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 Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:58 am
Zhane pondered it a moment and then proudly declared "Or-inge!" In his defense, the dog was a sort of golden brown that, if one squinted a lot in a darkened room, could be mistaken for orange...
Phaerna didn't look like she was sure whether it was a nice doggie or not, and also looked like she didn't plan to find out.
"Every time I turn around, that little Arkie b*****d is inventing a new way to piss me off," Talon fumed, forgetting for a moment not to swear around the kids. "If its not him, then its Kendall tying up the phone lines because he's online every waking moment of the day. And if its not HIM, Karma gets some sort of sadistic glee out of watching me explode..."
He caught himself before going off on a ranting tirade about the whole ordeal...no, not tonight, this was supposed to be a nice occasion.
"But yes. We'll look into moving out as soon as we can." he assured her. "The sooner, the better, before the kids are old enough to hate us and pout for days on end about making them get used to a new house." Saying so, he guided them into a parking space and killed the engine.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:03 am
Squinting, Yeande chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose it's orange. It's more of a brownish colour, though." She reached and ruffled Zhane's hair then, and paused for a moment after the car was turned off to lean her head against Talon's shoulder. "That's going to fuel my dreams for days... our own place, that we can decorate however we want..." She glanced up to him, smiling softly. "Maybe with a den or office room that you can turn into your own private getaway, for when you just want to be by yourself."
She knew t hat the other Ijiuo valued his 'alone' time, even if he didn't mention it often anymore. It would feel good to be a family again, instead of two people and two kids that shuffled from house to house.
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Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:40 pm
That would be nice....as it was, the only place he had to retreat to was his bedroom, and even then, he wasn't immune to people storming in and cornering him to finish yelling at him about something. That "I pay the bills" excuse was like holding a "Be a p***k about EVERYTHING" card.
"It'd definitely be something nice to focus on for once." He nodded, opening his door and getting out of the car. "Letting the kids each have their own room would be better too."
Saying so, he opened Phaerna's door and leaned in to unbuckle her from her seat as she clung to his neck like a panicky drowner. Being in a new place surrounded by strange sights and the roar of the still-busy road to the right of the restaurant didn't help to calm her nerves much
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:36 am
Nodding, Yeande reached to let Zhane loose, the toddler sliding from the car seat on his own and climing OVER the front seat into Yeande's arms. "I'd like to be able to decorate so that maybe the two of them would be able to have their own little 'refuge' in their room... maybe a foresty design for Phaerna, since she seems to like the quiet and the yard so much..." Yeande slid from the car, holding onto Zhane as she thought. That wouldn't be such a bad idea... maybe a radio tucked in one corner to play soft music for her.
"And Zhane'll get to choose what his room looks like..." she began, holding Zhane up til he was eye level with her. Grinning, she bumped her nose against his. "Won't that be fun?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:33 am
"We shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves yet." Talon put in, trying to loosen Phaerna's koala grip of death on his neck. He supposed trying to get her to walk was out of the question...oh well. "We don't know what we're going to be able to afford. Hell, I don't even know what house prices look like these days."
That much wasn't a lie...he didn't, really. All he'd known was that his salary at Dolphin would barely have been enough to keep an apartment. He was sure what he was making now would be significantly more realistic for getting and affording a house, but even so...
He waited for Yeande to get Zhane situated before the four of them headed for the main entrance. Inside, the recieving chamber was small and brightly lit as a well-groomed young man standing behind the front desk greeted them with a smile.
"Reservations?" he inquired.
"Breslin." Talon replied. "I called earlier this week about them."
The man's eyes darted to the list in front of him as he scanned the list of names before tapping one with the pad of his finger.
"Here we are, party of four." he nodded. "And where would you like to sit tonight? Waterside? Caveside?"
"....what?" the ijiuo inquired, looking quite clueless. He was familiar with smoking/non-smoking, what the hell was waterside and caveside?
The young man gave an indulgant chuckle. "You've never eaten here before, I see. We have our dining area arranged around a waterfall pit. Its deep enough that you don't need to worry about being splashed and the wall around it is pretty high so the kids won't fall in. We have live diving dinner shows that are really very entertaining to watch. Or if you don't prefer that, we also have our behind-the-waterfall setting that's placed in a sort of 'cave'. Its quieter there and darker. Its mainly preferred by the couples that come here on their own for romantic dinners."
