In order to take Hakeber shopping, Tasha and Katie had to actually pick her up (and possibly wake her up) back at the apartment. Katie had also been dropping hints that Tasha should 'dress to impress' a bit more before heading into the more upscale portion of the outpost. When they arrive at the suite, they're met with an overturned shipping box and signs of a donut massacre.
"Aha!" a small voice declares. "Thought you could conspire w'out me listen'n in, didn't ya!" The voice comes from Reeka (Bane of Pantries, Biter of Ankles) the Kavi, who is trying to sprawl out in one of the lounge chairs.
"I was wondering where you'd gone off to," Tasha remarks, head tilting. She gestures vaguely to the donuts. "Well you're welcome to those, but you could also just ask for some. It's also very hard to get you in on plans and meetings if you're always lurking. Even Sam pops up for meetings." She bends over to inspect the box, finds it empty, and shakes her head before reaching over to haul Reeka in to the chair so she may sprawl better. "Anyway we're heading out; no you can't come with us, yes you'd be bored by it."
"I can't be caught in public, you know that," Reeka complains. "Dis place has no good hidy spots. But the bunny lady got me shipped here. I only had ta pester her a bit. Where you going?"
"Uptown to do some shopping. You know, try and impress petty local rich people, but more important, buying things. And we both know, things are great." Tasha heads for her room but leave the door open, and can be heard making noises that sound distinctly like clothes. "Katie? Help me impress the locals. You didn't like my dress, so it's your responsibility now."
"Fine, maybe one of the nice outfits I got you on Ymir," Katie says and follows. "Reeka, be useful and wake up Hakeber. Stick your nose in her ear if you have to."
"Be extra obnoxious!" Tasha adds, and can be heard giving Katie the raspberries over something, a moment later adding, "I grew up on a wood ship and tended a fantasy tavern, you know I don't know how to dress perfectly!"
"You don't have to be perfect, just not having bits of anatomy being pushed around too suggestively," Katie counters. "And you want look a bit more mature."
A door is thrown open out in the common area, and Hakeber bemoans, "There were donuts?"
"Are you saying I act immature?" There's another raspberry, and a huff. "Nobody likes me when I'm mature! It's always your're too serious Tasha, you can't take a joke Tasha, and why do rich people buy beings like me and then get all huffy about not showing too much? Is being upscale really just showing off your wealth by how fussy you can be over everything?"
"Well, and to get better service," Katie says. "Think of it as practice for Daltoona."
"I was hoping to hide with techno-magic, like an attractive and fun specter," Tasha insists. She then adds, "I can walk in heels now! Should I wear those?"
Hakeber wanders in naked and ruffled, scratching her butt. "What day is it?" she asks.
"Heels do give the impression that you aren't going to try and run, which is good when shopping," Katie says, eyeing Hakeber.
Tasha is busy getting dressed by Katherine. "It's the next day, you didn't sleep for a week or anything. We're going uptown for shopping if you want to come and can fit it in to your busy vomit-or-not-vomit schedule. Also did you record anything?"
"Record what?" Hakeber asks. "The orgy?"
"Yes," answers Tasha who is pulling on a Karnor-made stocking, withs pleated skirt, a respectable top, and a equally respectable jacket and gloves laying on the bed, all made of a combination of nicer material and understated metallics. "I may have ... forgotten."
"I would never record something like that," Hakeber says, "since I learned about 'plausible deniability' anyway. I should brush my fur and put on a dress, I suppose. Will there be a place to have lunch?"
"I don't know, maybe wealthy people don't eat lunch to show how much they can not eat lunch," is the red woman's reply.
"I'm sure there will be places to eat," Katie says. "And yes, a bit of grooming would be good."
"Give me a few minutes and I'll be lecture-hall presentable," Hakeber promises, and heads back into her room. Hopefully she'll do something about the smell too.
"I feel like Katie might be considering leaving us for another trans-dimensionally battling group of pan-universal monster hunters lead by a cute person like myself." Tasha slides one bootee on, then the other. She then grabs a comb and has at it. The outfit does make her look older in the same way she seemed older with the more subdued, but expensive, materials and colors, the longer skirt, and the 'I am an important part of a business operation' jacket.
"Liza is cuter but she's going home to have babies," Katie notes. "That's about it for a cuter choice right now."
"Yay, I'm all that's left!" Tasha hops down on her bootees and ruins the maturity act by falling in to Katherine and giving her a big hug. "I love and appreciate you Miss Katherine Vesuvius."
"I shall mold you into my sidekick," Katie replies, patting Tasha on the head. "And you will learn an instrument, like the bass guitar."
"Fine, I guess you deserve it. I guess you want to take over then?" Tasha looks up and tilts her head. "Tired of following me around, then? It'd be nice to be able to return to focusing on my tasks rather than leading. Leading is hard work. Also, I want to learn to fly a space shuttle, or a space fighter. Having someone else fly me everywhere is embarrassing."
"Well, you should learn to fly first, then I'll make you my sidekick," Katie concedes. "Being flown around would be nice. I've only ever been on airships, after all. And it's not quite the same in something big like that. Or a big spaceship." She looks into the common area, and wonders, "Does Hakeber really have a way of looking presentable in just a few minutes?"
"There's a reason she's Scholar Hakeber and not just Hakeber, in a scholastic context she she mastered the art of going from drunken cat toy to presentable in minutes. It's practically one of her fields. She can also take notes with both hands." Tasha steps back and smiles. "I'll need a ship to pilot, but we now have room. I was thinking of putting in a request for a Khattan-style single-pilot combat vessel, maybe a hyperspace fighter. We could get one that can carry a small team. I have the implants; Kaa may be good in space but I'm still a bird, I can handle atmosphere, and I was droving for a long time."
"That sounds expensive," Katie notes, just before Hakeber emerges. She's wearing her Dark Horse uniform, which covers up most of her, but the bits that show look smartly groomed. And she doesn't smell like beer, sex and pizza. She doesn't smell of anything at all. "I'm ready!" she announces.
"Expensive if we weren't about to invade in to a House core facility full of advanced and experimental technology," Tasha notes with an alarmingly bright smile. She turns to smile less alarmingly at Hakeber. "See? It's like magic."
"You still want to be a pirate, don't you?" Katie teases Tasha, then blinks at Hakeber. "Even Miss Necessity isn't that fast," she claims. "Totally unfair, Hake."
"Piracy has its perks! Besides you wouldn't like me if I didn't," Tasha replies, her smile turning to lopsided grin. She turns to regard Hakeber too, and nod. "See Hake looks like a mess, but she has secret reservoirs of talent and ability. They're buried under the surface, like her clothes, under pizza boxes."
