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 Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:47 pm
Katsuo gave himself a mental face palm as he felt like an idiot for messing up such a pretty fox's name. "Please forgive me of my rude manor. This has never happened before..." Ears drooping even more as he looked her. He blinked as he was asked about his mother. "Kitsune, my mother, is a wonderful mother. She takes in bowls and kits if they need a home to stay at. She cooks, cleans, and makes new clothes for those in need. She's always been a mother to everyone that knows her." He said with a smile on his muzzle. He really loved his mother for she raised him after dad was gone. "Well I don't have a father, so I wouldn't really be able to tell you." He said as he looked into her eyes.
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Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:10 pm
Ah, that she could understand! She flashed Katsuo a smile. "That does sound like a good mother. Some of my housemates take in orphaned bowls, too. I don't know who any of my biological parents are, but Yoake adopted me, and he and his friend Ranger raised me. Yoake's got a mate and a couple daughters, but he's still like a father to me. Forgiving. That's a nice thing about him."
Now, why had she said all of that? It wasn't so much that it made her sound like a criminal, it's just that...well, she was Cardiarthre! She never told anyone anything about herself! Sure, Yoake and Ranger knew about her, but they were her fathers. As for Nanami...sure, she knew, too, but she was her sister, and she didn't know Cardi nearly as well as Yoake and Ranger. I don't think I've even met Yugure or Nanami's sister. I wonder what they're like? She shrugged the thought away almost immediately.
She looked back into his eyes evenly. "It's okay," she said, surprised at the lack of grudge in her voice. He had hardly complained at her sullenness--most people would have complained at least half a dozen times by now! He's a nice guy, she found herself thinking. Nice even to me. "So, you got any other family?" she asked.
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Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:33 pm
Katsuo nodded as he smiled lightly at her words. Knowing that other foxes show kindness to those who need it. It made his heart beat a bit faster. "I've actually met my biological father, but my step-father is like my mother. A gentle soul and not a drinker." He added after she was finished talking. He felt his heart race even fast when she talked about other one of her housemates had children of their own. "Forgiving? To know that a parent or guardian is forgiving makes it easier to do better, right?" Asking to get his knowledge pass the idea of being forgiving to be right.
Katsuo chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. His heart raced even more. His throat felt tight as he tried to muster up the words about his other family. "Well to be frank... I have 3 step-siblings. And..." He put his index finger together before he gave a sigh. "I have three children of my own..." He spoke then covered his face, closing his eyes. "Please do not strike me down where I stand!" He said as his tail curled around him.
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Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:27 pm
"I thought you said you didn't--aah, you don't know your father that well?" Cardi asked. "I take it he's an alcoholic? Pan's an alcoholic. Well, she used to be. She's much better now." Pan wasn't all bad. At least she understood about the need to do work and get dirty doing it. It was a relief from Pan's family, who seemed to be much more...prissy. Oh, yes, prissy, and there never was a worse word to be called!
Cardi was a little...what was it? Disappointed? At the news that Katsuo had children. That's a weird feeling, she decided. I don't know him that well. What's so disappointing about him being different than I am? Maybe it's that he's younger than me, and yet he already has children. That must be it, she decided. Disappointment that I am not as far along evolutionarily as he is. Never mind the fact that she had never been interested in personal procreation before...
Aaaaaaaaaaand...now Katsuo was back to being weird. Why did he always have to do confusing things every other step of the way? "Why would I strike you down?" she asked curiously, tilting her head at him. "So you have kids--so what? Are you good to them? Are you forgiving? Because you're right--if they're forgiving, then it is easier to do better. If you forgive people, they feel an obligation to be better to you, so you aren't so unhappy. Unless they don't care what you think, in which case, why do you care what they do?" She put a smile on her face and asked, "What's your mate like?" She had to admit, she was curious as to what sort of female--or male--could put up with him. They must be very patient with his oddities. Unless they're odd too. Which might make a bit more sense, the more I think about it.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:58 am
Katsuo nodded in agreement at her asking about not knowing his real father very well. He wished that they were together, but his mother was very happy with her new mate. "Yeah, but can't do much about it." He said with a light smile.
