WIP Whursday
@monsterbrush snagged me and tagged me. The mission? To find some snippet languishing in my billions and billions of unfinished WIPs and to drag it out into the light.
This has been sitting unfinished for more than half a decade. It's a future!fic Nightmare Dork University tale in my Footlights and Frontispieces AU.
This story is called "What Happens At Con Stays At Con".
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āDad, it says right on the website that everyone is welcome.Ā Uncle Piki is coming along, even though Uncle Jack and I will be on a different programming track than he isā¦ā
āBaby girl, thatās the point.Ā You and Jack and Piki will have stuff to do.Ā Pitch and I are happy to be your cheering squad, and Iām sure he can use it as an excuse to hole up and write, but it doesnāt sound like Iām personally gonna find anything that will interest me for a whole weekend with geeks.ā
Father and daughter usually looked forward to facetiming by weblink once a week.Ā It meant that, no matter where in the world his entomologist progeny could be found at a given time, Coz could reassure himself that Seraphina was fine. Said progeny had definitely been in some WEIRD places over the years, chasing butterflies and moths and crawly things with way too many legs, doing research for both her career as a scientist and her sideline of illustrating the ARTHROPOD ABBEY books that she and Coz's brother-in-law-by-marriage, Jack Sickle, had turned into a bestselling childrenās book series.
But the weblink also meant that Coz didnāt have to leave his comfortable home for too many reasons other than working at the garage or teaching his night course in military history.Ā Of course, when there was an opportunity for him to travel with Pitch to Los Angeles when Pitch had to personally yell at the producers who were destroying his screenplays, Coz was ready, willing and able to jump onto a cross-country flight with him. It was only right, after all, to back up his husband and provide emotional support in the cushiest hotel rooms with ample room service that somebody else was paying for.
However, those LA trips were usually not more than once or twice a year. The one time he had visited his daughter while she was on expedition in El Yunque National Forest had been enough for him.Ā The treehouse that Sera had lined up for his stay there had been novel for the first two nights, but just too far-out to repeat the experience. Ā Coz was much happier when he could sleep in his own bed alongside Pitch, in the Bronx rowhouse that had once belonged to his grandparents.Ā Ā
So this current conversation, where Seraphina was asking him and Pitch to come to some weird conference in New England covering all sorts of pop culture, was making him nervous.Ā
On the screen, Seraphina pressed her knuckles into the bridge of her nose in frustration, and then inspiration seemed to strike.Ā She resurrected the winsome tone that had let her get away with mayhem until the age of nine. Ā āBut Daaaaaaaadā¦ there will be boozeā¦ and swords.ā
There was a snorting noise coming from the direction of Cozās left shoulder.Ā Pitch had walked into the room unannounced. āBoth incredible incentives, Iām sure.ā
Seraās other parent put one slender hand on his husbandās brawny arm. He leaned in towards the screen and said, āYou neednāt try so hard to convince us, Seraphina.Ā As it turns out, Iāve already accepted my invitation to speak on three panels and to host a kafeeklatsch, which meets the terms of my honorarium. Ā Iām sure your father will be more than happy to make the trip with me.ā Pitch unloosed the full sharkiness of his smile. āWonāt you,Ā dear.ā
Coz resigned himself to his fate as Seraphina pumped her fist in the air at the other end of the weblink.
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I'm gonna tag @gretchensinister and @tejoxys
