(belated halloween)

[scarred_grin]

[OOM: upstairs, things have happened. Not a lot, though.]

And that's why, when Pyrrha carries Egil down to the bar tonight, he's dressed as an avocado.

Single-foster-motherhood isn't easy, but she's managing.

"So there was Egil, on the deck of the pirate ship Cavendish, and the pirate-monkey captain--she was fierce, with a bright blue coat with lots of shiny buttons--she said to him, 'You've come here to steal our treasure, haven't you?' But Egil said 'No, I was playing on the beach and this giant eagle stole my ball, and I swam for days and I followed it here and I saw the eagle drop it on the deck of your ship. That's all I came for.' And the pirate-monkey captain thought about it, and she said 'Okay, you can have it back. But you've got to serve on my crew for a whole year first, so we know you're not just here as a spy and--'"

Well, if you want your baby to learn to talk, give it to someone who likes to talk.

"Let's get us some ice cream, huh, puppy? I'm really hungry all of a sudden."

Totally botherable.

Comments

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate chuckles, perched on a stool not too far from where Pyrrha ends up.

"Don't stop. I was quite enjoyin' the tale. Howdy, Egil."

Her voice rises just a touch on that last sentence, expression warm. It takes a moment of befuddlement before she realizes what the getup is, and she immediately laughs again. Looking at Pyrrha, she shakes her head. Fondly.

"S'this your first act as Avocado Ambassador?"

[scarred_grin]

Okay, technically he's only half an avocado, with a circle for the pit right over his tummy. He makes an adorable half-avocado, though, and Pyrrha grins proudly, if tiredly.

"He's been deputized--he's now the Avocado Ambassador to Children. He can't really talk yet though and kids respond better to visuals and... eventually there'll be a party where all the kids here get invited and given a whirlwind lesson on the wonders of the humble avocado."

Or something.

"How've you been? It's been a while, hasn't it."

[ikissdhimbck]

She chuckles.

"Sounds very important. Yes, it has been some time. Longer since I've seen you than Egil, though. I met a young man who was watchin' him not too long ago."

Well, perhaps not young, but he had a sweet face.

"I've been doin' all right. How 'bout you? Y'look tired, sugar."

[scarred_grin]

"My friend Jack's been watching him sometimes, he's sorta Egil's bodyguard. Not that he needs one, but... you know. It's an excuse for me to help him out with his tab. And he lets me tattoo him--Jack does, I mean, not Egil. Egil has no tattoos at all."

He hasn't even got facepaint to go with his avocado costume, poor kid.

"I've been better. You know, stuff going on. But I'm okay."

[fry_sandhu]

A small boy at the bar peers at the baby with bemusement.

"Why is he dressed as a cabbage?" Fry asks.

[scarred_grin]

"He's an avocado," she says with a grin. "I'm an unofficial Avocado Ambassador so he got deputized to help me spread the good word to all the universe--it's one of the greatest fruits-and-or-vegetables out there. It's the best part of guacamole, and don't you let any lime fans tell you otherwise."

[fry_sandhu]

Fry's eyes open wide.

"You don't eat people in your world do you?"

[scarred_grin]

"Oh, no, no," she says quickly. "He's not a real avocado, he's just dressed as one--we missed Halloween, that's all, and I didn't want him to feel left out."

Never mind that he's been dressed plenty strangely on other non-Halloween days. It makes sense to Pyrrha.

[fry_sandhu]

"My sisters got dressed up but I didn't because I don't like pretending." Fry says. "Coral dressed as a fairy scientist."

[scarred_grin]

"I like getting dressed up, but I don't really pretend--it's more like 'hey, today I've got an outfit made of candy because I like how it looks,' not 'I'm Field Marshal Pyrrha of the Candyland Army, here to conquer and make taffy and stuff.'"

Or whatever the candyland army would do. That's a different outfit, though; today she's dressed completely normally, for her.

"A fairy who is a scientist, or a scientist who studies fairies?"

[fry_sandhu]

"What's taffy?" Fry asks.

