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"BATMAN!"

"Indoor voice, kiddo," Prox shushed Merlyn.

The kitten squirmed in the shopping cart seat and pointed at the package of underpants again. "Batman undies, Daddy!"

"What do you say when you're asking for something?" Prox smiled.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease?" Merlyn stretched out, trying to get at the package himself.

Prox took the package off the hook and handed it to his younger son. "Here you go, kiddo. Let's go buy these, and then they'll be all yours, because you did such a good job learning how to use the potty."

"Batman undies, Batman undies, Batman undies," Merlyn said gleefully, and kicked the shopping cart until told to stop.

Guild RP

It was something Luna would have to look into making a habit after work. Home was noisy. Outside was noisy. But the clinic? Now that was nice and quiet.

It was a little more uncomfortable sitting upside-down in the clinic's chairs now that she was nearly grown, but that didn't deter her. Who cared if she was covered in dirt? She knew where the mop was. She could clean up after herself.

Her dirty work gloves and canvas apron occupied the seat next to her, and she'd removed her muddy boots when she entered the clinic. Her socked feet probably smelled a hell of a lot worse than the boots, but at least she wasn't tracking mud.

And as she relaxed, eyes closed, her hands folded over her chest, she projected one thing: the feeling of complete relaxation that could be taken as an "Mmmmmmm~"

A grey blur burst into the waiting room. Merlyn darted across the room to the receptionist's desk, delighting in his newly gained height and balance, and tried to haul himself up to the counter to look over it. "I'm HERE," he said to the receptionist. The young man behind the counter, who could see only a pair of small furred hands, said kindly, "I can see that."

Prolixity followed his son into the clinic more sedately, heading for the counter to check in. He nodded to Luna on his way in. A tall, blue-skinned male followed him, eyes darting everywhere.

Merlyn ceased his attempts on the fortress of solitude that was the desk, and spun around to see what else interesting might be in the room. "Luna!" he said delightedly. He grabbed the blue person's webbed hand and dragged him over. "Luna, look, I brought Lapis!"

Luna's eyes slowly fluttered open, and she found herself staring at the upside-down image of Merlyn.

Mmm?

Pause.

Oh!

She didn't yet right herself, but she still smiled warmly at Merlyn. Lapis?

Merlyn grinned back, ears perked happily. He radiated cheerful pleasure at having found his older friend here. "Lapis is a comet serpent, except he went to Khia's and went in the lab, so now he has legs and feet, and he keeps tripping over them, and he doesn't like it yet but he's got hands so he likes it a little bit," he explained, rather garbledly. He was like this, he clarified mentally.

Lapis fidgeted uncomfortably. He certainly didn't look a great deal like Merlyn's mental projection at the moment, save for the blue skin, the flexible spines drooping from his back, and the thick black mane of hair. However, he was very readably possessive and protective of his charge, and even this new weirdness wasn't going to keep him from following and looking after the boy.

Luna glanced from Merlyn to Lapis and back, a slow smile spreading across her face. She understood THOSE projections. He sounded a lot like someone ELSE she knew.

Didn't he, Jo~? wink

If Jokeph could speak, he probably would have replied with a "Hmph."

So how WAS Merlyn, anyway? Luna finally righted herself, rubbing at her dirty cheek with one hand. He looked like he had grown quite a bit since she last saw him! And at this rate, he'd be bigger than she was!

Lapis subsided into a chair, trying to coil his legs under him uncomfortably. He watched Luna closely.

"I'm good! I'm big, I can reach the counter now," Merlyn told Luna proudly. "I can get my own cookies without a chair, and I have a fish shirt." He tugged at the shirt he was wearing, clearly very proud of it. I picked it myself but I was too little for it and then I got bigger.

Oh, did you? Luna reached out to poke the fish on Merlyn's shirt. It's a very nice fish shirt! Does the fish on your shirt have a name?

Merlyn blinked. He had never considered that. "Nuh uh. Help me make one up?"

Hm. Well, naming a shirt-fish was a big deal! Luna pursed her lips in thought, considering the fish on his shirt.

Morty?

Uh uh, that's a cat name. Merlyn pondered the problem with great seriousness. "Bubbles is silly," he mused aloud.

