.::Shopping sucks! But... THIS is cool!::.((OOC: This is my response to the PET Prompt at the bottom of front page X3))
Normally, nap time was his favorite time of the day. After running about with Ixi, playing various games such as ditch Alice or hide and seek, he wore himself out by the time it came around. And it also gave Alice some time to catch her breath again and mentally prepare herself for the next twin ambush. One thing learned quickly about the twins was that they had energy to burn and they were constantly on the move. Once they could run, that was it. But this nap time was vastly different from the rest. Why? Because he wasn't sleeping. Nor could he manage to make himself feel tired. Sitting up in his bed, he tried not to frown as he looked over to where Ixi was sleeping next to him. Sure they had their own rooms, but it was just safer to be together at times. She was out like a light... but he couldn't feel it.
A slight frown twisted his lips before he huffed and carefully slid off the bed. The last thing he wanted to do was possibly wake up his twin. Once his feet touched the floor and Ixi never stirred, he padded over to the door, finding the slightly opened crack left behind by Alice not closing the door completely and made his escape. As far as he could tell, Mum was at work so it'd just be the usual people; the maid and Alice. Making his way down to the kitchen, he poked his head in to find Alice taking out things from a backpack and cleaning out their juice bottles and lunch bowls. Alice was nice, he supposed. She wasn't Mum, but since Mum was typically busy, she was better than being alone. So he just stood in the doorway, watching her clean up. Seemed like a silly thing to do, right? Watch someone doing something like that, but he found all things interesting. Though, his reasoning behind his wanting to learn was never quite certain. But, as long as he didn't do anything bad, he was left alone to do as he pleased.
It took Alice a bit to notice the child and she gave a soft tsk sound as she grabbed a towel and wiped off her wet hands. "Young Master, you should be asleep now. It's nap time." her voice was always gentle with the children but she was concerned that he was still awake.
"Can't sleep." A little shrug was given as he watched her sink down a bit to look at him. "Not tired."
"At all?" When he shook his head, she tsked again and tilted her head. "Hmm... it won't do well for you to not get enough sleep.." She was speaking more to herself than to the boy, who was stroking Belha's head with a finger cause the snake was sleepy and didn't get why they weren't in bed. What could she do to get him tired? It took a few moment before she had an idea and smiled. This should get him to at least go back to his room. "Well, I need to do some light shopping before your Lady Mother returns. Would you like to come with me?"
The word shopping got the reaction she expected and she covered her mouth to stifle her soft giggle; his face was much too cute! So young yet with such a disgusted look on his little face! "Why is it always shoppin' withcha people?!" His complaint was a soft grumble as he rubbed his skull plate.
"It's for food right now. Maybe if we pass by a shop you may find interesting, we can check it out? What do you say?" There were a few more moments of silence before he shrugged and nodded. He supposed it wouldn't kill anything if he did. And he did need to do something, right? She said it was just food and food was a safe place to him! Maybe he can ask for some grapes or something! Ah yes! The idea was looking up! Setting down her towel, she grabbed what she would need to take out and took hold of his small hand. Sometimes, he didn't like other people than Ixi and Tori to hold his hand but Alice was slowly conditioning him to accept her touch. He wasn't sure why he didn't feel right about it though...
The market wasn't very far from the house, so the driver wasn't needed, even if he had been there. Plus, it wasn't a good idea to have the boy in the limo without his mother. He simply couldn't sit still at all with anyone else. Not much was said between the two; she was focused on her task of making sure no one drew too close to the curious looking child and he was busy running ahead at times to look at something that had caught his attention. It wasn't hard to be terribly interesting to Sanqui. Right then, everything was interesting. Flowers, bugs, people walking their dogs, whatever. Though a lot of the time was spent with him humming about something or another; Alice trying to pay attention to it since it didn't sound like the normal kind of music he listened to. So where did he pick up such a tribal sound? The food/flea market gained more of a positive reaction from the boy than any other place they had taken him to so far. Instead of vehemently refusing to go in, he actually went in first, his eyes showing eagerness to go in.
Alice enjoyed going to this sort of market since they had several kinds of delicious, yet cost effective, foods and other stalls with toys, books and whatnot. Tori was eager to find something that the boy would enjoy, shopping wise, so maybe this was the nanny's chance to find out. "Sanqui! Don't wander too far away please!" She reached out a hand to the child, who actually turned around and returned to her side, taking hold of the hand. He figured he might as well behave since he was being taken out. Though he did ask for some grapes when they passed by, and she figured that it couldn't hurt so she picked up a small bunch and set it into the basket she had gathered at the door. This time, he wanted to ask about the odder fruits there, such as dragon-fruit, starfruit and several others one doesn't see at everyday markets. So she did explain it, having the feeling he was going to tell his sister about it later. He always shared things with her. It was rather cute to see it.
