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 Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 1:52 pm
House Calls
Etain, Medusa and Altessa with appearances by Michael, Tovar and Kanth There was one telephone in the house and it frequently went missing.
That was to say, the house frequently decided it was in it's occupants' best interests to be cut off from the outside world and therefore often decided to hide the single phone jack that Michael had seen fit to install at 'The beginning of the first day, when the great wizard was significantly less bitter and slightly more prone to naked women and less with the phone calls thing,' when he had first constructed the house. Or something like that.
Honestly though, the house had a habit of hiding lots of things. The phone just seemed to fall prey to it more often because Tovar often found himself needing it when it was missing. Had Tovar been as concerned about small decorative figurines as he was the telephone, he might have noticed that the glass turtle on the second shelf of the display case in the hall went missing nearly as often.
Luckily, the phone had not been missing when Tovar had initally gotten the phone call. Which meant it was not missing when he relayed the message upstairs to Michael that they might possibly have a visitor and would he please see them because it seemed they might need something. The phone was still in the 'Found!' spectrum of possessions when Michael agreed. The phone did not, in fact, go missing until the day afterwards and it was nearly lunch time before Tovar noticed as he stood over the stove, stirring the pot of soup.
"Damn," he muttered, eyeing the empty space on the sliver of wall between the kitchen countertop and the cabinets where the cordless phone and it's plugs had been the day before. Tovar repeated the swear word for good measure, only regretting it when he realized both Etain and Leith were actually still sitting at the large wooden table behind him.
The table took up much of the kitchen. Etain sat in one of the large, high backed chairs whereas the infant Kelpie took up a highchair. The baby was struggling against the belt restraint and attempting to gnaw his way through the plastic tray. Etain ignored him in favor of look in Tovar's direction.
"Medusa's comin'?" he quipped happily, swinging his feet where they hung a good five inches off the slate kitchen floor.
"That's right," Tovar responded, stewing over the pot. "With her mother."
Etain sobered a touch, frowning. "Alright. --Are we eating soup when they get here? Can we go play in my room instead."
"We'll see," Tovar said evasily, hoping that Kanth hadn't tried to call ahead.
It didn't take long for Kanth to track the house; as a former hunter, she was used to sniffing out odd things, and soon found herself at the steps to the house. On her shoulders she carried Medusa (due to her being unable to walk on the bare ground - Kanth was very careful of her puncturing her skin at such a young age), while Altessa hunkered down beside her, watching carefully as the green-haired woman raised her hand and knocked on the door.
It wasn't too hard to find the place after the directions she had gotten, but Kanth had stated that Medusa was coming along - only she hadn't mentioned that Tiil had refused to babysit the 'brat' as he called Altessa, though whenever Kanth was around the Bandersnatch girl, she was usually calm, and respected the woman.
As did the Kefka kid she got. A shrug was given; she didn't know what it was, but usually the most insane were calmed by her. Giving a smile to both of her girls, Kanth waited to be let in, showing them silently that it was proper to wait.
All hell broke loose in the kitchen. The soup bubbled up suddenly and Tovar shouted in an amusingly high pitched tone, floundering to turn down the heat, hurrying to find dish towels to clean up the spill on the stove. "Etain, can you get the door?" he managed, flushed and a little angry at himself and just Everything That Was Going Wrong.
Etain winced, glaning at Leith as if expecting to find some excuse lying in the infant's sharp teeth. "Alright," he said at length. It meant having to face Kanth, but at least Medusa would be there too. He slid off the edge of his chair and wobbled out into the hall, slinking down the hall to the front door. He had to weave his way around a few stacks of books and other knicknacks to reach the front door, but otherwise...
Etain reached the slid the latch, pulling the door open a crack and peering out to the front door, looking at the feet of the visitors. Sometimes it helped to look at just the feet. The worst where the eyes. --B-but wait. Etain looked up sharply, eyes widening a little. Only two sets of feet, both of which he recognized from two different intervals but no Medusa?!
Thankfully, he caught sight of her, perched up on Kanth's shoulder a second later. Etain glanced away quickly, back to the feet. "H-hi," he managed, skittering backward and opening the door the rest of the way. "Tovar's in the kitchen cussin'."
"Hey, kid." Kanth smiled and moved so Medusa dropped down, landing on her feet gently before giving a curtsy to Etain.
"H'lo!" She said brightly, grabbing Altessa and dragging her over, introducing her. Medusa was allowed to touch, since her stinging didn't affect her as much as it did others!
"Yo." Altessa stated plainly, giving a wave to Etain. There was no malice in her tone, but there was a bit of curiosity evident in her eyes as she looked over Etain curiously.
Kanth nodded and drew over to the kitchen where she leaned on the counter, a small smile gracing her features. "Need a little help? I'm good at cooking, if you'd like me to take over."
Tovar jumped nearly a foot in the air when they all suddenly reappeared in the kitchen doorway. He stuttered, briefly, continuing to jerkily mop up the mess around the base of the pot. "Ah, er, it's alright. I think it's done actually. Just went and made a giant mess of the kitchen, that's all." He laughed, sharp and loud and uprioriously, hilariously nervous. His eye skimmed over Kanth, hurrying over her face before dropping to the three children. He wiped off his hand self consciously and moved to greet them, sticking his hand out to Kanth with a faint smile. "Sorry, I'm Tovar. I'm sory if we missed any of your calls. The phone went missing." He motioned briefly to Etain. "That's Etain, as I'm sure you know, and Leith in the gnawer in the high chair. Mind your fingers."
Meanwhile, Etain eyed Altessa sideways. He was pretty sure he'd met this girl before. And she'd pushed him down into the mud. He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck awkwardly before letting his attention wander back to Medusa. "Where's yer fish?" he asked suddenly, blinking at the floating black thing in his friend's stomach.
Tovar smiled faintly down at the kids before looking back to Kanth. "I made us lunch," he explained, waving numbly at the pot. "Soup and sandwiches - it's cold outside, isn't it? Er, but maybe you don't want lunch. Michael's upstairs, if you wanted to talk to him straight away instead."
"They had tew taek it out." Medusa spoke, before letting go of Altessa's arm and tackling Etain in a great big bear hug.
"I would love lunch, actually." Kanth smiled warmly as she shook Tovar's hand, drawing close to the pot and peering into it curiously. She loved soup. "Your phone has legs, then, I take it?"
Rolling her eyes, Altessa moved away and wandered over to Tovar, winding around his legs and staring up at his hands curiously. As a child, she was now interested in sights and smells, and - wait, was that pepper on his fingers?
Etain brightened by leaps and bounds inside the hug. His arms flopped cheerfully around Medusa's thin, less than quite solid shoulders. "Good to see you," he responded happily, patting the translucent girl on both shoulders before backing slightly out of the hug. "I got a fish like yers. Goldy," he chirped. "She's inna bowl though and not my tummy. In my room," he clarified, continuing to avoid looking straight at Kanth.
Tovar smiled, flushing slightly from up the back of his neck, the red touching on the tips of his ears. "Er, yeah, well -- I'll get up some plates and bowls then." He half tripped over Altessa, apologizing quickly and a little awkwardly before floundering to grasp through the cabinets, pulling down a number of scruffy looking, mismatched plates, bowls and spoons. It was definitely pepper.
"You can all sit down if you like," Tovar offered, glancing over the lot of them. "I'll need to take a bowl up to Michael anyway."
"You should sit with me," Etain chirped at Medusa before scrambling back up into the chair he'd been sitting in before.
Nodding, Medusa joined Etain in the seat next to him, giving a bright, happy smile. "I'm glad tew see yew, too!" She chirped.
"I can take it up to him, if you don't mind." Kanth murmured, ambling over to take the bowl away from Tovar.
Intriguing. Altessa crept to where she couldn't be found right away, watching the stairs. She'd follow Kanth, and find out just why this man couldn't be bothered to come down and eat with the rest of them.
Tovar blinked, looking at Kanth blankly for a moment before nodding slightly. "That's fine," he murmured, tone lapsing low and slight, significantly less nervous than he awkward rambling of a moment before, but no less significant. Head bowed, Tovar ladelled a few scoops of soup into the bowl, stacking it an a few sandwhiches on a tray already sitting on the counter. He smiled brusquely, nudging the tray to Kanth. "It's up the stairs, first door on the left."
Leith screeched at Medusa across the width of the table, gnashing his teeth slightly. Etain rolled his eyes slightly and wiggled forward on the edge of his seat to take hold of the black, eyeless stuffed horse on the infant's food tray. He wiggled the plush horse for a moment before Leith's stubby fingers reached out and snatched it from Etain's hands, promptly beginning to chew on the mane. Etain shrugged and looked back to Medusa, smiling with just a innate hint of eagerness in his features. "We should go play in my room after sammiches."
"Okey!" Medusa smiled, making grabby hands for the soup, though in a cute way.
Nodding, Kanth went up the stairs, heedless of the Bandersnatch girl as she followed closely. Glancing down the hall, she found the door easily, opening it with ease and walking in. (She had also snatched a bowl for herself to eat with him.)
"Your soup, kind sir~" She stated in a singsong voice, smirking devilishly.
Tovar paused to watch Kanth and Altessa move from the kitchen. He glanced to the table, smiled in a tight lipped fashion at the remaining diners, and set to preparing plates for the three kids and himself. In a moment or two, he had a plate of sandwhiches set at the center of the table and a bowl of soup for everyone - or, in Leith's case, a cooled cup of it. "Well, your momma should be down soon," Tovar remarked cheerfully, taking a seat at the table.
Etain nodded, grinning through his sluuuuuurp of soup. After this, he and Medusa and maybe that other girl could go play in his room! Or maybe out in the front garden. That would be really fun. He was pretty sure there was some games lying around too! Totally the best day ever.
He was so writing in his 'jornul' about this one.
