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"Phil you're twenty- eight you have plenty of time to meet the right woman, settle down and have kids. You don't need any now, besides what are you going to do drag them around to appointments. Teach them the fine art of ghost hunting? You'll scar them for life." Caleb Rosenwald leaned in the doorway of the living room and watched his brother carefully.

Phillip Rosenwald sighed softly and glared in irritation at his brother Caleb. " I do not want to wait to find the right woman, if she hasn't appeared yet she probably won't anytime soon, besides the time is right for me to start teaching children of my own and continuing the family legacy especially since you have no intention of doing so." That said he directed his charcoal coloured eyes back at the information pamphlet he'd collected. One of many he'd looked at in the past months while secretly searching for a place to adopt from.

" I am continuing the time honored legacy of younger siblings everywhere by rebelling against the idea just to frustrate you. Besides I have even more time than you to find the right one." Caleb grinned cheekily. " What if they can't see ghosts?" He asked curiously " You can't just send them back if they don't have the qualities you want." Not that the man thought his brother would do such a thing but still it was important to remind him.

Phil rolled his eyes " I am well aware that adopting a child with medium skills is unlikely. However as you are well aware there is more to my job than working with ghosts. all forms of paranormal investigation are my specialty and many of the things I use for them are things I can teach even to a child with no natural abilities for sensing them. Besides there are theories that children exposed to high levels of paranormal activity will devel-

" Be scarred for life" Caleb cut in blue eyes narrowed critically " If you want kids fine and yes I think adopting them for some kind of legacy is stupid in my mind but at least a kid out there gets adopted. Really though Phil , just becuase our parents tormented you as kid doesn't mean you need to do the same to your own." Testing, he was testing him.

Phil raised his head and glared at his younger brother. The pair had lived together all their lives and for as much love as their was between them they often fought and it was always about the past. " I am not scarred for life Caleb and I am not so overzealous in my desires as to risk harming any child I did adopt. Limited contact in safe areas is all they would experience. " He frowned.

Really Caleb knew him better than to assume he'd leave children alone with a banshee or something just to test them. " Besides it's not like a child could go to work with you either." That was just asking for a disaster.

" I suppose " the younger man grumbled " I mean I bet my boss would allow it. I could dress them up like a little waiter or waitress" There was a hopeful tone in the mans voice. Good he thought, he hadn't really doubted his brother but it was good to know there were some family traditions that were going to be nixed when his brother adopted. No kid needed to go through the same horrors Phil has just to appease family tradition.

Phil shook his head " My child is not going to spend most of their day pretending to work in a restaurant while you cook in the back."

" Fine but I reserve the right to be the cool uncle Caleb and spoil them"

" Because you weren't planning on it anyways?"


" What are you gonna do if you can only get a girl" Caleb asked suddenly curious about that little possible problem in his brother's plan. Something he might have overlooked.

" Women are just as capable of carrying on the family legacy, even if they one day married and took a new name it could be hyphenated." Phil had thought this through, he knew the risks and the trials that faced him but in the end it would be worth it. To continue his family legacy he'd do whatever needed to be done while still putting his child's safety first.

Caleb watched his brother silently for few minutes. Phillip was stubborn as a mule but he rarely ran into things head first. If he wanted to do this he was probably as prepared as he was going to get. Plus the other man had been finding adopting stuff hidden about the house for weeks. It didn't make Caleb any less uncertain about purposefully exposing a kid to paranormal stuff just to make them comfortable around it as they grew up. Still, Phil wasn't off his rocker or anything and if nothing else he was a good brother, would probably make a decent parent.

" Well get cabbages" he declared grinning, a plan forming in his mind.

" Fine add them to the grocery list" Phil murmured distractedly as he went back to reading about children born from dreams after a session at special clinic. He was glad the argument and interrogation was over. The chestnut haired man blinked in confusion as a flier for Dr Akari's lab was thrust in his face.

" No these cabbages idiot. This place looked kinda cool and they have a school specially for their kids and stuff. We could both get a cabbage and raise our kids together." Caleb had found this flier under the couch a week ago when looking for lost keys.

Phil remembered the flier and it was in his mental pile of places to seriously consider. It's reputation was rather good after all. Although " since when did you want kids?" Honestly Caleb was far too old to be wanting to have everything Phil had. " I though you had plenty of time to wait."