He grabbed up a pair of menus and watched the foursome expectantly for their answer.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:37 am
Yeande's earfins were perfectly erect, her eyes wide as she listened to the host's descriptions. Oh how she wanted to go into the cave dining area... but if people went there for peace and quiet, then chances were they shouldn't take the kids anywhere NEAR that. They'd like the water show too...
As she tried to come up with a reasonable answer, she found herself faltering and did what every red-blooded male dreads to hear from their significant other.
"Honey, you decide."
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:52 am
"Thanks..." Talon sighed. If he'd known it would be this complicated, he would have stuck with Denny's.
"Gu-ball!" Zhane announced, pointing at the small dish of round mints that, yes, did resemble gumballs. This place was awesome! Phaerna, in spite of herself, turned her head to see what her brother was talking about, but did little else. This place was huge and terrifying.
"We do have an area for the kids too..." he spoke up. "There's an offshoot of the caveside area called Black Bart's cave...its sort of a pirate/ghosthouse setting they can run around in and through that is an arcade. Its all around the bend and a short distance away so it doesn't disturb any of the older diners.
"How booked is the caveside for tonight?" Talon inquired. Like Yeande, he wanted to sit there as well. Dark, quiet, away from the others....that sounded wonderful. And much better than sitting around a brightly-lit faux waterfall and watching people dive off of it over and over. Which led him to the question of wondering just what the hell kind of restaurant this WAS...it had a mexican name and menu, what sounded like a tropical setting, a pirate cove, AND an arcade? And still tried to carry itself like some haughty five-star dining area?
"Not terribly, sir. Not this early in the week. Caveside, then?"
"I...guess so." Talon shrugged.
"Caaaaave!" Zhane sang loudly and jubilantly, making his father flatten his ears at the shrill noise.
"Follow me, then." the man smiled, leading them through a door and into the darkened dining area.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:08 am
Yeande's wing stretched out slightly, just enough to muffle Zhane discreetly as they headed through the restaurant after the host. THIS was interesting, she had to admit... and stared around them in wonder as they passed the huge indoor waterfall. "Talon, this is amazing," she whispered, although she didn't really have to be quiet. All around them were the 'oohhs' and 'aaahhhs' as the dive show performers did a few practice runs.
She was looking forward to the cave, and wasn't disappointed as they moved into the secluded area. The water rippling in the underwater lights made an array of patterns across the faux stone walls, and Yeande nearly felt like purring. It felt like they were in an underwater cavern, all to themselves.
"FISSIE!!" Zhane yelled, nearly falling out of Yeande's arms as he gestured wildly towards the water.
Well, all to themselves and two children.
"Yes, love, it's a fishie. There's lots, see?" As Yeande followed the host's progression with her gaze, she branched off from the 'entourage' and moved to the glass windowed side of the tank, so that Zhane could get an up-close and personal look at the fish swimming lazily past.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:56 am
The host paused at a corner booth in the dimmed 'cave' area and made a sweeping gesture with his hand, inviting them to sit.
"I'll get you a couple of booster seats." he informed Talon as the ijiuo tried to make himself comfortable with Phaerna in his lap. The little drow nymph buried her face in her father's chest, not liking this place at all. She wanted to go home and back to her room where everything was quiet and familiar. There were strange noises here....and it smelled funny.
"Its all right..." Talon tried to soothe her, prying her off of his chest and turning her to face the table as he moved aside one of the adult menus to fish out one of the childrens' menus beneath it and the tiny box of crayons. "Look...Phae, why don't you color?" he asked, opening the box for her and handing her a green crayon. The little girl frowned but accepted it, looking up at Talon uncertainly before beginning to cover the white paper of the menu in looping green scribbles, focusing herself fully on the paper so she wouldn't need to look at anything else.