Upstairs was dark. There was a single large window at the end of the hall and otherwise nothing at all. Lights, but they were dim and there was the distinct feeling of age in the upstairs of the house - a feeling that the house wasn't keen on Tovar's attempts to tame it's grungy streak. The room behind the first door on the left reflected the feeling, stark and sharp, in the form of stacks and stacks of books, knicknacks, bits and bobs, mobiles hanging from the ceiling, walls plastered with bits of paper, an odd painting half buried by other bits and pieces. A decrepit ceiling fan hung from the low ceiling, though the blades had tangled themselves in a bits of fabric, lending it the look of a traditional art piece rather than a ventilation system. There was a single large bay window at the end of the room behind a large, heavy mahogan desk stacked foot high with papers and books, much like the armchair near it.
Michael was near neither furniture pieces. The lamp on the bedside table, however, was turned as bright as it would go, throwing a gold hum over the texture of the many pillows and mismatched blankets that made the bed into a blanket. That's where Michael was, a book over the throw in his lap. He was a fairly attractive man, getting on toward the end of 'middle aged,' greying at the temples, wrinkles deepset around the corners of his mouth and eyes. Michael frowned and closed the book.
"Who the hell're you?"
"It tastes gud!" Medusa cried, copying Etain as best she could and slurping up the soup in the noisiest way possible. One could see the soup going down her throat and into her stomach, swirling around the PSP console inside of her and her stomach turning a kind of reddish color.
"... Kanth. The woman that CALLED." A bit miffed, Kanth walked over and set his plate down rather haphazardly on his lap, crossing her arms and staring at him with disdain. "It's no wonder you don't get many visitors if all you do is act like this to them."
Altessa crept behind the chair, keeping herself well hidden. Ooooh, Kanth wasn't happy, and perhaps this meant fighting! Though most likely not. She still liked to see Kanth mad at one person - Kanth could be very scary at times.
Altessa hoped to be like Kanth, someday. Domineering, though in a passive sense.
With a triumphant shriek of joy, Leith promptly dumped his entire cup of soup over his highchair tray, spreading the delightfully bright red soup with his fingers. Etain giggled happily, kicking his feet and shooting Medusa a sidelong glance. Tovar pursed his lips and grimaced just slightly, preparing himself for the cleanup afterwards.
The tray settled on his lap, Michael shifted awkwardly and finally just placed it on the side table. He eyed Kanth warily, glancing toward Altessa before flicking his attention back. "Oh," he grunted, picking one of the sandwhiches off the plate and taking a large bite out of it. Ham and mayonaise. He wrinkled his nose a little and set the food aside.
"What do you want then? I don't have time to sit here and listen to you complain. Get to the point."
Conclusion?
Social skills: Not The Best.
Finished with her meal (the sandwich was EXCELLENT, she'd have you know), Medusa got up from her seat and glanced to Etain, gringringrinning. "We gow plae now?"
"I'm not all that keen on sharing, now that you've shown your hospitality. Though you were quite eager to meet a shapeshifter, it seems." She shrugged, moving to walk out the door. "Your loss, I suppose."
Michael frowned, lips drawn up into a thin severe line. He waited quite patiently until she'd reached the doorway of the room, carefully knitting his hands together in his lap as she went. "Who else," he asked, the sharp tone in his voice muffled by the press of the room's clutter. "Could you possibly go to?" Oh, not that Michael was the only wizard in the entirety of gaia - as much as he'd like to think that was so - but he rather entertained the thought that he might, possibly, just be the only one this woman knew, if only through Tovar. Again, probably not the case, but it was worth a shot maybe. A slight shot.
Besides, Michael had one thing he knew for certain no other wizard - at least in so far as Tovar's newly made aquainttences had: a unicorn.
And there was definitely something to be said about the magical properties of a unicorn.
Eyebrows arched expectantly, Michael reached for the bowl and soup and pulled it into his lap, stirring it idly with the spoon.
Downstairs, Etain leapt to his feet. He still had the heel of a sandwich in one hand, chewing on a mouthful of ham and bread with dogged determination, but Tovar was willing to let it go this once, indicated by a slight nod on the man's part when Etain glanced inquiringly in his direction.
Etain threw his arms up in a silent declaration of victory before beckoning to Medusa. "Thissaway," he managed through his sandwich.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Tovar reminded him, standing to find a towel to clean baby Leith with.
Etain scuttled out of the kitchen, clearly expecting Medusa to follow.
Clenching her fists, Kanth stopped at the doorway, calming herself before she turned and gave him a smile. "Do I honestly need you? You have not given me one good reason as to stay. And you did not even bother to offer me tea." Of course, her favorite thing was tea, but she wasn't complaining - oh wait. She was.
Medusa silently gleed before following Etain happily, her grin unable to be hid on that cute face of hers. "Wat we gon'na dew?" She asked, following close on his heels, very excited that she was now able to spend time with him alone, with no interruptions! Yay!
Michael smiled, short and wan. The skin around his eyes crinkled pleasantly though, softening the expression just slightly. "I don't make tea, my dear. If you weren't offered something, take it up with Tovar. He's here for a reason." And, alright, maybe most of that was to be an apprentice, but that didn't mean Michael couldn't enjoy the perks of having a personal valet. Er. Slave? Er. Student? Er. --Whatever.
Chuckling, he downed a few spoonfuls of the soup.
Trotting down the hallway, Etain cut along at a healthy clip of a pace. He shrugged both shoulders in response. "Iunno. We c'n play in my room if you want. Or outside." He stopped by a rough looking wood door. He lifted the latch and pushed it open, bearing the room beyond for Medusa's inspection.
It was painted a soft, muted purple color with bursts of yellow splashed up on the wall at random intervals. The first smattering had been an accident, but Etain had given his approval so the pattern had continued. "This is my room," the little boy announced, swelling a little with pride. "It used to have lotsa junk innit."
Growling and not liking how Kanth was being talked to, Altessa whirled around the chair legs and pulled a Tyven, opening her mouth and latching on to Michael's ankle with her vicious, long sharp teeth. She held her position, tail lashing back and forth as her eyes shifted to glare at him.
WHOAH. This room was cool! Walking in, Medusa took her time in looking around, mouth agape. "Thys... rawks?" Medusa tested the word on her tongue, then nodded with affirmation. "My room has wahter." Another nod.
Etain nodded enthusiatically. The room wasn't large - in fact, it looked just big enough to store furniture in - but it was his and that made it special. There was a bed crammed into the corner under the window, a table at the side with the fish bowl Etian had been talking about earlier settled on top of it. There was a chest of stuff at the end of the bed, a dresser, a rug and little else.
But all of it his.
That's what Tovar said anyway.
"Don't have no water," Etain chirped cheerfully, motioning just briefly to the fish bowl. "'Cept in there."
The bowl of soup jerked, sloshing out over his lap and soaking quickly into the piles of blankets. There was also, alarmingly and completely unexpectantly, the sound of a swift, angry crack of bone and sinew under the weight of the little girl's jaws. Michael drew in a ragged breath as the color drained from his face.
He was a thin man, narrow in the wrist and skinny through the forearms. He was just the same under the leg of those loose comfortable lounging trousers. Slight. Delicate, almost.
The bone of the man's ankle gave way with a crunch under the grip of Altessa's teeth.
"Get out," he breathed, stomach churning. "Get the hell out of my house."
Kanth had no time to react, but as she jerked forward, her breath left her throat. Her outstretched hand dropped with ease, and she straightened herself, striding over to stand near him, her head held in a bit of a haughty position.
"I can heal that for you, but it's going to cost you." A glance to the Bandersnatch girl, and Altessa let go, climbing up on the armrest of the chair to stare at Michael with a slight bit of interest.
Medusa walked over to the fishbowl, pressing her face against it. "Did yew naem et?" She asked, eyes large with curiosity - pretty much the mood she was in all the time. She hadn't gotten to name her previous fish, but others having them as pets, that was kind of cool!
"Goldy," Etain chattered back, his tone of voice thick with appreciation for his own creativity. That was a totally awesome name for a goldfish, wasn't it? Eh, eh? He puffed up his chest a bit and tapped the glass happily. Goldy the Goldfish looked mildly alarmed and swam around the perimeter of the bowl to hide behind the plastic shrubbery. Two seconds later, she forgot completely about hiding and came darting back out again. Ah, the joys of an extremely short memory span.
"What happened to yer fish when they took 'im out?"
Michael braced himself, reaching for the bowl of soup as if he intended to use it to beat off any further attacks. "No," he snarled, sand paper rough. "You are going to get the hell out of my house right this god damn second." His face was ash white, and his foot sat at an awkward angle. "Get. Out. If you want answers so ******** badly, you had best start looking for someone else to give them to you."
He waited less than two seconds before his voice pitched loud and low. The ceiling fan rattled faintly overhead as he shouted. "GET OUT."
In the kitchen, Tovar's head snapped up. "Oh s**t."
"I am not backing down simply because you're throwing a tantrum! I will apologize for my Bandersnatch girl, but you have to understand... I do not back down simply from a threat." Her damn pride was in the way, and she couldn't help it; she was a Rala, and she got that temper from her mother - her mother who was a b***h, but nonetheless, she still had the temper.
Calm yourself... Kanth thought to herself, raising her hands to rub her temples. "Okay, that came out wrong. What do I have to do to calm your temper, oh great magus?" Oh, she still had snark. Oh well.
"I dunno." Medusa gave a shrug, all smiles. "Mebbe they gave hem tew another kid that needed hym moar." Raising her fingers, she waggled them at the fish, saying hello.
Etain nodded cheerfully, hopefully. "Tha's good--" His voice trailed off absently, the muffled sounds of arguing going on somewhere overhead leaking through the ceiling. His smile slipped and he frowned. Just slightly. Just oh so slightly. "Glass man's angry," he whispered at length. "We should go play outside. House doesn't like when 'e's angry."
Tovar took the stairs two at a time, the sounds getting louder as he went. He could distinguish every angry word as the house rattled and groaned, furniture shifting slightly in the general direction of the upstairs bedroom.
"--This is my goddamned house and you'll leave when I ask you to, you b***h. Get the hell out or I swear to christ I will make you."
Tovar burst in through the door, chest heaving slightly. He looked wild-eyed from Michael to Kanth and back again. Michael glanced away to the window, the color returned to his cheeks from the yelling. Tovar moved forward with a jerk, skittering round where Michael sat and dropped quickly to his knees. They banged hard on the floorboards.
