milliways_bar | (no subject)

Technology has its appeal, you've got to give it that. For instance, refrigeration. Freezing. You could stock a larder for winter, and whatever else happened you would know you weren't going to starve.

Of course, that kind of thinking encourages laziness and complacency.

Gredya has reached a compromise with herself, between moral austerity and a desire to see her family live through their first year. She's only storing a few things in the Milliways freezers. Nothing that won't fit in the plastic bags she'd seen in the kitchen, no more than will fit on one freezer shelf. Nothing more than an emergency cache of meat. So she's been bringing in a few things, every couple of days, painstakingly labeling each bag. GREDYA. DO NOT TAKE IT.

Today she's in the kitchen with a pair of rock hyraxes...while the kids roam unattended in the bar, in proper Milliways fashion. Away from their mother's watchful eye, two of them have started placing orders. Can the bar make another football? Can the bar make pencils? Can the bar make unicorns? ...Okay, maybe it can't do that.

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Gavroche gives the kids an amused sidelong glance from down the bar, digs something out of his pocket and uses it to pay for the frisbee and boomerang that Bar presents to them next.

The frisbee and the boomerang confuse the kids at first--but Karel, in four-footed form, starts chewing on the plastic disc, and gives it a toss in the air, and then Aksana in human form gets the idea, and very soon she's throwing it (clumsily) across the room for her brother to catch.

Shhhhhh, no comparisons to dogs playing fetch.

Gavroche wouldn't dream of it! That would be mean.

"That's the idea", he says with a grin. "You throw the other thing too, and if you do it right, it comes back to you."

Aksana pauses, holding the frisbee, and gives him a suspicious, questioning look. "How? Magic?"

"Not magic at all", he promises. "Something about the way it's shaped, with that curve."

"You show?" That's Franchek, curious, and smiling in contrast to Aksana's scowl. (His brother, getting impatient, jumps up to pull the frisbee out of Aksana's hand)

He doesn't seem at all fazed by Aksana's grumpy face, and smiles at Franchek.

"Of course. Are you allowed to go outside? It'd be better there."

Edited 2014-10-08 14:54 (UTC)

They both nod. "We go everywhere. --Masha! Bozhana!" The siblings confer briefly; one of them trots into the kitchen to tell their mother, while the others gather round Gavroche, ready to head out.

He leads the gaggle of children outside with good will, boomerang in hand.

"Now let's hope I remember how to do it properly..." He throws, and indeed it turns mid-air and comes back.

Once Masha catches up, he's got three children and two wolves loping along with him. They've been growing fast, very fast: they already look as though they're hitting their early teens.

The boomerang has their full attention. They make little noises of delight when it turns, and one of the four-footed ones runs out to catch it on its return.

"How you do that?" They're all eager to know.

The wolves get a blink and a curious look, but only amiability besides that.

"Like this." He does it again, more slowly and pausing before the throw so they can see how his wrist moves.

The children and the wolves seem to be on very good terms with one another.

Aksana reaches for the boomerang, and only remembers at the last minute not to simply take it from his hand. "I can?"

"Feel free." He puts it in her hand, and whether he assumes the wolves are pets, friends, or something else, well... his sister is bonded to a magical talking horse-spirit, let's just leave it at that. "I'm Gavroche, by the way."

"Aksana." She takes the boomerang and studies it while the other two give their names: Masha, Franchek. Then Franchek names the wolves: Karel and Bozhana. Karel has put quite a few scratches and dents in the frisbee by now. It's good for chewing.

They're not a chatty bunch, not in English. Aksana gives the boomerang a try, and simply frowns when it fails to return.

"Nice to meet all of you", he says, giving as much weight to his nods to the wolves as to the two-legged children. Karel can chew the frisbee if he wants to, it's his toy now. "You almost had it, Aksana, but more of a flick to your wrist."

"Show again," she demands, handing it back.

Obediently, he takes the boomerang and does his best to show her.

"You hold it like this, see, pinched between your finger and thumb. Then pull your arm back and quickly forward, like you're throwing a ball, and just when you're going to let go, snap your wrist forward."

She tries again, and her frown doesn't go away until the boomerang turns in the air and comes back to them. A quick learner. "What is it for?"

"Once upon a time, people used it for hunting", he tells her. "In Australia, they'd throw it to bring down birds. But mostly now it's for fun."

For birds? Aksana and Masha lean together, head to head, while they think that over. Yes, all right, if you missed you wouldn't have to chase it. But the arcing flight is hard to calculate.

Aksana weighs it in her hand. "You could hunt bigger animals?"

"A little bigger, I should think", he agrees. "If it was too big, it might only stun it, but something the right size could be killed or knocked out."

Bar could almost certainly do a Unicorn-shaped *cake*...