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 Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:26 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:27 pm
Returning Home
A reaction
A tired sigh escaped as she lightly kicked the front door shut and slipped off her shoes. It’d taken even longer to get home that she expected. Glancing at her watch for the umpteenth time that day, it was late in the evening. Shira almost took off her hoodie before being reminded of the crystal’s presence by the weight in her pocket. She fingered the gem before pulling the clothing back down and looking for her son and his babysitter. “Dante? Demos?” She heard a thump come from somewhere farther in the apartment. Taking cautious steps she walked along the wooden floors of her kitchen. Entering her living room she found Dante lying on the floor, and Demos dominating the couch- both asleep. It would’ve been a cute sight had her son not woken up the moment she stepped foot near him. Demos immediately reached up.
"Da?”
“I hate that demonic thing.” Shira twitched in alarm at the consecutive statements before rolling her eyes. As soon as he was picked up, Demos laid his head on her shoulder to continue his slumber. Dante continued to complain. "It wouldn’t let me do anything. That snitch's gotta go.”
“One, he’s a he. Two, he’s just a kid. Aren‘t you supposed to be the adult here?” Shira laughed afterwards as if she was remembering some inside joke. A grunt was Dante's response as he sat up and scratched his head, then hunched over to turn on the PS2.
“I say we set it free to the wilderness, and hope for the best.” He ignored Shira’s question and grinned at the TV. "Hey, you could even throw it off the balcony. Either or.” Shira snatched his hat off his head and smacked him with it. He didn’t need to look up to know that she was scowling at him. Any normal person would have been appalled if someone had spoken of their child in such a manner, but Shira knew that he was just teasing-or at least she hoped. That was the only way Dante ever did anything: through banter and sarcasm.
“So how did your interview thing go? They try to get you to adopt some weird breed of dog or something?” He managed to grab and put his hat back on before Shira went anywhere, and continued with his trigger happy ways in the video game. Her heard a sigh as she sat down and laid Demos in her lap.
“ I'm going to be taking care of another kid.” Shira reached her right hand underneath the couch seat and pulled up a a slightly bent box of Malboro lights. Dante stared as she seem to pull a lighter from nowhere, have a lit cigarette in her mouth, and hide the box again in a matter of three seconds
“…I’m sorry, what?” He sneered as she blew a puff of smoke up and away from Demos and Dante.
“A kid dumbass. Must I repeat myself?”
“You have got to be shittin’ me.”
“Nope. Another boy, nonetheless.” Shira held the cancer stick between her ring and middle finger- a habit she really couldn't explain- and let her hand rest on her forehead with eyes closed.
“Care to explain this one?”
“Not really." Shira said in a clipped tone as she took another drag. Dante exhaled as he sunk back into the couch, scratching his bead with the game on pause as a way of showing he intended to wait for some sort of story. The dark haired woman frowned at the paused T.V. and resigned.
"In a nutshell; I was selected by some organization to help resurrect a long dead civilization by taking care of a rock slash soon-to-be-child.”
Dante stared in disbelief for a good few seconds, what Shira assumed he was doing seeing as how his face was covered by hair. After the moment of silence he resumed his position of concentration on the game.“Doesn’t this sound oddly familiar.” His raspy voice came out a bit lower. “Don‘t you think one s**t machine is enough? How do these people even find you?”
“Hell if I know.” She ran a hand through red hair. “These kids needed a home and, for some ******** up reason, I got picked. It was probably just random chance.” Though she knew technically that wasn’t the case for her red haired godling.
“If you ask me, I’d say you got a fetish for taking in strays.”
She laughed bitterly. “Is that what you are Dante?” She got no verbal response, but she saw the smirk on his face. She took the crystal out of her pocket and looked at it in the light for the second time that day. “I'm gonna need to go shopping for another punk.” She hefted Demos up and went to put him to bed.
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 5:17 pm
Meeting Simply by HappenstanceFirst Time FriendshipRabid Ice Weasel Tyler stretched and sighed. 8 kids. It was a lot of work. Luckily, most were well-behaved and not prone to running off and getting themselves killed. There had just been a reasonably big snow (a few thick inches had fallen) and the kids had demanded the right to go outside and play. They were on the town green now, building a little troupe of snowmen. Kyle and Marion predictably worked on one together. Marion rolled big snowballs while Kyle patted snow onto the already-made part, making sure they were completely round. Elena wandered back and forth, trying to gather sticks and pebbles for snowman faces and buttons and definitely arms.
w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y It didn't take much force to sway Demos, Shira's oldest child, to join her and his little brother, Arthur, outside into the icy air. Both children had yet to see snow and Shira thought it fit that she take them to experience the cold wonderland. They hadn't wandered too far and entered common area of their home where the family had noticed that already a troupe of children had begun to play.