"s**t," Tovar breathed, fingers hovering over the twisted shape of Michael's ankle. He glanced quickly up, searching Kanth's face. "What the hell happened? What did you do?"
He didn't touch the other man though, not even to examine the fractured bone or the swelling that was quickly settling in. It was like the two had a long, painfully established barrier between them that both were pointedly aware of.
Kanth was stone cold. She'd been called worse, and the magus really had nothing on her.
"He, apparantly, didn't know how to handle a Bandersnatch. They're rather different than unicorns." She allowed herself a small smile, and Altessa leaned forward ever so slightly, still staring. Why wasn't he fearing her yet...?
"Glass man?" Medusa blinked, curious and confused at this proposal, though moved to follow Etain.
A dawning realization peeled slowly across the younger man's face, starting in on 'horrified' soon there after as he put two and two together. "Oh," he murmured, glancing at Michael who was turned away as much as he could manage without twisting his ankle an odd way. "Oh s**t." Michael kept his eyes averted, staring hard at the dusty window pane and doing his best to absolutely ignore Altessa and the niggling feeling of wrong and danger! that seeped off the little girl. He only glanced around when Tovar looked to him again, features thin and drawn like a nervous dog's.
"Just... just get them out of here," Michael growled, his fingertips ghosting over the lower half of his face. They trembled slightly. "Get them out, Tovar."
Shaken, Tovar nodded and scrambled to his feet, looking back at Kanth and Altessa. There was a distinct, pleading look on his face. "Please, can we go back downstairs?"
Etain skirted out of the bedroom and back into the hall, slinking down to the front door and letting them both out into the cool air and the fairly enjoyable atmosphere of the small front garden. "Just for a li'l bit," he assure Medusa as he pulled the door shut behind them. "'Til he gets alright again."
"Very well." Glancing to Altessa, she glanced to the door without moving her head as the girl moved away, hopping to the floor with ease and ambling through the door, though remained in hearing distance.
Kanth glanced to Michael with slight interest, though remained quiet after that, moving to leave, as well.
"Is he sick?" Asked the worried Medusa as she drew up beside Etain, her hands pressing together in a nervous, contemplating gesture. She waited for an answer; she was always so lost, and never knew what to do.
Tovar hesitated a moment at Michael's side, hands fidgeting at his sides. "Michael, do you--"
"Just get them out," the older man growled."
Tovar pursed his lips and hurried into the hall after Kanth and Altessa. He closed the door quietly behind him. There was an almost tangible relaxation of the house's atmosphere and, somewhere, the furniture stopped scraping across the floor as if drawn like bits of iron to a magnet.
"Just. Uh. Downstairs," Tovar motioned dully, taking the lead back down to the ground floor.
Etain stooped on the front step, knees to chest as he pulled up bits of grass enroaching on the garden bed. He nibbled on it. "Dunno," he muttered, shrugging awkwardly and looking back over his shoulder at Medusa. "Y'just...y'just can't touch 'im. He breaks easy. Somethin's wrong so 'e..." he hesitated, searching for the right words. "'E gets sad s'mtimes."
Nodding, Kanth let out a slightly relieved sigh, following Tovar with ease. Altessa fell behind Kanth, now reverting to all fours as she clambered down the stairs.
"Oh. He MUST be sad if he don't gyt hugz." Medusa stated, sitting down next to Etain and slouching as he did, glancing around for a lake or pool or pond of water. Something. She was beginning to feel hot.
"No hugs," Etain agreed morosely, stuffing the rest of the grass into his mouth and chewing. "I think we c'n go back now," he remarked absently, glancing at the front door. "Just didn' wanna get squished by furniture."
Tovar stopped in the doorway of the kitchen to look Kanth and Altessa over briefly before his features screwed back up with worry and his breath came out in an awkward rattle of air. "You should leave. It's -- he won't talk to you today. You shouldn't have... You should leave. I'm sorry."
Kanth moved to the doorway, opening it before stopping and turning around. "You are most welcome in my house, Tovar." Kanth gave him a sad look. "I have magic that even mages like him don't know about. As well as experience." And possibly age, but she didn't mention that.
"Could you tell me... just how exactly I ******** up in the first place?" Her eyes shifted to Altessa, and Altessa stared right back, though sighed after about a minute.
Nodding but not really understanding, Medusa stood but slumped all the more as she saw Kanth in the doorway. "I think eye hafta gow..."
Tovar offered her a weak smile in return, brow heavy with emotive lines. "Nothing that'll fix this, unfortunately." Not in the ways that mattered anyway. Not in the way that would matter to Michael. Hesitating, he pitched his voice low before continuing.
"Michael's been burned out," Tovar explained in hushed tones. "At some point he channeled too much magic and it hollowed out...everything. He can still work the flows of magic, but his body is..." Tovar hesitated, flushing with frustration over this whole mess - though not, necessarily anything to do with Kanth and her brood. "It's not right anymore. It breaks easily and you can't heal the damages with magic. It doesn't work on his body any more. It's a task to touch him without screwing something up, much less..." he motioned briefly to Altessa and shrugged numbly, falling silent soon thereafter.
Etain looked up sharply, express falling farther. "Awww." Had their visit really been cut so short?! Sighing, he pushed up to his feet and looked mournfully indoors at the cluster of people. Dangit.
"Great going, kid. We just both ******** up a magus." Kanth reached out and ruffled Altessa's hair, and Altessa stared darkly at the ground.
"Thanks..." Kanth glanced off at Medusa and thought for a moment. One could very well see the gears turning in her head. As she thought, she finally nodded and glanced to Tovar again, smiling. "The invitation is still open, should you ever want to come over to our house." Mansion, she corrected herself, though didn't say it aloud.
"We kan hang owt latyr." Giving a firm nod, the Jellyfish girl turned to Etain and gave him a big hug, hesitant to let go.
"It's a deal," Tovar managed as cheerfully as one could expect. In the kitchen, it sounded like baby Leith was making a mess of himself and the surrounding area once again. He winced slightly, scratching the base of his neck self consciously. "We'll see you later."
Etain hugged back, all the strength in his little arms going toward grasping Medusa in a great big bear hug (or as much of one as some small such as himself could manage). "Later," he promised, smile switching on like a light before he released her and turned to move back inside, skittering past Kanth and Altessa in the way.
Forgetting himself, Etain glanced briefly back over his shoulder and caught sight of Kanth's features. He staggered momentarily, head whipping around the rest of the way and body twisting awkwardly. He gawped openly at the woman, brown eyes large. No itch.
It took a few moments for him to regain his senses. Etain scrambled back behind Tovar's hip, waving shyly to Medusa from there.
//the end.
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:04 am
Books and Unicorns
Etain and Harper, with appearances by Lilly Ghardian "Almost...got it. HA!" Harper grinned truimphantly and jumped down from the small ladder. Why did they put all the good books up that high, anyway? Brushing the dust off, she scanned the area for Etain. Stupid thing, he couldn't even stay put like she told him to.
'You will have fun!' Noyama had insisted. Insisted in that way where the subject wasn't up for debate.
Ever since she'd found that old picture of a death ray she planned on having Karoko build to destroy a certain someone, Noyama had insisted she befriend that certain someone. This included showering him in holiday presents, sending stupid letters and, this time, taking him with her to the library.
He probably ran off to the section with all the little kid books about fairies and pink-colored panda bears.
...It's not like she was actually gonna build it.
"Etain! Etain! Come on!"
Etain had not, in fact, wandered to the section with the kid books about fairies and pin-colored panda bears. He'd wanted to - oh, how he'd wanted to - but given the fact that he was pretty sure Harper would beat him up if he did something wrong, he'd only just wandered behind a book cart that had been parked in the aisle, stooping down behind it and poking around the books on the bottom stack to see if he could find anything with pictures on the cart - because the aisle they were in definitely didn't have any.
His little blonde head shot up the second Harper called, ears, horn and the crown of his head visible but little else until he'd scuttled back around, eyes wide, to peer at his...company. Harper wasn't exactly a friend and she wasn't really a comrade in arms either. He nibbled on his thumb anxiously.
"Where're we goin'?"
Had he always gnawed on parts of his hand like that? She didn't remember him having that habbit before. He was so... cute. Disgustingly, obnoxiously adorable to the point it made her want to beat the hell out of him. Which, she herself found strange, being as she was generally a non-violent and reasonable person, even so young.
But Etain... There was just something about Etain she hated.
Maybe it was that he tried to cuddle up to Noyama, or that he was a little fuzzball who everyone swooned over. In fact, when they'd walked in, the usually old woman at the front desk had offered him a lollipop.
Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.
"Didn't you find a book?" she demanded, lifting up the seven-book pile she'd gathered. "Can you even read yet?" Last time she'd asked, he hadn't been able to. Surely he'd learned by now! "Forget it, just come on."
No matter how mighty or old she may think of herself mentally, Harper was still a small, small girl physically. It wasn't possible for her to see over so many thick books, and thus it was no surprise when she ran into someone and toppled over.
The backlash for the other individual, however, seemed to by nothing at all. Lilly raised an eyebrow and stared at the two children. "Aye, lookit here, Muffin, there's a little birdy in a place she dun belong."
Etain had taken that lollipop too ("You want some?" he'd squeaked at Harper. Adorably.) and chomped on it happily the entire time Harper had been searching down books by numbers or however it worked. He'd dropped it floor and had screeched -- which would have gotten them in trouble if it wasn't for his adorable cutesy face -- and had left a paper trail a mile wide by taking books off the shelves and putting them back crooked.
He somehow they hadn't been kicked out.
He shrugged quickly, not actually giving Harper's question a verbal answer because it seemed like not actually saying that, A) he hadn't found a book and B) He didn't really read too great yet, might make her a little less annoyed. So shrugging it was. He skittered after her quickly, sucking on the paper of the lollipop stick.
Thud!
He twitched backwards, ears snapping forward and tail flicking nervously back and forth. What the heck--? Etain narrowly avoided choking to death on the lollipop stick, gagging and spitting it out on the ground and he recoiled suddenly backwards from the woman Harper had gone and bashed into. He backpeddled a good two yards, skin crawling and eyes hurting and a definite headache coming on.
