2007-03-17: Your Mom


Lachlan_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif Benjamin_icon.gif Alyssa_icon.gif Randall_icon.gif

Summary: Lachlan wants to get drunk. Cass wants a nice normal night. Benjamin wants a present, and to scold (lightly) the guy who his mother assaulted. Alyssa wants to laugh. Randall comes in later and just wants a book. At a bookstore. Weirdo.

Date It Happened: March 17, 2007

No, YOUR Mom

Enlightenment Books

It is Saint Patrick's Day: the day of green clothes, green rivers, green papers, and (best of all) green /beer/. One would think that Lachlan would be out there partying it up and enjoying all the festivities in all the pubs within New York, but he's here. In a bookstore. A /bookstore/. Because Cass is working. The Scotsman is practically bouncing off the walls in anticipation of closing time, because it's Saint Patrick's Day and Cass needs to get drunk in his presence, obviously. He will /make it so/. Somewhere in an alley nearby is an anxious and whining stray dog, fed off of Lachlan's own impatience. Currently, dressed in a green T-shirt (of course), old leather jacket, and ragged blue jeans, the man is pacing circles near the counter, hands fiddling with his cigarettes and lighter. No smoking in the bookstore. Whiiiiiiine.

That's right. Cass works at a bookstore and even though people are going by waving blown up shamrocks and green mardi gras beads on, the woman seems blind to it all. Though it's hard to miss Lachlan's anticipation to get out of here. Dressed just as festively as the Scot, she's wearing a green tank top that shows off the tattoo on her upper arm - it's a whirling design of mostly black and red. Her short hair is pushed away from her face with a green scrap of fabric tied like a headband. As she heads back to the counter, she stops by Lachlan to wrap her arms around his waist and give him a kiss. "We'll be out of here soon," she promises.

Having just gotten off work, Benji's still in his dull suit that was worn to the office. It's in grays and blues. The only sign of St Paddy's day is the green shamrock someone pushed on him earlier in the day. (As he forgot about the whole wearing of the green.) Not knowing that he'd have yet another run-in with Lachlan, the unnamed drunken assailant of his mother, Benji heads into Enlightenment Books, "Woah, hey, sorry didn't mean to interrupt, I'll just be .. YOU!" Looks like he didn't avert his eyes fast enough from Cass and Lachlan's little embrace there.

Somewhere in the back, there is a good little employee sorting through recent inventory. It's basically one of her favorite things to do and she has no plan to stop anytime soon. Despite being as far away from partying as possible, Alyssa is dressed quite brilliantly in a green shirt with a Carebear on it, green beads, a not-quite matching green hat, and some even less matching toe-socks. You can see them, too, since her pants are rolled up and shoes are off. Yes, she /does/ have too much fun here. But, humming and passing books about, Alyssa manages to hear a loud exclamation of 'YOU!'. Curiously pushing her back-up headphones off her head, she picks herself off the floor and pads out to the main room, "Hello, how's everyone? Boss, what're you still doing here?" She insisted a couple of times that Cass get out earlier to shake it up.

The kiss and embrace are only /slightly/ mollifying, and Lachlan returns them both with a half-pout, half-frown. "Tha's wha' ye said— " he looks at his watch over Cass' shoulder, but then he's interrupted by Benjamin. The Scotsman blinks and squints at the other man in mild surprise, brow furrowing, then he glances at Cass inquisitively. /He/ is obviously not the one Benjamin is "YOU-ing", right? Because Lachlan has no idea who Benjamin is. He looks between Benjamin and Cass for a moment before he finally settles on peering at the former and grunting, "Ye mind?" He was kinda in the middle of whining here.

One of the last things Cass really wants right now is to shake things up. It's comforting to be in her bookstore and deal with normal questions about crop circles and shaman vision experiences. And even though she knows it's driving Lachlan crazy, it's nice to have him there in the bookstore when they're not talking about viruses and scary organizations. "Mmm. I know," she says to the Scot, interrupting herself by kissing again. "But I mean it this time." Benjamin's exclamation brings her out of her happy revere and while she still keeps her arms around Lachlan, she turns to see what the commotion is about. "Benjamin!" she grins and lets her arms drop from Lachlan's waist. "I'm glad you stopped by again! Who's the you?" When Alyssa pops her head out from the back, the bookstore owner gestures the girl over. "I'll get going soon. I just want to make sure everything's set here. And you can't keep doing inventory without someone to watch the front."

