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 Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:21 pm
Mercury was thrilled to find out that Sable was coming to visit the lab again and bringing Leviathan. She hardly saw the young man anymore now that he had a job at Dr. Akari's lab. And she missed him. Sable was one of the sweetest people she had ever met, and seeing him leave for another job was like watching a favourite sibling move away. And he so rarely came to visit, which was Juno's fault.
Mercury's mood darkened at that, and she scowled at the papers she was supposed to be filing. Then she jammed the whole folder into the cabinet and slammed it shut. Damn Juno and his idiocy and his cold thrill-seeking! Dammit!
"Mercury, are you all right?" Nereus looked over at her, his expression warm with concern, his arms full of potted cabbage. "And where do you want me to put this?" Mercury sighed, nodded, and pointed at the counter next to the sink.
"Put it down over there. I need to name it, Nereus. It's gonna be a kid, remember?"
"Like the one Sable had?" Nereus raised an eyebrow at the cabbage, still halfway convinced that Mercury was completely delusional and Sable had just adopted like a normal person.
"Yes, love," Mercury answered, walking to the door and looking out. Juno wasn't in his lab. Wasn't in the building. Odd, but fortunate. Mercury hated the man. "And Sable's kid's name is Leviathan."
"Leviathan. Right." Nereus shrugged. "He's coming soon, right?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:43 pm
Sable always enjoyed the company of Mercury and Nereus. They had always treated him kindly when he was their intern, they missed him when he went on his trip and they always made sure he was going to be well equipped with both knowledge and skills when he finally moved on. Juno, not so much. Juno-
Leviathan gurgled, grabbing at Sable's collar. Sable smiled down at the boy, ruffling his teal hair. Secretly, he was rather glad the boy turned out nothing like Juno. He was glad he didn't seem to be anything like himself, either.
Pushing the thoughts out of his head, he shifted Levi into one arm, knocking on the door with the other. He smiled down at his son. "We're going to see Merc again, kiddo."
"Merc!" the boy parroted, clapping his hands. He knew how to please a crowd.
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Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:59 pm
Mercury hadn’t yet told Sable her good news with her own cabbage—it had been delivered just that morning anyway—but she got a vague idea that Sable would be torn between confusion and maybe annoyance. He had probably never looked at adopting children who sprouted from vegetables as a trend, especially not one he had set.
In truth, Sable’s cabbage had been the last factor in a long line of inspirations to Mercury, but it had been Sable’s plant that had finally gotten Nereus to break down and allow Mercury to bring another plant—kid—into their rather crowded household. Plant or kid, it’d be a squeeze. Merc already didn’t have room for any more green things among her bonsai.
When Sable knocked, Mercury went to open the door while Nereus looked at the cabbage. He still had no idea why garden vegetables were the popular way to obtain children, but Sable seemed happy enough.
“Sable!” Mercury grinned at her former tech, pulling the door open and stepping aside to allow him in. “And Levi.” She grinned at the boy; he was just as adorable as he had been the last time. “What’s up, kiddo?”
Nereus looked up as the new pair walked in with Mercury. “Hi, Sable. So this is the kid, huh?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:00 pm
Sable stepped in, smiling and nodding at his former boss. "Mercury," he greeted her. "Nereus," he greeted the man down the hall, sparing him a glance. It was sort of weird, calling them by their names instead of 'ma'am' or 'sir'. He didn't mind, though. (Juno had effectively gotten him over the first names with bosses thing, but that was something he never wished to think of ever again.)
Levi cooed happily as Merc turned to him, fully pleased he was the center of her attention. He reached forward, attempting to grab at her hair and coming up short. That was okay, though. Merc was talking to him. What was up? Levi looked up, chewing on his lip. "Light!" he chirped, pointing at the fixture on his ceiling. "And...bug!" he cooed, pointing to the ladybug waddling towards the light.
Sable let Levi talk with Merc, turning to Nereus. "Yep. This is the one."
