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With a literal human baby child in her life, Sigrún doesn't make it into the Freehold all that often. She has her own Hollow of course, and she can visit it periodically for sake of her clarity. But it's not the same as hanging out in the community hub that is the Freehold.
Never one to enjoy doing nothing when she could be producing something useful, Sigrún has laid out a picnic blanket in the middle of the hedgefruit garden with a spread of homemade goodies produced from her own kitchen, no doubt. She's largely ignoring the food, though, in favor of the ball of homespun yarn she's crocheting into a sock, or a hat, or a scarf. Who's to say just yet.
The act of creation is being channeled into some light hedge spinning to help keep the garden hale and healthy. Some weeds simply stop being weeds about it, for example. She's got her head in June's lap as she works, the Summer and the Spring relaxing in the near autumn morning somewhat stubbornly, it must be said. Really milking the season.
Hailey has just told Evan goodbye as he heads out into the Hedge for one of his many patrols when she stumbles upon the picnicking ladies. "Oh!! Hi June! Sigrún, nice to see you again. Pretty day, isn't it?"
June has a book resting on her knee next to Sigrún's head and is reading it sort of absentmindedly while they sit there and relax, her version of occupying her time with something productive. She looks up when she hears Hailey's voice and smiles cheerfully at the Spring. "Hi Hailey! It sure is. Do you want to come join us? We have more than enough picnicy stuff for some company."
"Every morning with a babysitter was sent to me personally by the Lady of the Field and Hall as a blessing intended to call me out in specific as a good person. It's true." Sigrún's focus is not on her crochet which seems to be proceeding on autopilot, but on the garden. Wherever she sees a blot of leaf blight or a patch of sandy soil, she gives it a squint or a little flourish of her crochet needles and it poofs away in a curl of green vines and dark, renewed soil.
"Help yourself! We brought a jar of June's honey, too. Try it on the biscuits I baked, it's like fluffy honey butter in your mouth. But with gluten." She's excited about the gluten, apparently.
She spots a hob grub poking its little head out of the ground, and she's about to zot it with some hedge spinning, but it throws up half of its arms in surrender and begins inching its way out of the ground and garden entirely. "That's right," she scolds it, "tell your friends."
"Thank you!" Hailey smiles at the offer and is about to join them. Sigrún's spinning catches her attention before she has a chance to fully lower herself though and she pauses to marvel. "Oh, he put his little arms up!" She exclaims with a giggle.
Today isn't the first time Zilla has been on Philly since she became a changeling, but it is the first time that she's been a member of the freehold and not only a visitor. It's also the first time she entered the hollow here, so the towering woman of clay makes the way in slowly, taking a mental note of the way that things are laid out. Eventually the sound of people talking brings her their direction. Especially when one of the voices is familiar to her.
When she gets in view and sees someone who she hasn't seen for many years she smiles and calls out as she is coming, "is that June?"
"Just to be clear, it's honey from my bees, not my honey," June feels the need to point out, because otherwise that would be pretty weird. "Red pandas don't produce honey. It is delicious, though."
Then it's her turn to hear a voice she hasn't heard in some time, and she perks up with interest as Zilla comes into view. "Zilla!" She doesn't jump up to run over for greetings because Sigrún's head is in her lap, but she does raise a hand for an enthusiastic wave. "Come over here! I want to introduce you to some people! What brings you to Philly?"
"I didn't think you made the honey yourself..." Hailey starts to assure her when someone calls out. She looks over to see who it is, smile widening in greeting.
Sigrún has absolutely no 'game face' and so the dirty joke that pops into her head sort of plays out across her face complete with a ribald and knowing chortle under her breath. It is cut short by June's enthusiastic greeting of what is to her a stranger, and that prompts Sigrún to set down her crochet and roll up to a seated position. She'll have hair to put right and skirts to adjust and what not if introductions are to be had.
"Hi! I'm some people!"
Come over there is just what Zilla does, it just so happens. The giant clay woman walks over to the three while smiling, which shows the pointed teeth in her mouth. "So it is June just like it sounded it was, as well as some people. It's nice to meet you all, some people, especially if you're friends of June's. In my experience she seems to have good taste when it comes to people. Unlike many of the members of my former Freehold. That's why I'm here, June. This is home, and it's well past time I moved back."
