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 Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:38 pm
~Pool~
Salem came into the pool area, looking around curiously. He hadn't been here before, but he thought this would be the best place to teach Cato to swim. "Alright, Cato. We're here. Now we're going to teach you to swim, alright?" He smiled down at the toddler, leading him to the pool by the hand. Once there he put down his duffle bag and helped Cato out of his shirt before getting his own off, exposing his very scared up torso. Putting their clothes away into the bag he got into the pool on the shallow end. "Come here Cato!" He held a inner tube still for him. "Step inside here and you'll float!"
Cato came over to the steps, wobbling a little as he got into the water and stepped into the inner tube. "Like this Daddy...?" Cato looked at his adoptive father uncertainly. He'd never been to a pool before...
"Yes Cato, like that, now just hold on and you won't sink." Gently he pushed the toddler out into the shallow water, keeping a close eye to make sure he didn't sink.
Sure enough Cato clung and didn't sink. He looked very nervous.
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:06 pm
The Pool
Down the winding stairwell, from hallway to hallway, Pink walked with Tamary in tow, towel in hand. The little Croc was humming to herself, looking around the new parts of the headquarters she had never seen before. The colorful mohawk of feather went up in down with her curiousity.
They came, after not too long, to a pair a clouded glass doors. There was the heavy scent of chlorine in the air so familiar with public pools. To a normal person, the smell was strong enough. To Pink's sensative shifter nose, it was nearly overwhelming. Coughing fruitlessly, he opened the door the herded Tamary inside, her curiousity making her slower than usual as she tried to look at everything.
"Come along, girly. Plenty of time to see."
There were plenty of interesting things to look at, sniff at, touch, in these new corodors. Pink was tugging her along aweful quick though, so she had to grab at only little bits of what her senses could take in. The glass doors, when they came to them, seemed huge. Her short little reptillian body didn't even reach the handle; She scooted a little closer to Pink, daunted.
Inside, her fear disappeared. Accompanying a very strange smell, but a good smell, was the largest body of water Tam had ever set eyes on in her short life. Energy shot through her, joy thumping her thick tail against Pink's leg.
"Wata! Wata! Wata!" Immediately she moved to make a run for it.
Pink smiled, hearing her gasp of glee upon seeing the pool. He took a firm hold of the bunny-headed white towel she wore around her, to keep her from running. "Now, don't run. See the ground? It's wet. You'll fall."
Walking her over to the pool, he took her bunny towel and his own, and layed it on a chair. "Careful now, you don't know how to swim yet. No! Don't jump in, this isn't the bath... Wait a sec while I get in."
Unfortunately, now came the aweful part. Tam may have loved the water, but for Pink, it was torture. His short spotted tail swished behind him, shaking his head once. He had to love Tam to be willing to do this. Sitting on the edge, he plopped himself into the water with a little shiver.
Returning to the edge of the pool, he picked up a floaty. It was a white, inflatable tube. It was relatively normal, though it had swimmy feet, so she could sit inside it safely, along with a unicorn "tail" and "head" attached to two ends. Lifting Tam into the water, he set her inside the creative contraption.
Tam wasn't sure she liked this new toy Pink had put her inside. It was troublesome, and large, and kept her from splashing around too much.
However, after Pink gently gave her a push into the shallow end, Tamary began to get a handle on it. She found that she could move herself about depending on which direction she flailed; Getting it to go where she wanted was another matter.
Pink watched her float away nervously. He knew she liked the water, but she'd never been in a pool before, never learned how to swim. Turning his head, he spotted the other occupant of the pool he'd noticed when they'd come in. It must have been his Mishap floating around not too far from his Tam.
"Hello there," he waved to the other guardian.
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:07 pm
Salem blinked as he was adressed. "Oh, hello. I haven't met you before. My name is Salem. I'm kinda new around here. This here is my little Cato. He grew just yesterday." Salem seemed quite proud of his little spider mishap, watching him fondly. "Uh..." He turned his attention back to the other. "Who might you be? And who is the little cutie with you?" He smiled as he looked over at Tamary, his tail slowly swaying through the water, fur swishing gracfully as he did.
