(Untitled)

[kitchen_maid]

It's not hard to remember the schedule for the House of Arch, so it's not hard to guess where she'll find Ingress in the afternoon.

And finding Ingress is very important today. There are introductions to be made.

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[smallestopener]

Ingress runs into the common room, her hair in pigtails, and her school books in her arms. She drops them on the sofa and runs over to Amy because she has a baby in hers!

"Amy! Amy you have the baby! Is she a girl or a boy?" This statement makes it pretty obvious which she hopes it might be.

[kitchen_maid]

Amy grins. "She," she says, stressing the pronoun a little, "is a girl."

The baby opens one eye and then the other and makes a half-sleepy waking up face at Ingress.

[smallestopener]

"Oh, hi, baby," she says, with a hushed voice. "What's her name?"

[kitchen_maid]

Amy sits down on the nearest chair, bringing herself and the baby closer to Ingress's level.

"Her name," says Amy, "is Susan Marguerite Ingress Calpurnia Rosemary Katharine Anne of Ambergeldar."

[smallestopener]

"Wow, she has a lot of names," she says. And then a moment later, "Hey, She has my name!"

[kitchen_maid]

"She does," says Amy. "She has the names of people Perry and I think are important."

Not all of them, of course. Otherwise her name would be even more ridiculously long than it already is.

"Do you want to hold her?"

[smallestopener]

She beams. She's important. And she has a baby named after her. That's special.

"Yes, please!" She sits down on a sofa and gets a pillow. She has held many a baby, after all. Or at least three.

[kitchen_maid]

Three is a good start.

Amy hands Susan to Ingress carefully, and Susan blinks once or twice. This new person is much smaller than most of the ones she's met.

[smallestopener]

"Hi,Susan. You have a pretty name. I knew a pretty lady called Susan, and I know another pretty lady called Susan who lives here. So you'll probably be pretty, too!"

Susan gurgles happily.

[kitchen_maid]

She'll be beautiful. Perry is already threatening to have bars put up on the castle windows.

"She likes you," says Amy, resettling the blanket over Susan's feet. She does have a tendency to kick it off.

[smallestopener]

"She's not all wobbly like Anthony was when he was born. She's big!" She eyes Amy's tummy. After learning about Alanna's triplets, she's been very curious about fit and size of babies inside their mums.

[kitchen_maid]

"Well," says Amy, "she was rather wobbly when she was born, but she's almost three months old now. So she's gotten much bigger and much less wobbly."

Amy follows Ingress's glance with amusement. "A little hard to believe she was ever in there, isn't it?"

[smallestopener]

"Oh, that makes more sense. I thought she'd just come out." She pats Susan's tummy. Baby tummies are round and sweet.

Ingress likes babies.

[kitchen_maid]

Babies are just sweet in general.

"No, she's had a little time to grow," says Amy.

Susan burbles. Tummy pats are nice.

[smallestopener]

"It's hard to wait till they get big enough to play. I'm still waiting on Anthony." She begins rocking Susan, maybe a little too vigorously at first, but she soon evens out to a gentle rocking supported by the pillow.

[kitchen_maid]

"I think it depends on what sort of game you want to play," she says.

She's keeping an eye on things. The rocking doesn't seem to have distressed Susan in the slightest, so she's not concerned.