Without Sigrún's head in her lap any more June springs up and rushes over to give Zilla a hug. One thing that's definitely different from the last time that Zilla saw her is that June is... well, last time they saw each other, June was prone to tripping over her own feet she was so clumsy. Now she's sure footed and fast. If Zilla accepts the hug, June's also pretty much solid muscle under her fluffy fur, too.
"I didn't know this is where you were from originally! Welcome home, then? Yeah, I can't really say much positive about most of the rest of the New York freehold. I just try to stay away. But that's not news to you! Let me make some introductions."
Which she does! "This is Hailey," she starts out with. "She's the girlfriend of Jackie, also known as Vorpal, who is one of my wives, and I like her." Then she moves on, "and this is Sigrún, who is my other wife. Hailey, Sigrún, this is Zilla. She was my Joyeux in New York when I first escaped, and one of the few people there was really nice to me."
Hailey listens carefully, absolutely beaming when June says she likes her. Her interest is piqued even more when the clay lady is introduced as a joyeux. "Oh!! Hi! It's nice to meet you, Zilla. Violette is helping me to see if I could maybe be a joyeux too!" The little Fairest practically bounces from foot to foot in her excitement to meet another one.
"Fuck New York," Sigrún agrees with a raised fist of protest. "Why are we hating New York today? Would you like to hear my reasons? They're numerous." Sigrún is only too happy to join the hate train as long as its final destination is Times Square.
She rolls up to her feet at long last, dusting off her tuchus while no one in particular is looking. She's still preening just a bit when introduced, a behavior she tries to conceal she'd been doing by offering a wiggle of her fingers in a wave and a big dopey smile.
"I'm the daytime wife. Jackie clocks in around 4:00 to cover my last break, and then we swap out." This is not actually true and she's a terrible liar, it must be said.
Zilla does accept the hug from the much shorter June. The level of enthusiastic from her might not be as high but the affection she gives is just as real. "It's good to see you too," she tells June. "It sounds, and it looks, like you have been doing well for yourself since the last time I talked to you. You started a collection of wives, even! Is it just the two, or did you marry half of Philly?"
"I won't go so far as to say fuck New York but I'm not hurrying to go back now that I left, and I'm willing to listen to your complaints about the others there if you want to list them. Or about me, but I don't think we've met before. My main reason for going in the first place was professional and not for the Freehold anyway, and that was a reason it was time I moved on from. Anyway, it's my pleasure to meet you both. You want to be a Joyeux too, Hailey?"
June lets Zilla go (or lets Zilla's knees go, given the different in their heights) before returning to the rest of the conversation. "I haven't known you long, Hailey, but I think you'd do great as a Joyeux. You care about people enough, from what I've seen and heard."
Marrying half of Philly? That gets a laugh from her. "No, I only married three people. One of them's not a wife, either! Teagan's the third, but full time since he's not on the wife rotation. We all actually met up in Vermont when I went there to get my life back, and then moved down here together. But, yeah... Sigrún had trouble in New York long before I even got there. What's with that place? Present company excluded, because you're no longer a New Yorker."
"I would like to be! I love helping and making people feel better, so I thought it would maybe be a good job for me." Hailey blushes with June's praise. "Thank you."
"I've only heard bad things about New York.. are they just.. mean? Or what?"
Hailey opens her arms to Zilla for a hug too, even if she's also likely to barely make it to her waist.
"Nazi Punks," Sigrún explains of the trouble she had, "but that was a long time ago. They've all moved on now." Which is one way to put it. "It was the 80's. New York still tolerated Trump, kinda. Weird time." Sigrún dismisses it all with a little wave of the hand.
Sigrún does not speak up on the topic of increasing her responsibilities in the court. She does give Hailey a maternal smile and fold up her hands behind her back with a look of self-satisfaction.
So quickly Zilla goes from smiling to solemn, but she does keep anger in control if there is any. "Well, I would have had my own problems with nazi punks, I think. It's hard for me to imagine how that could not be true, being a Jew and a golem. It's for the best they moved on. I wouldn't be shedding tears if they passed on instead, I don't think."
