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( PD with Trinket)

Penny looked over at Ryvan as the pair of women stood outside the doors of the research and adoption facility. " Excited, nervous ?" She asked the other. The pink haired woman herself was a bit nervous. Although her household had been preparing for the arrival of another child and Nickle and Mareike were both waiting at home top welcome them she couldn't help but worry. First impressions were important, both her first meeting with Taylor, as she'd been told the child was called, and his first meeting with her family would decide very much how the next few weeks or even months went. She couldn't wait she wanted to do this to have a kid to call her own, it was just a little bit nerve wracking.

At least, she thought, Ryvan was there, the fellow society member having chosen to adopt at the same time as Penny. The young woman was good company and hopefully if their kids got along she could have the other woman over often so the kids could play. Or they'd go to her place becuase Mareike might not tolerate more than one intruder into her house, especially as a snarly hormonal pre-teen.




Penny nodded as she reached for the door " A bit, mostly because adding new kids to a family is never supposed to be easy." That said she held the door open for Ryvan and followed the red headed woman inside.

At the far end of the foyer stood a somewhat nervous young man in a white labcoat. In front of him were what Penny assumed were the two children being adopted today. The girl Trinket was standing fairly still looking around in a bored manner with one dark tipped tentacle wrapped around the arm of the boy beside her. Penny stared somewhat in shock at the boy. Taylor, her little Taylor was something of a shock to her. Mareike was certainly a different looking child and she too had come from here but Taylor was a whole nother level to this woman.

He was adorable if unconventional with his green pebbled skin and long tail,His mix matched red and blue eyes moved from staring at His siblings appendage to Penny as the women entered. There was something about him ,from the tips of the dual headwings to the ends of his claw tipped feet that melted Penny's heart . "Not nervous anymore" she whispered to Ryvan. Maybe it was just silly sudden maternal instincts but penny wondered how anyone could not love him.




The man in the labcoat nudged the kids in the direction of the two women. All the official business had been taken care of on previous visits and over the phone. There was nothing more to be said and he was just here to make sure the children were picked picked up. At least, he mused they weren't terrors that had made the wait unbearable like some of the others.

Penny moved forward and met Taylor in the middle of the room, she crouched down to be able to look him in the eyes better. " Hi , I'm Penny, I'm taking you home." She was unsure about asking him to call her mom or anything, in her mind it would happen or it wouldn't.

Wrestling himself free of Trinket's grasp Taylor placed his hands on Penny's knees and stared into her eyes. His tail curled forward to lay across his feet and all in all he seemed very focused " I'm Taylor."




Penny stood slowly and ruffled Taylor's hair " What do you say we get something to eat hmm, I don't imagine the cuisine here is all that appealing" Not to mention that food as a good way to help the kids relax if they were nervous themselves.

Taylor perked up at the mention of food and he nodded swiftly " Trinket too?" he asked curiously. He hadn't been aware of the world for very long but in that short time Trinket had always been there. Sometimes it was nice and sometimes not but it was a constant, it only made sense that she was coming too.




Penny looked over and nodded at Ryvan " I figured we'd go eat together first. You pick the place and we'll follow you there?." Penny wasn't too fussy when it came to eating at fast food places since they were meant to be indulgent meals. She wasn't too familiar with Ryvan's eating habits though and the model might prefer a place that was at least slightly health conscious.

Having never actually gone anywhere under anything other than his own power Taylor hoped they weren't walking too far for food. Especially since there was weird looking stuff on the ground outside. The pads of his feet were pretty strong but the stuff looked mushy and Grey and gross which wouldn't be any fun to walk on. Plus he didn't want to have to drag his tail through it either.



" Something between greasy burgers and lamb with mint jelly" Penny suggested as she followed the other two females " Maybe a cafe with nice sandwiches or something. I could go for someplace with good caffeine about now." She'd been up most of the night with nerves and it was starting to get to her.

Taylor shadowed Penny avoiding the slush on the ground with careful hops and jumps to keep him on mostly dry patches of ground. " I like jelly , but I've never had mint jelly is it good? Can you eat it with peanut butter?"

Penny laughed and shook her head " No it's um a special kind of sauce that's just called a jelly but it's for meat." Thinking about it now why on Earth did they call it mint jelly when it only sort of resembled a typical jelly?





