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 Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:05 pm
(( I'll probably get rid of the parentals soon, don't worry about all the characters mentioned initially xD~))
When Harper had given Taki his address at school it was for, in his mind, the purely hypothetical occasion where Taki randomly popped by out of boredom. He recognized the cat-kid from his brief run in with Irelia and company, and despite having been briefly gnawed on by the boy, Harper thought Taki'd make a good playmate.
Whether playmate meant 'victim' or 'partner in crime' had yet to be seen, of course.
This particular Saturday evening Harper was bored out of his mind. He'd been playing with his keyboard nonstop the past week, and now his fingers were aching and he'd grown frustrated with his inability to play Beethoven perfectly. So, he was sitting in their makeshift living room playing a video game.
The drum set sat in a quaint style next to their large television - the guitars stacked in corners and turned off. Sunny just got home from work and was currently arguing in the kitchen with his sister (Ashley) about Harper's schooling.
Eliot, long since fallen asleep on the couch next to Harper, had created a puddle of drool on the leather that was dripping down the back like a pathetic waterfall, and Soloman was huddled in a corner writing song ideas in a notebook; about to leave for work himself.
Basically, they were all juuuust waiting for something interesting to happen!
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:29 pm
The entire ordeal had started with a simple handing of the piece of paper to Calder, and a short argument had ensued about how he should have gotten the telephone number, too, because Taki should call before he just showed up at their door. Somehow, it ended up with Taki standing on Harper's doorstep and waiting for someone to answer as he pressed the doorbell.
Nobody answered immediately, and Calder was very grateful when Taki decided to keep his manners, and not shout at Harper through the door. Apparently that little... courtesy... was reserved for "mister Asher" and Irelia.
Calder wasn't going to leave Taki until he'd met the people running that household. He hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to Soloman, after all, as the man had been mostly focused on Asher's pottery, and Ashley... well, he wasn't entirely sure what to think of her.
He glanced over his shoulder, making sure that the taxi hadn't left him. (It hadn't.)
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:38 pm
Harper glanced at the door, "Eliot, your dates here." He promptly said, in a voice dripping with all things 'annoyment, kid and cooties.' Eliot, snorting as he came to ever so slightly, gave a very confused glare at the door.
"I didn't have a d.. aww dam-"
"ELIOT!" Sunny screamed.
"'Darn' it." Eliot rolled his eyes. Stumbling to the door like a drunken ogre recently shot with a tranquilizer, Eliot threw the door open and peered hazily at Calder (as he was the tallest and thus who he saw first.)
Wow that was the strangest girl he'd been on a date with this far.
"Taki?" Harper thankfully interrupted, throwing his controller down. "What are you doi- Ooooh. HEY!" He beamed. No more boredom for him. "Come in!"
"Yeah.. uh..come in.." Eliot muttered, stepping out of the way while rubbing his eyes.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:54 pm
Calder blinked down at Eliot, and offered a smile, though the man still seemed to be waking up. "Hi, I'm Calder, this is Taki. You must be Harper's... ah... guardian. Sorry to come without notice, but Harper forgot to give Taki a number with the address, so we had to sort of show up." He offered a hand, but Taki was already pushing his way between Eliot's legs and the doorway, tail wriggling happily as he bounded into the room.
"Hi! Papa said we should have called but you didn't give me a number so I just figured I should come... Is that guy at the door okay? He looked a little sick, or something..." he said, craning his neck around to look over his shoulder at Eliot.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:03 pm
Eliot shook his hand very breifly, interrupted after about 1.5seconds when he yawned. "Gonna go back to sleep now dude, some beer in the fridge, help yourself." Eliot said with a wave of his hand as he stumbled toward his bedroom.
That was when Soloman noticed Calder, and gave a bright wave as he recognized him. "YO!" He exclaimed merrily, throwing his notepad down.
"He's fine, was just sleeping is all!" Harper said, moving to meet Taki halfway. "Oh. Well. I was bored, so you showed up good!" He nodded and pointed through the kitchen halfwall at his mother and uncle. "Mom, kid from schools gonna stay over for awhile, okay?"
"I'M BUSY EXPLAINING LIFE TO YOUR IDIOT UNCLE, HARPER!"
"She says it's okay!" Harper said, though by then he was talking more to Calder.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:11 pm
"O-okay..." Calder said, a little dazed by the reception he got, then offered a smile at Soloman, and checked the taxi again before stepping into the room. This house was insane. "Hello, Soloman, wasn't it?" he asked, then glanced around. "Ah... Actually, I need to go finish something at home, but could I get your telephone number, before I go?" he asked Soloman, who seemed to be the sanest he'd met thus far. "Just on a piece of paper," he added, still standing awkwardly in the entryway.
"Yay!" Taki exclaimed, and stared at the various instruments scattered around the house. "Wooowww. I only can play the harmonica a little. Papa said he wanted to get me into classes, but you must know all of these!" he said, gawking openly, then looking back at Harper, rattling on for a few minutes. "Are you a family band, like in the Sound of Music? I saw that movie once. I fell asleep, but I remember that in the end they made a big band and they all sang."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:36 pm
Soloman blinked a couple dies. "Eh? Oh. Right. Yah. Okay." He grabbed his pad and scribbled down four different numbers and tore out the page. There were some pretty deranged lyrics about the poetic beauty behind bees killing themselves when they stung a person scribbled down on the other side.
