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 Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:17 pm
Bad Puppet (Alek, Archie)
January 7, 2007 Alek squirmed uncomfortably. In his short time on this planet, he had only ever been held two ways: gently or not at all. At this moment, Archie was squeezing him like a sponge and it was not fun.
"AAAAABAAAAAA," he said.
Archie looked down. "Yeah, one second." He loosened his grip on the infant and suddenly veered to the right, pushing into a hole-in-the-wall deli and hurrying over to the cashier. Grey eyes guiltily scanned the ceiling for security cameras before Archie whispered, "Um. Lighter. Please."
The greasy-looking girl behind the counter slapped a green plastic lighter down in front of him and smacked her gum. "Eighty-five cents," she said.
Archie shuffled through a convenient pocket, but came out with nothing. He sighed, set Alek on the counter, and began feeling around his person for change. Finally, having gathered a quarter, five dimes, and two nickels from various compartments, he placed the coins in a pile, stuffed the lighter in his pocket, grabbed Alek, and made his way out of the store as nonchalantly as possible.
Alek was well aware that something wasn't right, but at least he was no longer being smothered. It was a small comfort, however, since his grandfather was now shaking like a leaf.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:18 pm
I... um... yeah (Alek, Dixie, Archie)
January 7, 2007 One might think that washing felt would be annoying or destructive in some way, but Archie found it quite soothing on average. His felt was a part of his skin, so it didn't mat or pill, and it was soft, like an old toy.
He stood at the kitchen sink, compulsively rubbing the palm where Mystery Coffee Woman had scribbled her phone number. The number itself was safe in his room, transferred to a scrap of paper tucked under his new lighter, which was in turn tucked under an old Entertainment Weekly, but he was certainly not going to call it. Certainly. Not. He grabbed a rough-toothed dish scrubber and rubbed harder.
Nearby, teetering precariously on the counter beside the sink sat Alek, idly chewing on a teething ring he didn't need at the moment. He was hungry, but judging by the way his grandfather was flaying skin, the baby wasn't sure he wouldn't get a beatdown before his bottle.
Scrape scrape scrape. Blood blood blood. Archie stopped scrubbing and looked down, surprised to see the little red drops rising to the surface of his skin. Well, s**t.
"What are you doing?" Dixie asked, appearing around the vicinity of his left shoulder. When had she come in? A smartassed retort rose in Archie's throat, but he managed to halt it with the fleshy base of his thumb. He sucked at his own blood and glared at the back of his daughter's head. She clucked and fussed over Alek, doing that girl thing that she despised when she realized she was doing it.
"Where'd you guys go?" she asked when she didn't receive an answer to her first question. She rubbed an orange thumb across Alek's cheek and some white bits flaked away. "Is this dried spit?"
Archie took his time answering. "I dunno," he muttered around his hand.
Dixie turned sharply, glared at her father, and before he could protest, she pulled his hand from his mouth by the wrist and began examining his blood-smeared palm. Unfortunately, Archie hadn't been focused all that hard on where most of his painful scrubbing had been occurring. Crawling across the underside of Archie's pinky knuckle was Raven's area code. He snatched his hand back, but realization was already dawning in Dixie's eyes.
"Is that... someone's phone number?"
There had been a time, many months ago, when a much younger Dixie had briefly believed in Santa Claus. Her home planet hadn't had a Christmas, among other things, and any man with enough agility and stamina to deliver toys to every kid on the planet in one night would surely make one hell of a rodeo clown. Her infatuation had started as professional curiosity, but quickly became just plain obsession. What did Santa eat? What was his shoe size? What did he do with his dead deer? The questions became so relentless and obscure that one day Archie had just snapped. There is no Santa Claus! It had been one of the few times he had ever yelled at her.
The expression on Little Dixie's face at that moment matched her current adult one to a T. Well, they had matched for a second there. Now Dixie just looked angry. Murderous even. Archie swallowed and looked away.
"So." She didn't say anything else, perhaps waiting for him to crack and spill something she wouldn't have thought to ask. He was too scared to speak. When had Dixie gotten so tall?
"Where was Alek when you were getting... written on, huh? Did you fail to notice that we almost died last month?"
"People died around you. It's hardly the same thing." Whoops. Today was already a day full of so many mistakes, and it looked like 'pissing off Dixie' was next on Archie's list. "I didn't mean it like that," he said softly. "I would never hurt Alek. And I didn't do anything wrong." That last part was louder, as if Archie had finally realized that he was the parent in this situation.
Dixie ran a hand over Alek's head before picking him up and walking, stiff-backed, toward the rear of the house. "Do what you like," she said.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:19 pm
The Reghentana Monster (Archie)
January 9, 2007 Archie's eyes flew open. It was very dark, except for the red glow of the clock. 3:18am. Exactly forty-four minutes since the last time he had looked at the stupid thing. He was sweating, and his hand throbbed in time with the beating of his heart. His abraded palm wasn't the cause; in fact, those shallow scrapes had almost healed. Instead, his discomfort stemmed from a nasty case of pins and needles dancing up his arm.
He detangled himself from the suffocating warmth of the bed and shuffled out into the hall, just in time to hear a muffled thump coming from the direction of the yard. He shuffled faster, and once he reached the window overlooking the yard, he peered out, eyes wide. Archie heard a muffled chittering and then came face-to-face with one of the most disturbing things he had seen in a while.
A pale giant, at least a foot taller than Archie himself, lumbered past, silent now except for the thuds of its feet on the ground. It had a large, dusky hunch, and as Archie watched in horror, the hunch began to move, and a thin whip of skin detached itself from the rest and sliced through the air, seemingly agitated that it was being stared at.
