Chilly Boulder, Tuesday after classes

[vdistinctive]

Okay, so maybe part of asking Kathy if she wanted to get ice cream and talk was about taking care of a kid who didn't break Eliot's brain with her very existence. Mostly, it was about the fact that the kid looked wiped out and depressed and like she could use a friend.

The framed picture over the counter of Joey, Spike, and Ada manning the counter over the weekend with "employees liberators of the month" written on it was a little disconcerting. As was the lady behind the counter beaming at him and refusing to take his money.

"Sorry," Eliot said to Kathy. "My kids kind of . . . overthrew their embezzling manager this weekend."

[ooc: for the one in the text, but also open!]

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[spin_kick_snap]

"...Overthrew?" Kathy asked, gaping just the tiniest bit. She'd missed radio, what with running after children all weekend. "You make it sound like there was a hostile...take...over..." She trailed off as the cashier nodded enthusiastically.

[vdistinctive]

"One of my daughters knocked him out and locked him in dry goods," Eliot said, trying -- and failing -- not to sound proud. "Then they spent the day offering free ice cream."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Sounds like I should be happy my son Zeke didn't catch up with your kids," she said, mentally repeating knocked out and locked him in dry goods. "We had to have a talk about other people's pockets not being a personal challenge, no matter how skinny their jeans were, but I don't think it stuck."

No, Kathy, it really hadn't.

[vdistinctive]

"I had to threaten Ada with dish duty to make sure she didn't hack Luke's servers," Eliot said. "We're probably lucky they didn't take over the whole island." Eliot ordered a scoop of cherry ice cream. "Zeke the older or younger one?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Older," Kathy said, taken aback by the new sundae offering Booger-Eater Special. She wasn't even going to ask, instead getting a waffle bowl of ginger ice cream. "He got my speed." And a few things from his dad, too, but being a werefox wasn't Kathy's to tell, even if it was pretty much an open secret by this point. "Supposedly, I helped him learn to pickpockets and stuff. He said I showed him how to use my speed to perfect the lift."

[vdistinctive]

"You would be pretty good at it," Eliot said. Because the fact that he was a criminal was also pretty much an open secret by now. "What was the other kid like?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Maybe, if I had a good reason to be," Kathy said. "But he was just doing it for fun."

Out in Baltimore, she chased people like that.

"Carys was just precious, really. Bright and alert and curious about everything." Kathy looked a touch wistful at that. "Mostly just happy, I guess? The world she comes from is pretty brutal, but she seemed so insulated from all that, even though I guess we kinda had to live on the run."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot winced in sympathy. "Kids are crazy adaptable. If living on the run's the only thing she knows. . . ." He shrugged. "I've seen a lot of kids like that overseas, over the years.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm worried about her. Magic is...not illegal there? But mages are all rounded up and taken away from their families and sent to live in towers to be guarded for their whole lives." Kathy scowled. She was not thrilled with the idea of them raising a child in Thedas, no. "Anders--her dad--spent a lot of time trying to run away from the tower he was locked away in, at least until he came here. Bad enough that we have to lay low because they're looking for him. But from the things she said, I think she's got his magic, too. Which means they'll start looking for her, too."

And the best of luck to them, too. Because Kathy would have no problems using all the powers at her disposal to keep Carys safe, even now.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker had caught up with them too, and was grinning hugely. Even if someone (she suspected Ada) had left instructions not to give her more than one scoop of chocolate at a time, ever.

"We're really proud of them."

[spin_kick_snap]

Honestly, it had come from all three of them at different points in the day.

"I can see why," Kathy said, still boggling. "But how did they pull it off?"

They were just kids! The oldest hadn't even looked thirteen!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Ada came up with a plan, and Joey did the hitting when they had to, and there was hacking - probably Ada again - and Spike, I think he was ... uh, moving things around. And charming people."

Look, you will never get her to testify against her kids! And it's all hearsay, anyway!

"Mostly I think they pulled it off because the ex-manager had no allies." Parker shook her head in disapproval. "Never work with people who hate you... What did your kids get up to?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Carys spent it being completely adorable," Kathy said, because her daughter's face had been the absolute best and no one could tell her different. "She helped me make hoddeok and showed off her gymnastics moves and spent Saturday in the magic shop with her dad. And Zeke spent it seeing how many things that belonged to other people he could get into his pockets and who he could charm into giving him things."

Kathy felt like she should sound more disapproving about that. But he'd been so damn charming. Damn Sagishi genes.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Awwwww." Parker wasn't sure she'd understood the feeling behind that word before this weekend, really. "He didn't get caught much, did he?"

Also, she unaccountably wanted to brag about how smart theirs had been. "Joey was the oldest. Then Spike. Then Ada. They were all really cute. Joey could do accents." She was quiet a second, then sighed and licked her cone. "Joey won't happen. I don't think. Ever."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not really," Kathy said. "I didn't catch him most of the time and I was watching." He'd just been so fast and completely smooth.

"Neither of mine will, I don't think." Which was part of why she was so bummed after the weekend, even if she couldn't entirely explain why. She couldn't really see herself building a forever-after with Ezra or Anders, so it didn't make much sense to be disappointed that she wasn't going to get one. "Can I ask why he's not?"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"She," Parker said absently. "'Cause our friend Sophie is really, really with our friend Nate, not with Eliot. Like, for years now. After way too much UST." She sighed. "And even if they broke up..."

Yeah, she really couldn't see it happening. She could see Tara-and-Eliot before she could see Sophie-and-Eliot now. Parker frowned.

"How come yours won't happen?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm not with either of their dads that way," Kathy explained. "I friends with Anders and we sorta went on a date? But things just didn't pan out between us and now he's got a boyfriend and I'm really happy they're together."

Which she was really grateful for, because to be pining for him after all of this? Ugh.

"And Ezra and I..." she flushed, not sure how to say 'we sorta hook up sometimes' without spontaneously combusting. "He's not the settling down kind of guy and I don't think I'd want to settle down with him anyway, so..." She shrugged. "Neither kid has good odds of happening."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"We're not really sorry, though," Parker muttered to Eliot, licking her chocolate-and-raspberry ice cream cone. "I love that photo."

They looked so happy! And so cute!

[vdistinctive]

"I'm trying to be a good influence here, Parker." He looked over at the picture again. "It's a good one. You should ask 'em for a copy."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Parker said very definitely. "I think you were a good influence on them, too. While they were here I mean. Not just from wherever they were."

[vdistinctive]

"You mean once I got my head out of my ass and stopped makin' 'em cry?"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Yup." Parker intercepted that look. "What? She was eight. It was confusing. It wasn't going to take much!"

She was pretty sure, anyway. And that was one time! Out of the whole weekend!

"She calmed down as soon as you did."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, well, fake it 'til you make it." Well, at least now Parker knew you didn't have to be a foster kid to have issues with parenting?

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I really wonder about Ada, though."

'Cause how did that work? "Do you think we made up something to tell her? OR just didn't tell her all of it?" Which, duh, but... "She said she knew about the birds and the bees."

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, I'm pretty much just tryin' not to think about it," Eliot said. "Were her folks ones that spent time around here? 'Cause that's the only way I can see her story workin'."