"Hey, no pizza boxes in sight," Hakeber claims. "Somebody else must have cleaned them all up. Until the Thieving Beast showed up. I assume she's going to be sleeping in the box?"
"Oh probably, and you can be sure she didn't clean up." Tasha adjusts her jacket, then nods and hooks her arm to Katie's. "Ready to go Miss Vesuvius? Your itinerary says have fun with me for the next few hours."
"Just follow me, ladies," Katie says. "I can smell high-end shops from a kilometer away, you know."
The Embassy District didn't simply house embassy staff, but it probably started out that way. It had been quite built up, such that the avenues and houses where raised up substantially from the crystal ground layer. There were trees, a central canal with pedestrian bridges and a holographic sky hiding the opposite side of the spire from view. The buildings varied in style, but it wasn't difficult to figure out which species lived in which. And at the end of avenue was The Promenade: an open-air shopping mall. It wasn't as large as what would be found on any moderately urbanized planet, but other than luxuries (and most things would be considered luxuries out in the fringes where Outpost Caltrop floated) there were practical shops as well, with the food market taking up easily half of them.
"I thought everything was out in the bazaar," Hakeber admits. "This is like some of the malls back in New Zion."
It's certainly less crowded than the bazaar at least, and seems lacking in gaggles of teenagers.
"Nothing like back home, but you knew that," Tasha remarks, looking around. "It reminds me a little of the Ymir shopping districts, though. I got a chance to walk through a bit of it back when we were there, although it lacks the slower pace of Ymir."
"Well, there wasn't a lot of household shopping on Ymir," Katie says, looking around. "There was probably an off-resort shopping are for the full time residents and staff."
The food market is itself anachronistic, the sort of thing a frontier or early colony world might have. But out here, it's actually necessary to prepare meals from actual ingredients (or substitutes). The better restaurants shop here as well, from the look of some of the buyers.
"I don't want to buy any vegetables," Hakeber notes.
"But how will you get any taller if you don't," Tasha notes, having seen the various commercials geared towards Humans promoting balanced diets. She is glad she isn't Human, at least, as much of one. And not anymore. "Well, it's nice to see people cook with ingredients. And they have actual employees doing it! How quaint." She beams.
"We aren't here to shop for cooking supplies," Katie notes. "Can either of you cook?"
"I've," Tasha hesitates, "been getting better at it? A little? Gabriel says I am, but maybe he's just being nice." And so Tasha rolls her shoulders in a shrug. "I try at least. Besides, we have people to cook and I can do it on a wilderness world if I have to. I am not defending myself."
"Let's get to the interesting shops," Katie says. "I want to see if they have a ceremonial weapon outlet. For kids."
"I will resent any suggestion I am a kid, no matter how many days ago I was reborn. Or how short I am now." But Tasha follows along, content to have someone else lead for a change.
The shops seem similar to the ones on Ymir and even some in the bazaar, in that they don't have stock but will fabricate things on demand. There aren't any touristy type places though, but there is a weapon shop next to what might be an arcade or other gaming venue. Tia is sitting on a bench just outside of that one, or at least someone that looks a lot like Tia from behind.
Tasha mock-gasps. "Look, Tia has gained a thirst for violence. And Lacci too. We really are a good influence," she insists, then tries to angle the group off enough she can get a good look at the woman sitting beside the shop.
It's Tia, and she's just.. watching the game shop, and ignoring the weapon shop. She does blink though, so doesn't seem too weird otherwise.
"Lacci is a war historian," Hakeber notes. "Maybe she just prefers past violence to present violence."
"How passive. If future and present people didn't create violence Lacci would have nothing to study. We owe it to her. And if she learns to create violence she'll never be out of study material." She studies Tia a moment, then looks to the others. "Should we just leave her? She doens't seem to be having a problem and is minding her own business. Also, she's very non-violent."
"Ceremonial weapons aren't about violence," Katie points out. She looks at Tia, and says, "I didn't think she was the shopping type. Must be waiting in ambush."
"She's observing. Watching the people. Maybe trying to figure something out, like why people go to an arcade, or watching someone in particular. We could go ask but we may ruin whatever she's doing," Tasha notes.
"Whatcha doin?" Hakeber goes up and asks Tia. Tia smiles up to Hakeber and says, "Waiting."
Tasha hangs back knowing she can be a bit intense sometimes. Instead she peers at the weapons store, seeing what deals they might have.
They seem to have a lot of Silent One swords and.. sword-like things. A startling variety. Vartan weapons make up the rest of the inventory.. and there might be some Terran ones. The other Galactics don't seem to have any martial traditions, or else not enough to make it worth stocking for them.
"I could probably sue a practice sword, I should probably also practice with a sword more. I am the hero after all," Tasha tells Katherine, putting her hands on her hips. "And I seem to like swords in general. I'm practically an archetype."
"I could never understand how people with wings got so into swords," Katie notes, looking them over. "I think I a see saber back there."
"I prefer polearms, because I like the reach and the versatility, but they can be awkward to carry around and swords hang better. A good knife is useful for a lot of things, but utility knives and fighting knives are very different. I suspect Vartans got in to swords for formal reasons, and for social ones." Tasha peers at the saber and nods. "Sabers are favored on ships because the heavy blade can cut rigging if needed and they're not very complicated to use. Hard to swing in narrow places, and they lack a thrusting point for dealing with armor, or tight quarters."
"I have one," Katie says. "I didn't bring it, it's part of my official military uniform. I've never fought using it."
"We have them back home, but they're usually made out of chitin. I didn't have one on the ship -- the Captain wouldn't let me -- but some of the others had one, and he did. I never saw him use it, either. Mostly it hung in his cabin. The swords I trained with were thinner, either sabers or cut-and-thrust types. The Citadel suggested I should consider the fencing team, but then, well, you remember I had to move on." Tasha taps her chin. "We don't have a lot of use for purely recreational or athletic fighting styles, so we should pick something up for practical training. Firearms, too. Powder, energy, and a few others. Maybe a bow. Everyone needs to know how to defend themselves at the very least."
Everything in the shop seems to be of the bladed variety, save for a set of Vartan dueling pistols. And the blades may just be replicas. The Silent-One proprietor is just watching them behind the counter. She's a bit on they grey side, and uses glasses.
"We can probably pick up actual firearms in the bazaar," Tasha notes after a quick review. "We could use a room on the ship for mixed practice, and convert it between martial arts, weapons, and range training. Speaking of which I should put the remodel order in now that we're out and about. Less recreational space, more practical use space."