"Hey," Archie said. It was too low of an exclamation to wake his family, let alone alert the hunch-monster through the window, and not surprisingly, the thing loped out of the yard and down the street.
Archie hurried to the door and pulled it open just as quickly, not expecting to see the strange creature or the folded piece of paper stuck halfway under the doormat.
He groaned in dismay. Not again.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:20 pm
That Isn't What I Came Here For, But Thank You (Raven, Ryvan, Archie, Alek)
January 9, 2007 An AIM RP.Quote: The SummaryArchie calls Raven and ends up going over to her house/bar.
He accuses her of sending the anonymous letters (and picture of his former bond, Danon) to his house and of doing something to him that made him relapse and start thinking about fire again. She has no idea what he's talking about, they argue, and she kisses him, presumably to shut him the ******** up.
Alek and Ryvan play. Alek takes his first steps out of the view of any adults. The kids get put down for a nap. Alek sulks over the fact that Archie is brushing him off.
Archie and Raven do the nasty, only it's less on the nasty and more with the awkward.
Alek briefly dreams of the forest he lived in during his past life.
Archie comes to get Alek and they head for home. The next post takes place a few hours after this RP, at some time around 2am the next morning.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:21 pm
Burn, Baby, Burn (Archie, Alek, Dixie, Carrie)
January 10, 2007 Aleksandr was exhausted, hungry, and had needed a new diaper three hours ago. Still, he didn't dare cry out. Something was very wrong with Archie, and while he remained the only adult around, Alek was afraid to make a sound or even fall asleep. Night had come again, and it was the second time it had been dark since Archie had removed him from his crib all those hours ago. An unexpected bitter chill had arrived with sunset, and neither of them were really dressed for it. Quite possibly the only bright point Alek could find in his situation was that Archie seemed to be running a fever, so there was plenty of warm body to huddle against.
They had been moving for a long time, but it was only now that Alek had begun to recognize his surroundings. The street they lived on was close. Relief washed over the baby. Surely mama would be able to make everything okay again. ICRS headquarters came into view, but instead of continuing on the sidewalk like a normal person, Archie cut across a little-used portion of the yard that was covered with sod clumps and rocks. It wasn't the smartest move he could have made, to say the least. His foot caught on a jutting hook of branch and he tripped forward, taking Alek with him. It was the moldy icing on top of an already harrowing day.
Alek flew through the air, any and all forms of support gone. He didn't have time to shriek before he had landed hard on the ground, stunned. Nothing particularly hurt, except for his tail, it was just the shock of having the wind knocked out of him that caused him to suck in a lungful of air and start wailing.
Archie rose to his knees and crawled closer to the bawling infant. "No no no no no no no, stop it," he pleaded, trailing his fingers over Alek's head and hovering around him like he was afraid to give him comfort. Archie's eyes blazed with something that wasn't quite sane and Alek pulled in more air and let it out in another ragged cry. Archie winced.
"Shut. Up." The lighter appeared in Archie's hand, fished from a pocket somewhere, and he tried to make it ignite, despite the fact that he was fairly certain it was broken.
Click. Nothing.
Click.
Click... fwoosh.
The tiny flame illuminated Archie's face from below and his mouth twisted into a smirk. "Shut up," he taunted, fully aware that Alek was hysterical at this point. "Shut up shut up shut up."
Alek gasped in a freezing breath and screamed, pummeling his fists on the ground. He couldn't calm down enough to hum a song, and really, what song could help in a situation like this? Archie grabbed one of Alek's flailing arms and turned him toward the speck of fire.
"Archie!" Two heads, dark and light, turned at the sound of Dixie's voice, one angry and one frantic with relief. "What the hell are you doing?"
Archie didn't waste time with an answer. He turned in the opposite direction and squinted his eyes at Carrie, nearly impossible to see on the other side of the fence, her dark robe clasped around her. He assumed she was staring back, but all he could see of her eyes at this distance were two sooty smudges on her pale face.
"What the hell do you think you're staring at?" he yelled over Alek's hysterical cries. "This is none of your business!" He dropped Alek's arm and stalked toward the fence. The lighter was still ablaze, but even in the chilly air, the switch was getting too hot to hold. Archie got within five paces of Carrie and spat, "You," the lighter went dark, "should just go inside and let the grownups talk. Just put on some ******** John Mayer or something and put yourself out of your misery. Where's your family?" Her eyes were wide and glistening with unshed tears, but Carrie kept staring up at Archie, unblinking. "That's right. They don't want you and neither do we." He was Danon. He felt filthy and he was so tired. The hot metal of the lighter passed over his thumb and he cursed sharply. He felt Raven's hands on him, bruising, scratching each painful welt into his back. "Shut up!" he screamed over his shoulder at Alek.
Dixie rose from where she crouched near Alek in the grass. She crossed the yard and grabbed Archie's arm, turning him to face her. An expression of surprise flashed across her face for the briefest moment as she felt how warm he was through the fabric of his shirt, but it didn't last long enough to matter. There would be plenty of time to find out what was wrong with him later. "If you don't calm the hell down and get inside the house, I will set you on fire myself."
Had she truly thought about it, Dixie might have come to the conclusion that her phrasing wasn't the best. Too late now. Archie pulled his arm out of Dixie's grip and slapped her, hard. She sucked in a surprised breath, planted her hands on either side of her father's head, and flung herself forward, smacking the hard plate of her forehead into his temple. They both staggered, but it was Dixie who remained standing in the end. The world spun, but eventually she was brought out of her daze by Alek's quiet cries. Archie lay still, a weak trickle of blood winding out from beneath his hair.