Benjamin flashes a dark look at Lachlan, then a confused one at Cass. "You and /him/? You struck me as too nice.. nevermind.. not my business." He points at Lachlan, to clarify who he was annoyed with. "That lout. Glad to see he's sober and not accosting people today," he grumbles sourly. Of course he had to hear from his mother, at length, on the phone, today, about the incident.

"Oh, I know…" Alyssa bats the problem with the store front off with a wave of her hand. She isn't so dismissive with her store chores, however, so there's no danger that casual behavior now means slacking off. If anything, the girl's likely spent /too/ much time in those shelves, moving books around and absorbing the strange ideas written in them. Now… anything's possible, isn't it? And it's a little less scary, too. But for now, she just moves closer to her boss, crossing her arms lightly over her shirt and eyeing the men, "Know the guy? Guy knows him…" she gestures lazily in Lachlan's direction.

More confused staring from Lachlan's end of the store. Yesterday is a bit hazy for him — he /was/ reallyreallyreally wasted — and so he only remembers bits and pieces. There was an old lady with a purse, a French fry, a guy who "badmouthed" Barguest and Padfoot and then he woke up at home sometime late last night with a hangover. Of course, the old lady with the purse is /totally not his fault/, because he's a perfect gentleman when he's drunk. "The bloody hell're ye goin' on 'bout?" he demands of Benjamin coarsely. It's more confused than angry, really.

Cass gives Benjamin a confused look herself. "What?" And then, after she hears about what else he has to say, she puts a hand on her hip and raises an eyebrow at Lachlan, moving so that she can do so in the proper manner. "Drunk and /accosting/ people, Lachlan?" She looks over at Benji. "Are you sure it was him?" The last person to think that Alyssa is slacking would be Cass. She enjoys it when they work in the store together. "Yeah…sort of," she agrees with Alyssa's boiled down description of the scene.

"You accosted my mother. Last night. She beat you over the head with her purse.. Gosh, I think you were as drunk as I got in college.." Benjamin says, brow still furrowed some as he looks towards Lachlan. "Yeah, I'm sure it was him. I'm not in the habit of lying or falsely accusing people. But maybe I just should have turned around and walked off when I saw him in here. Cause you two look really friendly and I probably just created an issue between you two."

A sort of very obvious 'i'm stopping myself from laughing' expression falls over Alyssa's face and, biting her lip at 'look really friendly', she lowers her gaze and tightens her arms around herself. Still, it's just way, way too difficult to stay quiet on this and, problem or no, the writer finally lets out a short snort and expresses disbelief, "You assault— no, you got whipped by an old la- older lady?" And they're going to go out tonight and get drunk /again/?

… ohhhh dear. Cass has that Disapproving Look. Now Lachlan is Worried. His eyes widen and he pales just slightly, casting a helpless look between Cass, Benjamin, and Alyssa. "Wha', I— " His mouth flaps wordlessly for a few seconds before his eyes finally settle on Benjamin. "Hey, look, I was a bit pissed. Dunna remember much 'bout wha' happened yesterday, but I dinna mean ta … accost yer mum." Lachlan's learned a new word today! /And/ he used it correctly in a sentence. He deserves some nookie … er. A cookie. And then Alyssa adds her /very unhelpful input/ and the Scotsman's cheeks redden a bit. "Look, I was /pissed/, a'righ'?" Grumble.

Cass blinks at Benjamin and frowns. "I didn't say that you were. And there's no need for you to go. Honestly." Alyssa's barely restrained laughter makes the hand that's not currently on her hip fly to her face to hide her own budding grin. "It's not funny, Alyssa," she replies as responsibly as she can. But her voice cracks a bit as she's trying to hold back a giggle now. Then, seeing how much this is embarrassing Lachlan, she tries to stifle it as best she can. It's hard, though. Because as soon as she realizes that she shouldn't laugh, the more she wants to.