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:44 am
((Posting in this account, because I am teh lazy and forgot to switch.))
yeande came back towards the table, leading Zhane by the hand and looking at Phaerna in concern. "Are you alright?" she asked, brushing her fingers over Phaerna's hair in a soothing motion. "You're drawing something pretty for us, aren't you?" she said, smiling to their daughter as she set Zhane in his own booster and got him a set of crayons and menu of his own.
Grinning, Yeande leaned forward a bit. "Why don't you draw your sister something? She seems kinda scared of being here. I bet her big brother could make her feel better."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:39 pm
((I am likewise lazy...and my browser is acting up))
Zhane did not need to be told twice. The prospect of crayons and a menu were invitation enough and he knew well-enough what those were for. Fumbling open the box with tiny fingers, he pulled out a blue crayon and began to color in the smiling cartoonish sea serpent that was twined around a pirate ship.
Phaerna looked up from what she was doing to study her brother tentatively. At length, she began to try and imitate what he was doing, selecting one of the pictures and coloring it more-or-less within the lines. Was THAT how it was supposed to go...?
Talon looked across the table at his wife somewhat wearily, but seeming determined he was not going to give up just yet.
"After he takes our orders, we need to talk." he told her, keeping his voice level with no indication of whether it might be good or bad that he wished to talk about as he picked up one of the adult menus and opened it to scan the contents. Talon tried to make a practice of never eating anything that he couldn't pronounce and this menu was full of it...
Great...
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:56 am
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:54 am
The weeks of planning to find a new house turned into months as constant complications arose. Location was the biggest thing Talon and Yeande had been butting heads about. Yeande didn't want to move too far away from the others and Talon was happy to move as far away as he could possibly get. Because of this, planning had ground to a standstill while the kinks were ironed out of things.
Zhane didn't mind it terribly much, really. While he wasn't flat-out opposed to the idea of moving, he wasn't jumping for joy about the prospect either. He LIKED Aunt Karma and Uncle Youko's houses. He'd spent his whole life here. The idea of a new house was cool, but what if he didn't like it there?
Well, at least Dad had promised he could have his own room. That would be nice. It WAS kind of crowded here. He thought it over as he stared out the living room window absently at the first few flakes of falling snow.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Zhane?" a familiar voice inquired from behind him.
"Not much, Ken." he replied, not turning around.
"Hey, you okay?" Karma's eldest son inquired, sitting down on the couch and grabbing for the pile of mail that had arrived earlier. "You seem a little....I dunno....down in the mouth today."
"Nah, I'm okay. Just watchin' the snow." the boy replied.
"Yeah....it'll be Christmas pretty soon. The idiots are already out in droves shopping."
"Is it as bad as on TV?" Zhane asked, turning to look over his shoulder, his purple-blue tail flicking in interest.
"TV?" Kendall asked incredulously. "Are you kidding? They dumb it DOWN for TV!" He gave a frustrated sigh and draped a magazine over his face. "Okay...this woman comes in yesterday, right? She says 'I want to buy that there Doom 4 game for my son'. And I says 'Ma'am, that game doesn't even EXIST yet.' 'YES it does! Mah son's played it before! You callin mah son a LIAR??' and she just kept going on and On and ON about it! I could not get her to understand that there is no such thing as Doom Four!"
Zhane, in spite of himself, couldn't keep from laughing at Kendall's falcetto impression of the woman.
"What'd you do?" he asked, green eyes sparkling.
"I kept telling her it didn't exist. My MANAGER told her it didn't exist. She finally left and said she was never shopping there again. My heart bleeds, I assure you." the brown-eared foxboy grunted. "Zhane, if you can avoid it at all, NEVER work retail. Especially not around the holidays."
"Don't worry, I won't." he assured him.
"EVEN if your dad threatens to kick you out." Kendall pressed. "Seriously. Don't. It'll suck your soul out through your eyes." Deciding he'd gotten his point across, Kendall stretched and plucked the magazine off of his face to leaf through it. "So how goes the whole moving thing?"
"It goes." Zhane shrugged. "Dad says he's gonna look at a couple more houses with Mom during his weekend."
"You're not going too far away, right?"
"I dunno...probably not."
"Good. I think you're one of the only other sane people in this house. If you left me here alone with Arkie I think I'd have to track you down and noogie you into the ground."
