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 Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:49 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 7
"Oops," Arlyn said with a grimace as the block tower collapsed and all the blocks clattered to the table around his hand. He of course could not locate the tower by sound, since it did not make any noise, and had settled for the next best method of groping about to find it. Unfortunately, the Anima's hand had come into contact with the tower a bit too quickly, and his finding it meant also knocking it over.
Donat picked up the two or three blocks that tumbled from the edge of the table and onto the carpet. "We can build a new one," he reassured his brother, carefully placing the blocks into Arlyn's still-outstretched hand.
Once he was no longer holding the blocks, Donat stuck his fingers in his mouth and sucked on them thoughtfully as he pondered a solution to Arlyn's being unable to see the blocks. It must be scary, not seeing anything Donat closed his eyes for a minute, wondering if this was what it was like for Arlyn all the time. Not even a nightlight.
But back to the problem at hand. The goat removed his hand from his mouth and wiped his fingers off a little on his pants before resting his elbows on the table again. "Um, you can feel the blocks by touch, right?" At least his brother had the other four of his five senses.
"Yes, I can feel them," the red-skinned boy replied, turning the blocks he had been handed over once or twice before setting them down on the table. He used both hands to place them next to each other, and then line them up carefully.
"Just do it that way," Donat told him with a grin, picking up some more blocks to add to the base Arlyn had made. "Two hands. Just, uhm, be careful. And if the tower tips a little, I'll say, 'careful'." It looked like Arlyn was having an easier time than he was picking up the blocks, it was just a matter of not being able to quite see where he was putting them. So Donat would help with that!
Arlyn felt around the table a little until his fingertips encountered another unused block, and picked it up. He could sort of remember where the tower was now, so he could just feel where the edges of the blocks were to line the next one up. Donat was not saying anything, though, so he must be alright.
With the next block in place, the Anima gave a more genuine smile. This was definitely not bad at all.
"There!" Donat said excitedly. Then he handed Arlyn another block, so he would not have to go fishing for it with his hands.
"Let me go next, I have a block," the goat then told him. He took his block and set it on top, then turned back to his brother. "Okay, put yours next to mine. Then we make it taller."
"Okay," Arlyn replied, reaching out to stack the next one. There was Donat's, so his should go right here....
"Careful!" the goat squealed as the tower shifted a little under his brother's touch. When Arlyn withdrew, Donat straightened the blocks out a little. This was better than playing blocks with Serif, 'cause he could help Arlyn out. And the Anima would not knock the tower over on purpose.
"Okay, now go," he said once the blocks were stable again. They would definitely have to play blocks more often!
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:17 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 8
Kumoru was quite surprised to see Donat and Arlyn playing with their wooden blocks on his living room table. The older boy had just hurt the younger one scarcely an hour before. And while he supposed it was possible that the had made up again so soon, the mage was still a bit worried that they were together again so soon.
Arlyn carried his sword around with him everywhere, and had shown in the past that he would not hesitate to use it if he wanted to. But as Kumoru approached the pair, he could see that the sheathed blade was lying ignored on the carpet, over an arm's length away from the Anima.
"Are you two having fun?" Kumoru asked them both with a smile. He figured if they both said yes, then things were just fine and he had no need to worry.
Arlyn turned to look up at his father and actually smiled. "Yeah. We're making a tower now. Because we're brothers. Eppie is watching."
Donat nodded vigorously in agreement. "Arlyn said Eppie said it's the biggest tower he's ever seen. And we're making it bigger." He sucked on his index finger for a moment, then reached over to pick up a block. Handing it to Kumoru, the goat asked, "Add a block, daddy?"
No physical scar remained on Donat's hand where he had been cut earlier; clearly it had left no mental scar either. He seemed just fine with Arlyn, and Arlyn seemed... well, it was the most childlike and playful Kumoru had ever seen the Anima.
He took the block from Donat between two fingers, and leaned down to the tower to place it carefully on top. "How's that?" he asked the two builders.
The goat-boy grinned and nodded. "Perfect. Thank you!" Then he handed Arlyn another block. "Your turn."
Arlyn accepted the block and reached out for the tower with both hands to start the next level. One of his fingers bumped one of the blocks in the middle, though, knocking it out of place and causing the tower to start to tip.