"That used to be easier," Dixie muttered. "Sorry about all of this." Even though she was presumably speaking to Carrie, Dixie's eyes never left her father.
"I've got some Ambien if you'd like," Carrie offered. "Y... you could make him drink some. It might keep him asleep longer until you can figure out what to do with him." She, too, didn't stop staring. "It's a new prescription, so there's plenty."
"Thank you," Dixie said. Alek was nearly silent now, his fading hiccups the only sound in the area. It was times like these that Dixie was grateful they only had one truly nosy neighbor. "I'll be back for the pills. And him, I guess." She nodded at Carrie and slowly went to Alek's side again, picking up the whimpering infant and rocking him gently. He was asleep before they entered the house, tears staining his face and a thumb stuck firmly in his mouth.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:23 pm
Ouch (Archie)
January 10, 2007 The first thing Archie saw was light, so blinding that his eyes began to tear even though they were still closed. He hurt everywhere, but the pain was strongest over the areas that had changed when he had been deemed fully reformed. It was fitting that his rewards hurt, considering how far he'd fallen. Had he really ever even been rehabilitated, or had this all just been a huge cosmic game played by the Interplanetary Council? Not likely. Archie knew they didn't have power like this. Punishments were doled out by the magic of this planet. The Council's grand plan could have never anticipated this. Gaia had spoken and Archie was no longer worthy.
He turned his head with great effort and cracked open an eye. The previous evening's activities and mistakes came flooding back and Archie closed his eyes against the spike of shame that pinched his chest. He alternately wondered if he was insane or if anyone might be home, and thoughts of Dixie and Alek led him to more thoughts of how many apologies it would take before they would speak to him again.
A short while later, Archie tried a second time, raising his whole head off of his pillow and gasping as pain lanced from his forehead to the base of his skull. The room seesawed around him, and he suddenly felt extremely nauseous, even though he hadn't eaten anything at all substantial in at least a day and a half. He got to shaky feet and hurried to the bathroom, failing to make it all the way to the toilet before a gush of thick, blue paste flooded from his mouth. His head hurt more if that was possible, and just as Archie became convinced he was going to either suffocate or simply drop dead, the goo trickled to an end and he flopped backward onto the floor, knees around the toilet, drawing in great, shuddering breaths.
Archie didn't know how long he lay there shaking and swallowing convulsively, but he eventually felt well enough to sit up and reach for the toilet handle, anxious to flush away this strange illness. The hand that reached out wasn't Archie's, however, at least it hadn't been his for more than two years. It was smooth and brown and... human. Archie reached up and touched his face, wincing at the scrape of stubble against the tender, new skin of his fingertips. The felt on his face was gone too, presumably... vomited into the toilet. He felt sick again, and weak, but there was nothing left to get rid of. Except...
He twisted his body desperately, ignoring the screaming pain in his back and joints, and waved his tail from side to side. It hurt incredibly, but at least it wasn't gone. Archie turned back around, examining his palms for a long while before turning them over to stare at the backs of his hands. He felt so nak... wait a minute. Several tiny dots of blood crept around his cuticles, and as he watched, they grew and adhered to each other until they were finally large enough to drip down his fingers and onto the dingy tile floor. He felt thick, warm wetness around his nose and mouth as well, and could only watch as a spreading red stain ruined the front of his t-shirt. Where the vomit and blood mixed the shirt turned a cheery purple, the color of grape Fruit Roll Up. Archie tried to laugh, but it came out as a gurgling sob.
The pain began anew, much stronger this time, and he curled in on himself and whimpered feebly. His tail twitched without him telling it to, and the only remaining part of Archie's brain that wasn't consumed with hurt wondered if he might have been allowed to keep the last feature that denoted his recovery if he hadn't so stupidly drawn attention to it.
Archie's tail continued to writhe, jerking and tearing at the muscle and bone at the base of his spine. He felt his flesh ripping away, and didn't bother trying to hold back a scream. Later, when he awoke to Dixie's panicked sobbing, Archie could only be grateful that he had managed to pass out before the real pain had begun.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:46 pm
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (Dixie, Alek, Strange Old Man)
January 16, 2007 The past week or so had not been a fun one in or around the Saturn household. Although much improved over the spewing, pained mess he had been, Archie was still quite sick and weak. It also seemed that no matter what he did, he couldn't win back Alek's trust. The baby was terrified of his grandfather, and because of this - and the fact that Archie was too ashamed to come out of his room when they were home - Alek and Dixie had been spending most of their time out of the house.
Today, the two were wandering a section of Barton they had never explored before, looking for entertainment in any form. Most of the buildings in this part of town were either liquor stores or cigar shops, nestled between the frequent Starbucks or a rare corner deli. Dixie hadn't seen an actual grocery store yet. How did these people survive?
Like so many things, Alek saw the strange shop first. He held out a spit-covered fist and after it had been hanging in the cold for an appropriate amount of time, a short finger flicked out towards the shop. Dixie nodded.
When she pushed the door open and saw the rows of shiny guitars and drums lining the walls, Dixie knew this had been a mistake. She was just about to turn and go when Alek smiled. Smiles from anyone were a rare sight these days, so even though she didn't have nearly enough money to buy him anything, Dixie continued inside. No one rushed to help them, so Dixie carried Alek over to one of the racks and set him down in front of it.
Alek was enthralled, to say the least. He carefully stuck out a hand to prod at the little zils that lined the shelf in front of him. His finger coaxed a tinny rattle from them and he laughed.