"To be honest, my mom's pretty spry for her age," Benjamin explains to Alyssa. "It's all the theater work she's done. I think she keeps bricks in her purse too. And he /was/ drunk, not that it excuses his behavior, but she did have an advantage over him. She's still pretty upset about it, but I think she's being overly dramatic." Again, theater excuse.. "I'm still a little miffed, but you were clearly drunk and I'm /sure/ you wouldn't do such a thing when sober, right?" Ben fidgets just a little as he addresses Lachlan, "You really shouldn't be out in public if you get that drunk. In a way you're lucky it was just my mom and not someone with a gun… and I dunno.. it is kind of funny in retrospect. You should have seen the way he hit the floor and was scrambling backwar.. sorry.."

"Is that pissed like you were super angry at this old lady or pissed, hey, I've got different words for stu…" Okay, the guy's explanations and excuses are only making this /more/ funny. Alyssa has to immediately bite her lip again but there is a wheezing noise from her that is /such/ a tell-tale sound. Her hands knot heavily into the fabric of her shirt as she clings to keeping a serious looking position. Even Cass' vague scolding just makes her want to laugh /that much more/. She shifts her weight, she pulls one hand away so as to fix her hair and, therefore, dip her gaze away from the unfortunate Lachlan….. but then she just has a better clean slate upon which to come upon the image of Lachlan shuffling about on the floor. He is cowering in the shadow of an enormous figure with distinctive grandma's blue hair, glowing red eyes of vengeance, and a monster of a purse stuffed quite obviously with large bricks and perhaps an anvil. The last thing Alyssa's crazed mind adds to the picture is an 'I BRAKE FOR SHAKESPEARE' pin on the lady-shadow's modest muslin gown before she /just can't take it/ and a burst of laughter bubbles out. Her hand jumps to her mouth to stop it far too late and her attempts to silence her loud cackles only make her shoulders shake harder.

The more obvious it becomes that he's being laughed at, the redder Lachlan's face gets. It's like grade school all over again — /all over again/. His hands slam into his jacket pockets heavily and his shoulders hunch as he glares daggers at the floor near his feet. He looks about on the verge of snapping, but then Alyssa laughs aloud and the Scotsman casts a glower at all present. Then, with a low grumbled something (something indubitably foul with "bugger off" tacked on in there somewhere) he turns and storms for the back room. Screw this; he's not going to stand here and get laughed at.

The explanation that Benjamin gives of what happened to Lachlan is really quite adorable. It's so polite and he's actually trying to be so nice about the fact that his little old mother beat the crap out of Lachlan. She's trying to look squarely at Benjamin right now because if she looks over at Alyssa or at Lachlan, she's going to burst out laughing. However, as much as she tries, as soon as Alyssa starts it, she can't hold it back. She starts laughing, too, covering her mouth with both her hands as if that will make it better. But as soon as Lachlan is obviously not taking it well, she gets a hold of herself, as much as she can and starts after him. "I'll be right back. I'm sorry about this," she tells Benjamin. She gives Alyssa a grin and then she makes for the back room. "Lachlan!" she calls out in a consolatory manner. "Come on, don't be like that."

It's probably even funnier that Benji's mom looks nothing like what Alyssa's invisioning. Not that he knows, or has any inkling as to what's going on in the woman's head. "Uhm, I'm glad everyone's finding this amusing.. it just wasn't all that funny last night." He blinks, and he's not laughing, but he watches Lachlan stomp off. "He's kind of touchy and it's all his fault." He looks to Alyssa, mildly bewildered. "He was the one drinking and sitting on people." Shrugging his shoulders, Ben heads over to some of the bookstacks, remembering why he came here in the first place.

