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 Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:48 pm
Rebecca breathed in the cool night air and felt the corner of her lips twitch in a smile. While the scent of the city was still strong and lingered in her nose, the fresh breeze of the trees and grass was soothing. A werewolf was never meant to live surrounded by concrete. She set her young charge on the grass and then took a seat beside him, simply taking in the feeling of it all. She loved nightly visits to this place and luckily Jamie didn't seem to mind.
The toddler stood beside his mother, watching her with great curiousity. She always looked different when she was here, though he didn't know why. He sucked intently on his thumb, as if doing so would give him the answers.
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:58 pm
Mercury breathed in the cool night air and wondered that she had never done this before. But working hideously long hours in the lab meant she woke up, went to work, came home, and slept. There wasn't much time for anything else. It wasn't until recently that she had needed to adjust her schedule to make room for the peculiar child now toddling beside her.
Ishi liked the dark, although her eyesight was no better than the average human's at night. In fact, having only one eye made the shadows bigger and the scary things scarier. But it didn't really matter, because she was with her mama, and Mama made everything better.
Mercury gently directed Ishi to keep her on the gently lit paths, following the concrete lines as they meandered this way and that through the park, eventually coming to a little terrace. She was surprised to find the place already occupied, by another lone woman and a small child.
"Look, Ishi," she said quietly. "A friend."
Ishi's face darkened and she slammed on the breaks. She had had enough of "friends" for quite a long time, thankyouverymuch. Mercury frowned and tugged on her, but the girl refused to move. Eventually, Mercury picked her up.
The girl started wailing. Wincing, Mercury walked over to the woman and her small boy. "I'm sorry for disturbing your evening," she said, setting Ishi down near where Rebecca sat. Ishi stopped wailing and hiccupped, looking with reluctant curiosity at Jamie and his mother.
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:05 pm
Had Rebecca been alone she most definately would have minded, since it would have been likely that she wished to change. But since that wasn't the case she appeared rather passive to the "intrusion". She looked at the strangers with clear blue eyes and then let her gaze drift back out across the part. She flicked her wrist in a dismissive gesture, "Don't worry about it." It wasn't like this was her park or anything. Though in her wolf form she might have thought differently.
Jamie looked at the two new comers with eager curiousity. He waved his other hand at Ishi and tried to mumble a "hello" but it came out muffled and odd because of his thumb, which he had refused to remove from his mouth.
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:27 pm
Mercury gave Rebecca a relieved little smile when she accepted their presence without getting angry. Heaven knew that if it were her privacy that had been invaded, she’d be rather snappish, especially if the kid that had invaded it had started crying loudly.
Ishi had calmed down enough to come out from behind Mercury’s leg now, and she looked over at Jamie and opened and closed her fingers in her own wave, immediately inserting the thumb on her non-waving hand into her mouth. Mercury looked from Ishi’s hand to Jamie’s, then looked at Rebecca, and smiled a little bit.
“I’m glad it’s not only mine that sucks her thumb,” she said. “I’ve been wondering if it’s a problem.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:34 pm
"I think it is when they're older," Becca murmured absently, running her fingers along the warm earth. She honestly had no problem with it. She had grown up chewing things as a child, such as pens and other things. Though she knew this was probably more common for her species then humans, she still had no issue with Jamie having something in his mouth if he wanted. As long as he didn't choke.
Jamie waddled over to the other girl. Staring at her for a moment with his large blue eyes he finally removed his thumb and said, pointing with a sticky finger, "Pretty." He was motioning to her silver streak. Her hair was two colors and he found it very interesting. His was only one. Brown as Jacoba had clearly pointed out that one time.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:07 pm
Mercury nodded and looked up at the sky, unsure of what to say to the woman who was so obviously not-all-there. Not in an unflattering way, and not suggesting that Rebecca was insane, but in the same way that Mercury sort of lost track of things when she was hardwiring dangerous equipment. It wasn’t a bad thing, just something she didn’t really want to intrude upon. “Mind if I sit?” she asked quietly, pointing to a spot not too far away from the werewolf.
Ishi blinked, completely shocked, when Jamie called her pretty. Her last encounter with another child had involved words like ‘freaky’ and ‘hideous’. ‘Pretty’ was one she’d never heard, even from Mercury. “’ank’oo,” she mumbled around her thumb, looking away in what might have been embarrassment. It was really pleasant, having someone compliment her. She glanced back shyly at Jamie and pointed with her free hand at his hair. “Poof,” she said around her finger, and smiled. It was obviously supposed to be her way of reciprocating the compliment. “Like,” she added, just to make sure he got it. Mercury smiled.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:03 pm
Rebecca found herself coming back to her senses regardless of the other woman's intent. It was hard for her to let loose around humans. It wasn't that she had anything against them...it just wasn't the same as being with her own kind. She knew that all too well. "Go ahead," she replied simply, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
He had made her smile! That made Jamie follow suit. He liked it when that happened. He nodded to his hair, touching it with pudgy fingers. "Momma say...like duckling," he added. He didn't know what it meant, but Momma always said he had duckling feather hair. Maybe Ishi would understand.