"Hello, young man." Dixie turned her head sharply and squinted her eyes at the sight of the man addressing Alek. He was a bit shorter than she was, with thick, black hair and what looked like equally thick, black skin. His eyes seemed to lack whites of any kind, so much so that all Dixie could see was a shiny, deep purple smoothness looking back at her. Like a grape. It was fitting.
"Say hello, Alek." Might as well be friendly.
The baby raised a hand at the strange man before turning his attention back to the tiny cymbals.
"Do you like those?" The man moved silently and quickly, lifting a pair of zils off of the shelf nearest Alek and slipping them on his long fingers, nearly before Dixie could register the movement. "Like this," the man prompted, tapping his fingers together.
It took Alek several minutes to pick up one of the cymbals and wrap it around two of his fingers. He lowered it to the matching cymbal and tapped.
"Ting!" he mimicked. He held up his zil and bounced, waiting for the strange man to react, but instead he just shook his head.
"I shall not accompany you and potentially taint the beautiful music you will create." The old man carefully removed the cymbal from Alek's fingers and took its mate from the shelf in front of the baby. It was only when he began moving toward the counter, with his shuffling, wooden gait, that Dixie realized what he intended.
"Oh no, sir. I don't have enough money to buy anything in here, and I won't just take them from you, no matter what kind of music you're under the impression he's going to make."
The man rummaged around behind the counter and when he stood straight again, he held a small, rectangular box that he slipped into a cloth bag with the zils. "I am not giving them to you," he said with a smile. "I am giving them to Aleksandr." He held the bag out to the child and Alek grabbed it, answering the man's smile with a wide grin of his own. "I wish you all the best," the man said, before turning and heading through a dark curtain at the back of the shop.
It was only when Dixie was out the door and wandering down the street again, that she realized she had never told the strange man Alek's full name.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:47 pm
Replacements (Dixie, Alek)
January 16, 2007 Alek yawned and resettled his head on Dixie's shoulder. His life was becoming one big game of drag-the-baby-around, but at least this time he wasn't being thrown to the ground or threatened. In fact, right now he was in a toy store, and Alek knew they were here for him.
"Look Alek, this one's cool," Dixie said, reaching out to poke at some sort of fuzzy doll with a guitar. Alek shook his head and his strange new little scalp nub rubbed against Dixie's collar.
"How about..." Dixie hadn't even made it through her sentence before Alek was shaking his head again.
"This?" Alek kept shaking. "Come on! It lights up and dances around!"
"No!" Alek exclaimed sharply.
Dixie felt she should probably have been shocked that Alek's first word - as far as she knew - was contained in such a negative outburst, but considering how the last couple of weeks had been going, she wasn't terribly surprised.
"Alek..." she bobbed the baby on her hip until he raised his head and looked at her, "...you can't play with those real instruments yet, okay? You're just a baby." A baby that could uncannily understand most of what she said, but a baby nonetheless.
When Dixie pointed at the next toy, Alek nodded and smiled tiredly. He might have been humoring her, but surely he would come to see that she was right.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:00 pm
You Da Man... Who Fathered My Baby (Raven, Archie)
January 17, 2007 Pink… what did pink mean? She looked down at the cardboard packaging in her hands, pink meant… positive.
She was going to kill that ******** man, not only had he not called, but now he got her knocked up. Great, just ******** great. She stormed to the phone and made a few calls arranging for Malen and Kishi to watch Ryvan so that she could go kick some ******** a**.
It took all of two seconds for her to find Archie's number and maybe a half an hour to get over there. Once she made it to the door she didn't even pause before bringing her fist down on the door.
"Open up you ******** fraggle, and let me the ******** in!" Saying she was pissed might just be an understatement.
It might have been the middle of the day, but Archie was sleeping. It seemed there was nothing better to do. Dixie and Alek were out somewhere, as was becoming usual lately, and it seemed that any new arrivals were being pushed back by the Interplanetary Council. Archie didn't have to wonder why.
When Raven pounded on the door, Archie sat up straight from his prone position. He wasn't fully awake yet, but obviously the person on the other side of the door wanted him to be. He shuffled out of his room and down the hall. He recognized the voice, and if he hadn't already been on edge as a result of the past week's trauma, he would have gotten there fast. Still, there was nothing else to do but let Raven in.
"I'm not a fraggle," he said as he pulled open the door and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Wow, she did not look happy.
That she didn't look happy had to be the understatement of the year, she was about ready to rend him limb from - wait. "What the ******** happened to you? Never mind what happened to you, its what you did to me that I'm here about." She pushed on his chest hoping to make him go inside, she wanted to sit and that was not going to happen outside.
Archie stayed silent, but took her direction and backed into the house. At least he was too tired to feel embarrassment at the moment. He closed the door behind them and motioned to any of the sofas or kitchen stools sprinkled around the room. "I... uh... what did I do?" He kind of knew what he had done, but it seemed she did that all the time so it should be no big deal, right? Unless... Archie swallowed and a chill spread down his spine as he flopped onto a chair with a wince. Nothing like some bad news to make one forget they still had a partially-healed wound on their back.
Raven looked at him and moved to sit next to him. Suddenly she wasn't as angry at him, more at herself, he likely hadn't even considered what the consequences of the other night could be. She sighed and seemed to deflate a moment. "I'm pregnant."
Quote: There is quite a bit more to this RP, but I have a feeling you don't want to read it. Tally ho!