None of these thoughts stop her from going to Hailey to give a hug when offered with open arms. She puts her pitted, scarred limbs around the smaller person and embraces like she didn't even think about it, she just did it.
"I'm very happy for you, June," she continues saying, which brings the smile back. "You found people who respect you and treat you the way you should be treated, it seems like."
"I mean, I'm just a big ol' fag who hates bullies, so I'd have my own problems with them," June says with a snerk of a laugh. "But really, who in their right mind doesn't have a problem with nazis? Fortunately, we don't have any of those in the local Freehold. At least none that have been brave enough to let anyone know it."
Zilla's remarks make her smile a big, beaming smile. "Thanks! Your help got me on the right track in a lot of ways, so I'm not entirely sure it would have happened otherwise. So thank you twice, really. I'm glad you're here, and I hope I can introduce you to rest of my Motley. We're Direct Action."
Hailey's nose scrunches at the mention of Nazi's. "Oh.. eww, what the heck? People are so weird and gross. I'm sorry you had to deal with them."
The Playmate doesn't seem to pay much mind to the scars, being very used to them now after meeting V. Her own skin is flawless with the exception of a smattering of freckles across her nose and high on her cheeks. She nestles in to the hard hug and let's the other lady decide when to pull away.
She doesn't catch the motherly expression Sigrún has or she might melt into a puddle, having never experienced maternal approval from her own mom.
"To the very limited credit of the New York freehold, the Nazis weren't with them, they were with Old One-Eye," which is Sigrún's preferred oblique reference to Odinn, the Keeper of the same name who is posing as the All-Father of Norse Mythology and happens to be one of the keepers with its fingers in the local hedge. She offers this clarification very grudgingly, but feels it must be made all the same.
Sigrún seems to be handling no longer being the most exquisite piece of martial statuary in the room quite well. Rather like a pit bull might, she's maintaining her respectful distance from Zilla while absolutely failing to conceal her admiration of the battle damage. She's all but hopping from foot to foot under her long skirts.
Zilla accepts the clarification with simply saying, "well, that's not nothing."
There doesn't seem to be any intention from her to hurry the hug along. If she's going to end up just standing there having a conversation with her arms around someone she just met then that's just the way things are.
"I think you would have found you way on your own without my help, I was only speeding things along. If greasing the wheels put you in the right place at the right time to meet people you care about, maybe it's among the best of the things I've accomplished with my life." There's a smile for Sigrún when Zilla is saying all this and then she says, "you seem to be particularly happy about something. What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
"Fuck Old One-Eye right along with the nazi punks," June grumbles at the mention. "That guy can eat a big ol' bag of mixed dicks." She moves back over to Sigrún's side and puts an arm around her, making sure her wife knows that she's still loved even if a friend from June's past showed up. Not that there was probably any doubt.
"Careful, Hailey," she also remarks. "If you're not careful and hug her too long she might take you home and talk to you about all of your problems until you feel better."
She's not really sure what to say about Zilla thinking helping June might have been one of the better things she's done, so what she does is blush and try to pretend she's not.
"I TOO HAVE SCARS.," Sigrún blurts out like another girl wandered into the slumber party carrying her favorite My Little Pony. She clarifies, "From fighting." And then adds in case it needed clarification, "Bad guys mostly!"
She unwinds the bun of braid on the left side of her head to show off the scar beneath it all that it's covering up. "That one? A giant tree stepped on me and Aurelio. Stomped us right into the ground, right over there in fact." She points, indicating some place beyond the walls and battlements.
"If you wanted to come over some time and hang out with June and I and meet everyone and compare notes and arm wrestle and maybe stand for an armor fitting-- are you more of a punchy gal or do you like swinging metal around? I'm a metal girl, myself. Swords, axes. Ooh! Spears! Do you like spears?" She realizes Zilla is distracted by Hailey and so she inquires of June, "Does she fight with spears?" She then gasps, "Would you like to fight with spears!" She's combined two of her favorite ideas; sharing and fighting.
