"Back into the city.  There are a few places we might be safe there, which I am deliberately not yet choosing between."

"Maybe tomorrow should be my birthday. Or yesterday. Instead of today."

"Let's aim for tomorrow, unless that also ends up being awful for you, in which case it was retroactively yesterday."

"Yeah, that seems about right."

"We can still maybe get you a nice dinner today?  Like, I can't imagine that we're going to do better than takeout, and I bet it can be fancy takeout."

"Fanciness is indeed not a parallel axis to indiscretion."

"Fancy takeout, with cake just in case, yeah. It's not really important compared to anything else, just."

"You deserve so much cake."

"I appreciate that. Maybe I will get to go home and find a partner and guiding will be all it's cracked up to be and I will have the best powers in the world, I think I deserve that."

"Yeah.  And in the meantime cake for you."

"If we can manage it.  I expect we'll be able to, but I don't want to leave you disappointed if something else comes up."

"I will prepare myself for a ration of gas station snacks. We should try not to undernourish me, it's not the most conspicuous symptom but I'm being quietly physically remodeled toward peak human in various ways - might wind up with an eye color or hair color change too - and I'd rather have enough nutrients to get underway on that without cannibalizing myself too much."

"Noted."

"Am I allowed to have cake?"

"Yes.  If we succeed in obtaining cake at all, we will be able to get enough for you to have some."

"Thank you, Mr. Vogt."

"Well, you're welcome."

"I think it would kind of defeat the purpose of a birthday cake anyway to have a birthday cake, and an eight year old in attendance, and not give her any cake."

"Usually I think there is more control over whether I'm in attendance."

"You have a point but I think I also have a point."

"Isn't a birthday cake for the pleasure of the people whose birthday it is?"

"It is also to partake in a broader birthday tradition. Like, I'd think someone who... didn't want to invite their little sibling to their tenth birthday party, and had to anyway, and tried to deprive their sibling of cake, would be acting wrongly, even if this cake distribution policy would have brought them pleasure."

"That seems wrong to me but I do want cake anyway.  Some cake.  Very much cake is not good for people."

"You may have whatever fraction of an equitable cake division would best suit you."