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 Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:18 pm
As bright as the sky was outside the window nothing could compare to Elisabetta's smile. Her face was pressed up against the glass, squeeling and awing as new cars passed her by. The buildings of Barton passed by in a blur of color, only separated by the open lots that gave her larger glimpses of the open sky. Leather seats made of the finest quality were under going a beating as the toddler thrashed around in the passenger seat, drumming her feet against the back of her car seat.
Gabrielle tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, occassionally taking a drag off her cigarette. "Izzy, get your face away from the window and sit still for a change." She looked at the toddler from the corner of her eye and sighed.
Elisabetta frowned, but pulled back and starting singing the theme to the Wiggles as best she could remember, complete with a three year old's lisp. It was enchantingingly cute, but oh so annoying at the same time.
Ever since she'd met that woman in the supermarket, Thalia, Elisabetta had been all over the place. She'd been as enraptured with the woman as she was with Elisa and if the child's attention span wasn't as short as it was, she could say that Thalia was Elisa's favorite person in the world. They'd been invited over to her home for the day so that Elisa could play with her own children, giving Gabrielle the respite she so desperately needed.
Working a full week, plus some odd overtime hours and dealing with a 'diligent' child was enough to make the sanest person snap.
Gabrielle wasn't sane.
She whipped off the main road quickly and followed the directions she'd written down on the back of a coupon.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:27 pm
"When's she coming?" Vinny asked, looking at his mother in curiousity. They'd never had anyone from Seven of Seven come to their house--well, except.. Okay, so they hadn't.
"Soon." Thali promised. "You'll like her, she's a sweet child. I thought Sammi and Reiya would get along with her, too." Vinny had to resist the urge to facepalm.
He might have been humilty, but sometimes, only sometimes, he felt like he knew better than his mother. "They might cause trouble though..." The preteen started.
Thali gave him her most winning smile. "That's why you're in charge." She said. "Make sure they don't get into trouble--I'll be here if you need me." Vinny sighed. Typical of his mother to feel lazy after inviting someone over.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:37 pm
"Momma, momma!" Elisabetta's tentacles started slapping the adult's face in an attempt to get away.
"I told you once and I'll tell you again," Gabrielle growled, "your not going inside until you get a damn shirt on!"
They'd pulled into the properiety a couple of minutes ago, but she hadn't been able to keep the toddler still long enough to dress her. She was wearing her favorite skirt, an old fashioned pink number, but trying to get a top on her was like pulling teeth.
Sighing dramatically, Gabrielle raised her hands and opened the door. "Fine! You win, I give up. Go in there half-naked. Let's see how that'll go over." She jerked her purse into the driver's side and stuffed the t-shirt into it before reaching for Elisabetta.
Smiling over her victory, the toddler wrapped her pale arms around her mother's neck and snuggled her, unaware of the glare the thin woman was giving the back of her head. Gabrielle kicked the door shut, seeing as her arms were occupied and crossed the distance to the front door.
Elisabetta's longer tentacle reached out to knock rather excitedly, it's dwarfed sibling wrapped around the girl's waist like a belt. Her halos swirled, bouncing off her happy aura.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:20 pm
"They're here!" Vinny said, hurrying to the door. His older brother, Joshua was close behind him. The preteen opened the door, with a smile. "Hi Elisa." He said brightly.
"I'm Vinny, and this is Josh." He pointed to the dark skinned boy. "Um. You want to come in?" He offered, before moving away from the door to allow them to step in. He had expected an older child, to be honest. The way his mother had gone on about her.
Joshua busied himself by offering Gabrielle a cookie. "Want one?" He asked. Then he offered one to Elisa. "My younger sisters are in the living room." He explained. "Mother's at the table, if you want to talk to her." He gestured to the elf, who was lazily reading a Victoria Holt novel, and making faces everytime she turned a page. Blegh.
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:50 pm
Gabrielle had expected older children, but not the head wings. They took her by surprise for a moment, which allowed Elisabetta to snag both of their cookies and stuff them into her mouth like a squirrel. She wasn't allowed sweet treats at home, something Gabrielle had hoped to enforce here.