Cato on the other hand looked at the two that came in next curiously. His odd double eyes however ended up sticking to Tam. She looked kinda funny... And what was that she was ridding. He had seen things like that back at home. Unacorns? Yeah... Something like that... But they didn't swim that good. And it looked funny too... He wanted a better look at them. Wrapping his second set of arms around the tube he flailed the other four, getting nowhere. Alright... That wasn't working... Now he tried to move both his main set of arms and his back arms at the same time in the same way. There we go! Ha! And so he quickly made his way to Tam. "Whatter youuu..? I'mah Cato." He was a blunt little thing wasn't he. It didn't end there though. He even went so far as to reach out with his main hands and take a feel of Tam's cute little snout.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:04 pm
The shifter smiled, offering his hand as he grew close enough to do so. "I'm Pink," he motioned to the flailing green Croc, "That's Tamary Zuleika...'fraid she doesn't know how to swim yet.." He laughed half to himself and looked back at Salem. "We mostly keep to ourselves, haven't met many other guardians or Mishaps.. Good to meet you!"
Tamary looked over at the strange grey Mishap moving towards her. She trilled queitly, unnerved by the double sets of eyes and arms. Curious by nature, she didn't mind examinging him from afar, but, to her concern, he began to move closer. Though she was wary, she couldn't help being impressed by how quickly he moved! "I'm a Tamary," she stated with confidence. "Cato," she repeated. Once again she rolled her eyes at the double arms, "what're you?" Her tail swished in the water behind her.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:21 pm
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm kinda new around here and haven't met many people either... I'm going out with Catherine if you've met her. She's the one that takes care of Aphrodite. Heh, I guess you'll be seeing more of me though. I just got word that I was accepted as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. It's going to be an optional class for these little guys, but I hope they'll be interested. Ya see, I run an adoption home myself for magical creatures so I'm going to be bringing in some of them. I thought it would be good for everyone to meet. Well... You're aparently about as human as I am. I'm a catfolk. What might you be? If you don't mind me askin' of course." Well... He seemed friendly enough. He shook the other's hand as he spoke to him happily.
Cato smiled as he ran his hands over the little croc's scales, not paying to much attention to her as he answered her question. "Ssspiiiiiderrrrr..." His hands moved to the top of her head now, his smile widening as he found soft feathers. "Pwitty..." Well... That was sweet of him. That is to say, up until... "Mine!!" And with no further warning he used his new found sticky powers to latch onto the prettiest feather he could see and rip it right off her head, smiling down at it in his hand. So pretty! "Mine."
The moment he heard the word Cato said best Salem's eyes widened. "Oh, no..." He was too late however... Cato had taken the feather he wanted. "Cato, no! Ugggh... Cato what have I told you?! You can't keep doing this! You can't just take other people's things and you can't hurt people! It's wrong!" He had no other choice but to leave Pink to tend to poor Tam as he grabbed the inner tube the spider mishap was clinging to and pulled it quickly away from the other to make sure he couldn't reach her again.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:54 pm
Tamary was a mellow child, and though she was suspicious of the strange two handed creature, she allowed him to pet her nose. She wasn't altogether altruistic, as it did feel nice. When it fingers got to close to her feathers, she gave an allarmed shrill, but it was too late! One of her sensitive feathers had been tugged uncermoniously from her poor head, causing pain to shoot through her head.
It seemed as though, for a moment, she wouldn't react. She was still, staring at the other wide eyed. Then one noticed her eyes slowly welling with tears. They grew and spilled over onto her cheeks as her first small gasping cry started. It hurt so much, that horrible boy!
Pink nodded politely as the other talked on, keeping one eye on Tamary. "Er, I'm a shifter..hyena.. shifter. Congrats on the job.. suppose I'll be seeing more of you, then."
There was a commotion behind him. He heard the Spider Mishap declare something his, and Salem's horrified expression. He turned to see one of Zuleika'a precious feathers between Cato's fingers. Horrified, he tried to rush to Tam's side, but the damn water made it hard for him to do so. He reached her just as the wailing began to start. It was a quiet wailing, mostly from pain and the shock of having a peice of herself in another's hand.
"Sshhh..girly, you're alright, you're alright," Pink cooed, picking her up, innertube and all. She wailed a few more times, and rest her head against his chest to cry quietly for a few more minutes. Pink felt bad; he'd wanted her to enjoy her first time at the pool but now it had been just about ruined. He looked down at his girl, wondering if he should take her back to the room. When he looked, she had calmed, merely clinging to him. Fortunately, she was a quiet girl and never caused too much of a fuss. Her reptillian cheeks had been spared the stain of tears. "Zule okay now?"
