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 Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 10:56 am
"It sounds like a good time to me," Konstantin replied with a grin, running a hand through his wavy black hair as he spoke. It'd be nice to eat with some adults that weren't family or business associates for once. He had no doubts that Mikhail would enjoy getting to hang out with his new friends longer as well. " Today was meant to be a nice vacation for both of us so ending it with restaurant food and ice cream makes sense." It was also nice to find new places that accommodated taur seating and weren't simply taur specific diners. Gaia had many types of people on it but not every eating establishment could or did make the effort to be open to all which was difficult for mixed families.
Mikhail had been relieved to feel Taylor's weight removed from him even if he was mostly sure he coulda kept swimming like that.. maybe. The pink scaled boy listened closely to the instructions, trying to figure out exactly how this Marco polo game went. It didn't seem too complicated, you just swam quietly except when you had to shout. He nibbled his lower lip for a second before churning his legs and trying to get as far away from the older boy as possible. This would be so much easier if he could fly. Did it count as swimming if he floated himself in the water?
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:21 am
Stephen waited a couple more moments before he popped his head above water, shook it to clear his hair, and listened for a moment. "Marco!"
"Polo!" Carter and Corwin shouted, Corwin trying his hardest to get out of the way of Stephen as he swam up. Of course, he was the first tagged, as he was making enough noise to startle an alligator. Stephen grinned, and patted Corwin on the shoulder. "Go swim over to the adults, and wait for the next game." he said.
Grudgingly, Corwin swam back to the adults, and tread water there, trying to learn how to swim quietly. James excused himself from the adult talk to give his son a few pointers - like keeping his legs underwater, and using the tail slowly, versus quickly.
"Marco!" Stephen called again. "Polo!" Taylor yelled, as he dived underwater just as the 'O' left his mouth, swam UNDER Stephen, and popped up behind him, swimming to the other side - away from him.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:36 am
Mikhail might have felt bad that his new friend Corwin had been so quickly eliminated if he wasn't so concerned about not getting tagged himself. It was fun if nerve wracking to shout Polo and then hope you weren't the one who got chased. For the moment the little dragon taur was paddling furiously away from Stephen. He wasn't making a ton of noise but he was definitely disturbing the water a great deal especially with so few other bodies in it. Not that Mikhail noticed that, he was only focusing on trying to swim to water passed for safety as fast as possible.
Konstantin watched this all with amusement wondering whether or not Mikhail was going to rest to what was technically cheating to survive. His son had a habit of insisting his natural talents were a part of him and thus not ' breaking the rules' as it were. If his cousins didn't let him get away with it these kids probably wouldn't either.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:49 am
Corwin was taking to his father's lessons while the game was still going on. Steven and Kent watched their kids to make sure no roughhousing occurred. They were boys, after all.
"Marco!" Stephen called again, swimming toward where he heard splashing and water movement. Taylor was making quick 'come here' motions toward Mikhail with his arms, trying not to make much noise as he did so. He managed to draw Stephen's attention, however, and the boy started to swim toward his youngest brother. "Marco!"
"Polo!" Taylor called, before ducking under again, and swimming beneath his brother to pop up silently beside Mikhail. "Shhhhhh..." he hissed at him. "Stop splashing!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:04 pm
He wasn't splashing, how dare he be accused of splashing by someone smaller than him who didn't even swim as good! Still, Mikhail ceased to paddle and reverted to relying on his natural ability to fly to basically hover in the water. He stuck his tongue out at Taylor, now they'd see who could be quieter. Oh sure he wanted both him and his teammate to not get caught but now suddenly it was also about being better at not getting caught. As far as the toddler was concerned he was competing with everyone now which just made it all the more fun.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:35 am
Taylor may have been young, but both his fathers were accomplished mages. He knew magic when he saw it, and sensed it. His eyes narrowed, and he made a pouty face.
"That's cheating!" he said. "You can't use magic! That's cheating!"
Steven and Kent both chuckled a bit. "Leave it up to Taylor to sense when someone's using magic. Both Kent and myself - as well as respected citizens in the community - are magic-users as well. We've taught him to be able to sense abilities, talents, and spells. And apparently your boy is breaking the rules. He's really not fond of cheating."
Stephen crossed his arms in the shallow end, and opened his eyes, Carter sighing and swimming toward Mikhail.
"No cheating!" Stephen said crossly.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:48 am
" Rules didn't say no magic," Mikhail grumbled besides wasn't magic something you did like his bubbles as opposed to something he .. well something that just happened cause he was special.
