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 Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:21 pm
~Reserved for Dageus' arrival~
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:46 am
Meet the Family "May? We're home!"
Aiodhan's cheerful, albeit slightly higher-pitched than normal, voice rang out through the house. He had every reason to be a bit nervous. He and Amyla had agreed on this ages ago, months before when he had applied to be the caretaker of a child from the Fourth Wall adoption center. They hadn't expected it to be so sudden, though, and they hadn't expected their new child to be... well... a child, as opposed to an infant. However, Aiodhan was pretty sure he preferred it this way. He didn't know if he could handle another infant just now.
"I was wondering when you'd get back. I was hoping you'd get here before Kari and Nieva brought the rest of them home from the park," Amyla said, scurrying out of the kitchen. Truthfully, she wanted to get the child settled in before the army that was the rest of her children came in through the front door. The poor dear must be-
"Park?" came a startled bark from behind Aiodhan, and the large (and rather ferocious-looking) child emerged from behind his new 'father'. Not exceptionally tall, the wolverine boy still appeared rather imposing, his claws and jaws making up for whatever he lacked in height. "There's a park here?"
Amyla, surprised that he was a 'he' and a child roughly Kayce's age, nodded. "Yes, a few miles away. The backyard is big enough, though, that you'll have plenty of room to run around."
The wolverine boy adopted a very gleeful expression and looked as though he was about to tear around the house in search of the door to this 'backyard' when Aiodhan's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Hold up, big guy. Don't you want to say hi to your Mum first?"
The boy looked up at Amyla, fidgeting impatiently and toying with the toy car that Aiodhan had generously bought him on the way home from the center. The poor kid had come through with no toys or clothes, so they'd had to make a few short shopping stops on the way back. "Hi. M' name's Dageus."
Hmmm... something told her this boy was trouble in the making. Still, he was too eager for her to be all that wary, so Amyla grinned down at him. "Hi, Dageus. I was hoping to get you settled into your room before your siblings get home. I think you'll like it here."
The wolverine boy's grin widened until he looked positively fiendish. "Yah. I know I'll like it," he chortled happily, very carefully cradling the car and stroking it.
Aiodhan watched his new child, strongly reminded of an evil dictator stroking a lapcat. Oh dear. What had he brought into this house?? "Anyway, let's get your bags out of the car and show you to your room," he said, quickly scurrying back outside to retrieve the newly-bought clothes and the handful of other small cars.
By the time Dageus' new things were in his room (the wolverine boy had been able to carry most of the shopping bags up in one trip, much to Aiodhan's surprise), the boy was more than a little antsy to be out and about somewhere, preferably outside the house. "Can I put it away later? I wanna play," he asked pleadingly, now unable to stand still for more than about half a second. He'd been indoors so long over the past few weeks, both on the other side of the rift (which he scarcely remembered anyway), then at the center, and now here today. It was too much. He needed fresh air!
Not averse to getting outside himself, Aiodhan nodded and led the boy downstairs. Maybe they could get some outside time before-
"What dat?!" a childish, and very annoyed, voice rang out.
Having nearly reached the back door, both Aiodhan and Dageus spun around to see Erin giving them a baleful look. Behind her were most of the rest of her siblings: Kari (holding a giggling Evie), Nieva, Tanith (who looked incredibly grumpy), Kayce, and Eowyn. All were staring; two looked pleased.
"I'm Dageus," the wolverine boy announced, his eyes widening as he saw the practice swords that both Kayce and Eowyn were wearing. "Swords?!"
Kayce and Eowyn stared at him for a brief instant and then looked at each other. Some silent sisterly message was passed, and then the two girls separated themselves from the rest of the siblings to wander over to Dageus.
"Kayce and Eowyn. Do you know how to swordfight?" Kayce queried, peering intently at the wolverine boy.
Dageus vigorously shook his head. "Nuh uh. But I bet I'm stronger 'n you," he said, his green eyes alive with wicked mirth. This was just too good. Siblings who liked to rough-house...
