(no subject)

[tragic_mask]

They are outside the Blue Owl Bar. It's mid-morning, so there are cars rushing [so to speak] by, and people walking, biking, or rollerblading down the sidewalk nearby.

"Well, here we are,"  she says brightly, ponytail ruffled by a light breeze.

Comments

[tragic_mask]

"That's true. Nomadic businessmen are fairly common."

[mechanicalswans]

"Poor nomadic artists, also," he says with a smile. "We go where we're paid, until eventually we have enough money to go live in some artists' colony or commune somewhere."

[tragic_mask]

"Is that what you're planning on?" she asks, with an eyebrow.

[mechanicalswans]

"It's something to think about," he says. "Well, unless we have children. I wouldn't want to have children in a place like that; who knows how they'd turn out. We'd be obligated to give them silly names, for one thing."

[tragic_mask]

"I might, anyway," she says with a grin. "That's another reason I feel strictly obliged to adopt-- they'd already have names, and I wouldn't be able to afflict a silly one on them."

[mechanicalswans]

"You can always give them silly nicknames," he says. "Me, I like naming things. My children would probably hate the names I gave them, at first, but they'd grow to love them."

[tragic_mask]

"Or maybe they'd just use their middle names."

[mechanicalswans]

"Their middle names would be interesting too," he says. "Of course, they'd have solid blocks of names, to go with a last name like mine. Or they could have yours. That might be easier."

[tragic_mask]

"In which case they'd need long, flowing names, as mine is short and blunt. Leading us back to the idea of names like Rainbow and Sunflower," she says, teasingly.

[mechanicalswans]

"They should sound like fancy paint colors, or maybe desserts," he says. "You know how in catalogs they always have the most convoluted names for colors for things? Like that. But with more nature. Maybe give them all trees as middle names."

[tragic_mask]

"It's a thought," she says. "Sparrow Maple sounds pretty cute."

[mechanicalswans]

"Ooooh, birds and trees," he says. "Nightingale Poplar Dahlgren. Hummingbird Willow. Maybe throw some flowers in for variety. The poor, poor children."

[tragic_mask]

"Yes..." she ponders. "Best just stick to Alexander and Cynthia."

[mechanicalswans]

"If we must," he says. "But with more unusual middle names, so if they want, they have that option. That's how my name is."

[tragic_mask]

"And what's your full name?"

[mechanicalswans]

He grins, offering her his passport.

"Don't look at the picture of me," he says. "It's not very good. I was tired that day--you know how it is, I'm sure."

[tragic_mask]

"Oh, that always happens," she says, examining it. "Or they'll take it while you're blinking. My learner's permit was like that."

[mechanicalswans]

It isn't actually that bad a picture, though it does make him look a few years younger and with hair a few shades lighter. It lists his name as Dahlgren, Lukas Elivagar and his place of birth as Minnesota.

"I hate that," he says. "And they tell you they can do a retake but then the second one's even worse than the first, and you're stuck with it. They take a perverse pleasure in it."

[tragic_mask]

"Well, I don't blame them... I wouldn't want that job. It's probably worse than being Prometheus, post-fire."

[mechanicalswans]

"Marginally better than being a photographer of children, I would think," he says. "But you wouldn't even get to distract them with a squeaky toy."

[tragic_mask]

"Might not work so well, if they tried."

[mechanicalswans]

"Well, if you keep them waiting in line long enough, it's bound to. I was there four hours, the last time. Four hours, with nothing but the one magazine I'd brought with me to read. I got so bored I started making up stories about the other people waiting there."

[tragic_mask]

"That can be fun," she says. "Imagining what all the other bored people do, when they're not in the DMV."

[mechanicalswans]

"The woman next to me was a spy," he says. "Getting a license was just to flesh out her cover story. There was some discrepancy between the paperwork she'd been given and what the government had in their records though, that's why it took so long."

[tragic_mask]

"Fascinating," she says, leaning her chin on her pulled-up knees.