(2530-09-08) Finn and Jude argue? No way!
Summary: Jude asks Finn to help him shop, but doesn't like her advice. They spat.
RL Date: 08 Sep 2020
Related: NONE
jude finnegan 

<Eavesdown Clinic>

At this small hospital, the medical staff is trying their best to help people with very limited means. There's a reception/triage desk for those hoping to see a doctor and a waiting area littered with plastic chairs. Posters on the wall remind people to get their regular check-ups and vaccinations.
Through a set of swinging double doors is the main, open room of the clinic. The charge desk at the center creates a gathering point for staff, where they discuss cases with each other or work on one of the two cortex terminals available. Three full exam rooms line one wall, equipped for emergency medical situations. Opposite those are a few specialized rooms: one for the part-time dentist, and another small room with equipment for ear and eye exams. There is a break room for the clinic staff, and various storage spaces. A walk-in closet with a securely locked door holds the clinic's supplies of drugs and expensive equipment. A hallway leads off to the patient ward.
It is a summer morning. The weather is warm and clear.


Jude is at the end of his shift. He's been rather distracted and he lurks in wait for Finn at the staff room, still in his scrubs.

Finnegan enters, looking a little on the frazzled side as she walks and reads her tablet at the same time. She enters something and sends it to the system so that the changes propagate on all of the nurse tablets and terminals. "Hey Jude."

"Hey Finn. You got a minute?", he asks, "D'you wanna go and grab a bite maybe?" Clearly something is on his mind.

Finnegan glances up, "Hmmm? Oh. Hold on. I need to make sure they're rushing the lab work I just did. Let me call up to the Marvin." She gets on the intercom, where Marvin sounds overworked and weary, "Hey. Can I get a rush on those labs I just took for Mr. McGafferty? Yeah. I know. I know. Just, do what you can. Thanks." Intercom off, she says, "Okay, Jude, I'm all yours." She's just wearing a lab coat over her shirt and black pants, so she removes it and hangs it on a hook, transforming from SuperFinn into an ordinary citizen of Eavesdown.

Jude gets changed into his civvies as well, while she talks on the intercom, then smiles at her. "The diner? The pub? Somewhere else?", he suggests as he picks up his backpack and begins to leave.

"Either works for me," Finnegan says, as she moves out of the break room and drops the tablet she was carrying off at the nurses' station. "What are you in the mood for? Fast, or less fast?"

"Less fast.", Jude replies with a shifty look, "In fact, I'm totally not in a rush for anything. But -", he pauses and looks at her. "I need your help. With shopping maybe. So can we just grab a bite and…? We could just grab some noodles from Cheng's stall…"

"We could do that," Finnegan agrees. "What are you on the market for today?" Last time they did this, it was dress clothes, and she seems to recall he wanted to dress sort of vampirically. She tamed it a little bit.

"I just need to look…" He pauses for a while, trying in vain to find the right words. "Less me.", he finally decides, gesturing towards his metal shirt, tattoos, mad hair and torn jeans. And since he knows she will ask anyway, he adds an explanation: "Celeste's parents are back."

"Oh," Finnegan sounds slightly taken aback, despite the fact it has nothing to do with her. "I'd like to tell you to be yourself, but .. that would be optimistic and naive, wouldn't it? So, I'll tell you to stay basic. Solid pants in a classic style - NOT skinny jeans - not jeans at all, and a button-down shirt can't go wrong."

Jude stares. "I only have jeans.", he admits dryly, "I was thinking of wearing the one without tears. And… dunno. I got a shirt, but it's a bit yeehaw, y'know?"

"That's why you have to go shopping, right? You know, I know you haven't historically gotten along with my husband all that well, but Philip would be a much better resource for this sort of thing. Or, Dr. Cronstedt. Both of them know how to present a package that will impress the wealthy. I never have really tried." Finnegan gestures toward to own clothing and adds, "I just wear what's practical, comfortable and…" She clears her throat a little as she adds the last, "…clean."

Well, the last one is something where she's ahead of him. Miles ahead. "Nah, I don't wanna ask posh types.", Jude says firmly, "That wouldn't be me. I just wanna show Cel that I… well, that I make an effort. I KNOW this kind of thing isn't good enough for him. But I won't wear a posh costume. Either he likes me as I am or not. So… yea, a nice shirt would be good. I got money, from the treasure hunt.", he adds proudly.

"I don't understand," Finnegan admits. "Firstly, I don't understand what you mean by a posh costume. I think you have some preconceptions about people being defined by what they put on their bodies, and those ideas don't really fit with what will be expected of you. You do realize that changing into a pair of dress-causal slacks doesn't make you less Jude, right?" She walks toward the market at a slow but steady pace.

"It's like… city folks coming to Kerry to play cowboy", Jude tries to explain, "They can buy the cowboy boots and the chaps and the big hat and go all yeehaw, but it's not them. They're fish out of water. We laugh behind their backs. Same the other way round. This is me. This is you -", he points at her, "Practical and down to earth. You wouldn't be wearing a t-shirt with a sparkly rainbow-coloured unicorn, yea?"

