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 Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 1:54 pm
Hartley still had a difficult time believing that the egg she believed would be a dog had hatched a tiny human being, lovely in all her attitude and imperfections. It was like having a child without having to go through looking awful with pregnancy and subsequently ruining your body for the rest of your life. And she wasn't a baby, so she could speak and manage to take care of herself in most cases. Hartley hoped that all children were like her wonderful Mauritius, though she knew better.
Today was to be Mauritius's first day of leaving the house, and the child was understandably excited. She was demanding perfection from her adopted 'big sister'. Everyone had to see her, focus on her, fixate on her! It wasn't worth it if she wasn't the center of attention, after all. It was a good thing Morgan and Adrienne liked kids, for Maur seemed to take up a large amount of the time as Hartley struggled with school work. The ashe regarded the two women as her mother and... well, her other mother. It made sense to her, and she didn't know otherwise. It took much of the burden off of Hartley's shoulders as well.
"Maur, I love you, but can't we try a different color flower? These yellow ones are going out of season, and they never seem to last very long." Why the ashe insisted on wearing a flower crown at all times Hartley wasn't sure, but there were many idiosyncrasies about the little one. Like her clothes. She had hatched with clothes, and Hartley had to find a seamstress to make replicas. Mauritius would wear nothing else, and would adamantly go around naked if she didn't get her way. That was more of the strange little humanoid than even Hartley wanted to see, though she didn't admit it. Hey, mothering was hard. Cut her some slack!
"No. Need these ones." There was pure steel beneath the deceptively calm waters of Mauritius's eyes, and Hartley knew better than to argue. Maybe while they were costume shopping she could buy some fake flowers in a similar color to please Maur. Flowers had to die some time, unless they were fake.
"Are you excited for Halloween?" Hartley asked Maur, though she knew the answer already. Halloween was all Maur talked about. She would watch Halloween specials all day, devour children's books featuring scary stories. The fact of the matter was that the girl had no fear whatsoever. She was even taking spiders gently outside for the benefit of Hartley, who couldn't even look at a spider without whimpering.
"Yes! I wanna be... I wanna be... I wanna be... I dunno. I hafta see." At least Maur had agreed to wear something different on that one day of the year. It was a small step forward! Kestrel strongly suspected she would be buying a princess costume for the little girl, though she was to be pleasantly surprised.
The pair left the house hand in hand, stepping outside and bracing themselves against the cold weather. "You ready to go sport?"
"Don't call me that." Maur's defiant tone made Hartley smile.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:44 pm
“I’m not wearing this.” Toulouse said defiantly, arms crossed. Felicity had finally managed to cajole him into the infamous Prince Charming costume.
“But Toulouse, you look so devastatingly handsome.” The redhead gushed, and he did. The black pants the teen wore were tailored to fit and hugged his slender legs as if they had been painted on. Toulouse’s jacket was a majestic royal blue with a high stiff collar embroidered in an intricate design of bright gold to match the cuffs of the sleeves. An opaque cravat was pinned at the hallow of his throat to keep the ruffles of the white silk shirt in place. He looked like the prince he was supposed to be.
“Well I hate it.” Was the emphatic reply. Toulouse had sworn to himself that he was never again going to wear such an itchy frilly thing. Yet, here he was. He had no idea how Felicity had managed him into the costume. He shook his golden head that looked even more vibrant against the blue that encased his upper body. “Must I go out looking like this? I don’t want to hand out dainty invitations.”
“Oh but you have to Toulouse! You look so dashing that I’m sure no one will be able to refuse the invites. It’s for a good cause remember? We promised Garett to do it so we have to.” Felicity had in her hands the spoken of invitations and the black envelope with its silver embossing looked suspiciously like funeral notes to Toulouse.
“No, you promised Garett. I promised your cousin nothing, yet here I am dressed up like the idiot and you in plain clothes. Where’s the justice in that?” Toulouse was beginning to get very put out about the whole ordeal. Why was he to care about some stupid fundraiser among the rich and pompous.
