The Black Sand Bar: Multiple Murder Mystery

Whodunit?

Ross or his employees.	17.9%	[ 5 ]
The insect demon guy.	0.0%	[ 0 ]
The obvious serial killer.	10.7%	[ 3 ]
The pretty-obviously-a-vampire religious guy.	17.9%	[ 5 ]
The dreadhead Atlantean.	3.6%	[ 1 ]
The wererat shaman.	7.1%	[ 2 ]
Someone else, the suspects are window dressing	17.9%	[ 5 ]
Daimonas through a patron.	10.7%	[ 3 ]
The People's Republic	3.6%	[ 1 ]
The Liberation Front	10.7%	[ 3 ]
Total Votes:			[ 28 ]

[notmuch_23]

((gotta go for tonight))

[Arretsu]

Steph wouldn't hear from Ellie for a couple minutes. Instead Ellie just sat there in silence, looking out with distant eyes.

"I do care about you. Yes I don't know much about you, but I wish to learn." She'd say finally, breaking her silence. "Truly, I just want...for us to get along..What could I do?"

[Xerowingz]

"You could leave my papa alone." Steph said the words without much confidence or meaning behind them. She wasn't very good at voicing any of her feelings, this much she shared in common with her father. Ellie would no doubt not even pay any attention to what she had said. "I don't want my papa to forget about me. All I've got left now is my papa...

Having been scared and feeling quite uneasy, Steph seemed kind of blank.

[Arretsu]

Ellie was afraid of this, and figured that this is what the girl would say. She wished that Damon would just talk to his daughter, because Ellie could only say so much. The only one who would reassure the child like she needed to be was Damon.

Honestly, she didn't know what to say now. She knew that she needed to be patient, but it was very hard to be.

"I...." Ellie began, but paused so she could find the right words. "love him.." She breathed, and glanced at Steph. "But.....you can't find it in your heart.."

Laughing softly, she stood and placed her hands on her hips. "You are so much like your father. That is ok...alright then...you win. I want you to be happy, and your dad to be happy. I don't know my parents...if I have parents, or any family for that matter. Honestly I could have spouted from the earth and wouldn't know."

Looking down at Steph, Ellie would smile warmly, though hurt was evident in her eyes.. "So I can't really understand your feelings, how it must feel to have been away from your dad so long. Though I wish you would let me know...But I can guess how upsetting it must be to have some woman coming into your life. So...I will stay away from your papa."

Her smile would turn into a smirk. "But won't stay away from you. I will get to know you, and maybe someday have your approval. Because your approval and acceptance is very important to me. Like I said, I am not trying to steal your dad...just wanted...to be a family."

Taking a deep breath, Ellie would let it out in a long sigh. "Anyways, I need a run...soo...I will talk to you later. Apparently I am going to be a wizard..will be interesting. Right now though I feel a lot like that squirrel" With a wink, Ellie would turn, and make her way back to the trail that ran along the cliff. She needed to really clear her head, and think. She was letting her frustration begin to cloud her judgement, and didn't want to take it out on anyone. So for now she would take herself out of the situation.

[Xerowingz]

Damon awoke from a dream he was having. It involved Ellie and things that couldn't be mentioned in polite society. He'd seen her only a few times in the past few days, having slipped in and out of consciousness every so often. Stephania had also been pretty quiet and out of the way, but that was the little girls way. She rarely got herself into trouble. He liked that about her.

Yawning and stretching, and wincing at the aches that followed, Damon pushed himself up in his bed and leaned against the backboard. His eyes focused on his surroundings, which wasn't very much. Just a few desks, some clothes, and a few odds and ends scattered around. Damon made a mental note to clean the place up once he could walk properly again.

[BaconBunch]

Steph's eyes began to water again. Possibly both at the recurring thought of the squirrel that was shot before her eyes and the way that Ellie spoke to her. She was so used to having Ellie crumble nervously under her cold stares that the confidence in her voice almost seemed to frighten the girl. She may have looked strong and controlled at the time, but she was sensitive.