The younger man shrugged " I've always liked kids and I don't need someone to have one. I can wait for love you know."

Phil eyed his brother carefully then nodded slowly having a creeping feeling that had been the point of this discussion the whole time. " Fine we'll head over there in a few days."

The greatest gift of all


It was early December twenty-forth when Caleb felt and uncompromising need to get up. There was no six sense involve no chill down his spine or a feeling that something was the matter. It was simply a need to answer the call of nature and so he padded down the hallway and to the bathroom ignoring the strange sounds he could hear from the nursery.

However a few minutes later on the way back to his room with a clearer head he paused to listen to the sound and walked a few feet further to peer inside thinking Phillip must have left the window open again and the blinds were rustling.

His blue eyed widened in surprise when instead he spotted two.. baby somethings crawling out of the cabbages. He hadn't expected them to appear now I mean the cabbages were super computers, they should calculate time and what if no one was awake at this hour? Still, Caleb couldn't fine the energy to be really bothered when his cute little kid looked up at him with pale blueish grey eyes.

Moving forward with a grin he picked up the oddly clothed , at least they'd been aware the cabbage children sometimes had clothes when they appeared, child and held them close " Hey there little Skylar welcome to the world, lets go see Uncle Phillip." As he walked down the hall towards his brother's room Caleb wondered why the two cabbages had produced what appeared to be identical twins. If it had been on purpose or a side effect of two cabbages growing close together.

Without so much as a knock he opened Phil's door and stood in the doorway " Phil wake up, Santa came early and he brought babies"

~
Phillip blinked blearily his his brother and the child in his arms for a moment before bolting out of bed and down the hall to the nursery. Though he was still exhausted Phil felt a wave of excited energy carrying him. Once inside the nursery he paused to look at the child he'd adopted.

He'd never seen any species like this before but he was sure someone would know what the child was. Though in his mind all that mattered was that the child was his. When his child crawled towards him Phil bent down over the edge of the playpen to pick them up.

" Hello Morgan" a good solid old fashioned name that worked for a child of either gender. With clothes on it was impossible to tell gender just yet and Phil was unconcerned about that for the moment. " I think perhaps some food is in order." He wasn't sure exactly what to feed this child and hoped that applesauce would suffice for now.

How much for those babies in the stroller
Takes place December 30th

Having gotten the twins away from their new friend whom they'd sleepily informed him was named Kashmira, Caleb was now pushing the dozing boys in a rented stroller about the mall towards ' Game on" the malls nearest video game store according to the huge and mostly unreadable * foot tall you are here direction map.

His second cousin or something Roger was turning10 in a few days and only after Christmas had his parents felt it safe to let the rest of the family know what to buy him so they didn't end up doubling gift's he got for Christmas. Effective Caleb supposed, but annoying, he hadn't really wanted to spend his day off wandering through the mall to find the perfect video game for a cousin he saw only at weddings and funerals. Still , the Rosenwald family was oddly close and nosy and gossipy and it wouldn't do well to become a black sheep over a game.

Upon entering the store in question Caleb quickly reassessed his previous thought and wondered what it'd be like to never see another member of his family minus the twins and Phillip again. There had to be a million different games here how the heck was he supposed to fi-

" Oh my god Nu mou, seriously where'd you get one, how much did they cost?"

Caleb's concentration was broken as a young man behind the game stop counter hopped over it and advanced towards him. The kid had to have been in his teens or ear twenties and his eyes were now a bit wide and wild looking which made Caleb nervous. If they kid was high on something his strength would probably seriously out match Calebs

" What's a Nu, mou?" The world felt strange in the man's mouth.

The store employee, rob by his name tag grinned and motioned towards the twins" them those are Nu, Mou I'd bet my life on it. Where'd you get them.?" The boy's voice was high and excited like he's just seen the most amazing thing ever.

Caleb stared at the twins , well at least he now knew what they were even if he didn't know what that was. Still, who wanted to buy kids regardless of their species ." They were unique to the place , I'm sorry" he lied. Well it might be true for all he knew the cabbages never produced the same thing twice.

The guy frowned and crouched down to examine the sleeping twins better. Pale blue eyes flicked between them and Caleb " How much? for both?"