Hailey giggles and pulls away. "Oh gosh, I feel great! And I don't really have problems any more, I love it here and everyone has been so nice and helpful. Well.. I guess except when I remembered getting eaten. Then I was kind of a problem. I just curled up into a ball though, I don't think that was too bad."
She watches with wide eyes as Sigrún gets so excited about fighting, giggling again without meaning to. "A tree?! There are stomping trees?"
There's uproarious laughter from Zilla for Sigrún's proclamation, and because Hailey left the hug Zilla is free to come over for a closer look at the scars. "Mostly? I guess that mostly bad guys is the best to hope for, isn't it? Some of my scars are from the silliest things, like falling off of a skateboard or turning too early when walking around a corner. Not every scary is glorious, and none of mine are from being stepped on by a tree. That's very good, and I am betting there aren't stomping trees for Hailey to worry about any more, are there? Because you dealt with them?"
She steps back and shakes her head. "I fight as little as possible these days. I try to protect people in other ways, but I keep in practice just in case. Never again. I fight unarmed, but I would be interested in learning a spear if you want to teach me."
June can't help giggling when Sigrún starts showing off scars and being all excited. "No, she..." Zilla answers for herself, and June lets her, seeming happy that the two are kicking things off so successfully.
It means June shuffles around over to Hailey to watch from the sidelines. "I'm glad everyone has been nice to you here. I don't think you were a problem because you remembered something that freaked you out, though. That happens. If you're every having trouble like that, you can call me. I can help with that kind of thing. Or let other people who care about know they can call me?"
Oh no. Someone asked Sigrún to clarify a minor detail about a feet of skill. "Trees taller than the walls! Tall as the towers! The thorns marched on Shackomaxon! We smote one down in front of the walls. I leapt on its face and rode it to the ground with my blade in its mossy eye!" She uses her crochet hook in place of her old and now broken sword.
"And we tumbled to the ground! And I rolled! Except it didn't on account of I'd killed it with the sword to the eye, see. That maybe wasn't entirely clear before." Sigrún grabs her skirts and girds them about her thighs properly so she can get low and look properly menacing. "And then I see one of 'em just squishing Aurelio-- You remember him, he's the guy who was being squished with me later-- SPEARS!"
Sigrún claps her hands together and pops up out of her fighting crouch, blowing a bit of hair out of her face. "Oh, wow. I suck at fist fighting, mostly. June, though whoa-ho. She punched the concept of punching so hard her hands now technically kick." She's nodding her head like that's a thing that can happen. "Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. Is this what it's like to care about celebrities?"
Hailey nods at June, leaning just a little into her. "I will, thank you. It wasn't that bad. I felt bad for upsetting Ylva. But she called Evan to come get me, so it was okay."
She listens to Sigrún's story with rapt attention. "Oh my gosh, that sounds so.. epic!" She finishes after struggling for an appropriate word.
"I used to have scars before I was Taken. But not from any battles like that. How cool!"
Zilla moves back to give some space for Sigrún to put on the show, a show which she watches with rapt attention of her own. "Is this one of those stories where at the end we find out that you were actually just weeding the garden together and decided to be dramatic about it? I'm all for embellishing sometimes, don't mistake me, but if I ask if that's what you're doing you have to tell me. That's the law. I would know, I'm an attorney."
For the record she is entirely kidding about everything about being an attorney.
She's also not kidding about the impressed look she gives June when Sigrún explains how good she is at fighting now. "Is that true? I'm proud of you then, June. I knew you could do it and I'm glad that you proved everyone else wrong."
The way June watches this little show is a bit different. What she does is watch with unadulterated admiration for Sigún, very clearly in goofy amounts of love with the woman. There might as well be little hearts floating around her head and everything, but that's not a very Summery mantle effect. Or if it was, they'd probably be anatomical hearts, and it would be kind of gruesome.
She does kind of laugh a bit, almost embarrassed, and admits, "actually, um. Zilla might be better than I am, still." Then she grins. "Maybe we can get a sparring match going some time and find out, though. Hmm? Or are you the tallest chicken I've ever met?" The teasing is all good-natured, and she clearly isn't expecting Zilla to take offense. Hopefully she's not wrong.