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 8:43 am
Grow Up (Dixie, Archie)
January 18, 2007 With all that had been going on lately, one might have thought that white noise would have been soothing and therapeutic. It was, in a way, but standing in the misty cascade of the shower also gave Archie plenty of time to think, an action that wasn't soothing at all.
He sighed as the warm water pelted against his hair and back, ignoring his aches and pains and half-healed wounds for the time being. It was heavenly to be getting clean again, no matter what the circumstances. He had felt sorry for himself for too long. Raven was going to have his child, and there was nothing that could be done about that now. He was going to have a daughter. A real one.
The thought sent the same shock of panic to his stomach as it had when he had first learned of the baby. Archie sighed again, but this time it wasn't a result of any sort of contentment. He turned the water off and stepped out of the shower and into the embrace of a warm, white towel, a gift from a hopeful couple who had thought bribery would get them a higher position on the adoption list. It might have a year ago, but the truth of the matter was, the kids had simply stopped landing.
Despite the towels, there were fewer gifts now too, and the strange - but always pawnable - alien payment the council had let drop from the sky once a month had dried up as well. He and Dixie had savings, namely the New Parents closet, but the random and unreliable amount of money they made from selling baby things wouldn't last forever.
Archie slung the towel around his neck, wrapped himself in an equally new pink bathrobe, and walked out of the bathroom, right into a poker-faced Dixie.
"Hey," Archie said, trying to subtly inch around his daughter without touching her. "Good morning?"
"I'm only going to say this once, so just smile and nod, okay?"
"O...kay." Archie's hands fisted in his towel as he tried and failed to look casual.
"There is a baby in this house. A baby that sleeps in a room that shares a wall with yours. Thankfully, he was sleeping at the time..." Dixie made an exasperated noise and sighed. "That's hardly the point." She stepped closer to her father. "Don't ******** skanks in this house. Understand?" A palm slapped to either side of Archie's head, forcibly nodding it as he flailed. Archie batted at Dixie's hands, finally managing to pull away after a brief struggle.
"Get... off!" he yelled, a flush settling on his cheeks. "Raven's having my baby and I can do whatever the hell I want!" His hands fisted again and his eyes narrowed in a schoolyard challenge.
Dixie looked genuinely shocked for the briefest of moments. She seemed to catch herself, and her face fell back into its normal cynically bemused expression. "You are an idiot."
"She..."
"How do you know she's pregnant? What... did she tell you? Did she say it was yours? How adorable." Dixie turned and began walking away, sparing Archie a disparaging look. "Well, if she wasn't really knocked up, she certainly is now." Her voice was steady, but her hands were shaking. Archie didn't notice.
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 9:56 am
Happy Birthday to Dixie (Dixie, Archie)
February 5, 2007 Dixie's birthday. Archie apologizes, Dixie apologizes, the Saturn family is happy for now.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:18 pm
That Was My Water, But Now It's Broken (Archie, Raven, Ryvan, Bellatrix)
March 11, 2007 "Do you want anything?" Archie asked for what had to have been the millionth time in the past two weeks. His fingers curled around his cup and he gave Raven his Serious Face. She shouldn't be doing anything strenuous, and he was going to see to it that she didn't, even if it meant staying over here until she had the baby. "I was getting up anyway," he lied, leaning forward in his seat as if he was about to stand.
Raven laughed. "I'm fine Archie." Truthfully she was amused by the whole situation, she was fine, a bit sick but not horrible. She stood up before he could stop her, bracing herself on the arm of her chair. "I do have to pee though, what were you going to get, I'll grab it while I'm up." She knew damn well he wasn't going to get anything but now she got to watch him try to figure something out, last time it had been a banana.
Archie looked appropriately embarrassed before abruptly holding out his cup. "Just... this. Sink," he said softly. "Please?" He smiled up at her before saying, "I wasn't really going to get anything. But I can't pee for you, so..." He motioned toward the bathroom and sat back, still smiling.
"Freak." She was smiling though, she took the glass from his hand and made her way towards the bathroom still laughing. She made it about four feet before pain blossomed thoughout her abdomen. She dropped down to one knee unable to even vocalize what she felt.
"If you say so," Archie agreed. He turned to follow her with his eyes, so it wasn't long after she reacted to her pain before he was beside her, hovering, afraid to touch her in case it made things worse. "Raven?" It couldn't be the baby... could it? He swallowed nervously. He really wasn't ready for the baby.
"Ohhh, god, its... time." Another wave of pain and suddenly she was sitting in a puddle of warm wetness, her water had broken.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:19 pm
A Gift
April 1, 2007 Time was running out. The man ran and jumped and flung his whip in a stinging arc at the slobbering, bloody animal in front of him. The beast roared, but the man didn't flinch. It was almost as if he wasn't really human. His body rose and fell with each breath, his stance rigid as he surveyed his options.
The choice was made for him.
Without warning, the monster lunged forward, and with a slice of its clawed forepaw, the man was suddenly separated from his intestines.
Archie sighed and sat back in his recliner, dropping the PS2 controller into his lap and wiping his hands on his jeans. The stupid game had eaten up most of yet another afternoon, but at least he hadn't spent it in a haze of paranoia over being stalked or a constant state of worry about Raven or his new daughter, Bellatrix.
There was someone else in the house Archie probably should have been worrying about, but since there had been no breaking glass or insistent crying all afternoon, he had tried to put Alek out of mind. The child still couldn't be in the same room as he was and not glare, so Archie kept his distance, even when he was the only adult in the house and Alek could barely walk, let alone take care of himself.
