The Playground in the Park, Thursday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Yesterday, Karla had made a very important promise. She'd promised Val a day at the playground and there was no way she was going to renege on that. Thus, Thursday afternoon found Kayla swinging on the swings in the park, while Karla sat on a nearby bench, holding Nommy, and pushing Kayla's swing with Craft. At her feet was a sizable picnic basket

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[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi was wandering by the park on her way to get ice cream, but stopped when she saw Karla, Kayla, and small person.

"You had another one?!"

Kenzi might be various people's future mommy, but right now that still felt unimaginably far away.

[glacial_queen]

"Oh no," Karla said with heavy irony. "This one, I just decided it would be more fun to kidnap."

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi flopped down next to her, eyeing the toddling Kayla, and then the bundle. "You are so crazed. Does it have a name yet?" She tilted her head and added, "Your daughter is getting cute."

Hellos and how are yous were for other people, obviously.

[glacial_queen]

"No," Karla said, shaking her head regretfully. "My people have a tradition of not naming our children until after they start developing a personality. Karla, in the language of my people, means She of meek and dainty demeanor."

If hellos and how are yous were for other people, snark and teasing was definitely for them.

[regretiz4suckas]

"Oh good! So I can still suggest Squishy? And Chubby-face? And Pinkie?" Kenzi grinned, and didn't reach for the kid, then added, "Unless he takes after you, and then you should name him Karl. Karl Junior. Karls Junior. For his home away from home, too."

[glacial_queen]

"He's kind of whiny and likes to snatch at things, so we were actually tossing around Kenzi II," Karla said, laughing, and pushed away the blanket so she could show him off to Kenzi. "Though, for now, we're calling him Nommy, because look at those cheeks!"

[regretiz4suckas]

"That is ridiculous. Are you sure he's real? He isn't going to turn into a vulture or dinosaur, because this cute cute cute form is just a mask?" Kenzi held one finger out, in case he was in a grabby mood. "How's Kayla doing with being a big sister?"

[glacial_queen]

"Well, I've made a couple of bird jokes just to annoy Warren, but otherwise we're pretty sure he's a person." Not exactly human, not with his father's mutant genes, but generally person-shaped.

Nommy grabbed for Kenzi's finger but missed; at only two months, his hand-eye coordination was still pretty terrible.

"Kayla is...adjusting," Karla said with a wry smile and a sigh. "She no longer cries every time she wants to get into my lap and the baby's there. That's a step in the right direction."

[regretiz4suckas]

"Heh." Kenzi glanced over at Kayla, and grinned. "She's what, two? Three? Such a great age to have to learn sharing. Poor kid." She rubbed her finger along Nommy's grip, so he could figure out that clutching thing again. "I always half-expect they won't be real, it's just some weird weekend, and I should be looking around for kids showing up to mess with my head."

[glacial_queen]

"Almost two and a half," Karla said, giving Kayla a wistful smile. How had she gotten so old already? "And, believe me, if you lived with the reality of them day to day, you'd end up believing in them. If it'll help, I'll let you change Nommy's next diaper to help really sell the reality?"

[regretiz4suckas]

"No, really, that's okay, I'll suffer with an inadequate imagination," Kenzi said hastily. She booped his little button nose. Because she had to! "How's everything else in Magic World?"

[glacial_queen]

"Really good, actually," Karla said. "There hasn't been an attack on my life since Kayla was a baby and the aristos don't necessarily like all the social changes I'm implementing, but the bitching has died down to a minimum. It's pretty nice, I must say. How goes the island? We're in space now. I noticed that."

[regretiz4suckas]

"Ugh, yes. Invasion. Of really creepy-as-hell insect aliens, they should all go die." Kenzi made a face. "The Brood? Kitty could give you more details, they're from her reality. They got Bo--" Things always got Bo. "--but she mostly resisted the urge to grow scales and take over the world, so. I'm not really sure why the island's in space now, though."

Nobody had really explained that to her, so she just assumed it was the Island's own idea.

[glacial_queen]

Well, Karla wasn't about to tell her she was wrong. It being the island's own idea seemed perfectly in keeping with what she knew of Fandom.

"This is why I avoid the island around my birthday," Karla announced. "Unless I've gotten the all-clear that the springtime disaster's already happened."