“There are a few reasons why I know that it wasn’t something you did. Again, because nothing that you would do would ever be big enough to be on the news. Two, if it was something that involved you and it was bad, I would have gotten a phone call or something from someone.” He’d already been screwed out of work from his younger siblings… really, were they trying to send him into poverty? “Three, if it was something that you did and you were afraid of me being pissed off about it you’d probably just start crying and tell me what you did the moment you saw me. I know you well enough to know your tells, Blake.” He smirked a little bit at the end of that statement, but it was just as quick to fade as soon as he heard what had actually happened. Vol… was dead? Jack was stunned for a second before his mind kick started back into reality and he needed to find out some more information. “Is… Ennis okay?” Brogan was going to be in all kinds of emotional turmoil because of his brother… but to lose his brother and his son? Jackson could only hope that fate wouldn’t be that cruel.
Jackson didn’t believe for a second that he would be good with the blaster… and given the information that he had just been given, it was kind of hard for him to be whimsical. Someone was dead. Someone he knew. Someone who was connected to one of his friends. The bear, at least, was something he could deal with. “It’s a little bear… right now. I wouldn’t worry about it until it grew all the way. Then I have to wonder where we’re going to put it…” Blake was lucky, his familiar was a tiny thing.
“You need to learn how to lose with dignity instead of just pouting and whining. That’s not the way that it works in the real world.” Even at a young age, Jackson was trying to teach Blake some of the fundamentals of life. One of which was that things couldn’t be so sheltered forever. It was a work in progress. An extreme work in progress. “And I’d still beat you at a video game if I wanted to.” His skills had not diminished in the least.
“Don’t be afraid of the world, Blake…” Jackson commented as he backed out of his parking space, ready to make the short drive to the restaurant which did not, to his knowledge, have any sort of rabbit on the menu. “You’re never going to live the life that you should live if you’re afraid of everything that could potentially get in the way. And that’s no way to live any sort of life. But be cautious…” Blake was a bit naïve for a boy his age. Jackson didn’t want to bury his kid brother because he blabbed too much.