"True as Ymir's well," Sigrún insists with only the slightest indignation. "Hedge blight had our Trod more or less impassable all the way from Baltimore up to Old Iron in Allentown. This was back when I was still a hot head with things to prove to myself. Anyway. Everything was being choked out. Almost like a brush fire, but without the heat, and spreading solely under ground. So. No joke, the thorns marched on us. And then we got stomped--" She gestures over yonder, but has sort of lost the joy of it, and so she stops relating the tale.
Sigrún doesn't seem to expect Zilla to take June's joke poorly, though she does open her mouth wide and acquire saucer-sized eyes before declaring this a, "BURN!"
Hailey's eyes widen slightly at the taunt. She doesn't think the newcomer will take offense, but she definitely doesn't want to find out by being in the way. Her gaze drifts over to the picnic and she looks oddly delighted by a bug landing on the food. The Playmate hurries over to gently shoo it away, being both useful and out of the way. "Sorry, this is for people, not bugs. You have to eat something else now." She whispers quietly to it.
Zilla straightens her spine and her expression grows as hard as the baked clay she's made of. "How dare you speak to me like that you little--KO-DAK!" she ends with a loud chicken noise before she is laughing loudly again.
"I would be happy to practice with you, June. If you're better than I am I'll be glad, because that is a path you pursue and I don't any more. Sorry, it seems like I am interrupting your lunch, aren't I? There isn't any need to let the bugs get it instead of yourselves, please. The problem with the blight is taken care of now? If it isn't then I'll be glad to help however I can."
"She was dreamy when she was a hothead with something to prove," June points out in case anyone didn't know that already. "She still is, but she was then, too."
Zilla's chicken impression makes June laugh in delight, and she didn't really seem to be buying the angry act in the first place. "I mean, it's not really important to me to be better than anyone else, just the best I can be," she says with a shrug. "I just think it would be fun to see how we stack up. I don't generally get to practice with bona fide top-ranked former MMA fighters or anything, and I might learn about areas I need more practice in"
"But yes!'" She goes back over to where the food is all set out. "We should probably eat some of this. I'm happy to have you both join us. If we didn't want other people coming along we wouldn't have come here."
"Yep! That's why it's a story I'm telling and not a thing I'm doing at the moment," Sigrún confirms. "We're safe as houses here and now. Aurelio's not even here! No stompy trees to speak of. I'm retired from the heroin business for the most part. My husband and I had our first last year, and so my swords are hung up. Mostly. I mean. I do still have a sword." She kicks her foot over to where a sheathed weapon rests with the rest of the meal kit.
"But I don't go and fight with it much anymore. It's of minimal utility when changing diapers and such." She sighs down at her sword, imperfect tool that it is.
Sigrún retakes her spot on the picnic blanket and pats it in invitation. "There's food enough for you and anyone else that shows up. I cook for an army. Please, come, sit, eat. Tell me embarrassing stories about June." Sigrún's eyes sparkle a bit at that.
Bug safely moved out of the way, Hailey danced around nearby until Sigrún sat. Then she finds a spot to leave plenty of room for the larger clay person and June. "Would you mind if I tried just a tiny bit of the honey? I don't usually like sweets, but maybe I'll like that. Vorpal said you have your own bee hives?"
The most important thing to address is the one that Zilla gets to first, with a smile as wide as she can make it. Despite a maw of sharp teeth, almost more like a clay shark than a person, the expression is a friendly one. "Mazel tov! What's the young one's name? How is everyone doing? I hope you've learned Gift of Warm Breath to help make up for the lack of sleep."
The invitation is accepted, the golem comes over to sit down with the others on the blanket. "I mostly hung my swords up too, in the figurative sense of swords. I'll defend the community that way if I must but I prefer to help them in other ways, like protecting them from legal issues, helping people settle into life again, handling paperwork. Like I earlier said, I'm an attorney."
Instead of going into talking about June she gives a look to the one in question, a silent way to inquire if there's permission to talk about those things. It wouldn't do to be a Joyeux and then share people's secrets, would it?