Is silly a good thing? Luna wondered. Mister Bubblesworth!

Merl burst into giggles. "Mister Bubblesworth!" He poked the fish on his shirt and declared solemnly, "Mister Bubblesworth likes it."

Prox returned to the seating area just in time to catch this declaration. He raised one eyebrow, decided not to ask, and sat down to peruse one of the outdated magazines from the table.

Mister Bubblesworth. Luna repeated proudly, nodding her head for emphasis. So, what did Merlyn and Mister Bubblesworth do today? Did they have fun?

We went to the grocery and to the beach to see my brother and then I played in the garden and now we came for my check-up," Merlyn recounted. "Daddy says I have to take some tests." He plonked down to sit on the floor, tugging his little rubber dragon out of his pocket and fidgeting with it. But they won't hurt, he added.

It sounds like you had a lot of fun! Luna grinned at Merlyn. And I'm glad you're taking tests that won't hurt. It's never fun to take the kind that hurt. A sympathetic nod.

Just to see how loud I can talk and how soft I can hear with my head, Merlyn offered. "Without being out loud." He tossed the dragon toy to Lapis, who obligingly caught it and threw it back.

Oooh, I had that one, but not here. Luna tilted her head. Those are easy tests. At least, I thought they were.

"Shai can do it too but he can't do the tests, so I'm gonna do them here," Merlyn explained. Catch! He tossed the toy to Luna.

Luna's hands automatically reached up to catch the toy, peering at it intently and giving it an appreciative squeeze. It's cute! Where did you get it?

"There are lots at the shop with the dragons," Merlyn nodded. "That one's mine." He held his hands out to catch the dragon.

Hnn! Luna would have to look into getting one of her own.

Unwilling to throw the dragon, she leaned forward and gently set it in Merlyn's paws.

Aw, you were s'posed to throw it. Merlyn looked vaguely disappointed and stuffed the dragon back into his pocket. "You're all full of dirty," he observed. "What did you do?"

Didn't want to hurt it. If Luna were speaking, she would've been mumbling.

I came here straight from work, she explained. Jo and I make the soil more nutritious for the plants at the Sprouts Nursery.

"S'just rubber. When I was really little I bit it all the time," Merlyn offered, ignoring the fact that it hadn't been all that long ago that he'd been really little.

How do you do that? he inquired, curious.

We-ell... Luna brought a finger to her lips, thinking of how to explain it to him in a way he'd understand. She settled for projecting the memories she had of the soil being too alkaline; too bitter for the plants. And the only thing that would make them better was acid. Dirt that was less bitter by adding sour. And Jokeph was very acid. A loogie into the dirt, mix it up, and then Jokeph and Luna would tend to the plant itself. Jokeph was always good with plants, having the soul of one himself, and Luna was good with Earth, having that as her element.

Together, they were an unstoppable force!

Merlyn absorbed the information interestedly. It was fascinating. Why does adding sour make it less bitter? he inquired. The concept had come across slightly muddled from the comparison. And how come Jokeph is sour?

Science lesson time. Well, bases were bitter, and acids were sour. Lemons had acid in them, and that's why someone could taste them and go ihhhhhhhhhh!

Luna made a face to demonstrate.

And baking soda was bitter, and that's why someone could taste it and go ewwwwww!

Another face.

And when you put them together, you get a really nasty reaction of lots of fizz and mess. And salt. But they also cancelled each other out, you see?

Of course, when there was soil involved, there wasn't very much in the fizz and mess department, but there was still cancelling out going on.

"I like lemons," Merlyn remarked absently, and thought about the science lesson. Was vinegar an acid, then? It was sour, and it made a huge bubbling mess with baking soda. And the resultant liquid hadn't tasted like much of anything at all.

"Why does it make salt?" And is it bad for plants to have too much of the other way?

Yup, vinegar WAS an acid! And as for the salt-making, now that was a complex process that involved ions and things that even Luna didn't understand. And it was definitely bad for plants to have too much acid. Luckily, Jokeph's acid could be refined to make antidotes, and that helped.

How did Jokeph make acid? Most people didn't make acid, Merlyn was pretty sure of that. Was it on purpose?