"Ashley's cell, My cell, Eliot's cell, house number. House number's off and on though, borrowed our neighbors number." He pointed at a hole in the wall of the apartment. "So sometimes they use it and we try not to answer it, yaknow." He snorted.
Harper shook his head quickly, grinning, "Nuh uh! They are all in a band, I'm not in it.. I know how to use them but I can't make it pretty yet." Harper said, pouting pointedly at the bass in the corner. Eliot was the most reluctant to teach him. "But I can play keyboard real good!" He said proudly.
Then his aching fingers reminded him.
"But not now.. wanna see my room?" He asked enthusiastically, dashing into his bedroom without waiting for a reply.
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:15 pm
Calder smiled, and nodded in a sort of bow out of habit, then pocketed the numbers, and grabbed Taki's shoulder before the boy could go scampering off down the hall. "You know the house number, right?"
"Mhmm..."
"Call me when you're ready to come home?" he said, eyeing the other members of the household with a sort of discomfort.
"Mhmm." Taki squirmed, and stared up at Calder. "I'm gonna be okay. I'll call you okay papa?"
Calder sighed, and nodded, and then slipped out the door with a last wave at Soloman. "Thanks for looking after him for a bit..."
As soon as the door had shut, Taki was streaking after Harper, scampering into the room. "Sorry, papa was being all scared-like. I think your family scares 'im."
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:52 pm
Soloman's grin widened the minute Calder was gone, as he passed a look at where Taki and Harper had gone. "Kid's probably being raised in a nunnery, time to turn on heavy metal." He mumbled to himself, walking to their exaggerated stereo.
Harper blinked a few times, "Why?" He asked blankly, wondering if he should be offended. It had occurred to him few times before that his family wasn't quite like all the others, but it was in a way that made him feel bad for the others rather than himself. "Maybe your dads jealous. You can move in with us if you want."
He had also made a habit of inviting everyone and their mother to move in with them when he felt like it. Just last week a confused five year old kid named Johnny was determined to leave his overalls behind and move in with the 'real rockstars.' Needless to say, after Ashley was threatened with a lawsuit, the boy was returned.
"HEY WANNA PLAY WITH MY GUNS?" Harper suddenly suggested, clearly quite enthused.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:16 pm
"But then I wouldn't live across the hall from Mr. Asher and Irelia and papa would be sad. I like my house," Taki said, and tugged on his own tail absently; then his eyes widened.
"What kinna guns?" he asked in a quiet voice, as if speaking too loudly would let Calder overhear him. "Do you play make-believe too?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:27 pm
"What's make-believe?" Harper asked in a bit of a sour tone as he threw himself into his closet. There was a loud crash and rumbling and a giggle from the parrot-boy that suggested he was digging in a muck of toys.
He did, in fact, play 'make-believe' quite often. He lived in it and became so determined to make what was going on in his imagination real he refused terms like 'make-believe' or 'pretend.' It would just have to go unspoken amongst his friends.
"Here!" Harper declared, just before a screaming heavy metal band started blasting through the apartment. It was probably loud enough that half the complex knew the rockstars were awake.
Harper emerged with two rather large 'nerf guns', already loaded up with ammo. "Which one do you want?" Harper asked, looking between the two. They were exactly the same; only one was blue and one was purple.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:41 pm
Taki opened his mouth to explain what make-believe was, but when he realized he had no further description than exactly what it was, so just gave a shrug. And then the music shuddered into life. Taki gave a very cat-like yowl, fur on his tail standing straight out and eyes wide as he dived towards the nearest hiding place very quickly.
Which happened to be past Harper (he had to shove past the parrot-boy to get into the closet) in the darkness of the closet. He wasn't paying much attention to Harper's question of which gun he wanted, back arched as he hunched over and stared skittishly out at the room.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:57 pm
Harper dropped both guns when the other kid shoved past him. He looked into the closet at the kid with a stare of disbelief, "What's your problem, dude?!" He asked quickly, looking only slightly concerned and far more annoyed.
Soloman poped his head into the room looking quite proud of himself at that point. "How do you two little rockers like the mus- Hey, Harper, where's the other kid?"
Harper promptly pointed into the closet.
"What's wrong?" Soloman asked, a simmilar look on his face as was on Harper's.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:01 pm
Taki only emerged from the closet a few minutes later, tail still bristled as he peeked out at Soloman and Harper. "I'm fine," he said, insistence in his tone. His tail spoke of the agitation, and he glanced up at Soloman. "Just surprised me..." he muttered, then promptly grabbed his tail and started smoothing out the fur.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:06 pm
"Freak." Harper mumbled under his breath.
Soloman promptly bopped Harper on the back of his head. (In one of those totally playful, painless gestures more reminiscent of a big brother than father figure.) "Be nice Harper, you're a lot freakier, trust me. Need me to turn it down, kiddo?" Soloman asked, trying to be diplomatic, though the tone in his voice suggested he wanted to turn the music UP rather than down.
Harper blinked a few times, "So do you wanna play now, Taki?" Harper asked, picking the guns up again. He took to staring at the other boys tail, glancing once at the small wings on his ankles. The wings twitched a bit, just to prove he could. "Which colour?"
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