Konstantin snorted softly in response to the other men's comment " Mikhail tends to see his biological abilities as a given tool in any situation" he shook his head slowly as he spoke " He's argued it at least a dozen times against his cousins." The toddler rarely won those fights but it never seemed to stop him from trying again, although he never tried to use skills in the same games again, kid was smart if a little stubborn.
With not a drop of non human or magical blood in his veins Konstantin had grown up having to prove himself the hard way so it was at times hard for him to understand what innate magic even felt like for Mikhail. "Can your boys do magic?" he asked curiously, still not seeing a need to intervene with the children just yet.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:57 am
"Taylor and Stephen can do quite a number of spells. Carter is still learning. All three of them have talent, though." Steven said, grinning. "When my sister abandoned them to me and my husband, she hadn't really taught them anything... But Kent started up lessons to take their mind off their good-for-nothing mother, and they took to it like fish to water."
Kent smiled a bit. "Even Carter, who isn't that good, loves learning. I'm sure he'll get better at the spells as time goes on."
Stephen stuck his tongue out at Mikhail. "You didn't tell us you had magic! Because if we want to play that way...." Stephen murmured something beneath his breath, and floated up out of the water a bit. "WE can use magic too!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:19 am
Once more Konstantin was grateful for his own fairly peaceful upbringing. He was also genuinely in awe of Steven and Kent, family or not taking on three children unexpectedly had to have been no easy task. "It sounds like everything is working out well for you then.." Perhaps if Mikhail didn't end up mortal enemies with the other children he could ask about how one went about appraising magic teachers. His entirely family was magic null and while he has associates and staff that used magic none of them were people he'd put in charge of his son's education.
Mikhail just sulked and stared silently down into the water, the toddler was no longer having any fun. Why did it never work out when he did things like this, wasn't he just always trying his best to win like you were supposed to? Why couldn't people be like his puzzles where there was always a right way to do things and mistakes didn't mess everything up forever.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:24 am
Stephen dropped his hover, and swam over to Mikhail, giving him a look.
"Winning everything isn't the point of games, yanno. The point is to have fun. And cheating isn't fun, because you always win. Sometimes, losing is fun too." He nodded his head, and ducked underwater, grabbing Mikhail's legs, and pulling him partially under. He didn't know how well the other could swim, but he wanted to give him a bit of a shock to get out of his funk.
After he'd done that, he swam away quickly, letting the other boys gather together again.
"Why don't we play with the ball?" Carter asked, batting it at Mikhail, and a returning Corwin, who intercepted, and batted the ball directly at Mikhail with his tail. "Heads up!" he called.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:34 am
Mikhail has been startled by being briefly dragged mostly underwater but it had served to make him feel better as the cool water covered him. Dark hair on a warm day, even with the sun partially covered meant he got warm fairly quickly. A little dunking was as refreshing as having the burden of competing seriously removed. With the reintroduction of the ball everything was good again and the hybrid toddler was more than happy to headbutt the inflatable toy at his playmates and ignore the mild stinging sensation it caused. Heads up indeed!
Konstantin watched the ball game start again and rolled his eyes in amusement as he chuckled. Children seemed to move in and out of squabbles with so much more ease than their adult counterparts.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:39 am
Kent seemed to have the same idea. He sighed, and shook his head. "If only big people got over their quarrels as easily as kids do..." he said quietly. "These three might still be in contact with their mom. As it is - I don't think the woman's ever coming back. Last I heard, she was married again, and had another son and a daughter. I doubt these three would even recognize her."
Steven nodded himself. "They're our kids now. And they look so much like us, that we've had some people ask some pretty strange things." he said, laughing.
Stephen hit the ball to Taylor, who hit it to Carter, who hit it back to Corwin, who spiked it with his tail just so that it would hit where Mikhail could headbutt it again. This was fun! And the sun was starting to go down, so the air was starting to cool off.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:51 am
" Well it is gaia, stranger things have happened then two men producing children." Konstantin noted. " Unless of course you're not natives in which case it might be a little odd where you come from." He had relatives who lived on Earth that couldn't accept the strangeness of gaia for anything. They were quite content to pretend travel to there had never been invented and that certain branches of the family simply disappeared and reappeared at random like they'd gone vacationing in the Bermuda triangle or something. To them two men with biological children would be an impossibility and a sign of the apocalypse.
Mikhail laughed, rearing up in the water to get a better angle with his head this time and aimed the ball at Taylor. Pale yellow eyes were lit up with glee as he played and splashed about in the water.
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