Oh, for the love of--
"Why doesn't someone just struck me down now?" Harper mumbled as she gathered her books back and returned them to a new pile with impressive speed. She was just turning to Lilly to tell her to go away when Etain suddenly all but flew back.
Suddenly he didn't look so cute, more like he was about to throw up. ...Okay, he was still cute, the little rat, but not as cute.
For once, the faces of Harper and Lilly mirrored each other in total confusion, but only for a second.
'There are some things even you aren't old enough for,' Noharu had told Harper when she questioned her cousins reaction to the teenager herself. When she was provided with no answer, she turned to her sister, Kilah, and the only thing she got for that was, 'Get the hell out of my room before I cut your damn wings off you little b***h!'
Lilly, however, had heard about this kid.
"This is that unicorn boy, isn't it? He's very...cute."
"You have no idea," Harper muttered spitefully. "Etain, stop being stupid!"
Shoes, shoes. He was looking at his shoes with a dogged determination anyone would find a little admirable. Or a little stupid and obnoxious, given the choices. The point was, he definitely wasn't glancing anywhere near that pink haired lady. Instead, Etain flit backward a few more paces and let his eyes roll over the bookshelves, trying to get Harper's attention without actually looking in THAT direction.
"C-can we go? --This way?" he motioned down the aisle in the opposite direction of Lilly, weaving a little on his feet. His ears lay pinned back just a touch and the little boy definitely looked like he was gonna sick up someone soon. "Please. Right now."
"You're such a little freak!" Harper hissed. Meanwhile, the teacher looked rather amused. So it was true, then, what they'd said. That was probably the most interesting ability she'd ever seen in one of these little brats.
"Aye, bird," she said suddenly, and Harper gazed up at her. "Make sure they never sign that fluffy thing up for me classes. I think I'd kill him." She chuckled in that semi-crazy sort of way and walked past them.
Looking very aggravated, Harper snatched Etain's arm and yanked him forward. "What do you think you're doing?! What is wrong with you?!"
Etain whimpered. Whimpered. He let Harper drag him back though, the bile in his throat settling as the stranger walked away. His little forehead remained stubbornly creased, but at least the hairs on his arms and at the back of his neck were beginning to smooth down again and the gooseflesh on forearms had gone away. "I-it," he stuttered, clearly upset. "It makes me fell gross. She made me feel gross. Other people sometimes too." He spoke in short, choppy sentences: awkward and heavy tongued. He swallowed hard a couple of times, glancing nervously in the direction Lilly had gone of in before looking back to Harper just a little desperately.
"Are y'done y-yet? C'n we go now?" Please, please. He didn't want to risk running into that lady again. She made him feel really, really nauseas - moreso than a lot of other people ever did. Etain rubbed his eyes axiously, the pressure behind them slackening slowly. Ugh.
Damn it.
Whimper? Whimper? The sickeningly cute little b*****d. Harper hated him, but she wasn't heartless. You would have to be to not feel that little twinge, no matter how small it may be, of sympathy in your gut when something that was like a puppy made those sorts of noises.
It was then Harper decided she also hated puppies. "...Fine." She hadn't forgotten the books, because the day that happened the world would topple to the ground as a whole, but she'd decided to leave them in favor of dragging Etain around, which was enough to undoubtedly make a few buildings collaspe.
"You are so weird," she ranted. Just because she felt sorry for him didn't mean she wasn't going to viciously, verbally bash him like always. "But I don't blame you this time--that woman is insane!"
Shaking her head, she pushed the 'EXIT' door open and stepped outside. Two high school girls who were wandering up the stairs stopped and immediatly began gushing over the unicorn.
"T-thanks," Etain managed, waving numbly to the older woman behind the front desk as Harper pushed him toward and out the exit. She beamed at him, waving cheerfully back at him.
Staggering out into the cool outside air, he immediately zipped up his little coat. Apparently redressing himself against the cold was enough to earn a few 'Awwwwws' from the surrounding teenage girl populous, resulting in an immediate mauling by a handful of them giggling and asking him questions like 'How old are you?' and 'Is this your friend?' and exclamations of 'You are soooo adorable,' 'Oh gosh, look at his little poofy tail!' Etain smiled and flicked his ears adorably before managing to extract himself and get back to Harper.
The cooing and fawning seemed to have made him forget, at least in part, the Lilly incident. Nothing like a little admiration to help quicken recovery, eh? "Is yer ma' gonna pick us up?" he squeaked (earning a new bout of squeals from the girls).
Harper had to go to the dentist almost four times a month. Noyama was both concerned and amazed. Unfortunately, she also wasn't smart enough to make the connection with Harper's teeth being broken or damaged and Etain being around.
It was times like these she grinded them together so hard the pain would have caused any other living thing to wince and, you know, stop. It was either this or gnaw her hand off, and any aches could hardly push their way through the intense shield of rage.
So. Much. Hate.
"Y-Yes," she hissed, fists tightening. Luckily, the fact she was wearing gloves prevented her nails from driving into her skin like they'd previously done multiple times. She was starting to get scars.
By time the girls finally left, the hawk was sitting on the stairs with her arms crossed--not that anyone could see that, as her wings were wrapped around her. She looked much like a caccoon.
A angry, hateful caccoon.
Etain had hunkered down on the same step, though was careful to keep a few feet between them. He had his knees drawn up and his coat wrapped tight and his chin jammed down under the collar and his mittened hands in his pockets. His tail switched back and forth.
Flippin' adorable little pull of fluff.
"It's cold," he remarked conversationally, clearing trying to punctuate the silence between them somehow. He wiggled a little closer to Harper, eyeing her sideways. "Sorry 'bout havin' t'leave yer books." And he was. He'd wanted to look at them. Besides, even if Harper liked to glare at him and say mean things and call him 'dumber than a rock,' she helped him read sometimes and that was pretty fun. When it wasn't totally and completely lame and boring, anyway.
"It's not that cold," Harper shot back. It wasn't so much that she was lying as just not thinking about what she said... Not thinking at all, because it was really, really cold. But that didn't give the fuzzball the right to move closer to her, and she glared in dissaproval when such happened.
"Oh, please, what do you care? I'm surprised you even remember between everyone fawning over you. Stupid little fluffly freak." When she was older, she'd think of more creative insults. Seriously.
Either he didn't notice the glare or he just didn't care, but Etain continued to wiggle a little closer in what he probably thought was a subtle, covert movement but really just looked more like he had to pee, wiggling around on the cold front step. "'M not that fluffy," he protested, lower lip jutting out and a slight frown creasing all over his pale features. "Just m'tail." And, alright, his hair was a little fluffy he guessed and his ears were soft but not really fluffy.
"You cold?" he pressed, finally wiggling close enough to brush his shoulder against Harper's wrapped up wing. He was still pouting a little, probably threatening to chatter his teeth in an adorable, cutesy, please-pity-me fashion.
Not only was he a fluffly little attention whore, he was also an idiot who needed to take a hint. As long as you didn't look at him directly for a while, that little aura of cute didn't work.
Harper's wings whipped back, and her hand lashed out to push him roughly to the side. On her feet, she pointed down at him with one hand, eyes burning. "What is wrong with you?! Take a hint, you moron! I hate you! I hate you and your stupid tail and your eyes and your voice and--ugh! I'm so sick of you! Stop acting all modest and innocent!"
Okay, he CLEARLY hadn't been expecting an outburst like that. Etain's eyes went round. Very, very round. He leered up at her, jaw slack and ears lolling stupidly, tail flopping gracelessly down to the ground. His knees where still pulled up to his chest and his toes were turned in a little with his hands stuffed in his lap, and he looked absolutely thunderstruck -- at Harper, at the yelling, at everything.
And then his face screwed up. It started at the corner of his mouth and eyes - a slight twitching and a wrinkle of the skin. Then his tail looped around awkwardly and his ears flicked back. He bit his lower lip, and maybe that was some sort of trigger because that's when it started. It. The absolutely bawling. So much for sniffles and little cute tracks of tears. Etain bust out wailing, full, chest-heaving, snot-dripping, red-nosed-and-eyed crying.
Harper's arm fell to her side, eyes wide in alarm.
Oh, crap. Oh crap. Oooooh crap!
Never in her life had she stuttered like this, but she couldn't recall ever being paniced either. This was worse than stumbling into Kilah's room! "H-H-H-Hey!" she said loudly, waving both hands. "Quit! Stop! You're... You're not allowed to cry!"
Not that he was crying so much as sobbing, wailing, that sort of thing.
"I'm sorry!" Harper blurted. Just, please, shut up! "Look, I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" she insisted, dropping to her knees beside him and rapidly patting him on the shoulder. "I didn't mean it--" Much. "--okay? Just shhh. Stop crying!"
The full throated sobs just went on and on and on. People in the parking lot were beginning to take notice, glance around and eye the two children alone on the steep. There was some definite suspicion and uneasy worry going around out there, and Etain just went on bawling as Harper pat his shoulder. Snot dribbling, sniffing, blowing, eyes going puffy and red - the poor kid looked downright miserable. Luckily (or, unluckily, depending on one's perspective), he degenerated into gasping for air fairly quickly, turning into hiccups and sniffling in turn. Still definitely miserable looking, though. "Y-y-ye-es y-y-ou d-di-id," he managed between low, sucking gasps. He dropped his forehead down onto his knees with a faint 'thump!,' taking his hands out of his pockets and scrubbing at his snotty nose and still-teared up eyes.
"W-where's yer ma-a'?" he part wailed, part sniffled out, talking into the knees of his roughed up jeans.
"Okay, I did," Harper admitted. What? He was going to keep crying reguardless so logic said she may as well stop lying. "But still, stop it. You're going to...suffocate or something and get me in trouble. Although, maybe they'd actually realize I was there with you around for once if that happened," she bitterfly added, then paused.
Bad, Harper. No. Bad. Not helping.
"We weren't even suppose to be outside yet. Besides, you know Noyama can't drive so she has to walk here." Which took progressively longer. And, again, cold. "Stop crying," the hawk demanded. "It doesn't even matter what I think, because everyone else will still squeal and get all gushy around you."
