(no subject)

[kitchen_maid]

Amy received, along with her hot chocolate and slice of pizza, The Penguin Book of Baby Names from Bar this evening.

Well, she supposes that's fair. She's due any day now, and she and Perry really do need to start making some proper decisions about names.

And the front cover says she will "find the name you and your baby will love forever," which certainly sounds promising.

Amy opens the book at random and reads Peaches. English name based on the name of the fruit.

Huh.

"'Peaches'? Who names a baby after fruit?"

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X pauses in her approach, head tilting as she considers what she just heard Amy say.

And eventually --

"I do not know."

Beat.

"Maybe they are hungry?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Maybe," Amy says, frowning at the book.

"It seems very silly, though," says the woman named after a variety of quartz.

"Hello, X. How are you?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X's name is a letter. She has no room to throw stones.

"I am -- better."

She hesitates before sitting down, just to check.

"It is good."

[kitchen_maid]

X is better than Peaches.

"I'm glad," Amy says.

She worries, a little.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not smile. She relaxes a little, however.

And, carefully --

"I can explain. Now. If -- "

Well.

"If you want."

[kitchen_maid]

"All right," Amy says.

Amy sets the book off to the side, and wraps her hands around her cocoa.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You know," X says, after a few moments of careful thought. "That I was made."

[kitchen_maid]

"Yes."

Amy wouldn't go so far as to say she completely understands how that works, but she knows.

[cutting_edgex23]

"They wanted to be able to control me. All the time. Without question."

She flexes her hand open, then closed, then open again.

Just to check.

"There is a scent. That -- makes me kill. I do not have to want to. It -- happens."

She swallows, breathing slowly. Carefully.

"They used it. And I came here. But -- I stopped. Eventually."

Beat.

"It is why I have been practicing. So I do not start."

[kitchen_maid]

"Like . . . like building up an immunity to a poison?" Amy asks, after a moment's consideration.

[cutting_edgex23]

X hesitates.

"It is not inaccurate," she says. Cautiously.

"It is like re-training, too. But -- "

Well.

"More difficult."

Painful, too.

[kitchen_maid]

"But it's getting better?" Amy says.

"Easier?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"Better," X confirms.

"It -- "

She takes another careful breath.

"I do not like being afraid."

[the_seafarer]

"I wouldn't have put it past some of the more more whimsical Animals," muses her brother, leaning over her shoulder, one hand on the back of her chair as he peers with interest at the book.

"But I suppose they tend to have fruit on the brain, more often than not. Hullo, Amy. How are you?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Hello, Caspian.

"I'm very well. And not planning to name anyone Peaches. Or Plum, Apple, Blackberry, or . . . Parsnip."

Which is, of course, not a fruit. But Amy is not going to let details stand in the way of the point.

"How are you?"

[the_seafarer]

"I should hope not. 'Parsnip' is a dreadful name. If you must use a plant, couldn't it be something a bit less practical, like a flower? 'Columbine' is nice."

Or herbs.

Or...bodies of water.

"Oh, quite well." He's still studying the page she's on, so his voice is a little distracted. "I've launched the Hope and the stables are doing perfectly well, though there are a surprising amount of sheep about, and I can't seem to find whom they belong to."

[kitchen_maid]

The page she's on will also give him various feminine forms of Paul (Paulanne, Pauleen, Pauletta, Paulina, Pauline), Payton, Peace, Pearl (and Pearle, Pearlie, and Pearly), Peg, and Pegeen.

" . . . sheep?"

Beat.

"Columbine for a girl or a boy?"

[the_seafarer]

"Sheep," he confirms. "Scads of them." One finger traces down the page, and he shakes his head at Philberta.

"A girl, I suppose. The dryads were forever coaxing everyone towards floral themes. It quite caught on, in some areas."

[kitchen_maid]

"One of Susan's names is Rosemary," Amy offers, flipping ahead to the S's. "Oh, and Susan apparently means lily."

Furthermore, Marguerite is sometimes said to mean daisy.

Never mind a flower, the Princess Royal is named for a whole garden, it seems.

Amy looks at Caspian.

"I wonder if we're in here," she says, and flips further ahead to boys names and C's.

"Oh, look. There you are. Caspian. English name of uncertain origin, possibly modelled on the Caspian Sea between Russia and Asia.."

[the_seafarer]

"She's quite a bouquet."

He smiles, pleased despite the lack of Narnian influence. "Is that right? I wonder if that's where it came from, back with Caspian the Conqueror. He was from that world, you know."

As were the rest of the Telmarines, and, he supposes, himself. Not a true Narnian, but then, Peter had always pointed out that Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve ever did come from a different world.

[kitchen_maid]

"That would make sense. Take the name from the place.

"It is, after all, a very good name."

Beat, and then exceedingly innocently . . .

"As Lady Cecily is fond of reminding us all."

[the_seafarer]

He looks harried. And a little jumpy.

"She's too kind, I'm sure," he says, with finality.

Well, she is. Often.

And at great length.

[kitchen_maid]

Amy doesn't quite manage to smother a giggle.

(Though she also doesn't try very hard.)

"It may be time to give some serious thought to finding Lady Cecily some viable suitors," she says.

"Ones who might be willing to propose outside the realm of her imagination."

[the_seafarer]

"Oh dear," he sighs, sounding pleased. "I suppose I'll have to break off our engagement.





"...Again."

For real, this time.

Supposing it takes.

[kitchen_maid]

"I'm afraid you'd have to," Amy says. "It would hardly do for her to have two fiances."

Think of the scandal.

"Though one does have to admire her determination, I suppose."

In the face of logic, sense, reality, and the Word of a Gentleman.