Irish Winter Pt. 2

[black_cat_aoife]

Previously on Aoife's sporkings: Ian is a pacifist who joins the IRA. There he meets Devlin who is hot. All English are bastards.

Ian quickly walked home, worrying about how he was going to tell his Catholic mother that he had joined the IRA.

Ian's mother is a Catholic? Thanks for telling me that because I had never guessed that, with Ireland being known for its religious diversity and all...

He knew he had done the right thing, but it would not be so easy to convince her. Somehow, he must make her understand how the terrible events of the day had left him with no other choice.

You also should have make the reader understand it.
His mother asks him where he had been all day long and Ian tells about the incident with the RIC and that he joined the IRA afterwards.

“No! Ian, have you lost your mind, son? Haven’t I told you that killing isn’t the way, that violence is never the answer? I want you to go back there to that Shane O’Dea and tell him you have just changed your mind and you want nothing to do with them! Do you hear me, Ian?”

I can't help but think that she sounds more like a mother telling her 13-year old son of for doing something extremely stupid, not like a mother who is shocked that her grown-up son made a decision that could kill him.
Ian tells her that he won't quit. She tells him that he should. He tells her that joining the IRA is for life and leaving it would mean death, too and also that he simply won't talk with her about this again. Because nothing says 'I'm a reasonable grown-up' like saying 'lala, I can't hear you'.
His mother leaves crying and Ian feels slightly bad, but only slightly because

it was for her own good. If she didn’t know anything, there would be no reason for the RIC to question her.

Because we already established that the RIC are a nice police-force. They'd never just torture/kill anybody just for the fun of it and if you tell them 'I really don't know anything about that group of terrorists you are hunting, even though my son is one of them and we're living in the same house' they'll just say 'Sorry, for disturbing you' and leave.

We skip to the next day where Ian is at work.

The next morning, Ian went into work at McCann’s Apothecary at the usual time. Monday mornings were generally busy with people needing things due to incidents over the weekend.

This is only chapter two and I'm already running out of 'Awkward Phrasing'-awards. Due to incidents? Really?
During the day, Ian manages to slip some medicine in his pockets...but Ian wouldn't be the hero of this book if he wouldn't feel guilty about that.

As he prepared to leave for the day, a sense of guilt came over him, for he had never stolen a thing in his life. Though his pilfering could someday save the lives of his new comrades, it was still theft.

Exactly. I mean you simply can't steal...even if it is to save people who have been injured while killing British soldiers. By the way, Ian you know that you will have to kill people, too? I'd reexamine my sense of priorities if I were you.
(Here would be another great possibility for character-development/introducing the character when Ian would realize exactly this and think about how this decision he made in a very emotional moment will screw up his moral code...but it's just another opportunity missed. I should keep score.)

He leaves some of his money in the till, the author uses some long words, when shorter ones would have done and Ian goes home. His work-day took two whole paragraphs! That's because it didn't involve Devlin.
Back home he hides the supplies and we learn something new:

[He] realized that gathering supplies might take some time since he only worked three days a week. Well, it couldn’t be helped; McCann couldn’t afford to hire him full-time.

Please tell me more about how two people manage to live on the apprentice-salary of someone working part-time...
Or not since in the next sentence it's already a day later...and it finally gets interesting again! By which I mean: A hot guy appears!

The morning after that, Devlin knocked on the door at breakfast time and Ian’s mother let him in with some misgivings. After introducing himself to Mrs. Mulroney, Devlin entered the kitchen and sat down.

He informs Ian via sneaky IRA-code that sounds innocent that there is an IRA-practise today. I'd love to know at which point Ian learned about the code as the first meeting didn't seem like more than an informal get-to-know-each other and at no point we heard anything about actual information being exchanged and on the previous day Ian didn't met anybody from the IRA.
Ian's mother...who is to irrelevant a character to get a Christian name, suspect that Devlin's with the IRA but instead of confronting him about it just sits there and does nothing.
Now Ian has to change into proper walking-shoes...because if you have to feed two people on an apprentice-salary you can still buy lots of different shoes.

Also: Ian needs to remove his trousers in order to change shoes. This is what we had all been waiting for.

Devlin watched from the corners of his eyes as Ian removed his shoes and socks and dropped his trousers. He felt that odd twitch in his stomach that afflicted him a few times in school when the other fellows were changing clothes.

And he in no way worried that he'd burn in hell for that because he had received a liberal education and the local priest had also never talked about how it's a mortal sin and everything.

Ian seemed unaware of Devlin’s interest in his physical appearance, so Devlin looked his fill. The new recruit looked to be about 52113 and had little meat on his bones, but it all appeared quite solid.

