrival. Jack never realized how much there was to learn until he had to help someone else fit in.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:04 pm
He didn’t take offense to Jack’s correction, but he was still confused. He understood competitions and the idea of bragging rights wasn’t foreign to him. He just didn’t think it would be such a huge thing for Earth people to enjoy.
Quinn was quiet as he watched, because clearly this was something Jack wanted him to pay attention to. Not that he wouldn’t pretend like he wasn’t that interested if asked about it, but he wanted to at least know.
It was also weird that there was so much being under the rule of a talking mouse. Not even a real mouse, he learned. Or he supposed a concept was as real as anything, especially when power and money was involved. It sounded too complicated for him and he was grateful that Jack had previously decided to skip the politics.
“I have no idea what anyone is saying,” he scowled after a moment. He knew they were saying words, but he didn’t understand them in the context. He tried to just accept it for what it was, but it was frustrating not knowing what everything was referencing. Obviously that was the point of being pop culture, and Jack had done his best to teach him, but…
No, he was supposed to just be enjoying it. He supposed this dancing was entertaining, even if he didn’t know if he liked the flashing lights.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:06 pm
Jack didn’t expect Quinn to like everything. It’d be weird if he did, like trying too hard to impress someone. He only wanted Quinn to understand things if they were brought up in conversation, and be able to discuss things culturally without anyone questioning his intelligence or his experience or his belonging there on Earth.
This video might not be important, but it was fun. Sometimes it was nice to watch something because it was fun and not because Quinn needed to learn it to blend in.
“Music’s like that, though, right?” Jack said. “You don’t have to understand it to enjoy it. Like, I’m not a huge fan, but I listen to some Kpop. That’s Korean, which is a different language. I don’t have a clue what most of it means, but it’s still fun.”
He paused for a second, seemed to consider his own words, then asked, “Did you have music on Enceladus?”
Jack hadn’t considered it before, that something like music might not be universal. Given all he’d shown Quinn so far, Jack assumed he was at least familiar with the concept, seeing as he hadn’t questioned it beyond not understanding what was being said. Besides, Jack had music playing around the condo fairly frequently. Quinn had to know what it was, right?
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:08 pm
Quinn didn’t know why, because he knew he didn’t have to be honest about anything if he didn’t want to be, but he felt his cheeks burn when Jack asked if there was music on Enceladus.
He hesitated and shifted uncomfortably, then took a long sip of his tea. He knew he was being dramatic over nothing. Earth had music. Other places had music.
“Yeah,” he finally said with a shrug, curling over his knees a little more as though to make himself smaller. “It didn’t sound like this, though. And before you ask yes we had dancing too,” he said with a little more vigor, and a hmph.
“It was an important part of our culture. To learn music when we’re young. We had other languages too, but music transcends that. Obviously,” he frowned, because Jack had just pointed out that he didn’t have to know what the words meant. The problem was that he wanted to know what the words meant, so he didn’t seem like he had no idea what he was talking about if it was brought up.
“What’s a hash-agh?” Maybe Jack brought it up before, but it was a good way to push the conversation forward.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:09 pm
Jack noticed the red in Quinn’s cheeks. His grin widened, but he (perhaps wisely) chose not to comment on it.
“A hashtag is a symbol,” he explained instead. “Around here it used to be called the number sign or the pound sign, but nowadays you mostly hear it called a hashtag because of social media. It’s used to add descriptive terms to a post. So, like, if you shared an image of the reservoir online, you could include ‘hashtag DC reservoir’ and when people clicked on it, it’d take them to a bunch of other pictures with the same tag.”
Realizing none of that probably made much sense to Quinn — who’s only knowledge of social media was a bunch of confusing nonsense Jack had tried to explain to him on previous occasions, and an app on his senshi phone — Jack fished out his own phone to demonstrate.
The most recent picture on his Instagram was one from last night’s game, he and Chris in the dugout between innings.
“This here is the hashtag symbol, and it says ‘hashtag winning,’ ‘cause we had a good game, so…” Okay, maybe it seemed kind of braggy. Whatever. “See how I can click on it, and it brings up all these other pictures? In the song they say ‘hashtag blessed,’ which some people use to celebrate something good happening to them, and other people use it more like a joke, because social media kinda takes the sincerity out of things. A lot of it’s performative. You know, people saying certain things or showing certain parts of their life to portray a certain kind of image.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:10 pm
Quinn pursed his lips together, but he listened as Jack explained things. There was a lot he still didn’t get, but he thought he understood a little about this and that. It wasn’t because Jack was bad at explaining things. There was just a lot to learn.
He appreciated Jack taking the time to show him, though. Even if he didn’t know how to express his thanks, or repay him for his kindness. He felt as though everything he did was thanks to Jack’s kindness, and he felt a little out of sorts by not being able to do much to express how much it meant to him. Sure, he helped take care of Roxy, but that was easy. And he made sure to clean up after himself, but still…
“Okay,” he said because he didn’t know how else to fully explain that he understood as much as he could. He would have to play around with his own phone to figure things out some more.
“What about the other part?” he asked, glancing at the video again. He wasn’t trying to seem too interested, but he also wasn’t disinterested either.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:11 pm
Jack knew it was overwhelming. It hadn’t occurred to him before meeting Quinn that immersing in and learning a whole new society would be mind-boggling and endlessly confusing, but he realized it more and more as he tried to help Quinn adapt. None of this could possibly be easy. All Jack could do was try to keep things fun and do what he could to make sure Quinn didn’t have too hard of a time.