“I told you that I can’t be the one dressed up. All of daddy’s friends know who I am and they wouldn’t take me seriously. You though, you they would. You’re very handsome dressed up like you are. I thought it was very clever of me to think up such a scene. This is going to be the biggest masked ball that the fundraiser will have seen yet!”
“Oh quite trying to butter me up. I’m not handsome at all even if I am a sidhe. I’m rather plain actually.” Toulouse shook his head with a sigh. He was not going to win this fight so he might as well give in gracefully. “We’d better hurry up then.” He said defeated.
Felicity gave a girlish squeal of delight as she followed Toulouse out the door, invites in hand. Oh how exciting this was going to be. Garett would be so pleased once people started to R.S.V.P for his fundraiser.
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:09 am
Still strolling along, Maur let go of Hartley's hand, her blue eyes going wide in excitement. "New people!" she squealed, delight evident in both her voice and her body posture. Thank god she was so easy to please.
Shrugging her shoulders, Hartley set herself to following the rambunctious ashe as she ran forward to the strangers on her short little legs, stopping short and staring blankly at their costumes. Did people always dress like this? It was so funny... But they looked so beautiful too! It was enough to bring another smile to Maur's face, twisting her spiral tattoo up with the change of facial expression. It would almost be frightening, if Maur hadn't been so full of innocence and life.
"Are you guys a prince and princess like in the stories? Hartley says they dun't exist but I said they did and now I'm right." Hopefully these strangers would pay attention to her. Hopefully they would make her the center of their universe, as Mauritius rightfully saw herself to be. Who couldn't resist? Her demand for attention didn't seem to be a result of being spoiled, for the little girl wasn't. No, it was just her personality. She wanted the spotlight, craved it as others might crave a drug.
Exasperated, Hartley didn't even attempt to run after her ward, instead trudging up, though her expression lightened considerably as she caught sight of their handsome new companion. His beauty seemed almost otherworldly, as if he didn't belong. Something about it reminded Hartley of Maur, though she couldn't exactly place what it was.
"I'm sorry about this. I'm Hartley, and you've just had the misfortune of meeting Mauritius." Maur snorted as Hartley spoke, again making the deer woman wonder how intelligent the little one truly was. There were times when she seemed about on par with a six year old child, but there were occasions when she seemed to be far, far more than that... Shaking it away, Hartley shrugged. "Again, I'm sorry. She loves meeting new people."
Maur was still staring, her focus riveted upon the male of the pair, almost as if she was sizing him up. But she couldn't be.. .Not yet... What on earth was she doing?!
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:54 pm
Toulouse backpedaled in shock from the little girl who bounded up to him. The teen’s movements were ridged and cramped from the confines of the suit, but he managed to be quick enough. Felicity wasn’t expecting Toulouse to run in any direction and consequently knocked into his back, banging her nose on his broad shoulder.
The golden teen’s heart was beating a mile a minute and he gasped his chest urging it to silence. He had been very jumpy as of late and surprised easily at unexpected noises.
“No.” He snapped rather severely at the girl child before realizing it wasn’t her fault he was so jumpy. He added more gently, “No, not at all. I’m just dressed up as one.” That was a rather large lie as he WAS a prince…or at least a former one. He shrugged.
“Calm down old man.” Felicity patted Toulouse’s shoulder comfortingly as she moved out from behind him. “Don’t mind him,” she thumbed her finger at the golden teen, “he’s always a little grumpy. As for me, of course I’m a princess. All girls are.” Felicity smiled at the little girl thinking how cute she looked with the flower crown nestled in the blond curls.
Felicity merely laughed gaily at Hartley’s remark. “It’s okay. Not to worry. I like meeting new people and it’s nice to make your acquaintance. My name is Felicity and this is Toulouse.” When the teen didn’t respond to the introduction at all, the redhead nudged him hard in the ribs, rolling her eyes in Hartley's direction
“Oh.” Toulouse rubbed the rib that Felicity had poked. “Charmed I’m sure.” He replied rather vaguely, his mind not on the conversation. He was watching the child, Mauritius, and saw that she was staring at him oddly. He shifted from foot to foot as if embarrassed by the way she was looking on so. Toulouse could plainly see that the child was an Ashe and could even feel the tell tale sigh of a fae’s aura. He sighed.