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:46 pm
Mercury nodded, still feeling a bit awkward for intruding, and sank down near Rebecca but far enough away so as to respect even the most conservative of personal space bubbles. She watched the children interact for a while before looking over at Rebecca. "Might as well introduce myself properly," she said eventually. "My name's Mercury, and the girl is my daughter Ishizuke."
Ishi nodded sagely like she understood Jamie's comment, although inside she wasn't entirely sure what he meant. Duckling? Weren't ducklings yellow? The ones in the books Mama had read her were yellow. Maybe he meant something else, but she wasn't sure what he could possibly mean. "Duckling," she said thoughtfully, the word more or less muffled by her thumb anyway. She stared at the sky for a while, watching the pretty stars twinkle, and then looked back at Jamie. Extracating her thumb from her mouth, she pointed it at her chest.
"Ishizuke," she said to him, pronouncing each individual syllable carefully to make it easier for the boy to pronounce. "Ishi," she added, in case the name still proved to hard for him.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:08 am
Rebecca kept her eyes on the shifting trees and the dark night. For a moment it seemed like she might not have heard Mercury at all. But that was impossible with her excellent sense of hearing. Finally she murmured, seeming reluctant to break the cool silence of the night, "I'm Rebecca. That's Jamie."
Jamie didn't seem to mind that she didn't understand because he didn't either. He paused, listening intently as she offered her name. Then, slowly, he tried to repeat it to make sure he got it right. "Ish-i-zu-keee..." he murmured slowly, rolling his tongue over each new sound. Then he finished, "Ishi." Satisifed with his work he said, "Jamie." Yep, that was his name. Not his full name, granted, but Becca never called him James so it was no wonder he really didn't think about it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:49 am
Mercury nodded but respected the other woman's apparent want for silence and neglected to respond. It was difficult for a moment; Mercury was a naturally chatty person and didn't like sitting in company without saying anything. But then the cool night air and stars relaxed her enough that the silence wasn't stifling and she could watch the sky without focusing on how quiet it was.
Ishi smiled when the boy repeated her name and got it right; it was a hard name (even she had trouble pronouncing it). "Jamie," she answered after he introduced himself. Then she smiled broadly and sat down in the grass, staring up at the sky. She almost put her thumb into her mouth, but then she stopped and flopped onto her back. She pointed at the stars, remembering what her sister had shown her the last time Angelique took her out.
"Pictures," she said, looking over at Jamie and nodding seriously. She indicated where Angelique had shown her a lion in the stars. "Like c'nect dots. There's lion."
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:08 pm
Jamie was more interested in watching Ishi then the sky, but at her gesture he tilted his head upwards slightly and peered with pools of blue at the scattered dots of light. A lion, had she said? He was good at puzzles, but that didn't promise he had the skills to see shapes that weren't completely traced out. Stars were not as deatiled as he connect the dot books. "Don't see it," He commented, looking a bit disappointed but more curious then anything.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:30 pm
“Hard to see,” Ishi answered solemnly, indicating the triangle that made up Leo’s back. “Can find better one to see, though,” she added after a moment’s thought. There were easier star-pictures that Angelique had shown her. She paused and looked for the easiest constellation she could. Smiling over at Jamie, she put her hand back up and pointed at the Big Dipper.
“See stars, make square with tail?” she asked. “That make spoon,” she said. She grinned broadly, completely ecstatic that she was talking to someone who wasn’t her mama, dad, or sister, and not getting chewed on. And she got to teach the little boy something, and that was cool!
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:39 pm
Jamie tried to see this constilation and found that he could, in fact, visualize the spoon she spoke of. He nodded his head and murmured thoughtfully, "Very big." Who knew there was such a big spoon in the sky! Shifting his gaze a little he saw something that looked to be the same shape, but smaller. "nother spoon?" He questioned, pointing promptly to the little dipper. He wondered if there were lots of spoons in the sky and he just didn't know it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:48 pm
Ishi’s grin broadened, and she clapped her hands as Jamie pointed out another constellation without her help. “Yeah, little spoon,” she agreed, and then rolled on her side to look at Jamie. Her expression was still pleased, though not as exuberant.
“You out at night lots?” she asked, inserting her thumb into her mouth and politely waiting for a reply. Maybe if this boy spent lots of time out at night, they could play together and be friends! She didn’t have any of those yet, mostly because the ones she had tried to make had ended up scaring her anyway.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:57 pm
Jamie seemed just as happy because well...he liked it when other people were happy and when it was because of him in some way. He didn't know why, he just thought it was fun. If only momma was more easily made happy. "Lots?" He murmurd thoughtfully. He then nodded decisively, "Yush, lots. Momma likes coming out here." Though how often they actually did it was debatable, since his grasp on time was fuzzy at his age.
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