#also! apparently there is another slavic diminutive 'petka' that has shades of (informal/perjorative/affectionate-derogatory)

[waters-and-the-wilde]

anyway new scenario i am cherishing as a treat for me is that the same night juno was using his coping skills to not drink away his feelings, nureyev got scooped at the spaceport and then subsequently dropped off at the lighthouse by ruby, and in the process of name reveal/family reunion/etc he lets buddy and vespa get him drunk (in what is probably the first time he's been actually intoxicated in lo these twenty odd years)

crucial elements: vespa is now capable of getting drunk, and buddy remains not capable of getting drunk, i don't think nureyev has worked his way up to the mortifying ordeal of both of them being sober while he is drunk and it's already mortifying enough that buddy's gonna interrogate him about his feelings which he is now working on acknowledging that he has. vespa is a.) in a secure and relaxed enough frame of mind to tolerate being drunk around nureyev, largely bc b.) buddy is sober and has the upper hand if they're actually wrong about him even now, c.) 'i don't wanna deal with your shit sober anyway'. and furthermore both of them are only going to be able to tolerate being impaired at all knowing that at least one person in the room has Got This because they are both thinking about ambushes at all times

(it takes him the entire rest of the next day to get to hyperion city and feeling presentable enough to go see juno bc his ass is NOT used to having a hangover)