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Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:20 pm
{{*falls over and giggles at the parentheses* THAT MAKES ME SMILE DESU.}}
Mercury laughed a little bit when Levi identified the fixtures of the ceiling, including a bug she hadn't known they had. "Little guy must've crawled in while we were talking," she said to no one in particular, not missing Levi's grab for her hair.
Nereus looked Levi up and down, and then walked over to introduce himself. “Hello, little one,” he said quietly, leaning down a little to better make eye contact.
Mercury, in a mirror of the child, made a bright and not entirely noticeable effort to redirect attention to herself, and also to the cabbage beside her sink. “Sable, you know how I talked to you about cabbages a few days ago?” She grinned. “Nereus agreed, and I went and talked to the people.” She pointed to the cabbage, which did nothing at all in a quietly green sort of way. “This is my future kiddo.”
Nereus rolled his eyes, still convinced against cabbage children. “Children don’t hatch from salad components, Mercury.” He looked over at Sable. “Please tell me that children don’t really come from those cabbages,” he said quietly. “Tell me that Mercury is insane and that naming the thing would be unreasonable.”
He had no problem with kids, but naming cabbages was crossing the line.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:23 am
"Bug!" Leviathan cooed again, truly fascinated with the small insect crawling across the ceiling. Rook usually squashed buggies as soon as he saw them, so the boy usually ran across insects that had already been flattened. He was about to inform Mercury there was indeed a bug crawling around when someone new walked over and spoke to him. Pleased, he rolled in Sable's arms to better face Nereus. "Hiiii!" he gurgled, reaching out to grab some part of Nereus' clothing.
While Levi may be entirely focused on the man giving him attention, Sable was kind enough to glance over when Merc seemed to want to be the focus again. "Yeah," he nodded, getting a small suspicion as to where this might be going. He suspicions were quickly confirmed when she pointed out a much larger and presumably much heavier cabbage. "You were at the lab and you didn't come say hi?" he asked, mocking a hurt look. "And here I was thinking, you guys missed me."
He turned to Nereus, shrugging sheepishly. "I regret to inform you she's correct, sir. The children...'incubate', so so speak, in those cabbages. I can't really tell you how it works, that's classified, but there is a child in there." He continued to look even more sheepish. "I..er...named Leviathan when he was still a cabbage."
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:49 am
Neres smiled when Levi reached out to grab him and offered a hand for inspection. He hadn’t spent time with a small child in quite a while, about four years, actually. Angelique had grown up ridiculously fast, and now she was always lost in some illusion. Nereus, though he would probably never admit it in Mercury’s hearing, missed having something to really take care of. “He’s really cute, Sable,” he said, addressing his remark to the boy’s guardian while keeping his focus on the child. “I like his eyes.” With his free hand, he tapped Levi lightly on the nose.
“Oh, Sable, don’t be like that!” Mercury said, mock-pouting right back at Sable. “It was a busy day, and presumably you have important genetic experiments to oversee.” She made a slight face at the mention of a biochemical science. “So are you finally thinking about your future field?” she asked conversationally.
Nereus didn’t frown, but he did look a bit taken aback when Sable told him that yes, the cabbage really was going to turn into a child. He straightened up for a moment, shooting a look at what was apparently his future child—Mercury had said ‘daughter’ and he had to assume she knew what she was talking about—and raising an eyebrow. “So it’s custom to name the cabbages, then?” He asked Sable.
“Ishizuke.” Mercury said brightly, to apparently no one in particular.
“No, Mercury, we’re not naming the cabbage after a bonsai tree,” Nereus answered.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:19 pm
Leviathan latched onto Nereus' hand eagerly, gurgling his appreciation. People usually shied away when he reached out to touch them! He grasped the man's fingers firmly, shaking his hand around before letting go. He giggled as the man poked his nose, cooing happily and reaching up for his hand again. He liked this man. He was much nicer than Juno. "Play?" he asked, hoping he'd be better at playing than Juno.
"Yes, ma'am," Sable responded, looking mildly amused. It had taken him quite a few years to finally choose which science he wished to pursue, but Juno's final blow had pushed him to actually make a decision. So something good had come of that man, from his most despicable act at that. How ironic. And what's more, he and Sable were going to be in very similar fields.
