this wrath can't be denied Who: Lida & Jules Where: Corner shop When: Early afternoon Warning!: Violence
For those who had made requests for his run to the corner shop, of which there actually weren’t that many, Jules had had to go on and write them down. This had sweet F.A. to do with whether or not his memory was failing and everything to do with just how much he could not be bothered rummaging around the layers of his mind for what flavour gum Nicci wanted. He wasn’t even sure she wanted gum to begin with. And how’d he end up being the gopher anyhow? Oh sure, he’d volunteered. But when an elder volunteers it’s goddamn common decency for someone younger to step in instead. Least, that was always how he remembered his parents avoiding the shit they didn’t want to do.
Not that he was gonna be shirking duties or nothing because this wasn’t his pack after all, it was his family. When it came to those who might not actually be related to him? That was when he got a little bit blurry. Mostly because he just didn’t know. Probably better to work on a case-by-case basis--And GODDAMNIT, Colt, I’d be able to concentrate and actually REMEMBER what it was I was doing if you STOPPED FUCKING TEXTING. It was not something Jules really regretted teaching the semi-technophobic guerilla, but he did wish Colton knew how to exercise… moderation. Or just learned how not to be a dumbass with his his cell phone. Though, to be fair, while in the middle of driving through an argument with Delia like the two of them were freight trains trying to hog the rails, hearing John McClane’s ‘YIPPEE-KI-YAY, MOTHERFUCKER’ (the SMS alert that was assigned to Colton for a number of reasons) always seemed to kill their need to destroy each other.
Jules suspected he did that deliberately.
However, when in a corner store as small-to-medium sized as this one, wherever the werewolf was the sound of ‘YIPPEE-KI-YAY, MOTHERFUCKER’ followed by his rumbling, exasperated reaction to whatever the message said. So far as Jules could tell, his Beta had his grandchildren up in Fort Normandin (Maisie and the twins would be loving it -- but they were five and three years old respectively) with the air rifles because the people Colton had nightmares about had somehow sneaked over the borders of the pack lands. That the real rifle were up there as well didn’t need to be said. His Beta was having an episode. Slowly filling his basket after hitting speed-dial, Jules eyed the list and wondered which wise-ass had asked for jello cubes and not told him what flavour they wanted. When his Colton finally answered, he stood patiently, staring at the ceiling while he listened to the same persistent explanation that was just a little too unhinged to be all right, and inhaled deeply. Vampire. A recent addition; he was sixty-two but he wasn’t so far gone as to have not noticed her. “Colt. - Colt. - The V.C. are not trying to get in. And... - Hey now, listen. What’ve I told you about taking the little’uns up there? - … Asher was six. That was the youngest. Get’em down ‘fore their mother brings out the longbow you taught her how to use.” He paused to let Colton ramble more with Maisie giggling in the background, then shifted on the spot. Something was getting his hackles up and he couldn’t put his finger on what. “We done now?” It was no secret that Jules had a habit of hanging up the moment he made sure there was nothing else to say. Military communication without the call signs.
Right -- next shelf, and he dropped his cell phone back into his bag and set about fidgeting with the unmarked dog-tags his youngest had bought him as a joke. His wedding ring was threaded onto it because the chain was long enough that he could leave it on whenever he shifted; an almost-romantic gesture that Delia hadn't appreciated.
... He wasn’t sure he liked knowing that vampire was there, which was odd because he generally take issue with the things unless they were fucking around on his turf. And did Nicci really want gum or had he made that up? Still, all of his senses -- if not his line of sight, which remained on whatever it was he was looking for -- tried to follow her around the store. He was pretty sure someone had wanted gum. Goddamnit, Colton. One conversation with him and he came away paranoid and addled in the brain.