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 Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:17 pm
The drunk tank was not a lovely place to wake up, even if it was full of your crew. Perhaps especially if it was full of your crew. Not all of them of course. First mate North had remained on the Tail O' Nine with the rest of the crew safely anchored outside of Isle De Gambino. Nevertheless, eight sweaty and drunken kitsunes were eight too many in the tiny space available. Captain James T. Kitsune cracked open a crusty and bloodshot eye, groaned, and then reached for her hat. Somebody had been sick in it at some point, and Jamie knew it hadn't been her. Part of being a good captain was being able to hold your liquor. Jamie never got sick, just wickedly hungover. The offending headpiece was enough to bring her to her feet with an angry roar which was loud enough to stir the unconscious members of her crew. "Alright ye scurvy bastards!" She roared, bloodshot eye twitching. "Which of ye worthless sons o' bitches puked in me' hat?" Nobody took responsibility. That was more or less to be expected, from the general moaning and grumbling Jamie was fairly certain that whoever was the culprit probably didn't remember. And it was her own fault, joining the crew on shore leave. She rubbed her gummy eyes and tried to swallow. Her throat was sour and scratchy. Bugger it, what had happened last night? Vague, filmy memories flickered into and out of her head, not really making any sense as they strung themselves together upside down and backwards. There was something, though, that was niggling at her. Something important that wanted to be remembered. Something that needed to be remembered. Jamie lay back down on the hard bench, pillowing her head on the large cabbage that... Didn't belong there. Cabbage? Oh. Wait. What? James T. Kitsune sat up, scratching her unwashed head and frowning at the vegetable. That memory again. Niggling at the edges of her mind, like bubbles coming up from the deep. The screams of a drowning man popping silently on the water's surface. What was it? What had she done last night? Shifting, the captain found a crunchy brochure in her back pocket. Congratulations on Becoming a Parent! It read. How to Care for your Cabbage! It added. And then: About the Cloning Process! Everything you ever wanted to know!Huh. Wait, what? "Bugger it all." The captain muttered. Then: "Do any o' ye bastards know why I cloned meself?" She was answered with nothing but snores.
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:49 pm
"I can't believe you'd do this!" "I think it's sweet." "I think you deserve it." "I can't believe you'd do this!" "A drunken fool is a fool twice over, na no da." Jamie took a deep breath and looked around her. Her mother, Kitsune Kitsune, her son, Cassius, her brother Chase - an ancient fertility god and her sister Junior - a bone priestess. It was a strange little meeting of souls, but these were the members of her family she was closest to. Kitsune Kitsune had torn herself away from her booming business and her three lovers and their various children - bizarre mixtures of fox and angel and demon with names that would leave you crosseyed - to observe Jamie's latest misadventure. Cassius, Jamie's son, was furious. He was a jealous boy, and young and immensly powerful. He didn't like anyone to encroach on his relationship with his mother, especially after his namesake had broken her heart. Chase and Junior, as usual, were along for the ride. Chase was caught up with his own wife and children, leading a disgustingly blissful life that nobody else seemed able to emulate. The Kitsune clan was one of those families that seemed to find trouble around every corner. "Well it's done." Jamie told them all. "And they dinnae take refunds. At least no' on clones." She rolled her eyes at the memory of the employee who had explained to her that she'd paid for the cabbage, gone through the DNA extraction and, pardon his rudeness, who else would possibly want a Jamie clone? It wasn't as if she were a... savory character. "Nobody else'd take a clone o' me." This brought about a rash of snorts and snickers until Cassius got that gleam in his eyes. "Hey, mom..." "No." She cut her son off with a glare, not needing to hear what he was going to suggest. "Ye cannot have the body in the cabbage. Ye can learn to be happy with the body ye got or ye can go kill Nhel. But theres a soul fer this one and ye canna have it." Cassius sulked and Jamie shook her head. She'd wanted to let them know what was going on, though now she couldn't quite remember why. There was nobody left at the hotel except for Cassius who cared about what she was doing anyways. And even Cassius was so caught up in his plans for revenge that he never did anything except train. "Anyways. It's done. I've got to get back to me' ship, but I wanted ye to know an all..." She trailed off, catching the sharp look her mother shot her. Obediently, Jamie waited until the others had wandered out of the Void and it was just her and her mother. "You know she's likely to have the same power you have." Kitsune Kitsune said softly, frowning at the cabbage. "Aye. I know. But she dinnae have to know. I thought... perhaps... ye could..." "Halo her?" Kitsune thought about this for a moment. "You know I hate to do that. The only reason we haloed Junior was..." She trailed off. They all remembered why Junior wore the halo. They also remembered the sheer destruction that had occurred when it had been briefly removed. Biological Kitsune children were never weak in power, though they were always unpredictable. "I know, ma. But I, well, if I'm gonna raise her an' if she really is a clone o' me... I'd like to see how I'd ha' turned out. Ye know? Without all the other stuff." The rapes. The abuse. The imprisonment. The torture. If her adoptive mother hadn't found her beaten almost to death on the side of the road and taken her in, Jamie certainly wouldn't have been having this conversation. "I know." Kitsune gave soft sigh, then smiled at her daughter. "I love you, dearheart. When the baby comes, bring her to me and we'll see if it's even necessary." "Thanks, ma." Jamie rose, cabbage tucked under her arm, and left the Void.