For several long seconds, Alyssa cannot talk and she barely breathe. There's another snort when she tries to contain herself, some trailing giggles after that to admit she failed, and then a deep breath that exhales as a sort of huff. But then, finally, she's enough of a composed person to nod in the browsing Benjamin's direction, "It's a /little/ funny," she expresses. Understatement. "I mean, not for your mom or anything. Just… wow, it was pretty funny." She decides not to push it, though, and, instead, presses her hands to the front desk and leeeeeeeans over to try and see what section the guy's in, "Looking for something?"

Lachlan doe snot stop until he's in the back room and has /slumped/ into the chair behind the desk, slouching and looking generally and childishly upset. His lighter is in his hand and is flipped open and closed with sharp and fast /clickclickclicks/. When Cass appears to have followed him, he shoots a glare at her. "Nah, nah, go on!" he exclaims with a dismissive gesture of his free hand. "Go have a bloody good laugh! 'S a Goddamn riot." Ohhh bitter sarcasm, thy name is Lachlan Deatley. Clickclickclick.

"Aw, baby," Cass still has a bit of a smile on her face because, well, it /was/ very funny. And she's not going to apologize for it. But, she's also not going to let Lachlan sulk about it. "Come on." Reaching out, she attempts to take his hands and lift them up so she can sit in his lap. "You're talking to a girl who ran right into a sign post on our second date. You being beat up by a little old lady kind of qualifies as being in the same genre of silliness."

Benjamin allows himself to laugh and grin a little with Alyssa. "Yeah. I was just too shocked and apalled last night to find the humor in it. He was /really/ drunk.. Oh. Yeah, I'm just not sure what." He's more than a little lost. "I wanted to get a gift for a person, I know she likes to read, but I'm not sure what exactly.. She loaned me a Neil Gaiman book once."

Hopping away from the desk, Alyssa rounds it and finds where Benjamin's standing. "I'm pretty sure that anytime someone lookin' for trouble gets rounded on instead…" The writer gives a helpless shrug to express the lack of choice you have in those matters when it comes to laughing. Especially out-loud. "And if you're drinking excessively and in public? Again. You kinda should know what you're getting yourself into." But, whoops, time to be An Employee again. Alyssa nods quickly to what he's saying and taps a finger absently against the nearest book's spine, "And you thought we might have something in that taste? Well, I'd say that a lot these people where you're standing," she gestures to the shelf in front of them, "take themselves an ounce too seriously on the matter. So unless you also think she's /lost/ it reading Neil Gaiman….." Waiting for confirmation…

Displaying his startling maturity, Lachlan continues to pout, but he doesn't resist when his arms are moved to accommodate a Cass in his lap. In fact, those arms go around her waist loosely, though he continues to sulk up until she mentions the running-into of sign posts. Then, the downturned corners of his lips twitch. Twitchtwitch. Because now he's replaying that whole memory, and it /is/ funny. "Yeah, well," he grumbles, but he trails off ineffectually. Plus, now he's a bit distracted by, uh, Cass' book. After a few moments of staring, he lays his cheek against her shoulder and sighs. "Tha' was funny."

Mhmm. Cass thought so. "Not at the time," she replies. Seeing that Lachlan is finally starting to no longer sulk, she gives a short laugh. "And so this one was funny to me. And Alyssa." Looping her arms around his neck, she smiles. "Next time you get wasted, try not to pick on older ladies. They may be a lot tougher than you think."

"Well.. yeah.. I kind of remember that first hand from college. It's what got me a daughter." Benjamin says, offering up too much information there! "I really wasn't sure what, but Cass sold me some really helpful books and I thought Angie, that's the friend, might like something from here. Uhm, I don't think she takes herself too seriously. She likes the goth clothes, but not the lifestyle… I don't think she's lost it. I enjoyed the book she loaned me. Honestly? I don't even know what I'm looking for." Other than picking out a nice gift.

Picking up information on squicky relationship stuff. Filtering. Erasing. … "Right! Okay, Angie, goth, don't know what to look for," Alyssa narrates happily once all the other story is passed over. Taking a last thoughtful look at the selection in front of them, she then taps Benjamin on the arm and motions for him to follow her. From the abductions and assassinations, she moves into conspiracy theories (ooh, her favorite), and then past to the more mythical sections. Here there's bits on dream interpretation, life after death, and fairy sightings. Alyssa pauses here, turning to Benjamin and gesturing like the fancy ladies on game-shows, "Seeing anything? If not, I can go ahead and try and grab a few more specific things while you continue to browse."