Her smile melted the cold resolve. Surely a couple couldn't harm her. "It's a pleasure to meet you both." She smiled to the brothers before sitting Elisabetta on the floor. "I'll go talk to Thalia, but I'll make sure to check up on her. Even with friends to play with she can be...quite a hand full."
Eager to spend some time away from the toddler, she scuttled towards the elfen matriarch. "Bad book?" She grinned, gathering up her hair. It collided easily into the ponytail she conspired for and obediently stayed away from her face as she sat down.
-----
With her mother gone, Elisabetta turned her attention on the two boys. Her longer tentacle reached out for the darker one's shirt, wrapping out the bottom of it as the halo accompanying it swirled. Bi-colored eyes drifted over him, to the other and she giggled, smiling to show perfectly whitened fangs covered in cookie crumbs.
"Your funny wooking." Her little hand grasped his and squeezed. "Dat makes you da same as me and we're fwiends."
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:16 pm
"Of course." Vinny said with a nod. It was to be expected, to have a mother checking up on her daughter every once in a while. His mother did that--with all of them, even if both he and Josh considered themselves old enough to take care of themselves. (And by thinking that, they were proving themselves wrong.)
"Come on, Elisa." Vinny said, offering his hand to the toddler. "I'll introduce you to our sisters." The two boys lead the toddler to the living room where two infants sat, watching Dora The Explorer. Well, one was watching. The other was forming clouds that kept rising over her head. They were soft and white, Reiya was in a good mood.
"Ny! Joss!" The infant with the clouds exclaimed. Sammi looked up, and spotted Elisa. She stared for a moment, before her brothers both groaned.
"Not another nickname..." Josh complained.
"Angwel!" Sammi decided, before toddling over to her. "Hi, Angwel. Ooo pwetty."
~~~~
"Horrible." Thali said, with a grin. "Her historical facts are all wrong, and it's a cheesy romance." She made a face, before closing the book. "How are you, Ellie?" She asked.
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Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:49 pm
Elisabetta took Vinny's hand, grasping onto one of his fingers with her smaller ones for a better grip. She turned her smile up to him, her pointed ears flexing with a giggle as she hop-scotched along after him.
The toddler had never seen a cartoon before and was instantly mesmerized by the tv. So many colors! They were speaking Spanish, and-and there was a monkey; a talking monkey. She'd never seen anything so enchanting in her entire life.
She was startled out of her reverie. Turning dual colored eyes, she found two girls near her age and one was playing with a cloud. "Oh, wows!" Looking stunned for the second time, Elisabetta let go of Vincent and approached the girl. Her longer tentacle wrapped around the girls waist, tugging her close to Elisa as the shorter one rose up as if to look at the stranger. She giggle and gave her a big hug. "I'm no angwel! You is. Your da one wif da pwetty hair."
-------
Gabrielle winced. She wasn't used to nicknames just yet, but she figured that this one was alot tamer than anything her family could come up with. "Most books are like that, but its the turn from reality that moves them off the shelves."
Smoothing out the ruffles in her slacks, she yawned. "Sleepy, as usual," she smirked. "I spent most of the night praying that I'd wake up and Elisabetta would be half Sloth instead of Diligence."
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 2:37 pm
Sammi blinked, no one ever rejected her nicknames, and no one had ever (besides her mom, and she didn't count) told her that she had pretty hair. She returned the hug, and tilted her head slightly at the older girl. "Ooo angwel." She told her, pointing to her wings. She didn't know what the tentacles were for.. but it was hard ignoring them when one was wrapped around her waist. She stared at it for a moment. "Snakes!" She said excitedly. "Ooo gots snakes!"
Reiya looked up from her cloud at that, and studied Elisa with her fawn brown eyes. " 'Nakes?" She echoed her sister, blinking. She shook her head. "Not 'Nakes, 'Ammi." She corrected. "Octupussy."
"Nuh-uh! Octupussy has eight 'hole arms!" Sammi argued. "Snakes!"
"Ooo stuffid, 'Ammi!"
"Stuffider, Weiya!"
Joshua and Vincent exchanged looks, before laughing. Their sisters might have been twins, but that didn't mean they always got along. Even, like in this case, when they were both wrong. Eventually, Vinny had to step in.