Eowyn, shorter than both Dageus and Kayce, crossed her arms across her chest and gave Dageus a challenging look. "Prove it!"
Aiodhan barely had time to open the door before a whirling, wrestling ball of Kayce, Eowyn, and Dageus rolled out onto the back porch. There was a great deal of snarling and smacking going on, and while it sounded rather ferocious, he couldn't see any damage being done. They were occupied for a time. Task complete.
Closing the door to leave the wrestling and rough-housing bunch out on the back porch, the dragon-man turned about to find himself face-to-face with his mate, who looked none too pleased that he was allowing the kids to fight. He gave her a shameless grin and waggled his eyebrows. "I love you?" he said hopefully. Maybe that would get him off the hook for now.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:48 am
Plotting as a Gang For once, a moment of peace had settled over the three children seated in the backyard treehouse. It was a chilly winter morning, and all three were appropriately dressed to deal with the cold. Both Kayce and Eowyn were wearing jackets and boots, and Dageus.... well... he just wore boots, jeans, and a shirt with a nice large car on it. How he loved cars.
"Mum said Christmas is coming," Eowyn said to break the silence. She and Kayce had left their practice swords inside, and all three children had come to the mutual agreement that this would be their hideout from the rest of the family for the morning. The babies were being fussy, Erin was more cantankerous than usual, and Tanith had had a beautifully explosive temper-tantrum that morning. All in all, none of the three wanted to be in the house that much.
Eowyn's comment prompted a hefty snort from Dageus, and he gave a leisurely stretch, not at all bothered by the slight chill. The joys of being covered in thick fur. "Christmas. Gifts and decorations and bloody mistletoe," the boy grumbled, imitating his parents from the other side of the rift. He always got cranky around Christmas. He couldn't help it; things were just never that fun.
"Mistletoe is poisonous if you eat it," Kayce pointed out with her typical cynicism, not at all liking the sound of this holiday which promoted group gatherings, parties, and other sorts of large crowds.
Eowyn blinked. "But Mum said it's all about giving," she mused, looking quite thoughtful. She had never experienced this 'Christmas' thing before, but it sounded nice. Everyone gave everyone presents, and everyone was happy as a result. It couldn't be so bad, so long as they didn't have any guests over for Christmas.
"Yeah, it's about giving people presents and being nice and happy and a big family," Dageus scowled. If he had it his way, he and his two comrades-in-mischief would be wreaking havoc nearly all the time. He enjoyed wrecking things, wrestling, and just generally being... well.... difficult. A holiday that promoted niceness was just not high on his 'happy list.'
"At least neither of you is going to be forced to go to lessons," Kayce hissed quietly, not pleased about this thought of having to go interact with her tutors, one of whom she absolutely despised. "Lessons plus Christmas decorating."
The other two made faces. No, neither of them had to go through that torture, though Christmas decorating was going to be bad enough. Mum had this thing for decorations, and they had just finished taking things down from Halloween.
"Maybe she'll change her mind?" Eowyn said, mildly hopeful. She could tell by the expressions on the older childrens' faces, though, that this would not happen. Mum never changed her mind about decorating.
Ever.
"We could always rip down the decorations," Dageus chortled suddenly, clapping his clawed paws together with a gleeful expression on his face.
Kayce made a derogatory snort. "Yes, and have our weapons and your cars permanently confiscated. How brilliant."
The wolverine anthro's face fell, and he settled back down to ponder somewhat sullenly. There was just no way out of this.
The silence that ensued lasted awhile as all three tried desparately to think of some way in which to escape this nightmare of a holiday, which included decorations (Eowyn sighed), mistletoe and nice clothes (Dageus looked sick at the very thought), and gatherings of people (Kayce's normally expressionless face looked a tad murderous).
"No ideas..." Eowyn moped, giving the house a sullen look. "Maybe we should just help out and make it get done quicker."
Dageus moaned silently and tilted his head back. That was an awful idea, but they really had no choice. "Mum will make us."