Luna didn't know. It was just how Jokeph was. That's why nobody is to touch him. Ever.

Except Luna, who was immune, but Jokeph didn't really LIKE to be touched, so she respected that, usually. Unless she just really needed a hug.

"That wouldn't be fun," Merlyn said, frowning faintly. How did he do things if he couldn't touch people? What happened if he bumped into someone? And hugs were good, it wouldn't be good to not have them.

Jokeph wears clothes, Luna noted. He can bump into people, but he doesn't like the feeling at all. And he can do things just fine without touching anyone.

She smiled sweetly at Merlyn. Did he want a hug? Maybe sit in her lap? Even if she WAS dirty?

Merlyn didn't mind dirt! He liked hugs, too. He scrambled up to climb onto Luna's lap, ears perked.

It was just about that time when a tiny naked man, no more than an inch in height, ran through a gap in the door, tiny limbs flailing and his but beautiful hair flapping in the breeze. (And other tiny parts of his anatomy either flailing or flapping in the breeze, but if I, the narrator, were to describe them all, it would take all night)

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," he screeched as he ran through the clinic and exited out the back.

A blue, birdlike creature flew after him, flapping as hard as she could just to keep up, shrieking in harmony.

"STREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!"

And as quickly as they appeared, they, and their antics, were gone. Almost as if someone were quadruple dog dared to streak through the clinic. Or send them streaking through the clinic.

............"Bzuh," Luna declared, watching them go before wrapping her arms around Merlyn and resting her chin on top of his head with a gentle lick.

She... was just going to ignore that.

Lapis stared.

Prox, all too familiar with the pair of small beings in question, put his magazine down and put his face in his hands. He might have been laughing. It was hard to tell.

Merlyn blinked and twisted to look. What had that been?

Luna didn't know. Luna really didn't want to know. sweatdrop

Merlyn pointed after them. Hadn't that been a Dream?

Hey... wait!

Yeah! Luna recognized it! Jokeph has one who helps translate his sign language!

That means it was Daddy's fault. Merlyn turned to stare accusingly at his father.

The older feline had just managed to compose himself. The stare set him off again, and he laughed silently into his hands.

...What was so funny, Luna wondered?

"Chee," the elder feline said, as though that explained everything.

Merlyn was confused. He stuck his tongue out at his parent and turned back to Luna. Well. He had gotten a hug from his friend, so all was well, even if there were crazy things around. Crazy things were kind of normal, anyway.

"Chee," Luna repeated, wrinkling her nose. Sounded like a food.

At least the distraction was good for interrupted scary things. Like learning! Luna winked at Merlyn. Any more, and it would've been like going to school, hmm?

School. Merlyn wrinkled his nose and expressed distaste at sitting still and reading things. He liked DOING things, but not TESTS and WRITING. When they went to the beach and learned how the ocean made waves because of the moon and the way the shape of the beach was, that was fun, though!

Luna always learned better that way, too, she admitted. That's why she chose not to go back to the Academy back on Neilan. She wanted to learn things her own way.

I have to go and take tests when I get bigger, though. Merlyn made a face. "So Daddy said I have to learn how, so I can."

Tests aren't so tough. Luna winked again. You just have to learn how to make good guesses and narrow down the choices. You'll get the hang of it in no time.

"I'm smart," Merlyn asserted. "I'll do good."

Right! Another lick. Now, don't you have other tests you need to be doing right now?


Elle wanted to sneak into the GMFC. She was very good at it now, she doubted anyone would notice!

But she had to fight that. She had to walk in, and sit, look normal, all while pretending she wasn't a jittery fluttery teenager.

She saw Luna was in there before she'd entered, and for a few moments Elle froze. Then she forced herself to keep moving, step by step, right on into the GMFC. Just act normal. Calm... normal...

"Hi." Elle told them both.

Merlyn groaned and slid obediently off Luna's lap, ears flattening. "Don't wanna," he said. ... Oooh, a new person! "Hi!"

Oh, it'll be fi-- Luna's thoughts trailed off as she glanced up at Elle. She quickly recovered, however. Ah! Merlyn, this is my very good friend, Elle! Elle, this is my very good friend, Merlyn. Merlyn, Elle. Elle, Merlyn.

