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 Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 10:33 pm
Bernard nodded politely. His mother was an excellent cook too, something he was now sad that he hadn't inherited. "You are quite fortunate to have such a skilled parent. It has been a long time since any of us has had a home-cooked meal."
"Icosa is good at other things," Ennea said quickly. "Cleaning and selling and reading!" Just because he couldn't cook- and couldn't teach her- didn't mean he should sell himself short.
"Knows good places to eat," Teyr chimed in. That was an essential skill!
Zwei thought for a moment before adding his two bits. "Good at swords," he contributed. "Lots of swords."
"That's enough," Bernard said firmly. "There's no need to gang up on your guest." And more importantly, he had no need to be reminded of his talents, such as they were... though he'd be lying if he said it wasn't nice.
As Teyr and Ennea murmured apologies, Zwei lit on the real topic. "Pretend! Me'n Teyr's favorite." They generally pretended to be heroes, of course, but there were also pirates and knights and all sorts of weird things off the television. "Lots of toys for it- swords and shields and robots!"
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Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 11:19 pm
Vinny just smiled and shrugged. "Our house is big." He offered. "Mom likes meeting people and making friends--she's an elf, they're social like that, I suppose." It was true, Thali was outgoing and positively one of the friendliest people anyone could meet. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you came over for dinner sometime. We don't get that many guests."
"My brother's good with swords." Vinny said, nodding. There wasn't much Joshua couldn't do. "I'm not really good at anything he is, though." He paused. "You guys like pretend?" He asked, smiling. "My brother and I play it all the time."
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 1:05 am
"Really?" That was so nice to offer, and Teyr really wanted to go, even though he knew it would mean extra work for Vinny and his mom. But he looked at Ennea and Bernard hopefully. They would know what to do about it, surely.
And sure enough, Bernard considered the idea for a moment before responding. "That's a very kind invitation, but I do hope you'll check with your mother before setting a date. I wouldn't want to overwhelm her."
"Cool!" There were a few toy weapons in the bag they had brought to the park, plastic swords and water guns that were Zwei's favorites. He reached for the best one, a silver-painted broadsword, and held it out in front of me. "Still learning," he admitted. "Icosa'll teach me!"
Bernard choked on his cider. When had he agreed to that? "When you're a bit older, maybe," he conceded.
Zwei mulled over that answer, and decided it was acceptable. Setting the sword down next to him, he nibbled on the last of his chicken. "What's Vinny's favorite pretend?" he asked, curiously. They had discussed superheroes already, but maybe he had a different favorite.
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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 9:58 pm
Vinny nodded at Bernard. "Sure. She'll say yes though. She always does." He paused. "Just bring her with you." He gestured to Teyr's mother. "She likes to tease dad, and make him jealous. But everyone knows she'd never really do anything." He leaned in to whisper. "See, Mom's extremely religious and stuff--but she likes to have fun. She found a way to tease Dad, and still keep true to the Bible."
He looked at the two boys. "I don't really have a favorite." He explained. "Mostly my brother and I play Knights, or pirates, or princes, or space explorers, or detectives, or anything really. When my sisters are old enough, we'll be able to protect them. They grow slower than we do." He frowned slightly. "They cry a lot."
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 12:42 am
Bernard was puzzled for a moment, but when he understood he began to redden. "Oh, that's not- she's not-" He coughed, and took a moment to regain his composure. "Ennea is like a daughter to me. Nothing more, nothing less."
Though Ennea didn't understand why Bernard was upset, she blushed as well. "I would like to come, if is alright," she said quietly. "Would like to meet your mother and father." Maybe she could learn how to be better at it from them.
Oh! There were some new games in there that he and Zwei had never tried. "Space explorers?" Teyr asked. "Detectives? What's those?"
Zwei nodded seriously. "Damsels, right?" Usually Ennea played that part for them, but it would be nice to have someone he could actually carry. "Sisters and brother both? Lots of siblings," he commented. As nice as it would be to have someone else play the princess, he was kind of glad that he and Teyr were the only kids.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 11:59 pm
"Yeah.. Well, Mom doesn't need to know that, does she?" Vinny shrugged. "Dad says it's because elves have different customs or something. They like to tease." He nodded at Ennea. "Sure. My parents would love to meet you--my brother too."
