does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[campanas]

"Don't know how long being here."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Better to end up taking more time off work than necessary than to leave a small child unsupervised for weeks at a time. Anyway, we can afford it; Klaudia's father is rich and terrible at expressing his affection in ways other than money."

[campanas]

Blink. "Okay."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Gloria can find someone to cover for her tonight.
She can also take Pen grocery shopping, after suggesting that she hold her wings still and pretend they're part of a costume; feeding an eight year old nothing but takeout is a terrible idea.

[campanas]

"Why saying costume?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Not saying costume, exactly, but letting people assume it. People can be remarkably oblivious to strange things going on around them, and forcing them not to be oblivious ends up wasting a lot of time on things like screaming and calming people down and convincing them that they're not hallucinating, dreaming or the subject of a strange prank."

[campanas]

"This world having vampires," Pen points out. "Are secrets?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Not secret exactly, but not well known either. No one's going to jump on you for telling someone, but we try to be reasonably discreet."

[campanas]

"Oh." Sigh. "Angel costume, okay. But doing flying last night..."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"There's a difference between flying at night, in the dark, when people who are likely to make a fuss can just assume they're hearing or seeing a vulture or something, and in a brightly lit grocery store."

[campanas]

"Am not vulture," says Pen indignantly.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Of course you're not. I only mentioned it as an example of a large bird someone might mistake you for--it could as easily be an eagle, people like eagles, they might think of that first."

[campanas]

Snort. "Angel costume," she agrees.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I mean, I dress up as a stereotypical member of my kind and many of my employees do the same, I know from sacrificing dignity in the name of not making a public disturbance."

[campanas]

"Okay."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

So they go to the grocery store! What kinds of things does Pen like to eat, it's been a while since Gloria's had solid food but she's had liquefied forms of many things so she can make recommendations if Pen doesn't recognize things.

[campanas]

Pen recognizes a lot of the produce, and likes fruit. She is confused by the packaging but can identify some legumes and grains in the bulk section as good and is amused by "angelhair pasta". She likes eggs and bread and cheese and seems to find the meat selection inadequate but likes poultry and beef.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Gloria will purchase a subset of these things that she remembers how to prepare from when she was human or feels confident in finding recipes online for.

[campanas]

Pen is also entranced by the bakery display of cakes and pastries.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Gloria will buy Pen a pastry! Which one would she like?

[campanas]

This is a very difficult decision.

Eventually Pen settles on a chocolate croissant.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Chocolate croissant it is. And cake-baking supplies go in the grocery cart because this isn't actually Gloria's kid so she's allowed to spoil her a little.

[campanas]

Yay!

[maggie_of_the_owls]

And then they are not in the grocery store anymore and Pen is not being asked to keep her wings still.
When they get back to the apartment, would Pen like to help Gloria figure out a cake recipe and bake a cake?

[campanas]

"Dunno how cake."