Caleb stared in shock , this man this man had just offered to buy His child and his nephew as if they were nothing more than the merchandise sold here. In his peripheral vision however he thought he saw something hat looked like them on the cover of a magazine which might explain it. Still, these were living breathing people.

" You want to pay me for my kid" He repeated slowly."

The blue eyed man nodded eagerly paying little attention to another customer who'd just walked in " I've got a grand or so that's supposed to be part of next semesters tuition but this is an amazing opportunity a real live Nu Mou. You can't begin to imagine how cool it would be to have a kid like this. I mean You didn't even know what it was."

Caleb glared " I know Skylar is a child first and Nu mou second and for sale never. He's not just some cool type of kid you can adopt becuase he looks neat to you. "

Sighing Rob stood , shrugged and backed away a few feet." Ok Ok you're attached to them I get it, but at least I know what they do and don't need . You've probably already tried to bathe them and scarred them for life. I Know that nu mou hate water, shouldn't you be thinking about what's best for them. also i can go to two grand"

Caleb growled and decided then and there that leaving was probably a better option than killing Rob. Sure he and Phillip had screwed up , how could they have known the kids were hydrophobic. But now at least Caleb could research, he thought as he turned the stroller around and marched silently out fuming. How could anyone be so stupid as to think that anyone would ever sell them a child just becuase it was something they liked. Children didn't come with price tags.

Fuming and unwilling to risk the same thing at another store Caleb decided he and Phil could just send Roger fifty dollars for his birthday and he could buy his own damn game.

" Do you even know what the hat's mean" Rob shouted after him.

Caleb resisted the urge to turn back and deck the man and instead just walked away faster and made a mental note to search Nu Mou and hats when he got home.

The twins oblivious to anything that had just transpired slept on and dreamed of never ending games of tag.

Bath times blues

" Morgan enough it's only a damp cloth it can't hurt you" Phillip huffed as he shrugged to rub the soft blue cloth over one of his son's ears. Every few days this happened and every few days it was the same argument.

" It's water , dun like water." Morgan whined and tried to pull the ear away.The boy didn't know why but he hated the stuff, he didn't want to step in it, drink it and most certainly he did not want it on his skin. Unfortunately he had no choice to but to let his father rub a clothe soaked with the stuff on him. He'd much rather be dirty forever than have to get wet. At least it was better than the time he had tried to make Morgan have a bath. the young Mu Mou shuddered at the thought, there had been so much water.

Phil sighed " I know but you can barely feel it and you need to be clean , besides once I'm done I'll put the baby oil on and you won't even remember there was water there." It also seemed to help keep the boy's skin clean longer which was good. Things would be easier if he couldn't just trust the boy to wash himself but becuase according to the research he and Caleb had done he knew it was impossible, both Morgan and Skylar were going to avoid water at all costs. Shaking his head the man turned to see how his brother was faring.

Caleb was having an equally hard time trying to wash the unfurred part of Skylar's tail. The boy kept trying to crawl away or roll to make the man release him. He'd given up trying to reason with him mostly becuase Skylar had gone stubbornly silent. That and the look in his son's grey blue eyes had told him that nothing he said was being listened to. The child was off in his own world of frustration. Honestly though the situation wasn't fun for either of them.

Of all the things either man had imagined would be a problem when they were thinking of adopting children this hadn't been one of them. Most babies loves baths after the first few times. Even as strange as some of the cabbage children were reported to be it had never occurred to either of them that they might receive hydrophobic children. it made several aspects of day to day life hard but this was always the worst. Although Caleb liked to laugh that the kids had a built in excuse for never doing the dishes when they were older.

Eventually both boy's were washed and settled down while their fathers rubbed the sweet smelling baby oil on their skin.

Morgan used a green soft bristled brush to smooth out the hairs of his tail and head while his father ticked with feet getting the oil dampened cloth between his toes. The stress of earlier forgotten he giggled softly and went back to brushing his orange tail fur.

Skylar lay on his belly , tail wagging behind in time to that of a dog's he was watching on tv. The young Nu Mou lifted arms and legs as they were required for his father as he watched the tv. His belly would have to be done last as he'd have to sit up for that , though he had to be carefully no to place the rest of himself down till the oil air dried on him, at least that was usually quick.