“So next is Tom,” he continued, turning back to the television. “No one thinks he can upstage Zendaya, because she’s Zendaya and he’s just Tom. See how he starts? Kinda dorky. Dancing to Singing in the Rain. It’s underwhelming, yeah? Zendaya’s gonna win it easy. But then, wait a minute. He ducks behind the umbrellas, and the music changes and suddenly it’s a Rihanna song. Then bam. Tom’s in drag. He’s confident. He’s into it. The crowd’s going wild. And he can dance. Everyone either didn’t know or forgot that he was a dancer before he was an actor. There’s no way Zendaya’s winning this now.”
Every few seconds, Jack took a peek over at Quinn — not to make sure he was paying attention, but to get a look at his reactions. Whether he liked it or not wasn’t important; their opinions didn’t need to match. The emotions were what Jack cared about. Confusion, or wonder, or amusement, it didn’t matter. Experiencing things that were old news to him through someone who was seeing and experiencing them for the first time came with a certain thrill.
“I swear something in the universe shifted with this performance. Everyone was talking about it. I don’t know if anyone ever topped it.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:12 pm
Quinn huffed as he watched, making sure his posture made it seem like he wasn’t too invested. It was strange. He didn’t understand why something was considered dorky, and he didn’t know the song (obviously), but he could tell when the tempo changed and when the audience seemed to react to the change. Apparently the outfit Tom was wearing was considered unusual. At least enough that Jack commented about how he was confident.
He didn’t know what to think. He was curious about it, of course. The way people reacted to the dancing and splashing around. But he made a face when the screen started needlessly flashing lights.
But he supposed he didn’t have enough context to argue against anything Jack said. As far as he knew, everything Jack told him was the truth. Or close enough to it that he should listen to him. So far, nothing Jack told him seemed wrong, so he would just have to trust him.
He glanced over at Jack, just as he was looking over at him, and he felt his cheeks burn again. He quickly ducked his head down again and glared at the television.
“So this isn’t a courting ritual? Seems like a lot of effort for bragging rights,” he huffed.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:12 pm
Jack snickered and hoped the laughter didn’t seem malicious.
“I mean, it’s not a traditional courting ritual, no,” he said. “But seeing as they’re dating now, they must’ve seen something to like in one another.”
He let the video end, sipping at his tea instead of choosing anything else to follow. He’d learned in the months since Quinn moved in that inundating him with too much all at once could put him in a cranky mood. Quinn didn’t like to feel stupid or seem ignorant; the more Jack introduced him to, the more chances there were for that to happen. So he took things as slow as he could. Thus far, Quinn was familiar enough with all the truly important stuff. Money. Transportation. Food. Basic communication. The fun stuff could come at a more sedate pace.
“You gonna get some sleep once you’re done?” Jack asked, running a hand over Roxy’s warm body. “Or I can put on a movie if you just want to sit here for a while. You should get some rest either way. Using magic like that, it has to be exhausting.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:13 pm
Quinn didn’t seem to mind Jack’s response, but he still ended up frowning into his tea when it was suggested that he go to sleep.
He knew he should. And he shrugged at the comment about his magic being exhausting. It was. He was exhausted. He felt a bit shaky and his eyes were heavy, but he also didn’t know if he wanted to close his eyes. It might invite dreams -- nightmares -- that he didn’t want to have. Staying awake seemed easier than trying to fall asleep, alone and in the dark.
“Yeah I guess,” he mumbled and shifted uncomfortably, but his tea was mostly done and he wouldn’t have an excuse once it was.
“I don’t like being alone,” he admitted after a few moments, although he made sure to stare hard at his cup instead of looking over at Jack. He didn’t even know what he meant by that. And he wouldn’t be alone. Jack was in the apartment too. And Roxy.
He shook his head as though to erase what he’d just said, and gulped down the rest of his tea.
“Yeah, I should go to bed, probably. It’s been a long day.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:13 pm
Jack didn’t understand Quinn’s desire or need to pretend. Maybe that was because Jack wasn’t the sort to hide anything if he could help it. If he was tired, he had no problem admitting he was tired. If he was hurt, he had no problem admitting he was hurt. If he was sad or confused or afraid of something, why not say so? To Jack, bravado seemed unnecessary.
He was, however, very aware that it was a privilege to be open and honest about himself with others. Jack figured there had to be a very good chance Quinn hadn’t ever had the opportunity to be, for one reason or another.
Jack took Quinn’s cup once he was done, and set both mugs aside on the coffee table. From the back of the couch, he retrieved a warm blanket and spread it out, offering it to Quinn.
“Stay here, then. I’ll be up for a while,” he offered. “I’ll turn something quiet on and you can close your eyes and rest. It’s alright if you end up falling asleep. The couch’s comfortable. I nap on it all the time. Or I can carry you to bed later.”
Jack offered a teasing wink. Despite that, the offer hadn’t been meant in jest; Jack didn’t often say things he didn’t mean, but he also hadn’t said it with the intention of embarrassing Quinn.
Well… maybe a little. It was cute seeing someone so cranky blush and squirm.
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