The Park, Thursday Around Noon

[6mil_dvdplayer]

True to his word from the night before, Mack was stretched out on his stomach on a blanket -- red, of course -- on a sunny patch of grass right in the middle of the park, his nose buried in a battered and dog-eared copy of The Riddle of the Sands.

Where a year and change ago he might've been dozing off, lost in Mary-Sueing himself into the book

Comments

[notbreakable]

"Hey Mack," Claire greeted when she spotted him in the park.

[6mil_dvdplayer]

Mack looked up from one of the less-interesting passages in the book and smiled when he caught sight of Claire. "Hey, co-anchor!"

[notbreakable]

Claire smiled at that. "What are you reading?"

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"This book about two guys who take a sailboat out and discover a whole fleet about to invade England," Mack said. "From like a hundred years ago. I love adventure novels."

[morethanadog]

"Not what it's like where?"

That super hearing he has? Just great for listening in on what people are saying when they mutter. He can't help himself.

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"That bit of ocean off the coast of Germany," Mack replied without thinking about it. "At least, not in my world."

A beat, then: "Hey, you're not Will."

[morethanadog]

Jake looked over his shoulder, just checking there wasn't anyone around he hadn't noticed. "Will?"

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"My friend from home," Mack explained. "He has super-enhanced hearing and can hear me from, like, across a football field if he wants to. He likes doing that when I'm reading and talking to myself sometimes."

He frowned, suddenly self-conscious. "I wasn't being too loud, was I?"

[wolvesraisedme]

Savannah was wandering when she saw Mack and she hesitated only a moment before heading over to him. Their last discussion had hurt, but she missed talking to him, so here she was.

"Hey Mack."

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"Hey, Savannah," Mack said. The memory of that last conversation was still fairly fresh in his mind, too, and so the smile he gave her was noticeably awkward.

[wolvesraisedme]

Savannah bit her lip. "Uhm... are you busy or wanting to be alone or..."

She wasn't very good at this.

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"I'm just reading. I can do that any time," Mack replied, his eyebrows knitting in confusion. "Besides, if I wanted to be alone I'd be hiding in my room or something. You can sit, if you want."

[didntpassgo]

Nadia flickered into existence at Mack's shoulder, leaning down to try and read over his shoulder. She wasn't worrying about being visible, just yet. Wanted to see about getting the "lay of the land", as it were, first.

[6mil_dvdplayer]

Mack, for his part, was pretty engrossed in a bit where the narrator of the book was lamenting his poor start as an adventurer, and didn't appear to show any signs, just yet, of being able to see Nadia.

"Aw," he said out loud, "it's okay, Carruthers. Not everybody's first adventure gets to be super awesome."

[didntpassgo]

"Actually," Nadia commented, mostly to herself. "Most adventures end up just being messy and ending in tears."

[6mil_dvdplayer]

"Carruthers?" Mack squinted at his book. "You sounded less female in my head."