Tam was feeling better, but she didn't want to admit it. She was safe huddled against Pink. She was afraid if he left her in the water again, the mean spider boy might get her. She rubbed a chubby hand under her eye, pouting, "I dun like 'im."
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:20 am
[ Pool ]
Running down the hallway, with a towel on his back. Was the 10 foot long toddler of a green dragon we have come to know as Garreth. Flapping his wings to give him more speed, he rushed his way towards the open door that lead to the pool.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
"Ahh!"
"I'm gonna get you!"
"AHH! MAMA! SHE'S DOING IT AGAIN!!"
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLA- In mid stomp the toddler was caught, hanging by the seat of her bloomers. "Awww... Bax you're no fun."
" And you shouldn't scare you're brother." A cool voice, thick with a english undertone came from his mouth, the tall pale catfolk wore a pair of black swimtrunks and a simple white t-shirt. How was he talked into this again, oh yeah.. guilt.
The snow maiden clad in a light blue tube tob and navy bloomers raspberried the the tall pale catfolk. "Nyah nyah."
Aphrodite frowned, crossing her arms over her flat chest. Clinging to Al who was wearing a small innertube, she herself was sporting a white one piece with a pink heart in the middle of her chest. "Nari-chan, that was mean... " Flying in speed with the tall pale catflok named Baxterfullous, she turned to see where Catherine had gone. "Mama?"
"I'm comming!" Came a voice down the hall, There came catherine in a skirted red one piece bathing suit, in her arms with her bag filled with towels and floaties that needed to be blown up. "Sorry.. I couldn't find my goggles." She laughed a bit. "Now now, go in everyone."
Garreth, already inside stopped dead in his tracks, watching the screaming Croc-Mishap. Edging his way over slwoly he peered up at Pink and the small Tam. "She ok?" The young dragon asked shyly, he hadn't seen another reptile like himself... unless you counted Ardith but she was a poohead.
Catherine blinked, making her way into the pool area. She smiled as soon as she saw Salem, but then frowned as she heard the crying.. and then spotted the cause. Shaking her head, she made her way to Salem and Cato. "Nice first impression." She mused.
Aphrodite blinked flying her way over to her mother, sitting on her head. She would wait until the unpleasant moment had passed to show off her new size.
Baxterfullous had to restrain himself from tossing Nariko into the deep-end. No, bad Baxterfullous.. bad.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:25 pm
Cato blinked as he was being scolded. Now what?! "Mine!" He clutched the feather as he realized what was going on. It was his now! It's not like it could be put back! "Is mine! Miiiiine!" He pouted up at his Daddy, clinging to the feather tightly.
The blonde catfolk sighed as he pried the little fingers open and took the feather away. "No Cato! It's not yours!" He blinked, too busy with his little one to notice the other's had getten there. "Oh... Hey Ca... Shut up..." He scowled, reaching up to give her the feather and pulling the spider mishap over to her. "Could you hold these...?" Poor Salem looked a little more stressed then usual, but he was still doing a pretty good job of holding himself together. Hm...? Who was that? He hadn't seen that Catfolk hanging around. What was he doing with Catherine? A bit of a jealous streak hitting him, but he was a little busy at the moment. He'd ask about it in a second. "Pink, I'm so sorry... He has a really bad habbit of just taking things. That isn't limited to just objects either... I'm so so sorry. Tam, Sweety, are you okay? I'm really sorry about this... You don't have to play with Cato anymore if you don't want to. Ummm... Hey! How about a little present to make up for it? You can ask for anything you want, and I'll try to get it for you!" He wanted to be friends with everyone so he was really trying his best.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:04 pm
Pink blinked, looking up as he heard several creatures enter the room. The dragon, the girl child, the small Mishap, and... a pale, handsome cat man? Pink had little time to admire, as the dragon had made his way into the water and was begging his attention.
Pink smiled, "She'll be fine... Looks like she's already taken an interest in you."
Indeed, the little Croc had stopped crying, and stared over at Gareth with wide-eyed curiosity. She had a particular fondness for other reptiles. However, her recent misadventure kept her curiosity in check, and she continued to huddle against the safety of Pink's chest.
Pink watched out of the corner of his eye as Cato was dealt with. The shifter thought to himself that the spider Mishap was lucky he was not his gaurdian. Pink was not known for taking discipline lightly. The "catfolk" was approaching him, an appologetic look on his face.
