〚 i've built a fortress ∶ introduction 〛

[eliza]

[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: calibri; font-size: 8pt; color: black; line-height: 22px;"]she'd arrived a week ago, but if you asked jackson, he'd say his sister had been there forever. and then she'd probably correct him, and he'd say something along the lines of ❝half the sister, all the annoyance❞ and she'd laugh while he died inside. while planning a wedding and raising a daughter, somewhere along the line summer had turned up in jackson's life, and all of the sudden he had not just one little girl to worry about, but two. sure, summer was eighteen, but she was still a kid in jackson's eyes.

though, if anyone asked summer, she'd disagree. she had the confidence and zest of someone far older than eighteen. standing at five feet and six inches, with once vibrant pink dyed hair now somewhere in between pink and the same brown jackson possessed, with michevious blue eyes, she could certainly pass for twenty, twenty-one, and she liked to use it to her advantage. tossing flirtatious glances at anyone relatively attractive, fingers twirling through her hair, she batted her eyelashes at anyone who glanced at her only to bother jackson. once upon a time, they'd been as close as two siblings under different roofs with a vast age difference could be; not terribly close, but a pretty solid annoying younger sister and defensive older brother routine built in.

of course, the whole point of her running away from her home, joining flintlock, was to live under the same roof as him, get to know her older brother and, apparently, her soon to be sister-in-law and baby niece.

however, the family bonding was on hold at the moment, since hope was sleeping and hayley and jackson were both off working, so summer found herself sitting on the couch in the living room, upside down with her legs dangling over the back, her head hanging off the seat, dark pink curls pooling on the ground below (above?) her head, making a popping noise with her lips as she stared in boredom ahead of her, killing time until she came up with something to do.

[tomorrow]

JUST STANDING WAITING FOR THE PUNCHES

Tomorrow was an adult, that much was evident. He was older than plenty of other fully fledged adults at the Lodge, though he was younger than a few. One thing he knew about growing up was that it made it a lot easier to see how young you were; when he was a teenager he felt so mature and adult, but in reality he was just a dumb lovestruck teenager with an inferiority complex. He might still have said complex, but that wasn't the point.

Kids were kids, teenagers were also kids but now instead of teaching them how to stay alive they needed to be taught everything else that came with life. Tomorrow always wondered how he'd deal with those years when he had kids of his own, but that dream was growing weaker with each passing year. He'd be content to watch the youth of the Lodge grow up into functioning adults.

Which now included... Summer? He was pretty sure that was her name. She was Jackson's little sister, if he wasn't mistaken; he hadn't talked to her much, only murmured greetings in passing. He'd had other things going on, it wasn't like he needed to get to know Jackson's sister for her to live a fulfilling life here.

But today was a quiet day, he didn't need to do much except look after a bunch of two and a half week old puppies. They were starting to open their eyes and crawl around, and they made these little squeaking noises that were sorta barks that reminded him of when Jeremiah was a puppy.

So, he gathered them all up and carried them to the living room for a bit of socialization; not an abnormal thing for him to do nowadays, really. Claire was at his side as he entered, sniffing at the blanket he was holding. He noticed Brendan speaking to Summer, who was lazily lying upside-down on the couch. He set the blanket of squirming puppies on the ground in an empty spot by the corner of the room, and stood up as he let Claire check on them.

He didn't want to discourage Brendan when the boy approached Summer, so Tomorrow stayed quiet and adjusted the blanket for now. He'd jump into the conversation if he felt there was a good opening for him, but for now he'd respectfully wait his turn.