|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:42 pm
It had been another regular night for Astraea and Tamaura. Astaea had made tea and was drinking it while watching the Wheel of Fortune, and Tammy was happily sorting through an enormous bale of knitting wool, tangling herself up in all the colours and giggling. Astraea counted her blessings, for Tammy was about the sweetest little thing on two legs (4 when she decided that crawling was fun again after falling on her butt) and was not a fussy baby at all. She was just untangling Tammy from the wool when her mirror started making a fuss. Standing up with a sigh, Astraea went to her mirror, one eye still on Tammy who had begun rolling in the wool, making herself far more tangled.
"Mirror mirror on the wall,
Tell me what idiot wants to go to the ball," Astraea had long since lost her enjoyment for the enchanted mirror, though when she was drunk she would talk to it and have drinking games with him. She always lost.
An image popped on to the mirror; the spirit in the mirror had long since given up on impressing Astraea and wore a silly little hat with a tassel on it.
"Oh, no one wants to go to the ball at all, and I tire of talking in rhymes," The spirit gave Astraea a long suffering sigh at her frown, and continued. In verse.
"A child you've watched for many years,
Has become plagued with many fears,
From the taunting of her peers,
She's barfing in the bathroom at the rear."
Astraea looked blank, and the Magic Mirror vibrated in exasperation.
"She's bulimic you ninny. What Prince is going to kiss a girl with barf breath?"
Astaea blinked in utter shock and revulsion, and asked,
"Well what am I going to do with Tammy? Its too late to call a sitter. Can you watch her?"
The mirror spirit chortled,
"I'm a MIRROR, not a nursemaid. Take her along, her spittle will have company. She's in some sort of apartment i think, you might want to use a spell to find her. Or that chip you placed in her as a baby, use your GPS."
The spirit vanished, and Astraea untangled tammy hurriedly, but gave her a ball of orange wool to keep her company.
Being a fairygodmother in these times was not all it used to be.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:52 pm
Rosalind Naaktgeboren had a problem of another kind: she was a fairly new mother (well, this time around, and if a couple of hours counted as new) and sitting in the emergency room with her baby on her lap. The little gargoyle, as he woke up more, kept on changing his mind over what he wanted to do; he had chomped through a number of rusks (his little teeth were sharp), bitten a teething ring in two pieces, snuggled into her lap and had a long conversation with her that involved a lot of baby speak, and generally been charming and adorable. He was charming and adorable. He had grinned at the office lady when they had signed in and chucked him under the cheek, beamed at a man with a splint around his leg who had ruffled his mane of hair, and generally looked smug and pleased with life in general.
Even if he'd been STONE a few hours before. This sort of horrified Lindy a little, but she'd been in the emergency room before too many times to count. Usually with Repha'im, who was adept at trying to piece himself, tattoo himself, or hammer nails through his fingers. She smiled a little nostalgically as Casca wriggled out of her grip and plonked himself on the floor; he tucked his wings against his back (and they didn't look strong enough to carry him, not really, for which Lindy was devoutly grateful -- yet another toddler with wings, Christ) and crawled over to the play area. It had a number of blocks and soft-covered books so the stupider children wouldn't harm themselves eating them, and a wendy house that you could sit in: kid paradise.
He immediately got interested in another little girl who was sitting there, under the sort-of watchful eye of what was obviously her mother or guardian, who was sitting next to a nervous-looking skinny young woman on the nasty plastic chairs. The little redheaded girl was playing with a ball of orange wool; Casca sat on his butt and inspected this, as if not quite sure this was fun or not.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:06 pm
It hadn't taken long to convince the girl's parents that their child had a problem. She was a fairy godmother, for goodness sakes, they KNEW that, and Astraea wouldn't take no for an answer. Besides, Astraea was her legal guardian. A snafu that always seemed to happen when fairy godmothers were involved, though the parents would always want to take her to court. Astraea didn't mind as she always won her cases; she thought it was because of her no-nonsense gumption and it really was because she had a ridiculously good lawyer.
So now in the emergency room, Astraea was quietly admonishing the girl (Prunella, what a terrible name) while Tammy rolled her knitting wool on the ground, entranced by the debris that it picked up and the static shocks she was getting. Unfortunately, those static shocks seemed to bounce around inside her and come out her hair, which was crackling like a thunder storm. Astraea, used to this, would make an odd hand gesture and the clouds that had started to form over her head dissipated.