"Careful!" Donat warned the blind boy. Arlyn immediately retreated, but before the goat could fix the tower again, it collapsed with a clatter to the table. Donat burst into inadvertant giggles as he gathered up the blocks.
"Sorry," Arlyn told his brother, though a slight laugh of his own slipped out.
Kumoru patted Arlyn's shoulder lightly, and was a bit surprised when the boy let him. "Don't worry about it. You two can build a bigger one next time, right?"
"Yep!" Donat said, beaming happily.
"Eppie says so," Arlyn confirmed, also with a smile.
Certain they would be just fine playing together, Kumoru turned to go. "Come show me when you're finished. I'll be upstairs in my library reading."
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:19 pm
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:34 pm
(( ** reserved for playdate with Riley ** ))
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:48 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:41 am
* Missing two 1
Kumoru crouched over his kitchen table, pen in hand, while his checkbook sat fixed between his intent eyes and the wood of the table's surface. Balancing the checkbook was one of the things the wizard abhorred and despised - not that it was too terribly time consuming, but crunching numbers was so boring. And it always felt like it took more thought than it should.
Lacking - certainly not refusing - a calculator, Kumoru's fingers flickered from flexed to straight like he was doing some sort of magic trick as he used his hand to keep track of his figures. With the other hand, he tapped his pen rhythmically against the table, stopping every few raps to write down a few numbers.
As he wandered into the kitchen, Donat rubbed his eyes, then yawned, concluding his rubbing and sticking a few fingers in his mouth before his yawn was over like it was a well-practiced maneuver.
"Daaaddy?" he asked, drawing out the vowel sound enough to indicate that he wanted something.
"What is it, Donat? Can you give daddy a few minutes?" Kumoru responded without looking up. No matter how many times the word was used in his household, the mage still could not get used to being 'daddy' now.
Donat just nodded and stepped closer to his father's chair, curling the fingers of the hand on which he was not chewing around the leg of it. He was quiet for a few moments, watching Kumoru count on his fingers. It was almost like some kind of silly machine.
But what came out of the machine? The goat had to ask. "Daddy, what are you doing?" He took his other hand out of his mouth and tried to mimic the moviements of his father's fingers, but quickly found himself more amused with the way his fingers slid against each other, covered in his own drool as they were.
The mage paused a moment to glance down at him, then told him, "I'm making numbers. I take a number and another number and put them together to get a third one, and then I have to take a bunch of little numbers away." He tapped his pen twice on the table, then wrote in another figure. The mage then added in a quieter mutter, "Lots and lots of small numbers to chip away at the big number."
Donat's endearing blue eyes widened with curiousity, and he distractedly wiped his hand off on his pants a little before tugging gently on Kumoru's sleeve, as though considering pulling himself up high enough to see what was going on on the table.
"What are numbers like? Can I see?"
Thankful he was nearly done, Kumoru quickly worked through the last two calculations, then wrote down his balance before turning a little to smile down at Donat. "I can show you, at least a little bit."
Deep inside, the mage was rather worried. He had not yet figured out the perfect strategy for teaching Donat how to count to 10. The parenting magazines Kumoru would never admit to having bought and consulted had only very general suggestions for helping children with disabilities learn things. The problem was Donat was not disabled, he was just short on fingers.
Letting go of both the chair and his father's robe, Donat backed up enough to give what he thought would be ample space to contain a number between himself and Kumoru. Then he shoved his index finger in his mouth and sucked on it a little, and peered expectantly at his teacher.
Kumoru turned away from the table so he could face Donat, and leaned down a little to rest his elbows on his knees. "You'll need all your fingers to do this, Donat, so you should take that one out of your mouth."
Donat blinked, looking confused for about half a second before he removed his finger from his mouth and held it up to look at it.
When he looked up at Kumoru again, the mage was holding up one finger the same way.
"One," Kumoru told him. "See, one finger." He put up a second one. "Two."
"One!" Donat repeated exictedly, then inarticulately extended one more finger with a bit of help from the other hand, and announced, "Two!"
