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 Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:48 pm
Harmony's mouth shut as Sreas snapped out at her. She would have accepted that he didn't want to talk about it, except a moment later he explained the situation anyway. She pouted gently, and reached out to lay a hand tentatively against his shoulder to pat it.
"I'm sorry, Sreas.." She would have offered some words of comfort, or some advice, except.. she had none to offer. To she, who was still a child, being treated like one didn't seem like too much of a crime. She knew that Sreas didn't want to be treated that way, however.. and that Atriz would hopefully understand that soon enough. She hated to see her friend so aggravated.
"Burgers up." A voice behind them murmured, and Nio placed the two plates down in front of each Mysterian. "Hope they're cooked right. It's my first time grilling." He gave Harmony a small smile and wiped a smudge of grass off her cheek. She smiled up at her father and picked up the burger bun to check it, before nodding.
"Thanks dad."
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:56 pm
Sreas watched the happy relationship between Harmony and her dad. He reaced for the plate with his burger upon it. "Thank you, Mr... Harmony." Sreas smiled a little and began to nibble on the edges of the burger.
Atriz watched out of the corner of his eye. How embarrasing. He didn't understand why Sreas was being so cynical and awkward. Why did he blow up like that? He leaned on the post near the grill and sulked. Why am I the bad guy? he thought, realizing that everyone was catering to Sreas. I mean... I didn't do anything wrong. Atriz was tired and annoyed. He wanted to just pick up his stuff and leave. But it wouldn't be fair. Sreas was having fun, and he couldn't just force him to leave when they hadn't even finished their burger.
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:07 pm
Nio laughed lightly and shook his head. "Love. Name's Nio Love, Sreas. Harmony didn't tell you her last name was Love, did she?" He gave his daughter a pursed smile and headed off without an answer, returning to Atriz and catching the confusion bubbling forth in his gaze. It was kind of ironic, that Nio knew the answer to all those questions.
"Teenagers." He murmured with a soft exasperation, his breath expelling in a chuckle as he fixed more burgers for the rest of the family. "You should see our oldest boy, Teivel. I would trade you Sreas for that boy anyday." He wasn't serious, because of course he loved Teivel, but the Tahnee did make Sreas look like a pussycat.
"Don't worry about it too much. How's your steak?"
Harmony bit down on her burger, before eyeing the insides critically. It was cooked just right, but she had to make sure. She was so picky about things like that. "Do you want some salad, Sreas? Or something to drink?" She was moving to stand, ready to get herself something to drink and more than happy to return the favor Sreas had done her by getting him something too.
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:23 pm
"Oh, well, thank you Mr. Love." Sreas laughed a little as he said this, amused at the funny connotations it implied. "That's a cool last name."
"You're tellin' me." said Atriz, slightly tired of all the work they required. "There should be a guide on how to raise teenagers. It just seems like too big of a job unless you have some guidance. Hmm, I keep forgetting that Sreas is a teen now. He's just... growing so fast. It's so sad. I miss the days when he was still nestled inside his little egg."
"Oh, and the steak is good. It could use a few more minutes on the grill." Atriz said, picking up the steak with a fork, and throwing it back onto the barbeque.
"Thanks, Harmony! No salad, please, but I wouldn't mind some grape soda pop if you have any." Sreas smiled at her sweetly, and took another bite out of his hamburger.
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:30 pm
Harmony rolled her eyes at the comment about her last night, giggling softly. "Okay, grape soda coming up~" She chirped, taking her plate with her so she could get some salad.
Nio couldn't have agreed with Atriz more. He simply nodded at the man's words, and bit his lip when the steak was put back on the grill. "Aha, sorry about that. First time and all!"
He thought of his own children for a moment, and as Mieke passed his thoughts he smirked slightly. "You know what's really weird, though?" He added to the conversation lightly, amusement flickering in his voice. "When your kids are having kids. I'm still not used to the idea of that one, let me tell you." He shook his head, and headed to the concession table, grabbing a soda for himself before returning to the grill. Working in front of something so hot made him thirsty!
When Harmony returned with a soda for Sreas and one for herself, she placed them down carefully on the grass before settling herself down as well. "Here you go!" She chirped, before picking at her salad with a fork. A voice called out behind her, but before she could answer she felt the soft foam of a nerf ball smack her right in the head. She blinked, stunned by the sudden hit, but obviously not hurt. It was just foam, after all.
She heard a telltale bubble of laughter coming closer, and shut her eyes. Go away, go away, go away, she chanted to herself in her mind, but she felt the nerf ball hitting her head over and over, and opened her mind to see her brother hitting her head with it.
"Hahaha! It don't hurt, see? See?" The wide-winged toddler kept smacking her head with it over, and over. She snatched it out of his golden hand, and threw it as far as she could, and he went after it, squealing like a pig.
