Muriel held her newest daughter close, gently stroking her and making soothing noises. Melanie didn't seem to know quite what to make of that, but it was obvious that she was comforted by it. She picked the insect-girl up and set her on her lap, gently taking her by the chin and leading her gaze up to meet her own. She smiled. "I want you to understand, Melanie," she said. "I'm taking you as my little girl because you matter to me. I will never abandon you." She gave her a little squeeze and reflected on that. It was true; Melanie did matter to her. Not just because she didn't see any better options, but because she saw how hurt the girl was at her abandonment by the Enemy and...just wanted to help. Wanted to fill that void that no child should have to experience. Like she had with Jenny hardly two weeks before, she saw a child in need and wanted to help her. She supposed it could be argued that it was a manifestation of her "biological clock," but she didn't really care what the explanation was. Neither did Melanie, from the way she pressed into the older woman.
After a moment, she looked Melanie in the eye again. "But," she said, "I can't be with you all the time, every day. I have other people who need me to do a job for them, to help other people, and I need to do it to make money to help take care of you and Jenny with, too. So I do have to be away sometimes - but I'll always be back for you." She felt the girl tremble a little, and patted her gently on the back. "But I don't want you to have to be all by yourself while I'm away," she said. "I'd worry that something might happen to you, or that you'd get lonely. But I can't send you to school with Jenny, not yet."
"School is...an instruction facility?" Melanie asked. That was what she thought she remembered. "Wh-why not? It's...necessary...?" There was so very much she didn't understand about the world she had to live in; wasn't that exactly the kind of thing she needed?
Muriel nodded. "Of course it is," she said. "And as soon as you're ready, you can go with her. But at school you have to be with a lot of other children, and you're still learning how to interact with people. If we sent you now, you might find it hard to get along. So what we'll do instead is that your grandma and grandpa will take care of you while I'm away, and they can help you understand how to get along with other people, and teach you some other things so that you'll be ready to start school."
"Oh," Melanie said. Instruction was required for her to begin recieving instruction? This was so complex...the sheer amount of knowledge that did not come innately to the creature-body that defined her new existence was staggering, and all of these gaps would have to be filled through the limited communication channels it possessed...how did humans ever manage such a thing?
"Melanie?" Muriel asked. "Are you going to be okay with this?"
The insect-girl looked up at her older counterpart. "Grandma and Grandpa...can be trusted?" she asked. That was a funny concept; on the face of it, it implied knowing another completely enough to be certain that they would not betray, yet when Muriel spoke of it there almost seemed to be an alternate meaning, of...believing without absolute certainty...
Muriel nodded. "Absolutely. They care for you too, you know."
"Why?"
Muriel felt simultaneously aghast and amused at this; how could she ask a question like that? Between the two, she decided to go with amusement. "Because they do, silly," she said, ruffling Melanie's hair. "Because you're precious to them as well as to me. You can trust them implicitly."
The Chinese restaurant was nicer than Jon had expected - it turned out Tim had meant that it was a family-style sit-down restaurant, not merely a family-owned takeout place (though she did think she could see a familial resemblance between various members of the staff as well.) It was a little small, but it was pleasant and quiet, and even though the floor was carpeted the hostess didn't bat an eye at the slug-girl as she showed them to a booth. Jon felt a little guilty nonetheless, but she supposed that she was just another unusual customer to them; they probably had to deal with any number of different transformees on a day-to-day basis. And...well, she supposed the carpet had worse things done to it by people's shoes, when it was muddy or slushy out; it was probably made to take it (she hoped.)
Jon availed herself of the ice water the moment it was put before her; she forgot sometimes how much of her water intake went to lubricating her foot until she found herself getting thirsty. They spent a couple minutes looking over the menus before ordering; Tim had chicken egg foo young, while Jon ordered a spicy pork-and-vegetable mix. The dark elf was a staunch advocate of the restaurant's wontons, so they got a large bowl of wonton soup to split. It took a little while for their order to arrive, but they were in no particular hurry, and the food turned out to be quite good. (The vegetable mix was particularly good to the slug-girl, heavy on the greens...not that she didn't enjoy the meat as well.) It wasn't quite as cheap as Jon had been expecting, but she couldn't say she didn't get her money's worth.
