and if they drag you through the mud

[thirdstrike]

WHO: CARL GALLAGHER, MICKEY MILKOVICH, and JUGHEAD JONES.
WHERE: Heropa #003
WHEN: Saturday morning.
WHAT: The Southside Trinity is finally brought together under one roof when Carl invites Jughead over for breakfast.
WARNINGS: Potential canon typical mentions/references to violence, drugs/arms dealing, gangs, prison, and/or child abuse; anything else, will ETA as necessary!


[ If Carl were to think about it for very long, or rather if he were to overthink, he might come to some sort of conclusion that maybe he's dissatisfied with his life here so far-- unhappy that he turned up too late to even see Ian, frustrated that he isn't enjoying military school right now but instead spends almost all his time working various different jobs to save up for shit he might never even need to have been saving up for in the first place, annoyed by feeling lonely, and just straight-up confused by everything.

But the thing about Carl is, he knows better than to think too hard about this stuff. He's okay with not having everything figured out about his future yet, he's okay with setting just a couple of defined goal posts to give himself some direction with, but then otherwise staying focused mostly on adapting and surviving with what he has to work with now. Keep things simple; it's easy, after all, to be happy with what you have when you've lived most of your life without anything to begin with. Happy enough, anyway. The comforts here are easy to like, and Carl likes being able to try new things and to, for once, see new places. He likes that Mickey's here, too, to actually be able to make some friends again-- to even meet another Southsider like Jughead, even if he's not from the "real" Southside that Carl and Mickey hail from. Close enough.

Carl doesn't actually expect to be showing Jughead how to cook anything when he drops by, even though Carl did offer to alongside just inviting Jughead over for breakfast; he will if Jughead asks, but otherwise he's just gone ahead with his normal routine of already starting to cook. Mickey doesn't usually get up all that early, certainly not as early as Carl (5:30 most mornings, although he has eased slightly by at least not starting in on making breakfast until 7 or 8 on weekends), but it's just smart to at least have coffee brewing no later than 7 AM just in case. And with other people also living in the house now...

Seems like a coffee, eggs, bacon, sausage, and waffles sort of morning, probably. ]

Comments

[burger_king]

[ A similar frustration has been settling in with Jughead over the past month - he's not unhappy, per se, he's got Betty and they're free to live their lives as they please for the first time ever, but beyond that? There's not much to love. He missed Archie because of some stupid grudge against Reggie, he's struggling to catch up on the resources he lost in coming here and his girlfriend who he loves very much apparently dated a psycho while she was here. Also he needs a new job. Desperately.

Needless to say, hanging out for something as casual as breakfast is a welcome break in all this frustration, even if Florida is way too hot and sweaty for his liking. He'll be hanging around the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee and at least pretending to pay attention to whatever Carl is doing. ]

[thirdstrike]

[ Yeah, Florida kind of sucks; Carl knew this even before he ever set foot in Florida, because it's one of those things almost every other state tends to blindly agree on. Living here now with Mickey, Carl can see why Florida has the reputation that it does, but at the same time, he's also someone who tends to like things more for their shitty parts-- rather, Florida is shitty in ways Carl can agree are shitty, but also that he finds strangely funny or even cool. Sort of like how a lot of people feel about Taco Bell.

So, he's been fine with it. He misses his family, misses school, but even back home he'd be missing either one or the other depending on the time of year anyway. It's easy enough to focus on the pros to being here.

Carl tosses a bit more bacon onto a skillet, looking over toward Jughead with a crooked sort of smirk. ]

This part's usually pretty boring, sorry. Helps me wake up, though-- even more than running does. [ He moves over to check on the waffle maker. ] You get up early a lot?

[burger_king]

[ Jughead feels similarly about Maurtia Falls - it's rough and trashy, the perfect place to write the next great american novel. This is probably also why he doesn't like the Meadows all that much. Too polished. Too nice. Not the kind of place where Jack Kerouac would get his writing on. ]

Hey, I'm not complaining. [ Cereal is faster, but not as pleasant. ] And not really. Most of the time I stay up too late.

You still got habits from military school?

[thirdstrike]

[ Maurtia Falls is the best city of the bunch in Carl's opinion, too-- Heropa is fun because it's so Florida Weird and different than what Carl's used to, but Maurtia Falls feels like home, very south side of Chicago-like without actually being Chicago. Easier to make money there the ways Carl knows how to best, too, but he's not sure he'd want to move back now that's he left it to live with Mickey.

Then it might start feeling too homey. ]

Yeah, and I don't wanna fall back out of them while I'm not there, most of 'em are pretty fucking brutal 'til you get used to them. Getting up early's something I've been doing since before that, though-- I just had to a lot, sometimes.

[ Carl slides a plate with a waffle and a few slices of bacon in front of Jughead, then turns around again to crack a couple eggs into the skillet to cook them with the bacon grease. And yet, still healthier than he used to eat. ]

I know how it probably sounds, but it's actually been pretty fucking awesome there. I love it.

[burger_king]

I don't know how you do it. I wouldn't last a day.

[ What with his massive problem with Authority, or authority, or just people telling him what to do and how to feel. Jughead Jones in military school would be awful for everyone involved and he's glad FP never actually brought that up as an option/threat.

He sets the coffee aside for a moment so he can steal a bacon strip, chewing it thoughtfully. ]

Is that something you'd want to keep doing here?

[thirdstrike]

[ Shaking his head: ]

Can't. Costs too much money. Only reason I was even able to go back home is cuz I got a letter of recommendation and a scholarship.

[ As he lets the eggs cook Carl leans against the counter, taking a drink from his own coffee and then snacking on a strip of bacon himself. ]

Anyway, I dunno... I guess it just makes sense to me. I like guns, I like my dorm, I like having a routine I can set a watch to-- even when we're preparing for the worst, you still pretty much know what every day's gonna be like. I just feel like a real person when I'm there.

[burger_king]

That sucks.

[ He doesn't get military school, but that doesn't mean he can't understand where Carl's coming from. It's like football or journalism or whatever, a space where you feel like you fit in, where things make sense. It's kind of how he was starting to feel about the Serpents before ending up here, a thought that only makes this situation suck even more. ]

You'd think the government would be able to hook you up, since you're registered.