The mage pointed at Donat's two fingers one at a time. "See, each one of those is 'one', and both of them are 'two'." He went back to his own hand. "When you put in one more, you have three."
Looking quickly back and forth between Kumoru's hand and his own to be sure he did everything just so, Donat put up a third finger. "Three," he said, then grinned broadly. This was like magic!
Kumoru turned his hands palm-up, holding up three fingers, then extended a fourth on one hand. Almost to the hard part. "Four," he said. Then add the thumb. "Five." The mage glanced quickly at Donat, then added, "And when you run out of fingers, you add one from the other hand." Opposite index finger. "Five and one is six." He looked up at the boy again, to see if that had made sense.
"Four," Donat murmured a moment after his father did, adding his last finger on one hand. Then his little brows drew down into a confused little expression. Now what? What was wrong? Would this work? He put up one finger from his other hand and said, "Six?"
Shaking his head, Kumoru took Donat's hands gently in his own. He counted out the four fingers on the goat-boy's first hand, then pointed to the one on his other hand. "Four and one is only five. See, you have five, too." He gave a hopeful smile. This would work, right? He could not let Donat start to think there was anything wrong with him. The parenting magazines had said so. Impressionable young age and all that.
The goat tried again. "Four." One hand full. Then one more from the other hand.... "Five." It looked different, but he could do it. The grin returned. Donat added one more finger. "Six?"
"Six," Kumoru confirmed, then went back to demonstrating. "Six and one is seven. Seven and one is eight." He had two fingers left, and Donat had none. Quick thinking, something, something something....
"Seven. Eight." Something was wrong again. "Daddy, I don't have enough," he told the mage, sounding the faintest bit disappointed.
... It was a bit farfetched, but Donat was only a little one, so hopefully he could take this for now. "You do, but your others aren't on your hands."
Donat looked confused, and cocked his head to one side.
Impressionable young age.... Kumoru leaned foward and touched one of the boy's horns. "You have these, and I don't. So you have eight on your hands, and one more is nine." Then the mage touched the other horn. "And this one is ten."
Donat peered in wonder at Kumoru for a moment as he absorbed this magical idea. He had forgotten about those horns, short as they were among all his long hair. He looked down at his hands again, all full of numbers. "Eight?" He looked up at Kumoru, then reached one hand back to grab a horn. "Nine." And then the other one. "Ten."
Looked like it had worked for now. Feeling a smile already creeping across his features, Kumoru gently asked Donat, "Can you do all of them again? I can help you."
The goat was not sure, but he wanted to try. The first couple numbers took a refresher, but he remembered the part where he got to four and his hand was full and he could start using the other one. And then at eight, he had no more fingers, but he had horns and Daddy didn't, so he could touch his horns and go, "Nine, ten," and he could do it anyway.
"There you go," Kumoru told the boy, ruffling his hair a little. "Now, what did you want before?"
Beaming from ear to ear, Donat stuck one, two, three fingers in his mouth, pondering his father's question and trying to remember. Then he giggled and replied, "I don't remember. I got numbers."
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:28 pm
* Missing two 2The question had been bugging Donat for several hours now, since he first encountered his numbers. All the ABC's had names, and they all had pictures, too, so when they were in books, Donat could just look at the pictures and know what letter each picture meant. And all the pictures together made 'words'. But did the numbers have pictures, too? Or did you put a number in a book by drawing hands? The goat thought the latter very impractical - he had tested the size of his hands against the sizes of his books, and had determined that in most of his books, a number drawn like hands would take up almost a whole page all by itself. The end of dinnertime seemed a very good time to propose this problem to Kumoru, since that was what time it was. And Daddy knew everything, so dinner seemed as good a time as any. "Daddy, when you put a number in a book, do you hafta draw two hands with fingers for the number?" the goat inquired before sticking a finger into his salad bowl to wipe up a little bit of dressing to lick off. Kumoru was caught off-guard by the question, though he supposed at this point that, with three children in the house, he should get used to it sooner or later. He also remembered that there was one last coloring page he was supposed to give the little goat boy.