Okay, fine. Lachlan can allow laughing at his expense when it's packaged like /that/ — because Cass running into that pole still gives him giggles sometimes. Still, he frowns a bit at the advice. If he could even /remember/ what he did to the old fart, he could probably defend himself. He still makes an attempt: "Wasna pickin' on 'er. She was a crazy ol' bat." And scary. Lord, was she scary. Even so, the Scotsman's argument isn't terribly forceful or upset. He's happy to just sit and wrap his arms around Cass and be mollified.

"Don't say mean things about Benjamin's mom," Cass again scolds, but she's still grinning. "He's really sweet. And she might come back to give you a second helping." She can't help it. He laughs at her walking into signage, she laughs at him being beaten up by older women. It all evens out in the end. She remains on Lachlan's lap for a bit, happy to just stay there alone with him for a little while. She closes her eyes and leans her own head against his. "I really like being with you," she says softly.

Benjamin blinks at the arm tap then follows after Alyssa. He looks over the selections shown to him, before smiling gratefully. "Thanks, I'll just go over these and see what jumps out at me. Thanks!" He turns away from Alyssa to go over the selection he was led to. Now to find something.. possibly suitable.

"Cool!" Giving the gift-giving man a thumbs-up of encouragement, Alyssa turns away from that particular shelf to give him some semblance of privacy. As she strolls away, she turns the bend of another shelf and then slides her headphones back up but doesn't start her music yet. No, see, this employee has mastered the art of finding the gaps in between books— the better to spy on customers without them noticing, my dear. On the way, she glances to her side and pulls out a volume to maybe offer to him in a few seconds if he still has that lost expression going on.

Cuddling isn't something that Lachlan does a lot of, as most of his interactions with the opposite sex are of the "That was fun, I'll call you" variety. He's found over the past few days that he, well, /likes/ it. It's full of happy fuzzies. He nuzzles up against Cass' neck, beaming. "Well, I really like bein' with ye too," he admits in a low voice. Even when she runs into poles and laughs at him for being thrashed by evil old ladies.

Randall wanders into the shop, his expression a mixture of growing familiarity on the one hand and not-quite-faded stress on the other. Wandering through the aisles, he makes his way over to the Kaballah section and picks out a volume, flipping through pages and then squinting.

Running into poles is really part of Cass' charm. Or at least, that's what she tells herself. Grinning, she stays seated there, enjoying their quiet moment. It's nice. Then, of course, the reality of needing to run her bookstore and help out Alyssa and leaving Benjamin outside sinks in and she sighs. "Come on, we should get back out there. And you should not-so-sulkily apologize for trying to rough up Benjamin's mom." Leaning forward, she moves to kiss his forehead before extricating herself from Lachlan.

Benjamin rubs at the back of his neck as he ponders over the titles. There really isn't a rush in regards to this purchase. Just a stop on the way home really, to get some ideas. Some of the titles strike him as interesting.. until he tries to picture Angie reading the books. Well bugs.

This is slightly boring. As much as spying is a joy by itself, Alyssa is easily bored by Benjamin's indecisiveness and she's just about to turn on her eager iPod when the sound of the door opening distracts her. She glances at Benjamin one last time before walking into the main area in front of the register. Movement is spotted and she hones in on the new customer, pausing before actually approaching, "Hey, just gimme a holler if you need anything," she calls, instead, and redirects herself to the counter. From here she can stare at the employee door and…. okay, don't want to do /that/ very long. Twisting on her heels, Alyssa surveys the store on a whole.

But Lachlan does not /want/ to be extricated from, and he only clings tighter when Cass starts to depart, letting out a wordless whimper of protest. Mmmmmnooooo, myCass. "Wasna tryin' ta rough 'er up either," he argues, even though he can't actually be sure whether or not he's being truthful. "/She/ was roughin' /me/ up." If he can't hold onto Cass, well, he'll just get up and follow her and attempt to keep his arms around her as much as he can.