He sniffed and wibbled and continued to rub at his eyes and his face with his hands. His mittens were going to be so freaking gross later. Seriously, nasty. "Y-yeah it d-does," he sniffed, raising his head slightly and looking at her. His eyes were bloodshot and looked more than a little tired. He felt tired, bone weary, and really just wanted to go home and take a nap or something. "It m-matters." That started up a whole new bout of sniffling and tears, resulting in him bowing his head away again, renewing his attempt to scrub his face clean despite the tears tracking down both of his cheeks.
"C-can we go back inside?" Etain finally asked. He sounded stuffed up. "'M cold." Besides, Noyama wasn't gonna be here anytime soon, right? He really just didn't feel like sitting out here on this step, the cold seeping up into him through the seat of his pants and the occasional whistle of the wind.
He was really annoying. Not so cute when he was all weepy, either, though she was sure he would've been to someone with more sympathy instead of someone trying to cover their own a**.
"Alright, fine." It was his fault they were out here to begin with! Not that she was going to point that out for fear he'd start bawling again. Once they were inside, she rushed him to the childrens room before any adults could see his teary doe eyes and ask what was wrong.
That was the last thing she wanted to deal with.
With a grim look, she plopped down on one of the chairs by the small table and huffed. "Why do I get stuck with things like this...?" Might as well try and cheer him up so when Noyama did come she wouldn't be in trouble for making him cry. "You got to see your egg by now, right?"
Etain let himself be hurried along, ducking past the head librarian's front desk and whipping around to the children's section of the establishment. He plopped down into one of the bean bag chairs at the first possible moment, letting his legs sprawl out. His hands flopped down onto the rug and he sniffled blankly around at all the books and random knickknacks in the room. There was one of those metal wire things with beads on it at the far table. His fingers itched to push the colorful wooden beads around, but he stay put for the time being. He swiped at his nose with the sleeve of his coat.
Oh, she was asking questions. Etain blinked blearily back at Harper and his stomach clenched uncomfortably just looking at her. He nibbled at his lower lip self consciously, trying not to start crying again because apparently she liked him even less when he did that. She already hated him -- sniff! --, and he really didn't need to make it worse right? Right.
"Y-yeah," he answered after a moment, response dull but at least an attempt. "Me 'n Tovar went an' looked. It was..." he hesitated and made a vague motion with both his hands, still wearing his mittens. "Shiny."
I don't know who Tovar is, you idiot. And of course it's 'shiny'. It wouldn't be anything less for someone like you, would it? It must be shiny and perfect and I bet the dragon is nothing less than amazing. Even so, I'm sure people will continue to fawn over you the most.
Those words were the ones Harper wanted to say, and she found herself biting her own lip for a few seconds before she managed to calmly utter, "That's nice. What dragon is it?"
Oh, yes. She was smooth. This was so working... Right?
He sniffed a little, but did seem to be getting over it...
"'S gold," he murmured, shifting a little on the bean bag chair. It crinkled and squished and made a 'filled with plastic beads' sound. Etain wiggled his feet, rocking his shoes side to side on the heel. "It likes fire, I think. Hot places." He hesitated a moment, clearing his throat awkwardly.
"D-did you see yer's yet? What color is it?" He wanted to ask more questions like 'What're you gonna name it when it comes out of the egg?' and stuff, but for now he was gonna just shut his mouth and wait.
But Harper's calming tactics were at least working on some level.
"Oh," he said, chagrined and feeling a little silly for asking. "Alright."
Etain lapsed into silence save a little more shifting and a touch more bean bag squishing. He bowed his head and pulled his gloves off, folding them over one another with a sense of both compulsion and a simple need to do something with his hands to keep himself busy. He pulled them back on after a moment or two, only to repeat the whole process over again. Fold, fold, pull them on, take them off. Fold, fold, ... -- etc., etc..
"What're you gonna name it?" he eventually asked, shooting Harper a crooked glance. He bit the inside of his cheek lightly and considered, briefly, going to play with that wire thing on the far table.
"Alexander," she answered without even the slightest pause. Why the name had stuck so quickly, she didn't know. It just sounded intelligent, and every type of book she'd read--either about an actual person who had that name, or a character who did--supported that. It had to be smart. She was positive it would be smart.
Yet she didn't want to know if it was. Didn't want to be near it. See it. Look at it. Much less take classes with it. There was a time she'd almost-jokingly hinted at this with Karoko, who, only paying half attention, had said something along the lines of, 'But they made you to work with dragons, right?'
Right. So right.
"What're you naming yours?" Sparkles. Fluffly. Glitter.
"Watson," Etain replied, so quick it was clear he'd been thinking over this for a good long while. He responded with perfect confidence and a slight bob of the head, a determined set of the mouth that suggested he'd told Tovar this and had received some reservations from his parents afterwards. The fact that the dragon might be female hadn't seemed to cross Etain's mind, or perhaps he just didn't see any reason why Watson couldn't fit a girl as perfectly well as it could fit a boy.
He shrugged slightly, kicking his feet lightly down on the rug. "I like Alexander." Even if he stumbled a little over the name itself, tongue slipping up on the pronunciation, drawing it out loooong and loooow.
Yeah, that's what she--- "Wait, what?" From the looks of it, Harper hadn't realized she'd said it out loud. "Really? Watson?" The young girl stared at him in amazement, as if she'd never seen him before and was about to squeal and hug like those girls they'd seen outside earlier. "That's...actually a tolerable name coming from you," she said curtly, then snorted. "I could say I was naming it 'Blood Bath' and you'd still like it."
No, Harper. Bad. Bad again. No.
Surprisingly enough, Etain giggled a little. Giggled. Like a poofy little cute thing, but at least it wasn't crying - and alright, maybe giggling was only slightly more tolerable than wailing, but it was a start. He smiled shyly at Harper, rubbing his hands together with a shy, self conscious quality about the motion. "Blood Bath," he murmured, giggling a little more.
"D'you know when Alexander," -- again, with the slight stumble over the word, the consonants blending awkwardly -- "'s gonna come outta his egg?" They hadn't told him except to say 'eventually' and 'soon,' so Etain figure Harper probably didn't know either, but it didn't hurt to ask.
Harper turned her head as far away from him as she could without snapping her neck. She didn't want him to see her grinning, even thought it was only a little, and get the wrong idea. Maybe 'Blood Bath' was a silly example...
Her mood darkened quickly and she stared at the table, running her fingers across it. "I haven't been near that egg in almost a year," she admitted quietly. "If it's hatched by now, I wouldn't know, but I'm guessing it hasn't since nobody's said anything about it. I don't know when it will..."
And part of her shuddered to think.
To be continued...?
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:44 pm
Hark, The Herald Neon Sings
Adventures at the Arcade, with appearances by Etain, Anoki and their respective draconic companions "Hey, uhm," Etain lagged behind, stalling out in the middle of a block of sidewalk, head craned in one direction to peer at the brightly flashing neon signs, all the people inside and the 'CHING-CHING-CHING!' sound of a handful quarters dropping out of a change machine. Etain looked back at Tovar who (along with the gold dragon, Watson) had ambled on a few steps further before they'd stopped and turned back to face the unicorn.
"What is it?" Tovar asked, shooting a suspicious glance toward the arcade.
"Your just goin' grocery shopping, right...?" Etain hazarded, edging around a little where he stood. His guardian nodded, slowly. "Can I stay here and you pick me up when your done?"
Tovar squint at the arcade, chewed on his lower lip. This was the first time Etain had ever really asked to be 'left' somewhere. "If you promise not to wander anywhere."
Etain perked up, ears flicking forward. He nodded enthusiastically.
"And if you keep Watson with you."
The unicorn drooped visibly, ears rotating and floppy sadly downwards. "Aw, but--"
"She's not going to bite you, Etain."
Watson whipped her tail around, fluttered her wings and snorted loudly. Etain stared at her, looking mortified. "A-alright," he agreed after a long, very long moment.
Sighing, Tovar nodded. "Alright, I'll pick you up when I'm done. Stay put," he reminded the boy.
"Tovar--?"
"Huh?"
"Can I have some money."
Internal facepalm.
Fifteen minutes later, having just barely figured how to work the change machine, Etain was skirting around the inside of the arcade like a nervous bird - half because of all the people and blinking lights, but definitely partly because of the dragon that was ambling around practically on his heels. She made him nervous.
"I don't see why you allowed him to come," Raven said sharply. "He can't come into a bar."
Sighing, Mahou squeezed Raven's hand. "Because the poor boy wouldn't survive alone with Bee in the house. Now this way they have arrangements, and he can have some fun. Besides, if the client didn't insist on the meeting place, you wouldn't be in a bar either."
When Mahou was right, she was right. But Raven didn't have to like it. "So what do you suggest they do, wait outside?
Anoki hovered behind Mahou and Raven uncertainly. As usual, they were talking like he wasn't there, but he'd learned to ignore it in favor of just listening. He definitely didn't want to be left alone at home with the girls, but having to wait outside a bar didn't sound much better.
Fortunately, Mahou had a better idea. "There's an arcade. Right here, in fact. We can let Anoki and Myung-Ki play in there for a while, and pick them up afterward. Here." Now Mahou was finally adressing Anoki, and handing him a pouch full of change to boot. "Have fun, and don't leave the building without us. And don't let Myung-Ki be the boss. Alright?"
Whether it was alright or not wouldn't make much difference to the plan, Anoki knew, but he nodded anyway. He had no idea what an arcade was, but apparently you needed to pay to use one. So he took the pouch, waved goodbye to Mahou and Raven, and pulled Myung-Ki inside.
There, the flashing lights and sounds dazzled him out of doing anything further.
Myung-Ki, on the other hand, looked around suspiciously. It was flashy, which was good, but it was unfamiliar. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.