"You can write numbers like letters," Kumoru told him. "So you don't have to draw hands. It's useful for numbers bigger than ten. I can show you after dinner."Donat's eyes lit up with awe and wonder. There were numbers bigger than ten? This was truly a stunning revelation! "Okay, I want to see, Daddy!" He was excited already. And knowing that he would not be allowed to leave the dinner table without finishing his meal, Donat promptly stuck both hands in his salad bowl and chased down the last little bits of lettuce. Just so there would be no doubt that he was done with dinner and ready to see these numbers. Sighing and laughing a little, Kumoru told Donat, "You have to wait for me to finish, too. I have another picture for you to color that shows the numbers."Even better! Donat nodded vigorously and slurped ranch off of his hands. When he determined them passably clean, he hopped to his feet and started to run out of the room. "Lemme go get my crayons!" "Donat," the mage called after him. "Don't forget what you're supposed to do after dinner. And you should wash your hands off, too." He made a mental note to work harder on the boy's avoidance of utensils.Donat groaned a little, but bolted back in just long enough to take his empty bowl to the sink, then run about five seconds of water on both hands. Then he took off again to his room. By the time Kumoru was finished eating, Donat was already waiting, crayons in hand. He took his own dishes to the sink, then went to fetch the coloring page of numbers for Donat. The boy, brimming with excitement, practically snatched the sheet from his father's hands before he had a chance to set it down on the table.
Kumoru pointed out the blank outlines of the numbers and read them off, one through ten, for Donat.The goat boy watched intently as the numbers on the page were identified. There were cute animals, too, to prove that numbers worked with things other than fingers, too. Then he picked up his crayons to see if they would work with those, too. "One," he said, setting the brown one one down on the table. "Two." Donat added the red one. "Three." And the green. And the purple, pink, yellow, grey, yellow, black, and orange, until there were ten on the table, and he had counted each one. "There you go," the mage told him with a grin. "Go ahead and color."
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:42 pm
Kumoru With any luck, Donat now knows his numbers in addition to his alphabet. He seems quite eager to learn anything I can teach him, especially if it comes with those coloring pages D-corp so kindly provided for his education. I have to wonder how well he retains the information after the lessons, but I guess it would be too much to expect him to learn everything the first time over. At least when I show him, he appears to pick it up quickly enough. He has, by some miracle or another, made fabulous friends with his brother. I was worried at first that Donat would annoy Arlyn, even if he does not quite torment the Anima quite like Serif does. But Arlyn seems all too willing to play with him, which is all the better for me. It still worries me a bit that Donat approached Arlyn in the first place, though, especially after Arlyn cut him. I will have to see how that all plays out. Childly naivety, I suppose. I have also been working, with varying degrees of success, to get Donat off of his couple bad habits. I guess every child develops them somehow or another, but I want Donat to be as presentable as possible, in the event D-corp wants to see him. Best to start early, since crawling on all fours and sucking on fingers is hardly becoming of any child much older than Donat is now. At least he has stopped being quite so adventurous with turning over new leaves, so to speak, with his diet. He likes dandelions and clovers and most grass, and that is thankfully enough for him. Something in my back yard made him sick once, but I think he knows not to try eating it again. I will have to take him to the museum sometime soon, to see what he thinks of the cave goat skeleton. I wonder if he will be able to see the ghost?
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:52 pm
A child is expected to know certain things at certain ages. In order to obtain rights to their Dragon(egg), they must prove they can meet these requirements. The following sheet is for your child to fill out, with mild help from their guardian, then sent back to D-corp. (PM ot the mule) Also any changes, even minor such as haircuts, should be reported to the D-corp to be logged and filed.
Thankyou,
The Boss.
