(Untitled)

[street_sparrow]

There is a boy in the bar, at a table in the middle of the room. There's a rat sitting in front of him and the two of them are deep in what looks like intent conversation.

He's got a tricky problem to figure out, if it can be done.

Comments

[a1enzo]

Enzo, several yards away, stops and stares at this tableau. The boy... is talking to something that rather resembles a SQL, but without the fluffy tail. How odd.

[street_sparrow]

And now the mun is awake, Gavroche notices the green boy staring and grins over at him.

"Hey! Are you Enzo?"

He met Santi yesterday.

[a1enzo]

And this mun is about to pass out, but still.

Enzo smiles. "Uh-huh! What's your name?" He figures, correctly, that the human boy must have met someone he knows, whether another sprite or a friend from here.

[street_sparrow]

"Gavroche", he tells him cheerfully. "Santi told me about you."

[a1enzo]

"Oh, okay! I'm glad he's meeting more people, if he can't come inside. I've never met a dead person before! We don't have 'em where I come from." He approaches the table, still looking curiously at the SQL-creature.

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche follows his eyes and grins.

"That's Kennis. He's my rat. And yeah, I'm going to go out and see him again. Santi."

[a1enzo]

"Neat! Can I touch him?"

He laughs. "Of course Santi. The rat's right here!" A bit more seriously, "I'll go out to see him some more too. If he can't come in here then he needs people to go to him, and I don't know enough kids. We both need more friends."

[street_sparrow]

"Sure", Gavroche says easily. "There aren't many kids here."

[a1enzo]

Enzo extends a finger to stroke the rat. Kennis' reaction may be influenced by the fact that Enzo does not have any scent at all to matter-based creatures.

"There're more here than at home," replies Enzo, and adds at a mutter, "1 > 0"

[street_sparrow]

Kennis is a bit of a special rat, so he doesn't mind the scentlessness. He snuffles at the offered finger.

Gavroche blinks at the latter part of that. "Sorry?"

[a1enzo]

Enzo, though he pets the rat quite gently, looks at Gavroche darkly. "There's more kids at this table than at home," he says bitterly.

[street_sparrow]

"...oh." He looks sympathetic... and curious. "How come? I mean, if there's one kid, shouldn't there be more?"

[a1enzo]

"There should be. There used to be, when I was little. But there's hardly even any grown-up data sprites left in the city, and no kids at all. All that's left are binomes, but even grown-up binomes are awful boring most of the time. Binome kids don't make real good friends unless all I want is someone to do what I tell 'em." He grimaces.

[street_sparrow]

"What happened to all the data sprites?" Gavroche asks, worried.

[a1enzo]

"My dad," says Enzo, very bitterly this time.

[street_sparrow]

"...your dad?"

There's clearly more of a story waiting to be told.