Silent and very still, Kayce pondered for another moment before offering up a better suggestion. "Maybe if we choose something long, we won't have to help with the other stuff."
The two other children looked thoughtful and then glanced back at her. "Like what?" Dageus demanded, sitting fully upright and resting his clawed hands on the ground before him. "Mum won't let us set up the tree alone."
"Or hang up any of the stuff that breaks," Eowyn piped up, knowing full well that their mother did not trust any of them with an even remotely breakable object like an ornament.
A slow (and rather frighteningly wicked) smile spread across Kayce's face. "No.... like the outside lights on the house. And the garland that she wants to wrap around the railings of the front porch."
Dageus was dumbfounded by her brilliance, while Eowyn gave a smug grin. "Yeah, and it's outside too, which means we're away from everybody else," the Kybernetik said, her gray-green eyes alight with new energy. "And it'll take forever!"
"But what about the ladder? Mum won't let me up," Dageus said, looking down at his clawed hands and feet. No way in heck. She didn't trust him.
Kayce gave an impatient wave of her hand. "She'll let me. Besides, it'll take hours to untangle all of the outside lights before we even put them up."
After an additional few minutes of pondering, none of the three had come up with any real problem with the plan. In fact, Dageus even grudgingly agreed that it was 'bloody brilliant.'
"Then let's go," Kayce said simply, scooting over to the ladder to head out of the treehouse. Really, she was amazed with her own brilliance at times.((Cross-posted in Eowyn and Kayce's journals.))
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:16 pm
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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:31 pm
Okay, so I've been sort of behind in updating this journal for Dageus. So much stuff has been going on in the house. It's crazy, really crazy. Dageus seems to be doing really well. He got along well with Kayce and Eowyn at first, and they still seem to coexist in relative peace. However, he marches to the beat of his own drum, and that didn't seem to mesh well with Kayce's style of doing things. He plays alone most of the time, but that's fine by him. The more destruction he causes, the better. I think he successfully demolished every anthill on the property. He and his cars are usually outside in the backyard or on the back porch. If he can run over it, he will. If he can't run it over, he tries. He tried to tackle a tree the other day. The tree won. He didn't have any splinters, but he was flat on his back, gasping for air for a minute or two. I was torn between being amused and being concerned. I ended up being amused. Couldn't help it. Just couldn't help it. I've been trying to do some schooling on him. It's... okay. He has a short attention span when it comes to reading, writing, and math. I'll just keep working on it until he at least gets... somewhere. Oh, I forgot to add that he has a small temper issue. Just a little one. I kid. Big temper issue. I thought he was going to beat Erin to a pulp yesterday when she accidentally broke one of his toy cars. I had to rescue her. For a little kid, Dageus is incredibly strong. Aiodhan
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:36 pm
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:49 pm
Well, I was sorta behind before, but now I'm really behind the power curve. With the state of utter chaos-- allow me to rephrase: I mean... more chaos than it was in before!-- the house has been in, it's been difficult for me to keep up on stuff. So much has been happening. Kids growing up, kids getting attitudes, kids going off to school... yeah, I'm feeling old. Anyway, Dageus seems to be taking things in stride. As long as he gets to go outside and wreck something at least once a day, he seems good to go. He destroys any pile of dirt, which annoys Kayce to no end, especially when she's mounding the dirt to prepare to set up a target for her knives. The good news is that she doesn't bother him at all. I'd be worried if her speed and swords decided to take on his strength, claws, and jaws. Bad. Very bad. Dageus doesn't really seem inclined to get into fights anymore, though. When I first brought him home, he seemed to like wrestling with the girls, and for awhile, I was afraid he'd hurt them. He doesn't seem to be as intrested in it now. He takes his energy out on the trees. He still is trying to tackle the blasted things, no matter how many times he gets the wind knocked out of him. I'm not sure if it's stupidity or persistence, but I'm sort of leaning towards persistence. What is scariest to me is that occasionally, the tree will move as a result of the tackling force he's applying to it. He is going to be one heck of