"Doesn't that require dropping the outer shell though?" Katie asks. "I'm not sure of how it works."
"Maaaybe? We can do it when we're at the base too. The redesign is already in but I can change it." Tasha slides a finger across her forearm and the display comes up, she punches in some things, reviews, punches sin more, and sends off a request to Mr. Invention to verify the selection of practice weapons for the entire crew. "There. I'm wearing my business jacket so I may as well do business."
"What're you looking at in here?" Hakeber asks as she finally joins Katie and Tasha inside. "I don't recognize any of these Silent-Ones designs."
"Hake does know a lot about Silent Ones's swords," Tasha remarks, grinning as she looks up. Then, more seriously, she asks, "And why's that? Think these aren't legitimate?"
"I think the ones back home are either really old or changed over time," Hakeber says, and points to a sigil on one of the hilts. "These are from colony worlds, where a lot of low-tech fighting still happens."
"Practical and refined then, that's a good thing to have in a weapon. You don't want show pieces or weapons intended to be a art." And so Tasha huffs, standing straighter. "I may be cute and adorable but I am still a fighter. Speaking of which, Hake, think I need a space fighter? Something to move people around with, and you know, space fight."
"Like the Titans the Vartans and Silent-Ones did their mock-battle in last time?" Hakeber asks. "None of these are pilot swords, which may be why I don't recognize them."
"Yeah a cockpit is a tight place for most weapons. And I've been thinking of taking up piloting. Now that Mel is, uh, busy and on his own I miss having something to pilot, and a small space craft or fighter is exactly what I need. Our current shuttles are nice but they're not really designed for fast insertion under duress, and Kaa can't leave the ship to fly them. I have the implants and the atmospheric instincts," Tasha explains.
"Spaceships aren't.. the same as aircraft, right?" Hakeber asks.
"No but if they're transitional aerodynamics still apply, and many planets and stations still have gasses in them," Tasha insists, bouncing a little on her hooves. "For space I cna just learn the rest. I was a bar made and a drover now I run a inter-galactic agency, I think I have room to grow."
"Hmm," Hakeber ponders, tapping her chin. When she can't seem to think of a good reply, she just says, "Tia is hunting boys."
Tasha stares at Hakeber a moment then throws her hand sup. "I'll save the idea for later I guess. Well, are we done here?"
Katie is still eyeing the Terran saber. "I may come back later," she says.
"I think you should get it, I need a sparring partner," Tasha agrees, then she gives the older woman behind the counter athumbs up before heading out.
Hakeber follows Tasha. Tia is still sitting on the bench, watching the game shop (or arcade).
Tasha turns to Katie and asks, "Where to? I can only think about violence so long before I become very tired and want to curl up and sleep. I need something with energy."
"Lunch?" Katie suggests. "There has to be someplace that actually prepares food around here."
"A shake and a burger sounds wonderful, I second lunch." Tasha points towards the food court not far away. "Lets make our rounds. I know I saw pizza, and Vartan hand meals. Maybe I'll need many meals so I don't seem unfair to other species."
"No pizza," Hakeber says. "Pizza is for in private dining."
Hakeber did not anticipate discovering calzones at the food court, however.
"Anything can be made into a sort-of sandwich," Katie declares.
"I once made Hake in to a sandwich," Tasha says with a grin. "I think I want one. In fact I want one. One calzone please."
There are a lot of options, but one of them seems especially targeted at Karnors, since it is mostly meat (or very nearly meat) and just a bit of cheese. There are vegetarian ones and seafood ones as well. The shop also has pies with similar fillings (which are apparently popular among Vartans and Silent-Ones, from the advertising videos that play above the counter). Milkshakes are also available just one vendor over. These too come in vegetarian and piscean varieties.
Tasha ends up getting: 1) Karnor calzone, which she calls a Karzone, 1) meat pie,, small, and 1) fish shake. There's also a surprise 1) small salad with bacon dressing which is aimed at Humans despite it having bacon dressing. She ends up at a table nearby with the universal look of restrain that all Karnors have when presented with food.
Hakeber has gotten food she can't eat quickly, including 'fries' that might be from something like a potato, but could be from a mushroom. They're 'hot' with spices, so she has to be careful. She also went with the Karnor calzone and a vanilla milkshake (vanilla being a luxury flavoring on Abaddon). Katie chose a more spicy, less meaty calzone and some soda water, along with a cream dip of some sort for the calzone.
"We are people of excellent taste," Tasha observes, smiling. "And I am growing. Maybe we should see if anyone on board wants to become a cook?"
"I don't think you want to grow in quite that sense," Katie notes. "Or do you miss being slightly curvier?"
"Sometimes I do. I feel a little insubstantial sometimes, like I lost something, and I mean in others ways, too. I suppose that's how it has to be though, death shouldn't be without cost." Tasha shrugs her shoulders. "At least I appreciate less fatty meals now, like this salad. Maybe an aquarium? A hydroponics bay?"
"We already have a big aquarium for Kaa and Moka," Hakeber points out. "I'm sure dehydrated vegetables will work fine."
Quietly, Tia shows up at the table with a milkshake a container of fried starchy vegetable. She dunks the fries in the shake before eating them, and looks morose.
"A dryoponics farm then," Tasha insists, tail wagging. She slides her Karzone over and picks it up (with a napkin, delicately), and has a bite. "This is good. I miss mall food from Abaddon. Tasha looks about to say something when Tia arrives. "Are you bad at video games, Tia?"
"I didn't play any, and they are virtual reality games," Tia says. "I thought there would boys there that are my type, but I haven't sensed any."
"Wow Hake, Tia has boy-sense. Also, aren't you a bit old for boys? Maybe what you need is a man," Tasha remarks between calzone bites. "I will tell you boys are energetic but immature, and what you want is peace and reliability, not energy and uncertainty. Try meeting someone older and more developed, like how Katie and Gabriel are more mature than me."
"I like shy, socially awkward ones," Tia claims. "They usually grow out of that when they reach adulthood."
"Are you saying you go after young boys?" Tasha leans back and puts fork to salad, and salad to mouth, in a highly judgmental way. "I see."
"My preferences change depending on what my form is," Tia explains. "I'm a human teenager right now. Plus I feel a lot more mortal, which makes me insecure, and I'm most comfortable around other insecure people."
"I imagine there's a Galactic Library School here for the children of the Embassies and other sorts who can afford to live in this section," Katie says. "They probably don't have the same sort of issues you'd find elsewhere."
"You could try enrolling, we could sponsor you if it's not too much," Tasha agrees, nodding between bites of salad now. "We do have a few Humans who can sign off on it. Yue has a lot of clout."