June plops herself down and gestures to the honey as she smiles at Hailey. "Yeah, of course, go ahead. I'm not going to be offended if you don't like it, and neither will the bees. I have a few apiaries—that's what the boxes for the beehives are called—that I take care of at our house, and a few local farms and things pay me to maintain some around their properties, too."
Her answer to Zilla's silent question is a shrug and a smile, nodding her assent to talk about things.
"There is always so much food at our house," she agrees. "Sigrún cooks for an army, and so does everyone else when they cook. Fortunately, we also eat like an army."
Hailey bobs her head, excited to try something even though she's a little worried she'll hate it. She leans forward to take a biscuit and dribbles a tiny dab of the honey onto a half of it, watching to make sure she doesn't make a mess. "Thank you." She sing-songs.
After seeing the exchange between Hailey and June, the words Zilla offers to the red panda are saying, "I still think you would have made a good Spring, June. I'm not trying to change your mind. You made your decision and I support the one you made, I just want you know that if you wanted to be, I think you could."
Instead of starting to tell stories she watches to see whether Hailey likes the honey on the biscuit or not. "Be careful," she says. "There are always drops that want to get on the side of the jar and make the lid sticky."
"I know, and it's awful when it gets in my fur," June grumbles, but it's hard to take the grumbling too seriously when she's smiling, too. It IS awful, but she has gotten pretty good at avoiding it, too.
"I might be a good Spring. I'm not going to argue otherwise! It wasn't what I've wanted to do so far, that's all. Who knows whether I'll want to be Summer forever, though. It's not like it's a permanent decision, and it was the right one for me so far."
Hailey takes the caution to heart, watching carefully to catch any drips. She sniffs it delicately before taking a bite. She doesn't seem to love it, but she doesn't pull a face either. "Hmm. It has a nice flavor, not like stuff with just sugar. Thank you for letting me try it."
Zilla only seems curious when she asks Hailey, "am I correct that you don't like sweets? If you don't want to eat the rest of, I'll take it. There's no need for you to force yourself, and no need for it to go to waste either." There doesn't seem to be an eagerness, just willingness. She also reaches her long arms over to gently take the jar, then a napkin to be sure everything is cleaned up properly and no mess is made. Hailey did a fine job, it's just good to be sure.
"I was asked about stories of June when she first got to New York, and she says that I can, but there are so many stories I'd rather not tell because of the way they reflect poorly on people who aren't here."
"And you'd make a good Summer," Sigrún points out to Zilla, "just like I did once. We make pretty good people, as it turns out, and I figure that's what counts the most anyways."
For her own part, Sigrún cracks open the picnic basket and pulls herself out a comically large sandwich consisting mostly of pork and pickled cabbage. It is the sort of sandwich only she could eat, and she's kind enough to scooch to the edge of the picnic blanket as she's aware of the fact. It smells how it looks, even from over there.
But she chows down on it. "Y'all can suit yourselves," she speaks around a mouth full of sandwich, "but I know how good my cooking is."
"I could probably figure out how to make a good Winter if I was determined to. It's just not what's actually right for me," June explains with a smile, not offended at all by the suggestion that she might be something other than Summer. "I've given a little consideration to what sorts of things I might want to do if I stopped being Summer, but I haven't come to any decisions. Summer just feels like home."
She scoots over to the basket to look around for things she's interested in there, and ends up coming out with a turkey sandwich for herself. "Everyone's welcome to help themselves, I think. Enjoy! And you're very welcome, Hailey. It can be a lot on its own, if you're not into sweet stuff. In some cases it can add a nice flavor to something without too much sweetness."
"Thank you. No, I don't like sweets. I still like fruit though, so I was hoping it would be like that." She hands off the biscuit to Zilla and takes another plain one for herself. "It's definitely much more like that than cookies or something." She nods trying to remember that for her own sake in the future. "Spring feels like home to me. I don't think I would fit in very well anywhere else."
Zilla takes the biscuit from Hailey and simply starts to nibble on it herself, disappearing it into her clay maw bit by little bit. "I prefer fruit over sweets as well. I've eaten so many apples this week." She takes another bite. "I think June is right that she could probably be Winter if she wanted, and Sigrún is right that I would be a good Summer if I wanted to. I accept that we are probably all where we belong right now. Is there some reason you started thinking about what else you might do, June?"