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:25 pm
Kumoru handed the envelope from D-corp to Donat with a small smile. "Looks like you received your first mail ever today," he said as he flipped through the rest of the mail.Donat snatched the envelope with a gleeful giggle. "Can I open it, Daddy?" The mage nodded, setting the mail aside and sitting down at the kitchen table. "Just be careful you don't rip what's inside."The goat boy nodded and went to work. It was a little hard for him to get the envelope started, lacking thumbs and all, but once he managed that it was easy going. The sound of tearing paper was kind of cool, too. Once the contents of the envelope had fluttered to the table, Donat tore up the envelope a few more times just for good measure. Then he glanced between the letter and the form on the table, and his father. "Oh, it's from D-corp, where you came from." He scanned the note. "Looks like they just want you to answer a few questions. Want to go get your favorite crayon?""Me? Answer?" Donat sucked on his finger a little, overwhelmed and honored that he was being asked to do such a grown-up thing. With a nod, he went into the other room to fetch a crayon, then came back and climbed into his father's lap. "You want me to help you write?" Kumoru asked with a smile as he put one arm around the boy to keep him from falling out of his lap. "The first question is what your name is. You know how to write your name?"Donat gripped the crayon and peered at the first line, then shook his head. Well, he had a good guess how to write it, since Kumoru had shown him before, but he did not want to mess this up or anything. "D-O-N-A-T," the mage told him slowly, helping guide the goat's hand to form the letters. "And then how old are you? You're four, right? Do you remember how to make a four?"He could handle this one. With a vigerous nod, Donat wrote a "4" on the second line. "And what's your favorite color? It says on your crayon, doesn't it?"Donat checked, and, sure enough, it did. Green, right there on the label. It was a little hard to make all the letters sit on the line without his father helping him, but Donat wanted to write these on his own. "The last question wants to know who your best friend is. Who's your best friend?""Uhm...." It was easier to think with a few fingers to chew on. Donat shoved the fingertips of his free hand into his mouth and munched gently. "I like playing with everyone I know, but Arlyn is always at home so I don't ever have to stop playing and go home." He twisted around and grinned expectantly at Kumoru. The necromancer chuckled at the boy's logic. "Alright. Let me help you write his name, then. A-R-L-Y-N. How many letters does that have?"Donat set his crayon aside and pointed with a finger as he counted each letter aloud. "Five, right?" Kumoru nodded, then let Donat gently down to the floor. "Good job." Looked like he would have some questions to answer on his own, too. Now that he thought about it, Donat was starting to look a little older.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:28 am
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:11 pm
Donat whimpered and pouted as Kumoru found another tangle while brushing his long hair. Why did his hair always get all snarled up like this? He liked it long and pretty, like his daddy, but it just liked to get too dirty and knotted up.
"Sorry if it hurts. I'm almost done," Kumoru told the boy, trying his level best not to pull on any of the snags he came across. And there were plenty. The mage had also removed several pieces of mulch, and a couple dried leaves from Donat's poor hair; they had all just appeared in the time it took them to get home from the park, after they met the strange boy Etain.
As he came across another tangle, the mage sighed and set the brush aside. "Donat, how about I just trim it down a little? That might be better. It won't get so dirty, and it'll be easier to brush." He walked over to the kitchen drawer. "Let me get the scissors."
The goat nodded, watching his father. "Will you cut off a lot? I like my hair like it is. I don't want it short like Arlyn's."
Kumoru shrugged a little, returning to his son's side once he found the shears. "I guess I can just cut off a couple inches." He held out a lock of Donat's hair so the boy could see it, then closed two fingers over it about five inches up from the bottom. "Will that be too short?"
Donat shook his head a little, now starting to look a little curious. "Just so it
won't tangle lots. I hate tangles." He made a face as Kumoru started cutting. Blaah on tangles!
Cutting hair was a bit harder than Kumoru had originally thought, but when he finished perhaps about fifteen minutes later, he did not think he had done all that bad a job. He walked around to stand in front of Donat, looked him over, then smiled.
"I think that looks better. It will stay cleaner and nicer for you, and won't take so long to brush."
"Really?" Donat grinned, reaching up to twist his fingers into his new, shorter-but-still-pretty hair. He pondered a minute, then slipped down from his chair and turned to face his father. "I'm gonna go play outside in the yard, okay?"
Testing to see if it really was harder to get dirty at that length? "Sure," Kumoru replied with a slight chuckle. "Just remember to stay in the front yard where I can see you, and come in the first time I call you when dinner is ready."
The goat boy nodded and let himself out, promptly scampering outside to roll in the grass.
With a sigh, Kumoru summoned up a bit of magic to gather Donat's hair clippings and guide them gently through the air to the garbage can. Count on Donat to get himself dirty anyway.
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:44 am
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:48 am
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:50 am
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