Neither of them said much while they were eating. When the meal was winding down, Tim looked across the table at her. "So...how about you?" he asked. "How do you feel about your change?" He paused for a moment, as if realizing that it might be a bit of an awkward topic. "Um, if that's okay to ask..." he murmured sheepishly.
Jon balked initially when she first processed the question, and she could see by the drow boy's expression that it was registering on her face. She felt a little remorseful at that; it was...she supposed it was a fair question, after all, he was only reciprocating what she'd asked him. Still, it was...kind of a touchy subject, wasn't it? And he realized that. But...she couldn't really get to feeling mad about it, and she did feel kind of bad for being so visibly bristly about it. And...well, honestly, the more she thought about it, it was kind of a relief to be asked. Of course she'd shared her feelings on the issue with Karyn, but although Karyn was her best friend, there were some things she just couldn't quite grasp, having never seen life from a guy's perspective. She thought...she felt she could trust him with this.
It wasn't until her thoughts turned back to the conversation that she realized she'd zoned out. The silence had gone on long enough that it was approaching the point of being uncomfortable, and Jon found herself opening her mouth almost automatically to defuse it. "It's..." she said, dragging the word out while she tried to think of what she actually intended to say. "I dunno," she said, after a moment. "I guess one thing is I feel so short. I'm not actually that much smaller than I used to be, but since I...uh, don't have legs, I'm so much lower to the ground, usually...I just feel kinda ridiculous."
Tim nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess that would get annoying..."
Jon sighed, not quite smiling, but feeling a little better. Karyn didn't really get the way that affected her, psychologically; she'd express sympathy, but she didn't really understand. It wasn't that he'd been some kind of hulk before, and it wasn't like she felt tiny and frail now; quite the opposite, she was fairly sturdily built, she was just short. It made her feel like she had when he was eleven and Karyn had hit the first growth spurt of puberty and was suddenly a whole head taller than him for well over a year. Of course, Karyn herself had had her own feelings of gawky insecurity at that that Jon hadn't understood... Sometimes Jon was amazed that they'd remained such close friends over the years; for all the things they bonded over, in some ways their lives really had been pretty different. But then again, she couldn't imagine them ever not having been friends.
"That, and the...uh, the breasts...just get in the way so much," she said. "I'm still not really used to having them there, so I keep knocking them with my arms and stuff..." The further she got into the sentence, the more she realized she hadn't intended to begin it, but the words kept coming out. She felt herself getting a little hot and prickly around the ears, sharing that, but... At least she wasn't blushing quite completely. That one Karyn could empathize with more, having just had her own sudden and significant change in bust size, but there was still a difference in magnitude; Karyn, after all, was used to having breasts, just not those particular ones, while the whole experience was unfamiliar territory for Jon. She wasn't sure that a male confidant could understand what it was like, but at least he could understand where she was coming from. Still...she could see that Tim's cheeks and his pointed and rather prominent ears were a bit more dark purple than black...maybe that was a little too much information. She took a long sip of her water; so did he.
There was a brief silence that followed that; a little awkward, but nothing really uncomfortable like before. Finally Tim spoke again. "Is it really all that bad?" he asked. "I mean, if they discovered a way to change back...?"
The slug-girl thought, smiled, and shrugged. "I...I'm more just griping," she said. "It's...not really bad or anything." That was true enough; though she certainly didn't appreciate the assorted hassles, she did remember the way Karyn had gotten peeved at her for being too down on this, and she really didn't want to give the impression that she thought being a girl was some kind of terrible nightmare. "But...I mean, yeah. When they do discover a way to change back..." She nearly had to bite her lip to hold back a smirk at that.
"You really think they will?" Tim's ears angled down and out a bit.