"Alright, neither of you are stupid." He said, pushing the girls away from each other. Sammi had fire reflecting in her eyes--literally, and Reiya had a storm cloud that looked rather threatening over her sister's head. "She's not an octopus, or a snake. She is half angel, though." He said, nodding at Sammi.
At this the infant stuck her tongue out at her sister. "Ooo was wong!" She said smugly, if an infant could sound smug. Reiya wisely chose to ignore her.
~~~~~
Thali gave a grin. "But where would be the fun in that?" She asked. "Sloth would sleep all the time, and you'd never have any adventures." Clearly, the elf would have prefered diligence over sloth. She was too active to have a sleepy child. She paused. "I prefer books like these." She held up Howl's Moving Castle. "That's a good book."
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 8:30 pm
"Snakes?!" Elisabetta squeeled. She hated snakes. One tried to bite her fingers when they were at the petting zoo and momma had told her that she was lucky she wasn't dead. "Dey not snakes, Deir tentamatcles." The toddler nodded proudly, sending the halo's surrounding her pigtails in a spiral.
When the sister's starting arguing, Elisabetta tried to intervene. "I...but ooo...oh." She looked up at the bigger boys. They were the grown ups in this situation, so why weren't they making it better? Staring at Vincent, she frowned, giving him a glare for all it was worth until he stepped in. Then she smiled. He was a good boy.
She stepped back, her longer tentacle still grasping Sammi's clothes as the little one tried to pull it off. It didn't have near the reach needed, so it settled for smacking it. Elisa had her arms crossed over her chest. How were they supposed to play when they were arguing like that? "Ah tors I'm 'affa a angwel, momma's Gabriel." Nodding sagely, she walked between the sisters and took each one of their hands in hers before smiling. "What'chu wanna pway?"
------
Gabrielle yawned, leaning back in her chair. "Exactly." She wasn't a very active person and a child that would just be cute, never moving and always sleeping would be a blessing from the other world.
Her face was animated once more upon seeing the front cover. "Jones." She grinned, reaching for it. Delicately she flipped it onto it's back, reading the synopsis even though she'd read it millions of times before. "The sequels lack in my opinion, but the movie was a nice choice. You can't really go wrong with Miyazaki."
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:40 pm
That made both girls look up from what they were doing. "Tentmancles?" Sammi repeated, as well as she could. "Not snakes?" She looked disapointed, she liked snakes. They were cool! Of course, Samantha was one of the most adventurous children even Thali had ever met--mostly because the infant was just like her mother. "Halo." The girl said, pointing to Elisa's head. "You gots halo."
Reiya looked enviously up at Elisa's halos before looking at her brother. "Ny play too?" She asked, before looking to the older girl. "Ny play wiff us?" She asked.
"Joss too! Ny and Joss play too!" Sammi added.
At least they weren't arguing. Each of the infants looked to Elisa, and gave matching smiles. "We play tag?" Sammi suggested.
Vinny smiled at the younger three, and kneeled down to their level. "I'm sure we'd love to play." He paused, and looked to his brother.
"Sure. But not tag." Josh said. "Mom doesn't allow that in the house."
~~~~~
Thali just shook her head at her newest friend. "I would find that very.... boring. Sloth children aren't for me." She made a face at the very idea. She was too playful, too adventurous, too creative. She got bored too easily.
"Oh, the sequels are never as good as the first--though they are enjoyable." She said with a nod. "The movie wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be--they didn't go very deep into Michael's character."
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:31 am
Elisabetta shook her head. "Not snakes. Snakies are bad. Dey swim up your toiwet." One Discovery special too much had traumatized the poor girl and as if she wasn't difficult enough, she refused to go to the bathroom alone. Reaching up to grasp her halo's, she smiled and gave them a good spin. They bobbed up to the very tip of her pigtails before spinning back down.
"Den we'll pway outside!" She nodded sagely, her longer tentacle reaching up to give Vinny's head wing a good smack, and still holding on to the twins hands began to walk them to the door. Her tentacles hiked her skirt up on her waist, bunching it up so that it wouldn't get in her way as she walked. Looking back, she stared at Vinny and Josh, giving them a little pout when she saw that they weren't following her.
