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 Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:28 pm
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ＴＨＥ ＮＡＭＥ ＧＡＭＥ
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“What're you grinning about?” Megg frowned, raising an eyebrow at the squirming impling baby who was laying on her bed. The infant giggled up at her, big golden eyes sparkling with delight at the attention that he was being given. Despite trying to keep up her irritated appearance, the teenager couldn't keep herself from chuckling as a squeal escaped the boy, and she shook her head as she began dressing him in a red onesie.
She could still hardly believe that this had happened. One moment, she been scrawling down stories in Zak's library, and the next she'd been but given the guardianship of a baby. A baby that had popped out of a VIAL, nonetheless! She wasn't even twenty yet to top it all off! Megg's smile faded into a frown as that fact crossed her mind, and she lifted the baby into her arms. Could she really handle something like that? The thought had been nagging at her since yesterday, when Zak had handed her the vial that had magically transformed into the child that currently held in her arms. Zak and Nigel were there too, but they were hardly parenting material. Hell, it was a wonder that Nigel had managed to raise her at all!
Which left the task up to her.
A soft whine brought Megg's attention back to the impling, who seemed to be squirming restlessly in her arms. Her smile returned as the baby stared up at her with pleading eyes, whimpering again. “I know, I know, you're hungry. We'll go get you something to eat, okay?” Megg found herself talking to the baby, despite knowing that he mostly like had no idea of what she was saying. It wasn't as though she were the only one who did it though – plenty of people talked to babies. The only difference right now was that this baby was fuzzy. Adorable, but fuzzy.
Upon heading down the stairs, Megg found that the mansion had grown quite quiet in comparison to the day before – possibly because Zak was recovering from yesterday's attempt. Both he and Nigel had used a lot of magic yesterday, but the young woman's foster father had told her that the blond mage had contributed more magic to the spell than he had. Nigel was a strong mage, but Zak still remained stronger, which was probably why this had been the case – that, and Nigel had probably been manning the machines for the most part. Regardless, the redheaded mage had informed her that Zak would probably be recovering for the rest of the week, and that it would probably be best if she didn't disturb him.
Like she really talked with him on a regular basis anyway; the guy was an a**, plain and simple, and the less time she spent around him, the better.
She wasn't sure of how she felt about staying here. Yes, living in a mansion was pretty badass, but dealing with Zak kind of sucked. The man was an a*****e, plain and simple, and Megg didn't particularly like dealing with him. His apprentice, Kali, seemed like a pretty friendly girl, but Megg didn't really get the opportunity to get to know her better – Zak seemed to keep her pretty busy. Jackass.
Maybe, she thought as she stuck a bottle of formula in the microwave for the baby, she could convince Kali to hang out sometime. She must've gotten breaks at SOME point, and Megg definitely wouldn't complain about having someone her age to chat with – Nigel was nice, but he was old. Really old. She didn't know an exact age, but she was certain that he was bloody well ancient. How else could he remain looking as though he were only in his 20s? Needless to say, life with Nigel was far from normal – Megg had learned that rather quickly upon coming to live with him. That had been almost fifteen years ago.
'Time flies.' she thought, taking the bottle out of the microwave and testing the formula on her arm to make sure that it wasn't too hot. She'd grown used to the strange life that she'd been thrust into after the death of her parents though – by now, she couldn't remember a time when she'd been without Nigel. Her mother and father had died so long ago...
“I wonder if having you technically makes me a Mum now.” Megg murmured as she sat down, offering the bottle to the infant in her arm. “What do you think?” She smiled, not really expecting much of an answer as he began sucking on the n****e of the bottle. As she watched the little impling, a realization came over her, and a thoughtful expression came over her face. “You still need a name...” What to call him though? She had no idea. The only thing she'd ever named had been her characters and the old stuffed dog that she'd had for as long as she could remember, Abbie.
“Lets see...gold eyes,” she said softly, rocking the baby slightly as he ate. “Your fur is black. So...maybe something to do with that?” She wracked her brain for an idea. Black like a shadow. With that thought, an idea came to mind. “Shade. I think that I'll call you Shade.” Megg grinned down at the baby, tilting her head at him slightly. “What do you think?”
Shade just blinked, his tail swishing as he sucked on the bottle.
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Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:11 pm
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ＧＡＭＥＢＯＹ
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Shade was not a happy baby. This may have been because he was currently sitting in a sink of filled with warm water, being scrubbed down by his guardian, never mind that Megg was being gentle, or that the water was warm. Apparently, he didn't like baths. At all. The brown-haired girl had learned his quickly upon plopping the kid into the water, which had caused him to begin wailing rather loudly. She didn't know what his problem was – she'd made sure that the water wasn't cold, and she wasn't getting any soap in his eyes, so why was he freaking out like this?
