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This is an RP between Ashe and Taji.

Here is what has happened so far...









After my final post, Ashe was born :3 So we can continue from there.

"Do we have to?"

Though Rhine was sulking with practically everything he had, his mother had long since become impervious to his efforts. She calmly lifted a happily babbling Taji from the floor, where she was acquainting herself with the front gallery's rug, and strapped her into the old carriage they had found in the attic. It was a bit roomy -- meant for two babies, not one -- but they could always buy another one if it proved too impractical.

"You don't have to, you get to. Excited, aren't we?" This last part was addressed to her other son.

"No, I don't mind," Cianan shrugged, folding blankets and crouching down to slip them into the pouch built into the underside of the carriage. At his mother's direction, he stood up and tucked one around Taji, who promptly started a game of How Much Of This Can I Fit In My Mouth.

"I'm too old!" Rhine continued protesting, arms folded over his chest and hunched over, glaring at the carriage. "I can't be seen shopping for baby stuff. I have homework this weekend."

"Which you finished, your father checked it over yesterday." His mother reminded him, checking her pockets to make sure she had everything in place before wheeling the carriage out of the front door and through the outside loggia. Both twins trailed after her, one more reluctantly than the other.

"--And I'm not feeling well! You wouldn't want to make the Thingy sick, would you?!"

"Rhine, darling, the day you cease rambling is the day I know you're truly ill."

"Well.. well..." Rhine groaned, hanging his head. They were halfway down the front court by now -- it would only take them a fifteen minute walk to get to the marketplace. Maybe once they reached the front gate he could make a run for it, or something, but then his father would know... "I.. I have a bee."

This made Madeleine stop, turn, and observe her son with one eyebrow slightly raised. "Where?" She asked bemusedly.

"In.. um..." He rubbed the back of his neck and grasped wildly for the first answer that came to his mind, "...my pants."

Cianan sighed and thumped his brother on the back. "Just buck up, Rhinny, you're only making it worse for yourself."

"Wheeeeeeeee," agreed Taji from the carriage.

"What about these bracelets?" Rhine asked, pausing and rifling through an open display of them as they passed a stall. He never figured out what the whole appeal in shopping was -- especially when it was so much easier to do it online with no wait or other people who rarely bathed -- and the sooner they could finish, the better.

"Mm.. Probably not." Madeleine offered her son an apologetic smile. "Especially with beads like those -- babies can chew through the strings and choke on the pieces."

"Wheeeeeee," Taji repeated happily and inappropriately, bouncing in her mother's arms. Beside her, Cianan was pushing the empty carriage along.

Which tilted over onto its side a few minutes later, thankfully missing another display table, with wheels spinning squeakily in the air. Cianan yelped and jumped back, "I think I just ran something over!"

"Awesome, roadkill!" Rhine cheered, immediately finding this more interesting than stupid chokable bracelets.

"I am so sorry--!" Cianan wanted nothing more than to melt into a puddle and evaporate in the fall sun; he settled for wringing his hands and looking extremely (and genuinely) apologetic. "Is she alri--OW!"

He hopped away from the younger boy on one leg, hissing and grabbing his other, stinging leg with his hands.

"Hey!" Rhine protested, immediately lunging forward to shove Noah. His mother, a step quicker, shifted Taji in one arm and grabbed Rhine's arm as he ran past, jerking him to a stop.

"Excuse me!" Madeleine said sharply, "Step down! And hold your sister, I don't want to hear a peep out of you." Rhine grudgingly backed off, still glaring at Noah as he accepted Taji from his mother. Taji made inquisitive noises, tilting her head back to peer at the two new people upside down. The littler one made a meeee~eess!

"Excuse me," Madeleine repeated a bit more gently to the younger boy and his sister, crouching down to pick up Ashe. She pursed her lips as she inspected her for wounds -- the poor girl's tail had been caught beneath the wheels of the carriage, unfortunately, and she quickly checked for other scratches or bruises.

"My son didn't mean to harm your sister, it was very honestly an accident and I am sorry that it happened." She offered Noah a smile that was meant to be reassuring while Cianan simmered down to a good sulk in the background. "Is your mother here?"

"Oh dear..." Madeleine murmured to herself, truly perplexed with Ashe's behavior. "Calm down, little one, I don't mean to hurt you--" And, just when she thought things couldn't get any worse (and she thought she'd learned her lesson by now, having two rambunctious boys), the little boy started to cry too.

Straightening, the woman took a deep breath and mentally counted to three. It was only after she herself had calmed down that she could smile effortlessly at the two young children. "Please don't worry, we'll find your mother, okay? I'm sure she is looking for you right now."

"RieohirMUUUUU," Taji demanded, placing both feet squarely against Rhine's chest and pushing off as hard as she could, stretching out her arms and making grabby fingers at Ashe's still distant tail. This was not working, this boy was obviously not properly trained!

"Hey -- no -- OW -- stay! Down! Sit! Do anything that doesn't involve causing me bodily harm!" Distressed, he wondered just how much trouble he'd be in if he dropped her. ...This was a very hard decision.

Meanwhile, hearing a commotion everyone else was too busy to notice, Cianan (still limping pitifully a little, though truthfully his ego hurt more than his leg) wandered over to where a crowd had started to gather.

Suddenly struck by a sense of deja vu, the young boy squeezed through several ranks of people and peered curiously at the two people in the center.

Hunh. No wonder. One of the women seemed to be the same that had run into them days earlier, back when they had first wondered what to do with Taji. Also, she was apparently going to be beat up, though she clearly wanted nothing to do with the whole affair. Frowning, Cianan stepped forward, very clearly expecting all others to stop what they were doing and maybe bow down before his majesty.

"Hey, lady, what's your problem?!" He addressed the bigger one, hands on his hips and somehow managing to look down his nose at her.

"I'd like to see you try!" Cianan huffed, "Come on, lady, are you so insecure that you have to pick on people smaller than you are? Let her go, I can take you down--"

"Why does he get to fight?" Rhine immediately protested, turning to his mother, "And I don't? Where is the fairness in this? There is none."

Madeleine only sighed in response, lowly and suffering. "Here, please take this one," she directed firmly, passing Ashe off to her younger son as well. Rhine squawked at the sudden request but had no choice but to shift Taji to one arm so he could hold the ink spirit in the other. "What am I, a baby tree?" He started to protest, but by this time Madeleine had already set off for the crowd to prevent the possible murder of her other offspring, leaving him alone with the two girls.

"Great," he muttered discontentedly, sliding down against the hard wooden side of a stall to a sitting position with both girls in his lap. He stared at them both in turn, wondering what possible hard labor he could put two little girls to work at, and finally sighed and said in a squeaky voice, raising Taji's arm to wave it at Ashe, "Thingy One, meet Thingy Two."