"Hi!" Elle told Merlyn, eyes only glancing up to catch Luna's eyes for a few seconds. She grinned shyly at her for a moment, unable to speak, then redirected her gaze back to the kid.

"It's nice to meet you, Merlyn. Are you also a prisonor of the clinic, merciless to wait for tests like we all are?" She said that all very seriously, but Elle was grinning too. Something had definatly softened.

"Uh huh, I have to go see how well I talk with my head," Merlyn nodded. He bowed to Elle, as he had been taught was polite, and said "It's-nice-to-meet-you!" Then he glanced back to catch his father's eye for approval.

A nurse emerged from the back hallway. "Merlyn Sarihe?"

"I gotta go, maybe we can talk sometime," Merlyn said to Elle, mostly managing not to pout. He hugged Luna one more time, then dragged over towards the nurse.

Lapis got up and followed his young charge, eyeing Elle suspiciously.

Prox smiled to the young woman - she looked familiar; was she the daughter of someone he knew? he'd find out later, perhaps - and padded after his son.

Merlyn fidgeted impatiently, swinging his legs off the side of the branch. He wasn't sure what it was that Anen wanted to talk to him about. It was vaguely possible that it was some kind of present. He could hope, anyway, right? He had come out to the garden, bored with tagging after his big brother; Anen was terminally slow, and he was probably going to be talking to Blue and Papa and Reverie a while yet.

Merl turned to rest his back against the tree trunk and braced his foot against the branch he was on. Part of the good part about being a kid was that climbing trees and reaching things was so much easier, even if it did mean that now he had to do chores with Blue and take lessons for longer every day. What was it like to be a grown-up, like Dad and Papa and Anen? There were a couple of pictures on the mantel of Anen when he was a kid, which was just plain weird. As far as Merlyn was concerned, Anen had always been a grown-up. Except, of course, that he hadn't always been, because everyone started as a baby, or at least a kid.

That was a thought. Reverie had started as a baby, Merlyn had seen that with his own eyes. And Blue ... he wasn't real sure, because Blue had been there before his memories started being clear, but he thought Blue hadn't been a baby when he came to live with them. What was the difference? And Dad had told him, not too long ago, that Anen and his girlfriend Naia had had a baby (which made him an uncle, which was really kind of cool, honestly). So how did babies get to their dads?

"You look like you're thinking hard," Anen said from below the tree.

Merlyn wrapped his hands around the next branch up and hauled himself up so that he could hook his elbows over it and dangle his footpaws in the air. "Where do babies come from?" he asked his brother.

Anen sputtered and turned red, which was interesting. "Ask Dad," he hedged.

"Cool! Will he turn red too?" Merlyn tilted his ears at Anen, curious.

"Oh, probably," Anen said dryly. He hauled himself up into the tree, somewhat more cautiously than Merlyn had. He had four hands to brace himself with, but he was also bigger and heavier.

"Where'd your wings go?" Merlyn inquired, and scrambled up onto the branch to sit.

"Seung has them," Anen said. The question had made him feel both happy and sad all at once, a strong, radiating sensation like a cold flame. A little like the Door-fire felt. That was confusing and interesting all at once. Merlyn wasn't quite sure how that worked, but Anen was saying something else now, and Merlyn had to drop the thought to pay attention to what his brother was talking about. "I think this was supposed to belong to you," Anen was telling him.

Curious, Merl leaned down to have a look at what Anen had. Was it going to be a present after all? "What is it?"

The Fa'e slipped a ring off his finger, a heavy silver thing with a blue stone. "I have my own threads to follow," he said, not answering the question. "I give up my claim on Dream, in favor of Merlyn kai-Jerek Sarihe, if he should be found worthy."

Merlyn blinked. It was like Anen wasn't talking to him at all; and maybe he wasn't, because Merlyn could see, clear as sunlight, the blue fire springing up in a nimbus around him as he spoke the words, swirling around him and whirling downwards into the stone of the ring in his palm.

