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 Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:29 pm
Of course, Phantom thought as Cameo stumbled a little further ahead, it would be her daughter who would suggest going to the beach in the middle of winter. Or at least, that's what Phantom thought she had insisted on, because Cameo had only a limited child's vocabulary and the circular child's logic. Either way, Cameo was certainly enjoying it, despite the cold, and Phantom had already scolded her away from climbing the rocks once already.
"The water's cold, Cam." She said as the little Sin got a little ways ahead, and shifted the blanket underneath her arm. "Don't get too close. I didn't bring extra clothes." And just to make sure, she hurried up and was right behind the little girl, a gloved hand right between the shoulders.
"Uh-huh." Cameo said, grinning, and she hurried her feet, stumbled a little, and picked an interestingly colored rock out of the sand. It looked green in the sun between her mittened thumb and fingers when she lifted it to her eye level.
But she was staying away from the water, which was good, and this wasn't a leash-off beach, which meant no dogs, which was also good.
Phantom dropped her backpack and spread her blanket on the softer sand, and sat down, and kept her eyes peeled in case Cameo happened to pick up something less than safe.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:41 pm
Jesse's current camp wasn't so far away. In fact, it was just over the nearest rocky outcropping. The crew (and a few rather unsavory characters they had found) sat around a blazing campfire, all dressed in their winter warmest. A bottle of what was probably gin was being passed around, entirely regardless of colds and other such disease.
Eventually, the bottle came to Jesse. He took a swig and looked down to Silas, who was reaching up for it.
"Dada...Dada, me?"
The man thought a moment. Well, his mother had always used vodka to quell tooth pain, so what was the harm? He poured a bit of the booze into the bottle cap and handed it to Silas, who happily drank...and then choked. The men around him chuckled and the bottle continued around.
"Dada, ick."
"Live and learn, kid," Jesse grinned and gave Silas a kiss to the top of the head. He was pretty much resigned to the fact that he was stuck with a child now.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:05 pm
It was probably a given that the moment that Phantom decided to look away, Cameo decided that then was the best time to try and climb the rocks again. With her pockets full of rocks and shells and things, she placed her hands on the shortest
Her hooves clattered against the rock and Phantom jerked to attention, mother sense tingling.
"Cam?" She stood, messing up the blanket. "Cam, don't you - how many times-"
A few strides across the rockier sand and Phantom scooped the girl up in her arms. Cameo jerked and kicked. "But-but-but-"
- but hooves jabbed in your thighs were never comfortable. Under any circumstances. And these circumatances had Phantom gasping in the flutter of pain and shifting Cameo into a more comfortable position.
The toddler sniffled and gestured with her mittens towards the rocks and gave her mother the biggest, sad, puppy eyes in the world.
Phantom brushed the hair out of the child's eyes gently but said, "No."
"I wanna."
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:12 pm
What the...? Silas got up and wobbled to the rocks, pointing up and peering back over his shoulder.
"Dada! Girl!"
Every head snapped up toward the rocks. Females were hard to come by on a ship. A few began to get up, but Jesse held a hand to keep them down.
"Ask'er if she's got a sister!" Butch yelped. Jesse just laughed and shook his head, scaling the rocks with relative ease. he peered over to the woman and her child. Huh. Weird lookin' kid.
"Hello, Miss," he grinned. Silas clambered up beside him, eyes wide. He peered at this new people in total astonishment. The beach was always empty in the cold!
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:40 pm
Phantom looked up, and for a moment was taken aback. She hadn't expected other people here, although that might have been in part to her missing the campfire smoke entirely. "Oh, hello! Did we bother you?"
Cameo, completely unconcerned, waved enthusiastically. She wiggled a bit, and Phantom set her gently down. But she kept a steady had on her shoulder, and Cameo kept a hand clutching her mother's pant leg and the other waving. "Hii!"
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:44 pm
Silas gave a curious little wave to the girl, blinking at her. A bit of hair fell from his ponytail and lay in front of his eye. He brushed it away in annoyance, and it only fell back. He growled and held it back in his non-waving hand.
Damnable hair.
Jesse had his attentions set on the woman, however.
"No, not at all. Just a little...celebration goin' on," he grinned, "You kin join us, if you'd like." He hid his mutilated hand between some rocks and motion with the other.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:57 pm
Cameo kept waving, rocking a little back and forth on her hooves and smiled cheekily.
"Oh no, that would be intruding, I think." Phantom said, smiling and fiddling with the tail of her braid. "Wouldn't it?" She looked down at her daughter, who, upon feeling her mother's eyes digging into the back of her head, looked up.
Cameo pouted, knowing full well that her mother was trying to instill manners in her, but she didn't want to be nice. She wanted to play. Real bad. Her brother didn't play nice at all, and her cousin didn't either, and Asha was too small. "Mom," and, tugging a little on her mom's pant leg, she added, "please?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:10 pm
"Not really," Jesse shrugged, "We're all kind of right out in the open." The rocks surrounding his hand fell and, at the noise, he looked down. Pulling his hand from the mess, he found that he'd likely broken another finger. Huh!
