Log: Ice Cream

[baruthumos]

Who: Omega Ai, Theta Ai
What: Eating ice cream and talking
Where: Ice cream shop
When: Saturday afternoon
Warnings: None



It's rare Omega doesn't have to give up chocolate ice cream to someone who likes it better. But they have about fifty gallons in the case, they can spare Omega a scoop or two. "I'm getting brownie bits. What do you want, T-man."

Comments

[trustandfireworks]

The worst part of getting ice cream is choosing which flavor to have. Unlike some of his siblings, Theta likes pretty much every flavor there is so he always has a wide selection he has to narrow down.

'Raspberry whirl, please,' he decides. This one looks especially good.

[baruthumos]

Omega nods, and pays for their ice cream, and leads Theta to a booth. "We need to talk," he says.

[trustandfireworks]

Theta tucks happily into ice cream as they sit down in a corner. Mm, yes this was definitely the right choice. Yummy!

...Uh oh. Nothing good comes of those words.

'If this is about the soap, it wasn't me.'

[baruthumos]

Omega raises an eyebrow. "What happened to the soap?"

[trustandfireworks]

Oops.

'Um... Nothing. Just... did you know soap cleans floors by getting all the dirt to stick to it?'

[baruthumos]

"Yes," Omega says. "Greasy dirt. How did you learn that?"

[trustandfireworks]

'Um, well, you see... It was Eta's idea, and I... didn't think it was a bad one until it was too late.'

[baruthumos]

Omega glares at Theta. "Don't throw your sister under the bus," he says. "You're older. You're supposed to look out for her."

[trustandfireworks]

Theta shrinks a bit under the glare.

'I was! She thought it would be nice to help keep the house clean, so I got the soap for her. I thought she knew she needed water as well.'

[baruthumos]

This segues nicely into Omega's intended discussion. "So you helped her, and it was still a mess?"

[trustandfireworks]

He slumps, hoping Omega won't take his ice cream away as punishment. Just in case, he holds it a bit closer and firmer. 'Yeah. Sorry...'

[baruthumos]

"But you're still a good kid, you know," Omega says. "One mistake doesn't change that."

He reaches across and musses Theta's hair.

[trustandfireworks]

He blinks, then figures he's not in trouble and smiles.

'I'll be more careful next time,' he promises.

[baruthumos]

"I know you will," Omega says. "But it works the other way too. A person can do one or two things right and still be not a nice person because of other things they've done."

[trustandfireworks]

This sounds like it's going somewhere.

'Like if you do more bad things than good things?' he asks. 'What if they do lots of slightly good things and then one really bad thing?'

[baruthumos]

"More like lots of bad things where you can't see, to your brothers, and one good thing to you."

Omega's not really talking theoreticals here. "Would you like someone who was mean to Delta but nice to you?"

[trustandfireworks]

Theta licks a drip that's beginning to run down the side of his ice cream, catching it before it reaches his hand.

'No, family's more important. If they do bad things when you can't see, they might be faking the nice bit because they want something.'

[baruthumos]

"They could be," Omega says. "Or he could be a jerk, I don't know, I can't see his point of view. I can't stick my head that far up my own butt."

Theta is right, and Omega's glad he understands being cruel to one of them is being cruel to all of them.

[trustandfireworks]

Theta giggles at the word "butt" and tries to hide it by taking another mouthful of ice cream. He should get this flavor again sometime, it's really good.

[baruthumos]

"So if someone is nice to you, and Delta says they're a jerk when you're not looking, what does that mean?"

Ice cream was a good way to trap Theta into this discussion.

[trustandfireworks]

The giggle vanishes. This is sounding very familiar all of a sudden.

'Is this about Church?'

[baruthumos]

"Yeah," Omega nods, licking a drip off his cone. "I've met him."

[trustandfireworks]

'He helped me at the store. And I felt comfortable around him.' That's an important fact.

[baruthumos]

"He's a jerk," Omega says flatly. "When I met him, he made sure to tell me how much he doesn't like Delta. Nobody mentioned Delta before him. He just wanted to make very sure we knew he didn't like Delta. That wasn't very helpful. He could have just kept his mouth shut."

Delta's right. Clearly whatever they remembered of Alpha was really Beta.

[trustandfireworks]

Theta looks down, biting his lip. This really isn't a conversation he wants to have. He's been trying to forget about the whole thing at the store since it happened, it had all been too confusing.