victormakesart | (no subject)

(no subject)

If you find yourself in a secluded corner of the Nexus, past the rhinestone statue of a... no one quite knows what that is, but it's blobby in shape. And perhaps not a statue at all. If you find yourself there, you might stumble upon a child's birthday party.

The birthday cake is pretty standard. It says: Happy 2nd Birthday Anya and Athena!

That's where the standardness ceases. Little Anya is dressed as Amelia Earhart, but she keeps taking off her hat, messy blonde hair static clinging up. Athena is dressed up as a toaster, keeping with the history theme, because that's in the history of mechanical doodads and Athena is a robot. It made sense to her papas.

Victor, for her part, is dressed up as Abe Lincoln, complete with a fake beard and a stovepipe hat. That is to say: she's being ridiculous, like usual. Anya is trying to tear the beard off, and Victor is leaning back out of reach of her tiny hands, laughing.

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"I'm not surprised. But you do have two husbands to help you out. Or is that just twice the work?" Polyamorous marriages weren't unheard of on some of the colonies, but Adia did not have any personal experience with them.

She laughs, surprised by Victor's reaction. "His name's Will. He's a chemist and works at the water treatment facility. We met at a science function -- the fleet tries to keep ingenuity going, y'know, get all the eggheads together to keep things fresh. Anyway, we have some things in common, and... well, I wasn't exactly looking for a boyfriend, but he was interested in me from the beginning. He's really passionate about workers' rights. Passionate in general, really."

"Definitely not twice the work. James has another partner, too, so there's not really any pressure on me, and I have a lot of other people to help me out with the girls. I'm much luckier than most other parents, I know." She practically has a village, and her children are going to be so loved.

"That's so exciting! Aren't the brilliant ones so much fun? Is he really cute and stuff?"

Certainly luckier than the parents Adia knows, but she doesn't dwell on that. A birthday party is a happy occasion. "Well, I'm glad you have help. They look like a handful -- but in a good way." What toddler isn't a handful, though?

Adia laughs again, blushing a little at the questions. "He is pretty smart," she says shyly, "And I think he's pretty cute. He kind of looks like -- oh, never mind, that won't help, you won't know who I'm referring to."

"Ha! They totally are! They're gonna grow up to be little wild savages," she says, with the greatest amount of relish. She looks forward to them being crazy little kids, capable but impulsive teenagers, and adults who can dollop up a big blob of bonkers with their happy, well-adjusted lives.

"Hee! That's okay. Describe him anyway. I bet he's so adorable."

Adia looks up, bashful but amused all the same. "Okay, okay. Um, he sort of looks like this actor I used to fancy. He's tall and blond and... I don't know, just really there/i>, you know? He never hides how he's feeling."

"I love people like that. Totally present, totally honest. They kinda hold you accountable, you know? Won't let you get away with the silly dishonesties other folks let you get away with. And tall and blond is pretty cute." Take her choice in husbands for example. Though Cole isn't tall-tall, more like taller-than-Vic tall, he is blond. And James is definitely blond and tall.

"I just like that I know what he's thinking. I guess it does keep me honest, too. I'm not into mind games." She considers Victor's costume. "He'd make a good President Lincoln, maybe. Well, minus the beard."

"Honest Abe," she says, with a little grin. "I like that kind of person. It's a kind of person you don't really see anymore. I wish I could be more like that."

Adia laughs. "You seem pretty honest, Victor. And you'd free slaves in a heartbeat."

"I totally would. As for me being honest... I kinda go into survival mode sometimes, and I bluff like you wouldn't believe. I just talk and come up with stuff on the fly, and...." She clears her throat, embarrassed, but not so badly embarrassed, because the situation has resolved itself (mostly). "I did that with Cole a few times when we'd have fights and he'd get so mad at me for it. I wouldn't even realize I did it, I'd just redirect his attention or (well) I wouldn't lie, not to him, but I'd see the situation, and I'd think that the solution was 'make him not mad at me' when the real solution was 'fix the actual situation.' Does that make sense? I just took shortcuts to make him not upset, because I thought that was a greater good than solving the problem."

Adia listens with a warm look. "Oh, Victor," is what she wants to say. Leave it to Victor to feel humble and embarrassed by something almost everyone does on a daily basis. Instead, she smiles and replies, "It makes perfect sense to me. You didn't want him to be upset and a lot of times appeasing someone is easier than dealing with whatever upset them in the first place. And, y'know, honesty is good, but it's kind of irritating if it isn't tempered with kindness. Some people are blunt to the point of obnoxiousness." Not her new beau, hopefully, or she wouldn't be dating him. But she can't help but think, briefly, that he could use a small dose of Victor's humility.

"Yeah, but it's bad. Bad that I treated him the same way I treat someone who has a knife on me in the alley. Words are my weapon and I need to use them wisely." With great jabbering comes great responsibility.

Adia wants to say sometimes that's one and the same, which she means metaphorically, except that still sounds morbid even as a metaphor. "Sounds like you're owning it now. I hate conflict, personally. Will doesn't let me get away with agreeing just to agree."

"Yeah, totally. Now, normally, I don't mind conflict. I'm a talker. Taking care of conflict is sorta what I do for a living. But when it's with someone I love, it's different."

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