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Sometimes when Wisp Darnell was disheartened -- she was rarely annoyed or irritated for a very long period of time, not more than five minutes, as it simply wasn't in her nature -- and so when she was upset, or frustrated, especially after school, she would go to the Daycare Center to see the kids. They cheered her up like some people were cheered up by seeing puppies: sure, puppies were cute too, but the kids were really fun, and sometimes Xi would give her some applesauce which made her nostalgic for being two feet tall.

She dropped her bag at the desk and waved at Evan before letting herself into the nursery: she had Nursery Privileges, which made her feel special, and she had been popping in nearly every day for the last week to try to cheer herself up over the superhero business. She was immediately thrilled when she saw a new small figure in the layout: made a beeline for him immediately, especially as it was wearing a little orange fox suit, and she dropped down in front of the little golden-haired boy and clapped her hands in glee.

"You're so cuuuuute," she said, gushing. "What's your name, you? Hi, hi! You're dressed as a fox! Soooooo cuuuute."

Kids were adorable.

Soooooooo cute. She wanted to pick him up and squeeze him, or at least give him a cuddle, but Xi and Evan had warned her about squishing the kids before: you had to be very gentle as they were little, and sometimes they didn't like being touched. So smart, too! Little pink rainbows sparkled around Wisp's head, prismatic patches, and she clapped her hands together and dropped further to her haunches.

"You're my new favourite," she said. "Todd! Adorable. I'm Wisp, Todd!" She took the block and admired it suitably, grabbing another block to put on top of it. "Can you say 'Wisp'? Can you?"

Yeah, she adored children. She wanted ninety. All named after colours.

It had taken a little bit to sink in to realise that little Todd was not as low-functioning as some of the real babies inside the Nursery, that he could understand and converse back albeit in his baby-talk. "No," she said, laughing, "I go to school! I like to come here to visit all the nursery-schoolers. I miss building blocks and playing in the sandpit."

Thoughtfully, the blonde girl added another block. "Do your parents work, Toddmeister?"

"My mommy works as a teacher." Wisp put another block on the growing pyramid. "That's someone who works in a school. She teaches maths! That's adding and subtracting and things. You're lucky to have two dads," she added enviously, "I don't even have one."

She thought about his earlier question as she added another block on top. "School is like daycare," she said, "only you learn a lot more, and it's a lot harder, and you don't eat applesauce, but you get to run around in the gym and you have to do up your own shoes."

Another block. The pyramid was complete. "Okay! Do you want to knock it down?"

"Three, two... One!"

Wisp reached out to gleefully help knock the pyramid of blocks over, though she generously left the main destruction of it to Todd Faustus, as he was only little. She laughed as they tumbled down with a clatter to the floor. "I am lucky," she said, "my mom is tall and she has blonde hair like me and she's really really beautiful and she can't see and she has a little demon called Thwomp."

Beatrix was perfect in Wisp's brain and probably always would be, despite her downsides: no mother was better, even if having her could be a bit of a drag. "So what do you like to play?" she said. "What are your favourite things, Toddmeister?"