All in all it was just another bath day no more or less eventful than the ones that had past, aside from the first, or the ones that were sure to come. Though Phillip and Caleb dreamed of days when the boy's could be trusted to do this themselves and Morgan and Skylar dreamed of days when they found a way to get clean without using water.

At the park
* takes place before enter the dragon*
pd with bal
link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=14650383

ORP
team meetign for arts and crafts fair.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=14980041&page=1

" Pull the laces up first to make sure the shoe is nice and snug around your foot and so the lances are long enough to tie with" Phil instructed calmly as he moved his own hands to demonstrate what he'd been saying. It was the twin's first lesson in shoe tying and so far things seemed to be going well.

Both boys were paying attention and seemed pleased with the idea of getting out of Velcro shoes. Possibly because Even though their feet weren't easy to find shoes for it was easier to find things with nice designs on them in their new size that laced up than it was to find Velcro ones that looked decent

The man's charcoal coloured eyes flicked over to watch Morgan and Skylar as he checked to make sure they were following along without problem, their sometimes awkward hands not slipping off the thin white laces or anything of the like.

" Ok now cross the laces like this" he demonstrated again " and tuck one lace under the cross then pull it snug but not too tight." Phillip didn't want the his son or nephew's shoes tied so hard they were practically molded to their feet, plus getting the laces undone again later would be harder if the shoes were tied particularly tight.

Fifteen minutes and several retries later resulted in two pairs of lopsided bows and rather sad looking but tied shoes. They weren't perfect but they'd hold and that was the point. Phil personally would have liked to try again but the Morgan was thumping his tail on the ground in boredom and Skylar appeared to be daydreaming, for now it was best to end on a positive note.

" That's great , no more velcro for you and you don't need any help from me. "He praised giving both boys a genuine smile, they might not have aced the lesson on the first try but at least they'd managed it and that was important. Silently he took a little credit himself for teaching them so well and having patience for it. The boys we're certainly easier to get to understand concept than when they were just toddlers but still there were moments he got frustrated that they couldn't respond as quickly or efficiently as an adult. All part of raising children he'd supposed.

Skylar grinned, leaped to his feet and ashed off towards the kitchen tail flying behind him like a banner " Dad I did it lookit my shoes I tied them myself" he called out.

Phil could here Caleb laughing and congratulating his son in the other room. He smiled over at Morgan and motioned towards the sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard " Go on it'll be at least a half hour till dinner." He knew the young Nu Mou boy wanted to go play and while it'd have to be restricted to the backyard due to the time limit Phil imagined it would be enough space for his adventurous child to wear himself out in.

Skylar hurried swiftly across the road, his padded canine feet carried him from sidewalk edge to sidewalk edge as fast as possible. The now shape stuck Nu Mou child had no desire to get hit my car before he made his way home. Not that the child had any intention of going home until he found a way to turn back into himself, he didn't think his father or uncle would appreciate the fact that he was currently a dog. He knew he made life difficult enough for them being as he was, terrified by water becuase his and his twins species had a strange genetic fear of it. The last thing they needed was him starting to turn into animals, even worse if Morgan could do it too, eh wouldn't know that though till he got a chance to talk to his brother.

The Nu mou child still wasn't 100% even sure how it had happened, how he'd ended up like this. He had some ideas starting with the fact that he looked exactly like their neighbours dog that he walked for extra money sometimes. He'd been jealous of it from time to and wished he could be a dog, could see the world from their point of view, smell what they smell, that what they tasted. Today he'd wanted the simple life a dog lead but he hadn't been anywhere near the dog in question today. On the other hand he had read that.. well in a game sometimes this happened but this was real life not a game and even if it was like said game there was no magic command to turn him back.


~ In the end in an almost ironic twist of fate it was was shock that changed Skylar back into his formal form. Panic and worry and thinking hard about what he looked like was all good, and might be the key to changing back in the future, but for this episode it had been the shock of getting sprayed with water from a hose by some lady who'd caught him sniffing her trash cans. Like he was really going to eat from it.. yuck.

Still, getting drenched through fur and skin in the icy cold liquid had shocked Skylar enough to revert back to his natural form. Unfortunately for him his Nu mou body was still went and it tolerated him being soaked even less than his mind had when he'd been in the dogs body.