Zhane cracked a grin in response. Kendall had always been one of his favorite people, and he never held Zhane's inability to play video games against him.
"You wanna come Christmas shopping with me later? I don't wanna face the malls alone and Ma says she's already busy this weekend."
"Um...I'd have to ask Dad first..." the golden-haired boy replied regretfully. "He wants me to go with him and help pick out stuff for Phaerna and mom."
"Oh for crying out--don't tell me he can't figure that stuff out on his own!" Kendall groaned. Talon's ineptness never failed to surprise him. "Look, just go tell him you're going with me. And that if he doesn't like it, he can kiss my a**."
"Well...."
"I'll buy you a pretzel." Kendall offered. Ordinarily he wouldn't go to such great lengths but Zhane was like the little brother he always wished he'd had. Arkie, of course, was his REAL little brother but...ugh. The idea of dragging Arkie around a crowded mall for two hours made him cringe just thinking about it.
At the mention of a pretzel, Zhane's eyes lit up. He loved soft pretzels and rarely got to have them.
"Kay!" he agreed readily, scampering off to find Talon. For the moment, anyway, the anxiety of moving was forgotten.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:49 am
"We're not going to be here long." Talon insisted, weaving in and out of the crowds with Phaerna in the crook of one arm and Zhane holding his other hand. "Just..." he paused as an overweight woman buffaloed past them, nearly knocking him off-balance. "...long enough to find something for your mother."
Zhane was trying hard not to show his disappointment at not being allowed to go with Kendall. How was he supposed to know Ken and his dad had picked the exact same day to invade the mall? That and he hated going places like this with Talon...he hated crowds passionately and it would only be a few minutes before his mood started to quickly go downhill and he would be cursing and snarling at the other shoppers.
And then Zhane would probably get to hear all about it on the radio that evening. That was another thing. Talon was completely unaware that people in Karma's house actually tuned in to listen to him -- especially when something had been eating him during the day and people were curious as to what.
"Has she said anything about what she'd like?"
"Nope." Zhane shrugged, reaching up to unzip his winter coat. The mall was stuffy with this many people inside. "But she'd probably like some stuff for her garden?"
Talon made a face "That would be kind of like getting her a vacuum cleaner for her birthday."
Zhane blinked up at his father, not sure at all how getting his mom gardening stuff had anything to do with vacuum cleaners.
Someone else brushed past them rudely and Talonfaust snarled. "Watch it!" he barked at the guilty party who didn't even pause, let alone look back. "I'm banking on the New Age store. It has things she likes -- candles, those little personal fountains."
"Okay." Zhane said agreeably. He would rather have been ANYWHERE but here! He bet if he'd gone with Kendall, they could have found all kinds of fun things to do. Running up the escalators, going to the game store to play the new demos...
"Pu-pees!" Phaerna spoke up suddenly from where she'd been curled against Talon's shoulder in abject terror of the crowds. It made both males stop in their tracks to look curiously at her and then to see what she was talking about. Across the way from them was a pet store that, for the moment, seemed more-or-less abandoned. The people who were getting a jump on their shopping, after all, weren't interested in pets just yet. The christmas rush of puppies and kittens would come later in the season.
Talon stumbled as he was sideswiped by another overzealous shopper and growled at the young man. "Fine. Let's go look at the puppies." he relented. If anything, it would give them a chance to get out of the rush for a few minutes and let him get his head on straight. Five minutes into the mall and already wanting to bite people's heads off seemed just a tad unreasonable.
"Hi!" the clerk greeted them as they stumbled in through the door, having narrowly escaped being swept away by the throng of shoppers. "Can I help you find anything?"
"Just looking." Talon informed her brusquely, examining the store to ensure it was still uncrowded before letting go of Zhane's hand and letting Phaerna down to walk.
"Okay! Let me know if you need any help." she smiled, going back to straightening a rack of Frontline flea medication.
"Zhane? Don't wander off." Talon said absently, leading Phaerna toward the back where the variety of caged animals were.
"I won't." Zhane murmured in response, enraptured with the shelf of bettas. He'd never seen fish so colorful before...or ones that lived in shotglasses. Their price reported that they were two-fifty apiece and he found his hand delving into his pocket to see how much he had on him.