Whatever “quite solid” means...and yes, all height-description in this book look like this.

Devlin noticed how the sunlight made Ian’s light brown hair look silky and lush and how well it went with his smooth complexion and pale blue eyes.

I love it when I feel like I know more about how tha characters look than about their feelings.

Abruptly, Devlin pushed these strange thoughts from his mind and urged the lad to hurry up. Ian shrugged into his jacket, slapped Devlin on the back, and announced that he was ready to go.

Though we didn't read anything about him putting on new trousers or shows...so right now I imagine Ian with pants and a jacket.

Ian and Devlin leave and we are informed that the walk to the place where the practise is takes 90 minutes. We don't learn what they discuss in this time....but who cares about that? They'd just talk to each other about their likes and dislikes, family, aspirations..and who wants to know that about characters? I mean they're not any characters! They're HOT!1!!! That's clearly the most important thing about them.
So without all that unimportant character-development stuff they arrive after just two sentences and start to practise, but just boring things so after a while someone starts to complain.

“In the name of all that’s holy, when are we going to get some target practice in with those rifles you boys are carrying?” asked Kyle Dillon, one of the newly pledged.
“There will be no shooting today or this week.

This is why we brought the rifles with us. So that we don't use them...and it's not like we'd be in big trouble if we'd be caught with them and the RIC would just shoot all of us immediately.

Don’t ya know lad, that we are short of rifles and ammo? We can’t afford to waste it popping at bottles or some such thing. Ammo is precious to us and until we carry off some raids, we’re gonna remain short on these things.”

If I remember right 'ammunition' was used about twice in this book and 'ammo' ca. 200 times.

So they're now planning an raid on the RIC-quarters. Thankfully the flowery language has stopped (for now), so Shane explaining the plan sounds a lot like an actual human being and actually quite reasonable: don't talk so they can recognize your voices, don't wear anything that makes you stand out. Stay tuned for the next announcement when I'll tell you when and where it's going to happen and who will take part.

Now Ian and Devlin walk back together and this time they actually talk, mostly about their jobs...or rather job as Devlin has no permanent employment and just does what he can get. We learn that he still lives with his mother, too.
Now Ian suggest that they go and have a beer together but Devlin has no money at all, so Ian say he invites him...OK a while ago we've been told that he put the money he'd planned to spent in the pub in the till to pay for the medicine but...that was at least two pages ago.

They talk a bit more and while it's nice that they talk at all and not only think about each other's hotness they don't talk about anything that makes me fell I'm getting to know them better. It's mainly 'Oh we don't have enough money'
In the pub we are reminded again that the English are all cruel bastards because the Irish can't even afford to cook food at home so they have to buy crappy sandwiches in the pub.

Then we finally get some emotions!

“You seem so sure. Don’t it scare ya that we might get killed for the cause, or worse, imprisoned for years in a British jail?”

Yes...the guy who said “I value freedom greatly” last chapter now says “Don't it scare ya?”.On the one hand it does make me happy cause this pseudo-Irish English doesn't hurt my brain as much as that...whatever it was before. On the other hand: Why? Didn't the author re-read this after writing? Did anybody edit this? Did nobody notice how strange that sudden change sounds?
Devlin says he is worried but then it's all fate and if you trust in God and the brotherhood it will all turn out all right.

“I do trust the brothers and especially you for some reason. Maybe because you’re like the brother I always wished for but never had.”

Excuse my language but you've known each other for two fucking days. So far we've established that you find each other hot (which you really shouldn't think about your brother) and that you both are short for money...as about everybody in this country at that time.
Somehow that's worse than 'And Mary-Sue saw jerk!Gary-Stue and immediately felt a connection as if she had known him already for ages instead of just five minutes.' Here we don't even get that. They simply both exist and we're supposed to believe that after two days they feel like brothers.
(Also: Ian not only never had a brother, he is an only-child. Just like Devlin. Catholic contraception does not work that way)

“I feel the same and that’s why I don’t want to see anything happen to you. Pay attention in training and if there is something you don’t understand, you must ask and we’ll make sure you do. Besides, one day you might have to patch me up, so I’ll be keeping you close.”

Awwwwwww....
Surprise!RIC appears. They're searching for weapons and are being general bastards because they're in the RIC and are British.
However nobody has any guns with them and Devlin explains that it's for exactly that reason that they don't. Ian explains he was worried that Devlin might have had a weapon and he would have lost him and that would have been terrible. Devlin is happy that Ian cares about him...*yawn* and that's it for that chapter. Wasn't it exiting?

Next time: the raid on the RIC-quarters!