A Little Zest (Nicholas Bennett)

[Joshua Bernstein]

They were out of lemon zest.

Josh had noticed the night before when taking stock of the ingredients necessary for lemon bars. And while he didn't have to make lemon bars (he could have just as easily made chocolate chip cookies, for which they always had the necessary ingredients) he wanted to make lemon bars. And so after work he had cycled over to the grocery store.

Because he only had one item his shopping itself hadn't taken long, but the line at the checkout counter was apparently going to account for triple the amount of time he'd spent in the aisles. The man paying was arguing with the cashier over why she couldn't take his coupons (for a different store), and although she explained with more patience than Josh could understand that she had nothing to do with store policy the customer wouldn't budge.

This meant that Josh was stuck in line, staring in the face of terrible gossip magazines. He raised an eyebrow at the headline of one that declared that Kim wanted Kanye in therapy.

"They make it sound like requiring therapy is a bad thing," He told the person in line behind him. As if he himself hadn't been reluctant to attend therapy. But as this didn't involve his own issues it meant he could be offended on Sean's behalf. "And if he did need therapy, do you think everyone in the world needs to know that?"

[Nicholas Bennet]

Nicholas sighed as he placed another pack of Energy Drinks in his shopping cart. He was running low on the stuff at home and kinda needed to refill his supply, he checked the list he wrote to see if he got everything on it.


Meat (Bacon, Chicken, whatever you feel like really and is on sale)
Energy Drinks, just buy a couple.
Veggies? Again, just get what is on sale and throw it together with the meat or something, maybe make burritos?
2 x Coffee, not that one cheap brand again. It tastes like sewer water and rust and smells like it too.
Peanut butter, Jam, some random stuff you put on bread really.  
Eggs and Milk.

He chuckled as he read the coffee note, last time he went here he got some offbrand coffee since A) It was cheaper and B) They ran out of the normal stuff he drinks. So of course he took a box home to try it out. It was probably one of the worst decisions in his life but he finished the entire packet in the week and promised himself never to get it again. Nicholas usually went shopping once a week to get anything he needs, usually he planned ahead what he was going to cook that week and just added it to his list.

He yawned as he pushed his shopping cart towards the check out counter and got in line, he leaned on the cart with a tired look on his face as he stared ahead. He guessed it was going to take a while before he could even place his stuff on the counter. Oh well, he had time to wait anyway and it seemed that fate knew that, seeing as some complaining twat was yelling at the cashier about coupons or seomthing

Nich looked around, staring at the shelves stocked with magazines with a tired look in his eyes, who even reads those things anymore? How long was it going to take until the internet finally kills off those things, oh well. The fact that they are still around means that people are reading them right? He looked at the headlines, scanning them for something that he'd probably find interesting... hm, nope... nothing. It seemed that they were all celebrity gossip stuff.

"They make it sound like requiring therapy is a bad thing," the guy in front of Nich said, apparently talking to him. Oh god, oh god, oh god... someone was attempting to talk to him. This was unexpected, Nich just gave him a sort of non-committal "hmh" sound as the guy talked away about something on the Gossip Magazines. "And if he did need therapy, do you think everyone in the world needs to know that?"

"I wouldn't know that," Nich replied, his voice sounding tired. "People must be interested in it, unless they wouldn't write about it. Still is kinda dumb innit?" He said, he might've lived in America for a while now but he still had his accent and words only he and a handful of others ever understood. "Why would you care though, jus' allow it and move on, not like whinging 'bout it will change anything."

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Why wouldn't I care?" Josh countered, encouraged by the fact that someone in line had actually responded. "Mental health care is already stigmatized by society, we don't need celebrities piling on."

The fact that he, too, harbored less than desirable opinions about mental health didn't occur to him at this moment in time.

"I think it's a shame. And I also think complaining works perfectly fine. The more people who complain the more likely change is to happen. Maybe only incremental change," He had to concede that at times change was difficult to measure, but there had been moderately successful campaigns against using certain words as pejoratives, and shaming people out of using them had been part of the process.

Then, realizing that the other man didn't sound like a native Vermonter, he added, "And where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?"

[Nicholas Bennet]

"Why wouldn't I care?" Nicholas heard the other man counter, he just kept quiet for a bit. Talking to this guy here will probably pass the time until the twatfink upfront, he quickly took a peek at what the guy was doing... the moron was still arguing with the cashier. Great, juuust great. He was gonna be stuck here for a while.  "Mental health care is already stigmatized by society, we don't need celebrities piling on."