She was red as a beet when she turned back around to Sreas, refusing to look up at him. "Sorry about that.. that's just my brother Donny. He's.. a handful."
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:34 am
"No problem. It's great, I just like mine a little over-cooked." Atriz said with a smile. "Your kids having kids? I didn't know they could do that! That's..." he paused, looking for the right word "...crazy! So what happens if they breed with another species? Mutant babies? Have any of your kids had any kids?"
"Thanks!" Sreas said, taking the soda in his hands and sipping it lightly. After a little bit of a drink, he replaced the can upon the ground. And then Harmony stopped suddenly for a second. "Are you okay? Something in your food? What's wrong?" It all seemed to answer itself when a child from behind her came waddling nearby, hitting her with the nerf ball over and over.
"Your little brother, eh? He's kind of cute. Looks like he could get on your nerves pretty quickly. Still kinda cute, though. I wish I had a little brother."
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:49 am
Nio nodded vaguely, flipping a burger over. "Mieke, one of our Tahnee. She's.. gah. It's gotta be so many months now, that she's been pregnant. She's due any day now. She's as big as a-!" He paused, looking up briefly to see if his wife or Mieke were around. Seeing neither, he breathed a sigh of relief. ".. Well she's really big. I.. didn't even know women could get that big. Sometimes I wonder how she walks around, her stomach's got to weigh more than she does.. but her mate is a Tahnee also. I don't know about mixed breeding.. but in my opinion, it'd probably work out fine. After all, most of us Gaians are mixed breeds, aren't we? I know me and my wife couldn't be more different."
Harmony winced, giving Sreas a pained smile. "Technically he's my older brother, even though he's just a toddler.. he's been around a lot longer than me. And you like him so much? You can have him! I'll wrap him up for you and you can take him home." She smiled a bit easier at that, taking another bite of her burger and chewing on it thoughtfully. She swallowed, and continued in a bitter voice. "He thinks of me as his pet."
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Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:09 pm
"That's... kind of cool." Atriz said, with a genuine smile upon his face. "Tahnee babies! Do they typically only have one? I heard some lady in another shop the other day talking about how she had 5 babies!" He shuddered for a moment, thinking about what he had just said. "Ugh, I don't think I could manage 5 kids." His mind drifted off into a vivid image of his own world cluttered with children. Running around the house, pulling hair, screaming everywhere, slippery and gooey messes on the floor - it was certainly something he planned on avoiding. Kids were disasters waiting to happen - well, maybe not one or two of them at a time. But five? Yeesh.
"Uhhh, it's alright, you can keep him. Cier and Corsel are a big enough handful as it is. Cier is my brother. My 4-inch brother who lives in a freezer. He's made entirely of ice. Kind of cool, but he's scared of me, being a Phoenix and all. And Corsel is a Fweegul. Kind of annoying. He likes to bug me. And it's only worse that I'm the youngest of all of them." Sreas recalled their past meeting. "Hmm, I don't think you've met them before. I can't remember if Cier was there that day we met... no I guess not. So what say we have the barbeque at my house next time? That is, if you still wanna hang out and what not."
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:31 am
"Well the only Tahnee I've heard of having kids would be my nephew and his wife. They had one child, so I'd assume that's how it goes. Though with Mieke, it looks like she's carrying much more than that!" He laughed jokingly, but that particular realization had only struck him now, and he let it settle in the back of his mind to mention to Enoh later. "Yeah.. having a lot of kids really is a handful. But on the bright side, they're never lonely and always have someone to play with." Nio did always have a knack for seeing the silver lining. He turned off the grill once the last of the burgers had been handed out, and settled in to finish his own meal.
Harmony finished her food and pushed the plate to the side, flopping back down on the grass while she listened to Sreas. Her smile brightened at his offer. "Really? I think that would be a lot of fun! I haven't ever gone to visit anyone before, it'd be my first time. I'd love to come meet your family!" She grinned crookedly, and her eyes strayed up to the clouds. She pointed up at them with a lazy finger. "Sreas! That cloud looks like you!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:39 am
"Never lonely - I guess that's true." Atriz said, a smile upon his face. Talk about your sentimental moments. Atriz took his fork, and pulled his steak off the grill. He cut into it, to see if it was done enough. His fork had trouble getting through the meat. "Ahhh...." he sighed, "Just how I like it".
Atriz started to chew down on the steak, pausing after his first bite. "Say, this is fun. We hafta do it again sometime, no? Those two seem to be having fun." He pointed to the kids who were now pointing to the sky.
"Really? I'd say it looks more like you. See the hair? It's all flowy and whatnot. And that one over there! It looks like a turtle!" Sreas said, pointing at different clouds in the sky. "And that one..." he pointed to a short and stubby cloud that was off in the distance. "That one looks like Donny! Can't you see it? The cape, the wings, even his tail!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:02 am
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Nio responded. He looked up from his steak to get a glimpse of the two and smiled.