It was as though, suddenly, something was looking at him, like the doctor had when they were giving him tests for his mind-talking. He was being examined, tested, observed. Merlyn held very still, eyes wide; there was a kind of snap, like something breaking, and when the sensation went away, the ring was in his hand instead of Anen's.

Merlyn shook his head, trying to clear it. Something felt funny, except that it didn't. It was like something had been sore, and suddenly stopped. That was the only thing that he could compare it to. He held up the ring, fascinated. It looked smaller than it had a moment ago. Actually, it looked like it would fit him. He tried it; it fit his finger perfectly, though that really shouldn't be possible, since just a minute ago it had been on Anen's finger, and Anen's fingers were much bigger. "Cool," Merlyn said, pleased.

Anen laughed, the faintly worried expression he had been wearing slipping off his face. "Ask Dad to tell you about that too, okay?" he said.

"Will it make him turn red?" Merlyn asked hopefully.

"Probably not," Anen chuckled, and climbed down out of the tree. "Come on, fuzzball, I want to see if the rock shrine is still in the woods."

"Cool," Merlyn repeated, and scrambled down to follow his brother.

The ninja stalked into the room on silent pawpads, skittering around the corner, darting from hiding spot to hiding spot. Silent and unseen! His target was on the couch, absorbed in a book. All the better to sneak up upon.

Lips twitching with the threat of a smile, Abishai kept his gaze solidly on the book in front of him. He paused only long enough to take a sip of coffee long since gone lukewarm, then set the cup aside -- and out of danger -- before returning to the book. Ninja? What ninja?

Closer and closer - target in range! The ninja remembered just in time that real ninjas don't emit terrifying battle cries, and made his pounce in total silence. Well, mostly.

Willingly, Abishai made a surprised squeak, then laughed and grabbed hold of Merlyn, tickling him playfully. "Pounce me, will you? I'll teach you to pounce, you little ninja," he declared, grinning like a loon.

Merlyn squealed and squirmed under the tickling. "No fair, ninjas aren't ticklish," he declared, trying to poke his papa in the ribs between flails.

"You're not a ninja yet, you're a ninja in training," Abishai countered with a giggle as he squirmed in return.

This was an interesting thought. Merlyn paused to contemplate it. "Can I have real ninja stars when I'm a real ninja?" he asked.

"We'll talk about it when you're older," Abishai decided as he drew Merlyn in for a snuggle.

"Ninja stars are cool." Merlyn settled down for a hug. "They're sharp on all sides, so no matter what part hits first it sticks."

Abishai chuckled and squeezed Merlyn gently. "So ninjas are better than pirates, huh?"

"Um." Merlyn sat up and thought about that. "You can't say if they're better or not, because they're diffrent," he decided, chewing on his lip in deep thought. "Like you can't say pizza is better than spaghetti because they're both cool and they're not the same."

"Oh, good, because I really like pirates," Abishai offered with a sparkle in his eyes. "I'm glad to know they're just as cool."

"You can't be a ninja and a pirate both," Merlyn pointed out. "Because ninjas can't swim."

Abishai smirked, tickling Merlyn's side. "Or maybe that's just what they want you to think, so you never know they're coming for you from another island!"

Merlyn shrieked gleefully and lashed his tail. "Nuh-uh, now you're making it up," he accused.

"Says who?" Abishai grinned and tickled Merlyn again, the bridge of his nose crinkling a little in amusement. "Ninjas can go everywhere!"

"Ninjas use boats," Merlyn said disdainfully, squirming off the couch so as to be out of range of tickling. "'Cause they don't swim."

Abishai smirked, leaning back and crossing his arms. "And if I brought you a ninja who could swim, what would you do?"

"Um." Merlyn sat on the rug and considered this dilemma. "Ask him how he learned to swim?" he offered uncertainly.

The demon grinned, deeply amused. "See, what would a ninja do if his boat got overturned in the middle of the ocean? A ninja has to know how to swim, so he won't drown!"

This was clearly superior logic, and Merlyn was quiet for a moment, considering it. Finally, he declared, "I gotta learn to swim," with the air of one who has come to A Conclusion.

Abishai nodded sagely, though his eyes were still twinkling. "I'd say that's a very good idea. But make sure it's me or your daddy who teaches you, okay?"

