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 Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:42 pm
ii. intro: richter
iii. prp: i'll file your account, baby
iv. intro: eiji
v. prp: the stork exists
vi. prp: yi guren
vii. intro: london
viii. orp: 4th of july
ix.
x.
xi.
xii.
xiii.
xiv.
xv.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:44 pm
To see one's own handwriting on a sheet of white paper, dark swipes of ink, was a form of magic that couldn't be denied. The words one wrote on a paper could define one's world, as proved by the sheet currently resting under his hand. Richter sighed and smoothed a lock of white hair away from his eyes, considered the paper before him. It was a form, in triplicate, that would, once completed and mailed, add him to the list of considered foster parents. He'd already completed an entire stack of forms, of which this was the last. Perhaps the willingness to waste so much ink was the true show of a wannabe parent's determination, but he didn't mind. Richter probably could have gone to one of the strange "magical children" shops, adopted a little boy or girl like himself who was strange, not quite right, and grew too fast, without half as much paperwork, or as much cost to himself. However...
He didn't want that for a child he raised.
All he had to do was think about how he'd grown up- he and his twin sister, Reina, had been the flawed product of an experiment meant to produce one half-human, half-peacock child. Instead, the embryo had split, or some such nonsense- resulting in the twins. Growing at a human rate but kept inside the research facility, neither of them had gotten the benefit of a normal childhood. That was what he wanted to give a child, a normal, human child. It seemed like... cheating, to pick a new child when one that was already in existence needed a place to go.
The accountant signed the last form and put it in a drawer with the rest of the papers, locked it and then sighed. Now he just had to get up the nerves to submit it- that and the money. If there was one thing he really had trouble parting with, it was money, and that fact made him glad of his good looks.
He sighed, leaning on his desk. Even an international education didn't really prepare you for this- deciding, on your own, with no significant other involved, that you wanted a child? Ha! If there had been a class for that at the expensive Paris university he'd attended, then he might not be where he was today. And he'd neatly avoided high school parenting classes entirely. His applied knowledge course had involved some sort of web design that he'd promptly forgotten after graduation.
Yeah, it seemed a little ridiculous to Richter that they'd actually allow him to adopt a child- male, female, human or otherwise. But it'd dawned on him- though he'd lived a normal, that is to say, it'd taken him twenty-eight years to turn twenty-eight, he'd hit puberty (like a brick wall) at the normal time, etc- that his life span might not be so long. He didn't know how long a peacock lived but it couldn't be as long as a human. And he already knew from experience that he couldn't breed with a human. Like a liger, or a mule, he was completely sterile.
This they had taught in that extravagant Parisian school. Every human longed to be part of the web of life. Every human wanted 'continuation'- if not of their family line, then their morals, their values. Richter had decided that that would be his alibi, if Reina asked. And she would ask- she always did.
He sighed, and looked outside at the storm that raged on the other side of the glass. It had been raining for so long...
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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:21 pm
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 12:55 pm
He stepped out of the shower, thinking wistfully of coffee, flapped his wings a few times to dry them off. Then he lurched out to the kitchen, to the cheerfully chirping coffee maker, to the cupboard of mugs, and then to the table where he sat naked with his mug of steaming hot black coffee and drank it. Yes, truly this was how men drank coffee, pitch black from the depths of Hell itself.
For a while, he sat there, leisurely sipping at his mug and considering the overly bright sky outside his kitchen window. His curtains, he decided, were manful black columns that were adequately sized to block out the accursed sunlight and he slammed the empty mug down. Then when his head stopped ringing, he shut the curtains with an angry snap! Then he took some Advil, downing it with more coffee, and went to get dressed.
When he was done with that, he finally stepped out to check his mail. And this was a good thing, because at that moment, the little girl on top of his letters was just rolling out of the way of the door.
And he paused for a minute, staring at the little brunette child with the pristine white garments and a purplish over robe. She had horns, and cute little pink hairclips with pearls, and a pearlescent tail. A lock of her ashy hair stirred with each of her little breaths out. Between her tiny hands was a pearl the size of his coffee mug.
Richter slammed the door shut. On the other side of the door, the girl started to cry, and he cursed and set his coffee cup aside. Then he opened the door again, gathered the girl and his mail, and hurried inside. Oddly, upon being picked up, she quieted almost immediately; her eyes opened up and were revealed to be a lavender purple, like frosted violets in wintertime. She quietly regarded Richter, and chewed absently on her pearl. Her pointy little teeth left no marks.
He sat on the couch, set the mail aside, and held the girl out in front of him for inspection. Her head didn't loll about, which meant she could hold it up by herself at least. There was a little note tacked to the front of her shirt, and he undid the safety pin to examine it. In cramped, feminine writing, were the words:
Her name is Eiji.
Oh, Richter knew exactly who to go for for this catastrophe.
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 12:56 pm
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:21 pm
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:22 pm
Eiji had simple tastes: she liked people to pay attention to her, she liked it when there was no attention taken away from her, and more than anything she loved it when she was not alone at night. Before, this had caused problems - Richter liked to sleep with his own company, and when his daughter woke up, he had to move off and take care of her tears. With London around, he didn't have to worry. The dragon girl woke up, found her little sister there, and went back to sleep.
It was much like having a doll, in the opinion of Eiji. London couldn't be manhandled the same way, but she could and did follow Eiji around and they played hide-and-go-seek and as the elder Fabel girl learned how to walk, she could be counted on to give London a merry chase.
As for how London felt, she didn't talk much. She sang wordless atonal melodies, uncertainly at first, and as she learned that her family liked it she started to get louder, more confident. The little glowing girl's voice wasn't loud, since she lacked the size for it, but it was sweet and bright and, as long as it was at a reasonable hour, just generally pleasant. The songs were always variations on the same tune, which her guardian found slightly annoying but he never commented on it. What was the point, he figured, it wasn't bothering anyone and as long as she stayed quiet and happy, who was there to comment?
It kept them both quiet when he was around, anyway, so it was all good.
Once he'd had time to actually acquire furniture for London - it was hard to find clothing items to scale with her, since she was only ten inches tall - he was presented with a problem. Where did you keep a miniature room? He supposed it could wait- maybe she'd get bigger and then he'd have a better option than setting her up on a table in Eiji's room...
Clothing also presented a challenge, but it was easy enough to find clothes for ten-inch dolls on certain sites his sister had found through her rather unique situation. (Ballerinas loved dolls, after all). So, even more so than his normal-sized daughter, London had enough clothes to wear.
Toy shopping was interesting, but he quickly found he didn't really have to worry about it. The day Eiji got bored of her toy keyboard, he found London jumping on the keys. For a while, it was discordant and a bit annoying. He had, more than once, turned and told her to keep it down, and when she kept it up he just gave up. But eventually, he began to hear the same atonal song that she normally sang, much simplified but clumsier.
For the first time, he considered that she might want to learn piano or some other instrument. With her size, it simply wasn't an option. Well, he thought, maybe she'll grow.
But, knowing Gaia as he did, he doubted it.
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Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:15 pm
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