“C'mon sweetie, it's okay! I'm almost done!” How many times had she said that in the last 5 minutes? Megg had lost count – no amount of comforting or begging seemed to be calming the little one down. Perhaps he was afraid of the water? She couldn't imagine what else could have been wrong with him. Still, she had to get him clean; he was more than due for a bath, and she didn't want him to get sick. Basically, her only option was to finish the bath as quickly as possible and hope that Shade would calm down once he was out of the sink.
“For the love of the Goddess, why is he SCREAMING?!” Megg sighed as she heard Nigel's question and rolled her eyes. Great, he was JUST who she needed right now. “You'd better get him to quiet down, or Zak's going to flip!” Again, Megg felt an irk of irritation – she already knew that, but Shade clearly wasn't going to clam up until he was out of the water.
“Yes, I realize that. Care to share anything ELSE that I already know?” Really, did her foster father always need to state the obvious? It seemed to be a rather bad habit of his. “Look, I'm almost done, so just hold out until I get him out of the tub, alright?” She sent a scowl in her foster father's direction before returning her attention to Shade, gently scrubbing behind the baby's ears. This did nothing to quell his crying, however – if anything, he just got louder. “Okay, okay, we're done!” Megg quickly lifted the baby out of the water and wrapped him in a small towel so as to dry him off. Much to her relief, Shade appeared to calm a little, though he was still whimpering softly. “Good lord, you'd think that I'd been dunking him in acid or something.”
“Try to keep him from doing that again.” Nigel rubbed his ears as he stalked back out of the kitchen. “He screams louder than a bloody Banshee.” Megg rolled her eyes at her foster father's exaggeration as she carried Shade over to the table, laying him down to dress him. Really, you'd think that one of the guys who had thrust a baby of all things upon her would be a little more helpful – however, neither Nigel nor Zak could really be seen as helpful in the least. They would observe her and Shade, yes, but both of them left most of the actual work to her. Jackasses.
“PBBBLT!” Megg blinked, currently in the process of buttoning up Shade's onesie as the baby made the strange noise. She chuckled as she saw that the baby was reaching for a bright blue object that had been resting on the table – the old gameboy that she'd dug out a few days ago while cleaning her bedroom.
'I must've forgotten it down here while I was cleaning or something...' Either way, Shade seemed to be quite intent on getting his hands on it. Amused by the display, Megg picked the object up and placed it within his reach, doubting that there were any small parts the device that the infant would be able to choke on. A laugh immediately escaped her when the baby tried to chew on the gameboy, obviously not caring nor knowing that the device wasn't meant for such use. “Aw, well aren't you a little gamer-in-training?” Shade's grip on the gameboy remained strong as Megg lifted him back up, the top of the electronic partially inside of his mouth.
“Well, I know what I'm getting you once you're old enough to play!”
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 4:11 pm
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ＴＡＬＫ ＴＨＥ ＴＡＬＫ
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“C’mon, you can do it – say Megg! Muh-egg!”
“Beeee!” Megg sighed, but couldn’t help but chuckle as Shade cooed up at her, clearly uninterested in what she was trying to get him to say. She’d been at this for the last ten minutes, trying to get the little impling to something – most recently, her nickname – that didn’t consist of a simple sound effect.
So far, she’d had no luck.
“Maybe he’s just stupid.” Nigel teased from the doorway to Megg’s room. The brunette rolled her eyes before shooting a look of irritation at her foster father, who just grinned. “Oh, I’m kidding. He’s probably just taking his time.”
“I dunno...he seems to be so far behind Faust when it comes to developing.” Megg frowned and scooped Shade up into her arms, causing the infant to squeal with delight. The sound changed the expression to on her face to a smile, and she kissed his head softly before brushing a strand of hair from his face. “I’m just worried.”
“Well...perhaps implings merely develop at a slower rate than munsters do; we still need to look into that further.” The suggestion seemed to reassure Megg a little, as she nodded softly in response. “At any rate, he’s developing much faster than a regular child would – I’m sure that he’ll be babbling nonsense in no time.”
“I guess you’re right...”
“Of course I am.” The redheaded mage adjusted his glasses before pushing off from the doorframe. “Now stop fretting. I need to head down to the basement with Zak.” At the mention of the blond, bitchy mage, Megg found herself wondering what, exactly, the two of them were going to try now – hopefully, it would be something that DIDN’T result in sentient life being created. “Don’t get in trouble!”