Randall checks another couple of books, glancing over at the pair outside but leaving them to their own thing. Instead, he settles on a tall thin volume and ferries it over to the counter. "Helloo, stranger," he offers to Alyssa, "I'd like to pick this up. And you wouldn't happen to know of a hobby shop nearby? I need to pick up some modeling clay."

As much as Cass /should/ anticipate Lachlan trying to keep her in his lap, her mind has already wandered to other things. So she realizes that he's clinging onto her much too late. As she tries to stand up, she gets pulled in a different direction. Falling forward, she reaches to grab onto something, but there's nothing. Instead she just goes flailing forward and manages to scatter half of what's on her desk with a loud crash before falling right in the middle of the mess.

Benjamin really can't help it that he's boring and indecisive. It's just how he is. Doesn't make for a very interesting sale. He picks up a title on life after death, which makes no sense to him. As he flips through the pages, he makes a face of disgust before shelving the tome where he found it. "Uh.. maybe incense or similar will be more to her liking? Do you have any of that?" Or is he looking around so much that it's about to bite him on the nose! "Oh, hey, you, from the diner last night. How's your nose feeling?" he asks of Randall, having turned around and spotting the man.

Alyssa jerks her gaze up quickly from the floor in order to address the person coming towards her and her lips perk into a grin, as well, "Oh, hey, there, Anime!" It's neeeeever leaving you, Randall. Eeeever. Taking the book that Randall has chosen, she starts to walk around the counter, concentrating, "A hobby place? Hrmmm. Well, there's a Blick Art Materials on Bond Street, I believe. I… can't remember /where/ the streets are now, nor what street /we/ are on, but there… it…. is?" The hesitation comes from the sudden crashing noise directly behind her. At first, Alyssa just blinks straight forward. Her brain is doing that thing where it imagines a situation first……… what is Grandma of Vengeance doing there? Clearing her throat, she holds up a finger for Randall to wait, walks to the employee door and turns the handle. Her back remains against the door-frame so that she can swing the thing open and still not look inside even one little bit, "Ya alright, boss?"

Whoops. That wasn't quite the result Lachlan was expecting, and he scrambles to catch Cass before she faceplants, but … well, he misses. A lot. For a moment he just stares in stunned silence, then he scrambles after the chair to drop onto his knees by Cass. "Fuck," he hisses, "'re ye a'righ'?" But he can't help it — just like the night Cass ran into the pole, the corners of his lips start twitching and jerking as he holds back a grin. "'M so sorry." Because it's kinda his fault.

"I'm fine!" Cass calls out to Alyssa. "Just. You know. A problem with the whole standing thing." Looking around at the mess on the floor, she raises an eyebrow at Lachlan. "I'm fine," she repeats to Scot and then sees that he's about laugh at her. "Hey! This one's not funny. This is your fault." It's her turn for a bit of a pout. Yes, indeed, she can pout for something she just scolded him for doing moments before. But, this had a lot less to do with her own klutziness and a lot more with being helped into it.

Benjamin looks away from Randall to let his eyes follow after Alyssa towards the backroom. O-kay. "Uhm, you know what? I'm just going to think some more on this and come back another time." He edges for the door then calls out, "Cass, tell your father hi for me!" Then he's so out that door and gone.

Randall turns away from the office door, looking outside and gesturing with his hands as he mentally sketches out Alyssa's tentative directions. The noise catches him off guard as well; he whirls around, absently hitting the book so that it tips over onto the other side of the counter. "Whoa, uh—" Oh, never mind, Alyssa's already on the case. Hokay. So he turns back toward Benjamin instead, belatedly processing what was said earlier. "Oh, it's been fine, thanks. No bleeding or anything."

Snorrrrrrksnicker. Lachlan can't help it. He can't hold back the sound, but at least he's successful in quelling whatever else was planning to follow it. "Said I was sorry," he chortles with some effort. "'Sides, yer the one tha' was laughin' at /me/ b'fore." Karma, Cass Aldric. Karma! After a moment's thought, he grins broadly and reaches down to slip his arms under Cass and, if she doesn't scramble away, lift her clean off the ground. "C'mon. Let's get outta here. Pubs're gettin' full without us." Let's get wasted!