--------
"Oh, don't I know it. They didn't even stick with the name Michael. He's Markl." Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Calcifer wasn't even as terrifying as what I thought he might be. Hell, he wasn't even a little bit demonic except when they were moving and that was way too brief."
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:50 pm
Sammi was amazed. Snakes swimmed in toilets? Cool! She was the more adventurous of the two twins, and thus gave her parents the most trouble. Reiya was the stubborn shy one, quite like her father. "Halo pwetty." Sammi said, with a smile. She wanted one, though. How come she didn't have one? No fair. She'd have to get her mother to buy her one. At least one. Maybe three. Or four. Or even five. Yes, Sammi had obviously been hanging around with a certain older brother too often.
"Hey, ow.." Vinny said, frowning as his headwing was smacked. He looked to his older brother, and his frown lines deepened as he noticed that Joshua was snickering. He nudged the older boy with his elbow. Josh frowned, and elbowed him back. The elbow wars were on, for a brief time.
Reiya looked back to glare at her brothers. "Ooo no be good, I tell Mommy!" She told them, sounding almost stern. For added effect, she shook a finger at them. She looked so much like their mother, that both of them stopped at once. Josh sighed, and nodded at Vincent before they followed the three toddlers.
~~~
"He wasn't even the proper age." Thali said. "They hardly mentioned Lettie or Martha, and there was no backstory romance with Martha and Michael."
She paused, frowning slightly. It was a thoughtful frown. "Calcifer wasn't the right color." She remembered. "The book described him as blue, green, and purple. Not orange. But I suppose they made him that way to seem more like a fire demon?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:31 pm
Elisabetta's eyes lit up. "Oo' think so?" Of course her halos were beautiful, but hearing compliments just added to their beauty. She was practically glowing with pride. After all, this was feeding her obsession of the body and all things that decorated it.
The boys started up again. She didn't like boys. They were mean, stupid and didn't like to play any good games. At least most didn't, Shylock being the exception. He had been relatively cool for a boy and hadn't jacked up her groove. These two however... "Oo' tell dem, Weiya!" She backed her new friend up, puffing out her bare chest in a show of authority. "You two gots ta be good or you get a time out." Nodding her head, Elisabetta lead the group outside and into the fresh air. Smiling, she let go of the girls' hands and walked a bit further ahead before jumping out, arms held out into the air. "Not it!"
------
"I wish they wouldn't have mentioned Lettie at all. She looked absolutely horrible. There was something about her that just screamed hooker." Gabrielle concluded, agreeing so far with Thali's deductions.
Waggling her index finger, she nodded. "Thats true, I remember. If they they wanted him to look more like a fire demon they could have stuck with the original design and just changed the colors around, even if a blue flame is hotter than a red one. It's the same principal really." Gabrielle sighed. "The only movie that has even been based off a book and turned out alright is 'Interview with a Vampire'."
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:02 pm
Sammi nodded at her friend. "Wiss I had one." The infant said, sounding genuinely envious. It wasn't fair. She really would get Mommy to buy her some. Samantha looked to her brothers. "'Ig brudders boss." She said, looking back to Reiya with a slight frown. "Ooo no tell ig brudders wat do. Dat bad. I tell Mommy--" Her threat was interupted by Vincent.
The preteen picked his freckled younger sister up, grinning. "Come on, Sam. I'll teach you guys how to play real tag." The toddlers could boss him around all they wanted-he didn't mind. Maybe they knew more about somethings than he did. "Oh, and I'll be it." He said.
Joshua rolled his eyes at his younger brother, but nodded. "I'll play too." He said. "What kind of tag are we playing?"
"Traditional." Vinny said. "I don't think these guys would like freeze tag very much."
~~~~
Thali nodded to show her agreement. "They could have drawn her better. And the book says she was dark haired, not blonde." The elf frowned slightly, did anime have something against dark haired women?
"I've never read or seen that." The elf admited. "I tend to avoid books about vampires..." She had good reason, too. She'd had a run in with some vampires when she'd been very young--they wanted her on the menu.
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