‘I’m not the one who’s constantly getting into it.’ Megg thought as her foster father headed off down the hall. She shook her head before getting up to shut the door to her room. Then, she turned and set Shade down on the bright blue blanket that she’d laid out on the floor for him. The infant cooed and immediately reached for the stuffed blue elephant that rested on it, pulling the plush toy to him before putting its ear in his mouth. A laugh escaped Megg as she plopped down next to Shade, though what she reached for was the controller for her PS2, rather than some kind of stuffed animal.
Moments later, her thumbs were tapping at the buttons furiously while Shade cuddled his precious toy next to her. Her attention wasn’t on him though – it was on the fact that she was currently getting her a** kicked by a shadow in Tartarus. “Oh for- dammit!” she hissed, glaring at the screen. “Son of a b***h!” In hindsight, Megg would have probably realized that cursing in front of the kid that she’d just been teaching to speak a few moments ago wasn’t the best idea – her mind wasn’t on that currently, however. At the moment, she was thinking about the fact that the shadow was readying an attack that would possibly eliminate most of her his poin-
“BEEEE-ITCH!” Until she heard that word anyway. Megg suddenly stopped, forgetting that Minato currently only had 3HP left in her game, and looked to her charge with widened eyes. Had he really just said that? As if to respond to her wordless question, Shade gave her a big smile and repeated the word. “BEEEE-ITCH!”
Good God, the kid’s first word had been a cuss. Score one point for ‘Mommy’.
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:37 am
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ＳＴＯＲＹ ＴＩＭＥ
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“S'ory, Mama! S'ory!” Megg blinked as Shade pouted up at her from where she'd tucked him in, his arms wrapped tightly around snore. The brunette had just managed to get the little one ready for bed when he'd begun to demand that she tell him a story. The young woman chuckled after a moment and sat herself down on the bed next to the little impling.
“A story, huh?” Meggie adjusted the blankets around her ward's body, listening as the snow blew about outside her son's (it was still strange thinking of him as that) window. It was on nights like tonight that she was happy for the warmth of the mansion that they lived in. “Well, lets see...” Which ones had she told him? Almost all of them, she realized after a moment – they'd completely finished reading her big book of fairy tales yesterday! Now, Megg knew that she could always just re-read him one of the stories that she'd already told him, but where was the fun in that? Besides, she HAD just written one not too long ago that she figured would be appropriate for the little guy...
“Once upon a time, there was a princess named Catherine, who lived in a beautiful, peaceful kingdom. Like most princesses, Catherine had almost everything that her heart desired, though the thing that she treasured most was her pretty white pony, named Lily. Catherine also had a friend – a young squire named Jason. The two of them spent quite a bit of time together, and were the best of friends because of it.”
“Now, Jason was training to be a knight. There was one problem though: he couldn't ride a horse. He always fell off! He'd tried a number of things to try to keep himself on the saddle, from tying his feet into the stirrups, to gluing his hands to hands to the reigns – nothing worked! Jason was starting to wonder if he'd ever become a knight if he couldn't find a way to keep himself up in the saddle.”
“'ow come 'e needed t' ri'e a ho'se t' be a knigh'?” Shade interrupted, eyes wide as he hugged Snore. Megg grinning, apparently not bothered by the cut in her story.
“Because he wanted to be able to ride into battle with the other knights, and participate in contests called jousts.” she explained simply. “Now, one day Catherine told him to come to the barn, because she'd found something really cool. Curious, Jason complied and followed her out to the stables, where he received the biggest shock of his life – there, nestled against Lily like a colt, was a a small, green, scaly baby dragon-”
For the next 20 minutes or so, Megg went on to tell Shade of how Jason and Catherine had hidden the dragon until it had become too large to hide in the stables, and how the king had ordered them to get rid of it; she told him of how a black knight had attacked the kingdom shortly afterwards – which was when Jason had taken action. She described how the squire had gathered all of his courage, managed to ride the dragon, – without falling off, she'd been quick to add – and saved the kingdom from the black knight!
“He was knighted soon after, and the dragon was made his steed – the princess named him Sir Wilkenson.” Megg grinned as Shade yawned, his eyelids starting to droop with fatigue. “Sir Jason was made to be Princess Catherine's bodyguard, and throughout his years of service, they remained the best of friends, and lived happily ever after.” She pulled the blanket up over his chin, tucking it in around him. “The end. Now, get some sleep, kiddo.”