His eyes widened as he looked at Teyr. "You've never played space explorers?" He asked, amazed. "You know--you pretend your somewhere in space. Like in Startrek. Have you seen Startrek? With the Tribbles, and Volcans and stuff? Spock?" He paused. "Detectives are like--you know, the Great Mouse Detective. It's a movie. And Sherlock Homes. Nancy Drew. They find stuff, and figure out who did it." He nodded as wisely as he could.
Sometimes, being the son of writers meant you knew a lot about having an imagination.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 11:39 pm
"I... see," Bernard sighed, though that was not entirely true. Many of the elves he'd met had been somewhat flirtatious, but he couldn't exactly condone that sort of behavior. "Perhaps if this is arranged, I should just send Ennea with the boys." He was too old to go off carousing with the younger set anyway, or so he told himself.
Ennea turned slightly pink, but nodded. "Thank you very much. Are lucky to have such nice family!" Not that she was complaining, of course.
Eyes wide, Teyr shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he mumbled. "Haven't seen. Detective sounds fun!"
"Both sound fun," Zwei admitted. "We play Sparkle Rangers or soldiers or fireman or rescue. See them on TV." But they had never seen a science fiction film, or anything about great mice. Zwei was a bit envious that he was missing out on these things, but also excited to learn about them.
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Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 12:13 pm
"Or you could hang out with Dad." Vinny suggested, with a shrug. He smiled at Ennea. "I don't know about lucky." He said, modest as ever. "I think everyone has a family as good as mine." It seemed logical to him, anyway. If he had good parents, everyone else did too.
Vinny blinked in surprise. "You guys have never watched Disney?" He asked in astonishment. "I'll let you borrow some of my movies." Strange, maybe, for a child of a greed demon to say. The boy always had a plan--if he let his friends borrow some of his things, they would let him borrow theirs.
"I still don't know what Sparkle Rangers are." He said with a slight frown. "Mom's a writer, so we generally avoid television--she says reading is better. When we do watch it, it's usually fantasy or science fiction." And Vinny liked it that way.
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Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 11:34 pm
"We'll see," Bernard said evenly, taking another sip of his cider.
Ennea cocked her head, thinking it over. "Hope so," she finally said. Though she hadn't met children whose parents were anything other than nice, Bernard always told her to be careful of strangers.
"Disney? What's that?" While they had an old television at home, things like VCRs and DVDs were too technical for Bernard, and so no one knew how to use one. "Just watch on TV, right?" Teyr asked curiously. "Can't take off TV." Then again, if Vinny said they could, maybe they could!
Zwei frowned and practically dove into the pile of toys again. "This's Sparkle Rangers," he said, pulling out a plastic phone with a decal of people dressed in brightly colored spandex. "Normal people, but transform into Sparkle Rangers and beat the bad guys! With robots! So cool!"
"Cool," Teyr echoed. "Don't have lots of books, but like the ones we can read." Most of Bernard's books were thick historical records or technical manuals, and didn't make for light reading. "TV helps when Icosa's busy." Which was often, but neither he nor Zwei minded much. Not when there were heroes to watch!
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 10:46 am
Vinny nodded at Bernard, before smiling at Ennea. "I've never met a mean parent." He said. His eyes widened at Teyr. "You guys.. don't know what disney is?" He asked in astonishment. He was so surprised that he nearly dropped his now empty plate. He paused, not wanting to be rude. "Some disney movies are on tv. There's a movie channel--that shows cartoons all the time."
He nodded at Zwei, looking at the decal carefully. "Cool." He said, though he was silently thinking they weren't as cool as the superheros he knew. "I could lend you some books." Vinny offered. "Mom has thousands. Fairytales, and elven history, children's books. They're all good." Then he added, "Maybe she'll let you read the ones she's written."
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 8:04 pm
Ennea considered this for a moment. "Me neither," she conceded happily. Maybe Icosa was just a worrywart.
"Nuh-uh. Only get a few channels," Teyr explained, helping himself to thirds of the potato salad and chicken.
"Most are grownup stuff- news and stuff," Zwei added. "But we get Sparkle Rangers and cartoons in afternoons and sometimes mornings." It was annoying that they couldn't watch what they wanted when they wanted, but that left them time to play pretend, so he couldn't complain.
Bernard nodded. "I'm afraid we only get a very basic package. I'm not well-versed in this sort of technology, and it's sufficient for our purposes." After another sip of cider, he cleared his throat. "That is a very kind offer. What do you say, boys?"
"Thank you," Zwei said quickly.
"Thank you!" Teyr was a bit longer, having to swallow a bit first. "What kind of books does Vinny's mom make?"
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