Nich shrugged, leaning on the shopping cart as listened to the guy "Eh, usually things are stigmatized for a reason I guess,"he replied, shrugging. Things are usually stigmatized for a reason. Usually it was the fact that no one understood it, such as the Mental Illness bit this guy was going on about, other times stuff's been stigmatized for a good reason... like hunting an endangered species of animal. You kinda deserve to be called a moron for that. "But then again, that Kanye guy's a loony to begin with" He said with a soft chuckle. "So maybe getting therapy will be sorta good for him. Besides, I agree with ya on the fact that it has to be public. But eh, the entire family is famous for being famous. So what the fuck did ya expect?"

"I think it's a shame. And I also think complaining works perfectly fine. The more people who complain the more likely change is to happen. Maybe only incremental change," The other guy said. "Hm, y'got a point there." Nicholas replied calmly "Then again, sometimes people complain about the smallest things which causes other people to complain back... sooner or later, you're just gonna get an endless cycle of people complaining about everything." he idly mused as he stopped leaning on the cart and stretched for a bit. Just his luck, the guy was still complaining at the cashier. How long as this guy gonna take before he understood that it wasn't gonna work.

"And where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?" that question kinda took him by surprise, not because it never was asked, but because he wasn't expecting that to be asked really. "England," he said, placing his hands back on the cart, leaning on it again as he continued "Send here by the Queen herself to see if we can regain the colonies" he said with a quick chuckle as he changed his accent to a more stereotypical British one, instead of original London one. "Currently I'm putting it on a solid no," he dragged out the o as he smiled. "But we'll get you rowdy colonists back under the crown one day, mark my words heh."

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I suppose we haven't done a very good job with running our own country," Josh mused. "If you take us back will you let us in on the NHS?"

Not that England had a perfect record, beginning with the whole colony part of U.S. history. But Josh still thought they had their selling points from a progressive point of view.

In front of him a manager had been called over to placate the angry customer, and their items were piled into a basket and set off to the side.

"Next!" The cashier called, which brought Josh one person closer to check out.

((ooc -- Drag0, I hear you're waiting for this thread to wrap up before we do the one with Nicholas and Josh and Sean. You're welcome to speed this up and have the line move if you'd like, I won't be offended))

[Nicholas Bennet]

"I suppose we haven't done a very good job with running our own country," the other man said, "If you take us back will you let us in on the NHS?" Ah yeah, that was quite a thing here... Nicholas knew about the whole "No Universal Healthcare" thing when he moved here, but he hadn't really thought about it that much. A small chuckle came from his as he used the stereotypical, posh, British accent again "Sure, if you stop calling Football 'Soccer' and call your Football 'Handegg' " He said, his accent slipping for a moment as he said "Football" the first time, dipping it back into the London pronunciation.

Nicholas stretched for a moment, peeking over the man whom he was talking with to see what was happening with the guy at the front, his guess was that the guy was still complaining... or not. The second he looked over the other man he heard a loud "Next!" from the Cashier. Quickly he popped down and shuffled forward with the rest of the line. This has been taking way too long really, luckily the guy was finally done complaining.

Nich then realized something, he hadn't asked the guy's name. Well, maybe it was time to ask it then really. He stretched again and peeked over to see how long this was going to take, He guessed that it might be a while. The next person in line seemed to have quite a lot of things, plus another damn coupon book. He sighed as he came back down, crossing his arms on the shopping cart. "Seems like we still might be stuck here for a while," he said with a slightly annoyed tone, just his luck with this place here "Jus' took a goosey at the person in front of ya, she has way more stuff then y'might think." he said, cracking his knuckles to break the monotony of talking for a while. Seriously, how long was he gonna be here? This was slowly turning him mad, "I'm Nicholas by the way," he said, extending his hand a bit lazily from it's crossed position. "Guess I'd better introduce myself since she has a damn coupon book. Who knows how long this is gonna take?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh sighed heavily. One small errand had turned into an adventure.

"Isn't this always the way with the grocery store?" He quipped, rolling his eyes heavenward. "Checkout is always the longest part."

Which was perhaps one of the reasons his pantry pre-reconciliation with Sean had been so bare; he could buy enough non-perishables that he didn't have to buy them more than once a month, and then cheese and bread he could buy from the deli. And while the deli checkout could also be lengthy, he felt somewhat more at home buying from delis than he did from grocery stores.

On the other hand, it was nice to eat more than sandwiches and crackers.

