i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Up you get, come on," says the teacher, and Shura stops stabbing invisible spinach heads and listens while the teacher describes how to correctly place your feet for optimal mobility.

[carillons]

Helen listens too! She wants to learn these things.

(She keeps grinning, though. Spinach heads!)

[alicornucopia]

The teacher keeps them pivoting and lunging around the practice area until they're both tuckered out. She quite ignores the supervising Kas until the lesson is over.

Shura's mother is apparently a little late to fetch her.

[carillons]

Helen prances up to Kas and says gleefully, "Spinach heads!"

[truthwright]

"So I've heard," he says, ruffling her hair.

[alicornucopia]

"Are you a spinach head?" Shura asks Kas. Her Nicoa is clinging to her hair as some kind of lizard.

[truthwright]

"I don't know," he says innocently.

And for just a moment, his head looks extremely leafy and green.

[alicornucopia]

Shura shrieks with half-laughter and half-alarm. She flings her wooden dagger at his head.

[truthwright]

The hilt of the dagger bonks off his forehead. He catches it on the way down and laughs.

"Ouch! What was that for?" he says, handing it back to her.

[carillons]

"It was 'cause you're a spinach head!" says Helen.

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah! Spinach heaaaaad!" giggles Shura.

"Shura!" says the dagger teacher. "If you attack innocent people with wood, we will not give you steel!"

"Sorry!" says Shura contritely.

[carillons]

Helen giggles and hugs Kas.

"It's okay," she says, "I love you even when your head is made of spinach."

[truthwright]

"Aren't I lucky."

[alicornucopia]

Shura inspects her dagger from damage it may have sustained during contact with the spinach. "Spinach head, spinach head, spinach hea-a-ad," she sings.

"Shura! Too close to meter!" says the dagger teacher. "You know better!"

"Sorryyyyy," groans Shura.

[truthwright]

"Careful, or you might turn me into spinach," laughs Kas.

[alicornucopia]

"Then could Helen come live with meeeee?" asks Shura thoughtfully.

[truthwright]

"I dunno! Helen, if I turned into spinach would you move in with your new best friend here?"

[carillons]

"We-ell, that depends," she says. "Would you be talking spinach?"

[alicornucopia]

"Spinach can't take care of a kid," says Shura. "Even if it talks. That is why when you play house there is a mommy and a daddy and not a spinach."

[carillons]

"...Which one are you?" says Helen, peering at Kas.

[truthwright]

"I can't be all three?"

[alicornucopia]

Shura giggles. "He's a daddy, isn't he? Also maybe a spinach."

[carillons]

"He's a mommy too! I came out of his uterus," Helen asserts. "He has one of those sometimes. He's a daddy and a mommy and a spinach."

[alicornucopia]

"I don't think that is how mommies," says Shura dubiously. "Adopting mommies don't that thing."

[carillons]

"Show her the thing, mommydaddyspinach!" says Helen.