I'm sorry it took so long. Here's your request:
It's only 8 AM, and Cicero is bored. Usually she would've been working, but Mother had suddenly changed the shop hours the minute the case was over. And Cicero was trying to not fight. She'd done too much of that during the case, and it was not enjoyable being on strained terms with her parents.
However, she didn't have much to do at this hour. The library wasn't open, the Ovenist had another event, and Octavia never voluntarily woke up before 3 PM.
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Technically, there is one person who Cicero can talk to at this hour. Cicero has noticed that Alicante and Allie will come here every morning, and throw something at the pond. Cicero had never bothered to ask, since it most likely was a father-daughter event and she didn't want to intrude. She is mildly curious...was it rocks? Bread? Something else? But it's not her business.
So Cicero just hangs out at Havarti Park. The area is surprisingly empty (apparently there'd been a pelican attack at the beach, and everyone was busy helping. Except Cicero. She felt bad for it, but she really didn't have the energy for something like that. She still was recovering from the last few months.)
Cicero is busy swinging when she hears Allie from behind her. "Is it true? Was there a shark here?"
Cicero turns around. "Yes-"
"I knew it! My papa said that it's just rumors, but I knew that it was real." She turns back and runs to her dad. They seem to have a small argument, then Alicante comes back.
“What the fuck do you mean, there was a shark here?”
Cicero stares at him. “There was a shark.” Alicante is still staring at her, so Cicero adds, “I saw it trip out of a fountain.”
Alicante is staring at her, and then he looks to the side and mutters something about how Cicero is probably going to tell him that the shark did actually jump.
Cicero probably should’ve ignored it. People did sometimes get weirded out by Cicero’s unusually good hearing. But now she’s curious. And Alicante was a safe person to ask these types of questions. “Why is a shark jumping sound strange? It happens all the time, especially at Havarti Park.”
Alicante stares at her. Why is he starting at her? Oh, right. She was taking too much of his and Allie’s 'throw something at the pond' time.
Cicero apologizes and gets ready to leave. But Alicante doesn’t really seem bothered by that.
“Sit.” Alicante says, gesturing towards the park bench.
Cicero isn’t entirely sure if this is the right response, but she sits down. Alicante then hands her a bag of what seems to be pizza crusts.
“You can throw these at the birds. Or whatever. Now, what in the world did you mean, it’s normal for sharks to show up here?” Alicante gestures at the park. More empathetically than he did the chair.
Cicero pauses. This particular story contained Octavia (most stories Cicero had about breaking the rules contained Octavia) and Alicante always reacted…oddly…whenever Cicero brought up that she and Octavia knew each other.
But she didn’t have another shark related story, so she takes a piece of bread and throws it at the water. “So you know how the park has a rule against bringing fish here?”
Alicante looks like he doesn’t. Cicero sighs mentally. Why did people not read the signs before playing? The information listed was important!
Cicero chooses not to harp on it. “So me and Octavia got into an argument a while back.”
Cicero pretends not to notice the way Alicante tenses the moment Octavia is mentioned. Instead, she takes another pizza crust and throws it in the water. This time a bird catches it.
“She was telling me that I shouldn’t be so strict about pointless rules, like not bringing fish to Havarti Park. She said it was just to stop the park from smelling. Then I asked her if she had proof, and she said no, so she snuck in a fish sandwich. And then a shark jumped and took it right out of her hand-.”
As if summoned by the words, another shark jumps right out of the sky nearby the fountain, steals an anchovy pizza, then jumps away. "Yeah. Like that."
Cicero is worried that Alicante has missed it, but he’s staring at where the shark used to be with complete shock.
Then he seems to come to realization, and starts saying something about how it’s always something with this town and its animals.
Cicero is about to ask questions, but then changes her mind. She still feels awkward as it is being involved here.
There’s a few ducks in the pond now. Cicero watches as one of them catches a piece of crust that Allie threw.
Alicante turns to Cicero. “Is there anything else animal related I should know?”
“Pelicans took over the beach. I hear it was really bad, and I wouldn’t recommend going unless you really like birds.”
Alicante looks significantly less surprised by this. Cicero doesn’t get why.
But then Alicante asks another question. “Is there anywhere in this city that doesn’t have any animals doing weird stuff?”
Cicero knows it’s supposed to be rhetorical, but she decides to answer anyway. “Okay. Go that way, and stay moving until you see the giant pepperoni pizza statue. Then turn left, and go into the first purple building you see. Pay the staff sixteen thousand pizza funds, do their training for a year, and they will send you to the moon.”