Etain hooked his fingers over the edge of one of the large consoles, watching a pair of older kids mashing buttons and twist sticks. He had just enough time to watch one of the people on the screen beat the tar out of the other one ('FINISH HIM!,' howled the game) before one of the older boys said something Tovar wouldn't like him saying inside the house and chased him off. Etain scattered, retreating back toward the entryway of the arcade. Watson waddled after him. She was getting fat, he noted anxiously. Probably eating cats or something. Aiee, creepy.
--Waita.
His attention snapped away from the dragon, hooking on the other preteen. Just as quickly, his eyes dropped to the red dragon at the other boy's side.
H-e-double hockey sticks, Etain thought sourly, frowning a little bit.
Nonetheless, he slowly began moving the Anoki's general direction. He recognized the other boy, just faintly - hadn't seen him for a long time, sure, but knew his face. Watson hung back slightly, eying the other dragon with nearly the same amount of suspicion as Etain.
"Hey!" Etain called out, waving shyly at the other boy. "I know you!" Well. Kind of.
His person was still gawking like an idiot, so Myung-Ki slunk over to a nearby pinball machine. It was first especially shiny thing nearby, and he felt that it would be an adequate place to start his conquering. Even if it was silver, an inferior metal AND color.
Part of the gawking was Anoki trying to remember the name of the kid who was waving to him. He knew him, of course- he remembered denting the slide, and looking for the other horn. Now that Raven had taught him, he knew that unicorns only had one horn, and felt silly for implying otherwise. In fact, he felt awkward all around.
Not that there was anything to do about it but reply and get it over with. Anoki sighed, disconcerted by the lack of actual decisions he'd made that day, but brightened slightly as he remembered the boy's name.
"Um. H-hi. Oh, you're Etain, r-right! H-hi!"
Cool, he even remembered his name! Not that...Etain could actually remember the other boy's. Crud. His whole face kind of screwed up awkwardly as he fought to remember. 'A' something. Not that something like that narrowed down the possibilities a whole lot.
"Yeah," he said at length, watching the red dragon move off toward a machine in her peripherals. "Etain, that's right. Uh..." he hesitated, flicking his attention back to the other kid. "Sorry, what's your name?"
Meanwhile, Watson plopped herself lazily down beside Etain, leaning up right against his leg. It was enough to make him jump a little, skitter quickly approximately one and a half steps to the side. "Is that your dragon? Did your mom leave you here? Tovar left me here."
He was spewing words, he could hear himself chattering all over the place. Tovar thought it was funny most times; Etain just felt a little sick to his stomach because of nerves, but he guessed words were better than throwing up or something.
"Anoki. It's ok-kay, it w-was a l-long t-time ago, r-right?" At least, Etain had looked shorter before. But then again, so had he, so Anoki tried not to make a big deal out of it. They were both there now, and that was what mattered, wasn't it?
Roaring at a gamer who was approaching the pinball machine, Myung-Ki was curled atop it's surface like a cat, but with eyes wide open and glaring at anyone who cared to watch.
Anoki smiled at the gold dragon. It (he? she?) was so pretty and sparkly. Myung-Ki would probably like that. But when Etain mentioned his partner, and Anoki looked next to him, he found himself short one dragon. When he saw Myung-Ki perched on the machine, he let out a shout and darted over. "N-no! This isn't y-yours! We're j-just v-visiting!"
Myung-Ki snorted. Visiting was the excuse his person had for not letting him take/damage/appropriate stuff that should have been rightfully his. But usually the horrible word was accompanied by better gifts later on, so he sulkily climbed down, hissing at the gold dragon nearby. It certainly wasn't HER shiny they were visiting.
"Anoki," Etain repeated absently, telling himself to remember the name this time around.
Watson seemed to be rather offended at the other dragon hissing at her. She sat up, head swinging sharply upward causing her whiskers to shiver slightly with the movement. She trashed her tail a little, looking irritable. Harumph. She shot Etain a glance, clearly expecting the boy to do something about the red's attitude.
Instead Etain wiggled off, putting a little more distance between himself at the gold dragon, twirling the gold bracelet around his wrist nervously as he did so. "Uh, what's his name?" he asked suddenly. "Or is it a she? Watson's a girl."
Meeting people without Tovar as a buffer was kind of nerve wracking.
Myung-Ki lashed his tail at the gold, but remained otherwise docile. A large part of the reason was that Anoki had one hand on his head, and if he moved he knew there would be no gift later. A little patience now was worth an big payoff later, and he knew that the more patient he was, the bigger his reward would be.
"Th-this is Myung-Ki. H-he's a b-boy. And he's g-good," Anoki added, emphasizing the last word and staring at Myung-Ki while he spoke, instead of at Etain. For once, his dragon actually seemed to be taking the hint. Maybe he was getting better at the whole taking charge thing.
With Myung-Ki under control, Anoki could finally look around. "S-so, wh-what do you d-do here? I've n-never b-been."
Watson growled a little despite Myung-Ki's apparent 'good behavior,' apparently not entirely convinced. In turn, she waddled closer toward Etain - who immediately began moving away again. It's was like the two made subtle circles around one another. Etain kept his attention on Anoki, though he kept a notable eye on the gold dragon out of the corner of his eye.
"I've never been neither," he explained, shrugging with both shoulders. "Put you put money in these machines and then you play games. That's what other people are doing leastways, so that's what I figure the idea is." Besides, if nothing else it was loud and bright and shiny and for some bizarre reason the whole package of the place appealed strangely to something in the back of his brain. Go figure.
"Wanna to play something with me?" There was something called 'Ski Ball' in the back of the arcade that didn't look to difficult. Granted, Etain wasn't entirely sure why people didn't just walk up the ramp and dump the ball in the right circle instead of rolling it there but...maybe that was something you learned how to do later.
Well, that explained the pouch. Anoki unzipped it and looked inside, finding a few folded dollar bills and a couple handfuls of quarters. It was a lot. Mahou must have expected to take a long time. He sighed, looking around again. At least the kids there looked like they were having fun.
He also noticed the way Etain and Watson seemed to be square dancing, and frowned. "Are you ok-kay?" Digging in the pouch, he pulled out a quarter and held it out to the Gold- but not before giving the pouch itself to Myung-Ki, so he wouldn't get jealous. "H-here."
It was a meager offering, but Myung-Ki took the pouch in one clawed paw and shook it. It jingled promisingly, so he let it be.
"Y-yeah. I have m-money." Actually, Myung-Ki had it now, but if he wanted to he could get it back. The 'Ski Ball' did look sort of fun, if you were into bowling or throwing or anything like that. Maybe it was an acquired taste.
Watson perked up, looking surprised and inordinately pleased with the offering. Ignoring Etain for the time being, she waddled forward (she really was a little overweight) and snatched the coin from Anoki, rocking back on her haunched so she could look over the bit of silvery metal. Etain made a worried face, clearly paranoid that she'd try to eat it or something. Comically, Watson stuffed the quarter in her mouth, clacking at it briefly with her teeth before shunting it into one of her cheeks like an excessively large and rather scaly hamster - to keep it safe.
"Yeah, we're alright. She just..." Etain shrugged a little, worrying at his lower lip with his thumb. Clearly, the unicorn was a little afraid of the dragon. Just a little. Not a paralyzing fear to any extent, but concerned, cautious of her presence.
But in the face of money and ski ball and playing games with another boy - Medusa was cool and all, but Etain didn't hang out with other boys too often - he quickly seemed to forget his nervousness, digging in his pockets. "I got money too. I can show you how to work the machine if you need quarters later - figured it out all by myself." He beamed, clearly proud of himself. Ha, clearly he rocked this arcade thing. "Come on, it's this way."
With a short, jerky motion of his hand, Etain turned and led the way toward the back of the arcade where the giant ski ball machine lay in wait against the wall. Watson, the quarter still in her mouth, turned and wandered after him.
That seemed to help a little. And it confirmed that Myung-Ki wasn't the only dragon who liked shiny things. When Watson put the quarter in her mouth, it made Anoki just a little nervous, but he decided not to worry. It was her quarter now, and she could do whatever she wanted with it.
Myung-Ki snorted and pawed at the pouch some. That other dragon might have gotten one shiny, but he had a whole bagful. He was better and had more stuff and was just better. So there.
"Th-there's a machine that g-gived you m-money?" Anoki had seen one of those before, but Mahou said that to use one you needed a special card. "I d-don't have a c-card. B-but I have l-lots of c-coins!" He tugged the pouch away from Myung-Ki quickly, keeping it just long enough to extract several coins and stuff them in his pocket.
The machines- for there were three, lined up next to each other- were a bit daunting, with long ramps to roll balls on, and targets in the middle with several rings and holes for the balls to fall through. Anoki put a quarter in one of them, and jerked as there was a loud clicking noise, the sound of several heavy balls dropping into a bin just above the money slot.
"W-what now?" he asked, picking up a ball. "D-do you th-throw it?"
Etain watched with mild interest as the ski balls clattered down the chute, thud-thud-thudding into place. He eyed the ramp, the target at the end. "Naw," he said, waving his arms absently in an attempt to explain. "You, uh, you roll 'em I think. I mean, I guess you could throw 'em too, but uh, iunno. Rollin' seems to work better."
Watson patiently clambered up onto the adjacent ramp, digging her claws in and wiggling her way clumsily up onto until she could sit down heavily, watching the other ramp that Anoki had decided to play on with interest.
"Here, I'll do this one and show you," Etain said, digging in his pockets for quarters - they made loud clanking noises. Apparently he'd gotten a little overzealous with the change machine and had turned every single dollar bill Tovar had given him into quarters. Ambling over to the third ramp, he stuffed a quarter into the slot. Click, click, fwooooosh... - thud, thud, thud. He plucked one of the balls out of the chute, weighed it absently in his hands, wound up, let it go--
It hit the ramp with a loud crack, rolled up and over the hump at the end of the ramp and... straight down again. Etain looked up at the scoreboard expectantly.
It ticked '000' back at him.
"Crud." Grimacing, he looked back at Anoki. "I'm no good."
"Oh." What a weird game. But Anoki was determined to give it his best. He turned back to the targets, pulled his arm back, and rolled the ball carefully up the ramp. A little too carefully, because it only made it about halfway to the target before rolling to a stop. It didn't roll back either.
