Gratuitous Epilogue

20 - July

July 19

Names

Muina Year 3. The biggest downside of my pregnancy is that I don’t want to risk projecting, and so I can’t check in on Mum, and can’t ask her questions.

Back when we got engaged, and briefly talked about having babies, I told Kaoren he could name any boys, and I’d name any girls (mainly because I had a girl’s name I’d always liked, but not really a boy’s one). He’s been thinking about it very seriously ever since. Names matter to Kaoren.

Earth’s languages added a new level of complexity to his choice, since he’s seen me trying not to giggle at more than a few Kolaren and Taren names which are considered quite ordinary, but are very silly to me (like one of the technicians whose name is Fearme). Kaoren’s never volunteered any suggestions until today, when he asked what I thought about the name "Tyrian". It’s a little unusual – sounds like a name for a style of architecture – but I kind of like it. I expect it would be Tyr for short most of the time, and I don’t mind that either. We’re provisionally settled on that unless we change our mind, though we’re not sharing it as yet (Sen is very annoyed with me for saying we haven’t decided whenever she asks what the baby’s name will be).

But I really really wish I could check with Mum, in case Tyrian means something which would make her giggle.

I had an excursion earlier this week because I decided to go on one of my very rare non-interface shopping trips – Rye’s starting to shoot up a bit in size and all the kids could do with new clothes and I had maternity and baby stuff to buy. Virtual reality shopping is far beyond grainy photos on E-Bay, and I’m usually happy enough to make my purchases online because public appearances are a pain in the neck. I like my island, and I visit the other islands a lot, and we frequently go on little nature exploration trips to places that don’t have a lot of people. I can go to the cities so long as I’m not seen much in public areas. But occasionally I feel a strong need to just wander around in an actual shop.

No-one argued the point when I asked to be allowed to go shopping with the kids some day in the near future, though I was uncomfortable because I knew that there’d be at least two security meetings about me going shopping before the city police even get told about it. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if I just went out every day until everyone was bored of looking at me. I also keep picturing Lira hitting her really rebellious mid-teen phase and deciding she wants to go nightclubbing alone.

It took five days before everything was settled, and it was agreed we would go (with an escort of six Setari) during the after-lunch lull. While KOTIS would really rather I sat somewhere quietly and just let them guard me, they’ve never argued with my requests, or suggested that it’s inconvenient for the kids to attend the talent school. Even dropping them off has been a bit difficult at times, because people will come to the edge of the school grounds (now with ornamental fences and gardens) and watch the island skimmers arrive and try and take pictures.

The talent school has become, not too surprisingly, the school every child wants to attend, and there’s some wonderfully distorted stories about combat training, and stumbling across Setari everywhere. They’ve set aside a great swathe of the land to the south and east of it, and are in the process of laying out a large campus for what will eventually be a weird hybrid selective school to deal with kids with strong talents, and also kids who are attending for other reasons (primarily relatives of other students, and the children of VIPs who need guarding). KOTIS Command is slowly shifting operations on Tare and Kolar to make their Kalrani facilities into one of the new style talent schools, and Pandora is expecting an influx of Kolaren and then Taren Kalrani in the next few weeks.

They’re even talking about it being a world school if the experiments in recreating the aether-making buildings and the transport network work, and thus kids from every settlement might be attending. I’m pleased about the expanded campus because there’ll be sporting facilities, and Rye is so looking forward to more options for team sports. I’m also pleased that the draft plans I’ve seen leave lots of the trees intact.

Other than once or twice being glimpsed at the school’s dock, I hadn’t made a public appearance since the wedding pictures were released – I refuse all the invitations to events which are now forwarded to me – so me wandering about was considered likely to cause a high amount of fuss. We decided to go in two groups for shopping, with the boys hoping to stay low-key, and meeting up with Siame for lunch at the fancy café at the Pandora Museum before taking a tour of the exhibits and checking out the Gallery.

We went first to the big underground shopping complex below Moon Piazza (after a brief stop to look at the statue, on the insistence of Sen). It was reasonably non-busy once we were in the main mall, and we were wearing sunhats and were shielded by our escort (Alay and Maze, Nils, Mori, Zee and Glade) and strolled along window shopping. Alay, Maze and Zee are technically on leave at the moment, but volunteered to be part of the escort (so me, Zee and Alay could talk baby stuff, really).

While handily blocking casual view of us, Nils, Zee and Maze got recognised themselves (the senior Setari are all fairly well-known by now), and it’s really kind of fun to watch the ripple impact of an interface connected world. First a few people paused for double-takes, and then stopped altogether and watched outright while we were peering in a jewellery store window (Lira is very keen to get her earrings) and then a couple of reports appeared on the Setari-watch and Caszandra-watch pages and then there was this snowball effect as more and more people in the shopping complex spotted us, or were contacted by other people. We’d gone into a "young girl’s clothes" store and the lone assistant didn’t even look up as we came in and then suddenly spun around because someone had obviously told her we were in her store.

It’s pretty hard to shop normally when people start hanging about, watching everything you do. Ys – whose interest in shopping is minimal – put up with it because she could see how much fun Sen found the experience. The crowds disconcert Sen a little, but she’s decided it’s amusing to peep out from behind our legs and wave at people. And she and Lira love shopping, especially trying on clothes in a way which is just that bit more satisfying than virtual clothing. Fortunately one of the things which had been decided upon was to ask the stores to set their display windows to opaque while we were inside, which saved us from having too many prying eyes hoping to catch glimpses of anyone modelling new outfits. I had to prod Ys to try on anything, of course, but managed to get a good set of clothing choices for all three, and then we passed through a food court and indulged in unhealthy but gaudily coloured snacks before moving on to shoes and then a baby and maternity store before heading off to meet Kaoren and Rye.

By that time I was feeling pretty tired and was glad we’d booked ahead for one of the café's private rooms. Particularly since it was rather a fancy café, and the privacy gave Kaoren a chance to remind the kids (and, well, me) of some of the niceties of Taren table manners.

I really have to wonder what my Mum will make of all this, if I manage to get her here. And Jules. I don’t think either of them will like this part of living on Muina at all.