Outside Oklahoma City, Wednesday evening

[vdistinctive]

Trudy had said Eliot and his family were going to be her guests, so he wasn't allowed to cook dinner. He'd said she shouldn't have to cook it either, and they'd both refused to make everyone eat leftover funeral casserole.

So Eliot pulled the rental car — rental van, because four adults was a lot to fit into a sedan and renting a van was almost tradition — into the lot of a little mom&pop Italian restaurant.

"There's Tru's car," he said as he set the parking break and turned the car off. He looked back towards Kathy and Parker. "Y'all ready for this?"

[ooc: FAMILY DINNER TIME! For those who know, and epic slow play.]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Cassie propped her chin on her folded hands and smirked. "What did Eliot tell you?"

"Don't be a brat," Jake said.

"Ellie had to stay in Austin for her finals," Trudy said, getting up and circling the table to give her brother a big hug. "Cassie . . . is figuring things out."

"I got caught up online," Cassie grumbled. "It's fine."



"So she says," Tru said shaking her head. "The joy of raising teenagers." She let Eliot go and turned to Parker. "It's lovely to finally meet you, hon. Do you hug?"

Eliot gave Parker a look that hopefully made it clear the answer didn't have to be "yes".

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"Not... really," Parker admitted, and was so, so grateful that Trudi had asked. "Reflexes kick in. People get hurt. Unless I start the hug. Then it's not bad." She couldn't help smiling back and relaxing a little though, because Trudi sounded like Eliot and kinda looked like him around the edges, and added, "Maybe by the time we leave?"

She smirked over at Cassie and said, "That you made him do stuff he didn't want to. Good job."

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"She didn't make me," Eliot grumbled.

"Ain't no trouble at all if you don't," Trudy assured Parker. "We're just glad you're here."

"Do you hit people?" Cassie asked, looking interested. "Dad says I'm not allowed to."

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"Why?" Parker asked, sitting down and looking bewildered, and shooting a confused look at the guy who had to be Jake. "I mean, it's way better than stabbing them. Which I don't do! Nope."

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"Stab them with what?" Cassie asked, looking very interested.

Jake looked between the two of them with a frown. Eliot intercepted before he could say anything, swooping in and engaging Jake in a conversation about sports.

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"A fork. I mean, nothing!" Parker paused, then asked, "So, who'd you hit?"

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"I dunno," Cassie said, shrugging. "People." A beat. "Boys. They're obnoxious. Mom'd be all 'they're just doing it because they like you' as if that makes anything better."

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"They're doing it because nobody stops them," was Parker's opinion. "So why shouldn't you stop them, especially if they're so stupid they won't stop when someone says 'stop'? Whatever it is. I mean, that one guy was talking about war orphans like they were garbage that didn't matter, and we knew he was helping to sell them on the black market, so."

Um.

"Theoretically... so did they stop? Whatever it was?"

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"I kinda might've skipped the 'saying stop' part sometimes," Cassie admitted. "Hang on, war orphans?"

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"We took them for ice cream," Parker admitted. "Because the only word I could make them understand was 'Haagen Daaz.'" She paused and said, "The war was over by the time we got the country, so that one is not Eliot's fault."

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"Really." Cassie leaned forward. "Which wars were Uncle Eliot's fault?"

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"Errr...." Parker wondered how she'd got to talking like this, and decided it was probably some Spencer thing where they kept asking questions and she kept expecting them to quit asking at some point, like other 'normal' people. And then they didn't. "I dunno, maybe the fatwa? But mostly I'm pretty sure they all got started without him, he just ended them, okay, what's for dinner?"

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"A fatwa isn't a war," Cassie said. "It's a ruling about Islamic law. Though most of the time in the west they use it to refer to extremists declaring a death sentence on someone."

Trudy looked up from across the table and frowned. "Cassie, are you lecturing people about war again?"

"It's not my fault that human conflict is fascinating."

"She couldn't be fascinated by diplomacy or arbitration, could she," Trudy said. "Oh no, it has to be war."

"And swords," Cassie said, and grinned at Parker. "I like swords a lot."

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"That, yeah," Parker agreed. "In Myamar. I think." She beamed at Cassie as she talked to her mom. "Has Eliot shown you the Hanzō sword yet? Nate got it for him for Christmas a while ago. We got him a washizaki last Christmas to go with it." She tilted her head. "You should ask him for martial arts training if you're going to keep punching people. So you don't break something."

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"Wait, like — Hanzō style, or actually by Hanzō?" She looked over at Eliot. "You cannot have a four hundred year old sword." Eliot smirked. "And you didn't tell me?!" She looked back at Parker. "He didn't tell me! I mean — yes, my focus is more on Europe, but four hundred year old sword!"

Johnny let out a long suffering sigh from across the table and slouched lower in his seat. Apparently sword rants were a thing that happened fairly regularly when Cassie was around.

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"Really good four-hundred-year-old sword," Parker agreed. "Some stuff from the 17th century is crap, but not that." She looked over at Johnny, and smirked. "Sorry. Weapons aren't your thing, hunh?"

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"Nope," Johnny said without looking up from his phone.

"Johnny's not into the past," Cassie said. "He's only interested in the future." Johnny jerked a little as she kicked him under the table. "How's the neural network going, nerd?"

"You play Dungeons and Dragons," Johnny said, still not looking up. "We're both nerds."

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"Oh, that's Hardison's expertise. He's not allowed to build Skynet. We agreed." To Cassie she added, "And he's really into World of Warcraft. He made an elven warrior for Eliot and everything."

[vdistinctive]

"Does he LARP?" Cassie asked. "Because I've got some killer ideas for boffers!"