girl, you gotta know you're my shining star

[floozyfacade]

The last ten days have been an impressive effort on my part not to sulk. Seriously, there should be Oscar buzz right now for my performance as a not-petulant teenage girl, possibly an Emmy nom, at least a Globe. Somewhere under the water is a ridiculous and creeptastic city the likes of which no one on this island has seen before with all kinds of

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[crazyspacegirl]

River, as she almost always did, studiously avoided noticing what was being played on the projector when she came into the rec room. She just went right to the bookshelf, and only set Zoe down when the child's squirming became too much. The rec room was a pretty safe place, and she had Simon Chicago with her, so River let her toddle around while she looked for a book.

Zoe was drawn the the noise and motion of the projector, which she didn't get to watch much due to her mother's aversion to the thing. She stood by the side of the couch, steadied by her dog, and in no time she had it down.

"Dick in a box!" she sang, with more enthusiasm than tune.

[floozyfacade]

As Olive looked over at the child she hadn't noticed until just then, her eyes widened in a mix of horror and amazement. It was virtually impossible not to laugh, but at the same time, she wanted to reach over and clap a hand over the kid's mouth to make sure no parent caught her and told her off for introducing their daughter to such a concept. (God, her own, she was pretty sure, would just have found it the funniest thing ever, but she knew well that her home had been a lot more open than some.)

"Hi there, kiddo," she said, words drawn out as she edged closer to that side of the couch. "That's not really a song for you, okay? We can sing... do you know 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"Hi!" answered Zoe. She did indeed know the song about the lamb, but liked this new one better at the moment, mostly because it was new. "Hole in the box!" she sang, pointing at the screen.

Simon Chicago added a cheerful yip, attracting River's attention. She looked over and waved, since Zoe seemed to be busy making a new friend with music.

"Junk in the boooox!"

[floozyfacade]

"Make her open the box," Olive sang, nodding, "and that's the way you - no, no, bad example." It was one thing to have let Chip hear the song when he was six (and full of questions), but this girl - well, if she was so young, there wasn't any real harm, right? It wasn't like she knew what she was saying. "Who's your dog friend?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"Simon 'go. Xiao gou." Her mother often called the dog "puppy" in Chinese, so Zoe did too. She put her chubby arms around the dog's neck and gave him a wet kiss on the nose. Simon Chicago licked her face in return, which made her giggle, but Zoe Reynolds was not one to be deterred from anything that interested her. "Dick in a box!" she sang again.

This time River, who had given up on the bookshelf in disgust and was coming over to see what her baby and her dog were up to, was close enough to hear the words.

"Is that a new part of Fox in Sox?" she asked. She didn't remember anyone named Dick in that book, but she was more interested than concerned.

[floozyfacade]

"Not exactly," Olive said slowly, eyes widening. She wasn't, exactly, the biggest sci-fi fan in the world, but her dad had dabbled a little - a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars, the classic stuff, comic book movies, the occasional fantasy. This face was another recognizable one, though it took her a few moments to place her (the actress, anyway). Somehow she never got fully accustomed to these things.

"It's a little more... adult." She made a face, apologetic, then offered up a smile. "Your daughter's adorable."

[crazyspacegirl]

"Yes, she is." River adored her, at least, which made the description a verifiable fact. "Her name's Zoe, and I'm River. I think you've already been introduced to Simon Chicago."

She sat on the couch nearest Zoe, interested in what she was learning so she could learn it along with her. "How does the song go?"

"Dick box," answered Zoe. "Presents!"

[floozyfacade]

Again Olive found herself torn between laughing and apologizing, her lips pressing into a firm line to suppress that first instinct. "It's, uh, about giving your girlfriend a very... private and, uh, inadvisable gift," she said when she'd collected herself a little, then grinned. "I'm Olive. It's nice to meet the three of you." Simon Chicago was a strange name, but when all she'd been able to pick out before was Simon, it helped to have a second introduction. Leaning forward, she reached over, holding her hand out to the dog.

[crazyspacegirl]

"Oh." Once again, River found herself confounded by ancient slang. "Why would he put it in a box, though? That seems like it would get in the way." For the moment, she was far more interested in practicality than in the possible inappropriateness of her child knowing such a song; Zoe couldn't know what it meant, after all.

Simon Chicago, being a polite dog, came forward to sniff Olive's hand and then offered his own paw for a shake.

[floozyfacade]

"You would think," Olive said, nodding. "And it seems kind of... I don't know, dangerous." It was a relief to find she hadn't inadvertently offended River, although she would have been delighted either way, if only because Simon Chicago was precious. Shaking his paw, she shrugged. "Or complicating, at the very least. Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned bow?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"Much too pointy, at the very least," River agreed. "Not that I know all that much about putting things on... things." The existence of her daughter climbing into her lap might either have made it obvious that she was at least passingly familiar with the concept or lack thereof, but River didn't elaborate.

"I think that dog could make friends with anyone." She observed Simon's enthusiastically waving tail with amusement.