Sable shrugged. "I guess? I don't think everyone names it before it comes out of the cabbage. It was just easier for me to instruct Rook and Saint if I gave him a name." He was a very emotional person himself, and felt giving the cabbage a name really made it seem that much more real. The cabbage was going to be a kid. Besides, didn't some poeple pick out names for their children before they were born...the old-fashioned way? (Science was the way to go in Sable's opinion. Much less messy.)
"...a bonsai tree? Are you serious?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:27 pm
"It's a specific form of bonsai tree," Mercury answered, making a face at Nereus. "I don't name individual trees." She looked at the cabbage, shrugging thoughtfully. "It's one of the more unusual and difficult forms." She paused, looking like she wanted to go on, but Nereus' eyes were glazed and Mercury decided not to bore Sable with a lecture on the art of growing miniature trees. "So what field are you looking to?" she asked. "Physics, I hope?" Her smile made it plain that she didn't expect Sable to choose a field that was as much math as it was science.
Nereus smiled when Levi asked him to play, looking up at Sable. "Maybe we'll name it while it's a cabbage, then. Lots of people wait until they see their child, too. Neither here nor there," he concluded. "May I hold the kiddo for a while?" He smiled at Leviathan.
"You know, I bet Angelique would like Levi," Mercury said thoughtfully, petting her cabbage. "You'll have to bring him over to play someday, Sable." Her smile widened. "Another pair of children growing up together!" she said, then bit her lip. Angelique had turned out so much better than Sable's Rook...hopefully Sable would have better luck this time. And hopefully her new little cabbage-daughter would turn out all right as well. Angelique was...peculiar. At least this one woudn't be a Nobody.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:39 pm
Sable snickered, having a hunch Merc might actually have named those trees if she didn't live with Nereus. He was rather lucky she decided to end her bonsai lecture, because he really wasn't following. Plants weren't exactly his thing. As it turns out, bio-engineering seemed like it was going to work out for him. "No," he shook his head, smiling that little sheepish grin of his. "I like working with the cabbages. The genetics, I mean. It's really...nice." Especially on the rare occasions he got to see the parent see the child for the first time. Hearts knew how thrilled he was to meet Leviathan.
"Play!" Leviathan squealed happily as soon as he realized Nereus was actually interested. Sable nodded and gently offered the toddler to Nereus and Levi giggled, absolutely overjoyed. He liked to play!
"Careful. He bites sometimes," Sable felt obliged to add. It seemed like the child was much too curious for his own good. He turned back to Merc, nodding a little. "Alright...she won't hurt him, will she?" He was always worried about leaving Levi with Rook and Saint. He knew Saint would never hurt Levi intentionally, but sometimes he was a little clumsy. Rook, on the other hand, was a total beast and could very well decide he just didn't like Levi one day. Hearts, please don't let Levi turn out like Rook.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:12 pm
Sable was probably right about naming the trees, and Nereus chuckled a little at the same time as Sable did. Mercury pretended not to notice and focused instead on what Sable had said. "So you want to go into biotechnology, then?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Biotech was where Juno had gone, and how peculiar it would be if Sable followed in his footsteps...
Nereus laughed again and took hold of Leviathan, adjusting to he was holding the boy soundly around his waist and facing him. He bounced Levi lightly a few times, and then ever-so-gently tossed the boy. A plethora of nephews back before he had gone off to college had taught him rather a lot about playing with children. He shut the lab out to give the child his full attention.
Mercury, on the other hand, continued focusing on Levi's father. She shook her head at the question, touched by Sable's concern for his newest charge. "Angelique wouldn't hurt a fly. Rook, maybe, but not an innocent." She shook her head, aware of what Sable had to deal with on a daily basis. "How is Rook dealing with him, by the way?" she asked softly, pointing at Leviathan.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:58 am
Sable's merriment died a little, knowing exactly what Mercury was getting at. "Yes," he said with a small nod. "But it's not the same. I don't experiment on people." He didn't bring creatures to their limits like Juno did. He didn't make humanoid weapons like Juno did. What the Cabbage Patch did was entirely different, and it was something he could be proud of. It was something he...enjoyed.