Present? Zuleika stared at him. Though she spoke rarely, she knew a great many words. Like most children, "present" was amongst her favorites. "Book!" She spouted out before Pink had a chance to stop her. The feathers on her head had lifted just a bit, colorful tail swishing gently in the water behind her.
Pink gave a short laugh, dropping his hand onto Zuleika's snout, "No, no, that's fine. Thank you Salem, but she doesn't need anything, really." He wasn't really sure what he could reply to the comments on Cato's behavior; he thought it best to say nothing. Looking down at Tamary again, he dropped the hand from her snout. "Ready to swim, again? Cato wont get you," he gestured his free hand toward the captured Mishap. "You see?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:37 pm
Salem smiled as the little girl perked up at the thought of a new book. He didn't argue with Pink, but did make a mental note. She did seem to have an interest in the little forest dragon. That might be a good start. Maybe a book on dragons...? Or even better! One on magical reptiles in general! Yeah... That sounded good... "Hey Gar. How ya doin' buddy?" He smiled sweetly down at the little dragon. He could remember having to care for him back when he was an egg! Amazing how much he had grown during the time he had been adopted by Catherine.
Cato hissed loudly, swishing his arms hard to try and get away, but having no luck. "Leggoooo!!" He had no qualms with being loud and as always he was letting everyone know just that! "LEGGOOOOOO!!!"
Salem frowned, looking back at his little mishap. "Cato! Behave! Or we're leaving right now!!" His ears folded back as he glared at the little multiarmed toddler. He was starting to lose his patience with him.
Sure enough Cato quieted down, but still looked nothing short of furious at the fact he nolonger has his feather...
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:22 pm
Aphrodite blinked shaking her head, she was kinda glad she wasn't noticed by the spider. Though she wanted Salem to notice her so she decided to speak up from her high perch. "Uncle Salem!" She said clearly, her cutesy tone had changed, but it was still the same Aphrodite. The once 3 inch tall toddler had grown into a 5 inch tall kid. She flew up from her mother's head, and towards Salem. Clutching tightly her beloved friend Al, she made sure she was out of Cato's reach. "Look Uncle Salem I grew! I grew!" She blushed.
The plump witch laughed a bit as she pushed herself into the pool, wading her way towards Cato and Salem. She tickled Cato's belly to perk up his mood.
Nariko wiggled out of Baxterfullous's grasp and nearly out of her bloomers. " Ha ha! " She wiggled, toddling over to her mother's discarded bag, searching for her unflated innertube. Kicking off her shoes she ran over to her mothe, knowing better than to ask the agigitated catfolk. "Mama.. I wanna swim with you guys." She said holding up the limp plastic donut.
Garreth happily dogpaddled his way around Pink and Tam. "My name's Garreth! I'm a dragon." He grinned a bit. "That's my mama." He pointed towards Catherine, the short haired woman in the skirted one piece bathing suit. "That's my big little sister Aphrodite." He pointed towards the flying wasp Mishap. ".. That's my older, but younger than Aphrodite, sister.. her name is Nariko." He pointed to the stark white toddler, with long black hair and blue lips. "... And that's Uncle Bax!" He grinned pointing to the tall pale catfolk.
"... Charmed." He said stiffly as he pulled out his shirt, revealing his pale toned chest. Not taking another moment to respond he jumped into th deep end.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:59 pm
Pink looked to each as they were introduced, via Garreth. It was a peculiar mix, to say the least. He wondered, vaguely, if the two cat folk were at all related, both being so close to the same person, as it were.
But he was not quite at liberty to make small talk just then. Carefully, he pulled Tam, rubber unicorn innertube and all, away from his chest. Her little legs kicked, half out of the water. "You ready to swim some more?"
Tam nodded and was set back into the floaty blueness. Steering well clear of the woman holding the crazy grey boy, Tam did her best to direct her floating unicorn in Gareth's direction. "'Ragon," she murmured, one of her green little hands reaching out toward him. It was difficult to catch a moving reptile when she couldn't get the tube to bring her anywhere she wanted.