Taylor climbed into the back of Penny's car at Penny's urging and sat still long enough for her to place a restrictive strap of fabric over his chest.' For his own safety' He couldn't imagine what the strap could possibly be good for, at least until the car move forward and he felt it holding him back, preventing him from lurching forward into the back of her seat. " How does a car work?" He asked curiously while holding his tail and running his fingers along the pebbled green parts.

Penny shrugged as she kept her car a few feet behind Ryvan's " It's sort of complicated to understand it all but basically there's a machine inside that makes the wheels turn and how it works." The woman might drive a car but the mechanics of how they ran weren't her strong point.



Penny slipped into her own side of the booth , directly opposite Ryvan so that Taylor could be closer to Trinket during what time they had left togeather for the day." Is Trinket going directly into the pre-school program after the holidays?" The pink haired woman asked. Since the boy seemed a lot less likely to be a danger to himself and other's like Mareike had been Penny felt safe putting him in the program that most fo the society children attended.

Ignoring Penny completely for the moment, Taylor reached under the table with his tail and tried to poke at Trinket's legs. His tail wasn't quite as fexible as her tentacles but it was longer and just as useful he thought." Do they have jelly here?" he asked curiously.





Taylor frowned and directed his eyes at the menu despite not having a clue what any of the words on it meant. Nor did her understand or care much about whatever pre-school was.

Penny nodded " Yeah , it only make sense to send him and I think he's going to be a bit better behaved in general even at this age. Plus it will be good for them to see each other often." As she spoke Penny glanced at the menu, a BLT sounded pretty good right about now and maybe some soup.

By now Taylor had gathered that he and Trinket were not going to be living togeather anymore. The idea bothered the little boy, after all the girl had been a constant in his short life. On the other hand he could make it on his own he was strong.




Penny ordered for herself and Taylor opting for soup for the boy and hoping he liked cream of broccoli or at least that he hadn't yet reached the conclusion that all vegetables were gross. " That sounds good, maybe a different place each week like swimming one week and then one of those weekend arts and crafts sessions."
Penny was certainly in favour of letting the two see each other and on occasion she'd probably drag Mareike along for good measure. The girl needed to spend more time around other children like her, not just the society kids.

Taylor wiggled his tail and tried to loosely curl itself around the tentacles. It wasn't good enough to actually hold things by curling around them like the tentacles but it was still pretty neat, plus he'd heard the techs whisper that it'd have spikes some day that was what the two tiny nubs near the end were, baby spikes. "Tri, I bet I can eat faster today."


In the end there was no race becuase neither Penny nor Ryvan were inclined to watch the children attempt that for a variety of reasons. Instead the group ate in relative peace with the children and adults each mostly talking amongst themselves . Eventually they said their goodbyes , both women promising the children that they'd be able to see each other at school and often for visits before they went their separate ways.

Pd with Ebony
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=14394317

PD with Ford
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=14423243

Taylor ran across the snow covered ground chasing a small black remote controlled truck. It was just like the one at school, with red fiery stripes on the sides and an antenna that ended with a red vitamin pill shaped thing at the top. As he chased the truck up a snowbank after it Taylor looked left and right but couldn't see who was driving it. Someone had to be though becuase it couldn't move on it's own. Though at the moment the young boy's main goal was trying to catch it and get the sandwich it had in it's bed; he could look for the driver who was denying him it later.

The pride demon boy's tail stretched out behind him as he ran like a banner waving in the wind, the black claws on his feet dug into the pure white snow but not so much that he would trip. Eye's narrowed Taylor was sure he could catch the truck it was getting closer he was sure. Then it reached the crest of the snowbank and disappeared over the side. Growling he used his arms to help propel him up the slope. He'd be faster going down and then he could catch the truck, he was sure of it.
However the moment he leaped over the top of the hill he found himself falling down into nothing.


Taylor awoke with a startled yell from his dream. It wasn't fair he thought, he'd been so close and then, well he guessed it didn't matter since it had only been a dream. A dream where snow felt cold and things sounded real, that was why he hadn't known becuase it had been so very real. Again. this was the third night a dream had tricked him and made believe it was real. First he had been in class at gym and he kept trying to jump rope and count like he was taught but he kept
saying letters and not numbers. Than the night before he'd been being tickled by Penny with feathers until he couldn't stop laughing and tonight he was chasing a truck with a sandwich . All the dreams were different but they all the same in they felt real at the time and he hadn't known he was dreaming.