"A fairy who is a scientist."

[scarred_grin]

"Taffy's a kind of candy that like... people used to get together and bend and stretch and pull it and then they cut it up into little pieces. I saw it on TV once, but I've never actually had any, except the salt water kind, and I think that might be different--they have that at the beach. It's pretty good."

Probably not the most helpful explanation, though.

"That sounds like a pretty good costume. Fairies need scientists too."

[fry_sandhu]

Blank stare at the first explanation.

"Your hair is shiny, is that your costume?"

[scarred_grin]

"Oh, no, this is just my regular hair," she says. "I have a lot of other stuff upstairs I can put in my hair, fake hair in different colors and textures and even feathers and things, but I don't usually do any of that when I'm watching Egil. He likes to grab on to things."

Which is why she's gotten rid of a lot of her piercings. Nothing like having a baby pull on your lip-rings.

[fry_sandhu]

"Mummy has green bits in her hair and when she goes to work she hides them in a ponytail." Fry says.

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede is carving. He's got the near-finished flute in his lap, carved from bleach-white bone with scratched and inked designs and organic wavelet shapes of paua shell inlaid in.

It will be a gift for the solstice, and it's taken him long enough to manage it; but such is the risk of having it be a side project, picked up and set down when other things get busy. Luckily he's just to the point of sanding down the sides until they'll fit together. He smiles, though. "It's been a while, Pyrrha."

[scarred_grin]

"Hey... I've been kinda busy. Easy to lose track of time."

Especially when you're basically soul-hibernating.

She settles into a seat, with Egil on her lap. Much easier than carrying him.

"Met somebody I think you know, though--how have you been?"

[the_cupbearer]

"That it is," he says, reaching out to Egil.

"I've been well--on and off, been busy and now am traveling a bit. Who did you meet?"

[scarred_grin]

"He has twenty-three freckles that I could see," she says, shifting Egil a bit so she can dig around in her zombie-bag. "If that tells you anything."

If that doesn't, what she takes out of her bag probably would--in her sketchbook, a drawing of the Brucolac working on some carving, with the sort of amused look that exposure to Pyrrha's wall-of-words often brings on.

[the_cupbearer]

"Ah," he chuckles. "Adrastos, yes."

Ganymede takes the drawing with careful fingers and smiles at it. "He looks very handsome when he's so very absorbed in his carving." Which is why he's hoping that he'll like the gift.

"How did you get on?"

[scarred_grin]

"I wasn't creeping on him or anything," she says. "Well, not really. But I mean, making stuff is what I do--that creative spark, you know? So when I see other people really into whatever it is they're making, it gets my attention. And the firelight, you know, he just made a really visually appealing picture."

The fact that physically he is exactly her type has nothing to do with it. She's not his type, and she's not exactly available, but he sure is nice to look at.

...and willing to get undressed for the sake of art.

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede laughs. "We're certainly not monogamous if that's your concern. While I'm not sure women arouse him at all he's quite good company." He grins, handing the picture back.

"And beautiful to look at when he's naked, too. You could ask him to model for you, and I think he'd like it."

[scarred_grin]

"I'm monogamous though," she says.

She may not be sure what exactly her relationship status is right now--maybe Loki sorted things out and didn't tell her? She has been gone a long time--well, she's being careful.

"But yeah, he did some modeling for me. It helps that he doesn't get cold easily."

Did some modeling for her, commissioned her to make a nude portrait of himself to give to Ganymede... same thing.

[the_cupbearer]

"With whom?" he asks.

He can only smile at the notion that the Brucolac doesn't get cold easily. "No, he's not easily made uncomfortable."

[scarred_grin]

"I used to be engaged to Teja," she says. "But we...had philosophical differences, and I've been gone for a while and I don't know where things stand anymore."

But hey look, ice cream for Egil. He loves ice cream. It's a much happier thing to think about.

"It's kinda weird being the artist and not the model. I used to do a lot of modeling, back home--it wasn't steady work, but it was the kind of thing I could do, even with my limitations."