Tamaura finally noticed the other little boy, and rolled her string to him.
"Hullo, do you got any tasty treats?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:10 pm
The little clawed boy picked up the string and tugged it a little; he caught his claws on it and detangled himself again. Then he tangled himself up again, just because the feel was kind of interesting, before pulling the wool away. He looked up at her: it was obvious that as they grew they were going to have the same kind of hair, except that hers was even worse, growing in thick red curls that were standing up on end with the old static electricity.
"Twz?" he said, obviously still getting used to speaking. Then he held her arms out for her instead, wanting to touch the hair. Really, it was tough just being a couple hours old.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:28 pm
Tammy took the gesture as the sign of the kid wanting a hug, and she sorta fell on him, giggling madly.
"Guess not, oh wells." Tammy said, letting the kid feel her hair. She knew it would hurt him, so she made a popping sound with her lips and tongue and all the lightning flew out of her hair and buried itself in the ceiling. Yet another normal occurance in the life of Tammy O'Malley.
Settling herself back down on the ground, Tammy grabbed the storybook that was behind her, and examined the front cover. It was almost pristine, odd for a book at a doctors office, but Tammy wasn't really paying attention to that. Her mouth salivating, she bit down on the cover with gleeful vengeance.
"Take that!" She mumbled, her mouth full of book and drool.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:31 pm
The little boy sat behind her and played with her hair, rather gently for a little baby; it looked like they were two baby monkeys, especially with her chewing on the book. He looked as though he were thinking of putting some of it in his mouth, but then maybe thought better of it, and grabbed a block instead to chew up. There was a horrible graunching sound as the plastic gave way.
"Oh, Casca, don't," said his mother, a little mortified, and plunked herself down next to Tammy and her son to try to get the block out of his mouth. He settled his teeth in and did not let go; Lindy tugged a couple of times, but it was nothing doing. "That probably has about sixteen million germs on it -- oh, aren't you cute!"
Distracted by Tammy, the sunset-haired woman beamed at the little girl. "Poor baby! Are you teething?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:42 pm
Tammy released the book as the woman asked the question and beamed.
"See? I gots all mah teef." Tammy pointed and opened her mouth, happy to show her pearly whites. Knowing the woman had asked the question trying to explain why she was doing it, Tammy opened the book.
"See book. Book BAD. Tells lies."
Astraea was trying to teach Tammy to read, but she was putting up a fight. She claimed Astraea was reading them wrong and would take the book and read her own version, which would be nowhere near the original story and always seemed to include "gummy bears".
Tammy was actually right about this book. Called "My new Mommy" it was about the joys of plastic surgery and how kids should learn to deal with the same mother, different face.
Standing up, Tammy toddled over to her mother and Prunella, who looked distinctly green.
"Laxatives!" Tammy hollered, repeating what she overheard Astraea talking to the girl's parents.
"Look mama, the mom in dah book ish ugly but then BAM! She's pwetty. LIES! I like ugly mommy, she looks nicer." Tammy flipped through the pages and shoved the book in to Prunella's lap, tracing the words upside down with her finger.
"Look she was fat, and now she's skinny! Mama eats too many chocolates to be skinny, and I do too!" Tammy stated this proudly. At least it seemed she didn't have any problems with her body. Astraea looked at the book with distaste and took it from Tammy.
"Prunella, do NOT get the idea that plastic surgery is an option. You are beautiful as you are."
"Barfy not beautiful!" Tammy crowed, and sat beside Casca and his mommy again.
"You has any tasty tweets?" Tammy asked Casca's mother.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:49 pm
"Want a rusk?" Lindy took one of the biscuits out of the packet and held it out to her. She didn't even think to okay it with the girl's mother first; then again, all of her baking was organic no-preservatives hypoallergenic, so. "It's vanilla flavoured."
Casca shot a sticky hand out for a rusk and crammed it in his mouth; he nommed it up eagerly, having finally spat out the block. "We'll be working on your manners, young man," his mother warned him. "You are seriously going to be learning the 'please' and 'thank you' line. Well. Uh. When you learn to talk, I guess. I mean, there's nothing we can do now unless you want to do sign language. I don't think you can do sign language."
She looked at the little redhead, still offering a rusk. "You're an opinionated young lady, huh?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