"Ooops. I don't th-think I've g-got it yet."
A little pleading was all it took to convince Myung-Ki to crawlget the ball back. Getting him to release it was harder. After all, he'd worked for the ball, it was his! Even if it wasn't especially shiny.
Anoki sighed, but didn't argue. He knew that Myung-Ki would get bored of it soon. In the meantime he took another ball and rolled it with considerably more force. That time it rolled along speedily, hopped over the bump, and sank into the lowest, ten-point target, sending the scoreboard alight with flashing lights and the number "010."
Gawking, Anoki looked at the scoreboard. "I d-did it!"
Etain threw up his arms triumphantly over Anoki's success with enough speed and force to bring the hem of his shirt a good two inches away from the waist of his pants for one, and for two to scare the bajeesus out of Watson who promptly floundered back over the far edge of the ski ball ramp she'd been laying on, thudding on the floor out of sight with her tail still stuck up on the game. It waggled in the air momentarily and Etain hastily dropped his arms, saying "Oops."
With a grunt, Watson pulled herself back to her feet and lumbered back into her resting place, pausing long enough to shoot Etain a sidelong, clearly wary glance before settling all the way back down.
"Good job!" Etain declared, wiggling a little in place but keeping mind to keep his hands to his sides rather than up in the air. "Ten points."
Fueled by his Convienantly New Best Friend's victory (any person Etain was hanging out with at the time tended to be his Best Friend Ever), Etain got another ball out from the chute, flinging it zealously up the ramp toward the target.
Swoosh! Ten. The scoreboard over the ramp ticked to record the minute personal triumph.
Anoki was equally enthusiastic about Etain's victory, actually jumping up and down and almost landing on Myung-Ki's tail. That was enough to sober him up a little. "S-so we just k-keep r-rolling?" There seemed to be an endless supply of balls, and if all they had to do was roll, the game would never end. There had to be some kind of condition. "D-do you try t-to get s-something?"
Curling his tail to keep it from being stomped on, Myung-Ki looked over at Watson. The silly Gold was almost upside-down! Such unbecoming behavior was definitely worth a laugh, and Myung-Ki wheezed his draconic equivalent.
"St-stop that," Anoki scolded, grabbing another ball. This time he took even more careful aim, and tried to give it enough force to get into the very middle one. After nearly a minute of set-up, he took a deep breath and rolled the ball. It zoomed up the ramp, hit the outer edge of the twenty point circle, and bounced into the ten. The scoreboard flashed again, and Anoki gave a small jump, but something was disappointed. That was good, but he wanted to do even better.
Watson looked at the red dragon with a bland expression on his short-nosed face. After a moment of consideration, she bared her teeth and then promptly set to completely ignoring the other dragon. Harumph.
"I dunno. I didn't see anyone finish a game," Etain explained, digging another of the ski balls out of the chute, flinging it willy nilly up to ramp. It flew up, over, hitting completely off target but rather high, rolling down into the gutter. "Maybe you get crud when it's all over." He certainly saw people running around with huge strings of red tickets and a counter over at the middle of the arcade had all sorts of cool stuff like parachute plastic army men and kazoos.
He paused, taking into account Anoki's scoreboard. And if Etain frowned just a little, set his features into a determined expression, well...he was the unicorn-boy equivalent of eleven; not a whole lot to expect there in terms of maturity in the face of competition. Humming, he pulled two more of the balls from the chute, wound back with both at once and flung--
One hit the ramp. The other flew up, over his shoulder and somewhere behind him. CRACK! It hit the floor, rolling away out of sight.
Etain stared. "Ooops."
"I'll g-get it!" Anoki offered, throwing the ball in his hand before running after the lost one. It rolled lazily up the ramp and disappeared into the gutter, but Anoki didn't even notice. He wanted to keep track of the missing one.
It hadn't gotten far. After just a couple of steps Anoki could see it rolling under a counter. With a cry, he ran faster, tripped, and fell on his front. His hands touched the ground first, preventing any real injury, but his knees scraped the uneven tiles. Undeterred, the preteen reached under the counter and retrieved the errant ball.
Watching with minimal interest, Myung-Ki sighed as Anoki faceplanted. That human needed some work. Having him fall like that was just plain embarrasing, even if he wasn't hurt.
Grinning awkwardly, Anoki trotted back, holding out the ball. "H-here!"
Etain watched Anoki trot off, clearly a little self-conscious about his oh-so spectacular throw. "Man," he said to no one in particular. "I'm bad at this."
Watson snorted in agreement, eyeing the other boy as she toppled over. The gold dragon winced slightly. At least Etain was slightly more coordinated.
For the most part.
Watson shot Myung-Ki a sidelong glance, grinning devilishly at the other dragon. 'Harhar,' the look clearly said. 'My kid could beat up your kid.' Or something like that.
Loitering around the base of the ski ball ramp, Etain accepted the retrieved ball when Anoki returned. "Thanks alot. Er, sorry," he managed before ducking away shyly, hunching his shoulders and turning back to the game. He flung the ball up the ramp, feeling rather foolish at it whizzed up and flopped down into the gutter.
"Da--...ngit."
Myung-Ki stared back at Watson, not entirely sure how to react. If he were human, he might have raised his eyebrows in surprise. But he wasn't human, and not the eyebrow raising type. He didn't even have eyebrows. So instead, he bared his teeth and snapped, as if to say don't push it, buster.
"N-no problem!" Anoki replied cheerfully enough, watching Etain's next throw and wincing a little. "I th-think you need t-to throw it h-harder," he suggested, taking another of his own balls and preparing to throw. "L-like this."
The ball rolled up the ramp promisingly and shot over the hump, hitting the target. It overshot, hitting the upper ring of the 10pt target and rolling down, rocking back and forth before falling into the hole. The scoreboard flashed, but Anoki wasn't as energetic anymore. He wanted to get better at it.
"S-something like th-that," he shrugged, grabbing another ball.
Etain nodded, chewing absently on his lower lip. Alright, throw it harder. He could do that. He watched Anoki roll again, squinting carefully at the way the other boy rolled it rather than throwing it to let it plunk with a crash on the game ramp itself.
Etain's eyes jumped to the scoreboard as it flashed. He frowned a little, scooping up one of the heavy wooden ski balls, wound up, flung it up the ramp. It sailed magnificently upward, plunking into the outer ring of the target.
Well, it wasn't a gutter ball. Etain indulged in a victory dance which, now that Watson seemed to be expecting it, didn't surprise the gold dragon quite as much as the initial flailing had. Instead, she untucked the quarter Anoki had given her from out of her cheek, spat it out between her forearms and began pushing it around with one of her nails.
At least they were both scoring now, and his advice wasn't totally wrong. But that wasn't enough for Anoki. He held the next ball in his hands for a while, weighing it, feeling its shape and texture and wondering how he would be able to roll it better. His last few tosses had yeilded mixed results- some with too little force, which rolled into the gutter, and some too forceful, which ricocheted uncontrollably. He had to strike a medium. And aiming might not hurt.
Still not ready to roll, Anoki leaned forward, one leg bent and slightly in front of his other, and eyed the targets. Too much force was bad, but too little wasn't good either. He swung his arm back and forth a little, in practice, but kept a firm grip on the ball.
Seeing that Anoki wasn't going to try another shot anytime soon, Myung-Ki curled up on the side of the machine and glanced at Watson. The gold dragon was too content for his liking, playing with that little trinket. He had a whole pouchful, which he jangled a little for emphasis. He could spare one to someone less... perfect.
Watson seemed perfectly content to tinker with her quarter, apparently either utterly oblivious to the slightly resentful watchfulness of the other dragon, or simply utterly uncaring. After all, she had a nice shiny coin to push around as Etain made a right fool of himself slinging wooden balls around, what more could she ask for?
Alright, maybe a little less neon and a little more sunshine to bask in, but...
Meanwhile, Etain looked about ready to take his own fool head off, the way he was chucking the skii balls up the ramp, making loud whooping noises whenever one actually managed to sink into the target. Finally, bending forward to reach for another of the balls, his hand came up empty. He blinked, shifted, peered down into the chute and squint up the length of it.
Outta luck.
"Guess I'm done," he said, looking up at the scoreboard where a delightful '60' was displayed in blinking red LED lights. The whole machine made a god awful buzzing noise and then, click click click, the space over the coin slot exploded with tickets. If by exploded, one means spat approximately twelve and a half tickets.
"Cool."
It was no fun if the other one looked happy. Still, Myung-Ki managed to convince himself that the other dragon was just pretending to be content, and pawed at the pouch he had, fraying the once delicate fabric.
Anoki took longer to finish, making sure that he rolled each ball carefully and forcefully after his first several flops. Unfortunately, he didn't have too many balls left. While he did manage to score one in the next to center ring, his others were in the same ten or twenty point range, and a few still failed to score at all.
Sighing when he saw the chute was empty, he glanced at the flashing scoreboard. Eighty. Not bad, maybe a little better than Etain, but not good enough. Not when the list of high scores listed some people that got two or three hundred points. He wanted to get better at things.
It was then that he saw the trail of tickets that the machine had spit out. Frowning, he pulled them out and counted them. Fifteen little pieces of cardboard. "Wh-what're these?"
Etain folded his over, letting them accordian out again the moment he'd finished. "I bet it's for that," he said, glancing toward a large booth in the middle of the arcade where, sure enough, people were dragging heaps of tickets to the somewhat nerve-worn young teenage girl behind it, counting stuff out and getting, by the looks of it, cool stuff in exchange for bits of cardboard.
Weird.
Shrugging, Etain neatly refolded the tickets, popping open one of the pockets on the leg of his coveralls and tucking them inside, snapping the pocket closed again. "Looks like y'get stuff if you've got enough tickets."
Mmm, metal taste. Watson snagged the quarter between her teeth again, shooting Myung-Ki a long glance. Her eyes narrowed, head coming up just a little as she let her gaze linger over the pouch of coins. Harumph. With an overcompensating flick of her tail, the gold dragon pocketed the quarter on the inside of her mouth again. So there.
TBC...?