Archie reluctantly stood and ventured out into the hall. A faint, mechanical clanking sounded from the direction of Alek's room and Archie rolled his eyes. Those piece of crap plastic kiddie instruments were useless and Dixie knew it. Maybe... Archie turned and headed for his daughter's room.
He was certain bribery wouldn't repair Alek's broken trust, but maybe it would be the first step towards forgiveness. Dixie would be mad, Archie was sure of it, but better she than Alek. Dixie had already proven she was a soft touch when it came to her father, as much as she wanted him to believe otherwise.
Dixie's door creaked angrily at the slightest push, so Archie slipped inside when it was halfway open rather than endure more of the horrible noise. He dragged the bench at the end of her bed over to the closet and as he climbed on top of it, he was reminded just how much he missed his tail. Stupid balance.
He pulled down the brown paper package Dixie had shown him, the one with Alek's real instruments in it, and cradled it gently in his arms before climbing back down to the safety of the floor. The wrapping tore easily, and a few minutes later Archie was stepping into Alek's room, the zils clinking in one hand and the mysterious box in the other. Alek's back was to the door, but when his grandfather entered, the little boy stopped playing with his toy. He didn't turn around.
"Your mother doesn't want you to have these yet," he explained, "but I know you'll be careful." Archie set the instruments on the carpet by the door and turned back toward the kitchen. "I'm making snacks if you want any."
It took quite a while - Archie had already finished a sandwich for himself and opened a jar of mushy pears for Alek - before the tiny twitter of miniature cymbals rang through the house. A few minutes later, Archie heard measured, shuffling footsteps coming up behind him and felt a tug on the leg of his pants. He looked down.
Alek was... bigger. Instead of his pajamas, which he must have stripped off and left somewhere, he had wrapped a bright green towel around his body and was holding it in place with the hand that also clasped his tiny pair of cymbals. His hair was messy, but Archie could swear he could make out a little stubby horn peeking out from between the strands as Alek looked up. A horn. Huh. That must have been why the kid's head had been so itchy these past couple of weeks.
"What happened to you?" Archie asked. He laughed once, a short, muffled exhalation of air, as Alek shrugged and raised his arm, opening and closing his fist in the universal sign for 'pick me up.' Archie obliged, brushing back a strand of Alek's hair as the little boy yawned.
Alek's face wrinkled up as he tried to make his mouth move in the way it ought to. "Don't like, still," he said, punching Archie's chest lightly and frowning. "But tankoo." He raised his hand and tapped the zils together merrily.
Archie smiled.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:31 pm
A Fountain (Savius, Jer'ain, Taylor, Archie, Alek)
April 5, 2007 It had started as a walk. Actually, it had started with a moping, out of paint sister, a lazy dog and a restless toddler. That had led to the walk. But the walk was little more than a toddle, because well, that's what Taylor was. A toddler. He toddled. That's what toddlers do.
But it was a hot day, too hot for walking, even toddling, and the valient party of explorers soon grew discouraged by the heat. Jer'ain, who insisted (lately) that she would not go outside unless nearly ever inch of her skin was covered, was panting. Blame the dark pants, the long sleeve shirt, the gloves, and a beanie pulled low over her eyes. Taylor had decided he was done walking, and sat down firmly in the middle of the open square around which a variety of shops were situated. And Fen... well Fen was a good (if ugly and huge) dog. He watched Savius patiently, waiting for further instructions.
Well... fine then. Time to cool off a bit.
Leaning down, the Kestrel winged boy scooped Taylor into his arm and tossed the boy into his arms.
"Well, lets take a break. You wanna get us some icecream, 'rain?" He asked, giving his sister a gentle push toward the stand. "We'll wait here."
Here, was the fountain in the middle of the square. Which he promptly jumped into, plopping Taylor down into the cool water.
"Sing!"
Archie looked over his shoulder at his rhythmically stomping grandson. Alek had flat-out refused to walk in front since the moment they had left the house, in fact, it had taken quite a bit of maneuvering to even get the front door locked. On top of that, the kid wanted Archie to sing. That just wasn't going to happen, especially not in what looked like an outdoor mall of some sort.
"Dun look! Sing!"
The piping, happy first notes of "Brave Sir Robin" wavered out of Alek's piccolo and Archie smiled. They really shouldn't let the kid watch so much TV.
Suddenly the music stopped. "Puppy?"
Off in the distance there was a huge, man-eating dog, but Archie didn't see any puppy. Alek hurried past, his new, longer legs giving him a strange, bobbing gait, but he didn't get far. Archie scooped him up and balanced the boy on his hip, receiving a couple of short jabs to the chest for his trouble. He made his way over to the winged kid and his little companion and gestured at Alek as he spoke.
"He wanted to see your dog," he explained, feeling more foolish than he probably looked.
The fountain was a marble affair, the sort with swans spitting streams skyward, and Savius was letting his hair and wings get fully soaked. Taylor, sitting among hundreds of penny wishes, was picking up sparklies, and giggling happy at each dime and quarter found. They both turned toward Archie and Alek. Savius nodded and waved a greeting, while Taylor only looked.
And Fen... well, a bit about Fen. His lineage was clear enough to anyone who knew dogs. Some idiot had crossed a rottweiler, a boxer, and, well, a wolf. He was huge, he was ugly, and his gray and black coat was a bit shaggy. Sitting still as a statue and unleashed, he looked at the approaching toddler, but otherwise, didn't move.
"Oh, he likes Fen?" Savius asked, moving out of the water to sit, now soaking wet, on the lip of the fountain, close to dog and child. "Fen, safe. Pack child."