"Mr. Invention hasn't gotten me an identity yet," Tia notes. "I'll be alright, I'm just still adjusting."
"I used to hang around looking for insecure guys too," Hakeber says. "But they were soldiers and it was technically part of my research."
"Insecure guys are so awkward though. You have to teach them ev-ry-thing, and some act like you're their mother." Tasha shakes her head at her salad, which knows not of the world of dating. "Of course my methods were a lot more direct but Vartans are a lot more direct, even if they can be shy. Usually. Sometimes? It's different. Anyway, I tended to go for men with more assertiveness and confidence. Women, too. Shy women are so boring, you have to do so much."
"It's more wanting to be around people who aren't trying to take advantage of me," Tia says. "There was a lot of that at the dance, along with 'fresh meat' interest that's common in small communities. Plus the insecure ones tend to have more interesting hobbies."
"I went to military school, so don't have any experience like that," Katie says.
"I joined the Knights Templar before I was old enough to notice things like that," Hakeber says. "Everyone my age was awkward there, and we were all focused on academics."
"What are military school men and women like? Strict? Stiff? I know Gabriel had the same sort of upbringing, in a different way. Sometimes I think I scandalize him." Tasha's smile suggests she is not at all bothered by the scandelizing. "Me, I grew up on a ship, so it was either the men on board -- which happened now and then and usually caused problems and so I was forbidden to do it, not that I listened much -- and the weeks we were in port. None of that lasted, because it never could last. And well, you know what I am. No kids, always wandering, between two peoples. Exotic but not really long term, right?"
"Military school is structured, with enforced behavior," Katie explains. "It's not exactly stiff, but respect is built into it. Also, it wasn't coed. I guess it falls somewhere in between Tasha's traveling-family and Hakeber's cut-all-family-ties. It's a community, not cut off from family because military families are their own world. But mainly we had training instead of awkwardness: we knew how to communicate and how to respond, and our social rules where clear."
"Karnors don't do as well as Humans without social bonds," Hakeber offers. "We formed our own group within the Templars, and the older ones were like surrogate parents or older siblings for us."
"My family is entirely Vartan, and I never knew my father and he never knew of me. So my values are traveling Vartan, loose communities that stuck together and watched out for each other, hard to penetrate but easier to leave than surface Vartans clans and other more established, long term communities. We -- they -- are more open to outsiders. We have a few non-Vartan crew members, and authority was well known, but less formal. More than anything we respected our ship and it's spirit, and no matter how much we liked or didn't like each other, we all knew our roles and minded the ship. When emergencies came we handled them quickly and efficiently, no matter who we were. You might think that because we can fly it's not as bad for us, but the altitudes and surface dangers meant it could be just as bad anywhere," explains Tasha.
"I suppose helping each other when you might not like each other is one definition of family," Tia says. "I do fine being alone unless I'm around people. I was taken advantage of a lot early on, and I don't want to repeat that, so I tend to play it safe socially. When I have my credentials, I can go to the Library and see what I can access for free."
"We can work on that," Tasha assures. "As for me, I'm in a ... transitional period?" She arches her brows. "I'm not what I was, not really living as I was, and my relationships are different, even the species are. The Vartans avoid me the most, and now I'm with Karnor. I suppose I'm still figuring out where I fit and what I want to do. I know now I can't do everything and maybe I'm suited more to some tasks than others. I have my progeny to consider, and if they will take up my own work. Sometimes I think I should step way back and focus on family, and other times the though seems like dying again, and I want to be at the front. It's frustrating."
"I suppose the Galactic Vartans' relationship with the Khattans plays somewhat in their reaction to you," Tia suggests. "It's easier for me to play being human because there weren't any in my formative years. It's a species I don't have any painful memories of. I just went with what was easiest and fit in best with Kai."
"That makes sense to me. I suppose for me I am my own species, but there's only me right now. Part of me wants to cling to Karnors or Vartans, or both, but I know neither one will really ever accept me, not anymore, and not out here. I've been lenaing towards thinking about how to create my own culture, but it's tough when it's just me. You can't really have a culture of one." Tasha finishes her salad and move son to the pie, which she eats in small dainty bites, and with a fork. "Who will we be. I suppose we will be a people dedicated to a certain task, but I don't think we'll all be that. We must find a place in Galactic society, and amongst the aliens and outsiders. I've been thinking we could establish a long-term identity, that we could reveal ourselves to the higher powers and establish some kind of mutual partnership."
"Karnors accept everyone out here," Hakeber claims. "Well, less so Vartans and Nagas I suppose."
"You need to start a family before planning that sort of thing," Tia says. "It may cause your priorities to change. It always did for me."
"Yes. I suspect a lot of cultures see me as 'appropriating' their genes for some cheap thrills and to showcase wealth. I'm arm candy, an expensive accessory made form their hard work and their people. It doesn't really endear me to anyone, and Khattans just see me and think in shekels." She nods to Tia and her point. "Oh, probably. It scares me though, I've met a lot of creators, and most of them seem filled with regret."
"That comes with age," Tia claims. "When every decision makes you think on your past mistakes, it's easy to regret. And you won't get anywhere without making lots of mistakes."
"It's easier to deal with when you have a time limit though," she adds.
"We'll see then," Tasha sdds. "Maybe I want one and maybe I don't. Being mortal has its perks, but it also feels like giving up."
"Life is never just about one thing, so it's always going to be full no matter where you are," Tia claims. "Unless you're me. You'd be very bored being me. I'm very wishy-washy."
Tasha grins. "I noticed, but it's okay, I'm not you and you're not me. We don't have to live each others' lives." Tasha is about half way through that pie now, and of course the fish shake is down to one third. "Persephone said my daughters will be like me, but my sons will be like their father. That means as a people we'll establish bonds with many different species, because we can't interbreed. I don't think. That would be odd." She makes a face, remembering her problems with Nora. "They may all be exactly like me, we might be a gestalt, or we may all be separate."
"Only one way to find out," Tia says. "Until then, this place has a frozen desserts shop, a bakery and a candy store. They even have candied meats."
"Candied meat?" Hakeber asks, and licks her lips. "I wonder what that is?"
"I could use some candy, that talk made me need a lot of candy. Maybe I'll work on making a family by buying a lop of popsickles for when Gabriel need ot be distracted." Tasha quickly finishes up her pie and her shake, then sits up with her tray ready to get trashed. "Okay! It's candy time. Lets find out if Tasha can eat chocolate and not get sick."