"You know, Harmony gets along pretty well with everyone she meets, I've never seen her have a real problem with anyone.. but at the same time I've always noticed that she keeps a distance from people. Kind of like a safety net. Sreas is a different story, though." He cut into his steak and carved out a piece. "Maybe she feels some kind of kinship with him because they're both Mysterians. I don't know. It's nice to see her finally having a close friend, though." He popped the piece of meat into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
Harmony squinted her eyes to try and see how the cloud looked more like her than him. "But I don't have wings.." She pointed out, but the wings she'd noticed on the cloud were already melding away into it's white body. Well, it had wings.. "Or else I would fly."
She scanned the skies for a turtle shaped cloud, and grinned when she caught sight of it. What a big head it seemed to have! The idea of a Donny cloud wiped that grin from her face, and she viewed the large winged-looking cloud with disdain. "Looks more like an ugly blob, to me."
Donny had heard his name however, and toddled over to Sreas. Without him noticing, Donny crawled up and sat on the boy's chest. "What look like me?"
"Donny, leave him alone!" Harmony cried, pushing herself up on her elbows to glare at him. He stuck his tongue out at her, and ignored her command.
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:01 pm
Atriz chomped down on the last piece of his steak, watching the little boy sit on Sreas. He looked like quite the handful, and didn't know if he was ready for kids anytime soon. "Yeah, it's cute that Sreas and her get along so nicely." he said. "Sreas doesn't tend to talk a lot, but Harmony really seems to pull him out of that comfort zone. It's so cute. I feel... differently though about Sreas today. He just seems so much older. He's growing up too fast!" .
Atriz put his plate down and smiled. "We better get going though. It was great to hang out for an afternoon, and we surely have to do this again!" he said, walking towards the kids.
"An ugly blob? Well, I wouldn't say...." Sreas questioned, but before he could finish, Donny was sitting upon his chest.
Sreas, recoiled a little, surprised at how forward the young child was. "Uh, well, I'd say that cloud looks kind of like you. See the wings? And the cape?" Sreas pointed to the cloud. "That one... right there." He smiled at the child, and picked him up by hid underarms, moving him to ground as he sat up. He overheard Atriz coming in the distance. "Arggg!" Sreas whined. "We just got here!" he said to Donny and Harmony. "I don't want to leave yet!"
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Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:19 pm
Nio looked up at the sky, noting the time. "Yeah, it'll probably get cold out here pretty soon anyway." He made sure the grill was off before setting the garbage out, and called out for the kids to start cleaning up.
Donny rolled to his back when he was picked up and put down, and stared up at the cloud, his upper lip curling up in a mixture of confusion and annoyance. "Donny not white.. Donny GOLD! And pretty!" Clearly he took things too literally to be a good cloud watcher.
Harmony sat up and frowned gently, taking a milder stance on the whole leaving issue. "Aww.. I wish you didn't haveta leave too." She watched Atriz come closer, and shuffled to stand up, brushing her dress clean and retaining a shy composure. Briefly she looked back at Sreas, and smiled faintly. "We've just got to make sure they let us visit more often, that's all!"
Donny looked away from the clouds and suddenly eyed Sreas suspiciously, but remained silent.
Something suddenly told him that this boy was going to be a prime competitor for his pet's attention.
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:58 pm
Atriz tapped Sreas on the back. "Hey kiddo. Ready to go? We should get back home soon. Who knows what Cier has gotten into already." He picked up the garbage on the floor and walked towards the garbage can. "Thanks again, Nio. This was good. We'll have to do it again sometime."
Sreas nodded to Atriz. "Yeah, gimme a sec." He looked at Donny. "No, silly, I know you're golden, but clouds are white. They can't be golden. I was just saying it looks a little like you. Maybe if it was golden it might be. Nice to meet you, though!" Atriz nodded to him and looked at Harmony. "It was great to see you again." Sreas cautiously inched towards Harmony, and gave her a hug. "I had fun."
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:40 pm
Nio reached out to shake Atriz's hand, nodding once. "Anytime!" He answered, before he scooped Donny into his arms. "You.. are a mess. Bathtime it is!"
Donny was a rare breed, a toddler who didn't mind a bath. It was the only chance he got at being in the water, since he couldn't swim.. so he didn't protest, nor did he react in any way when taken off into the house. He just watched Sreas with a steady gaze, until they had entered the house and disappeared from sight.
Harmony discreetly ignored her uncannily quiet brother in favor of more important things, like the fact Sreas had to leave. When he reached down to hug her, there was a moment of surprise, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and bounced up to hug him tight. "I had fun too, Sreas!" She muffled brightly, grinning even as she pulled away and took a step back. "Well, I'd better get inside. Daddy might need help with Donny. Goodbye, Sreas. Goodbye, Mr. Atriz!"
She waved frantically even as she started to run back towards the house, leaving them behind.
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