Jon actually did have to bite her tongue to restrain herself from blurting out an ill-considered protestation at that. Of course Tim didn't know that her whole goal in this was to bide her time and work out a solution herself; like nearly everybody else in the world, as far as he knew this was probably permanent. "I...I'm sure they will," she said. The combination of forcible self-restraint and her own feeling of being caught off-guard made the words come out weaker than she'd intended, and it sounded more like nervous self-reassurance than the confident dismissal it should've been. And she supposed it might sound suspicious for her to be too sure... "But...I mean, if they don't...I guess I'll manage," she added. Damn it, that sounded even worse. Now he probably thinks I'm in denial, she thought, irritated with herself.
Tim nodded thoughtfully again. "...Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, what with all the work they're putting into it, I guess they've got to, eventually." He finished the last of his soup. "Um, I guess we should get over to the theater."
Equally glad for the reprieve and startled as she realized they'd been sitting there for quite some time, Jon looked up to see what time it was. "Oh, uh, yeah," she said, reaching for her purse. "Uh, it's okay," Tim said, "I've, uh...I've got it. ...so we don't have to make change."
"Uh, okay," Jon said. "I'll, uh, cover the tickets, then."
"Uh, sure," the dark elf replied, smiling sheepishly. Jon shrugged, a little confused; overall, she'd probably gotten the better end of the deal, but if he didn't mind...well, okay. Huh.
Half on a whim and half because she felt she just wanted to help for some reason, Anneza assisted Will in making dinner. The wolf-girl took the lead, and the resulting stew was heavier on the meat than Anneza would've made it, but she got in some nice touches with the seasoning and made sure there were vegetables other than the potato stock. The crowning touch was Ellen's, though; although she herself didn't eat, she suggested buttered bread as a vehicle for the stew. For something so simple, it was magnificent, and between them, Will and Anneza polished off an entire loaf in the process.
When they'd finished, Anneza looked up at the clock a little nervously. She turned to Ellen as the wolf-girl carried the dishes to the sink. Want to go now, she signed. So can talk to mother first.
Ellen frowned. Is your father less nice? She didn't want to pry, but the thing with translating for family affairs was that you kind of wound up involved enough to know what was going on anyway - and a little context wouldn't hurt her ability to communicate clearly at all.
Anneza hung her head. No, he...okay. Just...haven't talked long time. Be easier with one.
Ellen nodded, putting her tiny hand on the space-girl's arm as it rested just above the tabletop. They'd talked a little about this before, but not much; she'd suspected as much, though. I'm sure they will enjoy to see you, she signed. Really, she wasn't all that sure, but at this point in her life Anneza probably needed all the encouragement she could get.
Anneza smiled. Ask wolf-girl to watch house? Maybe days.
Ellen nodded and motioned to Will, who was watching the conversation with interest but without comprehension. The wolf-girl pulled her string. "Anneza is going to visit her parents," she said. "She needs me to interpret for-" She ran out just before finishing the sentence and frowned, irritated. The ones that annoyed her the most were the ones where she didn't get to finish but it was easy enough to infer the ending that it wasn't worth it correcting the omission. Will pulled the string again. "She doesn't know how long we'll be gone, so she's asking you-" And again. "-to watch the house while we're gone. Be sure to offer tea to any guests!"
The wolf-girl smiled. She got that urge to pick the doll-woman up and hug her that she got sometimes, but she still wasn't sure it would be well-received. Guard the house? That was no trouble, it was basically her job here, and it was an instinctual response as well. She wasn't entirely sure about letting Anneza wander off for days, but to be honest there had been absolutely nothing since last Friday even remotely connected to the incident at the school; the only reason she hadn't requested to be taken off the assignment was because she was kind of enjoying herself in this makeshift little household. "Sure," she said, grinning toothily.
Ellen relayed that to Anneza, who smiled and, on an impulse, picked Will up and hugged her. The wolf-girl was a little distressed at being lifted off the ground - both because it was a reminder of how small she was and because "off the ground" in this case meant a couple feet instead of a few inches - but she really didn't mind. Then Anneza picked up her diminutive translator and was out the door.
Will frowned briefly as she realized that that left the dishes to be done, but...well, Anneza had helped make the dinner, and that was more than she'd really expected; she'd seen the space-girl take initiative when following her own whims, but she hadn't seen her spontaneously helping that much - Ellen excepted. Maybe this was the start of something, for her.