Logfile from Envoy. (OOC) Log start: d:\logs\fenris\2021-10-28_promenade.htmlIn order to take Hakeber shopping, Tasha and Katie had to actually pick her up (and possibly wake her up) back at the apartment. Katie had also been dropping hints that Tasha should 'dress to impress' a bit more before heading into the more upscale portion of the outpost. When they arrive at the suite, they're met with an overturned shipping box and signs of a donut massacre.
"Aha!" a small voice declares. "Thought you could conspire w'out me listen'n in, didn't ya!" The voice comes from Reeka (Bane of Pantries, Biter of Ankles) the Kavi, who is trying to sprawl out in one of the lounge chairs.
"I was wondering where you'd gone off to," Tasha remarks, head tilting. She gestures vaguely to the donuts. "Well you're welcome to those, but you could also just ask for some. It's also very hard to get you in on plans and meetings if you're always lurking. Even Sam pops up for meetings." She bends over to inspect the box, finds it empty, and shakes her head before reaching over to haul Reeka in to the chair so she may sprawl better. "Anyway we're heading out; no you can't come with us, yes you'd be bored by it."
"I can't be caught in public, you know that," Reeka complains. "Dis place has no good hidy spots. But the bunny lady got me shipped here. I only had ta pester her a bit. Where you going?"
"Uptown to do some shopping. You know, try and impress petty local rich people, but more important, buying things. And we both know, things are great." Tasha heads for her room but leave the door open, and can be heard making noises that sound distinctly like clothes. "Katie? Help me impress the locals. You didn't like my dress, so it's your responsibility now."
"Fine, maybe one of the nice outfits I got you on Ymir," Katie says and follows. "Reeka, be useful and wake up Hakeber. Stick your nose in her ear if you have to."
"Be extra obnoxious!" Tasha adds, and can be heard giving Katie the raspberries over something, a moment later adding, "I grew up on a wood ship and tended a fantasy tavern, you know I don't know how to dress perfectly!"
"You don't have to be perfect, just not having bits of anatomy being pushed around too suggestively," Katie counters. "And you want look a bit more mature."
A door is thrown open out in the common area, and Hakeber bemoans, "There were donuts?"
"Are you saying I act immature?" There's another raspberry, and a huff. "Nobody likes me when I'm mature! It's always your're too serious Tasha, you can't take a joke Tasha, and why do rich people buy beings like me and then get all huffy about not showing too much? Is being upscale really just showing off your wealth by how fussy you can be over everything?"
"Well, and to get better service," Katie says. "Think of it as practice for Daltoona."
"I was hoping to hide with techno-magic, like an attractive and fun specter," Tasha insists. She then adds, "I can walk in heels now! Should I wear those?"
Hakeber wanders in naked and ruffled, scratching her butt. "What day is it?" she asks.
"Heels do give the impression that you aren't going to try and run, which is good when shopping," Katie says, eyeing Hakeber.
Tasha is busy getting dressed by Katherine. "It's the next day, you didn't sleep for a week or anything. We're going uptown for shopping if you want to come and can fit it in to your busy vomit-or-not-vomit schedule. Also did you record anything?"
"Record what?" Hakeber asks. "The orgy?"
"Yes," answers Tasha who is pulling on a Karnor-made stocking, withs pleated skirt, a respectable top, and a equally respectable jacket and gloves laying on the bed, all made of a combination of nicer material and understated metallics. "I may have ... forgotten."
"I would never record something like that," Hakeber says, "since I learned about 'plausible deniability' anyway. I should brush my fur and put on a dress, I suppose. Will there be a place to have lunch?"
"I don't know, maybe wealthy people don't eat lunch to show how much they can not eat lunch," is the red woman's reply.
"I'm sure there will be places to eat," Katie says. "And yes, a bit of grooming would be good."
"Give me a few minutes and I'll be lecture-hall presentable," Hakeber promises, and heads back into her room. Hopefully she'll do something about the smell too.
"I feel like Katie might be considering leaving us for another trans-dimensionally battling group of pan-universal monster hunters lead by a cute person like myself." Tasha slides one bootee on, then the other. She then grabs a comb and has at it. The outfit does make her look older in the same way she seemed older with the more subdued, but expensive, materials and colors, the longer skirt, and the 'I am an important part of a business operation' jacket.
"Liza is cuter but she's going home to have babies," Katie notes. "That's about it for a cuter choice right now."
"Yay, I'm all that's left!" Tasha hops down on her bootees and ruins the maturity act by falling in to Katherine and giving her a big hug. "I love and appreciate you Miss Katherine Vesuvius."
"I shall mold you into my sidekick," Katie replies, patting Tasha on the head. "And you will learn an instrument, like the bass guitar."
"Fine, I guess you deserve it. I guess you want to take over then?" Tasha looks up and tilts her head. "Tired of following me around, then? It'd be nice to be able to return to focusing on my tasks rather than leading. Leading is hard work. Also, I want to learn to fly a space shuttle, or a space fighter. Having someone else fly me everywhere is embarrassing."
"Well, you should learn to fly first, then I'll make you my sidekick," Katie concedes. "Being flown around would be nice. I've only ever been on airships, after all. And it's not quite the same in something big like that. Or a big spaceship." She looks into the common area, and wonders, "Does Hakeber really have a way of looking presentable in just a few minutes?"
"There's a reason she's Scholar Hakeber and not just Hakeber, in a scholastic context she she mastered the art of going from drunken cat toy to presentable in minutes. It's practically one of her fields. She can also take notes with both hands." Tasha steps back and smiles. "I'll need a ship to pilot, but we now have room. I was thinking of putting in a request for a Khattan-style single-pilot combat vessel, maybe a hyperspace fighter. We could get one that can carry a small team. I have the implants; Kaa may be good in space but I'm still a bird, I can handle atmosphere, and I was droving for a long time."
"That sounds expensive," Katie notes, just before Hakeber emerges. She's wearing her Dark Horse uniform, which covers up most of her, but the bits that show look smartly groomed. And she doesn't smell like beer, sex and pizza. She doesn't smell of anything at all. "I'm ready!" she announces.
"Expensive if we weren't about to invade in to a House core facility full of advanced and experimental technology," Tasha notes with an alarmingly bright smile. She turns to smile less alarmingly at Hakeber. "See? It's like magic."
"You still want to be a pirate, don't you?" Katie teases Tasha, then blinks at Hakeber. "Even Miss Necessity isn't that fast," she claims. "Totally unfair, Hake."
"Piracy has its perks! Besides you wouldn't like me if I didn't," Tasha replies, her smile turning to lopsided grin. She turns to regard Hakeber too, and nod. "See Hake looks like a mess, but she has secret reservoirs of talent and ability. They're buried under the surface, like her clothes, under pizza boxes."