He blinked as she wasn't going to strike him down. "Well, the thing is I was only able to keep one and the other two are with other families. I haven't since them in a long time." He said as he rubbed his upper arm with his paw. He nodded as his tail wagged, "I'm very forgiving to my son. I take good care of him, but my mother helped too." He said as he felt proud to be a dad. His ears drooped as she asked about his mate. "I don't have one... She left me after the kids were born... Rina took one of our kids before she left." He told her as his heart felt heavy.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:55 am
She was starting to feel sorry for the poor guy. It seemed that being out of touch with his family was hurting him a lot. If I had known my parents, would I feel this way? she wondered. She set the question aside. It wasn't an important one. If she did have family, they couldn't possibly be better than the one she already had.
Cardi flicked her tail against his side. "I'm sorry about your kids," she murmured. "Who takes care of your other kid if not his mother?" She somehow felt...satisfied that this Rina wasn't around. Now that's an even odder, more useless point. What does it matter to me if she's here or not? She's just another person of no importance to me at all. She was probably feeling glad that someone who wouldn't take care of as many of her children as she could wasn't there. She wasn't sure if that was quite right or not, but it was as good an explanation as any.
The House of Mist was starting to come into view through the long grass. She smiled at the extra building to the southeast of the main house--the two-story structure where she lived, ringed with decks and porches. A nice, airy place to enjoy the summer months, where nature felt closer. "This is pretty much it," she said, pointing up ahead.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:25 pm
"Actually the third child was taken by Rina as well and given to a lonely woman. Won't be seeing her either. So pretty much all my children, except for one, is gone from my life..." Katsuo said as he noticed her tail flicker against his side. He felt like she was trying to cheer him up. "I was the full time parent besides my mother once in a while." He explained then took in a deep breath.
Katsuo unraveled the tale of how he and Rina met. It was a lonely night at the local pub and she sat next to him, enjoying some mixed drinks. He had thrown back a few of his own since he was enjoying his night. After talking then both left with each other to her place and ended up having three bowls not too long after. It heart wrenching after she took two of the bowls and left with out a word. He told of the nights where he'd look out a window when it rained with his son as a kit. "Even though she's gone, I have a son who loves me. I wouldn't change that for anything."
"Such a lovely home you have, Cardi." Katsuo spoke in awe as he looked over the two-story building with wandering eyes. He had never seen anything like it before, but never doubted something like this existed.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:45 am
That was even more irresponsible, and downright foolish--if she didn't want to raise the child, she should have left it to the child's father to raise. Not that she doubted that the adopted parent didn't love the child. She probably gave the child all the love she needed. That was an instinctive, knee-jerk thought from her own experiences. But as she listened to Katsuo, she slowly started to look at the situation from the father's side. She listened to the story of how he met Rina. Typical. Bar-side romance. Sounds a bit like how Sher had Pan and Romlee, from what I hear.
"Do you know who raised your daughter? Have you tried to visit her?" she asked. "One of my housemates, Sher, had one of his children taken away by his lover, and she gave the bowl to her parents to raise. They would take her to her great-grandparents to take care of sometimes, and Sher would visit then with the daughter he kept. It wasn't ideal, and it caused a lot of angst, but at least he got to know his daughters. And I'm glad your son knows you and loves you." She was surprised at how much she had spoken.
Cardi nodded. "The two-story building was built all this year as soon as the snow cleared. The old house was getting cramped. The new building is where those of us who want to be closer to nature live. What sort of place do you live in?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:19 pm
"I have looked for my daughter, but no luck. I don't know who the woman is either." Katsuo spoke as he worried about his other children. His tail swished lightly as she spoke about her housemate. "At least they know where the bowl had been taken to." He said as he thought about how Angelique said that she didn't know her parents. "We live in a tree. Well more like carved it out into a home." Saying as he wondered how the inside would look.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 11:39 pm
"Actually, he had no idea where Romlee was. He knew she may or may not have been with her mother, but he had no idea where Jenna was. She didn't really have a permanent residence at the time, so far as I know. She dumped Romlee on her own parents' doorstep and fled." Cardi had heard the story shouted during arguments and sobbed during moments of weakness. It had been hard to avoid.