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Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:54 pm
"She's a right proper copy, cap'n." North, first mate for the ship Tail O'Nine looked at the small bottom and waving silver tail that protruded from the apple barrel. "Aye." Jamie grinned, peeling an apple in one long and lazy stroke so that the peel twisted away unbroken. "Oi, what are ye doin' in there?" She finally asked as a tiny grunt and then a marginally alarmed squeal came from within the barrel. The bottom and the tail dissapeared briefly and then a head with hair as raven-black and ears as blue-silver as the captain's popped up over the rim. Eyes full of mischief regarded the two adults, though the little girl tried very hard to assume a piously serious expression. "I wanted an apple." "Och? And theres apples all over in the barrel, aren't there?" Jamie grinned. "Did ye no see any ye liked?" "No, ma, I didna." She even spoke the same, with a little burr to her voice. Cailean smiled Jamie's smile. "No' a single one that I wanted." Jamie's grin widened. It was strange. So strange to have this miniature version of herself wandering clumsily around the ship, charming the pants off of everybody. Was this what she would have been like if she'd had a proper childhood? Her brain didn't even acknowledge the facts that had made her own childhood so much less than ideal. Jamie never thought about that if she could help it and her mind was quite obliging in veiling the painful memories for her. Was this what her own mother had felt, raising her biological children? Out of the entire crew, only North had actually been born to Kitsune Kitsune. The rest of them were waifs and strays that had been picked up over endless centuries. "Ye wee wretch." Jamie stood and fished Cailean out of the apple barrel, setting her on the rough-hewn wooden table and handing her the peeled apple. "Here, have mine then. As I know it's what ye want." "Thank ye, ma!" Cailean chirped, biting into the fruit with relish. "You know," North began with a faint twitch of his lips, "she's going to be awful troublesome." "I'm no trouble!" The toddler announced around her mouthful. "Aye, ye are." Jamie responded idly. "Ye were trouble from the verra first moment." Indeed, they had come back from a raid to find the captain's quarters in a deplorable mess and the adorable Cailean sound asleep in a drawer that she had first emptied and then apparently flung the contents around the room before settling into. She had since been moved to her own hammock in Jamie's room. "We're coming to port soon." North said. "Good chance to get her looked over and whatnot." "Och, only one what needs to look her over is me mam." "Aye, cap'n." The first mate's eyebrows rose slightly and he and Jamie communicated silently. Despite Caileans sweetness, there was some concern that she'd inherit some of Jamie's less savory traits. Not the bad language and greed and whoring but the darker powers that Jamie herself posessed. "Still," North added. "Might be good for her to meet some other kids while we're re-supplying. Not a lot of little 'uns on board, you know." "Aye." Jamie agreed thoughtfully. "Not but the one and I reckon she'll be quite enough."
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:08 am
"Apartment. Paugh. I had enough o' livin' in cramped places at that thrice cursed hotel." Jamie made a face at her first mate, crossing her arms. "Paugh!" Cailean repeated, crossing her arms in mimicry of her mother. The tiny kitsune child was sitting on the mess table which had become one of her favorite perches. Food went on the table and people would often give her little tidbits. Cailean loved food. "Well you can't keep her on the high seas forever." North observed, obligingly tossing Cailean a peanut. The enterprising child caught it neatly in her mouth. "Well done, youngster." North grinned his approval. Cailean looked quite pleased with herself. "And why couldna' I do that?" Jamie's eyes narrowed. "Because she's a little girl, and little girls need other little girls to play with." "Women." Jamie began piously, "are nothin' but trouble. I'd rather she didna have truck with them at all." "Oh, aye, and you'll have her grow up a right scallywag." North nodded. "But it doesn't change the fact that this lot is not exactly the sort of bunch you want to raise a daughter around." "Dinnae be daft. Ye're all good enough for me. And seein' as how she is me, I canna' really see the difference." "The difference, captain, is that she hasn't been ruined by the world yet." "Paugh." Jamie replied, but her tone was softer this time. More thoughtful. In the end, though, North's common sense won out. Not entirely, of course. But enough so that Jamie agreed to moor the Tail O' Nine at the docks, so her daughter might have an opportunity to learn how to socialize with someone other than a gaggle of pirates. "After all," She ended up saying quite cheerfully, "Winter is upon us and I dinnae suppose the lads will mind too much. Tis a good season for dicing and drinking and wenching." North grinned. "Now all we have to do is enroll her in school." "Ye'll do no such thing!" "No such thing!" Cailean parroted. She was playing on a roll of canvas, clambering to the top and then sliding down the rough material to land with a thumb on her little bottom. There was much fun to be found in the game and the toddler was tireless and filled with boundless enthusiasm. "Ma?" Cailean asked after settling herself atop the roll in preparation to slide down again. "Whats school?" "School is where ye go to learn things like arithmetic." Jamie said with distaste. She had no real experience at school herself - when she'd been young she'd been