75 Godiva Street, Sunday afternoon

[vdistinctive]

If Eliot had had any doubts about who Riley's father was -- and honestly, it made enough sense that he was planning to call Tara later and make sure that she wasn't keeping a daughter a secret from him, so he hadn't -- the fact that she'd stolen his guitar and was now parked in the living room playing it would have gotten rid of them. Especially

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[stoleafamily]

Spike wandered in, being dragged by Emmy, hands full of paper and Crayons for both of them.

"You're good," he said to Riley, not sounding surprised, but more appreciative. "And emo."

Emmy settled down at the coffee table and picked up a purple Crayon, then asked, "What's emo?"

[stonecolekiller]

Riley snorted. "It's They Might Be Giants. Predates emo." She looked up at Spike. "You play?" Then down at Emmy. "Who's the shrimp?"

[fractalofparker]

"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a pterodactyl today," Emmy informed her, industriously drawing a spiral based on the Golden Rule. "Emmy, named for Emmy Roether! Parker's my not-Mommy."

[stoleafamily]

Spike grinned and ruffled Emmy's hair; she batted at his hand, not looking up. "New little sister. And yeah, I play." He sent Eliot a hopeful look. "Have you got another guitar, or should I just wait my turn?"

[fractalofparker]

Emmy had branched out into Mandelbrot sets after a bit, while singing the Jonathan Coulton song of the same name under her breath.

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker sneaked in a bit later, and silently took a seat across from Emmy. Who handed her the red crayon as if this was only to be expected.

"I don't know that song," she said, starting to draw a picture of Emmy on one of the sheets of paper.

[fractalofparker]

Emmy looked up in surprise. "My Mommy taught it to me."

And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on
If the series of Zs will always stay
Close to Z instead of trend away
That point is in the Mandelbrot Set

"Music is math too. Like art is math. Everything is math!" She started making another Mandelbrot blot, and then asked, "If you don't do math, what do you do?"

[whoisalicewhite]

"I do math. I just-- apply it." Parker smiled a little, watching the baby dragon. At least, that's how she was thinking of her for the next couple days. "We help people. People who can't get help from the police, or the lawyers."

There. Would that make sense to a five-year-old? Parker's sketch was going well. She showed it to Emmy.

[age_of_the_geek]

"Nice!" Hardison said appreciatively as he sauntered into the living room. "You takin' requests, little mama? Cause you can't have TMBG an' not play Istanbul, you know that, right?"

[stonecolekiller]

"Istanbul's no fun without at least the violin," Riley protested. "You like TMBG?"

She shouldn't be surprised. Some of their music was older than both of them.

[age_of_the_geek]

"Funny how that works," Hardison said, sauntering over to the corner of the living room where his stuff was slowly accumulating. La la la. In a second, his violin case was in his hand and he was giving Riley a big grin. "It's almost like I knew that when I suggested it."

[stonecolekiller]

Riley sat up straighter. "You play?" Somehow, this had never come up in her few interactions with her world's Hardison. "I thought you were just the techie guy."

[my2dads]

Ada lounged on the couch, cruelly taunting her Pops by playing with her phone and not allowing him to take it apart and examine it.

"Oh no," she pretended to groan when Spike came in and asked for the guitar. "It's going to be Jellikal Kats all over again."

Thank goodness that name hadn't lasted long.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot patrolled through a few times to make sure everyone had everything they needed, then nudged Ada to move so he'd have room to sit down next to her.

"You know there's a world outside-a that phone, right?"

Give him another day and he'd be making 'hi Bored, I'm dad' jokes.

[my2dads]

Ada moved, but as soon as Eliot sat down, she was draping her legs back over him. What? Parents existed to be mobile furniture.

"Yeah, but how else can I keep reminding Pops that there's futuristic tech in the house he's not allowed to dismantle?" she asked, giving her Dad a grin.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot startled faintly, not used to teenagers -- or anyone other than Hardison -- casually draping themselves on him. Though considering last year he'd managed to be the bottom of a child-and-puppy-pile, it probably shouldn't have surprised him.

"He ain't actually gonna forget that," Eliot pointed out. "No matter how hard he tries."

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker was now on the steps of the house, rubbing Val's ears, and breathing. Just breathing. No thinking.

Well, except for how she was, in bits and pieces.

Somewhere, some other version of her was still in contact with her mother. That was more upsetting than being the mother of the tiny pterodactyl coloring in the living room.

[my2dads]

"Hey Aunt Parker," Ada said softly. She'd slipped out of the window instead of using the door not for any particular reason, but because she thought Parker might appreciate it. "Is there room for one more on those steps?"

[whoisalicewhite]

"Mmm?" Parker snapped out of it, at least a little; her fingers dug into Val's fur, then loosened, and she managed a smile for Ada. A tiny one, anyway. "Sure." It had been at least fifteen minutes now, right? Her initial shock was done, and she was left with... something.

She felt like she ought to ask Ada how her visit was going, but couldn't think of how to approach that. Too many thoughts.

[my2dads]

That was fine, a big part of their relationship revolved around them not having to talk. Or Ada talking and not requiring Parker to respond.

"I got my first warehouse," she said quietly, sitting on the steps next to Parker, but not too close. "I stole it, I didn't buy it. The property was for sale by the city, so I just forged the documentation and said it was mine. Kid's stuff. The city should be ashamed how Swiss cheesey their systems are."