"Yeeeah, we each have our days," Is the reassurance from Alyssa about the issue with standing, though her voice is somewhat strained. Before she can give into the need to laugh, again, she leaves her boss and boss' boyfriend to that bit and returns to the counter. Somewhere in that time period, Randall's book vanished. Oh! There it is, by her foot. Dipping down to retrieve the text, she straightens to notice that Benjamin has vanished. She glances to the left and then the right and queries, "Did the boogeyman between rows four and five eat the other guy?"

"Yeah. Well." Cass turns the pouty face up another notch. "That was funnier." Anything is funnier than her nearly faceplanting onto the floor amid a crash of office supplies. With something of a squeak, she's bodily lifted up off the ground. She doesn't struggle, instead she wraps her arms around his neck and giggles a bit. But then, she hears what Benjamin has to say about her father and she tenses. It's like lightening just struck her brain. "Benjamin. My father," Cass gasps. Holy cow, Benjamin saw her father. That means either Benjamin has powers or is with the Company. "Benjamin! Wait!" She calls, but the door has opened and closed, making highly likely that he's already outside and didn't hear her. "Lach, wait, put me down!"

Randall chuckles under his breath, misinterpreting the context of that last overheard comment. "Oh, he just said he'd come back later and make up his mind," he explains to Alyssa, retrieving the book as she picks it up. "Thanks. Good thing I was getting this anyway, huh?" he adds, noting a minor scuff along the spine.

Alyssa's finger rubs against the mark in the spine as if she can erase it that easily and then she sighs, placing the thing down. "Tsk, tsk. Ah well, I've seen worse." With a glance over her shoulder for… whatever's going on in there, she begins to ring up Randall's book. Right as she's to name the price she's punched in, Cass' voice breaks through into the main room again. Turning, Alyssa calls back, "Old purse lady's son? He took off, Cass. Said he'd be back later or something!" She sounds just so assured, thanks for the info, Randall.

But, but … Lachlan just picked her up. With a frown, he lowers Cass to terra firma again, but not before he's moved to the back room's door and opened it. It's only now that what Benjamin said really sinks in. Uh, hey. Isn't Cass' father part of that Company deal? Yeah. Now Lachlan's a bit wary of Benjamin — first his mother is an evil death wench with a purse to match, and now he's got ties to that Company thing. /Not cool/. The Scotsman peers at Randall curiously, but doesn't say much. He's just one of Cass' customers, really.

As soon as Cass is on the ground, she takes a couple quick strides to the door and opens it up to see if she can see which way Benjamin went. But it's St. Patrick's day in the East Village and it's basically wall to wall people. Nothing doing. Swearing, Cass turns back to Lachlan, Alyssa and her customer. Ha. Great. Way to be crazy in front of paying people. "Right. Thanks. Hey, if that guy comes back in here, do you think you could tell him to call me? I needed to tell him something and I don't have any way of reaching him." She smiles at Randall as politely as possible. "Hi. Don't mind me. I'm just a little crazy sometimes." Then, it's back to Lachlan. Deciding she can't do anything about Benjamin, she tries to put it out of her head. The smile she gives Lachlan is warmer than the one she gave Randall. Just because he's put up with her craziness especially well today. "Okay. I'm ready for the drinking. Pick me up again."

Randall whistles as the noise of the street crowd briefly wafts inside, then turns his attention to Cass and shakes his head. "Oh, it's all right. We're all mad here, right?" It is New York, after all, and a fringe line of business to boot. With a shrug, he takes out his wallet and starts counting out bills, handing them to Alyssa once the magic number is reached.

"I'm mad, you're mad," Alyssa mutters absently as she finally gets around to dialing in Randall's price and even informing him of it- she's so productive, "You must be or you wouldn't have come here." At the last, she raises her gaze to Randall so that the quote is more like a quip as she hands him his Enlightenment Books purchase. His cash is taken, counted, and any appropriate change given. Once that's over, she's free to lean against the register and watch Cass curiously, "Going now? Okay, cool. That guy you wanted to call, what's his name?"