“Nigh' Mama...” the little boy mumbled, his eyes shut by this point in time. “Love you...”
“...I love you too, Shadie.” She bent down to kiss his head and smiled softly as the little boy dozed off. Things had been difficult since Megg had acquired Shade, but...perhaps things wouldn't be quite as bad as she thought they'd be.
Actually, she was fairly certain that they wouldn't be.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:33 am
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ＷＡＮＤＥＲＩＮＧ
╚══════════════╝ “Stay next to me, Shade.” Those had been his mother's instructions at the Fresh-Mart cash register when she'd begun paying for their groceries. The boy sighed impatiently as the cashier scanned their items, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet as he hugged Snore to his chest. Shade was bored – he'd forgotten his gameboy at home, which left him with absolutely nothing to do for the moment. For the young boy, it felt as though he'd been standing for an eternity, though he'd only been there for about 5 minutes thus far; then again, he was sick of the entire shopping trip as a whole.
Perhaps this was why his attention was easily caught by a young man by the entrance to the store with a ponytail in his hair – Kai? Was he doing his shopping too? Figuring that his mother wouldn't get angry with him for going to see the familiar young man, Shade scurried towards the exit of the store, coming out into the hallway of the mall. Unfortunately for him, his quarry had begun to leave, and Shade found himself slipping through the crowded hall in order to keep up with Kai. He almost lost the young man a few times, and only managed to get back on track by spotting the older boy's ponytail poking up over the crowd.
“H-Hey Kai, wai' up!” Kai didn't even pause as Shade called out to him, a fact which baffled the young impling as he struggled to catch up to the older boy. Could he not hear him? Perhaps the the noisy mall was too loud? Well, Shade would just need to stop him the old fashioned way then.
Shade saw his chance as Kai paused in the hall to toss something in one of the garbage cans, and quickly reached out to grasp the back of the young man's shirt. “Hi! I didn' know tha' you was a' th' s'ore too! Are your doggies ou'si-” Shade's question was cut off by his sudden surprise as kai turned around, and he saw that the person wasn't Kai at all. The man's hair was like Kai's, but this person had brown eyes and a dark beard around his mouth – he was definitely NOT Kai.
“Um...s-sorry...” Confused, Shade let go of the man's shirt and took a few steps back. He'd made a mistake, it seemed. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go back to his mother now.
As he turned around however, the boy quickly found that he had no idea where he was – the Fresh-Mart was nowhere in sight, nor was his mother. He was lost, he quickly realized, a fact which caused a swell of terror to well up inside of him. Where was the store? And his mother? The child suddenly found himself regretting his decision to follow 'Kai', and quickly began squirming through the crowds, dodging around people as he struggled to find his way back, or at least spot something, anything, that may have been familiar.
There was nothing. He didn't recognize ANYTHING that may have led him back to the Fresh-Mart. So, he resorted to the only thing that he could think of doing in his current situation.
The little boy sniffed, hugged Snore to his chest, and began to cry. “M-Mommy, w-where are you?!” Megg, of course, did not respond, since she was nowhere close to him. Someone else did, however.
“Hey now, what's wrong kiddo?” Shade hiccuped as he found himself looking into the face of a blond-haired lady, whose blue eyes held a friendly sparkle to them. “Are you lost?” For a moment, the little boy wasn't sure of how to respond to this new woman; he wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. He knew that. This lady seemed to be really nice though, and he was so lost – surely, asking for her help couldn't hurt, right? Sniffling, the boy finally nodded, and the lady smiled gently. “I'll help you find your Momma, alright? It'll be okay.” Shade hesitated for a few seconds when the lady held her hand out to him, but took it at last, still hugging his elephant close. “What's your name? I'm Carrie.”
“M...Muh n-name's S-Shade...” The little boy wiped his eyes on his sleeve and sniffed again, trying to calm down as Carrie tugged him down the hallway of the mall.
“Well Shade, we're gonna find a nice mall security guard, okay? He'll help us find your Mommy.” Shade nodded a bit, sticking close as he was led through the crowds of people. Soon, he was standing next to Carrie at the mall help desk, sucking on a red candy as the man there made a call on what looked like a microphone. The message boomed throughout the mall, and it quickly gained results – within minutes, Megg appeared at the desk, eyes wide with worry.
“M-Mommy!” Upon seeing her, the little boy rushed forward and threw his arms around her; he was greeted in return by his mother hugging him back.