Silas still just stared. Was the girl going to come to play? He didn't have much to play with besides his fishies...
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:32 pm
Feeling a little uncomfortable - after all, that did look rather painful, and he didn't seem all that concerned about it at all - Phantom attempted to quirk a smile. But that might have failed miserably and seemed more of a grimace, but she wasn't sure.
But Cameo tugged again, with another "please", and this time she just could find it inside herself to say no. It was rather lonley, after all.
"Alright, let me get our things and I'll be right over then." Phantom blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and urged Cameo to follow her over.
As soon as her mother had said 'alright', Cameo lit up like a lightbulb and without hesistation hurried in front of her mother to the blanket. She tugged on it a little, but the backpack weighed it down and she only managed to get a few inches before she fell backwards into the sand.
But her mom quickly righted her back and grabbed the backpack and swung it over her shoulder. Cameo snatched the blanket up in a bunch and beamed.
Feeling very helpful, Cameo hurried as fast as toddler legs could take her (safely) back to the rocks where the boy was, the blanket trailing behind her in the sand.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:41 pm
Except the boy wasn't there any more, and neither was the man. Both Jesse and Silas had escaped back to the fire, one slightly more worse for the wear. There they sat, the bottle still going around, Jesse with a bandaged hand.
"Oi, she comin' ova?" Phil asked.
"Maybe," Jesse replied simply, "Give her time."
"And whaddif...?"
"Her little girl can play with the little man 'if'."
Hmm...what was this 'if' of which they spoke?
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:08 pm
"Mom." Cameo had to arch her neck a lot to look her mother in the eye, because she had draped the blanket over her head like a hood. He wasn't there anymore, that wasn't fair.
"C'mon Cam, here we go." Phantom adjusted her backpack and heaved Cameo into her arms and climbed the rocks.
Once she had found herself on the other side, she quickly observed and evaluated and managed a smile. "Oh, there are more of you, are there?" Of course there were, the man had been speaking in plurals the whole time, hadn't he? Or close to the whole time, or enough of the whole time for her to have gotten the picture.
Cameo squirmed, looking for the little boy, and Phantom sat her down. But she kept her close because they didn't know these people and she certainly wouldn't be allowing her to go wander off until she did.
Phantom sighed and wondered just what, exactly, she had managed to get herself into.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:13 pm
{{Oh, you have no idea. xDDD}}
"Aye, th'ole'crew's 'ere!" a man spoke up. He had a godawful Cockney accent and a great set of wooden teeth. There was a woman of questionable intent on one of his arms.
Jesse just shook his head.
"Sit over here with me. I'll keep you safe. Promise."
The men all laughed, and Silas toddled over to the little girl. Hm! She didn't have feets!
Altogether, the atmosphere was very contradictory. The men were friendly, family-like...but there was a strange undertone. It was unnerving, to say the least.
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:37 pm
((... D: ))
Cameo lit up and squirmed away from her mother, and toddled to meet up with the other boy. The blanket trailed behind her.
"Hii." She said, grinning, and pulled the blanket a little closer around her head, so that it was just her pink face and the green fringe of her hair. She shuffled her hooves, subconsciously. "I'm Cameo." But with the toddler lisp her name it might have been Camyo or Camo something else.
Phantom was quick to take the offered seat, because even a newly familiar face was better than a unfamiliar one. Which reminded her, rather promptly, that she didn't have his name. "I'm sorry, ah, did I catch your name?" She asked the man that had spoken to her earlier, who she had taken a seat next to. It was probably extensively rude not to introduce herself as well, so she added, "I'm Phantom."
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:54 pm
Jesse arched an eyebrow. 'Phantom'? What kind of name was that?
"JT," he said, just in case he ended up not wanting her to know his name for one reason or another, "Nice ta meetcha."
The man sitting beside Phantom offered her the bottle of gin with a grin.
"I Sy," Silas replied with a little smile and reached out to touch Cameo's blanket. His 's's were shrill and long, but not too far lisped.
"Cameo wan' see room?" His room, of course!
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Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:50 pm
If he had asked Phantom about her name, she would have told him that, well, it's actually not quite much of a name at all, but no one called her by her real name anymore. Except Ashoka, and sometimes Hilian, but that was another story altogether.
As it was, Phantom wasn't really concerned with names. "Nice to meet you too." But she was feeling uncomfortable, and changed the subject. "That boy, is he you're son?" She wouldn't be suprised, what with how her three kids came to her - and how Ashoka had recently came to her ranting about a wand and a book.
And when the man handed her the bottle she smiled wearily, shakily, and passed it to JT as quickly as possible.
"Sy?" Cameo repeated the name, just to make sure it sounded okay on her lips, and smiled. When he touched the blanket, she offered a bit a room next to her, just incase Sy wanted to get under the blanket too, because it was really cold, after all.
"Room?" Cameo looked over her shoulder at her mother, who had looked away for just a moment. "A'right. 'Kay."
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