"They're neat, aren't they?" the clerk's voice said behind him, making him jump as she smirked. "I used to have a couple of them in college. You have to get them bigger tanks, though, or they suffocate in those little cups."
"How much are the tanks?" he inquired.
"Well, if you get a betta bowl, that's about nine dollars, but it doesn't come with a filtration system. I'd recommend getting one of the smaller goldfish tanks, but then you're getting up into the twenty-five dollar range and that doesn't include any decorations or anything..."
Zhane felt his heart sink and withdrew his hand from his pocket. No betta for him, it looked like. Oh well.
"You also have to make sure you don't let the boys anywhere near each other. Not even when you're just changing the water, or they'll fight until one of them is dead."
"Really...?" he inquired, his earfins perking a bit in surprise. "Why?"
"They're really territorial. They don't like any strangers in their home."
The mental picture came to mind briefly of his father as one of those fish and before he could stop himself, he burst into laughter. The clerk's smile dimmed a bit into confusion before she patted him once on the shoulder and wandered off to finish restocking the shelves.
Zhane felt bad almost immediately, hoping she didn't think he was laughing at her, but even if he'd explained what was so funny, he doubted she'd understand.
"Phae, those are NOT puppies." he heard Talon's voice issue from the back of the store.
"Pu-pee!" the young drow nymph stated in the gentle sort of defiance only Phaerna seemed capable of.
Zhane tried to remain focused on the bettas, but found his curiousity quickly getting the better of him as he abandoned the fish to go see what they were arguing about. Talon was scowling down at the little girl as she peered into a small cedar chip-lined cage containing several balls of fluff. Even from here, Zhane could tell that, yes, they were not puppies.
"Will you tell your sister that those are guinea pigs, please?" Talon huffed, seeing his son approach.
"Why? Does she like'em?" Zhane inquired.
"That would be my assumption." Talon replied, watching her continue to remain transfixed on the cage.
"Maybe you could get her one for Christmas." he suggested, lowering himself to one knee to peer into the tank with his sister.
"No." his father replied immediately. "Do you have any idea what kind of hell I'd get from Karma if I came home with another animal?"
"But we're moving out soon, right?" he asked, watching as one of the fuzzy creatures waddled to the feeding trough to eat some pellets. Phaerna lit up and giggled as she watched...something that was rare to hear from her. Usually she had two reactions to things -- indifference or fright.
"They're great pets for kids." the clerk spoke up helpfully. "They only bite if they get scared and you can keep them in a medium fish tank if you only have one of them. Just clean them out once a week and you'll be good to go."
"Except that maybe I don't WANT a guinea pig in my house." Talon shot back. So much for coming here relieving his stress.
Zhane listened to the ensuring sales pitch from the clerk and his father's protests growing weaker and weaker with each onslaught, already knowing what the outcome would be. He just hoped the guinea pig wouldn't have to sleep in his room when they moved.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:01 am
Dear Diary,
Why is it that I go out with a specific plan in mind and it NEVER turns out that way? I had one thing to do today -- go to the mall and find Yeande something for Christmas. Something from me, and then something for each of the kids to give her. Should have taken me about thirty minutes at the most.
Did that happen? No.
I got shanghaied into going to a ******** pet store where Phaerna decided she was enamoured with the "puppies" (They were guinea pigs. GUINEA PIGS.). Between her and the clerk, I spent about ninety dollars on a tank, a water bottle, food pellets, a feeding trough, vitamins, wood chips, a guinea pig handbook, a grooming pick, and, of course, the guinea pig itself.
The kids named it Bonnie. I hate it. Its been here for about three hours and already its pissed on the carpet, eaten a hole in my shirt, and got stuck under the fridge and started squealing bloody murder.
Yeande thinks its hilarious. I told her to see how hilarious she thinks it is when we're all living under the same roof and she gets to deal with it too.
I still have no idea what to get her for Christmas...OR the kids, for that matter. I'm tempted to say Bonnie IS their Christmas present, but somehow that would make me feel like a d**k.
"The most wonderful time of the year", my a**...
~T
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