Eager as ever, the smallest of the two boys snatched away his hand from his mother and ran out to where all the children were. Immediately the boy asked admittance to the pair that were rolling large mounds of white into a ball. Nodding for Demos to go join as well, he made his way over, albeit slowly. He wasn't quite as outgoing as his brother, and would most likely need to follow him in order to be invited to do anything. The red head stayed close to his brother.
" 'Ello, my name's Arthur!" The blonde haired child spoke in his chipper british accent. "Do you mind if I join you? His eyes indicated he didn't intend on being denied. Rabid Ice Weasel All three girls looked up, regarding this new boy with a soft of calculating curiosity. They were used to boys, having 4 brothers themselves, but that was even more reason to not trust the buggers. Kyle shrugged, sticking her tongue out almost comically as she patted chubby cheeks onto their snowman. Marion watched this reaction, and then looked to Elena. Elena was the first to speak.
"Just don't mess it up." Then she went back to gathering supplies.
w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y Arthur's smile had dwindled as one of the girls bounced off to continue her mission. Well how rude! And him? Mess up? His nose flared at the mere thought. "I don't make mistakes!" He cried out after her, insulted. His haughty undertone made it obvious that this was something he probably boasted about from time to time. "I'll have yuu know, my skills ar' quite adequate in making these," He stretched the last end of his sentence, "snow...thingees." He nodded towards the snowballs, making his crown tilt.
Unlike his annoying p***k of a brother, Demos on the other hand continued to stay quiet. He wandered towards the girls in tow of his brother. Geez there sure were a lot of girls. He's never seen so many in one place before. He twiddled his thumbs behind his back as an image of lots of girly dresses and lipstick came to mind. Ick.
Arthur's regular 'snooty remark of the day' appeared, and it was quite easy to knock the younger boy off that pedestal of his. Demos seemed it fit to anyway. "That's not what they're called, stupid." He took a place beside his brother and glanced at the girls Kyle and Marion with curiosity. Didn't girls usually always wear dresses? Even in winter? Rabid Ice Weasel Marion was in a practical snow suit, and Kyle had gone with more traditional fur-lined jackets and whatnot. Neither girl was all that interested in wearing dresses, especially in the winter. Marion laughed outright at the boy's sudden correction, but Kyle only giggled politely.
"You can help," she offered Demos, "I'm just takin' away the bumps and fillin' in the dents."
At the same time, Marion was gladly correcting the poor, mislead little man.
"They're called snowmens," she explained. w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y Green eyes perked up as he was offered so easily to join. He hesitated, but didn't miss an opportunity. "O-okay." Demos walked over to the frozen figure, careful to keep a good amount of his personal space next to Kyle. He stared at the snowman for a few seconds before oh-so-secretly looking to imitate what he was supposed to do.
Arthur huffed, his red jacket puffing up to make him look like an agitated bird. "I knew that!" Logically he was the younger of the pair, but he was still older physically. That means NOT letting his brother show him up. "I mean, of course I knew they were snowmens. I was just...I just wanted to see if yuu guys knew that," he commented with a sniff. Rabid Ice Weasel "Mm-hm," Marion laughed, and even as a toddler there was clear condescension in her tone. This was not a nice boy, she decided, and he could only join if he forced himself in. It was around then when Elena arrived, a bundle of sticks in her arms. She emptied her pockets of pebbles.
"We can make him have a face now," she said, holding two pebbles up to judge their relative size. w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y Demos had begun to smooth out the snow with his mitten covered palms, making sure to look over what he did obsessively so as not to make an embarrassing mistake. He looked over to Kyle for approval, opening his mouth but not knowing who to call. Maybe he should introduce himself first, since that's how Arthur talked to everyone...unfortunately. "My...name is Demoss," he spoke quietly through his scarf, sure to stress the S in his name since usually forgot to do so.