She sat down at the nearest chair, and sulked, sinking down into it as far as she possibly could. She took her balled-up hands and rubbed her chocolate eyes with them, sniffling a few times. "Stupid."

[Xerowingz]

Damon hadn't seen his kid all day, in fact, he still needed to tell her the news of his engagement to Ellie. Well, potential engagement. Closing his eyes and breathing slowly, Damon telepathically searched around the island until he sensed a presence that matched his own. Children tend to have the same kinds of psychic energy as their parents.

"Stephania. Come to the tent, I need to tell you something important."

[BaconBunch]

Stephania sniffled a few more times, hearing her father's voice ring and echo in her mind, and then slumped back up, leaving the chair and beginning to walk over to her tent that she shared with Papa. She was angry at him, but she needed to speak to him. Ask him why he would betray her love and toss her aside for a girl that he barely knew. Wasn't she more important to him? Didn't she matter? How could she be forgotten so easily...

Opening the door to the tent, she wiped the last spot of dampness under her eyes. "Yeah?"

[Xerowingz]

Damon smiled and waved his kid to come over and sit next to him. "I've got something I need to talk to you about." Not really wanting to beat around the bush, Damon got to the point. "It's about Ellie." Now Damon wasn't ignorant to what his daughter thought of the woman that he loved. So he figured he should keep things simple. "Stephania. I love you. But I also love Ellie. And... I'm going to marry her. Okay?"

He said it matter of factly, but he figured that his daughter would have something to say about all of this. And he was perfectly open to listening to her. This would be a big step in the both of their lives. It was welcoming a stranger into their family, and allowing her to become an important part of it at that. For Damon this meant a wife, for Steph, it meant a mother.

A family.

It was after he finished speaking that he noticed a little dampness under his little girls eyes, and a look of concern started showing on his face.

[BaconBunch]

It seemed like there was no hope of trying to get rid of Stephania's tears. They would come streaming down immediately again, her hands shaking in both anger and desperation. "Why am I not enough?" She blurted out, hanging her head low and grasping for the blankets under her. "I lost Mama... A-and I lost all of my friends, and... I don't want to lose you, too. Stop being so selfish!" Her words would be silenced by a whimper. "This isn't your decision only. It's..." Another whimper, and her knuckles would turn white clinging to the blankets helplessly.

[Xerowingz]

This reaction was expected.

Damon didn't budge. Tears weren't his thing. Instead he wrapped his arms around his daughter and pulled her close. He hadn't wanted to upset her or hurt her, but there was one thing he needed her to understand. "You're wonderful. You'll always be my little girl. My baby." He let that sit for a moment before he moved onto his next point. "But I also have deep feelings for Ellie. And I want her to be part of this family. I'm not removing you. I'm adding to our family."

Even though she was only eight years old, Steph was very mature for her age. Damon often felt like he was raising a teenager and not a child.

"Give her a chance?"

[BaconBunch]

Stephania shook and made a sound like an angry cat, ripping away from Papa's grasp. She had showed her emotions, and she wasn't getting anyone to budge -- So she would be cold. That was how the world worked in her mind. She rubbed her eyes, adjusting herself. "One chance." She muttered, standing up. "One. You can tell her that."

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

Well, Damon handled it better than Ross did.

Speaking of Ross, most of the area was wheelchair-accessible now.

[Arretsu]

Ellie was standing outside the tent, playing with the end of her pony tail, as she listened.

One chance?

A heavy sigh escaped from her lips as she thought about the situation she found herself in. This wasn't really the outcome she was hoping for when the two talked. Growling, she would turn and begin to make her way to the bar. She had told Steph that she would stay away, and until the girl accepted her, that was what she would do. Ellie kept her word, she was honorable like that.

[Xerowingz]

"That's fair."

She was definitely his daughter.

Damon just kept a small grin on his face.

"I hate to say this, sweetheart, but you'll have to tell her. I'm crippled at the moment."

While it was true that Damon could have just spoken to Ellie through telepathy, it would help things if Stephania were to speak with Ellie herself. Tell her. Sure, Steph might not accept her now, but later on in the years they could perhaps learn to like each other.