"But.. isn't that YOUR problem, not theirs? The city folks, I mean? Isn't it an intolerance on your part not a lack of willingness to understand a different culture on theirs? I mean, are they really doing something wrong by trying to experience something that is different than what they know? If they didn't, then wouldn't you turn around and accuse them of being ignorant of that world?" Finnegan genuinely doesn't understand his perspective.

"No, because it's not them and it's not what they'd ever want. They want the tourist excitement, the camp fire and the horseback rides, but they don't want to shovel shit or spend three months without cortex.", Jude replies and frowns slightly. "Anyway, all I want is a shirt, not a philosophical discussion.", he reminds her as they head for the noodle bar.

"You can buy a shirt for yourself," Finnegan points out. "You clearly have ideas already about what's good and what's not. I just think you're boxing people in to boxes they might not want or need. Like, Celeste. A year ago you would have said all rich people were horrible snobs and you didn't want anything to do with them. She proved to you that's not true. Your whole idea about how things work had to change for you to let her in. Every time you make a comment about how she can never be a Kerry person, or you can never fit in with her people, that's probably a little hurtful to her. I'm just saying. It would bother me, a lot."

"Well, she isn't as judgmental as you. She understands that we'll never be same and that we can only work towards meeting somewhere in the middle." He shrugs. "Anyway, I thought it might have been fun. I'll find someone else then."

"Don't do that," Finnegan asks. "Don't just turn me off because you don't like what I say. If you refuse to dress in a way that you think her father will accept, then you're telling her just as strongly what you WON'T do for her as what you will. They're only clothes. There's not even any morality involved; it's not like someone's asking you to parade through the square in a thong. It's just a style you don't like. Wearing them won't make you a different Jude; it will just make people who are fixed on first impressions possibly have a different of you than otherwise. I can help you buy a shirt, but I can't help the shirt make the impression you want to make."

"I don't want to be preached at. You said yourself, I should be me. I won't be me in clothes I don't like. Clothes that aren't me. I Want to find a nice shirt that looks snazzy enough to show Cel and her father that I care but which I'm still comfortable in. YOu know more about fabrics and colours and all of that. That's what I was hoping for help with.", he replies.

"You're right," Finnegan admits, with a light shrug. "I really can't help you. I know absolutely nothing about clothing, and you didn't like the advice I did have to give."

"Well, then I suppose I'll be off on my own or see if Donna is available.", Jude replies with a shrug and orders a box of fried noodles with chicken from the stall. "Remind me to not ask you again."

Finnegan nods, "Will do. It's always good to evaluate and make sure you pick the friend who's less judgmental and doesn't have nearly as great a likelihood of killing the fun. Maybe Donna will be more willing to help you with your half-assed gesture to show your girlfriend you're willing to try to please her parents enough that you can continue your relationship with their blessing, instead of making her give up who she is for some unbending idea of who you are. Besides… I really can't handle this." Finn gestures around to the market stall. "It smells so…" UGH. Like food. Food is evil, right now. Finn's almost entirely eating liquid or near-liquid foods, as everything else hurts on the return visit. "I'm just going to grab a smoothie." Maybe. Or, maybe not.

"Because you know all about me and Cel.", Jude smirks, "You didn't want me to judge your husband, saying I didn't know him, so why are you so quick to pass judgement on Cel and me? You never tried to understand me or see a different side from what you are so absolutely hundred percent sure is right." He is happy to munch his noodles, trying to stay downwind of Finn while he accompanies her to the smoothie place.

"I don't judge you, Jude. It's not about you. It's about her, and her parents, and making HER life easier. You don't want to do that, that's your business. I just don't feel right in helping you convince yourself it's the way to go." Finnegan has to stop because the nausea is overpowering, and she needs to put a little willpower into not giving in to it. "I just really hope I AM wrong, and that, twenty years from now you're not left mourning the one who got away because you couldn't bring yourself to put on a nice outfit for long enough to set her father's mind at ease. It seems like a really small gesture to me, but it clearly isn't for you. I would dress in a gown made out of rotting garbage if I thought it would somehow make Philip's life a tiny bit better for a fraction of a second. But I suppose that's my judgmental nature just overriding everything."

"And you have arrived at this conclusion… AFTER I specifically asked you to help me buy a nice shirt that her father would like?" Jude just looks baffled. "I admit I don't get at all what's going on in your brain."

"Could you possibly be more insulting?" Finnegan turns to face him, to ask. "I have pudding in the refrigerator at the clinic. I have work to do. Just ask Donna, or somebody. I'm not a good shopper, and I don't really know the latest fashions, anyhow."

"Who's insulting who?", Jude muses, "Besides I don't think the man cares anything for the latest fashions, I think he's probably way more about the classic timeless stuff."

Which would be EXACTLY what Finnegan advised Jude to buy. But she's not pointing that out. Instead, she's walks away, making her way back toward the clinic.

And things come full circle. Still eating his noodles, Jude makes his way to the market to inspect the clothes within his price range.

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