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 Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 6:01 pm
Maia couldn't help it, she smiled. Michael was so happy with the cake, in a different way than he'd reacted to the spaghetti and lemon cake she'd gotten for him.
"It's really good," she said. And Michael's pure joy at the taste made it even better. "We should give you a cake-day," she said, thoughtfully. She didn't know when Michael's birthday was, but a special day just for him... That'd be nice. "How about when we get home? You can bake a cake with Toby and I."
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 6:07 pm
"A cake day?" Michael asked. As good as it sounded, he couldn't imagine that it was anything but a day in which he got to eat a lot of cake, or maybe many different cakes? Bakeries sold all sorts of varieties. "I've never cooked much, but baking always smells so nice. Growing up, the woman who ran the kitchen always let me eat sweets. It wasn't believed to be proper at the time, for children."
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:27 pm
"I don't know your birthday, so a cake day," Maia explained. "We could make a few, look through a cook book and see what sounds good. Or we could buy some! There's a good bakery, I've been meaning to take you there anyway." She smiled, and thought.
"Now days, kids have too many sweets. But you can never have too many." Ghosts couldn't. And once you got Lori started on a bowl of frosting, he finished it.
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:32 pm
Michael paused briefly. He hadn't thought about his birthday in a long time. It seem so far away and insignificant now. He did still have one, though.
"December eleventh," he said, though he didn't say the date. He wasn't quite interested in the math involved. "Could we try petit fours?" Another thing from a long time ago. "Maybe we could find some Victorian recipes, hm? I don't know how they'd taste to a modern palate though."
He took another bite of cake before he responded to the comment on sweets.
"Me personally? Of course not. I'm dead. Without a body, I can't eat at all. It's you who'd get fat and diabetic, and as far as I know, you can't."
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:29 pm
December eleventh? She'd commit that to memory, at least until she could add that to the calendar on her phone. "Our birthdays are close together, we should celebrate," she offered. "What would you like to do for your birthday best?"
"We can try anything you like," she promised. Google was a handy tool, she was sure she could find Victorian recipes.
She smiled. "Fae can't have too many sweets, either," she said.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:19 am
"I would like that," Michael said, but then hesitantly added: "I haven't done anything for my birthday in quite a long time." Longer than he had been dead by about six months, and even then it hadn't been a very large affair. Thankfully it probably wouldn't be now either. "I don't know. Anything. This. It's nice to have friends on a good day."
It was on a bad day too, he just generally couldn't recognize it then.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:27 am
Reaching the hospital hadn't happened, and there was more screaming during the short labor than the poor man expected. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, he'd only stopped to help once the woman's husband had beckoned him over saying she was in labor. A snake had slithered out--out of--well, where a baby ought to have. It was coiled in the corner.
The woman was in hysterics. She was screaming for her husband. For some reason that man had backed about twenty feet away and was still going. ...Well, maybe he couldn't blame him. He wasn't the superstitious type, but he didn't think intestinal worms could be that large, and he wondered if the snake was a demon. There were plenty of movies about women carrying demon children unknowingly.
"DANIEL GET OVER HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU!" The woman screeched. "A ******** SNAKE JUST--" she took a breath and wailed.
The man, Daniel, took out his phone, quickly dialed a number and shakily offered it to his wife. "Here. When this sort of thing happens, these people are best."
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:42 am
It was reception who answered the phone, and that was really the bulk of their job. People didn't just walk in unawares because they couldn't, but if someone new or from the orchard had to come down and find someone, reception was the place to come to find out where to go.
They were trained to take calls and send them where necessary, and even to a point for emergency calls, but there wasn't a procedure for every possible outcome. People usually had a specific agent's number, but that was not always the case.
"Hello, how can I help you today?" Because you never, ever wanted to say who you were.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:59 am
"I carried my baby for nine months." There was a sob. "NINE ******** MONTHS! And he's a ******** snake! My baby is a snake!" Another sob, a wail, and the sound of a man protesting that she was choking him. "My husband gave me this number???? If you can help, help! My baby is a SNAKE!" She stayed on the line, tightening her hold on her husband's tie.
"Please calm down," he pleaded. The poor baby was terrified. It was coiled and ready to strike, but he knew if it opened its mouth, it would have no teeth. The child was no danger to them.
"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" His wife screeched. The poor person on the other line.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:16 pm
The receptionist, well-trained, didn't show her horror. Baby was a snake? Husband had the number to HQ? Who did she even send this to?! An agent, or the adoption people? Were they even in today?
Screw it, she'd just do both!
"Yes, ma'am. Please hold while I connect you with one of our agents."
She put the woman on hold briefly and called Lori between office telephones.
"Agent Yraudhen?"
"Hm? Yes?" Lori asked, looking up from his computer toward the phone as if the receptionist could see him.
"I have a woman on the line who says her baby is a snake, and that her husband gave her our number."
"...alright. Is that it?"
"That's all I know."
"Send her through."
His phone began to ring, so he picked up the phone and hit the proper line.
"This is Agent Yraudhen speaking, ma'am I hear you have a problem with your baby?" Why they were calling HQ he had no ******** idea.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:22 pm
Lori's words were responded to with a string of extremely colorful curse words that ended in an awkward pause. It seemed the phone had been taken from the woman's hands.
"Yes. My wife is quite... distressed. Quite. And our son--he's--"
"A SNAKE! And he ******** tried to BITE me!" The woman had taken the phone back and was screaming into the phone. "I don't CARE what you do just come GET IT! It's a DEMON! Do your cleansing or whatever it is you guys do!" She was in hysterics. She wailed. They'd so looked forward to this baby. And it was possessed. It was a monster. It wasn't human. "Just...deal with it. Please. Whoever you are."
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:27 pm
Lori was going to ask to speak to the husband, but it seemed that the man beat him to it. If he had their number obviously they had worked with him before, though who he was exactly had to be ascertained before they could make any more decisions.
"Yes, Sir, if I could just--"
The woman was back. Somehow he felt like she hadn't been expecting this in any capacity, and yet the husband seemed calm. Actually calm, not just faking it for his wife, not in any sort of particular shock. How strange.
"Ma'am, I'm going to need to speak to your husband. I need you to take a deep breath and hand the phone over. We're going to take care of this for you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:33 pm
The breath the woman took was audible. She handed the phone to her husband, who stepped away from the car.
"You want to speak with me?" He asked. Honestly, why had the child been born a snake? He'd expected him to be born human, he was half! He couldn't make an excuse for this! He hadn't wanted the baby in the first place, but he certainly hadn't expected his wife to reject the child so violently... The poor thing.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 2:00 pm
"Yes, Sir," Lori responded as he pulled out a notepad and a pen. he uncapped the pen ad tapped it against his desk. This wasn't totally his area of expertise, but he knew protocol and wasn't about to bounce these people from person to person until they had an answer.
"Can your wife hear us? I'm going to have to ask you some potentially sensitive information."
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 2:06 pm
"No," Daniel replied, looking towards his wife. He frowned in concern. "I'm Daniel Hadley," he began, awkwardly. Changling posing as a human and married to a human that absolutely has no idea? Check.
He fidgeted and twisted the hem of his shirt. "Look. Can you just... come get the baby? I'm afraid she's going to kill him. She rejected him so violently. I never expected..." he sighed. "How was I supposed to know he wouldn't be born human?"
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