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:48 pm
The Endless Buffet
With appearances by Etain, Leith, and a number of children of varying size "See, it's like...a giant buffet table," Etain explained patiently as he snapped two more dandelions up out the grass, passing one to his baby brother. The unicorn boy flicked his ears impassively, glanced over his shoulder to where Tovar was sitting nose-deep in a book a few yards away.
Leith sniffed the dandelion, handling it clumsily in his chubby little fingers before taking a big ole' bite out of it, crunching and ripping the yellow head of the flower off with his sharp teeth. He made a distinct, distasteful expression at the other boy but continued to chew at the flower.
The two boys were sitting in the tall grass of the wild grown public greenhouse. For a boy who ate rosemary on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches it was a dream come true. For Leith...
Not so much.
But he was willing to put up with eating dandelions and grass and whatever else Etain picked out of the ground when no one was looking if it meant not having to sit with Tovar all day. Not like Etain had much choice in the matter - it was either hanging out with his little brother or hanging out with the gold pet dragon and, really, given the options Etain figured Leith's teeth were easier to avoid.
Besides, Watson the Dragon didn't seem to mind sunning herself on the bench next to Tovar.
"...Look, brat! A leaf..and...foliage..growing...place...!" Came Thae's faux-excited but still unsure voice, followed shortly by the pleased squeal. A rather loud...pleased squeal. "Here, you can go with your big brother! Thae needs to go run and do something real fast!" Shortly after the words were spoken, The group came around the corner; the red-headed doppleganger, a tall dark skinned, white haired Drow with sunglasses, and a stroller that contained one very excited looking deer anthro, and a not-so-excited albino deer anthro.
Of course, the redhead left quickly.
That left the Drow with the stroller of brats. Prince, the white-spotted brown one, was pointing at the two boys and screaming something in happy babytalk, occassionally glancing back at his current watch. Sighing, the taller boy turned towards the two boys and...dragon?, heading over to them.
"...Mey join?" He asked them quietly, his heavilly accented voice doing nothing for his still poor english skills. Meanwhile, Prince was making grabbyhands for the other little boy, his little pink tongue stuck out in determination.
Artemis looked over at the group of boys. To join or not to join... ikiru ka shinu ka sore ga mondaida... Art laughed to herself. She wondered what in the world they were up to... She swept one of her curls behind her ear and into her bow, before losing balance and falling from behind a random shrub.
This was absolutely delightful, wasn't it? Christine grinned, wiggling her toes in the mud she'd found. She'd wandered in here due to sheer boredom while waiting for her Dad to finish up what he was doing. Granted...he was no where near here, that she knew of, so she'd taken the time to walk here. Only now she noticed the voices and looked up curiously, blinking and moving towards them sneakily. She doubted she was supposed to be here.
At the sounds of squealing, something within the small grove of tulips stirred. Really, he should have been more obvious what with the black hair and purple bangs, but then again, he'd been laying in the bright flowers up until now. His attention leaving his experiment for a moment, the young Mind Flayer tilted his head back in attempt to find the source of this noise, his eerie yellow eyes scanning the greenhouse's lush green surface. Near his knees, a grasshopper lay squirming, its great hind legs missing. Not quite missing, per-say, but lost in the soil and perching delicately between the toddler's pinky and thumb. It had come off so easily- much easier than any of his toys. And he hadn't felt nearly as guilty about it, even when the thing began to... leak. Well, he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that it only gushed when he had pulled of one of those legs. It had made a similar sound as the dear baby -in his opinion- before he'd taken the second.
Now he could see them- other children quite possibly his age. Good. This was getting a little boring, even though he'd been planning to make the little insect open its wings for him so he could look them over. The leg was pocketed for later, and his small hands reached out to wipe their fingers clean on the tulip stems. With a soft coo to the grasshopper, Xerksis nudged the maimed thing with his knuckles as if expecting it to go about its business before pushing to his knees. Crawling, he approached the group, staying to the tulip patch until he had to duck into a tall collection of sunflowers. That dark one- he had just walked up. What were the two... others to respond with? And why weren't they oozing like the grasshopper? Maybe the one in the carriage...?
"Holy crap," said Etain, looking around. His expression reflected a vaguely 'hand caught in the cookie jar' feeling. He quickly dusted the grass off his hands, brushed down Leith's front and took away the dandelion stem. Where the heck had all these kids come from suddenly? He cleared his throat and threw the stem in some nearby bushes, looking shifty and really hoping Leith would hurry up and swallow what he was chewing before the other kids started to ask why he was feeding his baby brother flowers.
Leith looked up, tongue lolling and dandelion bits stuck to it. He wobbled a little in his snap-up onesie jammies, looking over his shoulder at the stroller and the...weird things inside in. He sniffed - they smelled weird, hairy like the stray dog that had been in the garden. Though...these kind of smelled a little bit better. Kind of. Like food. Maybe. Leith bared his teeth, sharp rows of little points glinting in the fake 'natural' sunlight.
Etain clapped his hand over the infant's mouth. "Uh, hi," he said, glancing over the gathered children. "Are those deer? Where're you keeping them in a stroller?" Just because Etain was used to seeing kids with weird animal ears and stuff didn't mean he was used to seeing animals wrapped up in blankets and making baby sounds. Talk about strange.
"Echk." Zasalamel replied when greeted, his purple eyes focusing curiously on the unicorn boy. There sure were some strange ones around! When questioned, he only shrugged. "Siyo, Deer. Matron put 'hem in." He really didn't have any idea why. It was just something Anethae did...and he never really got into he habit of questioning her. Leaning down, the tall kid took the more eager of the two out, setting the spotted brat down in the grassy floor.
He hadn't seen the little girl fall into the bushes, but he heard it. The Drow's purple eyes were dragged around the place, looking around at the various, almost sneaking sounds. His hand moved to rest against the hilt of the wooden sword that dangled from his belt. It was the only weapon Thae permitted him to have right now, and he used it whenever he could...like now. It made him feel better somehow, to feel the hilt in his hand.
Still, he turned his attention back towards the unicorn and the fanged child.
"Beybee eet lyke Oak." The Drow commented idly. "Weeds." He finished, as if it explained everything.
Prince, however, now free from his section of the stroller, hat around the grass with his hard black hands...then stared at the black haired infant in front of him. His disproportionate ears rose and he tilted his head, his hand pulling at the grasses.
Out of nowhere, a fistfull of grass was thrown at the black haired infant.
What the heck was she looking at here? Christine stared with a mixture of awe and disbelief at the...weird bunch of people on the other side of her protective shrub. Those were deer...and that person had oddly colored skin. And she was getting a bit weirded out. But heh, they were throwing grass. She loved throwing grass. She shifted a bit, contemplating at least getting closer, to see what on earth they were.
Yes. She would. Frowning, she shuffled along behind the greenery, trying to keep out of sight. She wasn't quite sure why. Maybe they weren't too nice? She couldn't tell. Honestly...they WERE throwing stuff. And what if they didn't want her to see them? She'd seen too many movies to know that didn't always go well. But she was curious, and they didn't seem so bad from a distance.
Artemis was glad no one saw that brilliant display of grace as she rolled herself over onto her stomic. So maybe walking on the uneven grass wasn't a good idea for now. She began to crawl along the blades of grass twords the people sitting there.
She made a loud coo sound as she had as a baby, although as a toddler she had at least learned some minor speach. She had hoped to gain someone's attention, for she adored being payed attention to. Mind if they didn't, she had a few tricks up her sleeves that would make them look at her at least.
Oh, it was being pulled free of the container! It was, IT WAS.... not oozing. A moment of puzzlement ran through the male toddler's mind as he pondered just why the furry something would be making such hideous noises. Granted, he had been making them most of his infant-hood, but only when he was unaccompanied. Was that wh--
It was hard for one with even half a brain to scrape by a creature that thrived on them, even if it was a reborn and juvenile Gaian. Thought of his own ceased as Christine stepped within his radius of awareness, and Xerksis turned his head, searching for the female that hid in the foliage nearby. Had she spotted him? It would seem not. Taking a step away from the grown-up for his own comfort, he returned his sight to the small group. Now there was a little girl, whose curly black hair seemed awfully familiar to him, crawling towards the group. Well! He certainly wasn't going to be left out! Between the children, the stranger of a grown-up, and his sleeping guardian, he would choose the one which he believed would be best of company for him.
First, the girl, who still rolled about in the grass as if her legs didn't work. Not that he was very good at it either. Xerksis stepped free of the sunflowers, toddling on semi-stable legs. He wore no shoes, but his purple socks picked up whatever moisture was clinging to the grass. His small pants were rolled up over his knees as if in some attempt to keep them clean and, thus far, it was working, along with the Captain Planet shirt some unfortunate soul had managed to wrestle on him that morning. Now that it was there, it could stay, but lately the boy just had to be difficult about something.
Approaching Artemis, he nudged into her side with his knee as he attempted to walk alongside her crawling, grunting softly in a demand of attention. He was rather close to toppling over.
Etain watched the two deer things warily, clearly ready to snatch Leith out of reach in case on of them went suddenly rabid and tried to eat his little brother's face off or something. Slowly, the blond's attention flicked back to the dark skinned boy. "Uh, yeah. Weeds. Doesn't like 'em much," he explained sheepishly, quirking an awkward and feeble grin.
Leith let out an unholy screech as the fistful of grass hit him square in the face. It was a loud, ear-piercing yowl that died just as quickly as it had occurred, leaving the infant rather blank faced and clearly rather confused and offended that about having grass thrown at him.
At length, his chubby cheeks expanding as he held his breath in for a few seconds, Leith turned his face away from Prince, scowling at the tall stems of the flowers in the other direction. 'I'm ignoring you now,' the expression and body language stated clearly. The infant's poor mood lifted suddenly though as he caught sight of two other children toddling (or crawling) over in their direction. He raised both his hands, shaking them like fists in the direction of both Xerksis and Artemis.
Artemis shot a look at Xerk. Why was he attempting to make her fall over? Honestly... she crawled in such a way to give space between them. Looking foreword she saw the other shild wave. She smiled, sat and waved back before returning to crawling.
Maybe today would be fairly interesting after all.
TBC...?
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