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"Ok, let's go through this just one more time." Danni, having come perilously close to toppling down the stairs during her 'run backwards as fast as you can and escape' stunt, was now straddling her chair, watching as Poopsie-could the kid's name be any more embarassing?-sat on the edge of the second chair, sucking on his thumb and swinging his feet as he kept those huge gray eyes latched on her.

"So you...Poopsie...are supposedly the very essence of my inner soul." Which meant, she supposed, that her innermost self was a feminine male toddler named Poopsie. Didn't say good things about her.

When he nodded, Danni let out a breath, readjusted her hold on the walking stick she'd summoned up. It came in handy when there was a toddler that insisted on physical contact.

"Ok, so I get that. But what does that mean, exactly? How does this work?" She asked, and the smile he sent her was patient, and-God help her-adoring.

He took his thumb out of his mouth, a rare occurance, and grinned. "Poopsie will tell you if I can sit on your lap." He said, and she blinked, felt the urge once more to push his chair further away with her handy stick. For a long minute, she held his gaze, hers narrowed in warning, his wide eyed and innocent, hopeful.

And it was the hope, shining bright, that had her resisting the urge to make a mad dash for her room and conjure up some sort of lock. Maybe a deadbolt.

"...Fine." She practically growled out the word, and stiffened up as Poopsie let out a laugh of joy and leaped out of his chair, running over to scramble onto her lap. Fear leaped up, once again, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling his face between her breasts, looking ready to make himself comfortable as he curled up on her lap.

"Ok, ok, start talking." She said, and he tilted his head up to meet her gaze.

"I'm a part of you, Mama. Poopsie is connected to your soul. When you're sad, I'm sad. If you're happy, Poopsie's happy. I just wanna make you happy, Mama. I need you." He said it simply, sincerely, and she felt a skitter of panic dance over her skin.

He needed her. No, that couldn't be right. No one needed her. She wasn't the maternal type. She couldn't do the whole 'love and protect' thing, especially not with harmless toddlers.

She sighed, looked down at Poopsie, absently running a hand over his hair in a way that had his eyes closing at the comforting action.

"What happens if I can't take care of you?" She asked, and his eyes were sad when he opened them again.

"Then I would die, Mama. And your soul would be destroyed. You'd be dead on the inside." He said simply, sadly, and she sighed again, leaned her head back as she absently bounced him on her knee.

"Perfect..."

Athena stared, dumbfounded, at Danni. "Who's that? Where'd he come from? Why'd you just call Mr. Snake-pants Uncle Ophi? Why can't I stop asking questions?" Then she paused at looked back to Ophiuchus. "Where was the potty again?"

If she were more awake, she'd probably hit herself for saying 'potty.' Not for embarrassment, but because she hadn't called it that while fully conscious in... years. Years and years and years. Then again, maybe this didn't count as fully conscious. She felt funny.

Unfortunately for Ialo these weren't exactly ordinary police officers. They had been contracted by the Courts of Magic specifically and had been properly briefed about the situation they would be getting into. They knew full well that Ialo was a dragon, and they came prepared. As Ialo's fist collided with the face of one of the officers, another officer took the opportunity to secure the cuffs on Ialo's wrists fully. Once that was done, he reached up to his utility belt and hit a button. There was a small beep, and then instantly the cuffs began to discharge the 10,000 volts at 100 amps through Ialo's body. This was far more than what would be necessary to kill an elephant, but would incapacitate Ialo quite nicely.

It was right when Ialo shouted "Stop" that the other officers took advantage of the situation. With Ialo sprawled out on the floor as he was the men that hadn't been floored by Ialo's outbursts began to pummel him mercilessly with their batons. Each blow was aimed for either Ialo's head or some other vital body part, such as his arms or legs. All the while the 'shocklets' (as they were affectionately called by the police force) still remained on and at full force. What Ialo would soon find out was that these cuffs only deactivated when the subject was not expressing any form of malicious intent to anyone at all. Any angry or dangerous thoughts turned on the bracelets automatically, making them highly effective policing tools.

Athena burst out laughing. "Poopsie? What kinda name's that?" she giggled. "Poopsie! HA!" She fell backwards upon the cot and started kicking her legs up and down in the apparent hilarity of this situation. "Maaaan, that is rich!"

When she had sufficiently stopped her uproarious laughter enough that she could speak again, she was wiping some tears from the corners of her eyes. "Ha... haha, ha, so, hehe, Danni, tell me--where did you get Poo--pffHAHAHA--PooHA... Poopsie?" she continued to snicker even after getting it out.

{{I really like that idea! biggrin I had already thought toward the beginning of when I came in that elves and vampires did not get along well at all. Like, if they ever came across each other, the fight was always bloody and terrible, but I hadn't thought about an actual horrible war. That's a really good idea! Dang, this will become more like Romeo and Juliet than even I had planned. LOL! I really like your idea, Victoria. biggrin I've also included a pic of Lin's mother since I forgot to in the last post.}}

Lin was smiling at Dymetri, her light blue eyes filled with love and adoration as she watched her love be completely charming and polite to her mother. She had expected nothing less, but it was still wonderful to see.

She was still holding one of his hands, but now she moved her other arm forward and wrapped it loosely around Dymetri's arm, her other arm soon following as well.

Lin's mother smiled beautifully at Marcos' wonderful manners and debonair actions. Rose thought that Lindolyn had picked a wonderful man.



She walked over to the small table, picked up the white silk cloth in the wooden sewing circle, and showed it to Marcos. It had intricate red and pink roses on it and a few small blue birds.

"I am sewing a silk table cloth."

Lin looked at her mother's pattern and gasped softly. "It is stunning, mother. Absolutely lovely."

Rose smiled and reached her hand out to brush along Lin's cheek briefly. "Thank you, Lindolyn."

After a few moments, Lin's father came forward and rested one hand on his wife's shoulder and one on his daughter's. "Well, I would imagine that it is close to supper. Marcos, is there any particular dish that you favor?"

"Iiiiiii have no idea what you know, Mooooorsa*~" Athena sang, then giggled. "But I have a bunch of little siblings, so I think I know at least something! The youngest are... uh... five?" She couldn't remember all her siblings' ages, for whatever reason. Probably had something to do with the fact that there were eleven of them. "So did Ophi, like, impregnate you through candy or something? 'Cuz that's all kinds of wrong!" She didn't pay much mind to the whole Danni's-soul-personified part.

((*Swedish for 'mom'))

"OH YEAH!" Athena exclaimed, staring at Ophiuchus as if she'd never expected to see him there. It seemed that she was... still not back to normal (if she even had a normal). "...hey, where was the potty again? I gotta pee." As if to prove her point, she began to bounce somewhat impatiently on her cot.