"Okay. Why?" Merlyn idly flexed his toeclaws into the weave of the carpet.

"Because that way we can make sure you're safe," Abishai explained. "While you may be a ninja in training, your daddy and I both still want to make sure you don't get hurt."

"Okay." That made sense. Merlyn flopped backwards on the carpet and stretched one foot up towards the ceiling, splaying his toes. "Vati was climbing my tree," he said suddenly.

Abishai considered that as he drew his glasses off. "Does this bother you?" he asked quietly.

"It was my tree first." Merlyn slid his toeclaws out, stared at them, resheathed them.

"That's not an answer, Merl."

Merlyn put his foot back on the floor and sat up again, chewing on a thumbclaw. "I dunno." He thought about it a moment longer, then added, "He's always mad, and I'm not trying to hear, I know I'm not supposed to, he's projecting."

Just beyond the doorway there was a soft, furious squeak; Abishai looked up and called, quite calmly, "Come away from there, Vati. Remember, I told you to not eavesdrop."

Mayavati hesitated, then stomped out into the living room, angrily. "You little mindstealer!" he growled at Merlyn, chittering. "What do you think you're doing, listening to my thoughts?!"

"He just told you you're projecting," Abishai said quickly, trying to calm the rising storm.

"I can't not hear you, you're really loud," Merlyn said indignantly, jumping to his feet. "I'm not trying!"

"I'm not being loud, you're listening in!" Vati shot back.

Abishai rose, stepping between the pair, hands out to warn both of them off. "Merl, Vati, enough. Vati, yes, you're projecting, I can feel it too." As Vati opened his mouth to protest, Abishai shook his head. "No. Don't argue. You're projecting. I know you don't think you are, but it's not fair to Merl to yell at him for something he can't control."

The anger radiating off the squirrel child was making Merlyn's fur rise along his spine and don his tail. "I don't want to listen," he snapped. "I don't like being mad because you're mad!"

Somewhat taken aback, Vati blinked at Merlyn, then bristled and turned away, running off. "Vati, get back here," Abishai called, then sighed, sinking into the sofa with a groan when he was ignored.

There was a small swirl of warm wind, and Merlyn plopped down on the rug in kitten shape and began vigorously and angrily grooming his ruffled fur down. His tail beat a rapid pattern on the floor.

"I think he's jealous of you," Abishai murmured to Merlyn.

"Huh?" The small cat looked up, ears flipping up with surprise.

"You've been with your daddy since you were born, and I came into the picture not much later. Vati keeps getting abandoned by the people who are supposed to love him and take care of him. He thinks that's going to happen again here," Abishai explained softly.

Merlyn's ears drooped as he took that in. His tail curled tightly around his feet. "I wish he wasn't so mad," he said very quietly.

Abishai tilted his head slightly, curiously. "So he wouldn't project so badly?"

"Then he wouldn't be all spiky," Merlyn tried to explain. He changed shape again and wrapped his arms round his knees, hunting for the correct words to explain. "He pushes the anger at us, and it makes me mad, and then I say stuff, because I'm mad, and it makes him madder."

"Come here, kitten," Abishai murmured, opening his arms to Merlyn. "Maybe if you can just find a time to be around him when he's not mad? I've seen him not-mad when he's curled up in a tree..."

Merlyn uncurled himself and went to get a hug. "But then he gets mad 'cause I followed him," he said, and sighed. "You should go and give him a hug too, Papa," he added.

Abishai hugged Merlyn tightly, then tucked the kitten against his side as he stood. "Let's both go give him a hug."

Merlyn nodded and followed, mentally bracing himself to come back into contact with the swirl of snarling hurting anger that Vati carried with him.

When they found him, he was outside -- up a tree, as Abishai had predicted. "Come down," he called up to the squirrel, and received a chittering, angry, wordless response, but finally Vati slid down the tree, arms crossed as he glared at the pair.

"What?" Vati muttered, then blinked and froze, eyes wide, as Abishai hugged him. What the hell was going on?!

It was hard to think through the haze of someone else's anger. Merlyn flexed his claws into the ground and concentrated on blocking it out. When the tenor of the projection shifted over into confusion, it was a little easier. "'M sorry," he said, and watched his feet. "I didn't mean to listen."

