the circle

[instar]

Trouble and Charlie fly to Las Vegas to get their collections of drunks. Ax, newly empigeoned, and Ethan loosely follow Renée's car back to Phoenix, so that Ax will not be stranded in an unfamiliar city obliged to demorph into Andalite form with no garage to hide in.

Renée makes a very large grocery trip. Ax deems alfalfa hay intended for consumption by guinea pigs and rabbits to be the hoof-eating equivalent of palatable; it also turns out he can eat a few other things, like carrot tops and turnip greens. He still doesn't like living in the garage, even though it's a different one. Andi finds him a little planetarium gadget that throws star-patterns onto the ceiling.

Renée installs a cot in the basement for Charlie. (His generic human morph is a man about ten years younger than him, plausibly Latino but just as plausibly not, plain and unremarkable. He also picks up a Renée morph. He will be able to drive the girls places, publicly know their names. They can tell he appreciates the opportunity, however weird it is.) Trouble is allowed to sleep on the couch, when Renée learns that he would prefer not to share the basement with Charlie.

Bella sews weights onto all the curtain hems so they won't be easily nudged aside.

The twins also collect generic-human-morphs. Both of theirs are college-age women, samples collected from going on premature college tours and shaking a lot of hands - Bella's looks maybe half Asian when she's done tweaking it, Andi winds up with a complexion much like her usual one but a surprisingly Hawaiian set of features.

Renée never asks to be enabled to morph. Bella eventually offers, "for emergencies", and Renée aggregates a number of her co-workers into the most stereotypical teacher-lady it is possible to Frolis into without requiring vision correction.

Renée makes the arrangements well in advance to homeschool the twins.

Bella quizzes Ax about all sorts of things, for large parts of each day.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

Trouble's morph is pretty close to fresh.

What the hell. He follows her. With reasonable stealth, for a pigeon.

[megale]

She doesn't seem to be on the lookout for pigeon stalkers. She has a mile and a half walk home, which she spends humming, kicking small rocks, picking at a ragged spot on her pants pocket, and stopping for an ice cream cone from a passing truck, which she pays for entirely in dimes. She lives in a small apartment building; Trouble will not have a problem learning the code to get in the gate, if he wants it, though flying over would also be pretty easy.

[aeskhyne]

He notes the code just for the hell of it, then decides that he would rather head back to the Swans' place and bake some cookies than try to figure out which window belongs to the adorable pigeon-feeder.

The next day, though, he's back at the appropriate time for those day-old bagels.

[megale]

She shows up a little later on this day, with day-old bagels in sesame and pumpernickel, methodically shredding them as she approaches her bench. "Hey, guys, the auditions for Les Miserables are a few blocks west, all I have is bread," she says when she sits down and starts scattering. "Bread and my charming conversation, but we all know what you're really here for, right? So guys, what is the consensus among pigeons about how long teenage girls should be allowed to spend on the phone, because an hour is not a lot of time if you have, you know, friends."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble coos sympathetically and pecks up some fragments of bagel.

[megale]

"So my dad made me hang up on Lauren. Midsentence. I was wrapping up, but two minutes isn't a lot of warning. And I wasn't allowed to call her this morning so I bet she's mad at me."

[aeskhyne]

Rhea's dad sounds like kind of a dick! Trouble eats bagel parts and listens.

[megale]

"Which'd be one thing if he was ever like 'Rhea, you have a job now, chip in for the phone bill' but he never even asked me, just thinks it's bad for me to spend so much time on the phone. He completely approves of me walking to the park and conversing with birds, that's fine, that's getting fresh air, but actual socializing with humans is going to turn me into a pumpkin because there's electronics involved?"

[aeskhyne]

Coo coo. Not cool, Rhea's dad.

[megale]

"And I don't think Mom cares as much but she's all, present a united front, so that's the rule even when he's out at work. He's better about it during the school year at least because then I could be calling about homework or something."

[aeskhyne]

What a pair of assholes. Trouble eats some more bagel crumbs.

[megale]

"But they said for my birthday we can go to Disneyland, so that's good! I can't fly like you guys, see, so I have to settle for roller coasters."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble coos. Smugly.

[megale]

"I like Six Flags better actually, more intense coasters, but Disneyland's more a special occasion thing. They kind of put the theme in theme park awfully intensely. Mouse ears everywhere. Dad calls you guys flying mice. I wonder if you'd get along with mice if you met mice? You could be all enemy-of-my-enemy with cats, anyway."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble wonders what being a mouse is like. If he sees one, he can find out! Maybe he'll hunt one down as a kitty. That sounds like a good use of his time.

[megale]

"I'm so gripey with you guys sometimes, you'd think nothing neat went on in my life," Rhea sighs. "It's easier to find people to talk about the nice stuff with. But who wants to hear me whining that Dad doesn't let me talk on the phone or that I wish I had a little brother or that I took a paintball to the forehead yesterday and it kind of really hurt? You don't care as long as I show up with food, I can respect that kind of arrangement. Bagel bits for everybody."

[aeskhyne]

Speaking of which, nom nom.

[megale]

"I can't actually stay too long today," sighs Rhea, "I picked today to go to the library and get my summer reading books, the only reason I'm here in the first place was because here's on the way to the library. When you guys finish the bagels that's it for today, maybe tomorrow too."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble coos.

[megale]

Rhea is quiet while she shreds the rest of the bagel, and then says, "Hmm," and then lunges from the bench, arms outstretched for an attempt at pigeon-catching.

[aeskhyne]

The pigeons scatter in every direction.

One of them scatters a little too slowly.

[megale]

She scoops him up, and laughs, and pets him. "Gotcha," she giggles. "Oooh, you are soft. I probably shouldn't hold onto you too long, you'll poop on me."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble coos when petted, and investigates her fingers with his beak, in case they are made of bread. They are not! But you never know.

[megale]

"Aww, you're not even scared of me. Unless you're trying to pull my fingers off, but you are really bad at it if you are. You will probably poop on me anyway, though." She pets him again and sets him down.

[aeskhyne]

He coos again, pecks her shoe (which is also not made of bread, but you can't blame him for trying) and flutters off.