Morning jog. Empty parks.
Aurora Skies is very proud of its Spooky Day orange and black hot air balloon.
Outrun the cold. Go go go.
Astral just wants to plan her prom strat, but her father wants to talk politics all day. Sigh!
Her mother's lessons are slightly more interesting.
Though this deer does not seem impressed.
Just some pictures.
This restaurant is called Tacos & More.
Satsuma Rios, a young representative from Cuisine and Contracts, wanted to meet here to discuss a marketing deal involving the Aurora Skies Alpacas team.
"I've been anxious to try this place since it opened!" Satsuma exclaims. "No one ever wants to go though. Maybe it's the name..."
"Tacos & More sounds like a department store named by a kindergarten class," Fairuza agrees.
"I think I'm getting a burrito." The girl seems adverse to talking business right away, so Fairuza is forced to listen to half an hour of dull chit-chat.
"We might be in-laws someday," Satsuma chirps. "Mikkel is serious about Ivy. He's been sending her letters every single day. It's so cute."
Fairuza blinks. "You're related?"
"He's my half-brother. We shared a father."
"Sounds complicated."
Free ice cream is provided at the door, to offset the spicy aftertastes of much of the menu.
With both parents at work, Lynx and Epiphany are told to stay at the Tiny Prodigies Learning Center after school for a few hours. Lynx heads directly for the tiny arcade room...
...leaving his sister to entertain herself just down the hall.
Epiphany is fine for a few minutes, pretending to be a bird or whatever...
...but when the loneliness gets too much to handle, she seeks out other kids to play with.
"I'm Pippy," Epiphany introduces herself.
"I'm Emmy," Embla Wong responds.
"My big sister is in high school now and hanging with her cooler friends. I came here with my brother, but he won't play with me," Epiphany sighs. "So I was hoping you would."
"Sure," Embla says. "My parents didn't provide me with any siblings at all."
Astral is busy hanging out with Carrie Elliot.
As you can see, they are high school students, too mature to pal around with middle schoolers.
"Mom finally bought me the keyboard," Carrie reports.
"Awesome! Now all we need is to spice up your wardrobe, and we practically have a band."
"We tried that," Carrie reminds her friend. "Mom just threw all my trendy clothes in the garbage."
"Pffft, we'll just stash your clothes at my place. It'll be fine!" Astral declares. "And if we get your hair cut, your Mom can't exactly-"
"Make we wear a respectable wig?" Carrie arches an eyebrow.
"A tattoo, then," Astral says.
"You really want me grounded forever, don't you?"
"We'll both get a tattoo of our band name, just as soon as we figure out what it is."
"Hmm," Carrie makes a noncommittal noise.
"I was thinking Gateway Glam."
"Do we know what those words even mean?"
By the end of the week, Astral and Carrie are at the Voltaire Salon & Tattoo Parlor.
Astral thinks the tattoo artist, Mani Vinter, is a pretty cool dude, as he is perfectly willing to listen to her teen problems and take her money.
Carrie allows Astral to do the talking, as usual, so she can focus all of her attention on the fish swimming towards Mani's bicep.
Astral thinks Mani is far less of a cool dude when she learns about his prices. The girls will only be able to afford one tattoo. The most bang for their buck would obviously involve pissing off Carrie's mother, so Astral waits patiently for Carrie to select a design and get inked.
"What do you think?" Carrie couldn't be talked into a tattoo that said Gateway Glam, but she did get a tattoo on her face. The jellyfish seems to explode out from the small birthmark under Carrie's right eye, so Astral can only assume it was meant to somewhat mask it.
"A stinging marine thingie! Badass!" Astral responds.
"A jellyfish stung me once when I was swimming, so it's symbolic."
"Like how Batman was afraid of bats so he dresses up like one?"
"Yeah."
"Badass!" Astral says again.
"I was also kind of inspired by Mani's koi tattoo," Carrie adds, whispering now. "He's such a dreamboat."
"Less badass," Astral says flatly.
"Sooo do you think makeup can cover this, or is my mother going to prison for murder tonight?"
________
________
"Ivy and Mikkel are MARRIED?!" Fairuza screeches. "And they told YOU before ME?!"
Still grinning like a jackass after her adventures at Voltaire's, Astral returns home to find her mother causing drama on the front lawn.
"Don't blame the messenger!" Satsuma whimpers. Fairuza may be privy to Mikkel's work schedule since he took a job with the Alpacas, but Satsuma actually lives with the guy. "I think they did it in secret to avoid a fuss and a party... Mikkel just hopped on the train to visit Ivy at university and we didn't know they were planning on getting married..."
"I wanted a party!" Fairuza whines.
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Etc.: Several Mexican restaurants in my old hometown offered free ice cream cones at the door. Just cheap soft serve, nothing great, but it reportedly helped wash down regrets.