“I thought I told you not to wander off!” Megg scolded as she hugged her son close. “Do you know how worried I was?!” Shade only sniffed in response, snuggling down into his mother's shoulder. The brunette sighed, adjusting her bags before lifting Shade up as she turned to smile at the blond woman who had bought her son to the help desk. “Thanks; he took off while I was paying.”
“It's no problem; he's a cute little guy.” Carrie grinned at Shade's mother (was she REALLY his mother?) as she gestured towards the little boy, whom had curled up against the brunette. “My name's Carrie.”
“Meggie.” The young woman smiled as she rocked Shade in her arms. “Thank you, Carrie. I really appreciate it. Now, I think it's about time we got some lunch; would you like to join us?” The lady seemed to hesitate for a moment at the invitation.
“Well, I don't want to impose...but if it's alright...” Carrie seemed to relax when Megg gave her a friendly smile and nodded in affirmation.
“Of course! We'd love your company – isn't that right, Shay?” The young woman smiled down at Shade as she stroked the back of his head. The little boy didn't respond verbally, but he did nod slightly from his spot in his mother's arms. It seemed that had settled it, for Carrie finally nodded and followed the two of them to the food court, where she and Megg had a nice, lengthy chat.
It was to be the start of a rather interesting friendship.
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Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:10 pm
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ＳＩＺＥ ＭＡＴＴＥＲＳ
╚══════════════╝ The sound of a door slamming, followed by a strangled cry of frustration was what alerted Megg of the fact that her son was home. Now, it wasn't uncommon for Shade to come home from school in an irritated mood – the boy, it seemed, had a hard time fitting in at school. He got picked on because of his size, and it didn't help that he was generally shy around people that he didn't know well. Now, that wasn't to say that the little boy LET himself be pushed around – he had a surprising amount of spark for someone his size. Kind of like Kali, Megg would sometimes think in amusement. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that though – from the sound of it, something had upset Shade quite a bit. With that thought in mind, the young woman moved from where she'd been getting her son's snack ready in the kitchen and out into the entrance just in time to see the little boy kicking his sneakers off angrily. Yup – definitely upset.
“Shade...? Sweetheart, what happened...?” The little boy looked up as his mother came in, a small sniffle escaping him as he wiped his eyes. Had he been crying? It seemed so, Megg realized as she moved closer and saw tears welled up in his golden eyes. “Aw, sweetie...are you okay?” She knelt down just in time for the little boy to throw himself at her as he wrapped his little arms as far as he could around her. Gently, Megg returned the hug and sat herself down on the floor, pulling the little boy up and into her lap. “Did something happen at school...?” Shade nodded a sniffled a bit, curling up against his mother.
“The other boys wouldn't let me play wif 'em...they sai' that I'm too small.” The impling let out a frustrated growl. “They told me t' go play wif th' girls, 'cause I'm too little t' play boy games.” Ah, so that was the problem. Shade was small, even for his age, and it had always been a sore spot for him; it was times like these that Megg couldn't help but see the similarities between Shade and his munster brother, Faust. The boy's were both unique in their own ways, obviously, but their were certain aspects about themselves that left them self-conscious – with Shade, it was his size. With Faust, it was his teeth and his lisp. It was good that they had each other because of this, but things had gotten difficult for Shade after Faust had switched schools. Shade had been sent to another school as well, obviously, but he still attended a public one – Kali had sent Faust to a private one.
Shade hadn't liked that very much.
“They did that, huh?” Megg frowned a bit as she stroked the top of her son's head, watching as she nodded and sniffled again. The little boy tilted his head up, looking towards his mother's face.
“Momma...am I gonna be this small f'rever...?” he asked, his ears drooping slightly at the though. “I don't wanna be lil' anymore...” Poor kid. He was having such a touch time of it. Megg hugged the boy a little tighter and shook her head a bit.
“No. I don't think so...” she told him with a small smile. “You'll get bigger; just wait and see. I bet you'll get to be just as big as Kai when you get older.” The little boy's ears perked up at the thought, and his tail flicked slightly.
“You think so, Momma...? You really think so...?”
“Of course.” She kissed his head softly and stood up, shifting the little boy in her arms. “And even if you did, that's okay - there's nothing wrong with being little. Me, and Auntie Kali, and Faust are always gonna love you, no matter how little you might be." Hearing that seemed to cheer the boy up, and he snuggled deeper into her hug. "Now then – I have some milk and cookies out on the table for you. Why don't we go have those before Zak or Nigel come and decide to eat them on us, okay?”
As she carried her son into the kitchen, however, Megg found herself wondering if there was a way to bribe her foster father into putting a few minor curses on the kids who were picking on Shade...
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