Her ears immediately perked up and the memories of the venomous affairs faded away. "You live in a tree?" she asked Katsuo excitedly. She almost stopped in her tracks, then shook her head ruefully and opened the door into the extension, leading him down a corridor to an atrium lit by a skylight. A fountain, big enough for sitting on the edge of, sat in the middle, with potted plants lining the walls. "What sort of tree is it? What sort of creatures live in it? Does it have lots of beetles? Do birds nest in it? Do you get woken up a lot? What about squirrels?" The idea of living even more wildly than this excited her immensely.
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 2:31 pm
"That's quite tragic..." Katsuo said as his ears drooped. He felt that it could of happen to his own daughter, but knew she was doing fine. It was a feeling in his heart as he listened to Cardi. He didn't like hearing stories such as these, but life had many ups and downs. His ears were pinned back now that she asked him if he really live in a tree. He followed her down the corridor as she asked more questions about his home. "Yes, I've lived in a tree for quite some time. It's a grand oak tree that surprisingly has room for all of us." He said as she looked over at the fountain then the potted plants lining the walls. "Well there are a variety of creatures that live there besides us. There are numerous amounts of insects, different kinds of song bird on the branches, and sometimes the occasional squirrel. Woken often? Well, no because my place of sleeping is usually peaceful unless a beetle lands on me." He explained how in the summer that his room would sometimes be crawling with June beetles or in the spring there would be blue jays close by.
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:24 pm
"Yeah. From what I hear, Romlee's sort of messed up. She got dumped by her mate, who pretends he's never heard of her, and her kids have disappeared. They shunned her because she's not as pure of heritage as they are." Cardi sighed. She probably shouldn't be telling a stranger this, but it felt satisfying to explain it to someone at last. If I ever have children--and I won't--I hope I don't have to go through all of this.
"So, do you live in the tree like in the trunk, like a redwood tree that's been hollowed out by a lightning strike, only with an oak and not necessarily lightning? Or do you live on the branches, wild-style? Or a treehouse?" She had to stop herself from asking about the June beetles. Maybe I can go to his house later and collect a few! She opened the door to her room and let Katsuo inside.
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Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 12:19 am
Katsuo frowned as he listened to the story about Romlee. His tail swished lightly as he felt heaviness on his heart. "All because of heritage? She deserves so much better than what happened!" Speaking as his voice began to raise as his fur began to puff up with anger. He realized that he needed to keep his cool around this beautiful vixen. "I apologize for my out burst. Those kind of stories and tales just my fur ruffled..." He said as he brushed his fur down with his paws.
"Well I actually live in the branches, but on the rainy and colds days I live in the trunk. It's quite nice until something finds its way into the house." He said with a smile then chuckled. He believed the talk of june bugs got her giddy. "Would you like to come by sometime for the june bugs? I assume that what you'd like to view." He offered with a wide smile.
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Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:39 am
"You had a similar experience. No wonder you're upset by the stories," Cardi said with a shrug. She didn't understand where this new understanding of another person came from, but it was nice to know why someone was feeling the way they were feeling. She lead the way into her room where she pulled Benny's box out of her bag, untied it, and poured him neatly into his now-too-small tank. She sighed as she put the lid over it and he marched resolutely around the tank in search of more space. "You're right, he needs something bigger," she murmured.
Then she turned and smiled at him. "I'd love to visit your home for the june bugs. Maybe tonight? I'd love to know what species they are."
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Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:23 am
"We can get the larger tank from my home tonight. I also have some smaller containers, if you'd like to collect a few june bugs for a closer look." Katsuo spoke as he felt his heart beat faster than before. his cheeks began to show a bit of red to the orange. The white markings looked almost pink from his blushing. "Would you care for some dinner since you'll be coming over?" Asking as he felt nervous. His heart sank at the thought of another mishap like Rina.
Shaking the thought away, he gave a smile as he thought about other insects that lived in his home. "What kind of insects do you observe, Cardi?" Asking as his tail swished lightly.
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