Nervously he lifted the covers off of him and looked down, would this be the same too? A quick confirmation and Taylor sighed and closed his eyes. His sheets were ruined again, ripped by the claws on his feet while he slept. Penny was going to yell he just knew it, he couldn't help it though. He needed the sheets to stay warm and he couldn't help but thrash when he dreamed. besides if the sheets didn't get torn and tangle aroudn him he'd only rip up the expensive comforter or the mattress. At least that's what Nickle had said.

Carefully disentangling his feet from the shredded sheets Taylor sighed and curled up, draping his tail over his waist then hugging it. He didn't want to wake Penny up now cause it was still dark out , hopefully she wouldn't be too mad in the morning.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=15103995
Pd with aludra at the arcade

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=14959743
pd with Dion at the carnival

No superheroes here


" Penny?" Taylor stood in the doorway to the kitchen, watching as his guardian mopped the floor and hummed. The young pride boy had never understood how she could enjoy cleaning so much, he found it nearly impossible to get excited at the thought of keeping his own room clean. Then again Penny found a lot of things neat that Taylor didn't, he figured it was becuase she was a girl.

" Yes." The pink haired woman looked up and smiled sweetly at the boy " Something wrong?"

The blonde shook his head, green bangs falling in front of his eyes as he did so. " No I was reading and I was thinking. Is Mareike a superhero? She keeps our neighborhood safe and she works in a team and she has specific clothes she wears when she patrols." There was a hint of excitement in the boy's voice. He'd started reading comics only a few weeks ago and had been instantly drawn to superheros with their cool gadgets, fancy clothes and really awesome vehicles. The idea that his sister was one, even if she was hiding it from him, was sort of cool.

Penny laughed and shook her head " Not exactly, she's more good citizen than a super hero, they only exist in comics and movies."

Taylor sighed softly and tapped the sip of his spiked tail against the floor behind him " You're sure?" It had all fit in the young child's mind.

Penny nodded " Honey, superheros aren't real but good people are and... a lot of the gadgets and vehicles you see in comics are things we can find on Gaia" there was a knowing tone to the woman's voice as if she was aware that that too was something the boy had been oping for. Not that is was hard for anyone who knew Taylor to guess that he absolutely loved anything that moved and that the kind of cars and motorcycles superheros and villains used would appeal to him.

The pebbly skinned boy smiled a bit at that, ok so maybe his sister didn't have any special powers beyond her innate demonic and angel ones and maybe she wasn't really fighting forces of evil. Still, Mareike was a pretty good sister and really really strong.

For Taylor reality had not destroyed the boy's love for comics or their main characters. in fact it had simply made him determined to try and find real people and things that mimicked the stuff he enjoyed reading about.

Penny pitied single parents, they were alone doing the hardest job in the universe and trying to make up for for their lack of a partner at the same time. Over time Penny had learned parenting could also be a rather thankless job and that you had to find your reason to call yourself successful at the end of the day. Sometimes just settling for the fact you hadn't strangled your kid out of frustration. The pink haired young woman imagined there should be trophies and a ceremony for that some days.

Other days when Taylor smiled as he helped her fold the household laundry while they watched daytime tv Penny couldn't imagine every being angry with him. In moments like that she wished she had more children.

Parenting was a contrary thing.

Of course Penny wasn't truly alone in raising her son and she knew that helped and hurt depending on the day and the person involved. Nickle was always there for her and Taylor and he seemed intent on teaching the boy the value of a dollar early on. On the flipside he also seemed to be subconsciously teaching him that work was more important than him. She'd seen Taylor sigh more then once the moment the world left Nickle's mouth. Still the two seemed to get along when Nickle wasn't working. her housemate and the facility child had an odd relationship but one that seemed to work for them for now.

Mareike was Nickle's daughter and technically Taylor's sister of sorts. The two facility children shared no genetic factors in either their angel or demonic dna. Still they got along fairly well and Mareike seemed to enjoy taking Taylor under her wing when he'd permit it. Other times she abandoned him for pursuits that he was too young and weak for and it left him a bit sulky. Mostly though they were normal siblings, they biked and jogged together, competed at video games and tested the limits of their enhanced bodies.

There was also the society that taught and socialized Taylor most days of the week. Penny knew her son enjoyed going and she smiled when he came home from school each day with some new story to tell. He seemed to get smarter every day and sometimes the woman wondered if he wouldn't ended up more intelligent than Mareike who'd had a stunted education at best.

They said it took a village to raise a kid, Penny didn't quite have that but she did have a pretty damn good support system and thus far her son wasn't perfect but he wasn't crazy either. It was enough for her.

pd with shylock
Link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?page=1&t=16952039#203379517