Fen was also a very smart dog. At the brief list of commands, he collapsed like a past king's monument, rolling over to expose his belly to Alek, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
All the excitement drew Taylor to the edge, though he stayed within the fountains cooling spray. His hands gripping onto Savius's wet black shirt, he looked at the other boy with a curious frown. "I Taylor. My Fen. Who you?" For a toddler, his speech was very clear, though the grammar clearly needed work.
Savius, meanwhile, managed a slow, lazy sort of grin for Archie, "Cute brat you got there."
Alek's eyes grew wider as they approached and he realized that the dog was not, in fact, a puppy at all. Archie set him back on the ground and the toddler hung back for a moment before steeling what resolve he had and scooting forward toward the dog's exposed stomach. He pat at Fen tentatively, and when he didn't end up losing a hand, Alek smiled and pet the dog more enthusiastically.
"Yeah, you too," Archie said, looking over at Taylor and the child's overall state of... dampness. Dixie was going to kill him. "His name's Alek," he supplied, earning a black look from the little boy. "And I'm Archie."
Alek pulled his hand away from Fen and addressed Taylor, choosing to ignore the adults for now. "Alek," he repeated. "Your Fen is big." It might have seemed like a strange compliment, but any dog you could ride was definitely awesome as far as Alek was concerned. He slid his piccolo into the pocket of his overlarge pants and smiled slightly. "Whatcha doin?"
Happy little puppy sounds came from Fen as attention was rewarded, and he leaned his huge, boxy head toward Alex, tongue sneaking out to lick the toddler's legs. They could be friends see? Nevermind that a single chomp would mean the boy losing a foot, Fen was a good doggie. When he was told to be.
"I'm Savius, and the short one's Taylor." The teen asked, reaching out to roughly ruffle the young boy's white and black hair. "The stick-zombie's my little bro, aren't you dude?"
No response there, except the toddler's tail slapping wettly against his arm.
The gryphlet was focused on Alek and Fen, reaching out to tug on the dog's large curling tail. He earned a indulgent look, and a low bark, which took him a moment. Dog wasn't his best language.
My packmate. Unlike his big brother, who spoke to Fen in human, Taylor spoke in yips and whines.
"Fen is big." He parroted with a nod, reaching out to take a new handful of the dog's fur. "I being wet."
"You come being wet too?"
A short, happy laugh burst from Alek's throat as he felt Fen's tongue on his leg. "Leg's Fen-wet," he said cryptically. With one final pat of the dog's stomach, Alek made his way over to the side of the fountain next to Taylor and leaned over the edge as best as he could. Too short. Well, not exactly, but getting in would be a lot easier if he had some help.
"Gran'chie, up!" Alek commanded. He continued to look at Taylor while he waited, and his small smile widened as Archie lifted him and placed him into the fountain next to the gryphon boy.
Archie sighed. "Alek's my... grandson, technically. But, I guess it's like that on Gaia."
"I more wetter now," Alek said, looking around curiously. What did people do in this much water without soap?
"Ahh, it's one of those sort of stories is it?" Savius asked, grinning at the man as he helped his granchild into the fountain. It made sense, he didn't look old enough to be 'gramps'. "So, where'd he come from? Taylor's a reborn gryphon who came out of a gold stick."
A shrug, dismissing the whole crazy mess of the child's emergence. "Dad wasn't happy about that one."
Taylor was pleased to have the company, not yet at an age where he might suffer from social anxiety, if such an age ever came. "Us wet. Wet not so hot. Sun mean." He slapped his palms down on the water, splashing himself, and sending water toward Alek. A giggle.
It was then that Jer'ain made her way back, five icecream cones of various flavors in a tray. Always observant, when matters of her family came up. She wasn't smiling, her expression displeased at best.
"V, who are these people?" No nod to Archie, no smile. "I brought them icecream."
"Alek came from a stick too," Archie said, a bit of surprise creeping into his voice. Dixie had mentioned meeting other guardians of these weird wand kids, but were they so common that they could just meet on the street like this? Archie shrugged mentally. "His was just a piece of wood with some little tiny grapes on the end. He's some sort of goat... thing. Satyr! That's it. Weird." Archie kept quiet about Dixie's feelings on the matter. His daughter had been infinitely more put out by her surprise sister than her surprise son.
Alek giggled too, but his laughter quickly turned loud again as Taylor's splash finished the job simply standing in the fountain had started. Well, yeah, there was always splashing. He got in trouble for it at home, but no one had scolded Taylor yet. Alek bounced in place, then pushed his arms forward, hard, trying to aim a wave of water at the other boy.
Archie watched Jer'ain approach, looking on with interest as she brushed him off and addressed Savius. "Thanks," he said. "I'm Archie, and the kid in the fountain is Alek." He hoped he wasn't being too forward introducing himself. She had felt the need to buy them ice cream after all.
"Awesome. They can be zombie twins." As Savius spoke, he stepped out of the fountain. Sister's arrival meant it was time to dry back off, and more importantly, eat sweets. Not just any sweets though, stawberry icecream. Because Jer'ain was awesome that way.
"Archie, this is my sister sort, Jer'ain." He took the cone he knew was marked as his, and started in on it as he spoke, licking along the edges. "She hates you, but don't worry, that's kinda her thing."
"V." Jer'ain didn't so much object as simply state the name, her tone containing something that might have been irritation, but mostly sounded like impatient affection.
"No worries 'rain. He's got a stick baby too." Unlike his sister, Savius was utterly at ease. It came from knowing he was utterly superior from all the mortals that surrounded him. "Take some icecream. We've got--"
A glance to Jer'ain then, indicating that she should fill in the details.