"Nicholas," Josh repeated the name so that he would remember next time he encountered the younger man. He accepted the proffered hand, shaking firmly. "I'm Joshua. Have you been in town long? I've only been here since 2010 myself."

Which was six years. Six years! And yet he still felt new.

[Nicholas Bennet]

Nicholas sighed under his breath, why him? Why did he always have the amazing luck of getting the slow checkout counter? True it didn't happen as much as it actually did, but it did feel like he always got the slow ones. Today's one for the history books though, first some twat complaining that he couldn't use his wrong coupons and now his old lady brought her own. Nich was fearing for the worst, mentally preparing himself for the incoming storm of "WHADDAYA MEAN I GOTS THE WRONG COUPONS?!" which he heard moments before.

"Isn't this always the way with the grocery store?"  the other man said, "Checkout is always the longest part." he continued. Nicholas chuckled as he looked at the guy "Yeah," he mumbled as he stared lazily ahead of him. Waiting for the line to finally start moving again "That's true..." he added to it. Not really having anything else to say about it really, he could rant all he wanted about how stupid this waiting is but it wouldn't speed it up. He'd still be stuck in line, waiting for his turn.

When you wait for long enough in any place, you begin to notice these small annoying details. Really small stuff that you'd normally overlook since you'd be in and out in less then a couple of minutes... but this line made him notice even smaller stuff. The lights were just a tad bit too annoyingly bright, the place smelled like the inside of an old lady's closet... and the floors were just slightly dirty and he could see a freshly spat out bit of gum right underneath the conveyor, right beside the plastic bags. Luckily he didn't need one now or else he'd probably have touched the still gooey gum and feel that disgusting feeling of wet, cold, gum. The only solution for that would've been to amputate the hand that touched it, so he could never ever even possibly feel it again.

As small chills ran down his spine at the thought of touching the gum, the man he was talking to repeated his name and shook his hand firmly, Nicholas smiled lightly as he leaned back on the shopping cart and the conversation started up again. "I'm Joshua. Have you been in town long? I've only been here since 2010 myself." The man said, Nicholas finally knowing his mystery checkout line buddy's name. "Been here just a year, probably barely 2. Moved here from across the pond... if it wasn't obvious heh" He said, tapping the cart as he waited for movement of... literally any kind that would signal his escape from this place.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Pilot Ridge seems to attract a lot of out of towners for being such a small place," Josh observed. This was largely because of The Institute, but it had still surprised him when he'd first visited Sean here all those decades ago, when the other man had begun working at the school.

Growing up he would never have imagined that moving to small town USA would involve having multiple friends from Russia of all places, or Japan, or Korea, or France. He had been so sure that the City was the height of international elbow rubbing, and that anyplace smaller would necessarily have more locals and fewer immigrants.

That showed how much he had known!

Finally, mercifully, one of the store employees meandered his way over to the next aisle, turning on the light that announced that his aisle was now open for business.

"I can help the next in line!" He called out, beckoning in the direction of Nicholas.

[Nicholas Bennet]

Nicholas sighed as he listened to Josh talking, honestly how long was this person at the front going to take to get their groceries done... he quickly shifted his attention back to Joshua,  "Pilot Ridge seems to attract a lot of out of towners for being such a small place," he said, it raised a slight eyebrow on Nicholas's side though, he hadn't really noticed that since he got here. Hell, he never really bothered to explore the place -that- much too, he knew where the grocery store and other important, to him at least, places were and that was about it. There probably was something important, like some grand university perhaps, in this town to warrant a reaction like that from Joshua, but Nicholas had no idea about it.

And then, like the stars aligned and Cthulhu moved his left arm a bit... he heard those magic words he was waiting, almost praying really, for.

"I can help the next in line!"

With the sound of those words floating through the store he turned to Joshua "Huh, guess I'm free to go," He said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head "Anyway, was fun to talk to you and eh... hope you'll get to go and escape soon as well." He said, pulling his shopping cart back and into the other checkout lane.

In a few minutes, he was done. Finally, he was ready to go home. A small smile came over his face as he breathed in the fresh air for what felt like centuries, He leaned a bit on his Shopping Cart before pushing it back to his car and loading the items in, quickly rechecking if he got everything on his list. Having found everything he needed in the trunk of his car, he sighed a sigh of relief... he didn't have to go back. Putting the cart back where he got it, he finally left the store with a smile on his face... today's actually been kinda great.

(I'd say we'd stop it here Dry, just post Joshua leaving as well and I'd say  we can continue to the bigger other thread... sorry for the delay, games and other things really punched my muse/time in the gut hah.)