"Hey, no pizza boxes in sight," Hakeber claims. "Somebody else must have cleaned them all up. Until the Thieving Beast showed up. I assume she's going to be sleeping in the box?"
"Oh probably, and you can be sure she didn't clean up." Tasha adjusts her jacket, then nods and hooks her arm to Katie's. "Ready to go Miss Vesuvius? Your itinerary says have fun with me for the next few hours."
"Just follow me, ladies," Katie says. "I can smell high-end shops from a kilometer away, you know."
The Embassy District didn't simply house embassy staff, but it probably started out that way. It had been quite built up, such that the avenues and houses where raised up substantially from the crystal ground layer. There were trees, a central canal with pedestrian bridges and a holographic sky hiding the opposite side of the spire from view. The buildings varied in style, but it wasn't difficult to figure out which species lived in which. And at the end of avenue was The Promenade: an open-air shopping mall. It wasn't as large as what would be found on any moderately urbanized planet, but other than luxuries (and most things would be considered luxuries out in the fringes where Outpost Caltrop floated) there were practical shops as well, with the food market taking up easily half of them.
"I thought everything was out in the bazaar," Hakeber admits. "This is like some of the malls back in New Zion."
It's certainly less crowded than the bazaar at least, and seems lacking in gaggles of teenagers.
"Nothing like back home, but you knew that," Tasha remarks, looking around. "It reminds me a little of the Ymir shopping districts, though. I got a chance to walk through a bit of it back when we were there, although it lacks the slower pace of Ymir."
"Well, there wasn't a lot of household shopping on Ymir," Katie says, looking around. "There was probably an off-resort shopping are for the full time residents and staff."
The food market is itself anachronistic, the sort of thing a frontier or early colony world might have. But out here, it's actually necessary to prepare meals from actual ingredients (or substitutes). The better restaurants shop here as well, from the look of some of the buyers.
"I don't want to buy any vegetables," Hakeber notes.
"But how will you get any taller if you don't," Tasha notes, having seen the various commercials geared towards Humans promoting balanced diets. She is glad she isn't Human, at least, as much of one. And not anymore. "Well, it's nice to see people cook with ingredients. And they have actual employees doing it! How quaint." She beams.
"We aren't here to shop for cooking supplies," Katie notes. "Can either of you cook?"
"I've," Tasha hesitates, "been getting better at it? A little? Gabriel says I am, but maybe he's just being nice." And so Tasha rolls her shoulders in a shrug. "I try at least. Besides, we have people to cook and I can do it on a wilderness world if I have to. I am not defending myself."
"Let's get to the interesting shops," Katie says. "I want to see if they have a ceremonial weapon outlet. For kids."
"I will resent any suggestion I am a kid, no matter how many days ago I was reborn. Or how short I am now." But Tasha follows along, content to have someone else lead for a change.
The shops seem similar to the ones on Ymir and even some in the bazaar, in that they don't have stock but will fabricate things on demand. There aren't any touristy type places though, but there is a weapon shop next to what might be an arcade or other gaming venue. Tia is sitting on a bench just outside of that one, or at least someone that looks a lot like Tia from behind.
Tasha mock-gasps. "Look, Tia has gained a thirst for violence. And Lacci too. We really are a good influence," she insists, then tries to angle the group off enough she can get a good look at the woman sitting beside the shop.
It's Tia, and she's just.. watching the game shop, and ignoring the weapon shop. She does blink though, so doesn't seem too weird otherwise.
"Lacci is a war historian," Hakeber notes. "Maybe she just prefers past violence to present violence."
"How passive. If future and present people didn't create violence Lacci would have nothing to study. We owe it to her. And if she learns to create violence she'll never be out of study material." She studies Tia a moment, then looks to the others. "Should we just leave her? She doens't seem to be having a problem and is minding her own business. Also, she's very non-violent."
"Ceremonial weapons aren't about violence," Katie points out. She looks at Tia, and says, "I didn't think she was the shopping type. Must be waiting in ambush."
"She's observing. Watching the people. Maybe trying to figure something out, like why people go to an arcade, or watching someone in particular. We could go ask but we may ruin whatever she's doing," Tasha notes.
"Whatcha doin?" Hakeber goes up and asks Tia. Tia smiles up to Hakeber and says, "Waiting."
Tasha hangs back knowing she can be a bit intense sometimes. Instead she peers at the weapons store, seeing what deals they might have.
They seem to have a lot of Silent One swords and.. sword-like things. A startling variety. Vartan weapons make up the rest of the inventory.. and there might be some Terran ones. The other Galactics don't seem to have any martial traditions, or else not enough to make it worth stocking for them.
"I could probably sue a practice sword, I should probably also practice with a sword more. I am the hero after all," Tasha tells Katherine, putting her hands on her hips. "And I seem to like swords in general. I'm practically an archetype."
"I could never understand how people with wings got so into swords," Katie notes, looking them over. "I think I a see saber back there."
"I prefer polearms, because I like the reach and the versatility, but they can be awkward to carry around and swords hang better. A good knife is useful for a lot of things, but utility knives and fighting knives are very different. I suspect Vartans got in to swords for formal reasons, and for social ones." Tasha peers at the saber and nods. "Sabers are favored on ships because the heavy blade can cut rigging if needed and they're not very complicated to use. Hard to swing in narrow places, and they lack a thrusting point for dealing with armor, or tight quarters."
"I have one," Katie says. "I didn't bring it, it's part of my official military uniform. I've never fought using it."
"We have them back home, but they're usually made out of chitin. I didn't have one on the ship -- the Captain wouldn't let me -- but some of the others had one, and he did. I never saw him use it, either. Mostly it hung in his cabin. The swords I trained with were thinner, either sabers or cut-and-thrust types. The Citadel suggested I should consider the fencing team, but then, well, you remember I had to move on." Tasha taps her chin. "We don't have a lot of use for purely recreational or athletic fighting styles, so we should pick something up for practical training. Firearms, too. Powder, energy, and a few others. Maybe a bow. Everyone needs to know how to defend themselves at the very least."
Everything in the shop seems to be of the bladed variety, save for a set of Vartan dueling pistols. And the blades may just be replicas. The Silent-One proprietor is just watching them behind the counter. She's a bit on they grey side, and uses glasses.
"We can probably pick up actual firearms in the bazaar," Tasha notes after a quick review. "We could use a room on the ship for mixed practice, and convert it between martial arts, weapons, and range training. Speaking of which I should put the remodel order in now that we're out and about. Less recreational space, more practical use space."
