Ice Skating

Viv moves her hair aside and takes a deep sip of the offered hot chocolate. "Mmmmmmm." She murmurs. "Such delightful warm currents running through me." Viv giggles. "Perhaps it would be fun to be a Lady of the Warm Ocean instead." She muses. When the chocolate is done but warmth is still there, she glides back on the ice.

Gertrude sits with the rest sitting and sipping her hot cocoa. Is this what it’s like to have friends? Could these people ever be her real friends? Hey Kid is her friend and maybe these people can be too. Maybe she can find a place here? No, best not go there, she’s just here for awhile but, at least, while she’s here she can help out.

"I am not a fan of football either Amelie. Maybe next time there’s a game I can help you out with your chores or something?"

Parish is picking up speed now. He laughs merrily as he circles the rink.

"Join me, dear companions," he calls to Gertrude and anyone else still on the sidelines. "There are yet ice-capades to be had!"

As he gains confidence inspiration strikes. It's a move he would never have been able to achieve as a knight. Does he dare? Yes, he must! With great concentration, Parish crouches and then leaps!

Parish goes sailing through the air, eyes wide with the thrill of it. He spins once, twice, and then (to his utmost surprise), he lands on his feet with hardly a wobble. "I am simply aglow with hoppiness!" he exclaims. "That this old body still has such a feat left in it! Why I remember-"

Parish continues on a long, rambling reminiscence of the days of yore, completely unbothered that nobody can hear him over the wind.

"Hoppy days are here again... Gray skies will be clear again..." Sal sings, finding some lyrical inspiration in Parish's words. He gets up and dusts the snow off his bottom. "You heard the frog, let's go for another round!"

The night porter leaps back onto the ice, following Parish. He spins once, twice, thrice, QUADRICE! "Woo hoo! If the girls back home could see me now!" he laughs. "Now this is ice skating!"

Viv glides over to Amelie and holds out her hand. "Amelie, what I need right now is a skating partner to make me feel more confident." She announces. "Will you do me the honor of joining me on the ice?"

Amelie is surprised that Gertrude wants to help clean.

"You are welcome to clean any time. I am afraid you will not find it as pleasant an experience as skating, but I get this feeling when I can see my own reflection in the rosewood tabletop.

"I call it The Feeling of Accomplishment."

When Viv approaches, Amelie is confused. They feel it is right to accommodate Viv’s need, but is it rude to leave the conversation with Gertrude.

Observation playback: rabbits in little outfits.
[OBS_1] they mingle
[OBS_2] mingling does not cause offense
[OBS_3] they are rabbits
[OBS_4] rabbits are people too
[CONCL] There is a 74.8% chance that mingling will not cause offense.

Amelie is about to take Viv’s hand and try not to face-plant. But they process a feeling that overrides their deductive reasoning!Amelie knows what they are supposed to do!

"Please excuse me, Gertrude. I will oblige Viv in partner skating. If you would like, I will partner skate with you as well. Or alternatively, you may suggest another means of socialization on ice. I do not understand socialization, but am willing and able to learn."

Seeing Viv pair up with Amelia, Parish takes himself over to Gertrude and offers his arm with a bow.

"Might I impose on you for a loop around the old ballroom?" he asks gallantly, a wide smile on his face. You can take the man out of the knight, but you can't take the knight out of the frog! ... or however that saying goes.

But wait! Gertrude is A Youth and may not understand his invitation! "A slip-n-slide around the rock-n-roller rink. Yo! Ya hear!"

Got em'.

Gertrude laughs a bit then she takes Parish's hand and skates onto the rink with him. "Maybe we can do a better job of it this time. Okay and with me..."

She sets up so Parish is technically in the lead on the ice as she counts, "One, two, three and one, two three. You go forward and I go back. Turn to your left and skate left, and right, and one, two, three. There we go, you've got it!"

Viv leads Amelie onto the ice and guides them on looping paths that brings them near the other skaters but at a distance that will keep them from colliding. Wordlessly, Viv adjusts Amelie's balance to help keep her steady as they slide about. "This feels good. Helping you." She sighs in contentment.

Sal chills on the shore of the pond, watching as Gertrude skates with Sal and Viv glides around holding Amelie. "The vibes, man. The vibes," he says with a wistful smile. He looks at the sun as it begins to set. This beautiful day is almost over...

Amelie so appreciates Viv’s help, they express it……in song!

Despite easily twirling while launching snowballs from their free hand’s arm cannon—snowballs that burst like fireworks!—Amelie never lets go of Viv’s hand.