sold off to a man who collected freaks of her nature. Then she'd been collared. He had taught them things, but they were not things fit to be spoken about. And when she'd finally been sent back to her village, they hadn't wanted her. What they had wanted was to burn her as a witch. "It doesna sound so bad." Cailean remarked diplomatically, sliding down the canvas to be caught up in North's arms and swung around. A gleeful squeal escaped her lips and her tail puffed up in the small breeze the swinging created. "It's not so bad. Your mom just doesn't want you to have any friends." Reproachful eyes gazed at Jamie. "Why dinnae you want me to have friends?" "Och, dinnae listen to your buggy ol' uncle, lamb." Jamie took her daughter from North's arms and gave her a snuggle. "Ye'll have friends aplenty. Despite the fact that ye cannae trust people. But I dinnae think I want ye at a school where I cannae keep an eye on ye. Wouldn't ye much rather learn to swashbuckle?" "Yes! Oh, yes yes!" Cailean squirmed down from her mother's arms, pulling a stick from where it had been tucked into her belt and brandishing it. "Will ye teach me now?" "Aye, alright then. Lets have a go. Find your ma a wee stick and we'll practice." And with that, the matter of school appeared to have been settled. At least for the moment.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:21 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:18 pm
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:14 pm
"This... is..." "Aw, jest go on an' say it, Ma." "This is a very small apartment." "It only looks small because we have so many people livin' here!" This last comment came from Cailean, who had no sense of privacy and no value for personal space. She loved the fact that the crew came in and out of the tiny two bedroom apartment at all hours of the day. Loved that at any given moment there could be a dozen kitsunes crammed in the kitchen or watching television or sleeping wherever they could find enough space to pass out. Kitsune Kitsune shook her blond head and eyed her daughter and her new granddaughter. "You know money isn't an issue. I'd be happy to..." Jamie shook her head, cutting her mother off. "Money isna an issue for me either, Ma." Both women had their own accomplishments. Kitsune Kitsune ran a thriving business supplying risque products to fangirls. Jamie was a very successful pirate. Both of them were obscenely wealthy. "I just dinnae want anyone to get too comfortable." Jamie explained. "We're only wintrin' here, ye know." "And then we get to go back to sea! An' pillage an' plunder!" Cailean chirped, brandishing her little wooden dagger with relish. Kitsune shook her head again. Her eyes were rolling under her customary mask, but nobody could see that. She sighed. "Well, as long as you're happy." It was truly what she wanted - for her children to be happy. And her grandchildren. "And I suppose it really is a good thing that you left LLAnon for awhile." The memory of the hotel brought a shadow to Jamie's face, though it passed quickly enough. LLAnon. Cassandra. Will. Her heart clenched and she felt a little sick. Cassandra. Cassius. Nhel. Cassandra. Cassandra. No. As a means of derailing this train of thought, Jamie lifted her daughter up from the ground and gave her a snuggle. Cailean writhed in her mothers arms, wanting down. "What about... ye know." "Oh, yes." Kitsune smiled and held her arms out. "Come here, Cai baby." Her granddaughter immediately squirmed into her arms. It was so good to hold a little baby again, Kitsune mused. Especially one that belonged to Jamie. After what had happened the last time she'd had a child, well. She hadn't thought this particular daughter would be inclined to breed again. "Not," Kitsune muttered under her breath, "that genetically altered cabbage children necessarily count as breeding." "Ye smell good, gran." Cailean buried her face in Kitsune's hair, tail swishing. "Thank you, sweetie. Now tell me, have you done anything strange lately?" "I buried a treasure an' then couldn't find it." Cailean said dubiously. Somehow she didn't think thats what gran was talking about. "Nay, lass." Jamie cut in. "Have ye changed shape or color or anything?" "I can do that?" Cailean's eyes went wiiide. The two women exchanged glances as Kitsune put Cailean back on the floor and patted her head. "I think she's too young to have come into any of her powers yet. But still, after what happened with Junior... and she was just a little girl at the time..." Jamie's sister Junior had turned out to have terribly destructive powers. Uncontrollably destructive. So Kitsune had taken the only path she knew of. She had resumed the job she had originally been created for and made a halo to bind Junior's powers. "I think we'd better bind her anyways." Jamie voiced her mother's thoughts. "I dinnae want her growing up into something she cannae understand." "You know you'll have to talk to her about it sometime, dear." "Aye, I know. But let her be a little girl, aye? Before she comes into it. I dinnae want her having accidents that will traumatize her." "I think you're right. I'll weave the spell and bring it to you. Do you have a specific form you'd like it to take shape as?'' "Nay, just something easy for now. Something easy for a li'l girl." "Alright. I'll weave the classic Kitsune traits into it, too. That way she can take fox's form and will never know she's different from the rest of the family." Jamie smiled in true appreciation at her mother. "Thanks, ma. I want her to have the best chance she can." Kitsune smiled. "Don't we all, my dear. Don't we all."
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:48 am
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