"Doesn't that require dropping the outer shell though?" Katie asks. "I'm not sure of how it works."
"Maaaybe? We can do it when we're at the base too. The redesign is already in but I can change it." Tasha slides a finger across her forearm and the display comes up, she punches in some things, reviews, punches sin more, and sends off a request to Mr. Invention to verify the selection of practice weapons for the entire crew. "There. I'm wearing my business jacket so I may as well do business."
"What're you looking at in here?" Hakeber asks as she finally joins Katie and Tasha inside. "I don't recognize any of these Silent-Ones designs."
"Hake does know a lot about Silent Ones's swords," Tasha remarks, grinning as she looks up. Then, more seriously, she asks, "And why's that? Think these aren't legitimate?"
"I think the ones back home are either really old or changed over time," Hakeber says, and points to a sigil on one of the hilts. "These are from colony worlds, where a lot of low-tech fighting still happens."
"Practical and refined then, that's a good thing to have in a weapon. You don't want show pieces or weapons intended to be a art." And so Tasha huffs, standing straighter. "I may be cute and adorable but I am still a fighter. Speaking of which, Hake, think I need a space fighter? Something to move people around with, and you know, space fight."
"Like the Titans the Vartans and Silent-Ones did their mock-battle in last time?" Hakeber asks. "None of these are pilot swords, which may be why I don't recognize them."
"Yeah a cockpit is a tight place for most weapons. And I've been thinking of taking up piloting. Now that Mel is, uh, busy and on his own I miss having something to pilot, and a small space craft or fighter is exactly what I need. Our current shuttles are nice but they're not really designed for fast insertion under duress, and Kaa can't leave the ship to fly them. I have the implants and the atmospheric instincts," Tasha explains.
"Spaceships aren't.. the same as aircraft, right?" Hakeber asks.
"No but if they're transitional aerodynamics still apply, and many planets and stations still have gasses in them," Tasha insists, bouncing a little on her hooves. "For space I cna just learn the rest. I was a bar made and a drover now I run a inter-galactic agency, I think I have room to grow."
"Hmm," Hakeber ponders, tapping her chin. When she can't seem to think of a good reply, she just says, "Tia is hunting boys."
Tasha stares at Hakeber a moment then throws her hand sup. "I'll save the idea for later I guess. Well, are we done here?"
Katie is still eyeing the Terran saber. "I may come back later," she says.
"I think you should get it, I need a sparring partner," Tasha agrees, then she gives the older woman behind the counter athumbs up before heading out.
Hakeber follows Tasha. Tia is still sitting on the bench, watching the game shop (or arcade).
Tasha turns to Katie and asks, "Where to? I can only think about violence so long before I become very tired and want to curl up and sleep. I need something with energy."
"Lunch?" Katie suggests. "There has to be someplace that actually prepares food around here."
"A shake and a burger sounds wonderful, I second lunch." Tasha points towards the food court not far away. "Lets make our rounds. I know I saw pizza, and Vartan hand meals. Maybe I'll need many meals so I don't seem unfair to other species."
"No pizza," Hakeber says. "Pizza is for in private dining."
Hakeber did not anticipate discovering calzones at the food court, however.
"Anything can be made into a sort-of sandwich," Katie declares.
"I once made Hake in to a sandwich," Tasha says with a grin. "I think I want one. In fact I want one. One calzone please."
There are a lot of options, but one of them seems especially targeted at Karnors, since it is mostly meat (or very nearly meat) and just a bit of cheese. There are vegetarian ones and seafood ones as well. The shop also has pies with similar fillings (which are apparently popular among Vartans and Silent-Ones, from the advertising videos that play above the counter). Milkshakes are also available just one vendor over. These too come in vegetarian and piscean varieties.
Tasha ends up getting: 1) Karnor calzone, which she calls a Karzone, 1) meat pie,, small, and 1) fish shake. There's also a surprise 1) small salad with bacon dressing which is aimed at Humans despite it having bacon dressing. She ends up at a table nearby with the universal look of restrain that all Karnors have when presented with food.
Hakeber has gotten food she can't eat quickly, including 'fries' that might be from something like a potato, but could be from a mushroom. They're 'hot' with spices, so she has to be careful. She also went with the Karnor calzone and a vanilla milkshake (vanilla being a luxury flavoring on Abaddon). Katie chose a more spicy, less meaty calzone and some soda water, along with a cream dip of some sort for the calzone.
"We are people of excellent taste," Tasha observes, smiling. "And I am growing. Maybe we should see if anyone on board wants to become a cook?"
"I don't think you want to grow in quite that sense," Katie notes. "Or do you miss being slightly curvier?"
"Sometimes I do. I feel a little insubstantial sometimes, like I lost something, and I mean in others ways, too. I suppose that's how it has to be though, death shouldn't be without cost." Tasha shrugs her shoulders. "At least I appreciate less fatty meals now, like this salad. Maybe an aquarium? A hydroponics bay?"
"We already have a big aquarium for Kaa and Moka," Hakeber points out. "I'm sure dehydrated vegetables will work fine."
Quietly, Tia shows up at the table with a milkshake a container of fried starchy vegetable. She dunks the fries in the shake before eating them, and looks morose.
"A dryoponics farm then," Tasha insists, tail wagging. She slides her Karzone over and picks it up (with a napkin, delicately), and has a bite. "This is good. I miss mall food from Abaddon. Tasha looks about to say something when Tia arrives. "Are you bad at video games, Tia?"
"I didn't play any, and they are virtual reality games," Tia says. "I thought there would boys there that are my type, but I haven't sensed any."
"Wow Hake, Tia has boy-sense. Also, aren't you a bit old for boys? Maybe what you need is a man," Tasha remarks between calzone bites. "I will tell you boys are energetic but immature, and what you want is peace and reliability, not energy and uncertainty. Try meeting someone older and more developed, like how Katie and Gabriel are more mature than me."
"I like shy, socially awkward ones," Tia claims. "They usually grow out of that when they reach adulthood."
"Are you saying you go after young boys?" Tasha leans back and puts fork to salad, and salad to mouth, in a highly judgmental way. "I see."
"My preferences change depending on what my form is," Tia explains. "I'm a human teenager right now. Plus I feel a lot more mortal, which makes me insecure, and I'm most comfortable around other insecure people."
"I imagine there's a Galactic Library School here for the children of the Embassies and other sorts who can afford to live in this section," Katie says. "They probably don't have the same sort of issues you'd find elsewhere."