Leviathan grabbed at the nearest piece of clothing, giggling happily as Nereus began to play, bouncing him around and tossing him gently. This was fun! "Yay!" he squealed, clapping his hands. Nereus was a much better player than Juno ever was! "'rus play," he nodded, remembering what his father called the man. He couldn't say his name either, it seemed. "S'good!"
Sable sighed, shaking his head. "Rook doesn't like him. At all. He only refers to him as 'it' and tries to avoid baby-sitting at all costs. Saint likes him, though. But you know Saint. He means well, buy sometimes..." He shrugged.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:33 am
"I understand," Mercury said, her expression making it plain that she didn't think Sable needed to justify himself. Sable was not like Juno. Sable was a good person, a good man. Nothing like the biologist who, oddly enough, had first suggested that they hire a laboratory technician. Mercury wondered if she had ever told Sable that Juno was actually responsible for his job. Then she dismissed the idea. That would probably just upset Sable. "Well," she said softly, "I'm glad you've found your passion. Don't be shy about visiting, though. We already miss you and now that you're for sure not coming back..." She shrugged.
Nereus chuckled as Leviathan clapped his hands. "Having fun, kiddo?" he asked with a wide smile. "Want to go higher?" He tossed Levi again, this time a little bit higher, still being incredibly careful with the boy. It wouldn't do to scare Sable.
Mercury nodded sympathetic understanding. "Saint is a little bit awkward, I know," she said. "And I'm sorry Rook is being such a bother." She remembered when Rook and Angelique had spent the majority of their time in the lab. Rook had never been friendly, or even just neutral. Ever. "I'm hoping Ange will turn out to be a good sister, but I'm not betting too much on it. She still lives in her illusions most of the time."
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:26 am
Leviathan nodded eagerly as Nereus offered to toss him a little higher, giggling like a mad man when Nereus came through. Oh, this was too much fun! Nereus was quickly becoming one of Leviathan's favorite people. He latched on to the man's sleeve, gurgling happily as he stared up at him. "Good play!" he cooed happily, more than impressed. Juno hadn't been nearly this much fun.
Sable nodded. "Of course I'll visit, Merc." They were the ones who had given his break, in all actuality. If not for their lab, Sable probably wouldn't even be in science anymore. He knew, he'd probably be sitting behind some desk absolutely bored to tears. "I have little hope for Rook's attitude improving. Ever," he added, shaking his head. He didn't really mind anymore, having more or less given up on the Nobody. He would always be most loyal to Juno, and there was nothing he could do to change that. Not that he even cared to try. "Well, at least Ange isn't dangerous," he offered, not really sure what else to say. Given, he'd rather deal with Rook in his fits of violence than Angelique and her...daydreams. Those were scary. At least with Rook, he knew exactly what was real and exactly how to solve the problem. "We have our work cut out for us, don't we?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:33 am
"I'm glad you're having fun, squirt," Nereus answered, ruffling Levi's hair as best he could. Leviathan was a truly adorable child, and he was quickly becoming enamored with the boy. It had been a long, long time since he'd been able to play with a little kid. It was good warm up for Mercury's cabbage, he guessed.
Mercury shrugged a little bit and then nodded. "Well, we knew what we'd be dealing with before we operated the machine. We had read the reports. It's a pity we didn't really understand how they'd turn out. But it could be worse," she added brightly. "Rook has never actually murdered someone, and Angelique has still only hurt people accidentally...except Rook those few times." She shrugged again. Ange and Rook were hard enough to deal with on their own, and since they both hated each other... "Well, we'll just not bring them along when the children play, right?" She smiled brightly and looked over at Nereus, who was once again tossing the kid.
"Be careful, you!" she snapped.
"Mercury, I'm being as careful as I can!" Nereus looked over at Sable and grimaced. Mercury put her hands on her hips. Men!
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