“You know, it’s rude to stare.” He said finally, not being able to take her starring any more. He couldn’t look that bad…could he?
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:38 am
Maur finally broke away her stare, though her large blue eyes continued to bore into Toulouse. It was quite clear that manners were low on her priority list for the moment. How could they be, when she was facing something she had never faced before? This man that was dressed like a prince... He felt like her! There was no other way to explain it. There was just a gut feeling that seemed to transcend words, a feeling of kinship that Mauritius did not feel with anyone else in her household. Even with Hartley.
"You're like me!" she finally cried out, delight evident in her sudden broad grin and sparkling eyes. "You feel just like me, even though you're a lot bigger and you're all dressed up and stuff." Coming from the normally quiet ashe, this was practically a speech. It was enough to make Hartley stop dead in her tracks, staring at her little companion. Maur never said that much, even to her! While some part of her was hurt that Maur should choose to speak her longest speech to a stranger, some other part of Hartley was pleased that perhaps she could find someone else to stick the rambunctious child to for occasional afternoons.
"I really don't know what she means. Or what's gotten into her. She's usually far more quiet than this." Frowning, Hartley still hung back, unsure what to do. Hey, no one said she was good with children. In fact, she was pretty terrible with them. It was a miracle that Mauritius had even managed to survive for this long.
"Manners, Mauritius! Stop bothering the nice man and let him continue on his way." Looking up, she tried to smile nervously at Toulouse, apology written into her limbs. Even her antlers looked as though they were bleeding apologies down towards the floor.
In response, Maur simply turned her uncanny eyes back upon her guardian, staring at her with frank disbelief, then back to Toulouse. How could Hartley even think of interrupting this moment? She had finally met someone like her! This was far more important than Hartley's excessive worries about decorum and what was considered 'polite'.
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:52 pm
“Er..yes of course.” Toulouse shifted uncomfortably, consciously aware that he was being scrutinized and not liking it one bit. It was obvious the girl was like him. Her caretaker seemed to be part of Faerie too, what with her horns of a deer. “It seems we come from the same Court.” The girl was Seelie he thought. Her aura didn’t resonate strangely with his and felt familiar.
Felicity laughed at the reaction between Toulouse and the little girl. “No, no. It’s okay. She’s not bothering Toulouse, trust me. Mauritius is just to cute to be a bother to anyone.” Felicity cooed. The girl was adorable with her blond curls and bright eyes. “You know I kind of wish Toulouse was a girl.” She teased at her companion who merely snorted in response.
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:56 am
Hartley frowned slightly, but soon her face split into a broad grin. "Oh, I doubt Toulouse agrees with that. Maur may be cute, but she's a little hellion." Hearing her guardian, the ashe turned and stuck her tongue out, before returning her gaze towards the older one of her kind. It was so interesting to meet another! Even if he didn't seem to like her much.
"I don't remember where I came from. But you seem bright and good. Am I?" He felt shiny and safe to Maur, which was a nice feeling. She was sure that if he had been Unseelie (though she didn't have a true grasp of what that was) that he would have felt darker, tinged somehow by something that didn't taste right in her mouth.
Turning back to the other conversation now... Hartley laughed out loud as Felicity confessed her wish to have a female companion. "It is a little bit like having a giant doll. That said, I was never much into dolls when I was little, and dolls never fought you back on anything. My landlords love her though. They always want to buy her clothes and toys and other stupid things that half the time she accepts politely and just ends up stuffing under her dog bed. Er... She sleeps in a dog bed. I told her I would get her a real one, but she seems to like it."
Hearing the conversation, Maur grinned broadly, turning towards the two 'adults'. "It's comfortable and it smells nice. It's just the right size too!" Well, that was that then.
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