Mother's Day Event (No Response Needed -- Narrative connections)
[Tarvek Knows Nothing of Mother's Day. Waking up, he cheerfully showers, dresses, and proceeds to putter, failing to notice for the longest time that his drone wife, The Betty, is huddled in bed, pouting. Indeed, he himself never notices.]
[Instead he feels a tug at his sleeve. It's Catherine, his drone daughter (approx. 5), who had red hair and horn-rims, just like Tarvek.]
Daddy? It's Mother's Day!
Huh? [Tarvek blinks] What?
'It's Mother's Day! We're supposed be really nice to Mommy today.
We? [Quite clueless.]
We're supposed to make her breakfuss, and sing for her, and give her cards, and presents, and it's supposed to be all nice and her day. Isn't it, Perry?
[Perry is the older boy -- technically too old to be Tarvek's, but Tarvek's not fussy. The kid's about 14, gangly, gawky, with more red hair and horn-rims. He's too willing to do chores!]
Yeah, Dad. We're supposed to be all, like, really nice to her, and do what she wants, and make her happy.
[Tarvek is deeply bewildered, now. If nothing else, The Betty is reliably, disturbingly happy, except when she's the sort of campy irked that belongs in the old sitcoms Tarvek has never seen. She does things like send him to the dog house for forgetting to call home late for dinner.]
Ok. Who thought this up? Is it a Mayfield thing?
[Kids, in unison, break out in giggling. Daddy is such a goof...]
Daaaadddddyyyyyy! That's silly!
[Catherine and Perry, between them, manage to bring Tarvek up to speed. He spends the day making a grilled cheese/coffee/juice brunch for The Betty (he's not good at cooking, and grilled cheese is his primary skill). He and the kids draw Mother's Day cards. He slips outside and steals a large amount of flowers from neighboring yards and the nearby park. He and the kids go out in the garage where they pound and bang and sing loudly (The kids teach their silly, clueless father how to sing "Row-row-row your boat" in round.). When they're done they hang a very nice windowbox with fancy scroll work outside the kitchen window, as The Betty claps and croons how very sweet they all are, and how she's going to put pansies in it tomorrow.]
[Later Tarvek goes to see his friend, Ilsa Higa [ http://ooeeooahah.livejournal.com/5450.html ]. He finds she's having a less than perfect day, herself.]
[When he returns he leaves Perry to baby sit Catherine, and takes The Betty out for dinner, Europan style -- insofar as Mayfield allows. Mediocre French Restaurant, candle light at the tables and French travel posters on the walls, wine (not so good), music (standard crooners, which Tarvek rather likes). If he could find a nightclub of any sort at all, he'd take her out dancing. Instead he walks her home on his arm, telling her she's a wonderful mother, and that he's very grateful for all she does for them.]
[It should be said that he takes the drones very seriously, just as he would take sentient robots, intelligent computers, and biologically fabricated beings. He's a Madboy, and he's got a peculiar sense of honor about that sort of thing. He counts the drones as rather limited, but easily pleased and even rather charming sentient creations, and he tries hard to be kind to them. That night, because he's feeling a bit guilty about how much more fun it would have been to go out with Ilsa, he even kisses The Betty on the cheek (as much as she's likely to want in any case), and says "good night, dear," in a particularly gentle voice. It's Mother's Day, after all!]
[Instead he feels a tug at his sleeve. It's Catherine, his drone daughter (approx. 5), who had red hair and horn-rims, just like Tarvek.]
Daddy? It's Mother's Day!
Huh? [Tarvek blinks] What?
'It's Mother's Day! We're supposed be really nice to Mommy today.
We? [Quite clueless.]
We're supposed to make her breakfuss, and sing for her, and give her cards, and presents, and it's supposed to be all nice and her day. Isn't it, Perry?
[Perry is the older boy -- technically too old to be Tarvek's, but Tarvek's not fussy. The kid's about 14, gangly, gawky, with more red hair and horn-rims. He's too willing to do chores!]
Yeah, Dad. We're supposed to be all, like, really nice to her, and do what she wants, and make her happy.
[Tarvek is deeply bewildered, now. If nothing else, The Betty is reliably, disturbingly happy, except when she's the sort of campy irked that belongs in the old sitcoms Tarvek has never seen. She does things like send him to the dog house for forgetting to call home late for dinner.]
Ok. Who thought this up? Is it a Mayfield thing?
[Kids, in unison, break out in giggling. Daddy is such a goof...]
Daaaadddddyyyyyy! That's silly!
[Catherine and Perry, between them, manage to bring Tarvek up to speed. He spends the day making a grilled cheese/coffee/juice brunch for The Betty (he's not good at cooking, and grilled cheese is his primary skill). He and the kids draw Mother's Day cards. He slips outside and steals a large amount of flowers from neighboring yards and the nearby park. He and the kids go out in the garage where they pound and bang and sing loudly (The kids teach their silly, clueless father how to sing "Row-row-row your boat" in round.). When they're done they hang a very nice windowbox with fancy scroll work outside the kitchen window, as The Betty claps and croons how very sweet they all are, and how she's going to put pansies in it tomorrow.]
[Later Tarvek goes to see his friend, Ilsa Higa [ http://ooeeooahah.livejournal.com/5450.html ]. He finds she's having a less than perfect day, herself.]
[When he returns he leaves Perry to baby sit Catherine, and takes The Betty out for dinner, Europan style -- insofar as Mayfield allows. Mediocre French Restaurant, candle light at the tables and French travel posters on the walls, wine (not so good), music (standard crooners, which Tarvek rather likes). If he could find a nightclub of any sort at all, he'd take her out dancing. Instead he walks her home on his arm, telling her she's a wonderful mother, and that he's very grateful for all she does for them.]
[It should be said that he takes the drones very seriously, just as he would take sentient robots, intelligent computers, and biologically fabricated beings. He's a Madboy, and he's got a peculiar sense of honor about that sort of thing. He counts the drones as rather limited, but easily pleased and even rather charming sentient creations, and he tries hard to be kind to them. That night, because he's feeling a bit guilty about how much more fun it would have been to go out with Ilsa, he even kisses The Betty on the cheek (as much as she's likely to want in any case), and says "good night, dear," in a particularly gentle voice. It's Mother's Day, after all!]