May 6, 2440 5:00 AM
Eric did not like waking up early at the best of times, which had long since passed by the time he was in his early 20s. At much too close to 40, going to bed past midnight and a 5:00 am wake-up was going to require a siesta later. He had little hope Maggie was upstairs making breakfast, so he pulled on his robe and hoped sliding out of bed to start the day didn’t leave his body saying ‘the fuck you are’.
He pulled out two smoothie cups and two travel cups, putting them in front of the coffee maker first, and pressed the go button. He looked at the smoothie supplies in the cabinet. One thing he learned about V’ren biology last night is that they ran hot and needed extra calories. He plopped an extra scoop of coconut oil, extra walnuts, an extra scoop of protein powder, and one scoop of his green powder and one scoop of Maggie’s, which she had told him was a girl blend when she started their morning smoothie routine when she was barely twelve. He figured if it was good for his eldest, it should be ok for Tell. He splashed green tea out of the fridge into both cups to let the chia do their thing while he started in on the coffee.
Eric wasn’t sure there was a benefit to a cold shower while drinking hot coffee beyond efficiency, but he was at Tell’s door clean, caffeinated, had smoothies and coffees in a carrier by 5:40. She looked as good with slightly sleep tousled hair as she did last night when he left, really wanting to kiss her.
7:00 am May 6, 2440
Having forgotten the box of V’ren energy bars that had been delivered last night K.C. motioned everyone to follow her towards the sound of, “TAHOOOOOOOO!” She thought it would be fun to see how the rest of the V’ren reacted to Filipino food.
Her crew was ten strong this morning which promised to be interesting. Her selfie with Matt and Dr Th’ron had nearly 250K likes, but her selfie series at the fire station was pushing 1.5 Million.
“Make you famous, Jim!” She announced leading 3 humans and six V’ren up to the cart.
“You still have to pay, and pay for the rest of them as well. That is the price of fame. You must feed your entourage and tip will.”
“Like I wouldn’t she said pushing her phone at his reader and selecting 10 and watching $20 fiat fade away, then another $20 for the tip.
Stomachs full of taho and churros which were always much improved by dipping in taho, they slid into the jeepney. K.C. slid into the last seat and tapped the old Chinese coin tied to frame and knocked it against the rail to say she was ready. She understood that in the ancient days people would be passing coins forward, but Matt ran the jeepneys as a free public service. She also wondered about the coin knowing the end of the Qing dynasty was further away from the here and now than the beginning was from the end of the dynasty.
She had been told to fortify herself for today’s neural interface session so banged the coin 3 blocks shy of the firehouse and inhaled the smell of donuts. One ube old fashioned and one caramel long john filled with bacon custard plus an extra sweet coffee she considered herself fortified. She would have to see about getting a company ID now that she was officially working for Matt. His employes got free donuts and coffee.
While Sera and Nessa debated the virtues of raspberry cream danishes vs matcha apple fritters K.C. really wanted to know if kissing the bit of dried sugar glaze from Nalen’s lip would be crossing a line.
She sighed as she saw from the corner of her vision he managed to take care of it himself.
They walked on. A gang of geeks one and all, even if not especially her new V’ren friends. These were her people.
7:45
K.C. looked at the much expanded fire house neural learning center with a total of 20 stations and a very tired looking A.J. and much more energetic Srang.
“He looks sort of peaceful there,” K.C. said to the two women watching over her father. “Can I poke him?”
“Please don’t,” AJ sighed, with sympathy for the man, she hadn’t fared much better than he had yesterday on either attempt. She brightened up as she realized she had said that in V’ren.
K.C. looked at Tell and wondered if she should try to learn more Spanish too. If her future step-mom could speak maybe she should learn.
While K.C. knew she and Maggie disagreed on a great many things they had talked about this late into last night. Neither could remember seeing their dad act like he was with this woman. More importantly, they liked her too. She was just cool.
“I have room for five of you,” AJ announced. “Then you have a shift at the sorting center according to The Pam while the other get their turn.”
“When did Tita Pam become The Pam?”