Vati refused to return the hug, but at least it calmed down the chaotic swirl of his mind a little. "...Yeah. Whatever. Just try to keep it to a minimum okay?" he muttered, glancing first at Merlyn, then away, awkwardly.

"I'm trying," Merlyn said, half-offended, half-plaintive.

"Okay." Vati pulled himself forcibly away from Abishai, still not sure how to respond to the gesture, then huddled back against the tree trunk. "Just not a good idea for anybody, really. ...I'm going inside." He turned away, heading for the door.

The muddy mix of emotions was too much for Merlyn, and he started up the tree, using the best method he knew so far for escaping someone else's feelings - putting distance between them.

Abishai watched the pair, then sighed, trudging inside as well. Life never was easy, was it?

Everything was so messed up. Why did it have to be like this? What had been so wrong with him that people had kept shoving him away? Tail curled tightly around his body, Mayavati huddled in the crook of a tree, perched right where the strong trunk split into two and went off at angles; there was a huge psychology textbook in his lap, almost heavier than the squirrel-child himself was, and he was pouring over it, trying to figure out what the adults knew about him that he didn't. Maybe this way he'd be able to find out why he was so unlikeable.

Merlyn slunk up to the foot of the tree, his ears at an uncertain angle, tail low. He had cheated a little to find Vati, opening his patchy mental shields long enough to catch the mental tenor of the squirrel-child's mind; if Vati knew, he'd be angry again, but he hadn't listened much. "Um," he said.

"...What." It wasn't even a question, it was more of a statement. Vati glanced down at Merlyn, his own ears back as he carefully refrained from chittering with agitation.

"'m sorry," Merlyn said, and crawled up into the branches, tucking himself into a crook of a branch nearby and winding his tail around his ankles.

An apology? Now that was odd. Vati eyed Merlyn suspiciously, his own tail curling more tightly around his body. "Sorry for what?" he asked cautiously.

"Not gettin' it." Merlyn rested his chin on his knees and watched his toes intently.

"Not getting what?" Vati prompted, irritably confused.

"People not. Not wanting to - " Merlyn stopped, flexed his claws into the bark. "I had another dad," he said.

Vati started to speak; stopped; chittered softly and nestled back against the tree a bit more. "...Tell me," he finally murmured.

"I dunno much," Merlyn said quietly, still watching his toes. "I found a picture. Of Dad with someone. And I asked, and he said - " He hunched his shoulders, stopped speaking, and curled his claws into the branch with more force.

"Said what?" Vati tugged his shawl down around him, hugged the corners to his chest.

"That it was my other dad. And he left when I was still a baby. And he's dead and I didn't know." Merlyn scratched furrows in the bark. "And, and. I thought. If he went away, didn't he like me? And. I mean. I. You - " He stuttered to a halt and flicked a miserable glance at Vati. "'m sorry. I just felt like I should say."

"...People're assholes," Vati muttered. "People that're supposed to love you, supposed to take care of you, they just stop loving you, if they ever did in the first place, and they go away. Everyone goes away." A pause. "...It's not your fault."

Merlyn chewed on his thumbclaw, frowning fiercely. "I don't. I wouldn't. If I were grown up. When I grow up if i have kids I won't ever go away from them. Not ever."

"Can you promise that?" came the quick question. "Can you promise you won't die or get hurt or go away anyway? You don't know what's coming. No one does."

"If I get hurt I'll get better, Dream will make me," Merlyn shot back, angrily. His ears flattened back against his head.

Vati blinked, attention instantly caught. "Dream?" he asked, curiously. "What's Dream?" Apparently no one had yet told him about the details of the world that was under the care of the Sarihe.

Derailed, Merlyn blinked at Vati. He flapped a hand at the wild tangle of forest at the foot of the garden. "'S down there. Except you shouldn't go too far in, because then you can get lost and not get back to Gaia, and Dad would have to come get you, or me, because I can talk to Dream too," he said, with a touch of pride.

"It's a forest?" Vati asked, ears perking forward as he inspected the forest from where he sat. "And it talks?"