Alicante looks confused once Cicero mentions paying 16k, and at the end he gives Cicero an unimpressed look. It takes Cicero all her willpower to not burst out laughing. “Of course, you may have to deal with cows sometime-.” Cicero isn’t able to finish before she starts laughing. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”
Alicante gives her an unimpressed look, before starting to laugh. "Well, it's good to see you happy again."
Cicero pauses. There's a part of her that wants to put on that happy, composed face she wore when around Cheeser, and insist that she was fine. But she didn't need to anymore.
Cicero isn't entirely sure what to do, so she throws another piece of pizza crust in the water. This time, Alicante joins her.
For a while, it's quiet. Cicero watches as more and more ducks enter the pond and try to grab the crusts. She was positive that Havarti Park didn't have this many ducks, but she also knew that animals would mysteriously show up whenever someone had food...
"Hey. Kid." Alicante says. "Since we're already talking about it...is there anything you found strange when you moved abroad?"
They were already talking about this? What in the world was he talking about? They'd been talking about sharks, not strange things...wait. Alicante had found it strange that the shark jumped. Was it not considered normal for sharks to do that outside of Pizza City? Cicero has heard of the various types of animals that live outside of Pizza City, some with more unusual abilities than jumping. So she'd just assumed that it was normal outside too...
Oh, well. She can discuss it with Alicante later. Or Octavia. It would be a good excuse to talk to either of them. But right now Cicero has to answer the question. Fortunately, she already has the answer.
"The way people treat food. It was a big scandal when Dr. Keh used chemicals, but outside of pizza city people deliberately use it to make, uh, chip flavors. Like plastic sanitizer." That one still bewildered Cicero.
"At least you know that the chips have chemicals." Alicante says, sounding bitter. "We still don't know what the hell he was putting in those pizzas. For all we know it could've been some chemical shit he pulled out from under the sink."
Cicero hadn't considered that. Generally people seemed fine after eating Dr. Keh's pizza, but Octavia consistently got sick afterwards and neither Cicero or Octavia knew why.
Cicero is about to say something else when someone blows a whistle. Loudly. Cicero nearly jumps ten feet and would've tripped into the pond if Alicante hadn't caught her and pulled her up.
Once Cicero steadies herself, she looks up to see that a park guard is nearby. He was most likely the one who blew the whistle. "Listen, we're going to need you to stop feeding the birds. We already had a pelican attack, and we cannot have one here too."
Cicero and Alicante stare at the park guard incredulously (Allie doesn't seem to care). "But there's no pelicans here." Cicero says.
"We can't risk it. You can do what you like, but stop feeding the birds." The park guard sees both Cicero and Alicante's faces, then relents a little. "At least until the pelicans are taken care of."
Alicante looks like he is about to protest, but then he changes his mind. "Fine. I was planning to teach Allie how to make a kite, anyways."
Cicero sincerely doubts that it was fine, but she doesn't want to escalate the situation. So she waits until the park guard is gone to say anything.
But Allie is already excitedly talking to Alicante about the kite. Cicero's glad that she doesn't seem bothered.
Cicero fully expects Alicante and Allie to leave then (they didn't seem to have any kites. Or kite-building building things.). But then Alicante turns to Cicero and asks if she wants to join.
Cicero pauses. "I don't want to intrude-."
"I don't invite people if I don't want to, kid. I even turned Dr. Keh down once."
Cicero hadn't heard about that, but she thinks she believes him.
"Sure." Cicero says. "Also, what happened with Dr. Keh?"
Alicante starts talking about how Dr. Keh had contacted him once for an advertising stunt. The story is a lot less dramatic than Cicero expected, and mostly consists of Alicante turning down the offer in favor of watching a movie.
But Cicero is okay with it not being dramatic. Very okay. It was nice for things to be mundane. Something as mundane and everyday as feeding the birds, avoiding the pelicans, and talking about kites.
Aaaaa Yumnaaaa this is SO good!!! Thanks for taking up my request :D
I LOVE Alicante Cicero interactions SO MUCH I'm INSANE about those two ughhhh
Also LOVE him badmouthing Keh, I thought it was funny as hell when he came talking about how he bumped into him and didn't apologise.
Ngl the whole scene w the shark during the event reminded me of this scene from What Remains of Edith Finch
Also PLEASE, don't apologise for taking your time, the last thing I'd ever want is for people to feel stressed out about making me something. We're all doing this for fun, and I want it to be fun for you :D