At the same time Arthur was pouting at Marion and her disbelief, but did not lose face. His attention switched to the pile of sticks on the ground. Looking at the head of the snowman he stood confused. How did they plan to go about making a face for a person with only sticks and stone? Not only was that winged girl rude, but she was stupid too. Well it wasn't her fault, not every one could be born with the talent he had. He lifted his chin. He would just have to help the poor girl out. Rabid Ice Weasel "Ooh, good!" Marion clapped. She didn't feel as if their snowman needed a fourth ball on top. Then he'd be like mommy with weird lumps up top. He was a snowmens, not a snowwomens. Elena had finally found two pebbles of approximately the same size and pressed them gently into the snowman's face, cradling the back of his head like a baby's. Nothing fell off, and she stood back to admire the way they looked. Hm! Very nice. She bent down again to try and pick a nose-rock.
"I'm Kyle," the silver-haired girl responded with a little smile. She was certainly the shyest of her sisters; the most soft-spoken. She often didn't even introduce herself, but Marion wasn't listening to do it for her this time.
w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y The smile on Demos was big that it came above the edges of the scarf covering his mouth. He removed his hands from the snow carefully so not to ruin his bit of handy work. He watched the other girl start to put rocks in the highest ball on the snowman. Demos began to look around for something to contribute. Coming up with nothing at the moment, he again turned to Kyle. "Kyle, what else we do? For the mouths and stuff." It was probably the most he's ever said at once to someone other than his mom.
As Elena looked for a nose rock, Arthur didn't know what it was for but he snatched up the biggest rock he saw at that moment and shoved it in her face. "This is the best one!" He beamed at Marian and Elena. Rabid Ice Weasel Elena's eyes crossed. She arched a brow and looked up at Arthur with a mildly hilarious 'watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis' expression.
"No. This one is better," she said, holding up a longer, curved rock. She made a nose from it and broke off a but of u-shaped stick for a mouth. Hrm. That was a little harder to put in. She screwed up her mouth, trying to stick the twig into the slow.
"That," Kyle finally replied after seeing Elena begin. She really had no idea how to make a snowman and had been far too enraptured with the white stuff to pay too much attention to Mommy's little walk through. She looked Demos over now, wondering why she liked him so much. What a friend! She didn't really have any outside the family! None did!
Then Marion poked her arm.
"Let's pick him some arms." w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y Arthur threw the rock to the ground. "How d' yuu know it's better?" He folded his arms and glared at the snowman. The whole thing was ridiculous. What use was trying to help these people if they didn't bother going along with what he said? Honestly! His frown grew only deeper as time passed.
Demos on the other hand, was actually having a bit of fun watching and learning how to build his own snowmens. Always watching from the sidelines, this was the first one he was able to touch and say he helped build. His cheeks, already pink from the cold, tinted even more with that little thing called pride. He turned to Kyle and saw she was already watching. He almost reverted back to his previous state of shyness, looking away for a second to pout and bite his lip, before returning her smile again with a smaller one of his own.
"Can I help do that?" He blurted out before he had a chance to take it back. Rabid Ice Weasel "Because it looks like a nose," Elena replied matter-of-factly, "and it won't make his head fall off." She knew she was right this time (not that she wouldn't have defended herself anyway) and so she had no problem giving this boy what-for. He couldn't ruffle her feathers!
"Yeah!" Marion cheered as Kyle nodded softly. They were glad to have friendly company, and were very much ignoring said company's older brother.
"We need to find two that are almost the same," Kyle said, beginning to dig through the pile. w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y "Well it's an ugly nose." Arthur turned his own up. "Mine would have been bett'a." He said even though he knew very good and well that the girl was right. Had he been a better person he would of complimented her. But he wasn't. And he couldn't let some baby tell him he was wrong. Let alone a girl.
Demos immediately went to the pile and joined in the search for a pair of limbs. He snatched up the first two he could find that even slightly resembled one another. "These ones?" Demos held up two that would have been the same, had one of the sticks not been half the size of the other. Rabid Ice Weasel "You're dumb," Elena said, shaking her head with her arms crossed. She looked down just as Demos hefted up the two sticks. They were close, but not quite right. It didn't seem to matter. All three of the girls had the same idea at the same time.
"Perfect," Kyle said with a sage nod.
"You're good at this!" Marion beamed, sticking the arms in a bit unevenly. It was good enough for her, but Tyler snorted when she came over.
"You got yourselves a very special snowman, there."
"He had an assi'dent," Kyle explained, "Shrinkded his arm."
Tyler nodded.
"Alright, guys. I think it's about time to start heading home. I'm sure you guys can't feel your fingers."
"I can!" Marion chimed, wiggling her fingers.
"I can't." w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y Arthur huffed at the insult and stuck his tongue out at Elena. He walked away as dignified as he could after his undignified response, and joined with Shira who was sitting on a bench not to far. "Mum!" He put his hands on the book Shira was reading and pushed it down to her lap. "I want you to escort me back home now." He said in his regular snobbish tone. His mother raised a brow and looked to the group he had previously been with.