"It's a world," Merlyn explained. "That's just the Forest, and it comes up in our garden because it's Dad's so we have to be near it even though we live in Gaia too."

"...Prolixity owns a world?" Now there was a mind-boggling thought.

Merlyn tilted his head and thought about that. "It kinda owns him," he said thoughtfully. He held his right hand out, displaying the heavy blue-jeweled ring on his forefinger. "See, this came from Dream, because when I grow up a long time from now Dream will take me too."

Vati inspected the ring, his ears flattening again. "'Take you'? What do you mean, 'take you'?" It was Twenty Questions time, apparently.

"Blue said the word for it is sym-boat. No, um. Sym-bi-ote," Merlyn pronounced carefully.

"Symbiosis," Vati mused thoughtfully, his gaze turning towards the Forest again. "And the entire world talks to you?"

Merlyn nodded. "It has a mind," he offered. "Not like mine because it's not in a body but it does. Um. It's not very loud because I'm only the Heir but Dad can hear it all the time."

"What about Abishai?" Mayavati asked next, hugging his tail closer. "Does he hear it too?"

"I dunno." Merlyn poked at a flake of bark. "Dream likes him but I dunno if it talks to him."

Vati nodded slowly at that; moments later, he offered, awkwardly, "Don't worry about apologizing. I guess I need to stop... thinking so loudly. Or whatever."

"I'll get better at not listening," Merlyn muttered.

"Not your fault," Vati mumbled, clearly not used to trying to be comforting.

"Is, sorta. That one." Merl unfolded from the ball he had curled into and hauled himself up onto the next branch. "I'm practicing shields," he added, defensively.

"Good. ...I want to learn telepathy," Vati said after several more moments of silence, the bottom half of his tail starting to lash back and forth.

Merlyn tilted an ear at Vati. "You should come see Miz Leila when I go have my lesson," he offered hesitantly.

The squirrel blinked up at Merlyn, his own ears swiveling forward again. "Who's Leila?"

"She's teaching me how to shield right." Merlyn draped himself over the branch.

"...I'll talk to her," Vati decided. Hopefully she'd be able to help him do something with his mind. It wouldn't do to just be normal.

Merlyn peered down at Vati. "You can have mine," he offered.

Vati eyed Merlyn right back, once more suspicious. "Your what?"

"Empathy. I don't wannit," Merlyn mumbled.

"Why not? At least then you'd be able to tell when someone's lying to you," Vati muttered back, clearly sore over the issue.

"'Cause it hurts when people are really mad or sad and I can't shield enough. And I don't like feeling things just cause someone else is feeling them. Like when Blue has the bad dream that the Dreams can't chase off and he screams in his head and doesn't wake up." Merlyn shuddered, the fur on his tail puffing slightly.

Vati curled in on himself a bit, hiding most of his body behind his tail. I'd do anything to keep from being lied to again, he whispered ever-so-quietly in the back of his mind; he said only, "I'd go hide then."

Merlyn nodded a little and started slithering down from the tree, seeming subdued.

"Why're you leaving?" Vati asked quietly.

"I don't wanna make you mad," Merlyn said.

"Look, I'm not mad, okay?" The squirrel eyed Merlyn hard. "I didn't mean that you should go hide, idiot."

Merlyn paused, balanced on the branch. "Okay," he said after a moment, and curled back into the hollow of the branch. "What're you reading?"

Vati turned the book and offered the cover for Merlyn's perusal. "A book on abnormal psychology."

"It's a big book," Merlyn said doubtfully. Then he paused, ears swiveling as footsteps approached.

"Hey, kiddo."

The ears went flat. "Go 'way."

"Hey. Merlyn. Listen to me," Vati muttered, then thought at the kitten, careful to keep it from being too loud. Thought you said you were never gonna go away. Give your dad the same chance. And, that said, he grabbed his book and skittered down the tree, quick as a flash.

The thought was neither loud nor clear enough for Merlyn's senses to catch in its entirety, but the ambiguous, half-uncomfortable swirl of emotion behind it was clear enough. "S'not fair," Merlyn muttered, and descended the tree more slowly, shoving his hands in his pockets and glancing sullenly up at his father. "'M here."