milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Mother and son are in the bar together when she gets the note asking to tend. After setting Cepheus up in a barstool-turned-highchair, Mia gets behind the bar and writes up the special board:

Non-Alcoholic Happy Hour

If my son can say it, it's 1/2 off.

"That ought to make things interesting, hmm Cepheus?" she says, leaning over to the baby.

He replies by humming something that sounds suspiciously like Happy Birthday.

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Enzo grins at the sign. "How old are you now?" he asks Mia by way of asking Cepheus.

"He turned one back in March," Mia answers with a smile. "He's singing about his father's birthday, which was earlier this month. He really likes the song."

"Habby burr-day do you," Cepheus begins to sing. "Habby burr-day do you!"

Enzo laughs at this, though what he really had in mind was to estimate Cepheus' linguistic ability. Of course, the singing has helped with that.

"Can you say code cola?"

"Co-cola?" he parrots back.

"There's a d in there, sweetie," Mia says. "Can you say code?"

"Code?"

"Cola."

"Cola."

"Code cola."

"Co-cola."

She laughs. "Close enough."

"Yes!" says Enzo in exaggerated triumph, complete with fist-pump.

Mia finds and fetches the appropriate drink for Enzo while Cepheus decides to show him his toy for today: a small plush octopus.

"Otty!" he says, thrusting the toy out.

"How have you been, Enzo?" his mother asks when she comes back with his 1/2 priced code cola.

Enzo makes an impressed face and grasps the tips of two tentacles to wiggle them about.

"Real good! Different, but good."

Things have been different, that is. Not him. As far as he knows.

Cepheus wiggles the octopus's body back, giggling and blowing a raspberry.

"Different? Recent changes going on?"

"Bigtime. I finally told the Guardians about the Users."

"Oh wow. And it went over well?"

It would be a lot of information to digest, which likely doesn't sit well in some's stomachs.

Meanwhile, Cepheus has decided that he would rather not contribute further to the conversation for now, as it is octopus in mouth time.

"With the cadets, anyway. I don't really have to deal with feedback from the full Guardians. But I made sure of my luck first. It was right after Cubefall, so I built the heck out of the toys while I had the chance."

She laughs while Cepheus parrots as best he can muffled by plush.

"He'll probably be lucky for a few years from that," she says with a nod toward her child. "Provided no one's offended by somewhat soggy building blocks. So, this is a step forward in fostering good relations between Guardians and Users? Certainly a good reason for a drink."

"Yeah. Well, sort of. There aren't really any relations, aside from the guests I bring. Our Users still won't know we exist. But at least we'll understand things better."

That's kind of sad. But Mia doesn't say so.

"It's still an improvement in the state of things."

And she fetches a drink for herself, a glass of passionfruit soda.

"How's your niece, by the way? Mairi, isn't it? And you said there would be another child in your family?"

"Yeah, my other niece, Analog. She's a year old now. Mairi's two. She's talking really well, and they've got her walking most of the time. And she discovered the Paint program." This last is said with a half-grimace.

"Pain?" Cepheus says with eagerness, pulling his octopus toy out of his mouth.

"Ah, he likes to paint, too," Mia says with some understanding. "He's also fond of running around. Without his clothes on if he can manage it."

And he can. Often. He's downright gifted at streaking.

"He also likes s-w-i-m-m-i-n-g but that's something we can't really do here anymore because of the mermaid."

Well, they probably could. But Mia doesn't want to take the risk.

"Oh, man, both my nieces do that," says Enzo in regards to naked escape attempts.

"Mermaid?"

Mia nods.

"Yes. A man-eating sort, apparently. She lives in the Caribbean inlet. A note about her was posted up recently saying swim at your own risk."

"Wim?"

Oh no. She said the word, didn't she?

"Mama, wan go wimming!" Cepheus insists, bouncing his Mini-Octi on his lap.

"Oh goodness," Mia replies to her son, her fingers splayed over her right eye and sitting by her temple.

"Code," mutters Enzo, resolving to read the notice as soon as he's done with his soda. Although hopefully he'd be inedible. "Is the rest of the lake safe?"

"I don't know. It can probably be made safe and, now that the information is out, Security is likely working on a way to handle the situation. I don't plan on trying it out soon, though, especially not with Cepheus."

"Wimming, Mama!" the baby says, tugging on his mother's free hand. "Wimming!"

She squeezes his hand while trying to figure out her mommy negotiating strategy.

"It's too late to go swimming now, sweetie," she says. "If you behave, you can go swimming tomorrow at home."

"Wimmy now, Mama!" Cepheus insists.

"Not now, tomorrow," she insists before reaching in a pocket and pulling out a zippy bag of Cheerios. "Now eat your cereal."

"No!"

But even as he says this, his little hand digs into the bag and he retrieves some cereal to put in his mouth.

"They love 'no', don't they?" says Enzo, amusement bringing him out of his worry.

"He certainly does. He's been saying it even when he means 'yes' sometimes. I'm actually not sure if that's the case now or not."

Maybe he expects both cereal and swimming now? It's not like he's aware of the concept of waiting 30 minutes after eating before going into the water.

"Either way, at least he's eating his cereal."

She'll have to thank the inventors of zippy bags and Cheerios.

"What's so great about returning false, huh?" Enzo asks Cepheus, not really expecting an answer.

"Rebana fa?" Cepheus parrots.

"I wonder if he likes it so much because it's a new word?" she guesses. "Or maybe it's because knowing the words yes and no give him a bit more control of the world than he had without them."

"Yeah, but it's not much use if you return false even when you mean true."