There were quite a bit of people, which made him long to scamper around them to see if he could prank some of them. There had to be a few scaredycats around here, right? However, all that flew out of the window when he noticed something different. He had never made mention of this but his vision in his skull eye was vastly different than his other. He could see, that wasn't the problem. No.. it was the colors. While his blue saw normal colors as anyone else, his red eye saw three. Black, blue and white. Most people were a mix of blue and white to him and it was odd for him sometimes, but he never said anything; not even to Ixi. What had caught his attention? Something that completely blue. He had never seen that before... he had to check it out! But....
His eyes shifted up towards Alice, who was chatting it up with one of the many meat/fish vendors, talking about best catches and whatever adults spoke of. She wasn't holding his hand at the moment, but he feared she'd look down at any moment. But... but.. he HAD to know! He HAD TO! Even if it meant he was in such trouble if she discovered him missing... indecision, however, was not something Sanqui dwelt on long and soon, he had taken off. The meat vendor dude was trying to hit on the woman so she was busy trying to fend him off politely. Dodging between people, he turned his head from side to side to try to see that odd blue shape again. And once he caught the wispy glimpse of it, he shifted his direction accordingly. It was hard to not step on people's toes or have people step on his, but he managed and soon found himself on the other side of the market, in front of an interesting stall. Skulls of various sizes hung from hooks or thick cord from several areas of the stall as well as various pouches, vials, herbs and stones.
His blue eye wide in surprise, he noted small daggers, hip belts, and things more.. tribal in nature. He had never seen anything like this in the shops Tori and Ixi had gone to! What... was this? And why was it mainly white here? "Greetin's." Nearly jumping out of his skin, he suddenly found himself face to face with a two figures; a small, almost fey looking woman who... had to be as pretty as his mum (and in his eyes, it was impossible to be as pretty as Tori) and a taller, gruff looking man. The man wore a mask that was shoved up onto his brow so he could look down at the child, his eyes dark and cold. He bore several tats on his face, chest and arms and his clothing looked made of leather and hide and beads, small chains and jewels hung off his trim waist and about his arms. The woman looked the same in terms of tats and clothing, but she didn't look at all imposing. And her clothing held pretty designs and she had more shiny pretty things about her person. In fact, she had been the one to speak. "Didn't think ya'd be 'ere now, ehya?" Her voice sounded like bell chimes; soft, alluring and hard to ignore.
"Uh..." He looked around nervously, suddenly not too sure if he should be there anymore. The man looked like he wanted to smack the crap out of him... and he was NOT used to such dominating male figures. And when he stepped down to him, the child gave a whimper and backed up. He was only a tot, after all, and this dude was a giant. "S-Sorry! I.. didn't touch nuthin' yet! I.. wassna gonna take nuthin'!" His way of speaking was really strong when he was scared and he
was scared, the poor thing. "I'm sorr-ah!" Alice was gonna get so mad at him, he was sure of it!
"Sorry? Whyevah for?" The woman looked baffled before she looked up at her companion and frowned. A look of displeasure soon followed and she calmly smacked the much taller man on his scarred chest. "Stop 'at, Cimil. Yer scarin' da chil'."
"Itzel..." He looked at her with a hint of disapproval. "Why is he even here?" His speech was much better than hers, almost like he had been in the area for awhile, though there was a hint of accent. "He's much too you-"
"Silence." Itzel waved a hand at him and he backed down, unhappily, and she focused her pale lilac eyes on the child who looked ready to bolt. "Stay, young one. Stay. Ya came 'ere fer a reason. Find it." Moving slowly, she reached out a hand to the boy, showing she meant him no harm. "Dun mind Cimil. He's always grumpy. Those who are not meant ta see 'his place dun. But... yer so young, and early, so it's a bit of a shock. What be yer name, chil'?"
His heart was still hammering in his chest as he watched the pretty lady come towards him, wishing that he hadn't come alone. Most of what she said went right over his head until the last couple. No one who weren't meant to come there...? What did that mean? Looking around, he tried to find the original reason he had come there; forgotten in the discovery of the amazing stall and meeting Mr Tall, Evil and Pissed. The blue smoke... but he couldn't be rude. She had asked his name so he slowly took her hand, blinking at how cool it felt. It was warm in the market... why was she cool? "S-Sanqui... Sanqui Song."
The last name made her giggle softly as she nodded, wrapping her fingers about his hand and squeezing gently. "Welcome, Sanqui. This be me stall, Ahau Chamahez. Yer more than welcome here, chil'. Look about. Ya came 'ere lookin' for somethin', ehya?"
