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Finnah's just arrived at work to open the store for the morning shift; she has her apron on but hasn't put her hair up yet. She lets in the customer who always takes half an angle to determine that he wants four buttercreams, again, and then nips into the back to tend to her hair and check the overnight progress of the rock candy.
This isn't the back.
But that -
No, he's too tall to be Mial, if this is a Mial prank it's a stupidly elaborate one.
"Okay, I give up," she says, "what the hell?"
middlingalong
Meanwhile, Ivan and Aurin are telling each other about their respective current girlfriends.
middlingalong
Vivienne's virtues have already been spoken; Siya, apparently, likes to fly, and plays the huan (an instrument) and amisro (a sport), the latter of which comes with a uniform that Aurin appreciates very much. She doesn't like kids but does like drakes and is currently between pet ones after her prior one succumbed to old age; Aurin is considering getting her one for Hearthnight. It is her favorite holiday and she's planning to be in a parade for it.
middlingalong
"Is this topic of conversation really that interesting to you?" Ivan wonders in Mark's direction.
middlingalong
"I mean, I suppose if you're coming back to Barrayar you might meet Vivienne eventually but I can't imagine that this would be particularly useful prep work," says Ivan. "Is this just 'Ivans are fascinating, even when they're going on about total strangers to make point by point comparisons'?"
middlingalong
"I find this very peculiar," says Aurin.
"You and me both," says Ivan. "But it's not absolute! He was pleased to have missed the one of us who was six."
"You and me both," says Ivan. "But it's not absolute! He was pleased to have missed the one of us who was six."
unmarred
Mark gives a little shudder. "Children. No thank you. Not even a child Ivan. Especially not a child Ivan."
middlingalong
"He was adorable, and very well behaved if I do say so myself," says Ivan. "His cousins were yelling and he was perfectly content to play whirligig. Children on Easy Mode."
unmarred
"I'm not very good at talking to people without inadvertently horrifying them. I don't care to test myself on people who are likely to be harder to understand and easier to upset."
middlingalong
"What about a little Miles, since you're the expert on Mileses?" wonders Ivan. "If he'd been here alone."
unmarred
"...I am slightly less overwhelmingly reluctant to interact with a child Miles. But I'd still rather flee, all else being equal."
middlingalong
"Now there was an obnoxious child," says Ivan.
"I thought Mial was cute when he was little, but we have a thirty-one year age gap..."
"I thought Mial was cute when he was little, but we have a thirty-one year age gap..."
unmarred
"Which one are you calling obnoxious? The one you grew up with, or the one who was in here earlier? Or both?"
middlingalong
"I noticed, but I didn't attribute it to obnoxious childhood," corrects Ivan. "At the time."