From afar she could see Demos smiling at the three girls around him. And by the looks of it, one of them must have been something other than gaian. The wings on one of the children made her tilt her head.
Demos had been so excited by the result of their masterpiece. But when Tyler came around he immediately ducked behind Kyle. He heard her mention something about the girls leaving, and frowned. "You got to go home?" He whispered to Marion and Kyle from behind.
Shira stood up and called out to her other kid when she saw another adult go near the children. "Demoooos!" Rabid Ice Weasel Tyler crouched and Marion turned to Demos.
"That's our mommy. She's cool."
Kyle nodded. "We gotta go. But Maybe I'll see you again!" It always happened like that. There were a lot of kids on Gaia, but you always seemed to see the same ones over and over.
"Go on, Demos. Your Ma's callin', and I don't think she likes the looks'a me." Oh well! A lot of people didn't trust her. w.a.s.t.e.d e.n.t.i.t.y "Okay..." Demos said sullenly. He didn't respond to Tyler and stared for but a moment. She wouldn't know that Shira didn't like anyone at first glance.
"Let's go, stupid!" Arthur shouted to his older brother, receiving a smack on his head from his mother and giving an undignified yelp.
"Bye." He waved to them and ran to Shira.
"You have fun, Dem?" She slipped the book in her sidebag and took him hand. Demos nodded with enthusiasm and pointed to the snowman he and he new found friends created. Arthur sneered.
"Wow. Good job, little womanizer." Shira mentioned as she looked to his creation. Demos knitted his brow at the unknown term. Shira nodded towards the small family from afar and began their route home. Demos looked back and smiled.
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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:38 pm
Unyielding Irony
The return [Not a counted roleplay. Dem has one line, but this concerns their future establishments.]
Looking in on the current situation, one would say that a controlled form of chaos, if there was indeed such a thing, was taking settlement inside the Anzen residence. There was a warmth in the air that could only be described as old friends and relatives getting together, happy to be in each others' comforting presence again. And while that bit of warmth did indeed settle in the small apartment, it was like a little white lie masking the annoyance and slight tension surrounding the bodies of the adults preoccupied with their meal. In specification: around Shira, Annabelle, and Dante. Although the tension wasn't so much circulating around the two blondes and it was more so for Shira.
Shira didn't think she was faced with a hard decision. When regarding a preposterous idea, one would think that a simple answer would suffice as how seeing the participants in the asking and answering questions would know the severity of the question. But that would dealing with people with the normal psyche- something much, much too easy for Shira, God must have decided. "Anna. I said I could not afford it. In which case that ultimately means I still can't ******** afford to live there." Shira didn't bother censoring herself around the boys. They knew all too well never to repeat the words that their hypocrite of a mother would not allow them to say.
"Well you haven't even given the townhouse a look, have you?" A young, high pitched voice spoke. Shira lifted her eyes from her head end of the table to look at the occupant on the other side.
"I've seen the pictures. But it's still not like I need to. I do not care how it looks, it is out of my budget and too much damn trouble."
"Mama, I want some more peas."
Shira didn't even bother to look at her son and picked up the glass bowl absently, holding in place in the air so she could teach her son manners without even paying too much attention. "Say please, Demos." She allowed him a second before he obeyed and mumbled the word with a flush face. He grabbed the vegetables and spooned his food onto his plate. As Anna continued to ramble Shira added a 'very good' almost as an after thought for Demos. She still had to assure him that she wasn't always chastising the boy and after her comment he immediately perked up.
"If you took that new job what's his face offered, you'd have no problem." A gruff voice spoke from the left side of the table. Shira glared at the speaker with the most irritation she could muster.
"All you do in this household is contribute money for your precious cable television which no one else bothers to watch. Your 'opinion' doesn't even matter in this." She took any angry forkful of food.
While ignoring the adults and their argument, Arthur watched his older brother obtain more food than himself and immediately decided he was at liberty to possess more than the peasant. He didn't bother with manners and held out his plate towards his dark skinned guardian like a starving child. "Mutha! Me too! I want pa-ees too!"
"Oh come on, Shira! I'm giving you a deal here! You can't stay here with all these children, anyway. Things will get too crowded." Anna downed a fork of porkchop and paused to simply consume for a few seconds.