"Don’t let goooo!
Don’t let goooo!
I know I sound paranoid!
Don’t let goooo!
Don’t let goooo!
I’m not a perfect droid!
And Ya - ze - baaaa’s
Attention’s off of meeee
Let the cold reign onnnnnnnnn…

"’cause cold doesn’t act like the boss of me."

As Amelie bursts into song, the question that has been buzzing up and down their body finally comes to the forefront:

"What am I supposed to be doing?"

Viv smiles but her eyes grow sad. "That never used to be a question for me." Viv murmurs.
"I was part of destiny. I waited until it was time to play my appointed part then I bestowed wisdom or magic or advice." Viv smiles at some fleeting memory. "The rest of the time I waited for the next moment and it took some time to consider that maybe, in between those moments, I might want to do something for myself." Viv sighs. "So I've decided that's what I'm supposed to be doing, finding out what it is I want to do while waiting for what I need to do."

"Working."

That is Amelie’s knee-jerk response. They contemplate how wrong it sounds.

"But now I am playing, socializing, learning, helping, and not singing… but I was just a moment ago, and while my tune was unoriginal, I made up the lyrics as I went along and followed the rhyme scheme, albeit loosely and off-meter. I believe I successfully achieved fun."

A light bulb rises from Amelie’s scalp and shines brightly as the android processes the concept of fun and whether it is achievable, and whether it truly has been achieved.

Searching… searching… file found… paraphrasing…

"Achievement of fun is subjective. Objectively, I have concluded I am supposed to be working and playing, or attempting to achieve fun through other reasonable means, based on an undeniable truth passed on through generations of humanity:

"All work and no play makes Amelie a dull droid."

Gertrude thinks about just what she’s supposed to be doing. Is she growing up? Is she finding her place? Is she making friends? "I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing. I think I am supposed to be trying to figure that out, I think maybe we’re all just figuring it out as we go along, we find one thing and then maybe another. We build our own self one thing at a time."

"I couldn't have said it better, Gertie," Sal says with a grin. "Take me, for example. At first, I thought I was supposed to be training to be Yazeba's apprentice. It took me a long time to figure out that it just wasn't the look I was going for, know what I mean? Now, I'm trying my best to make it big as a musician. Am I supposed to be doing that? Who knows? But it's a goal that makes me happy to work toward. So, maybe that's what we're all supposed to be doing. Whatever makes us happy, dig?

"And 🎵If it makes you happy/It can't be that baaaad! If it makes you happy/Then why the hell are you so sad?!?🎵" Sal ends by belting out some Sheryl Crow lyrics.The question Parish has been struggling with comes to light shortly thereafter:

"What is this body even good for?"

Amelie contemplates what their body is good for.

"My body can do many things, from vacuuming—" They open a palm and vacuum in some snow to prove the point. "—to surviving in a vacuum." They do NOT launch themself into orbit to prove the point. They can’t do that. (…yet!)

Instead they launch the vacuumed snow into the sky to make yet another icy ‘firework.’

"I believe my body is capable of many things that are not ‘vacuum-related,’" —they make air quotes, for they intended ‘vacuum-related’ to mean ‘maid-work-related’— "but I must learn the thing first and respect my limit. There are some things that are impossible for me that all of you can do beautifully. This inspires me to learn new things, and push myself to discern what is impossible, and what merely seems impossible because I have yet to try."

"What is this body good for?" Gertrude looks at herself and she's not happy. Like many teens her age she has body image issues even here at Yazeba's and away from social media there's still a TV and there are still ads showing impossible beauty standards that she can never really measure up to.

"I can be friends with people, I can help people, heck maybe I could even be a witch if I wanted to. This body may not be like the ads say it should be but it's mine and I love it." Gertrude isn't sure where that came from but, she feels it is a truth. She turns onto the ice and skates well, jumping and spinning, then landing gracefully.

Viv listens to the others and the one eye not covered by hair twinkles a little. "Its my body and I love it." She repeats. "I like that a lot. After all, it is this body that allows us to experience everything else. I think I will use it to keep experiencing new things."

"Everybody's got a body," Sal muses. "Sometimes it's not the body that it's supposed to be. In those cases, you can either try to make the best of the hand you've been dealt, or take steps to make your body match who you are on the inside. But whatever you choose, sometimes you might find that your body is capable of much more than your realize. I mean, look at Gertie! Who would've guessed she could move like that on the ice?!?"

The sun begins to set and the five friends begin to make their way back inside the B&B. As they do, they muse on the big question of the day:

"If we're not who we expected to be, who are we?"