"Kick your legs, darling, kick your legs. There you go." With that, keeping a closer watch on her, Pink waded over toward the other two adults. "Nice to meet you... Ah, I don't think I got your name." He smiled at Catherine, trying not to think of how wet he felt. Ugh, how he despised the water.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:55 pm
"Hmmm? Oh! Well, look at you! Aph you're getting to be a big girl now!" He smiled up at the tiny child sweetly. Wow... Aph was a kid already! How time flew... He smiled weakly as Cath came over to him with Cato in tow. "Heh... And I was hoping today would just be a quiet swimming lesson." He laughed at himself as he picked Cato up out of the tube and held him close, draping his sopping wet tail over the now empty inner tube to keep it from floating away. "Cato... You really need to learn to be nice. If you keep this up, no one's going to like you! Don't you want friends...?"
Cato blinked at that. Friends...? He didn't have any... Well... He had that strange egg that he liked to cuddle that Catherine gave him, but... Aside from that... He... He wanted friends... His pretty emerald eyes started to tear up as that dawned on him. He... He had no friends... "C... Cato wants friends..." The little one whimpered softly the tears starting to trickle down his cheeks now... "Cato no 'ave any... I.... I waaaannn..."
Salem bit his lower lip. s**t... He hadn't meant to caught little Cato to cry either! He cuddled his little one close, kissing the top of his head. "Shhh... It's okay Cato... You have your Daddy right? I'm your firend..."
Cato sniffled softly, but he didn't look like he felt any better...
The blonde catfolk looked over as Garreth introduced everyone. How cute. Wait... 'Uncle Bax'...? What was he talking about? The old goat wasn't... Oh my God... That couldn't be... He waited for the other catfolk to come up, staring at him wide eyed. "Uncle Bax...? Is that you old man...? What...? How...? You were a cat, what, a couple of days ago! How the He...?!" He slowly smiled however. As crabby as his uncle was, he was the only family Salem actually had left and knew very well what this meant to his uncle. "What happened old man?! This is wonderful!"
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:28 pm
Aphrodite frowned, she didn't like seeing people cry. Biting her lip she wondered if this was a good idea. "I'm your friend Cato." She said with a smile, though a bit weary. " And so is Al." She said, still out of his reach.
Nariko blinked. "I'm friend too- nah." She then tried to blow up her own intertube, failing horribly.
"I'mma friend! .. and I'maa boy-ant." Garreth cried out happily, his tail splashing about. He offered it to Tam, seeing if she wanted to hold on to it as he swam. "You can tell me where you wanna go. I'll be the cho-fur." He giggled sweetly.
Catherine blinked, sighing. She leaned forward givign the spider-msiap an eskimo kiss. "It's ok Cato, you'll make friends soon. You just need to be a bit.. nicer." She smiled. "I'm your friend Cato." She said happily. "... Why don't you try not claiming everything... you know some kids aren't as lucky are you are... Some kids don't have any toys or homes, how would feel if you were like that?"
Baxterfullous resurfaced, eyeing Salem and everyone else from the far side of the pool. "It's a short yet, detailed filled story.. I'll talk about it later." He said, his eyes falling over Pink. Looking him up and down.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:10 pm
Zuleika had no idea what a "boy-ant" or "cho-fur" was, but she accepted the tail eagerly. She grasped it, wide-eyed, squeezing in an experimental fashion. It had no fur on it like Ike's did, so there was nothing she could lick at. Or was there? The little Croc lowered her snout, long tongue lolling out to lick the dragon's scales curiously. She was oblivious to the sounds of Cato's crys or the various votes of confidence springing up from several directions around the pool.
Pink was glad to see Tam getting on. He had no fear of her biting Gareth; he was more worried about her biting through her innertube. His attention wandered back to the circle of adults, but he found them all doting on the spider Mishap. All for one. He could feel the heat of someone's gaze on him, and not the curious kind gaze of a small creature. Slowly, he turned his head in Baxterfullous's direction, returning the steadily unflinching gaze.
He had heard the cynical, shortcut sound of the other's voice as he spoke to the others and the littler creatures. Now, staring across at the good looking, uke-ish appearance of the cat.. shifter, he supposed... it sent him back a few years.
The scales didn't have a particularly unique taste to them, as far as scales went. There was a rather sharp, strange tange to it, that seemed unfitting. "You taste funny," she mused aloud. Her little fingers squeezed again, and gently shook his tail. "Round!" She demanded finally, forgetting about the taste. The command could have been interrpretted as many things, but it was the desire to be lead around the length of the pool that she wished to communicate.
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