“I think around 2:00 am was the first time I heard it,” AJ shrugged. “You might want to strap in, before she comes out of her second session since midnight. We will call for the rest of you thirty minutes before it is your turn. Now, move, those clothes and toys won’t sort themselves.”
AJ gave herself a small groan as she realized she had just sent the green space elves off to sort Santa’s summer gift selection. She reached for her cup of coffee and knew she would need another pot very soon.
9:00 am
Sera Kellen looked up as the bench shifted.
“I am V’oss T’rill, are you thirsty?” he asked holding our a second bottle of Dr Pepper.
“This cannot be good for us,” she sighed after a swig. “I am Sera Kellen.”
“Have you spent time among the humans?”
“Yes,” she said cautious of where this was going. “Have you?”
“I am being assigned to a place tonight. I will join my cousins as I have no family left.”
“Is that what you want? To join your cousins?”
“I do not know them. They are like you, not of the high born.”
“My human friend, K.C. had good advice, don’t try to be what the humans expect you to be, or even our people, be who you need to be. We are not of V’ren anymore. We are V’ren of Earth.”
10:00 am
Ron and Roy had managed to slip out of the house with skateboards, guitar and bongo, and a handful of those V’ren energy bars without Maggie seeing them or so they thought since she didn’t try to put them to work. She snorted with laughter watching them on the cameras.
The truth is they would be sorry about those energy bars later since she was currently in the bathroom ordering stool softener from the pharmacy. She had already texted Lola Rhea and Annie Roxas asking what teas might help since they were the best herbalists she knew. Annie had texted back her thanks since she was about to try one of those bars.
She went ahead and placed the order with extra first aid supplies to meet the minimum order since she was sure those would be needed later. She put in a second order for rocky road since it was a food that loved her and might be the solution to her constipation.
@MagsGarcia: V’ren energy bars are dense, sticky, and sweet. They also sit on you like a shit brick. Do not recommend. 1/10 because they might cure diarrhea.
DM Exchange:
@PaisleyPhillips: Hope you didn’t eat more than one. I was about to start on my second when the V’ren woman staying with us advised against it. Dad already had 3 and can’t get off the couch.
@MagsGarcia: no just the one. I wish I had asked before trying one. Ordered Rocky Road to try and balance the load.
@PaisleyPhillips: That is a fine idea. Mom said the apartments were hosting some sort of a potluck and wanted to know if y’all needed help.
@MagsGarcia: Help is always welcome, doubly so from your mom. If you come over I will order extra ice cream and we can do pancit and devilled eggs.
10:15
Ron Garcia looked skeptically at the xylophone rig Caleb was wearing.
“It will be fine,” Caleb whined, his voice cracking at the end.
“You brought a xylophone to a rock concert, dude?” Roy said, even more skeptically than his twin brother.
“They are marching bells, not a xylophone.”
“I am not sure that sounds any cooler, dude,” Ron sighed, giving his bongos a rolling beat.
“Fuck it! The two of you just try to not embarrass us in front of the girls, especially the cute green ones,” Roy sighed, and ended the huddle.
Jumping up on the speaking rock, Roy called out to the park full of kids. “May I have your attention, please! Will the real Slim Shady please stand up!” He knew that would get their attention. “Okay, how about just the live streamers standing? I am Roy, and welcome to the first annual V’ren Relief Concert at the first annual North Park Apartments Freedom Festival! On the bongos, my brother Ron, and on what he calls walking bells, our brother from another mother, Caleb Harris. Also, as special guest, the ghost of Derek Smalls on the bass. While they get themselves sorted out and find their way, here is one of my favorites.”
Roy had their attention. The girls were migrating to the sound of the guitar, including the cute green ones, even as the native ones were trying to hold them back. He had found his rhythm.
“Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame.”
He played on, ignoring the bells and bongo.
“Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dog?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the leopards in your bed.”
No one really knew this song or the band. That flaw was okay.
“One life, but we’re not the insane.
We get to curry each other, curry each other.
One.
One.”
