oo1: actual intro!

[cursedtolive]

[action - around town in the afternoon]
[There's a small little boy walking around town. A flat cap pulled down over his eyes, and a brown jacket even in the middle of July. His outfit choice looks a couple decades out of date, too, although the clothes are definitely from the right era. Fashion statement?

Seemingly lost in his thoughts, Czeslaw Meyer-Stanfield is not paying much attention to where he is going. He passes by houses, by shops, by people. He might accidentally bump into people, at which point he will blink the surprise away and smile sheepishly, with a natural-sounding]

Oh...! Oh, I'm sorry [mister, or miss]. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going. I didn't mean to run into you. Good afternoon!

[action - 459 Stone Street]
[Nope. Nope. Nope nope nope. He can't handle this family arrangement. His "mother" won't let him hole up in his room, though, so he's sitting in a chair in the corner of the front room watching the door so he'll never be surprised by his "father"'s homecoming.]

Comments

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Huh? Are you sure about that?

[He gets annoyed at being treated like a child, he's surprised to think somebody else wouldn't mind.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Course I'm sure. And I'll treat you like... like a big brother! I guess? Maybe we can start as friends?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Okay! Brothers is fine with me. Unless maybe it's easier for you to start out as friends?

[You'll still be considered family either way, Czes, so don't think you'd be getting off easy by picking to be friends.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

I don't have a whole lotta experience with either. [He smiles almost shyly. Is that a real smile or a pretense, even he can't really tell right now.] So they're both kind of the same to me...

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[Firo's smile fades when he hears that. His childhood was by no means great, but at least he had the Gandors and Claire as both friends and brothers.]

Oh. Well, that'll be fixed. I promise.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Really? I'm looking forward to it!

[action]

[justdumbluck]

I'd be disappointed if you weren't.

[Hmm, what are some fun brotherly things to do other than beat each other up...]

So, uh, what do you like to do?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Me? Well, I spend a lot of the time now just hanging out at Alveare. Sometimes I help Miss Ennis to the groceries and we'll have lunch there...

[action]

[justdumbluck]

I mean like fun stuff.

[Grocery shopping with Ennis sounds fun, but pretty much anything is fun if Ennis is there.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

[Pick on you. Tease you about Ennis. Um.]

I just talk to everyone! I don't really have hobbies or anything...

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Not any?

I guess I could try introducin' you to some a' my friends here.

[Though a few of them aren't too talkative--Barton comes to mind.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Uh-huh. I was on my own most of the time before I got to Manhattan, so I didn't have a lot of time to sit down and do something fun. I... guess I read, sometimes.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Read..?

[Not what he would have expected, but he can do this!]

You ever heard a' Peter Pan?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Of course I have.

It's the kid that never grows up, right?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Yeah. that's it! My friend lent the book to me back when we were kids.

[He grins.]

What else do you read?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

[He thinks for a bit. Well he read that book on chemistry, and that book on modern alchemy, and studied how to make bombs before........

No, not things he could tell Firo. What is a good children's book?]

Um... I read Oz. And Peter Rabbit too!

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[Good move, Czes.]

Oz? I've read those ones too! I think Maiza's got a few of 'em.

How about Alice in Wonderland?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

I've read that, too. Alice in Wonderland's famous, after all.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[He smiles teasingly.]

So you've read all the famous ones, huh?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Well I've also read stuff like Oliver Twist, too.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Yeah? That's the Dickens one with the Artful Dodger and all of 'em, right?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

That's the one.

To be honest, I read non fiction stuff more than stories like that, but these are more fun to talk about aren't they?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Definitely.

[He laughs sheepishly.]

I honestly can't think of much nonfiction I'd wanna read.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Firo, you probably talk to everyone and listen to Isaac and Miria more than you read anythin' at all!

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[He can not refute that.]

So? I've got better things to do than spend all day with my nose in a book!