a bruiser when he gets older. Even I will be afraid of him then, methinks. Until then, I still hold the power. Oh, and I'm happy to announce that I actually shoved some knowledge into that furry head of his. I got the kid hooked on Shakespeare by accident during a reading lesson the other day. Up until then, he kind of tolerated me trying to teach him. Don't get me wrong; he isn't stupid. School just isn't his thing. Then when we read 'Macbeth' and I showed him an old movie version of it, he found it fascinating. Now he randomly throws "Fair is foul and foul is fair" into conversations. What a weirdo. But then again... Dageus with a flair for the dramatic? Not surprising. He better not grow up to be an actor. I might go bonkers. Scratch that. I will go bonkers. Aiodhan
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:24 pm
So, there are days when I really wonder how we ended up with these kids that we did, because they're kind of weird. Actually, they're all really weird and kind of scary, and it seems so strange to me that I'm surprised whenever we get another weird one. 'Normal' just doesn't seem to be able to describe any of our children. Ever. Dageus certainly hasn't lost any of his wildness, despite his new fondness for Shakespeare. In addition to the destruction and havoc he attempts to wreak on the trees in the backyard, he has also taken to prancing (yes, prancing... he looks scary) about and reciting passages from a few of Shakespeare's many plays. It is a little disturbing to walk out on the back deck and see him there, striking a pose as if holding a sword and reading lines from one of the books. I can't be disappointed that he's reading, but did it have to be Shakespeare?! I've kept a few out of his reach thus far, like Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, but I'm wondering how long it'll take him to realize that. I mean, he doesn't need to get any ideas about women or love or anything; he's just a kid! Wild, tree-tackling Dageus... I can handle. Tree-tackling Dageus who likes to act out Shakespeare is really scary, but I can deal with that. Toss in romance at any point, and we may have a problem. The kid has an ego, and I think if (or should I say 'when') he realizes that females can possibly be attractive, we're going to have a serious problem on our hands. If there are gods, they should hear me now: please keep Dageus a kid forever. Aiodhan
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:02 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:18 am
You know, I'm beginning to wish it was just Macbeth I had to put up with now. But no, I had to have the damnably brilliant idea of taking him to a public library. Granted, I'm grateful that he didn't take to the fairytales, but now he has Hamlet to recite from too. Let's just say I'm tearing my hair out, yeah? After a lot of soul- and school-searching, we finally managed to get Dageus settled into a decent elementary school a month or so ago. He seems to be taking to it well, though he isn't making a great deal of friends. They're playing football in his PE class for the next few weeks, and he seems to like it. We had a conference with his teachers like the other parents, and he is doing well. Average in most of his classes, minus English, where he seems to be leaps and bounds ahead. That'd be the Shakespeare. They don't have a drama club in school, but maybe once he gets up into middle or high school, he'll be able to take drama as an elective or something. He is really into the whole acting thing. You know, it figures. The one male kid we adopt into the household is the only kid we have who can appreciate the great literary classics. Anyway, he is begging for help with his math homework, so I'd best go give him a hand before May has to, since she hates math. Oh, did I mention she's pregnant? I'm going to be a father all over again! Aiodhan
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:17 am
I stole the diary from Dad. He is going to be really mad at me when he finds out but that's okay. It's all about me anyway, so I should get to write in it. I went back to the library and got Romeo and Juliet. It's so gross! It's all lovey, and then everybody dies! Dad told me that it's a classic because everybody dies. I think it's dumb. Mum agrees with me. She says that if Romeo was really in love he would have known Juliet was still alive.
I wish I could do acting, but they don't have it at my school. Mum says that the high school has a drama club. I wonder why they call it a drama club and not an acting club. I'll ask Dad. I want to join it. Then I could act all the time, and Dad wouldn't get confused.
School is really really boring except for English class. I like most of the stuff we read. We are reading Treasure Island soon. It sounds like fun.
Dageus
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