"I..." A soft frown showed on his face before he looked down. "I saw blue smoke... It's.. thicker 'ere..." He realized he didn't make any sense and his face burned with embarrassment. This just felt.. weird. He had never spoken of this ever, but this was the first time he had ever seen something out of his red eye that was like this. How to explain it to someone else when he felt... like a freak? He jerked when a soft hand was placed on his cheek and he saw the woman was smiling gently at him and shaking her head. Why... was she so nice?
"Such doubts fer one so little, ehya? Blue smoke, hmm? From... 'ere, maybe?" She lightly touched the area above his skull plate, taking note of the snake who had suddenly reared its head to see what the hell was going on. "Ohya? What's this? Greetin's, lord."
Lord? Belha's head tilted in bafflement. She was an odd one... but she was scaring Sanqui and he hissed low in warning. Sanqui lightly tapped him to get him to stop. Yeah he was scared but... she kinda felt like mum... but more like someone else. This comforting feeling he had felt before. "He's Belha... He came with me when I was born..."
"I see." She nodded gently before looking at him again. "Yer too young to look so afraid of 'ings. Chillin's should be filled with freedom and joy." Still smiling, she stood and then waved a hand towards the stall. "Ta make up for scarin' ya, chil', please find sumthin' that pleases ya."
"I.. I couldn't.. I.. have no money..."
"I dun recall askin' fer any. Go on..." He had come here for a reason, that was true, but... watching them both carefully, he moved away from them to look at other things at the stall. Some of them just caught his attention and he couldn't help picking up what looked like a choker with a mini skull in the center. He had never seen a skull that looked like that before.. other than the fake looking things Mum got. This thing even felt different... soon another thing caught his attention. It looked like a belt with several loops on it for pouches like the big ones he had noticed littered on the stall. That'd be cool too! But while he was glancing around at other things, the blue smoke sailed past his right eye again and he turned, finding himself face to face with something he didn't expect to see in a place like this. Resting flopped out on a table, was a strange looking doll. The doll was big, much bigger than him, and looked like one of those.. uh.. what were they called again? He rubbed his head as he tried to think of it. Man-quins? Those odd things with orbed joints so they could move like people? Yeah.. man-quins... it looked like that but was a tiger. A massive tiger with white stripes and black and orange splotched fur. Was that truly a tiger? He had never seen any tiger that looked like that! But those markings were clearly tiger in nature.. he had seen it in a book... several actually...
Moving closer to it, the choker still in his chubby grip, he touched it lightly, shocked to feel the soft texture of it. It was made of wood, he could see from the ball joints, but it was surrounded by that felt material Tori had once let him feel when she was sewing a blanket. It was incredibly soft and he ran his fingers over its paw a few times before it...
jerked away from him. He couldn't help doing the same, watching in an awe mixed with shock as it began to... move? The paw he had been touching shook itself out and curled into its chest, the rest of its massive body beginning to follow suit. A powerful head lifted and calm greenish gold eyes opened to focus on the child, who was staring at it with his mouth hanging open. Wha... what the...!? The shock was thick on his face even though his mind was screaming at him.
How friggin' AWWWWWWWESOME!!! Seriously!? Was it seriously moving?!! But there weren't any strings or anything! The tiger doll blinked at Sanqui before it moved as if it stand up and that's when the excitement began to shift for him. The blue smoke he had been picking up was incredibly thick here. No doll should truly be able to move like that... or.. he stepped back more as he heard something trickle through his mind. Or growl...
He didn't want to show his fear. He didn't. He was a boy, right? And.. And... And they weren't scared of stuff like this, right?! After all, if he cried and ran, then how could he make sure Ixi didn't get hurt? But... the growling as growing louder in his head and he was backing away from it before he truly realized it. And running towards the fey woman before his next thought truly formed. "F-Found it!" He was gearing to run like the hounds of hell were on his butt. Awesome as the doll was, this was just too much for the child and that fact had finally, and firmly, hit him. "Um.. 'ese okay?"
Itzel noticed his nervousness and was going to ask when she felt the air about them grow cold. Ohya? Was this... his doing? Her eyes flicked down to the child who was trying not to cry, just barely, and blinked. He was definitely too early. "Take 'em both." It seemed that he didn't fully recall that he had the belt and the choker but she wasn't about to say anything. "In a rush now, ehya?"
