o1 👼🏼 video;

[kidsmenu]

Bon soir. I am Claudia de Lioncourt.

[Small, blonde, extremely curly. A little more articulate and staid in her manner than your average twelve-year-old girl. She's wearing a flowery T-shirt and a backward, pink baseball cap.]

I am seeking information on how family relationships mature as a child grows up, in this world and time. In my old world, it would hinge on marriage, and childbirth, and separation from the ancestral home. But it seems that times have changed. Or perhaps they never were.

I'm given to understand that ImPorts don't tend to have children or anything, but I'm open to hearing stories gathered from the natives. Or your other cultures. Apparently, there is a saying, 'when in Rome.' And it would seem there are infinite versions of Romes to choose from.

Comments

[kidsmenu]

Yes, that's traditional, [Clauida nods. A beat.]

Well, it would have been. But I have-- some other circumstances. [The moment it's out of her mouth, Claudia kind of regrets it, hesitating visibly on the screen. But she can't help it. Women who are mothers, and who are beautiful-- they kind of get something different out of her.]

[coppelganger]

Yeah? [ She doesn't want to pry, but she leaves it open if Claudia wants to say more. ] That's okay. [ Well, she has no idea if it's okay or not, but what else is she supposed to say? ]

→ private;

[kidsmenu]

Well—

[more hesitation. But then she dials over into private. They're all ImPorts, she reminds herself. Sarah will have seen weirder things.

And besides: she's a mother.]

I can't grow up. Not like normal girls. Not like your daughter.

[coppelganger]

You can't—are you dead?

[ That's the first place her mind goes to, considering how many imPorts are. ]

[kidsmenu]

[The little girl's face is very careful.] In a manner of speaking, yes.

[coppelganger]

[ God, Sarah is Not Equipped for this conversation. ]

A lot of people here are dead back in their worlds.

[kidsmenu]

Are you?

[Her eyes glitter vampire bright.]

[coppelganger]

Not yet.

[ It's supposed to be a joke, ha ha, but it definitely falls a bit flat, not least because she's not actually joking about it. ]