"Chocolate, vanilla, umm... blue, and cookie dough."
"Right."
Distracted by Alek, Taylor had yet to notice that the sister sort had returned with treats. Startled by the splash, he laughed loudly. Putting his hands under the water, he attempted to splash it up at the other toddler, but found this somehow less effective. His tail, with a mind of its own as always, reached out of the water to slap against the other boy's shoulder.
Zombie. It was common knowledge at home that Alek had lived another life before, that he was reincarnated so to speak, but calling him a zombie? Yeah, it was actually pretty cool. Archie nodded in agreement, but stopped when Savius clued him in to Jer'ain's unsubstantiated hatred. He hadn't failed to hear the part about her hate being universal, but surely she still had a reason to dislike him specifically. Silently pondering his probably many negative qualities, Archie said, "Blue, I guess. Thanks." He sat on the edge of the fountain and turned in to address the children.
"Ice cream?" he asked Alek, the tail end of Taylor's splash misting Archie's t-shirt with a thin spritz of fountain water.
Alek turned, but quickly swiveled back as Taylor's tail thwapped him on the shoulder. Hey! "I got one too!" he giggled, his fingers already hooking into the waistband of his pants and inching them down in back.
"Alek!" Archie said, laughter in his voice. "I'm sure Taylor believes you."
Savius followed Archie's lead, sitting on the edge of the fountain, his wings open to dry, and the majority of his attention focused on the icecream in his hands.
Jer'ain, for her part, continued to stand, still having two more cones to deliver before she could take her own. So she watched the kids, waiting. The little one wasn't a problem, not really. She didn't mind bratlings of Taylor's height or shorter. But after that, they grew up, and changed. She wasn't sure where the switch came, or why. But people became cruel as they aged.
Curiousity about the tail he couldn't see warred with the sudden awareness of icecream nearby, but icecream ultimately won out. Even in the water, it was still hot, where icecream was cold and sweet. Reaching out to grab Alek by the arm, Taylor headed to the very edge of the fountain.
"Eat now." He explained, pointing at his sister.
"Sis. Want white." He demanded, with typical toddler entitlement, reaching up toward her in illustration.
Archie licked at his icecream tentatively and when it didn't taste like dishwashing liquid, he dove in with more enthusiasm. "So, you're all brothers and sisters?" he asked.
Alek shot his grandfather a dirty look before turning a smile and nod toward Taylor, following his arm and the other boy to the edge of the fountain. He watched Taylor pick his icecream, then looked back and forth the short distance between the remaining cones.
"Chunks," he said finally, leaning over the edge of the fountain. Unsure if that was enough of a description, he added, "Not choc'late."
"Mmm... yeah. In every way that counts, anyway." Lazy affection laced Savius's words, and he managed something like a smile, a lopsided grin toward Jer'ain, who was handing icecream cones to the toddlers. There was a hint of a smile on her face as well, though it faded as soon as the little one got their treats. For her part, Jer'ain took the chocolate icecream without complaint, and took a seat next to her brother on the rim of the fountain.
Taylor was content for the moment, enough so that he released Alek's arm to better hold his icecream cone. He ate messily, attempting to take bites instead of licking and jerking his head back roughly when the cold froze his teeth.
"Good." He told his new friend, in case the other boy wasn't aware of the tasty nature of icecream.
Alek nodded, catching his melted falling scoop with a finger and pushing it back toward his cone. "S'good," he agreed. "Granchie, chunks."
Archie nodded too, in response to Alek's observation as well as Savius's comment about family. "I had some siblings but they were way older than me. Must be nice." Being what essentially amounted to an only child had been nice too, but Archie wasn't really thinking, just making conversation.
"What's that?" the satyr asked the gryphon boy. He didn't see why white with chunks would be that different from plain white. Maybe Taylor knew something he didn't.
"Icecream" Taylor replied, proving that his vocabulary could occasionally branch into larger words. It wasn't the nouns and verbs he had problems with. Just everything else. Of course, it probably wasn't the answer the other boy was seeking, but in addition to other difficulties with language, Taylor tended toward the literal.
In perhaps a better response, he pushed the icecream toward Alek, so enthusiastically that he risked getting some on the other boys face. "Eat."
Savius nodded in response to Archie's words, "It is nice. I have good taste."
He felt no hesitation in seeing the family as an accomplishment. Hadn't he picked them out? Hadn't he seen Lithle, with her dead eyes and stony hatred, and rejoiced in the anger he could bring to the surface there?
And later... other emotions, lighter ones that he had not quite so much expected. It could be uncomfortable sometimes.
"Still a family can be... confining. I like my freedom." A firm nod, as if agreeing with himself. "I'd never have a brat of my own."
How did taste have anything to do with it? Sure, Archie supposed he had chosen Dixie out of everyone else who had landed, but she had been so cute! Now she was old and opinionated, but for a while there she had just been his fuzzy, yellow Dixie. He nodded in lieu of an answer, convinced Savius would say more if it was really important.
"I don't know, I kind of like kids," Archie said, looking at the two boys in the fountain. "Even when they don't like me."
Alek was smiling a wide-mouthed toddler grin when the icecream came flying toward his face, so he just leaned forward and picked off a bit of the stuff with his lips.
"White," he confirmed once he had swallowed. "Chunks." He nodded, held his cone straight out in front of himself and shrugged, in case Taylor wanted to reclaim his lost bite. "Same and chunks."
And then they lived happily ever after.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:30 pm
An Arcade (Malum, Levis, Dixie, Alek)
April 5, 2007
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