"You could try enrolling, we could sponsor you if it's not too much," Tasha agrees, nodding between bites of salad now. "We do have a few Humans who can sign off on it. Yue has a lot of clout."
"Mr. Invention hasn't gotten me an identity yet," Tia notes. "I'll be alright, I'm just still adjusting."
"I used to hang around looking for insecure guys too," Hakeber says. "But they were soldiers and it was technically part of my research."
"Insecure guys are so awkward though. You have to teach them ev-ry-thing, and some act like you're their mother." Tasha shakes her head at her salad, which knows not of the world of dating. "Of course my methods were a lot more direct but Vartans are a lot more direct, even if they can be shy. Usually. Sometimes? It's different. Anyway, I tended to go for men with more assertiveness and confidence. Women, too. Shy women are so boring, you have to do so much."
"It's more wanting to be around people who aren't trying to take advantage of me," Tia says. "There was a lot of that at the dance, along with 'fresh meat' interest that's common in small communities. Plus the insecure ones tend to have more interesting hobbies."
"I went to military school, so don't have any experience like that," Katie says.
"I joined the Knights Templar before I was old enough to notice things like that," Hakeber says. "Everyone my age was awkward there, and we were all focused on academics."
"What are military school men and women like? Strict? Stiff? I know Gabriel had the same sort of upbringing, in a different way. Sometimes I think I scandalize him." Tasha's smile suggests she is not at all bothered by the scandelizing. "Me, I grew up on a ship, so it was either the men on board -- which happened now and then and usually caused problems and so I was forbidden to do it, not that I listened much -- and the weeks we were in port. None of that lasted, because it never could last. And well, you know what I am. No kids, always wandering, between two peoples. Exotic but not really long term, right?"
"Military school is structured, with enforced behavior," Katie explains. "It's not exactly stiff, but respect is built into it. Also, it wasn't coed. I guess it falls somewhere in between Tasha's traveling-family and Hakeber's cut-all-family-ties. It's a community, not cut off from family because military families are their own world. But mainly we had training instead of awkwardness: we knew how to communicate and how to respond, and our social rules where clear."
"Karnors don't do as well as Humans without social bonds," Hakeber offers. "We formed our own group within the Templars, and the older ones were like surrogate parents or older siblings for us."
"My family is entirely Vartan, and I never knew my father and he never knew of me. So my values are traveling Vartan, loose communities that stuck together and watched out for each other, hard to penetrate but easier to leave than surface Vartans clans and other more established, long term communities. We -- they -- are more open to outsiders. We have a few non-Vartan crew members, and authority was well known, but less formal. More than anything we respected our ship and it's spirit, and no matter how much we liked or didn't like each other, we all knew our roles and minded the ship. When emergencies came we handled them quickly and efficiently, no matter who we were. You might think that because we can fly it's not as bad for us, but the altitudes and surface dangers meant it could be just as bad anywhere," explains Tasha.
"I suppose helping each other when you might not like each other is one definition of family," Tia says. "I do fine being alone unless I'm around people. I was taken advantage of a lot early on, and I don't want to repeat that, so I tend to play it safe socially. When I have my credentials, I can go to the Library and see what I can access for free."
"We can work on that," Tasha assures. "As for me, I'm in a ... transitional period?" She arches her brows. "I'm not what I was, not really living as I was, and my relationships are different, even the species are. The Vartans avoid me the most, and now I'm with Karnor. I suppose I'm still figuring out where I fit and what I want to do. I know now I can't do everything and maybe I'm suited more to some tasks than others. I have my progeny to consider, and if they will take up my own work. Sometimes I think I should step way back and focus on family, and other times the though seems like dying again, and I want to be at the front. It's frustrating."
"I suppose the Galactic Vartans' relationship with the Khattans plays somewhat in their reaction to you," Tia suggests. "It's easier for me to play being human because there weren't any in my formative years. It's a species I don't have any painful memories of. I just went with what was easiest and fit in best with Kai."
"That makes sense to me. I suppose for me I am my own species, but there's only me right now. Part of me wants to cling to Karnors or Vartans, or both, but I know neither one will really ever accept me, not anymore, and not out here. I've been lenaing towards thinking about how to create my own culture, but it's tough when it's just me. You can't really have a culture of one." Tasha finishes her salad and move son to the pie, which she eats in small dainty bites, and with a fork. "Who will we be. I suppose we will be a people dedicated to a certain task, but I don't think we'll all be that. We must find a place in Galactic society, and amongst the aliens and outsiders. I've been thinking we could establish a long-term identity, that we could reveal ourselves to the higher powers and establish some kind of mutual partnership."
"Karnors accept everyone out here," Hakeber claims. "Well, less so Vartans and Nagas I suppose."
"You need to start a family before planning that sort of thing," Tia says. "It may cause your priorities to change. It always did for me."
"Yes. I suspect a lot of cultures see me as 'appropriating' their genes for some cheap thrills and to showcase wealth. I'm arm candy, an expensive accessory made form their hard work and their people. It doesn't really endear me to anyone, and Khattans just see me and think in shekels." She nods to Tia and her point. "Oh, probably. It scares me though, I've met a lot of creators, and most of them seem filled with regret."
"That comes with age," Tia claims. "When every decision makes you think on your past mistakes, it's easy to regret. And you won't get anywhere without making lots of mistakes."
"It's easier to deal with when you have a time limit though," she adds.
"We'll see then," Tasha sdds. "Maybe I want one and maybe I don't. Being mortal has its perks, but it also feels like giving up."
"Life is never just about one thing, so it's always going to be full no matter where you are," Tia claims. "Unless you're me. You'd be very bored being me. I'm very wishy-washy."
Tasha grins. "I noticed, but it's okay, I'm not you and you're not me. We don't have to live each others' lives." Tasha is about half way through that pie now, and of course the fish shake is down to one third. "Persephone said my daughters will be like me, but my sons will be like their father. That means as a people we'll establish bonds with many different species, because we can't interbreed. I don't think. That would be odd." She makes a face, remembering her problems with Nora. "They may all be exactly like me, we might be a gestalt, or we may all be separate."
"Only one way to find out," Tia says. "Until then, this place has a frozen desserts shop, a bakery and a candy store. They even have candied meats."
"Candied meat?" Hakeber asks, and licks her lips. "I wonder what that is?"
"I could use some candy, that talk made me need a lot of candy. Maybe I'll work on making a family by buying a lop of popsickles for when Gabriel need ot be distracted." Tasha quickly finishes up her pie and her shake, then sits up with her tray ready to get trashed. "Okay! It's candy time. Lets find out if Tasha can eat chocolate and not get sick."