Roy stood and let the applause surround him. Carmen, the younger and cuter of the Alvarez sisters, was just looking at him with the awe he had always wanted. He kissed his hand and waved the kiss in her direction.
Carmen just looked at the usually quieter brother and couldn’t resist. “The lyric is not ‘is it getting cheddar,’ you twit!”
Think, Roy, think. Recover, man. Come on, my brothers. Don’t let me die up here. He relaxed when one of the songs they had practiced started with the bongos, and then Caleb chimed in on the bells, letting the guitar pick up in the next pass. This was a much better choice than “Redemption Song.” They could try that later, but for now…
“Don’t worry, about a thing…”
With “Wonderwall,” “Sugar, Sugar,” “Spoonman,” and “Redemption Song,” they had exhausted their playlist, and he thought he had at least played credibly. Everyone sang along, and he heard more bad lyrics from the crowd than he had managed.
“One more, but not ‘One’!” Elena Alvarez shouted from the front row, with five V’ren girls also making up the front row.
Roy turned to the band. “I have two songs left in me. You guys only know the one.”
“Do it!” Ron laughed.
“Oh god, please don’t fuck this up, Roy. We will never get girlfriends if you do. Like, ever.”
“I’ve got ya!” Roy said, and reclaimed the rock.
He looked at the crowd, which looked a lot bigger than it had pre-huddle. I got this, he told himself. He wondered if he could chicken out and still do “Ladies Night.” Fuck it!
“When I was a little bitty boy,
My grandmother bought me a cute little toy.”
10:25
K.C.’s eyes fluttered and then rolled back in her head realizing it was filled with something new, but not able to describe the feeling or how she knew.
“Tha jen wallan?” S’rang asked looking at the girl knowing what her confused expression meant.
“Ik wallan donut. Groot donut.”
“You want a fucking donut?” Pam laughed.
“A big donut,” K.C. laughed and wondered what The Pam was doing here, until she saw both Krieger and Alice across the aisle getting their own sessions. “Also since I am on staff now, do I get a free donut ID card?”
“You need to talk to HR, and probably justify why you need a donut card.”
“Angelina scares me.”
“Then I am doing my fucking job,” Angelina moaned from her own chair, very much disliking this thing.
1:45
“Wasn’t he in here earlier,” Eric asked AJ as Matt was fluttering awake.
“My second trip through the orgasmatron, today.”
“Second session?” Eric asked. “Show-off.” He could be proud of Tell, but he needed to give Matt shit.
Matt answered in smooth, polished Ilocano, the kind Eric mostly heard from old money, old politics, and people who expected waiters to pretend they understood.
“A thousand pardons, good sir. I thought you were one of us.” Eric riposted in Cornish, last winter’s language learning game.
AJ, laughed so hard she had to put a hand on the back of a chair.
Matt gave Eric a wounded look. “That was unnecessary.”
“No,” Eric said. “That was a community service to the entire Manobo community.”
3:15
K.C. was just fucking done with sorting cargo shorts into piles by size.
She wished the boy helping her had been more talkative. She hadn’t gotten any of his story and barely as many words.
“It is break time, V’oss.”
“We were given a task.”
“We were given a job to work on. They don’t expect us to finish any time soon. The people loading those into the different bags are far behind us. We deserve a break. I haven’t had one for three hours, and I am calling the day done. I am only scheduled until 3:30. When were you scheduled until?”
“I don’t know. I have been working since 9:30 without a break.”
“You are done for the day. You should have taken lunch at least two hours ago. Come on. I will buy,” she said, putting an arm around his shoulders and guiding him toward fresh air, street food, and the friends she could hear outside.
V’oss went stiff for half a step, then let himself be moved.
The jeepney group had reassembled near the food tables, louder than they had arrived and hungrier than anyone reasonable should have been. The V’ren kids had finished their sessions or their welcome-bag work, and the human kids had decided that cultural exchange required food before anyone went back to North Park Apartments.
“There you are,” Lily said. “We were about to send someone in.”