But Lachlan doesn't move to pick Cass up again immediately. He lingers in the doorway to the back room a moment before he does cross over to Cass and, after an inquisitive look, he dips down to resume that whole "carrying-Cass-around-New-York" deal. Now that she's standing up, it's a bit more /difficult/, but ah well. He manages. He says nothing for the moment and instead occupies himself with smooching at her cheek and ear. He'll question her about the Benjamin/Company stuff later. Drinking is to be had.

Cass laughs. "Oh yes. We're all quite insane," she assures Randall. "Thanks for closing up, Alyssa," she tells her employee. "His name's Benjamin. I…can't think of his last name right now, though. Thanks again for being awesome." When Lachlan pauses and gives her an inquisitive look, she returns it, unsure of what he may be questioning. But, then he picks her up and starts with the kissing again. That's good, she likes it. Once again, she loops her arms around his neck. "Thanks for shopping at Enlightenment," she beams at Randall before resting her head on Lachlan's shoulder. It's nice to have someone carry you through the crowded streets instead of having to walk through it.

Randall pockets the change and tucks the book under his arm, waving to Cass as she's carried across the threshold. To the street. "Friends of the family?" he guesses, wrongly, turning back to Alyssa. "And you— which street was that, again? I think I passed it on the way here, but sometimes the names start to run together. Slogging through Hebrew is not something you want to do on an empty stomach."

A blank look crosses Alyssa's face and she squints at Randall, her nose scrunching up with thought. "Ummm… what did I say? Saint? Stone? Crap!" Seems that's all the help he's going to get now. Tilting her head to the side, the writer watches the other two around Randall. "Have fuuuuuuun." She calls, almost wishing she were there to proudly walk beside them and get to catch all the stares being directed without having to feel challenged by them like you do sometimes when /you're/ the one being stared at. Always better to be observing the weird, really. When she does relocate her brain back into the store it's to say, "Wait, who said something about family?"

If he drinks anything like he did yesterday, it may be Cass that winds up carrying Lachlan home — but who knows? With her there, perhaps he'll actually not imbibe so much. Kisses stop when he has to actually /watch/ where he's walking, which is sometime after he gets the door open. Sure, he's not Irish, but damned if he's going to pass up on pubcrawling when the liquor comes cheap and he's got a girl to haul around. Bye-bye, bookstore!

"Thaaaanks!" Cass returns to Alyssa before she and Lachlan are out the door. If she has any say in it, he's not going to get that drunk. Mostly because she's not strong enough to carry him. So if he can't make it on mostly his own steam, he's getting left behind in the bar. With a jacket to cover him. Because she cares. She may not be Irish, either, but she's enjoying a nice normal night of drinking with her guy.

Randall is stone cold sober - for now - but hey, the night is young, right? "I don't know for sure," he replies to Alyssa, "but there was something about his mom swinging a purse with a brick hidden in it? Something like that? So I figured one of them must know somebody who knows somebody who knows the other one. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine."

Alyssa gives a little sniff of thinking and straightens, moving a step aside to lean against the desk section instead, "Weeelll, as far as /I/ know, it's like that that the women going out there is my boss and she knows the other customer who was in here buying a book for his friend who is a girl and she, my boss not the friend who is a girl, wishes that she could've called him, the guy with the girl who is a friend, except he, the guy, took off after saying he knew the guy carrying my boss who had one time gotten piss drunk and assaulted the other guy's mom who whipped him instead with a purse of bricks which hurt my boss' guy of course but wasn't a guy with a gun so he's alive enough to carry my boss around outside because, apparently, she is having trouble walking right now."

Randall blinks a few times, looking Alyssa up and down after she finishes talking. "Uh. Yeah. Could you repeat that next time I come by? I'm gonna need to bring a pen and paper so I can draw a map of that." With a grin of bemused confusion, he turns and wanders out, looking around for the crowd to open up for a second.