As Anna went on in a chipper voice about 'a delicious meal', Shira's voice raised in skeptism. "Says the women with ten cats and five dogs in her apartment!" The
constant tugging on her shirt drew her to multi-task: adding vegetables to Arthur's plate while arguing. "Like residing with dander and a constant thread of crap in your home is comfortable living."
Annabelle sighed. "Children aren't pets." [AH HAH I made a funny.] The younger woman let out an frustrated breath. "And Shira, I really really really reeeeally need people to move into the townhouses! If I can't start getting people out of this building and into those homes then I'll be shoulder deep in debt from trying to pay rent for them myself!"
"Well you should have thought of that before you tried to swindle others into places they have no need for nor can they afford to stay in."
"Don't you have two kids and one on the way? That's three children and two adults in such a small living space!" Anna waved her fork in the air, and Dante immediatly ducked. "Hey! Watch that!"
"I don't have 'one on the way'." Shira gritted her teeth to keep from getting upset at how embarrassing the sentence sounded. "This home is just enough for us. If there was another one, sure fine. Maybe. But we don't have to bother because that one charge 'on the way'," she paused to stab her meat, "which had caused me nothing but trouble mind you, was already taken back." Shira opened wide and chewed for emphasis.
BZZZZZZZT.
In the midst of the "family dinner" all ears twitched at a buzzing sound. The argument came to a halt as the adults looked towards the door that laid beyond Shira's end of the table.
"Well would you look at that," Danted donned the doorbell uninteresting and had already turned back to his plate, "someone brave enough to actually pay us a visit. Thought you scared off all your floormates, Shira?" Food moved freely about the man's mouth as he chewed with it open and smiling.
"No, that would have been your disgusting habits and the fact that our mentally unstable landlord tends to visit us so very often." Shira sneered. Wood scraped against wood as the short woman stood to answer the door. As dinner had resumed to it's previous state minus the creator, an eye to the peephole of the front door had shown that either the front guard was having fun with the foyer doorbells or someone was playing ding dong ditch with the hallway ones.
Being the owner of two phenomenons can make a person very paranoid and cautious of suspicious things, and with this fact Shira had stayed at the peephole for quite sometime before cracking the door open with it's chain still attached. Still not seeing anything or anyone she clicked her tongue out of puzzlement. When she gave the outside hallway one last once over was when she heard a a 'tink!'-ing sound. It started to get slightly repetitive, and Shira almost thought she was going insane before she noticed......it.
Shock. Anxiety. Disbelief. There were a million and one thoughts running through the woman's head as it and her shoulders dropped in despair to stare at the offending object that was now staring her in the face. After what was possibly the longest amount of time that Shira had ever spent staring at an inanimate object- though what was there was quite the opposite in all technicality- small hands slowly pushed the red door closed, and a small forehead laid itself upon the wood.
Okay. It's been a long day. Obviously my eyes are tired, yes. When I open this door, it'll be gone. Yes of course. Of course. Of course. Of course.
With a steadying breath she undid the chain, turned the knob, then swung open the door with determination in her eyes.
Nope. Still ******** hell." Shira had to refrain from breaking down then and there. Bending down she retrieved the metallic casing that now held what could possibly be the result of the worst luck ever imaginable. "There are no gods," she murmured and observed her gift with utter defeat. Ethan, the charge whom she thought she had relinquished all duty off, was now floating about in a cage made of glass and metal. The tinkering noise that she had heard earlier had been the stone bouncing of the glass walls of it's prison. It had become less erratic, no doubt the result of finally having the attention of it's owner, but it still vibrated violently at uneven intervals and knocked against the the glass as if to make sure it was still there. The decorative looking stones that floated on the ends were most definitely some type of magic. Most likely the same that that strange ribbon girl had possessed and used against Shira.
The lantern came down from the light and rested in front of it's guardian's bosom with said guardian glaring at it's golden top. Three kids.
Three. God. Damn. Kids. This completely changed everything. This meant she would no longer have just enough rooms. It meant that the money she was making now was considered laughable at the size her 'family' was becoming. It mean that she'd have to take more shifts. She couldn't handle anymore commissions. Shira cradled the lantern to her chest and put a palm to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. The literary magazine didn't pay her enough. That meant she'd have to...she would have to work for him.
"Shira! What are you doing? If there's no one there then forget about it! Probably someone's kid just running around the hallways. Probably Mrs. Waurter's bratty little thing again. I need to go talk to that So about those townhomes!"
A very, very large sigh emitted from pouty lips. As she closed the door Shira could predict the end of the upcoming conversation very well.
Click.
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