shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Toby slept most of the way from wherever it was Mr Venom picked him up until they reached the farm, and even then, he was still pretty groggy. The washroom was pointed out to him (and what a wonder that is, all shining and clean and good clean hot water right there without having to pump it or heat it on the fire or anything), and Toby did manage to scrub the mud off his face and shuck the outermost, muddiest layers of his clothes.

The kitchen seems like the best place for him, but when he finds it, he decides that it, like the washroom, is too posh for him to use much unless he has to or he's told to. Besides, there's not a proper fire going anywhere in the kitchen, and if there's one thing Toby really wants to find, it's someplace warm. A lot has happened lately-- too much to really, really take in, even-- and if he could just find somewhere warm and easy to sit for a while, to think things through... well, it can't hurt and might help.

He figures, though, that nobody's going to miss just one apple from the bowl, not if what Mr Venom told him about how many people live here is true.

If someone should wander in to tell the lad otherwise, he'll be most appropriately shamefaced-- especially since he's already taken a great big bite out of it.

((The usual note about spoilers applies-- let me know whether you want them or not or don't care.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"hloh," Toby says, then swallows. "Hello, mum."

All right, hair probably shouldn't be that many colors or those colors at all, but on the whole? A woman with a baby is considerably less strange than Mr Venom and considerably less wondrous than the washroom and kitchen.

So that's all right, then. There's even a bit of a smile offered to the pair.

There is indeed very little strange about Hana until she gets the hiccups.

Mel uses a knife from her own belt to peel the orange, with Hana set into a baby chair next to her.

"I'm Mel by the way. You just arrived?"

She'd remember another kid, she's sure.

For now she just looks like a healthy baby to Toby, and that's usually a good thing to see.

"Yes'm. Just a little bit ago-- Mr Venom found me on the road and it seemed like the best idea to come along back with him." ... Oh dear, manners, that's right. "I'm called Toby. Are you the lady of the house?"

Mel snorts a little in laughter as she pulls out a slcie of orange and offers it to Hana - who pushes it out of the way indifferently to grin at Mel.

"I'm not the lady of anything," she says easily. "The place belongs to Lucy - I'm just staying in the back with my family. Say Hi to Toby, Hana. Hiiii!"

"Hhhhiii!" says Hana dutifully.

The rejected orange slice is offered to Toby instead.

Toby's expression flickers-- Lucy? He's just going to have to remember it's a common name-- but he settles on a smile for the little one. "Hello, Miss Hana, don't you want your orange? If your mum gives it to me, I'll just eat it up."

"She doesn't like the squirty juice," Mel explains. "And she only had lunch an hour ago. Her sister loves them, though. You have it."

Mel's got a whole fruit to herself after all.

"I like the squirty juice," Toby admits, and takes the slice, none too proud. "Lucky they won't fight over 'em, then. How old's her sister?"

He has no idea how old Hana is, but it's the sort of thing you say to people, really. Oh, you've another one at home, then? How old? Isn't that a nice age. You could learn a lot about small talk, really, serving up... food.

"Same age," Mel says. "Don't ask me to give that in months, though. Year and a half, maybe?"

It's been a long time since she's had access to a calendar. But she'smore than happy to talk about her children.

"Twins? Aren't you lucky." Hey, mother and daughters are all three still alive-- that's lucky, all right, where Toby's from.

It's lucky where Mel's from, too. At least where the girls were born, they were.

"Yeah," she agrees, if ruefully. "Double the mess, though."

"Are babies that bad?" he asks, in the manner of one who's never done more than look at a baby and say 'hey, look at that, it's a baby!'

Mel laughs briefly.

"When their only way of telling you they want something is to acream until you've figured out what it is they want? Yeah, can be."

"... Hadn't thought of that." It sounds less than fun. "But then I'm a bit young for children, myself."

He's twelve.

Tops.

So this is probably a joke.

Mel nods. "Yeah, you are. Don't worry, they grow on you."

She sucks on a wedge and rubs Hana's hair enough to get a giggle.

"So where're you from?"

"London, mum." Aww, giggling baby! "And you and yours?"

"Haddyn, me," Mel says. "Girls were born in Apocalyptica, which was kinda more post-apocalyptic than this place.

"Don't call me that."

He's never heard of those places, but doesn't quite say so from the confusion. "Pardon?"

"Mum," Mel replies, still smiling easily. "I'm not, and titles make me twitch."

"... Is there somethin' you'd like better I should call you?" Toby asks, like a boy who's had deference toward one's betters beaten into him from an early (well, earlier) age. It's all right, maybe, to call a girl by her name, but Mel is somebody's mother-- he thinks he at least ought to call her Mrs-something, even if she isn't a missus.

"Mel," Mel repeats again.

She's someone's mother, but she's still not quite thinking of herself as a woman, and 'Ms Fray' is almost as weird as - she won't even consider it - Princess Melaka.

Stupid royalty.

"If you insist?" This can probably be taken as a cue to insist, because it isn't presumptuous or disrepectful if she insists, right?

Right.

Still not stranger than Mr Venom and his mechanical carriage, he reminds himself.

"'K, then I'm insisting," Mel says, and winks.

"'Less you can think of a suitable nickname. I can cope with those as well."

"Not much for nicknames, m... Mel," well, at least it's an easy name to cover up a mistake with! And the mistake comes with a sheepish sort of smile.

Mel forgives the mistake with a shrug.

"Then my name'll have to do," she says.

"How're you liking the place?"

"Only been here long enough to find the washroom and the kitchen," Toby says. It should probably be mentioned somewhere along the line that Toby is still wearing several layers of clothes. "Never seen a finer washroom or kitchen, though."