Nomenclature.

Who: Jenny Bond and Seymour
Where: Jenny's apartment
When: A few days after the birth of their daughter
Jenny let herself fall down onto the sofa that lay right behind her,
landing heavily on it, she let herself slouch, and hit the button on
the side, sending a footrest flying out in front of her, which she
decided to use for its intended purpose, and put her feet up. She
looked across the room to the epensive cot, where her still unnamed
daughter lay, finally asleep. She sighed heavily, and grabbed the mug
of hot chocolate on the coffee table next to the sofa.
As if at the perfect time for mazimized annoyment, an electronic chime
came from the door.
Jenny sighed. But luckily for her she didnt have to get up, she had
windled enough money out of Seymour to afford her own personal Peewee
servant robot, a little yellow thing with two stumpy legs.
The robot trudged over to the door and opened it. Seymour burst
through and knocked the tiny robot flying. He brandished some flowers
to Jenny
"oh my god..." she said to herself quietly, as she saw his head appear
around the sofa, a huge bunch of flowers in his hand. She put her mug
down, and took them from him, and burried her nose in them like
everyone does, to smell them. She smiled, and moved from the centre
of the sofa, as if giving seymour a seat. "Thanks," she said,
smiling, "what can i do for you?" she asked, knowing that he'd never
do that without wanting something in return...
Seymour was quite shocked, he had doubts that the flowers would work
with winning him back into jenny's good books, but it seemed to have
made her happy. She was probably either delusional or exhausted from
the child birth, or suffering post-natal depression, but of course
Seymour just thought that he was just a natural born charmer.
Seymour felt very awkward about now. Him and jenny didn't have much of
a bond. They weren't even very good friends, they had only shared one
night of passion together.
Seymour rubbed his neck. "So... um... how have you been?"
Jenny nodded, then shrugged a response. "Okay I suppose, considering I
just did the equivalent of shitting a watermelon."
Seymour's eyes widened. He realised he didnt have a good enough
response to that, so walked over to the baby in her cot.
Seymour leant over the edge of the cot, and looked at his daughter, he
smiled and began to put his hands into the cot, to pick her up, but
even though she was tired, jenny still had more strength in her than
seymour, and leapt from the sofa, and tackled him before he could do
anything. Unfortunately, they landed in a pile of soft toys, not
hurting seymour anywhere near enough.
"Wake her up and i will kill you, regardless of what you are." she
said, an evil look in her eye telling seymour that she meant business.
"But she's my daughter too!" Said Seymour. "And I still haven't held
her properly yet."
"And you won't either!" Jenny said, then calming down and realising
she was being slightly irrational. "Until she wakes up at least."
Seymour got up and looked into the cot, all the while being watched by
Jenny giving him an evil glare.
"It's annoying that even though i've had baby names decided for years,
i can't decide on what to call her..." She said from the sofa, as she
let herself fall back into it, she stretched and yawned, "i don't
suppose you've had any ideas on that front?" she asked, not really
planning on taking any of his suggestions, unless they were really
good, more as a form of entertainment...
Seymour now took a deep breath and puffed out his chest. "Well
actually... I do." and then went into storytelling mode. "My
grandfather on his deathbed made me promise him on his dying wish to
continue the naming tradition of our family, and that his
great-grandchild, my child, must be named after him. Its a proud
tradition of my family..."
"Hang on a second... named after HIM?"
"Yes," said Seymour proudly.
"What was his name?" Jenny asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Horratio" seymour said proudly.
Jenny looked up at him, and smiled.
"ok, we'll call her Horratio." jenny said, with a calm voice, then
waited for seymour to smile, before saying "over my cold, lifeless
corpse." still speaking calmly, so as to not wake the baby.
"i was thinking something a bit more suited for a girl, like.. i
dunno, Emma..." she said, throwing the first name that came into her head.
"But its family tradition" Said Seymour
"traditions are meant to be broken"
"We can't let traditions like that die out in my family. What about
the Niples' at waterloo, the Niples' on the first moon colony?"
"but she" she began, pointing at the cot, "is not a Nipple" she said,
purposefully trying to annoy seymour.
and then she continues with "With a name like Seymour Nipples, I
thought you'd be glad to get rid of your naming tradition. Surely you
don't want her to go through the same mockings and teasings and name
callings that you get?"
"I get teasings and name callings?!" Said Seymour.
"Oh yeah... um.... obviously behind your back." Jenny realised. "But
'Horratio' what kind of name is that for a girl?"
"if we have to name her after someone, i'd rather it still be a girls
name." she added.
"But its been a proud tradition-" Said seymour before jenny cut him off.
"In your family for years, yes. I know. But we're not married, she's
not a Nipple, and she's not going to be called Horratio, Nelson or
Ghandi, or anything else stupid like that your family can come up with."
"But they're proud names that inspired our family and have been passed
down generation to generation."
"Names of people who have done great things, like my cousin Edward,
named after some king who-"
"It's not going to happen!" She said, raising her voice a bit, "If
she's going to be named after someone, i'd rather it in memory of
someone special, not because of tradition!"
"Okay. How about we name her after someone we both admire?"
"Sounds like an idea, but i don't think there are going to be
similarities in people we admire..." Jenny admitted, "but shoot. Who's
in your admiration list?" she asked.
"Queen Brittany." Seymour said. Then thought about it, "actually no,
she's a bit of a tart."
"a bit?" jenny hazarded,
Just then, Jenny got a burst of inspiration, "What about the captain?"
she asked, "A captain is always admired... well, mostly.." she admitted.
"Well you could name her after the best Captain the Blue Dwarf ever
had, but I thought you didn't want to name her after anyone in my
family." Seymour said sarcastically.
"you? a good captain?" she began, "somehow i don't see that
happening." she added, smacking him round the head with a cushion.
"I'm talking about Alota!" she said, thinking about how much unease
there was in the ship when they'd heard of her death... "it would be
good to remember her..." she said softly.
"The woman had a screw loose if you ask me" said Seymour, then was
quiet as soon as he saw how Jenny was looking at him. "Besides, she's
not dead yet, she's on the other Blue Dwarf, what if someone like Jay
goes and saves her."
"Then we'll have two, thats no problem"
Seymour bounced it around in his head.
"Alota Bond" said Jenny. "Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
"that's if she decides to take her mothers name. She might be Alota
Niples!"
Jenny cringed. "Hmmm, I dont think thats a wise choice"
"well, i'm sorry, but i won't let her take your name, purely because
of that fact. Calling her Alota would stop that from ever happening."
she said, feeling quite proud of herself at that moment, creating the
perfect defense against Seymour having a great effect on her daughters
life.
"Are you really sure you want to call her this?" Said Seymour.
"Yes"
Seymour sighed, "but... but... but...ahh, you win this time jenny" he
conceded, really resisting the urge to shake his fist at her.
"Victory, i do believe, is mine." Jenny said smugly, curled up in the
corner of her expensive sofa.
Seymour wandered towards the door, "don't worry, i'll let myself out"
he said, standing by the door. He began to tap his foot until the
peewee made its way over to him, and opened the door so he could leave.