"A-Alic-Alice... me nanny... she'll be mad iffn I'm not ba-back soon. S-So... I... go-gotta go... I'll..be ba-back, tho! Soon! Yes!" And he would. The place was, by far, the most interesting place he had ever seen! But... his head turned slowly to see that the tiger had managed to touch the ground and was shaking itself out, its tail actually fluffing out a bit before turning to look at him. Fear leapt into his eyes before he gave a rushed 'thank ya verra much, yer awesome, k bye!!' and was running back towards his nanny. Not noticing at all that the doll was following right behind him, doing its best to hide from the humans and not attract attention. Cimil and Itzel watched this interaction with varied reactions. Itzel thought it was cute, but was amazed something like this had happened already and Cimil was frowning darkly. But one thing was for certain... they'd definitely be seeing him again. And soon.
Thinking he had managed to get away, he went back to Alice and clung tightly to the hem of her skirt, his whole body shaking from the entire experience. What... was that. What... did it mean?! His little head was throbbing as he tried to make sense of what it was but it was just too hard for him. It was just too impossible for him right then. Feeling the trembling, Alice looked down finally. She had been picking up several different things, but oddly hadn't noticed that the boy hadn't always been at her side. "Young Master? Are you all right?" The child was looking around quickly, as if searching for something she couldn't. He jumped when she spoke to him and the eyes she saw made her look worried and she quickly knelt next to him and cupped his face in her hands. "What happened?!"
Her touch seemed to snap him out of his daze and he blinked slowly at her. Huh? "O-Oh nothin', sorry... just too many people and I'm gettin' tired." It wasn't like he was lying or anything. He just didn't want to tell her. Because she'd tell Mum and Mum would freak and want to know about it. And honestly? He didn't feel like talking about it. Despite his young outlook, he did have a serious core and there were things he already knew to keep mum about. "I'm good. Ya finished?" He wanted to go home now. And if Alice didn't ask him millions of questions, he'd try to make sense of it. The blue smoke had been able to make the tiger move? Was this.. normal? He could tell she didn't believe him but she wisely just nodded and they headed to pay for things. Every now and then, he tried to be on the lookout for the stall and the tiger, but he couldn't see neither.
Easily expected since he was small! Not seeing anything strange, he made himself relax and stop his trembling, since now it was bothering him that he was so scared like that. It was finally some true sense of adventure and here he was, trying not to cry! Gah! Never telling Ixi about this! Sighing, he reached up and roughly scratched at his hair, accidentally hitting Belha a few times and causing him to get bit, but he was too distracted to truly notice. And besides, Belha didn't have any teeth >>. On the way home, he could have sworn he heard something following them but each time he looked back, he didn't see anything... but he could
hear something. Alice was talking about something involving food ideas, dinner and new styles of food he should try but he only heard half of it.
It was following him! That... that tiger! As they turned the corner that would take them home, he had seen its tail disappearing behind a pole. No... frikkin.... way. Seriously?! His full attention was now on the flashes he was seeing of it. Why was it following him!? Their eyes caught every now and then and now, instead of feeling afraid, he got the odd feeling it was... calling to him. It wanted to follow him or something.. but.. that didn't happen! Things like that didn't happen in real life! That was in the news and in the papers the maid read to them thinking they'd understand current events. Or those odd occult mags the odd maid also read to them. Those things weren't REAL! Right? Letting go of Alice's skirt, he slowed his step a bit, just to make sure. Alice didn't notice as the doll rushed towards the child, realizing his intent and rubbed its head against his leg, purring sounding in his head. So.. it hadn't really been mad? It was confusing to understand, but it seemed to like him now so he'd leave it alone. Hard not to still feel a bit afraid of it but he picked it up under its front paws and was shocked by how light it was. It looked like it should be heavy but he carried it without any issue. Odd... but something for another time as Alice had noticed he wasn't right at her side and was staring at him and the doll.
"What on earth is that, Young Master?" He hadn't had it before and it was too big to miss so.. "Where did you find that?"
"Ovah 'ere." He pointed towards where some trash cans were sitting by a family owner restaurant. "Can I keep it?"
"No! It's filthy! Your mother would be most displeased!" She tsked at him when he rolled his eyes but only cuddled the thing closer. "You really should put it back! You don't know what it could have on it!"
"Then I'll wash it!" Duh! Why did Alice and Mum act like he'd died from a bit of dirt? "Clean it up and it'll be fine, yeah? Sooo... Imma keepin' it!" Alice continued to try to convince him not to, but he ignored her now and walked off ahead of her. That was that. He didn't get how the doll could move or why it followed him home but obviously, this meant he was
supposed to have him now. Belha hissed cause he didn't like the vibes from it but nothing was gonna deter him now. This was his pet now. yes... and he was keeping it! Finally, she stopped trying to get him to drop it and just let him have his way. He'd tell Tori about this and let her handle this. There were limits to what nannies should do with someone else's child. And Sanqui seemed happy so... should she really deny him something that made him smile? That could make him grow to like shopping? No...
But... what an odd thing for him to suddenly find...
