victormakesart | (no subject)

(no subject)

Between work, preparing for the new baby, being a dad, more work, work work work, and writing Batman fanfiction (a hero's got to get her kicks somewhere) Victor hasn't had much time for anything else.

She's never thrown a proper baby shower, so she's really glad for April's help. Though, it's not quite a proper baby shower.

Her apartment is draped with color, forget pastel blues and pinks and yellows that look like a marshmallow Peep's intestines. Brilliant, bright turquoise, green that looks like it was snatched off of a jungle plant, gold baubles hanging from the light fixtures.

Forgot to mention, the lights are off and the guests are crouching down behind the couch, huddled in the kitchen, shuffled behind lamps and curtains.

Are they under attack? Stay tuned to find out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

April doesn't get the reference. So she sort of feels unable to comment to the conversation.

It's okay. Victor will fill her in, in the best way she can without filling the children in on it. "A minister, Mr. Graham, the creator of graham crackers believed, just as Mr. Kellogg believed, that bland foods would keep young males from... doing that thing that ministers get rather uptight about."

Jack waggles his eyebrows to complete the explanation, without corrupting young ears of course. (And that is also weird to someone from the 51st century, that something so natural would be considered a 'corruption'. But he respects their customs while he's their guest.) "That's why attractive people are considered to be 'hot.' Spicy foods meant a spicy... attitude. Or so they thought."

"That is very interesting. I never knew that." But she can see how a person could believe that.

"Yeah, it's weird. Is that why they stopped having them in your century? On principle?"

"Sort of. They weren't as popular except in niche markets, and with the colonization of hundreds of worlds, the recipe got lost somewhere."

"I can't imagine all the different things that changed since your time."

"It must be crazy to be back in the twenty-first."

"Hey, I used to hang out in the nineteen-forties for fun," Jack says with a laugh.

"I would imagine those were fun times."

"You really look like a 1940s fellow. You've got that classic hair, the jaw, the dimples."

"Well not all of the Blitz was fun, but the atmosphere even in the air raid shelters was an experience. Very British, stiff upper lip and all that, dames singing to keep the morale up, that kind of thing."

"What other timelines did you experience?"

She listens attentively, sneaking Athena her s'more and finally starts the process for herself.

That's when Jude bounds in. "Can I make one too?"

"Sure, grab a skewer."

"I've been to all kinds of different times," Jack says, putting another marshmallow on his skewer to make another s'more. "I used to be a Time Agent, and the Agency sent me to missions all over space and time."

April is only going to make the one s'more. She doesn't require food as much as a regular person, and already savored her treat.

"Any particular mission stand out in your mind?"

Delightful melty, melty chocolate. For years she's been trying to keep herself from scarfing down her food (an unfortunate side-effect of being kept without food for some time), and she focuses hard on taking little bites.

A lot of his missions stand out, but not for reasons he'd like. The Time Agency didn't always have the galaxy's best interests at heart, no matter what they said, and he was a broken young man tied by contract and militaristic brain training.

He prefers to leave that in the past. "Well, there was the time I got pregnant," he says, sticking his marshmallow right in the flames. "There was an ambassador whose kid was gonna grow up to be a big deal in history, and I was the only available carrier. Got stuck onworld for months, but he let us stay at his palace, so it wasn't all bad."

"So this isn't your first pregnancy."

Jack is much braver with his marshmallow than Victor is. "Palaces are pretty fun," she says, a tad wistfully. She used to live with a boyfriend in a palace. Didn't end terribly well. That's the one who cheated on her with her alternate.

"Nah, but it it the first one I volunteered for without duress." He's still very sure that the Agency planned it that way, putting him in a position where he had to choice but to allow it.

He pulls the marshmallow back and blows out the flames.

"Is each pregnancy different?" April can't help but be a little curious.

She gives Jack a shy little smile, a swift kiss on the cheek. She's endlessly grateful that he offered.

Jack grins at the kiss. "Sort of. This one's definitely way easier than the last time, but that might be because the baby's human."

"Yah, those alien babies can be interesting..." April smiles down at Jonathan.