"Oh, yeah! It was Rosh HaShanah, wasn't it?" Sigrún remarks around her sandwich. "If you want, I've got a bottle of mead in there that's got a sour kick to it. It's the opposite of sweet and it'll turn your world sideways. Help yourself."
Sigrún looks to June for her answer, continuing to hork down her pork sammie like it's trying to flee her grip.
"Oh." June stops eating her sandwich, finishes off the bite she's currently chewing, and explains. "My other wife and I are trying to have a baby. It made me consider if I wanted to keep being one of the people throwing myself headlong into fights, you know? Or if should, for that matter."
Hailey doesn't register what she just said as pertaining to her for a full minute as she chews on her biscuit. Then her eyes widen a little bit as she swallows. "You and Vorpal are gonna have a baby?! Oh my gosh, that's so exciting! Can I babysit for you?!"
"Truly? That's wonderful! That also seems like a good reason to think about what you want and what your priorities are, whatever you end up deciding. I understand entirely, yes." Zilla pops the rest of the biscuit into her mouth and chews it almost a reasonable amount before swallowing it down so she can continue talking. "You seem to have plenty of people in your life to talk to, but if for some reason you're needing me just let me know and I'll make time. I would also normally be happy to babysit, but I don't know if I do have enough time for that."
"That's why I got out of the game. There's no way I could mix motherhood with adventuring. I reserve the right to go on the odd quest here and there, and will absolutely throw down if they come at our walls again. But, yeah. I'm out." Sigrún asides to Hailey as if she might not be aware.
"Some people will try to kill you out there!" She's seen it, she did. "Not a fit place for raising kids. Or having them. Or making them, for that matter, the hedge. Just. Not a kid conducive place whatsoever. It's a shame, though, because you're really good at hand kicking, June."
June gets a brief flashback to the last time she thought about kids in the hedge and gets a distant, kind of haunted look. It takes her a moment to shake it off, and when she does it's with a literal shake. "Hmm? Oh. Yeah, no, kids shouldn't be in the hedge," she wholeheartedly agrees. "I have plenty of time to figure things out, anyway. I am pretty sure I'd be glad to have babysitters I can trust, though."
Hailey nods seriously back at Sigrún, or as seriously as one can with an ever present smile on their face. "For the best, really."
"Oh!! Right. Yes, it takes.. uh. A while. But I would love to. I used to babysit a lot and I know CPR. I'm even taking the class again, since it's changed in five years. Jackie is reading the books for me and stuff so I'll be sure to do better. I love babies, I just didn't want to have to have them." She bounces in her seat, pulling an apple out of the basket to start on next.
Zilla gets up while she's continuing to hold up her end of the conversation. "You do have time," she says. "You'll also make the right decision, I'm sure." Since part of her job is knowing when things might not be right, and if there is one thing she tries to be it is good at her job, Zilla can't help but notice the distant lapse. "If you need someone to talk to about it, or anything, I'll make time for you. Speaking of time, I'm about out of it and should go for now. I didn't expect to stay as long as I have, but it's hard to say no to such wonderful company as all of you."
"Bye Zilla! Nice to meet you!" Hailey will happily chatter with her girlfriends wives as long as they don't mind her.
Sigrún seems genuinely disappointed that the giant woman is heading out. But she's good enough to make that her own problem. "Take care. We'll be seeing you plenty, I'm sure. Standing invite over at our place." Sigrún then just asides to June, "She probably keeps kosher, doesn't she. Remind me to add paper plates and compostable cutlery to the shopping list when we're out of the hedge, please."
She sucks her thumb clean now that the sammy has disappeared, and leans over to sift around for that bottle of sour mead if nobody else is going to. She grabs an orange slice while she's at it, and eyeballs the other two just in case they're about to say anything.
"I was tea total for nine months, I'm drinking mead in the afternoon."
"None for me," June says with a shake of her head. "It just doesn't seem like a good idea when I'm currently trying to get pregnant. Well, not currently as in right this second, but currently in the general sense."
But she's definitely happy to hang out with Sigrún and Hailey until they have some reason to break!
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