maskormenacelogs | Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.

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Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.

WHO: Jane Porter and Adam Young
WHERE: Jane's apartment, around De Chima
WHEN: While Crowley and Aziraphale are away
WHAT: The Antichrist is left in Jane's care while his godfathers go on a ~~romantic~~ break to Paris.
WARNINGS: n/a

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Yes, I will, enjoy your trip!

[Jane shuts the door with a cheery smile after waving Crowley and Aziraphale off, turns around, and regards the young boy and dog now in her care with a briefly speculative expression. Naturally, when they'd asked her for a favour she'd been happy to oblige, and it wouldn't be for very long at all, but looking after a child is yet another new experience that she is being given while she's here.

She clasps her hands together.]

Well, then. [How hard can it be? It's just a boy and a dog.]

I'll make up the spare bed for you in a little while, but what would you like to do first? Are you hungry?

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[ Well, that was a Thing. In a long string of Things in the last month.

Now that the ethereal caretakers have left the room, he's left there with a bag, curiously looking around the apartment, while Dog takes to trotting around the room and sniffing the furniture and objects within his reach. ]

Oh, no, thank you. [ For how short his stay in this place has been so far, Jane's been the most eager to help of all the people he's met, at least of those he didn't recognize from home. It was certainly a coincidence when Aziraphale and Crowley turned out to already be friends with her. ]

You have a cool home.

Oh, do you think so?

[It's a modest place, given to her when she arrived, and she hasn't seen too much of a reason to move out of it. The living room and kitchen are open plan, with a small hallway off to one side with three doors off it for the bathroom, main bedroom and smaller spare room, which was tidied up in a frenzy of activity only an hour or so before Adam arrived.

A few drawings are scattered on the coffee table and several of the more modern conveniences - a coffee maker in the kitchen, the television - appear to be largely untouched.]

Hmmn, thank you. [She smiles, taking the compliment quite genuinely.] You can unpack your things, if you like. The room is through there, on the left.

[ He hasn't quite settled anywhere, at this point, and it's a strange feeling. Nothing's quite home, and he doesn't suspect any place will ever be, but at least days-long stays in rooms with only basic, government-given items make for light packing.

He starts for the room, but the drawings on the coffee table catch his eye. He looks them over, leaning down to pick a couple up.]

Did you make these? [ He holds one up her way.]

They're really good.

[ Dog, now at Jane's side, sniffs at her shoe.]

[She isn't sure at all of what she's going to do with him, so when he zeroes in on her drawings she whispers a very-much-internal 'oh thank goodness' and moves over to him to scoop up a few others.

They are mostly animals, and a few of people. Some, from where she's been people-watching through café windows. One of them is of Aziraphale and Crowley.]

Yes, I did. I've always loved to draw. [She smiles, and leans down to pet Dog.]

I do seem to have become far better at it here... though I haven't been able to put my finger on why, yet.

[ Dog idly wags his tail, sniffing curiously at her hand.

The boy leans over to look through the drawings, spotting the one of two familiar faces. He picks it up, smiling. ]

Have they seen this one? I bet they'd love it.

Ah... no, they haven't.

[It looks like something drawn from memory. Aziraphale smiling but in denial over something, while Crowley gently smirks at him. It's something that Jane picked out from the previous month's swear-in, hardly believing how well she could remember it.]

Would you like me to do one for you? I'm sure Dog could stay still long enough for a quick sketch.

You should show them. It's really good.

[ He perks up at the suggestion, smile widening. ]

Yeah! [ He'd love that.] Could you teach me how to draw, too?

Ah-- well, hum, I can certainly try.

[Jane is, in fact, a reasonably good teacher. She bustles about for a moment to find some clean paper and enough pencils and a couple of books to lean on.]

Here, let's sit on the couch. Do you think Dog would sit still for us?

Yeah. [ The boy smiles excitedly, dropping his bag beside the couch.

He sits and taps on the cushion. ]

Here, boy. [ And Dog immediately obey, trotting his way over and hopping on, sitting next to Adam, who scratches his head, ]

Have you been doing this long?

Drawing? Oh, my entire life.

[She hands a few pieces of paper, a book, and a pencil over to Adam, and sets the other book against her own lap.]

Now, the most important thing is to not get frustrated if it doesn't look just as you want it to. You'll get better with practice.

[ The boy holds his arm around the dog, sitting still. ]

It's hard not to, sometimes. But that makes sense.

Are you famous, where you're from?

Famous? Oh, goodness, no. Not at all.

[She lets out a little chuckle at the idea.] My father is, in certain circles. He's a professor.

Well, you should be. You're the best artist I know. [ Well, to be fair, he doesn't know many. ]

Oh. So he's smart too?

My father? Oh, yes. He's very smart.

[She starts to sketch while they're talking, putting a perfect rendition of Dog to the paper.]

He's a zoologist.

[ He really wants to see how the picture looks, but he’s being patient. And Dogseems to behave, too, but of course he does. ]

Zoologist? So he works with animals?

He studies them. So do I. Gorillas are his speciality.

[She smiles, a little wistfully against those thoughts of her father (who she still misses, and quite terribly so).]

We wanted to study them in their natural habitat.

Gorillas? [ Dog yawns idly, looking ready to settle down for a nap. But one must make sacrifices for art.]

Gorillas are pretty cool. Only seen them at the zoo a couple of times, though.

Did you get to see them up close?

Not quite yet. Though I did see some baboons far closer than I would have liked to.

[Shudder. And all of that over a drawing. Maybe she should have known better.]

Gorillas don't nest in one place all the time, you see. They move nearly every night.

[ The boy tilts his head, clearly interested. Believe it or not, this small child actually likes learning things. ]

They nest? Like birds?

Oh, well-- [Actually, she'd never made that connection. Clever boy.]

In a way. They make beds on the ground out of leaves. We call it nesting.

[ He is a clever boy. Who asks a whole lot of questions. A whole big lot of them. ]

Oh. [ Gorilla nests... ] That's cool.

But you've never found any?

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Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.

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