“I found one,” K.C. said, keeping her arm around V’oss long enough to make the point. “He worked through lunch because no one told him not to.”
“That sounds illegal,” Theo said.
“That sounds V’ren,” Sera said, looking at V’oss with more sympathy than surprise.
V’oss looked at the tables, then at the children gathered around them. “I was given a task.”
“You were given a job,” K.C. said. “Different thing.”
The food tables near the school had the kind of spread that existed when Arrow Rock decided children needed fed and no one wanted to hear complaints. Corn dogs. Cones of fries. Hush puppies. Southern fried catfish. Isaw. Balut. Helmets.
V’oss looked at all of it like he was trying to decide which item was food, which item was ritual, and which item was a test.
K.C. handed him a cone of fries first.
He accepted it carefully.
“That one is safe,” she said.
“Safe from what?”
“From being interesting.”
Marcus picked up a balut like a man accepting a sacred challenge. Theo did the same. Owen tried to look calm and mostly succeeded.
K.C. was already on her second.
“You’re late,” she said.
Theo stared. “You ate one already?”
“She ate two,” Lily said.
K.C. cracked into a helmet and crunched down with complete indifference to male pride.
The V’ren kids watched carefully. Food bravery translated better than half their devices.
Nalen tried the balut first, because Marcus had tried it and because boys were boys even when they were green. His expression shifted through horror, calculation, and reluctant respect.
“It is not bad,” he said.
“You don’t have to lie,” Bea told him.
“I am not lying. I am deciding.”
V’oss watched Nalen, then K.C., then Sera.
“You do not have to eat that one first,” Sera told him.
“That implies I have to eat it eventually.”
“No,” K.C. said. “But you do have to understand that if you don’t, Marcus will think he won.”
V’oss looked at Marcus.
Marcus tried to look like a man worth defeating.
V’oss took the balut from K.C.
Sera took hers next, more cautious, then Mera, then Nessa and Vorr. Every V’ren kid made it through one balut. Every V’ren kid made it through one helmet, though Mera said something in V’ren that made Sera cough laughing and refuse to translate.
V’oss finished his balut and sat very still for a moment.
“Well?” K.C. asked.
“I understand why it is a test.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer I have.”
“I am going to let my sister cook for you,” she said still trying to bring him into the group.
The isaw went better.
Much better.
Vorr went back for more. Nalen tried to pretend he had not. Sera asked what part it was only after deciding she liked it, which everyone agreed was the correct order of operations.
V’oss listened to the answer, looked at the skewer in his hand, and then took another bite.
“This should have been explained after the second one,” he said.
“That’s the spirit,” K.C. said.
Corn dogs were easy. Fries were easier. Hush puppies disappeared. The southern fried catfish made Mera close her eyes for one brief, reverent second.
“This fish is good,” she said.
“That’s because it’s catfish,” K.C. said.
“What is catfish?”
“A fish with a mustache.”
The translator gave that exactly as spoken.
Sera looked down at the piece in her hand, then back at K.C.
“You are not always helpful.”
“No,” K.C. agreed. “But I am usually right.”
V’oss looked at his own piece of catfish. “Does the mustache remain?”
“No.”
“That is helpful.”
“See?” K.C. said. “Usually.”
When the jeepney came back around, the driver looked at the pile of children, translators, food wrappers, and new confidence.
“You all coming back, or did the aliens win custody?”
K.C. climbed in first. “Shared custody.”
The V’ren kids followed, still talking, still comparing words, still trying to decide whether helmets were good or merely survivable.
V’oss hesitated at the step until Theo handed him one of the extra food bags without making a thing of it.
“For later,” Theo said.
V’oss accepted it. “Thank you.”
Owen carried the other bag and climbed in behind him.
Mera and Sera noticed.
Lily and K.C. noticed them noticing.
V’oss noticed all of them noticing and decided, very wisely, to look out the window.
Nobody said anything, because nobody needed to.
“I was supposed to go with my family,” Voss said, as the jeepney started forward.
“They know where you are. I told them you would ride to the apartments with us, because you are now one of us,” K.C. grinned.
