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[ff_ambassador]

Lunchtime. Thank goodness. Inara is starving, her stomach occasionally making embarrassing grumbling noises as she makes her way to an open seat at the bar.

She quickly dives in to her soup and sandwich, people-watching between bites, her favorite relaxing activity at Milliways. Come say hi!

[ooc: Mun is at work, so apologies for slow tags! Need

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[awesome_lilly]

It is not just lunchtime for Inara!

Lilly makes her way, grumbling, down the stairs and then grumbles across the floor and over to the bar, where she sets a plastic bucket on top, grumpily, and orders a banana daiquiri and a basket of tiny raw shrimp.

She is not smiling.

[ff_ambassador]

"Hey Lilly. Um, what do you have there?"

Inara eyes the bucket and the basket of shrimp curiously.

[awesome_lilly]

"Oh, hi 'nara."

Lilly looks over and smiles. Sort of.

"I forgot, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting my stepdaughter. Inara Serra, Raspberry Blodwen Squavelock Beret. Raspberry, yet another vertebrate."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara gets up and looks in the bucket, then back at Lilly. Then back in the bucket. "She's..lovely, Lilly. Puck is a lucky father." She cocks an eyebrow at her.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly just gives her a look.

"She's a freaking squid, Inara. And while Puck may consider himself lucky, I so do not. I mean. Squid."

[ff_ambassador]

"Maybe she has feelings, Lilly. Maybe her waving her tentacles like that is her saying hello?" Inara feels slightly bad for teasing Lilly. Slightly.

[awesome_lilly]

As well she should. Lilly is a woman on the edge!

The edge of a calamari dinner, most likely.

"Oh, of course it is. And when she slops water out of her bucket onto my shoes, I'm sure what she's really saying is I love you."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara laughs, then makes herself stop.

"I'm sorry, Lilly. How did this happen, anyway? I know Puck is a god of some kind, but surely this isn't completely normal."

She leans over and waves at the squid, just in case.

[awesome_lilly]

"Del."

Lilly sighs heavily.

"Because Puck can't even do male pregnancy the easy way."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara shakes her head. "Male pregnancy. I will never get used to this place."

She leans over and gives Lilly a hug. She looks like she needs it.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly hugs her back, gratefully.

"Well, every time I get used to it, I get more children. So."

She sighs heavily.

"I think Puck wants to keep her, Inara. And I- I just cannot raise a squiddaughter. I mean, where are we going to put her? She'll outgrow the bucket soon, and then like, are we going to stick her in the lake forever? Without the company of other young squid? Have I already started worrying about whether or not my stepsquaughter will have friends?

Help me."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara holds her gently by the shoulders.

"Breath, Lilly. Just take deep breaths. It's going to be okay." She rubs Lilly's shoulders gently. "Okay, now first, if Puck wants to keep her, you need to honor that decision. However...unusual, she is his daughter. But he also needs to be respectful of your feelings, so that is something the two of you will need to work out. Think about the rest later."

[awesome_lilly]

"See, normally I would totally honor his decision."

This is only mildly untrue.

"But this is Puck. Sure, he wants her now, but what about two months from now when he's bored and decides that she can just make it on her own, or he turns her into a rock?"

[ff_ambassador]

This gives Inara a pause. "A rock? Would he do that?"

[awesome_lilly]

"Yes."

Lilly has no illusions about her husband. They really do have an atypical marriage.

"He'd turn her back, though. Probably."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara isn't quite sure what to say to that.

"Okay, maybe you should explore other options. Surely someone around this place is from a planet with squid." Grasp at those straws, Inara.